All characters except Susanne Taylor belong to Marvel Comics. I made none of them up, and am using them solely for my own personal amusement. I am making no money, so please don’t sue me. Susy belongs to me, the poor girl.

NOTE: { } = thoughts
// // = telepathy
+ or - = chat room chat
~ ~ = music

Prologue

October

Susanne put her book down and sighed. She was too tired to concentrate and too awake to sleep. Moving to the sink in the corner of her room, she splashed her face with water in an attempt to cool the hot autumn night. Seeing her hands coming out of the water, she studied the tips of her fingers, trying to understand the power they held.

No answer proffered itself, so she decided to wash her feet, always a relaxing activity. She lifted her feet into the sink, and floated before it, bobbing gently on the air.

Her mind wandered; she thought about school. They continued to give her far too much homework. Ben continued not to notice her (but that was hardly surprising, he was older and therefore didn't notice anyone). Mrs Langley was still off; her son (an ex-sixth former) had died last Friday, a car accident. She muttered a little prayer for them. It occurred to her that she didn't know an awful lot about what happened to most of the Year 11s or sixth formers after they left. One former pupil was an MP, one had become a prison governor, another worked at the pub opposite her house. Otherwise? There was that Northern guy who buggered off to London with his girlfriend half way through the lower sixth. He was cute. What was his name? Jonothon something. Something weird. Starsmore. Bizarre bloke. Cute but bizarre. Wonder what happened to him?

Drying her feet, she decided to do something else. She was fed up of being alone, so she headed for the computer downstairs. Scromffing on an apple, she logged on to her chatroom and looked for a familiar name.

One found her first:

+hola floater!
- skin! howya doing?
+ok, you know how it is.
-*smile* yeah.
+done anything new?
-nah. i can't do a lot anyway, with the number of bigots round here.
+anti-mutant? i thought britain was moderate.
-well, i can't compare, but people here aren't very tolerant - comes of being one of the most rural counties in england, i suppose.
+i've always been a city boy myself. where i come from they shoot you if they don't like you.
-that's terrible. here they just beat you up. well that's the old country for you - less technologically advanced.
+not my old country, chica
-no? what is?
+Viva Mejico!
-si? cool. *admires skin's heritage*
+anyway, you were saying, no room to fly?
-not really, but i can walk on air. it's mega cool. it's like normal walking, but about two centimetres off the floor. doesn't half save the feet.
+*laughs*hey, you gotta meet my friend husk, she just came in.

"Paige, chica, come say 'hi' to Floater."

"Who?"

"Brit chic. Having difficulty finding the privacy to develop her powers."

"Whatever."

+Hi Floater, this is Husk. Hope you do okay.
-thanks alot, it's great to get support from so many people all over the world.
+Yeah, I know how hard it is. Sorry to go so soon, but I'm very busy. Nice to meet you.
-you too.
-*bid husk bye*

"D'ya know where Jon'thin is?"

"No, sorry, haven't seen him."

"Well, don't spend too long on that, it's night training in ten minutes."

"Si, si."

+well, chica, i'm back, but not for long, i've got training.
-huh? it's midnight!
+*laugh* only 7pm.
-buena sera then.
-whoops, that's italian.
+buenos noches :-)

Angelo stretched as he rose, and went to his room to change into his uniform. Evening practice in the danger grotto. Muy fun.

He wondered what Floater's life was like: almost certainly less stressful than his own; as far as he could tell, her powers hadn't left her disfigured like Jono or himself, which could only be a blessing. And she wasn't out fighting baddies every five minutes. He had never had a chance for a life like that, the barrio hadn't permitted it. He forcefully disengaged himself from that line of thought and headed for the biosphere.

E-mail me, Cynjen, the author, with comments!


The altitude of this flight is currently metres.