Jessica was attentive, engaged, and perhaps a bit too excited.

She was one of the tallest people in the room, and she wasn't sitting in her chair so much as she was crouched atop it. The fact was she couldn't sit still: today was the day she'd been preparing for ever since she'd reached Dodgeville. Today was the day she got to be a [i]superhero.[/i]

[i]And if anyone doesn't like it,[/i] Jessica thought with a cocky smile, [i]I'll bite 'em right in their meaty buns.[/i]

And certainly there were questions running through her head. [i]When do we start?[/i] for instance. [i]Who's the bad guy? How many mooks do they have? Can we get going?[/i] She didn't say them. She [i]wanted[/i] to say them, but she had a modicum of patience, and Mr. Merlovich deserved her patience. He was the only reason she wasn't stuck behind bulletproof glass surrounded by men in white coats. He was the reason she was getting this chance to fight for justice. Plus, jumping up and down demanding everyone hurry up wouldn't actually make things go any faster.

And, honestly, it seemed like others in the room needed some encouragement. The ratty morsel - no, [i]guy[/i], the rat [i]guy[/i] - looked fidgety as could be, and the girl in plainclothes looked ready to faint from fright. And the pasty guy in the black clothes looked like he really needed a cigarette and some alone time... Or a huge [i]DINOHUG[/i], but the last person Jessica surprised with one wouldn't speak to her for weeks.

"Before I tell you your first tasks..." Mr. Merlovich leaned forward like the conversation just got more serious. Wasn't it already serious? "Any questions?"

The ratty fellow brought up a question about showers, at which point Jessica was just about ready to give a loud "Hear hear," but she never got to say that. Her attention got caught by the nervous, shaky question of the girl with the glasses: "What if we... fail?"

"We're [i]not[/i] going to fail," Jessica declared confidently, shooting a huge, toothy grin over at Jessica. "We've got me!" And in that instant, with no warning whatsoever, she started transforming, her back bending and neck lengthening and grin looking [i]way too sharp.[/i] Her clothes sort of melted into her, feathers broke out from her stretching skin, and [i]voila![/i] She sat there in all her prehistoric glory, looking very proud of herself.

"We're going to knock the bad guys back into the [i]Cretaceous[/i]!" she squawked, making the closest thing to a thumbs up she could with her right claw. She paused, then turned her head over toward Mr. Merlovich. "Uh, who [i]are[/i] the bad guys? And do we get a team name, like the League of Justice or the Revengers?"