Switcheroo
Issue 9

By Melanie E.

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Chapter 16
Concessions

Dia gave me a look of sick disappointment as I deleted almost every reference to the original Switcheroo costume from the system with a a final 'click' of the delete key at her core terminal.

"I can't believe you would be this petty."

"Petty? Please. For all I've given up since getting these powers, you owe me this much."

She continued to frown, but didn't argue with me as I turned around and left the dark, claustrophobic room that housed her core systems. Walking in there had been like stepping inside my friend's brain, and it was not a pleasant experience in the least.

But it was part of my requirements to the team for me meeting Horus's demands. From now on, I had full control of my own costume design, legacy issues be damned. The mere thought of spending the time designing something new for myself was enough to help me build the confidence I needed for what lay ahead of me.

Raiding my own closet.

It might have been my own room, but the door before me led to a section of the apartments that I had never entered. With some hesitancy I took the necessary step forward and pressed the panel next to the door.

And gasped at what I saw.

When Totem had told me that Dia had been purchasing clothing online, I had thought for sure it would have been maybe a few pairs of jeans and tee shirts, maybe a couple of skirts and dresses if I were really unlucky. I had thought wrong.

"Why is it that I even need to leave the base to go shopping for clothes again?" I asked the air as I entered the spacious closet that held more clothes than I had owned in my entire life.

Dia appeared next to me in a flash, pride beaming from her face. "Because what you have here is a little bit of everything. I bought a lot of different styles because I couldn't be sure what you would prefer."

"And where did the money for this come from?"

She laughed. "You don't think you're the only member of the team who's not spent much of their wages yet, do you?"

I paused in surprise. "They PAY you?"

"Well, of COURSE they do! I might be a computer, but I'm still sentient. Sure, I don't make as much as you guys do since a portion of my 'wages' goes toward maintenance and power consumption, which is no small amount believe me, but I've got a game library like you wouldn't believe tucked away in here. They're not as much of a challenge when you can modify the source code on the fly to let yourself win, though," she said with a frown.

"I'd imagine not," I chuckled, turning toward a set of cabinets against one wall that, upon opening, contained an embarrassing array of undergarments. My nervousness suddenly came back full force. "Are you sure I have to do this?"

"It's way past time, Lou," she said with a sympathetic smile before facing the cabinet herself. "You'll have to face this sooner or later, and it's better to get it out of the way now than have to live your life worrying about it."

"I never expected I'd live long enough for it to be an issue."

"Please don't say that."

It was true, though. Of all the Legacy powers that were out there, it was well known that the Switcheroo powers tended to mean a short life expectancy. Sure, occasionally there was someone who would surprise you -- the Switcheroo my sister had inherited the powers from had been at it for more than twenty-five years, a feat we had hoped she would be able to equal if not surpass -- but most of the time those who wielded the powers died within a decade of getting them.

My own sister had only survived six months. Why would I expect to live even that long? And yet here I was, already at the two month mark myself.

Thinking about what happened to my sister only served to make me angry, though, and the LAST thing I needed was to get angry again. The Hulk might have gotten his powers in the comics from his rage, but all it did to me was make me impulsive and stupid. I guess we have that in common, actually. Regardless, if I was going to do this, I needed a cool head, and to keep my emotions in check.

"Alright, so what should I wear today?"

The squeal of glee I received in response chilled me to my core.

-

Jami gave me a glare that could have killed at a hundred paces.

"What?"

She folded her arms across her chest and sighed as she shook her head. "I can't believe this. Most girls would kill for measurements like that, and you're whining over it!"

"Hey, I was a guy not too long ago!"

"Apparently longer than you thought."

I stared at the list of measurements Dia had printed out for me and, I'll admit it, I pouted. Thirty-six inch chest. Twenty-eight inch waist. Thirty-four inch hips. I was by no means tiny, but damn. "B" cup? It sure looked like a hell of a lot more than something that would be called a "B" to me.

Combined with the clothes she had picked out for me, I was having a hard time seeing a guy when I looked at myself.

She had wanted to put me in a dress or skirt, but I had flat out refused that. Wasn't it enough that I was consenting to girl's clothes at all? What I had ended up with was a pair of jeans and a tank top. I had thought they would feel just like my old clothes, but it really was amazing how much of a difference the cut made.

And the underwear, but I wasn't ready to think about that just yet.

The tank was green, "to match my eyes" according to Jami, though when I mentioned her wearing something white to do the same she had given me a death-glare similar to the one over my measurements. She had even insisted on giving my hair a quick trim to make it fit the look better. Personally, I wasn't about to look in a mirror until I'd had time to mentally prepare myself. Maybe next Tuesday, if I really worked at it. The cargo pants were, well, cargo pants, though a bit lower rise than I was used to, and I had managed to talk them into a pair of red Converse sneakers instead of the horribly uncomfortable looking boots they had tried to hand me.

Once I grew used to it, though, I decided I could handle this, and they agreed to leaving the makeup until I was better prepared for it at least. It might not be exactly what Weaver asked for, but dammit, at least I was making the effort.

"Ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

"Good," Jami said, slipping on a pair of glasses. I gasped when I saw her eyes change from their normal, slightly glowy milky white color to a deep brown. When she saw my expression, she laughed. "The glasses are a new thing. They were built by the guy who originally designed Dia, with some kind of one-way screen thing that overlays an image of a normal pupil and iris on my eye when people look through the lenses. I'm trying them out today in hopes that they'll replace the itchy contacts I usually have to use," she said with a grimace. "I hate those things."

I stepped around her, looking at the glasses from different angles. From the side I could see her normal eyes, but from the front she looked like any other girl. "Let your hair down," I told her, indicating her long braid she almost always wore. Reluctantly she complied, and when I circled her again her hair fell around the sides of her face, easily hiding her eyes the rest of the way. "Perfect."

"Then let's go."

-

Of course, saying you're ready for something and actually BEING ready are two entirely different things, aren't they?

It was another twenty minutes before I finally worked up the courage to follow Jami down to the garage, and another five before I had enough to actually climb into her silver Impreza. As soon as I was in, though, she was on the gas and out the door.

"Put this in your ear," she said, handing me a black block of plastic. "It's not a babelfish or nothing, just trust me," she told me with a chuckle at my confusion.

With a shrug I did as she asked, to be greeted by a series of beeps followed by a very familiar voice.

"Hey girl! This is gonna be great!"

"Dia?"

"The one and only! I might not be able to join you on the shopping trip, but I still wanted to find some way to come so The Doctor worked this little device up for me."

"Who?"

"No, not that doctor, Dr. Steven Doctor, the guy who built me."

"...You can't be serious."

"I am, and trust me, he hates Dr. Doctor jokes. Anyway, this little device is basically just a bluetooth headset with a pinhead camera in it I can use to look around while we're shopping. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, Dia," I said with a smile. "Far be it from me to deny you your shopping trip."

I heard Jami giggling, and looked over to see a similar black block next to her ear.

"If you're comfortable enough for wisecracks then you're comfortable enough for a day out."

I still wasn't sure if I agreed, but I didn't bother to argue with her either.

August Branch headquarters lay near the center of Cedar Falls, our home city. This was a good thing when it came to our work, since we were never more than a twenty minute 'copter ride from any location we needed to be at, but it was a bad thing when it came to driving around town, since it meant traffic was always a bear to deal with.

On the other hand, with Jami and Dia preoccupied planning their order of attack for the day, I had some time to consider my situation in relative peace.

If I gave in and got rational about things, something I was very reluctant to do, then I had to admit it was about time I started dealing with things better.

The entire team was under a lot of stress, and tensions had been running high ever since Weaver's betrayal. Mr. Stone was being held personally responsible for the branch's lack of preparation not only by MDSPF main headquarters but also by their government contacts, and as much as he tried to hide it his nerves had been growing more frayed by the day as he worked at dealing with that along with his other duties as head of our branch.

I hadn't been helping the situation, to be sure. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't about to apologize for how I had acted, but I could see why he had finally snapped. Everyone else was either too busy handling their own feelings, or in the cases of Jacinda and Tag, whose name I still hadn't gotten, didn't care what I did, but Mr. Stone had no choice but to deal with it.

And I doubt Dia would have let him even ignore it even if he had tried.

Still, I wasn't about to just lie down and let them dictate my life for me. I needed their help if I wanted to catch my sister's killer, but the MDSPF had been short on recruits the last few years, and they needed me just as much as I needed them. If this partnership was going to work, they were going to have to deal with giving me a few of my own demands.

The costume, at least, was a start, though one I probably could have thought through better. They had the design I had made when I had first joined still on file, and until I took the time to work something new out with Dia it would have to do, but I wasn't about to go traipsing about in the skin tight not-lycra-polymer-stuff any longer than I had to. Even as a guy I had always thought it was a bit ridiculous, and I had teased Lesli about it a few times, to her annoyance. Now that it was me in the costume I was sure she was laughing at the turnaround from wherever she was now.

"Hey, Lou, are you listening?"

"Huh? What was it?"

"We'll start with Sears and work our way up from there, alright? If things get too much for you, let us know and we'll call it quits."

I couldn't help but smile at the concern in Jami's voice. She was trying, at least, to help me with this. "That sounds fine to me."

-

***Forty-Five Minutes Later***

"Hurry your ass up before something else falls on us!"

"Hey, gimme a chance to catch my breath, I--"

"Duck!"

We both hit the ground just in time for the chunk of concrete to wizz past our heads, shattering the brick wall behind us.

"Dammit! Where are you, you little bitch." The gruff woman's voice reverberated off the crumbling structure around us, causing more rubble and dust to fall.

I didn't answer. Instead, I scrambled over the debris to where Jami lay and made sure she was alright before signalling her to follow me.

We almost made it to out the doors before a meaty hand grabbed me by the ankle and lifted me up.

"Not so fast. We've got a score to settle," Collision Course growled before flinging me bodily into the nearest wall.

-

NOTES:

Alright, so this might not be exACTly what people were wanting, but I'm trying to move the story forward, people! So comment, let me know what ya think!

And, enjoy!

Melanie E.