The Entertainment Room

Mal grinned. "It wasn't my choice. Jamie and I got dragged along for the ride." She turned to the unknown woman. "I'm Mal, by the way. May I ask who you are? Uncle Jon has similar powers to you. And you are right. Mari, my mother, is pregnant with me."

"Weird," Ursa said. She made her juggling balls disappear. "I am Ursa, and-"

She was interrupted by Cobra, "You never told me you had powers, even though I've had mine for years! What's up with that?"

Ursa just shrugged. "You should have been more observant. I could see that you where different not long after you had your accident."

Cobra glared at her friend. "That's no excuse."

Ursa shrugged again, "Well, you were all excited to save the world. I chose to hide from it."

Cobra wanted to ask the obvious question (Then what are you doing now?), but, because she knew Ursa so well, the answer was also obvious. (Ursa felt protective of Cobra, and Cobra was forcing her hand.)

Ursa pretended the entire conversation hadn't happened. "I've heard your uncle creates anti-matter? Or was it dark matter?"

Mal grinned. She and Lyn acted like this all the time, and she was used to it. "It's a little of both... We don't really know what it is. He calls in anti-matter. Auntie Sam calls it dark-matter. Mom calls it 'whatever that shit is'. Normally, that's when she's been harrassed by patients all day."

She smirked. "And you should see Lyn and me when we get into a tiff. It's practically World War Three."

Cobra was still angry, so she pretended she wasn't interested in the conversation anymore, and returned to finishing her hat.

Ursa just smiled, ignoring Cobra. "Maybe I'll watch from behind bullet-proof glass then. Your uncle can keep calling it whatever he calls it, and I'll call my stuff, uh, gooey."

Cobra forgot she wasn't supposed to be paying attention and snorted. "How about 'Chemical X?'"

"Taken," Ursa replied, grinning. "Friends?"

Cobra rolled her eyes. "I guess."

Mal grinned. "Gooey? I like it! And you might want to stand behind plasmoid-proof shields because Lyn and I end up using our powers to fight."

Ursa raised an eyebrow. "Plasmoids you say? Wonder what'd happen if you threw one against a Gooey shield?"

"Are we really calling it Gooey then?" Cobra asked.

Ursa chuckled, "Yeah, until someone comes up with a better name for it. Hey, you don't seem worried about projectile plasmoids."

Now it was Cobra's turn to chuckle. "You remember how good at dodgeball I was back in middle school?" Ursa nodded. "Well, I'm even better now." Ursa snorted and fired a quick-as-lightning shot of Gooey at Cobra. She ducked, and grinned at her friend. "See?"

Ursa laughed. "Now, now, no reason to show off in front of Mal here."

Mal grinned. "I'd say call Lyn or Jamie down here, but I don't know where they are. And I still love Gooey as a name."

At the mention of showing off, Mal made a life sized Ursa out of a barrier and said in a ventriloquist voice, "Now, now, no reason to show off in front of Mal here."

Ursa looked her double up and down, stroking her chin as if she had a beard. "Close, but not exactly. She's missing my bubbling personality and excessive charm."

"Honey," Cobra replied, "You've got that the other way around. As long as we're showing off..." Cobra blinked and her eyes went red again, and she held up her hand. Ink black scales appeared, starting at the top of her spine, continuing over her shoulder and down to her fingertips. "I haven't tested this yet. I tried to get Dad to shoot at me, but he refused for some inexplicable reason."

Mal raised an eyebrow. "'Refused to shoot you'. Hmm... I wonder why... My dad would have three fits in seven hells if I asked him to shoot at my barriers." She grinned. "Why do you think I asked my mother to shoot at me in the first place."

Cobra raised an eyebrow. "My mother would have kittens if she knew I was asking Dad to shoot at me."

Ursa held out her hand with her pointer finger out, like it was a gun, and pretended to take aim. "You wanna try?"

Cobra looked at her friend, and immeadiately more scales blossomed out from her spine, covering her whole body. Her hair seemed to disappear under her scales. "Incase you miss."

"Oh ha ha," Ursa said, "Very funny."

Mal grinned. "My mom has my powers, remember? She knows what I can take and what I can't." She put up her own barrier. "In case you miss." She grinned.

Ursa shot Mal a whithering look. "Well, with the help of your overwhelming confidence," she said sarcastically, "here goes nothing." She fired.

Splat! The Gooey hit Cobra's leg like a paintball. She made a face. "Eww."

Ursa covered her mouth with her hand, but her shoulders revealed she was giggling. "Oops. I guess that didn't work."

Mal grinned. "No... Not really..." She lowered the shield. She started laughing out loud. "Oh, geez, what a group we make..." she said.

Ursa started to laugh too, unable to stop herself, though she didn't much want to.

Cobra grinned. "Now what?" she asked, even though her companions were still laughing.

Mal started laughing too hard to do anything but laugh and possibly cry.

Ursa was laughing so hard, she started to snort, which made her laugh harder. She waved her hand, shakily from laughter, and the Gooey disappeared from Cobra's leg

Mari giggled and created a barrier of a fake Gooey flying rampant.

Ursa saw it and chucked a Gooey ball at it. Again it stuck with a large splat, but this time because Ursa willed it so.

Rose laughed and let her scales recede.

Mal wrapped the Gooey up in the barrier and tossed it back at Ursa. "Have fun!" she called.

Ursa bounced it like a soccer ball on her knees. "Oh! That's actually pretty hard." She tried to make it disappear. "I can't get to it behind that barrier thingy."

Mal said, "I think that, if we ever had to fight together, they could be used to our advantage." She let the barrier slip away.

"You mean if you fight me? Or if we're working together?" Ursa asked, as she let the Gooey disappear to where ever Gooey went when she wasn't using it. Because it had to go somewhere. She may have weird powers but she still had to obey the law of conservation of mass.

Cobra cocked her head to one side. "Are fights common here?" she wasn't sure if she was eager to try her powers against someone else, or if she was nervous about it.

Mal said, "Fighting together. You have to admit, it could be useful." She shrugged. "Not many fights now... We used to have a ton. It used to be bad... In the future, heroes are scorned... Especially..." She paused. "Let's just say, it's bad there."

"Why?" Cobra asked.

Ursa leaned in. She wanted to hear the answer to that too.

Mal shook her head. "Heroes aren't accepted there... We are persecuted and destroyed mentally."