March 30th, 2018

New York, Manhattan

Superhuman League HQ

Chairman’s office

11:00 AM

Valeria felt happy, this was finally her being in the big ‘league’ and as she laughed at the pun she just made she thought that Howard Blake was a handsome man. If it wasn’t for the aura of despair and smarmy self-righteousness he exuded she might have deigned to try him out in her bed. Valeria didn’t like the man, but he was just a means to an end and she knew that he knew that something was afoot but he plunged willingly in the trap.

The CEO of Val-tech was sitting in the conference room with her assistant at her side, at the table Chairman Howard Blake, the secretary of defense and the Director of the BSA for all of the USA were present waiting for the contract holder to come and the press to settle down. The flashes of cameras blinded Valeria and she was forced to shield her eyes with her hand.

“Thank you, everyone, for coming to this momentous event. We are here to bear witness to the signing of a contract between Val-Tech and The Superhuman League concerning the exchange of technologies and support the two will give each other, replacing Tesla Industries.” The spokesperson, a middle-aged man in a charcoal black suit tried to sell what was happening with grand pomp but Valeria could see that no one was excited by it.

Because she was new and her tech was second best compared to that of Tesla, the female CEO could see unwillingness and doubt on a lot of faces around the table; The BSA, the SoD and even the assistant of the assistants.

Valeria could see the same from the journalists, filling Tesla’s rather large shoes was going to be difficult if she was going to be compared to him at every turn. The contract holder put the different sheets of papers on the table between the chairman and Valeria; the CEO took the pen from her breast pocket and signed the contract that she had previously read one day earlier. In this iteration of this one, Howard Blake had decided that it would not be easy for the company supporting the League to pull out easily as Tesla Industries did.

*The idiot.* Valeria thought in her heart.

It was the turn of chairman Blake and the man hesitated for a second, Valeria saw him close his eyes and wipe his brow with his sleeve, then he signed. Valeria giggled soundlessly and was happy for this victory; the League was hers, but no one knew it yet. Not a lot of people clapped, the cameras flashed and then the journalists stood and asked questions.

“Why did Tesla Industries pull out?!”

“Why Val-Tech?!”

“Chairman Blake, why did your best friend suddenly desert you?”

It all made the chairman scowl, adjust his lapel and said, “No comment.” And he left the conference room by flying to the door at the end of the room, bypassing the gauntlet of journalists and reporters to where his security waited. Then the sharks turned to Valeria who was smiling like it was the brightest day of her life.

“Miss Harvey, how did you get to be chosen as Tesla’s replacement?”

“How do you plan to help the League?”

“What are your plans, miss Harvey?”

Valeria stood up, put her hands on the table and leaned into one of the microphones on it and said with a big smirk on her face, “I can answer all of this with one sentence: I want to make the world better! That’s my plan. Thanks for witnessing this event folks.”

The CEO adjusted her pantsuits and gave a final wave of her hand and a smile to everyone and strutted with moxie toward the same door chairman Blake left through. As she walked to the exit like a normal human with no special powers, Valeria’s PR advisor whispered in her Bluetooth headset “Good Job, Boss.” 

It had only taken thirty minutes for everything to be complete and the reward would be a lifetime of ruling. As her heels clicked on the pavement she bypassed the pool fountain, and went down the stairs to the road leading out of the League HQ; her two bodyguards shadowed her as she spotted her limousine. As she climbed into the vehicle Valeria began to laugh in evil glee, letting go of the mask of genial amiability that she wore.

“To the hotel, Alfred,” Valeria ordered after she calmed down.

The woman crossed her legs and her bodyguards stayed alert with a hand on their weapons as they readied themselves for anything to happen. Valeria began to work on some of the techs she had pilfered from diverse sources and chatted with Daniel Long, her PR advisor, about how to spin them joining with the League and slowly take over most hero teams or gather intelligence on them.

But it was thirty minutes later that all feelings of victory left Valeria as there was an emergency report all over the media channels, on the internet and the radio. On the female CEO’s phone screen Nikola Tesla was standing in a hall on a big podium with his wife Lyla, The Justicars Team and a slew of non-identified people wearing robes with staves and glowing tiny people on their shoulders, some of those people looked strangely like rejects from fantasy movies; Elves, Dwarves, ethereally beautiful people with really white or black skin and there was what seemed to be something even bigger behind them.

Valeria’s eyes widened as she recognized the form: it was a dragon! A dragon with silver scales and big enough to be compared to a jet plane. The black haired woman stayed transfixed by this scene as Nikola Tesla who was in his signature lab coat, grey and white armor put his hands on the lectern began to speak.

“Good evening, fellow Earthlings/Midgardians.” Tesla’s voice was welcoming, friendly and warm.

Valeria had tried to emulate the same attitude but she had always come up short as she wasn’t that type of person; you could feel that Nikola Tesla was a genuinely good guy who liked to help everyone.

Tesla smirked and said, “Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as anyone. I thought we could mark this March the 30th, with my announcement of the creation of a brand new organization that I decided to call ‘The Assembly’; as I am sure that you are all aware, I had a fall out with the Superhuman League Chairman, an organization that I no longer consider representing what it stood for. Those reasons for me no longer supporting the League will be announced at a later date.”

Opening his arms wide, Tesla looked at the cameras that switched angles for everyone to be able to see all the different people.

“I am now creating The Assembly to have more representation of all the species on Earth/Midgard, there is more on this planet than just Humans and Superhumans, we have magic users.” A woman in a blue robe and a sparkly staff walked toward the camera and disappeared in a sparkle of light to reappear on the Dragon’s head and waved. 

“Elves.” Different kind of elves stepped up, they all had different skin tones, hair colors, and height. 

“Fairies and Pixies.” The miniature people flew around turning into balls of light zipping around everyone. 

“High Faes.” Tesla’s voice became more deferential as he gave a slight bow of his head to a white-skinned winter court male fae and a summer court female fae with golden skin in a green airy dress who didn’t hide any of her curves. 

“Dwarves” Two dwarves, one male, and one female walked up, they wore armor and weapons on them. 

“Humans and Superhumans.” All the easily recognized staff managers and directors of the Fortress waved at the cameras, the justicars teams and its support members did the same with smiles and laughs. “and finally, Dragons.” The big creature pushed his snout forward and looked at the cameras. Everyone could see that the dragon was an intelligent being but there was clearly a bit of disdain in his eyes. “But there are even more subspecies living alongside us, hiding in fear of us because of what we did to them in the past. This has to stop and I decided that they should come into the light and not suffer in the shadows and teach my fellow humans to live alongside them.”

“That is why I call this new organization ‘The Assembly’ because there are other beings than humans calling our little blue and green world home.” Tesla winked at the cameras, his wife Lyla clapped at that and the rest of the people behind him followed up.

Valeria’s anger was already simmering, the man had just outshined her in every way today; the company he keeps, his speech and his sincerity. The phone screen was under a lot of pressure as the black-haired woman barely restrained herself. 

*This was supposed to be my day! My shining moment! And he took it all away!* Valeria shouted in her heart.

The bodyguards on either side of her in the seat were sweating bullets as they knew how unstable the woman was; they didn’t want to finish in the hospital like their predecessors. Valeria calmed herself down and continued to look at the emergency press conference on her phone’s screen.

“The Assembly will basically do the same thing that the League was doing on a global scale, for everyone! I promise you that I will fight for fairness, justice, and freedom as for me those are more than words, they are perspectives.” Tesla announced his right hand on his breastplate and his eyes serious.

Valeria had always found this anachronism in Nikola Tesla strange, one moment he could be this goofy man with a heart of gold and the next a warrior who had seen rivers of blood flow.

“I will no longer close my eyes to evil or let any of my brethren suffer, I invite other hero teams, magic users, magical beings or otherworlders to join me and accompany us in the sun; thank you for your time, everyone!” The dragon roared as Tesla finished his speech and he breathed silver white flame out of his mouth to the roof and then the feed was cut as the normal news came on.

Valeria’s phone rang, it was Daniel Long her PR advisor and she already knew what he was about to say. They were fucked, they might have taken the League, but who could resist the appeal to work with Nikola Tesla and the Justicars team? And there were also all those unknown figures next to them, Valeria didn’t know what was worse, this sudden competition or Tesla intentionally making himself an obstacle to her plans.

Answering the call, Valeria said, “I know what you are going to say.”

“Boss, this isn’t good! Look at CNN, there’s Queen Dorina giving her own conference in Florida.” Daniel Long’s voice was panicky with a touch of despair in it.

Valeria used the TV in the limousine and kept the call open on her phone. On CNN, Queen Dorina was still as beautiful as when she appeared in World War Two, tall with golden reddish hair in a warrior’s braid and the symbol of her office, the Crown of Atlantis on her head, she, of course, wore her golden armor. “Greetings, I am not one for speeches so I will get to the point as I have important things to do. Effective immediately the Queendom is no longer part of the Superhuman League.”

Camera flashes made watching the screen impossible as the Queen dropped this bomb, the woman’s face became hard, her posture martial.

“We will now be joining The Assembly as it is taking the necessary steps to keep this planet safe from within and from without. The world is becoming a dark place, even superhumans are no longer safe and it is time for our hidden supernatural friends to join us in making it lighter. As you have been made aware by Nikola Tesla, humans were never the only species that developed on Earth, and because of your history with them, you had relegated the supernaturals to myths and legends. But they are real, completely real as we are surrounded by them.”

The queen smiled, it was a really jarring change as she was serious most of the time. “Thank you for hearing me out, and I hope that everyone will be making the right choices in the coming days.”

The Atlantean Queen left the podium and was quickly surrounded by dozens of guards. The screen faded to a blonde anchorwoman in a too tight dress, that showed off her cleavage. “As you can see the back to back announcements from Mister Tesla and Her Highness Queen Dorina put credibility to what everyone already knew, supernatural creatures live among us, and now they are coming out everywhere. The golden dragon that appeared in Italy on the 4th of this month wasn’t a fluke or a conspiracy.” The beautiful female anchor explained.

“Alfred, could you go faster?” Valeria’s voice cracked as she asked her driver.

The driver looked at her in the mirror. “Sure thing, ma’am.”

Valeria took her handbag and fished her big sunglasses from it and put them on her nose, she didn’t want her people to look at her as she was losing it. A husk, the Superhuman League was nothing but a husk now that Tesla and the Atlantean leader left; the other countries will surely follow to get in bed with The Assembly now.

The two bodyguards wanted to get away, they could literally feel the anger and hatred coming from the woman. When they got to Valeria’s hotel the woman began systematically breaking everything she could get her hands on, and destroyed it; one of her bodyguards died in her rampage and taking a life strangely calmed her down.

*Fine, if that is how you want to play it, Tesla, then this is war!* Valeria decided as she cleaned the blood off her hands in the bathroom’s sink.

 

---

 

Pocket dimension

Daphne Snow School of Arcane Art

02:00 PM

Nerine was scared, she had met talented people before but Elissa Von Braun was another brand of genius; the girl could barely make a spark of lightning or a breeze when the Mermaid had taken her in as a disciple, now? Now, she could create wind blades and balls of lightning, those were advanced lessons that Nerine intended to teach Elissa next semester.

They were now in the garden-pond amphitheater, the place Nerine preferred to teach at and the pond was connected to her underwater dwelling too.

In the middle of the platform, Elissa was learning weapon bond, a storm mage ability that will enable her weapon to be used as her spellcasting focus if she meditates with it for one hour. A storm mage can have a maximum amount of three weapon bonds. Elissa had really insisted with Nerine to be able to learn it for the simple fact that she won’t ever be disarmed of her weapon she bonded with unless she was incapacitated. If Gram was on the same plane of existence, she will be able to summon her sword causing it to teleport instantly to her hand. 

Elissa suddenly opened her eyes as they glowed in a mixture of blue and white, the same as Gram’s blade, she stood up and giggled in happiness and threw her sword in the pond, then willed it back into her hand; as it appeared in a flash of electricity Elissa conjured an ice construct in the form of a round shield around her free arm. She went into a fighting posture, somersaulted from the platform to land on one of the stone benches, making slicing movements with Gram that created wind blades with each movement.

As for Nerine, she was excited, elated and scared.

*This girl is going to do great things, maybe my destiny was meeting her to guide her?* Nerine told herself.

Storm arcanists were soldiers of destiny and beings of fate manifested, a storm mage knows they are set apart from the world, and that their fate is one of greatness. These magical warriors are capable of channeling their magic through their weapons and unleashing the terrors of the storm. Many tend to be arrogant, and self-righteous, believing in their superiority over others. Some search for their unknown destiny, while others wait for their fate to be revealed. Most of all they share a connection that makes the earth shake and air tremble with power. 

So, Nerine wasn’t surprised of finally finding someone like her; and her pupil was really easy to get along with, Elissa always listened to her but also had her fair share of questions. Just tidbits that were seemingly innocuous about how she circulated her energies or what type of mental image she used, but after getting to know the redhead Nerine understood that the young woman was getting to control her mana and proficiency through what the mermaid told her.

Elissa, to Nerine, was a really fast learner, but the young redhead knew that she was shamelessly cheating with her genetic memories. The redhead obtained the sum of experience, memories, and Knowledge of her ancestors and used their life, martial and magical skills to train at breakneck speed.

Nerine looked at the time on her CLO and noticed that it was almost the end of their private teaching session; she didn’t want to stop as she was having fun and wanted to pass to the water element magic lessons, however, time was time.

The sorceress clapped her webbed hands. “Elissa, that will be all for today.”

“Huh? What, already?” The young woman looked at her with a surprised expression, consulted her CLO and frowned at it before pouting childishly.

*Yes, she’s a delight to teach. But I noticed that everything I teach her gets used in her combat training.* The mermaid thought.

Nerine giggled, “Young Lady, you have spent one hour meditating that’s why time passed so fast.”

Elissa stared at her sword. “The bond was really slow going, but I felt that something bad would happen if I went too fast.”

The young woman was always wary when she used a new spell or technique related to mana. Weapon Bond was more about synchronizing yourself with your weapon and it was even more difficult as Gram was an artificial being.

Smiling mirthlessly, Nerine walked toward the pond, not looking at Elissa. “Yes, you can say that. You wouldn’t be able to bind with this weapon for a month if you had failed.”

“Well, it’s good that I didn’t fail,” Elissa said.

“Indeed, dear.”

Elissa put Gram in her tattoo storage and took her issued messenger bag on the middle stone bench facing the platform. She waved goodbye to her teacher who waved back and plunged into the water; Elissa left running toward the entrance of the school’s building, weaving through the students in the other courtyards, and gardens. When she reached the plaza at high speed, Elissa saw Dawn and stopped near her.

As for Dawn, she wasn’t happy at all lately, even though now she has a hot geeky girlfriend; however, she also felt not worthy of her as Elissa was simply overwhelmingly stronger and more talented than her. She didn’t want to feel this way about her girlfriend, she needed to speak with Elissa about this problem; if she let her feelings fester it will poison their relationship. It didn’t help things that Elissa was getting too touchy-feely with the girls in their dorms and it made Dawn mad and afraid that she would replace her with someone more beautiful and stronger than her.

*Tsarra and Sarah are her types, and Tabs is cute… Wait! I shouldn’t be thinking about my friends like that!*

Elissa poked Dawn’s shoulder but suddenly found that her girlfriend had teleported and her hands were glowing with a purple glow ready to attack the person who startled her.

“Ah, it’s you.” Dawn sighed in relief and let go of the space severing spell she was about to unleash.

The space mage really didn’t like to be surprised this way.

“Well aren’t we on our guard today?” Elissa walked toward Dawn, caught her and gave her a deep kiss that curled her toes.

They made out like this for another five minutes, not caring that others could see them; the show they put on broke the heart of a lot of the boys and reassured the nymphs and elven girls present that they won’t have to compete with the school’s most beautiful girl.

When Elissa finished tongue dueling with her girlfriend, she hugged her and smelled her long hair; earlier she had felt the cloud of bitter jealousy and gradual unhappiness float around her. The redhead wanted to know what was happening to Dawn and if she could fix it, being an ancient human did give her an edge knowing the mood of the asian girl but she didn’t feel experienced enough to guess what was wrong. Her uncle Achilles or her Dad would know instantly but she had no idea what she should do. Elissa swore that one day she will get to master most of her innate abilities, if she had grown up on Phantasia she was certain that she wouldn’t be this ‘crippled.’

The wards signaled to Elissa that a group of people were at the entrance of Pioneer Park, the young woman held Dawn tight and told her to be quiet for a second; as she closed her eyes, Elissa looked through the monitoring outside wards.

Three blondes of different height, a tall black young man and two black girls are at the entrance speaking about how late Elissa was. And then the redhead realized who they were instantly and pulled back from the security wards.

“Danny and the others are here, beloved,” Elissa said lovingly.

Dawn grinned at the news.“Oh? Finally, they are here, it’s been a while.” Then she stiffened, reddened a bit and said, “and ‘beloved,’ really ?” the asian girl joked.

Elissa rolled her eyes, then took Dawn’s face in her hands while parting the bang covering her beautiful amber eyes and said, “Well, I love you, Dawn.”

Dawn become tongue-tied, looking at Elissa with her mouth almost reaching the floor by the declaration. What was worse? Dawn could see that Elissa was sincere and not just saying it like that. She felt happy but her traitorous brain asked her ‘but do you love her?’ after all, they had just started dating three weeks ago. “Oh. It’s… not that long since we began dating you know, it’s-”

The asian girl saw Elissa’s expression become sad and disappointed, but she quickly covered it with a smile and by saying, “Take your time to sort your feelings, mine are set in stone. Come, the others are waiting.”

Dawn followed Elissa their two hands linked together as they went walking on the white cobbled road leading out of the pocket realm. On the way, the asian girl didn’t know how to feel, she felt connected, attached and happy with Elissa; but those ugly feeling inside her showed her that she wasn’t all the way there. Dawn had noticed how intense Elissa could be when she was with her, how loving and trusting the redhead could be. There was a definite difference in how she treated Dawn and the rest of their friends, so she shouldn’t feel jealous.

The two young women passed the meadows and woods full flowers and greenery where most of the Unicorns and Centaurs had their territory; those two species lived in permanent Yurt dwellings on a wooden platform made of materials such as steam-bent wooden framing or metal framing, canvas or tarpaulin, Plexiglas dome, wire rope, or radiant insulation.

The girls waved at the unicorn and centaur students and went on their way. When they reached the border between the mundane world and the pocket dimension the two girls smiled at each other.

“Do we pull them in and scare them?” Dawn asked?

Elissa’s gave her a dark smile. “You are so evil, I like it.” and kissed her cheek.

Elissa then turned her head to the visible border, it was showing the outside world but it was as if the girls were seeing it through a film of plastic; the redhead commanded the wards to latch onto the six people outside and drag them in.

Energy tentacles caught each of the girls outside and struggled to bring in Donovan who fought them but once they found purchase on the boy’s body they were sucked into the pocket dimension. All of them landed on the ground before Dawn and Elissa who smiled evilly at them.

“Welcome to the pocket dimension, everyone.”

Danny Sparks and her boyfriend Donovan stared dumbfounded at the two girls, and after the fright they just had they guessed that they were behind it. The blonde girl scowled at Elissa and Dawn.

“You two are bitches,” Danny said between her teeth, electricity passing through her blue eyes.

Dawn and Elissa said in unison, ““And Proud of it!””

Jamie and Emilia looked around them, they were now in a different place from where they were previously; the cobbled white road and green woods on either side of it brought up a certain picture in their heads. 

“We ain’t in Kansas anymore,” Emilia quipped.

Carolyn and Erika stood up and stared daggers at the two mage girls who seemed unrepentant of their action. They heard someone gasp in surprise and turned behind them to see Jamie look at Elissa as if she was a different person. The petite young woman walked to Elissa and touched her arm and pulled her hand back as if she was burned.

“Are you ok, Jam?” Elissa asked in concern.

The black girl nodded and asked, “Elissa how did you get stronger again?”

*If Elissa was as powerful as a bomb before, now she packed power like a nuke.* Jamie thought.

It was rare for superhumans to get an upgrade in power, and Jamie could sense both the physical and metaphysical power of an individual; Since she met Elissa Von Braun, she kept getting her worldview overturned.

The redhead laughed at that, she felt stronger since she had dreamed of Damian. “I eat all my vegetables and the coach here is a demon, you must have it easy on the academy side,” Elissa complained.

“Huh, no we are running ragged there,” Donovan interjected.

They had to run each morning, exercise their powers in the morning and pursue academics in the afternoon, sometimes the school staff mixed it up. 

“So guys, take these visitor passes and keep them on ya, ok?” Elissa took silver cards from her bag and distributed them to everyone.

“Huh, do we really need this?” Danny asked.

“Yes you do, strangers without a card are attacked by the wards and captured, it also depends on their intent. You saw how you were brought here, right? This place has its own way to deal with intruders.”

Reliving this chilly cold tentacle of energy capturing her and dragging her in, Danny shuddered.“Huh, I will take the card thank you.” The blonde girl took the card from Elissa’s hand.

The redhead smiled at that, it seems her ploy to scare them worked out. Dawn signaled everyone to follow her and the group traveled the white road, passing the woods and now the meadows. The girls were astonished by the unicorns and fairies prancing around and the female and male centaurs training with spears and practicing with swords in mock combat. Then they arrived at the school.

“Ok, I know we called you the Ice Princess, but your school looks like that palace in France...” Jamie commented.

“So, this is the magical school of Tesla Academy?” Emilia looked at all the different buildings from far away and the views on the gardens and fountains made this place completely different from their own school. Some elves were playing music on a lawn, making the fairies dance around them as unicorns watched the show.

Shifters in their beast forms ran from the woods behind them and regained their human forms when they reached the gardens as it was forbidden for them to be in their beast forms in the school facilities. Nymphs ran behind them and caught them, love was in the air; Carolyn and Erika’s eyes widened when they realized that those people were naked and they looked at Elissa who simply kept her face straight.

“There are a lot of different species of humanoids here, with different ways of life, religions, and traditions so we accommodate them all.” It sounded like she rehearsed that excuse in the mirror a lot of times as none of the people in this group believed her.

Dawn decided to change the subject put herself between Elissa and the group. “So guys, we received permission for you to come to our dorm. And it’s only because, Elissa’s mom is the Dean of the school. Follow us to the Princess Tower.” The asian girl made a ‘come here’ gesture with her hands and headed East.

Each of them nodded and followed Dawn to their special dorm. The girls began to ask Elissa questions as they walked through the school and admired the beauty of it.

“Ok.”

“Wait is it a real tower?”

“How tall is it?”

“How long are you going to be confined to school.”

The redhead did her best to answer to everything, but to the last? Even Elissa didn’t know how long she was going to stay confined to the school, it all depended on her mother’s whim. The young woman had finally found friends she could relate to but could not really partake in her youth. The Tower was here, behind the third school building and with the alchemical facilities that were nearer the woods.

“Well, fuck. Elissa, you live in luxury.” Emilia became open-mouthed.

“And we live in a dingy little room…” Jamie bemoaned.

Dawn saw Elissa lower her eyes, feeling guilty about what she did before she got to know those two. Like a good girlfriend, she decided to not let this poison their friendship.

“You could transfer here Jam, and Emi too,” Dawn said nonchalantly as she looked at the door of the tower, she noticed Sarah’s white head of hair peeking out of it, then the demoness exited the tower and was already waiting for them, she wore pants, a cropped top with sandals.

Jamie looked at Dawn and said, “But I am not a magic-” But she was interrupted by Elissa whose eyes roved all over her body, the black girl put her hands around her breast shyly, the skirt of her uniform fluttering.

Elissa said after examining Jamie, “Eh, Jam you got talent for it, I can see your mana core and spiritual meridians, you could become a mage.” The redhead made a thumbs up gesture at her friend.

Looking in wonder at Elissa, Jamie took the redhead’s hands in hers. “What? Really?”

As for Emilia, she was intrigued by this school too; Jamie and her getting into this prestigious school was a charity case after all. Emilia was aware that she was barely an alpha ranked superhuman, the same as Jamie who had always felt inferior to her because she didn’t have an offensive type of power like she did.

Elissa smiled. “I wouldn’t give you false hope.” She was about to pat Jamie’s head when a familiar voice shouted, “Big Sis!” Cassandra appeared in a golden shower of sparks. “Look I can teleport now!”

The redhead jumped back in fright and let her guard down when she realized that it was just her sister having learned the worst thing ever. Elissa looked at Dawn who had similar thoughts and expression on her face.

Danny looked at Cassandra’s red hair and her green eyes and the worshipful gaze she directed at Elissa and guessed that she was Elissa’s sister. Everyone stared at the little girl in the red sundress and guessed the same. The little girl ran to Elissa and tackled her, and for once she didn’t feel her breath being cut out by Cassandra hugging her.

“Hi.” Elissa kissed the little girl’s brow.

Glowing with happiness, Cassandra began to say, “Eli, did you see?!”

Cassandra tightened her hug on her sister who really began to feel out of breath when she noticed and stopped. Elissa put her sister on her own feet before her. The redhead couldn’t believe that her sister could already teleport, she was going to become a magical hazard.

Elissa realized that Cassandra never learned anything that Malicia didn’t teach her, the sorceress only let her disciples learn new spells or methods when they passed her journeyman exam, that was all shades of dangerous. 

“When did mom teach you that?” Elissa asked her sister as she crossed her arms, waiting.

Cassandra put a finger under her chin and thought about when it happened, “Huh, hmm. Last night, she gave me a book called teleportation manipulation; It was really interesting, The user can manipulate the teleportation of oneself and of other beings, and there are a lot of sweet applications to it!”

Elissa scowled and her suspicion was confirmed, was her mother that vindictive about a sword with the personality of a child? It seemed that yes, she was. The people around them were astonished by how casually those two spoke of the kind of power everyone present wanted.

“Even the kid is a genius.” Danny lamented, hiding her face behind her hands.

Carolyn looked dumbly at the little girl for a moment and made a serious face. “Damn, I feel like I am not working hard enough.”

“Glad that you guys feel like I do, she’s overtaking me at her age…” Elissa confessed. “So, what are you doing here Cassie?”

“We can be together forever now, I learned how to teleport.”

“Hum, Cass I think we need to talk,” Elissa said while taking her sister’s hand and leaving to the tower with her sister. “Guys I will be back, lemme have a talk with my sister.”

“Don’t be long, Princess!” Danny quipped. As Elissa left with her sister the blonde girl turned to Dawn and said, “You, out with it, what is wrong?”

“W-what? There’s nothing wrong going on.” Dawn furrowed her brows at Danny.

Avoiding the blonde girl’s gaze, Dawn stepped back and looked down at her feet. Danny scowled at her and crossed her arms, “We shall see, first we need to meet your other friends, this red skinned girl there. The cat girl and the elf! I am so jealous, they exist for real!”

And into the tower they went, everyone was a bit jealous of the dorms of their two friends and they got to meet Tabitha who was eating a pemmican bar. Danny, Carolyn, and Erika spoke with her and quickly got to know the cat girl. Sarah the half-demoness in her human form was getting chummy with Jamie and Emilia; it was maybe due to how beautiful she was. 

Tsarra arrived in the dorm to see the living room swamped with people, speaking with her roommates; she put her messenger bag on the floor and looked for someone who could explain what was happening. Elissa was nowhere to be seen but Dawn was free, so the elf maiden walked toward her and asked her what was going on, and why is their lair full of unknowns.

“Tsarra those are mine and Elissa’s friends from the Academy. Here I will introduce you to the leader of the group.” Dawn told her.

Danny jumped on the occasion and asked her a lot of questions about her race and if some of the things portrayed in Earth’s legend were true. Dawn hoped the elf maiden wouldn’t turn her nose at Elissa’s and her friends, however, contrary to Dawn’s expectation, Tsarra began to speak about her people. “Unlike most elves, my people the sun elves have organized their society along with a firm and hierarchical tradition. Communities are run by members of the nobility who could trace their ancestry back to the sundering, a magical cataclysm that has destroyed my race’s original planet.”

Everyone became ensnared by her story, “That is why there are so many different elven races as the survivors all migrated to different places with harsh or ideal environments.”

Tsarra became the hit of their visit, as she regaled Danny and her posses with stories of her people, it was one hour later that Elissa emerged alone from her bedroom a bit sad at having to explain to her sister the concept of personal space. Cassandra just wanted to be with her every day but she couldn’t give in to her wish; seeing the broken hearted little girl teleport was really hard on Elissa’s heart but she had to be firm with her.

Everyone turned to Elissa and subtly the balance of power shifted in the room from Tsarra to her; she didn’t do it deliberately but it always happened when she was in the room with young people of her age. Danny looked from Elissa to Dawn, her power permitted her to read the bioelectric signal from people and interpret them. This was a new ability that she developed by following Elissa’s advice that knowledge is power. She was getting stronger now, not limited to shocking people or creating forcefields; her ability was shockingly multifarious.

Elissa and Dawn were clearly unhappy but she could also see how in love this two were, it was yet again a problem of communication to Danny. Suddenly a devious idea came in my mind to the blonde girl and she just knew how to fix everything.

Danny made a sign to Tsarra to approach and she told her what she wanted to happen, the elf maiden’s green eyes sparkled with mischief. She too had noticed Dawn’s recent problem with Elissa and wanted to help but as she didn’t know about the courtship traditions on Midgard she avoided doing anything.

“Everyone, do you want to participate in an archery competition outside? Sarah, Tabitha can you prepare some snacks it would go well with what I have in mind.”

“I will add a bit of music with my wireless speakers!” Sarah added.

The cat girl shrugged, her tail high as she was confident. “I guess I can do that, Tsar.”

“We will help!” Jamie 

“I will-” Elissa began to say when Danny speared her with her electric blue gaze.

“You and Dawn will stay back there with me, let everyone do their job,” Danny ordered, she crooked her index finger at them.

“Huh, why?” Elissa asked, tilting her head.

The girls walked toward Danny who made a sign for them to sit in front of her. Elissa and Dawn sat on the black sofa while the blonde girl was still standing. “Because we need to talk.”

“What will you have of us, then.” Elissa crossed her legs and put her hands primly on her thigh, looking in her friend’s eyes.

Danny smiled evenly and began, “Elissa, I noticed that you and Dawn are not your normal selves. I think there’s something wrong with you two.”

Dawn hesitated to talk.“I-”

Elissa put a reassuring hand on her girlfriend’s arm and spoke confidently. “There’s nothing wrong, I treasure Dawn and I love her.”

Danny smirked after hearing that. “Oh, you are already at that stage?”

“I don’t know what I feel…” Dawn whispered, but her girlfriend and Danny heard her.

Elissa’s confidence melted like snow in the sun, the same as her smile when she heard Dawn, the redhead became a bit dispirited; Dawn saw Elissa sag on herself and she didn’t like that she was hurting her.

Danny sighed and began to pace back and forth in front of them. “I think you two are in love with each other, but you let little things that are the unimportant tie you down. So I will try to guess what’s happening, Dawn.” Danny looked at the asian girl who didn’t look her in the eyes and played with the plaids of her skirt. “If I was going out with someone like Elissa, I guess I would feel inferior to her or not feel worthy of her attention.”

Dawn stiffened, her hands stopped moving. “This- I don’t” The asian girl tried to say, but she couldn’t look the blonde girls in the eyes.

Danny was satisfied with herself after hitting the nail on the head. Elissa noticed and opened her eyes wide, Dawn was lying, and there was this feeling of shame and disgust with oneself that hovered over her; the redhead could scarcely believe that it was true.

“And there’s Elissa, there’s almost nothing to say to you but I guess I will brave it even if we aren’t friends anymore after this.” Danny’s expression became sad but determined. Elissa just looked at her, horrified. “What?”

“So Elissa, I know you told me that you didn’t have a lot of friends before in our private chat and that’s why you are taking care of each of us like this, but could you stop being so touchy-feely with everyone?” Danny said this in a really upbeat tone, but Elissa could feel that she was serious. The blond girl continued her explanation. “Dawn, often tells me how jealous she gets when you get too familiar with other girls. I don’t know how you can’t be aware of this, I mean you have enhanced senses, right?”

Elissa felt like an idiot, Danny was right; she had known that her girlfriend was unhappy, she had even noticed it earlier but did nothing to help. “Dawn, why didn’t you say anything?”

Dawn opened her mouth, looked at Danny then at Elissa. “I-I wanted to but…”

The blonde girl understood that nothing will improve if she stayed now, so she decided to leave; Danny raised from her seat and straightened her uniform. “You know what? I’m going to go help the others while you two speak your heart out and sort things out between yourselves. My work here is done.”

Danny left and in her wake, she left the two girls adrift in a sea of emotion and uncertainty.

“Why?” Elissa simply asked.

“Because it’s too hard to approach you on this subject…!” Dawn exploded.

“I don’t understand. I thought being nice was good, I never had good friends like Tsarra or Tabs and I-” Then Elissa realized where she had gone wrong as memories of their previous interactions in the month they have begun dating flowed in her mind. “Ah, I see.”

Dawn slicked back her hair with her hands; they were bothering her more and more.“What?” The asian girl asked, worried by the tone of Elissa.

Taking Dawn’s hand Elissa began to say, “I’m sorry Dawn, I’ve been inconsiderate. You should just have told me that it was bothering you that I touched the other girls so… ambiguously”

Dawn didn’t know what to say. “Hum…”

Elissa continued. “And my comments about saying Sarah being gorgeous and when she had her tail around my arm. If someone else touched you this way I would tear their arms out of their sockets or kill them. I am really an idiot. The fact that you didn’t teleport any of our friends to their death is a testament to your tolerance.”

Her girlfriend was having another jump of behavior, it has happened a lot recently; one moment she was like any other teenager but the other she was this mature girl that scared Dawn sometimes when she did weird jumps in logic and told her what she would do to make someone pay. 

“It’s ok,” Dawn said, hugging her girlfriend.

Elissa’s eyes misted, she held onto Dawn tightly “Please speak up, tell me what else you don’t like, please.”

Dawn obliged her, she sensed that if she didn’t do it Elissa would behave more erratically. “Ok. Hum, I don’t like the fact that there’s this disparity… of power between us.” She said sincerely.

“Then it’s simple, Dawn. Become stronger.” Elissa said.

Dawn sounded miffed by that and retorted, “Easy for you to say!”

“Me being just a bit strong is the result of my hard work and natural talents,” Elissa said self-deprecatingly. Putting her hand on Dawn’s cheek, Elissa continued, “Something that you have in spades, beloved.”

Dawn didn’t feel talented or anything. “?”

“You are a badass space mage, Dawn! And I taught you a bit of Inshek and you have good eyes and hands coordination, you are smart, beautiful. The only thing that bothers me with you, is that you are too damn shy and that you hide behind your hair.” Elissa praised her the asian girl and aired her grievances at the same time.

Dawn averted her eyes from Elissa’s. “Ah… I don’t like people to pay attention to me.”

The redhead took Dawn’s face between her hands and made her look at her; Elissa’s gaze was full of fire, a strange dichotomy for an ice magic user. “I don’t care. Could you try to bear with it, I want to show off my girlfriend.” 

Elissa closed her eyes and decided on something. “I’ll stop being too… familiar with others, I see that it pains you.” Then the young woman put Dawn’s hand on her right breast. “Do you see this body? This is all yours now, you can do whatever you want with it. But in exchange, I do the same. We belong to each other.”

Dawn felt hot as temptation began to cloud her mind and her panties becoming damp. “Shit! If I didn’t promise you not to have sex before our age of maturity…” She said huskily, 

“Nothing is stopping you from touching.” Elissa teased.

Dawn shook her head. “Please don’t tempt me.”

The redhead huffed, “Fine. On the other hand, Dawn there’s something we must promise to each other.” Elissa became serious again.

“What is it?” Dawn regretfully took her hand from the pillowy breast of her girlfriend.

“Let’s not hide stuff from each other anymore, if you feel sad, tell me, if I hurt you without knowing, tell me. And to begin, I will start by telling you that I am not human.” Elissa revealed.

Dawn nodded to that, took Elissa’s hand and linked their fingers. “I can promise that. And of course you aren’t, your mom isn’t human at all.” 

“Well yeah, but there’s more to it. I am not from Earth.” Elissa began to tell her girlfriend about her origins, that she came from a planet called Phantasia and when she was barely an infant, her family migrated to this planet via a dimensional portal. That the sun’s cosmic energy fed her body’s superpowers but that Earth’s sun was relatively weak and that made her weak too.

“Wait you could be even stronger? And is this how superhumans are born?” Dawn looked flabbergasted by this news.

Everyone knew that cosmic energy had a hand in the creation of superhumans but now coming from Elissa she knew how it worked. She wasn’t going to reveal this to anyone, there were already too many problems with superhuman slavery and breeding camps all over the world.

“Yeah, I could be more powerful. And yes that’s how it works, people develop superpowers because of the sun’s radiation.” Elissa confirmed.

“Damn.”

“I know right?” kissed her girlfriend’s finger.

Dawn felt butterflies in her lower abdomen as Elissa amorous action stirred her loins. To avoid doing anything she changed the subject, she so wanted to jump Elissa’s bones. “So you are an alien?”

The redhead frowned at that appellation. “I prefer extraterrestrial or Otherworlder.”

Dawn nodded. “Yeah it’s better, aliens has a bad connotation here since the invasion of the Vadwaur.”

Elissa began to think fast, from all the problems Dawn had told her she was having with her some solution came in mind to her. “Hum, I know of a way to make you stronger.”

The asian girl said, “Huh, but I am already going to get stronger, don’t worry about it I am your mom’s pupil now. It will just take more time.”

Elissa smiled. “Well, I will help you. But you’ll have to work for it, it will help with mom’s training believe me you’ll need it. I am worried for you because Gram threw her into a wall and her ego is bruised. She’s already scheming and hindering me.”

At that, Dawn’s mind put two and two together. “Oh, then the things with Cassie?”

Elissa’s face became hard. “Yes, it has her signature all over it. Cassie won’t be a problem I told her she can only come here if she calls first.”

“Phew.” Dawn sighed in relief, having Cassie pop up here every day and disrupting their activities would be a bother. Even though their relationship was more cordial now the little girl was a handful sometimes.

Elissa was thinking of other things now, her mind completely focused on Dawn, “Ok, now that we sorted things out…”

Dawn may be shy, but she knew how to read the mood and she was really interested in what Elissa had in mind. “Come here Elissa, kiss me as if your life d-depended on it.” Dawn urged her girlfriend, she tried to say boldly

But she wouldn’t be able to do the same if someone else was there, she let her defenses go only before the fiery redhead. Elissa jumped on Dawn, kissed her hungrily and had her hand up her skirt when someone knocked on the door of the living room. 

Opening the door was none other than Danny who looked sorry as she saw the state in which Elissa and Dawn were.

Danny began to say, “The others are asking where you are, so I came to get you-” But she had to avoid a freeze ray.

The blonde girl laughed, happy to always have her power active to speed up her reflexes. Elissa and Dawn ran after the clam jammer girl. Danny felt good to have helped those two out and saw that their relationship was intact and maybe stronger than before.