Ravela stood in her barn, levitating her stash suitcase to the roof beams. The files on the altered patients from the hospital are secured inside.

 

There, they would remain till she wished to study them once again. Other than the superficial powers they gained, the main point she concluded was that most of them had to be her victims, but it seems the authorities were entirely in the dark about how these people came to have their abilities. Meanwhile, Ravela had used her free time to work on her home during the week, and she was increasingly proud of the results. The basement was now fully stabilized and renovated to her liking.

 

It would be some time before she would start the construction of the lower levels, but before spring would end, she would have the supplies in place and the rest of the house renovated to the point of satisfaction. Then she’d dig a big hole and burrow herself a shelter so she could be in her own skin away from prying eyes.

 

The ground floor was coming along nicely, and she took joy in preparing the house to become her sanctuary. Once the hull was reformed and the structures to her liking, there would be many improvements. More bedrooms for guests she’d never let stay over, except maybe the girls, an office on the first floor, a library with a nice cozy chair for her to ready in. The entrance to the basement would be hidden in the dining room behind a heavy wooden cabinet, leaving the master bedroom hatch as the main entrance.

 

She plans to furnish the basement with nice smooth floor tiles, a bathroom, and a walk-in closet, making it her true bedroom where she could sleep as herself.

 

Ravela put together the kitchen floor tiles while she thought about her hidden entrance in the basement. It would lead to her bunker and her true home.

 

‘Secret, in a secret, in a secret.’ Ravela giggled.

 

As the tiles floated into place, she thought she could start some of the earthworks before driving back to the motel. The energy coursing through her still had her awake and parched for long enough. She had to eliminate the excess and have at least one good night of sleep.

 

The tiles settled in perfect rows, arranging just as Ravela had planned. She checked and double-checked that the pipes she had placed herself wouldn’t cross with the wires she planned to pull through and place the outlets.

 

As the afternoon progressed, her home took shape more rapidly. Thanks to the groundwork she laid over the last months, things fell into place—the transformation from building sight to all but furnished home went smoothly.

 

If she kept up this pace, she might get all her construction done before graduating from the police academy. Then the furnishing would start, and she could build a generator to supply her home and hideout with energy. She would be able to operate fully independently once the water purification unit got connected to the modern well she planned. The only thing she’d have to pay for would be the wastewater disposal her contractors had connected her house to once water ran through her house.

 

Ravela kept working on the ground floor for the rest of the afternoon, putting the finishing touches on the living room and the two guest rooms she had planned for the ground floor, tiles, a bathtub, a sink, and a toilet installing themself under her watchful eyes in the guest bathroom.

 

As the evening progressed, she worked her way up the stairs, floor boards moving into place as she walked the stairs, putting themself into place as she walked.

 

Soon, she would have to spend her free time in a boring motel room and could not work on things that mattered, like proper protection from the Bomber and a facility beyond primitive shelter. Ravela had blueprints rushing through her head as she worked on the first floor.

 

The time approached midnight when Ravela finally left her house, having made leaps in the past three days, which, in contrast to the work in the months before, truly showed.

 

Walking out behind the field behind her house toward the little forest belonging to her property, she stopped and took deep breaths. A slight drizzle started, and she felt the fine mist spray on her hot skin. The sensation was a soothing contrast to the energy fever that plagued Ravela.

 

Her arms reached out, and the ground began to shiver. She closed her eyes as the earth moved gradually. Ravela dug deeper and deeper, peeling away at the layers. Nodes of grass ripped apart as the tremors became a bit stronger.

 

The hole that appeared before Ravela grew as the removed mass of dirt piled on off to the far sides of the planned limits of the bunker. She could yet go to the full depth she wished on account of the stability of the hole and the groundwater. As the earth moved, Ravela saw a golden glow across the field the more she exerted herself. It looked almost like a fog slightly above the ground, traveling slowly, thickly flowing with the dirt she moved.

 

She felt the heat rushing through her body and her mind lifting with the help of the energy she expelled. It felt marvelous as the rush cleared out her tiredness and pumped her full of adrenaline. The feeling of light shining through her eyes as Ramiel’s form became vaguer, small rifts of light formed on her forearms, struggling through the mask she wore, eager to reveal her true form hidden under the ring. She put her arms back out and watched the fine rain drizzle on her skin. Wherever it touched the cracks of light on Ravela's skin, the water evaporated upon contact. Her joy was boundless, and she felt oh so alive.

 

Minutes passed like this, and the world seemed great. As time passed and the hole grew, Ravela felt the energy weaken and eventually subside. She no longer glowed, and neither did the earth floating about the place. The novelty and effortlessness of the sensation subsided and were replaced by the strain of her mind as she moved the last of the dirt. There was a world of difference between working with the support of Crystal Energy and doing it without its help.

 

Ravela walked to her car, exhausted but satisfied. She’d sleep like a baby tonight, but before that, there would be a big glass of water waiting for her that wouldn’t feel like it turned to vapor as it ran down her parched throat, and Ravela couldn’t wait for that satisfactory feeling.

 

She turned off the box generator and stowed the equipment in the barn. Before she got into her car, she removed the water stuck to her clothes and skin.

 

When she fell into her pillow a short twenty-minute drive later, she was asleep before she knew it, a huge grin on her face.

 

…

 

Ravela woke up rested and relaxed on Saturday morning. Smiling, she rolled onto the side and checked out the clock on the nightstand.

 

It was still too early for her to get up and head out to pick up Laena. She stretched and kicked off the blanket. There was no harm in getting her day started a little early. In contrast to her thoughts, Ravela kept lying on her back for a bit longer. Idling on the bed, she wondered how Laena would complicate her day.

 

The last few newspaper issues had Michael’s and Becca’s faces in big format depicted. There were two prices on her head. She pulled one of the papers to her, holding it between herself and the ceiling. Ravela once again read the name she had given her character. Michael Manus was called in big letters Michael Menace. Pulling a face, she spoke the name into the empty room.

 

“Michael Manus…Michael Menace… Manis…” She frowned, not realizing that she was saying the name she gave herself in disguise weirdly indeed. To her, she had said the word right.

 

‘Maybe they gave me this name to make me sound more villainous to the public? Are you trying to mobilize the public against me?’ Ravela reread the article and found that the details about her being wanted were vague. Espionage wasn’t exactly a term that resonated with her. Theft, maybe. Evading arrest, certainly. Assault on a Federal Agent had her in an uproar still. Hadn’t she been the one assaulted? Espionage, however, was implying that the patients were somehow state secrets, and that didn’t ring true to her. Too many kids, parents, and witnesses knew about the Altered patients to call it a state secret, and there was no doubt in her mind already that a great many journalists were hard at work putting the weird incidents in connection to the patients, forming a bunch of hypotheses on their origin.

 

Her thoughts flicker to Atla Jaest for a moment. She would revisit her soon enough, if only to see her reaction to meeting Michael again. As ‘The Menace’, she had to know who she could count on.

 

She looked at the offered reward for tips that led to even her identification—20,000 dollars for any tips that led to the arrest of Becca or Michael. The government had, if nothing else, tipped the hand in the direction they were investigating her. Ravela figured she could use that, later on, to misdirect their efforts further if the need arose.

 

Ravela stood up from the bed and threw the paper back onto the nightstand. It was time to get ready for the day.

 

She spent an extensive amount of time in the bathroom, relaxing in the tub.

 

On the drive to the school district, Ravela resolved to cooperate with Laena as best she could. Surely, showing Laena the information she gathered and giving her good advice should help steer the girl to a more productive and security-oriented path.

 

She spotted Laena pacing up and down the sidewalk despite Ravela being early. Ravela sighed; the girl seemed to have a lot on her mind. This wouldn’t be an easy day for Ravela.

 

Coming to a stop beside the nervous teenager, Ravela motioned her to get into the car, not that the girl had waited for his invitation.

 

When the car door closed behind Laena, a flood of words, questions, and general complaints washed over Ravela like her car had fallen into a river of unending noise.

 

“Good morning to you too, Laena,” Ravela said before driving off with Laena still in hyperactive communication about, as far as Ravela could tell, all the things.

 

Ravela pulled into the parking lot of a burger joint she liked and, for the first time, got Laena to slow down.

 

“No, no, not Watu Burger. Let’s go to Xialong’s instead.” Laena complained.

 

“I like the fries here,” Ravela stated, mildly annoyed that the teenager would complain about where she’d get her free food.

 

“Well, Xialong’s has the better fries, come on, pleeease? I can see their sign just down the road over there.” Laena pointed at a pole showing a red snake on a dark green background.

 

Ravela sighed and pulled out of the parking lot to indulge Laena in her preference. “Fine, we’ll go to Xialong’s, but while we’re in there, you can’t keep bombarding me as you did for the past ten minutes, not just because of privacy concerns.”

 

She wanted to have her breakfast in some manner of peace.

 

“But listen, I am telling you that guy saw me.” Laena insisted.

 

“Even if this Michael Menace,” Ravela cringed now that she knew how she said that name. “Even if he saw you doing something stupid in that moment, he currently has way bigger problems than getting revenge on a teenager, don’t you think? I mean, why would he even come after you?”

 

“I don’t know. I mean, he probably won’t, but what if he comes after me? What am I to do then? That maniac went toe to toe with the fricking Supersoldier.” Laena said, a bit panicked.

 

“The Supersoldier?” Ravela asked curiously.

 

“Major Buster jumped out of the history books, and honestly, how did you get your high school diploma?” The teenager scoffed.

 

“Maybe because this Supersoldier wasn’t exactly part of the questions. Tell me about him.”

 

“Major Buster was the poster boy for the US Army in the Second World War. He was half the reason why the war ended as fast as it did. And in the park, he was suddenly there. I never thought I’d see him, and he threw punches with that Michael guy. And…And where the hell were you during all of this? The Major could have used help, Ramiel!”

 

Ravela was taken aback by the accusatory tone. “How do you know Major was in the right? I don’t interfere in others’ business, especially when I don’t know the participants. I was in the hospital, gathering the information I wanted to gather.”

 

“Because he’s Major Buster! Are you kidding me right now? The man fought the worst people on the planet for us.” Laena protested.

 

Ravela asked her next questions to give Laena something to think about. “And who says the US government doesn’t see these new…Powered as the next Major Buster? Who’s to say they won’t pressure them to serve with their abilities in the military? How do you know on whose side to intervene without knowing either side?”

 

Laena looked at him, frustrated. “So you ignored the two Powered going at each other, and what did you even gather while the FBI and Police locked the whole place down.”

 

She didn’t appreciate the tone of the teenager. “For one, I probably extracted ALL the information the two from the papers tried to steal before they could take it and got out of there when I was done.” She paused a second before blatantly lying to Laena. “And I did all that without getting into a fight and chase with Major Buster, the Law, this Michael, and Becca. I also didn’t linger, didn’t try to interfere, and lo and behold. I got out of there without anyone taking note of me. Why, Laena, how did you do? Did you get out of there as we discussed? Or did you stick around in the park till something happened, and now you lay your impulse reaction at my feet?”

 

Laena crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and turned her head to the window after that knockout.

 

‘That shut you up, didn’t it?’ Ravela thought with some satisfaction, pulling into Xialong’s parking lot. “Look, I didn’t interfere because, like you, I was out there as a civilian. We shouldn’t get involved in anything before we can be sure we’re not exposing our identities. You know I am right about that. You are strong, Laena, and you will soon become even stronger. But if you’re really afraid that this Michael will come to get you, I will build something that allows you to call me for help. Would that put your mind at ease?”

 

Laena looked out the window as they sat in the parking lot, still pouting. “Would you even come if I called?”

 

Ravela’s expression softened a bit. “If you call for help, I’d come even if I couldn’t guarantee nobody could see my face. So, do you want to eat breakfast, or do you want to stay in the car and mop?” Ravela said while getting out.

 

Laena jumped out the door. “I wasn’t moping, and I want the big box of fries, a cheeseburger, and some chicken wings…and oh yes, they got these banana balls with honey they fry, and a Snakeinator with bacon and…”

 

Ravela stopped briefly and looked back at the teenager rattling off her breakfast menu, all but forgetting about her previous worries. She scolded herself for offering to pay for the meal of a teenager in the biggest growth sprout of her life while being altered. There was no doubt that her appetite would become a lot more ravenous as her body evolved into full adulthood.

‘Whenever that would be.’ She thought with some scientific curiosity.