Switcheroo
Issue Five

By Melanie E.

With a little help Louis starts to come to terms with his changes... just in time for a mission that could bring him the satisfaction he wants.

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Chapter 12
Reconstruction

Living at a superhero base was quite a bit different than living at home. On the plus side, I wasn't alone, since most of the rest of the team for one reason or other had chosen to use the base's accommodations rather than going to the expense of paying for their own. At the moment, though, that also served as probably the biggest disadvantage, as well.

Over the last two hours it seemed like everyone and their brother had come by and tried to get me to talk with the surprise exception of Dia. Sure, I knew she was monitoring me at all times regardless of what I did, which was another part of staying at a superhero base that took some getting used to, but at least she was being quiet about it.

I looked around my room. A week wasn't a whole lot of time to personalize a space when you're as busy as I had been, but I had done my best with the few things I had brought from home. A picture of me and my sister together sat on the desk in my room, next to the tee shirt she had given me in a special frame. A handful of posters and an old Dreamcast were the other personal touches I had managed yet, leaving the largeish room feeling cavernous in its emptiness.

"I think it could use some curtains, maybe a couple of futons or something to sit on. We can look at things online later if you want."

I sighed, and stared at the ceiling as I answered Dia. "The windows are just computer screens anyhow, so what's the point?"

"To make it more your own."

I stood up and walked to one of the "windows," watching the linked three dimensional screens displaying a view of the city outside from cameras far up the building. Reaching to the control panel next to me, I rolled the time back a few days, to the beginning of the thunderstorm that had only just passed. The speakers around me vibrated with the crash of thunder as the screens lit up with a brilliant flash of lightning.

"What's the point?" I asked with a frown. "In another week I'll probably just have to redo it anyhow when the mental changes kick in."

Dia appeared next to me, now dressed in jeans and a tank top. "I don't think so."

I glared at her. "Why not? Everything else about me is changing, why not that?"

She looked at me confused, a frown of her own on her face. "I still don't see why you think your body dictates who you are. It's one of the elements of human behavior I've never understood."

"What do you mean?"

She sat down on the ledge of the window, reaching one of her hands through and watching the rain run down her arm. I knew it was just an illusion, but it still made me smile to watch. "Lou, do you think of me as a computer program first or a person?"

I shrugged. "You seem as real as I am."

She smiled. "Thank you for saying that. But you know that all I am is a computer program, right? Just a few million lines of code operating together to create the person you see before you."

"Maybe, but you don't act like a computer program."

"No, and there is quite a bit more to me than there is in those crappy games you play on that thing," she said, pointing to my Dreamcast in the corner.

"Hey!"

"But why do you think that is? It isn't because of the server towers that make up my processing units, or the thousands of terrabytes of hard drive space that make up my memory. All of those things can be changed around, switched out, improved or broken. As long as my core program is intact, though, I'm still the same, just with different parts."

She looked me up and down. I was leaning against the wall next to the window, and knew that the outline of a lot of my body could clearly be seen through the thin exercise clothes I still wore. For a second she fuzzed out, and when she came back I was looking at a mirror of myself.

"It's not the same."

"Why not?" She came over to stand right in front of me. A wall appeared behind her, and she leaned against it, duplicating my pose. "The human body is just like the computer parts that make up my central systems, just smaller and messier. Your parts might be harder to replace than mine are, but they no more dictate who you are than mine do."

I stared at her, looking at me so smug, like she had broken any argument I had. "Really? Well, what do you have to say about the reprogramming I'm supposed to undergo?"

"Is that what you think is going to happen?" With another fuzz she was stood there before me again in her normal body.

"That's what everyone said, and I can... feel it. The changes." I slid down the wall to sit on the floor, looking up at Dia. "I don't want to be someone else, is that so bad?"

She sat against the wall next to me. "Lou, you aren't going to change that much. Yeah, some things will be different for you, but... it's more like added elements, okay? Just because a new program is loaded into me doesn't change me, either. I take what is in it and incorporate it into my systems, and from that I improve. Isn't this a lot the same?"

I thought about what she had said. "So you're saying I'm not going to change as much as I thought?"

She shook her head. "No! I'm gonna let you in on a secret, okay?" I nodded. "There's more to being able to take on the Switcheroo powers than just being in the right place at the right time. The best we can tell, there are certain markers that legacy powers look for when they are transferred before they will manifest. For the longest time sex was thought to be one of Switcheroo's, though you've apparently blown that out of the water. But the other markers we've noticed -- courage, ingenuity, a caring personality -- you've got all those already. The changes the powers put you through might make them more obvious, but they've always been a part of you."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

I shook. "But, what about... people? I mean, like, am I going to start liking guys now? Or will I be a lesbian? And everything affects me so much more now..."

She laughed softly. "That would be the hormones talking, I warned you about those. Being a girl is different than being a guy. Your body will behave differently, but the way things are interpreted will still be you. Your sexuality is another issue, though. Honestly I don't know on that one. From past experience Switcheroos have always been heterosexual, but I don't know how your unique situation will affect that."

"That's not much help."

"It isn't? I was sure it would be," she said with a grin.

I thought about what she had said, and gained a new appreciation for her. "How'd you get so smart?" I asked, feeling myself calming down.

"I guess I was just made that way. As were you."

I smiled at her. "Thanks for the help, Dia. I'd give you a hug if I could, but..."

Her image flashed for a moment. "Thanks." She started to say something else, when her eyes grew wide shortly before she disappeared completely, warning klaxons around the base going off as her voice came over the speakers. "ALL TEAM MEMBERS. An emergency meeting of August Branch members has been called in the briefing room. Please report there immediately. Repeat: an emergency meeting of August Branch members has been called in the briefing room. Please report immediately."

With a sense of dread I bounded up from my spot against the wall and rushed out the door.

-

"Can't we go a single week without the world coming down around us?"

"One of the perils of being a superhero," Bard said, sliding into his designated spot at the table.

The tension around the table was "palpable," I do believe is the word. Not one of knew what the emergency was. The klaxon that had been used indicated it wasn't an attack on the base, but emergency meetings were never called for something minor.

We had just begun to discuss what the problem might be when Mr. Stone, in full Martial regalia, marched into the room, a grimace plastered on his face.

"Sir, what's the problem?"

He took his place at the head of the room, and while looking directly at me said, "We know where Weaver has gone."

That was enough to silence everyone. Her betrayal had caused rifts in the team that were just starting to heal over, and all of us were ready for a little payback.

"Well?" Cherrybomb asked impatiently when Martial failed to continue.

"She has been monitored entering and leaving this building several times over the past few days," he said, touching the wall behind him and bringing up an image of a large office building I instantly recognized.

"Isn't that the replacement for the old Rhodes Building after Warhammer's fight with Efreet a few years back?"

He nodded. "It is. Further investigation has led the officials at the MDSPF main branch to the discovery that while most of the building is used by Rhodes Industries still, these floors," he pointed to the seventeenth through twentieth levels of the building, "are being rented to another company by the name of McCree Business Operations. Both the MDSPF and my contacts in the government agree that Rhodes Industries is about as clean as a big company generally gets, but so far nobody has been able to track down any information on this other company."

"So you think that might be where she's working from."

"I don't know," he said, leaning on the table, "but it's a start."

I stood up. "So what do we do?" I could feel the anger rising in me. Weaver had killed my sister, and tried to kill me -- there was no way in hell I was letting her get away again.

Martial touched the wall behind him again, and a series of dossiers appeared. "We're working with the local police on this one. Since we don't have any proof of wrongdoing they're going out on a limb helping us, but they have agreed to sending us up with a police escort while we ask some questions. We have to do this RIGHT," he said, glaring at me when I started to protest. "Too many supers forget that we don't have any legal jurisdiction to do what we do. The government overlooks this most of the time, but if we fly in and start busting heads and turn out to be wrong, we WILL be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Do I make myself clear?"

I sat back down in my seat, thoroughly chastised but still fuming.

He smashed the table with his fist hard enough to crack the marble surface. "I want to get the bitch just as bad as you, but unlike the rest of you I've SEEN what the government will do to a Super that doesn't toe the line. Weaver is smart, smarter than any of us, and she wouldn't be this blatant about where she's going if she didn't think we were powerless to do anything to her. She WANTS us to go in angry and fuck this up. We. Can't. Do. That. Understood?" Everyone nodded. "The police are interested in bringing Weaver in as well due to her assault on Louis and a pending investigation into his sister's death, but there isn't enough evidence for them to justify doing this on their own, and that's the ONLY reason they've agreed to work with us on this."

"So when are we going in?"

"Tomorrow morning. I'll let everyone know later who is going with me. For now, you're all dismissed. Louis, stay here."

Everyone else walked out, leaving me sitting at the table with Martial -- I couldn't call him Mr. Stone when he was wearing his uniform.

"What did you need, sir?"

He sat down across from me, looking at me seriously. "I heard you're having trouble adjusting."

"I think I'm getting over it, sir. Dia's helped a lot."

He nodded. "Good. Because I want you on the team tomorrow. If you can keep your temper in check, that is."

My eyes narrowed. "If we see Weaver, sir, I can't make any promises."

"If we see Weaver, I don't think any of us would try to stop you Lou, unless you looked like you were in danger. That's not why I want you on, though."

I leaned back in my seat, staring at him. "Why, then?"

His expression eased into something that wasn't quite a smile. "You've been on the team for almost two months now and I haven't worked with you yet. Tomorrow should be non-combat, but I want to see how you handle yourself around civilians. Consider this part one of your first review."

He stood up and waved me toward the door, indicating our meeting was over. I shook his hand on the way out, going over and over in my head all the things I wanted to do to Weaver when I caught her.

-

NOTES: I know I tend to go overboard with the whole "emotional introspection" thing in my stories. Suffice it to say that short of major changes that would affect ANYone, most of the emotional vascillating for this story is done, so be prepared for a mostly straight-forward superhero story from here on out with the TG issue used more for flavoring than as the significant driving force behind the story -- at least that's what I'm hoping for.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Excelsior?