I don’t know how much later it is, but when I wake up I’m not in The Lady’s office and my head isn’t filled with a nice piece of candy. Groaning I reach up a hand and slowly rub over my forehead and try to just relax. Just exactly what happened in The Lady’s office feels a bit fuzzy around the edges, but I know what happened with that Pink girl… I’ll have to be more careful around here.

Whatever had happened though, I know that I didn’t turn down her offer. I’m a member of Chronos now, even if I’m still not sure what she did to convince me. I do know that I’m feeling all fuzzy and warm, so it couldn’t have been anything too horrible. It definitely wasn’t anything too horrible, quite the opposite.

As I blink my eyes awake a little bit more I notice I’m in a much more standardized uniform, much more like Dust’s had been when she gave me that card than my white one that my ex sewed for me. That suit really meant a lot to me, I hope I’ll be able to get it back. All over my body are small little electrodes with long wires sticking out of them into weird readouts as charts and pie charts and all sorts of other impressive things show up on an assortment of computer monitors. I have no idea what they’re all saying, but it must be something about me or I feel really silly for being covered in electrodes.

Just as I’m about to ask for some help out of these damned things a woman in a white lab coat holding a clipboard and a pen approaches me and looks me up and down before marking something off with her pen. Her horn rimmed glasses add an interesting bit of flare when combined with the coat. After a moment or two she marks something else off and looks up, watching a read out and then watching me. “How are we feeling Silver?”

I can’t help but shiver and keep looking around curiously even though I feel so relax and soothed and just so very good. I could go right back to sleep or whatever I was just doing and not even mind. Smiling a bit I sigh and squirm a little. “Mmm, I feel like bliss.”

“Good, good. We’ve learned a lot about your powers. A dossier will be waiting for you in your room. Also, Miss Dust sends you her best wishes and said ‘see you soon.’ Would you like to go back to sleep, or hear about some of the most important points verbally?” She fills out a couple more small boxes or something on her clipboard before clicking the pen back inside of its plastic tubing and sticking it into the bun her hair is done up in.

I shrug just a faint little bit and try as I might not to I can’t stop myself from blushing when she says Dust’s name. “Thanks for the message. Sleep was nice and all, but… I can sleep later.” Knowing Dust, I might be doing more, or less than sleeping depending on how you look at it.

“We found that your powers can be used as weapons rather effectively, but not in the way you thought, through electricity. You have the ability to incapacitate anyone if you focus it properly. You can even do things to their head. In fact, if you focus on the brain area an overload happens much quicker. Did you know you can control the severity of them? Very accurately actually. It should only take a week. Hmmm… Oh right! Also within a month you should be able to use them almost indefinitely with no down time! Let’s see, is there anything else…” She looks more over her clipboard, and I wish that I could take a peak over it but she’s holding it in just the right way. “Your name now is just Silver, and your IQ is very high, but your code phrase is ‘cotton pink legs’ and when you hear this, your IQ will drop and you’ll… Well I think you remember what happened in The Lady’s reception room.”

At first I just nod along with it, considering all of it and grinning. Wow! Here I was feeling stupid for being a super heroine sometimes for not having a good enough power, and here in no time I was going to be wonderful! Even if my name is just Silver now, and no longer links back to that song that I got my name from… I can’t help but be proud of the IQ, but as those words filter into my ears I fall to my knees and whimper, feeling that feeling, but it doesn’t creep up like last time, it just hits me in the back of the head like a rusty chain. “Ooh… Cotton pink legs…?”

“Cotton pink legs. It should flash images of… Her legs, and that taste at the back of your mind.” She nods as she looks over the chart with a bit of a sigh. “Yes, we have it all pretty well organized. I must say your power is very impressive. She is rather pleased with it.”

I nod again, though much slower as I squirm, shifting, and I can feel that taste, she’s right. In my head I can just see those legs, crossing, and then uncrossing just to cross again, but my head is starting to not work so well again. “Can I… get smarter again?” Whimpering I look up at the woman desperately. I don’t want to fall into that pinkness again! I need to be able to think!

“No. Cotton pink legs.” Her expression doesn’t change a bit as she pulls her pen back out of her hair and clicks the end back out, marking something else down on the chart and then looks back down at me. I feel like some sort of demented science fair project. Come one and all, see the amazing ditzy… Whatever my name is. Watch her try to remember her own name and wind up in a puddle of drool in the process as al she can think about are pretty-pretty legs!

My knees give out under me and I can’t help but focus on that taste, and on those legs… It feels so good, but I was supposed to be smart, but remembering feels good, doesn’t it? I wasn’t always so slow, was I? “Describe how you’re feeling, please.” Oh, it’s starting again, I can feel it… legs… Smooth silky… Head tilted back… Drooling… Pink warm… Feeling so… Like I… Can’t think… Mind thick with… Tastes like… Wishing I… clicking making me twitch and…

I whimper and bite at my lip, trying to push it away, trying to fight it though I know so much of me already wants to give in. “Slow, warm, drooling, pink… Don’t need to think, thick, that sweet taste, wanting… The clicking and the feeeeling…” My body feels so weak, but feeling so weak has never felt so good.

“Oh wow, we haven’t had this strong of a reaction since…” The doctor, or whatever she is, looks around and starts to smile more as she steps closer. “Cotton pink legs. Cotton link legs.” Her voice murmers out as she puts the clipboard somewhere. I can barely think or remember anything. I can feel my brain oozing out of my ears and when I scream its not because it hurts, it feels so good and I’m already nuzzling the floor, moaning and starting to drool. “Sweet sweet taste legs click twitch need…!”

“Well… No, I don’t think you’ll be getting any smarter again for at least an hour…” She mutters out those three words at least another three times and I feel a tug at my uniform before everything just blanks out, and as if I’ve missed the rest of her sentence that doctor is talking again. “-And then that will bring your IQ back up. And… I think that’s everything.”

Everything is just suddenly back in focus again, the electrodes are gone but I feel sweaty and just a little bit sore. Moaning in a tired way I run a hand through my hair and whimper again as I look up to the lab coat clad woman again. “Do you… Do you have to be able to do that to me?” I squirm and slowly try to stand up, and I manage, but my legs feel way more shaky than they should without a damned good reason. “I mean… is it… Necessary?”

“Dear, you won’t even know we can. Cotton pink legs.” For a moment I’m about to complain or scream or something but… I blink out again, feeling beyond ridiculously fuzzy and dizzy with a pinkish afterglow and I’m not sure why, but it can’t be anything worse than what’s already happened, but obviously there was a good reason for me to accept this job offer, so I try to just relax. “And… That’s about it. How do you feel?”

Squirming just a bit I shake my head to clear it as I laugh nervously and slide my fingers through my hair in what feels like a strange sort of déjà vu. “I… I don’t know. I feel a little bit sore everywhere, but…” I bite my lip again just a little bit harder before raising a shaky hand to create a spark. It twinkles out of the tip of my finger like a cute silvery little sparkle and moves just as I direct it to into my forehead with a bit of a flash and I feel so deliciously calm afterwards. It’s nifty being your own headache medication.

“Indeed. We can help you rest here, or allow you to go to your room and rest on your own.” She pauses, and it doesn’t seem like she’s going to mark anything on any clipboards, so this probably isn’t some sort of evaluation question. “What would you prefer, Miss Silver?”

My name isn’t Miss Silver, it’s… but she’s right, my name is just Silver. Something is just off about my head. “Can I be alone for a bit? I don’t mean to be rude.” Everything feels strange, but it’s in a tingly sort of way so who am I to complain. “I just need to rest, just a person or two, tops, but I need to feel like I’m somewhere more private then uhm… Wherever this is.”

“Of course, of course. I mean we h…” She laughs in a knowing way and as if I have some sort of instincts I don’t even know I almost want to cringe as she starts to speak again. “Cotton pink le-” Suddenly I’m walking down a hall, I can only imagine on what floor but it has to be the same building, towards my room, and when I get to the door and look in I gasp and squeal. This is a pretty damned sweet room, it’s like something a rock star would trash!

Somehow the disorientation just makes it all feel better though. Maybe I’m not just too paranoid for my age but just a little bit too insane to boot. “Do you ever feel like you’re just fuzzily jumping through time?” Maybe this odd feeling is why the company is named Chronos? That would make a whole lot of sense.

She shakes her head though, adjusting her lab coat just a bit for a moment. “No, not really. Well sometimes when she’s around.” I don’t even need to ask her which she. “Did I tell you Dust’s message? I think I did. You have fun. If you need anything there is a room service line.”

“Oh, alright… Wait, Dust’s in here?” oddly enough, as frightening and disorienting as that experience was it would be nice to see a familiar face that I saw first in the outside world. All that I know she did was give me a kiss anyway, but I wasn’t about to start looking for black lipstick everywhere. “I’ll be sure to have all sorts of fun.” As I step in deeper I take a deep breath of air, as if it’s the out doors and I’ve been trapped indoors for a week. It feels nice to be some place that’s designated just for me.

“Oh no, Dust isn’t here. She just wishes you her best and says that she’ll see you soon.” She nods just a bit and I nod back.

Even if it makes me a bit insane I have to sigh and admit that I hope that I do see Dust soon. I need to talk to someone, but I need to… Gah! I wish that I could go out on the prowl again, back on patrol, but this is pretty important, this new offer. With another sigh and a shrug I set about to memorizing my room. “Did you want to send a message to anyone? I forgot to ask?” Though the doctor is almost not visible through the door way, I can hear her just fine.

“Dust, please? Tell her that I’d love to talk if she’s free!” Right about now I’m seriously doubting my sanity. There has to be some part of the supers handbook that says if you start to feel a desire to talk to someone who filled your head with dust and left you in an elevator with lipstick that wasn’t yours on your lips you’ve completely fucking lost it.

Oh well.

“Oh… Oh, okay. Sure. She’ll probably be overjoyed…” She starts to leave again and mutters under her breath. I can tell that she thinks I can’t hear her but I can hear her very clearly. “And she’ll be rubbing her paws together like a hungry cat.”

Whatever the hell that means, I just don’t have time for it. The room is big, but I just don’t really feel like that matters right now. Everything feels so segmented as if someone else is deciding just when things end and when they start up again and it’s making my head feel like I should be depressurizing the shuttle pay, not using the tractor beam.

After I’m sure that whatever is bugging me can’t be currently solved I lay back on the fancy leather couch and raise a hand lazily in the air and start to pop out a fair amount of sparks. This was how I flash fried my hair as a little girl, my the way. I used to fill my room with my silver sparks as a little girl, blast some Pink Floyd, Disturbed, or maybe even a little Steevie Nix and just dance my sparks around like they would move if they were creating the music.

I’ve never gotten any better, but at least it looks pretty and can provide a pretty romantic atmosphere. A bath with candles all around it is something that everyone’s read in a book or seen in a movie. I can make a spark-lit picnic in the part have a romantic glow to it while I’m trying to pretend I’m not more comfortable outside because then I’m more likely to be able to stop something horrible from happening.

Not that I can’t have a date without being half on patrol, I just don’t like feeling like I’m doing nothing. That’s why waiting like this is practically killing me. There’s a knock on the door and on instinct I make all of the sparks go away and they just flash and extinguish in the air like burnt out silver light bulbs.

Smiling brightly with skin that I can feel is just a slight little bit more silver I bounce over to the door and open it up. Not too surprisingly Dust is there, leaning against the door frame and nonchalantly looking at her fingernails as if they’re far more interesting than they really are. She’s dressed just like she was before, which is really no surprised, and she has a fresh coat of that black lipstick that perfectly contrasts that pale skin of hers.

With a soft laugh I move out of the way of the door and motion her in. “Come on, I’m just sort of trying to get settled. Sort of…” I nod and squirm just a bit. “Feels sort of odd here, I thought a familiar face…”

“Yeah…” Dust’s eyes are just a little bit shifty as she smiles just a bit and it looks almost alien on her. “I must say I don’t get many invitations like this.” She steps in and looks around, obviously unimpressed. Her room is probably exactly the same. “So how are you feeling?”

“I-I don’t mean to be forward!” That nervous laugh of mine flares up as I bow my head and close the door behind dust. “I don’t know, I’m just lonely and you’re the only person I guess I really know at all that I figured I could get a hold of… I’m feeling nervous, and if I’d be sitting down I might fall over from being right on the edge of my seat. How’re you feeling?”

“Oh… Me, I’m fine. Thank you for asking…” She grins and looks over me again as she walks deeper into the room. “And kind of odd you’d think it could ever… Be… Forward… So Silver, why are you nervous?”

“I don’t know Dust.” My smile turns just a little bit worriedly as I take a seat on the couch again and motion for her to do the same. “It feels like something’s going on and it’s driving me nuts. Maybe I’m just not used to being a part of a company or whatever you’d call this place. I feel… Cloistered. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, I feel like I should be out on patrol.”

She takes a seat not on the couch but on a chair positioned across from it. “Well, you’re supposed to be resting I think, and then she’ll talk to you more and fill you in on what she expects you to do… I guess that’s how it normally goes.”

I nod along with her as she talks and then sigh just a bit. “I don’t know, I guess I am resting, but I…” I almost stop talking, I’m feeling crazy, but she’s hear because I’m feeling crazy so I don’t stop for long “…just feel like I’m not reacting properly to something, or something’s right under my nose… And I feel sort of hazy about all that’s happened.”

“Not reacting properly? What do you mean?” Dust tilts her head as she responds, and she really truly sounds concerned. Maybe I’m not crazy for giving her a chance. I have a shadow clad friend who can be a bit dark but otherwise friendly. Dust must be more or less the same.

“Something seems wrong. I should be, you know, fixing it.” I raise my hands up and make little sparks twinkle in each of my nails for just a slight moment in a way that makes them pulse with a silvery shine for a slight moment. “You’re probably right though. I’m supposed to be resting, not giving myself an ulcer.”

Dust’s eyes grow just a bit wide at that silver pulsing, and she actually sounds interested when she talks. There is more than meets the eye with this one. “Hey that was pretty neat… Is that part of your powers?”

I nod and grin mischievously for just a second, raising my right index finger and letting a spark pop out if it and twirl around the tip for just a moment. “It’s the main part. I’m not just eye candy.” “Oh… Some kind of electricity thing?”

She watches the spark, and I shrug just a bit. “I’m honestly not sure how it works, I just know that it works.” With a wink I make the spark float up and away from my finger to move maybe an inch away from in front of the other girl’s nose.

“Wow… That’s some control you have there!” Dust jerks back in shock with a faint little laugh. My sparks can be ever so fun sometimes.

Giggles pour out of my mouth before I nod. “It’s my only real hobby. Some of us don’t go around shedding everywhere.” Just a bit of a smirk contorts my lips as I move the little light right up and between her dark eyes.

“Hey, that’s not how I work. It’s not really shedding.” She grins and her eyes cross as she tries to watch the spark even though it is far too close.

I grin too and nod. “Oh, I’m not sure if I can be sure about that, but…” The light pulls back for a moment, and then dives into her skin with a silent command. This is one thing that I have perfected with the sparks. Instead of feeling pleasant like they usually do, as it flashes into her skin it feels like a flick of a fingernail.

“Hey!” Dust jerks again, obviously surprised at the feeling and reaches up to rub at where it pulsed into her.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t hurt you. I’m one of the good gals, remember?” I smile just as innocently as I am and stretch out. “But you earned that.”

“What did I do to earn that?” She sounds more than a little annoyed as she keeps rubbing that one spot. Oh, this is rich.

Smirking again I raise a silvery eyebrow and shake my head with a disappointed sigh. “Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad… And I’m not fully sure what happened, sprinkles, but you took at least a bit of advantage of me.”

“What are you talking about?” She grins as she speak in that devious way that’s more darkly beautiful than threatening. “We just had a nice elevator ride together. You don’t actually remember anything happening do you?”

Shaking my head I can’t help but frown feeling just a slight little bit vulnerable, and I can’t quite say that I like it. “Our little secret, I remember you saying that, and I remember tasting lipstick. I don’t wear lipstick…”

“Well what do you think happened?” She raises a black eyebrow. “I mean it was just an elevator ride. I think you’re just a little jumbled from all the activity. Did your meeting today go well?”

“I…” A flush covers up my cheeks as I shake my head. “I don’t know, I guess I should just drop it.” My eyes flutter in a couple of blinks as I raise my own eyebrow. “The meeting with who? Oh, the woman with the lab coat? I’m honestly not sure if it went well.”

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “No, I meant earlier today. With her!”

I blink a little bit more before laughing again. Damn I’m making an idiot out of myself today. “Oh! Gah… That feels almost like it was years ago, not hours ago! I… I think it went pretty well, though it was pretty odd too. Everything here is so odd, though it’s not necessarily bad.”

“Good even?” Dust looks around the room with a slow nod and in such a familiar way I can feel a slight itchiness move across my cheek. I wrinkle my face up for moment before raising a hand to just scratch it a faint little bit. She does have a very good point, it’s not bad, and it’s odd, and odd things that aren’t bad are generally pretty damned good once you get over the oddity of them.

Nodding I squirm a bit at the itchiness as I can feel it move just a little bit down along my arms. “Very… In a very breathless sort of way.”

“A breathless way? What do you mean?” She crosses her legs under that grey skirt and leans a bit forward towards me, and that itchiness starts to get just a little bit worse. It’s sort of uncomfortable and its spreading out pretty quickly and I’m not so sure I like that.

I move a hand to either arm and just start to claw a faint little bit in an attempt to make the itchiness go away. “The sort of good where you don’t want to let out your breath, just hold it in and feel it soothe your lungs before it starts to burn like hell?” Flushing just a bit again I can feel that the flush is actually silvery against my skin. I’ve been using a damned lot of my power today, who knows what that could do. “I must sound incredibly silly…”

“No, no…” She looks over her nails again and then blows on them, and little plumes of dust flow off of them and dissipate out into the air. “No, that makes perfect sense.” The itching just keeps building, but it’s starting to feel a bit nice in it’s own way as it moves across my body.

She’s using her power. Damn it, I should have recognized it sooner but I didn’t see any dust clouds at first this time. Wiggling I close my eyes for a moment and just feel that nice itchy feeling before opening my eyes with a frown. “What are you doing?”

I don’t know how she manages it but she manages to look puzzled and look at me as if she’s actually confused. “What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything.” But oddly enough, collected under my nails and over my fingertips that stroked over my itchy arms there’s quite a bit of that fine grey powder that I splashed off of my face before.

My eyes stay on the powder for a long time before looking to Dust and I sigh. I feel just a little bit hurt. “You’re not a very good liar, you know. Just because it feels so nice, and so subtle, doesn’t mean I won’t notice. Please just explain, tell me, I won’t be upset.”

“Really. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She shrugs just a little bit with an airy sigh. “But I can tell you that if you put those dusty fingers in your mouth you wouldn’t be worrying so much.” She tilts her head and just watches me expectantly.

A part of me wants to tell he to just get the hell out of my room, but I put those fingers into my mouth anyway. It can’t hurt to be accommodating, can it? The texture is strange, powdery warm, its oddly smooth and tastes like it should be nasty and unpleasant, like stale old books or newspaper, but it’s not. Something about it just begs to never be stopped, to just taste and taste and drown one’s self in as I can feel that itchiness everywhere at once.

Biting down at my lip I squirm and lean back into the couch and feel it spread, feel it just web its way out. It’s so deliciously smooth and warm and soft… It’s probably dangerous to indulge in, but…

“Those are probably clean by now, but your other hand’s fingers, nice and dusty.” She’s still looking at her nails, or looking at them again, and brushing them off on her shirt, but she doesn’t look dirty at all. Dust never looks dirty, like she has one of those lint resistant magnetic fields around her.

With a shrug I slide the rest of my fingers into my mouth and stare at my other, clean fingers and manage to actually coherently mutter around the skin. “You’re too clean to be dust…”

“It’s just a name. It’s not like I actually am dust.” Those fingers in my mouth feel like they’re covered in chalk in such a sweet and perfect way. It’s so much better than chalk. I never wanted to just keep shoving more and more chalk into my mouth like wild. It’s so addictive, I just want more and more even as I can feel my mouth feeling more and more dry like paper as white as Dust’s skin, as that itch slides its way under my skin.

That itchiness is everywhere. My thighs rub together just a bit as I squirm instinctually and slowly wrap the hand not in my mouth around myself, lightly letting myself scratch at that ever so pleasant itch. “That hand is probably going to be clean soon. You can put that new batch from your other hand in your mouth now.” She seems so bored, like she’s seen this a million times before and I can’t help but feel just a little bit worried.

“Do… Do you mind?” I try to whisper around my dusty hand as it starts to slide into my mouth and the other one resumes the job of itching. Mmm, it’s just so itchy, and that chalky thick taste is just filling everything, and feeling so wonderful as it does it. It aches so bad, but aching never felt so good.

“Do I mind what?” Dust just glances around as if what I said wasn’t clear enough and she needs a visual clue. “You’re not making much sense. Really.” She shakes her head, and that taste just keeps expanding.

I just keep shifting and squirming, continuing to claw and gather up that dust. Its just better and better by the moment as I mumble out “I don’t want you ‘set” with my fingers deep in my mouth and I’m not too surprised when she responds like she does.

“I can’t understand you with your fingers in your mouth. You should take those out anyways, your other hand though…” She says it as if it was the most normal thing in the world as her finger starts to wave in the air and it vaguely looks like she’s drawing something in the air, something like letters.

My eyes follow her finger, and I can’t help but wonder why she’s moving it like that. I switch hands again, and my wet fingers drop down to claw idly at my left thigh for a moment, and this time I mumble before I fill my mouth with more of that wonderful blissful dizzy dust. “Do you mind me getting caught up in this…? I don’t want you upset…” My fingers slide in and my tongue moves to greet that wonderful all consuming taste.

She watches me out of the corner of her eye as she smiles just a faint bit with those pretty black lips. I can’t tell what her expression is, but it looks like just a hint of disbelief. “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t be upset. You just enjoy yourself.” That smooth chalky taste starts spreading out again more, sliding down my throat, but it doesn’t go down towards my stomach, it just spreads out from there, filling me, so thick and chalky and I can feel that gray dust throbbing against my silver skin and inside of me too.

I can’t help but groan and shiver more and more by the moment. It does feel really good, so nothing sounds wrong with just enjoying myself. That chalky taste is just so… Everywhere. With a blissful little purr I close my eyes and just focus on the taste, on the tingling, and on that chalky throb.

“I wonder… If your fingers taste like that… That good… And my finger, well… is dust… How would it taste?” She says it in such a barely curious sort of way as I flutter open her eyes and she’s holding up her hand, all of her fingers lowering besides the pointer.

Purring just a little bit louder, feeling that feeling more and more chalky and intense by the moment I crawl off of the couch and slowly squirm and shiver my way in front of her, looking up at her, almost feeling hungry for that finger. “Can I… try?”

“Oh… I guess.” Her tone is so nonchalant. For a moment or two her face looked like she might just say no before she lowers her hand with her finger pointing down, and holds it out to me.

Slowly I slide my lips around her finger and suck, latching on as if it were a pacifier and a lifeline as my hands reach up to gently but firmly wrap around her wrist.

“That’s a very good girl…” Her other hand reaches up and starts to stroke my hair and I melt into that touch with a happy melty little sigh from around her finger. “Does it taste good? Does it taste right? Dusty? Thick?” She smiles down at me as she keeps petting me and I just keep nursing on that finger. “We’re going to have lots of fun for a little while. Sound okay?”

Feeling just so chalky and full I ever so slowly nod, cooing around her finger as she just keeps petting me and I start to slide my tongue over her finger to get all of that taste, feeling so warm as I feel myself pressing against one of her legs. “But right now, you are just a little too innocent… Let’s dirty that head up a bit.” She lets her finger stay in my mouth, and the other one moves out of the range of my half closed eyes and I can feel that itch spreading inside of my head, its so thick and its chalky and I can taste it.

It’s that same familiar feeling and I can’t help but squirm and wiggle faintly, oh it itches in a place that no one can scratch but Dust in my head.

“Lots of fun tonight…” She whispers as the dust seems to… Swirl… And my eyes can barely open, as if they’ve been caked over by layers and layers of dust. I can’t even see anything at first until I recognize that strange ceiling, and silky covers pulled up around me, feeling myself rolling in them, so nice, it feels like I’ve slept forever, and there’s so much dust covering the whole room besides my body and the bed that after a brief scan I realize I’m alone in.

I cough a little bit more as I wrap the covers closer and rub over my eyes to push that lingering dust away. There’s really no doubt as to what she did this time, but I don’t feel particularly bad. Like Dust said, maybe even good. I just wish that Dust had stayed so that I could have someone to hold onto.