"Lottie!" Valorie said quickly. "Do your thing!" She needed more time to think, she needed time to smooth this out.

"Val is everything ok?" Darren asked from the living room as they heard her call out.

The sound of the world slowed to a crawl; it was very much like going deaf as the television slowed down and went quiet and gray, the picture refreshing slowly line-by-line in bright colored spots. Phil went quiet. Charlotte was standing by Val suddenly, She and Darren having walked over to bring ehr 'up to speed.'

She was worried, "What's wrong, who's on the phone?"

"Some guy who says my apartment is bugged by BRATs and they picked up on Darren's voice with some program and they think he duplicate is here and they dispatched Book and Verdant which means they can just teleport here any moment!" She ran a hand through her short hair. "I can't believe my apartment is bugged, they promised me they wouldn't!"

"And you believed them?!" Darren had gone pale. Had they heard everything?

"I DIDN'T KNOW HOW EVIL THEY WERE AN HOUR AGO DARREN!" Valerie snapped at him.

Charlotte shook her head, "I don't know, can this guy be trusted? What if it's a test or something? Maybe a prank? Why would they bug you, you're the favorite."

It was more wishful thinking than factual analysis. If the apartment wasn't bugged, how would they know that people were over? No, this was serious.

"Should we Run? Is it Moon time?"

"I can't get you to the moon and just running away they'd know we are guilty of something. Wait!" She grabbed Charlotte's hand and dragged her back to her bedroom where she got a old VHS case off her shelf and rushed back. Popping it open was a handful of differently colored stones.
"What are you?! Green?! Red!? Blue!?" She just grabbed a handful and mushed them against Darren's chest before he could react.

Charlotte rushed to stop it, grabbing at the stones to prevent them from coming into contact with Darren, "Waitwait! Nononono, there goes our alibi. Darren WAS completely human. Passed on scans and stuff... We could have said he..."

And then as her hand made contact with an orange stone she remembered that it was Skin-to-rock contact that activated them. His shirt saved him, but she wasn't wearing gloves.

Orange light ran up her arm coalescing into the geometric lines that her raised scars made, those oddly perfect scars, lighting them up like fiber optics and spreading a comfortable warmth through her being.

"Shit. Kinda."

"Well...that is going to cause another power surge." Darren noted as he watched the orange light race across his girlfriends body. He watched her with a worried look as he gently took her jaw into one hand to look into her eyes. "How you feel Lottie?"

She blinked a few times, her eyes alight with an orange corona and her skin alive with that same light alone the lei lines of her scars. "I feel okay. How are you?"


She flicked her fingers a few times, trying to shake the glow off. "So.. uhh, when's this supposed to go away?"

"I don't know, it doesn't when I have the powered up double..." Although her having the glow wasn't as bad since she was a known super. Turning her face side to side he lightly traced one glowing line. "Can you...turn it off? Like if you focus on it? Maybe it's like a built up power that would discharge with an energy attack."

Valerie just stood by in sheepish horror, clutching the handful of stones to her chest. "Loooottiiiieee."

Charlotte closed her eyes and concentrated, as she did so, the glow receded... and so did her scars. She was left with a flawless tan complexion.

she opened her eyes, now a pale hazel instead of the orange they had been, "Okay, howzat?"

"You...you look like the old you!" Darren marveled at her as he traced where the lines should have been. "Hazel eyes, no scars...you..shape shifted? Can you do anything else? Try changing your hair color."

She closed her eyes and concentrated, a pink sheen running up her hair from the roots that slowly spread to color the whole of her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes included. She looked up and around, trying to see the top of her own head, "Did I do it? Is my hair pink?"

"Oh my god Lottie! You did!" Valerie began sticking her stones back into their case as she marveled at the change in her friends hair. "Can you do anything else?! oh um um...be taller!"

She gritted her teeth and a sound like stretching rubber gloves emanated from her form as she grew almost a foot, her dress now fitting more like a short club skirt. IT was amazing that a change in height alone could do, as now her smooth toned muscle and feminine curves were lost on a gangly frame. Combined with the pink hair and lack of scars she looked like a whole new parson.

Charlotte held up a hand and looked at her long fingers, "This is so weird. I feel like you both shrunk..."

Darren was just gawking as Valerie clapped. "Oh this is so cool Lottie, you can do human transformation! Hm, how can we use this to our benefit." She scrutinized Charlotte a moment. "Can...you be Darren?" She pointed to Charlotte's date.

Charlotte shook her head, "nono, I got it! Gimmie a sec..."

She closed her eyes and concentrated, he skin turning black and her hair receding into her scalp. Her shoulders got wider and she popped a few stitches on her dress as her frame bulked up and spread out. Armored plates grew on her shoulders and glass shards jutted out of her dress along her ribcage. No longer was she thin Lottie, but a reasonable approximation of the Man in black... wearing a dress.

"Snk." Laughing into her hand she tugged on the very stuck on dress. "I think we might need to cut this off now sweetie, sorry. So you can make some big show or speech and then free time and run off like you poofed away like he did earlier!"

"Does...she sound like me?" Darren questions hesitantly.

Not-Darren cleared her throat and... Charlotte's voice came out, "Mwahaha... aww nuts. How do I.." She coughed, trying again, "I am.." Still Charlotte. "I guess I better not talk."

"Mm hm." Valerie nodded. "I have an idea for that. You might just need a...mmm sample to help with the change." She scooted Darren right up to his not-self. "Go on, kiss."
"What?! I thought we weren't allowed to kiss!"
"Well now it may save our lives! Kiss."

Not-Darren waved them both away, Charlotte's voice still coming out, "Gimmie a sec. I can do it."

Closing her eyes she concentrated and the whole form shifted, imperfections leaching out and melting away, the dress sliding off in slivers as the creature flexed Darren's voice coming out.

"Mollǝʎ, Ǝnlq, I return. Why do you have need of me?" No trace of Charlotte was in those words.

"..." Replied the pair at first.
"...that..is very unsettling." Said Darren finally.
"Wow, that is really convincing." Valerie said as she scooted Darren back and away from the creature. "That is still you, right Lottie?"

Darren wasn't so sure, he'd never referred to himself as anything while in that form. What was Ǝnlq?

Charlotte's voice came out briefly, "Oh, yeah, I didn't switch out for Darren or anything, it's just like... Like there's a right way to pretend, yanno?"

Again, the other voice came out of the featureless face, "Now, Shall we prepare? Time, however abundant, is still limited."

"Mmmm ok, so what are we going to do about there not being you around." He motioned to the empty space in the room around them. "I mean if I am here with Val we need an excuse for where you have gone."

"Yeah, I don't think they'd buy into me and Darren begin old friends who decided to hang out after his date went in the shitter." Valerie nodded in agreement with herself. "And they heard your voice on the system too."

The not-Darren spoke in a calm tone, as if lecturing a child, "Clearly I came to retrieve what was mine, and she resisted. Running away to save her..." The thing looked at Darren cooly, "Toy."

"Well gee Lottie, thanks for leaving me here." He rolled his eyes a little. "What about Val though, is she not interesting to you?"

"Hey, I'm just as hot as Charlotte! We both got face melting lasers!" She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Maybe that is why you didn't just go after Charlotte, you hoped to nab Val since she is a bit...slower."