“Please don't...” Axel pleaded. He decided against using his powers. But now that meant he was vulnerable to JJ.
His friend looked at him with cold, blue eyes. Eyes that were not his, and a scowl that would otherwise never had shown on his face. But his paw pads stopped glowing; everything blue about him stopped glowing.
Axel sighed.
“You'll have to answer to God,” JJ said, a hint of tears in his eyes.
Axel was worried with how to proceed. He had never been a huge partaker in religion.
“What am I going to do? I can't turn back to human...I've already tried.”
“JJ,” Axel began. “I know what's going on.”
“Because you have powers too, huh?” JJ answered.
Axel didn't say anything.
“I saw your hands glowing too. What can you do? Why didn't you ever tell anyone?”
Axel thought about it. “It was something I didn't think anyone needed to know. I...I didn't want to be a freak in the crowd. There's not a lot of people who can do things like us.”
“More of us?” JJ scoffed. He turned away, trying to comprehend what Axel had just told him. “So what can you do?”
“I can help you,” Axel told the skunk.
JJ raised an eyebrow, suddenly interested in the prospect. “How are you going to help me?”
“My powers...I have the ability to control people's minds. No, that's not right; more like influence them, just by touch, or looking right at them.” Axel shrugged. “Mind control, more or less. I can make your dad nicer to you.”
JJ was quiet for a moment.
Deciding it was a good idea to get away from the house, they started to walk. There was no destination in sight, so the boys talked to each other back and forth about where to go.
“It's getting late. We could go to the party, if we wanted.” Axel suggested.
“I don't feel like it,” JJ sighed. “I just want to go home.”
They wound up at the park. They were alone together, and it felt like such an awkward situation. But they said nothing as the night greeted them.
“I know you don't want to know this right now,” Axel started, nervously trying to place his words delicately. “but you're probably not going to be human...ever.”
JJ didn't say anything, but his eyes showed a lot of worry.
“It's a side effect,” Axel continued. “My Dad told me about it. He said that those who gained powers from taking a drink of the vial never became human again because they couldn't, no matter how hard they tried.”
“Is that why you're a furry?” JJ wondered. “You told me you were born furry.”
“I was. I've always been furry; the powers are just something that came with it.”
“How do you know?” JJ questioned. “What if you've only known yourself to be furry because you've taken the VexCo stuff too early to even remember being a human once. Like my brother...”
Axel didn't say anything. It was his turn to be horrified. He hadn't thought about that, ever. But it couldn't be true; no, it had to be something else. He was also a hybrid, and hybrids couldn't be made, they had to be born.
“Have you noticed anything?” JJ asked.
“No,” Axel replied relaxed. “Nothing at all. What's wrong.”
JJ waited. His eyes twitched.
“I can hear a lot better.”
Axel nodded. He knew it was probably a strange world JJ was being spun through.
“Someone's following us,” he said silently.
“It's just your nerves,” Axel commented.
“No; I felt that someone was following me since I left the school. There's something else going on. There's someone else here.”
Axel looked around, though he could see no one. He looked at his friend, and saw that he was glowing again. He backed away, not wanting to be within distance if he decided he was going to use his powers. From where he stood, he watched, unsure and unaware of the processes within his friend.
“THERE!”
JJ shot a stream of blue energy from his paw behind him. It hit a bushy area, and the leaves engulfed in blue flames before transforming into small garden plants. Behind the bush was a nervous looking rat.
“Get him!” JJ shouted, running after the rat.
Axel followed closely behind, not wanting to lose the perpetrator. He was sure the rat hadn't meant any harm; Axel was more afraid of what JJ would do to him.
“JJ you gotta stop!” Axel shouted.
“No! He's been following us!”
JJ caught up to the rat and pounced on him. He had him right where he wanted him, and the rat continued to squirm, to break free from his grasp. Axel caught up, seeing JJ's powers begin to act.
“Please JJ, stop!” Axel shouted.
And it was enough; JJ calmed down. But he stayed on his victim, looking him straight in the eyes.
“Who are you?” JJ said, breathing heavily. “Why have you been following us.”
The rat kept shut.
Annoyed, JJ turned to Axel. “Come on Axel; you can use your powers! Please, I need to know.”
“What if he hasn't been following us?” Axel commented, trying to back out of using his gift.
“Then he will tell us; what's the worst that can happen? I know he's been following us!”
Axel sighed. He didn't like using his powers, but right now, it might have been the only thing that would stop JJ from using his own. He touched the rat, and his paw began to glow.
“Tell us what you've been up to this evening.”
The rat tried to resist. Axel could see him fighting, refusing his power; but his strengths were futile, and after just a few moments, he caved.
“I've been following you,” he said.
“I knew it!” JJ cried.
Axel was surprised. He wasn't expecting that. “For how long?”
“...Ever since JJ left school...”
“Why?”
“We...were testing...the new kid...”
Axel thought back. He was starting to remember this rat from school; he was loser. He hung out with some weird gang that always messed with everyone, for no good reason other than boredom. But the new kid...it couldn't have been that red panda, could it?
“Testing? What kind of test?” Axel asked.
“We were testing his powers!” he shouted.
JJ eased his grip for a second. When the rat tried to squirm away, he held on again.
“Powers? You don't mean a mutation power...do you?”
The rat nodded.
Axel skipped a breath. There was another furry in town with powers...that was a rare chance, but the rat couldn't be lying. Axel was using his own gift against him.
“What's his power? Is he here? What did you do?”
“He can manipulate perception...make you believe in something even when you don't...no he's not here, he's with the other guys right now. I'm the only one following you. We...manipulated your friend into thinking he screwed his family...but you and the other guys that came over ruined the illusion...”
“You mean my family is OK?!” JJ cried. “My little brother; my Mom?! Dad?”
The rat remained quiet for a moment. “That...was also a trick. You don't have a little brother; or a mother, for that matter.”
And then the memories came flushing back; both to JJ and Axel. The memory of growing up with only a grumpy Dad who made a living at the auto parts store, of having only an older brother always looking after him and now away at college. JJ wasn't sure how to feel. He felt furious, but relieved.
He looked at himself over. “Am I really a skunk?”
the rat didn't answer.
“Keep talking,” Axel said, feeling no remorse. He couldn't believe his own mind had been deceived as well, fallen into a false memory.
“Yes he is. You really took that vial...and you are really a skunk. And...oh come on!...ahh...you really did turn your Dad into a dog...and back.”
JJ eased up again. He was breathing heavily, his eyes going wild.
“Why did you do it?” Axel commanded.
“...We...needed the new guy to not be home.”
“What for?”
“The party...”
Axel tried to take in what the rat just told him. The party? He wondered if it could be the same one that he and the others were going to go to. He wondered if it was the same one that Matt and Dan were at right now.
“The new guy doesn't know about the party, does he?”
“No.”
Axel turned around. He was beginning to feel hatred against this rat, and he never felt that way about anyone. He had always kept his cool.
“They're tricking someone else just so they can have a party at their house,” Axel stated.
“I don't believe it!” JJ shouted, his colors brightening.
“You guys didn't think this through,” Axel commented. “What do you think he's gonna do to you after he realizes you guys are messing with him?”
The rat smiled. “Join us.”
“How?”
“...we're going to make him believe this night has all been his idea...”
“You're going to try and manipulate a manipulator?” JJ questioned.
“That's the plan...Dicky knows how.”
“Dicky...hah, who is he, your master?”
“Former master,” the rat said. “I used to belong to him before he used the vial on himself and I.”
Axel decided to stop asking questions. He looked away, and tried to think everything through.
JJ looked at his friend. “Axel, what are we going to do?”
Axel thought about it for awhile. JJ obviously didn't want any of this to happen to him, but there was nothing he could do about it. Perhaps the both of them could send a message back to Dick in the form of a mind controlled and transformed rat. Or force the rat to deceive his former master in some way. The second option was letting him go, and helping JJ get his life back together.
“The new kid...” Axel thought. “His name is T. I remember...”
What to do?