The Cinderella Syndrome

Superheroes don't just happen. They need to train and keep honing their skills as does anyone whose job depends on physical ability.

Dr. Wilson Warner had become an expert in running training sessions for superheroes. He'd belonged to different superhero teams in his time, under different leaders. He was now a leader himself, of the London based team known as the Ultra-League.

When the Metropolitan Police decided to set up their own team to combat the growing numbers of super-powered villains, Warner had been delighted to offer his expertise and time. Not that they always listened to his suggestions. The code name of 'The Chain Gang' for a police-run outfit hardly seemed appropriate, but there was a kind of inevitability about it once their leader adopted the code name 'Chain' - because his protective suit was made from a very fine chain-mail.

Chain was a good enough leader, but he didn't have any actual superpowers - he relied on skill and a high level of fitness. He'd not had the experience of using or working with the kind of abilities the rest of his team possessed.

Nor had Chain, or the senior officers at Scotland Yard for that matter, had the benefit of working alongside James Lovell, the professor deemed to be the father of the study of superpowers. Warner had. There wasn't much he didn't know, or couldn't find out, about the types of opponents the fledgling Chain Gang were likely to face. Warner could develop the team to their maximum potential. He had in his database any number of challenging scenarios to test their reactions and problem solving skills.

The Chain Gang weren't the only ones to benefit from this arrangement. It never ceased to amaze Warner how Lovell's Freedom League, the Ultra-League, and the Chain Gang would tackle the same problem in three totally different ways. Whenever Warner ran a scenario with a team who'd not tackled it before, he'd always witness a new solution to an old problem, adding to his already vast knowledge of strategy.

On this particular day, Warner set the Chain Gang the task of gaining access to a heavily guarded complex in which the Sinister Squad were building a nuclear warhead. Their task: get in, find and disarm the bomb.

'Right,' Warner said. 'You're at the gate. I'm a security guard, armed with a laser machine-gun. How do you get past me?'

He remembered doing the same exercise himself many years before, at a training session run by James Lovell. On that occasion, they'd achieved it by having Electric Blue, mistress of electricity, disable the gun, while he, Target and Firebolt overpowered the gunman. When he'd set the Ultra-League the same task, Julian had turned invisible and walked by without being seen; Frish had turned to liquid and flowed unobtrusively under the gate while Skippi had hidden behind a bush and teleported in from there.

How would the Chain Gang do it?

'Are you wearing any kind of security pass?' Henry asked.

'Probably,' Warner said. He'd not given it much thought, but it seemed likely.

'Okay, so I approach you first, and get a good look at your pass,' Henry said. 'The others are right behind me. When I've seen what the pass is like, we get out our usual IDs, and I make them look like the one you're wearing. We show them to you and you let us in.'

Henry's power included the ability to pull illusions from people's minds, based on what they wanted, or expected, to see. It was a good strategy, but too easy. They needed more of a challenge if they were going to stretch themselves.

'Fine,' Warner said, 'but there's a rule at this complex which states I can only allow two people in through any gate at any one time. Obviously, Henry has to go; you have to decide who goes in with him and who has to go to a different gate, where there will also be a guard.'

'Okay.' Henry said, 'I'll take Tod.'

'I walk around the corner and go through the wall,' said Katie, whose power was the ability to become intangible at will, like a ghost.

'Very good,' Warner said.

'I do the same,' Tina said. Her power was arguably the most useful of the lot - she absorbed the powers of others by touch. The downside was that the effect was temporary; unless she could touch one of her team-mates again, the powers would disappear after a few hours. When that happened, she'd have no more ability than a normal seventeen-year-old girl, albeit one who worked out and was trained in martial arts.

Tina made a habit, before any assignment, of touching each of the others in turn to absorb every one of their powers, so every ability was duplicated.

'That's not the most efficient way, Tina,' Jade said. 'What we need you to do is go to the next gate and reproduce the illusion of the security pass. That way we easily get another person in.'

'But I can't,' Tina protested. 'I don't know how.'

'Jade's right. You should be able to do it,' Warner agreed. 'You've absorbed Henry's power, so you should be able to produce illusions as easily as you copy everyone else's powers.'

Tina had always included Henry in her handshaking ritual at the beginning of assignments, but she'd never tried to imitate him. She wasn't sure she'd ever manage his complex illusions. It wasn't like shoving yourself through a wall, or throwing yourself at the ground and missing. To Tina's mind, creating illusions must take a lot of skill and practice. 'I suppose, but...'

'C'mon, kid,' Warner said. 'Give it a try. It won't matter if it doesn't work perfectly, not between us, in a training session. Now's the time to practice, so in a real situation, it'll be second nature to you if you need to do it.'

Tina radiated uncertainty and fearfulness. Warner's empathic sense often picked up those emotions coming from her, especially when she was being asked to try something new, or to talk to strange people. He constantly had to bolster the girl's confidence - not that he minded doing so if it had an effect in the long term. However, she seemed worse than usual, today, and Warner could taste an undercurrent of sulkiness and resentment in the air as well.

It wasn't only Tina who was radiating unhelpful emotions. Gloria seemed down today, too. Katie, on the other hand, radiated contentment along with concern for Gloria and Tina, as if she blamed herself for whatever was getting to them.

Tina got out her Ultraheroes ID card and looked at it, hard. After a moment she put it down. 'I can't,' she said. 'It looks just the same.'

'It's nearly impossible to create an image out of your head from scratch,' Henry said. 'Even I can't do that. You need to summon up an image of something you're familiar with, something you've seen. Try turning it into a playing card, say the ace of hearts.'

'Okay,' Tina said, unconvinced. However, this time, as the others watched, the ID card changed, until Tina appeared to be holding an ace of hearts. 'Hey!' Tina cried excitedly. 'I did it, look!'

Warner grinned. 'I told you,' he said. 'You can do it. Have confidence! Well done. So you pull the same trick at the next gate, with...?'

'Oh, um, Chain. The twins can fly over the wall, right?'

'Brilliant, brilliant,' Warner said. Tina basked in his praise.

After the session, he called Gloria and Tina back as the others left. 'You two don't seem too happy today,' he said, 'so I thought I'd take you out to lunch to cheer you up.'

'Thanks, Wil, but you won't find it easy,' Gloria sighed.

'You know me. I like a challenge,' Warner said.

'I'm fed up,' Tina said, in response to Warner's gentle probing as they waited for their all-day breakfasts in a bright, airy café.

'You and me both,' Gloria said.

'Why?' Warner asked. 'Tell me. You can trust me you know - I'm a doctor. I won't tell any of the others.' As he said the words, it occurred to him that Gloria and Tina might have a problem with each other. It might have been better to tackle them separately.

'Well, everyone's getting paired off, except me,' Tina complained. 'Katie's got a bloke now, so I never see her any more - we used to have such a good laugh, and Chain - well, he's started going out with some stupid posh woman.'

'Yes,' Warner mused. 'That must be difficult.' Given his empathic power, he couldn't have failed to pick up the intense admiration, bordering on love, that Tina felt whenever Chain was around. Although Warner could tell it was no more than a teenage crush, born of someone plucking the girl out of what had been a humdrum and often unpleasant life, showing her excitement, giving her a purpose, and a place in a group. It wasn't real love, but it was unlikely Tina knew the difference.

'And you're with someone, too, aren't you, Gloria?' Warner said.

'Not any more,' Gloria glared at him.

'I'm sorry,' Warner said.

'He went off with Katie,' Gloria said, rolling her eyes. 'He's over ten years older than she is, for God's sake.'

'There are more fish in the sea,' Warner said. 'You'll find somebody better, and there's someone out there for you, too, Tina.'

'No there isn't,' Tina said. 'Look at me. Who wants to go out with someone with a face like mine?'

'Someone special,' Warner said. He knew it wouldn't be wise to try and make little of Tina's facial disfigurement, the port-wine birthmark covering half her face, even though he himself rarely noticed it any more.

'I never meet anyone special,' Tina said, grumpily.

'Me, neither,' Gloria said, despondently.

'Tell you what, ladies,' Warner said. 'I know just the thing to cheer you both up. How about if I escort the both of you to University College Medical School Post-Christmas Ball? That way, you can both be seen in public with this incredibly dashingly handsome doctor, and, if either of you sees someone you'd rather be with, I'll disappear. I have two spare tickets right here.' He took them out of his pocket and handed them one each.

'I can't go to a thing like that!' Tina gasped, staring at the gilt-edged card.

'Why ever not?' Warner asked. 'I'll be really upset if you won't come with me.'

'Everyone will stare at my face,' she said.

'No, they won't. They're medics. They've seen a lot worse,' Warner said, his fingers crossed under the table. It would actually be mostly students who'd probably not seen anything yet. 'Go on. Say you'll come.'

'Oh, all right.'

'Great. And you, Gloria?'

'Okay,' she said, managing a smile. Warner smiled back. Gloria was lovely when she smiled. It was worth working on her to see if he could make her smile more often. She and her twin sister Jade were among the most beautiful women he'd ever seen, but always unattainable. Until now.

**

Tina practised hard. Once she'd got over the initial reticence, she found creating illusions became easier and easier. She progressed from playing cards to vases, from vases to animals. 'Here, look at this!' she cried, bounding into the room one day carrying a white rabbit. 'Doesn't it look real?'

'Where did you get that?' Chain asked. 'You didn't steal it, did you?' He'd guessed it wasn't real, but part of his function as leader was to encourage his team. He wanted Tina to master this new skill as much as she did herself.

Tina glowed with pride as she made the rabbit disappear. 'It was an illusion!' she beamed.

'Great! Well done!' Tina almost burst with joy at his words. She was willing to bet that snooty Amanda couldn't create rabbits out of thin air.

Her good spirits deflated when the doorbell rang, and Amanda arrived. 'Hi, Tina,' she said. Tina scowled and didn't reply. Instead she stalked out of the room and up the stairs to take refuge in Gloria's room.

Amanda sighed. It wasn't pleasant, being hated so much, even though she knew why.

Tina caught a glimpse of herself in Gloria's mirror and scowled. She'd removed the dressing table mirror from her room at home because she preferred not to look in it. Ever. She wondered if there was some cosmetic she could buy to cover the birthmark up completely. No doubt there was. And no doubt she couldn't afford it. Unless... she went up to the mirror and looked closely at her reflection. She turned her head at an angle and studied her blemish-free profile carefully. The answer was obvious. Why had she not thought of it before?

**

On the night of the ball, Dr. Warner, dressed smartly in a midnight-blue velvet jacket, knocked at the door. Gloria answered it. She looked magnificent. She had on a strapless cerise dress with a full, flowing skirt and matching chiffon scarf draped on her shoulders. Her hair was up and she looked every inch the princess she was born to be. Warner gave her a theatrical bow as he crossed the threshold.

Tina was an even bigger surprise. She had on a dress very like Gloria's, except hers was bottle-green and slightly too big for her. Jade was experimenting with a wide black belt, which, when done up tight, hid the fact the dress was made to fit someone bigger and taller than Tina. Gloria had helped Tina put up her hair, but the biggest surprise was her face. Warner stared at her. He could see no sign at all of the port-wine stain that was usually there. Nor did it look as if she'd plastered her face with foundation to hide it. She looked only lightly made up.

'Are we ready?' Warner asked.

'Yes,' Tina said.

'Then let's go.'

'Have a lovely time,' Jade said.

'Yeah. Don't do anything I wouldn't do,' Henry said.

'Not much chance of us having a good time then, is there?' Tina shot back, planting a kiss on his cheek.

Tina glanced at her watch. It was eight o'clock.

She'd been making some careful calculations. She'd learned that, when she absorbed a power, it was hers for four hours before it faded. Her illusion, which superimposed an exact replica of her flawless profile over the disfigured one, would last four hours. Until midnight.

**

Julian Lorimer pulled irritably at the sleeves of his jacket. They weren't long enough. If it had been up to him, he'd have worn one of his sloppy jumpers. They covered the neutralising wristbands he had to wear if he wanted to stay visible. He envied people who could control their powers and only be invisible or intangible when they wanted to be.

Julian didn't have a date for the ball. He'd considered asking several of the women he knew. He could have asked Frish, but if he turned up to the dance with a woman with green hair he'd never live it down. 

Perhaps he should have asked one of his tutorial group, but he didn't see any of them as anything other than friends and colleagues. If he asked one of them, they could take it all wrong and assume it was the start of something big. Julian wasn't ready for anything big. 

He'd been relieved to learn that several male students were going to the ball by themselves. There'd be a crowd of them in the bar acting macho and eyeing all the women. He could join them. He didn't expect to see much of his mentor, Wilson Warner, who'd let slip he was taking two women. One of these days, he'd have to ask his team leader how he did it, when he kept his superhero identity so well hidden.

**

Tina was more confident than usual, thanks to her illusory face, but the habits of a lifetime are hard to break. She sat at the table watching Warner dancing with Gloria. While Warner had danced alternately with both of them, she could sense the chemistry between him and Gloria, and she felt like a wallflower. Or was it a gooseberry? A cross between the two, she decided. A wallberry. Or a gooseflower. She knew Warner would rather dance with Gloria exclusively all night. She should make herself scarce and let them get on with it.

There must be somewhere where she wouldn't feel so conspicuous as she did sitting at the table on her own. She visited the ladies' room and admired her reflection in the mirror for the first time in her life, until a group of girls came in and looked at her strangely. They must think I'm so vain, she thought, as she hurried outside again.

She went to the bar, where there were several groups of people, laughing and chatting together, and a few couples. No-one seemed to notice Tina, but she was sure she stood out like a sore thumb. She could turn round and walk out, but that would look silly, she decided, so decided the best course of action would be to get herself a drink. Hopefully she could project an illusion of being a femme fatale on the prowl, who'd never be alone for long.

Tina couldn't find a space to squeeze into at the bar. The single men were leaning on it, even though they already had drinks. Nobody moved aside for her and she began to feel very stupid indeed.

'Having trouble?' someone said. 'Here, let me. What would you like?'

What did people drink at events like this? She decided on gin and tonic, even though she'd never tried it before, because it sounded sophisticated.

'Thanks,' she said, as the young man handed her the drink. He must be a student, she supposed. Not as big a hunk as Chain, of course, but rather sweet nevertheless. His hair was a tad shaggy, and a rich caramel colour. His formal suit looked slightly too big for him, but Tina could hardly mark him down for that, since she herself had borrowed her dress from Jade. 'How much do I owe you?'

'Nothing,' he said. 'It's a free bar.'

'Hey, Jules,' somebody called from the middle of the crowd. 'Come here, will you - perhaps you can settle this argument.'

'Excuse me,' he said, and disappeared into the group. Tina was alone again. She sipped her drink. Not bad. A little bitter, but there was an underlying sweetness which made it palatable. Was it normal the way it seemed to glow in the dark, though? Was this stuff radioactive? Surely not. Didn't posh people drink it all the time?

She resumed her wandering, and went out onto the terrace. It wasn't too cold, but no-one else had ventured out. Tina perched on a wall, from where she could watch people through the window without feeling conspicuous. She could see Gloria and Warner, still dancing. She sipped her gin and tonic, trying to decide whether she liked it or not.

'Well, hello there.' It was the student who'd got her the drink at the bar. 'I just turned my back and you'd gone.'

'Sorry,' Tina said. 'I didn't know you wanted me to stay.'

'It's just that if I get a girl a drink I like to know a little bit about her. Her name, at least.'

'My name's Tina.'

'I'm Julian. You're not a medical student, are you? I'm sure I'd have noticed you around the med school of you were. What are you studying?'

Tina was wildly flattered that he thought she was a university student, and equally certain he'd be totally unimpressed when she told him she wasn't. 'I'm not studying anything,' she said. 'I - um - I work for Scotland Yard.' That was true. As long as he didn't ask her exactly what she did.

'What exactly do you do?' he asked. 'That sounds interesting. I'm quite interested in specialising in forensic medicine, actually.'

'I can't tell you,' Tina thought fast. 'It's kind of secret. If I told you I'd have to kill you.'

Julian laughed. 'Okay. I won't ask,' he said. As a member of the Ultra League, Julian knew better than to probe. With any luck, she might share more when he got to know her better; he realised he wanted to get to know her better, very much. 'Let's talk about something else. How did you come to be here? You know some med students?'

'I came with a couple of my friends. One of them's a GP.'

'Uh-huh. Well, I expect you've guessed, I'm a medical student, first year.'

Tina smiled wanly. She'd never met a medical student before; what on earth did you talk to them about? Wilson Warner must have been one once; he was easy enough to talk to, but he was different. Julian solved her dilemma by saying, 'I like this song. Let's dance.'

By the time they tired of dancing, they were so busy laughing at the Dean of the Med School's dancing style, pointed out by Julian, and the fact that the Pharmacology lecturer's wife's petticoat was showing, pointed out by Tina, to feel anything but at ease with each other.

Neither commented, though both watched with interest, as Warner and Gloria slipped out onto the terrace together.

At five to twelve, Julian asked Tina to dance a slow dance with him. It was nice. Very nice. So nice, in fact, that she nearly forgot the time. It was only when the clock outside began to strike that she remembered - any second now, she'd lose the power to maintain the illusion. Julian would be disgusted by her if he saw her real face. The only way not to ruin an evening she'd remember forever was to leg it. Now.

'Sorry, Jules, I gotta go,' she whispered. 'It's been great.'

The music was still playing. 'Why?' he asked, but she was already half way across the floor.

'I've got to catch the last bus,' she said, and vanished. Julian tried in vain to follow her, to say he'd walk her home if need be, or travel with her on the night bus. He collided with several smooching couples, who glared at him.

By the door, he saw the card, lying on the floor, where someone had dropped it. There was a chance it belonged to her. He picked it up. It wasn't like any credit card he'd ever seen. It had no name on it, only a stylised logo of a linked chain. A store credit card, perhaps? He flipped it over. On the other side was a holographic replica of the Ultraheroes symbol, exactly like the one on his own Ultra League ID card.

Could Tina have dropped it? If so, she was like him. Different. She'd understand. She suddenly became even more of a prospect than she'd been when he'd first seen her, looking beautiful and a little ethereal, in the bar.

Warner would know right away whether Tina was a genetic variant or not; except he was fully occupied with that blonde. Julian decided it was more than his life was worth to butt in now. It would have to wait. He stared out at the darkened street. There was no sign of the girl in green anywhere. Would he ever see her again? Julian hoped so.

**

'Did you enjoy the ball?' Warner enquired when they met in the med school café a few days later.

'Sure,' Julian replied, and with a twinkle in his eye, added, 'Need I ask if you did?'

'Naturally.'

'I saw you with that woman. You seemed to be having a particularly good time to me. Are you seeing her again?'

'That depends on what you mean by seeing her. If you mean is she going to appear within my field of vision, then, yes, but if you mean are we an item, then, no.'

'Why not? You seemed to be getting on rather well, and she was very attractive.'

'Oh, yes, she is. She's someone I know reasonably well socially; a friend - that night there was a kind of magic, but somehow it wasn't there the next day. We both felt a bit embarrassed about the whole thing, to be honest.'

'Pity. I thought I had some juicy gossip there.'

'You shouldn't waste your youth watching me. You should be looking for some magic of your own.'

'I do. I did. Only she ran off before the dance finished. I didn't get a chance to ask for her number or anything. But when I tried to catch up with her, I found this.'

'She dropped it?'

'I don't know for sure. It's possible.'

Warner turned the card over and looked at the symbol. 'Whoever dropped it is one of us.'

'I know. I suppose I hoped the girl I was with did drop it, because if so, she'd understand, about me and all.'

'So what was she like, this girl? Give me a description, especially anything unusual about her.'

'I can't say I noticed anything unusual. She was a pretty girl, about seventeen or eighteen, with long brown hair.'

Warner's mind ran through all of the women he knew who might have an Ultraheroes ID card. Most were older, in their twenties. They had blonde hair, red hair, black hair or even green hair, rather than ordinary brown. Or they had some unusual feature Julian couldn't have failed to notice. Katie fitted the description reasonably well, but he knew, thanks to Gloria, that she was spoken for.

Since the ball, most of Warner's memories of the evening had faded. He remembered everything that had happened between himself and Gloria with crystal clarity; overshadowing anything else. The fact that Tina had appeared that night without the birthmark had slipped through a tiny crack in his cerebellum. So, when Julian didn't mention any distinguishing marks he ruled her out as well. 'Doesn't sound like anyone I know,' Warner said at last.

Julian sighed.

'However, someone has lost this, and they'll be looking for it.'

There was a glimmer of hope. If Warner asked around, if the card belonged to Tina, she'd come forward.

**

Meanwhile, a young woman with a large port-wine birthmark on her face searched frantically through her handbag. Why it had occurred to her at this precise moment to check if she had her ID, she didn't know; but the truth of the matter was, it wasn't in her purse where she usually kept it. So where was it? Come to think of it, she didn't recall having seen it for several days. She couldn't have lost it. It had to be in her room somewhere. Not that she felt comforted by that. Her mother or sister might have found it and thrown it away. They'd never had the slightest respect for any of her stuff. She turned on her heel and ran back home.

Turning over her room yielded nothing but an earring she thought she'd lost months ago and a coffee cup with six species of mould growing in it.

If she'd lost her ID, Chain would be furious. If it was missing, it could easily fall into the wrong hands. She was going to have to tell him; he was going to go spare and think she was a careless, silly child.

There was one last hope before she had to face Chain's derision. The card could have fallen out of her bag in Gloria's room when they were getting ready for the ball; but Gloria would have called if she'd found it. Tina's heart sank a little. Then again, it could be lying under the bed, as yet unseen. If Tina asked Gloria, she'd look, and she'd not go ballistic like Chain would, lecturing her on how important it was to look after these things.

Thankfully, it was Gloria and not Chain who came to the door. 'I think I may have dropped something in your room,' Tina blurted out.

'I haven't noticed anything,' Gloria said, 'but feel free to come up and have a look.'

Tina peered under Gloria's bed. There was nothing there. She lifted up the rug. Nothing there either. 'Damn,' Tina said. 'I've lost it, then.' With that, she burst into tears.

'Something important?' Gloria said, rubbing her back comfortingly.

'Only my ID card. I haven't seen it for days. I thought I might have dropped it here. Chain is going to go mad.'

'Not if we find it before he finds out,' Gloria said. 'Could you have left it downstairs? Nobody's here. We could go and take a look. Someone could have found it and put it somewhere safe, like on the sideboard.'

Before they had the chance to look, the doorbell rang. Tina glanced out of the window, and smiled. 'It's Wil,' she said. 'Does that mean you and he are...?'

'No,' Gloria said, peering out. 'It doesn't. We got a bit carried away. It was a big mistake. So I don't know what he could possibly be doing here. Wait a second. There's somebody with him.'

'Who?'

'I don't know. He followed Wil up the path, so they might not be connected... although they're talking like they know each other.'

Tina looked again and gasped in horror. She recognised Warner's companion only too well. It was Julian, the one she'd danced with at the ball. 'He can't see me like this!' she cried.

'What do you mean?' Gloria asked.

'That guy with Wil. I met him at the ball, only I'd fixed my face using Henry's power - and Henry's not here, is he?'

'Well, there's no reason for Wil to know you're here; I expect it's Chain he wants, anyway. Stay here.'

Gloria left the room. She'd have to face Warner sometime after their indiscretion following the ball, so she may as well get it over with. 'Hey,' she said, as casually as she could manage as she opened the door.

'Hey,' Warner said.

Julian recognised Gloria as the blonde Warner had been with at the ball, but said nothing.

'You OK?' Warner asked.

'Of course,' Gloria said. 'Are you?'

'I am. Anyway, this is Julian, one of my team, code-name Cheshire Cat.'

'Cheshire Cat?'

'When I take my neutralisers off,' Julian said, 'I fade away until all that's left is my smile. The neutralisers are the only reason you can see me.'

'I see,' Gloria said. 'I'm Gloria. One of the twins. I expect you've been told about us.'

'A bit,' Julian said.

'We were wondering if Chain was about?' Warner said.

'I'm afraid not,' Gloria said. 'He's out for the day. Can I help?'

'Possibly. You see, Julian found something, and we're trying to reunite it with its rightful owner.'

'What did you find?' Gloria asked. She had a feeling she knew what the answer would be.

So did Tina, who'd crept onto the landing to watch from the shadows. Julian was so cute, and he was one of them, too. Such a shame she couldn't let him see her.

'An Ultraheroes ID card,' Julian said. 'We wondered if you'd heard of anyone losing one.'

'Where did you find it?' Gloria asked.

'On the steps of the hall where the ball was,' Julian said. 'I was out there, just on midnight... and it was there. It looked like someone had just dropped it. Actually I wondered if...'

'There was a girl,' Warner said. 'She ran off on him, and he'd gone chasing after her. He's kind of hoping she dropped it, so he can find her again, plus she'll understand about his powers.'

'You'd like to see her again, then, this girl?' Gloria asked.

'Yes,' Julian said. 'I liked her. A lot.'

Tina shrank back against the wall. He'd liked her! He wanted to see her again! If she'd had normal looks, Tina would have run down the stairs then, but as it was - when he saw how she really looked, he'd soon change his mind, and she wasn't sure she could bear that.

All the same, she knew how to find him now. She could get his number from Wil at the next training session. She could call him and arrange to meet sometime when Henry was around, so she could absorb his power to make herself look normal for a while.

'I think I know who this belongs to,' Gloria said. 'If you give it to me, I'll make sure she gets it.'

'No,' Julian said.

'I think what Julian is hoping is that you'll tell us where this girl lives, so he can go round and return it in person,' Warner said.

'Well, I could tell you, but I know she's not home today. I don't think her family know what she is, and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want it handed to any of them,' Gloria explained. 'Honestly, the best bet would be to leave it with me. Leave me your phone number, as well, Julian - she's bound to want to call and thank you.'

'I suppose that'll have to do,' Julian said.

'Wait a second,' Warner said. 'Are you sure you're okay with this? I'm picking up some quite strong emotional stuff. Sorry, but it's hard to hide anything from a super-powered empath like me.'

'I'm absolutely fine,' Gloria said. 'I'll admit, after the ball I was kind of dreading having to face you, but now I've seen you, I'm good. We're still friends. Are you sure this is coming from me?'

Warner tilted his head to one side and frowned. 'Actually, no. It's coming from inside the house. Who's in there?'

'Just Tina. She called round to see me. Could be her.'

'Wait a second,' Warner said. 'She was at the ball. It's not her card, by any chance?'

'It's possible,' Gloria said.

'Get her down here,' Warner said.

Somewhere upstairs, a door slammed.

'She doesn't want to see me, does she?' Julian said, his shoulders drooping.

'I think a more likely explanation is that she doesn't want you to see her,' Warner said.

'Why not?' Julian asked.

'I remember now,' Warner said. 'She's been learning to project illusions, and at the ball, she sort of... enhanced her appearance somewhat.'

'Are you telling me she's hideous or something?'

'No, not hideous at all,' Warner said. 'Just not exactly as you saw her. Except she'd probably describe the way she looks as hideous. Even though it's not. Just unusual.'

'In what way?'

'She has a birthmark. One of those port-wine stains. So she looks almost as you saw her, except one half of her face is darker than the other. She's quite sensitive about it.'

'Oh. But... if she could change her appearance for the ball, why not now?'

'Because her power is absorbing the powers of others, by touching them. The guy she absorbed the illusion-making power from isn't around today.'

'Okay... but how come she didn't disappear when she touched me?'

'You had your neutralisers on. If powers are neutralised, she doesn't absorb them.'

'I want to see her. I don't care. It wasn't just about her looks. She was sweet, and funny...' He pushed past Gloria and ran up the stairs, two at a time.

'Tina?' he called. 'Where are you? Please come out.'

A door opened and she appeared. She'd pulled her hair forward so it covered the disfigured part of her face. 'Hello,' she said.

'Is this yours?' he held out the ID card.

'Yes. I'd been wondering where I left it. Thanks.' She took it.

'It's nice to see you again. I wondered if maybe we could go to the pictures, or something?'

'I... I don't know, I'd have to look in my diary. I don't know when...'

Julian crossed the landing and stood in front of her. He reached out and brushed her hair from her face. She winced, trying to retreat into Gloria's room and close the door behind her, but Julian had a tight hold on her wrist. He looked at her and smiled. 'I still think you're pretty.'

'You do?'

'Yes. It could be a heck of a lot worse, and anyway, it was your personality I liked as much as what you look like. I think you should make more of a statement out of it. Dye half your hair blonde. That would look really cool.'

'You don't mean that. You're just trying to be nice. I bet you don't want to go to the pictures with me now, do you?'

'Yes, I do,' he said. He bent and kissed her softly on the lips, 'whatever you look like.'

When he pulled away, both halves of Tina's face were bright crimson.

********

If you like these characters and would like to read more about them, You can! Here are the details:

From A Jack To A King

A royal palace is burning. The King and Queen are dead. The only hopes for an ancient dynasty flee to England for their lives.

A boy runs from his mother and the people he believes want to mutilate him, and vanishes, seemingly forever.

Gary Winchcombe, the experimental "super-cop" pursues a notorious gang of bank robbers, and starts to discover that his friends and neighbours have secrets he never could have imagined.

Tod Reynard wants to turn his life around. When he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Jade, he knows she might just be the one to help him change his life for the better. He cannot possibly know just how much.

When Jade's twin sister Gloria is kidnapped, old rivalries must be put aside and new associations formed in order to save Gloria's life and restore the rightful order of things.

Available from: Createspace, Amazon, Amazon Kindle