FicWad

Epilogue

New Beginnings

July 31st 1991

It has been two years, two long years since Lorraine and Tomoe had almost been molested, not that they remembered it, and quite a few things had changed since then for Lorraine and her friends, who were now known as the Hex Girls. Lorraine was in her room thinking about how her and her friend’s lives changed over the last two years.

She started off thinking about her best friend and second in command of the Hex Girls; Tomoe Gozen. A few months after Lorraine’s ninth birthday they found out that Tomoe was able to control the element of lighting. They found this out when Lorraine and Tomoe were meditating, trying to take the next step; finding their mind sets so they could start to set up walls to defend their minds and building places to house their memories so they could remember things easier.

To their surprise, when they found their mind set - or Mindscape, as Tomoe took to calling it - each Mindscape looked different from each other but both had giant orbs in the centre of them. For Tomoe, her Mindscape was a city in the clouds, the sky blotted out by the stormy black clouds that made up both the city and cloud curtain that surrounded it. The only thing that really gave away that it was the mind of a girl was also the source of light; rainbows. Not optical illusions ones, but real, liquid rainbow that seemed to pour out of the building in Technicolor waterfalls. After Tomoe spent a little bit of time moulding the area to her liking she cleared more and more of the cloud curtain above her and eventually finding an orb; a massive ball of crackling, sparking, bright blue electricity in the shape of an orb at the top of the tallest tower she'd fashioned underneath it. The orb also provided additional light for her city, acting almost like a sun.

Finding her orb should have been her first clue as to her elemental affinity but in the end Lorraine was the one who figured it out. At first they didn’t know what they were, but Lorraine suspected that, while she didn’t know what the colours meant, hers was her magic and if that was the case it could mean that the lighting orb of Tomoe’s meant she could possibly control lightning. But the problem was that they didn’t know how to prove it, or even where to begin learning.

Since they didn’t know how Tomoe could gain this power and control it, they decided to research the Greek god Zeus, who was the god of lighting. They hoped that if they could find out how Zeus able to gain and control his power over lighting, it would help Tomoe gain and control her own powers. Sadly, over the next few months they exhausted the nearby library and all they had to show for their effort was a good deal of information on Greek gods, nothing remotely related to Zeus lightning abilities though, just what they did.

The girls were eager to learn how to control Tomoe's ability, Lorraine and the twins because it was cool, and Tomoe because she didn't want to feel powerless anymore compared to her friend. Unfortunately for their eagerness, it wasn’t until sometime late February that Tomoe gained any sort of grasp over her powers. It was just after school and both she, Lorraine and the McCoy twins were meditating - the twins having eventually joined their meditation sessions - when she got her powers. The four of them were building up their mental defences, even the twins, who had the ability as well, when she thought about trying to merge with her mental orb to see if that would allow her to gain her power over lighting. While she did in fact merge easily with the orb, when she came back to the outside world she was still without any powers. Upset that her plans for getting her power failed, she decided to take a walk, using the exercise to help her think.

Because she was so deep in thought she didn't notice herself leave the mansion and enter the town proper. After she looked up and realized this she couldn’t believe how foolish she was, she knew the rumours of the town and how bad it was for girls sometimes being alone, Lorraine told her what happened to her on more than one occasion - so she knew she had to get back to the orphanage. However, as she started her way back, someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her into a dark alleyway. As she was in the alley, the person that was behind her started to feel up her breast, out of fear and shock of what she suspected to happen, she couldn’t move. But with the shock and fear, she also felt some kind of strange pressure building up within her. This pressure only seemed to build as the persons hand drifted lower. The person was toying with her, she could feel him grinding his hips against her bum and his putrid smelling breathe lick at her neck as his hand drifted ever lower, slowly, as if knowing there wasn't anything that could stop him.

Unnoticed by both, the previously cloudy sky was rapidly filling with angry black clouds. The pressure in Tomoe's chest only grew, her fear, horror, and disgust following close behind it. The thought of her first time being robbed from her in some back alley had gotten stuck it's way in her head like a bad song, making her all but block out the outside world as she tried to work up the courage to struggle harder. When the man's hand finally reached her trousers the girl tensed, her emotions finally reaching a peak. The distinctive popping sound of the button on her trousers being snapped open was drowned out by a thunderous roar. Out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning hit the ground next to them, knocking both of them onto the ground. As Tomoe got up the first thing she noticed was that she was holding a ball of lighting in her hand. Before she could consider this impossibility she saw the man who'd been trying to molest her about to get up. Panicking, she jabbed her hand at the man, causing the ball of crackling electricity to shoot from her palm. The energy hit him, throwing the man back into the ally wall with a loud, meaty thud, his limp body smoking.

Tomoe had already turned and ran before the man even hit the ground. As such, she had no way of knowing that her attack had killed him. Either the electricity stopped his heart, or his spine broke from impacting the wall so hard, but he was clearly dead. She would later learn that the man had died, and that the police had been searching for him for several days after he'd done exactly what he tried to do to her to a little boy from across town, only he wasn't an orphan and the so the police had been on his trail closely. Tomoe was surprised at how little she cared about taking a life, going as far to admit to herself that she would do so again if it ever came to defending the twins or any other friends she gained in the future. Lorraine was different though, Tomoe felt a special connection with the younger girl, a sense of immense loyalty for all she had done and felt that, if Lorraine ordered her to kill someone, she would follow the order, no matter what it was, even laying down her life if Lorraine was ever in that much trouble as to require it.

When she returned to the orphanage she had calmed down enough that the ball of electricity in her hand had dissipated. She tried a few times to summon the ball of lighting back before entering the orphanage but it never did, for some reason she had lost the power just as fast as she'd gained it. When she talked to her friends about this, they were both surprised and sad; Tomoe gaining her powers wasn't nearly such a happy occasion as they'd imagined, turning into just another bittersweet realization as to why they needed their abilities. So over the next few days the four of them tried to think about how to regain Tomoe’s power.

Before the week was over Lorraine had already come up with a plan. The idea was that if Tomoe could remember the feelings she felt that day and could embrace them, there was no reason her abilities wouldn't be recreated as well.

The first attempt was… mostly a failure. It didn't work, but the method they had used had left Tomoe feeling confused for several years into the future. Because she didn't think she could recreate the feeling alone she asked Lorraine to restrain her from behind and replicate what the molester was doing. Tomoe didn't feel the same emotions when Lorraine felt her up though, the exact opposite of those she'd felt in the alleyway. She didn't know what to think, the emotions evoked were confusing for the pre-teen and she shakily told Lorraine she would try it on her own.

Once that method was dropped Tomoe was left to figure things out on her own while the other three girls did their own thing nearby. Although Tomoe didn’t like the idea of trying to recreate the exact event, it being perfectly natural that she didn't want to remember the day or the feelings, she didn’t have any other ideas to go on and so went for it. It took about two week for her to recreate these feelings. It took that long just to get past her own reluctance and the phantom sensations left over from her first attempt with Lorraine actually, but her efforts finally bore fruit and she was able to summon electricity. Just a bit on each finger at first, but as she worked harder to perfect her emotional manipulation she recreated the amount of skill she'd used the first time perfectly; conjuring a full handful of the crackling energy.

She spent the next year teaching herself how to use her abilities and, after she'd heard about the death of the child molester, use her powers non-lethally so she could practice with Lorraine without killing her best friend. The only thing she could do for the first few months was generic lightning bolt spamming, but eventually she also learn how to surrounding her fists with lighting so her punches would be with super powered; faster and much stronger than they normally would be. After she'd gotten the hang of that ability she discovered another one completely on accident; shape manipulation. It was around the time Lorraine’s birthday rolled around that she clenched her fist too tight and had a lightning shoot up from her clenched fist and formed a blade, like sword made from lightning. It was easily her favourite technique.

As for the non-lethal aspect of her training, she started off using her powers on animals, trying to measure the right amount of power to use before it became damaging in a lasting way. It took six months for Tomoe to stop killing the animals with her abilities, and three more before she felt it was safe to spar with Lorraine while bother were using their respective abilities. That it was safe to try to use on humans. She mourned the animals that died due to her lack of control, more so then she'd ever mourned a human death other than her parents. The rapist she'd killed had been a monster, but the animals were innocent and just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She also tried to use Lorraine's method of calling on her power; willing it to the surface like it was a part of her, as she'd been able to do after the two had sparred together and gotten too rough with each other years pearlier - which was another time that they'd felt like they'd forgotten something, but didn't know why - because she didn't want to keep remembering her almost-rape. Because she had to dwell on it every time she wanted to use her power it started making her cold and heartless to anyone that wasn't a Hex Girl. She couldn’t believe that this kind of thing could happen and nothing was done about it. She watched the news whenever she could and always stopped watching with the same lesson burned into her mind; rape and back alley molestings were far more commonplace in their little hell of a town then anywhere in the country, making her grow almost cynical in her world-view as she truly realized the dangers of where they lived.

The last development Tomoe was going through wasn't something supernatural, and it was simply something girls around the world went through; she came into her hormones. This was even more confusing for the Asian girl though, because after the incident in the ally she'd lost any and all interest in dating boys. Try as she might, but Tomoe simply couldn't imagine herself being anything more than friends with a boy, and even that was a large stretch unless she knew the boy completely and the rest of the Hex Girls approved of him. While a part of her just knew there was a boy out there she could trust, all of the men and boys in town she saw in her everyday life made her instantly weary. She wasn't foolish enough to think she could avoid all males, but a part of her certainly wanted to.

Next in the Hex Girls roster were the McCoy twins. The girls were almost nine, both three foot five, and had red hair and blue eyes. However, that's about where the similarities stopped, their personalities were completely different from each other's. Rose was a true redhead, as most people would say, her legendary temper having a very short fuse, blowing at the simplest of things around people she didn't like. Although she was still young, she knew that she didn’t have any interest in boys, and held no interest in dating them. However, like Tomoe, she knew it was important that she be able to get along with males and be friends in the future, so she was slightly more trusting then Tomoe.

As for Lily, she was best described as being a mouse; a shy, calm and kind girl - the later two attributes only showing up in private. She, unlike her twin, kept her hair long, the silky smooth hair reaching down to the top of her thighs, and regularly hid her face behind the red curtain, which only added to her fragile, innocent little girl appearance. Lily preferred to stay out of the spotlight, letting her more outgoing twin speak for her. That didn't, however, mean she didn't have a temper. As awe inspiring as Rose's tirades could be, they paled in comparison to Lily's whenever something did something to make her angry enough, or hurt her friends. Unlike her sister and Tomoe, when she started becoming interested in kissing and such she didn't have any particular distinctions between male and female; both were valid possible partners for her.

Because of these personalities one could easily guess what their powers could be once they found them; fire for Rose and water for Lily. Like Lorraine and Tomoe, they found their orbs whilst they were in their Mindscape. Rose’s Mindscape was full of volcanoes, where many were spitting out fire and lava. There was only one normal mountain, one that wasn't shooting or pouring lava from its top at all times. It was the largest of the dozen mountains within her mind, and when she went inside she actually found interconnected caves, like a maze, all of them housing massive pits of lava. Rose was a girl who loved a good puzzle, despite her hot-headed personality, and she built a sort of dungeon inside the caves, just for the fun of it. It was actually within the final room of her dungeon, the one that required the 'Monster Key' to gain access to, where she found her own orb. Despite the massive sphere being made entirely of lava, flares of fire shooting out of it and arcing around it before sinking back within its molten depths, she didn't fear it. Quite the opposite, she fearlessly jumped into it, eagerly bonding with her power.

Lily's mindscape was a very small island, just a single palm tree sprouting from the middle of it, surrounded by calm sea. It didn’t seem much to her, leading her to at first believe she didn't have any talent for the art, but it wasn't until she jumped into the sea and sank below the water to explore her mind's sea that she found the truly interesting things. The sea itself housed mermaids, and various creatures the girl had never seen before. Lower, at the bottom of the sea, which she could reach because it was her mind and water pressure and the need for air were trivial things when one was technically a god, there was a truly awe inspiring crystal structure. It was taller than the tallest building that Lily had seen or read about in books and it was home to even deadlier creatures, sea serpents, massive sharks, and squid and octopi. All of these creatures, any one of which could have easily killed her, were all treated like their own sentient being by the kind but incredibly shy girl. As if responding to her care the beasts developed their own personalities, none could talk, but they returned the girls affection and eventually led her to their clutch of eggs. This was where she found her own orb, nestled safely between the unborn young of her new friends. The orb itself was giant air bubble, and within it was a gentle but constantly swirling whirlpool of glowing water. After looking at it for a few moments she easily sunk into the air bubble, momentarily surprising her as it didn’t burst. This, like it had her friends, also started the process of her mastering her abilities.

Although they seemed to bond with their powers easily the problem was how to make them emerge. As Tomoe was able to bond with her power, but it took nearly being raped for them to awaken so that she could begin to learn and control them. And neither Lorraine nor Tomoe wanted the twins to experience that for their powers to emerge. They also didn't even know if it would work for them, which meant that even on the off chance one of the sisters wanted to put herself in harm’s way, it was entirely possible she wouldn't get anything but a horrible experience out of it; just because it worked for Tomoe didn't mean it would work for them.

Thankfully, Lily’s and Rose’s powers emerged by themselves in a much less scary way then the other two... sort of, depending on who you asked. Normally Lily and Rose rarely got into arguments with each other, but when they did they were quite an event, even more so when they gained their new powers; the first time being particularly memorable due to them, like Tomoe, having a very good grasp over their powers the first time they used them.

The fight was over something silly, something they couldn't even remember in the present day. As their argument grew it eventually erupted and turned into an actual brawl, escalating higher and higher until both girls’ emotions got high enough that their powers awakened and then they began to sling water and fire at each other.

Lorraine had to quickly stun both of them so the damage wouldn’t get any worse. Once she woke both of them up, which she could do magically by that point, she sent them to their rooms in the mansion before she began to fix up the damage that they had made. However, the room the twins had wrecked was almost a lost cause, her new repair spell couldn't even fix the damage, despite her best efforts, and they had to buy all new furniture.

Whilst Rose was able to brush the display off, seeing that she was far more interested in mastering her new abilities, Lily spend almost a whole month apologizing and promising she would help fix the damage before Lorraine finally put her foot down and ordered her long-time friend to learn to use her powers and stop apologizing. Red faced for reasons she wasn't quite sure of, Lily had nodded meekly and thrown herself into learning to use her abilities to the best of her abilities and never brought up the damage again, just like Lorraine had ordered.

Although it took a while to gain their powers, the twins spent quite a bit of their time doing the fun part of learning; goofing off and discovering new abilities. At first though Lorraine had to order Lily around once again as she was risking hurting herself with how often she used her abilities, working herself to the point of passing out in an effort to master her gift. Once again, a red face Lily had followed her orders and joined her sister in simply being a child for once and enjoying her powers.

By Lorraine’s eleventh birthday the twins had a basic grasp of their powers and had started learning a handful of techniques. Rose, for instance wanted to learn how to throw Fireballs because in every comic she'd read, the person who could control fire was able to throw fireballs and it looked fun. However, while she was able to control fire, she couldn't create flames out of nothing, not yet at least, so she needed to be near an existing fire source to be able to use it. To start off with the Hex Girls would have a fire lit in one of the abandon warehouses so that there wouldn’t be too much damage should Rose lose control of her fire skills and she would just start doing whatever she could get to work, no real structure to her learning, but progress was actually rather quick for the girl, seemingly flourishing in the structureless environment. This also made her want to learn to be like her favourite comic character, The Human Torch of The Fantastic Four.

One would expect that using fire would burn Rose eventually, no matter how careful she was, but this didn’t happen. In fact when she was near, held or touched fire, it felt cooling for her; no matter how hot the fire was. Still, while touching fire was cool to the girl, she couldn't use it for almost a full month before her temper blew and she literally melted a hole in the ceiling of the warehouse when she caused the fire pit to shoot up into the air.

After that month her abilities became second nature to her as she quickly mastered throwing fireballs. She still needed a fire pit nearby, but it was growing easier by the day as her aim was almost scarily good. With this little handicap in mind the Hex Girls came up with an idea they got from the X-Men character, Pyro, who had some kind of flamethrower on his back. The girls new that Rose could have the same thing seeing it was too big and suspicious, so they needed to downsize it. So the girls bought a flamethrower from a gun runner that could be found in their town and studied the mechanics of it to see if they could properly downsize it at all. The first version was bulky and didn't work very often, but with a bit more work they were able to make it smaller, making it harder, if not near impossible to see. The tanks were smaller, which would last for an hour or two, but with power booster designs they were able to buy from the gun runner they were able to make it to last a few hours longer. The pipes were also thinner on the final design, so it was a lot easier to hide under her clothes.

With the added help from this new device, Rose was able to make huge amounts of progress, developing technique's similar to Tomoe's, covering her hands, summoning fire blades, and even hovering in place by propelling herself into the air. That last skill was slow going, but it was her first step towards self-propelled flight and Rose was practising it as often as she could get away with, which also incidentally earned her a stern talking to from Lorraine about ruining the carpet in her room in the mansion. But this wasn’t the only skill she could do. Near Lorraine’s birthday, although Lorraine didn’t know this yet, seeing as Rose wanted to surprise her, Rose was able to create flames without her ‘flamethrower’. In fact, she was able to turn half of her body into living fire. It was Rose’s hope that she could fully transform by the time Lorraine’s birthday rolled around, if not shortly after that. Lorraine's praise of her skill always left her feeling good for days, and the kind of amazement she was hoping to get when she showed their group's unofficial leader her ability would be greater than any sort of praise she'd gotten before.

As for Lily, it was a bit harder to come up with powers ideas; since there weren't many comic book characters with powers over water. The only character they could find was in a Spiderman Comic book, an enemy of Spiderman’s named Hydro-Man. The problem with most of Hydro-Man’s skills was that he needed to be in water form to be able to do most of them. Lily's access to water was limited at first though, and unlike her sister, the group couldn't just strap a big tank of water to her back. Because of this Lily dedicated most of her effort towards turning her body into living water, like Hydro-Man. In the beginning all she could do was shape the water Lorraine and the others supplied her with in a small swimming pool they found. Which was a cool ability, her shape manipulation was the best of their group, but that was ALL she could do. Eventually, especially after seeing her sister practising and having much more success than she was, Lily's famous but rarely seen temper got the best of her. Not like her sister's though, where Rose's temper was more akin to a bomb, or a natural disaster, Lily's temper was like the icy, silent chill of death. Everything else fell to the wayside for the girl as cold rage pinpointed her focus into learning something, anything to make the other girls proud of her. She didn't want to be the useless one, the burden. It wasn't long before her sudden mood change began to worry the other girls, but Lily had already managed to learn a new skill by the time they figured out what had made her act so different for a little while; pulling water vapour out of the very air.

The girls' growing suspicions were proven unfounded as the disturbingly silent as of late Lily came skipping into the mansion before she pull water out of nothing and started jumping rope with a stand she shaped into a string rope. So, finally able to use her skills when she liked, by pulling water vapour out of the very air, Lily started her training. She began doing the same as her sister and Tomoe, by learning to cover her hands with water, summoning liquid blades and throwing daggers that were, against all logic, sharp and retained their shape until a few seconds after they'd hit whatever she threw them at. By Lorraine’s eleventh birthday Lily was able to do the one thing she wanted to do from the start, even if only partly; transform her arms into living water. This was a useful ability because she could change their shape into whatever she wanted and could stretch them for quite a ways; three meters by her last count. Turning her arms into blades was causing her to trip up though, despite being able to use water from another source and shape it, using the water she became was significantly more difficult. She was determined to master it though, not wanting to be a burden or lag behind the others.

The group had also gained some minor attention, enough to earn themselves a name; The Hex Girls. It was shortly after they found their powers and learning to control them that they got the name. Whenever they were picked on, bullied and whatever else to make them mad, they would occasionally lose control of their abilities and their powers would react on their own and do something. Although the townsfolk knew that strange things do happen, more so in this town than any other town, they didn’t know about magic, so they thought the odd occurrences were strange and sometimes downright frightening. Although they didn’t know the girls for sure were the ones doing the sometimes mystical things, the townsfolk were a superstitious bunch because of all the things that happened in the town, so the name was born.

Seeing that everyone in the town thought that they were some kind of gang or something, the twins thought it would be fun if they had nicknames to go with their so called gang name. Tomoe said if they were really serious about the idea that they should look up names of goddesses and mythical figures from history with the same powers as them. After a few days of searching they found the name Kaminari for Tomoe, after the Japanese Goddess of lightning. The twins decided separately what they wanted to be called and it was simply a coincidence that they both chose Norse Goddesses. Lily picked Nammu, the Goddess of the primeval sea, and Rose decided on Freya, the Goddess of fire and the domestic arts.

Lorraine was pretty nervous by that point about what her name would be, since the twins were dead set on this nickname thing, and spent almost a week dreading when she would get her new name. Her fears were completely appropriate when Tomoe had joked that Lorraine was like a Mystical Mistress. The twin’s eyes had lit up, literally in Rose's case, and Lorraine, against her will, gained the nickname Mistress. She was thankfully able to talk the twins into dropping the Mystical part because it was a mouthful already and Lorraine told them she wanted to keep the names short.

Despite cutting her nickname short the twins refused to allow her a different name, telling her in complete seriousness that they decided on Mistress, even if it was originally a joke, because she was their leader, even if it had remained unspoken until then. Lorraine had always looked after them all and helped when she could; like a true leader. It just felt right to call her Mistress, and as such they would always follow her, no matter what. Lorraine was a bit red faced at such a bold declaration as images of things she could have asked them to do floated around in her hormone driven mind. She immediately felt embarrassed about her fantasizing, as she knew they would no doubt follow her commands without question. She decided that maybe in a few years she would be fine with the idea, and so she allowed herself to sink into her fantasies.

The newly dubbed Hex Girls had also grown one member in the last two years. Vixen, which was the only name that the Hex Girls knew her by, was possibly the most physically unique among them. Lorraine first met Vixen during the first week after the New Year of 1991. She was walking around the town, the sea-side part of it. It was a weekend, and Lorraine was taking a break from all her training. As she was walking along the old like town she had heard screams for help down an alleyway.

She knew it was stupid, seeing that she didn’t know what she was facing, but she knew that she couldn’t do nothing when she had the power to help. She also now had the confidence in herself and in her own abilities to be able to protect herself. Lastly, the thought of just leaving the girl who'd screamed for help to her fate sparked a rage she'd never quite felt the likes of before. So she sprinted down the narrow alleyway, her power eagerly bubbling beneath her skin. When she reached the end of the dead-end alley she found four men advancing upon a young teenage girl around the age of fourteen. The girl was about five feet tall with reddish brown hair and chocolate brown eye. The girl was well into puberty and was already sporting the beginning of some very nice curves complimented with a pair of B-cup breasts.

The first thing she did was to banish the four men away from the girl into the wall hard enough to cause them to pass out, breaking ribs and arms in generous amounts, and then summoned the girl and holding her hand ran as fast as she could away from the place. As they ran, Lorraine lead the girl to her Mansion since it was the safest place for them. As they got to the Mansion, Lorraine and her friends learnt that the girl was named Vixen, and she was an orphan like them. They learnt that Vixen’s mother was killed by her aunt, and she was about to be killed before she escaped and ended up here. But apart from that information given in as vague a way possible, Vixen didn’t say anything more about her past. Thinking about it hurt her emotionally, as she couldn’t believe her aunt would do such a thing, even if they didn’t get along.

Lorraine and her friends were sympathetic, Tomoe in particular, and when Vixen said she hadn’t yet found a place to stay the girls all but forced her to live in their mansion. After some half-hearted resistance Vixen agreed and joined the group. Having grown so used to using their powers freely inside their manor it wasn't very long before Vixen became aware the girls weren't normal. She'd already known about Lorraine's powers, but Vixen had been clueless until then about the other three girl’s abilities. Much to their surprise, Vixen accepted their abilities with an easy shrug and made herself a sandwich before watching the twin’s spar, heedless of the liquid throwing knives and fireballs flying around her. Vixen acted as it was an everyday thing for her, seeing people with elemental skill and magic uses, but she didn’t say why.

The answer as to why Vixen didn't have any reaction towards them using powers no normal human had was made apparent a few months after she joined. The girls noticed that their newest friend would leave the mansion once every month, around the time of the full moon, opting to stay inside and work out with the other girls when they practised Martial Arts for every other day of the month. One day their curiosity finally got the better of them and they decided to follow her to find out where she went during the full moon.

They followed Vixen to one of the warehouses they didn’t use and found a window they used to look inside. It took a few minutes before anything appeared, because it was so dark, but eventually a shape stepped into view, moonlight gleaming off its reddish brown fur. The girls had no idea what the creature was, it looked like a Werewolf from books and movies and such, but instead of an anthromorphic wolf, it looked more like a fox. Considering the lack of blood, the girls could only assume Vixen was some kind of Werefox, or maybe Werevixen, considering she was a she, made even more apparent by her sleek build.

Knowing the stories about Werewolves, and not knowing if Werevixens were the same they decided to wait until the next morning to confront Vixen about her being a possibly dangerous creature and not telling them. Waiting till morning also gave them time to get over seeing a mythological creature, one that could very well kill them, with their own eyes in the flesh.

So when morning came, the Hex Girls woke up early and waited for Vixen to return. Just like normal, Vixen showed up a few minutes before ten, like clockwork, only to come face to face with four stern and serious looking girls. Lorraine started things off bluntly, boldly asking her what she was after she admitted that the four had seen her enter the warehouse and them seeing the Werevixen only minutes later.

Seeing that they had her dead to rights, Vixen realized that she had to tell them the truth, so she told them that was a Lypo. When asked if a Lypo was like Werewolves, Vixen explained that Lypo’s, while visually similar, they were quite different because they were neither Were-Beasts nor were they human. They were a new race, a race that was made by a Dark Wizard many thousands of years ago who was trying to make a super magical warrior by mixing animal and human, be it Muggle or Magical people. It was a time before the Animagus skill was found. The Dark Wizard used many animals, Bears, Boars, Coyotes, Rats and many other animals’ even wolves and foxes. Most of what the Dark Wizard planed didn’t go as he wanted in regards to foxes for some reason, the male foxes were being killed by the ritual. Only the vixen's survived. Vixen wasn’t sure why it didn’t work on males, seeing that not every one of the females had magic and yet survived no matter what. Another thing that didn’t work for the Dark Wizard was that all his tests subjects became the beast he was testing on them, and they also became Were-Beasts. The plan was to have them only have the abilities of that animal and the strength, speed and the other extras that he added to them, not to become the animal itself.

The skills the Lypos gained were quick healing, slower aging, and the ability to see in the dark. They also had enhanced senses, speed, and strength. After so long some abilities grew stronger while others grew weaker depending on what Clan you came from, so a Lypo from one Clan might be faster than one from another Clan, but that second Lypo would probably be stronger, or have better reflexes.

Vixen went on to explain that by day Lypos appeared human, with only minor markings that are normally hidden that show their animal half. They are affected just as normal humans are, so if one was to be attacked and stabbed or shot they would die if the wound was a fatal one, as would any normal human. But by night they could change into a hybrid form of human and animal. If it was a normal night they would be able to control their baser instinct, the violent ones, so anyone around them was safe, as they could normally control their primal animal instincts. There were exceptions of course, some chose not to restrain themselves and allowed their animal side to fully come out. This can be dangerous for anyone near them, because once they go into a blood lust state they rarely stop killing until the sun comes up and they return to being human. At night when they become the hybrid of human and animal they become immune to normal attacks and are only affected by magical weapons and pure silver weapons, which was one of the few similarities with Were's. It is at night that they are so dangerous and gain all the abilities of a normal lycanthrope even if they chose not to use them.

On nights of the full moon the animal instinct inside the Lypos were even harder to control than it is on normal nights. It is on these nights that most Lypos would become berserk and slaughter anyone they come close to. This was when they truly became the terrors of the night, mimicking the Werewolves of legend; killing and consuming without hesitation.

Lypos have one other form that they may take during the day or at night, basically any time they see fit to do so. This was their beast form, which matched the type of Lypo that they are; so a wolf Lypo would have some sort of wolf form. Much like an Animagus.

Vixen also went on to explain that the Lypos were hunted down and killed by many races for reasons lost over time, and it was this reason that most Lypos remained hidden away in their native villages. They may come out and go to other human villages during the day, but for the most part they tried to make sure they were far from civilization as possible when the sun goes down.

Lorraine asked that if it was some kind of virus or spell gone wrong, then why hadn’t there been a cure or something to undo what happened to them invented yet. Vixen explained that it all lied in their blood itself, unlike Lycanthropy, which was an illness that could be passed along if a Were's saliva ever got in the wound of a non-were, Lypo's were what they were because they were born that way. The Dark Wizard cursed their bloodlines, so that none in their family could go without becoming a Lypo, which meant that they would forever be that way. Vixen explained that when, unlike lycanthropes, if bitten or scratched by a Lypo you would not become one. She joked that with some of the forms Lypo's could take - like rats - it was highly recommended they see a doctor about the bite or scratch anyway.

Vixen explained that all Lypo Clans tried to keep away from each other, since most didn't get along. The one Clan that should be watched at all times were the Rat Clan, as they had long since become pure Evil and shouldn’t be approached for any reason at all, although sometimes the Rat Clan would work with the Fox Clan, seeing that most the Fox Clan were assassins for hire. She also explained that although there was one clan, there were smaller branches within each clan spread across the globe. Her clan, the Fox Clan, were all Were-Foxes and were the only clan that were an all female clan, it had no males in it. Thankfully, while the original ritual to make them what they were killed males, male children, as rare as they were, lived, despite their parents. While this was seen as a blessing by some because on the rare times a male son was born it was fully human, others saw it as a curse, because they had to go through the trouble of going outside the clan and villages they'd grew up in to find mates. That's not to say they were defenceless, the ladies of the Fox Clan were quite possible more dangerous than almost all of the other clans because they used their beauty and genetic advantages to train their young in the ways of combat, some of the better and older clan members even acting as mercenaries. Others chose a more Clan-oriented occupation, using their Clan's infamous beauty to their advantage and enthralled men, causing them fall under their charm and then used them as slaves so they could give birth to more of their Clan.

Vixen almost cried when the girls all stood, stone faced, and marched towards her. She lowered her head, expecting them to kill her, but jumped in shock as all four girls wrapped her in a hug. Vixen did cry, for the first time since her mother was murdered, after the girls told her they accepted her for what she was. Lorraine even admitted she was glad Vixen had something strange about her so she would fit in with the Hex Girls better. Lorraine feared Vixen would feel left out if she didn't have any abilities. Lorraine also told her that when she was ready to talk about her past and her mother’s murder, they would listen to her.

After that day Vixen allowed more of her animal traits show, not just physically - her ears now looked like a fox ears, she had a long bushy tail sprouting from her tail bone - but mentally as well. Even as a human she felt a pull towards Lorraine. Vixen was baffled, Lorraine wasn't any sort of Were or Lypo, and yet her instinct submitted to her as an alpha. It wasn't until she let herself free around them that she truly got a grasp of why her more bestial mindset submitted; the girl was powerful, so much so she could feel it when she was nearby her, and she radiated a kind of calm confidence that when she learned of the Hex Girls nicknames she was more than willing to call Lorraine Mistress. In fact, she called her that more often than she did her name, which garnered plenty of startled looks from the townsfolk that overheard her before it became just one of those things.

Lastly was Lorraine herself, the leader of the Hex Girls. Like her three oldest friends she too had a Mindscape, however hers was different, where her friends fit their elements that they could control, hers did not. When she first entered her Mindscape she found herself in a clearing in a forest. She logically thought that maybe her Element was Earth, or something of that nature. But as she looked around the forest, she couldn't find her orb. As she explored and reached another open area of the forest she saw it; a castle. It was huge; it shocked Lorraine that she didn't see it sooner. The trees in the forest were tall, yes, but they shouldn't have been tall enough to block her from seeing the towers of the castle. As she left the forest and walked towards the castle she found herself in front of a small village, around her were many houses, fire pits, what looked like businesses, and even a small man-made canal running through the town. She spent a while exploring the town, discovering it was sectioned off into three districts all seemingly ranked by how high they were, as the town was situated on a hill before climbing upwards, towards the castle itself.

Ascending the steps towards the castle she marvelled at the large oak doors, easily a dozen times taller than she was. Around the castle was a moat full of crystal clear water, which was easily, crossed by a draw bridge that leads to the massive front doors. Above the castle were dark thunder clouds. Because all of this made a rather foreboding scene, she decided to explore it later, and followed her gut instinct as to where her orb was.

Her gut was correct; she found her orb inside the well in the middle of the lowest district. The well itself had a ladder inside it that lead down to a massive cave. The cave only had one chamber, but that was enough. From what the others told about their own orbs she could safely say that hers was much bigger than her friends.

She decided to climb down to get a better idea of what her orb looked like. After a careful climb down she looked at the massive orb in front of her and peered inside. She found many different things within it, fire, water, lightning and even what looked like wind all dancing alongside flashed of light, all different colours, dark green being an almost constant in the very centre. The swirling forest green light drew her to it, but she was able to resist its call for now. Busying herself to keep her mind off the seductive colour, she decided that the strange looking energies represented her magical abilities, the brighter and more animated they were the better she'd mastered them. The others she wasn't sure about, but she was sure she could puzzle them out in time.

Once she found her orb, she had to think how to start up her training. Since she had the same skills as her friends but also her own skills too, she would need some sort of regiment that was similar, but also different than the others. So she decided to have one week of training with her skills, the next week training with Rose with her Fire training, a week with Lily, and another with Tomoe, before going back to her own skills. She didn't try and look at the other abilities in her orb, seeing that she didn't know what they were and the ones she could guess at she had no idea where to start learning. They would have to wait. The fire, water and lighting skills took up the most priority. However, she felt as if something was missing, something that meant to be there to make herself stronger. But she wasn’t sure what it was.

As time passed she learned most of the skills that her friends could do, apart from turning parts of her body into fire and water, which seemed like they were exclusive skills. As for her own skills, she now able to stun, teleport, and fix things with just a wave of her hand. She was also able to make animals do her bidding. She could either control a handful of small animals, or one medium size animal, like a dog. She had great fun sicking a pair of very hungry looking stray dogs - who were just small enough from starvation that she could control both of them - on one of the boys who thought Tomoe, because of her oriental appearance, was a cheap and easy lay. She also found out that she was able to talk to snakes, which she had fun with when she went to the zoo a few times, as she would talk to them from time to time.

Lorraine also felt herself start to think of the rest of the Hex Girls as 'hers'. They were Her girls, the best friends and most loyal subordinates when the occasion called for it. While this was all well and good, Lorraine was concerned she would grow overly possessive when the others started becoming interested in dating; her fantasies had become an almost constant companion, and nightly emissions were so normal that not having one stood out more than having them in the first place.

Apart from her magical training, Lorraine was also doing her best to become a capable a fighter as possible. It took a while to find the right books for her and her friends to learn from, but once they did the group could often be found at the mansion practising moves from the books. Lorraine, unlike her friends, was interested in the monthly tournament where others who practice Martial Artists go to see who was the best. She found that the main people who practice Martial Artists came from the Dojo’s within the town - there were about four. There were only a handful of people who, like her and her friends, were self taught.

Apart from these tournaments there was another tournament that was held in Brightsummer, the one that gave out more money; the Takeshi Tournament. This was the one Tournament that she could prove she was the best fighter around. The first time she competed she came in eighth in the tournament, due to her general lack of experience, but in every tournament after that she'd taken third or higher. When she wasn’t fighting she busied herself by looking at the other fighters, not just in her own league, but in the other two types of tournaments as well.

There were plenty of capable fighters, and others that were so terrible she was sure they were only students so the Dojo could boast about their number of students being higher. The Apprentice tournaments were where the truly skilled fighters came out, one of which caught her eye. He had raven black hair, sort of long, but not yet reaching his shoulders, and he had a pair of very intense vivid green eyes. She knew exactly what they looked like because she'd caught him watching her fight, just like she'd watched his. What was truly strange about the boy was that she could feel her magical core pulse when he was nearby. She'd sunk into her mind the first time it had happened, playing off her sudden lack of consciousness by positioning herself so she was napping against Tomoe's shoulder. Inside she found the entrancing forest green glow in the centre of her core was glowing even brighter, its enthralling light even stronger. Lorraine had to force herself from her own mind to get away from it, not having felt anything quite so enticing before. After that first time seeing him the boy had somehow found his way into her fantasies, but with a bit of effort on her part was smothered by the fantasies about her girls. She didn't know the boy at all, and had only seen him once, the fact that she was sure she was attracted to girls up till that point had at first scared her, but she let herself indulge occasionally.

So she'd made a habit of watching the black haired boy fight. He took part in all but the self-taught fights, so she had plenty of opportunities. Every time they 'met' he became more and more prominent in her fantasies, and she was growing more okay with it as time passed. He was quite handsome, and she only seemed to be attracted to him, not any other males, so she felt that she could be completely truthful when she said she was a lesbian with bisexual tendencies when it came to that boy.

The Hex Girls grew closer, Vixen truly being welcomed into the group, and life continued. That is, until a month before her eleventh birthday when she was visited by someone.

/ June 30th 1991 /A man wearing a business suit named Albus Dumbledore was standing in front of Saint Charles Orphanage. He came to this orphanage for a very simple and yet supernatural reason; to visit a witch that lived here. Now, normally he wouldn’t do this personally, he would send one of the other teachers, but the thing was this orphanage had produced a very special wizard already, back when Mrs. Cole used to run the place; Tom Riddle, a student that became the most feared Dark Lord in recent memory, Lord Voldemort. So he wanted to come personally to see if this witch could be another Tom Riddle, and if so to see if he could make more of a name for himself for helping to defeat her. As he knocked at the door and waited, a young female teen came to the door where she said, "Good afternoon. I have an appointment with a Mrs. Wolf.”

“Please come in.” The teen said as they entered the orphanage. As they were walking the young girl said, “May I have your name, sir?”

“Of course my dear,” Albus said with a grandfatherly smile. “My name is Albus Dumbledore.”

“One moment sir, I’ll get her.” The girl said before she set off to get Mrs. Wolf. It was a few minutes before the teen returned with the matron.

"Good afternoon," Dumbledore greeted, holding out his hand, which Mrs. Wolf took and shook. "My name is Albus Dumbledore. I sent you a letter requesting an appointment and you very kindly invited me here today."

“I know who you are Mr. or should I say Professor Dumbledore.” For the first time in years, the old Headmaster looked shocked, even more so when he tried to read her mind but couldn’t. “Please don’t try and do that Professor, I’m able to protect my mind very well, and I will be most displeased if you try and violate my privacy again. As you can guess, I know who and what you are. I see that you’re here to see young Miss. Strange, please follow me and I’ll take you to her.” And with that Mrs. Wolf led Albus to the young Miss. Strange.

As they walked, Albus asked, “How do you know about the Wizarding World?”

“I have my ways Professor.” Was all Mrs. Wolf allowed.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to get an answer, he asked, “What can you tell me of young Miss. Strange.”

Mrs. wolf was silent for several seconds before she replied, “She's generally a quiet girl, she and her group of friends are very well behaved, but if one of them is in trouble they will, Ms. Strange especially, will not hesitate to break the rules to make sure their friend is safe. Ms. Strange is intelligent, and she doesn't shy away from hard work. When she first started her chores, she did them quickly, which at the time caused problems because she rushed and didn't do them very well, but she seems to have grown out of that and is now very thorough.”

“That’s good to hear.” Dumbledore commented with a grandfatherly smile, but inside he was upset that he might not be able to use the child. Although he might still be able to, by getting to her friends, but with Voldemort still alive making another Dark Lord - or Lady, in this case - it seemed foolish. No matter how much of a boost of fame it was he was only one man. “So have you noticed bursts of accidental magic at all?”

“Well I’ve seen things move and float by themselves, among a few other minor things.” Mrs. Wolf listed, forcing herself not to grate her teeth. Lorraine had cost her quite a bit of money alone, but added with those little friends of hers she was almost willing to just kill them and deal with whatever fate threw at her for interfering. “I can confidently say she could become a powerful witch when trained.”

This was something Albus was worried about. If she became too powerful she could become a problem to his plans. Before he could ask more they stopped at a door, “This is her room. Two things before you enter. First, the door will remain open and there will be no spells cast in my orphanage. Also, it's against the mundane rules anyway; no male or female is to be left alone in a room without the door being left open. Next I should warn you that Ms. Strange is weary of men, she has almost molested when she was a child and it's left its mark on her.”

Albus was shocked to hear this, but his plot addicted mind started scheming instantly. Maybe with some work he could use that, if things planned out. While he was plotting Mrs. Wolf knocked on a door and a young girl’s voice called out, “Come in!”

"Lorraine, you've got a visitor. This is Professor Dumbledore, he's come to tell you… well, I’ll let him explain to you." Mrs. Wolf spun on her heel and left the two to talk.

"How do you do, Ms. Strange?" Dumbledore greeted with an eye twinkle as he held out his hand. “You don’t mind me calling you Lorraine?”

Lorraine was weary of the old man, something was off about him, and she couldn’t tell what it was, but seeing the man was trying to be polite she took his hand and shook it just long enough to be polite. “No, I don’t mind. Professor Dumbledore, was it?” Lorraine asked as Dumbledore drew up the chair from Lorraine’s desk to next to Lorraine’s bed where she was sitting.

“That's right.” Albus answered.

"Is that like 'doctor'?” Lorraine said wearily, “Did she get you in to have a look at me?" She was pointing at the door through which Mrs. Wolf had just left. “Because I can assure you I’m completely healthy.”

"No, no," Albus assured her with his patented smile. “I’m not that kind of Professor, I’m a Professor of a school for the gifted, the school is called Hogwarts. In fact, I’m the Headmaster. I have come to offer you a place at my school - your new school, if you would like to come that is.”

“What kind of school is this?” Lorraine asked weary.

“As I said, it is a school for the gifted,” Albus revealed. It was always so much fun to see the reactions from non-magical children. “Gifted as in magic my dear.”

"Magic?" Lorraine parroted in a whisper, her mind whirring with possibilities.

"That's right." Albus said with a smile.

“So all the things that I can do are magic then...” Lorraine said, mostly to herself.

"What is it that you can do?" Albus asked with genuine interest, he didn’t want her to be too powerful.

"I can do a few things," Lorraine said with a smile, deciding to tell him just a little of what she could do. No matter how nice the man seemed her teeth were set on edge just by being around him, and if she shared a little maybe he would go away faster. "I can make things move without touching them, and I can make animals do what I want them to do without training them.” She wanted to say that she could hurt them too, but that didn't seem like something a little girl would be normally tell her teacher. She had a feeling giving him any more hints towards her abilities would just make him keep an eye on her, and she didn't want that kind of attention.

Albus knew that she wasn’t telling him everything, so he tried to read her mind. But it didn’t work, unlike Mrs. Wolf where he got was a blank wall, with Lorraine, he got a forest. Not wanting to stay there for too long, in case she found him out and not knowing what she could do, he left her mind. “Well that does sound like abilities a witch would have.”

Lorraine felt a strange feeling in her mind for a second, but it was just as quickly as it appeared. “Does that make you a witch too?”

“Oh no, I’m not a witch but a wizard,” Albus said with a chuckle, “In the Wizarding World a male is known as a Wizard and a female are known as witches.”

“Hmm,” Lorraine hummed. “Why aren’t we known as Mages? It's okay for a male to be called a wizard, but for a female, one who either didn't know about magic yet or doesn't have magic at all, hearing someone, or themselves, being called a witch might cause them to take offence, thinking that person was insulting them and might do something about it. It would be better if we were all called Mages.”

“I never thought about it like that,” Albus said, a little uneasy about this. It seemed that young Lorraine might be a problem with the Purebloods and their views. “It always has been like it, and no one thought about changing it.”

Lorraine didn’t like this answer, but she knew that at the moment she couldn't really do anything about it, so she said, “If you don’t mind sir, could you show me some of what you can do?” She was interested in what other people using magic looked like.

With a smile, Albus pulled his wand out of his suit and pointed it at Lorraine’s desk before it promptly became a pig.

“Cool.” Lorraine muttered, impressed. She didn't know such magic was possible. "Where can I get one of them?" Although she didn’t need one, she didn’t want to stick out for being able to do things without a wand, she felt that this old man was powerful, and yet he still needed a wand. So if he needed a wand, it stood to reason everyone else in the Wizarding World did as well.

"All in good time." Dumbledore evaded.

“But sir, I haven’t got any money to buy a wand or anything else I might need for this new school,” Lorraine pressed forward with a lie. Sure she had money, but she didn’t want this man to know this, she couldn't fully trust him, even if she wanted to - there was something off about him.

"That is easily remedied," Dumbledore said internally smiling. He may not be able to make her into a Dark Lady, but he could mould her into someone that could help Potter to defeat Voldemort when he returns. And he knew the perfect person to make her trust him, Albus Dumbledore, and make sure she didn’t end up in the wrong house. "There is a fund at Hogwarts for those who require assistance to buy books and robes. You might have to buy some of your spell books second hand, but I’m sure they’ll do.”

“Where can I get these things?” Lorraine asked.

“I have to work a few things out with someone but someone will pick you up at the end of next month.” Albus assured in his grandfatherly tone of voice. The truth was that he could send someone anytime, but he wasn’t ready to introduce Harry Potter to the Wizarding World until next month. It would give the lad less time to find anything out about the Wizarding World. The boy could develop whatever kind of prejudices he wanted, but only after he was shoved into Gryffindor like a good little national icon. The media would already be kept in the dark, so as long as he was in Gryffindor everyone would just assume his reputation, which Dumbledore himself had spent years constructing, was accurate.

After some small talk, Albus left the girl to think about the Wizarding World. She reaffirmed her promise to herself to always be cautious. Entering a new society was going to be dangerous, but she also needed to keep an open mind. Who knows how different the Magical World was then the normal one?

July 31st 1991

And so here she was, waiting for whoever it was that was going to pick her up. As she was thinking about what the Wizarding World was like, about her past, and about what the future would hold Serph entered the room after knocking.

“Lorraine, there two people at the door for you. A man and a child about your age,” Serph said simply, almost rudely. “The man said he was sent by Professor Dumbledore to pick you up.”

“Thanks Serph,” Lorraine replied. “I’ll be them in a minute, just getting my things.” Serph left the room as Lorraine gathered up a good deal of money she had kept at the mansion until just yesterday. If she was going to enter a new society she wasn't going unprepared. Second hand books would be fine, she really didn't mind, but she needed to make sure she had plenty of variety. Happy with the amount she'd transferred from her life's savings she did a quick check to make sure she was decent looking and her hair didn't look like a bird's nest, she left her room.

And so Lorraine Strange left to meet the person who was going to take her to Diagon Alley. She didn't know what the Wizarding World had in store for her and the Hex Girls, but whatever happened, it would be a new beginning for them all, and whatever they faced would be taken head on, together.

END!

Author’s Notes: Hi all, here ends the final chapter of Children of the Darkness, I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did enjoyed the story, could you take a few more minutes and review the story. The sequel well be some time, as I’ll be working on some of my other stories. So if you got any ideas for Harry’s and Lorraine’s first year, please let me know and if I like them I’ll put them into the story.

I’m still looking for help with ideas on how Harry and Lorrain can seduce and flirt with people, to get what they want. I ask this as you all know, we’re not experts in this kind of things, and I would like to ask for your thoughts and ideas in this area.

Next I need some ideas for the idea that I want to use, the idea comes from reading The Snake World by Fighter54, where Slytherin has got a house system. This house system is where an Ancient House does a favour for a person, in return they can get whatever they want back. For example, if a girl asks a favour like asking for a book or loan, they could order them to do a sexual in return. That got me thinking about the other houses, what kind of house system could they have? So far I got an idea for two of the reminding three houses. The only house that I don’t have an idea for is Gryffindor. But here are the ideas for the other houses that I do have house system ideas:

Ravenclew: Now seeing that they are the house of knowledge wisdom, I was thinking that they had their own personal library. Also they have personal study sessions, so that they become better in class, also the study sessions would allow the first and second years the chance to learn runes and the other classes before their third year.

Hufflepuff: Now seeing this is the house of loyalty and trust, I was thinking on the lines that if two of the students had a marriage contract together, they are allowed to share a room in the Hufflepuff dormitory. I was also was thinking that in the dormitory, there would be a few spare rooms for lovers who wanted to spend the night with their partner, or reward someone for helping them.

Now if you got anything else to add to these, or got any ideas for what the house system should be for the Gryffindors, PLEASE let me know ASAP.

Lastly I need help with elemental skills for Tomoe, Rose and Lily McCoy, what I’ve got now are elemental swords, walls, punches and armour and shields. But I would like to hear more ideas, please help if you can.