Nobody messed with crazy eyes. Gina was like every other normal human being by resigning. It was just a box of Twinkies, anyways. And, if Agnes wanted to inhale a hole box of Twinkies, that was entirely up to her. Sure, Gina didn't think it was healthy in the least, and didn't feel even slightly good about resigning like that, but Agnes had crazy eyes.

Gina watched her with that mix of annoyance and concern as Agnes took one more packet of Twinkies, and then tossed the box into the garbage can on Gina's side of the room. Gina arched her eyebrows, disbelief blatant on her features. So she'd take one and then throw the rest away? What was her problem, anyways?! Whatever-- Twinkies weren't worth getting worked-up over.

Agnes returned to her bed and flopped down, her back towards Gina as she peeled the wrapper off and tore through yet another Twinkie. Gina refused to watch. She couldn't. So, she faced the wall that her bed was against, and attempted to swallow her worry and go to sleep. She really should take a shower, but-- eh, she didn't feel like it. Not yet. She'd close her eyes for a couple of minutes, and then shower...

Agnes had her back to Gina. Not that she was really mad at her but it was simply better that they didn’t talk at the moment. Agnes didn’t know why she was so obsessed with having the Twinkies but she simply couldn’t help it. There was a just a hunger in her that she couldn’t help. She wanted to have all the rest of the Twinkies but she managed to force herself to simply eat the one that she had left. She didn’t want to anger her sister any more so she contented herself with the single Twinkie and stared at her side of the room.

Before long, Agnes began to feel her eyelids growing heavy, an unexplainable exhaustion settling in over her mind. Still with a Twinkie half in her mouth, it dropped down onto the sheets as she paused, trying to will herself to away to throw it away. But there was no use. Before long, Agnes had fully drifted into sleep mode.

Silence descended in the room as Agnes fell asleep, apparently at the same time as Gina. As the night wore on though, the runaway’s mind was fevered with dreams, extremely vivid dreams that she could in no way explain. The worst part of it though was the fact that she could not wake up. Instead all she could do was mumble and grab at her pillows, wishing that she could awaken.

They were not nice dreams. Nothing that she could clearly identify. It was as if her dreams were filled by instinct, by a deeper, primordial part of her mind that she couldn’t clearly understand. All she knew was what she felt, basic, instinctual, and it was terrifying.

Still, as she slept, the runaway scarcely moved, even though her mind told her she was. Instead, pores began to excrete a thin layer of fluid, fluid that began to spread all over her body and harden…

******

In the morning hours, laying in Agnes’ bed, the shafts of sunlight would shine through and reflect in a cascade of rainbows off the hardened form. Dressed in Agnes’ pajamas, curled up in bed, lay a hardened shell in the vague shape of the young runaway. It didn’t move, it didn’t twitch, instead, as the light shown through the hardened, slightly greenish, Agnes’ shell, one could just barely catch the outline and movement of the sleeping body within…

It was kind-of discombobulating to wake up to a room-full of rainbows. When Gina awoke to this, she posed no more than a bleary blink of the eyes, and groggily pulled the blanket over her body and writing off this absurdity as a dream. Rainbows. Pffft. Absolutely preposterous. She closed her eyes and drifted off once more, for maybe moments, minutes, or even an hour, before opening her eyes once more and lowering the blanket. Yup, the rainbows were still there. Gina blinked a couple of times, to make sure that she was truly awake, and yet the iridescent refractions remained.

"What the--?" Gina slurred sleepily, sitting up slowly, "Agnes, what's with the rainb-?"

Gina's sentence faltered as she looked towards her sister, her sleepy mind taking a few moments to register what exactly it was that had replaced her sister's sleeping form in the bed. It looked like a giant, wrinkled spring-green jelly bean, clothed in Agnes's pajamas.

"A jelly bean?" Gina mumbled, getting out of her bed numbly and investigating cautiously. An Agnes-shaped jelly bean had stolen Agnes's pajamas... hm.. Okay, now Gina was really sure that she hadn't awoken, yet. How else could she rationalize this? Gina tapped the carapace, and it stirred.

Gina jumped and shouted, alarmed. Oh dear Lord, the thing was alive! The scare was enough to wake Gina up, for it had really gotten her heart pounding. She calmed herself, trying to rationalize what it was from afar. She couldn't quite tell, but it was vaguely shaped like Agnes. Gina dared to go closer, and leaned over it to survey the thing. Yup, it was Agnes. But... why was she... all... cocooned?

"Agnes?" Gina inquired, touching the shell hesitantly. There wasn't a response, "Oh yeah, I definitely need to get the DocProf."

Not even bothering to change, Gina grabbed her key and left the room, from the dormitory halls and towards the Infirmary. Gina did not stop to talk, nor for any other reason that someone might stop. She was on a mission, there was no time to relax. Gina made it to the Infirmary in record-time, skidding to a halt just outside of the door. Lest anyone be slumbering within, she needed to enter quietly-- thus Gina paused to open the door quietly, before stepping inside. She didn't see the DocProf.

"DocProf?" Gina inquired, her voice sounding a good deal more level than the anxiousness that truly simmered within her.

DocProf usually had the mornings to himself. Though he lived and worked in a school of mutants and harms were always a possibility at any hour of the day, the mornings were fairly easy for him. Barely a scrape walked through his door, rarely a scratch, or even a bug bite. That was why the good ole doctor normally took the morning to relax in his office and do whatever red blooded American does first thing in the morning…

Enjoy his coffee and watch cartoons.

He chuckled as he watched his small television set in his office.

“Oh, hehehe…Tom, Jerry, you haven’t changed a bit,” he smirked as he took a sip. But before he got too far into his TV watching, a small and familiar voice suddenly called out.

>> "DocProf?"

“Gina?” DocProf muttered as he curiously stood up and made his way out into the waiting room. Dressed in deep brown slacks and a coat he smirked as he watched Gina look around. “Hello dearie. How’s the wing fee--?”

He paused. There was that look in her eye, the look at told him that something must have been off. Something was going on either in her life or in someone’s life outside of this room.

“Gina? Is everything alright?” he asked.

>> “Gina? Hello dearie. How’s the wing fee--?... Gina? Is everything alright?”

"The wing feels fine," Gina replied quickly, cracking a brief, distracted smile. How could she explain this to DocProf coherently. She wasn't sure why she'd even come to the infirmary, of all places, spare the fact that she'd panicked. It was the first place she thought to come that she could grab an adult that might be able to do something. To help.

"It's Agnes," Gina explained, "I mean, I don't know if she's hurt or anything, but she was acting really weird last night, and then this morning when I woke up, she was in this big green cocoon-thing, and I don't know what's going on so I'm really freaking out." Yeah, Gina was rambling now-- hopefully DocProf was equipped to handle these sorts of things, "-And I was just wondering if maybe you could possibly check on her and make sure she isn't hurt? Please?"

Gina, having spewed exactly what it was that she saw, slowed down to catch her breath, looking at the DocProf with concerned, pleading eyes. She didn't think that he'd say no, but hey, she was freaking out.

>> "The wing feels fine,"

He nodded with a smile. He definitely glad to hear that. The last thing he wanted was to hear that the girl that grounded herself from flight. Being shot can have a drastic effect on a person. He only hoped she would be able to continue to enjoy her life. Thankfully, she did.

But she was distracted. He tilted his head curiously as he watched her.


>> "It's Agnes…I mean, I don't know if she's hurt or anything, but she was acting really weird last night, and then this morning when I woke up, she was in this big green cocoon-thing, and I don't know what's going on so I'm really freaking out--And I was just wondering if maybe you could possibly check on her and make sure she isn't hurt? Please?"[/color]

“Goodness,” DocProf said with an astounded voice. “Then we don’t have time to waste. I was afraid of this.” He muttered, as he left back into his office, grabbed a clipboard and chart and returned.

As he headed to the front door, he grabbed the hand and pulled it open. He held it and waved for Gina to go through her as he silently went over the chart of Agnes’ last physical. This was a fear of his, every since he met Agnes. It seemed too good to be true that her powers were halting right where they were at the moment. This was so much primordial potential that he was almost surprised that this did not happen sooner.

In the end though, he was right, he knew that her change was going to come about eventually. This was one point that he wished that he was wrong though. Simply because Agnes was so sweet that he didn’t know if she could handle such a drastic shift in her powers.

“Come along, darling,” he said to Gina in an extremely sweet, worried, and yet calm manner. “Take me to her swiftly.”

>> “Goodness. Then we don’t have time to waste. I was afraid of this.”

Gina blinked, and echoed, "You were afraid of this? Afraid of what?"

What was wrong with Agnes? What was so wrong that DocProf was afraid?! What the Hell was going on, here?! Gina jitterd anxiously as the DocProf went to retrieve his clipboard with some papers fastened to it, and trotted towards the front door. Gina followed him out, while DocProf was distractedly studying the papers. Inwardly, Gina was panicking profusely, but outwardly, she just seemed confused.

>> “Come along, darling. Take me to her swiftly.”

As always, DocProf was all fatherly and "got-it-under-control" with her. Gina was still turning the prior remark that the DocProf had made to her within her head, though. What was so dire that it had scared the DocProf.

"She's in our dorm room," Gina explained, and with that, she set off down the all, walking briskly as she went. She walked because she wasn't so sure how fast DocProf could run. They navigated the halls with haste, however, and soon came to the door the dormitory that Agnes and Gina shared. Gina unlocked the door, pushed it open, and stepped aside so that DocProf might enter first.

>> "You were afraid of this? Afraid of what?"[/color]

Gina question had rebounded in his old ears. He really was not sure how much to tell her. He could tell her the truth, about his suspicions, but he didn’t want to reveal too much. Doctor/Patience confidentiality, after all. But then again, Agnes was there for when Gina was shot, so who was he to deny when someone needed to know about their in fallen sister? Agnes demanded the information when Gina was harmed, it was only too obvious that Gina would demand the same.

But for the moment he remained silent as he waited for the clearly worried Gina to lead on.

>> "She's in our dorm room,"[/color]

He nodded as he followed Gina to the dorm rooms. It was a familiar walk. One that he had made none too long ago when he travelled there with Headmistress Tipper to inform Agnes that her sister, Gina, had been shot. Now he was headed back with Gina in tow to investigate what has befallen Agnes. The Mansion had an odd sense of irony.

When they had finally arrived at the room, Gina was the first to open the door and stepped aside to allow him to walk through. He nodded his thanks as he slipped in…and was entranced.

“Goodness…” he muttered as he looked inside. It did not take him long to see what Gina was speaking about.

There was a sparkle in the air, a cascade of rainbows in various spots all over the room. One would have thing that this place had become some entrance or pathway into a fantastical world. But as he crept closer, he immediately spied the source, a translucent, thick, green shell in the vague shape of the runaway girl whom he had treated when she first appeared.

“Agnes?” was all he said as he crept closer. As he walked in he took a closer look at the hard shell that was dressed in Agnes’ pajamas. He leaned down and peered and saw the smallest of movements inside. He sighed.

Slowly he gaze raised as he turned to look for Gina.

“Gina, how was she acting last night? Please be precise,” he asked as he pulled up his clipboard to take notes.

>> “Goodness…”

Gina looked at the rainbows with an air of unease, simply informing the DocProf, "Woke up to that this morning."

Gina was a little less enthralled with the refractions than DocProf was. She was still pretty freaked out about them to be entirely honest. But, as DocProf ventured deeper into the room, he saw the source of the rainbows. Gina followed behind him numbly, her arms laced tightly across her chest.

>> “Agnes?”

Gina hummed in affirmation. Yup. Agnes. At least, she thought it was Agnes. DocProf pulled out his clipboard and pen, while Gina tilted her head towards her sister, still wearing a faint frown. His inquiry snagged her attention, earning a faint nod in the DocProf's direction, and Gina's concerned gaze. He still hadn't answered her question.

>> “Gina, how was she acting last night? Please be precise.”

"Weird," Gina began frankly. But, DocProf wanted precision, so she elaborated, "She stayed in to read last night while I went out flying, and apparently she got this big ol' box of Twinkies for us to share. And, when I got back, she'd eaten a lot of them-- like, easily ten to fifteen of them, and she hadn't even noticed--" Gina sighed, toying with a strand of her hair absently, "--And she still wanted more, after that, like she had Twinkies on the brain. And I tried to take them from her, but... she was scary-obsessed with eating more."

Gina paused, shifting weight from one foot to the other, and glancing at Agnes out of the corner of her eye, looking more-than bothered.

"I mean, I knew something was up, but I didn't expect to wake-up and find her like this," Gina adopted a guilty tone, "I was just going to go to Mama in the morning, but... I woke up, and she was like this."

Gina had no idea as to what was going on, but she still sounded uneasy about the whole thing, nonetheless.

DocProf was still looking down at the shell Agnes was encased in as he waited for Gina to speak. His brow furrowed curiously as he began to read over Agnes’ charts from previous visits and turned his attention back to cocoon. Occasionally he could see the smallest twitch of movement inside the shell but it was not very clear what was going on. He sighed as he shook his head and jotted down another note as he listened to Gina explain the events of last night…

>> "Weird…She stayed in to read last night while I went out flying, and apparently she got this big ol' box of Twinkies for us to share. And, when I got back, she'd eaten a lot of them-- like, easily ten to fifteen of them, and she hadn't even noticed--And she still wanted more, after that, like she had Twinkies on the brain. And I tried to take them from her, but... she was scary-obsessed with eating more."

“My, that is a lot of Twinkies,” DocProf muttered began to piece together last night.

>> "I mean, I knew something was up, but I didn't expect to wake-up and find her like this…I was just going to go to Mama in the morning, but... I woke up, and she was like this."[/color]

DocProf turned to her with a sympathetic look on his face. He smiled encouragingly as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“My dear, there was nothing you could have done. You didn’t know.”he said as he turned back to the Agnes shell. “Besides…I don’t believe she is being harmed in there.”

Stepping forward he tilted down again to the shell, sighed and very felt placed his hand onto the hardened, yet somewhat sticky surface. He concentrated for a second…then nodded as he turned to face Gina. She did have a right to know what was going on.

“Gina, Agnes is changing. Last night, what you witnessed, its…not unlike what some insects go through…directly before they molt their skin,” he turned back to the shell and gave a heavy sigh. “I was afraid of this. Agnes’ mutation…it’s so…primordial.” A sigh fell from his lips as he straightened up and jotted down another note before he turned back to face Gina fully. “You know how many variety of insects there are on the planet, Gina? Millions upon millions and they are constantly evolving. I think the nature of Agnes power is doing the same. She mutating…but into what…I don’t know.”

>> “My dear, there was nothing you could have done. You didn’t know. Besides…I don’t believe she is being harmed in there.”

Gina wasn't reassured by the reassurances. In fact, the reassurances made her a little more nervous than quelling her anxiety-- it meant that there was something to be concerned about, in her mind. She didn't admit to this, though. At least Agnes wasn't hurt.

"Yeah," Gina agreed hesitantly, as Doc went to double-check his statement.

>> “Gina, Agnes is changing. Last night, what you witnessed, its…not unlike what some insects go through…directly before they molt their skin. I was afraid of this. Agnes’ mutation…it’s so…primordial. You know how many variety of insects there are on the planet, Gina? Millions upon millions and they are constantly evolving. I think the nature of Agnes power is doing the same. She mutating…but into what…I don’t know.”

Gina envisioned a human-sized wasp, and frowned. Deep down, Wasp-Agnes would still be Agnes on the inside, but it would be different having girl-time with a giant wasp. It was a hypocritical way of thinking, but Gina couldn't help it.

"So she's... evolving? Possibly...?" Gina attempted to clarify. Doc's guess was as good as her own, but something about hearing it from the mouth of a medical professional.

>> "So she's... evolving? Possibly...?" [/color]

“Quite possibly,” DocProf said as he continued to observe the cocoon.

So many questions flashed through his mind but there was nothing he could do to answer them off the bat. As much as he wanted to check on Agnes’ well being, he knew that the cocoon should not be tampered with, much less moved or broken into. If things were going as he suspected they were then it could be extremely dangerous to damage that the integrity of the shell. He did not want Agnes’ body to slip into a state of shock or become harmed in the process of trying to remove her from the shell. No, as terrifying as it was…they were going to have to wait it out.

He sighed as he paused and look over at Gina, Agnes’ adopted sister. A few times he’s seen the two run around the mansion together and each time he is impressed by their closeness and their affection for one another. Especially considering that they have only known each other for about a year. It is an inspiring sight to behold.

And it also the reason why he understands Gina’s fear for the situation. She does care about Agnes a lot, she truly does, so the feeling of helplessness that must surely be descending upon her must be a tough feeling to battle. He sighed though, as he reached over to squeeze Gina’s shoulder.

“Dear, I’m sorry, but the best thing that we can do right now is simply observe and wait,” he said as he turned his gaze briefly to the cocoon-clad Agnes. “We can’t disrupt whatever is happening to her body while she is in stasis, otherwise we might end up harming her. I don’t know how long this will last, insects are not exactly my forte. The most we can do is sit, wait, and cross our fingers that Agnes’ body knows exactly that its doing.”

>> “Quite possibly.”

Gina huffed faintly, staring at the cocoon with a churning of emotions. It would have been nicer if these tihngs had some sort of warning-system with them rather than just turning up whenever they felt like it. Gina was indeed worried, but if she'd been ready for it, perhaps it wouldn't have been as scary? The DocProf squeezed her shoulder, to which Gina looked at him, still wearing a small, discomforted frown.

>> “Dear, I’m sorry, but the best thing that we can do right now is simply observe and wait. We can’t disrupt whatever is happening to her body while she is in stasis, otherwise we might end up harming her. I don’t know how long this will last, insects are not exactly my forte. The most we can do is sit, wait, and cross our fingers that Agnes’ body knows exactly that its doing.”

They had to wait. They had to watch. Part of Gina, the overprotective sister-part, was absolutely fine by this-- she wasn't going to leave this room until Agnes broke out of her cocoon, until Gina saw with her own eyes that her sister was fine, and wasn't being hurt by this cocoon. The other part of her, the frightened-part, didn't want to be anywhere near the cocoon. She didn't like it in the least. But, Gina's sense of sisterly duty overroad her anxiety.

"Okay," Gina breathed, "Watch and wait."

She went over to her desk, grabbed a few things to do... homework, sketchbook, whatever was in the one pile of things she retrieved, and dropped them on the bed. Gina then clambered on beside her pile, curling her legs beneath her and wrapping her tail around them. She wasn't going anywhere, today. She was going to sit around, like a sentry, and keep an eye on Agnes.

"Umm... do you want to stick around?" Gina inquired, "For doctors' reasons? You could have my desk chair, if so."

DocProf did have an entire school to look after, though. Perhaps he couldn't afford to sit around and keep an eye on Agnes, so Gina said, "If not, that's cool. Either way I'm going to keep an eye on her, so..." she shrugged, to show that either decision was fine by her.

>> "Okay…Watch and wait."

DocProf nodded. He did not like feeling like there was nothing he could do but that was the situation. Really, what could he do? They could not disrupt Agnes inside of that cocoon. He knew nothing about it or physiologically what was going on within. Opening the cocoon could have dire consequences on Agnes’ life and he was not about to threaten it further.

This was a time when the good doctor was going to have to trust nature to run its course for the young woman. Giving the hard life that Agnes had, part of him really did not think it was far. Agnes had no warning of this, no prior knowledge that such a thing was going to happen to her, and for a girl whose life was only now beginning to find a sort of stability, that definitely was not right. But despite the unfairness of the situation, it needed to be done.

They were going to have to sit and wait.

He paused when he glanced over to see that Gina was grabbing her things and setting them onto her bed. She was settling in for the long haul. The idea made him smile a little appreciatively at her. Agnes was lucky to have a sister like Gina…

>> "Umm... do you want to stick around? For doctors' reasons? You could have my desk chair, if so… If not, that's cool. Either way I'm going to keep an eye on her, so..."

DocProf smiled knowingly. He did have an office but the mansion was large and there were always people who needed help. But that Agnes had him worried. She was going to be his patient today.

He shook his head.

“I shall stay with you and keep an eye on her. I will just have my calls transferred here,” he said as he walked around Agnes’ bed and plucked the phone off the cradle. As he did so, he glanced once more to Agnes’ cocoon and sighed. He had no idea what was going on in there…

***

The dreams were more instinctual than visual. Agnes could feel things around her rather than see anything. She could hear the soft murmur of voices that she was sure she could once remember. But all of it blended into a noisy mess that was hard to tell one thing from another. It was the dreams that were the most pervading and the strongest in front of her eyes. She felt the call of the breeze, the tempting sensation of fluttering through flowers, of crawling through the cool darkness, of wanting to leaving her human life behind and no longer having those responsibilities that the human race puts on itself.

But she was anchored from falling too deeply in that mindset. As she slept, giving only the most occasionally and slight movement, something in the back of her mind kept her from allowing the instincts to overtake. She remained human in thought while her body ached to return to the world of the life crawled out from.

It was a tug-of-war and humanity was winning…but not without a concession or two.

The urge of wanting to crawl and skitter slowly began to wane as Agnes began to feel herself waking up. It was exhausting to wake up, all she wanted to do was continue to sleep, but it couldn’t be helped. She had to awaken and her body was going to force her to. The struggle for her life which she had earned had to continue…

***

24-Hours Later…

DocProf yawned as he sat at the desk chair, reading classic novel by Dickens. He had spent nearly…24 hours already in this room, wondering what was going to happen with Agnes. The cocoon remained unmoving and eventless. As the day slowly passed, he had only a call or two but at the time he wished he had received more. Just waiting around to see what was going to happen to Agnes was agonizing especially because he didn’t know what she was going through.

But a glance to Gina proved to him that he was not the only one agonizing. He sighed as he glanced to the clock. It was nearly 1am now. He sighed as he called out to her.

“Dear, you should get some sleep,” he mentioned to her. “You can’t stay up all night…”

Under his voice though, occurred a sound which he did not hear in the midst of his talking. The gentle and soft sound of a cocoon cracking…

Spending twenty-four hours in the same room was enough to run anyone up the wall, but Gina had refused to leave. She had done all of her homework, read a few chapters each of a smattering of books, drawn to pictures, and done just about anything one could think to do to keep their brain from withering up within her skull. Gina hated being cooped up inside, so being holed-up in one room was pure torture for her. But her blind loyalty kept her rooted to the dorm room.

It also kept Gina from getting any real sleep. She'd dozed only once, for no longer than twenty minutes, before jolting back awake. She didn't want to miss a beat. What if something happened while she was sleeping? Gina managed to eat, but she was worried sick for her sister. Sleep was for the wicked-- she would get some real sleep once Agnes was awake.

>> “Dear, you should get some sleep. You can’t stay up all night…”

Gina gave a laugh, but it somehow sounded a little more hollow then her typical, jovial chuckles. She retorted, "Nonsense-- I've pulled an all-nighter or two on last minute assignments. This is nothing."

Except she hadn't been worried sick about those last minute assignments. She combed her hair back with her hand, drumming the pencil against the puzzle book that was open upon her lap, glancing over the Agnes shell. Still nothing, just like there'd been nothing since she'd woken up.