Anything past twelve or so feels like pushing something heavy, or stretching a joint past where it wants to be. She had probably better not.

Alright. Ten it is then. She doesn't want it cutting out on her. 

A few seconds of focus and out comes the not-a-lightsaber, a line of separation between Here and There. She walks towards the bear on careful feet and to her family's eyes it looks like she's moving as fast as a cantering horse. She's terrified, and she holds tight to the fear as the only proof she has of her own sanity as she slashes at the sleeping monster's throat.

The bear wakes up with a jerk and ROARS. 

She screams back and slashes at its face and neck thirty times per sidereal second.

It gushes blood, and its roar trails off into an agonized gurgle. It slumps forward, everything from the neck up a shredded horror of bone and bits of flesh. 

Samantha unmanifests her lightsaber and stands still in accelerated time, panting with adrenaline. She is covered in blood and she stood between her family and a monster and she has never felt better. She wipes her bloodsoaked face with a bloodsoaked sleeve, drops back into realtime, and walks back to the car.

Jack breaks the silence first. "Wow, sis, remind me never to mess with you!" and suddenly they're all laughing with hysterical relief for a good thirty seconds. 

"That was really something," says Samantha's father, when they've all pulled themselves together.

"I'm very proud of you too," says her mother, "but let me put my coat down on the seat before you get back in the car."

"I can turn my shirt inside out too? I'm going to need the world's longest shower anyway."

"Maybe you had better."

"You still smell better than you do after fight practice!"

"Jaaaaack!"

The road is still blocked by bear, of course, now complete with bloody grinning skull. 

Well, they're already facing the other way.

"We could just drive around it," says Jack.

"I'd rather not have to explain to anyone why I drove through a puddle of blood," says Carl exhaustedly, and everyone pipes down while he figures out an alternate route.

The next odd thing they see is a beehive in someone's backyard. (1) of the bees is now very large, and has apparently survived stinging a fox to death.

"Do you mind if I--"

"Sure. Whatever."

"Better me than the guy whose house is."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Samantha gets out of the car again and speeds up to--3x, because it's belatedly occurring to her that she can't be sure none of the animals got mental changes. Does the bee seem like it's going to attack her immediately?

Nope! The bee looks up when she approaches, and makes a soft buzzing noise, waggling its thorax in a manner reminiscent of a happy dog. 

She slows down to realtime, because she doesn't think she can make understandable words come out of herself when she's sped up, and says softly, "Hey there. Are you okay? I don't think you can get back into your hive like that." This is stupid. Probably the bee doesn't speak English even if it's a person now. Here she is anyway.

The bee wiggles its antennae at her, then scurries around on top of the hive like a dog turning around in its bed, and lies down on top of it. It can't get in the hive, but it's okay on the hive. 

That is adorable, and bizarre, and she really hopes the bear wasn't like that. Next time she encounters a sleeping monster she should have the nads to wake it up and try diplomacy first.

"I'm worried the people who live in that house" point "are going to freak out about you. Do you think you can, I don't know, move your hive? To somewhere with fewer humans?"

It looks where she points, then gently buzzes towards her, lands on her head, and touches its antennae to her forehead. 

Suddenly she has a bizarre, but somehow comprehensible, insight into What It Is Like To Be This Bee. There is the hive, which is homefamilymustprotect. There are humans, which are like unto gods, but like, benevolent, beloved gods. There are various irrelevant critters. And there are BAD THINGS to defend the hive from, like that fox, which this bee took down ALL BY ITSELF. (It is very proud of this! Pride isn't something it really understood before it got big but now it does.) Its feelings about defending the hive from BAD THINGS is shaped strikingly similarly to Samantha's feelings about defending humanity from weird monsters. 

It didn't really understand what she just said, but it got "concerned tone of voice" and "pointing at the big box* where the humans live." If there is something concerning for the humans, it is willing to do its best to protect them, too. 

*the bee has the concept of a hive constructed in a box made to be good for making hives in, as opposed to a hive made in the wild where you make do with what you have, and categorizes the house as the former

Oh wow.

Can she telepathy back at the bee the concept that the humans in the box might mistake it for a Bad Things and be afraid of it and maybe hurt it when they shouldn't? And that she wants to prevent this mistake from occurring?

(Back in the car, Samantha's family would quite like to know What In Tarnation, but they're going to let her cook.)

The bee is skeptical of this occurrence (it is bigger but still clearly a bee! It smells like bee and everything!) but if she, a human, thinks this error is possible, then it can't be dismissed solely based on the god-like wisdom of humankind. It doesn't...really have any idea of how to prevent it, though? Maybe it could smell MORE LIKE BEE, except it doesn't actually know how to do that. 

She will be right back, she asserts, and then walks to the house and . . . gives up before ringing the doorbell, because it's like two in the damn morning and she can't make someone else be awake right now. Instead she goes back to the car and bums a grocery receipt and a pen from her mom and shoves a note through the house's mail slot.

FYI You have a hive of bees in your yard and one of the bees is huge but also smart and friendly and telepathic. Please don't hurt them. Thank you!!!

Samantha goes back to the bee and tells it that she has done the human equivalent of a bee dance to tell the human who lives here not to be afraid and she wishes both the bees and the humans well. Goodbye, giant intelligent bee friend.

Goodbye!!! The bee wishes her well too. 

Maybe they can get home without any more sidequests? One way to find out.

They see some more weird stuff but nothing it makes any sense to try to intervene with.

Then everyone except Samantha can collapse into bed, and Samantha can wash off the blood and collapse into bed.

The next morning, she's still silvery and way more psychologically functional and she gets to open Christmas presents! And then do experiments to figure out what the heck her powers actually do! For this purpose she will call up her nerdiest pair of friends and ask if they're in town for Christmas and do they want to come over and help her do superpowers science.

Her nerdiest pair of friends are Jewish but they get the same school breaks. 

Their mother picks up the phone.