Chapter 1

Cursing I walked with my trashed bicycle towards home. Someone on a moped had ran me of the road, making me crash into a tree. I had been able to leap of the bike and escaped injury, but my bike didn't survive the impact. I didn't even see who did it, but I had a pretty good idea who it was. Bram had been harassing me since I started going to High School. I really had no idea why he picked on me.

Finally I arrived home and Mom got on my case, "Marc, waarom ben je zo laat thuis? " [Marc, Why are you home so late?]

I really didn't want to go into that, so I made up an excuse and got sent to my room as punishment. She so didn't understand the troubles I had to deal with in school. I spent a little time working on my tablet, till she called me down for dinner. With just the two of us, it wasn't really sociable, Mom tried to get me to talk about school and I just evaded her questions as best I could.

The next day I had to take the bus to school, my bike was ruined and before I could get another one, I would have to save up some money first. Mom was upset with me about crashing my bike, but I didn't dare explain to her what really had happened. She so doesn't understand situations for High school persons. At least I wasn't being bothered by my personal bully while taking the bus. If only they wouldn't keep raising the prices on the ride. Sometimes I envied the school bus system in America. In my country we don't have those kind of things.

Getting into school was a task into itself, as I had to watch out for the bully and walk with my large bag of books into the school. I would have liked to take only a backpack to school, but my Mom insisted that I took my books in the old style bag, which looked more like a leather case than a bag.

It was very sturdy though, it had survived my father's schooldays and still didn't look too bad.

My luck ran out as soon as I got into the school building. My personal bully, Bram, was waiting for me. He smashed my bag out of my hands and shoved me up the stairs and through the hall towards the lockers where I had my locker. Some students were watching us, but didn't do anything, probably afraid that they would be next on the harassment list. Too bad there wasn't a teacher in sight. One of them might have stopped this abuse. Bram growled, "Jij moet maar eens een tijdje in jouw kast. Mischien laat ik je er vanmiddag wel weer uit." [You need to be inside your locker for a while. Maybe I'll let you out this afternoon.]

I protested vehemently, "Alsjeblieft, niet doen. Ik ben claustrofobisch!" [Please, don't do it. I'm claustrophobic!]

He only commented, "Jammer dan." [What a pity.] Then he proceeded stuffing me inside the locker.

I tried banging on the door, but didn't accomplish more than a knock, since the locker was so cramped that I didn't have any room to put power to my arm movement to bang on the door. This was creeping me out. I couldn't breathe and broke out in sweat. A memory of getting locked accidentally in a box crept into my mind and I relived the panic that I experienced so long ago. I started screaming, "La me er uit!" [Lemme out!]

There wasn't any reaction from outside of the locker and I panicked even more. Something happened inside my head and I got a killer headache from it. Then suddenly I pushed away everything around me and everything went black as I passed out.

Antonius Highschool in the Netherlands

A few minutes after the boy Mark had been stuffed in a locker by his bully Bram, something happened to the locker. In a fraction of a second, the locker exploded silently outwards with a force so great that it wasn't contained by the steel of the locker. The walls of the hallway were pushed back and the ceiling was blown upwards. A fraction of a second later, the silent blast pushed every wall and everything in between outwards beyond the structure of the school and the upper level of the building being the roof was blown upwards up to about 5 meters. The first floor ceiling was blasted downwards and it ended up as rubble on the ground. The first floor walls managed to stay upright, though they were badly damaged.

As the blast subsided, the roof came crashing downwards unto the rubble that was left of the second floor. Fortunately school hadn't started yet, and there weren't too many students caught inside the building. As the dust settled, the first screams of pain and anguish started. Quite a few persons were trapped beneath the rubble and a few were thrown out of the second floor and lay on the ground with various injuries.

Moments later the first sirens indicated that help was underway. First a couple of Police cars arrived, followed closely by Fire trucks and Ambulances. Chaos ensued as helpers tried to help people, but were unsure where to start. A Fire department chief took charge and organized the police to keep spectators away, and look for survivors further away from the demolished building. The firemen were tasked with finding survivors and arranging EMT's to assess the injuries. A passing doctor got drafted into performing triage and emergency surgery.

As time passed by, more Fire crews, police and medical personnel arrived to help out. The most critically injured got airlifted to nearby hospitals, people with minor injuries were collected and treated in a nearby gym. Just as Rescue crews found an unconscious naked androgynous person buried beneath some rubble, two black vans rolled onto the scene. Police initially stopped them, but after showing credentials they were allowed to enter the area. The EMT looking over the naked person found the person puzzling. It seemed to be hermaphroditic as it had a small penis, as well as small but definite breasts. The person didn't seem to be too injured, but didn't show signs of regaining consciousness.

Several men dressed in black exited the black vans and moved towards the EMT with the unconscious person. They showed an Identification to the EMT and took the young person between two beefy guys and disappeared into a van. Both vans tore out of the area and as they disappeared from view, a Fireman asked the EMT, "Wie waren die lui?" [Who were those guys?]

The short answer of the EMT was, "MCO!"

Somewhere in a secured facility

I woke up with a dizzy feeling and was confused. Where was I? Whatever it was I was laying on was very hard. The walls that I could see where plain black without any markings or things to focus on. I tried to get up, but my hands and feet were tied to whatever I was laying on. My mind was a bit fuzzy and I had to really focus on my thoughts to think clearly. 'Where am I?' I thought. 'Why am I tied to a hard table? Last thing I know was being stuck inside that locker.'

My mind began to clear a bit and I started to notice more things. Like the fact that I seemed to be completely naked. My head was tied to the table as well and I could only move it a little to each side, but not up. Then my feeling indicated that there was something on my chest, but wasn't I naked? I couldn't see, so I had to guess. Also something didn't seem right between my legs. My penis was still there I think but I couldn't feel it much. I started yelling, "Help. Alsjeblieft, help me, Ik moet naar de WC." [Help, please help me, I need to go to the toilet.]

I heard a door open but I didn't get a good look at the person entering the room. The door closed again and I couldn't even see where it had been. The person approached me out of sight and a rough male voice asked, "Tell us who you are and what you did at the school."

I was fluent in English, but I didn't want him to know that. "Ik begrijp je niet!" [I don't understand you!]

A rather unpleasant looking male face appeared above my head, "I know you can speak English. Answer me now! Who are you and what did you do at the school!"

I sighed, "Fine, my name is Marc Bandsma. I didn't do anything to the school. I was locked in a locker by a bully and then I blacked out. I'm claustrophobic you know."

The man spoke again, "You don't look like Marc Brandsma. In fact you don't look like a boy anymore. We think you caused all of it. You'll be charged with willful destruction of property and several counts of attempted manslaughter."

I thought, 'What? What happened? Wait, I'm not a boy anymore? What am I? What happened at the school? All I remember is getting a headache and blacking out.'

"Got nothing more to say, have you?" The man asked.

"Yes I do, I want to see a lawyer." I said.

"Too bad, stinkin mutiescum don't get to see a lawyer. We put them away directly." The man snarled at me.

"That is quite enough, Sergio." A new voice, female this time, sounded from where I guessed the door was.

"Come on, Gloria! I've barely begun with him, her, whatever." Sergio whined. Yes, he actually whined. The woman was probably his superior or something.

She must have motioned, because Sergio disappeared. The woman's face came into my field of vision and she was quite beautiful, if not for the scowl on her face.

For a moment I had a thought that I would get a better treatment, but now my hopes sank again.

She did untie me, so that I could sit up. That didn't do much for my confidence and sanity though. I looked myself over and nearly fainted. There was a flabbiness on my chest that looked like budding breasts. That couldn't be right could it? And my penis was a lot smaller. There was some kind of crease beneath it as well. 'Oh shit, are they turning me into a girl?'

Then I noticed that my hair was longer, it was brushing my shoulders. 'What the hell is happening here?'

The woman threw an overall at me, which I quickly donned. Then she spoke to me, "You're in a lot of trouble Marc. Why don't you just confess to what you did to the school!"

I was getting upset again. "I didn't do anything. I already told the other asswipe, I was stuffed inside a locker and I blacked out. I don't even know what happened at school. I don't even know where I am now and how I got here."

"Well, I think it's obvious that you're a mutant and that you destroyed your school."

'What? My school is destroyed? Wait, they think I'm a mutant?' "I didn't do anything. I can't be a mutant." I snarled at her.

"Oh but you are a mutant. The fact that you're turning into a girl is already prove of that." The woman simply stated.

"I don't believe you. Somehow you're doing this to me. Why are you turning me into a girl? I want to be a boy again. I want out of here and away from your stupid questions. Let me go!" I was yelling at the end.

The woman glowered at me, "You're not going anywhere. You're going to tell me what you did and how you did it."

"Ik wil naar huis!" [I want to go home] I yelled, before a weird sensation started in my head. Suddenly everything was moving away from me, even my overall was blown to shreds and I blacked out again.

Somewhere in the secured facility

The woman, whose name was Gloria Besson, suddenly felt something push against her and everything flew away from the boy/girl at great speed. She was thrown against the wall before it buckled and flew out against another wall. The second wall couldn't contain the blast as well and buckled. Only the third re-enforced wall held and Gloria slammed against the debris, losing her consciousness.

Alarms started blaring and people started crawling out from under the debris or running up to the affected area of destruction. Somehow the ceiling was re-enforced enough that it had held against the blast. It was buckled but still in one piece. One man had his foot crushed between walls, and another had an arm trapped. Most injuries were minor fortunately. Near the epicenter of the blast, the operative Gloria Besson was found unconscious and crumpled against a wall. At the epicenter, a naked androgynous person, who looked more like a girl than a boy, was found unconscious on the floor. She was taken to a different facility drugged into a coma and under guard.

Somewhere in another secured and armored facility

I came to my senses again feeling woozy and fuzzy. I was lying on a cold hard surface. 'Why am I lying on a cold hard surface?' I had trouble thinking, everything was out of focus. 'Where am I? Who am I? Why can't I think straight?' I had so many questions and needed answers.

"Hallo? Is daar iemand?" [Hello? Is someone there?] I asked out loud.

From a speaker that I couldn't see came the reply. "Welcome back to the real world. How are you feeling?"

I checked myself, other than the weird fuzzy feeling in my head I felt fine. A bit strange, like there was something not right with my body, but fine. "Okay I guess. Where am I? Who am I? Why am I here? Please tell me!"

"You're patient M. You're in this room because you are very dangerous. You blew up a school and an interrogation room."

I didn't even noticed that they spoke English instead of Dutch. I thought, 'I blew up a school? What happened, why can't I remember? What did they do to me? Oh no, what if I had killed people?' I was dumbfounded with even more questions now. I started crying softly. As I did that I sat up and noticed that my breasts were getting in the way. I was totally naked on the hard metal table. It didn't even bother me that much, I wondered why though.

For a quite some time I was left alone in my crying. No one bothered to speak to me, nor did anyone come by. After I was done crying, I felt hungry and thirsty. I spoke up, "I'm hungry and thirsty, can I have something please?"

"It is not safe to give you anything. Just lie down and sleep. We'll see if we can get you something later." Came the speaker voice again.

I was enraged and suddenly something clicked in my brain. I knew somehow that I could do something. I let go with all that I had and I pushed against everything in the room. Well, not pushed with my hands or something, but with some kind of invisible powerful force. The ceiling dented a little, but bounced back after my pushing force diminished.

The use of my power cleared my head though. I felt great and invigorated. Suddenly I remembered again, I was Marc Bandsma, a boy that was harassed in school by bullies. Then my current situation dawned on me. As I looked at my naked body, I felt a dread passing through me. 'Why am I looking like a girl?'

I screamed, "Nee!" and pushed outraged against everything around me. The metal table buckled beneath me and the walls of the room started to crack. The ceiling even lifted off a couple of centimeters as I released my fury in my pushing power. Somehow I knew that I had some kind of mutant pushing power. Pushing this hard with my power burned up my rage pretty well and I sank down on the ruined table totally exhausted. My head was pounding with a bad headache and I wanted to sleep.

I heard some hiss and looked up to see some gas being pumped into the room. Before I could do anything, like holding my breath or pushing with my new found power, I saw stars and blacked out again.

Somewhere in secure and armored bedroom in the facility

Coming too was a renewed experience, I felt really good. A bit fuzzy, but smiling at the good feeling. I even giggled. That woke me up a bit more. 'I giggled? But I'm a boy aren't I? Boys don't giggle.' Then I remembered, I'm changing into a girl. Somehow this didn't even bother me. I just giggled again. Waking up totally now, I noticed that I was dressed in sort of coverall and laying on a bed of some kind. A door opened and a woman came in. I looked at her, somehow recognizing her.

I has seen her before and hadn't she been interrogating me? 'Oh now I remember, she was relieving the annoying man. He called her Gloria. Gee, since when do I have such a good memory?' "Hallo, Gloria." I said a bit too cheerfully. 'Why did I feel so cheerful, maybe it was because I felt so good. There was something that I needed to remember, but it was too fuzzy for me to grasp it. But my memory was so good or was it?'

Gloria scowled at me, "Can it Miss Bandsma." She pronounced it wrong, it sounded like 'Bendsmae'.

But I didn't feel like correcting her. She continued, "That is twice you blew up a room, apart from the school. You're obviously very dangerous. I'll have no choice but to transfer you to one of our most secure testing facilities. They'll find out what makes you tick and if you survive, you'll be a much more compliant subject."

Suddenly the door opened again and a man appeared in the opening. "Miss Besson, I'm sorry to interrupt, but the mother of the kid is here. She has a signed document of the local justice department to take custody of her child."

Gloria Besson glowered at the man, "Stall her, we need more time to get this specimen out of here. I don't want to lose her to some ignorant parent that sets her loose on the unsuspecting outside world."

A familiar sounding voice came from behind the man, "You'll do no such thing. I'm taking my child back home and you're not stalling nor hindering me. I'll sue your asses off."

I saw my mom appear in the door opening. "Mam!" I cried.

"Marc? Ben jij dat?" [Marc? Is that you?] asked my mom.

"Ja, sorry dat ik er iets anders uitzie." [Yes, sorry that I look a bit different.] I replied to her.

Mom hastily got in the room and unbuckled my restraints. I hadn't even noticed the restraints in my stupor. As she helped me get from the bed, she glowered at Gloria, "There has been ample proof of MCO's abuse of helpless mutants that need help, instead of being treated as criminals."

Gloria glowered back at Mom, "Your child has destroyed one school with casualties and two rooms in an MCO facility. She's dangerous and should be locked up for her own good."

"That's not for you to decide. She is entitled to a fair hearing, not a persecution by an organization that is known for their mistreatment of human beings."

Gloria was even more enraged, "That is not a human being, it is mutant filth! Nothing more."

For a moment I thought Mom was going to slap her. "That's it, we're leaving. I dare you to stop us. You're already facing charges as is."

She guided me out of the room and quickly rushed me through corridors and halls. I barely registered where we were going. Of course I had never seen this building before and I was a bit out of it from the medication that I had been on.

While we were walking, well in my case more dragged, I noticed a glass wall. On the other side was a strange woman dragging a strange girl in a hospital gown along. I waved and immediately she waved back at me. 'That is odd, it was like a mirror. But I don't have long black hair past my shoulders. My hair was as they call it a dirty blond. Do I look like a girl now? I do have the beginning of breasts I noticed. But she was an attractive looking brunette. And that woman didn't look like Mom at all.'

I looked at Mom and for a moment her image shimmered, but then was Mom again. 'I'm sure that it is the drugs they gave me. How can it not be Mom! Only she would get me away from here, right?' Now I was starting to think of conspiracy theories myself. I giggled again, which was strange. After all I wasn't a girl, or so I thought.

We exited the building through a gated entrance, with some guards glowering at us. Hey, what can I say, my Mom rocks. She managed to get me out of there without any problems. I smiled at the guards and waved. They looked like they were about to draw their weapons at little old me. 'What am I thinking? Did I just thought of me as a little girl? That can't be right! Must be the drugs again.'

I didn't see our usual car waiting outside, she must have parked it somewhere else. Mom was dragging me to a corner of the building, where a dark blue van was waiting with its engine still running. I found it a bit strange, but didn't think anything of it. Mom however went straight for the van and wasn't surprised, like I was, when the side door slid open. A strange man stood there, "Everything went okay?" He asked.

"Sure," Mom replied.

I looked up at her and suddenly her image shifted from the familiar visage of my Mother to a strange woman. Wait, she looked like the woman I had seen in that mirror glass in the building. Before I could react or say anything, the man from the van sprayed something in my face and I blacked out again.

Somewhere in a moving van on the road

I woke up partially, or at least still groggy from whatever drugs was still in my system. With a detached mind, I looked around me. There was a man driving the car, another man sitting in the back doing something and a strange woman reading something from a laptop. They didn't notice that I had was conscious, well at least partially conscious. I wasn't up to doing anything, including thinking straight. I looked down at myself and noticed that I was wearing a pale pink dress. 'Why am I wearing a dress? Oh, I'm a girl. No, that isn't right, I am a boy. Or am I? Let me check, Long hair – check. Breasts? Small but there – check. Well, I must be a girl then. But I wasn't I think. What did they give me? Did they gave me mind altering drugs? Why did I think I had been a boy? Why am I thinking so slowly and fuzzy.'

There was a bump in the road or something and I shot up a few feet, coming down I bumped my head against the side of the van. The resulting pain of hitting my head woke me up more and suddenly I knew everything that had happened. I had been a boy, somehow I was turning into a girl and these people in the van had dressed me as a girl. They were kidnapping me!

I was enraged and very angry all of a sudden. I pushed out with all my might, but this time managed to keep my clothes on. The van couldn't withstand my power and literally exploded on the road.

Suddenly I was sitting on a seat on a bare strip of metal with wheels attached. It was still moving on a road, but I saw a turn coming up towards an exit with a mall close by.

I couldn't steer or break the remains of the demolished vehicle, so for a moment I panicked. Then it occurred to me, I had a mutant power that involved pushing. I pushed outwards as hard as I could and the remnants of the van slowed down considerably. On the other side of the road, several cars skidded of the road and trees and signs on my side were blown over by my power.

As the wreckage of the van struck a curb gently, it stopped completely and I got off the remains of the van. I looked around and didn't even see my kidnappers anywhere around. There was a pile up of cars way back where I had come from, but that was it.

Fearful for my sanity and life, I jumped clear of the wreckage and ran towards the mall. I ran all the way and arrived at the mall gasping for air and feeling stitches in my side from running too fast. I dashed inside expecting to find shelter and a place to hide from whomever was hunting for me. 'How can I be a wanted person all of a sudden?' I wanted to call home, but I didn't have a cell phone on me. Nor did I have any money for a public payphone. Even if I could find one. With all the cell phones nowadays, they were in the process of being removed everywhere.

I found an out of the way corner where I couldn't be seen and hid there from everyone. I sagged down against the wall and silently started crying into my arms wrapped around my face.

I woke up when a loud sound came my way. 'Shit, I must have fallen asleep. That is a cleaning machine coming my way.'

Just as I rose up from the floor in my corner, a man pushing a cleaning machine came into view. He startled seeing someone in the corner and I ran past him fearing he would hurt me or hand me over to those MCO goons again. I ran through the now empty mall and ignored the shouting from the cleaning guy.

Hiding from view I rested for a moment. No one seemed to be hunting me for now. The cleaning guy must have thought that I had already gone out, I hoped. I waited till the lights went out and the doors got locked. Now I was really all alone in the mall. Well, maybe not, maybe they had security guards walking around in here. I hoped they only patrolled the area from outside in the cars. The malls didn't employ a full service of mall security I think.

Walking around the empty mall made me realize that I was hungry and thirsty. There were a few vending machines still on, but I didn't have any money. I was contemplating to use my power to just open such a machine up and get what I wanted, but I was afraid that I would totally trash everything inside it. I still didn't know how my power operated and how I could control it.

Strolling along the mall I noticed the food court. They would have some things I could eat and drink. And if I was careful enough I might be able to just blow out the doors and not damage the goods. Desperately I aimed a hand at the door and tried to use my power. At first it didn't do anything. Then just as I was about to give up, a powerful blast from my hand blew out the door with the whole frame and part of the wall. Even the inner door was blown 10 meters away. "Wauw!" I exclaimed seeing the carnage I just caused.

But then the alarms started to go off. I quickly ran in and grabbed some sandwiches and bottles, before running out again.

I hid in a dark corner of the women's toilets and quickly ate some sandwiches and drank from a bottle. I hoped the security that were going to investigate wouldn't bother to look in here. My hopes were crushed as the door swung open and some guy said loudly, "Is er iemand hierbinnen?"[Is there someone in here?]

I kept quiet as I could and tried to hide. It was no use though the man started swinging open doors and soon saw me crouching on a toilet seat. "Daar hebben we dan onze dief. Hoe heb je die deuren zo kunnen vernielen, meisje?" [There we have our thief. How did you trash those doors like that, girlie?]

Then he called out to someone else that he found me and was about to grab me. In total panic now I pushed out with all my power and the guy flew away from me into the sturdy wall. He hit with a loud thud and sagged down to the floor.

I totally lost it now, I thought I had killed him. I ran out from the toilets, straight into the arms of another man. This one held on to me, but I pushed out again with my power, trashing the not so sturdy walls and pushing the man that held me through one of those walls.

Free again I starting running, looking for a way out. I thought I finally found one when several men in black poured in through the entrance and pointed guns at me. I pushed out with my power again and managed to push them all out of the building along with the doors and part of the wall. Even I was astonished with the result and was about to run towards the exit. I never saw where the dart came from, I only felt it hitting my back.

As I reached around at what hit me in my back, I thought, 'Oh no, not again.' But then I blacked out again and sagged into a heap on the floor.

Somewhere in secure and armored bedroom in the facility

Waking up in a strange bed, being tied down was getting really old and boring. I sighed from frustration. I was probably back in the clutches of that mutant hating organization again. I was tied down securely on the bed and couldn't move more than my fingers. I did the only thing I could do, I started crying. I don't know why, but it felt good crying. But I had never cried so easily and this much before. Why didn't I have a problem crying now?

Then it hit me, again. I had been turning into a girl. I thought that it was something that those people had done to me, but they said that I was a mutant and that I was doing it to myself. 'That can't be right, can it? Am I a mutant? But why am I turning into a girl then? I've never heard of a manifesting mutant, getting turned into a girl.'

As I was crying, someone stepped into my room. I looked up and saw to my dismay that it was that bitch Gloria again. She snapped at me, "Stop crying you little brat! You destroyed another building after escaping from here. Not to mention the van that you were in was totaled and all the damage that you did to the other vehicles. I guess you killed or drove your mother away with your dangerous powers."

I just kept crying and didn't say anything. I wanted to tell her that the woman hadn't been my mother. And I did know that I didn't destroyed the mall. I only blew the front out of the shop and the doors. 'They shouldn't come after me like that, it's their fault that I had to blow the wall with the doors.'

I didn't tell her anything though. Finally I realized that telling her the truth wasn't going to help me any. She would spin it to her advantage and consider anything I said as an admission of guilt. I just kept in crying, sniveling and sobbing. Gloria got tired of me doing that and left not too long afterwards. A few other men and women tried to get me to talk or something, but I didn't do anything other than cry or sob. One woman was kind enough to untie me, so I could sit up and bury my head in my knees. I got a stale ham and cheese sandwich after a while and a paper cup with water.