Monday. I've got around four days until the shapeshifter re-emerges. I need to do some scouting to figure out their possible targets. I know it will be somewhere on the north side of town, that's where all the snobby rich people live. And if there's one thing I know about this shapeshifter, it's that snobby rich people are their number one target. It also might help to get actual practice with my gifts that isn't just Emma tossing rocks in my direction.

It was time for me to get real practice. Out in the world, where people aren't going to hold back. I wasn't just going to jump into whatever danger I saw, but if I did get into some... questionable situations, I would come out of them more experienced.

I spent the entirety of school thinking about how I would pull this off. It wasn't anything daring or explicitly complicated, but I decided that it was best to have a bit of a plan before running off in the middle of the night.

The plan was simple; get home, get ready, get out.

Those first two steps were easy. I went home every day after school, so that wasn't a challenge. Getting ready would also be easy, just drop my stuff off at home and change into some less visible clothing.

Getting out required the most thought. I couldn't leave before 5:30 because my parents made sure to greet us every day after work, so I'd have to wait until at least 5:30 if not 6 just to be sure. But I probably shouldn't be leaving that soon anyway. Nobody really went to bed until at least nine. I could probably act like I'm going to bed early and head out around eight instead. The real question was how I would actually get out of the house.

If I told them that I was going to bed, I'd have to go into my room and then get out without anyone seeing me. But with three siblings and two parents that was near impossible. I could try to climb out my window, but being on the second floor made that a bit risky unless...

Unless I could use my powers to catch myself. but I wasn't willing to test that out by jumping out my window, I'd have to use my free hour to test that.

Another issue would be actual travel. I can't drive, not legally at least. And even If I could, I didn't want to take the car, that would make it obvious that I was gone. I had a bike. I hadn't actually ridden it in a while, so it might need some maintenance but a bike was better than nothing. My bike was usually in the shed in our backyard, along with all of dad's gardening tools. That would make it easy and discreet.

It looked like my bike was turning out to be the best option. It would only be around a thirty-minute trip, so not too long, even if it was more than that I'd have to get used to it, I'd be pulling trips like this nearly every day for the rest of the week.

Soon enough, English came around.

"So what are we doing today?" Emma asked.

"I actually thought that we should take a break today", I couldn't go over to Emma's house today, there wasn't enough time, and I didn't want to tire myself out before I got to do some scouting.

"You sure?" Emma looked confused, "You've been so persistent about this. You even did that weird thing on Saturday. I thought that you'd want to figure out what's up with the whole size-changing thing."

I shrugged in response, "I guess I'm a little bored of it now?" I mentally crossed my fingers in hopes that she'd believe my lie.

Emma stared blankly at me as if she was processing some complicated information, "Okay then, Are you still coming to my house after school or are you just going home?"

"Just home, I want to get my homework done as soon as possible."

Emma nodded and we switched back to actually doing our schoolwork.

Eventually, school ended. My plan was finally ready to begin.

Once I got off the bus I had to get busy. First, I dropped off my school stuff in my room. I then went out back to the shed where my bike was. After inspecting my bike, I determined that It was in surprisingly good condition. The chain kept binding up a little and the tires were pretty flat, But some oil and a bike pump fixed those right up.

Next, I had to figure out just how I was going to get out of the house, which meant I had to test out my gift on myself. If I couldn't. I'd have to come up with a different plan.

I couldn't just jump out of my window and hope. If I messed it up, I would injure myself and completely lose my opportunity to catch that shapeshifter at all. So I needed to test somewhere safe first.

My bed was an okay place to test. It was only a little off the ground so If I messed up I wouldn't hurt myself.

I jumped off my bed. Right before I hit the floor, I pointed my palms to my chest and tried to stop myself. It didn't work. My feet hit the ground and I stumbled forward.

No, that can't be it.

I have to be able to use it on myself. I have to.

I tried it again.

It didn't work.

Once again.

This time I closed my eyes and focused wholly on myself, nothing else mattered.

I jumped.

Something changed this time. I felt a strange sensation in my stomach, almost like when you hit the peak of a really fast roller coaster. I opened my eyes. I was floating a few inches above the ground.

I giggled to myself triumphantly, "It worked!"

Holding myself in the air was strange. It wasn't like anything else I had done so far. I didn't even need to use my hands, I just stopped. I released my hold on myself and I landed on the ground. Another strange thing was that I didn't need to absorb the energy, It just happened. And I bet that if I wanted to I could use it on myself without too much hassle either, but that didn't seem like the greatest idea at this point.

So I had a plan. I could totally use my abilities on myself, and that opened up a whole new world of possibilities, but I think I'd need more practice to get really creative with that. So practice I did. I kept jumping off of my bed. Eventually, I got it down one hundred percent of the time. The key was focusing my mental grasp inward rather than in front of my hands, which actually gave me some ideas.

Maybe I didn't even need to use my hands. With enough focusing, I could probably do that with things other than myself.

Just like my hair changed color, My height slowly declined as I collected kinetic energy, but the good news was that I could hold much more overall. By the time I had fully changed into my small red-haired form, my stores were only about a quarter full. For the most part, I tried to keep more than that, It was really weird to shift size as I collected/spent my energy, so It was easier to just stay around half.

I heard the rumbling of a bus as it drove by our house, which meant-

Fuck!

I still had a ton of energy stored, and was still in my tiny form. There's no way my siblings wouldn't immediately notice. I bolted down the stairs and out the back door, slamming it shut behind me.

I picked up a nearby pebble with my gift. It floated above my palm.

"I'm sorry little pebble." I apologized in advance.

I had recently discovered a new way to be much more accurate when I launched something. I could make a finger gun with my pointer and middle finger and hold whatever right at the tips of them. I don't know why, but it made it a lot easier.

I pointed my fingers and the pebble above my head and dumped all my energy into it.

The rock shot directly upward with a deafening CRACK.

I tried to track the rock with my eyes but it disappeared nearly instantly.

Soon after that, Lisa ran outside, followed by Jacob.

"What was that?" Lisa asked before turning to me, "Oh... hey Aaron"

Ugh.

"I don't know," I lied. "It was really loud though"

"Uh yeah," Jacob butted in, We heard it from inside, How can you still hear?"

I barely could, my ears were still ringing. Maybe that wasn't the best Idea. Judging by the incredibly loud noise, that rock broke the sound barrier,

"What were you doing out here anyway?" Lisa wondered.

"The weather is great, and I was enjoying it while it lasts" That was only a half-lie. It was really nice outside, sunny and breezy, warm in the sun but cool in the shade. I laid down on the grass to prove my (false) point.

"Hmm" Lisa shrugged before going back inside. Jacob followed her.

I waited on the grass for a few more minutes to sell my point.

Eventually, I went back inside. I figured I should at least work out what I was going to wear. Something dark obviously, but most of my clothes were basically black, so that didn't narrow it down much. I figured just a pair of jeans and my hoodie would do, not the best flexibility-wise but warm and dark, perfect for a night out.

The day dredged on.

I was getting so impatient. The growing anticipation burned in the back of my mind. I had spent all day thinking about this, but now there was nothing left to consider. I just had to wait.

Finally, the day wound down. The sun had set, My parents were home, and I was "going to bed early".

It was time.

I had gotten changed, all that remained was leaving.

I popped the mesh out of my window frame and propped it up against the wall before taking a few steps back.

I'm ready, right?

Okay... deep breaths.

In...

Out...

But I didn't charge forward, instead, something caught my eye.

The bag that Emma had given me the clothes in. It was lying on my desk. I hadn't taken the time to throw it out.

But then a thought popped into my head.

Nobody would recognize me.

I am going to shrink. These pants are going to become problematic, I'll start tripping over them.

And have been working on my voice so It won't be a problem.

I needed to change.

I stripped off the clothes that I was going to wear and into the ones that Emma had gotten me. They felt a little on the small side, but soon that wouldn't be a problem.

I also tossed in a face mask. It had been nearly three years since the pandemic, but my parents were insistent that we all still had face masks. Mine was just solid black, I had wanted to embroider a cat face onto it, but I then remembered that I didn't know how to do embroidery.

My bare legs worried me. It was kind of cold out and my legs were completely exposed. I pulled out my socks and slipped them on. They were your stereotypical trans girl thigh-high socks, purple and black stripes, super thick and comfy, I loved them.

Much better!

Alright, it's finally time.

Once again, I lined myself up with my window.

Deep breath, for real this time.

In...

Out...

And I ran.