All That Glitters - Part Five by: Enemyoffun Mike Carter is the man about campus who lives life in the fast lane. He's quarterback of his college football team, well liked by the student population and quite a ladies man. But due to gambling, Mike has a money problem. To make ends meet he takes a job at as a security guard at a museum and things go down hill from there all thanks to a gold orb.

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Author's Note: Here's Ch. 5. If you pay real close attention to this chapter you might notice the appearance of another lesser known DC hero. I'd like to thank DC Comics for their wonderful characters and djkauf for the wonderful editing.

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Chapter Five:

“Just stick out your tongue, sweetie?”

I did as I was told as the pretty red headed scientist stuck the tongue depressor in my mouth. I hated these things; they always had a funky taste to them. I crossed my arms, showing I was unhappy with the treatment so far. Not that much had happened. Rick and I had only just arrived about twenty minutes ago. As soon as we walked into the shiny glass building, we were rushed off to a small examination room. I didn’t even get a chance to look around. Even now as I sat on the cold cushioned slab, in my paper gown, I still couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. But the whole ride over here---all two hours of it---Rick was gushing like a little kid on his way to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory or something. When we finally pulled up, he actually let out a sigh.

I bet you’re kind of confused huh? Well I guess I can bring you up to speed a bit. After Agent Obtrusive left, I quickly filled Rick in on what went on. First he scolded me like I was a child then he picked up the phone and made a few calls. I’m not sure who they were to but when he got off, he promised that Broderick wouldn’t be bothering us again. I guess it pays when your Daddy is on almost every Committee from here to Washington. After that, he picked up the bags and threw them at me, kind of embarrassed about them. One of the bags had normal clothing; the other was filled with under garments. I’m not sure which one made him more nervous.

I carried them into my bedroom and dressed. Suffice to say I don’t need to bore you with the details. But bras are much harder to put on then to take off and trust me I’ve taken off my fair share.

After that, his aunt called back. Apparently, she had some free time the following afternoon---right now actually---and we made an appointment. The rest of the night, the two of us sat in awkward silence, at either ends of the couch. We watched our normal shows, I caught the highlights on Sports Center and then we went to bed. This morning was even worse. As a guy---see I’m kind of adjusting---I slept in t-shirt and boxer shorts. As a girl, it was no different except I replaced the boxers with panties. Hey, as long as I’m a chick I’m going to be sexy about it and what’s sexier than a hot chick wearing an oversized male shirt and panties. I don’t think Rick agreed with me, though. He went all different colors when he saw me this morning. I made matters worse when I ate breakfast in nothing but a towel.

It was kind of fun watching him squirm all morning. My morning fun was over now.

“You’re such a sour puss,” said the doc, finally pulling the depressor out. I opened my mouth to complain and she stuck a digital thermometer in. “And you say you woke up like this yesterday morning?”

I nodded. Rick answered for me. “He was a perfectly healthy, six foot something college quarterback, Jenet, and now look at him, err her.”

She smiled, nodding. “Have you guys been paying attention to the events on the news lately?”

“You mean the museum theft?” asked Rick, becoming very defensive.

The red head, his aunt Jenet, shook her head. “I’m not talking about that recent” She gave me a stern look. “I was talking more along the lines of all those superheroes that have been cropping up lately.”

I groaned. Here we go. Did I forget to mention that Rick’s kind of a fanatic? I did say he was a Physics major, right? Well Mr. Science here finds it really fascinating that normal people can suddenly start exhibiting powers out of the blue like that. He was convinced it had something to do with cosmic radiation or some shit like that. Me, I could care less. All I wondered is why none of them had used their powers for something cool. All those talents and none of them decided to make a quick buck. What the hell was up with that?

Jenet pulled the thermometer out of my mouth, looking at the display for a second before setting it on a nearby table. “Are the two of you familiar with American Dream?”

God were we ever. “She’s the hot blonde chick in the red, white and blue, right?”

Rick groaned. Jenet ignored my comment. “Yes, that’s the one. She’s government sanctioned. She’s on Uncle Sam’s payroll and everything. I’m sure you’ve heard the PR. But what you and most of the public don’t know is the real truth. The Meta gene is extremely rare and only affects a small fraction of the population. Most of the people infected are seemingly healthy and very normal until the gene takes effect and changes them. American Dream, Terra, Giganta, even this new girl in California, the Blue Beetle, all of them were one hundred percent male before the changes took place.”

Rick’s jar dropped. Mine followed a split second later. “You’re shitting me right?”

She shook her head. “It's not known to the public, the government wrapped it up pretty quickly. It’s a strange phenomenon but it’s becoming quite common with the Metas I’m afraid. There are probably several more out there and several more waiting to transform. We’re not sure why the change turns some of them into women. We’ve been studying the blood for a few months now and so far it seems to be perfectly normal, aside from the mutagenic properties of it of course.”
I groaned. Most of that went over my head and it sounded pretty simple. Hey, I’m not Science Guy. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that that chick in the tight stars and stripes suit was once a dude. I jacked off a couple times to her pictures. I’m not sure, if I was going to be sick or if that somehow made me gay. Well, not now but before I mean. I mean she was a dude, hell they were all dudes. I groaned, running my fingers through my hair. I stopped and it was as if a light bulb went off over my head. Oh god…

“You think I might be a Meta too?”

Jenet sighed. “It’s a very big possibility. I’m going to need to take some blood to be sure but all signs seem to point in that direction.”
I smiled really big. How fricking cool was that? “Does this mean I have superpowers?”

Rick groaned. I looked at my hands, wondering what I could do.

“Once again, there’s a big possibility” She sounded excited when she said it. I think she noticed that we noticed it. “I’m sorry; it’s just that we here at the Lab have been waiting for this opportunity. Most of the samples taken from the others have been shipped off to other places. You’re the first, I mean potential first.” She sounded so giddy. “Dr. Hamilton is going to do back flips.”

Rick became the voice of reason. “That’s great for him and for you but what the hell does this mean for Mike. There’s no way I’m going to let you turn him, I mean her, into a lab rat.”

I smiled and slapped him in the shoulder. “Thanks for getting my back, buddy.”

“We have no intention of doing anything of the like to her. She is a great commodity, if she’s willing to allow it, I’d like to run a full spectrum of tests on her.”

I jumped off the bed. “Hey, do whatever you want. Poke me, prod me, hell you can even use an anal probe. Just figure out what’s wrong with me and then whip up an antidote to fix it. I’ve got a big game this weekend and there’s no way I’m doing it wearing a sports bra.”

No one laughed. I thought it was kind of funny.

“I don’t think you understand, Miss Carter” I let the “Miss” part slide. “This is a strange and new phenomenon that we k now little to nothing about. We couldn’t even begin to grasp what’s going on inside that body of yours.”

I nodded. “What does that mean?”

Rick rolled his eyes. “It means that there’s no cure for what ails you.”

I felt lightheaded and dizzy. I stumbled backwards and forward. Rick caught me in his arms and that’s when I puked. I shouldn’t have eaten that huge breakfast this morning. Rick groaned, Jenet pushed a button on the wall asking for maintenance and my dizziness only seemed to increase. I felt extremely woozy and then the whole world rushed around me as I dropped to the floor, greeting my friend Mr. Darkness once again.

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I opened my eyes and looked up, seeing a bright light shining across my face. I absently reached up and batted it away. When the light was gone, I saw Jenet staring down at me. She smiled and stepped away. Rick was there a split second later. He looked worried. He grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. I quickly pulled it from his grasp. It was bad enough he looked at me differently already, there was no way he was holding my hand.

I groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of my sore neck. “What happened?”

Jenet handed me a Dixie cup full of water, which I downed in one gulp. “You fainted, sweetie.”

I groaned again, crumbling the cup and tossing it away. “I guess that means I’m a real girl then.” I laughed, neither of them did.

I shrugged and looked around the room. I was no longer in the exam room and I wasn’t on an exam bed. I was on a real one, with a real blanket covering me. The room looked kind of like one you’d find in a hotel. There was a TV mounted on the wall, a chair in the corner, even a small couch along the wall. The walls were painted a pale blue and the floor actually had carpet. The exam room was a drab white and the floors were linoleum. Whatever this room was, I don’t think it was meant for people to see. Or if it was, it was by people who didn’t get out much.

Jenet seemed to read my mind. “After you fainted, we moved you from the Lab to our dormitory. Most of us who work at STAR actually live right here at the facility. This is one of our guest dorms.”

“Does that mean I have to stay here?”

She shook her head. “Only if you want to?”

The offer sounded tempting but I couldn’t run away from the city for long. Sooner or later, I’d have to face the charges brought up against me; even if Mike Carter wasn’t the man he was a couple of days ago. It was going to be very interesting convincing anyone that I was me, though. There was a little mirror on the wall and when I looked into it, the same blonde haired beauty stared back at me just like before. I shook my head. There was no way anyone would be able to connect my new self to my old one, that’s for sure.

“So when do you take my blood for the tests?"

Rick cast a sidelong glance at his aunt. It wasn’t a happy one.

Jenet cleared her throat, pushing her wire frame glasses up her slender nose. “We’ve already taken some blood while you were unconscious. But there are a few other tests we’d like to run, just to be on the safe side.”

I sighed but nodded. “Bring them on, doc.”

“Are you sure?” asked Rick, acting concerned for me again.

“I’m not a frail glass angel, Rick” I threw off the blanket and slowly slipped off the bed.

I stumbled and he made an attempt to grab for me. He only stopped when I shot him a nasty look. This thing of his that he had going with me was going to stop and soon. But I’d confront him about it later; I didn’t want to embarrass him in front of his mother’s sister. I looked Jenet up and down, her much younger sister. She was mid thirties tops. The oldest I’d ever gone was fifty and there was nothing over the hill about her. Looking at Jenet, I could have had a fun time with her. Who knows, maybe she swings both ways. I winked but she ignored me.

“I’ve got us set up in a lab down the hall.”

“You have labs in the dorm?” asked Rick as Jenet used a keycard to open the door.

“Sometimes we get inspired. There’s a few labs like the one we’re about to go to. They’re on every floor. Most of the time they’re left vacant but every once in a while someone gets a brainstorm in the middle of the night. They’re fully stocked for just about any occasion.”

She led us down the hall. It had white walls and no decorations. It felt like a hospital corridor. At least the floors were different, hardwood instead of tile. It was kind of cold on my bare feet though. I tried not to let it bother me though, as Jenet quietly led the way. When we came to the lab, she swiped her card through another card thingy by the door. There was an electronic hiss and the door popped open. When it was fully opened, I got my first look inside. I was surprised by what I saw. I was expecting something out of Frankenstein. But it actually looked fairly normal, kind of like the chemistry lab back in high school except there were less counters and no balding Mr. Green.

This lab wasn’t very big but it was jam packed with scientific stuff. Don’t ask me to describe any of it to you because I couldn’t even if I wanted to. The room was sterile smelling though and everything was white. There were two people inside both wearing white lab coats, a man and woman. The guy was tall, real tall, like NBA player tall. He had a shock of red hair and was holding a gold pop can in his hand. I read the label, Gingold. I groaned; I hated that shit. It was some high energy Sports drink. Some of the guys on the team drank it before and after practice. It was supposed to increase flexibility or some shit like that or so the ads say. Me, I thought it tasted like chalk. Don’t ask how I know what chalk tastes like. The woman was shorter than the guy, much shorter. They were like polar opposites. She had black hair, cut to her chin and black framed glasses. The two of them were standing close, their hands almost grasping. I noticed wedding bands on each of their hands.

Jenet cleared her throat. “Rick and ummm Mike, I’d like you to meet Drs. Ralph and Sue Dibny.”

I nodded. Rick walked forward and shook their hands. He was such a nerd sometimes.

Ralph cleared his throat and came forward. He took my hand and shook it without asking but I didn’t mind. It amazed me how much larger his hand was to mine. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you and not because you’re Booster, or I mean, were Booster.”

I smiled. “I’m still me just repackaged. You can say I’m Little Booster now.”

The two of us shared a laugh. The others didn’t join in. I smiled at Ralph. I kind of liked him; I could see the two of us becoming fast friends. His wife on the other hand, she was cute but she was a cold fish. She kept staring at me, giving me the evil eye. I’m guessing she wasn’t Miss Popular in high school and here I am looking like the fricking Homecoming Queen. I smiled at her but she huffed, turning away. I shuddered, suddenly feeling really bad for Ralph.

Jenet cleared her throat. “So shall we get started?”

She pointed to a chair at a nearby desk. I walked over and sat down. Ralph looked around the room, trying to find something. I think he found it because he reached out of those long arms of his half way across the space and grabbed it. He came back with a stethoscope and a smile. Jesus, this guy was like Elongated Man or something. I’ve never seen anyone with arms that long. I looked at the gold can and grinned. Maybe that stuff made you more flexible than I thought. That still didn’t mean I was going to drink that shit though.

Ralph started off the tests. He acted like a normal physician at first, doing all the things that Jenet already did. Then he asked if he could take some blood. After that was finished, he proceeded to get a DNA sample---making me run a cotton swab along the inside of my mouth---and then snipped a little bit of my hair. Hey, whatever helps them understand me more? Ralph chatted to me the whole time he did his various things, asking me all sorts of questions. None of them were invasive. As it turns out he was a big football fan, not necessarily a Northwestern fan but I won’t hold that against him. Ralph was kind of talkative but that was fine by me, seeing as everyone else was being kind of quiet.

After he was done, I can’t even begin to describe all the things he did, it was his wife’s turn. Her tests were invasive and apparently required me to strip down to my birthday suit. She made the guys leave for that part. How strange is that, not being included in the guys anymore. When they were gone, I had no qualms about pulling the flimsy gown over my head. As soon as I did so Sue huffed. She started pinching and prodding me and wasn’t very gentle about it. One she started poking me with sharp needles, I finally took offense to it.

“You’re pissed because you think your husband is going to trade up to a better, shinier model.’ I snapped, causing her to drop her needle in shock.

Hey, I was blunt and didn’t give a damn. Her Mengele impersonation was driving me nuts.

“Mike” snapped Jenet, apparently shocked I’d say something like that.

“You’re mistaken,” said Sue quietly as she bent down, picked up her needle and threw it away. She then went over to a cabinet to get another one.

I sighed. Why did women do that, pretend to hide their true feelings. “No, I’m not. You’ve been giving me the evil eye since I walked into the room.” She gasped. “Let me save you the trouble, lady. I’m not attracted to your husband; in fact, I’m not attracted to guys at all. The only one in this room that’s ringing my bell right now is Doc Klyburn so you have nothing to worry about.”

Jenet blushed. Sue smiled. She was a lot nicer after that. I’m not sure what her tests entailed but she filled a couple of needles with strange stuff, stuck me in a couple of places and recorded the results. Then she hooked me up to some machines and recorded the results. She wasn’t nearly as talkative as her husband but she did ask me a few questions. She mainly wanted to know how I felt, so I was as honest as I could be. I mean how else do you think a guy would feel after waking up as a woman. Suffice to say I didn’t give her a “kittens and rainbows” answer. The rest of her questions were about my health from beforehand and of course, being an athlete I was in peak physical shape. I might be a chick now but I’m still Booster.

After Sue’s tests, she told me to put the gown back on. As soon as I did, the guys were allowed back into the room. Ralph actually had to duck slightly when he walked in. God he was tall. He smiled at the three of us.

“All done, ladies?”

“She’s all set. I think we have everything we need,” said Sue, walking over to her husband, squeezing his hand gently. “If there’s more, we’d like to see you if that’s ok?”

I nodded. “It was kind of fun, especially seeing as I got another day off from classes.”

The grownups laughed. Hey, I’m far from grown up.

“I think it’s safe to say that you’ll be excused from classes for at least the rest of the week,” said Jenet, the other two scientists nodded. “Unless you want to come out and tell everyone who you really are.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Mike Carter was a wanted man now and I don’t think I was ready to deal with everything that entailed. Besides, not being me had its advantages too. I needed to find out who set me up for starters. You thought I forgot about that, huh? There’s no way I’d forgot that someone looking like me actually robbed the museum where I failed. I had a pretty good idea who was behind it, but I had to figure out how. I also had to figure out how I was going to tell my mother about this. Yesterday I kind of avoided it, partially thinking that there was a cure for it. Now that I knew that was unlikely I’m not sure how I can explain things to her. She worshiped me; she loved having the football hero for a son.

Now…I’m not sure what I could do with a body like this.

We left the lab after that. Jenet took Rick and me back to the first exam room I was in. She made Rick stay outside while I got dressed. It felt kind of strange putting on these new clothes but I was surprisingly adapting really quickly to it. Yesterday I was kind of a wreck about all this but this morning it seemed almost natural. I’m not sure if I was scared or not. There was something else different too. I couldn’t quite place it but I felt more alive than I have in years. My head didn’t feel as jumbled either, like a great weight was lifted from it. I’m not saying I was thinking like a chick but I wasn’t exactly thinking like myself either. It’s really strange to describe but it almost felt like I was becoming a different person.

Jenet walked with us to the front entrance. She hugged Rick first, telling him to stop being such a stranger. Then she turned to me, giving me a hug too. It kind of surprised but it was nice too. The last time someone hugged me was a couple of years ago and it was my mother.

She pulled out a business card and handed it to me. “If you have any questions or even if you just want to talk, you know where to find me.”

“Thanks doc” I took the card and slipped into my front pocket.

Rick and I left the building, walking toward the parking lot. We passed a pair of younger guys in lab coats, one of them wolf whistled at me. I turned, flipped my hair and put a little sway to my walk. Rick turned every shade of red imaginable. Hey, if you’ve got, you might as well flaunt it, right.

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“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I said, shouting at the TV.

I’d only been home for about an hour. Once again, Rick played my great big protector and told me under no circumstances was I to leave the apartment or answer the door. Hey, I’m not making that mistake twice. But he said nothing about not watching TV. So after he left to do some studying at the library, the first thing I did was go to the television. I went right to the news, after all, I was headline making at the moment. Sure enough, I wasn’t disappointed. Rose was at it again, this time she was at NU, interviewing some of my teammates. She was talking to one of the tight ends, Marcus; he was a good friend of mine. Or least he used to be. He was currently selling me up the river, telling her and probably the millions of viewers watching, that I was the biggest jackass imaginable. But that wasn’t the worst part.

“So you’re telling me that he stole your girlfriend?” asked Rose, trying to clarify what Marcus just said.

The giant sandy haired oaf nodded. “She was the love of my life and that bastard swooped in and took her from me.”

I groaned. It was bull of course. Becca, Marcus’s “life long love” was a cheating minx. She actually approached me, all hot and heavy one night in a club about a month ago. She was kind of drunk and really horny. I tried to push her off because there are certain unwritten rules, one of them being to leave the “girl” of your teammates alone. I tried my hardest to get rid of her and when she finally got the clue, she went off in a huff. A day later, she started spreading rumors that we did a lot of nasty things in a motel room off the thruway. Not that I wouldn’t have, she was hot but I didn’t dip into another man’s honey. At least not a man who weighed three fifty and could snap me like a twig. Marcus and Becca broke up after that. But he didn’t blame me for it; at least I thought he didn’t.

Now he was “Benedict Arnold”ing me all over the news. What a jackass.

It didn’t stop there. Rose moved on to some of my other teammates and sure enough they sold me up the river too. Each one of them had a horrible story to tell about me, painting me as some kind of diabolical monster. Most of them were about women too. So much for team spirit or whatever. These guys were supposed to be my friends and what do they do as soon as I’m implicated in a crime, they all turn against me. It pissed me off.

It got worse when she interviewed the Coach.

“Coach Danfield, you being Mike Carter’s coach, you must have noticed something wrong?”

The Coach sighed. “Carter was a good kid but it’s usually the good ones that go bad.” He ran his hands through what was left of his hair. “He had this way about him, you know. He walked around like he was God’s gift to the world and that everyone should do what he said. I guess must good players have an ego but Carter’s is something else. I’ve never seen a player demand as much as he did.”

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

I lost it. I jumped to my feet, clenching my fists at my sides. I’m not sure what happened. But the everything metal in the room started to shake. When I say everything metal, you have to understand that Rick kind of has this modern style. Most of his furniture is made of chrome and glass. So when I say everything, I mean everything. Then something else happened, something crazy. First, it was the chair in the corner; it rose about two feet in the air. Then it was the glass-topped coffee table, after that everything else started to hover too. Some of the pictures came off the wall and other little knickknacks rose from where they were sitting. There was this metal vase sitting on a bookcase---a gift from Rick’s mother---it rose so high that it touched the ceiling. At first, I didn’t know what was going on and then it clicked. I was doing this; I was the one making all these things float. I panicked after this. As soon as I did, everything dropped. The coffee table shattered, the chair made a loud thump and the odds and ends were scattered everywhere. I dropped back down on the couch, shocked. I stared at my hands; palms spread wide open.

What in the hell just happened? I grabbed the remote and absently clicked off the TV. Then I ran my hands through my hair. I did that, I made those things float. I’m not sure if I was scared or excited. The implications of what I just did were staggering. Jenet said it was a big possibility that I was a Meta but that pretty much proved it, didn’t it? I wanted to smile but I was too shocked to do so. It’s not every day that someone turns into a whatever I just did.

I continued to stare at my hands, wondering if something like I just did could be controlled. I mean I did it in a fit of anger but could I do it without.? I took a deep breath and stood up. I looked around the room, trying to find something small enough to practice on. The vase. It was small enough and it floated higher than anything else in the room. I took another deep breath and pointed my finger at it. I closed my eyes and concentrated. Come to me, you bastard. I felt something, something deep down from within. There was a tingling sensation that traveled down my arm to the tip of my fingers. When I opened my eyes, I saw the vase hovering a few feet from the floor. It was the coolest thing in the world. I snapped my wrist slightly and the case started floating toward me.

How fricking cool is that?

I started to play around with it, floating it here and there. After a few minutes, I gently lowered it to the ground. Ok the vase was easy now something else. I looked about again, my eyes falling on the bookshelf. I concentrated on one of the books there. It was hardcover and pretty lightweight. I put all I could into, trying to will it toward me with my mind. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t bring the book toward me. I sighed; maybe it was a fluke. I snapped my wrist and something else flew into the air. It went right at my head; I had to duck to avoid it. When it smacked into the wall behind me I snapped around to see what it was. It was that damn pencil holder of Rick’s. Who the hell had a metal pencil holder anyway? Then it dawned on me. I groaned, looking around the room. Metal, everything that floated earlier was metal. I pointed my hand at the pencil holder and concentrated on it. Ever so slowly, I lifted it off the floor then gently lowered it again. Holy shit, I’m Magnet Chick. I quickly started lifting other things too, all of them metal, all of them things that had floated when I got angry earlier. It was the coolest damn thing in the world.

I’m a Meta; I’m a Magnetic Meta girl. I smiled. How cool was that.

There was a sound behind me. I snapped around quickly, turning toward my bedroom door. The door was open from earlier; I never close doors around here. What I saw made all the color drain from my face. It was that golden thing, the one I took from the museum. In all the crazy stuff that had been going on lately, I completely forgot about it. My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. The golden football size orb thingy was floating in my doorway, a little red light blinking in the center of it. At first, I thought I might be seeing things or maybe I somehow floated it with my newfound powers. Then it did something I didn’t expect. It floated through the room, stopping in front of me, hovering a few inches from my face.

Then the craziest thing in the world happened, it spoke:

“Goldstar? Is that really you?”