Mona didn't like being a psychic very much.

She liked being a Chosen One, and she liked training with Ghost Knife and Replica and Casey and all of her friends... and she loved the idea of protecting the city, saving people. Fighting monsters. Being a hero.

But using 'Soul Vision' was uncomfortable. Scary, even. Sometimes the things she saw with it scared her so badly she started crying. Sometimes they made her want to throw up. But the worst part wasn't the weirdness of the images, or how scary or dark or disgusting they could be. It was that, sometimes, what she saw was just too personal. Too real. Too obvious.

Mona's soul looked like a curious little monkey, a weak, silly, pathetic little thing that couldn’t keep its hands to itself. When it wasn’t touching things it wasn’t supposed to, it curled up into a ball and cried like it was terrified. Mona knew she wasn’t perfect, but she wasn't that bad, was she? Sure, she could be pretty clumsy sometimes, she was a terrible artist compared to her sister Melanie, and she wasn't good at remembering stuff or studying or doing chores, but she was definitely not some helpless little animal!

Everyone always told her she was really smart, and nice, and helpful. And friendly. They called her the 'Angel at North Grandebelle High.' She loved it when people called her that. Why couldn’t it look like an angel instead?

The scared little monkey wasn’t even that bad, relatively speaking. The Chosen Ones’ souls were all way worse. Ghost Knife's was a giant robotic swan drenched in blood. Miss Planner's was a rotten corpse occupied by a colony of ugly eels. Replica's was a massive pile of crumpled, dirty tin foil. With souls like that... there had to be something wrong with them, right?! Were they all murderers or something?

Maybe 'Soul Vision' wasn't actually showing Mona what she thought it was. Maybe there was no special meaning behind the images at all? What if it was showing people's hidden desires or subconscious thoughts? Or the things they needed to work on, to fix themselves?

Mona needed to know the truth. There was no way the Chosen Ones were as bad as 'Soul Vision' was telling her they were. But the only way to know for sure was probably... using 'Soul Vision' as much as possible and paying careful attention to ways it didn't match up with reality.  That meant she had to use 'Soul Vision' a whole lot and she had to think long and hard about what it showed her in the hopes of understanding exactly what the visions meant! 

"Gugh!"

So Mona started using ‘Soul Vision’ on everyone she met. And then... what Mona saw when she looked at Erica's soul was so disgusting she couldn't help but throw up a little bit in her mouth.

She seemed so nice, too! Mona thought she was just a nice, normal person, kind of a pushover, almost! What even was that thing?

It looked like... ick! Three big balls of wet filth crawling with worms and maggots! Gross! And the way the worms moved around, avoiding each other, squirming, eating the disgusting brown muck they lived in... how awful! It was the worst thing Mona had ever seen! Even worse than the nasty eels living inside Miss Planner!

Why was Erica’s soul like that? It couldn't feel good having that horrible thing inside her! Her life must be really hard. Maybe she was mentally ill or something. Maybe she was dying. Mona felt sorry for her. 

"Mona, are you okay?" whispered Casey. "Don't you want to try on the armor?"

They were inside Erica's office. It wasn't a big space, and it wasn't very comfortable. Some of the furniture had plastic wrap on it like it'd just been delivered. The air wasn't circulating. It was still, stale. Maybe the vents were clogged. An uncomfortable smile crept its way onto Mona's lips. A fake smile. A forced one.

"I'm fine, I'm just thinking about something," said Mona, feeling a little guilty for making Casey worry. "Why don't you try it on first?”

Oh God.

Erica's aura was bulging out of her skin. It was pale green, with little dark shadows flitting through the light. And it was writhing around like the worms and maggots inside that big brown mass of filth! Mona hated it. Hated how creepy and ugly it was. It made her stomach churn!

Ignore it, Mona. Just ignore it. It'll all be over soon.

"Well? How do I look?" asked Casey, posing a little bit awkwardly.

Casey's face was completely hidden beneath the black helmet, a solid oval with two big red glass domes over the eyes. The armor was rather intimidating, made of sleek black synthetic mesh with bulky armor panels that bulged outward all over. Even with how short she was, Casey looked powerful and dangerous. Almost like some kind of alien monster.

"Wow, Casey! That looks- it looks really slick on you! So black and... wow, cool!" said Erica in an anxious, slightly miserable sounding tone of voice. "As I was saying... the Soul Shell is designed to strengthen and expand your psychic abilities. Did you want to test it out?"

Casey gave the slightest nod of her head. She hesitantly pointed her finger towards one of the chairs with plastic wrap on it and began circulating her aura. The helmet's eyes flashed bright red.

'Shake!'

The chair vibrated intensely. Then, it shot across the room and exploded. Pieces of broken, twisted plastic flew through the air, narrowly missing the terrified, frozen Erica, who let out a quiet yelp of fear. Mona gasped.

"Oops! Sorry!" said Casey. She took the helmet off her head and turned her body towards Erica apologetically, like a little kid in trouble. "I didn't mean to do that. My power is, um, way weaker normally."

"It's fine," Erica muttered. "You just startled me, that's all. I'll clean up this mess... and then, m-maybe Mona should give it a try?"

Mona shook her head firmly. She was absolutely, one hundred percent sure she didn't want to put that armor on! If 'Soul Vision' got any stronger she was afraid she might go crazy!