Chapter 41: First Challenge

I froze. The white napkin was still clutched in my hand and I hadn't so much as drawn away from the sight before me. I was expecting many different things. What I saw was so far removed from what my poor brain had tried to prepare me for. There was no way to hide my expression. Some of my girls were looking, but none of them were saying anything. I didn't blame them. They had let me do all the talking because Vikkor, Law and Chaos seemed to be more interested in me as a Master PC user, but now even I didn't want to say anything.

The woman lying on our dinner table had no eyes, no nose, no mouth, no eyebrows, no lips, no ridge or cheekbones. Her face had been removed or more accurately smoothed over to be like a blank piece of flesh with no real detail. The only thing to mar the smooth skin was two slits that flexed as she breathed. On the sides of her head, her ears remained perfect, untouched. Then again, it's difficult to be rude with your ears. Her black short cropped hair was also untouched.

I don't know how long we all sat there looking at the woman with no face. It was too wrong for words. She hadn't been hurt. In fact, she didn't seem to be in pain at all. I was glad for that much. The real question was why this as punishment? Vikkor had said she was being rude. How rude did you have to be to get your face removed? There was another question, "How long has she been like this?"

"Only a few hours," Vikkor answered. She was so ho-hum about the situation, it pissed me off. I may have been afraid of whom she was before, but it was quickly becoming moot. She was obviously adept at modifying people with the program. Her attitude however was what burned me more than anything. She was proving herself to be what my parents were: snobbish, better than everyone else, above all others. I would find a way to prove her wrong.

"A few hours?" My voice was calm. Anything more and I would have been yelling. However, I couldn't keep the tension out of my eyes, the edges of my mouth. This woman had only suffered this for a few hours. A few hours of not seeing, not talking, not being able to show her anger, outrage, fear or any other emotion that always comes out through our expressive faces.

Apparently I had amused Vikkor with my outrage. She was enjoying my shock at what had been done. The light smile played along her lips. She wanted to smile or maybe even laugh outright. Maybe she understood what I would do if she did. I wasn't sure what I would do, but it would have been in an effort to get this woman justice. Then I had a nasty thought. What if Vikkor had intentionally done this to see how I would react? She knew my outrage, but she would not see violence from me. Not unless she offered it first. Yeah I wanted to cross the room and deck her, but it would have led to further problems. Law looked big enough to break me in half. Would he let me hit Vikkor? I wasn't sure, but I knew I wasn't going to play that game.

I didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. I stared at her, boring into her haughty expression with a fire all my own. She sat watching the flickering light in my eyes as if trying to read what might happen. I was so mad I couldn't have known what I might have done. Maybe it was my unwavering look, or the realization that I might do something she couldn't do anything about even with the program. Whatever the reason she offered, "If you believe her punishment too severe, change her back." She made the statement with the comfort of knowing I didn't have the program with me. There was a challenge in her eyes that meant she didn't believe I could make a difference even if I had the program.

I didn't need the challenge. I just needed to know that she wouldn't try to stop me. Looking back at the woman's blankness, I thought about what I knew. I couldn't put her face back the way it was with the program. I didn't have the laptop with me and I just didn't have that kind of skill. I had changed Yvonne earlier. Molded portions of her body to conform to what I wanted. She had claimed she wanted it too, but I was certain my charm or our bond had her believing that. However, those changes were not as complex as what I wanted for this woman.

This woman, I didn't even know her name. Vikkor and I had spoken about her as if she weren't in the room. She wasn't so much furniture and I was going to prove it.

I had laid a hand on her trim belly, to help comfort her as I did my girls. She could hear just fine and I was about to speak directly to her, but before I could utter a word something happened. I could feel her anxiety, her fear through our touch. It had served to strengthen the connection I had with my girls and apparently it allowed me to truly know something of her too. Maybe my abilities weren't completely restricted to my group.

Then that something happened again, only that time I knew what it was. I was catching bits of her memories. It wasn't only her emotions I noticed, but her memories were there for me to see, too. I reached out through our physical contact and found more. Her memories were all she had at the moment, all she had for those few hours. She could remember her life, friends, family, school, and then Vikkor. With that memory was a burning anger. She hated Vikkor with a passion that far outstripped any feelings of grief I held toward my parents.

I needed her calmed and focused. I pulled her table down so I could be close to her ears. "Calm down. I'm going to help. What's your name? Don't try to speak, just think of it."

Carrie. Carrie Stover was her name. She calmed quickly and focused on my voice, my touch.

"Carrie. Pretty name. I'm going to help restore your face, Carrie. I need you to focus on memories of looking at yourself in the mirror. I know it's not something we do just to see ourselves, so try to remember getting ready for school, or work, or a date. Let me see what you see when you look in a mirror."

I could feel the lining up of her memories. Like a deck of cards and she began plucking them out and letting me see. She was very pretty. She liked using makeup to enhance her natural features.

I captured a snapshot of her looking at herself after putting on the final touches and asked her, "Is that how you prefer to look?"

She gave a slight nod. Another strap was around her neck, but it was loose so she could breathe.

"Okay, focus on that image, on how you looked in the mirror. I'm going to restore that look for you."

I stood up and placed my hands over her blank face. I could feel her desire for what she wanted to look like and I wanted it too. I wanted to see her and that fantastic look she had created for herself. I could feel the warm liquid rushing into my hands and then out into her. I didn't try to guide how the power worked, it already had everything it needed. All I had to do was focus. I could feel portions of her face shift under my hands, change and mold. I didn't have to press or pull, push or squeeze anything. All I had to do was want it.

When I felt the movement of power stop, I opened my eyes and began pulling my hands away from her face. I was astonished. Her features were near perfect to what we had been thinking about. She blinked open her eyes and stretched her mouth wide.

For a moment she worked her face into all those funny expressions we take for granted and when she felt satisfied she said, "Thank you." Her voice was dry. She hadn't had even the ability to swallow to wet her throat.

I looked around at my girls. They had sat up or stood to see the changes. There were nods and smiles. Carrie smiled back. She was pleased with the sight of new faces, but her eyes returned to me. I was her hero for the moment. I met those eyes and felt her fleeting happiness. I guessed why. She expected Vikkor to remove her face again. I sat down and held her strapped hand. In her ear I whispered, "This face is permanent. I'm the only one who can change your face now. It's our little secret."

Her smile was captivatingly wonderful, but it faded around the edges. Vikkor couldn't take away or change her face, but the rest of her body could still be altered, and Carrie knew it. I looked up to see Vikkor's expression. She didn't look happy. Even the brunette to her right chanced a look and a slight amusement passed quickly across her face. Just as quickly, it was gone and she was once again a living statue.

Vikkor had stood up while I had worked. She could have eaten hot nails and cooled them with those cold eyes. She stared at me, recalculating, reworking what she had assumed of me. She didn't like to be wrong, and apparently she had been way off on that guess.

I had done something that not only garnered her anger but it caught the attention of Law and his ladies. They had watched and the surprised expressions on his girls were expected. His astonishment wasn't. He had been quiet and still the entire meeting thus far. Nothing had been said or implied that made him want to know more, but the look on his face said plainly that I had done something of interest at last.

I looked over and found Chaos with wide eyes. Even her men had stopped to watch with open looks of astonishment. I couldn't believe that I really did something so amazing as to keep her subjects from attending her. With that thought they seemed to notice themselves and resumed their eternal tasks. Chaos herself hadn't moved. She was sitting forward as if trying to get closer without leaving her seat. With her alterations, I figured transforming a girl's blank face to something worth looking at wouldn't mean much. Maybe the fact that I did it without the program was the gimmick that interested them. It could have even been the fact that Carrie was once again wearing her own face. I didn't know.

Vikkor straightened her stance and shook off her anger, like a coat hanging on her shoulders. She sat down with the grace of royalty. I thought she was royal - as in a royal pain. She sat back, "Very well. You have passed our first challenge."

Her words didn't move me as she had expected. I had seen the challenge in her eyes. Whether it had been planned or a last minute decision didn't bother me in the least, but she was playing it off as if she knew I would pass. "What if I needed the program at hand to return her to normal?"

"You wouldn't have been so adamant about correcting her if you did. Besides, not all of us need the program to affect others as you have demonstrated."

Well, that summed it up. They wanted to know what I could do without the program, not just who I was and why I had arrived. They could do things that didn't require the program at hand. The news didn't change my expression though, I had figured as much long before we had left to come to the meeting. What did interest me was the way she and the others seemed so surprised that I had corrected Carrie's face. I didn't believe that she expected me to pass that test. She had expected me to fail already and it was only the first test. I wondered what else she had in mind.

Law and Chaos only seemed to watch as spectators. Did they even want to be a part of this? Maybe, maybe not. They might have been forced to attend but they weren't going to participate. So it was down to me and Vikkor. She would throw challenges at me and I would do my best to get through them or find it a really good reason to leave.

Yeah, leaving sounded very good to me.

Another quick clap from Vikkor cut the silence in the room and the same serving girls that had brought out the tables returned. They didn't take the tables away immediately. Instead each one moved from one person to the next licking everyone's faces clean. Another high-and-mighty abuse of power Vikkor employed.

The girl that had brought our table started with Tabitha to my far left. Tabitha was surprised at first and had pulled back.

They looked at me and I wasn't sure what to say exactly. "It's your choice Tabitha."

A slight smile creased Tabitha's lips and she turned back to the young woman. The woman curled right up to her, held Tabitha's face close and used long leisurely strokes. I was beginning to get aroused from the show. The girls looked like they were enjoying it too. Chloe, Yvonne, and Erin all allowed the girl to clean them as well. Having watched Erin with the girl, I found she was open enough to allow them to return the favor a bit.