Switcheroo: Issue 1

By Melanie E.

The continuing adventures of Louis Phelps as he learns what being a superhero is all about.

Yes, this time I started with a TG fiction cliche', so sue me.

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Chapter 5
All In A Day's Work

I looked in the mirror and sighed.

Dia had greeted me enthusiastically when I had returned to headquarters a week early, but Mr. Stone had been far more sombre. The results had come back from Dr. Blade, and things looked less than stellar for any chance of me retaining my manhood. Apparently the powers had started work on my body the moment I had absorbed them, and while using them did help to speed the transformation somewhat, they would slowly transform me whether I wanted it or not.

I think Mr. Stone was surprised by my acceptance of the facts with little more than a nod. The conversation with Lucas had been what I needed to make a decision, and that decision had been to give the world a Switcheroo regardless of the personal sacrifices I had to make.

Beyond that, I couldn't deny that there was a certain part of me that held a dark fascination with what the transformation would really mean. I had never been what you would call studly to begin with, so pretty much anything the powers did to me would probably be considered a step up, depending on how you defined up. Would I be as pretty as my sister? Probably. She had only had the powers for a few months, so not all the physical changes had finished -- not that they would have been as noticeable on her as on me anyhow.

Which brought me to where I stood now, in front of the mirror with mixed feelings of revulsion and fascination for what I saw before me.

It had been almost two weeks since my return to duty as Switcheroo, this time officially, and in that time I had been involved in several more fights with thugs and criminals around the city. Nothing major, mostly just common thieves, robbers, and crooks, with the occasional low-powered super thrown in for fun, but it had kept me on my toes, and led to my fair share of injuries.

A villain with the name "Refrigerator" doesn't sound all that menacing until you find your feet trapped in a block of ice while he merrily helps himself to the contents of the vaults in the bank you were supposed to protect.

But I digress. With each fight, as I grew more beat-up and damaged, I healed back just a little more feminine than before. It had become almost a soap opera for me, getting up each morning and checking to see what else had changed over the last day or so. Luckily for me my face hadn't changed all that much yet, but on the other hand, I also hadn't had to shave in over a week.

What was the most disturbing, though, were the scars. Any time I would get scraped or cut, they would inevitably be healed by the next morning -- one of the myriad advantages of being a super -- but the skin would always be softer than my normal skin, and usually hairless. As my body grew more and more beat up, these "beauty scars" as I had come to think of them were slowly spreading, almost like they were infecting the skin around them. It was freaky, and the reason I wore long sleeved shirts all the time now.

Of course, things wouldn't be so bad if I could have told my mom and dad about being Switcheroo. It was accepted in the super-community that family were generally exceptions to the ban on sharing your identity, unless there was a major trust issue involved. But really, would YOU want to tell your parents that you had taken up the mantle that had led to your sibling's death? I think not. They already hated it enough that I worked for the MDSPF, and that I was out at all hours of the afternoon and night. The absolute last thing I needed was to have them glaring at me over this, too.

So I hid it the best I could, despite the fact that I knew it wouldn't be all that longer before hiding it would no longer be an option. When that happened, I had been promised by Martial that there would be a place for me at headquarters if I wanted to stay in the barracks, but I still couldn't stand the idea of abandoning my family.

"Hey, you about done in there? I'm dyin' for a piss!"

Lucas dashed in as soon as I opened the door, slamming it fast enough to hit me in my slightly-altered ass on my way out. I ignored it, though, like I did so much else, as I headed for my room to get ready for work in the suit I would be wearing all of maybe an hour for the day.

"Good Morning," Dia greeted me cheerily as I walked through the front doors of the building. I watched her image fuzz and then reconstitute as one of myself just before I entered the elevator and typed in the code to allow me access to the non-public areas of the base.

"So, anything new today?" Dia's voice chimed over the elevator's speaker system.

"Nothing new," I said with a smile, as she huffed in mild frustration. For some reason Dia had taken an interest in my change, and checked with me most days to see what was new. Of course, she always received copies of my medical exams for securing in my file as well, but I think she just liked having someone to talk to who didn't treat her like a computer.

Which reminded me. "Dia?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you go places? I mean, outside the base?"

She was silent for a moment. Even computers with brains the size of planets sometimes need to think. "I can surf the internet, and access computer networks and most places' security systems from there, but I doubt that's what you mean."

Okay, that was a little creepy, but understandable. "So you can't wander the city or anything."

She sighed. "I wish. Just because I started out as a computer doesn't mean I'm not a person, too. I'm an AI, we're just like you, except smarter and with interchangeable parts."

That was what I loved about Dia. Was it possible to be friends with a computer? If so, I would like to think we were on our way.

"Why did you ask?"

"No reason," I said, causing her to huff again. I tried to keep my laugh in check, but it was hard work.

We didn't say another word to one another for the rest of my elevator ride, giving me time to think on the way to change into my Switcheroo costume. I was intercepted before I reached my room, though.

"Hello, Louis," Totem said as she approached me and greeted me with a small hug. While Totem always seemed creepy in the press releases and pictures of her, I had found that if you looked past the pale skin and glowing eyes she was a good, caring person. And a hugger.

"Hi, Jami. What's up?"

"We have an urgent meeting in the briefing room. Come, there is no time to change."

I groaned, the Switcheroo suit being embarrassing but far more comfortable than my stuffy business suit, but followed her without question. When we reached the briefing room, everyone else was already there, sitting at their assigned seats.

"About time," Nate AKA Armory said as we walked through the door. I did my best to ignore him; he had been gruff with me ever since I had joined, and I had only found out a couple of days ago that it was because he had been dating my sister. How was that related? I wasn't too sure, but I was wary of him.

"That's enough," Mr. Stone said, glaring at Nate. "Now that everyone is here we can finally begin." He turned to the wall behind him and pressed a button, making the formerly featureless display light up. "For the last few weeks Weaver, Dia, and I have been working on trying to track down more information on the pair that broke into our base and harassed Louis, trying to figure out who they were working for. Unfortunately, as of yet we have been poorly underinformed, with no way to improve things. Until now."

He reached up and touched one of the icons on the screen, opening what looked like a police file. "This man goes by the code name Horus," he said, pointing at the photograph of a man in his mid-to-late thirties, clean-cut and well dressed, with the appearance of a scholar about him. "He is an information broker who contacted us this morning and said he could help us. We need a group of volunteers to go meet with him."

Weaver stood up, her digital pad crashing to the table. "Why was I not informed of this ahead of time? We cannot go about setting up meetings with these... hooligans, like this! I haven't had time to research him, to compile background information, to--"

"There is no time!" Mr. Stone said in a booming voice, quieting Weaver quickly. "If someone outside the organization knows about Corridor Seven, then it needs to be taken care of immediately."

"Um, excuse me," I butted in, raising my hand, "but I still don't have any clue what this Corridor Seven thing is. Can someone fill me in?"

Bard started to speak, but Mr. Stone waved him off. "Once you have been a member for three months you'll gain access to all of the facility's services, including information on all but the most secret of projects. I'm sorry, but it is part of procedure that I am not allowed to break and ANYONE," he said, glaring around the table, "caught talking about it to someone without clearance is to be dealt with harshly."

The room was silent for a moment. I knew I wasn't the only one who chafed under some of the rules the MDSPF had in place. Finally, though, it was Tag who broke the silence. "How do we know we can trust this Horus? What if it is merely a trap by the enemy to gain more information for themselves?"

Mr Stone nodded. "We can't trust him. On the other hand, he called me on a private line whose number is known only to the other branch heads, managing to somehow get through several levels of security clearance to do so. If he could find that out, then we need to learn how, and we need to do it as quickly as possible. With those kinds of skills, he very likely could know what we need."

"I'm in," Cherrybomb chimed in from across the table from me. "I can be very persuasive." She slammed her fists together, generating a thunderclap from the kinetic impact.

"Me too," Totem added, standing up. Mr. Stone nodded his acceptance of both -- Cherrybomb might be muscle, but Totem was the best negotiator on our team.

What the hey. "I'll go," I said, standing up as well. I received a few surprised looks from the others around the table, since this was the first time I had volunteered for anything beyond basic city patrol, but Totem smiled and gave me a nod.

"Very well. The three of you will do fine as our front team. Armory, I want you to provide them with long-range cover. The rest of you patrol the city within a three mile radius of this location," he said, tapping another icon and bringing up an image of a building and a map of the surrounding area. "Let's go."

With that I was finally free to go change into my costume. However, I was in for a nasty surprise when the chute opened up.

"Dia, this isn't my costume."

"Oh, I'm sorry, but I can't locate the file for the new appearance options in my systems."

I sighed. "Is this because of earlier?"

"...maybe."

"Come on, Dia."

"Oh, alright." The chute clunked again as a new, far more acceptable uniform fell into it. "But I still think the old design was better."

I didn't say anything else as I donned my suit and made my way for the helipad.

-

Chapter 6
Intelligence Failure

I watched Cherrybomb carefully as we approached our designated landing zone, just in case she should decide to try pushing me out again. Not that I was nervous at all.

"You're shaking."

Okay, maybe a little.

The entire ride over, Cherrybomb and I had watched silently as Totem used her powers to prepare herself for the coming meeting. Unlike most of us on the team, Totem's abilities weren't some kind of superpower or mutation. Instead, her abilities came from years of training as a spiritualist for her tribe. As far as I knew she had never actually told anyone what Native American tribe she was actually from, but they apparently had kickass supernatural powers, because her ability to communicate with and summon spirits made her a formidable member of the team.

It was kind of creepy, watching her stare across the bay with her blank, empty eyes as the electic blue mist-like forms of the spirits she was talking to zipped around and through her. Every time they passed through her she would spasm, as though being shocked, and I couldn't help but imagine how much it must hurt her to do what she did.

We were already descending when the spirits finally disappeared, and Totem -- I couldn't call her Jami when she was like this -- looked at us wearily.

"Does it hurt?" I asked before I could stop myself.

She gave me a weak smile. "Not really, but it is uncomfortable. In exchange for their service, I must give the spirits a small piece of my own life force. I will recover soon."

"So what did you find?" Cherrybomb asked, bouncing in her seat.

Totem grimaced. "Not much. This man calling himself Horus is a mystery even to my spiritual companions. This is odd as those with superpowers usually attract spirits very easily. Even knowing where he is supposed to meet with us, I am unable to find any spirits that know of him."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure what it means. Perhaps he does not have any powers, and since I am tuning my search to feel for those who do I cannot find him. Or perhaps..."

"What?" I asked, when she stopped.

"It is unlikely, but perhaps he is not human."

"We're here, let's go," Cherrybomb said, interrupting us. Sure enough, the blades of the helicopter were winding down as we settled into the gravelly yard of the old water treatment plant.

Why had he chosen to meet with us here? The place had not been used for over twenty years, and now was little more than a collection of rusted buildings and old concrete pipes. I remember as a kid hearing about a gang that had used the pipes as a hiding spot for stashes of drugs until one of the superheroes of the time, I think his name was Dogstar, found out and busted their operation. Since then, nobody had really talked about the place much.

Totem led our little group as we wound our way around the decrepit structures of the plant, occasionally reaching out a hand where a spirit would briefly manifest then float away. Meanwhile, I scanned the area with my enhanced vision -- another big thank-you to the Switcheroo powers for that -- while Cherrybomb, as the only one of us who couldn't see well in the darkness around us, watched our backs for any potential sneak attacks.

It wasn't an ideal arrangement, but we made it to the basin where he had told us to meet him without running into any trouble. There, squatted down next to one of the supports, was a man almost identical to the one from the photograph Mr. Stone had shown us at the meeting, with the exception of a pair of strange glasses on his face. He stood as we approached him and spread his arms wide.

"As you can see, I am unarmed. There is no reason to be so wary, my friends. I am Horus, the keeper of wisdom, and you should fear no harm from me."

He had a strange way of speaking, but Totem's nod was enough to convince me to release some of the tension I hadn't realized I had been holding in. I relayed her message to Cherrybomb with a quick nod of my own, and the three of us approached the man as relaxed as we could be, which wasn't very.

The man clapped his hands as we came closer. "Totem and Cherrybomb, August Branch's Good Cop Bad Cop team, eh? And if it isn't our newest Switcheroo along for the ride. Have you discovered who murdered your sister yet? By your expression I would guess not."

"What do you know!" I yelled, feeling the fur bristle along my back as I involuntarily began to change. His oh-so-casual mention of my sister's death had brought my anger and pain to the surface far more quickly than I could have anticipated.

"Easy, easy," he said, raising his hands but still not losing his infuriating smile. "It is related to the mission at hand, and solving one will give you answers you need in seeking the other. Like a great game of Go, where only one piece must be placed to leave the opponent's carefully laid strategy in ruins. You could be that piece, Louis. Or perhaps not."

Totem stepped in before I could tackle the man, rubbing the back of my head gently. I hadn't realized how close I had been to transforming until I heard myself begin to purr at her stroking, and quickly regained control of myself.

"What information do you have for us concerning the intruders who attacked our base?"

"As, straight to the point as always, my priestess. Yes. The ones known as Beatbox and Dervish attacked you, but it was not their desires that led to their actions. To find the one responsible, you need only look beneath the rug, where all the dirt is swept. But I have said too much, and until I am paid I shall speak no more."

Cherrybomb stepped forward. "Paid? Nobody mentioned anything about paying you, twerp."

The man chuckled, steepling his fingers before his nose. "Maybe not, but nevertheless such an exchange must take place before I will share any more of my information with you."

"How much will it take?" Totem asked, waving Cherrybomb down.

The man paced for a moment, looking down as though in thought. "Not how much, but what, is the question. There is an item that you must obtain for me, and in exchange the information is yours. Of course, I could always retrieve the item myself, but it is always so much more... entertaining, to send another to do the work for me. It will give you a chance to prove yourselves worthy, as you so wish to do, right, Louis?"

I growled again, but managed to calm down on my own. Instead, I did my best to ignore him and scanned the area around us for trouble.

"What is it you want us to retrieve?"

The man smiled again, showing his teeth, and I couldn't help but shudder at the image.

-

To be continued

NOTES:
Sorry for the crappy image, it's the best I could do at work without a reference (and 4 AM to boot :P) That should give you a rough idea of what the original idea that Louis hated so much looked like, though. I'm working on a badly-colored version for the next posting, so we'll see how that goes.

So, what do people think so far? Ideas, questions, concerns? Lay it on me!

Melanie E.