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::The Crenshaw estate is one of the jewels of Brasswood Blvd, the realm of the rich and elite of the upscale end of The Town, in turn the hidden gem for the rich and influential of the west coast. Beyond the lavish entrance and foyer lies the great room, the living areas, the kitchen, and through the large glass doors in back, the pool. The population of the estate shifts and changes like seasons of unfamiliar nature.::

::The moonlight reflected off the pool's surface, onto which Mary Albright gazed thoughtfully. She knew most of the girls were still awake, and guys apparently, as she heard Todd's nasal voice ending another group joke in the upstairs library, but she moved slowly and quietly, and spoke to herself under her breath just the same. The summer had been difficult for Mary, and living with these...free willed people had more than tested her sanity, therefore, it was only to herself that she whispered while gazing at the gleaming water while tracing her fingers across it, resting at the poolside, gazing upon her own reflection, and that of the timeless moon.::

"Who is the man that you remember? He was big, and powerful, and...violent. He moved with such rage and purpose, I don't.... Do I know him?"

::She paused a moment. So much had changed for her this summer, far beyond the changes to the world, but other changes, the cheerleader life, the boys, the parties, perhaps it was the perpetual party she lived with, but though only 18 she was more than sick of it.::

"That's right, 18 tonight. My celebration will be to stop partying for one night, away from all the craziness."


::But it wasn't the naked women wandering around the gorgeous house, or the drinking, or the pot...::

"It's the way that boys look at girls..."

::She thought about how Todd leers at Nadia, he was probably doing it right now upstairs. A few months ago, she would have called it "eye fucking", but she didn't feel that way about it anymore. She felt hurt by it, it was more like...touchless rape now.::

"I don't want them to look at me anymore, I don't want them to do that to me."

::Nadia, what a perfectly put together girl, but just a great example of everyone she now knew. Mary thought through the detailed curves of all the women of the house, voluptuous and sensual Nadia, dark and elegant Aurelia, tattooed and pierced Teisha, perverted Velvet, wholesome Allison, cold and distant Lana, sweet and athletic Summer, oh summer, who could swim for days. Mary, no stranger to intimacy and adventure, giggled out loud and blushed as she realized for the first time,::

"Summer Summers, I think I have a crush on you!"

::Mary suddenly became puzzled as the ripples her fingers cast in the water seemed to take on the shape of Summer's face. Puzzlement rapidly shifted into alarm as the illusion proved reality, and the form of Summer emerged partially from the pool, made of shimmering water, only to rest it's arms next to hers and then, as though being painted, the form solidified into Summer, in the flesh, and nothing else.::

"You were saying?"

::Summer's green eyes sparkled brightly against her bronzed face and blonde hair, and betrayed more than passing interest in what was said, rather than merely enjoyment at the surprise on Mary's face, which gradually became bemusement.::

"I think I knew it already, something crazy has been going on here for some time..."

::Summer grinned playfully::

"You mean us? I thought you'd never notice me..."

::Mary laughed::

"I noticed you quite a while ago, you seemed to be involved with Marcus..."

::Summer shrugged::

"I think I've always known, apple pie, strange cabins, huge men with glowing eyes, a god in the forest, it all makes sense now, and you...you're the tickle I feel when floating in the water, aren't you?"

::Summer wasn't as amused as she had been before, Mary seemed to be catching on a little fast to be completely ignorant, and seemed to be aware of things far more involved than Summer knew about.::

"Glowing eyes?"

"Yeah, you know, that man, someone familiar I think, he picks you up by the neck and forces himself into AAAGGHHGHHHH!!!"

::Mary reeled back, grasping her head in both hands, body spastic with pain. Summer's instincts as a lifeguard kicked in, and she lept from the pool with both speed and grace to crouch at Mary's side.::

"What happened to you? What are you talking about?"

::All at once, Mary's pain subsided, and a total change overcame her demeanor.::

"Marcus...he forced himself into me, into my mind. He stole something from me, I don't know why or what it was, but I remember him in there. I don't know who it was, but someone hurt me."

::Summer, confused, took Mary in her arms and held her to her breast.::

"It's ok, whatever it was, it's over now. We're all here together to protect each other, everyone here is friends. I'm here now."

::Mary, uncertain at first, returned Summer's embrace, and the tension she felt left her. Summer, responding to this, held her close::

"It's ok, the boys won't hurt you anymore."

A few minutes later one might have seen a short series of bright white flashes of light coming from one of the house's many third floor windows. "FUCK! That burns!" yelled a muffled voice from inside a moment before the window was thrown open and a fiery white streak shot forth, changed heading in mid air and splashed down into the pool.

A moment later, Marcus surfaced gasping for air and peeling off the charred remains of his shirt. His hands and eyes still glowed faintly with a white radiance. After a few quick gulps of air he squinted at his hand and plunged it back into the water. He hissed between his teeth at the pain of the action.

It is only then that he seemed to notice that anyone else was currently outside. His gaze flipped back and forth between Mary and Summer for a moment, though they might not have seen it behind the light they were still putting off. He began to back-paddle away from them, not wishing to irradiate them if he could avoid it. He screwed his glowing eyes shut for a moment as he tried to contain the light, pushing it back down inside himself. When he opened them again, the light was dimmer, and was losing strength.

Marcus brought his hand back above the surface to inspect it again, it too was losing its glow rapidly, and he can tell he'd burnt it. It wasn't a bad burn, but it would hurt for a few days - like placing an open palm on a fresh out of the oven cookie sheet. He probably deserved that. He was playing with some sort of radioactive super-fire; getting burnt was inevitable.

"I, uhm," he smiled pleasantly, as he grabbed the floating rags that used to be a hundred dollar shirt and headed to the edge of the pool, "don't mind me." He pulled himself up out of the pool somewhat awkwardly with the unburnt hand full of wet charred rags. "Just, you know, carry on." He rolled up onto the side of the pool and laid there for a moment, catching his breath from the ordeal and trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

He'd finished writing his first journal entry and had decided to follow up on it with more of the inward focusing on the white energy. He'd thought he'd finally gotten a good enough hold of it to begin bringing a part of it up out of his body - which he had, sort of. It had pretty much blown up in his face. The same hand he'd used to touch the reactor-being on Titan had erupted with the blindingly bright energy, which had then crawled its way up his arm and caught his shirt on fire before he had a chance to try to shut it off. The energy had burnt him and the shirt - he hoped it hadn't burnt anything else in his room. Now that much of American industry had been destroyed, many of those things were literally irreplaceable (and thus also quite valuable).

He grunted as he sat up and then got to his feet. He immediately began dripping. He was wearing short, socks, and shoes - not exactly proper pool attire. He kicked off the shoes and began searching the pool chairs for a towel, hoping someone had left one outside.

::With a surprised shriek, Summer and Mary broke their embrace, summer covering herself ineffectually with arms and Mary leaping to her feet, as Marcus splashed into the pool. Recognizing him as not Todd, Summer abandoned her modesty and, grabbing a towel, darted across the pool, attempting to check him for serious wounds and offering some level of dryness.::

"What happened? Are you ok?"

::Mary, by contrast, remained transfixed on her feet, the sudden presentation of the object of her rage, and seeing the attentions he received from Summer, knowing of their history at least in passing, filled her with a mixture of jealousy and hate, which her delicate figure struggled to contain. She felt something welling up inside her, something new and....dangerous.::

"Yeah, yeah," Marcus said, waving her off after she'd provided the towel, "I'm fine, just some burns." His hands and part of his arm had suffered what looked like extreme sunburn. He winced, "Its going to sting for a few days, but I'll be fine." He backed away a few feet, "You shouldn't get too close - I think I'm probably still radioactive or something. I mean... I just did that," he kicked at the rags of the shirt he'd been wearing at his feet. "I don't want anyone getting sick because of me."

The glow from his eyes and hands was a dying ember by this point. He had, it seemed, not even bothered trying to conceal it from Mary. What was the point? You couldn't hide a powered flashlight in a dark room by putting it behind your back, after all.

::Mary's inner tension seemed to break after what may has well have been months, but was in reality only a few seconds. Her shoes clacked loudly against the concrete as she stalked around the pool, dead set on her course and moving with purpose but not haste. She stomped all the way beside Marcus, and then whipped around and back to face him, slapping him in the face with her hair and meeting him eye to eye, with his back to the pool. Summer unconsciously took a step back away from Marcus, as though he were going to be the center of some sort of histrionic explosion. Mary flashed her bright green eyes at Marcus in a threatening fashion, and then started shouting.::

"WHAT DID YOU TAKE FROM ME!!! HOW DARE YOU!!! GIVE IT BACK!! NOW!!!"

A pained expression crossed Marcus's face. "I sealed away a memory," he said, not loudly. "Apparently not very well, as you seem to be able to recall some fragments of it. It was the night of my - of our birthdays. Something terrible happened to you that night," he explained. "I wanted to spare you the pain of knowing. I'll admit to some selfish motivation as well - that was the night we first started to manifest this," he lifted his still-glowing hand, "and I thought it best to keep it secret."

"I can try to restore it, if that's what you want - I've never tried to do that before though, so I'm not even really sure if I can," he paced a few steps away from the pool to sit at one of the pool-side tables. Though he'd rid himself of his wet shoes, he was still wearing socks, and so he removed those as well. "Would you let me describe what happened that night first, before we try to restore that memory? Then you can make a more informed decision as to whether or not that's what you really want. It was... not pleasant."