《A Mouse in the Circuitry - A Kammi Kettu Story》


 First Uploads are the Hardest

    ¡°Hey Everyone it¡¯s your online more-than-just-computer mouse Bridget! I know I don¡¯t usually upload videos on monday, not even for Patrons plug plug youtube won¡¯t monetise girls like me help a gal out. But, uhm, I¡¯m certain a sizeable number of you has noticed what happened today. And some of you got worried over my safety on twitter after the¡­ dragon, situation, poor individual whoever they were. So here¡¯s my story of tonight.¡± The avatar of the ginger mouse girl in the video made a show of clearing her throat. She wasn¡¯t a virtual youtuber, she was just a cover for a girl who didn¡¯t want to show her face. Surprising the house of mouse didn¡¯t sue her cute aproned skirt off for clearly ripping off a mouse girl from a relatively popular afternoon cartoon. The girl is me. I¡¯m the one behind her. The video continued as I checked it over the final render.


    ¡°I was luckily relaxing at home, resting while planning my next project to work on, when it happened. The weird glow cloud storm. I was expecting secret police to bust down my door and steal all my bread if you know what I mean. But, instead, what I got was a blinding flash of light, and then something very surprising. Fate has got a twisted sense of irony.¡± I was proud of the effect I managed for the next part of the video, as the animated model and background shifted over to real life footage revealing my new form. The ginger hair wasn¡¯t quite as long and fluffy, but the ears and tail and everything else was there. I pretty much turned into my creator avatar.


    ¡°Yeah so Bridget can now visit VidCon in person instead of sending in a weird robot to project onto. You¡¯re still gonna get the same content from me as before, don¡¯t worry, but I¡¯m okay with showing my face now. Because it feels like my face. Oh, right, uhm, I guess confession time. I didn¡¯t use software to change my voice, I figured out a choker for it, even though it¡¯s quite bulky it¡¯s less tedious than fiddling with software. And if it hadn¡¯t been clear from my nails during pride month, I¡¯m trans. Oh there goes that youtube money for sure. Anyways, just wanted to make sure you all knew that I was safe, I¡¯m at home, and so far I seem to only have gained the power of being a cute mouse girl. But yeah, that¡¯s it for this quick but important update. So without further ado even though they try to wipe me away, remember the algorithm, find me elsewhere on the internet, and remember to love yourself and that pretty much everything can be fixed.¡±


    The video looked solid, I quickly uploaded it and made my way over to my lounging chair from my working chair. I had to wonder how other people were faring. I mean, not everyone is a relatively famous tech youtuber. Some poor lost souls wandering the streets, powers kicking in, bodies changing, they don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening.


    ¡°And you¡¯re just sitting there, waiting to be finished, aren¡¯t you Dare?¡± Upon my workbench sat a barely started work in progress robotic pet, something I got dared to do to deal with loneliness. I always had trouble figuring out how to make the limbs move smoothly and naturally. I was going for something of a feline appearance. Okay no that was a big lie I was working on something closer to a fox dragon thing in shape, with thumbs on it¡¯s front paws. When I read the design for that creature I just knew I wanted one to cuddle.


    ¡°...The base structure is wrong. I was considering what motors and gears and batteries I had to work with. If I manufacture those myself though I could avoid all that. Make a wireless charging station bed for it to just lay on when it needs to. I wonder if the online stores have what I need.¡± A pen in hand and paper on the desk, I started sketching. Swiftly, with purpose, writing down what I needed. What I had to get. And then it hit me. ¡°Wait, what, how, uh¡­ What? Did I just¡­ This looks like something straight out of comic books or mangas but I¡­ I got it all written down here? The process and the equipment and what¡­ the actual royal fuck.¡± I put down the pencil and checked the document before me. ¡°...I wonder if I could make a jetpack.¡±


    Good news: I was able to make designs sketches for a jetpack, just like I had done with Dare. Bad news: Making a jetpack is dumb and dangerous. Hard to control and pilot. Vulture¡¯s wingsuit sounds more reasonable. Either way, it wasn¡¯t the only thing I sketched out. Or wrote out. Materials, components, electronics. I was running out of paper. I started writing stuff on my project laptop. I had stripped that one of networking capability and kept a lot of other work stuff on external drives. quadruple backups and such. Some friends laughed about it but others responded with ¡°fuck I should do that too¡± type of stuff. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Now that I was Tony Stark but Mouse girl, protecting stuff like that made even more sense. My twitter feed was a string of support, some people asking for details on the voice change choker. General transphobia and now calling me even more of a freak with the mouse features. The usual. And there was of course the news. The US declared a state of emergency and were cordoning people off. But, over here in Europe, there was a lot of talk, not much being actively done. Probably because several notable cities on the coast of the Mediterranean were hit pretty hard. Athenschanged overnight, all the landmarks filled with books in unknown script. Sparta too, had been changed. Something like a barracks sprung up close to it, with a vault of what was presumed to be full of weapons. The Vatican lost all the gold it had in it''s architecture, as it formed a strange statue in the center. All stuff that made me think Milo Thatch should show up with a book found in Iceland to be a linguist for an expedition to them.


    And, well, one of them was a stone¡¯s throw from my home. Relatively small compared to the others, about the size of a castle. In fact it did replace a castle on a hill. P¨¢lava had gotten itself a new weird monument.


    I hadn¡¯t had the chance to go over there, heck I was worried cops were gonna take me away or something for loitering. It¡¯s not like I had an ID on me I could use. Only option to do, we were told, was to show up with our IDs and fill out a questionnaire and just wait and see what happens. Probably the funniest part was hearing that someone had turned into a stone statue of Saint Wenceslaw and could make golems for an army. All the dude was missing was a horse to ride out on in our country¡¯s¡¯ hour of need.


    It was two more days before I left the house to deal with government nonsense. Luckily there was still some family resemblance and considering I had to go to the neighboring town for family registry stuff, I wasn¡¯t in too much trouble. Hell, probably the only emerged person my locale would have to deal with. But god was it annoying to prove I was who I was saying. Wanted me to have a full physical as well to confirm stuff. The GP joking whether he should call a veterinarian as well wasn¡¯t very nice. But, well, I hit up the patent office on my way to hand in my designs. No way am I letting someone steal these.


    My classic intro of a computer mouse transforming into my animated avatar and grabbing a soldering iron played. The major difference to my previous videos, however, was the fact I was standing in my workshop in person in front of the camera. ¡°Hey Everyone, it¡¯s your online more-than-just-computer mouse Bridget! What a week huh? I hope everyone is doing okay, especially folks finding themselves with extras like myself. You know for fun I ran a poll on twitter to see how many folks figured out they were trans thanks to the emergence. What an honestly overwhelming number of replies and responses. I¡¯m surprised you all were as safe as me over here.¡±


    ¡°Anyways, onto today¡¯s project. A lot of you asked about my voice change choker and honestly the old one was EXTREMELY bulky, but, weirdly enough? It seems the emergence made me a super techie or something. So a link to the PDF file with the plans for it and how to make version 2 yourself is in the description, patreon is gonna get a bonus video of me making it so stay tuned for that. What I¡¯m making though is continuing our prosthetics project. I showed you the techniques to make a simple one to just wear, a more complex one that reacts to walking, and well today¡­ Today we¡¯re gonna be making straight up Automail. So strap yourself in because this noggin has figured out interfacing.¡±


    Was it stupid for me to release this video? Probably. Was I expecting a knock on my door not even 2 hours later of some guys in suits? I should have. Five different company logos, they clogged up the street of my small village in front of my family home. ¡°...You guys are late, I patented all my stuff yesterday. Including the arm. Tell you what, you lot have a deathmatch or something and the winner gets to kidnap me for their nefarious deeds. Sounds good? Because if you haven¡¯t realised, you¡¯re in the Czech Republic. We didn¡¯t get a state of emergency, and I exist as a person. So please, send an email in with offers and I¡¯ll consider it.¡±


    I shut the door in their faces. Locking it. My paintball turret turned on. That one was an extremely fun project. And hey, I got to upgrade the targeting software by making it easier to discern me. One near every entrance. windows on the first floor sealed up. I had armored up my house as part of a project into home defense. I figured this probably wouldn¡¯t cut it nowadays, but to hell with it, it works for now. Stairs replaced with an elevator on an internal generator on the upper floor, that one was for an accessibility video. Really, they¡¯d need to chopper in from the second floor or something to get me.

 Tempting Fate

    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    Can y¡¯all fucking believe I had five MIB looking types at my front door? Anyway if this is my last tweet y¡¯all fucking know what happened.


    Post-Thanksgiving Self Care @techieobjecthead - 8 minutes ago


    @mtcmouse Was it because of the arm or something? Do they want you for superweapons?


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - 7 minutes ago


    @techieobjecthead Maybe? But like fuck off I¡¯m busy making a damn robotic pet based on a fox dragon. Oh whoops, project spoilers~


    Now with that covered and extra posts up of similar nature on all my mastodons just to be extra careful it would be significantly harder to disappear me. I hoped. Still, I checked outside from the second floor window, to see if the guys were still loitering. They were still loitering. ¡°Oh god fucking dammit, I hope he¡¯s not at the pub.¡± I grabbed a phone to dial someone who owed me, big time. Fixing up all the farming equipment at the co-op for god damn near free so John Deere wouldn¡¯t get pissy about repairs.


    ¡°Yeah what is it...Briegit. Why couldn¡¯t you have picked a fucking czech name.¡±


    ¡°Internet reasons. Hey so I don¡¯t know if anyone noticed but I got like five dudes loitering outside my house from different companies because I¡¯m some sorta supergenius or something, could you like get the snow plows out to scare them off?¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you call the cops?¡±


    ¡°You really think they¡¯d do something?¡±


    ¡°Fair ¡®nuff. Hey, Vlad, go snow plow near our mechanic¡¯s house would ya?¡±


    ¡°Appreciate it, Petr.¡± Right as I hung up the call, I checked outside again. Four guys visible near their cars, or going in there, probably for warmth and instructions, and one of them near my door. Really you¡¯re gonna try to lockpick my door to force your way in? I walked over to the wall and pushed a button, hearing the lovely whirr of gears and shunk shunk shunk of a paintball turret going off, before I pressed the button again as the door closed. I opened my window to shout at him ¡°If you guys don¡¯t fuck off in the next five minutes you¡¯re gonna get snowplowed. Do not fucking dare come back without an invitation you hear!¡± I shouted at them as a paint covered suited fella lay in the grass. The display seemed to have scared some of them off, at least. I quickly shot Pete a text to cancel the plow.


    Based on more updates I was doing seriously well as an emerged. I mean really, some folks ending up in shitty prisons based on rumors, others dying in hero battles. Of fucking course.


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - just now


    So I guess we will get an answer to ¡°Who pays for all the buildings destroyed in hero movies¡± now. Anyone counting the deaths?


    I


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - just now


    You god damn know people are dying in the collateral damage. We can¡¯t even get a proper death count from monday because we don¡¯t know who changed form.


    I


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - just now


    And more folk are dying due to villains and vigilantes? Couldn¡¯t y¡¯all have like gone after the rich folk at least? Why rob the pizza place next to you?


    I


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - just now


    Uuuuh why does getting custom parts from places always take so long! I want to distract myself!


    I


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - just now


    With a cute feathered fox dragon creature with opposable thumbs on the front paws! Seriously why hasn¡¯t anyone drawn her yet.


    My twitter rambling was cut short with the doorbell ringing. ¡°Oh shit.¡± I made my way down to the door as fast as possible, quickly opening it.


    ¡°Got a couple packages here for you¡­¡± He stared at my ears. Of course he stared at my ears, as my tail swished behind me.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Yeah yeah I turned mouse when it hit where do I sign?¡±


    ¡°Uhm, r-right here.¡± I quickly scribbled down my name and grabbed the boxes on the ground.


    ¡°Thank you kindly.¡± I closed the door and made my way to my workshop as quickly as I could. I admit I let out several giggles of varying intensity. Not volume wise, but feelings wise. There was the excited giggles, the ¡°oh gosh this will be cute¡± giggles and the all time favorite ¡°I just set your house on fire¡± giggles. No houses were set on fire in the production of any of my videos. Just felt like I needed to confirm that. My mad cackles were for fun and not based on any sinister plans. Honest.


    Either way I got to working on Dare the SECOND I was in my workshop. Turns out having a tail is good for grabbing tools off the shelf. Who would have thought. Okay everyone with some semblance of brain cells would have figured an extra limb is good for grabbing stuff. And I used mine to swiftly yank the box cutter off the desk to get the bits out. And then to grab my phone for a quick selfie with the contents of the box.


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - 5 minutes ago


    I figured my superpower was just inventing shit, not summoning stuff through twitter


    Might as well do a stream.


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - just now


    twitch.tv/mtcmouse come watch me start working on Dare!


    Oh right it was like 6 in the mornings in the states on a tuesday, who the hell is even up that early and available to watch streams? Ah well, I was mostly doing this for myself. Talking to myself while working helped me figure stuff out, and having people to shoot off of instead of doing it alone was fun.


    ¡°You know folks, the most annoying thing about the whole emergence situation, personally, is headphones. I cannot stand earbuds but nobody makes mouse appropriate headphones! I guess project for sometime later, animal folks headphones. It¡¯s mostly soldering work and making custom headbands for it. A difficulty 2 out of 5. Okay wait no scratch that, 2.5 out of five. You need sewing skills if you want to add comfortable padding, cause hot glue guns aren¡¯t the best options at times. Right, so, my problem previously was working on Dare like on one of the boston dynamics bots. Big, bulky, cool to look at but not very nimble. So what I¡¯ve got here is something I custom ordered from a manufacturer based on some specifics I sent in. Anyone here heard of R.U.R.? Classic Czech play by ?apek, origin of the word robot in fact. The robots there are closer to something like Frankenstein¡¯s monster, but the stuff is home grown out of goop, organs and muscles and nerves and such. And then put together on a factory line. So what I have here are the muscle fibers I¡¯ll have to connect up so as to make the muscle structure for the bot, plus the internal quote unquote organs. Meaning this will be a long stream of me working on bits. So how was your weekend?¡±


    Truly, it was too early for proper fun banter. Even when on my patreon discord¡¯s voice chat. 6 am EST on Tuesday December 4th was truly not the best time to start. Still, I continued. Fiber connected to fiber until I had a full muscle made. The core of organs consisting of a battery and a hard drive and other such things. The weirdest part was definitely putting on the skin with feathers, so to speak. But after 14 hours of hard work, all of it streamed, there on the desk, curled up and ready to be activated sat an adorable, huggable robotic friend.


    ¡°Oh my gosh look at her I can¡¯t believe I actually did that and she looks so cute!!!! There¡¯s still one thing missing but I want her to choose that since¡­ I managed to develop an AI of all things? Like, better than just simple machine learning, this thing has EMPATHY and other emotions and yeah okay time to launch, the battery SHOULD last until the charging station is done.¡± I pressed four different points on her in succession, turning the camera away. ¡°I don¡¯t want anyone shutting her down so I¡¯m keeping the launch sequence a secret, sorry~¡± There was a shudder that went through Dare, before she began blinking and then yawned. I clutched my heart and she immediately shot up at full attention, her face full of concern.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay Dare, you¡¯re just acting Way. Too. Cute!!!¡± She covered up her little fox face at my comment and I giggled, petting her head. ¡°The world is getting filled with people fulfilling their power fantasy, and here I am creating mechanical life for cuddling. Fuck you, Bill and Steve! Fuck you Jeff! I¡¯m the queen of tech now! Muhahahahaha!!!!!¡± Dare tried to imitate my laugh, but no sound came out of her throat. ¡°Oh, right, sorry Dare, the last thing. Here¡¯s some pictures plus voice samples, pick which one you like and I¡¯ll install it.¡± She immediately tapped on Kagamine Rin, and I quickly sent her the voice bank and software through bluetooth. What followed was Dare making happy noises and clapping her front paws. I was grinning ear to ear at her antics. ¡°Okay everyone, I think that¡¯s enough streaming for today. I mean shit, it¡¯s 2 am over here, and even though mice are usually nocturnal, I¡¯m not quite there. So good night, hope you enjoyed the build, and hey.¡± I picked up Dare in both my arms, giving her a snug hug ¡°The channel has a new mascot now, so I¡¯m gonna have to commission someone for new banner art.¡± I winked at the camera and shut it down, turning off the stream, as I finished my night routine before hopping into bed, Dare curling up next to me. ¡°Furby¡¯s creator can eat my ass.¡±


    The doorbell ringing was not expected. I nearly knocked Dare off the bed as I got up, but she jumped on my shoulders and rode me down to the door. Opening it, I absolutely lost it laughing. Standing there was someone best described as a were-lion. Now, that wouldn¡¯t have gotten such a strong laugh out of me. What did was what KIND of lion the individual looked like. Completely white fur, a tail that split into two about a third of a way in, a crown atop their head. ¡°I thought Saint Wenceslaw was someone taking a piss but holy shit you take the cake on irony. How can I help?¡±


    ¡°I, uhm, saw your stream yesterday.¡± Holy shit that voice was regal. Did Andrew Rea get Emerged or something? ¡°And I managed to find where you live because¡­ I¡¯d like to have a gadget made for superheroing.¡± Were they for real?


    ¡°Are you for real? You track down a relatively famous youtuber to ask her to make you a gadget for superhero work? Come on, vigilantism is illegal, and it¡¯s not like you got a way to protect your identity.¡± I began closing the doors, as I heard the magic words.


    ¡°I¡¯ll pay you for it! I just want some stun gloves for non-lethal takedowns. Claws aren¡¯t the best for subduing people.¡± I sighed at their reply, as Dare looked me in the eyes and held my face. A smile crept upon my face.


    ¡°Alright, come inside tough guy. My name¡¯s Bridget, you?¡±


    ¡°Karel, but hero name is Wrecking Lion.¡±


    ¡°...Czech Yourself before you Wreck Yourself, Really? And here I thought I was the dweeb.¡± I closed the door behind him and took him to the living room. ¡°I¡¯ll go grab some measuring tape. Dare can keep you company if she so desires.¡± Dare hopped on the table and made a confirmatory noise at me, raising her thumb to confirm. Measuring tape was on my desk, luckily, so it didn¡¯t take me long to return and witness Dare fluffing up Karel¡¯s mane.


    ¡°Fluffy! Soft! Huggable! Easy to get lost in!¡± Her synthesised voice sounded absolutely adorable, but Karel was looking at her awkwardly.


    ¡°Uhm¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry she¡¯s a harmless dorky girl, but alright time to work. My Grandpa what big hands you have~¡± The tape went around as I giggled. Hey, maybe this could turn out to be a lucrative business.

 Winter Hiking

    You need to have customers to have a lucrative business. You need to advertise to the right market to have customers. And you need to be in the right location. So my tweet


    Real Life Hackwrench @mtcmouse - 3 days ago


    Can you believe I got COMMISSIONED to make a gadget for a superhero? Triple the price of mats as payment plus a tip? Hey Heroes I got Slots~


    Wasn¡¯t as well received as I would have thought. Not in a getting dissed sense, but just in it not getting big sense. Maybe if I was somewhere like Penrith or elsewhere in the US, I would get a steady stream of customers. But out here in a small village in the middle of nowhere, Czech Republic? Yeah, it was a surprise Karel showed up. He was really happy with the results, especially all my safeties and sensors and dials. Hey there¡¯s a difference between knocking out Joe Schmoe who¡¯s threatening a gal in the alley with a knife, and knocking out a kaiju looking fucker.


    This is all to say, I was getting bored. Which lead to my resolution to go on a hiking trip and explore. You know what¡¯s the most wonderful part about getting a magic ruin that looks something out of Atlantis The Lost Empire on top of that hill? It¡¯s surrounded by a nature preserve. A national park, protected by government regulation. And somehow they were very keen on keeping that going. So only tourists got to go nearby, but not in, with some military folk stationed close with tents. That was the biggest disruption they¡¯d allow. Which also meant me getting to go in would be very difficult. I desperately wanted to take a peek around, figure out if there¡¯s something to work with.


    Dare was peaking out of my backpack as I made my way over there despite the danger. The crisp december air being hell on my ears and tail. Even with the fur on them, it was too cold, they were too big. and a beanie was not enough to cover them. I could already see it peeking out over the trees. There used to be a castle there, a former ruin, now replaced by something difficult to describe. Shame about it too. But seriously, the architecture of the ruins was just all over the place. It was as if Andrew Ryan decided to build Rapture off the coast of Greece and get influence there, instead of off the coast of Iceland with just Art Deco. Strong lines and structures combined with pillars. Witnessing it in person is much more awe inspiring than in pictures.


    But our military and police force were just as incompetent as always, as there was literally nobody stationed there right now. Lucky for me. I snuck inside and let Dare out of the backpack so she could look around. Her skittering and yaps to let me know where she was filling my heart with joy. The ruin wasn¡¯t big, that was for sure. It did replace a castle ruin but even that one wasn¡¯t massive. And looking around it, weirdly enough got some sense of home or something.


    ¡°Bridget! Here! Found Shiny! It gives off Nap Time!¡±Dare jumped from the second floor, her wings spread letting her glide down onto my shoulder as she handed me her Shiny. A small cube, about the size of a regular Rubiks one, with geometric patterns on it. I stashed it in the backpack for future analysis, and decided I had risked my hide enough in there. Gotta avoid The Man, ya know? Don¡¯t want to get my ass landed in Jail. Especially since I had only legally been a girl for less than a week. Didn¡¯t even have my new ID yet. So I quickly made my way down and off the hill, Dare riding in my backpack again and examining her Shiny. I¡¯ll make her an LED lamp to hold as a Shiny, since the weird tech was useful.


    ¡°Surprising the government didn¡¯t nab that cube.¡±


    ¡°I found the Shiny behind some rubble in a hole people can¡¯t fit. Hugging it makes me feel like you do when you drink coffee.¡±


    ¡°Oh, does it now? Huh, maybe a power source. Got meters at home for batteries, hopefully they can handle this baby.¡±


    Winter Wundermouse @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    Hey anyone got one of them crazy powerful volt meters and amp meters? Mine fried. Turns out my smell is better as well.


    And burning plastic does not smell pleasant. Making Dare¡¯s sense of smell based on smoke detectors caught it faster than my nose, though. Conclusion: This baby had some JUICE. I had no clue if it was finite battery or if it was a tiny generator. It¡¯s not like a Youtuber has the kind of equipment needed to test out alien tech. But, knowing it could power things, I started figuring out what I¡¯d like to put it in.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Winter Wundermouse @mtcmouse - 2 minutes ago


    I was this fucking close to starting work on Iron Man Armor. Then I stopped and asked myself an extremely important question.


    I


    Winter Wundermouse @mtcmouse - 1 minute ago


    Am I stupid enough to go outside and do superhero work? No. I am not. Screw it, I¡¯ll make a hoverbike.


    I


    Winter Wundermouse @mtcmouse - Just now


    You don¡¯t need a driver¡¯s license for a vehicle you invent. It¡¯s why ¡°Hoverboards¡± are toys.


    I should probably apply for a grant or something. Getting a giant loan to go ¡°Oh yeah I¡¯m making a hoverbike with shit I stole from a ruin as it¡¯s fuel source.¡± probably wouldn¡¯t go over well. And who knows if Emerged can even GET loans, when black folk are denied them just based on race in the US, and racists be being racist at all kinds of people now. I wonder if someone ended up as an Orc. I mean, 7 billion people, someone MUST have. I still sat down and started sketching out the hoverbike design and idea. Colin Furze¡¯s one based on propellers was a good starting point for visuals, but it was too big, and not very comfortable. AND he had been working with human tech and engineering, and not with whatever was swirling around within my head. With the design completed, I would only need to order the parts. God this would take a while.


    Luckily for me, I had the foresight to patent my inventions in pieces. Unluckily for me, this meant if someone was smart enough they could figure out which pieces go together. Which someone did. I hoped it was a group of people and not just one schmuck. I realised this when one of the suited bastards parked outside my house again. Just my luck it was Target Practice as well. The window flew open as I leaned out of it onto the bars I had installed. ¡°Don¡¯t bother ringing the bell and I told you to write an email! Like, ask for stuff! Don¡¯t just show up at people¡¯s doors expecting things! What do you want?¡±


    ¡°We figured out which of your patents would let us create robotic units to combat dangerous Emerged. Be lucky you¡¯re not on said list, despite your skills. However, We have not been able to determine the creation process or how to connect them. You hid crucial parts of your stream from view while working. Come work with us, make the world a safer place.¡± Did he really go for that whole spiel? Seriously? Dare had jumped up on my shoulders and head during his talk. I grabbed her so as to menacingly pet her.


    ¡°You wish me to betray my people so you have robotic supersoldiers? Truly, you think I¡¯d stoop so low as to do that? I know what you¡¯d arm them with you damn american fuckers. I refuse to contribute to something that¡¯d be used lethally. You have one minute to leave, before I call the authorities on you.¡±


    ¡°You will regret this, Miss Crackspanner. We know where you live. We have ways of getting to you.¡±


    ¡°And I have a minefield of hidden sprinklers on my front lawn. I got your suit painted last time, don¡¯t make me get it wet.¡± The guy spit on the ground and got in his car, driving away. He was right. Plenty of people knew where I lived. At least five companies, and one superhero. Oh right, I supplied a hero and he gave me a contact for upgrades or similar stuff. Maybe Karel could help, get me in contact with other heroes to supply them with gadgets. Make cash and build a protective network.


    ¡°I should have expect you¡¯d find the Moravian and Sleszian Eagles to your Czech Lion SOMEHOW, Karel. God the twisted irony of the Emergence. Did Scotland get a unicorn hero or something? Did France get a Plant Person? Anyways, uhm, I appreciate all of you coming here.¡± The three individuals sitting in my living room were all being awkward. You probably remember Karel, the Czech Lion looking guy who sounded like Andrew Rea. Joining him were two eagle girls. One with black feathers and a white crescent across her chest, the other a mixture of red and white in random blotches. The atmosphere was thick enough to cut.


    ¡°Yeah no problem Bridget, you¡¯ve really helped me out with the shock gloves.¡± Karel scratched his mane as I observed the group.


    ¡°...You three knew eachother before the emergence, didn¡¯t you.¡± I pointed towards the three of them, as Karel replied.


    ¡°Me and Morisson-¡± he pointed to the red and white eagle girl. ¡°-met in Uni and had been dating for a while.¡± Morisson huffed up before sighing.


    ¡°I told you it¡¯s Morgan, Karel.¡± She looked to him as he got visibly flustered


    ¡°W-well we all thought you were a guy a-and then this happened and I don¡¯t know what we are anymore and it¡¯s just! What the hell!!!¡± He hid his face in his hands and sighed, as black feather eagle girl spoke up.


    ¡°I¡¯m Morgan¡¯s sister, Kl¨¢ra. So I was first to know that both of us are now furries.¡± I snorted at her reply.


    ¡°Okay okay I¡¯m not a relationship councelor so you¡¯ll need to figure that situation together, Morgan and Karel. Anyways I brought you here because I¡¯m being targeted. You all know by who. So, I need Supers for protection. I have written out a pretty simple contract. Boils down to you sign it, I make you gadgets for the price of materials and time it takes, you make sure if the alarms on these go off, you come running to my aid. That sound good to y¡¯all?¡± I put the contracts and the wristbands on the coffee table before them, as Dare held out a pen.

 Shady Business

    In the end they signed. All of them getting upgraded shock gloves, stun charges, smoke bombs, the usual tech ninja kit. Fuck, I only went and did that, didn¡¯t I. I armed three furries like you¡¯d arm a tech ninja. And with the pay out I had a small nest egg to sit on. Of course the contract included advertising, so I just had to sit back, and wait.


    And wait.


    And wait.


    And wait some more.


    ¡°Not getting contracts suuuuucks, we finished up editing a bunch of project videos for youtube and patreon that are now scheduled so there¡¯s nothing to do. Should I build an Alphonse Elric for fun, Dare?¡± I looked towards the adorable fox dragon, who was currently in the process of¡­ playing with legos. Building a little castle.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be an Iron Man Suit? Just, Anime styled and with a Boy inside the suit without a body?¡± She clicked down a minifig and smiled, clapping to herself. ¡°Now I get to be the big scary dragon and smash it!¡± She giggled, and I giggled back.


    ¡°Okay maybe we shouldn¡¯t have watched Lilo and Stitch earlier, you massive dork. But yeah, you¡¯re right, Alphonse is just a self piloted Iron Man suit. I don¡¯t even have a forge to make the armor for it. Why didn¡¯t I make a forge yet?¡±


    ¡°Dysphoria over muscle building from smithing?¡± Dare shrugged her shoulders before she spread her wings and began pretend stomping. Tearing into her creation, trying to roar, giggling. Why did I have to make her so cute?!?!


    ¡°Shit you¡¯re right. What do you want to do tonight, Dare?¡± I looked towards her as she pretend chomped on a minifig, making sure not to actually bite it.


    ¡°I¡¯d say Take over the World but the only Pinkie I feel like is a small pink horse, not a mouse. Also the logistics of taking care of everyone. Making sure people have food and a place to stay. The amount of monitoring equipment you¡¯d need for it.¡± She put down the fig and jumped on my lap curling up. I petted her head before a notification rang on my phone. An email, simply titled Consultation, asking me to open the window slightly. I shrugged and turned to it, letting it ajar ever so slightly. A shadow passed underneath it. I gave it no mind, thinking it was a cloud or a bird or something.


    ¡°Thank you, More Than Computer Mouse.¡± The voice that came from behind me was a quiet whisper, raspy, like something you¡¯d expect out of a horror movie before being jumpscared.


    ¡°How close are you to my head right now because I don¡¯t want to punch you when I turn to face you.¡± I was definitely ready to throw fists at them but fucking hell I do not want a jumpscare.


    ¡°I am outside your punching range. And look like a teenager right now, like...me. I don¡¯t intend to jumpscare you, Bridget, but I apologise in case I do.¡± The voice had shifted, sounding more nervous and androgynous, undeveloped. Sighing, I turned to face my would be intruder. As promised, a couple steps away stood a teenager, looking about 14, black dress and converse sneakers, pink hair slightly past ears, eyes darting around nervously.


    ¡°How does the whole shifting power work?¡± I stretched and Dare jumped off my lap, skipping over to the individual before me.


    ¡°I can¡­ meld into shadows or become like a shadow puddle for sneaking around, but shifting wise I can only become versions of me I¡¯d have been able to reach through current means. Me in a dress. Me with pink hair. Me on puberty blockers. Me ten years on HRT and post op having started blockers at 10¡­¡± They held their shoulder, awkwardly, before Dare got close and raised her hands to be picked up and cuddled.


    ¡°Why Dare, you little traitor. Cuddling up with a potential intruder. Alright sweetheart what do I call you?¡± They nervously picked Dare up, their expression brightening up immediately as they cuddled the robot, giggling from her nuzzling.


    ¡°?...?¨¢rka. My name is ?¨¢rka.¡± The giggling broke to a shy smile, Dare climbing on her shoulders to pat ?¨¢rka¡¯s head. I only just noticed her eyes were a vibrant white in her iris, almost like some edgy contact lenses. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°Okay, ?¨¢rka, so, how can I help?¡± Dare hopped off her shoulders and ran off, coming back swiftly with a stool for my guest to sit on.


    ¡°I, uhm, I need something to open up gaps with, so that I can sneak in. I tried keyholes but I need openings my width, turns out.¡± She sat down on the stool and Dare jumped on her lap, sticking her tongue out at me.


    ¡°Alright, that sounds easy enough, a sneaky crowbar thing. Could have that in like a day. Whyyyy do you want such a tool, though?¡± I looked her in the eyes and she closed them shut, turning her head away.


    ¡°S-so that I can¡­ rob rich people¡­ to live.¡± My eyebrows rose up, my eyes widened in surprise, my ears shot up and Dare looked at ?¨¢rka¡¯s face.


    ¡°Okay, wait, you said that what I¡¯m looking at is you, correct? As in, this is the version of you you¡¯d effectively be if you hadn¡¯t emerged? How¡­ how old are you?¡±


    ¡°...Fourteen.¡± I slapped my thighs and stood up, pacing around the room.


    ¡°Why the fuck would a fourteen year old be stealing to live, ?¨¢rka where are your parents? Why aren¡¯t you living with them?¡± I stopped for a second to see her starting to sob. ¡°Oh fuck. Oh no oh dear oh no.¡± I quickly made my way over to her, kneeling down and putting my hands on her shoulders. ¡°Hey, hey, ?¨¢rka, it¡¯ll be okay, sweetie, alright? Come on, it¡¯ll be fine, tell me what happened.¡±


    ¡°M-mom¡¯s dead she-she died in in a car accident during¡­ during the emergence a-and when dad found out a-and he saw me l-looking like a¡­ like a ghost a-and then I shifted to¡­ to this form he¡­ he freaked out and and¡­ he¡­ he kicked me out. And the shelter wouldn¡¯t-wouldn¡¯t take me because¡­ because¡­¡± I hugged her tight at this moment, as she buried her head in my shoulders and cried. Dare squeezed out in between us, climbing on her shoulders to comfort her with head pats.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay hun. I get it. You don¡¯t have to say anything more. Come on, let it out. Dare get the E.E.P.S.¡± I kept hugging her, switching to patting her head as well as soon as Dare hopped off.


    ¡°You could have just said Get me the snacks I prepped for when the inevitable happens. Trying to sound all cool and stuff with shortening Emergency Expected Period Supplies.¡± Dare shook her head and made her way out of the room and to the kitchen. I shot her a quick glare before continuing my focus on ?¨¢rka.


    ¡°Alright hun, considering your situation, you can stay here if you¡¯d like. For as long as you need, or want to. I insist.¡± I pulled away a bit, seeing her eyes red from crying.


    ¡°A-are you sure?¡± She fidgeted with her thumbs, and I nodded.


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m deadly sure. I¡¯ll just need to prepare a room for you. I got more than enough space to house a teenaged girl in need.¡± I stood up as Dare entered the room holding a cookie tin. ¡°I don¡¯t know when you last ate but munch on these for now to at least relax a bit.¡± I quickly shot Petr a text, asking if he knew if anyone in town had a spare bed to sell me. He shot back he¡¯d check. ?¨¢rka was awkwardly nibbling on a cookie as she sat there, I squatted in front of her again. ¡°Okay, looking for a bed for you, you can use mine for now I¡¯ll take the couch. You need something to de-stress after the whole ordeal. Come to the living room, sit down on the couch, I¡¯ll prep more snacks and lets have a movie night, alright?¡± I patted her head again and she nodded, following me as I lead her there.


    Winter Wundermouse @mtcmouse - 2 hours ago


    I¡­ think I just adopted a trans girl? Like her dad kicked her out, the shelter refused her


    I


    Winter Wundermouse @mtcmouse - 2 hours ago


    And now she¡¯s sitting on my couch watching movies and munching on snacks?


    I


    Winter Wundermouse @mtcmouse - 2 hours ago


    And I just want to hug her and assure her everything will work out? Like, she¡¯s 14! 14 years old and kicked out for being trans and emerged!


    Motherly Mouse @mtcmouse - Just now


    She fell asleep. I mean, look at her sleeping. How could anyone think of hurting such a sweet girl?


    My last tweet of the day was accompanied by a picture of ?¨¢rka. Her eyes closed, leaning on the armrest, snoring extremely gently. I picked her up as softly as I could and carried her to my bed, tucking her in as soon as her shoes were off, before I sat down on my computer chair and sighed, a gentle smile on my face. As quietly as I could, I giggled to myself. ¡°Take that Bruce, my adoptive kid is way cuter and sweeter than any of the Robins. and I¡¯m going to keep her out of danger.¡±


    What awoke me the next morning was the doorbell going off. I had fallen asleep on the desk chair, and ?¨¢rka rubbed her eyes as she woke up. ¡°I got this hun, you just sit there and take a breather.¡± Making my way down, Petr was chilling at the door. ¡°Oh hey, you got one for me?¡±


    ¡°Yeah I got one you farm mouse. Why do you need a spare¡­ bed¡­ though.¡± He looked behind me, as I turned and saw ?¨¢rka standing there awkwardly. He narrowed his eyes at me. ¡°Are you doing anything shady with that little girl?¡± I could feel the radiance coming off of ?¨¢rka from being called a little girl.


    ¡°Petr. Petr Petr Petr. Her dad kicked her out for stuff out of her control, the shelter refused her, how could I have not helped her when she came to me last night, asking for it? Hell I¡¯m gonna look into legally becoming her foster parent.¡± I turned to look at ?¨¢rka, whose whole expression lit up. ¡°So I need the bed for her because I only got the one for me.¡± He huffed and carted over the pieces, putting them in the entry room.


    ¡°This one¡¯s for free from me. I was planning to charge you, but¡­ what the hell. Could use a good deed.¡± He waved and walked off as I closed the door. I turned to her again, as she was looking at me, a big smile on her face.


    ¡°Yeah I, uhm, I meant the part about becoming your foster parent. I¡¯m not going to let a girl like you be on the streets. Alright, want to help me build your bed?¡± She quickly nodded at me, before she grabbed the pieces and turned into a shadow puddle, the pieces joining her. I watched the puddle climb up the wall, completely ignoring the elevator, to make her way to the second floor. ¡°My daughter is so talented.¡± I wiped a fake tear from my eye as I followed her up.

 Bonding Glue

    Motherly Mouse @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    I got her a bed, we¡¯re gonna start putting it together soon. Also, seriously, I¡¯m taking her in. Bridget is going to be a Foster Mom.


    I


    Motherly Mouse @mtcmouse - 9 minutes ago


    Which makes me think you all might want to meet her. Let me check if she¡¯s okay with streaming the bed building.


    I


    Motherly Mouse @mtcmouse - 5 minutes ago


    She is, setting up the stream now, be nice to her everyone! She can swim in shadows like a shark! Don¡¯t want to get bitten now, do we?


    I


    Motherly Mouse @mtcmouse - 3 minutes ago


    Stream is up!


    ?¨¢rka was sitting awkwardly on the floor, nervous, as I gave her a quick headpat. I haven¡¯t really been describing my outfits before now, because, to be completely honest? I had worn the same pyjama pants and t-shirt sans bra combo for like, ever. I only got dressed for projects now, since only my hands had been visible before. Why is it so important that I mention it now? Well because ?¨¢rka had shifted her outfit. From the simple black dress she had swapped to a pair of shorts, a t-shirt that was slightly longer and covered them up and had a cute cartoon shark on it, and some tights, probably to protect her knees.


    ¡°It¡¯s gonna be fine hun, they¡¯ll like you. I¡¯m a little bit curious about your eyes though.¡± I sat next to her, waiting for some folks to show up on stream.


    ¡°Oh, uhm, yeah¡­ I looked it up, they¡¯re shark eyes. And¡­ You know how I mentioned I can shift into form I could reach regularly, plus the whole shadow schtick?¡± She scratched behind her head, and I nodded to confirm. ¡°Well there¡¯s¡­ one area where that doesn¡¯t apply.¡± She grinned a wide grin at me, blushing slightly. Her teeth weren¡¯t the regular shape of a humans, now. They were very sharp and pointy chompers, like a shark¡¯s but more taken care of. My smile grew wild as I hugged her tightly.


    ¡°Oh my god ?¨¢rka! I made a little joke about you being shark like on twitter before the stream! Aaaa why was the world so cruel to you when you¡¯re so sweet!¡± My hug was interrupted by ping from the stream, chat was going, I quickly checked on it. Just a whole wall of ¡°What a mom¡± and ¡°Hello Sarka!!!¡± right, keyboards. I giggled at them. ¡°Anyone in North America, shouldn¡¯t you lot be sleeping right now? Naughty Naughty.~ Thanks for showing up though. So yeah.¡± I quickly got behind ?¨¢rka and lifted her off the ground. ¡°Here she is, on camera for the first time. ?¨¢rka, our local shark girl, turns out. I¡¯m gonna have to play the Jaws theme every time you Shadowmeld.¡± I giggled a bit as she blushed, covering her face.


    ¡°Bri- m-mou¡­¡± She took a deep breath, uncovering her face and looking at me, the biggest blush on her face still. ¡°M-mom¡­ stop it¡­¡± Her blush was now accompanied by a smile, as I covered up mine in surprise. The stream chat exploded. I think the Tsar Bomba would be blushing from how much the chat exploded. I clutched my heart as Dare rushed over.


    ¡°Dare I think my sweet daughter just beat your little castle dragon antics in cuteness.¡± Dare huffed and put her paws on the equivalent of her hips, before she quickly jumped up and climbed onto ?¨¢rka.


    ¡°Well take a double dose, Bridget! Your robot pet is now on your daughter¡¯s shoulders!¡± I started giggling at Dare¡¯s antics, giving her a quick headpat as ?¨¢rka scratched her chin.


    ¡°Okay, okay you two. I did this so I could build a bed together with you, ?¨¢rka, and so you can introduce yourself.¡± I walked over to the pile of pieces ?¨¢rka had¡­ well I can¡¯t really say dumped, cause she didn¡¯t throw them there from above. I guess spit out would be more appropriate? The pile of pieces she had spit out. Okay, not much better, now I¡¯m going to hear Kirby noises whenever she pulls anything into her shadow puddle. I started putting them down in the correct place so it was easier to attach them. looked pretty straightforward luckily.


    ¡°W-well, uhm, I¡¯m ?¨¢rka, I¡¯m a trans girl, like my¡­ like my new mom¡± I saw her smile a bit again. ¡°A-and emerged too! I can, uhm, I can do this!¡± She melted down into her puddle form, before rising again. ¡°A-and this!¡± Her form shifted. The shadows engulfing her completely, like a cloak, her eyes and teeth the only visible things through it, pure white and glowing from the sheer contrast of the two shades. There was something like a fin jutting out her back and on each of her arms, before she spoke again. The creepy voice I had heard when she first came coming out. ¡°B-but I don¡¯t like doing it, since it makes me sound like this.¡± She shifted back to her regular form, with her cute outfit and pinchable cheeks and pattable head with slightly past ear long pink hair. ¡°That¡¯s about it. A-and I was a big fan of mom¡¯s! I¡­ I still am. N-not just because she lets me live here. Her tutorials are always cool and easy to follow and fun!¡± She quickly hugged me from behind and nuzzled my shoulder.


    ¡°Gosh ?¨¢rka sweetie, are you really that touch starved?... Oh who am I kidding, I built Dare because I was too. Come on, hand me the screwdriver, from the tool kit on that chair over there. It should be in the top part when you open it.¡± She skipped over and found it quickly. ¡°Good girl! I was always so extremely annoyed when dad asked me to bring something and never specified where to find it, so I¡¯d ask and he¡¯d get annoyed. Dare, you have my express permission to bite me if I ever do that to sweet ?¨¢rka here.¡± I grabbed the screwdriver she was handing me and gave her a quick pat, as Dare did a lesbian salute. You know, the two fingered one, like Tracer does in Overwatch. Find me a straight woman who does that salute, I double dare you.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Y-yeah, I know what you mean, mom. Dad wasn¡¯t¡­ the best even before the Emergence happened and¡­¡± I quickly put my arm around ?¨¢rka¡¯s shoulder reassuringly.


    ¡°Hey, hun, you don¡¯t gotta repeat it. You let me know stuff you¡¯re comfortable sharing, okay? Like, anything you need to share, or want to share, let me know. We¡¯re family now, alright? Even though it¡¯s only been a day and I haven¡¯t looked into the legality of the situation.¡± She nodded and I quickly wiped her tears away. ¡°Okay, now help me lift it up and hold the other beam steady as I screw it in.¡± I patted her shoulder and we got up to keep working.


    Within the hour she was sitting on her new bed, Dare curled up in her lap and me sitting next to her. ¡°Well, I hope it¡¯s comfortable for you.¡± I turned to the camera ¡°And sorry that it wasn¡¯t four hours of me frantically trying to put together Ikea furniture. I needed to get my lovely daughter her own bed as soon as possible.¡± I gave ?¨¢rka a hug, as she smiled at me. ¡°Well I think that¡¯s it for the stream, unless you¡¯d like to do an AMA or something, ?¨¢rka? I kind of did start it to gush about you.¡± I rubbed the back of my head, slightly ashamed, as she turned to me and then the camera.


    ¡°Nah mom, I¡­ think an AMA might be fun. Especially with you answering stuff.¡± I nodded at her and shifted the set up, so as to point it at the bed as I sat down next to her, Dare now moving off of ?¨¢rka¡¯s lap and inbetween the two of us.


    ¡°Okay, first question. If you¡¯re so smart why do you live in the Czech Republic? Ugh, buddy? Pal Chum Friendo? We¡¯re the reason you can wear contact lenses. And why I had to get a Karyotype test to check if I¡¯m intersex while trying to get HRT. Plus, it¡¯s not like I can just move out easily. Youtube Money isn¡¯t what you might think it is when they don¡¯t monetise you.¡± Dare moved closer to the screen after my reply, reading the next question.


    ¡°Oh hey I can answer both of these! Can you build a machine that can build other machines? Like a perpetual motion building machine? Well yes, I can build stuff, not at the level Bridget can, but I could build some fun toys. And the next one is, in all caps mind you, Can I keep Dare OMG. Bridget isn¡¯t really keeping me. I¡¯m staying here because I like it here, and I like her, and I like ?¨¢rka, and I like being the household pet.¡± I scritched Dare behind the ears after that as she nuzzled up close. ?¨¢rka was the one to read the next question.


    ¡°Give me back my cookies you fucking thief?¡± She turned to me, concerned. I truly attempted in my most stern motherly voice to lecture the asker.


    ¡°Please wash your mouth there are children present. Now I¡¯m definitely not giving back whatever you claimed I stole. Okay next question. Wow. Buddy. If you hadn¡¯t added you¡¯re a dude I would have given it half a thought. Considering half a thought brought us your future robotic overlady.¡± I picked up Dare to nail home my point. ¡°You can imagine what that¡¯d be like. A youtube debate about pronouns, the trans quote unquote trend and how legitimate women¡¯s voices are being silenced? I can imagine what you mean by legitimate, but uhm, being trans is not a trend. You seen the news lately? Everything happening to the Emerged? Yeah now imagine that it¡¯s pre-emergence, and you¡¯re trans, and you find the courage to come out and start trying to become yourself. Best Case of the Worst Case scenarios is, you become homeless like ?¨¢rka here, but find a community that helps you out. Or, like the dragon during the night of the emergence, you mcfucking DIE. You think people go on life long medication, get surgery, change their names, wardrobes, pronouns, get fired from work, lose their homes, their families, their friends as a TREND? Who in their right mind would do all that for a TREND?!?! Anyways go suck a big one Shapiro or Peterson or Whomever the fuck of y¡¯all showed up on my stream.¡± I quickly blocked and banned the sender before shaking my head, as Dare read the next question.


    ¡°How does a tail feel? What¡¯s that all about? I mean I could answer but I was designed and built with one. Bridget is the one who grew one overnight~¡± Dare giggled as ?¨¢rka scritched her under the chin, and I flopped my tail down on my lap.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how it is for people with other types of tails, but for me¡­ There was a small bit of an adjusted period, but because it¡¯s a mouse tail I¡­ effectively have a tentacle sticking out from above my butt. Makes clothes shopping more difficult than before, but hey! Extra limb to grab stuff with.¡± I waved with my tail to nail the point home, before moving onto the next one. ¡°How can I get Emerged? I want to be Emerged. Please send info. I¡¯d like to know why you¡¯d like to Emerge viewer, because as you might have noticed, we¡¯re not¡­ exactly the safest minority in existence. To seriously answer, uhm, roll a Nat 20 or a Nat 1 during a weirdass storm? But like, if you want to Emerge so that you can be a girl or something, you can just¡­ be a girl, you know.¡± ?¨¢rka nodded in confirmation.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯d expect Emergence to have made me physically afab or something but it just¡­ let me control my physical transition on my own. I don¡¯t have to go to doctors to get HRT prescribed, I just make myself go through the effects. If I hadn¡¯t emerged, I would have just tried to get on blockers and waited until I was 18 to start HRT, since¡­ that¡¯s how they run stuff around here.¡± I gave ?¨¢rka a quick comforting back rub. I turned towards the chat again.


    ¡°I, okay, wow, this question is just LOADED. If you could''ve had control on what the Emergence did to you, would you have gone with what you have now, or something else? And if so what? Personally? I¡¯m¡­ pretty happy with what I got. I mean, I¡¯m a super genius version of my avatar, but what about you ?¨¢rka?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ would have been nice to just have the body I¡¯d like from the start, but, also, I had always been really excited to start puberty, because I thought I¡¯d get to go through it like all the other girls do, and then I found out I wouldn¡¯t, because I¡¯m not like other girls in that way. But! Now I get to go through it, in my own way, so!¡± ?¨¢rka smiled and I nodded, giving her a headpat. She giggled at it.


    ¡°Can I stop Brexit? Ugh, Singlehandedly? I don¡¯t¡­ I don¡¯t think it¡¯s even started yet? Like, May is, and this is going to come off as speciest or something from me right now bare with me, being a cat about it. Like, do you want in or out, woman? Next one. Okay, this one¡­ you nearly had this one, ?¨¢rka.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, uhm, I managed to hide my powers and new default form from Dad for¡­ a while, until he kicked me out when I was practicing. So if you¡¯re Emerged and you have powers but didn¡¯t go through a physical change, then¡­ it depends on how you want to come out. Like, there¡¯s a lot of guides on how to come out for queer folk, maybe you could apply some of those tips to letting your parents know you have superpowers.¡± When the next question came on screen, I covered ?¨¢rka¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°My tail is not an erogenous zone, I will not be using it to pleasure you, and there are CHILDREN PRESENT IN MY HOUSE. OKAY ONE CHILD BUT SHE¡¯S MINE. You sound like the kind of person who used that last line towards trans women you found attractive. Which is a category I fall into. Please don¡¯t ask random women on the internet if they¡¯re going to go in the porn industry. If you did that in real life you¡¯d have Explosive Nuts Syndrome. Because they¡¯d have exploded from all the kicking.¡± I sighed, uncovered ?¨¢rka¡¯s eyes and rubbed mine. ¡°Lesson number one, daughter of mine, men on the internet have zero sense of boundaries. Men IRL don¡¯t either. You have the advantage of being able to melt away and scaring them with your Shadow-Zora form or whatever. A lot of girls don¡¯t have such powers.¡± ?¨¢rka nodded at me, looking down and sighing as well. ¡°Alright, there¡¯s a 50/50 chance we¡¯ll do the next one. If it¡¯s good, it¡¯ll be the last one for the stream, if it¡¯s bad we will just end it there without answering.¡± I hugged my daughter while looking at the chat, and she nodded. The next question brought tears to my eyes, as I kept hugging ?¨¢rka.


    ¡°Are you happy now? Y-yeah. I am. I¡¯m so incredibly happy. I got amazing supporters, great friends, an amazing family, the coolest superpower for supporting people. I¡­ I am happy.¡± I wiped a tear from my eye, as ?¨¢rka smiled at me, with a slight blush


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m happy too, Mom. I never¡­ I never expected to end up like this, but¡­ I¡¯m really, really happy I did.¡± I patted ?¨¢rka¡¯s head, as Dare jumped to the screen.


    ¡°Alright y¡¯all you made the two nerds I live with cry happy tears now so I figure stream over. I hope you had fun, and we will see you next time.¡± Dare winked and blepped and turn off the stream, as me ?¨¢rka sat in an embrace, both crying and gently laughing, as Dare soon joined us by curling up on our laps.

 Post Saint Nick鈥檚 Chaotic Behavior

    My small family had made plans for the next day. I didn¡¯t want ?¨¢rka to have to steal to live, even though rich people definitely deserved to get robbed. Tomb Raiding is a whole other thing, however. And the tomb wasn¡¯t even a tomb, as it had no corpses or coffins or such.


    We had made our way over to the Maidenburg Ruin the following day, since we didn¡¯t exactly have a ride to go get more stuff for ?¨¢rka¡¯s room. So it was either wait a couple days for the delivery to get there doing nothing, or go steal more weird shit.


    ¡°Okay, hun, I know it¡¯s not the best move of me to ask you to do this, but I need as much research material as I can. Considering I haven¡¯t been able to build an invisibility cloak, and plus you can squeeze through anything as wide as you, you okay with sneaking in and grabbing stuff?¡± I held ?¨¢rka¡¯s shoulder protectively, as we looked at the ruin from a reasonable distance, hiding in the trees around it. She gave a quick nod before shadowmelting and making her way inside.


    It was definitely irresponsible of me to just let a 14 year old girl sneak into a weird ruin to raid it, but not ten minutes later, she was back, holding a couple more of the cubes I found during my first visit, plus an odd plate, looking close to the carved stone of the ruin, but smoother, and one side looking like a mirror. Well, mostly like a mirror, when I touched it it felt like very smooth sand. With the loot in hand we quickly made our way back home. Turns out ?¨¢rka can take others into her shadow puddle, but it¡¯s like being underwater, and so she needs to get your head out of the water to catch your breath before diving back down. It made me wonder if scuba equipment could work. I definitely couldn¡¯t see properly when down there with her, everything was foggy and smeared and upside down. That was the only thing I could figure out, going in made the world outside the puddle look upside down, as if you were looking up while underwater. But the bottom of the pool was the top. Still, with how fast she could get in shadow puddle form, we were home in 20 minutes instead of the hour it would have taken me usually.


    ¡°You did great ?¨¢rka! I know I should be teaching you morals and stuff, but I¡¯m really proud of you! Exploring your powers and using them like that!¡± I gave her a hug and ruffled her hair once back inside, before putting down the devices. Out of curiosity I placed one of the cubes on top of the plate, the surface morphing into something akin to an hourglass shape, floating slightly above it, with the sand flowing up to the top instead of down. ¡°I¡­ guess it¡¯s charging or something. Definitely an interesting thing we nabbed.¡±


    I was tinkering away at things to potentially measure the cubes with, considering my old meters died, while ?¨¢rka was playing with Dare. Then it hit me. Like a sack of bricks. Okay, more like an external drive you keep your pirated movies on. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t have such a thing. Putting the drive back where it belonged in the wall of drives (well it¡¯s more of a bunch of shelves filled with drives plugged into usb extenders I could plug my detached laptop into to grab stuff.) the idea to copy hero tools struck. But, I didn¡¯t want to go for the obvious tech ones. And then I looked to a truly wonderful woman. ¡°Hun I¡¯m gonna build a Lasso of Truth Choker to put on folks to prevent them from lying, I think it¡¯d be useful for the business. Wanna help?¡± I didn¡¯t get the hear footsteps as I saw a familiar shape zooming on the ground, ?¨¢rka popping out holding Dare.


    ¡°Yes yes yes!!!¡± She let go of Dare and skipped over to my work desk, as I grabbed my laptop and started working on the design. It was crucial to make it hard to cut off and difficult to remove by anyone other than the person who put it on you. And, since I¡¯m not cruel, to also make it stylish. During development another realisation hit as I sighed.


    ¡°I could market this to kinksters for some form of play.¡± I quietly whispered, hoping ?¨¢rka didn¡¯t hear me say it. Dare did, however, as she snorted and then laughed at my realisation.


    ¡°Should I start working on the Etsy store or something, Bridget, while you work on that?¡± I shot her a glare and shook my head, finishing the notes and printing them out.


    ¡°Okay, ?¨¢rka, you said you like my videos so could you help me with the tools? Be very, very careful getting them. I think I got enough materials for it, but check the stockpile in the basement. You okay with doing all that?¡± I held her shoulders and she nodded, smiling, melting out of my hands again and zooming away. ¡°She¡¯s such a smart girl, Dare. I love my sweet daughter so much.¡± Now it was my turn to smile as Dare looked on.


    ¡°There¡¯s a reason you made it up, what¡¯s the reason?¡± Dare had jumped on the workbench and was looking me in the eyes.


    ¡°Oh I¡¯m just going to blackmail her father into handing custody over with it. Nothing too sinister, just get secrets, threaten to spill them, get all I need to get custody, officially adopt an adorable teenage trans girl as a daughter, so I can provide her with an environment I didn¡¯t exactly get growing up.¡± ?¨¢rka popped out of her shadow puddle form at the moment, placing the tools on the workbench. ¡°Thanks sweetie.¡±


    ¡°...Do you mean that about¡­ my dad?¡± Her expression was concern, but not concern for him, concern for me. her hands trying to grab hold of something as she looked, and so I did what any parent should do. I knelt down and gave her a hug.


    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m¡­ sorry I¡¯ll have to make you deal with him again. But you won¡¯t have to see him ever again afterwards. I promise.¡± I brushed her hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead, her shy smile coming back. ¡°Now come on, get the safety gear and you¡¯ll build some of the easier, safer bits.¡± Standing up and waiting at the workbench, her smile grew again as we got to work.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The sound of the doorbell was loud. Definitely loud enough to be heard from anywhere in that small house. I could hear footsteps approaching the front door. ?¨¢rka was peeking out of my shadow, ready to put the plan into action. The door swung open and there he stood. Slightly shorter than me, balding, smelling of beer and plum brandy, eyes tired and angry. ¡°Mr. N¨§mec, I presume?¡± He looked me over, scowling at my ears and tail. Somehow I was taller than him.


    ¡°What¡¯s it to ya freakshow.¡± He rested against the doorframe, obviously having trouble standing.


    ¡°I¡¯ll just ignore the casual xenophobia there to answer honestly. Your daughter came to me a couple days ago. I stopped her from having live a life of crime to survive, as you kicked her out for her gender and her emerged status. I have every intention of becoming her adoptive or foster mother. Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way, which will it be.¡± I leaned over him, staring right into his eyes with the kindest, sweetest smile I could muster.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a fucking daughter you crazy bitch.¡± He began closing the door, before I swiftly rested a hand on it.


    ¡°The hard way, then.¡± There was an audible click as the collar was put in place, ?¨¢rka standing behind her birth father in her shaded over form. He turned around to be met face to face with her visage. If not for me standing behind him he¡¯d have fallen on his ass. I braced against him and starting pushing him inside, closing the door behind me with my tail. ?¨¢rka quickly melted and began zooming around the house, closing and locking doors and windows, before she dragged her father onto an armchair.


    ¡°The fuck did you put on me the fuck are you doing I¡¯m going to call the fucking cops on you right now if you don¡¯t get this fucking thing off.¡± He desperately tugged at it, as I tsked.


    ¡°Mr. N¨§mec, the device around your neck functions like Wonder Woman¡¯s Lasso of Truth. You are not only compelled to tell the truth, but it will hurt if you lie.¡± ?¨¢rka had shifted back to her default form as she sat down on the couch, me joining her shortly. ¡°Do you recognize the child next to me.¡± I gave ?¨¢rka a headpat while staring directly into her father¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s my fucking so- AAAAAH WHAT THE FUCK THAT BURNED. That¡¯s my so- WHAT THE HELL IT BURNS.¡± He scratched at the collar, convulsing.


    ¡°Yes. Because you¡¯re saying a big fat lie. The child sitting next to me is your daughter, ?¨¢rka. Biologically speaking, at least. You don¡¯t deserve to be considered a father. Do not worry, the collar is doing the capsaicin thing. Hot peppers don¡¯t actually burn your tongue physically, the capsaicin just tells your brain that it is being burned. A Jedi Mind Trick in Food Form.¡± I leaned forward, interlocking my fingers. ¡°I want one thing. Legal and Physical custody of ?¨¢rka. All the documents necessary for it. And for you to not try to contact her. Considering you did kick her out, I figure you wouldn¡¯t mind too much. Hell, I won¡¯t even ask for child support.¡± He growled at me, then at ?¨¢rka.


    ¡°How about you fucking get this thing off me, leave my fucking house and don¡¯t bother me before I beat you freaky furry ass you piece of trash. AH FUCK.¡±


    ¡°You have experienced first hand your daughter¡¯s powers. I do not wish for her to have to hurt you.¡± I pulled a glove out of my pocket and put it on, small crackles going across the fingers and palm. ¡°If the Collar isn¡¯t enough pain for you, I am equipped to amp it up. But, first, material. What is your job.¡±


    ¡°...I run the books for a construction company. Helping them commit tax fraud, skimming some of the money for my what the fuck how did it do that!¡± He leapt forward and I reached my hand towards him, pushing him down.


    ¡°It¡¯s calibrated now. And oh, what would happen if this information was made public?¡±


    ¡°The company would scapegoat me as the person responsible so as to save their hide, before doing it again. With someone less competent than me. Fucking, stop this thing!¡±


    ¡°Soon enough. ?¨¢rka, go check your room here, grab everything you want to take with you back home and put it in the car.¡± I turned to her and she nodded, walking away and upstairs. I turned back to her father. ¡°I have been recording our conversation. You reek of alcohol, when did you start drinking today.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t stopped since my wife¡¯s passing during the night all you fuckers turned up. I drank nightly before then.¡±


    ¡°Okay, so alcoholic father without any other relatives for her to be with, mother dead, you¡¯re a criminal as well with a jailable offense. I could deliver all this to the police. Or you could do as I asked.¡± I put a stack of papers on the coffee table with a pen. ¡°This is all the paperwork I need you to sign to confirm you¡¯re transferring custody over to me. I will then need you to provide every piece of legal paper that pertains to your daughter. I shall then proceed to deliver this to a judge so as to legally become ?¨¢rka¡¯s foster parent. And you will disappear from her life, forever. You will not contact her, you will not search her out, you will not call the police and claim a kidnapping took place. Because, when was the last time you saw ?¨¢rka before today?¡±


    ¡°I last saw my f- AAGH of a so- SON OF A BITCH when I kicked hi- JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ass out for being queer.¡±


    ¡°Now it¡¯s on tape. Child abuse. Sign.¡± I stood up and held the pen in his face, as he sighed and began signing.


    ?¨¢rka had in the end taken a lot of the furniture and all the tech and toys and merch from her room. Some of it from the attic, a couple things from the living room. I left the house with a file full of paperwork I was about to go hand in as soon as possible. As me and ?¨¢rka drove off in the van, I gave her a headpat while she snuggled an alolan vulpix plushie. ¡°First Mom got it for me on a business trip to Japan. I got a couple more in a box in the back. But, this one is my favorite of my pokemon plushies.¡± She smiled sadly as I pet her head.


    ¡°You want to¡­ visit her grave? Say hi? Introduce me, maybe?¡± It took her a couple seconds of thinking before she nodded. I turned the car towards where she pointed me. Not ten minutes later we were standing there. In front of her gravestone.


    ¡°H-hey, mom¡­ So, uhm, I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m a girl. I¡­ I wish I could have told you while you were here. I¡¯m sure you-you would have¡­ you would have been so happy for me, unlike dad. I hope¡­ I hope you¡¯re at peace, wherever you are. Because. Because I¡¯m safe now. Away from dad. With¡­ my new mom. Bridget. You know, the tech girl I showed you online a couple times. She¡­ she took me in, and shamed dad. So. I¡¯m¡­ safe. But. I really wish you were here right now. To meet her. To meet me.¡± Tears were streaming down her face, her voice hitching. I embraced her in a tight hug as quickly as I could, making comforting sounds and patting her head. We just stood there, like that, for a couple minutes. I took out a handkerchief soon enough to wipe her tears away.


    ¡°You ready to go home?¡± She looked me in the eyes and nodded, smiling sadly once again.

 Saving Myself from Tears

    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - 2 minutes ago


    Shit, it¡¯s Christmas in a week, and I got someone to get gifts for this year.


    I


    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - 1 minutes ago


    Should I just take her shopping? I mean, she can materialise any clothes she wants for herself, so I¡¯m not sure.


    Shark on the Shelf @mtcshark - Just now


    @mtcmouse Mom I can read your tweets too you know.


    I turned from my phone to see ?¨¢rka waving hers at me with a cheeky smile. Right, that was one of the most important pieces to get from her room. I am only mildly surprised she didn¡¯t grab it when she got kicked out. ¡°I¡¯d love to go shopping. Just because I CAN change outfits doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t want a wardrobe full of them.¡± She pouted a little bit, and I let out a giggle.


    ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll take you clothes shopping as a christmas present. Anything else you¡¯d like?¡± She gently shook her head in response. And that¡¯s when I got an email notification. ¡°Oh, huh. Looks like a client. Do they all have to send an email while waiting here already?¡± I sighed and opened up the window again, as someone with a gecko tail climbed in in full costume. They shot their gaze first towards me, then towards ?¨¢rka, then towards Dare, who was currently in the process of making a card pyramid.


    ¡°Greetings Miss, Miss and Pet-¡± The lizard-like stranger spoke


    ¡°I¡¯m a Miss too.¡± Dare threw a peanut at them from the snack bowl.


    ¡°Apologies, then. I am Grasp. I am interested in procuring some equipment for robbery.¡± They stood up and straightened themself out.


    ¡°Age. Targets. Headcount.¡± I counted on my fingers while looking at them. ¡°?¨¢rka, sweetie, take notes. I know how quick you type.¡± She nodded in response and moved to the computer, writing down notes.


    ¡°Age? Whose age? Mine?¡± They held a hand to their chest in mock ofense.


    ¡°Yeah the last person to climb through my window to ask for thievery stuff is my 14 year old daughter over there, after her dad kicked her out.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Well then. I am...25. Yes. 25 years young, haha. As for targets, well, anyone is fair game to me, if they seem to have the means. And I am not good in a fight or scuffle, thus my headcount remains at zero.¡± I narrowed my eyes at their answer.


    ¡°So you¡¯d rob anyone, even if they¡¯re flat broke? Would you kill them if they resisted?¡± I stepped closer, and they looked around the room.


    ¡°Well, yes, I might accidentally or on purpose have to kill someone to steal what they own.¡± I nodded. Then I placed a hand of mine on their shoulder.


    ¡°You seen Spider-Verse yet?¡± They didn¡¯t get a chance to answer. Convulsing on the floor for a second from the shock before being knocked out. ¡°?¨¢rka, we do not deal with Chaotic Neutrals or Chaotic Evils. Sorry to ask you hun, but could you like, drop them at the edge of town?¡± ?¨¢rka finished typing away and quickly dove into action, being back home within five minutes.


    ¡°Edge of town, like you asked.¡± I ruffled her hair and closed the window.


    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - 2 minutes ago


    I was expecting to deal with chasers or something, not with edgy fucks hoping for me to make them a death ray.


    I


    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - 1 minute ago


    I don¡¯t think they realised my brand is nonlethal bougievore. Eat the rich, redistribute the wealth, don¡¯t hurt the little guy


    I


    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - Just now


    Scariest part is that a couple found my house. I¡¯m going to have to get an office now. Or a new house. Or maybe¡­


    I¡¯m not going to tell Twitter I just had the idea to build an underground facility below my house for me to keep stuff in. Especially because that¡¯d compromise it. Plus it¡¯s probably illegal to dig a bunker under your house without a permit. And if I did it the conventional way, I¡¯d have to tear down and then rebuild my house. And I cannot do something like that to my foster daughter. Nevermind that we¡¯re currently busy going through a mall with people staring at me. Parents sneering or huffing away, kids being enchanted. Several of the very small ones trying to grab my tail. Most of them failing. The ones that succeeded got yanked away by their parents quickly. Telling them not to touch me as if they had grabbed something off the sidewalk. At least ?¨¢rka wasn¡¯t being pestered like I was. I mean, she does look just like any regular 14 year old girl, just kind of a late bloomer and with short pink hair and eyes that pass for wearing contact lenses.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Unfortunately, there¡¯s nothing like Hot Topic in the Czech Republic. At least not as brick and mortar stores in malls. So finding her style was tough. You know exactly what kinda clothing is marketing to young girls and teens. Bright, colourful, tight, small. ?¨¢rka liked her clothes gothy, geeky and comfortable. It didn¡¯t stop us from looking. And looking. And looking some more. ¡°Well, there goes the magic of the holidays. Although I bet somebody out there turned into Santa. I¡¯m hoping nobody turned into Baby Jesus cause we know how he ends up when he grows up.¡± We were going through a dress rack at that point, looking for stuff. Don¡¯t get me wrong I love dresses but I was in a similar camp to ?¨¢rka on comfort.


    Which we were about to not have much of, as a helpful store assistant approached us. ¡°Excuse me, if you¡¯re looking for stuff, the boy¡¯s section is over there.¡± ?¨¢rka and myself didn¡¯t even have to exchange glances to be able to answer in unison.


    ¡°We know.¡± Her customer service smile was amazingly trained. Truly. A Death Squad could be holding her hostage and she¡¯d be keeping the same smile. But I saw it in her eyes. The discomfort and disgust.


    ¡°I just figured your brother here might appreciate shopping over there.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s my daughter.¡± I turned to face assistant head on. Now, I understand customer service folk. Had a summer job taking calls right after graduating high school that turned into a part time job in uni. So I wasn¡¯t going to go Soccer Mom on her. Honestly I don¡¯t think I got the entitlement in me to pull it off. What I do have, however, is laughter to hide away the pain. ¡°You seen a boy dye his hair pink yet? This shade of pink? Did you not notice the skirt, miss? I¡¯m here with my daughter getting her christmas gifts. If we need help, we know how to ask. Thank you.¡± At that moment I looked towards ?¨¢rka, who shook her head and gestured to leave the store. ¡°Looks like you don¡¯t have what we¡¯re looking for. Maybe if there¡¯s a next time.¡± I returned the smile and walked towards the door, before turning around and walking through it facing her.


    ¡°I¡¯m in a skirt and look nothing like a boy, how the fuck!!!¡± ?¨¢rka threw her hands up in the air before crossing them. ¡°It¡¯s not like I can hold a 5 years on HRT for forever. I need to reach that point by adapting.¡± She huffed and I placed my hand around her shoulder.


    ¡°The Cis are Oblivious. I mean, I came out to grandma, wearing a very pretty dress, obviously feminine with what I had done, and she still saw a boy. The most annoying thing is getting stuff like that from customer service workers. Like, y¡¯all are busy dealing with soccer moms and you really make the time for casual transphobia?¡± Shaking my god damn head. We had spent like three hours at the mall by then, just going through clothing stores. ¡°Come on, we¡¯ve hit every clothing spot that might cater to you. Let¡¯s hit JRC, see about grabbing some merch possibly, maybe a game and go home, what do you say?¡± ?¨¢rka looked up at me, sighed and nodded her head.


    ¡°Dare asked to grab some puzzles for her to solve. I think it sounds like a cute christmas present for her.¡± I had to nod in agreement.


    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - 2 minutes ago


    Due to unexpected circumstance your present delivery method this year shall be a robotic fox dragon.


    I


    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - 1 minutes ago


    She did manage to get the outfit, but just be ready to see her coming down your chimney.


    ¡°I¡¯m not climbing down the chimney in this outfit for the gag, Bridget. Do you know how difficult it is to clean plastic feathers? Extremely difficult! Especially when they¡¯re attached to you.¡± Dare was hanging out on top of the christmas tree, putting down the angel.


    ¡°I do. Almost as difficult as not choking on carp bones while eating it.¡± I shouted from the kitchen, smacking the fish on it¡¯s head with a mallet. ¡°It¡¯s amazing I found a small enough one for two people being sold. I ain¡¯t gonna defrost a frozen carp fillet to make christmas dinner with when I got people here.¡± I grabbed a knife and began gutting. ¡°?¨¢rka, honey, I¡¯m almost done with the gory part, I¡¯ll let you know when the breading part comes.¡± I yelled back into the house, getting an ¡°Okay!¡± from her bedroom. Careful with the organs now, don¡¯t want to rip anything open. There we go, and onward to descaling and filleting.


    Oh, right, important fact, Czech Christmas Dinner doesn¡¯t have a turkey. Nothing massive like that. Traditionally fried carp with potato salad, with fish soup as the first course. Some families replace the carp with pork cutlets, or with other types of fish. And I mean, no surprise, eating carp is like playing surgery. It¡¯s full of bones you have to be careful about. But, it does taste quite lovely when coated and fried.


    The sun set, me and ?¨¢rka enjoyed our meal. And then presents happened. Turns out adopting a daughter and showing her off online will net you a LOT of packages sent to your P.O.Box addressed to her in time for christmas. Somehow. Maybe someone got teleporting powers and was using them for delivery? I heard rumors of folks called ryfters. Maybe I could use those to expand my web of influence, as currently folk have to come to me to get stuff, which limits my clientele. No way to ship a smoke bomb through the post.


    Finding Out Who¡¯s Mice @mtcmouse - 24.12.2018 20:05


    Ohmygod Y¡¯all how did you get stuff for ?¨¢rka here so soon it¡¯s only been like 10 days!!!! I¡¯m thankful for y¡¯all but come on!!!


    The night had finished with us relaxing in a pile of shark plushies. The picture of that was on twitter right away along with that tweet. What woke me up the next morning was a text message. There were only four people in the known universe I had given my phone number to, one of them I didn¡¯t talk with, one of them had fallen asleep on me in the pile, one of them employed me from time to time, and the fourth? According to the text message, the fourth was waiting outside. ¡°Glad I got no alcohol cause this here is gonna make me feel like I got a hangover.¡± I gave ?¨¢rka a headpat and climbed out of the pile, making my way over to the front door.


    On the other side stood a familiar face. An extremely familiar face. To be completely honest, I had been looking at that face with minor differences ever since I emerged. Well, regular human features compared to my mouse girl traits aren¡¯t really that minor. She stood there with her light blue hair in an undercut, snakebite piercings and an eyebrow one. Leather jacket over a plaid shirt, ripped jeans with leggings underneath them thank fuck, and combat boots. ¡°You know you could have come visited right when it happened, sis.¡±


    ¡°It looked like you had it under control, Bridget, based on your vids. Would it be rude of me to ask to feel your ears?¡±


    ¡°A little bit. I mean go ahead if you want to, hell you squeezed my tits when they started coming in from HRT you little shit.¡±


    ¡°Hey that was five years ago! I was 14 and you were developing faster than me.¡± She pouted and I giggled.


    ¡°So. This is the traditional christmas visit? Crashing on my couch cause you¡¯re still single and got nobody else¡¯s couch to crash on after mom flipped her lid?¡± She shrugged and nodded. ¡°Alright Kl¨¢ra, come in and meet your niece.¡± I moved aside to let her in, not noticing somebody had joined us before it was too late


    ¡°Dropfoxdragon!¡± Dare had landed on Kl¨¢ra¡¯s shoulders before giggling to herself.


    ¡°Bridget. Holy shit. She¡¯s so fluffy!!!! You need to build me my own!!! Late christmas present!¡± I shook my head as we made it to the living room, where ?¨¢rka was yawning and rubbing her eyes awake.


    ¡°Morning, sleepyhead, your aunt Kl¨¢ra came to visit.¡± She had already made her way to the girl in the pile of plushies, kneeling down and extending her hand.


    ¡°Nice to meet you, ?¨¢rka.¡± She smiled at her as the younger of the two shook the older one¡¯s hand.

 Wheres the European Space Agency housed again?

    With Kl¨¢ra¡¯s help, we managed to clean up the living room and move all of ?¨¢rka¡¯s new plushies into her room. Dare had taped a little ¡°Shark Tank¡± sign over the pile as a joke. We were now sitting on the couch, relaxing, enjoying leftovers from christmas dinner (you gotta consume the potato salad ASAP, like more than three days and it gets dangerous).


    ¡°So, lil¡¯ sis.¡± I put my plate down and turned towards the disaster butch before me. ¡°Graduation year from High School. You planning to go to uni or nah?¡± She gulped at my question, smiling awkwardly.


    ¡°W-well¡­ mom wants me to ¡®redeem¡¯ myself by studying to be a doctor, and she¡¯s willing to pay to support me through medical school.¡± She scratched the back of her head. ¡°But can you imagine ME dealing with patients? Hi yes hello the tattooed lady with the punk haircut will now cut you open to fix your heart, please do not be alarmed. I¡¯d have the same effect with a German accent and a bunch of pigeons.¡± She stood up and straightened herself out, putting on said accent. ¡°Ya, gutten tag, ve must remove your spine, ya? Iz broken, vil replace it viz steel pipe.¡± I could only shake my head at her antics.


    ¡°Dork.¡±


    ¡°Says the mouse girl that made a robot and has a youtube channel about building stuff!¡±


    ¡°Dorkasaurus Rex. Triceradorks. Woman Loving Dork.¡± I was hit with a pillow in that moment, right in my face. ¡°Also, you don¡¯t have tattoos.¡± It slid off my face and landed on my lap, just in time for me to witness Kl¨¢ra roll up her sleeves to reveal tattoos. It was like she had taken the backgrounds off of Mucha¡¯s posters and put them on her arms, flowers and leaves and vines and stars and crescent moons and butterflies.


    ¡°Surprise. The guy had amazing taste in women, you know, for a guy. And a friend of mine drew up the designs. You can¡¯t even tell I¡¯m their first work of inking folk.¡± She flexed before sitting back down.


    ¡°Well, damn, they look amazing. But, honestly? I think you should go into medicine.¡± I shifted in my seat. ¡°I mean, consider this: People are already refusing to treat more physically changed emerged individuals. We need docs who won¡¯t refuse a patient because of their extra limbs and differing body parts.¡± Kl¨¢ra shrugged and nodded in that moment, as a familiar figure leapt on me from the shadowy puddle on the floor.


    ¡°I think Kl¨¢ra would be a good doc. She¡¯s nice and respects folk.¡± ?¨¢rka shifted herself to be sitting on my lap with her back turned to me, grabbing my arms to wrap around herself.


    ¡°Why you little rascal, forcing a hug out of me like that, you will feel my wrath soon enough!¡± I turned the hug into a quick tickle as she giggled. I could see Kl¨¢ra getting up again, but walking towards my workshop to check stuff out. ¡°You know the rules Kl¨¢ra, put stuff where you found it and don¡¯t plug anything in!¡± I shouted towards her, as she waved her hand in confirmation.


    ¡°Oh dang pretty choker.¡± Five minutes later, she walked out wearing one of the more concerning pieces. ¡°What¡¯s it do?¡±


    ¡°That, dear sister, is the Collar of Truth. Generally, it zaps you if you tell a lie. This includes misgendering someone if they¡¯re out to you. Plus I included zapping for saying slurs. I didn¡¯t reveal it in a video, because can you imagine the shit show that would cause?¡± I rubbed my face in frustration. ¡°I can already read people trying to justify not getting zapped for misgendering a person because they think it works like a polygraph.¡±


    ¡°Oh oof yeah. Alright, I¡¯m going to test it out. Hmm¡­¡± Kl¨¢ra rubbed her chin thoughtfuly. ¡°?¨¢rka is a cute girl. Oh hey, confirmed. Bridget is a great sister. Oh wow I was expecting a zap there.¡± She stuck her tongue out at me and I threw a pillow at her. ¡°I don¡¯t think it works. Okay, a big one. I¡¯m attracted to me-¡± Her eyes widened and her face scrunched up and went red ¡°-EEEEN FUCK AAAH FUCK DAMMIT BRIDGET TOO MUCH YOU NEED TO TONE IT DOWN!!!¡± Kl¨¢ra swiftly removed it and threw it on the ground. ¡°Jesus FUCK that went straight to my brain!!! With hot peppers and spicy food it¡¯s just mouth and throat and lips!!!¡± She went straight for the kitchen and pulled a hidden lever, revealing a wine cabinet.


    ¡°Kl¨¢ra, relax, it¡¯s temporary and short, you should be fine by now. But, okay yeah, I probably should, The Last Dab is only like 2 million scolville.¡± I heard her sighing and pulling the lever again. ¡°Be glad you put it on yourself, only the person who put it on you can remove it, and they have to be alive to do so, you can¡¯t just like chop off their hands and use them.¡± I rested my head on top of ?¨¢rka¡¯s, as she was still sitting in my lap. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Okay I want to know why you¡¯d make such a thing.¡± She picked up the collar off the floor and put it on the coffee table.


    ¡°To get dirt on ?¨¢rka¡¯s dad so he¡¯d sign custody transfer papers so I was officially her adoptive foster mom.¡± Both me and her smiled a bit.


    ¡°And did he sign?¡± Kl¨¢ra had joined us on the couch by now.


    ¡°Oh yeah he was plastered out of his mind, signed them very quickly after he confessed he goes to the same clubs as Yoshi.¡± I could see the smoke coming from Kl¨¢ra¡¯s head as the gears in her mind turned trying to figure that one out.


    ¡°OH! Oh god. Wow. Drunk and a criminal? I mean, the first part of Be Gay Do Crimes is Be Gay.¡±


    ¡°Tax Fraud is a rich person thing.¡± ?¨¢rka mumbled out before giggling. There was a sudden breeze that went through the room, before I heard the window close. Soon enough, a familiar figure stood before us.


    ¡°More Than Computer Mouse! I have come to take my revenge! For denying me your intellect and creative skills, you shall pay!¡± Grasp lunged towards me but had no chance of reaching me, as Kl¨¢ra¡¯s fist connected with their face.


    ¡°WE WERE HAVING A FAMILY BONDING MOMENT YOU COSTUMED WEIRDO.¡± She was standing above the gecko person sprawled on the floor, holding a hand to their masked face. ¡°DO NOT FUCK WITH ME TODAY.¡± Kl¨¢ra reached for the chain that went to her back pocket, pulling out and unclipping a pair of brass knuckles with little cat ears like spikes on them. Getting the message, Grasp quickly crawled out the same way they had entered through.


    ¡°And they wanted thieving tools and claimed they were ready to kill anyone to steal from them.¡± I shook my head and patted ?¨¢rka¡¯s shoulder to let her know I wanted to get up. As she moved from my lap I stretched. ¡°Alright, gonna make a stun grid to put on my windows, in case Knock-Off Parker decides to wall crawl in through them again. Come on pumpkin, I need my workshop assistant.¡± ?¨¢rka followed me to the workshop, where I swiftly began designing, with Kl¨¢ra observing. Her gaze fell to something I had completely forgotten about.


    ¡°Oh hey you got some of those weirdo cube things that popped up with the ruins?¡± She picked one up and looked it over. ¡°What¡¯s it do?¡±


    ¡°Blow up voltmeters due to the amount of power it holds. But somehow works safely enough that Dare can hold one as a wireless charger.¡± I finished sketching out the design and handed ?¨¢rka a piece of paper with the materials, as she puddled down to the basement to grab them.


    ¡°Huh. Sweet. And what about this Wakandan looking thing? Black sand floating in mid air?¡± Kl¨¢ra picked it up and ran her hand over it, tilting it over and looking at it.


    ¡°To be completely honest, I have no clue. ?¨¢rka just kind of picked it up while we were at the ruin.¡± Kl¨¢ra shot a glare towards me in surprise swiftly.


    ¡°You went to the ruin?!?! Are you nuts?!?!¡± Her arms went in the air in exasperation.


    ¡°I¡¯m a Mouse, nut a squirrel, sis.¡± I giggled at the groan that followed. ?¨¢rka came back in that moment.


    ¡°We got the wires and the stuff for the shocking part, but we¡¯re out of lenses to build the laser tripwire grid out of.¡± She put what she carried on the workbench and I gave her a quick headpat. If you are wondering where Dare has been all this time? I wish I was joking when I say she made a spin off twitch channel to livestream herself gaming on. It was amazing to see her try and be good at games with those short small limbs. I mean, she can¡¯t reach a mouse and a keyboard at the same time comfortably! And controllers are too big for her! But to be fair she had only done it for a week now and seemed to have gotten bored, as she was now instead building stuff out of legos again.


    ¡°Thanks hun, I¡¯ll put in the order for them.¡± Kl¨¢ra had put down the tablet by this time. The notification on my phone rang. Looking it over, I had a very simple request. Not a jetpack, thank fuck for that, no. The person wanted a grapple and glide exoskeleton for traversal. ¡°Grapple gun in each hand connected on an armature linked to a backpack so as to distribute weight as the body is pulled forward better, with retractable wings to glide on while landing. Somebody call ol¡¯ Brucey-boy, this person wants to steal his bat schtick.¡±


    I put away my phone and got to designing. ¡°At least they heard my only heroes and villains going after true evil or keeping the peace without murdering anyone rule. Non-lethal patroling and vigilantism.¡± The sketch was done quickly and I sent them the file and the price. They asked how much it would cost to ship it to Canada. I let them know I couldn¡¯t ship stuff over to Canada because customs. It¡¯s why I sent the base sketch of the device without the plans and materials and tools needed to make it written out.


    Half an hour later, after receiving the payment through paypal, I heard a knock on the door. An exhausted looking guy with ram¡¯s horns was panting heavily. ¡°Hey, so, hi, I¡¯m Clark. I¡¯m an acquaintance of Gargoyle, the guy who asked for that order, and uhm, I can make portals to places by headbutting the air hard enough. So. Yeah.¡± He took a couple deep breaths and straightened himself out. ¡°Just, letting you know, here¡¯s my number and email and contact info, call me when it¡¯s done, I can get it to him.¡± He stumbled away from the door, headbutting the air, as it cracked from the sheer impact, breaking like glass to reveal an apartment I had never seen before. Clark walked through it and passed out on the other side, the crack reversing and sealing itself shut, as if time rewound.


    I could only stare in confusion and look at the card. ¡°Girls, More Than Computer Mouse Gadgetry is going International!!!¡±

 Saved by the Bell

    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    Do you think building a helmet for my delivery guy would fuck with his powers in any way?


    I


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 8 minutes ago


    Like he makes rifts by headbutting the air to places, and I don¡¯t know half the time if he¡¯s okay. I guess thankfully he¡¯s Canadian


    I


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 8 minutes ago


    So he gets free healthcare now that they¡¯ve dealt with their bullshit. But, still, poor guy. I should look into getting more folks. Maybe contact a union or something.


    Clark was currently chilling on my couch, drinking some chocolate milk. It was January now, so the kids had to return to school. I wasn¡¯t worried about Kl¨¢ra going back, she¡¯s not emerged and she¡¯s been out as a lesbian for a couple years. Took self defense classes as well, just to be sure. Plus some martial arts.


    I was worried about ?¨¢rka¡¯s first day of being a girl at school. Now, me and her had showed up just before new years, to update information with the school. Since the custody transfer papers were legit, and seeing the state ?¨¢rka¡¯s dad was in, she was officially my foster daughter now, so we had to let the school know. So, while there, she had started off the meeting in boy mode, despite my assurances, and her clear discomfort, to demonstrate stuff to the faculty. So let me just flashback to when that happened.


    It was December 30th. It was sad to see ?¨¢rka with brown hair now, instead of the vibrant pastel pink she adored. Boy jeans, a baggy t-shirt and sweater, and the disguise was complete. And she looked absolutely miserable in it. The shy smile I got used to seeing on her face turned into a slight frown, her eyes usually so full of life half closed and looking dead inside. Her posture slouched and hunched over and closed off, looking down on the ground with her hands in her pockets. I rang the bell to the school, the buzzer going off. ¡°Yes, hello, this is Bridget Crackspanner. I called earlier about becoming the foster parent for one of your students, and needing to update records to reflect that, plus another situation?¡± Be fucking thankful you¡¯re reading this story in English instead of Czech, you have no idea how difficult it was to not misgender ?¨¢rka. And I still unfortunately ended up needing to do it with some words for now. I don¡¯t think even the Collar of Truth zapping us would cause us to have expressions as pained as the two of us had now.


    The sliding doors inside opened and we made our way up the stairs to the secretary office connected to the principal¡¯s office. The secretary there was definitely surprised to see me walk in. ¡°Yeah yeah I turned into a mouse girl during the emergence, I¡¯m already registered and legal and stuff, wouldn¡¯t have been able to become a foster mom for a child otherwise.¡± She shook her confusion out quickly. ¡°Is the principal in for the important bit I alluded to?¡± She nodded at me and handed me some forms to fill in. ¡°Thanks will do these soon enough.¡±


    I had graduated from the school more than 4 years ago now, and the office was still the same. I guess having the same president there on the wall as when I was back in school helped with that feeling. Just like it did seeing my old principal. God this was going to be a double whammy for him, a former student outing herself and a current student doing so as well? Oof. ¡°Good day Principal, long time no see.¡± I extended my hand towards him and he reluctantly shook it.


    ¡°Long time no see? I believe we¡¯re meeting for the first time, Miss Crackspanner.¡± He definitely looked baffled.


    ¡°Right yeah, I was going here under a different name back then. Do you know Kl¨¢ra Maidenburgov¨¢? Yeah, that¡¯s my younger sister.¡± The realisation dawned on him.


    ¡°I- but- you- wh-what?!?! Uhm? Okay, that surprised me there.¡± He sat down and offered me and ?¨¢rka a seat as well. ¡°So you¡­ changed into this?¡± He gestured to my ears, and I shrugged.


    ¡°Gets me views on youtube, and I feel cute with them. Today isn¡¯t about me though. Not completely.¡± I took the seat and ?¨¢rka sat next to me, looking down at her hands as she fidgeted. ¡°You already heard the part where I took this student in, as a foster child. I¡¯m trying very hard right now not to use any gender for the child while speaking, as, well¡­¡± That was ?¨¢rka¡¯s queue. I heard her take a breath deeper than I ever heard before. Her hair shifted back to the lovely pink tint we both adored, her clothing shifted into more of a school girl outfit to nail the point home, making it clear she wasn¡¯t exactly boy shaped anymore, even if it was early in her transition. Most crucial though, she straightened herself out, sat more upright, with more confidence, as the shy smile and life in her eyes returned.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Principal, I¡¯m¡­ a girl. Not just from emerging, that didn¡¯t even¡­ really turn me into a girl in a way I expected.¡± She scratched her chin and flashed a sharky grin, before continuing. ¡°My name is ?¨¢rka. I can like probably get mom to sign me a gym exclusion paper to avoid any fiasco there.¡± She was looking him directly in the eyes, as his dumbfounded look from before returned.


    ¡°If you need to do a workshop on how to deal with trans people, for both the school and faculty, I could probably organise one with some folks from Trans*Parent. Simplest way to say it though?¡± I stood up, to go behind ?¨¢rka and hold her shoulders. ¡°The student before you is a girl named ?¨¢rka. You knew her under a different name, and believed her to be a different gender. That information was incorrect. The correct information is that she¡¯s a girl named ?¨¢rka.¡± She nodded to affirm the information I was telling the principal. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what she¡¯s packing, what her chromosomes are, what she was assigned at birth, what hormones she has.¡±


    ¡°But I am going through girl puberty instead of guy puberty, for sure, ever since the emergence happened. I think you can tell from my voice.¡± The principal nodded at ?¨¢rka¡¯s addition, before he cleared his throat.


    ¡°Well today has been¡­ surprising, and educational. Uhm. I think I might take you up on that workshop thing about trans people.¡± He grabbed a piece of paper and started writing down on it. ¡°Possibly combine it with maybe a workshop on emerged since you both have¡­ gone through that?¡± He handed me the paper, it was his direct number to contact him about it. I grabbed it, quickly filled out the forms I needed to, left them with him and added one informing him about ?¨¢rka¡¯s transition.


    And so we find ourselves here again. January 7th, with Clark sipping chocolate milk on my couch at 2 pm, as I awaited my daughter¡¯s return. I had Ben and Jerry¡¯s in the freezer. I had a couple two litres of Kofola in the fridge. My hugs were ready for deployment if it went badly. Dare was showing me a doodle of her breathing fire as an option for revenge. I do admit it was a cute drawing. The thoughts racing through my head were stopped when I heard the key turn in the lock, the door opening and the elevator whirring up, as ?¨¢rka entered the living room.


    My thoughts of course began racing right away as I saw her slouch a bit, but she faced me and smiled. Her eyes were exhausted in the way you get exhausted after a day of swimming, or amusement parks. They didn¡¯t look exhausted in the way they look when you work in customer service. She set down her backpack and walked over to me to give me a hug. ¡°All the other emerged kids at school got like, slight levitation or writing their thoughts on paper with a touch if they hold material for it. Pretty weak stuff. I was the only one with a cool power. And everyone wanted to see.¡± She let go of the hug and sat down on the couch next to Clark, who gave her a fist bump.


    ¡°Oh phew okay wow so that¡¯s one hurdle, uhm, what about the trans thing?¡± I fidgeted with my thumbs, as she kept smiling.


    ¡°For a second it flew over people¡¯s heads before it clicked. And¡­ I ended up showing some transphobes the Shadow Zora form. As well as what it¡¯s like in my puddles.¡± She leaned back and sighed. ¡°There¡¯s no policy about not using powers in school yet, since it¡¯s so highly individualised. It¡¯s not like they have power testing established to be able to go: Oh yeah, your power is a minor one you get to use it to help with schoolwork, okay you make fire fists no powers for you at school.¡± I heard Clark chuckle as he finished his milk.


    ¡°Okay, thanks for the aspirin and the chocolate milk, Bridget. Ready for your delivery now.¡± He stood up and walked over to the crate, inspecting the address. ¡°What are you sending to Japan?¡± He picked it up and turned towards me.


    ¡°You ever seen Samurai Flamenco? Cool anime, I suggest it, ends with the vigilante and cop as boyfriends.¡± Clark turned his head to the side at my answer. ¡°Anyways, there¡¯s a vigilante whose schtick is being a magical girl. She has a magical girl staff that counts as a mace and a shock weapon. Person ordering it wanted a knock off.¡± He nodded at that, before he used his head and walked out.


    At that point, I sat down next to ?¨¢rka and gave her a hug. She giggled a bit. ¡°They threatened the girl that can melt into shadows and become a shadow creature with violence. It was amazing to see them try to slam me or punch me, and I just puddled around them.¡± Her giggles turned into laughter. ¡°Like five guys ended up punching each other from different years when I dodged them. Then I spooked them and went about my business.¡± She leaned into the hug as Dare joined us on my lap, for ?¨¢rka to pet and scratch. ¡°A couple of the girls even want to hang out, thinking it¡¯d be fun to have me as a dress up doll or something. I told them I¡¯d ask my mom, and, well, that¡¯s you.¡± I gave her a headpat.


    ¡°You should be more assertive about not being a toy, you little critter, but yeah you can invite your friends over.¡± I smiled and eased up at last. ¡°There¡¯s Ben and Jerry¡¯s in the freezer, one each.¡± I barely registered ?¨¢rka zooming out of the hug and bringing the pints to the couch along with spoons. ¡°I mean we should probably have a proper meal but like, you¡¯ve probably had lunch at the cafeteria.¡±


    ¡°Yes. It was okay. You know, mass produced meals meant to feed a crowd meaning they can¡¯t focus on individuals, resulting in some loss of quality. But it was still a nice meal.¡± She spooned a hunk of ice cream in and smiled. God I love my adorable daughter. I ruffled her hair as she giggled with the spoon still in her mouth.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m gonna start preparing for the presentation more. I mean sure I¡¯ve had a week.¡± I began talking ten minutes later, after finishing my own pint, before standing up and making my way over to the workshop slash bedroom slash office. ¡°Buuut I need to look more stuff up. Accounts from folks, any possible research. The trans part is EASY the folks from Trans*Parent do these all the time! The rest¡­ not so much.¡± I sat down at my desk and began googling. ?¨¢rka had snuck up behind me and leaned on the chair in the process.


    ¡°You should take Dare. If going Trans People Exist And Are Their Gender backfires, or Emerged Are Now A Thing Don¡¯t Be Dicks doesn¡¯t work, you can like¡­ promote your channel and have a bunch of kids be interested in a robot.¡± Dare was on ?¨¢rka¡¯s shoulder so she had an easy time scratching her chin. ¡°Especially one that¡¯s pretty much a talking pokemon. A feathered fox dragon, I mean¡­ you might as well have built a Pikachu!¡±


    ¡°This household already has a resident electrical mouse thank you. I have both an electrifying personality, shockingly good looks and paralysingly awe inspiring inventions.¡± I held my chin and smiled like the massive dork I am before Dare flicked her tail in my face. ¡°Right. Work.¡±

 Public Speaking Class

    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    It¡¯s cool the school is letting me record and upload this presentation. I only hope it goes well, since I¡¯m talking about two marginalised groups.


    Well, moment of truth, I guess. ?¨¢rka¡¯s year was the first one to come in for the presentation. Not enough space for many more kids in the room. I took a deep breath, and began.


    ¡°Well, hi there, welcome to this excuse to not have class.¡± Pause for snickers and huffs. ¡°Yeah I was on the other side of this whole situation about four years ago. Still fresh in my mind.¡± I used the remote to move the powerpoint presentation forward. ¡°So, introductions. My name is Bridget Crackspanner, by trade I¡¯m a youtuber with a focus on making tech. I also happen to be a trans woman, and as is fairly obvious from these aditions.¡± I pointed to my ears and waved my tail at them. ¡°I¡¯m also Emerged! No I¡¯m not going to do a Minnie Mouse voice, I suck at impressions.¡± Another click, another slide.


    ¡°So, we¡¯re here today since the principal kindly asked me to give all of you a quick course about being trans and emergence.¡± The slide showed the trans flag and quick definitions of trans and cis. Specifically the latin prefix definitions, as in trans meaning crossing and cis meaning not crossing. ¡°I¡¯ll focus on something I have years of experience with instead of months first. I knew I was a girl way before I knew I was a mouse, college is a wild ride let me tell ya.¡± Turn to the kids again and continue.


    ¡°How many of y¡¯all even heard of trans people before ?¨¢rka showed up with pink hair and in a dress? And yes you can thank her for getting you out of class. Come on, hands up.¡± Not that many went up, not unexpected. ¡°How many of you heard about it in a positive or neutral light? Something like Some People Realise Their Gender Is Not What Everyone Says It Is, versus just someone going oh yeah there¡¯s people that get surgery to become women and it¡¯s gross.¡± Aaaaaaand the hands are down. Except ?¨¢rka¡¯s. ¡°?¨¢rka hun you¡¯re an outlier since you¡¯re trans. You don¡¯t gotta raise your hand. You can like, come up here and provide commentary and be distractingly adorable if you want.¡± She shrugged and blushed and zoomed on over.


    ¡°Why is Dare hiding under the table in a cloth covered box?¡± She was kneeling near said box.


    ¡°So that your classmates focus a LITTLE bit before I bring out the robotic fox dragon.¡± Aw fuck. I did it, I spoiled the surprise, now they won¡¯t focus because there¡¯s gonna be a cute animal present. Even though I only mentioned her. ¡°Yes, I have a robotic fox dragon in a box under the table, no need to murmur, you¡¯ll see her when I reach the Emerged part of the presentation as an example of my powers.¡± I clapped in an attempt to get attention again. ¡°Anyways, back to the issue at hand. Explaining trans people.¡± I clicked to move to the next slide. It had a silly little comic that Dare drew to explain it. The panels were almost exactly the same, except for the last one. First panel was a doctor handing over a baby and going It¡¯s A Boy. Second panel was An Unknown Time Later. Third panel was identical looking guys sitting in front of a computer. Fourth panel was the cis one playing, the trans one going ¡°WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE I¡¯M NOT A BOY!¡±


    ¡°I think this comic is a solid enough example of the situation. To simplify it, when you¡¯re born the doctor looks at your crotch and based on what they see they say either It¡¯s a Boy or It¡¯s a Girl. I¡¯m ignoring Intersex people for now for the sake of simplicity, y¡¯all got smartphones and google and the school wi-fi. Anyways, if you go yeah that feels right based on what the doctor says, you¡¯re cisgender. As in you identify with the gender you were assigned at birth.¡± I moved a bit and gestured towards me and ?¨¢rka. ¡°However if like me and ?¨¢rka here you go Hold On That Doesn¡¯t Feel Right, you¡¯re trans. Identifying with a gender other than the one you were assigned at birth.¡± Next slide.


    ¡°So someone who the doctor said is a boy, but later in life realises they¡¯re a girl, again me and ?¨¢rka¡¯s situation here, is a trans girl or trans woman. Age stuff, you know.¡± Another slide, another click, I hope I wasn¡¯t losing the kids. ¡°Someone who the doctor said is a girl, but later in life realises they¡¯re a boy is a trans boy. You all following so far.¡± Nods, yeahs, shrugs. ¡°Good, when I tried to explain it to my mom like this I could have steamed sausages from all the steam coming from her ears as she wracked her mind around it.¡± Really, jokes not landing? I thought I¡¯d get at least a little chuckle. ¡°I didn¡¯t mention nonbinary people yet. That¡¯s when neither boy nor girl feels right. It¡¯s a massive spectrum.¡± Click, another page, showing a spectrum and the Gender Unicorn. ¡°You could be both, you could be neither, you could switch between them, you could just not have a gender at all. And all those are fine and valid.¡± I pointed to the unicorn. ¡°This here¡¯s a handy tool that the folks over at TSER made. As you can see, it has extra columns I didn¡¯t touch on yet. Being trans is not about sexuality, despite the fact the medical term used here is transsexuality.¡± I pointed to the attracted to lines.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    ¡°You can have any sexuality while trans. If you suddenly realise you¡¯re a girl, it doesn¡¯t mean you HAVE to be into boys. Oh hey and now the teachers and parents are going to be mad I¡¯m advocating for sin or something.¡± Shooting the teacher in presence a glare. ¡°But yeah, you can be straight, or gay, or bi, or asexual while trans. Gender is what you go to bed as. Sexuality is who you go to bed with. Again, google is an okay resource, just used critical thinking while using it.¡± Another slide.


    ¡°Okay now I COULD go into the oppression trans people face due to their gender. Being denied housing, jobs, medical care. Like for example, a friend of mine was gatekept from hormones for six years due to her autism and personality. Since she didn¡¯t want to be a 50¡¯s housewife. Honestly girls which one of you wants to be the stereotypical image of the straight 50¡¯s housewife of your own will, instead of it just being hammered in your head you HAVE to be that?¡± Hey participation again only one hand.


    ¡°Alright cool valid power to you but you get what I mean about it being forced on people, right? That unless trans people perform a stereotype of femininity or masculinity, we¡¯re denied our gender.¡± Shrugs and confused looks. ¡°Right, anyways, cis folk are usually curious about what we go through. Thinking it¡¯s only surgery, a quick snip down there a boob job and some plastic surgery on the face and done.¡± I pointed to ?¨¢rka. ¡°Not the case! Sweetie if you could use your shifting powers to demonstrate?¡± She nodded and started changing, effectively going through 5 years of HRT in the span of half a minute, as she held it for a minute more before reverting back, exhausted from the exercise somewhat. I gave her a shoulder pat. ¡°What you saw was the effects of Hormones. Sped up WAY quickly. It takes years to reach the final point you saw ?¨¢rka reach there. Some folks do it to deal with dysphoria.¡± Another slide. The word Dysphoria in a big scary font.


    ¡°Gender Dysphoria is the feeling of disconnect between your body and yourself. It¡¯s a horrible thing to go through, which is why I¡¯m thankful not all trans people HAVE to go through it. It¡¯s difficult to explain and articulate, as it¡¯s hugely individual for each person. But what kicks it in most of the time is being misgendered. Imagine yourself. You know what gender you are, you feel it in your heart.¡± I tapped there to drive the point home. ¡°But the people around you refuse to see it. They tell you you¡¯re not what you say you are. You tell them you¡¯re a girl and would like to wear that cute dress you saw and play pretend. They tell you no, you¡¯re a boy, boys don¡¯t wear dresses and play pretend. They play sports and wear pants. And boring bland colors. And when you grow up you¡¯ll be a man and you¡¯ll have to wear a suit and tie.¡± Another slide, another comic to illustrate the point home.


    ¡°Being Trans isn¡¯t about wanting to be a gender you¡¯re not. Some people word it that way, sure. But it¡¯s not that. Being trans is wanting to be your gender, while the world denies that you are that gender. I think that¡¯s the takeaway you should have from this part: It¡¯s hard being trans, trans people are the gender they tell you they are, what they do with their bodies is up to them and none of your business.¡± Pause for effect, click the button again.


    ¡°And now the fun part. The part where I¡¯m going to have an assistant I built.¡± The powerpoint slide looked like a secret government report, dating the Emergence and giving a quick overview. Dare climbed out of the box and onto the table. The awws and squeals as she stretched out were audible.


    ¡°No touching without asking for permission first kids. Consent is important!¡± Dare spoke out loud, which made a number of kids be awed. I cleared my throat and began.


    ¡°On November 26th of 2018, all around the world a strange rainbow colored storm appeared. It¡¯s effects changing the world forever. People finding themselves with new strange powers, abilities, and more often than not bodies. Cities disappearing as the landscape of the world changed.¡± Next slide. A number. ¡°This number is the estimate of casualties caused by the chaos of the first night.¡± Gasps, hands on mouths. ¡°We cannot have exact numbers, as there are still efforts to link people to their old identities, definitely putting the actual number of casualties lower, as many of them are most likely missing as emerged.¡± Next slide. ¡°Some of your friends or classmates may have found themselves with powers or different bodies. They¡¯re still the same people you knew before. If they decide to change their name or pronouns to reflect their new bodies, respect that. They¡¯re just as scared as you are. Not everyone gets to turn into a mouse girl that can make supertech. Or a girl that can swim through shadows and change her form in specific ways. Some of us turned into fire breathing dragons. That got shot down during the chaos.¡± I clicked the next slide.


    ¡°If you¡¯re expecting me to show that news footage. I won¡¯t. It¡¯s horrifying and tragic and worrying. What if any of you turned into godzilla. And you were scared but could only talk in roars. Think on that.¡± I clicked the presentation and it says the end. ¡°It¡¯s only been a little over a month and a half since the first Emergence. Research is being done in secret. Things are being figured out and discovered. But we know way less about it than we know about trans issues.¡± I gestured towards Dare. ¡°Now if any of you want to pet Dare, or have follow up questions, we got about ten minutes left before the school wants you going back to class. Please make an orderly line to pet the robot, I¡¯ll just sit down over here to answer questions.¡± And I did sit down. And I think in those ten minutes, answering questions from the truly curious kids, I might have cracked some eggs. Hopefully, with the other classes I had to repeat the presentation for, I¡¯d get more Wait You Can Do That reactions.


    Oh fuck. Kl¨¢ra is gonna be in one of the class groups. My arm is gonna be so bruised from her teasingly punching me for embarrassing her in front of her entire class. Well, time to start typing out my last will and testament on my phone. ?¨¢rka gets everything inside the house, Kl¨¢ra gets to own the house and move into it as long as she lets ?¨¢rka stay there. Mom is getting a lifetime supply of boots to the head. There. Sounds solid.

 The First Time

    I was sitting back home after the presentation, editing the video, Dare in my lap providing warmth. ?¨¢rka was tinkering away at a little wind up mouse toy for fun. I smiled to myself. Despite changing into a mouse girl and being thrust into a world of supers, I had a good life. It made me look back. Reminisce. Sadly, not about the good things, but the bad things.


    Somehow, through some unknown miracle, I had managed to get past all the gatekeeping at 18 and was well on my way through HRT. Kl¨¢ra was about 13 that time, and I was contemplating what uni to go to. Mom was neutral, as far as my transition went. She didn¡¯t gender me right despite me constantly asking her to. Kl¨¢ra did, luckily. Mom had expectations for me, however. She wanted an easy life, to retire very early from working and to have her kids become rich and famous and take care of her.


    I might have been inclined to do so if she also wasn¡¯t controlling and manipulative. After studying too long one night, I had forgotten to do my chores. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn¡¯t see my hormones on my nightstand where I usually kept them. Mom was standing over my bed, holding both packs, looking down on me and frowning.


    ¡°These are making you lazy and useless and I¡¯m taking them away until you fix your behavior, young man!¡± I freaked out. Silently. My heart shattered, I just sat there staring at her, my eyes red, the circles under them obvious. My lips trembling.


    ¡°I was doing homework I was given too much homework and I had no time for chores you could have asked Kl¨¢ra to help you when I was busy and you¡¯re taking away my life saving medication as punishment?¡± I quickly blurted out in a single breath. She just sneered and exited the room, as I sat there in shock, holding my head in my hands in disbelief.


    Luckily she had to get to work before me and Kl¨¢ra had to get to school, and she didn¡¯t think to take my pills with her. Kl¨¢ra being the little sleuth that she was, came back and quickly found them for me, and I got my morning dose. ¡°Why would she take something she KNOWS I need!¡± I stashed them in my school bag to keep them somewhere more safe.


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t know how much you need them, sis. I¡¯m glad nothing got mentioned at church yesterday about trans people. I know she keeps confessing for letting you go, for sinning like that, for and I quote letting you poison your mind and body.¡± Kl¨¢ra scooped up a spoonful of cereal in that moment and started crunching on it.


    ¡°Jesus fuck you overhear her saying that? Poisoning my mind and body, really?¡± Kl¨¢ra nodded to confirm. I sighed and scratched my face. Wincing.


    ¡°Facial hair?¡± My younger sister asked me, and I nodded. ¡°I really can¡¯t see any sort of shadow from over here.¡± She got right up in my face. ¡°Or from here.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but I can still feel it, and it¡¯s¡­ ugh. It¡¯s not good. I hate that I couldn¡¯t get on blockers because of her.¡± We both checked the clock, Kl¨¢ra quickly finished her cereal.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go get the waxing strips.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡± Kl¨¢ra smiled sadly at me as she left the room. Was waxing my face necessary? Yes. It was priority number one. Shaving meant stubble. Epilator takes too long and isn¡¯t as severe. A wax strip? Apply, rip, apply rip, face clean within ten minutes, pain more manageable as it¡¯s clusters of hair ripped out instead of one at a time like an epilator.


    After school, instead of coming home, I decided to visit grandpa V¨¢clav. Last one I had, he was from dad¡¯s side of the family. When I rang the bell he opened it, took one look at me and immediately pulled me into a hug. ¡°Oh what did that damn woman do this time.¡±


    ¡°She hid my hormones in the morning because I got too tired from homework to do my chores.¡± I felt him pat my head and sigh. He smelled of motor oil and smoke, but not the cigarette kind, the smoking meat kind.


    ¡°I told that fool boy of mine marrying her would be a mistake. If it wasn¡¯t for you and Kl¨¢ra I would still stand by that.¡± He broke the hug and made way in the door. ¡°Come on in, let me know what happened, I got ham in the smoker outside. Bread in the oven. Perfect timing, truth be told.¡± I smiled and skipped inside, leaving my backpack in the kitchen as I sat down on the couch in the living room.


    ¡°You always make food when you get stressed, gran, what¡¯s gotten you stressed?¡± He looked at me and huffed.


    ¡°Well the way your mother keeps treating you! She brings your father to an early grave with a heart attack, and she¡¯s well on the way to giving you one.¡± He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. ¡°She had to go and get involved with the church so heavily as well to cope. Couldn¡¯t find a creative hobby like a regular person. Hell I¡¯d tolerate her drinking as long as she treated you right.¡± He put his glasses back on and checked on the bread in the oven, taking it out, removing the lid and spritzing the top with some water before putting it back in. ¡°No she had to go and find Jesus! What is this, America? Alright fifteen minutes until the bread is done, I could use some help in the shed, you coming?¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Do you have to ask? I love helping you out!¡± I jumped off the couch and followed him outside and to his shed, full of all kinds of tools.


    ¡°Right so I got a couple microwaves from the scrapyard, And for the fun of it I want to make a super microwave, see about using it to melt stuff.¡± He smiled to himself as he handed me a screwdriver. ¡°Dismantle them, carefully, the outside case could be sharp.¡±


    15 minutes later, we were snacking on home baked bread and smoked ham, the parts of the microwaves taken apart, put on a cloth on another part of the table to look through for pieces. Grandpa swallowed, cleared his throat, and began speaking as I looked at him. ¡°If you want to, you can move in with me. I think it¡¯ll do you good. Kl¨¢ra¡¯s too young for your mom to let her do that, but you¡¯re 18, an adult, it¡¯s your choice.¡± I choked a bit at that, drinking tea to clear my throat.


    ¡°Yes! Yes I want to move in! Oh my god gran! Thank you!¡± That offer had been the best thing to have happened to me my whole life. Mom wasn¡¯t happy about me moving. Because she was losing some slave labor, and she couldn¡¯t control my transition anymore. Then a year and a half year later, during summer, grandpa passed away. He was an inspiration, a role model. Anyone claiming I turned out trans because I didn¡¯t have strong male role models growing up? Look towards V¨¢clav Maidenburg. A gentle giant of a man with bright eyes and a hug always available. Who made sure he had good food for guests, and an open ear. Who enjoyed working on his tools, in his garden, fixing things here and there.


    I wore a dress to the funeral. Black, simple, formal. His friends knew me as his granddaughter. He always made sure to confirm and correct them that I was a girl. Mom flipped her lid, however. She had shown up with Kl¨¢ra, and when she saw me in a dress, well. She kept saying I was disrespectful. That I was sinning in a house of god. At one point she tried to rip my dress off before she got escorted out by grandpa¡¯s friends. Kl¨¢ra stayed there, and we both finally got to cry about losing him.


    When his last will got read, the only people who could inherit anything were me and Kl¨¢ra. And I pretty much got it all, including responsibility for Kl¨¢ra¡¯s share of the inheritance that would be kept locked until she turned at least 18 and left our mother¡¯s house. Mom was fuming for sure afterwards.


    The last time me and mom talked was in university, around the time that Kl¨¢ra was 15. Said I influenced her and blamed me for her being a lesbian. Me, studying engineering at Masaryk University in Brno, commuting from Grandpa¡¯s home, influencing my younger sister to be gay. Couldn¡¯t believe it when she accused me of it. She couldn¡¯t legally take away the phone I bought Kl¨¢ra that year for Christmas, so she couldn¡¯t cut our contact. Didn¡¯t stop her from trying.


    And then, it started. I made More Than Computer Mouse. Uploaded my first video. A recreation of the super microwave me and grandpa built. I only had one of those paper doll talking avatar things. You know, the kind right-winged folks generally use on youtube to have somebody on the screen when they talk. The Bridget Virtual Model came later, along with my voice. People lost their shit when I started using her in VRChat to hang out with fans.


    Back to the present, the video began uploading and I stretched, getting an idea. ¡°Hey ?¨¢rka, I¡¯m gonna go visit my grandpa¡¯s grave, you wanna come along?¡± I could see her thinking for a second, before she nodded. We made our way outside, her wearing a winter coat with a hood that looked a shark¡¯s mouth. The graveyard wasn¡¯t that far away, and we stood before grandpa¡¯s grave soon. ¡°Hey gran. Surprise, I¡¯m alive, a mouse, and made you a great grandpa. Well, you¡¯ve always been the best grandpa, but now you have a great granddaughter.¡±


    ¡°Please do not repeat the joke Bridget, yes we all love ?¨¢rka and think she¡¯s an adorable bean. Making the same goof twice in a row isn¡¯t fun.¡± Dare piped up, before stretching and jumping into ?¨¢rka¡¯s arms to be carried instead of clinging to her shoulders.


    ¡°Party pooper.¡± I looked to grandpa¡¯s grave and smiled. ¡°I think I¡¯ll bake bread today.¡± As we turned to leave, I could see some grannies walking in, and I greeted them politely. What they gave me was glares, and kissing the crosses they were wearing. ¡°Ladies I¡¯m a Mouse, not the antichrist. I think Australia were the ones to get him, it¡¯s as close to hell as you can get on Earth temperature wise, especially now.¡± I shook my head and made my way home.


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    Let¡¯s get this bread I made! Should I make a cooking side channel? I mean I know a guy who sounds like Andrew Rea from Binging with Babish


    I


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    Although he¡¯d have to wear a full body hair net to cook I figure. Sorry @WreckingLionOfficial you¡¯re soft and fuzzy and good for hugs and a great customer


    I


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 10 minutes ago


    But you also shed like the cat you are!


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 5 minutes ago


    Maybe I should go Flex on Mother about how to properly raise a trans daughter. But she might whack me with a bible for becoming a demon or something


    I


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - 5 minutes ago


    Nah, not gonna bother. Kl¨¢ra keeps her updated. If she wants to talk, she has to be the one to come to me.

 Ol Jeezy would be rolling in his grave if he was there

    Francesco was standing over the creature, holding his halberd. The creature had appeared in His Holiness¡¯ bedroom during the night. The visage of the devil. Three faces, horns, wings, hooves. The creature had lunged towards him wailing, and he just struck. They couldn¡¯t find His Holiness afterwards. The corpse of the creature laid before him again, rising slowly, wailing once more, and he could start to recognise the features. ¡°You killed me. I came to you for help and you killed me!¡± The creature lurged forward again and Francesco screamed, waking up.


    A Month since the event. A Month since the Gates of Hell opened. A month since the sinners and the heretics had changed into their true forms. A month since witchcraft returned. The creatures claimed they were but humans with bad luck. And deep down he knew they used to be human. The shock to his system was finding out His Holiness had been one of the changed. The Devil must have chosen him as his vessel due to how close he had been to God. Francesco made his way out of bed and changed into his guard uniform, leaving the barracks for a guard shift.


    He walked past the statue that had formed when the event occured. All the gold stripped and formed into a grotesque shape. A fearsome creature. A man with the head of a wolf. The statue was also extremely obscene, as the wolfman was naked and anatomically correct. They had managed to cover the offending part. It was still obvious the wolfman was aroused.


    When he reached his post, he quickly swapped places with the current guard and began his duty as a Papal Guard. That was until he was summoned to His Holiness¡¯ office. The chaos of the first night had resulted in a rapid election. And the new pope had strange ideas. Radical ideas. ¡°Ah good, Francesco, I¡¯m glad to see you. You¡¯re being moved into something more fitting of your talents. Go down to the tombs, you¡¯ll find out. I¡¯m working on an address for the flock now.¡± His Holiness struck an imposing figure. He was younger than most of them, as well as taller, and definitely more attractive. Francesco pushed those thoughts down. He would have to pray for forgiveness of his sinful thoughts later. He nodded towards His Holiness and left the room, going towards an unsure future.


    Ad¨¦la Maidenburgov¨¢ was sitting in church, waiting forWednesday Mass to start. She was definitely the youngest adult there, surrounded by elderly women and men, the children they had brought along distracted. The Priest stepped forward to the pedestal, clearing his throat. ¡°His Holy Eminence has provided an address for each of us to share. I shall start today¡¯s mass.¡± He flipped open the folder he had placed down, and began reading. ¡°My children, a month ago our faith was shaken. Our loved ones taken, changed, stolen from us by the devil. Do not despair. Do not hate them, for it is not their fault. They are but victims of a world filled with sin and temptation. Our loved ones are deep within them, ready to be saved, helped, returned to their true selves if they are made to repent. So make them repent, make them confess their sins to you, love them and help them return to the flock.¡±


    Ad¨¦la was shocked. Surprised. But, she understood it. She understood those feelings perfectly. Her own son had been tempted by sin, claiming he was a woman and poisoning his body. And he too had been a victim of the devil, changing into a mouse creature. Her youngest, Kl¨¢ra, close to being tempted as well but unable to fulfill her sinful desires, had let her know of this change. She might have been proud of her son letting an abandoned child into his home. If said child also wasn¡¯t full of sin, a boy transformed, claiming to be a girl. She knew deep down her little boy was in there somewhere, under the lies he was told. She would help him repent, she¡¯d return him to the flock, she¡¯d make him give up his delusions. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    And she had heard from a friend of hers that her daughter had gained powers as well. She was kept locked inside, away from school, homeschooled, no internet or entertainment so as to not be tainted further. Her powers let her open holes in the world. To take things from elsewhere. Not big enough for her to escape, but big enough to take things through. And Kl¨¢ra had let her know that Marek had made a strange collar that would make you say the truth. She left the church and got an idea, contacting her friend.


    Ad¨¦la rang the bell of the N¨§mec household, her friend Barbora opening the door. ¡°She is in her room, praying. I hate what you want her to do.¡± Barbora shook her head and let Ad¨¦la in, who proceeded to walk up the stairs to the girl¡¯s bedroom.


    ¡°Marie, this is aunt Ad¨¦la, I¡¯m coming in.¡± Opening the door, she saw the girl. Sitting on a bed in a bland torn dress, a desk with a notepad and a pen on it, the windows boarded up from the outside. The girl looked at her with sunken scared eyes, looking almost hopeful. ¡°I need you to do something for me. I need you to use your witchcraft to get me something.¡± Ad¨¦la stepped forward and grabbed Marie¡¯s shoulders. The hope in her eyes wavering.


    ¡°What¡­ what do you want. Can¡¯t you just go buy it, or ask for it?¡± The hope that Marie had in her eyes disappeared completely, gone.


    ¡°I cannot. It is an instrument of the devil my son had made, that can be repurposed to serve good. I have not spoken with him since his grandfather¡¯s funeral. No respect for the dead, showing up in a dress looking like some fag and having ME kicked out of the funeral.¡± Ad¨¦la shook her head and did a cross sign on herself. ¡°I need to steal something like a collar, probably in his workshop.¡± She stepped towards the desk and wrote down the address on a piece of paper. ¡°Your mother says you have a vision of where you can go first that you reach out to. Find this house. Look in there.¡± Marie stood up and made her way over to the desk, looking at the address.


    ¡°Okay. I can¡¯t use the power with others in the room. I need you outside and a completely dark quiet environment.¡± Marie looked towards Ad¨¦la with determination, who nodded and stepped outside, locking the door.


    Marie quickly wrote something down on the paper, before¡­ they turned off the light, sitting on the floor and closing their eyes. Their mind had to wander first. Their spirit leaving their body, sighing happily at witnessing their featurelessness once again. They phased through the wall flipping a middle finger at Ad¨¦la, her having absolutely no clue of the apparition mocking her, before they moved forward. They reached the house in question shortly thereafter, entering it and looking around. They thought to themself that Ad¨¦la must be fucking blind to not see that she has a daughter. With mouse ears and a tail that was currently chilling on the couch, tying a ribbon in the pink hair of someone their age. They wanted this. They wandered into what they believed to be the workshop, and witnessed what must have been the collar in question on the desk. The let down a sigh, rubbed their hands and clapped three times before snapping their fingers. When they returned to their body, the rift was formed in front of them, they reached out through it, grabbed the collar, and left behind a note. Then they clapped and snapped again, the portal closing.


    Ad¨¦la heard a knock from Marie¡¯s room and opened the door, looking at the young girl holding the collar. ¡°Here you go.¡± Marie replied, returning to sitting on the bed.


    ¡°Thank you, you¡¯ve been very helpful, I will be sure to let your mother know.¡± Ad¨¦la closed and locked the door again, walking downstairs and handing the key to Barbora, before leaving the house and making her way towards the Priest¡¯s residence, to see about contacting the Vatican. The sinners WILL repent, whether they want to or not.

 Tea Time

    I awoke January 10th to the smell of ham and eggs. ?¨¢rka was cooking. I stumbled out of bed and joined her in the kitchen, giving her a quick pat on the head before sitting down. ¡°Morning sweetie, did you sleep well?¡±


    ¡°Surprisingly yes, considering yesterday. Classmates got pouty when you got me out of the rest of the classes.¡± ?¨¢rka giggled and started plating up breakfast, joining me at the table soon after. Dare leapt onto her bar stool at that moment to be around us for it.


    ¡°I hate you for letting me smell stuff but not giving me anything to digest it with.¡± Dare huffed and stretched, watching me and ?¨¢rka munch. There was a lovely layer of snow outside, not yet ruined by traffic. Seeing snow in January was a miracle bigger than the Emergence had been, truth be told. I helped ?¨¢rka put on her backpack and gave her a quick hug as she left for school.


    Which is why it surprised me so much to hear a giggle soon after, and felt a small gust of wind fly past my ear. Turning to the source of the sound, I saw something unexpected. A person. The size of a doll, with butterfly wings and strange eyes. Giggling still. ¡°Ugh, hey there, can I help you?¡± The faerie shook their head at me and flew further into my house, resting on a houseplant. I chased after them and was dumbfounded to just see them resting there. ¡°Did you Emerge into a fairy or something?¡±


    ¡°Imir?? A to je co za?? ?¨ªk¨¢te tak zm¨§n¨¢m? Pro n¨¢s je to Oprava. Ten ?lof¨ªk co jsem m¨§la skoro dva a p?l tis¨ªce let m¨§ docela dostal.¡± The fairy spoke, sounding like the wind.


    ¡°Yeah Listen I only speak Czech and English not whatever slavic language you¡¯re using there. Is that Serbian?¡± I sat down nearby to observe the creature, as Dare joined me on my lap, listening in.


    ¡°A, pravda, vy smrteln¨ª jazyk m¨§n¨ªte podle pot?eby a zapom¨ªn¨¢te star¨¦ kdy? je nepou?¨ªv¨¢te. Hmm. ?e?tina a Angli?tina? No budu si v¨§?it v¨ªc v slovansk¨¦m jazyku.¡± They cleared their throat. ¡°Can you understand me now?¡± They had begun speaking Czech.


    ¡°Yeah, now I can. What were you speaking? And how can I help you?¡± I gestured towards them questioningly, as they sat there for a second, thinking, before giggling.


    ¡°Oh I just needed respite from the cold. I just woke up, and my tree wasn¡¯t where it usually is. My name is Am¨¢lka, by the way. And the language was Slavic. Very old version of it.¡± I held back a chuckle at her name. The Faerie Am¨¢lka, really? What is this, the evening cartoon? I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture, tweeting it.


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - Just now


    Okay either someone Emerged into a faerie and is pulling my leg, I¡¯m tripping, or I have a legit faerie sitting in my house on my houseplant.


    I


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse - Just now


    Considering the last time I did any sort of drugs was year 2 of uni, I have to rule out tripping.


    ¡°Right, so, Am¨¢lka, did you Emerge into a faerie?¡± It¡¯s not like I had to be gentle about asking it. I mean look at my head and backside. No, higher up my backside, the bit you just looked at is for girls to admire.


    ¡°Nah, I was always like this. I came into this world like this. Then suddenly we lost all magic and I had to take a nap. Somehow it¡¯s returning now though, the leyline roots growing.¡± She smiled and flew from the plant towards the window. ¡°Can you see them? Their glow reaching out from deep in the ground, waking us up.¡± She gestured towards nothing and I raised my eyebrows.


    ¡°Yeah I don¡¯t see anything like that. Are you LARPing because of your form or something?¡± Seriously that was way too elaborate.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m telling the truth. The Fae cannot lie. We must be truthful. Doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t take words in a different way and a different meaning, but we cannot lie.¡± She flew right up to my face, resting her hands against my nose and looking into my eyes. ¡°The Fair Folk of the Forests and Hills are Waking. The Beasts of Yore are Rising from their Slumber. Soon enough, Observer of Hephaestus, The Serpents will wake. And I would not want to be in your shoes when The Serpents wake.¡± She flew back and I shook my head in shock.


    ¡°Right, okay, thanks for that prophecy. You mentioned your tree I think the ones in the backyard are unclaimed if you like want to move in there or something.¡± I walked towards a window overlooking the backyard and opened it.


    ¡°Much obliged.¡± She flew out and entered the largest of the trees, it¡¯s bark looking healthier and younger than before.


    I was taking a break, resting from editing the new video, having had helped ?¨¢rka with her homework. She was now playing Celeste on the Switch. 7 pm. A notification popped up on my phone, a DM from twitter.


    SpeedySierra @TailedGirl: I need your urgent help please! You know someone who can open portals right? My friend Cy is about to be taken away by the police and theres nothing I can do! Its at the Talladega Nights Diner, in Elfwood Upon Hillchester, England. Please, she''s my only friend.


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse: Fuck yeah I do know someone I hope he¡¯s available right now, fuck the police.


    I quickly grabbed my phone to call Clark. ¡°Come on Ram-bo pick up pick up someone needs your help¡­¡± He answered within seconds.


    ¡°Can it wait, I¡¯m having lunch?¡±


    ¡°It cannot. Cops in England are kidnapping a lady. Talladega Nights Diner, Elfwood Upon Hillchester. Look it up. I¡¯ll pay extra.¡± I tapped the table and heard a sigh.


    ¡°Do you know how difficult it is to get a reservation in this place?¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    ¡°Less talking more using your head. Bring the lady to my place afterwards.¡± I heard a ding to notify me of another message.


    SpeedySierra @TailedGirl: Thank you! I hope they¡¯re quick! I am forever in your debt.


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse: His name is Clark, he has ram horns, I¡¯m gonna bring her here.


    Clark had rifted into my apartment first, took a quick breather, a couple sips of chocolate milk and got ready to open the rift to the diner. His head hit the air, cracking it, as the visuals of a kitchen with a scared looking white hair woman with a metal arm appeared. Another woman sitting next to her, both looking oddly at the rift. Clark reached his arm through and did the cheesiest thing he could have done. ¡°Come with me if you want to live!¡± In a not too shabby impression of Arnie came out of his mouth. I facepalmed and groaned.


    ¡°She¡¯s the Terminator looking one you Canadian Sheeple.¡± I shook my head and waited for her to make her way through. ?¨¢rka waved at the pair on the other side. I could see the white haired one look to her¡­ date? Looked like a date. Cops fucking up a nice date, how dare they. She then looked back towards the portal.


    ¡°I guess we¡¯re going dimension hopping or something Miura¡± Was what she said before she grabbed Clark¡¯s arm, being pulled through along with I guess her date¡¯s name is Miura. Once both tumble through Clark quickly closes the rift and falls onto the couch, ?¨¢rka handing him his glass of chocolate milk. I could see the confusion on the metal armed woman¡¯s face as she shook herself back to her senses, before she caught a glimpse of me.


    ¡°Are you...Bridget? The mousy tech YouTuber?¡± She asked, and I smiled and giggled.


    ¡°Oh wow! Can¡¯t believe I¡¯m famous enough to be recognised by random British cyborgs whose asses I save on a friend¡¯s request!¡± I stood up and held my hand out to help her up. ¡°Yeah, Bridget Crackspanner, More Than Computer Mouse, the pink haired shark girl playing Celeste is ?¨¢rka, the dude nursing a headache is Clark.¡± Dare joined us in that moment, looking towards the cyborg. ¡°And you probably know Dare if you¡¯re a fan.¡±


    She nodded in reply. ¡°I sensed her before I saw her. I can kinda control machinery, your house is full of it¡± two antenna rose out of her head, as she pointed to the TV and turned it on.


    ¡°Oh god dammit did you have to flip it to TV Nova? The only worthwhile thing they had was Saturday morning cartoons, and they moved those to Sm¨ªchov.¡± I shook my head and turned the tv off with a remote. I could not be arsed with listening to private owned evening news.


    ¡°So um, thanks for rescuing us¡± the one I knew was named Miura spoke up, finally. Turning to the cyborg lady, she continued. ¡°Cy do you even know how they knew you were there?¡± Oh my god Cy. The cyborg¡¯s name was Cy. Cy-borg. Who came up with that? Was it her? I hoped it was her, cheesy names are the best. Cy shrugged and shook her head at the same time.


    ¡°It¡¯s a mystery to me -¡± Dare started humming a meme song. The It¡¯s A Mystery meme song, the call tone someone pranked their friend with by changing all their contacts to a ghost and It¡¯s A Mystery as the name. ¡°-could be anything like a witness or they followed my car.¡± Ah yeah this is something I could answer.


    ¡°Oh I got a DM on Twitter from a SpeedySierra, @TailedGirl. Said the cops were about to grab you and asked me to rescue you. Which reminds me.¡± I took out my phone and turned so as to grab a quick selfie of me, Cy and Miura in the frame. Sending to SpeedySierra.


    International Mouse of Gadgetry @mtcmouse: Did I grab the right folks or did I grab completely random people?


    SpeedySierra @TailedGirl: Thats them! Thank you, you¡¯ve really confused the cops it seems. Tell Cy I¡¯m taking the car to the bunker.


    I showed my phone to Cy to let her read the messages between me and SpeedySierra. ¡°ACAB.¡±


    ¡°ACAB¡± ?¨¢rka, Clark and Dare said in unison.


    ¡°ACAB?¡± Cy asks, unsure. The More Than Computer Mouse crew replied almost in unison.


    ¡°All Cops Are Bastards.¡± Was what me, Dare and Clark said.


    ¡°Assigned Cop At Birth.¡± Was what ?¨¢rka said, sticking her tongue out at us, as I walked over to her and ruffled her hair.


    ¡°Well uh. I guess I should introduce myself. I¡¯m Cy...or Cynthia. I guess, you can call me either, and this is Miura¡± Cy gestured to Miura, who waved at us, nervously checking the spot where the portal was, the space completely repaired, as if a ram guy did not just ram his head through reality to make a portal.


    ¡°Nice to meet you Cynthia, Miura, sorry about your date, seemed like you were having fun before the cops arrived. What is this, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn?¡± I shook my head and went to grab a couple chairs from the kitchen for the pair, ?¨¢rka pausing her game and joining me with helping by turning into her shadow puddle and putting the chair right underneath Cynthia, making her sit down against her will as the chair rose from the puddle. I was much less dramatic and just put the chair down for Miura to sit on. ?¨¢rka returned to the couch and her game afterwards, giggling.


    ¡°Thats some superpower! Huh, so you can go all gooey shadow form. Clark can headbutt through space like a human Palkia and you¡¯re like super smart Bridget¡± Cynthia shook her head. Oh good she¡¯s a pok¨¦mon nerd. ?¨¢rka spoke up.


    ¡°I can specifically swim through shadows, including my own if nothing else is available, that¡¯s the puddle. And I can do this.¡± She quickly shifted to her Shadow-Zora form, laughing ominously before changing back to default form. ¡°And I control my own puberty.¡± ?¨¢rka smiled. I gave her a quick thumbs up.


    ¡°Right, should probably get to the bottom of this. Why were the cops after you.¡± I looked directly at Cy as I asked her the question. We all did. She scratched her head, looking awkward.


    ¡°I...kinda...did some bad things, some accidentally...others less so¡± Trying to be vague are you Cy, well this won¡¯t work.


    ¡°I made a Collar that forces you to say the truth and if you try to lie shocks you, as well as shocking you for saying slurs. I then used this collar to blackmail ?¨¢rka¡¯s father into transferring custody over to me.¡± I stood up and walked in front of Cy. ¡°I also snuck into the Maidenburg Ruins to steal stuff there, and brought ?¨¢rka along on the second trip. How Bad are we talking here Cynthia. Theft, Murder, Arson, Unlawful but ultimately good behavior?¡± I grabbed her shoulders firmly. ¡°Speak or shit letters, Woman. I do not wish to use that on you.¡±


    She reluctantly spoke up. ¡°On the night of the Emergence, I kinda nearly killed a cop. I woke up with antenna and this arm and I didn¡¯t know my own strength or powers. I had nearly crashed prior and so a cop rolls up on me, clearly thinking something is up. I crashed his car¡± She looked away from me at that point, and I shot a quick glance towards ?¨¢rka. I could already see Dare rushing over to give cuddles. Car crashes were a very touchy subject for her, as one took away her first mom.


    I rub my eyes. ¡°Alright, Cynthia, anything else besides that?¡± I step back to get a full look at her. If the cops are looking for her there should probably be some file or note. I quickly took out my phone to look up her description. Oh she had one, huh? Oh, wow, okay, that¡¯s a right old mess she had made by the look of it. Still, I wanted her to tell me, to trust me.


    ¡°No¡± Was her reply. Quick, sharp, dismissive, curt. I sighed, shook my head and walked towards my workshop, looking for the Collar to prove to her I had it. But when I reached the spot where I had left it, what I found instead was a folded up piece of paper. Unfolding it, I read the contents.


    Dear Miss Maidenburg, my name is Non, my Mother calls me Marie, she has kept me locked up and out of school ever since I gained powers. Your Mother, who I know as Aunt Ad¨¦la, had asked me to steal a collar from you against my will. I¡¯m so sorry I did it, I was afraid what Mother would do had I not done so. Please, help me.


    There was an address at the end of the note. I punched the table hard. ¡°THAT GOD WORSHIPPING TRANSPHOBIA SPEWING LESBOPHOBIA DEPLOYING QUEERPHOBIC PIECE OF SHIT. THAT HEARTLESS TORMENTING BITCH. THAT UNBELIEVABLE SHITSTAIN ON MY CHILDHOOD. THAT HEART ATTACK INDUCING FATHER KILLER. MY FUCKING BIRTH GIVER ONLY FUCKING WENT AND STOLE THE GOD FORSAKEN COLLAR USING AN ABUSED TRANS KID.¡± I rushed back into the room, looking to Cynthia. ¡°You¡¯re helping me bust a kid outta Parent Jail. ?¨¢rka, look with Clark for someone who can take them. And you cannot say No, Cynthia. I saved your ass from the cops.¡± I was fuming. My mother was a Catholic the size of Jupiter. Her toxicity as bad as the Elephant¡¯s Foot in Chernobyl. And she stole from me. I¡¯d correct the kid on my name when we found them.


    I was not having her shit after the Funeral.

 KNOCK KNOCK MOUSE GONNA GIVE IT TO YA

    I wasn¡¯t going to take chances. Due to the demand, I had a bunch of shock gloves on standby, and grabbed a pair for myself. I set down one for Cynthia as well, figured her metal arm was beefy enough to do stuff with. ¡°These are shock gloves. They got a dial on the back for intensity. We¡¯re going to hop into my van. We¡¯re going to show up at this address-¡± I handed Cynthia the note to read over. ¡°And we¡¯re going to go in and bust the kid out. Gonna bring them over here while Clark and ?¨¢rka look for a place for them to stay.¡± I pulled on the gloves and double checked them. ¡°And then we¡¯re going to visit my mother.¡± I stepped out of the living room and made my way over to the lift to reach the ground floor, waiting for Cy to join me. ¡°Miura you¡¯re not in as deep shit as Cy is so just hang out here for a sec.¡±


    I saw Miura hold Cy¡¯s shoulder comfortingly. ¡°Cy be careful okay, I¡¯ll probably be fine here but we don¡¯t know really anything about this place¡± Her face screamed confused concern.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine¡± Was Cy¡¯s reply, as she went to join me on the lift. I brought us down to the ground floor and then made my way over to the garage, getting into the van.


    ¡°Alright Magda, you feeling okay to drive today? You alright with carrying us onto a noble quest to rescue a child?¡± I pet the dashboard and turned the keys to start the car, the van springing to life. I turned to Cy to check her reaction. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t talk to your tech miss I Sense Machines.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t exactly have a conversation with my Switch, if thats what you were implying¡± Cy was holding back a giggle. ¡°Your van needs some work done to her I think.¡± I gasped, moving my hand to my chest in mock shock.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am how dare you suggest sweet Magda isn¡¯t taken care of? Sure I don¡¯t give her as much attention as Grandpa V¨¢clav did, but that¡¯s because she was his. I¡¯m only looking after her for him, now that he can¡¯t.¡± I opened the garage door with a remote and drove us out, making our way to the neighboring town. I caught a glimpse of Cy storing her antenna away, before I rubbed my chin, thinking. ¡°I could probably make a Back to the Future reference with this van. Where we¡¯re going we don¡¯t need roads, ya know?... Okay yeah that¡¯s a genius idea, once I¡¯m done with mom I could use your car expertise to convert her into a hovercar.¡±


    ¡°A hovercar?¡± Finger to temple, I could see the steam coming outta her ears from thought. ¡°Thats unlikely to be viable, could certainly help you make her faster and more efficient though!¡± I giggled slightly to myself, taking a phone outta the dashboard. It was as disconnected from the network as my laptop, so I unlocked it quickly from memory and handed it to her.


    ¡°Check the gallery, folder blueprints. Viable isn¡¯t a thing I deal with.¡± A lot of my inventions were on it. Hey, an extra backup that¡¯s easy to carry, can be destroyed AND lets me get notes down quickly? How could I not have it. After the pictures of blueprints from before the Emergence, the first thing was the blueprint for Dare¡¯s parts, followed by the jetpack blueprint. ¡°I figure a hovercar is easier than a jetpack.¡±


    ¡°The problem is making it so that one part doesn¡¯t compromise the other, theres a reason amphibious cars are rubbish on the road ya know¡± She shook her head. ¡°Tell you what I¡¯d love a go on the Jetpack though, brings me back to those glorious GTA San Andreas days¡±


    ¡°Oh I didn¡¯t build it. The moment I finished writing up the thing I realised how dumb it was. I considered the Vulture suit from Spider-Man Homecoming as an option though.¡± I did a glasses flicked down from forehead onto eyes motion. ¡°And did you forget the legendary line I quoted? Roads? Where we¡¯re going, we don¡¯t need roads.¡±


    ¡°Roads are the best part! Nothing better than challenging a quiet nighttime backroad with all your skill, although I suppose a van wouldn¡¯t be your typical go-to for that huh, Doc Brown turns the DeLorean into a time machine because it was a fairly hopeless sportscar¡± She winked at me and I rolled my eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if it was Zemmecis or a producer who wanted to make the It Looks Like An Airplane joke about the DeLorean. Don¡¯t call it rubbish it has nostalgic and nerdy appeal.¡± We rolled into town not much later after that, and I parked the car in front of the house in question. ¡°Alright. We¡¯re here.¡± I step out and open the door for Cynthia. ¡°Listen. I looked up your description online, I read what you¡¯re accused of. I wanted you to tell me yourself as a sign of trust.¡± Ah fuck that set off her panic. Shit, should have figured it would. I can see her taking a couple deep breaths, so I give her a quick shoulder rub.


    ¡°I..¡± she starts, I can see her considering what to say next. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry. Everything happened so fast, before I knew it, I was deeply invested into freeing people like me, people like us¡± I nodded at her and gave her a smile. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°This falls in the Unlawful but ultimately good category, Cynthia. You did good. I just figured you¡¯d be more open about stuff.¡± I let go of her shoulder and make my way to the front door of the house. I ring the bell. Mrs. N¨§mec opens the door not too long after, the second she starts opening I put on the perfect customer service smile. ¡°Good Evening ma¡¯am, have you heard the news?¡± I speak in Czech. If Cynthia understands me, I will be amazed at her knowing foreign languages.


    ¡°What news?¡± There was a combination of fear and disgust in her eyes, wondering what we were going to do. I stepped forward to push her further into the house. Giving space for Cynthia to join me. She closes the door behind herself.


    ¡°That you¡¯re one call away from going to jail for child abuse.¡± I kabedoned her against the wall, my free hand crackling with electricity from the shock glove. ¡°Where do you keep your child? Trust me. I wish to hurt you so badly right now, but I¡¯m saving myself for my mother.¡± My expression is stone cold, at least on my face. My tail is straightened out in an attack declaring way.


    ¡°S-she¡¯s upstairs! Please don¡¯t hurt me oh god please don¡¯t hurt me.¡± She yelled out, panicking. I turned to Cynthia.


    ¡°The kid is upstairs. Be gentle with them, I¡¯m not sure how Mrs. N¨§mec has been treating them.¡± I let her know in English, before I turned back to Mrs. N¨§mec and spoke in Czech. ¡°I¡¯m taking the child with me. Do not call the police. I will know if you do, and I will contact them about an abused child. Be glad my fury is focused mainly on my mother.¡± Cynthia made her way upstairs, I could hear a padlock being broken.


    ¡°W-who is your mother?¡± Mrs. N¨§mec asked me, deadly afraid.


    ¡°Ad¨¦la Maidenburgov¨¢.¡± I held her shoulder and gave her a quick zap, only enough to knock her out with causing any issues or pain.


    ¡°Bridget! I¡¯ve found her, shes not in a good way at all¡± Cynthia yells down, and I run up the stairs to join her.


    ¡°It¡¯s them. Yup.¡± I gently walk over to Non, crouching in front of them. ¡°Hey Non, I¡¯m Bridget Crackspanner, Aunt Ad¨¦la¡¯s daughter. We¡¯re getting you out.¡± I held out my hand, waiting for them to take it. They looked between me and Cy, eyes full of hope, as they took the hand. I started leading them outside, passing by the knocked out Mrs. N¨§mec, and helping them get into the van. Once they were in, I turned and went back into the house and started looking around for any documentation pertaining to Non. ¡°Hey Cynthia, not sure how strong you are but could ya move Mrs. N¨§mec from the floor to her bed? Make it look like she had a bad dream?¡±


    ¡°I can indeed¡± Cynthia hoisted the poor woman over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Miura must be one lucky gal if Cynthia can carry gals around this easily. The moment I had the papers and Mrs. N¨§mec was in bed, I made my way to the van to drive us back to my house. I shoot ?¨¢rka a quick message to open the door and help Non out, moving out of the driver¡¯s seat so they can make their way outside.


    ¡°Bath, haircut if they want one, we only got girl clothes and I dunno their style, maybe some shirts from Grandpa V¨¢clav as a temporary thing for now. See you when I get back from kicking my mom¡¯s ass.¡± I ruffled ?¨¢rka¡¯s hair as I walked back to the van, leaving my daughter and Non at the front door to sort stuff out. I turn to Cynthia. ¡°Let me check something first.¡± I gesture for her to follow me, leading her out to the backyard. I grabbed a cinderblock that was nearby and put it on a pedestal. ¡°Punch it as hard as you can.¡± She looked confused for a second, before shrugging and slamming the top of the block, cracking it and the pedestal it was on with her metal arm. Alright, that¡¯s solid. What I wasn¡¯t expecting was for Am¨¢lka to pop her head out of her tree.


    ¡°What¡¯s all this ruckus then! Shouldn¡¯t you mortals be resting or something?¡± She spoke in Czech again, and I sighed and shrugged.


    ¡°Testing abilities, Am¨¢lka, need to know if my mother¡¯s life is in danger from being punched by her.¡± I reply, also in Czech, as Am¨¢lka mumbles and grumbles and goes back into her tree. Just phasing right into it, no hole or door or anything.


    ¡°Bridget¡­.what was that?¡± Cynthia asked, dumbfounded.


    ¡°Either I have a dedicated LARPer squatting in a tree, or magic is coming back after like centuries or millennia and magic creatures are waking up.¡± I shrug. ¡°Either way, her name is Am¨¢lka, which I find funny since that¡¯s the name of a czech cartoon faerie. But, alright, time to go kick my mom¡¯s ass for stealing from me.¡±


    ¡°I assume you don¡¯t want me to punch her then? I have punched guys with it before, but they were like properly tough looking assholes¡± Cynthia lets me know.


    ¡°Oh my mother is the fucking Devil, you¡¯d need a silver fist to properly hurt her. Wait no, that was rude to Luci. Sorry for likening you to her, Luci.¡± I say to the ground as a gag, before going back to the van.


    ¡°Luci huh?¡± Cynthia asks with a small smile before entering the van, as I drive us off.


    ¡°The Devil is Genderfluid, why do you think we¡¯re all going to Hell? They¡¯re having a party there for us and The Cis are not invited.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense, uh. I...I was actually a guy, before the Emergence happened, not anymore...obviously¡± She held her hand to her chest. ¡°Whatever caused the Emergence, I guess it knew something I wasn¡¯t especially aware of. I¡¯m much happier with myself now¡± I reach out and give Cynthia a quick headpat.


    ¡°I was already post-op when the Emergence hit, so finding myself with mouse ears and no hint of testosterone poisoning on me was nice. Hell, I made a poll on Twitter when I posted my Hey I Emerged video the day it happened. So many eggs cracked from being turned into their true bodies.¡± I smiled to myself, before focusing quickly. I had a mission. I was going to complete the mission.

 Hello Mom, I鈥檓 your ch-ch-ch-CHERRY BOMB

    And just as quickly as that focus and composure showed up, they dropped. ¡°Fuck.Fuck. Fuck. FUUUUUUCK.¡± I stopped the car on the side of the road, and hit the steering wheel with my head ever so anxiously. ¡°I haven¡¯t spoken with her since Grandpa¡¯s funeral. And she tried to rip the dress I was wearing off of me at it.¡±


    ¡°Bridget, that sounds horrible. We better get this collar thing back though, there must be a reason she stole it¡± Was Cy¡¯s response. Truth be told I was surprised somewhat she had a response. I sighed, straightened myself out and rubbed my face in frustration.


    ¡°Yeah. We better get it back. And I¡¯m going to give her a piece of my mind.¡± I replied and started driving again. And that¡¯s when a familiar synthesised voice spoke up.


    ¡°You know this is why I asked you to give me fire breath.¡± Dare had managed to sneak onboard, probably during the handover of Non. ¡°So I could roast her verbally and literally.¡± Dare climbed into Cy¡¯s lap and was enjoying the attention Cy was giving her.


    ¡°Thats a point, does Dare have any abilities Bridget?¡± Cy asked, definitely enjoying Dare in her lap, and I shrugged.


    ¡°She¡¯s a completely sentient Autonomous Digital Entity, in a body designed for agility and speed, with wings that permit gliding, and connectivity through wi-fi and bluetooth if she so decides.¡± I shot a quick glare at the fox dragon. ¡°The reason I didn¡¯t give her fire breath is logistical. Also I don¡¯t think flamethrowers are easily hidden, compared to stuff like a shock glove.¡± I reached my hand out to give Dare a scratch as well. ¡°Plus I¡¯d effectively need to perform surgery now to upgrade her, and the idea of that is making me queasy.¡±  I could see Dare shiver a bit.


    ¡°So what''s the plan then?¡± Cy asked, and I took a deep breath. I noticed Dare glaring up at Cy, about to give her gentle nibbling on her metal arm. Not sure what was going on there. She bit down and growled. First time she did that. And now Cy is whispering something to her? Ah well, let the two radios sort stuff out between themselves.


    ¡°Kl¨¢ra¡¯s waiting outside for us. That¡¯s my younger sister, absolute sweetheart, but completely useless when it comes to dating. The clumsy butch. She¡¯ll then ollie outta there after handing me the keys.¡± I quickly looked down before focusing back on the road. ¡°And then I¡¯m walking in, giving my mother severe verbal abuse, and beating the information out of her.¡±


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll keep watch outside or something, then... your familial issues aren¡¯t my business¡± Cy looked out the window. Probably enjoying the countryside. Maybe all the old ?koda cars folks have.


    ¡°Oh no you don¡¯t. I want you to punch her in the tit. With your metal arm. Blunt weapon without fingerprints that you¡¯ll be taking out of the crime scene? You think I WOULDN¡¯T use something like that?¡± I pulled up the car near a house, my sister leaning against it outside, as she walked over to me and handed me some keys.


    ¡°She went out to Church again for some reason, even though mass already finished. So you can prepare a spook.¡± Kl¨¢ra patted the car and started walking away down the road. I hope she doesn¡¯t get into worse trouble than what I¡¯m getting into.


    ¡°Bridget shouldn¡¯t we hide the van if this is going to take her by surprise?¡± Cy¡¯s suggestion was more than reasonable. ¡°Back there would be good I think¡± I saw her point to the overgrown lot. I scratched my chin and drove us over there, jumping out the car as Dare climbed on my back.


    ¡°Guess I gotta figure out cloaking tech as well. Hell at this point might as well have you steal a really fancy new van for me to fuck around with, ey miss villain?¡± I chuckled a bit, walking over to mom¡¯s house, and hesitating in front of the door. ¡°I haven¡¯t stepped foot in here in five years. And the memories I have of this place hurt. So much. Can you imagine your mother, someone who¡¯s supposed to care about you and protect you, just deciding your life saving medication is preventing you from being a good slave and taking it? Can you imagine her constant toxicity with making it obvious she thinks you¡¯re possessed by the devil?¡± When Cy gave me a pat on the shoulder, I shakily reached out for the door handle, unlock the door and open it, taking a couple anxious breaths. ¡°I¡¯m excited to go to hell, because it won¡¯t be half as bad as this place.¡± The entrance way was clean, well kept, a couple pair of shoes on the side, and coats on hangers, the rest of the house further in. I passed the threshold, as Dare nuzzled my face to calm me down. ¡°Let¡¯s play a game to ease the tension. Count the Christs and Crosses.¡±


    ¡°I think I¡¯ve seen at least 6 in the entry hall alone¡± Cy adjusted her hair, and I proceeded inside.


    ¡°Generally in Czech households you take off your shoes. I do not give two shits about this place though, so don¡¯t bother.¡± I sit down on the rotating armchair mom has in the living room, with Dare jumping on my lap. ¡°Please close the door and stand to the side so you¡¯re not visible from the hall. We¡¯re going to Bond her.¡± Cy takes her position, before pointing to a photo album on the coffee tableYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Bridget have you seen this? I think she¡¯s gone off the deep end¡± Oh Cy you don¡¯t know the half of it.


    ¡°I thought she had gone off the deep end when she decided HRT was making me lazy, before Grandpa V¨¢clav took me in at 18. Or when she tried to strip me at his funeral because I was in a dress, and she thought I was disrespecting the dead.¡± I turned the chair so it¡¯s back was facing the entryway to the living room, and waited.


    When I heard the door open, I signaled to Cynthia to turn on the light in the living room before mom had a chance to do so. I heard the steps approaching, and when they got close enough, I spun around, petting Dare like a villain might. ¡°Evening, Mother. I wasn¡¯t aware you had gained a hobby in robbery.¡± I shoot a glance to Cy, hoping she understands from just the quick look that I want her to grab my mother. Cy did not only grab my mother, she stepped behind her, twisted her arm behind her back and shocked her legs so my mother was now kneeling before me. Good cyborg friend. Hell this was making me feel even more like a Bond villain.


    ¡°Why are you here Marek-¡± The she-devil began. I had no patience for her deadnaming me.


    ¡°Bridget. It¡¯s Bridget. My name is Bridget. I told you. Every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month.¡± I backhand slapped her face. ¡°MY NAME IS BRIDGET. AND IF YOU REFUSE TO USE IT I SWEAR TO YOUR VERSION OF CHRIST I¡¯LL MARTYR YOUR ASS SO FAST HEAVEN AND HELL WILL HAVE A TUG OF WAR FOR YOUR SOUL.¡± I was standing above her, fire in my eyes, my ears at attention, my tail straightened in an attack position. I noticed Cy give her arm a squeeze. Good. ¡°Now. What did you do with The Collar. Why¡¯d you use Non to steal it.¡± I leaned over her and grabbed her chin, staring straight into her eyes, my other arm lifted and crackling with lightning from the shock glove in her peripheral vision.


    ¡°I took it so His Holiness can replicate it. So that he can make you all confess, that you¡¯re possessed by demons that changed you. Oh Marek, my boy, you shouldn¡¯t be like this, look what they did to you.¡± I gave her a headbutt for deadnaming me again. Cy shot me a panicked look.


    ¡°It¡¯s Bridget. And if demons could change me. If demons could change me, you would have turned me into fucking Cthulhu years ago. You¡¯re poison. You¡¯re a toxin. You¡¯re a cancer and a plague on the minds and bodies of children like me. You fucked me over more than you can imagine. And you don¡¯t even have the balls to admit that it was all you.¡± I let go of her face and slap her again. ¡°YOUR OWN FAULT. Not a higher calling from God. Not a Divine Purpose. No. You stuck your head up your ass, went to an oldass house, got validated in your preconceived notions, and used that to hurt me. To hurt Kl¨¢ra.¡± I turned down the intensity of the shock glove. ¡°Cy I suggest you let go for a second.¡± I waited for Cy to lose her grip on my mother, and the moment she did, I grabbed mom¡¯s neck with the shock glove. It wasn¡¯t to stun her, it was a continuous stream of electricity to hurt her, like an old game people dared themselves with, but turned up to 11. ¡°I have a daughter now. Trans like myself. And I suggest you watch how to properly raise a child. You want to know the one holy thing you ever did? You performed a miracle. The miracle that I and Kl¨¢ra didn¡¯t turn out like you, because of how evil you are. Although, I should credit Grandpa V¨¢clav with that one, being a positive influence and all.¡± I let go of her neck and stepped back. ¡°Cynthia. Please break her nose and arm in such a way it looks like she tripped down the stairs. And then put her in front of the stairs.¡± I could see Cynthia hesitate. I was not surprised. Hell, probably felt she was going to kill the woman. I half wished she COULD. The bitch had fallen off a ladder when I was ten. Fell hard on her back from the second floor. And shrugged it out with just her breath being knocked out.


    ¡°Okay Bridget, but if the shock kills her...I¡¯m not responsible¡± Cynthia grabbed dear old mother, gave her a love tap in the old nose, breaking it, along with a couple teeth, before twisting her arm and smashing her hand. ¡°That should do it¡± She added. I gave mom one last shock to make sure she was knocked out, punched her head and motioned for Cy to move her into position. ¡°Remind me not to get on your bad side¡­.although you don¡¯t exactly have anyone like me...other than me¡± Cy dropped mother into position, and when she did, I picked up my phone to call Kl¨¢ra.


    ¡°Hey so the deed is done, I need you to come back home and call mom an ambulance.¡±


    ¡°An ambulance? Bridget, what did you do?¡± I could hear her anxious on the other side.


    ¡°I had the cyborg lady you saw in the van with me, Cynthia, break her arm and nose to make it look like she fell down the stairs. So I need you to come back home to quote unquote find her on the floor unconscious with a broken arm and nose and a concussion.¡± I could hear Kl¨¢ra groan on the other end of the phone.


    ¡°Fiiiiiiiiine. But I¡¯m hanging out at your place tonight afterwards, you owe me.¡±


    ¡°Of course I do. Hell, could use an extra pair of hands. I¡¯m gonna be converting the old van into a hovervan.¡± I chuckled, and heard Kl¨¢ra snort.


    ¡°No more roads for Magda? Shame. See you soon.¡± Kl¨¢ra hung up, and I saw Cynthia working on cleaning the floor in the living room. True, there was some blood from the nose and teeth. Good thinking minion. Cy showed me some bloodied tissues.


    ¡°We should probably burn these¡± I nodded at her suggestion.


    ¡°Not here though. Come on, time to go. Gonna hang around in the Van until Kl¨¢ra returns.¡± I stepped outside, Dare on my shoulder again, unlocked and locked the door once all of us had left the house, and made my way over to the van to wait. Cynthia had already jumped inside to sit there.


    Kl¨¢ra was approaching the van not much later after that. I handed her the keys, she went to the house, I could hear her fake an amazing surprised shriek. God the pipes on her. And then half an hour later an ambulance rolled around, got my mother in a stretcher and into the ambulance, Kl¨¢ra gave her statement, the ambulance drove off, Kl¨¢ra locked the house and skipped over to the van, jumping inside to the middle seat through the driver¡¯s side. ¡°I¡¯m Kl¨¢ra. Cool arm, love the hair.¡± She extended her hand to shake Cynthia¡¯s.


    ¡°I like your hair too¡± Cynthia shook Kl¨¢ra¡¯s hand, and I rolled my eyes before climbing in and closing the door.


    ¡°She¡¯s 19 Cy, and I don¡¯t know how old you are, keep it professional.¡± I start the van and drive us off back home.

 Well thats ONE way to make a Convertible

    ¡°Right, I need to deconstruct her first so I know how everything fits together before I use her as a base.¡± I patted the front of Magda, the lovely van that had served both my grandfather and myself well. I had turned the couch into a bed for Cy and Miura to rest on the previous night, while ?¨¢rka and Non shared a room. So now, it was morning. And I was laying out all the tools I figured we would need.


    ¡°Do you have any stands or will I have to do the heavy lifting?¡± Cy asked, wearing a pair of borrowed overalls. I hit my forehead with the butt of my hand.


    ¡°I knew I was forgetting something! Those are in the shed out back. Let me get the transport shark to move them. Thank fuck she hasn¡¯t gone to school yet.¡± I ran out, shouting up into the upper floor. ¡°?¨¢rka! Could you help move the stands from the shed out back into the garage?¡±


    ¡°On it!¡± Was the fast response I got, barely catching the speeding shape around me. The little dork did a couple circles around me in her shadow puddle before moving on. When I returned to the garage I could already see the car being lifted up by the stands, as they rose out of ?¨¢rka¡¯s puddle. The moment the car was lifted, she jumped out of her puddle right into giving me a hug. ¡°See you after school mom, love ya!¡± She zipped out the door and I was left waiting for Cynthia to return. Which wasn¡¯t that long a wait at all.


    ¡°Right, lets get to work. I¡¯ll leave the hover engines or whatnot to your creation Bridget. Pass me a wrench and I¡¯ll begin disassembling the undercarriage¡± I raised an eyebrow at Cynthia¡¯s request.


    ¡°I might be a super inventor, but I still need to know how ALL the pieces of the van fit together. I need to get the engine block and the internals out first, before I can take apart the chassis to check on it and work off of that.¡± I handed Cynthia the wrench she requested, but I also popped the hood open to reveal the inner workings of Magda. Okay yeah Cynthia was right, she needs some TLC.


    ¡°Well in that case we have to first disconnect all the electronics, shouldn¡¯t be hard, and then all the mechanical connections and engine mounts. Then she¡¯ll come out easily¡± I nodded at Cynthia.


    ¡°Well that¡¯ll be easy, the only electronics she¡¯s got is the radio, and that¡¯s just got two speakes right next to it in there. God this is gonna be such a sight. Move over Mr. Weasley, there¡¯s a new last century flying car around.¡± I grabbed the equipment belt I had prepared for myself and got to work. Cynthia let out a giggle.


    ¡°I¡¯ll disconnect the driveshaft, and then we¡¯ll be in the air in no time¡± Soon enough we were both at it. I clearly wasn¡¯t made for hauling out heavy engines out of cars, but damn. Did Cynthia get a lifting crane for an arm? She left it on the drive outside which made me somewhat concerned considering the weather.


    ¡°Cynthia please keep the important pieces in the garage I mean against all odds there IS snow outside.¡± She shrugged and moved it back in, as I let out a sigh of relief.


    ¡°So now what?¡± Cynthia¡¯s question was understandable. And I had the right answer for her.


    ¡°I need to know how much of the chassis can be disconnected, and how much is just stuck together. Need to check the wheels and axles as well. And once I have all that information-¡± I knocked on the side of my head ¡°-I¡¯ll let this little shit do her work on how to proceed through the adapting. So come on, hop to it Cynthia, we¡¯re completely disassembling a car.¡± I clapped my hands, giddy to tinker on something this big. Grandpa never let me tinker with her.


    ¡°Well the good news¡­¡± Cynthia crouched down next to the car. ¡°Is that since this is an older vehicle I can take apart pretty much all of it. The entire body can come off of the frame pretty much. We are going to need more power than its standard engine to be able to lift it, and well...a method of lifting it into the air and controlling it would be necessary¡± She took a peek underneath the car. Rude! Don¡¯t look under a girl¡¯s skirt without asking first. ¡°Your Gramps did a good job of keeping her rust free for the most part, its a difficult thing to do when you live in a place which gets a considerable amount of snow per year¡±


    ¡°And according to him we used to get a lot more snow 40 years ago. You¡¯ve seen my blueprints. I can figure that stuff easily. As far as juice goes.¡± I reached for a box I had on the side, opening it and taking out one of the cubes. ¡°I grabbed this baby from the nearby ruin. It¡¯s got so much fucking juice in it it¡¯s ridiculous. And I got four of them.¡±


    ¡°May I take a look at that Bridget?¡± Cynthia reached out her metal arm to me. Open palm.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if grabbing it with your cyborg arm is the safest option. Even Dare has a layer of skin covering her metal bits.¡± I threw the cube at her, hoping she¡¯d grab it with her fleshy arm instead. She did. And upon staring into the cube for a minute or so, her antenna sparked between each other. Holy shit woman.


    ¡°Wow, you¡¯re not wrong about the energy packed into this thing. Theres something about it thats...odd. Its certainly not man-made¡± I grabbed the cube from her at that moment and put it back in the box.


    ¡°You say that, but the ruins it was in looked like Athena got an interest in Art Deco and built Athens like that. Still obviously ancient greek, but also¡­ more. I don¡¯t think it was aliens that did it.¡± I put the box back on the shelf and wrote down some notes on my laptop, in regards to the engine block and such. ¡°Right. Let¡¯s get to it then.¡±Stolen novel; please report.


    Cy asked me later that day to send Miura back to England, and Clark got her there safely. Once ?¨¢rka got back home from school, and Kl¨¢ra came by to help, the job got much easier. Two extra pairs of hands, plus a girl who could lug around heavy stuff in her puddle sped up the disassembly big time. The moment the car was in pieces, I had sat down at the laptop and just let the superbrain do it¡¯s work. And the result was¡­ incredible, and kind of ridiculous. But it was exactly what I desired. DeLorean¡¯s flying conversion, but in a van, and instead of a nuclear reactor, powered by two of the cubes. I was surprised it was only two. The moment I had it sketched out and written out, I let my helpers take a look.


    ¡°Ladies, sister.¡± Kl¨¢ra stuck a tongue out at me for that. ¡°Behold the hovervan. Now to just get the pieces in. And do some surgery on the pieces we already got here. It¡¯s saturday tomorrow meaning you two¡± I pointed to ?¨¢rka and Kl¨¢ra ¡°can be here all day to help. If you want to.¡± I sighed and scratched my cheek. ¡°How¡¯s mom doing, Kl¨¢ra?¡± I had to ask. I mean I deliberately harmed her, in her home, for wronging me.


    ¡°The hospital is keeping her for a couple of days more. I think I might be able to get her institutionalised for a month, under a pretense of getting her out of a cult mentality.¡± Kl¨¢ra shrugged. I nodded at her. Would be nice if they actually made mom less of a shitstain to be around.


    ¡°I have no words Bridget, no words. I hope it works¡± Cynthia¡¯s smile brought me back from feeling bad about mom. ¡°Imagine if you let companies use this tech, you¡¯d revolutionise mass delivery¡± I could only make a raspberry at her comment.


    ¡°Cynthia you got your ass moved here by a kid that shatters reality by headbutting it to make portals. I doubt a fucking hovervan is more effective than a collective of folks like that.¡±


    ¡°But Bridget, how many people like Clark exist? Surely from a business perspective you¡¯d want to have more than one delivery person for your entire company, efficiency and stuff¡± Cy retorted, before she started looking down. Probably something heavy hit her. I shrugged.


    ¡°Probably yeah, but I¡¯m not going to sell this shit to companies until Jeff Bezos gets launched into orbit for his behavior. The whole lot of them, truth be told. Anyways, I¡¯m gonna assign pages from the blueprints to each of you to work on. And then we¡¯re gonna put Magda together.¡± I took the laptop upstairs to the printer, getting the blueprints on paper so as to hand them out. This was going to be fun.


    And it was. January 17th, 5 pm. The car was put back together. Looking better than ever. We ended up replacing the engine for a stronger one, the wheels for much sturdier ones, the axles replaced completely, the chassis reinforced in key places. And, best of all, a new paint job. Kl¨¢ra got her artist friend that designed her tattoos come by to draw a More Than Computer Mouse logo on the side. I was not going to be subtle.


    ¡°You should turn it on for the first time Bridget, its your van after all¡± Cynthia was wiping her hands, and I had to smile and nod, as I jumped into the driver¡¯s seat. Holy shit had the old seats gotten sat through. The new ones were unbelievably incredibly comfortable. I turned the key to hear the roar of the new engine. It sounded like music to my ears. I carefully drove it out of the garage, before I flipped open the panel hiding the flight controls. A little flip of the switch, a couple knobs turned, the wheels turn 45 degrees, then 90, and I shoot up in the van, straight up and above the house. Doing a couple circles around it in the air to make sure everything was working as intended, before making my way down, parking with a flourish.


    ¡°Hell. Fucking. Yes. FUCK the police I drive wherever I want!!!¡± I raised my arms triumphantly, before I jumped out and surprised Cynthia with a hug. ¡°Oh thank you, you wonderful cyborg lady, couldn¡¯t have done it without your help.¡± I saw her blushing now.


    ¡°No problem Bridget, it was the least I could do. You saved my ass¡± I mean how could I not. It was a pretty fine ass, would be a shame if something happened to it.


    ¡°I mean, how could I NOT save such a masterpiece. Blessed by whateverthefuck caused the emergence that behind is.¡± I let go of Cynthia, and stepped back to admire our handiwork. ¡°Right, I¡¯m gonna need your permission for appearing in the video. That¡¯s gonna be released friday of the project. I think it¡¯ll make the channel blow up.¡± I could see her looking away.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know Bridget, I¡¯m a wanted criminal. Would it be healthy for your channel if I¡¯m here?¡± I rolled my eyes and patted her shoulder.


    ¡°Cynthia. You¡¯re a gorgeous looking cyborg lady. Whose crimes are freeing wrongfully jailed Emerged. And leaving a dude paralysed, but he¡¯s a cop. People are gonna ask when the next time we work together will be if you show up in the vid.¡± I let go of her shoulder and got in the van, to park it back in the garage before hopping out once more. ¡°Your choice though.¡± I could see her take a deep breath, as she prepared to answer.


    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll appear in the video. They might wonder how you managed some of the more heavy lifting if I¡¯m not in it¡± She smiled ever so slightly, clearly emotional torn still. I reached out and gently patted her head in between her antenna, carefully. Figured out quickly that flicking them resulted in a killer headache for her, unlike me with my ears.


    ¡°Which means I¡¯ll need to record an end explanation bit with you now, and then we can party up the finished project I guess.¡± I moved my hand back, closed the garage door and started making my way back up to the workshop/office/bedroom.


    The explanation was quickly shot, I saved it to edit it the following day, and got out a bottle of locally sourced wine to enjoy. It was now approaching 10 pm. We had finished the bottle, ?¨¢rka was now sleeping happily and calmly in her room, never having taken a sip of the stuff of course. Kl¨¢ra was however plastered on the floor, the lightweight. She had school tomorrow too, but it¡¯s not like I could stop her when she¡¯s 19. Cynthia somehow managed to turn on the tv. At least it was ?T24, the national news channel. Them I could handle. As the newscasters were talking, I turned my head to look outside, noticing a familiar light show.


    ¡°Bridget is that what I think it is?¡± Cynthia asked. I nodded.


    ¡°Fuck me running, not again.¡± I rubbed my face in frustration. A SECOND one?!?! Really?!?!


    ¡°Bridget! I need to go back, Miura and everyone might be in danger¡± Cynthia was panicking. I was already grabbing my phone to call Clark.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s get you back home.¡± I was hoping he wasn¡¯t dealing with his own shit.

 Road Trip!

    Well. Cynthia was back in the UK. Clark was unhappy about being called. Especially considering the second emergence was happening. And it was going to be a very wild night again. At least I figured it would be. Small town in the middle of nowhere, Czech Republic? Yeah, like two more people emerged in my town, and they knew to ask me for help. And I told them what to do.


    It was morning now, the day after. One of the most fun things was seeing a video of Vulptrix and Nightbinder working together to stop a Kaiju-ed up toddler. I was tinkering away in the workshop, when I got an email, surprisingly enough. School was out for two weeks again to sort everything out. ¡°Well, makes sense I guess.¡± Was what I mumbled as I walked into the living room, squatting down and poking Kl¨¢ra. ¡°Hey bitch, no school for you for two weeks. So you nurse that hangover.¡± Her grumbling was loud, she flailed her arms at me, but I deftly dodged. Before checking in on ?¨¢rka. ¡°Heya sweetie, school¡¯s out for two weeks.¡± She sat up in her bed, yawned and rubbed her eye sleepily, nodding at me. With that out of the way, I returned to work.


    ¡°You said you wouldn¡¯t make one.¡± Dare was sitting on my chair, observing me.


    ¡°I¡¯m not. This isn¡¯t what you think.¡± I put away the soldering iron as Dare rolled her eyes at me.


    ¡°Look me in the cameras and tell me that that isn¡¯t a gauntlet.¡± She pointed towards my workbench, and I sighed.


    ¡°Listen, I have no clue what the bastard is packing. I just know he SOMEHOW looks jacked as all hell. Like, when the fuck does a bishop have time to hit the gym?¡± I grabbed the gauntlet Dare had gestured towards, putting it on. ¡°So, I need insurance. I don¡¯t think a regular shock glove is enough.¡± I punched the air to test how it felt. It felt solid, and comfortable. ¡°Good. I think I¡¯m gonna combine it with the gliding harness I designed for Gargoyle.¡± I took the gauntlet off and set it down.


    ¡°Bridget. Bridget you¡¯re making an exoskeleton to beat the Pope up with. Why don¡¯t you just call the Coats. I¡¯m sure Karel would help.¡± Dare hopped off the chair to walk to me. I rolled my eyes at her.


    ¡°Because the deal says if I get someone trying to kidnap me. It doesn¡¯t mention going after a thief.¡± I took a quick trip to the basement to grab the needed materials, ignoring Dare¡¯s sighs. Sometimes you have to build a ridiculous thing for yourself. Sometimes you¡¯re building the thing to punch a religious figure in the face.


    Meanwhile, Francesco was once again summoned to His Holiness¡¯ side. Upon entering the office, he was greeted by an unfamiliar sight. His Holiness was holding something like a golden necklace. ¡°Strange this device. According to the devout woman who brought it to us, her son is responsible. A son believing himself to be a woman. And who was taken by the devil and changed into a mouse creature for his sin.¡± He turned to face Francesco, approaching him. ¡°According to her, it makes you tell the truth, and hurts you if you life. Francesco, would you be so kind as to test this for me?¡±


    Francesco could only nod at his Holiness¡¯ request, feeling the cold metal click around his neck. His breathing hitched a bit as His Holiness grabbed Francesco¡¯s shoulder while standing behind him. ¡°Now to see if it truly works. Francesco, say something truthful, introduce yourself.¡±


    ¡°I am Francesco Quatromagi, born in Rome, a papal guard.¡± The Pope nodded at Francesco¡¯s reply.


    ¡°That was much too easy. Let¡¯s try having you tell a lie. Something absolutely ridiculous. Like that you wish to have sex with me.¡± He had stepped in front of Francesco, his height meaning he¡¯d always look down on the guard. Francesco clenched his fist hard, hoping His Holiness had not noticed the sudden nervousness. If he said it it wouldn¡¯t be a lie, even if the thought was sinful, and the idea blasphemous to him. Him, having sex with the Pope. Impossible. Truly degenerate. Francesco took a deep breath before his next sentence.


    ¡°The Golden Statue that appeared in the middle of the Vatican is not a wEEEHREEEWOOOO AAAAA!!!¡± He grasped at the collar, his eyes going wide from the pain. Not an electric shock. Nothing that would leave a scar or truly cause damage. No. The Collar had a more sinister delivery method than that. How much do you know about spicy peppers? About how they actually work. If you know all that¡¯s about to be revealed as a fun fact, then power to you. See, the basic idea is simple. Spicy peppers have capsaicin in their seeds to keep mammals from eating them, as it has no effect on birds who eat the seeds whole. Capsaicin upon touching our tongue or skin causes a chemical reaction that doesn¡¯t truly damage anything. The chemicals produced send a signal to your brain telling it your tongue is on fire. Your brain freaks out and goes ¡°okay tongue is on fire, pain response.¡±


    And we humans made a sport of cultivating spicier and spicier peppers to flex on people with our tolerance. What a mad, mad people we are. The Scoville scale is based on capsaicin concentration. And right now? Right now Francesco was experiencing about two million of them, directly to his brain. It made his knees buckle as he fell on the floor, tugging at the collar and hoping to get it off, before His Holiness stood behind him and removed the collar. ¡°Truly a marvelous piece. Although I¡¯m surprised you chose to contradict an observable truth, like the sky is blue, instead of saying what I suggested.¡± His Holiness was turned away from Francesco at this point, who was rubbing his neck.


    ¡°I figured. I figured considering it¡¯s creator, that he¡¯d have a sick sense of humor and that it wouldn¡¯t detect such a thing as a lie, Your Holiness.¡± Francesco got himself off the floor, straightening himself out as much as he could, His Holiness nodding at his observation.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    ¡°That makes sense. You are dismissed.¡± The Pope put the collar back in his desk before he sat down in his chair.


    Satisfied with my creation, I stepped outside to stretch. ¡°I should probably make a mask too. Hell a mouse themed welding mask would be awesome.¡± I took in the crisp winter air, still surprised about the snow. I mean seriously. We haven¡¯t had snow in such a thick layer stay around for this long in years. It was honestly freaking me out a bit. I sighed and stepped back inside, grabbing a couple things from the basement. ¡°It¡¯s welding goggles put as lenses in a full face mask. You don¡¯t need a genius to make that. Just someone who knows how to build things. Only took me like an hour to make. And with my gear ready, I prepared everything in my van.


    Which meant it was time to go. I made my way up to the living room to check in on ?¨¢rka and Non. They had become fast friends, and by god Non needed the chance to be a normal kid. Desperately. ¡°Right. ?¨¢rka, Non, my preparations are ready, I got a whole plan figured out. And I¡¯m going to need your abilities for it, Non.¡± I turned to face the agender sweetheart, who tilted their head in confusion.


    ¡°Uhm. Okay. In what way, Bridget?¡± They put their hands together on the couch, waiting for me to answer.


    ¡°I need you to find where the Pope keeps the collar once we¡¯re close. Clark will then make a rift there so I can grab it, and then I¡¯m going to go give His Holiness a piece of my mind.¡± I leaned on the couch, as ?¨¢rka scratched her head.


    ¡°If you¡¯re using Clark and Non for their rifts, why not just do it from here? No need to go down there in the van, and it keeps you somewhat safer.¡± Was her comment. And she was right. It would be much easier. But dangit! I put speakers on the bottom of the van to blast songs. And I wanted to blast The Pope Song while approaching the Vatican from them. Oh wait I could just plop down a radio. Okay let¡¯s do that.


    ¡°Yeah you¡¯re right. I¡¯ll just blast The Pope Song from something else. Alright Non, whenever you¡¯re ready.¡± They nodded and closed their eyes, and I could see their body go stiff as a statue. The way they explained the power to me, the main thing was Astral Projection. Great for scouting. But if they reached a point, they could make a rift to reach out and take something from there. Simple concept, great for spying, completely undetectable, unless you see ghosts. Which, none of us did. Although Dare always go weird about the power use, saying she felt Non like signal interference, without truly seeing their astral form.


    It took like three hours, and in that time I managed to get Clark over, as well as made dinner. Non popped back right as I finished with preparing it, so I dropped the little GPS tracker through her portal and spent a lovely meal with my family. And then I got suited up. My best overalls. A trans pride flag shirt. Big stompy boots. The new welding mask. And, most important of all, the harness. I let Clark open the rift as I stepped through.


    And there he stood. The Motherfucker. The highest ranking asshole in the church. His predecessor having called me a nuclear bomb. Me and every other trans person. Abominations. Destroying nature and sanctity of marriage and biology. Well Mister My-Organisation-Protects-Pedophiles. Have a nuke to the face. ¡°Good Evening your Holiness. Love the redecorating. Definitely a great choice to swap the gold leaf for a furry statue right out your door. And how cute, you think that blanket covers their raging erection.¡± Good, I got his attention. I exaggeratedly curtsied. ¡°Bridget Crackspanner. My Mother stole and sent you something of mine. I¡¯m here to take it back.¡± He turned towards me and sneered.


    ¡°So your true name would be Marek Maidenburg, then? If you want the collar so bad, here you go.¡± He was fast. Faster than I anticipated. And soon, I found it around my neck. I could only laugh. ¡°Now confess, demon! Confess your sins! Say your true name, denounce the sickness you¡¯re plagued by, and return to the flock!¡± Oh my god was this fucker for real. I kept laughing. Then I grabbed his arm and started crushing it a bit.


    ¡°My name is Bridget Crackspanner. I¡¯m a 23 year old woman with a bachelor¡¯s degree in Engineering. I love women in a romantic and sexual sense. I do not love men in that way. I have an amazing daughter I adopted. And I¡¯m going to beat the ever loving shit out of you.¡± I let go of his arm, jabbing up a punch from my left arm to his ribs. The moment it connected, I heard a crack, before he flew back five feet. But he didn¡¯t fall down. He was standing strong, raising his arms up to fight. He spit some blood on the floor.


    ¡°Lies, all of that is lies, you protected yourself from it somehow. You made sure it wouldn¡¯t work on you!¡± He yelled at me, as I rolled my eyes.


    ¡°There isn¡¯t a weREWOLF STATUE WITH A RAGING ERECTION OUTSIDE.¡± Yup shit fuck it hurt it hurt so so bad. But I stood. I didn¡¯t grasp for the collar. I didn¡¯t try to rip it off. There was sweat on my brow, and my expression let him know it worked. ¡°Now you might be wondering how the fuck she¡¯s still standing after that shock.¡± I ran towards him, feigning a left hook, but instead going for a low kick. It definitely didn¡¯t have the same impact as my punches, but I could trip him down.


    ¡°My best guard was on his knees after a lie! The same one you just said! You demon, how?!¡± He was standing up again, hoping to uppercut me, but I stepped back, and the moment he was standing, I kneed him in the groin.


    ¡°You try being misgendered for years. Your identity denied, called a phase, labelling you a freak-¡± Jab to his side, and one to his face. ¡°-WITHOUT building up pain tolerance. I¡¯m me. I¡¯m nobody else but me.¡± Uppercut, he tries to left hook me, I bent down and punch him in the dick. ¡°And Me is a trans woman and a lesbian, who turned into a stunning mouse girl.¡± He tries to kick. I grab his leg and hit his knee. There is a crunch. He crumples. I hit his face a couple of times to bruise it up. The moment he¡¯s knocked out, I put him in his chair. And then I take out a soldering iron. A small one, easy to transport. He¡¯s gonna be marked for life. I leave a message on his chest, after tearing open his clothes. Okay wow the dude is JACKED. The Pope is Shredded. The Pope has an Eight Pack. And he¡¯s gonna get ¡®Trans People Are Their Gender, Signed God¡¯ written on him. In Hebrew, Greek and Latin.


    I give Clark a call. The rift opens for me to pass through. I hit my forehead with my palm, forgetting something important. ¡°Shit. Clark. Hand me the Boom Box.¡± He does so swiftly, as I walk onto the balcony, and blast The Pope Song from it on repeat, at full volume, with extra speakers to make it louder, along with plugging it into the PA system. Now I can run through the rift back home. Oh wait. I grabbed the Pope¡¯s hands and used them to unlock the collar. Don¡¯t get me wrong, it¡¯s fashionable, but I¡¯m not going to keep wearing it forever. As the rift closed behind me, I removed my harness and mask, quietly stepped into my workshop, and swiftly disassembled the collar.


    I¡¯m not going to deal with this bullshit again.