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I was hovering over River City again, just thinking about things while I watched over my town.

My town, when had I start getting so possessive of it, I wonder?

No matter, I had, and felt a real need to protect it and its citizens in my own, somewhat unorthodox way.

But at the time I was musing about what I'd done to Helena's 'husband'.

Part of me was sickened by what I'd done, sure that no one deserved that. But another part felt only satisfaction. His punishment fit the crime and that was that.

That mix of horror and satisfaction pretty well summed me up just then. Or maybe for all time now that I really think about it. Justice is often unkind. Vengeance has nothing to do with kindness at all.

Somehow, I thought that what I'd recently done was a combination of both no matter how repugnant the small part of me that was still human felt that to be. Even with that, the satisfaction was the stronger of my reactions.

There are times when I don't like myself much.

But would I do that again? What I'd done to that man if it was for the same reasons?

In a heartbeat, if I'd had one in this form.

My thoughts were interrupted by a bright, no make that blazing streak in the night sky. One that was heading right for me. I reached out my awareness, something I was getting better at doing while staying focused on my own surroundings, so knew who it was before she even arrived.

The winged form hovering in front of me was breathtakingly lovely. It resembled a bird, in that it had wings, but was made of flame hot enough to burn the world if it was let loose.

“Hello, Phoenix.” I greeted her. “I seem to be attracting all kinds of visitors lately. Guess I'll need to change where I hang out to think. Are you here to take me in to face justice, too?”

“Hardly.” The form shrank and lost some of its brilliance until the shape of a young woman hovered in front of me. “I don't know if even the Phoenix could take you, but I won't try. I don't think the city would do well if you and I went at it full out, do you?”

“Probably not.” I agreed. “So why are you here, then?”

“I want to help you.” She said. Then offered nothing else.

Okay, ball in my court, over the net, whatever. I returned the serve. “Help me with what?”

“What you're doing and have been doing recently.” She answered.

“Which is?”

“Playing the airhead isn't your style, Spectre.” She chuckled. “You know what I'm talking about. I watched what you did to that bastard.

“At first I wanted you to kill him, painfully.” She went on with a sigh that sent sparks flying through the air. I was actually glad that I was mostly incorporeal just then. Those could have hurt otherwise. “But when I saw what you were doing I changed my mind, and cheered you on.

“Even though I was ashamed of myself for that, I relished what you did to that bastard.” She grimaced and even appeared a little ashamed. “Even if it was something I would find repellent most of the time. He deserved that, and more.”

“That's about how I felt, too.” I admitted. “But that one is going to be living with his 'dream' for a long time to come. Even if I'm ashamed of myself for doing that.”

“Don't be, death was too good for him.”

“I even denied that to him.” I told her. “He won't die unless I let him, or her, as it will soon be. Worse, the woman he's going to become will look young and fresh until I release her.”

“You'll relent in time.” She shrugged then gave me an evil little grin I'd seen in the mirror all too often. “But that one needs to suffer, for a long time.”

“Wow, someone who actually doesn't condemn me for things, I've done.” I marveled and shrugged. “I don't always like what I do, you know. I'm guided, and have to follow that at times.”

“It's what you are.” She shrugged again. “You can't fight that, Spectre.”

My name is Diana.” I answered.

Appropriate.” She nodded. “The Huntress. And my name is Jean.”

“Jean.” I nodded, and gave her a bit of myself that I hadn't done all that often. “I seem to be the modern day incarnation of one of the Greek Furies.”

“Tisiphone, I know.”

“You know her?” I actually looked surprised because I was. “You've seen her?”

“I know her, yes.” Jean answered. “From legends and myths. But I knew that she was behind what you do from the start. She was the one who went after murderers, after all. I haven't been able to talk with her, though.”

“Probably just as well.” I grinned. “With your powers and her blood thirsty leanings that could really get messy. On a large scale.”

“No arguments there.” Jean laughed. “She was the most violent of the Erinyes, after all.”

“Tell me about it.” I grumbled.

“Don't you want to know why I want to help you?” She asked.

“Figured that you'd get around to telling me in time.” I told her.

“True.” Jean — Phoenix gave me a look that penetrated what soul I had left and nodded. “I had a chance to help once before, I might have been able to save Dolores, but I was afraid to do that.”

“Lots of thoughts, good, bad, indifferent, and emotions to sort through for you to have been able to find her.” I pointed out. “That would have been really painful for you.”

“Not an excuse.” She shot back. “I should have helped and I didn't because I didn't want the pain that looking would have caused me. The pain that resulted from my not doing that was worse.”

“Superman, or Supergirl, is a myth.” I told her and moved forward to hug the still flaming figure. “No one can ignore pain, Jean. I can't, you can't. I could have found Dolores, too. If I had when things were starting with what happened to her, I might have been able to at least stop the programming that made her into a less than human toy for someone.

“But I didn't step in then either.” I let out a heavy sigh as I said that. “I could have, if I'd been paying attention. I could have stopped it. But I didn't.”

“You were busy hunting down that Necromancer at the time.” She shot back. “At least you were DOING something that would help people. I wasn't. I just — sat there, too afraid to find her because of the nasty things I would find while I was searching.”

She was crying, and the tears were molten. I just sent them to a place they wouldn't damage and hugged her tighter. “We all made mistakes when that happened, bad ones. I wish at least one of us hadn't, but we had no idea about what the real evil that took Dolores was. We all just thought she'd been kidnapped and nothing else. You aren't the only one who made that assumption, believe me.”

“But I just stepped aside!” Jean almost screamed. “I wouldn't even try!”

“Like I said.” I soothed while stroking her back. “None of us really knew what was happening to Dolores. Now we do. And I'm going stop it, root out the cause, and destroy it.”

“These people are a lot further along than the ones who did that to Dolores.”

“I know, and one of them has paid for that already.” I said without emotion. “Others will, trust me on that. I am Justice, and vengeance. And when it comes time to hand those out, I have no conception of mercy.”

“I want to help you make them pay.” She whispered.

“You will.” I told her. “You can find me wherever I am, I can find you wherever you are. But if you need to talk with me in our human forms just email [email protected].”

“Sexy Deena?” She actually giggled at that one.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “My human form is a prostitute. But she's a good person.”

“Can I ask you something here?” Jean gave me a long, slow look. “Were you a guy before whatever happened to make you like you are now?”

“Oh, yeah.” I grinned. “All guy, but being a girl isn't all that bad, especially when the girl you are is one guys drool about, though that part was kind of hard to accept at first. Tisiphone has a really twisted sense of humor.”

“You're not fighting that part of you now, though, are you?”

“Nah, it wouldn't do any good if I did and the sex is really, really good.” I grinned. “You should try it.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” She answered a bit weakly. “But not right now.”

“When you're ready.” I told her then gave out a happy sigh. “But trust me, you'll wonder why you waited so long once you do.”

“If that happens, you'll be the first to know.”

“Nah, I'll be the third. First is you, second is the lucky damned guy.”

“Lucky?”

“Jean, you're gorgeous.” I flatly told her. “Teenager or otherwise, you are simply beautiful and you're going to have guys chasing you all the time in your mortal life. You've shown the Phoenix human grief and pain. Show her human joy, too. It's only fair, after all.”

“Wellll.”

“No buts.” I answered with a grin. “You'll do it when you're ready, and you'll know when you're ready.

Just let it happen, don't force it, or fight it. I will come and you aren't going to be able to stop it.”

“But I know what people are thinking!”

“And?” I smirked. “When that one special guy comes along, that just means that you'll know it.”

“That has nothing to do with what we were talking about.”

“Nope.” I said and hugged her again. “That we will do, but what I just told you has everything to do with getting really comfortable and happy in your new self. You need to let the girl have fun and get satisfaction, you know. After all, she is you.”

“Like your own girl self would know that!”

“Oh, she does, I do.” I answered quite seriously. “I know what my human self does to make a living and oddly, I'm not ashamed of it. But I have one special person who has never paid a cent for being with me and trust me, that means a lot. In time, you'll find someone, too. And when it happens, you'll know it.”

“How could someone love me?”

I saw the pain, the uncertainty in her and hugged her again. “Someone will. Just give it time.”

“With what I am?”

“Look at me, Jean.” I ordered. “Look at me.”

“What?”

“My special person sees beyond what I show the world. Yours will to when he comes. Mine loves me in both personnas even if one of them is really dangerous to know. And you know what? He isn't worried about the extraneous stuff. He loves me for me, whichever form I show him.”

“That is off the subject.” She pulled back and I knew nothing else I would say was going to gentle her down to her new sex.

“I'll take your help.” I told her. “And thank you for it. We'll make these people pay for what they've done, Jean. That is something that I'll never let up on until it's finished. My word on that.”

“With what you are now, that's more than enough.” She nodded then gave me a smile. “The other stuff, I'll think about and work on.”

“Good enough on both counts.” I nodded.

“Bye for now.” She touched my cheek and smiled. “But we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future, I know it.”

“Oh, yeah. Don't stay a stranger and all that.”

“I won't.”

“Good enough for me.” I answered as the Phoenix manifested again and went somewhere else.

Lord, I was glad I hadn't had to fight that one.

“Oh, Kyllle...” I breathed. “Come chase me.”

I could believe he lived in some spaceship. What I couldn't believe was the mess in the place.

“Haven't you grown up enough to clean up after yourself?” I taunted. “Five year olds have learned that much, after all.”

Kyle Raynor, the Green Lantern version glared at me. “How did you get in here and why aren't the alarms going off?”

“Let's just say that's for me to know and you to find out.” I grinned as I moved forward to give his unshaven cheek a little stroke with one hand. “You'll figure it out eventually. And the alarms?”

I went material for a few seconds and the place got really noisy.

“Feel better now, love?” I sweetly questioned and actually moved in enough to give him a kiss on the lips before I pulled back. Then I went insubstantial again and the alarms stopped and even the ship's computer seemed confused for a moment. “Next time I visit, I'll let the ship know I'm here if that will make you feel better.”

“You're dead!” He told me while almost frantically wiping his mouth. That was soo cute.

“Not completely.” I teased. “I can kiss you, right? Then that should tell you that I'm not all ghost.”

“Dead, alive..” He was still rubbing his lips as he said that. “I'll bring you to justice.”

“Kyle, Kyle.” I shook my head and darted in to plant another kiss on his cheek while my hands wandered places my former self would have never dreamed of touching on a man. “I AM justice. Are you going to catch me and bring me to me?”

He didn't have a comeback to that one, though I had groped him in places that women usually did to men just before sex. I just gave him my sunniest smile as he floundered. “I'm waiting on an answer here. You know a girl likes to be appreciated in more than just physical reactions.

“You'd have LOTS of fun if you managed to catch me. I promise!”

“I will catch you.” He growled while getting himself under some kind of control.

Hey, I know what I look like, even in my scary form. Guys are sooo easy....

“Only when I let you, dear.” I grinned. “Come on, chase me.”

Outside the ship I both berated myself for acting like that and cackled in some kind of glee that my old male self would never have understood. I was tying a really powerful, macho man in knots just by teasing him, and he couldn't touch me if I didn't let him.

The letting part? I'd think about that later. Right now I needed him aroused, angry and following me.

And yes, this plan was insane. But you know how it is. A girl likes to be appreciated. Besides, I was actually having fun. Plus, I was going to lead him somewhere that he really needed to see.

All the dodging, ducking, taunting and teasing? That was just icing on the cake.

I can be such a bitch at times.

“Got you!” Kyle crowed as a really massive green mass of something tried to catch me. I can't describe it and won't even try. I just moved over enough for it to miss, but to be perfectly honest, nothing alive could have avoided it. This boy was good. Really good.

But did I tell him that?

Nope.

I just darted forward, wrapped my legs around his waist and made motions that would have any man melting, kissed him on the mouth again, with a little tongue, then darted away before he could react again.

“Hah! Missed me again!”

Watching someone in tights trying really hard to hide a hard on is hilarious. It just doesn't work. There is nowhere to put the thing.

“Oh, Kyle...” I cooed. “Does that mean you like me? I want a ring!”

Then I darted away, never letting him quite lose sight of me but letting the dear think he was still seeing me because of his own abilities.

“Nyah, nyah, na nyah, nah!” I even stuck out my tongue after I'd said that to taunt him.

And I know, I know. I had some really serious shit to deal with and it seemed like I was ignoring it.

Okay, I was a bit. Teasing the GL Kyle was more fun than I'd had in a long time.

And I needed to have a little fun.

Okay, lot's of fun.

Face it, there aren't many people who can tease a Green Lantern and get away with it.

So on top of being fun, with a guy I actually was sexually attracted to, I was doing something that only a rare few had managed to do and survive.

I was TEASING a Green Lantern! And He couldn't catch me unless I decided to let him!

I know, I know. Kyle the comic book writer was gentle, caring, and I did love him more than I can say.

But would he chase me all over the solar system cussing all the way?

Nope.

Besides, the Kyle I was teasing was just another aspect of the Kyle I loved. Mostly.

Okay, okay, I'll feel guilty after I let the Green Lantern version catch me.

They are the same person, you know, so it isn't exactly cheating.

I think.