Candi McArthur (Cataclysmic Gerosha)/Middle school

The following is an in-depth look at important events happening to Candi Flippo during her middle school years.

Candi spent much of her middle school life as an ordinary student, though she did have some issues with a few of her classmates. Candi's school was one of many schools to try out Common Core - with disastrous results. The new teachers were not only hard on Candi for her traditional views, but were actually encouraging the corruption of youth they were charged with. Angry parents' concerns over their children going from caring about their future and how to support themselves to caring only about sex fell on deaf ears. When one father threatened to pull his daughter out because the school refused to protect her from being bullied by lesbians; he was thrown in jail and accused of threatening the lesbians that were threatening his daughter for real. Candi found that the more politically-correct the school's subculture became, the more hostile the school's environment became for all students - not just her. She began a (non-sexual) dating relationship with a certain Don Mendoza in sixth grade, in spite of Erin's wishes to the contrary.

Learning the value of Remotach
At the age of 12, Candi was one of the first to be given Remotach pills as part of a SCALLOP experiment. While the researchers went too far by also giving her Bezeetol, she survived the experiment. She added Remotach to her personal inventory. However, Darius' reluctance to condemn the experiment that nearly killed Candi set off a sense of alarm in both Candi and Imaki that Darius was not telling them everything. The experience of being decapitated and re-attached convinced her that the Hebbleskins needed to be wiped out. The cruelty of their method of execution of female prisoners had no place in the 21st century. Even so, Candi vowed to keep using Remotach before major battles, knowing that she was a high-ranking target of Hebbleskin hostilities and was at constant risk of her head becoming a trophy for Arfaas.

Loss of church home
At the end of middle school, Candi and her sisters were confirmed in their local church. However, their home minister was assassinated by the Hebbleskin Gang, who also burned down the church building. Joining with Imaki, a few members of the congregation began an underground movement to keep the faith alive in their area - particularly in each other. Far too many, however, left town after this attack. Hebbleskin-sympathizing atheist groups saw this as a victory, and set to work to further erase the town's past spiritual heritage in any possible way. Candi found herself having to assist with the building of literal underground shelters, as the remnants of her old family church took on a doomsday prepper mindset.

Even with at-home devotions, Candi feared she'd lose her way spiritually - especially with all the pressure from her school to explore herself carnally. She saw this in her sisters too, and the three of them relied on each other not to give in.

Manifestation of abilities
Candi thought she could cheer Don up when he began having doubts about the goodwill of God, following the fact that his mother was sick and dying and his father was missing. However, the Hebbleskins also found him and got to him. Finding them willing to give him more than just promises to hold onto, he turned on Candi. Several of Candi's classmates, wishing to punish her for her high moral standards, arranged for Don to rape her. One day after basketball tryouts, Candi was in the showers at school. Don decided to lie in wait. When he saw that she was alone, he seized the opportunity and attacked her. The attack led to rape; but Candi's full centipede powers manifested during the attack.

She was able to throw him off of her and fight back, leading to him fleeing the scene. Candi realized that the faculty would not work in her favor, given her religious views. She also realized that she'd blow her cover - and that of her sisters - if she made too big a fuss. During the attack, Don confessed to his allegiance to Duke Arfaas. When Candi fought him off, he swore to find her again. He vowed that when he did, he'd be stronger. Until then, he vowed to find a way to haunt her nightmares.

The trauma forever changed Candi, awakening in her a desire to replace the horrible tragedy in her mind with a positive sexual experience - even if it conflicted with her personal sense of morality. She feared to report the rape to anyone other than Imaki, since Erin didn't allow the girls to date. She was also so horrified by her experience with Don, that she would have occasional flashbacks. Yet, she was too ashamed to report this either. She confessed to Imaki and Miriam about what happened, and both told her to keep quiet about it. They couldn't afford the Hebbleskins exploiting the situation by Candi revealing her identity as the "Gifted Flippo."

That same year, Miriam started being harassed by classmates. Marina was drugged and raped by a boy named Fred, and Candi used her centipede powers and a cheap costume to exact some revenge. Fred never figured out who it was that came from the shadows, beat him savagely, and temporarily paralyzed him. Candi and Marina kept it between the two of them. When Imaki eventually found out; he warned Candi about the dangers of personal revenge. He did not, however, lecture her about the need to let the police handle it. This is because he knew that the police would grow inquisitive - which would only trigger an alert with the Hebbleskins and endanger the whole town. Her battle with Don caused him to want to be enhanced, such that he allowed the Hebbleskins to experiment on him and turn him into the vampire-like Don the Psycho.