'Ugh...just end me now..' The young woman groaned silently to herself. The chair was hurting her back (even though she had it customed made but c'mon! It wasn't designed to be sat in for over nine hours!), the severe bun was hurting her scalp, the designer business suit was chafing her in places she didn't know that could and if she had to listen to more useless crap that fat old man was spouting a minute longer she'll jump put the window. Or push him out. Whichever came first. Though much as pushing this pompous windbag out the window sounded fun, it doesn't do to off one's excutive of one's company. "As I was saying before and I'll say it again." The man started again. Wonder if he knew his face was turning red... What he was going on about she couldn't tell since she tuned him and his grating voice out long ago. 'Think it was after he mentioned using less than quality materials for the prosthetic limbs. Tch! This is a primarily medical directed company! Using less then the best will hurt our rep. Guess the old geezer's still sore bout me cutting off funds for military crap.' The company's rep was on the line for a bit but after a while things made a turn for the better.

Speaking of sore her jaw and face were about to fall off at any moment if she kept this stony cold look a moment longer. 'I believe it's time to end this.' The young woman thought to herself. As if on cue the geezer said, "Dr. Paradigm is willing to join up with us on.." The group jumped when she slammed her hands down on the glossy table, her expression turning colder as she spoke, ice almost on every word, "I cannot believe we are having this discussion again. We are working strictly for better medicine, health care and general health of the people. To attempt to use less than proper materials for ANY of our products would disgrace the name Stardon." She smirked slightly as the group of men flinched. Good. Got their attention. Standing up, the brunette clasped her hands behind her back and walked over to the window. "Gentlemen. When Dr. Dane put me in charge of Stardon Corp he gave me the responsibility to work hard and strive to improve the company's care quality and coming up with new ways for medical use."

Pausing a moment for good effect the woman turned to observe the group before continuing, "So far we exceeded beyond expectations. Thanks to the contributions made from Dr. Robert Bolton and Dr. Paradigm (saying that man's name made her sick), genetics in this company can be used to heal." Looking directly at the man who mentioned the "good doctor" she continued. "Stardon Corp does NOT just work with genetics. It is unnatural to completely eliminate bad genes. Who knows what that will affect in the future generation." Clicking her heels sharply together signaled the end of her speech. "Unless anyone has anything else to add...?" Here it comes.. "I understand how Dr. Dane felt on certain things but this company needs to distance itself from the name Bolton. Dr. Paradigm can help this company grow even bigger." The man from before spoke. Tch. Not this again. "Dr. Bolton has helped Stardon on more than one occasion." The woman started again before getting cut off by another executive, this one younger (he'd be quite the looker if he wasn't trying to get into her good graces).

"Barrymore is right. Considering that Bolton turned his own sons into monsters is a prime example as to why we need to separate from the name Bolton!" 'That is an outright LIE told by thst egotistic chrome dome!' She thought venomously. Dane and Bolton worked together on and off for years before Dane had the boat accident. Then to make matters worse Robert vanished a year later. Clenching her teeth in effort not to go off on these stupid men who believed whatever they were told. What her big brother ever saw in these fellows will be forever lost on her. The woman spoke in a cold tone. "This topic has over played itself in this office." "But their right..." Another one started before trailing off due to her icy stare. The clock chimed abruptly, drawing her attention. Oh crap! She'll be late if she didn't leave now! "Gentlemen. I believe this is where I must take my leave. Anything else you need to discuss you know where to find me." The brunette informed the group coldly as she gathered up her items. "Miss Golden! This meeting is not yet over!" Ah. Right. The good looking one is new. "Mr. Cartmen. Since your new I'll forgive you this time." Golden said, turning around to give him, Cartmen, a stoney stare that caused him to shift uncomfortably. "Jack Dane left me TWO things to care for. This company, no matter how powerful, successful or big it gets, will ALWAYS be second." "Second?! How can you say something like that?!" Cart men exclaimed in surprise. Golden gave her trade mark smirk before replying, "His daughter Brianna Dane. Have a goodday gentlemen."

Later

"Argh! My face is going to freeze soon! It's sooo sore!" The young woman groaned as she rubbed her cheeks and jaw. Thank goodness the limousine was waiting right outside the 30 story building. She couldn't jump inside fast enough. Carlos, a native from New York who worked with the Dane family since Stardon Corp was formed, sighed deeply before starting a familiar quote, "You wouldn't have to worry about something like that if you hadn't decided to start up that silly facade of yours." 'Not this again..' The woman sighed and replied, "I told you before I have no choice. They'd chew me up and spit me out if I went as the real me." "Mina, you don't know that for certain." Was the prompt reply. Carlos sighed deeply once more. "Are you sure Jack would have wanted you to be like this?" The older man asked quietly. Mina sighed quietly as well. No. Jack wouldn't have put up with that silly act of hers, not even for a moment but...

"There's too much at stake here.. And I don't mean company." Mina interjected the last part as the gray haired old man was about to say something. "Heaven only knows why he left me in charge of that pool of flesh eaters but he left me in charge of a beautiful 12 year old girl." She smiled warmly at the thought of the golden hair green eye girl, bouncing around in her father's lab as the older man worked on some project. The smile faded as the memory of him vanishing on his boat popped up. For some stupid reason that man loved to fish on the weekends, even though thay crazy fool sucked at it. "Thinking of him again, mon ami?" She nodded slightly. "Hard to believe it's been a year already..." "I know what you mean." The older man said before sighing sadly. "I just wished I had stopped him from leaving that day..." Mina smiled wearily. "Even if we had known what would happen to begin with, we'd never be able to stop him. Stubborn as a mule and twice as bull headed. Remember that project Jack tried to do?"

Carlso chuckled a bit at the memory. "A simple plumbing job gone awry." "How that man made a simple repair go from annoying to pain in the neck was beyond me." "A genius at curing medical problems, yet bombed at everyday items." The woman smiled as the man went into another story about Jack. Good. It killed her that he blamed himself for not stopping him that day. Even if time could be rewound the result would have been the same. "Crap. A traffic jam." The older man groaned as the car stopped. "Lovely. Just lovely. What else can go wrong?" Mina grumbled to herself. "I hate it when you say that." Eyebrow twitching she growled, "How many times do I have to tell you? Everything that happened was NOT my fault." The man raised an eyebrow. "Don't go there. Eh?! What's that?!" The car shook as the two frantically tried to hold onto something. Looking outside her jaw dropped as four fins went flying by the car and down the street. A few seconds lafter cop cars went flying by apparently chasing the fins.

"Well, on the bright side I can tell Bree we saw the street sharks." That was a first. The only time she's seen Bolton's sons were when they were being captured on cameras. Or Guy. Man, even after all these years he was still annoying. A chuckle was heard from up front. "Oh boy. The little miss will be angry she missed them. After all, she is one of their fans." She gave a chuckle of her own. Tell her about it. Bree was always going on and on about how great they were. Speaking of which.. "So much for taking down town, I'm gonna walk. At this rate I'm gonna miss that girl's band practice." Carlos scoffed. "That is not music." "What I can? Rock and roll is in the family genes." Mina grinned, taking her bun down and shook out her hair and switched to comfortable shoes. "Sure it's a good idea? That you wanna walk?" Not that tone again. "Yes it's a good idea." The woman started before the older man cut her off. "Remember what happened last time.." Carlos warned. "Tch. They got what was coming to them!" Though the only thing she'll admit is that she used too much strength but that was due to her arm being outta whack.

Ever since Jack vanished maintenance on her arm and leg almost vanished, the job she was doing on them was ok but mechanics and machinery were outta her league. Especially since no one knew what (or to be more precise no one but Jack. Robert and Carlos barely could help due to lack of knowledge on what was now most of her "bones") kind of metal that now replaced her left arm, right leg and other odd bones throughout her body and require constant maintinance and one final update to insure that everything worked smoothly. Since big brother wasn't here anymore the weekly checks were down to whenever it was remembered. Which brought about that incident when the woman went for a walk and was attacked she nearly broke almost a good portion of his bones. "Sides, that jerk only got a few broken bones for his effort big deal." Mina grumbled, pulling up the jeans and finished changing cloths. "Both arms broken and a leg are not a "few". Your lucky he landed in the grass and not the sidewalk otherwise the damage would of been worse. Would it kill you to be more lady-like?" The older man asked as he sighed deeply as she took off her blouse to exchange for a t-shirt.

"Wha? I have a tank top under the blouse so what's the prob?" Seriously. It wasn't like she was topless or anything. Quickly grabbing her bag, Mina made a break for the door. "We'll see you at the house. Later!" She said quickly, practically running out the door. "Be careful!" Carlos called after her. "And stay out of trouble!" "Yea, yea. Sure. Whatever." Mina groused to herself. Finally. Peace and quiet till she got Bree. Honestly. That girl sure took after Mira to a t. Her love of rock was certainly Mira's taste. Her dad's brains with her mom's charm. Mina chuckled a bit. Hard to believe it's been over seven years since the accident took her and Mina's life away. Only problem was that Mina was still among the living. 'Let's see...Bree is at the center on 15th street so that means if I go past city hall I'll be there in 10 minutes.' The young woman thought, changing the topic before depression reared it's ugly head. Yea. Going past city hall will shave at least five minutes or so off the clock. Good thing the back roads were her forte or she'd be in trouble. Heading to city hall would be tough. Given that the area is always so freaken packed. Turning a corner Mina's jaw almost hit the ground. "What the?! I know the shopping around here is good but what's with this humugous crowd?! Mina exclaimed aloud. Truth be told the shops weren't that great. A few passer-bys gave her some looks but hey, if she's annoyed she sure as heck will express it. Especially since a majority of her day required a no expression stone face.

"Might as well fight threw it. Bree is so gonna be mad if I miss her first song." Bracing herself she pushed her way into the throng. Someone past her holding some sort of device. Another went by wearing some sort of suit. Are those reporters? What the heck are they doing here? Oh drat. Was that idiot mayor what's-her-name giving a speech today? Ugh. Better get a move on. "Excuse me, please move. Coming through." What is wrong with these people?! Here she is asking politely to get through and their barely moving. "Welcome! Thank you all for coming on this beautiful day." A woman's voice rang out from somewhere. Craaap. Better get a move on before she starts her speech. The woman did her best to drown out the mayor's voice. 'Wonder what songs Bree and the others worked on? Though hopefully by now they've got a name picked out.' Mina wondered. Last time she checked the group couldn't decide on any names. The one she suggested got turned down flat.

Kalido was a good name for a band. The looks those kids gave her made her feel old. She was only 26 still dangit! Go figure. "I now present to you the greatest humanitarian our fair city has ever seen... Dr. Paradigm!" Cheers and applauds thundered everywhere around her. "You've got to be kidding me.." Mina groaned in dismay as a man wearing some sort of large suit (what did he call that contraption again?) with the dome over his bald head, an eyepatch covering his right eye. Oh joy. What does THAT blowhard have to say now? Scratch that. The rate she was going she was going to be beyond late and Bree will be mad at her. Doing her best to drown that fool out and was nearly out of the crowd when the dr said something that made her stop in her tracks, "Robert Bolton is still in hiding while his sons are terrorizing our good Fission city! The street sharks must be caught before they cause further damage!" As that man continued to make the Bolton family look bad, her lip curled up in disgust and disbelief at the people who swallowed up that load of crap. Don't these guys have any brains? Clutching her fist, the woman started to walk away when Paradigm said, "Robert Bolton is a monster that must be caught!"

"That is an outrageous lie!" Mina shouted before she could stop herself. Crappity crap. "Who said that?!" The man exclaimed looking in her direction. "You've gotta be kidding me.." She grumbled as people moved away from her, exposing her position. "Would you care to repeat that miss?" Ugh..just him looking at her made her skin crawl. Fine. She's got a few things to say to him anyway. Mina said cooly, "I said that is a lie! Bolton would never do those gene swaps on anyone! Especially his own sons!" Paradigm sighed dramatically, as if he was talking to someone stupid. She bristled at that. "I see he and his family has you fooled. How can you ignore the evidence that is before you?" "I knew him personally! Robert worked with my friend for years! Robert valued life above all things! (Interesting. Why did he get that look weird look for second?) And his sons were his life! They were all he talked about next to his work!" "What about their gene slamming hm? Someone had done that to them and Robert was anexpert geneticist." She smirked a bit. Tempting. Too tempting.

To be honest she suspected that the worm before the group had done it but there was no way to prove it. "Your right. Someone DID do the gene slamming to them but it wasn't their father! I'd stake my life on that! There are many capable geneticist who could of done that to the Bolton boys!" "And what if their father had done it then? Why else would he hide?!" Someone chimed in. Tch. Idiots. "It could of been an accident if Robert Bolton had done his work at home. If that's the case then he must be working on a way to change them back." People were looking at her with different expressions. Hope there won't be any trouble.. "What about that bank robbery the street sharks did a while back?!" Another shouted. Jeesh. Voice an opinion and suddenly become popular in a second. Changing her posture to a relaxed one Mina said in light tone, "Easy. It was that lobster and calimari in shark costumes. Though it's hard to call those costumes. You could see the claws and such threw it. My adopted daughter makes better costumes." Bree... Crappity crap! So much time has been lost that it'll be almost impossible to make it unless she left now! Ignoring someone (think it was the idiot doc saying something) as the woman checked her watch. "Crap! I gotta go!" Muttering as she took off like a bullet out of the crowd. From the sounds of it her words stirred the people up.

Heh. Doubt they'll think about it again once Paradigm gets them under whatever spell he has on them. Whatever. Seeing the center dead ahead of her Mina increased her speed. On the bright side of having a strong body, a simple thing like running improved so much she could outrun a car. If she wanted...or if she could...she always assumed it was possible. "Whew..made it." The woman exclaimed as she started to climb the stars. "Not. Your late big sis. Practice is over." A girl's annoyed voice came from the top. Looking up to see a very pretty blonde girl wearing a black punk shirt with a skull outline in the front and black pants sitting on the top of the steps, her expression dark. Ooh boy. Bree's mad. "Hey Bree. Good practice?" The girl huffed before growling slightly, "You'd know if you had shown up bout ten minutes ago. Really! You give me grief if I'm late yet your the one who is late most of the time. What was it this time? Meeting again?" "Watch your tone there, missy. I won't tolerate disrespect. Sides, I'm not that late." Bree stood up and picked up her bag. The teen was silent for a few seconds before she said quietly. "Sorry." Mina chuckled and ruffled the girl's hair affectionly. "It's fine. Wanna get a burger before we go home?"

Bree grinned a bit and nodded. "You know the chef won't be happy." The young woman scoffed at that. "If that woman actually served food that wasn't scary..." "You just don't like her having the name Nina cause it sounds like yours." The girl laughed a bit. "Oi! I resent that! Sides, she's the one who has the prob. All I did was tell her once I didn't like her food." The blonde girl winced at that. "Told you you shouldn't of told her that." Bree muttered as the two headed down the street. "Whafever you say miss smartypants." Mina chuckled a bit. "It doesn't take a genius to know not to mess with a cook." The two continued to exchange playful words till the young girl said, "I wonder if the street sharks will be there. I know someone said they loved humongo burgers." Ooh boy. "I don't know Bree. Chances are good we won't see them." The woman informed her. The comment earned a pout from the young blonde. "Must you always be so half empty Big sis?" "I'm not being half empty. Just honest. Sides, we still got a ways to go before we reach the burger place. How bout this: if the Sharks are there I'll pay for the food. If not, you can pay. Sound fair?" "Sounds rigged." Biting back a smile Mina groweld slightly. "I don't rig my bets you little brat. Totally not fair to say such a thing!" "Fast denial there, Mina." The girl grinned up at her, mischief lighting up her blue eyes. "Why you..!" The woman went before putting the young girl in a head lock. "Hey, hey! Not cool! You'll mess up my hair!"

At the burger joint

"Good burger, Brianna?" The young woman asked, finishing off the last of her burger. "It's ok." Bree pouted as she poked at the last few bites of the burger. When the two arrived the girl looked around desperately trying to find her idols and was sorely disappointed when they learned the boys were here not too long ago. The woman was very proud when the girl paid for the food. For a moment Mina was worried that she'd renegade on the bet but was instead surprised. "Don't worry, Bree. If the street sharks come by and if we pass we can stay for a bit." That brighten her mood greatly then groaned. "What is it? Burger bad?" "Worse. Our ride is here to pick us up." Turning around to see a very familiar limosine pull up. The woman gave a groan of her own as Carlso got out of the car looking very peeved and turned to stare at the girls.

"That'll be our cue to get in." Mina said, sighing a bit as she gathered the trash. "He looks mad about something. I know I didn't do anything so it must be you. What did you do?" Bree commented looking at her as they threw the garbage away. "Oi. Why assume it's me?" Growling at the child as they walk to the waiting car. "He rarely yells at me except when I'm not doing that lame homework." "It may be lame but just because you graduated college doesn't mean you graduated socially." The girl sighed crawling into the car. It was an old argument the three of them get into. Just because she's a genius does not mean she's ready to deal with the real world. So Mina sent her back into the grade the girl was suppose to be in to help her acquire social skills. Like heck this child will turn out like that fool Paradigm! "Good evening, miss. Hope your practice went well today." Carlso asked the girl formally, getting into the driver's seat. Mina will never understand why he speaks like that to her when he talks to the older woman normal.

Whatever. The sounds of motorcycles and large vehicles pulled up distracted her for a moment till Carlso said sharply, "Mina. Get in. We have to talk." "Yup. He's mad." Mina muttered as she got in. As she did, loud voices were heard. "Man, I am starving!" "Smells good!" "Hey, isn't that the girl who stuck up for us?" "Say what now?" The brunette said. "What what?" The girl asked as the car drove off. "Thought someone said something bout me." She started to explain when Carlso cut in. "I thought you said you wanted a low profile." Ouch. He very mad. Guess he saw the news... Not gonna pretend otherwise. "I do." Better stick to simple answers. Hope that'll get her through this. "Then what happened at city hall hm?" "City hall? Wasn't the mayor having a speech today there?" Bree asked cutting in. "Yes.." "Mina I know you don't like Dr Paradigm but you made a scene today!" "Mina what did you do?" "Miss Brianna please stay out of this." Carlso told the girl politely, glaring slightly at the woman.

"Made a scene my butt! I was standing up for our friend and his family!" That was not a scene! A scene would of been her throwing stuff at the arrogant slimeball! "Wait did that happen before you got me?! Cool! I wish I'd been there to see you let chrome dome have it!" Bree had a look of amazement till the older man chided, "Miss Brianna, we do not call Dr Paradigm chrome dome. You should not repeat what Mina says." "If the boot fits wear it! He was blaming the entire Bolton family for something they haven't done! Carlso, you've known Robert for years. Surely you don't believe he'd be capable of those ridiculous accusations that man is spouting!?" Carlso let out a deep sigh before replying, "Of course not." "I know that jerk Paradigm did something to that family! When I get the proof I'm gonna nail that man to the wall!" "Here we go again..." The older man sighed as he drove closer to the house. "Since you two ate, Miss Brianna. When we get home please head to bed. You have a early appointment in the morning. Mina. You must finish going through those papers. No matter how long it takes." Tch. The girls hated it when the older man took on that tone. It left no room for arguments. "Yes sir..." The two said in unison.

Hey y'all. I was going threw my stuff and unearthed this series. XD please don't raze me if its not very good. If I'm not doing the personality right just let me know and I'll see if I can get them corrected.