Synopsis of Part III
====================

Michelle and Tina have been separated, with Tina still suffering from
a memory loss. Michelle heads on to Las Vegas with Tina wandering
aimlessly. Hank has allowed Tina to escape, hoping that she will lead
him to Michelle. She doesn't.

Michelle flies to Las Vegas and then finds it hard adjusting as a
woman. She befriends a local prostitute, LaDonna, who helps her.

Tina recovers part of her memory, while the people following her lose
track of her.

Michelle begins to adjust better as a woman, but is noticed by the
local group of witches. They take LaDonna prisoner and mess with her
mind, as well as transforming her into a duplicate of Michelle.

Hank, Tina, Sarah and Mary discover Michelle's whereabouts and fly to
Las Vegas. As they land, Tina and Michelle finally meet, but
immediately decide to leave town. As they do, they are followed.
 

Reminder of Characters
======================

Since it has been so long since the last part, I have once again
produced a quick reminder of who everyone is.

Michelle :  The main character. Used to be Michael. Has telekinetic
powers. The only person that knows about her abilities is Tina.

Tina     :  Was saved by Michael. Accidentally transformed Michael
into Michelle.

Sarah    :  Tina's mother. Also saved by Michael.

Mary     :  Member of the Falcon's leading council. Been generally on
Michelle's side since the beginning but bound by the rules of their
kind.

Hank     :  Member of the Falcon's leading council. Had more dubious
intentions for Michelle.

Richard  :  Another member of the Falcons. Has a day job as a police
detective.

Gary     :  Member of the Raven's leading council. Encountered
Michelle in Las Vegas

Tanya    :  Leader of the Raven's

Maria    :  Also a member of the Raven's. Gary's partner.
 

Dream Girl 4
============

Chapter Twenty-Eight
====================

Tina and Michelle pulled up behind a car, which was waiting at a stop
sign. They were approaching the town limits of Las Vegas and couldn't
wait to get out. They were in danger every minute they were here.

While they were waiting, Michelle decided to ask Tina a burning
question that she couldn't get out of her head. It was what happened
to her when she had sex with Harry, the telephone engineer. Michelle
wanted to know why she had felt the uncontrollable need to please
Harry. Was it temporary or a permanent feature of her transformation?

Tina was taken aback by the question. "Well, it's kind of
complicated. The thing is, the spell was only designed for short-term
use. I don't what the long-term effects are without checking," Tina
replied. The question was very much sprung upon her and she didn't
know how to respond properly.

Michelle nodded meekly, realizing that Tina didn't have all the
answers immediately.

"Look, as soon as we're clear, I can do some checking. But don't
worry about it too much. We can always find ways around it," Tina
reassured. Tina wanted to put Michelle at some ease, but part of Tina
knew that 'ways around it' might mean 'getting used to it'.

Michelle looked ahead and saw that the light was green, yet the car
in front hadn't moved on. Feeling impatient, Michelle sounded the
horn, thinking the driver in front hadn't realized the lights had
changed. The driver still didn't move.

Some movement in the rear view mirror caught Michelle's attention.
She saw a car was fast approaching from behind and wasn't slowing
down.

Before either of them could act, the car from behind impacted,
throwing their car forwards into the back of the car in front of
them. Both the driver and passenger airbags exploded in their faces.

By the time Michelle was able to bring herself to her senses, the
door was already open and people were tending to her. She slowly
slipped into unconsciousness again.

***************

Crystal slowly woke up in her Master's bed. There was a fuzziness in
her mind. Gary noticed that his new toy had just woken up and walked
over to the bed. He noticed that she was patiently waiting for
instructions. Tanya had ordered him to keep most of the LaDonna
personality intact in case Tanya wanted to question her further.
Although he rarely went along with her wishes, he complied on this
occasion, because he was curious as to what made LaDonna tick. She
had given him a very tough fight. Few normals had lasted as long as
she did under his mental assault.

Gary didn't know what to do with her in the long-term. He could
completely re-write her personality and make her into a different
person, or he could leave most of her current personality intact and
just impose restrictions on how she acted, namely that she would be
totally loyal to Gary and the rest of the Raven's.

Even at this early stage, Gary was leaning towards the latter. He
could create an obedient slave any time he wanted, but Crystal would
be something different. Even in her current state, she still had her
own mannerisms and quirks that made her unique. He didn't want to
destroy those unless he had to.

Eventually the voices in Crystal's head grew too strong to ignore.
She had to know what was happening. "W-what have you done to me?"
Crystal cried softly. She didn't raise her voice too much because she
knew that Gary was her master and she didn't want to risk infuriating
him.

"We've made some changes," he replied to her question, surprised at
how forward she was. She was clearly still fighting him. He loved her
fighting spirit.

"I-I look like L-Lisa," she blurted out as she examined herself,
while remembering what her new image was like after she had been
transformed. She still only knew Michelle under the name Lisa.

"You are now," Gary remarked. After they had captured Michelle, he
had given them both a much closer examination and compared them.
Maria had been close, but not totally exact, so she performed another
transformation making her totally identical to Michelle physically,
although Gary had to agree to lend Crystal to her from time to time
as part of the arrangement.

"B-But why?" Crystal asked.

"Because I can," Gary replied, "Oh come on. Don't try and tell me you
don't like it. I can see the look in your eyes. You love your new
body, don't you?"

Crystal thought for a moment then replied, "Yes"

There was another pregnant pause, after which Crystal asked, "How
long will I have to stay like this?"

"Oh... only the rest of your life. I can turn you back any time I
choose. But I won't. You belong to us now... forever. So get used to
it."

"What if I don't want to play ball?" Crystal asked feeling slightly
more confident.

Gary smiled, "You will, one way or another. You've heard the old
saying 'you can do this the easy way or the hard way'. Well that's
how it is with you. You WILL do whatever we want you to do. But if
you give us any shit at all, we can make your life a living hell."

Crystal said nothing. After all, what could she say? The silence was
broken by the sound of a phone ringing by her Master's bed. Gary
reached over and answered it.

The person on the other end told him that Tina and the other woman
were beginning to wake up. They were about to question them. Gary
wanted to be present and had asked to be informed. He was as curious
about this mystery blonde woman as the rest of them.

"Wait here until I get back. Stay on the bed and don't make a sound,"
he ordered. Crystal's programming told her that she had no choice but
to obey. She made herself comfortable as Gary left the room.

"On second thoughts they can wait a little longer, give me a blowjob
instead," he commanded.

Again, Crystal found that she had to obey. She scurried over to Gary
and dropped to her knees in front of him, her hands immediately
making their way to his crotch.

***************

Michelle woke up slowly. Her head was pounding. She could feel a
strange tightness around her neck and her arms seemed to be
completely outstretched. She tried to move her neck, but felt
resistance. It felt like she was wearing a neck brace. She remembered
being involved in an accident and wondered if she was in hospital.
She tried to move her arms, but they wouldn't budge. Her legs seemed
equally immobile. She was able to ascertain that she was in a
vertical position, but not much else.

As her eyes came into focus, she saw that some of her long hair was
draped in front of her face. She shook her head as much as she could,
given that her neck movement was restricted, moving the hair
partially aside. She looked around and saw that she was in a large
darkened room, with several people looking straight at her. They all
had a piercing stare.

Michelle looked over to her left and saw Tina unconscious. Her eyes
widened in shock as she saw that Tina was strapped in a vertical
spread-eagled position to a large metal bondage frame. Tina's arms
and ankles were bound by leather restraints and attached to hooks on
the four corners of the frame. She also wore a leather belt, which
seemed to also be attached to the sides of the frame. Tina was also
wearing a leather neck collar which was several inches thick. Apart
from that, her body was totally exposed.

From the sensations that Michelle was receiving, she deduced that she
was strapped to an identical device. This was no medical institution.
She was being held captive. She could feel the cool air on her body,
suggesting that she too, was naked. Her arms and legs were strapped
in an identical fashion and she was wearing a similar neck collar.
Because she was in a vertical position, her arms were totally
stretched, basically supporting her.

Tina began to stir and awaken. She also went through the process of
examining her surroundings and reached the same conclusion as
Michelle. One of the women stepped forward.

"Welcome to our home," she said patronizingly to both of them.

Tina focused on the woman who had just spoken. Michelle could see the
fear in her eyes.

"Tanya Davies," Tina said slowly. She immediately recognized the
leader of the Ravens from photographs.

"Correct," Tanya replied. "And you're Tina Adams. We haven't met, but
we looked you up in our files. You're a bit young to be out here all
alone."

Tina said nothing. Tanya turned and walked slowly toward Michelle.
"And who do we have here? See it's strange. We don't have a record of
a Lisa Trent being part of the Falcons." Tanya was waving Michelle's
false identity at her. "We know all the members and you're not one of
them. So who are you?"

"She's a new member," Tina interrupted. "You won't have her in your
files. We haven't had a chance to tell you yet." Tina was struggling
to speak clearly against the neck collar she was wearing. "It's
normal to tell the other groups about new members at the time of the
Spectacle. That's some time away."

"Good answer," Tanya remarked. "Okay, so who were you BEFORE you were
a full member."

"She was - ", Tina started.

"SILENCE," Tanya stopped her, "I want her to answer."

During the exchange, Michelle managed to work out that these people
were probably members of the Ravens and they had taken them prisoner.
She also knew what Tanya's angle was. The Kithra were only allowed to
introduce new members from their own offspring. There were no
exceptions.

"Jenny," Michelle replied with the first name she could think of.

"Jenny who?" Tanya demanded, her eyes boring deep into Michelle.
Everyone in the room knew Michelle was lying when she said 'Jenny'.

Michelle couldn't answer. She knew that she wasn't able to give a
convincing answer.

"You're not on the bloodline are you?" Tanya turned to Tina, "Who was
she?"

"I-It was all an accident," Tina said, "It never meant to turn out
like this."

"No shit," Tanya replied. "You know the rules. And you should have
followed them."

"I-I couldn't. She saved my life. How could I hurt her," Tina cried.

Tanya didn't respond to Tina and walked up to Michelle. "I want to
know your real name and I want it now," Tanya demanded in the most
menacing voice possible as she threw Michelle's false passport at
her.

"M-Michelle's my name now," she responded, stuttering.

"And what was your name before you were transformed? I know you were
a man," Tanya stated.

Before Michelle could answer a man walked up to Tanya, apologized for
his intrusion. She withdrew as he whispered in her ear. She listened
then turned to Michelle and Tina, "We'll continue this later," she
laughed and turned to Maria, "Why don't you start 'work' on them",
she said.

"With pleasure," Maria replied clapping her hands together sporting a
huge grin on her face.

***************

Mary, Sarah, Richard and Hank had begun their search for Tina and
Michelle. They were trying to discretely discover if either of them
had been seen. This was no easy task.

Hank had split off from the rest of them, claiming he could achieve
more working on his own. Mary wasn't totally happy with Hank going
solo, but appreciated his position.

Hank began by scouting around for a particular member of the Ravens
with whom Hank had sustained an understanding. He wouldn't trust him
as far as he could throw him and the feeling was fairly mutual, but
they did have a mutual respect for each other. Maybe he could find
out some information from him, but he could only do it on his own.

Twenty years ago during the war between the two groups Hank used the
same contact to his advantage, although it ultimately resulted in the
death of Tina's father.

Tina's father, John was a young member of the group at the time, at
least in Kithra terms, but even at his young age he proved to be a
great persuader, a talent usually lost in all Kithra members, because
if they ever needed something badly enough, they could use mind
control magic. John didn't need to use magic though, a skill that
could prove invaluable in convincing the other groups to help them.

John was on a mission to enlist help from the other groups. The
Ravens had learned about this mission. Although they didn't believe
any of the other groups would help, they sent a team to 'intercept
him'. Unfortunately for them, their intelligence was slightly wrong.
They believed that they were two members of the Falcons on this
mission and their 'hit squad' eliminated them both.

After they'd 'taken them out' they quickly learned that the person
accompanying John had been one of the Eagles. The Eagles were
sympathetic to the Falcons, but were also peace loving and therefore
they were unwilling to intervene, but they did come up with a plan.

The plan involved the remaining two groups and if agreed, would mean
an end to the fighting. The Eagles wouldn't exactly fight with the
Falcons, but all groups would help to protect the Falcons, though not
to attack the Ravens.

It was a stupid plan and in reality it would never have worked, but
that didn't stop John from trying. The nature of John's mission was
to secure the approval and support of all the remaining groups for
the Eagle's plan.

Hank knew it was impossible. It had been virtually impossible to get
the groups to agree on anything throughout history and gaining
agreement from the others would be more difficult than getting a
unanimous UN resolution in the middle of the Cold War. John was good,
but not that good.

However, the Ravens didn't know the true nature of the mission. They
believed that it was two Falcons who were about to strike a deal with
the other groups and effectively buy their support. They were not
sure how desperate the Falcons were and if they conceded enough, the
other groups might be interested. John and his companion were
slaughtered in cold blood in an extremely savage attack, even by
Raven standards.

The Eagles were totally horrified and enraged at what they saw as an
unprovoked attack on what was, for them, a mission of peace. It was
the equivalent of Pearl Harbor for them, dragging them into the war.
It turned the tide and allowed the Falcons to fight back. Although
the war ended with no clear winner, at least the Falcons were still
alive, which was seen as a victory for them.

However, there was a tremendous burden that Hank had to carry. It was
no accident that the Ravens discovered about the mission. Hank had
been the one to inform them and he had used his Raven contact to do
it. Twenty years ago, when he met his contact to discuss what
amounted to a possible surrender, he knew that his contact would have
his hotel room searched while they were meeting.

That is why Hank allowed them to 'find out' certain details about the
mission, although the information was very vague, so that they would
have to make certain assumptions. Afterwards they would realize they
had made the wrong assumptions and would blame themselves for the
error. It worked to absolute perfection, but as always with these
things, there is a price to be paid.

***************

Tanya was in the corridor just outside the secure room. Her entourage
had followed her. She turned to the person who had just interrupted
them.

"Okay, so what exactly do we have?" Tanya asked the man.

"A group of Falcons are in town. We think they just arrived on a
recent flight and they've been snooping around."

"Co-incidence?" someone suggested.

"Like hell it is," Tanya snorted. "How many?"

"We won't know for sure until we've checked with the airlines, but so
far we've sighted three."

"I want them brought here now," Tanya demanded. "Don't force them,
just... invite them to somewhere public, say the parking garage."

"And if they refuse?" the man asked.

"They won't," Tanya stated.

Tanya looked back to the secure room where Michelle and Tina were
being kept and wondered if she should continue her interrogation.
After toying with the idea for a few seconds, she decided not to.
Instead she would give Maria a chance to soften them up first.

"Call up everyone. I want every Raven put on alert for now. I want
everyone out of town to be recalled unless it's absolutely necessary
that they stay away," she barked and various people rushed to carry
out her orders.

***************

Back in the large room, Michelle and Tina had been left with Maria
and another man. Both Michelle and Tina were trying to plead with
Maria, so the first thing she had done was silence them both. She
inserted an inflatable gag into their mouths. Michelle, who was
first, had resisted initially, but Maria threatened to break her jaw
if she had to. Michelle soon relented and opened her mouth

Once the gag was in place, Maria buckled it behind Michelle's head.
Then she pumped up the gag, causing it to inflate inside her mouth,
filling every crevice. When completed, she moved on to Tina. Michelle
tried to speak, but no sound came out at all. She tried harder, but
the gag was extremely effective. She could barely make a sound.

After both their gags were in place, Maria returned to the center of
the room. She began to arrange some items on a small medical trolley.
The man in the room walked up to Tina and studied her. Then he moved
toward Michelle, but this time his stare lingered. He began to stare
at her breasts.

"Nice rack," he muttered. "Do you mind if I feel."

Michelle tried to protest, but hardly any sound escaped her lips. The
man reached up to touch one of Michelle's breasts. She tried to pull
back, but her bonds only allowed her to retract an inch or two. She
could not stop his hands from making contact with her breast.

She could have used her powers to stop him, but if she had done that,
she would have revealed her powers to these people, and she would
still have been trapped. Whatever happened, she had to resist using
her powers unless absolutely necessary. But how far would this man
go? How long would she be able to hold out?

The man cupped her right breast and then started to caress her
nipple. It did not take long for her nipple to harden under his
touch. He spent the next minute gently working her nipple between his
thumb and finger. Michelle tried to struggle to begin with, but knew
it was hopeless and guessed that it was exactly the sort of reaction
the man was trying to provoke. So she just stood there as motionless
as possible.

But after another minute, she began to feel strange feelings. Bizarre
sexual thoughts were popping into her head. She tried to dismiss
them, but they wouldn't go away. He stopped attacking her right
nipple and moved his hand across her chest to her left breast and
began to do the same.

The odd feelings, which had begun to dissipate when he stopped on her
right breast now returned when he started again on her left breast.
The emotions were getting more intense and more explicit. Feelings of
wanting to please him. Feelings of wanting to perform for him
sexually. Images began running through her mind of this man fucking
her hard while she was still bound to the rack.

The feelings were familiar. She experienced them the day before and
on that occasion; she ended up having sex with the person. She
couldn't allow it to happen again.

She also couldn't allow them to realize that she was getting aroused.
She was beginning to get damp below and she prayed he didn't try
stray his fingers down there or he would find out very quickly how
much she was enjoying this.

She started struggling again, attempting to show that she wasn't
enjoying it. But pulling away was becoming more difficult for her to
do. Instead of wanting to pull away, she wanted to push her breasts
into his hands.

She was now relieved that she had been gagged, for had it not been
for the gag, she probably would have groaned several times by now.

It was becoming very difficult to fight the urges that were soaring
through her body, but she had to find a way. She couldn't allow
herself to slip, no matter what. She closed her eyes and tried to
block out the sensations that were bombarding her. She tried to
ignore the feelings she was experiencing.

"Okay, that's enough. I've got work to do," Maria interrupted him,
causing him to stop. "And you're getting in the way."

The man dropped his hands from Michelle's breasts. Michelle would
have sighed in relief had it not been for the gag in her mouth.

"We'll finish this later," he whispered in Michelle's ear. Then he
turned away and started walking for the door. "I'll be right outside
if you need me," he said to Maria.

"Gee, I feel much safer. I'll call you if they pull any concealed
weapons on me," Maria gibed. The man simply gave a faint smile, then
left the room, closing the door behind him.

Now that the man was out of the way, Michelle could clearly see the
items that Maria had placed on the trolley. Her eyes widened in
disbelief.

"I'm going to change into something more comfortable. Don't go
anywhere," she said as she walked behind a small screen that had been
erected in about twenty feet in front of Michelle.

Tina and Michelle exchanged glances. They were both gagged, so any
communication was purely limited to facial gestures. Tina had already
attempted to contact Michelle telepathically, but the room was
magically dampened and prevented her. Even in the best-case scenario
it would have been difficult given Michelle's magical inexperience.

Michelle looked away from Tina and took the opportunity to test out
her powers now that they were relatively alone. She tested them by
attempting to raise her body about an inch. At the same time, she
stood on tiptoe in case anyone was still around and watching. To her
relief, she found that she was able to lift herself up, but there
seemed to be some kind of barrier stopping her powers for having full
effect. It felt the same as when she was in the secure room back at
the Falcons mansion in Massachusetts.

Michelle deduced that this room had magical dampening properties
applied to it, just like the room the Falcons had kept her captive in
Massachusetts. Such properties reduced her ability to use her powers,
but didn't stop her.

She then turned her attention to her wider predicament and took a
chance to study her bonds. The entire rack consisted of two vertical
struts that seemed to be bolted into the floor, with an overhead
strut bridging the two. All three struts were made of shinning
chrome.

She looked up at the wrist restraints. They were tight around her
wrists and were tied with small rope to each corner of the overhead
strut. They were also half suspending her body. She was only just
able to stand without them.

From examining the restraints, Michelle could see that it was going
to be awkward to get out of the them, but given enough time and
patience, she should be able to do it. All she had to do was free one
hand and she would be able to free all her other limbs.

But there was one problem. If she used her powers to free herself,
she would clearly reveal her power if anyone was watching from the
darkness. Because her arms were wide apart, she would not be able to
conceal what she was doing. Using her powers would have to be a last
resort.

Michelle could hear Maria behind the screen, but could not see what
she was doing. She was gone for a fair time, for which Michelle was
very grateful as it allowed her to fully recover from her experience
with the Raven man.

Eventually Maria emerged from behind the screen. She made a slightly
different sound when she walked. Michelle could see this was because
she was wearing black patent knee high stiletto boots.

In fact, as she came into view, Michelle could see that she was no
longer wearing her conservative blouse and skirt that she had
previously worn. She now wore an outfit more fitting of a dominatrix.

She appeared to be wearing a latex corset, with garters attached to
lace-top stockings. She wore black opaque panties, which from a
distance seemed to look like rubber.

She walked over to the trolley and picked up a small container and
moved toward Michelle. "Now we can begin. You're gonna love this
first bit," she giggled.

Maria stopped in front of Michelle and took the top of the container
off. It contained a white cream that had a similar appearance to
facial moisturizer. Maria scooped a small amount onto one of her
fingers.

As soon as Tina saw Maria scoop out the cream, she knew it wasn't any
normal cream. She guessed that it was a cream designed to increase
sensitivity - and was probably enhanced by magic.

Although Kithra magic could not affect inanimate objects, most creams
and ointments contain natural compounds grown from plants. It is
possible to use their magic to affect the production of such
compounds in nature.

These could then be used to produce extremely powerful stimulants,
and also they could affect other Kithra. The underlying result is
very similar to the way scientists use genetic engineering to alter
the production of fruit and vegetables, except the results are far
more effective.

If the cream was as powerful as those the Falcons could produce, it
would probably be one hundred times more potent that any natural
cream. Applied directly to a woman's clitoris, it would probably make
the clitoris about five to ten times more sensitive than normal.
Without care, that level of stimulation to the nervous system can
cause brain damage. It could also cause severe pain.

It would be bad enough for Tina, knowing what was happening to her.
But for Michelle, who would not be able to understand, the effects
could be even worse.

Maria brought her finger up to Michelle's chest. She carefully
applied a small amount of cream to each of Michelle's nipples and
areola. Michelle's nipples once again hardened at the touch of
another person's fingers.

Then she kneeled down in front of Michelle. Michelle couldn't see
what Maria was doing, but she could feel her cold fingers on her
pussy. At that point, her breasts began to feel very strange. The
nipples had become extremely engorged. As she looked down at them,
she could almost see the capillaries throbbing with blood. She could
feel every tiny breath of air upon them.

Maria stood back and studied Michelle. She needed to give the cream
time to set in. She returned the container to the trolley and wiped
her finger clean with a tissue. Michelle could now feel her clitoris
beginning to throb. Every beat of her heart sent a pulse of blood
down her aorta and into her groin area.

Michelle looked up at Maria. She was grinning at her. "Now lets see
if we can have some fun," Maria said as she reached up and placed her
hand on one of Michelle's breasts. She gently stroked her nipple.

Michelle was totally unprepared for the sensations that hit her. It
was like an electric charge that shot throughout her body. Her entire
body jolted in pleasure as Maria's finger ran across her nipple.

Maria took Michelle's nipple in her thumb and finger and tweaked it
several times. Michelle's eyes widened so much, she thought her
eyeballs would pop out of her head. The feelings on her breasts were
so intense. It was about five times more sensitive than her old
cockhead had been.

Maria settled into a rhythm and tweaked a little harder. Michelle
threw her head back and groaned loudly against the gag. She thrashed
at her restraints, but could barely move against them.

During it all, the thought of using her powers to stop Maria didn't
even occur to her. It felt so good that she didn't want Maria to
stop.

Maria ran her hand across to Michelle's left breast and began to
stroke her left nipple as well.

Then she brought up her left hand to Michelle's right breast and
rhythmically kneaded both her nipples at the same time. The
stimulation was all too much for Michelle and sent her over the edge.
She climaxed and had it not been for the gag, she would have screamed
in pleasure.

Maria heard the muffled groan that Michelle made though the gag. She
also knew that the inflatable gag virtually silenced the wearer and
that for her to hear Michelle moan meant that she must have been
screaming internally.

Maria allowed Michelle to come down from her peak and said. "Ah, did
I make you come. Bet no-one's made you come so easily before," she
laughed as she turned away and headed back to the trolley.

Michelle was still trying to work out what was happening to her.
These feelings were different from when the man touched her. She
wasn't experiencing any feelings of submission or willingness, just
pure unadulterated pleasure on a scale she never knew was possible.
If Maria was able to make her orgasm just be stroking each of her
nipples, then what could she do if she really got serious.

She glanced over to Tina who could only give a sympathetic look. Tina
could only watch as Michelle was made to endure this odd torture.

Now that Maria had given her a break, Michelle was able to deduce
that the cream that Maria had applied to her chest had done something
to her. It hadn't escaped her notice that Maria had applied the same
cream to her genital region, and that area of her body seemed equally
sensitive.

Maria turned around and began to walk towards her again. Michelle
nearly feinted when she saw what Maria was holding in her hands. It
was a large black dildo.

As Maria closed in, and Michelle's eyes were transfixed on the
object, she noticed the switch at the end. It wasn't just a dildo, it
was a vibrator.

She could barely stand having her nipples stroked. If Maria used the
vibrator on her, she wouldn't be able to take it - literally.

Michelle was faced with a decision. She could use her powers and rip
the vibrator out of her hand. But if she did that, she would reveal
her powers to these people. She looked up at the restraints again.
Even with her powers, she would have difficulty in getting out of
them. In that time, Maria would probably have a chance to call for
help. Her powers were not strong enough to incapacitate them while
tied up. As much as she hated it - she had to let Maria do what she
wanted.

As Maria kneeled down, Michelle closed her eyes tightly, hoping to
try and block out all sensory inputs. Perhaps if she thought about
something else, she would be able to withstand it. Maybe if she ran
some architectural calculations through her brain, it would take her
mind off it.

The first touch of the head of the vibrator on her pussy wiped out
all those ideas. Her eyes flew open and visibly bulged. Maria wasted
no time in inserting the vibrator into her tight pussy.

The cream had been applied to her whole vaginal region, not just her
clitoris. As Maria slowly eased the head of the vibrator into her
tight pussy, Michelle whimpered against the gag.

Michelle began to pant furiously. It was the only noise she could
make against the gag. The sound of her panting reverberated around
the room. As her vaginal muscles constricted around the thick shaft,
the volume of her panting increased.

Maria continued to inch the vibrator inside her, deliberately taking
her time. Every movement caused Michelle tremendous sensations. She
didn't know how much more she could take. It wouldn't take much more
to push her over the edge.

Then Maria stopped. Michelle's panting stopped briefly. She opened
her eyes and saw Maria standing right in front of her with a smirk on
her face. One of her hands was on the vibrator. Michelle knew exactly
what was about to happen.

Maria's smile widened as she switched the vibrator on. Michelle
climaxed almost instantly.

***************

Richard, Mary and Sarah were making their way to Ravens hotel after
receiving their 'invite'. Mary contacted Hank using a cell phone and
explained the situation. He hadn't made contact with his acquaintance
in town, so he was taking a taxi to the hotel. But Hank would remain
hidden and out of sight as a backup in case it was required.

Mary knew that Hank had his faults and there were certain things she
would never trust him with, like leaving him alone in room with
Michelle. But on other counts, Mary knew Hank was dependable. When
the going got tough, he was the best person in the group to have
backing you up.

All three had checked their firearms. They had used false police
credentials to get them past airport security. It had been a long
time since Sarah held a gun. She was one of the more peaceful members
of the group. But during the last war, she had fought for the lives
of her children and she would do so again without hesitation.

Ever since landing, Mary was also trying to make sense of how
Michelle had escaped from their secure room. If she hadn't received
help from Sarah and if she didn't pick the locks, then how could she
have possibly got out? From the very beginning Mary had an edgy
feeling that she'd missed something. She still didn't know what it
was, but suspected she would find out shortly.

***************

Chapter Twenty-Nine
====================

Back in the Ravens secure room, Michelle had given up fighting. Her
legs had long since given way. She was now hanging by the wrist
restraints. She had no idea how long the ordeal had gone on for. It
was probably only about ten minutes, but it seemed like hours, with
seemingly no possible relief.

The constant stream of orgasms also inhibited her ability to use her
telekinetic powers. On several occasions she tried to pull the
vibrator out of her pussy. But she couldn't muster the mental
strength to do it. Her powers required concentration, which is
difficult when you're in the middle of climaxing. Every time she
thought she was regaining some composure, she'd be hit with another
orgasm.

After several multiple orgasms, she became so mentally drained that
she couldn't use her telekinetic powers at all. Without realizing it,
Maria had discovered Michelle's Achilles heel. She was totally
helpless and unable to do anything about Maria.

Eventually, Maria switched off the vibrator and withdrew it from
Michelle. She returned it to the table. Then she turned around and
studied Michelle allowing her a brief time to recover.

As Maria studied the look on Michelle's face, she could see that her
dosage of the cream had been perfect. Although she had climaxed
repeatedly over the previous few minutes, the sensations Michelle was
receiving were getting less erotic and more painful.

This was because the cream that she had applied to her was now
reaching its maximum potential. Her nipples and clitoris had become
too sensitive and the pain was increasing slowly second by second.
Now was the time to move on to stage two.

Maria walked up to Michelle and flicked a switch on the gag, causing
it to deflate. Then she reached behind Michelle's head and unbuckled
the strap partially allowing Michelle to spit out the gag, but
leaving it buckled up around her neck.

"What... did you do to me... you bitch," Michelle spat as soon as she
could. Her breathing still hadn't recovered properly and she had to
take several attempts to get it all out.

"I can see you haven't learned humility yet," Maria said.

Before Michelle could answer, Maria turned and walked slowly back to
the table and picked up the container of cream and walked back to
Michelle. But this time, Maria walked around her and began spreading
the cream all over Michelle's back, this time applying a lot more
than she did for her pussy. The cream began to take effect quickly.
As Maria finished spreading the cream, Michelle could feel the
increased sensitivity where the cream had been deposited.

"I don't have a clit on my back last time I checked," Michelle
jibbed. She was recovering quickly. Now that she could concentrate
better, she felt her ability to use her telekinetic powers return
although at an even more reduced level.

Maria burst out laughing. Her laughing continued for about five
seconds, which unnerved Michelle. "In about ten minutes, you'll wish
you had. Do you know what this cream does? I'll tell you. This cream
increases dermal sensitivity, not just sexual sensitivity, but all
kinds. Remember how your clit got so sensitive that it started to
hurt. Do you know just how fine the line between pain and pleasure
is."

Michelle shook her head, now feeling increasingly uneasy and less
confident. Maria had been right. The vibrator had really begun to
hurt after a while.

Maria placed the cream on the floor and reached from behind Michelle
and cupped her large breasts. She found Michelle's nipples once again
and stroked them very lightly. As Michelle wasn't gagged this time,
she let out a loud groan and instinctively arched her back pushing
her breasts into Maria's hands.

Maria continued her light caresses for twenty seconds. Michele
wondered if Maria was going to bring her off again. It felt so good.

"I'll show you how close the line between pain and pleasure is,"
Maria laughed as she took both Michelle's nipples and squeezed as
hard as she could.

Michelle screamed in agony as the pleasure she was feeling was
replaced by a searing pain that shot through her chest. The extreme
sensitivity that the cream had produced also resulted in excruciating
pain.

"That's how close the line is," Maria said as she released her. The
pain caused Michelle to collapse, once again hanging by her arm
restraints. As Michele was recovering, Maria replaced the inflatable
gag in her mouth.

She then walked to the front of Michelle and pumped up the gag,
silencing her once more. She then held up the container of cream to
her face.

"Now that I've covered your back in this cream, try to imagine how
sensitive it will become. I've put on a lot more than on your tits.
Now try to imagine how much it would hurt if I were to take a whip to
you."

Michelle visibly flinched at the mental picture of being whipped and
the pain she would receive. Her nipples were still throbbing in pain
from just a single pinch. The pain from a whip would be unimaginable.

Maria continued, "I'll tell you. You'll feel pain like you never
imagined. It'll hurt so much you'll pray that you would die. After a
couple of strokes you'll beg me to kill you. You'll do anything to
make the pain stop... anything."

"Now I'm going to give you ten minutes to think things through. By
then the cream will have taken full effect. If you don't tell me
everything I want to know when I get back, you'll find out just how
sensitive your back is."

She bent down and picked up the container of cream, then walked over
to Tina, holding the cream up to her face. Her gag was still fully in
place.

"I'm not going to use this on you. But when I'm back if I ask you a
question and you don't answer in a way that I believe you, I'll whip
her back twice as hard," she said, nodding over to Michelle.

Maria walked back towards the screen. Just as she reached it, she
turned to both of them and said, "Oh, by the way. Your gags are
staying on for the next fifteen minutes. So you'd better think of
ways of telling what I want to know cause I'll be back in ten."

Maria went back behind the screen, sniggering as she did. As soon as
she was out of sight, Michelle began struggling, trying to find a way
out of her bonds. She had to free herself now, even if it meant
revealing her telekinetic powers. She twisted right her arm so that
she could see the buckle of the arm restraint properly. This was her
only opportunity. Somehow she had to undo the restraint before Maria
came back with a whip.

She was able to pull the strap out partially, but the tough part
would be undoing the actual buckle. It was like undoing a lock with
her mind. It required little actual force, but very concentrated. She
needed to pull the strap back far enough and then pull the pin of the
buckle back in order to release herself.

On the second attempt, she succeeded. With a few more careful mental
movements, she managed to loosen the restraint enough to wiggle her
hand out. Having squirmed her right wrist free, she quickly unbuckled
her left wrist and then moved to unbuckle the waistband. She then
unbuckled the ankle restraints. For now, she left her gag in place.

Tina had been focused on what happened to them. Michelle took a step
towards her, but stopped momentarily as she heard a whip crack behind
the screen that Maria had disappeared behind.

She could free Tina at any time. The greatest threat was in Maria
raising the alarm, so Michelle tiptoed over to the screen that Maria
was behind. She could hear Maria behind the screen, but didn't know
what she was doing. Michelle heard her moving to the edge of the
screen, tracking her by the sound of her stiletto heels clicking on
the floor.

Maria stepped out from behind the screen. She just had time to see
that Michelle was no longer tied to the rack before she saw
Michelle's fist strike her hard across her face.

Michelle gave it everything she had, using as much of her powers as
she could muster to give an extra boost. Even given the fact that her
powers were at a reduced level, she still packed a mean punch and she
sent Maria sprawling across the floor.

Michelle scurried over to Maria as quickly as she could. Maria had
landed on her back and was dazed from the blow, but shook her head as
if composing herself. All Maria had to do was shout for help and it
would all be over.

Michelle dropped to her knees in front of Maria and delivered another
swift blow to Maria's chin before she had time to call out. This
knocked her unconscious.

She quickly rushed back to Tina and freed one of her arm restraints.
Between the two of them, they freed Tina's remaining restraints. They
both deflated their gags, and unbuckled them, virtually ripping them
out of their mouths.

The two hugged each other briefly, "Come on, we've got to get out of
here," Tina said as she broke the embrace.

They started for the door, but they both stopped as they realized
they had no clothes. They moved to back to Maria.

"I'll take these clothes," Tina whispered, motioning to her
dominatrix outfit. "You get the one's behind the screen."

Michelle was only too happy to be wearing Maria's normal clothes
compared to her dominatrix outfit, so she scurried around the screen.
She started with her underwear, pulling up her panties, then
strapping her bra on as quickly as she could.

Maria had a generous bust so her bra was a reasonable fit, but her
nipples were still extremely sensitive from the cream Maria had
applied. As she was stuffing her boobs into the bra, one of her erect
nipples rubbed against on one of the straps. The immediate sensation
Michelle received was a mixture of pleasure and pain. Her knees
buckled slightly under the sensations.

She had to be very careful as she adjusted the bra. Her nipples were
still rock erect and the sensation of the bra material on her nipples
and areola wasn't helping.

She put on Maria's blouse, being careful with the extra sensitivity
on her back and then finished with her skirt. She then attempted to
fit Maria's shoes onto her feet. They seemed a bit tight, but the
biggest problem was the heels. Although the heels were nowhere near
as high as the ones Tina would be wearing, they were still three
inches high and had a pointed heel. Michelle still had little
practice in wearing them and wouldn't be able to walk very fast.

When she was finished, she saw Tina was almost finished and was in
the process of lacing up Maria's boots.

"Okay, I'm ready," Tina whispered. "But I think that guard will be on
the other side of the door."

"Leave that to me," Michelle said, flexing her arms. She had a score
to settle with that guy.

***************

Tanya made her way down to the parking garage, which was located
immediately adjacent to the hotel. The entire hotel was basically a
front to their operation in Las Vegas. It was located off the Strip,
away from all the main commotion. It was large enough for them to
operate, yet not too large as to draw unwanted attention.

Her colleagues had cast a spell over the entire parking lot, which
would render them all invisible to any 'normal' eye. Of course, any
other Kithra would be able to see them. The security cameras, which
could not be affected by their magic, had also been disabled. She was
taking the direct elevator from the penthouse suite.

Tanya emerged from the elevator and strode across one of the many
walkways that bridged the hotel and the parking lot. The top two
floors of the parking lot were designated for the staff of the hotel
and the Ravens, so they didn't need to worry about hotel guests
getting in the way. The walkway brought them onto the top floor of
the parking lot. Tanya walked down a staircase onto the floor below,
which was where she had arranged for the meeting to take place.

Tanya walked the short distance to where the Falcons were already
waiting. As she approached, she immediately recognized Mary as a
member of the Falcon Council. She also recognized Sarah Adams, Tina's
mother. She recognized the man, but she couldn't recall his name from
memory.

On the way down from the penthouse, she had been informed that the
Falcons had agreed to the meet with Tanya in the parking garage, but
they made it clear that they were not surrendering to her people and
were making their own way there, in their rental car.

This was good enough for Tanya. She didn't want to take them
prisoner. She already had the prisoners she needed, but she did want
to conduct the meeting on her terms. Tanya posted one person at the
exit, who would bring down the steel barriers entrapping them if
things didn't go to plan.

She knew that the man was almost certainly carrying a firearm, which
he totally refused to hand over. So Tanya counteracted that threat
with four of her own top people, plus another six on standby. If the
man tried anything, he would be cut to pieces in seconds.

As she approached, Tanya could see that there were a few 'normal'
people going about their business, mostly members of staff, but none
of them could see or hear what was transpiring.

"Mary, so good to see you again. It's been too long," Tanya said with
a highly patronizing flavor.

"We're just passing through," Mary stated.

"Oh, spare the bullshit Mary. We've got them," Tanya said. Mary's
face nearly turned white.

"Got who?" Mary said.

"Tina and that other girl. We caught them earlier this evening. If
you'd been a bit quicker, you might have got to them first... but you
didn't... and now we have them."

There was nothing Mary could say. Tanya had played her killer hand.
This was the worst-case scenario.

***************

Michelle and Tina crept down the darkened corridor as quietly as they
could considering they were both wearing high heels, for which the
sound seemed to reverberate around the entire floor with every step.
Michelle eventually slipped them off and decided to walk barefoot,
but Tina didn't have that luxury as her boots needing lacing up and
couldn't be put back on again in a hurry.

The secure room had been guarded by the man who had fondled
Michelle's breasts, but overpowering him had not been too hard. She
delivered a quick blow to the back of the neck, with as much extra
mental force as she could muster. They hid him in the room that they
had been imprisoned in. They restrained both the man and Maria using
the same restraints and gags that had been used on themselves, but
they knew they didn't have long before someone would check up on them
and the alarm would be raised.

As soon as they were out of that room, Michelle felt her telekinetic
powers return in full. After sneaking around the floor, they found
their way into an office that had a window. They could see that they
must have been at least ten floors up. Tina guessed that they must be
on the penthouse floor of one of the hotels in Vegas. The Ravens
owned a lot of the town and this hotel probably belonged to them.

Michelle checked the windows. They were sealed and couldn't be
opened. "Okay, we've got two options. We either go up to the roof, or
down to the ground," Michelle whispered.

"What good will going to the roof be?" Tina asked.

"We can jump off and float to the ground," Michelle stated.

"Is that safe?" Tina asked as the gulped. She didn't like heights.

"Well it should be. But I've never tried flying and holding another
person. But I should be able to stop us from falling too fast."

"Maybe we'd better make our way to the ground. This hotel is lit up.
It could cause a lot of attention," Tina stated firmly, which was
also a good excuse to avoid jumping off the top of a tall building.

After some more sneaking around, the pair found an elevator. The
elevator was unguarded, but it did not seem to operate. It appeared
to require a security card in order to activate it.

Tina rushed back to the secure room and returned shortly with a
magnetic card taken from the person guarding their room. She swiped
it into the reader beside the elevator. They were both relieved when
the elevator responded. As the display above the elevator increased,
Tina held out a bunch of keys.

"I found these as well. We can use his car to get out. The keys are
for a Mustang. There can't be that many of them in the parking lot."

As Tina finished talking, the elevator signaled its arrival. Michelle
braced herself, ready to fight just in case the elevator was
occupied. As the doors opened, she was relieved to find it empty.
They moved inside, looking for hidden cameras, but couldn't see any.
Tina knew that the Ravens probably wouldn't put any cameras in any of
their private areas, but couldn't be completely sure.

As the door closed, Michelle asked, "Where to?"

"Errm... better start in the staff garage. Look, its marked on the
elevator."

Michelle nodded and pressed the button that indicating the staff-
parking garage. The door closed and the elevator began its descent.

***************

"Look, all this was an accident," Mary pleaded. She hadn't given
Tanya many details, but she had to concede the fact that they had
transformed Michelle. She was appealing to Tanya's humane side, which
wasn't easy.

"Yes, that's what Tina said," Tanya remarked. She hadn't had many
opportunities to see Mary squirm over the years, so she was enjoying
every minute of it.

Although Tanya was playing around with Mary, it was still a very
serious matter. The Kithra rules were quite clear about the matter.
No-one outside the bloodline should be transformed, period. It was
tough and brutal, but absolutely necessary for their society.

Tanya also realized that she had a bargaining chip in the form of
Tina. Tanya already had plans for Michelle. Like all the groups, they
had done research into magic that could break though a Kithra's
magical protection. They were still a long way from achieving it, but
having a live specimen on which to experiment would help things
greatly. Michelle would do perfectly and Tanya was planning to
release Tina unharmed if the Falcons didn't make a fuss about their
plans for Michelle.

Mary opened her mouth to speak, then paused as a 'normal' person
passed directly between them on the way to her car, totally oblivious
to them conversation that was taking place.

Before Mary could respond, Tanya heard a hand radio crackle behind
her. She turned round as one of her colleagues answered it. The voice
on the radio stated that he had an urgent message for Tanya. He
glanced over to Tanya, who nodded her approval.

"Go ahead," he spoke into the radio.

The radio crackled once again, "Those two girls. They're loose. We've
got two of our people down."

"You bitch," Tanya hissed at Mary, "You were keeping us distracted
while the rest of your team rescued them."

"No, Tanya I swear. There's only us here." It was a slight lie. Hank
was around, but he had nothing to do with Michelle and Tina escaping,
at least that was what Mary assumed.

"Take them," Tanya ordered as her men closed in. Richard was
immediately on the defensive. Although their car was close, they were
vastly outnumbered.

Richard slowly started moving his hand to his firearm. His work with
the police had made him a sharpshooter, so the odds were not quite a
bad as they looked.

"Easy Richard," Mary ordered, anticipating his move. Although she
could only see six Ravens including Tanya and Gary, it was obvious
that at the first sign of shots, another ten would be there
immediately. They were hopelessly outnumbered.

"Tanya, let me guess. You had her imprisoned in a room which has been
dampened against magic."

"Of course we did. But then you probably knew that before you rescued
her," Tanya sneered back.

"No. You see we had her locked up as well and I don't know how, but
she pulled an escape act on us. We had the best security you could
get and she still gave us the slip. Sounds like she's done the same
to you."

Tanya signaled for her men to pause their advance. Something about
Mary's voice was believing. She wanted to hear more and taking them
prisoner might not be the best way to extract it - at least not yet.

***************

Chapter Thirty
==============

Michelle and Tina exited the elevator when it reached the
destination. After checking outside to see if it was all clear, they
crossed the walkway that linked the hotel with the parking garage.
Now that they were on hard concrete, Michelle had no choice but to
put her heels back on again. They started a search for the Mustang
that they had the keys for. They had given themselves five minutes to
locate it, otherwise they would just have to try and escape on foot.
Unfortunately, the walkway placed them at the top of the garage, but
even if they had to make their way out on foot, it would be much
safer than attempting to get out through the hotel lobby or casino.

They were walking down the aisles as fast as they could, checking the
cars. Although Michelle was wearing the lower heels, she was having a
hard time walking at a decent pace. She still wasn't used to a
pointed heel, even if it was only a few inches in height.

Having finished their search on the top level, they rounded a corner
onto a different level and suddenly stopped in their tracks. They
stood, frozen as they saw Richard, Sarah and Mary involved in a
stance with several Ravens. They remained perfectly still hoping and
praying that no-one would turn and look at them. Almost on cue,
virtually every head turned towards them at the same time,

"Get them," Tanya shouted, the first to react.

Chaos erupted as several Ravens turned their guns towards Tina and
Michelle. The Ravens were surprised when both Sarah and Mary produced
handguns as well. They were only expecting Richard to be armed. No
one knows who fired first, but dozens of rounds were exchanged within
the following few seconds.

Everyone dived for cover in different directions. When Tanya peered
above the car she was using for cover, she saw that two of her men
had been shot, one seriously.

Tanya could see two groups of Falcons. Richard and Sarah were
shielding behind one car and had managed to pin down her two
remaining shooters. The sound of gunfire was ringing through the air.

Meanwhile Mary was grouped behind another car and was exchanging fire
with Gary. Tina who had dived for cover in Mary's direction shortly
joined her. Tina kept bobbing her head up to see if she could spot
Michelle. Tanya couldn't see where Michelle was either.

"Where the fuck is our backup," Tanya shouted to herself. Already it
seemed to be taking forever, but they should have been there almost
immediately.

Not wanting to wait too long, Tanya decided to take the initiative.
She saw that there was a blind spot that Mary wasn't covering. If she
maneuvered properly, she'd be able to sneak up on them. She ducked
behind car after car and moved closer.

At the same time, Michelle was attempting to get round to Tina. When
the firing started, Michelle had followed after Tina, but couldn't
move as fast because of her shoes so she was forced to take cover
behind a different car. Tina hadn't seen where Michelle had gone and
had moved to Mary.

Michelle couldn't follow Tina because it would place her directly in
the line of fire. Instead she would have to make her way around,
using other cars for cover.

Tanya was closing in on Mary. She had remained hidden from view so
far, but for the last few feet she would be out in the open. From his
angle, Gary could see what Tanya planning. He loaded another clip and
jumped up and fired every round at Mary. This caused Mary and Tina to
duck down for cover, allowing Tanya the opportunity to move into
position.

Tanya was now ducked down on the other side of the car that Mary and
Tina were shielded behind. She was literally a few feet from them but
neither Mary nor Tine could see her. She checked her view and neither
Sarah nor Richard could see her either.

Unknown to any of them, Michelle could see Tanya having carefully
maneuvered around. Michelle began to guess what Tanya was planning.
At that moment, about four other men and women came running into
view, fully armed. They took up position next to Gary.

"Where the hell have you been," Gary yelled to one of them.

"Fucking ambushed. A damn Falcon pinned us down and stopped us
getting here," she replied. "He took out two of us, before we nailed
him."

Michelle was trying to get to Tanya to stop her from carrying out her
plan, but wasn't close enough. She tried calling out, but the sound
of gunfire was deafening. When Tanya saw her backup had arrived, she
decided it was time to make her move. She wanted to do this in front
of her people, partially as a means of claiming the victory for
herself.

She took a deep breath and jumped up, her gun pointing straight at
Mary, who was shocked to see Tanya pop up in front of her. Mary tried
to aim her gun at Tanya, but Tanya already had the initiative. She
was at point blank range and fired three shots into Mary's chest.
Mary fell backwards, Tina catching her slightly. Then Tina looked up
at Tanya, who was pointing a gun at her.

"Your turn," Tanya said as she aimed her gun at Tina.

"NO," Michelle screamed. She jumped out into the open, so that she
could clearly see Tanya. As Tanya spun round and saw her, Michelle
reached out with her mind and gripped Tanya by the neck and lifted
her up into the air about four feet, her head nearly touching the
ceiling.

Suddenly everybody stopped. The ensuing chaos halted abruptly as
everybody saw the powerful leader of the Ravens being levitated in
the air by an unseen force. The sound of gunfire was replaced by
silence. Michelle was standing motionless in the open, with a single
hand outstretched. This gesture advertised to everyone that Michelle
was the person holding Tanya in the air. No one except Tina knew how,
but they all knew Michelle was the person doing it.

Although the Ravens were fully armed with weapons, they all stopped
suddenly, completely in awe of what was happening. This was totally
unexpected. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. No Kithra
could do this.

Tanya also realized that Michelle was somehow holding her by the neck
in the air. To her, it felt like huge fingers were gripped tightly
around her neck. She struggled to free herself, but her efforts were
useless. The grip was too tight. But she still held the gun in her
hand. If she couldn't get herself free, then she could at least cut
off the source.

Tanya slowly aimed her gun straight at Michelle. Her brain was
becoming starved of oxygen and she knew she would quickly pass out.
She had one chance to kill Michelle and free herself at the same
time.

Michelle saw Tanya begin to aim the gun at her. She squeezed tighter
with the powers, attempting to get Tanya to black out. Suddenly there
was a snap and Tanya's body went limp. The gun fell down to the
floor. Michelle instantly released her hold on Tanya and her body
fell to the ground.

Gary rushed out into the open to examine Tanya's body. He simply
stood over her and looked up at Michelle, "You killed her."

"No. I-I... ", Michelle stuttered.

Although Tanya had been an archrival, he was consumed with anger that
a Falcon had seemingly killed her. He took his gun and aimed it at
Michelle.

Before Gary could pull the trigger, Michelle reached out with her
mind again, but this time instead of applying force to his neck, she
applied as much force as she could to Gary's forearm. He screamed in
pain as the bones in his arm cracked under the extreme pressure. He
dropped the gun and collapsed to his knees.

"H-How?" Sarah stuttered to Richard, amazed at what she had just
seen.

"Kill her," Gary cried out to the others.

Before any of the Ravens could react, Michelle ran to one of the
parked cars. In a single bound, she jumped over it, landing on the
other side, just as a hail of bullets ripped into the other side of
the car.

All the Ravens were now concentrating their efforts on Michelle. This
respite allowed Richard and Sarah to get back to their car. Richard
drove the car straight towards Tina and Mary, stopping beside them
shielding them from any more fire.

At this point a couple of the Ravens turned their fire towards the
car, but Gary directed them to concentrate on Michelle again. Gary
knew that all the exits to the garage would be closed, so they
wouldn't get far in their car. He wanted to make sure that the bitch
that crushed his arm was shot to pieces.

As Sarah and Tina dragged Mary into the car, Richard was looking for
a way to help Michelle. She was still pinned down and some of the
Ravens were circling around her position. Shortly, they'd have her in
a crossfire and she wouldn't stand a chance.

Michelle could also see what her attackers were doing. She bobbed her
head up and saw that Tina and Sarah were dragging Mary into a car.
She considered making a run for the car. It was over thirty feet
away, but if she wanted to get out, this was her only chance. Perhaps
her powers could help her get there.

Michelle kicked off her shoes, which were only slowing her up. She
took a deep breath, and then made a run for the car. As soon as she
emerged, all of the Ravens opened fire at her. But with adrenalin
coursing through her veins, her telekinetic powers were at top notch.
Aided by her powers, she was running faster than Marion Jones, her
feet barely touching the ground, as if she was running in the air.

All of the shots missed their target as the Ravens were caught off
guard by Michelle's acceleration and speed.

She made it to the car in little over a second, but was still doing
about thirty miles per hour as she approached. Her telekinetic powers
also give her the ability to bend the laws of gravity and inertia.
Despite her incredible speed, she was able to stop in less than a
heartbeat and jump into the back seat of the car, alongside a
bleeding Mary.

Richard was also surprised by Michelle's speed, but wasted no time at
all in speeding away when Michelle was inside the car. By this time,
most of the Ravens were bundling inside their own cars to give
pursuit.

As they sped away, Michelle looked back. They had three pursuing
cars, but Richard was a very experienced driver and was able to keep
them at bay as he worked his way down the floors to the exit of the
parking garage.

As Richard made the final turn for the exit, he could see that a
think steel barrier was being mechanically winched down, effectively
blocking the exit.

The exit was at the other end of the parking garage and some forty
feet away. It was clear that the barrier would be down long before
they could reach it. Richard began to ease of the gas, seeing that
the barrier was falling too fast and looked for another escape route.
But Michelle also noticing the barrier, concentrated hard with her
powers. The barrier would be far too heavy for her to lift, but
perhaps she could stop it from falling.

"No, I'll hold it open," Michelle called out to Richard, "Floor it."

Richard looked ahead and saw that the barrier had stopped falling. He
didn't know how, but didn't really care at that point. He took
Michelle's advice and hit the gas pedal to the floor.

Michelle strained with every mental fiber she had. The barrier was
still falling, but at a much lower rate. As they neared the exit, her
instincts warned her of a greater danger. As an architect, she
recognized the type of mechanism used on the barrier. It was purely a
lifting mechanism. The barrier was lowered using gravity; with the
mechanism making sure that the barrier doesn't fall too fast.

She guessed that the mechanism was still lowering the barrier,
whereas she was holding it up. That meant that once she let go of it,
the barrier would probably fall straight to the ground, crushing the
car in the process if she didn't hold it long enough.

Within a few heartbeats the car was virtually at the exit. Michelle
focused hard knowing that above all else she had to keep the barrier
up. The car jolted as Richard went over the small ramp at the exit.
At that point, Michelle lost sight of the barrier and her hold on it
ceased.

She tensed up, fearing that it would come crashing down on top of the
car, but Richard had achieved enough momentum. It came crashing down
behind them, just clipping the rear bumper. Richard braked hard and
turned, losing control of the car. The car spun once, then came to a
complete halt. As Richard adjusted the transmission, Michelle glanced
back to the parking garage exit.

They heard a screech of brakes, and then a thundering crash as the
lead car smashed into the barrier, causing a huge indentation. Then
more screeching and crashing sounds as the following cars skidded and
crashed into the back of the lead car, pushing the car and the
barrier outwards onto the highway.

Richard hit the gas again and sped off before Michelle could get a
good look at the wreckage, although it was obvious that no vehicle
would be pursuing them from that exit.

Michelle, being the only person present with any experience in Las
Vegas, directed Richard off the main highways and into a deserted
side street in North Las Vegas.

***************

Gary was still in the parking lot in the hotel, listening to
commentary of the pursuit. When they received news of the crash, he
threw the radio to the ground with his good arm, smashing it into
pieces. He was holding his other, shattered arm to his chest.

"Did you see what that girl did?" he shouted, "She killed Tanya"

Gary slumped to the ground in pain. Adrenalin had been keeping the
pain at bay, but it was beginning to catch up to him. His right arm
seemed to be broken in several places. The pain was excruciating.

His injuries had already been triaged as not being life-threatening.
The practiced healers were therefore concentrating on those with the
more serious injuries. Gary used was little healing knowledge he had
to take some of the pain away.

When the magic took effect and the pain subsided slightly, he
carefully stood up again.

"I want the head of that bitch on my breakfast plate," he cried out.

***************

When Richard was certain that no-one else was pursuing them, he
parked up. Everyone's attention was now turned to Mary. Her body was
bullet ridden. She seemed to be bleeding from all over her chest.
Sarah had been tending to her since they had pulled her into the car
but until now, no-one realized just how severe her injuries were.
Blood was still pouring out of the entry wounds in the chest.

"Sarah, what are you waiting for?" Richard called, "Heal her," he
demanded.

Sarah glanced at Richard, the tears in her eyes telling him
everything. "Richard, there's nothing I can do," Sarah cried.

Their magical powers could heal a vast array of injuries, which is
why most of them lived very long lives. They could even heal life-
threatening injuries, like a burst vein, or something that can lead
to death. But no amount of their magic could heal a mortal wound.
Mary's injuries were too severe.

"There must be something," Richard said.

Sarah shook her head, "She's taken three shots in the chest. Her
pulmonary artery has ruptured. I can't heal it. I'm keeping her alive
with magic, but I can't heal her."

"H-how long... does she have?" Richard asked.

"Not long. The spell runs out in about a minute," Sarah cried.

Mary used what strength she had and beckoned Richard closer. He
clambered between the front seats until he was closer to Mary.

"I didn't have long anyway. I could have died any day," Mary said,
her voice becoming hoarse.

Mary was referring to the fact that once a Kithra reaches the age of
one hundred, they basically live a day-to-day existence. Time is
always short at their age. Mary was a hundred and four years old.
There was no telling how long Mary had left to live. She could have
collapsed and died tomorrow, or lived for years.

"No. We don't know that," Richard cried. Mary had been like a mother
to him.

Mary glanced over at Michelle, "Did you see what she did?" Mary
whispered to Richard, changing the subject.

"Yes, we all did," he replied.

Mary pulled him closer until his ear was right next to her mouth, so
that only he could hear her. "She's one of a kind. Protect her?
Whatever she has. Whatever she is... don't let it end with her," she
whispered into his ear.

Richard pulled back, "Promise me Richard, promise," Mary demanded,
now audible to everyone.

"I promise," Richard said.

Mary nodded, accepting his promise, then closed her eyes, never to
open them again.

***************

Gary walked into one of the offices on the top floor of the hotel,
with the rest of the Raven council following behind. His arm had been
partially healed, but it was in a sling across his chest. The bones
had been set back into place, but all magic energy was now at a
premium. No magic would be wasted while the threat of attack existed.

The Ravens have a smaller leading council than the other groups
comprising of just six people, plus one leader making seven.

Their leader, Tanya was obviously not present, plus another one had
been seriously injured in the car pursuit. The extent of his injuries
were not yet known.

They all took their seats, leaving the two empty ones. They quickly
began debating on what should be done. Although it was designed to
focus on the Falcons and Michelle, it didn't take long for their
selfish nature to shine through and the debate quickly turned into
who should replace Tanya as leader.

"I know this isn't the normal procedure. But this isn't a normal
situation. We could be attacked any minute. We need someone to lead
us into battle," one said.

To any outsider looking in, the process of electing a new leader
would appear to be a democratic process, with the members of the
group eligible to vote. But the Ravens were far from democratic. The
'election' of a new leader involved little more than alliances,
threats, blackmail and bribes. Only Council members were allowed to
stand as leader with the rest of the group voting.

After fifteen minutes of bickering, Gary said. "Look we can argue
about this all we like. But only one of us has the power to decide.
Under our rules, the person who was last appointed to the council is
the arbitrator. That person is also ineligible to stand. Kathy, you
were last appointed two years ago. That makes you the arbitrator.
It's your call."

Kathy thought for several moments, realizing she had the power to
decide. "Okay, we can't elect a new leader. It has to be done by the
whole group. But we must have someone to lead us now. We need an
interim leader. So it's my decision that this council elects one now.
But this is only an interim decision until we have clearer heads."
Kathy paused. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Okay, who's gonna go in
the ring."

"I will," Simon, one of the other members, said.

There was a slight paused before Gary spoke up, "So will I." He said.

Kathy quickly outlined the rules for the 'election' as she saw it,
effectively making them up as she went along. Each of the remaining
members would secretly vote for either candidate. Since there were
only three of them left eligible to vote, it would be a small
electorate. Kathy found a piece of paper and tore it into rough
squares.

With a pen, the three secretly cast their vote on the paper, by
writing either an 'S' or a 'G'. When they had all cast, Kathy
gathered them together.

Kathy turned the first one over. It was a 'S'. Simon was one in
front. She glanced up. Both Gary and Simon were emotionless in their
face.

She turned over the second piece of paper. She recognized her own
handwriting and knew this was her vote. Scribbled in the middle was
the letter 'G'. Gary made a very brief smile. He was still in it.

Kathy turned over the last piece of paper. Everyone leaned forward
every so slightly to see what was written on it. There was silence as
everyone registered the letter 'G' written in a big firm stroke.

Simon didn't show any disappointment, but it was obvious he was. At
the same time, Gary didn't show any smugness or gloating, but sat up
straight and bold, displaying to everyone that he was now their
leader, if only acting leader.

"Okay, that's it," Kathy said as she stood up. "Gary is the interim
leader. He is leader for one month. We begin electing a full leader
in one week." Kathy sat down, indicating to Gary that it was his turn
to speak.

"Good. Thank you," Gary said as he rose to his feet. "Normally this
would be the time for a speech. But right now I only have one thing
to say. Lets go get the mother-fuckers."

They were already in a combative mood, but Gary's straight talking
pushed it over the edge. Even the defeated Simon felt motivated
enough to punch the air as they all stood up and left the room to
begin the hunt.

***************

Michelle, Sarah, Tina and Richard were all in a somber mood as they
were parked up again. They had dumped Mary's body at the roadside and
then moved off. Sarah didn't want to simply leave her body lying in
the street, insisting that she deserved a proper burial. But Richard
explained that they would all be lucky to get out of the town alive
anyway. They would never be able to sneak a dead body out of town as
well.

Eventually Sarah relented as they left her friend lying on the
sidewalk, blood still seeping from her wounds. Sarah was still
fighting the urge to burst out crying, although tears were silently
running down her cheeks. Even Michelle, who up until now had
considered Mary an enemy felt tearful emotions.

After checking that everything was clear, Richard used his cell phone
to call the council, who were waiting for an update. Michelle heard
bits and pieces of his conversation, "Mary's dead. She was killed by
the Raven's. And Tanya Davies is dead as well. She was killed by...
Michelle"

Richard spent the next ten minutes detailing the events that had
occurred, including Michelle's apparent new power. Michelle glanced
over at him several times. He was also having trouble keeping his
composure after seeing his mentor being gunned down before him.
Eventually he finished his call.

"Are they going to send in help?" Sarah asked.

Richard shook his head, "They can't. We've got some backup available,
but if we try and send anyone in, the Ravens will cut them to pieces.
They will have the airport covered and all of the highways. We won't
be able to get our people in. We have to get out of this town by
ourselves," Richard stated.

"Do you have any police contacts?" Tina asked.

"Not here," Richard replied, "All the local police will be under the
control of the Ravens, either directly or indirectly. We have to
think of another way out."

"Well if the roads and the airport is covered, then how can we get
out?" Sarah questioned.

"For the moment we don't. The Council has given me the address of a
'safe-house' here in Vegas. We're to go there now."

"A safe-house," Tina exclaimed.

"Yeah. I never knew the place even existed. It's for emergency use
only, which this definitely is."

"Then what?" Michelle asked.

"I don't know. I guess we'll have to lie low for a few days. They
can't keep the highways covered for long.

***************

Gary was sitting in the leader's chair of the assembly room of the
Raven's. Because of the situation, there was no inauguration
ceremony. Sitting down on the floor at his feet was Crystal, formerly
LaDonna in her new body as a physical duplicate of the woman that had
killed Tanya. She was patiently waiting for her Master to give her an
order.

Gary's arm was mostly healed. After being elected interim leader, the
other Council members insisted that he had his arm healed enough to
take it out of his sling.

No-one wanted to waste magical energy, but they all were quick to
point out that for the sake of morale, if they were going into
battle, it was important to have a leader that could at least hold a
gun. Gary relented and his arm was healed.

Gary now had a full report on the injuries to his people. Two of them
were dead. One was shot through the heart by Hank. Another was killed
when the car pursing the Falcons smashed into the steel barrier. He
wasn't wearing a seatbelt and went through the windshield and smashed
head first into the barrier.

Another ten sustained injuries, some from bullet wounds and others
from the crash. Two of those that were in the lead car were still in
a critical state, one of which had only just been cut of the crash
and was on his way to hospital.

Because their wounds were so severe, their healing magic was
ineffectual, at least until their injuries stabilize. For now they
would have to rely on conventional medicine to keep them alive.

After hearing the reports of how the barrier had suddenly stopped,
allowing the Falcons to escape before crashing down in front of their
pursuers, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the crash was no
accident. This woman was more powerful than they thought.

The mystery blonde woman posed the biggest threat to their dominance
and that threat had to be eliminated. Plans had been made to ensure
that no more Falcons would get into the town.

However, Gary had rescinded his order for Michelle to be killed.
Instead he wanted her taken alive. He didn't care what it took. They
could shoot her in the legs, tranquillize her or knock her out. But
they needed to take her alive."

Although Mary and Tina had told them that this woman was an accident,
he didn't believe them. All of the groups had been doing research
into new ways of magic that could affect another Kithra, although
none of them would admit it. Somehow, the Falcons had achieved it.
Perhaps the fact that they tried on an outsider was an accident, or
an experiment gone too far, but Gary didn't believe for one minute
that the Falcons were not behind this new power.

If the Falcon's were on the verge of this new power, then simply
killing the woman would not be enough because it would only be a
matter of time before they could transform another person with the
same power. Instead, he needed her alive, so he could examine this
power, learn it, and then have it for himself. The others... were
disposable.

All the thoughts about the woman turned his attention to Crystal. He
still hadn't worked out what to do with her. So far, capturing her
and transforming her had been of little practical use, but Gary was
convinced he could find a use for her, just not at the moment.

***************

Michelle, Tina, Richard and Sarah arrived at the safe house in Las
Vegas. The house had its own garage, so they could park the car out
of sight.

Once inside, Richard performed a security check. When all was clear,
they settled down together in the living room.

Ever since escaping from the Ravens, both Richard and Sarah had a
hundred questions to ask Michelle. Now that they were relatively
safe, Richard's patience was the first to break. He walked up to
Michelle and demanded "Who are you? I mean who are you really? Hell,
WHAT are you?"

"Richard, that's not fair," Tina interrupted.

"None of this is fair. Mary died because of her. She's been screwing
us around ever since we met. I want some answers. I wanna know what
Mary died for."

Michelle's patience finally snapped, "ME. Screwing YOU around," she
shouted, "Look at what YOU'VE done to ME," Michelle said as she
gestured at her own body. "A week ago I was happy, now look at me."

Sarah interrupted in a calm tone, "Michelle, we're not blaming you
for what happened, but one of our best friends just got killed. I
think you do owe us an explanation."

Sarah's tone was very diplomatic. She was trying to calm the
situation down. Sarah was now acutely aware of the forces that
Michelle could command and didn't want to make her too angry.

Michelle sat down and slowly began to recite the story of how she
gained her telekinetic powers. She then detailed everything that had
happened since her transformation and how she used her powers to
escape both from the Falcons and then from the Ravens.

When she had finished, Richard placed another call to the Falcon's
council. He made the call extremely brief to avoid the possibility of
the phone signal being tri-angulated as they had done with Michelle
and Tina. He gave a greatly simplified account of what Michelle had
told them, plus receiving some more instructions.

"We have a problem," he said after hanging up. "Hank hasn't checked
in with the council."

"Hank?" Michelle asked.

"Yes, he came with us," Richard explained. "Remember back in the
garage, they should have had their backup a lot quicker. Plus that
barrier should have been down long before we got there. I bet Hank
had something to do with that. He bought us the time we needed to
escape."

"So where is he now?" Tina asked.

"No-one knows. He could have been captured... or worse," Richard
replied.

***************

Gary walked into the secure room at their hotel. He could see a naked
Hank tied to the rack where Michelle had been. He seemed totally
unconscious. Maria was standing beside him, examining bullet wounds
on his body.

"How's the new prisoner?" Gary asked.

"Still unconscious. He got hit several times. The injuries are bad,
but not critical. It's going to take time to heal his wounds. I still
say we leave the bastard to die," Maria said.

"I know. I feel the same. But we need information. We need him
alive," Gary explained.

Maria was aware of this and was simply venting her anger. "Well its
gonna take a while before he's healed enough to be tortured, at least
until morning. I can't wait to get started on him," she said rubbing
her hands. Gary could see that she was deeply embarrassed at having
been overpowered by Michelle and wanted to make up for it.

Just in case Hank possessed the same power, Gary had ordered a
constant armed guard. There would be at least two extra people
present at all times. He didn't think this was likely, believing
Michelle to be the only recipient of this power, but didn't want to
take the chance. Maria didn't like this, believing it was cramping
her style, but after hearing what Michelle did to Tanya, accepted
that is was necessary.

"How's the jaw?" Gary asked Maria.

"Oh, fine," she replied, rubbing it. Gary was pleased that Maria
hadn't sustained any permanent injuries as a result. She was the only
person he felt any connection with and genuinely cared about.

"I take it you were told about her power," Gary asked.

"Yeah. I heard. I can't believe she was able to kill Tanya with it."

"That's what I want to talk to you about. Did she use it in here?"

"Well nothing levitated if that's what you mean," Maria said. "But
she did manage to get out of those restraints. I guess she must have
used her powers to do that. That must mean this room doesn't stop her
power."

"Right," Gary acknowledged. That wasn't good news. He badly wanted to
capture her alive, but how could he keep her captive if she was able
to escape and kill with such ease. How could they possibly hold her?

"Tell me exactly what happened?" Gary said.

Maria shrugged and recited exactly what she had done and how both of
the women reacted, but especially Michelle. Afterwards, they both
came to the conclusion that Michelle was holding out on her powers
and could have escaped at any time. But faced with the prospect of
being whipped, she took her chance to escape.

They also discussed how they could prevent her from using her powers
if they recaptured her. The only solution Maria could give would be
to keep her either unconscious or so high on drugs that she wouldn't
know what day it was. Such a tactic of keeping a person conscious,
but high on drugs does work with other Kithra as it prevents them
from being able to concentrate enough to cast a spell. But Maria was
quick to point out that it wasn't a foolproof method and she couldn't
guarantee that it would stop Michelle from using her abilities.

Gary left her with Hank, aiming to catch some sleep before morning.

***************

Chapter Thirty-One
==================

T + 8 days

The following morning Richard, Sarah, Tina and Michelle all awoke
early. None of them managed to get much sleep. There were three beds,
so Tina and Michelle shared a bed. In theory they were supposed to
take turns to guard, but they were all exhausted and Tina fell asleep
in her shift.

Despite having the air conditioning on full blast, Michelle woke up
several times during the night in a cold sweat. Each time she had the
image in her mind of Tanya's last moments. She could clearly remember
the look on Tanya's face just before she broke her neck and killed
her. How long would she be plagued by nightmares?

The house had been equipped with most of the essential items. Basic
clothes and tinned foods were available; so they all washed, dressed
and sat down to eat breakfast. Michelle had taken a shower and Tina
had wrapped her long mane of hair in a towel.

As they turned on the news, one of the leading news items was that
authorities were launching a murder hunt after a woman was found shot
by the roadside. It became clear that the woman they were referring
to way Mary.

"Damn, Ravens," Richard called out. "They're using Mary's death to
find us. They've now got the whole of the Clark County police looking
for us as well."

"We have to get out of here," Sarah said as Tina made her excuses and
left the dining room. She intended to fetch a hairbrush for Michelle
now that her hair was drying.

"Well, its not just about getting us out as soon as possible. We need
to co-ordinate all our efforts with the group. We might need to stay
and fight if it comes to it," Richard said.

"Hey, what do you mean OUR efforts?" Michelle interrupted, "This is
your fight, not mine. I just wanna get out of here."

"Michelle, I'm not saying you're responsible, but you killed the
leader of the Ravens. Our group is now at war with them. They're
gonna do everything the can to wipe us out completely. As of now,
every member of the Falcons is a fighter"

"But I'm not part of your group. I never wanted to be and its not
like your group has made me feel welcome."

"I know we haven't treated you well, but things have changed,"
Richard said.

"What, because I have the power to hurt your enemies," Michelle
snapped back, annoyed that she was suddenly more valuable just
because of her telekinetic powers.

"Okay, I'd been lying if I said that no. But this isn't just because
your powers can hurt the Ravens. You see even before we transformed
you, you were different from normal people. Whether you like to admit
it or not, you're Kithra. Hell, why didn't you tell us you had this
power. You'd have been free by now if you had."

"I made a decision at the time to keep quiet. I-I thought you might
see me as a threat," Michelle said.

"Maybe, maybe not. But from now on, the Ravens certainly will. You've
shown that you have the power to hurt them. They'll hunt you down
like a dog. But they won't stop with you. They'll kill us all... me,
Sarah... even Tina," Richard said, throwing in Tina's name last to
provoke a response.

"Don't play the emotion card, Richard," Michelle snapped recognizing
his tactics, "I still haven't forgiven Tina for what she did to me."

At that point, Michelle looked up to see that Tina had just re-
entered the room hairbrush in hand, catching the last part of the
conversation, especially Michelle's comments. Tina rushed out of the
room and virtually ran back to her room.

"Great," Michelle said bitterly to Richard as she left the dining
table and followed Tina.

Michelle found Tina back in her room. As she opened the door, Tina
was lying on the bed, facing away from door. Michelle could hear
sniffles indicating that Tina was already crying.

"You hate me, don't you," Tina cried.

Michelle sat down on the bed. Tina was still facing away.

"I don't hate you Tina," Michelle reassured.

"B-But you're never gonna forgive me, are you?" Tina said.

Michelle was searching her feelings. She meant what she said to
Richard, but Tina had heard it in the wrong context, "It's not easy.
I don't blame you for what happened and I don't hold it against you."

There was a pause, so Michelle continued, "But there are times when
it all comes back to me. When I look in the mirror, when I feel my
boobs bounce... and when stupid assholes don't watch what they say,"
Michelle said, referring to Richard's comments.

Again, Tina was silent, so Michelle poured her heart out. "You DID
this to me Tina. I keep asking myself how I can ever truly forgive
you for that. But when we were back in Massachusetts, no-one was
prepared to help me. I was alone. Sure people were 'on my side', but
no-one helped me. I had no-one to turn to... except you. You were there
for me when I needed you. I won't forget that. In time, I think I'll
forget the pain you caused me, but I'll never forget that you were
there when it counted."

Tina turned around and smiled slightly. Michelle continued, "Look, I
don't know how this is gonna end up. I mean we might not even live
till tomorrow. But whatever happens, I want you to be there."

"Always Michael, always," she said deliberately calling her by her
male name.

"Might as well call me Michelle now. I mean, I'm NEVER going back
now, am I. I really am stuck like this for life, aren't I?"

Tina nodded, "Yeah, you are."

"Come on, I think Rambo is trying to work out a plan," Michelle said.
She took Tina by the hand and led her back to the dining room.

When they returned, Michelle sensed a change in attitude from
Richard. While Tina and Michelle were having their heart to heart,
Sarah had given Richard a few strict words in diplomacy.

They all sat down together around the dining room table. As they
talked, Tina began to brush out Michelle's long hair. Ordinarily, it
would have been better for Michelle to begin learning how to do it
herself. But now wasn't the time for girly lessons. There would be
plenty of time for that later, assuming they got out of this town
alive.

"Okay, I've been working on a plan to get us out," Richard said. "But
first, I need to know one thing. Michelle, the way you used your
powers last night. The way you killed Tanya with your powers. Can you
do it again?" Richard asked Michelle.

"I-I don't know if I can," Michelle replied partially taken back by
the question. She was still coming to terms with the fact that she
had taken another human life. She was vehemently telling herself that
she had acted in self-defense. If she hadn't killed Tanya, then both
she Tina would have been dead instead.

"I appreciate you don't want to unless it was totally necessary. But
if it really came down to it, do you think you could do it?"

Michelle thought carefully. These people were out to kill her and the
people she cared about. "Yes. If I really had to, I could," she
eventually answered.

"Good. I hope it won't come to that, but I have a plan and it kind of
depends on your power."

Richard continued, "You see, the best defense if a good offense. I've
checked with my police contacts in Los Angeles. All the highways and
airports are covered and somehow they've put restrictions on light
aircraft. I don't know how, but they've done it. However, there is
one helicopter which has unrestricted access to takeoff and land
anywhere."

Richard paused with everyone looking at him, their expressions
demanding more. He continued, "On the top of their hotel, the Ravens
have their own chopper and helipad. The Ravens don't know this, but
I've had pilot training. We can steal their own helicopter."

"But that hotel is their base," Sarah nearly screamed. "There must be
more Ravens there than anywhere else in town,"

Richard interrupted, "Except when they're all looking for us."

Sarah was still far from being convinced, "I can't believe you're
suggesting it. We're in dire straights, surrounded on all sides, and
you want to go to their base and attack them outright. Richard,
that's crazy."

"Completely," Michelle interrupted with a smile on her face,
appreciating Richard's plan. Over the past week, Michelle had run
circles around everyone by using the most unorthodox tactics. Richard
was finally speaking Michelle's language. To Michelle, Richard's plan
made perfect sense.

***************

Gary examined the various whip marks that Hank had sustained all over
his body, but particularly his back. He shivered thinking that the
level of pain would have been excruciating. Nobody would have been
able to withstand that level of torment.

Maria had started on him at dawn, and she was only just beginning to
break him down. It was a miracle that he lasted as long as he did.

Maria walked up to him and greeted him, "So what does he know?" Gary
enquired, eager to discover what had been learned from this first
session.

"You're not gonna believe this, but he doesn't know anything about
those telekinetic powers," Maria stated.

"You mean he wasn't privy to the details," Gary attempted to correct
her.

"No. I mean he doesn't know ANYTHING about them. He didn't even know
that she had them."

Gary's jaw dropped. "That's impossible. Hank is a member of the
Falcon council. He must know something about this."

"I don't think he does. He doesn't believe me when I tell him that
she has telekinetic powers. He still doesn't believe that she killed
Tanya."

Gary was still reeling from this news. "Do you believe him?" Gary
asked.

Maria looked over to Hank. "Yes, so far. I think he's telling the
truth.

"So torturing him has been a waste of time then," Gary said.

"Well it's not a disaster. I mean we can still squeeze him dry of
other information. I've still got to try drugging him. But I don't
think he knows anything about these powers."

"So what does he know about this woman?" Gary enquired

"He said that Michelle saved the life of Tina and her family.
According to him, it was Tina that transformed him accidentally when
one of her own spells went wrong."

"No. I can't believe that Tina did this," Gary said.

Maria glanced over to Hank, "I still don't think he's lying."

"Then someone must have lied to him. If Tina was a more experienced
member of the Falcons, I might believe it. But Tina Adams hasn't been
Kithra for very long. She hasn't got the sort of power to be able to
pull something like this off. Anyway, keep me informed."

Maria also said that she didn't need an armed guard any more. It was
obvious that Hank didn't possess the same power as Michelle, so Gary
could use the other two in the hunt for the Falcons.

Gary left Maria to her work and considered the new information. The
whole thing was weird to begin with, but now things were getting
downright bizarre. If Hank truly didn't know about the woman's
telekinetic powers, then they had a lot of catching up to do about
Falcon society. Gary was still convinced that Michelle was the
product of a deliberate experiment in creating new powers.

***************

Richard, Sarah, Mary and Michelle had finished formulating their
plan. Richard made brief calls to the Falcon. He was also able to get
partial confirmation that Hank was being held in the Ravens hotel,
presumably in their secure room where Michelle and Tina were held.

They spent the next hour finishing off their plan. Because it was
assumed that Hank was captured, the mission was also to rescue Hank
and then escape with the Raven's helicopter. Ideally, they would not
kill anyone. Richard was mindful of the fact that peace between the
groups was achievable, as long as no more blood was shed.

Neither Michelle, Tina or Sarah were thrilled about the idea of
having to rescue Hank, especially Sarah who still had her own
suspicions about Hank's real intentions with Michelle.

But Richard was quick to point out that it had been Hank's actions
that gave them the chance to escape and they owed it to Hank to at
least try and free him.

They would not be executing the plan until tonight, giving them the
extra cover or darkness.

***************

Gary was in his office with several of his lieutenants. They were
delivering reports and discussing tactics. The first priority was
defense. Three of their number had been killed in a matter of
minutes. They needed to make sure that the Falcons couldn't do the
same again.

Once they were adequately defended, they would strike back. Nestled
in between these two priorities was the problem of Richard, Michelle,
Tina and Sarah. They needed to deal with them before they started
mounting any attacks.

"We've got the police to set up roadblocks. They think they're
looking for the murderers of Mary. We've got a couple of our people
at every roadblock. Even if they've changed their appearance, our
people should still be able to sense them. They won't get out by
road."

"What about aircraft?" Gary asked.

"Our people are at the airport monitoring passengers on scheduled
flights. We've got Air Traffic Control and the FAA to put limits on
all incoming and outgoing air travel using small planes and
helicopters."

"How did you manage that?" someone else asked.

"We sent a tip to the local FBI about a middle-eastern terrorist
group attacking the town using rockets fired from light aircraft"

"Bit far fetched isn't it," Gary said cringing, echoing the thoughts
around the room. "This ain't Hollywood."

"I know, but it's the best we could do. So far it seems to be
working. They're keeping it to themselves but they're taking it
serious enough to put limits on things, without closing everything
down. We don't want to take things too far or we might risk exposure.

The meeting was interrupted by the sound of Gary's phone ringing on
his desk. To save picking it up, he hit the speakerphone button. It
was Maria.

"Maria, please tell me some good news," Gary cried in mock despair

"Oh, it's good. It's really good."

Everyone's attention was perked up. "So what is it?" Gary asked.

"The Falcons have a safe house in Las Vegas, known only to members of
the Falcon council. Hank's just given me the address."

Maria proceeded to read out the address as given by Hank. "I want a
strike team assembled there in ten minutes," he turned to one of his
men.

"Great work Maria," Gary said to her, before hanging up the line.

***************

Back in the Falcons safe house, Michelle had approached Tina asking
her for more information about the odd feelings she was experiencing
when men touched her.

Tina was hesitant at first, but said that the real expert was her
mother. She asked Michelle to wait while she consulted with Sarah.
Eventually, Michelle was asked to come into the living room. Richard
was also present.

She was already feeling embarrassed and she hadn't told them anything
yet. As soon as she walked into the room, she felt her face burn.
Richard and Sarah now knew that she'd had sex.

"Michelle, Tina's told me roughly what's happened. But I need to hear
it from you, in your own words. Explain what happened. And I want to
know everything okay, every little detail." Sarah asked.

Michelle explained in detail about the feelings she went through with
Harry and also the feelings that occurred at the hands of the Raven
man the previous evening. She was extremely embarrassed at having to
admit these things. She needed plenty of coaxing and reassurance from
Tina.

"So what do you think, mom?" Tina asked. "Do you know what's
happened?"

"I think so but to be sure I want to try something out to confirm it.
Do you want to try it now?"

Michelle shrugged and nodded. "Okay, stand up in the middle of the
room," Sarah requested. Michelle complied and as she did, Sarah also
motioned Richard to join them in the middle of the room.

"Right, Michelle, I need you to remain where you are and let Richard
do whatever he wants with you."

Michelle shot Sarah a piercing glare. Sarah saw her concern and
immediately reassured her, "Don't worry, he's not gonna make out with
you right here in front of us. But I need you to have an open mind
about this, and I need you to go along with this."

Michelle gave an approving nod and shrugged her acceptance.

"Okay Richard, kiss her," Sarah said.

Richard leaned over and gave her a peck on the lips.

"Not like that Richard, kiss her properly," she ordered.

Richard placed him arm around Michelle's waist and gently pulled her
closer. Michelle instinct was to pull away, but she allowed Richard's
lips to make contact with hers. She vowed to herself that she would
not allow it to go any further.

***************

Gary was in the same street provided by Hank, about a block North,
waiting for everyone to converge. Timing was crucial in order to
maintain the element of surprise. They may outnumbered and outgun the
Falcons, but if they were dug in, then they wouldn't go down without
a fight. Also, the telekinetic powers of the blonde woman made things
very complicated.

Gary would have like to have stormed the house with about thirty
Ravens, but every extra Kithra in the vicinity increased the chances
of them being sensed magically.

Detecting the presence of other Kithra is a very patchy ability at
best. But the more of them that were close, and the longer they
waited, the greater the chance that one of the Falcons would pick up
on their presence.

On the other hand, he didn't want to rush in so fast that his men
didn't have a chance to prepare adequately. It was a question of
striking the right balance

He determined that they would storm the house in two teams. They
would proceed as soon as the teams were ready. Their helicopter was
in the air, but again holding back to avoid tipping them off. Once
the SWAT team moved it, the helicopter would also move in to cover
any possible escape.

They put on SWAT flack jackets and prepared their arms. They were all
armed with automatic weapons, but also contained a tazor and
tranquilizer gun strapped to their belts.

The assault teams were kitted out with mostly police gear. This was
to ensure that any neighbors or passers by would assume they were a
police SWAT team on a raid.

They were already well prepared so it did not take them long to
complete their preparations. Gary walked up to them to give them
their final instructions.

"Okay guys, I'd like them all taken alive if possible. But if it
really comes down to it, dead will do. Except the guy Richard! We
don't need him, so you can kill him now and get it over with."

"Now you've all heard about the blonde woman, Michelle. Some of you
have seen what she can do. Whatever you do, we have to take her out,
but I still want her alive. So shoot her anywhere she doesn't have a
major organ, then tazor her till she's out cold."

***************

Meanwhile Michelle was becoming totally lost. She knew that if she
didn't stop him immediately, it would be too late. She could feel her
will to resist slipping away and away.

And then, very suddenly, her resistance broke. Michelle could also
feel her alter personality took over. Her arms which had been down by
her side, worked their way around Richard, caressing his back, her
left hand going up to the back of his head.

They could all see the change overtake Michelle. Richard wasn't
simply kissing her anymore. She was kissing him back, and she seemed
to love it.

After about a minute, Sarah leaned over to Richard and whispered in
his ear, "Take off her blouse."

Richard hesitated briefly, aware of Michelle's powers and not wanting
to go too far with her. When most women are subjected to unwanted
physical advances, they resort to a quick slap to stop the man. But
this was no normal woman. She could break his arm with just a blink
of an eye.

But as he reached her top button and unfastened it, Michelle showed
no hint of displeasure. She continued to kiss him and even seemed to
encourage him to carry on unbuttoning her blouse.

***************

The fake SWAT team smashed their way into the safe-house, the first
unit though the front door. Almost immediately a second group smashed
in through the rear, entering through the kitchen.

"Kitchen clear," Gary heard over the radio, watching from the street.
Two snipers had taken up positions at the front and the rear, to
catch any escaping Falcons.

"Dining room clear," Gary heard again.

The noise over the radio was virtually continuous as one person after
another would open up the microphone and speak. They systematically
searched each room.

"Ground floor is clear. Alpha team proceeding upstairs."

"Copy that. Beta team entering the basement."

Gary tensed up slightly. Any moment now, the shooting would start.
Gary listened to the talk and crackling over the radio as they
searched the house inch by inch, attempting to uncover the Falcons.

"Basement clear," Gary heard over the radio. This wasn't right. Gary
knew that his men should have found them by now, unless there wasn't
anyone there.

"First floor clear," was the next radio communication, which
confirmed Gary's fears.

"There's no-one here," Gary heard someone remark over the crackled
radio. He finally lost his patience. He marched up the street at a
quick pace.

As he marched, he could see some of the neighbors peering out of
their windows, their curiosity burning into them.

In less than a minute, Gary was at the front door of the house. He
stepped through what was left of it. As he did, one of the assault
team greeted him. She pulled off her ski mask as Gary approached.

"Gary, its empty. And from what I can see, no-one's been here in
months."

Gary was furious. He clenched his fist around the radio and in a fit
of anger, threw it against the wall. As it struck the wall, it
smashed into pieces. That was Gary's second radio in two days.

***************

On the other side of town in the Falcon's second safe house, Michelle
was hurriedly putting her blouse back on again. She couldn't believe
that she had allowed Richard to take it off. When he was doing it, it
seemed so... natural.

After taking her blouse off, Sarah had indicated that they had gone
far enough. Richard then stepped back from Michelle. Michelle's
initial reaction was to step forward to resume the kiss.

Then in the space of about a second, the realization of what she was
doing had hit her. Michelle's face went deep scarlet as she blushed
with embarrassment at the things she had done.

"So what's the verdict," Michelle asked Sarah as she finished with
the buttons.

Sarah paused, thinking her answer through carefully. She knew exactly
what the problem was, but if she phrased it incorrectly, it would
look very bad on Tina. She didn't want to lie to Michelle, but at the
same time, she wanted to phrase it in a way that Michelle would be
able to handle.

"It's a side affect of the transformation. Your body was designed for
sex and this is your body's way of ensuring that it carries out its
design." This was a slight exaggeration on Sarah's part. She didn't
feel it wise to mention that this specific aspect had been engineered
by Tina to make sure she would willingly oblige Michael in any sexual
act he wanted to do.

"So why didn't it happen with... me and... Tina," Michelle said, being
careful with her words, not knowing if Sarah knew that her daughter
was bisexual.

Sarah wasn't aware, but wasn't at all surprised. All Kithra have the
ability to change their gender for short periods of time, so almost
all experiment. Tina wouldn't have been normal if she hadn't tried it
at some point.

"I'm not sure, but I'd guess that it only happens with men. That's
probably your trigger. When a man... touches you intimately, you... feel
a need to please him."

"But, men have... touched me before. I was nearly raped back in
California. I didn't feel anything then. And yesterday, some Raven
guy groped my tits. I felt it then, but I was able to fight it."

"Michelle, You mustn't think of this as an automatic response. It's
not like every time a guy smiles at you, or brushes up against you,
you'll become a helpless slut. If you really don't want it, you can
fight it. Back in California, how far did the guys actually... go? Did
they actually touch you anywhere" Sarah asked.

Michelle shook her head, remembering the fact that they had mostly
held her down. Although one of them had placed his hand on her
vagina, it was only there for a very short time before she threw them
off.

She was already working out that there must be a time element to the
trigger. With the Raven yesterday, it took about a minute before she
felt the effects, as it did with Richard. The longer she was intimate
with someone, the more likely she was to slip.

Michelle also thought back to her encounter with Harry, the telephone
engineer. Although she had become affected more quickly, there was
one extra variable... she was partially intoxicated. Alcohol clearly
made it harder for her to fight the urges. Things were starting to
make sense.

"So what can I do about it?" she asked.

"In the short term, absolutely nothing," Sarah said bluntly,
believing this to be the best strategy. Surprisingly, Michelle showed
little negative reaction. Michelle was appreciative of Sarah candid
response. Above all else, she wanted answers and she preferred
negative answers to no answers. "All I can suggest is that you don't
kiss a guy or let him touch you intimately unless you actually want
go all the way with him. Be aware that you might not be able to stop,
even if you want to."

"And in the longer term?" Michelle enquired.

"Difficult to say. This... compulsion if you want to call it that is a
part of you now... permanently. But there are things that can be done
to help, especially if you are able to learn magic. Plus, there are
some benefits to it as well."

"Yeah, like what?" Michelle asked.

"Well, if you do want to become bisexual or a heterosexual woman,
it'll be much easier for you. You won't have to worry about getting
hung up on having sex with guys. All you'll have to do is just let
things go naturally and you know you'll enjoy it."

Michelle seemed far from convinced, so Sarah added, "Look, it isn't
that strange. There are plenty of women that don't trust themselves
around men. You've heard of the description 'melting in a man's
arms'. And as a man, do you really think it was any different. If a
sexy lady walked up to you and really starting coming on to you real
strong, do you really think you would be able to stop yourself."

Michelle didn't say anything, but appeared to be accepting Sarah's
logic.

"But the bottom line is, if you don't want it, then don't let guys
touch you at all. From what I've just heard and seen, it's physical
contact that triggers it. You won't start making out with guys just
from being in the same room as them."

***************

Gary and the strike teams were still going through the house they had
just stormed.

"There's something odd about the setup of this place. I think this IS
a Falcon safe-house," one of them reported to Gary.

"So where are they?" Gary cried.

"I don't know. Maybe they never came here. Maybe they had a second
safe house."

"Look for any clues as to where they might be. Rip the place apart if
you have to. I'm going back to base. I'll leave you here and take the
other team back with me."

***************

Chapter Thirty-Two
==================

Michelle, Richard, Sarah and Tina were making their way to the
Raven's hotel in the car that had been left for them at the safe
house. Richard revealed his plan as being one that had already been
considered by the Falcons some time ago in the event an attack was
ever needed. But then plan was shelved due to a strategic loophole in
the logic; a loophole that Michelle's powers could well close.

The plan centered on taking control of the surveillance department of
the hotel. Although the Ravens had a dislike of video cameras, they
still used them for the day to day running of the hotel and this
surveillance made an attack on the hotel almost impossible.

As they parked up Tina, Richard and Sarah cast spells upon
themselves, transforming their faces. Their bodies were roughly the
same, but they now had a vastly different look. Tina was a striking
redhead, while Sarah was a brunette and had a much younger
appearance.

Michelle did not have the ability to transform herself, so Tina had
tied her hair into a bun, allowing some of it to drop down, giving
the effect of having shoulder length hair. They also trimmed her
fingernails. Adjusting her physical body in such a way would put her
Kithra abilities into a state of flux, making it more difficult for
her to learn magic in the months to come. But Michelle was having
such a hard time with her nails that they decided it was a necessary.
It was a relatively minor adjustment. By tomorrow, they will have
grown back to the same length.

They thought about dying her hair another color, but decided to leave
it blonde, thinking the Ravens would assume that the first thing they
would do is dye her hair a different color.

Richard began to repeat the final details of the plan. Getting into
the hotel would be fairly easy. After all, it was open to the public.
But as soon as they moved outside the public areas, they would be
noticed almost immediately because of all the security cameras
littering the hotel. So any attack on the hotel centered on being
able to take out the surveillance department first.

The plan recognized that the biggest problem was getting inside the
surveillance department without the alarm being raised. But the
Falcons had discovered that the entrance to surveillance is along a
corridor that the cocktail waitresses use to go from the gaming floor
from their staff quarters.

Since the surveillance department can only be opened from the inside,
the plan was for two Falcons to be disguised as cocktail waitresses
and then for one of them to collapse outside the door. Once the door
was opened, they could magically disable those inside.

Hidden in the safe house were various items that were of use. Some
firearms, tranquilizers, even a few tazor stun-guns. But there were
other items of use as well, including several replica uniforms of
various staff positions at the hotel, including two cocktail waitress
uniforms.

However, this was where the plan became shaky. It might work under
normal circumstances, but right now, there would be at least one,
maybe two fully armed Ravens inside the surveillance department whom
would be immune to their magic. Since the waitress costumes were very
skimpy, there would be nowhere to hide any weapons and the Ravens
inside would cut them to pieces. The plan simply wouldn't work.

But when Richard saw how effective Michelle's powers were against the
Ravens, he decided that this plan had some merit. She didn't need any
weapons to incapacitate a Raven. She was the weapon.

However, that meant Michelle would have to be one of those dressed in
a sexy skimpy cocktail waitress uniform. They only had two outfits so
only one other person would be able to help out. Tactically Richard
would have been best to accompany Michelle, but the magical power
required to transform himself into a suitable female body for long
enough would have expended too much magical energy.

Therefore Sarah would accompany Michelle and would use her magic to
incapacitate the normal members of staff in the department, while
Michelle would take out the Ravens. Sarah would also use her powers
to block any telepathic signals emanating from the room so that the
Ravens could not call for help magically.

It was a bold plan, but it had a chance. Certainly, it was better
than waiting around at the safe house for them to be found. Sooner or
later, the Ravens would find the safe house and every other escape
route was covered.

As they left the car, they were all surprised at how Michelle was
handling herself. She still didn't totally blend in, but she managed
a lot better than they were expecting. When they heard Richard's
plan, neither Tina nor Sarah thought Michelle would be able to do it.

Michelle didn't like the idea of dressing up as a cocktail waitress
one bit, especially after she saw the outfit. But she'd dressed up as
a hooker two days earlier, so it wasn't a totally new experience and
it was serving a definite purpose.

The uniform was black velvet with the edges trimmed in gold. It
consisted of a top that was little more than a bra and a really short
skirt, the hemline of which only just covered her ass cheeks. Her
entire midriff was visible as well.

The only two other items were a black thong and black patent stiletto
heels. The shoes were not optional part of the uniform either, so
Michelle would have to wear them or would look out of place.

Almost all Casino's in Las Vegas insist that cocktail waitresses wear
heels of some description although the threat of lawsuits from the
damage caused by long-term wear of high heels had softened the stance
of some Casino's who were allowing lower cut heels.

However this Casino still insisted on a minimum three-inch stiletto
heel as part of the uniform, so Michelle had no choice but to wear
them. Fortunately, those left at the safe house were roughly the
correct size. Oddly enough, she was beginning to get used to them.
Over the top of the uniform, Michelle and Sarah were wearing dresses
that would enable them to enter the hotel using the normal entrances.

Richard was listening a radio scanner. He was listening for the radio
name of the Ravens helicopter. After half an hour, he heard was he
was listening for. The helicopter was heading back to the hotel to
refuel. This was their cue to begin.

Michelle took a deep breath before leaving the car. They proceeded as
planned, Michelle and Sarah immediately splitting up from Tina and
Richard. They would all make their way into the Casino using
different entrances. Once inside, Michelle and Sarah will cast away
their dresses discreetly, and make their way to surveillance. Richard
and Tina will attempt to blend in, and will follow in after exactly
five minutes.

***************

In the Ravens secure room, Hank was still furious at himself for
divulging the location of the safe house. The Falcons had two safe
houses in Las Vegas and each Council member knew the location of one
of them, but not both.

Although he guessed that they would be directed to the other safe
house that he wasn't aware of, he couldn't be sure, so he tried to
hold out.

But the combination of excruciating pain and drugs had been too much
for him. He had heard that Maria was an expert at extracting
information, but he never knew exactly how good she was, until now.

Maria returned to the room and immediately saw that Hank had regained
consciousness. Hank was still naked and strapped to the rack where he
had been since the ordeal started. His back was still in agony from
the onslaught he had received, although it was a fraction of the pain
it had been earlier.

"Well, I gotta hand it to you. You're one piece of work," she said as
she approached. She was wearing her second favorite dominatrix
uniform, her favorite having been taken by Tina.

"Glad to see I've been a challenge,"

"No, that's not what I mean," Maria said.

There was something about Maria's tone, which unnerved him. She had
that 'I know something' look in her eyes.

"What do you mean then?" Hank asked.

"You mean you don't remember what you told me," Maria said. This
wasn't unusual as one of the side effects of one of the drugs was
short-term memory loss.

"Well have a guess what it was that you told me," Maria asked.

"Ha, nice try," Hank said, thinking that was a trick to getting him
to divulge more information.  "But I think the drugs are more
effective though."

"Oh, they were effective. With the drugs and the pain, you were
begging me to stop. And when I wouldn't stop, you begged me to kill
you. And finally, when you knew that I wouldn't stop and I wouldn't
kill you, you told me everything. You cried like a baby and told me
everything... and I mean everything."

A chill ran down Hank's spine. He still couldn't remember the
details, but he could remember crying and how Maria was promising it
would end if only he told her what she wanted to know. He couldn't
remember telling her anything, but the confident look on her face
told Hank that he had been very forthcoming.

But Hank didn't know exactly what he had told her, and what, if
anything, he had managed to hide.

"I still can't remember," Hank said. "So unless you're going to laugh
on your own, you're gonna have to let me in on the joke."

"The joke, yeah it's fucking hilarious. Have you heard the one about
the Falcon who set up one of his own people to get killed by the
Ravens."

Hank's legs went weak. "Not that," he thought. He was assuming that
he had divulged tactical details and current secrets to Maria. But
not that secret. No-one had known about that. He had kept it hidden
for years.

Maria grabbed Hank's jaw and said, "I mean the way you tipped us off
about Jack's mission, so that we'd kill him."

Hank swallowed hard. She knew. How did she manage to extract it from
him?

Maria continued, "And you accuse us of being callous..." as she
released his jaw.

Hank hung his head low.

***************

In the surveillance room of the Raven's hotel, three operations were
going on. The first was the ordinary day-to-day running of the hotel,
being carried out by the normal members of staff.

Simon was overseeing the other two operations. Looking out for any
signs of a Falcon attack and going through the last week of
surveillance tapes, double checking any Falcon presence, especially
the mystery woman with the strange powers. He was still pissed at
losing out to Gary for leadership of the group, but he did his best
to put it behind him.

He had been provided with photographs of the woman to help identify
her from the hours of archive footage, as he had not been present,
having been out of town while it all blew up, only just arriving back
in time to get beaten by Gary.

He studied all of the photographs, but discounted them as they were
of little use in looking out for her return, since all the Falcons
would use magic to change their appearance. Most of the Ravens
naturally assumed that Michelle would have similar magical abilities
as the other Falcons, since she already possessed telekinetic
abilities.

His concentration was broken by a couple of the men, who had noticed
something happening on the camera posted just outside the room. He
looked at the monitor and he saw that one of the hotel's cocktail
waitresses had slipped over and appeared to have twisted her ankle.
The guys in the room were virtually fighting to get out of the room
to help the ladies.

Ordinarily it wouldn't have been a problem, but they were on maximum
alert. He had to make a quick threat assessment. He checked the other
cameras that covered the rest of the corridor and could see nothing
untoward. The two waitresses were the only people there.

Then he checked the image of the two waitresses. One had her back to
the camera and he didn't recognize the person on the ground who was
facing the camera, not that it meant anything. He studied more
carefully. They were certainly two real pieces of ass. The waitress
uniforms left no room to hide any weapons. His instincts told her
that this was exactly as it appeared to be; a couple of bimbo
waitresses in distress.

He gave the signal that it was all right for one of the men to go out
to them, but only one, and purely to lend assistance. The women were
not allowed to come inside. At the same time, he placed a call for
some medical assistance, so that the whole thing could be cleared up
quickly. At the same time, he checked his firearm as well and
prepared a spell, just in case.

Outside the room, Sarah was on the ground feigning injury while she
prepared her spell. Timing was critical. They all knew that they
would not be invited inside, so it had to be done as soon as the door
opened.

As soon as the door opened, Sarah triggered her spell. Michelle moves
aside slightly so that Sarah could see clearly. She needed to be able
to see inside the room, if only a crack. The effects would have
almost instantaneous. Her magic would work through the room, sending
everyone to sleep. Basically, anyone left standing would be a Raven,
immune to the magic.

After Sarah nodded to Michelle that she had completed her spell,
Michelle jumped to her feet and burst into the room, kicking off her
high heels as she did. She burst past the man who had opened the
door, just as he collapsed.

As soon as she entered the large room, men were collapsing in front
of her. She quickly surveyed the room for anyone that wasn't falling
asleep. She had to take them out as quickly as possible before they
could raise the alarm.

Michelle had been told that the spell would take effect within
seconds. She looked around for anyone still standing. One man stood
out clearly as being unaffected.

She was expecting him to draw his gun toward her. She had already
pre-planned to crush his arm, just like she did with Gary. If there
was just the one person to deal with, then holding him should not be
a problem until Richard and Tina arrived.

Simon drew his gun and Michelle immediately responded with a crushing
force to his forearm. She broke the bones in his arm. Simon cried out
in pain as he dropped the gun.

With his arm broken, Simon just took deep breaths and closed his
eyes. He appeared to be deeply concentrating. Michelle guessed that
he was casting a spell of some sort. Maybe he was trying to cast a
spell on her. Since she was immune to their magic, she decided to let
the guy try. The longer he took, the less work she would have to do
to contain him until the cavalry arrived. She glanced at her watch.
With the time spent waiting for the door to be opened, she estimated
another ninety seconds before Richard and Tina arrived.

After about two seconds, Michelle noticed a change in the man. He was
growing. His whole body was growing, his arms, legs, torso, even his
head. All of his clothes became very tight on him.

Then suddenly, he burst out of his clothes like the Incredible Hulk
and by the time he had finished growing, he was the same size as the
Hulk, except of course, his skin wasn't green.

The whole thing happened in about six or seven seconds, but seemed to
take about a minute as Michelle studied it in awe. Also, his right
arm appeared to have been healed. It was no longer out of shape.

She decided to execute another attack strategy that she had been
preparing. Assisted by her telekinetic powers, she picked a computer
monitor off the desk, ripping the cables out of the back and threw it
straight at Simon. With the extra force she applied, it went flying
straight at his head at high speed.

Seemingly at the last minute, Simon reached up with his left hand and
punched the monitor out of the air just like it was a tennis ball. It
smashed onto the ground beside Michelle.

"Shit," Michelle thought. This fight wasn't over. Suddenly that
ninety seconds was starting to look time an eternity.

She wanted to deal with him now, before he sprang any more surprises.
One thing she noticed was the fact that he used his left arm to punch
the monitor out of the way. His right arm didn't seem to be
completely healed. He must have used enough magic to take the pain
away and fuse the bone back together, but he still couldn't use his
arm properly.

Taking the initiative again, she took a few steps forward and jumped
into the air, and delivered a karate kick to Simon's head. She put a
massive amount of energy behind her kick and it did seem to stun him
briefly, so she used her powers to remain in the air and deliver kick
after kick.

Like a fight scene out of The Matrix, she delivered blow after blow
to his head. But she didn't realize that her successive kicks were
not delivering anywhere near as much force as her initial strike.

Like an astronaut on a space walk pushing against a heavy satellite,
all she was doing was pushing her own body away. She was exerting too
much effort keeping herself in the air that she couldn't do any harm
to Simon given that he had made himself twice as tough and strong.

Simon reached out and grabbed Michelle's leg as she tried to strike
him again. Michelle was still hovering in the air, with Simon's hand
firmly gripped around her right ankle.

"Is that the best you've got, bitch," he snarled.

He swung Michelle around, then let go of her leg. He sent her flying
across the room toward a bank of monitors. She was able to use her
powers to cushion the impact as she hit the monitors, much to Simon's
annoyance, who believed it would have caught her unprepared and
knocked her out. She fell to the ground, but landed on her feet in a
crouched position. This was a real fight now, and Michelle knew it.

"Now it's my turn," he said as he marched towards her.

Michelle straightened herself up and began to concentrate hard.
Michelle knew what she had to do. She created a huge force square in
front of his chest. It stopped him, so the pushed harder, wanting to
stop him for good.

She was expecting to have sent him flying backwards, but he was too
big and heavy. All she had done was knock him back about a foot. He
resumed his march toward her. She tried again, knocking him back
about another foot, but it still didn't stop him and all the time he
was closing.

She mustered up all her mental energy, attempting to lift him off the
ground, just like she had done with Tanya. But before she could
deliver the force, Simon had already reached her.

Her used one hand and grabbed Michelle by the neck. Michelle wasn't
prepared for this. She had been relying on her powers to protect her,
to stop him from even getting close to her. But now he had her by the
neck.

As his huge hands gripped her neck, she immediately began to choke.
He lifted her up in the air by her neck. Attempts to use her powers
were useless. She just couldn't concentrate under the pressure being
applied to her neck. He was strangling her.

"You broke Tanya'a neck. Now I'm gonna break yours," he whispered.

Michelle didn't hear anything else as she passed out.

***************

When Michelle woke up, she wondered if she was still alive. When her
senses returned, she opened her eyes. As she remembered back to her
fight, she expected to be back in the Ravens secure room with a
pissed Maria grinning at her. But as her eyes came into focus, she
saw Sarah in front of her.

"Ow," Michelle winced and she strained her neck.

"Hold still. The pain will be gone shortly," Sarah said. Almost
immediately, the pain subsided.

"What happened," she said as she twisted her neck.

As Michelle twisted her neck, she saw the Raven lying about three
feet away from her. His head was in a pool of blood. Michelle could
clearly see an entry wound at the side of his head. He had been shot
at close range. He was clearly dead.

He had made himself tougher and stronger, but couldn't do much about
a high caliber bullet at point blank range, which was a reminder to
Michelle about her own frailty.

"I didn't have any choice," Richard said. "He would have killed you
if hadn't shot him."

"Didn't do too well did I," Michelle commented, feeling guilty that
she had been unable to avoid bloodshed.

"You did great," Richard reassured. "That guy was Simon. He's one of
their leaders and best fighters. Even I try and keep my distance from
him... like several zip code distances. I wouldn't have done any
better. If I had known he was in here, I would have never let you go
near him," Richard said as he helped her to her feet.

"How did he make himself so big?" Michelle asked.

"He transformed himself, making himself bigger and stronger," Richard
replied.

"Can't you do that?" Michelle enquired.

"Yes, but increasing your body mass takes massive amounts of magical
energy. I'd only be able to maintain it for a few seconds. He must
have had a huge amount or magic potential at his disposal," not
knowing that Simon had been spending some time relaxing and hadn't
used his magical abilities for some weeks.

They all spent the next ten minutes checking the system to work out
the best route to take to the roof. Camera data on the roof access
and the penthouse floors were a bit shaky as cameras in the Raven
areas were very limited. One thing they were able to ascertain was
the helipad at the top of the building was occupied by their own
helicopter. They couldn't see very clearly from just the one camera,
but it appeared as if it was being refueled, probably in preparation
to going out again.

Then they needed to disable the room completely. Firstly to prevent
anyone from using the cameras when the Ravens eventually realize
something is wrong and break in.

The second reason is that Richard suspected that there was a
secondary control room somewhere else in the building - probably on
the penthouse floor, so the Ravens could look in without going down
to surveillance.

His fears were confirmed when he located the patch bay, where all the
control and signal lines from all the cameras entered into the room.
They had secondary lines going out as well, probably to the secondary
control. He took an axe and cut through all the lines.

Before committing themselves to heading for the penthouse floors,
Richard reassessed the situation. Sarah had expended a lot of magical
energy in taking the surveillance office. Tina, whose powers were not
at full strength to begin, was running even lower having been forced
to transform her face.

Richard still had plenty of magical energy left, so the mission was
still on. They set off for the penthouse elevator, which was only
about thirty feet from the entrance to surveillance. Unfortunately he
had failed in his attempt to prevent further bloodshed. They had now
killed two members of the Raven Council.

***************

Chapter Thirty-Three
====================

Gary, on the penthouse floor, called for the elevator. He had only
just got back to his office, when he heard that they had received
another lead on the location of the four Falcons still at large. Both
assault teams had been scrambled, the one at the hotel and the other
one still at the previous house. Gary was now on his way to join them
all. He was going there by car and the helicopter would follow after
it had refueled. As he waited for the elevator his cell phone rang.

Gary answered the cell phone. It was the leader of the strike team
that had been left at the previous house they stormed earlier. "Yeah,
we're on our way there now," she said. "We should be there in five
minutes. But that's not why I'm calling you. It's about the house we
just left."

"Go on," Gary said, still waiting for the elevator.

"Well, we found a hidden compartment in the basement. It was
definitely used by the Falcons as a safe house."

"And - " Gary said, sensing there was more.

"You're not gonna believe this. But there was loads of strange stuff
there. Plans of our hotel and some of the uniforms. One for a dealer,
two for cocktail waitresses and another for a concierge."

Gary already had an edgy feeling, but he couldn't place it. This new
information increased his edginess.

"This new address. Do you know where the information came from?"

"Err... I think it came through the police," she replied.

Gary could almost feel something hit him as he realized what was
happening. The Ravens might control the local police, but Richard is
also a police officer. He knows how the police work.

After thinking about it some more, he knew exactly what was
happening. The location they were all converging on was on the far
side of town, leaving the hotel vulnerable.

"Pull back. Get back here as soon as you can," Gary ordered.

"What, we're almost there," the woman said, eager not to miss the
action.

"I said pull back. Let the other team handle it. I want your team
back here, now."

Gary closed the line, then ran down the corridor, leaving the rising
elevator.

As soon as Gary was out of sight, the elevator doors opened on the
penthouse suite.

Richard, Tina, Sarah and Michelle exited the elevator, each of them
covering an angle. When it was all clear, they exited the elevator.
Richard used a nearby waste bin to jam the doors open to prevent the
elevator from moving off this floor.

This was the point when they had agreed to split up. Michelle and
Tina would secure the helicopter, while Richard and Sarah would
rescue Hank. None of them liked the idea of splitting up, but time
was so precious. They didn't have enough time to do them both as a
group.

It was decided that Michelle needed to secure the helicopter in case
the keys were locked up and Michelle's abilities would be able to
retrieve them, as well as disable the pilot.

Michelle had received some pilot training herself some years ago, but
ever followed through and did not possess a license, much like
Richard. However Richard clearly had the greater experience, so would
pilot the aircraft.

Before leaving the house, Richard had made Michelle promise that if
they didn't join them on the roof in fifteen minutes, they would
leave them behind and escape in the chopper.

They parted silently, taking their radios with them, telling each
other to be careful. Michelle and Tina immediately agreed that there
was no way there were going to leave Richard and Sarah behind.

***************

Gary burst into the secure room.

"Gary, I've been looking for you. You're gonna love what I've found
out from him."

"Not now, Maria. The Falcons are attacking us, right here in our own
hotel," Gary said.

"They wouldn't dare..." Maria said.

"Yes they would. How many of our people do we have here?"

"Errm. Simon in surveillance, us two and one more floating around on
the Casino floor. That makes four, including us."

"Then it's just the two of us," Gary retorted.

"Eh."

"There's no answer to surveillance. I've tried all the lines. They
must have taken Simon out. They've probably taken out the guy on the
floor as well. Shit, I can't believe we left the hotel uncovered."

"Okay, then we've got to be prepared to defend this floor," Maria
said.

"Too late for that," came a voice from behind them.

Both Gary and Maria whirled around to face Richard and Sarah about
twenty feet from them. Both of them were armed and their guns were
trained upon them.

Gary's gun was tucked down the back of his pants. He knew that
Richard was a sharpshooter. If he made a move for his gun, Richard
would take him out before he could even get his hands on it, let
alone aim it at Richard.

"Move away from him," Richard said, referring to Hank who was still
tied to the rack, "and put your hands up."

Both Gary and Maria moved away, but not very far. Richard motioned
for Sarah to move over and free Hank, while covering both of them.
Although he wanted to avoid killing people unless necessary, he would
drop them both in a heartbeat if they tried anything.

Gary was fuming, incensed that the Falcons were holding him at
gunpoint in his own hotel.

"Nice of you to let us know that there's no-one else here," Richard
chided Gary, sensing his frustration.

As Sarah reached the rack, Gary lowered his hands very slightly.
Richard immediately noticed this and prompted him to raise them
again. Gary complied.

Sarah checked Hank to see if he was still alive. Hank lifted his
head. He was very weak from the torture, but was fully aware and
conscious of what was happening. He was hanging by the wrist
restraints.

"Do you realize what he did?" Maria said to Sarah as she began to
release him.

"Right now, I don't care," Sarah replied as she unbuckled his wrists.
Hank slumped to the floor with the support of the restraints.

"Oh you will, trust me you will. You'll want to know this," Maria
chided.

Gary looked at Maria with a puzzled look on her face, wondering what
she was up to. Hank on the other hand lifted his head slightly,
knowing exactly what Maria had planned. Sarah unbuckled his left leg.

"He had your husband killed," Maria said.

"What do you mean?" Sarah said as her blood ran cold. She stopped
halfway through unbuckling the final restraint.

"Jack. He had him killed," Maria re-iterated.

"No. YOU killed him," Sarah shouted at her.

"Well, if ya wanna get technical about it, then yeah, we did kill
him. But have you ever wondered how we got to hear about his
mission."

That particular question had been burning on her mind for decades.
She assumed it had been down to good intelligence on the part of the
Ravens.

"No. You're lying.

"You think I'd lie about something like this. We all know that the
best think John did for your group was getting killed. We always knew
it was our biggest mistake of the last war. Huh, I never knew that we
were set up."

Sarah looked down at Hank who simply didn't say a word, but hung his
head low. Sarah stood up and took a few steps back. Emotions were
running through her. Her gun was still in her hand and she looked
down at it. Part of her wanted to point it at Hank and pull the
trigger.

Sarah's thoughts were interrupted by a sound at the far end of the
room. A door opened and someone walked through. Richard retrained his
gun onto this person. As she walked closer, he could see that it was
Michelle, wearing a tight black dress and holding a tray in her
hands. What was she doing here? She should be with Tina.

The person was really Crystal. Gary had sent Crystal to get some food
for Maria and she was holding it on a tray in front of her. But
neither Richard nor Sarah knew about Crystal. Richard and Sarah were
both distracted.

This was Gary's opportunity and he took it without hesitation. Gary
swiftly dropped his hands and reached behind his back for his gun.
Richard didn't even see the movement. In a single motion, he pulled
out his gun and aimed it straight at Richard.

By now, Richard had noticed that this person was not the real
Michelle, so he refocused his attention on Gary, but it was too late.
Richard noticed the movement in the corner of his eye and aimed his
gun back at Gary. But Gary now held the advantage, if only by a
fraction of a second, which was more than enough.

Gary tightened his finger on the trigger. He was going to be the one
to fire first. There was no way he could miss.

Just as Gary fired, Hank nudged into him deflecting the shot
slightly. While everyone else had been distracted, Hank had completed
freeing himself and had made a run at Gary. He knocked into Gary
side, but only a split second before he squeezed the trigger.

The deflection of a fraction of an inch made a difference of several
inches by the time the bullet had traveled through the air towards
Richard. Instead of hitting Richard in the middle of the chest, it
struck Richard in the shoulder. He stumbled back against the wall,
dropping his gun in the process.

At the same time, Maria ran at Sarah trying to grab the gun from her
hand. They struggled together for the gun, but as she swung her arm,
Sarah let go of the gun and it went flying to the end of the room.
Maria started to run after it, but Sarah tackled her.

Both Hank and Gary stumbled to their feet. Hank tried to rush Gary
again, but this time Gary was prepared for him. He hadn't dropped his
gun during the fall and he aimed his gun squarely at Hank and fired,
hitting him once in the center of the chest. Hank recoiled against
the shot and landed on the floor.

There was a momentary pause as the sound of the shot reverberated
throughout the room. Gary noticed that Richard had retrieved his gun
and was beginning to aim him at him again, but he was injured and
using his left hand. Gary knew that an injured Richard was still
formidable

Sarah and Maria were struggling in front of him and to the left, so
instead of aiming his gun at Richard, he sidestepped to the left
slightly, with Sarah blocking Richard's view. He intercepted the
struggle between Sarah and Maria, forcing Sarah to stand in front of
him, using her as a shield and as a hostage. The barrel of Gary's gun
was resting against Sarah's head.

Maria remained a few feet away from Sarah, not sure what to do.
Although she was in the open and a clear target, she wasn't
presenting herself as a threat, as long as she didn't make any sudden
movements or try and get to the gun. She decided to let Gary continue
with the lead.

Crystal also remained still waiting for commands. Gary glanced over
at her. She had come in useful after all. In fact she had been
crucial. He told her to remain exactly where she was. He returned his
attention back to Richard.

"Drop it Richard," Gary demanded.

"Not a chance," Richard replied, blood dripping from his right arm.
He was holding the gun in his left hand. His aim was excellent and
would normally be able to hit Gary right between the eyes, but not
with just he left hand. He could only get a clean shot if there was
no-one else in the way.

"I said drop it," Gary repeated.

"Gary, this ain't like the fucking movies. There's no way in hell I'm
putting my piece down."

"If you don't put it down right now, she dies," Gary said chillingly.

"If I put it down, she dies anyway. No fucking way."

"We've got ourselves a Mexican standoff here," Gary laughed taking
his time. Gary knew that he didn't have to stop Richard. Help was
already on its way. All he had to do was keep Richard occupied. He
arm was injured and wouldn't attempt a shot with his weak arm.

Gary had a totally smug satisfied look on his face when suddenly; the
gun was ripped out of his hand by an unseen force. Gary looked in the
direction of where the gun had headed and saw a mean looking Michelle
and Tina at the entrance to the room.

Once again, the tables were turned. Sarah began struggling. Gary
pushed her forward and ran, with Maria following him. Michelle
started to use her powers to stop them, but as Sarah was pushed
forward, she stumbled slightly in Michelle's direction, blocking her
line of sight.

Richard, however had a clear view, being at a different angle to
Michelle. He aimed his gun at Gary. In slow motion, he tracked his
movement and pulled the trigger. As the bullet left the gun chamber,
Richard's aim had been perfect, but his luck was still lacking.
Although heading directly for a moving Gary, at that instant Gary was
running past the bondage rack. The path of the bullet on it's way to
strike Gary hit one of the metal struts that was bolted into the
ground. This caused a slight deflection in its course. It missed Gary
and hit the far wall.

Richard aimed again and fired, but Gary was another ten feet further
away. Had they been stationary, or Richard's good arm been working,
he would have been sure to hit them, but every shot missed its mark.
They ran to another door at the far end of the room.

Michelle began to run after them. "No leave them," Richard called.
"They're trying to buy time. We need to get out of here, now."

Sarah moved over to Richard, inspecting his arm.

"I'll be okay," Richard assured. He walked over to Hank. He was
clearly dead having been shot in the chest.

"I can't believe he did it," Sarah said softly thinking of what Maria
had said.

Richard was silent for a few seconds, "Come on, we have to get out of
here." He felt like he should have said more, but he couldn't think
of anything to say.

Michelle and Tina were pre-occupied with LaDonna. Michelle was amazed
to see such an exact duplicate of herself standing in front of her.

"Who are you?" Michelle asked.

"My name is Crystal. I don't remember my last name, Lisa. Master Gary
won't let me remember it."

"She called you Lisa," Tina said.

"Yes, that's the false name I used... " Michelle started, but then
stopped and looked at Crystal again. Although she was physically the
same as herself, Michelle was able to see through the transformation.

"LaDonna, is that you? What have they done to you?" Michelle asked.

Crystal didn't answer, but the expression on her face told Michelle
that it was.

"This is the person that helped me. What have they done to her? We
have to take her with us," she told Richard. "We can't leave her here
with these people."

Richard nodded. There should be space on the helicopter, now that
Hank wouldn't be going anywhere. "Okay, but hurry up. We don't have
long."

***************

Chapter Thirty-Four
===================

Tina, Michelle, Richard and Sarah ran down the hotel corridors
towards the roof. Tina was leading the way. Michelle was helping
LaDonna who was being very resistant as she was being taken away from
her Master, especially after he told her to stay where she was.

Once they were onto the roof, Richard proceeded straight to the
helicopter, while Sarah and Michelle barricaded the door to prevent
any Ravens from following them.

Richard reached the helicopter and sat down in the pilot's seat. He
immediately started the engines. They whined loudly as the main rotor
began to rotate. He flexed his left arm. Although Sarah had healed it
as much as she could, there was still some pain. He used some of his
own magic to ease the pain further, so that he could fly the chopper
unhindered.

Shortly afterwards, he saw Michelle, Tina and Sarah emerge from the
other side of the roof access door. Michelle was still assisting
LaDonna. As they stepped onto the large helicopter landing pad,
Richard noticed a huge problem.

He leaned out of the door and signaled for them to stop. Both
Michelle and LaDonna's long hair were in real danger of being dragged
up into the rotors. Although Tina had earlier tied up Michelle's
hair, it had come undone during the scuffle with Simon.

Richard shouted to make himself understood over the noise of the
rotors. Michelle and Tina couldn't hear Richard, but from his hand
gestures, they were able to work out what he was trying to say.

"Here, you take her," Michelle shouted to Tina. Tina gathered
together LaDonna's long blonde hair and walked her to the helicopter.

Michelle tried to do the same for herself, but gathering her own hair
was a lot harder. She couldn't seem to get hold of all of it.
Michelle took several steps back from the helicopter and crouched
down so that she could grasp all of her flowing hair. By this time,
Tina and Sarah had helped LaDonna into the helicopter.

Just as Michelle had finished gathering her hair, something caught
her eye to the left. She glanced over as was amazed to see both Gary
and Maria crouched down. They were about ten feet in front of the
chopper. This time they were both armed and their weapons were drawn.

Either they had pre-empted the attempt to steal the helicopter or
there was another access to the roof that they didn't know about.

Simultaneously, Richard also noticed them and began to draw his gun.
But this time Maria and Gary held a clear advantage. Their primary
aim was to take out Michelle first, but they couldn't get a clear
shot at her because she had crouched down to pick up her hair. Now
that Richard had noticed them, he became the primary threat. They
aimed their weapons straight at him.

Richard didn't even try to get a round off. Instead He had to duck
down into the co-pilots seat to avoid being hit by the hail of
bullets that ripped through the chopper. Tina and Sarah also ducked
down, pulling LaDonna down as well.

Richard tried to return fire, but because Gary and Maria were in
front of the chopper, they covered both of the doors. Richard, Sarah
and Tina were completely pinned down within it. If they tried to get
out, they would be sitting ducks.

With those in the helicopter pinned down, Gary and Maria turned their
attention to Michelle who had begun to run for cover at the rear of
the helicopter.

Michelle's first instinct had been to dive for some proper cover. She
wanted to use her powers to try to disarm them, but she couldn't do
it in the open area. She might be able to stop one of them from
killing her, but not both.

Maria saw that Michelle was running to the rear of the chopper and
immediately ran after her. She knew that she couldn't allow Michelle
to find cover and use her powers against them.

Michelle quickly glanced over her shoulder and saw Maria pursuing
her. At the rear of the helicopter pad was a metal railing that
surrounded the entire pad. As she reached the end, she jumped over
it.

Maria ran after Michelle, gun in hand. She jumped over the railing in
exactly the same fashion as Michelle had. As soon as she launched
herself into the air, she realized her mistake.

The helicopter pad was raised off the top of the roof. The edge of
the building was just beyond the railing, which was one reason why
the railing was there.

Michelle had actually jumped off the edge of the building when she
hurdled the railing, but was using her ability to fly to get back up.
Maria went straight past her and started to fall to the ground.

Michelle instinctively reached out and caught her with her mind.
Maria screamed as she fell. Michelle struggled to keep herself
stationary as she steadied Maria.

After about two seconds, Michelle brought Maria to a complete stop
about fifteen feet from the top of the building. Michelle was about a
foot from the edge of the building herself and Maria was held
suspended in the air fifteen feet lower.

She was holding two people in the air. It took every single ounce of
concentration to hold them both there. She'd never even tried it
before. She was straining to hold them both here.

She slowly turned her head towards the building so the she could aim
her hand towards one of the railings so that she could pull herself
up. She turned very slowly in order to maintain concentration both on
herself and Maria.

As she turned, she saw Gary standing right over her. He was aiming a
gun straight at her head. The shock of this nearly broke the
concentration holding Maria in place.

"Put her down," Gary said threatening.

"You want her to go down?" Michelle asked sarcastically, still
straining to keep her concentration. Even talking was making her
ability to concentrate harder.

"You know what I fucking mean," Gary brought the barrel of the gun
closer to Michelle.

"If you shoot me then she falls," Michelle said. She examined the gun
in Gary's hands. Perhaps she could use her powers to rip it out of
his hands. If she did that, then both Michelle and Maria would fall.
Michelle would easily be able to stop herself from hitting the
ground, but Maria would certainly perish.

Maria glanced over her shoulder and saw the ground a couple of
hundred feet below her. She could feel a force around her waist
holding her in place. But she knew that without that force, she would
fall to a certain death.

She was racking her brain to think of a spell that could help her.
The only one she could think of was a spell to turn herself into an
animal like a bird. But transforming into an animal was extremely
difficult. In fact she had never achieved it before.

Gary glanced to Maria "Say I don't care what happens to her," Gary
said.

Then would have already shot me," Michelle replied quickly. "I didn't
push her off. She fell off the edge. But I'm the only one that can
help her."

Gary was so pre-occupied with Maria that he didn't notice that Tina
had maneuvered behind him. Michelle didn't notice either, all her
concentration focused on holding Maria and herself in place.

Tina held her gun in her hands. Seeing what was happening, she knew
that she couldn't afford to give Gary any warning, but didn't want to
disturb Michelle's concentration with the sound of a gunshot in case
she couldn't refocus before she reached the ground. Instead, she used
what little magical energy she had left to make herself stronger and
then she silently raised the gun and brought it down hard onto Gary's
neck as hard as she could. Gary collapsed under the blow, dropping
his gun over the side of the building.

As Gary collapsed towards Michelle, her concentration was broken. The
forces holding both herself and Maria ceased. Maria suddenly began to
fall. She screamed once more as she accelerated towards the ground.
All attempts at using her magic failed.

Michelle was just able to maintain enough concentration to prevent
herself from falling. She reached out and grabbed one of the
railings. In a single motion she jumped over it.

Then she quickly looked down and saw that Maria was already half way
down to the ground. She focused as much power as she could to bring
her to a halt.

Michelle couldn't stop her in time, but she strained with all her
mental might to cushion Maria's fall as much as she could.

Maria landed on the grass below with a bump, but with little more
than the force she would have received had she jumped out of a second
floor window. Carefully, she picked herself up as people ran to her
assistance. She checked herself over and could find no damage to
herself.

She glanced up at the top of the hotel, realizing just how far she
had fallen, amazed that she not injured herself. As she studied the
top of the hotel, Maria realized that Michelle had somehow cushioned
her fall.

Gary, on his stomach, watched from the top of the building as he saw
Maria slowly get to her feet. He didn't bother getting to his feet.
He was unarmed and knew that he was no match for Michelle's powers.

"You saved her. Why?"

"To show you what I am capable of. You've seen what harm I can do
with my powers. But it doesn't have to be that way. I can help as
well. We don't have to fight over this," Michelle said.

"I wish it was that easy. But you know that I can't let you live,"
Gary said.

"You don't have a choice," Michelle snapped, then stopped herself.
Although, she hardly knew Gary, she knew his type and knew the kind
of language he would understand.

"Actually, you do have a choice. You can let me live in peace. I
promise that if you leave me alone, you will never hear from me
again.

"But if you try anything against me or my friends. If you lay one
hand on any of us. I'll come back here and finish you off one by
one," Michelle said as she took Tina's hand and held it tightly.

"And if you think you can protect yourself, you're wrong. I can break
your neck from a hundred yards away, or crush your skull to the size
of a tennis ball, or break apart your ribcage and skewer your heart
on your own ribs."

The words were flowing freely from Michelle, who was getting
increasingly descriptive with each method that she could kill the
Ravens by. She was also starting to wildly over exaggerate her
abilities, but Gary didn't know that. He believed everything Michelle
told him.

At that point, Sarah called over to them, but the sound of rotors
prevented anything from being heard. Tina left briefly to re-assure
her mother that everything was under control.

Michelle continued, "The point is, it'll be over before it starts.
You won't even see it coming. "That's the choice you have. You can
either leave me alone and survive, or be killed."

Gary seemed to think about what she was saying, "But when the rest of
the Falcons learn how to do this, they'll be back to kill us anyway,
now that they've succeeded in giving you this power."

"Hah, don't you get it, the Falcons didn't give me this power. I was
able to do this long before I even met up with you guys. My power has
nothing to do with your magic. I had this ability long before I was
turned into a woman. I got this power as a result of a massive head
injury. If you want a fucking head injury, I can give you one."

Gary was silent as he seemed to be thinking about things.

"So you're not really a member of the Falcons then," he eventually
said.

"Hell no, after the way they treated me, I'm just as pissed with the
Falcons as a group as I am with you guys." Michelle was careful to
add the words 'as a group' to emphasize that she her argument was
with the group of Falcons who had refused to help her, not with Tina.

Michelle saw that Gary was thinking carefully, when Tina returned and
called out, "Michelle, we've got to go... NOW,"

Before Michelle left, Gary interrupted, "Okay look, you did me a
favor when you killed Tanya, and you just saved the one person I care
about. No promises but if you stay right out of our way, and if you
don't help the Falcons, I might, just might be convinced that you're
not a threat. But don't ever show your face to us again, or I swear
we will hunt you down."

"I can live with that. We have a deal then. You leave me alone, and
I'll leave you alone," Michelle responded.

Both Michelle and Tina turned around and ran towards the open door of
the helicopter.

As soon as they were inside, Michelle closed the door. Richard didn't
waste a second, and lifted the chopper off the pad as soon as he
could. Just as he was pulling away, several Ravens broke through the
barricaded door. They trained their guns onto the helicopter and
fired their rounds, although none of them did any damage to the
helicopter.
 

Epilogue
--------

Michelle checked herself in the mirror. She noticed that her lipstick
needed retouching and took the tube out of her purse and carefully
re-applied it.

It had been two months since that night in Las Vegas. The events were
still seared in her memory.

As soon as Richard had cleared Las Vegas, he switched off all the
external strobes and descended to less than a hundred feet above the
ground. It was scary to fly at that height, but Richard explained
that Nellis Air Force base was only ten miles North.

He didn't know if the Ravens had any influence over the military
there, but he couldn't take any chances. Richard had flown the
chopper as fast as he dared at that height. After about ten minutes,
air traffic control attempted to raise them on the radio and asked
them for their position.

It hadn't taken the Ravens long to use their influence. Richard
ignored the radio calls. They landed the chopper near a town and used
a cell phone to contact the rest of the Falcons. They had a team
there within half an hour and were immediately whisked away and into
safety

They then made their way to a secret location in Wyoming known only
to a few members of the group for a full debrief. They couldn't take
the risk of bringing Michelle back to Massachusetts in case of a
Raven attack.

As her part of the agreement with Gary on the rooftop of their hotel,
Michelle decided that she did not want to become part of the Falcons
and wanted this point conveyed quite clearly to the Ravens, nor would
she pledge her support for the Falcons.

However, she also made it clear that if the Ravens threatened the
people she cared about, she would do whatever it took to protect
them. This effectively meant that she wouldn't fight for the Falcons,
but would help defend them if attacked.

Through unofficial channels, they received word that the Ravens
accepted the position as it stood. However none of them, including
Michelle, knew if the Ravens would stick to it, so it was agreed that
Michelle would have to remain in hiding, possibly for life.

Her general stance had a mixed reception within the Falcons. Some
were expecting her to fight for them, feeling she owed it to them
after Hank and Mary were killed.

However, other parts of the Falcons respected her decision and found
it very wise, realizing that Michelle owed them nothing, especially
they had been the ones to transform her in the first place.

One thing she did agree with the Falcons on, was the suggestion that
she should remain hidden. If the Ravens were to discover her
location, they may well assassinate her to prevent any chance of her
helping the Falcons.

Michelle had made herself into a formidable opponent over the last
few months, fine tuning her abilities even more in the area of
combat. They would find her a very tough adversary even against the
likes of people like Simon.

But Michelle was also realistic. If the Ravens did discover her
location, then an all out attack would probably be the last thing
that would happen. A surprise attack would be more likely and as
tough as Michelle is, there is not much she can do about a snipers
round fired four hundred yards away.

Because she refused to officially become a member of the Falcons, it
has restricted her ability to develop her Kithra abilities, not
having access to all of the normal teaching. Tina had been doing her
best, but progress had been extremely slow

There are doubts as to if she will ever gain the power to transform
herself, even on a temporary basis as all the other Kithra can.

The past two months had not been easy on her adapting to be a woman
either. Her short, sharp lessons in Las Vegas had taught her that she
should not attempt to hide her body in jeans and t-shirts because no
matter how hard she tried, it simply didn't match her appearance.

Eventually she was forced to admit that she simply didn't look right
unless she was wearing a dress and heels. She actually began to feel
more at ease wearing feminine clothes. They just seemed to suit her
better.

Now two months later, she found she could relax when she was wearing
a skirt and blouse a lot more than pants and a shirt. She still
dressed down frequently, but about half her time was spent in women's
clothes.

There was a service held in memory of Hank and Mary. In terms of
Hank, there was a lot of soul searching within the entire group, now
that his secret was out. Michelle felt genuine sorrow for Mary. Only
now could she realize that she was trying the help Michelle as much
as she could.

Sexually, Michelle was still having a problem. She shared a bed with
Tina and they often made love. But a couple of weeks ago, Tina asked
Michelle if would like it if she turned herself into a guy for an
hour.

When Tina transformed herself into well-muscled male, Michelle felt
her pussy tingle in anticipation. She told herself that she was
really making to love Tina and that what why she was getting excited,
but there was something a little extra.

Tina took Michelle into her arms and kissed her. The change happened
very quickly. She melted in a matter of seconds and was soon ripping
off her blouse, virtually begging Tina for it. Tina obliged her, and
they had hot passionate sex for the entire hour. Michelle came
several times and much harder than she had ever done before.

They tried it again the following week when Tina's magic energy had
recovered, but this time Tina just transformed her pussy into a cock.
They made love and Michelle enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite the same.
Afterwards, Tina used what energy she had left to transform the rest
of her body. This had the intended effect. Michelle then rode her
cock and had a monster orgasm. It wasn't just a cock that Michelle's
body wanted, it was a man.

From that point on, they both knew of the problems. No-one could deny
the fact that although Michelle herself preferred women, her body
definitely preferred men. Although she still enjoyed sex with a
woman, it clearly paled in comparison to sex with a man. Tina shed a
few tears on her own, realizing that she might not be able to satisfy
Michelle for much longer and that she could lose Michelle as a lover.
But for now she decided that she just had to enjoy as much time as
she could.

There was one final loose end, LaDonna. Despite Michelle's refusal to
join the Falcons, they still helped to remove LaDonna's conditioning
implanted by Gary. It had taken the Falcons several weeks to
completely free her of the mental conditioning that Gary had placed
upon her. Actually, they didn't remove all of it. They left the parts
in which made it impossible to tell anyone about the Kithra, plus a
few other safeguards.

Neither LaDonna nor Michelle was happy about it, but the Falcons
wouldn't budge on this point. They said it was absolutely essential
to maintain their secrecy. They had no desire to enslave LaDonna and
as far as they were concerned, she could go free, but they were not
going to remove those specific restrictions that Gary had included.
Eventually LaDonna relented. It was far better than the alternative.

However, she was still a physical duplicate of Michelle and everyone
agreed that she couldn't stay like that, especially since Michelle
was a potential target for the Ravens and LaDonna had no way to
defend herself, so Tina offered to transform her into someone else.

Since she had to have her body transformed anyway, Tina offered her a
free choice. It was purely a bodily transformation, she wouldn't be
transformed into Kithra, but she would be given a total free reign in
body selection. She could have any body she chooses. Any race,
gender, hair color, anything.

She decided that she didn't want to go back to her old body, so she
took her time picking the person she would be. In the end, she choose
to be black once more. "Hey, being a busty blonde white girl aint all
what people make it," she had said to Michelle after making her
choice.

"Tell me about it," Michelle had replied. However, despite choosing
to be black again, LaDonna didn't pass up the chance to be a stunner.
Her new body was one hot lady. She was much taller and much more
athletic.

Also for Ladonna, they were at least able to make a dream come true.
She could never go back to Las Vegas, even as someone else, so
instead she settled in New York. The Falcons helped her set up an
apartment and provide some new identity.

Once she was settled, she decided to try again to accomplish her
lifelong ambition to become a dancer. Last week, she secured a
dancing role in a top Broadway musical, finally fulfilling her dream.
Michelle smiled to herself. At some good had come out of it all.

As she left her room to go downstairs, she knew that many challenges
still faced her. It had been a painful experience for her and there
had been some bloodshed along the way. But for the first time in
several years, she felt a warmth in her smile and a spring in her
step. She prayed it would not end again.
 
 
 
 

This is the end of the story as far as I am concerned. If any other
authors wish to take the story further, then please contact me.
 

Phil Stevens
Phil_stevens@bigfoot.com