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  Rather than let him think they hated normies or those who worked with them, which was only partially true, she waved her left hand a bit.

  “No television down here. We should be getting it in soon, I hear. If we don’t have to run, I mean. Dan is setting that up for us.” She hadn’t mentioned the man yet. Really, even if the IPB was filled with saints, she wanted to keep him away from them.

  Dan, more than anyone she’d ever met, needed to be protected.

  Thankfully, Nero seemed to get that and changed the subject. Smoothly.

  “There’s a television program with Infected people on it? Openly Infected? I presume that they’re all good looking. You’ve heard of this, Mindy?” It was a question. One that seemed off, since she’d seemed doubting about two of the people being on something like that.

  Which she explained, with a shrug.

  “Not at all. Denis is my brother. Kerry is my half-sister. It just seems off that they’d be on television. We weren’t even allowed to watch that kind of thing growing up.” She glowered then, snorting. It sounded mean. “Our father was a religious cult leader. The bad kind. Thankfully he managed to catch a magazine of nine-millimeter bullets.”

  The words had everyone in the room look at her, except for Keith, who turned his shell-like face away, not looking at Mindy at all. It was kind of telling, to Pam. She wasn’t the best face reader in the world, but Mindy had spoken of the man being killed, then the other guy looked away. That either meant he was guilty of it, or he knew who’d done it.

  Mindy looked fierce over the words, almost as if challenging someone to call her on it. That probably meant that she knew who’d done it as well.

  Keith spoke, gently.

  “There was a Death Warrant for the man. He was Infected and had been charged with thousands of counts of child rape and seven murders. Whoever killed him did it legally.” He didn’t seem ready to fight over it or anything.

  There was a blue flash in the small room with them. Then, suddenly, there were three people standing there with them. Brian, the tiny red-haired Impulse and a giant white man, who looked incredible. Pam had to make herself not stare, he was so good looking. Even with the most dangerous person in the world standing there suddenly, the new guy was getting most of the attention in the room.

  She raised her hand to wave and tried not to seem like a cunt. Fear could trigger her into that kind of thing, so it wasn’t easy to pull off at all.

  “Hey. Keith was just telling us that we need to get some food in for you. There was something about having some celebrity cooks in or something? Mark and um… Kerry?” There had been another name in the middle. Two of them. Pam-Pam couldn’t recall what they were.

  The big fellow bowed at them. It seemed fake and pretentious, but feeling playful, even if she was incredibly tense, she did it back. So did Nero. Interestingly, even if it was a goof, Keith, Brian and Impulse did it, too. Toward them. The whole thing felt ridiculous, but the big guy smiled warmly when he stood up.

  For half a moment, no one spoke. Then Brian did.

  “Right. Introductions. Everyone, this is Timon Baker. He’s the man who can make changes in people. We…” There was a shrug then. “Okay, I told Clover and Ryan about it, not you here. Still, he can help with first modes and even do some physical changes, at times. It takes about four or five hours to get the work done. Anyone want to try it first? It works. I did it, but…” He glanced at the good-looking dark-haired man and grinned. “We don’t have the best reputation here. I blame the hate network, myself.”

  Instead of talking about that, or Brian introducing them all, Pam suddenly started to speak. She didn’t know why she was doing it at all. It just kind of happened. As if someone else was making her mouth move.

  “This man next to me is Nero. He’s one of the leaders here. Something like second in command, really. Over there in the chair is Mindy Thompkins. She’s our leader, as much as we have one.” The words got another strange bow, which everyone did, even Mindy, which required her standing.

  The tall man relaxed, visibly, then.

  Nero waved at Pam-Pam, gently.

  “This is Pamela Stern. One of the leaders here. Her work has, more than once, been the only thing keeping us all fed and clothed.”

  They all got to stand then, without anyone going into how she exactly had gotten that money for them. Other people had helped of course, so she wasn’t going to get a big head about it.

  The tall man, and he was big, being easily over seven feet tall, spoke softly then. It was the kind of thing that polite people did with the Infected. Especially if they didn’t know what might trigger them as individuals.

  “Well met. I’ll understand if you can’t trust in my skills, of course. Mr. Yi merely thought that a few of you might wish to meet with me, to see if I can do anything to be of aid? We can also arrange for you to travel to my world, in order to have others work on you, if you’d like a faster approach to be taken. That’s the normal fashion for such things, but the others are, of course, students. I don’t know if you’d be comfortable with that.”

  Pam-Pam nodded at the man. After all, from time to time, Infected people were weird. Saying that he was from a different world was right in line with the kind of thing that someone like that might believe. Still, if he could also get the work done, it was probably worth dealing with the man.

  So she shrugged.

  “How much will this cost? We don’t have a lot, but…” If it worked, if they could even damp down a few first modes, it could be worth it to find more money, using Gift’s powers.

  Tim simply smiled.

  “We don’t charge for the work. Again, if you come to my home, the others doing the work are students, so there is some danger. So far… Six out of the three thousand we’ve been able to help have died. I believe that was on the television here?” He looked over at Brian then, and then at Keith, who nodded about it.

  The lobster man spoke then.

  “It has been. That hasn’t stopped people from volunteering to have things done. It really works. My first mode is totally gone and I can change shape now. Um, here… I used to be stuck like this all the time, for over a decade, now…” The man melted, over the course of three or four seconds. Flowing into a pink skinned white man. One who looked rather Italian. The clothing he was in went from being tight to somewhat loose, but other than the black clothing being the same, the man seemed like a totally different person. “Like that? Not everyone gets to do that, but a lot of people can. Some get to just look regular. My friend Felicia is like that. Well, regular… She’s freaking hot now. She used to look like a pterodactyl.”

  There was a nod from Brian and a bouncing jiggle from Impulse.

  “No doubt. I’m not even gay and I’d totally hit that. I had my first mode taken out and get to look like this now. Instead of like I’m twelve. I nearly even look my age and everything.”

  That was, when Pam bothered to look at the girl, more or less true. She hadn’t noticed, since staring at one of the most dangerous people in the world just wasn’t a thing she was comfortable with doing that day.

  She glanced at Tim Baker anyway.

  “Okay. I’ll go first then. If I die, then everyone else will know it’s a trap, of course. How do we set that up? I take my clothing off and you grab the lube?” She was being crude, but the good-looking man simply smiled and shook his head.

  “No? You should sit. Perhaps a place to work where we won’t bother anyone else? It’s a bit boring, since you’ll have to simply settle in one place for a good while.”

  She didn’t understand it, but also didn’t feel threatened by the man. That probably meant it was a huge trap.

  “My room then? Or the front space there, so that the others will be around to keep you from being sexually abused. This way? Unless… We have more to do here? I mean, with an invasion coming…”

  Brian rolled his eyes.

  “That won’t be happening. If need be, we’ll set up a perimeter
and fight them back. Not that it’s going to be needed, I don’t think. You said that it looked good, Bridget?”

  That, it turned out, was the tiny ball of energy, Impulse. The girl wasn’t large, being about four foot-six or so. She was slender, so didn’t look like a midget, even if she was, technically.

  “Yeppers. Marcia, that’s Director Turner, our boss, was on with the President and the head of the Army. Everyone is royally pissed right now. Not at you or even the IPB, which is nearly a first for that crowd. The Fifth Armored is being called on the carpet as we speak. That doesn’t mean they won’t try to make a grab for people though, so we need to be careful for a bit. If they do it, we can just kill them. We have that from the President, directly. He offered to come and kick their tushes himself. Which, I mean, we can’t allow, since he’s sort of out of shape, but I think the point is that he wants you to know that you have backup, if you need it. The entire IPB is standing by to come and help out here, if we call for them. I mean everyone, too. Even the front office people are ready, if it comes to it. Not that it will. It’s only the Army, after all. Nero and I can take them, I bet.” She looked at the man and smiled in a way that seemed charming.

  Possibly a bit flirtatious.

  Pam-Pam grinned herself, even if she felt worked up and a bit scared at the moment. Letting Tim use his powers on her was dangerous, even if Impulse and Keith vouched for the man. It wasn’t like they were her pals. Unless, of course, they actually were. In that case, well, someone still needed to go first.

  “Yeah. I’ll bet you could at that. Okay, so, I’m off with Tim-Tim, here. If anyone needs us, we’ll be in my room. It will take at least six hours.” She looked at the man, trying to be saucy, instead of mean. It probably didn’t really work. “You aren’t married, are you?”

  The big guy followed her out of the room, speaking calmly as he did so, the door closing behind him.

  “I am, actually. Patricia. We’ve been together for… Oh, nearly fifteen years now. You’d like her, I think. You should come and visit, after this issue is taken care of.” The man looked at her closely, then shook his head. “You don’t understand that I’m truly from another reality yet, do you? It was mentioned in front of me that the people here are a bit out of contact, due to your isolated status. My world and yours have a bargain in place, to help us train life shaping wizards. I’m not Infected, as you think.”

  Looking over at him as they walked, Pam-Pam stared for a bit. She hadn’t spoken her thoughts on the matter with the man. Then a lot of Infected had low level telepathy, so it wasn’t impossible that this one was doing the same thing. It might be part of how his ability worked.

  Then again, he might also just be telling her the truth.

  “Well, I’d like that, if it’s allowed, later? As long as I can manage it without pissing off all of the people over there. It’s hard. I’m fighting not to just go around being a super bitch, right now.” She looked over at the man, and then away. “I mean, you’re offering to help me fix things and I kind of want to scream at you over it. Really, telling me that other worlds exist? What’s with that, right? Also, the whole thing about making changes in me. Why would you bother?”

  There was nothing said in return at all, the large man simply nodding as they walked. He got some looks, but his own gaze was carefully schooled, even as he glanced into the center area, where some of the less normie looking people were gathered. One of them waved, which meant Pam did it back. So did Tim, his face calm.

  When they got to her door, she opened it instantly, not even popping her head in first. Everyone else was inside at the moment, sitting around, with C. C. on the computer, speaking softly.

  “There isn’t a lot of action yet. Um, hello!” She glanced up at Timon, not even noticing Pam was there.

  Not that she was going to blame the girl. The guy was hot enough to be distracting. Dan stood up, his average features seeming normal, compared to almost anyone in the place. Clover didn’t jump to his feet, but he waved, seeming to mean it. Gift and Pod both froze, which was interesting to see.

  She waved at the man.

  “This is Tim Baker. He’s a wizard from a different world, that the IPB asked to come and see if he can help us. I’m about to have my first mode taken out, to make sure it’s real. I kind of promised to have the rest of you here to make sure I didn’t take advantage of him. He’s married, so we have to watch that.” She was playing, which her people seemed to get. Except for C. C. who blew a large gust of air out. Then she spoke.

  Honestly of course.

  “I can see that. I know that I want to take him to bed, anyway. Clover and Dan can protect him from us, right?”

  The words were too close to a command. At least for their slave driven friend. That meant Dan stood up suddenly and moved between C. C. and Tim, bodily. Then, instead of moving to show it was a joke, he held his post.

  For her part, Pam just got a chair.

  “Now, we’re taking out that first mode, and I don’t know, making me look better? Giving me some powers that I can show people? Maybe I could change into Keith or something like that?” She was joking, of course.

  It would be enough for her not to be, well, her any longer.

  Chapter twelve- Tim

  Timon took his hands, large compared to the city tall woman in front of him, off of her shoulders. He’d stood behind her, focusing his entire being upon making subtle, but real, magical alterations to her field pattern for about five hours.

  The entire time he’d worked, Dan, the man who had been asked to watch out for him, had stood in the doorway, barely moving. That was odd enough that Timon suspected it to be part of the infected condition. After all, the women there weren’t particularly attempting to seduce him, as far as he could tell. Many noble women from Noram, his own home, would have been far worse about it, at the very least. These ladies had teased a bit. Enough for him to feel admired, without the groping or making of truly bold suggestions of retiring to another space to engage in sexual activity that he was used to.

  Still, there it was. The man had been asked to watch out for him, and had done so with a level of attention that would have served the very best Royal Guard incredibly well.

  Working at his neck, he pulled the healing amulet, then stepped around the young woman he’d been working on the whole time. She had her eyes closed, but hadn’t, surprisingly enough, fallen asleep. Most people didn’t, but it wasn’t unheard of. Having such magical work done to correct a field pattern was, as he well knew, boring.

  Touching her on the arm again worked to have the woman become alert enough to focus on him. He smiled at her, his mind still incredibly focused. It would give him a drifting quality, as if he were drugged, if he didn’t fight against seeming that way.

  “Pam? Would you hold this? It’s a simple healing amulet. It will allow the changes made to you, to take place rapidly.” There was a bit of animated moving on his own part then, a thing that if it could have been done faster, might well have seemed like he was shaking himself awake. There was some truth to that idea, he knew. “It will itch. Pretty fiercely, I’m afraid. Try not to drop the amulet. That just means it’s working.”

  The alterations to the woman were huge, compared to most things that he did that way. Her looks had been improved, but not to a level that would make her unrecognizable to her friends. That was done to show that something real had taken place, nothing more.

  Her first mode had been all but removed, of course. The being inside of her, that which was known as the Infection, hadn’t cared about that at all. It had, indeed, been happy enough for him to add in other things for the young woman, as she’d requested. Timon had done that part a bit differently than she’d suggested, of course.

  The rather surly seeming woman took the white glass tile, with its green glowing figure on the front, that of his own brother, in fact, who’d originally created the magic being used, and sat for a moment, her face questioning.

  “I’m not feeling anyt
hing.” She seemed to be doubting his abilities then. A thing which was silly of her, if understandable. He hadn’t been able to investigate the lives of the people around him closely in the short time he’d been there, but it was clear they were isolated in their energy home.

  Indeed, the community they shared was less informed about what was going on in the world outside their realm than he was on the same topic. That was incredible, given that he lived in a different reality. Then, in a very real fashion, so did these people. They were existing inside of one of their fellows, if Mr. Yi had informed him correctly on the topic.

  He started to speak, being gentle about the whole thing, when there was a soft gasp.

  Pam-Pam, the woman with the repetitive nickname, turned to the left to regard him closely then. Her face seeming shocked for some reason.

  “Okay, I’m getting it now. This… Sucks. It’s real though. How long is this going to last?”

  Timon Baker patted her shoulder. It was, perhaps, a bit familiar of him to do so, but the move was used to buy him a moment before saying anything, so he could take into account all that had been done.

  “About half an hour? Nothing done should cause a burning sensation. That can happen with some of the truly large alterations. It’s only the speed of the changes that is causing the itching.”

  She was going to need food as well, but that could wait until she called for it. The Underground had such things, but it had been hinted that they might not have enough all the time. He had a few food units with him, things that magically created edibles from rocks, dirt or even trash, which could be handed over to them for the purpose, of course.

  It took slightly longer than that half hour for the changes to take place. At first the woman’s face and body went soft and flabby, running a bit like softened wax. Then, inside a few minutes, she firmed, her whole look altering to something that should be pleasing enough to her and those around her. She’d been slightly above average that way before.