“Right now I’m mostly curious as to why you’re only emotive when you’re big,” Xard asked his first question about their new recruit’s circumstances.

  “That would require a lot of explanation,” Ahvra remarked. “I will try to keep it as efficient as possible. It would probably be simplest to start with this.” She began lifting up one of the legs of her shorts causing everyone but Phon to reflexively look away.

  “Ahh, what are you doing?!” Kada gasped while peeking through her fingers. “A small child shouldn’t expose herself to adults like that!”

  “I am older than all of you, I’ll have you know!” the scientist shouted in her big form again before reverting back.

  “How do you know that?” Drim wondered. “Did you look up information on us or something?

  “No, I can see your ‘time’,” Ahvra stated as if that was something regular people would understand. She let out a small sigh after seeing everyone’s dumbfounded looks. “I can see I need to explain more. It is part of my Curse.” Ahvra’s eyes suddenly went completely white, then several rings of yellow began rippling all around.

  “The black and red boys are both 18, though the red boy is slightly older. Oh, happy belated birthday blue dog,” Ahvra faintly-cheered when she looked at Kada. “It seems you just turned 22 a few days ago.”

  Everyone looked at the belated-birthday girl with confused looks to which she muttered, “What? I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, we were busy. I did treat myself to some good food on your money, though, Drazahs. Thanks!” Kada gave an innocent, happy smile.

  “I’m 24, so that makes me the oldest among you,” the woman seemed to say with pride, even though her voice didn’t change. “You may call me Big Sis, if you like and… hmm what’s this.” Ahvra’s gaze turned to Drim and the ripples in her eyes increased in speed and volume.

  “There is something wrong with the black boy.” She walked over and placed her hand over Drim’s heart, having to get on her tip-toes to reach it. “There is another flow here, in his heart. It’s very weak, but it’s there… Oh, the flow flinched when I talked about it. So bizarre.” The girl’s eyes turned to normal and she looked up at the man she’d been touching.

  “You’re interesting. May I dissect you?” Everyone around seemed unnerved by this sudden inquiry. “I’ll make it as painless as I can, and I’ll put you back to normal after. Come on, it’ll be fun!” Ahvra began tugging on Drim’s shirt through the sleeves of her lab coat. “For me anyways…” She smirked to the side with a slightly twisted grin.

  After reading the room, the scientist backed off. “Oh right, we got off track. I was going to show you all my Curse Mark. Don’t be weirded out. I give my full consent to be looked at. I’d turn big, but then some stares may have a change of intent.” Once again, the small child began to lift one of the legs of her shorts, causing everyone to look on with hesitation. Her Curse Mark was tattooed on her upper left thigh. It was an hourglass, but there was a cracked hole in the bottom half, causing sand to leak out the side.

  “I know I have mentioned the word ‘time’ on several occurrences now, and this Curse Mark centers around time as the motif, but my Curse does not specifically revolve around time.” Ahvra elaborated. “Rather, I can see and control ‘flows’. By that I mean things that flow: water, wind, and so on. I can also see the flows in your body: the blood in your veins, and the electricity in your nerves and brain. In the black boy’s case, I can also see a green flow inside of him but I can’t seem to control it. I assume that is due to his Curse that The Vixen explained to me before.”

  “As to what I mean by control, I can do three things specifically. I can change the speed of the flow, reverse its direction, or stop it. I’ll give an example.” Ahvra grabbed another one of the energy shots from the fridge and undid the cap. She began pouring the liquid onto the floor, but mid pour, it stopped completely. Then, after a brief pause, it flowed back up into the bottle. The scientist then let it pour out onto the floor entirely.

  “I should clarify a few things. Now that the liquid is fully on the floor, I can no longer control it. When only some of it was on the floor, it was still flowing, so I could move it all back up. I can only control active flows, this is why I used my broom to make wind. I can’t make anything start moving with my Curse, but once the momentum is there, I can manipulate it as much as I want.”

  “There are also some flows I am better at controlling than others. Liquid and wind are easy, but something like gravity is a lot harder, and I haven’t practiced it much because it’s so exhausting.” Ahvra let the bottle fall to the floor but she managed to slow its descent. She seemed to be struggling a great deal to do even that much. “Even though the liquid before was affected by gravity, it still counted as a flow of liquid.”

  “Flows inside a person aren’t too different. For whatever reason, flows inside a Fiend are exponentially harder to control, but still manageable. That is how I defeated the cowering Vixen over there, and why she’s so afraid of me. I stopped the flow of her blood. Because she was a Fiend, it didn’t kill her outright, but I imagine it was quite unpleasant. Isn’t that right?” Ahvra looked over to Phon, put her fingers flat over her mouth, and made what sounded like the most fake sounding chuckle possible thanks to her emotionless voice..

  “See! Evil!” Phon yelled as her whole body trembled. “I hate her and her stupid Curse!”

  “Lastly, as you saw before with my own body, I can control the flow of time,” Ahvra continued. “But it’s not how you might expect. I’m not changing the time of the universe, or moving forward or backwards in it. Rather I’m changing the ‘time’ of an object. I can make something or someone older, or I can make them younger. For example…”

  Ahvra pointed her hand towards Drim and he vanished from sight, leaving his clothes behind. There was ruffling beneath the mound of fabric, and then a small head poked up through Drim’s hood. It was a baby version of their leader, but he didn’t seem to be aware of what was happening. Instead, he was smiling cheerfully at everyone and giggling. “People retain their memories when I change them, and are aware of the change, but their personality and intelligence becomes whatever it was or will be at that age.”

  Everyone’s eyes around the room all lit up, and both Kada and Phon took out their phones. The baby’s sister started recording video while the other girl took several photos using the rapid snapshot function. “So, this is Drim as a baby, huh,” Xard stared at the happy pink blob. “I have to admit, he’s pretty cute, and really seems to be enjoying life. It’s crazy to think how much he’s changed, and he doesn’t seem bothered by anything as an infant. If I recall correctly, he was hypersensitive to anyone ‘evil’ and would start bawling regularly. Does that mean he doesn’t see his mother as evil anymore, or did she revert to being a baby as well?”

  Baby Drim had started trying to crawl over to Phon, but his head was caught on his hood so he dragged his shirt and cloak along with him. Suddenly, he stopped, stood up properly, and wrapped his shirt around his body. “No, I’m normal,” Eleen’s voice came from the baby. “I can’t seem to properly communicate with Drim, however. Please change us back soon.” The baby’s demeanor returned to normal—plopped on his bottom and sucking his thumb.

  “I see, so that must be Eleen Drazah in there,” the scientist concluded as she studied the child. “Interesting, meeting her under these circumstances. My mentor was wholly obsessed with her. To think she wanted to desperately save you, but you’re still alive, in some sense anyways. I’ll change the pitiful woman trapped in a baby back to normal.”

  Drim grew again, just as suddenly as he shrank. He immediately wrapped himself in his cloak and sent a shrewd piercing gaze towards the group. It made everyone flinch, including the usually unflappable Ahvra in her emotionless state. After a brief recovery to calm down, the girl spoke again. “So, when I changed the black boy into a baby just now, that was the end of the usage of my Curse. If I had left him as a child, he would have grown up normally, potentially into an entirely different person than the one you all knew.”

  “Incidentally, I can not de-age someone until they are unborn, nor can I turn them into a fetus. The lowest age I can make them into is the day of their birth. On the other end, I can make someone grow up to be exactly 105 years old. I don’t know why it’s that specifically. Even if someone would die before then or would live beyond it, that is the limit, and if they would die before then, they don’t die when I make them that age. So I can not actually kill anyone with my Curse in that manner, but I do possess many other deadly techniques.”

  “I’m starting to see why Phon claimed her to be the strongest Fiend,” Xard acknowledged. “She could just turn anyone she sees as a threat into a baby and then dispose of them as she saw fit.”

  “My Curse, while strong, is not entirely infallible,” Ahvra clarified. “Turning someone into a baby, especially a Fiend, requires a lot of my energy.” She said this while chugging another energy shot. “I’m also somewhat morally against it. My goal is the study of life and all it contains. Changing someone into a baby unlocks the potential of making someone immortal. There can be no life without death. Though, if someone gave me a big juicy chunk of information, I may grant them a shift in time as a reward.”

  “So what’s this ‘study of life’ business about?” Kada asked, finally looking up from her phone since she’d been scrolling through pictures of Baby Drim.

  “Geez, I still haven’t gotten to the initial question, but fine,” Ahvra relented. “I want to know everything there is to know about the concept of life: how it works, why it exists, its purpose. I understand the fundamentals, such as how someone is conceived and born, but I want to know why every life is different. The scientific answer up until now has been differences in brain patterns, chemicals, and DNA. With the introduction of Fiends, though, there has been definitive confirmation of souls existing as separate entities.

  “I also want to know how it works in case someone else tries to figure out and abuse it, such as trying to bring back the dead. Then I would be able to counteract them. People should not try to revert what has already been done. It will only lead to suffering. That said, I am wholeheartedly for changing the future. If we learn how to control life, think of how we could enhance and modify it.”

  “Yup, you lost me at brain patterns,” Kada shrugged.

  “I see there is no intellectual conversation to be had with this one,” Ahvra sighed. “Oh well, that is to be expected of a dog. Wellback to the red boy’s initial question about my emotions. It has to do with my ‘time’. I became a Fiend at 14 years old, so ten years ago. When that happened, my ‘time’ was frozen. I stopped aging entirely, and my body is forever stuck at that age. I can use my Curse to temporarily change my age, but it is always fighting me and trying to revert back to my 14 year old self.”

  “To remain in any age other than 14 it requires continuous use of my Curse which drains a ton of energy. I find that whatever my natural age is supposed to be is the easiest to maintain for long periods of time. The form you saw me in would be what I would look like if I aged to 24 naturally. I always looked younger than my age as a child too, and I hadn’t quite hit puberty yet. Through my Curse. I was able to verify that I was only about a week away from starting it.”

  “It’s so not fair!” the scientist suddenly yelled, briefly changing to her Big Sis form.

  “So, why my emotions only come out in adult me, it's because I actually turn them off when I’m normal,” Ahvra explained. “I turn off the flow of electricity in my brain that controls emotions which saves a surprising amount of energy for me to use in other ways. I’ve since associated being emotional with being big, so I turn my appropriate age instinctively when I need to let something out. Today is definitely the most emotive I’ve been in a long time. However, I understand that it does not incur a healthy psychology to bottle up emotions. So, once a month, I watch several movies from different genres and let my emotions run wild.”

  “That’s quite complex, but I get the gist of it,” Xard empathized. “I have an issue with anger from time to time, so I’m a bit envious of being able to shut it off.”

  “I could shut it off for you,” the small girl offered. “But it would also shut off all of your other emotions as well, and you wouldn’t have free control to change it back as I can. Though this could prove an interesting experiment, are you volunteering?” The redhead waved his hands and shook his head, intently declining.

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  “Alright, I have a question now,” Drim announced. “It’s hazy, but when I was a baby, I thought I heard you mention about your mentor and how they were a Drazah supporter. Can you tell me about them?”

  “I’m afraid there is not much that I know about it myself,” Ahvra confessed. “I know that she was a scientist working under the Drazahs, but I never even knew so much as her real name. She was very private and mysterious. There is a picture of her on that desk over there if you’re interested.” Everyone’s eyes drifted over to the frame sitting there. In the picture was a somehow even younger looking Ahvra and a woman in the same lab coat that the girl was currently wearing. There was a sharp pain in Drim’s chest, causing him to keel over and clutch at his heart. Thankfully, everyone’s attention was focused elsewhere so no one noticed.

  “Time to pay up,” the scientist suddenly proclaimed. “I shared a lot of information with you all, so I expect reparation. Specifically, I want to know about your Curses.” Ahvra pointed at Phon. “Wimpy Vixen, when we first met you barely understood your Curse’s true potential. Have you progressed?”

  “Err yes, and don’t call me wimpy, little shrimp,” Phon hissed. “I can now teleport myself and others freely with the only limit being the scope of my vision.”

  “Impressive, you’ve definitely grown and now you need a new name,” Ahvra ascertained. “You are no longer Wimpy Vixen, I now dub thee ‘Rude Convenience’.” Before Phon could retaliate, the girl had moved on to her brother. “Your sister explained to me that you could control plants. Is that the extent of it?”

  “Well, actually, it’s more that I can consume the energy of old plants and use it to make new plants. I can then control them however I wish,” Drim absolved the misunderstanding.

  “Oh ho, now that’s much more interesting,” the scientist listlessly showed interest. “With that and having another living soul inside of you, you may very well prove integral in resolving many of my speculations about life. You have truly earned the title of ‘Useful One’. Next, Dog.”

  “Oh, me?” Kada stood at attention. “I can melt any non-fauna solid into a liquid and control that liquid to an extent until I turn it back.”

  “So you are not only a dog but a ‘Wet Dog’,” Ahvra quipped. “Red boy. Go.”

  “Err, I can absorb kinetic energy and then redirect and release it in a method of my choosing,” Xard answered.

  “I see, then going by your radiance, you are ‘Dandy Mirror’!” the girl declared.

  “You seem to be having fun giving everyone names, Ahvra,” Phon smirked as she drew close to the fun-sized adult. “But why don’t you tell everyone the name the people have given you, the name that spreads terror in so many bounty hunters’ hearts.”

  “Nope,” the scientist immediately declined.

  This caused The Vixen to burst out laughing. “Ahahaha, it’s such a great name. It’s the only time I approve of them using alliteration because it’s so perfect. Look, it’s so embarrassing that she doesn’t even have the courage to say it!”

  Ahvra’s body quivered a little but her face stayed dead. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just a name after all. I’ll say it. It’s w….” The girl’s words became such quiet mumbling that no one could hear her.

  Phon clearly wasn’t going to let her get away with that. “Oh, what was that? We didn’t hear you.”

  “I said, it’s wid….” Once again it ended in incoherent mumbling.

  “Hmmmmmm?” the antagonizer held her hand to her ear and got uncomfortably close to the child.

  Ahvra grew big and yelled, “I said it’s ‘Wittle Witch’! Now hold still so I can freeze your blood!” Phon immediately panicked and went to hide behind Drim. Now small again, the girl asked, “Is everyone satisfied with their questions now? If we don’t get moving soon, I’m seriously going to pass out from exhaustion.”

  “There’s one last thing before we go,” The Slayer requested. “I want you to stop my blood.” He was immediately met with strange stares from everyone. “I feel it’s important to know what my sister’s been through, and I’m just generally curious if it can turn someone as strong willed as Phon into the whimpering mess hiding behind me.” Drim pointed his thumb behind his back.

  Ahvra sighed again. “You all are really trying to kill me, aren't you…? Fine.” She went and chugged down every last energy shot still available. Then without warning, she lifted her hand towards Drim. He could feel his body starting to react. First, his fingers and toes went numb, then his whole body felt cold. Pressure started to build up, his veins began popping up on his skin. His body started feeling tight, as if his skin and veins were constricting around him. Lastly, he felt like he was going to rupture any second, his whole body would explode soon and he collapsed on the ground.

  When he hit the floor, The Witch released her Curse. Slowly, Drim’s body began to act normally again, but he felt awful. Eventually, he stood back up and groaned, “Yeah, that’s horrific. I’d definitely classify it as a form of torture.”

  “Alright then, now let me get packed and then we can head out,” the new recruit tied up her hair into a large messy bun. “All of my data is already backed up and you can provide me with any new equipment I need once we get there. So I just need to retrieve my personal effects.”

  “Is there anything we can help out with?” Kada asked her.

  “I don’t want you guys to pack anything, you’d probably just mess it up,” Ahvra rejected her offer. “However, if you bring me all my clothes from my room, that would save me some time and energy.”

  Phon went to fetch loose luggage to pack everything while Kada and Xard went to the lab owner’s room. They left Drim behind to recuperate while Ahvra started gathering her things together. He caught himself staring at her and was beginning to understand why Kada thought she was so cute. Every action she took from walking to reaching for things made her look like a small child trying her best to act like a hard-working adult.

  In particular, what the man found most adorable was the way she carried things. Since her arms were so short, they only reached about halfway in the lab coat which meant she didn’t have full access to her fingers. In combination with her naturally small hands, the girl had to carry anything larger than a ball with both hands by pinching the item between them as the ends of the labcoat’s sleeves draped down.

  While she was packing, Ahvra’s poorly constructed bun came undone and she had to redo it. Her hair was definitely unusual to the observer, so he felt the need to ask about it. “So, have you never cut your hair your whole life?”

  “No, it’s an annoying thing with my Curse,” the girl corrected. “Whenever I make myself older, my hair grows as if I had lived that long without cutting it. Then when I revert back to this form, it stays. Even if I went back in time to being a baby, it would stay this length. Doesn’t do it for others. Just me. That's why you don’t have very long hair right now.”

  “I used to cut it all the time, even getting quite good at it, but I kept changing my form too much so it got annoying. Eventually, I made myself 105 years old and decided to stick with that length. It should never grow longer than this, so I figured it would be best to just get used to it.” The asker was content with that answer so let her get back to packing.

  “Jeez, you sure do have a lot of clothes,” Kada commented when she and Xard returned with two piles of clothes.

  “That’s because I need clothes regardless of what size I am,” Ahvra defended her wardrobe.

  The ‘Wet Dog’ picked up a small shirt from one of the piles and teased, “Y’know, I thought this about the clothes you were wearing, but these small ones definitely don’t fit your age.” The piece was a yellow shirt with a bunny on it.

  “It’s because it’s hard to find clothes that size for adults, okay?!” Big Ahvra cried out before turning back. “In order to save effort and money, I buy children’s clothes for everyday use. Normally, I change into adult clothes when someone breaks in, but you annoyances appeared so suddenly that I didn’t have time. I appear in adult form whenever there’s an intruder to try and dispel that stupid name.”

  The four Fiends sat around as they watched Ahvra slowly pack all of her things. Kada seemed to have the same feelings as Drim in terms of Ahvra’s charm, as she often cheered her on with lines such as, “Do your best Ahvra,” even though she was only doing something mundane.

  The Witch picked up her broom at one point and twisted the handle again, causing the bristles to turn into ones that would adorn a regular broom, and the handle shrunk in size. This would clearly make it easier for the smaller Ahvra to use. Also, a couple of them noticed a familiar brand near the base. “So your broom-weapon-thing is made by the Enigmatic Engineer, then?” Xard asked.

  “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you know of them,” the scientist responded. “Yes, when their inventions were becoming popular, I deduced that they were most likely a Fiend. I commissioned this from them since I wanted to see what they were capable of. It is quite impressive to say the least. In addition to being a regular broom and its battle capabilities, it can also turn into a mop, duster, and a man-catcher that latches around people’s necks.”

  “The Engineer’s name is Nathym Cyper,” Drim let her know. “He recently joined our group as well, and it is planned for him to be your partner in this.”

  “I see,” Ahvra stated. “That should make the task you presented to me more feasible. Kind of a shame honestly. It leaves less for me to discover, but it will make it more likely achievable in your lifetime.”

  “Our lifetime?” Kada pondered rhetorically, not expecting an actual answer.

  “My current hypothesis is that I’m unable to die from aging,” The Witch explained. “So unless something else kills me, I will likely outlive you all.”

  Eventually, she was all packed, and barely seemed to be hanging on to consciousness. They all headed down the hallway as Ahvra guided them towards the stairwell that would take them to the helipad. Drim had already called for Mallea to come pick them up. On the way, the host stopped suddenly by a door that some of them remembered as the one where the weird groaning came from. “Oh, I should probably let them go.”

  Ahvra opened the door and stepped inside. A light automatically turned on, revealing three cages, each housing a different person. They all had dazed looks on their glossy eyes but perked up when the scientist addressed them. “This is farewell everyone. I’m letting you all go early.” She walked over to a keypad and started pressing buttons. The restraints around their ankles came undone.

  The Witch turned big and started to well up. “Lusk, your spleen was particularly immaculate. Girni, I did some work on your womb, so your chances of having those kids you want should be increased. Marden, your small intestine is smaller than most people, but don’t let that get you down. It’s how you use it! I had so much fun dissecting and experimenting on you all. Good luck with the rest of your lives!” The floor below each cage started to descend, and Ahvra continued to sob until they vanished from sight.

  She turned small again before walking back out the door, and everyone’s eyes, including Phon’s this time, were almost bulging out of their skulls. “Oh, I have it set up so they leave through a bottom passageway if you’re wondering where they went. It’s a precaution so they can’t act hostile towards me.”

  “Yeah, that’s not even close to why we’re shocked,” Xard blurted. “Who are they and why did you have them locked up in the first place?!”

  “Oh, that,” Ahvra looked exhausted by the mere thought of having to explain it. “They’re various people that have tried to infiltrate this place. Many people over the years have tried: bounty hunters, raiders, political officials, private detectives, even a real estate agent once. After I capture them, I give them a choice. If they let me use their bodies for experiments, I’ll let them go after a set amount of time.”

  “My Curse can heal wounds through an abstract method. Essentially, I just reverse their time to before I did the tests on them, and then bring them back to their current time. It acts as a nice reset, so they will be no worse for wear when they leave. All it costs them is their complete obedience and a bit of mild suffering. How long they are forced to stay is based on how much they annoyed me, but I’ve never kept anyone more than a year and some as little as a week. Rude Convenience is the only one I ever let go immediately since she gave me a lot of useful information. Of course, the other option is death, but no one ever accepted, though I’m sure some wished for it by the end.”

  “Alright, let’s keep walking!” Drim ordered the group, pretending to ignore the explanation they had just received. Thoughts drifted through all of their heads about the person they had just invited to join them.

  When they got to the helicopter, Mallea and Ahvra loaded everything in while the rest got situated. Eventually, Ahvra came clambering into the back. She was having trouble getting in with her small form so she briefly turned big to get inside. Everyone gazed at her with varying expressions as she sat on Drim’s lap and turned small. Then she immediately turned big again and burst out laughing. “Oh man, I knew this spot would cause the most interesting reactions!”

  Small again, she continued, “That aside, there is nowhere else for me to sit because my things took up all of the cargo space, as well as the front seat. Due to Useful One’s inherent abilities, I calculated that this would be the safest place.” No one raised a fuss after that explanation, and they soon took off. A few minutes later, Ahvra took out her phone and a big red button appeared on the screen. She ruffled up her sleeves to free her fingers so the screen would respond and pushed it.

  There was a loud explosion off in the distance that they unfortunately didn’t get to witness, only the remnant plume of smoke that started to billow up into the sky. It seemed Ahvra had blown up her laboratory. Before anyone could question her motive, she preemptively answered, “There, now no one can steal my research. If you’re wondering about the test subjects, if they were unable to get out of the blast radius in time, there is no way they would make it back to civilization alive, but they were all pretty strong.” Unexpectedly, the girl didn’t put away her phone and started typing on it instead.

  “Texting someone?” Kada asked her, seeming genuinely surprised she would have someone to contact.

  “Yeah, my Dads,” Ahvra answered. “I’m letting them know I got kidnapped again.”

  “Again?” questioned three of them, with only Xard asking, “Dads?”