Author's Note: This is the seventh story in my Legacy Universe, with the previous stories listed below for those who haven't read them. Like the other this is a stand alone story, though it might be helpful to have at least read the first, The Miracle Legacy.

The Miracle Legacy
Change of Heart
Hardshell
The Praxis Crossing
Mannequin
The Vengeance of Lady Hexx

It was late at night, much less than a half hour short from the stroke of midnight. Yet in spite of the lateness of the hour, everything was not completely covered in a blanket of darkness as might be expected, thanks to the light provided by the bright full moon.

Three figures garbed in black slowly made their way to the door of an empty building; a large shed which would be perfect for their current needs. The figures paused only momentarily before stepping inside.

"God... I can't believe you made me wear all this black," a blonde teenager complained as she gestured down at herself in disgust, "I feel like such a Goth..."

"Yeah," a second girl agreed, "What's with all this tacky black?"

"Stop complaining you two," the third girl ordered, glaring at her two companions before they all burst into a short fit of giggles.

With that, the 17 year old Melanie Chambers stood up straighter, looking at her two friends and clutching the package that she was holding just a little tighter. Melanie was a beautiful blonde, one of the prettiest as well most popular girls in her school. She was even captain of the cheerleading squad, a much desired position.

The two attractive girls standing beside Melanie were the blonde Chelsea and the brunette Brenda, both members of the cheerleading squad and Melanie's closest friends. Neither of them were particularly happy to be there at the moment, though they followed Melanie's lead, as they always did.

"We like... have to do this," Melanie firmly told the other girls.

"But this place is like so..." Chelsea paused, "Ewwww. Like, completely spooky..."

"It's just my dad's old shed," Melanie snapped.

"Brenda just shrugged, not looking very pleased. "Whatever. Let's just do this so I can go home..."

Melanie nodded at that, then opened the package that she had been carrying and started spreading the contents around. Then she held out a thick leather-bound book, opening it to the page that was marked with the pink bookmark. She stared at the page for a moment, nodding before she began setting the candles up in front of her and drawing the chalk pattern that was shown in the book.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Chelsea complained, earning a glare from both Melanie and Brenda.

"I'm going to show that bitch Michelle," Melanie snapped, "I'll teach her to steal MY boyfriend..."

"But isn't calling a demon kind of... going a little far," Chelsea asked.

"She does have a point," Brenda pointed out, "This is like... so Goth. I'll just die if anyone finds out..."

"Revenge is worth any price," Melanie announced as she lit the candles, "Even wearing these ugly clothes... At least as long as no one sees us..."

"I wish I never found that weird spell book in my uncles book store," Brenda muttered, then added, "Or at least never told you about it..."

"Zip it," Melanie told her, glancing at her watch. "It's just about midnight and it's a full moon... Now all we have to do is call up that spirit then send it after Michelle..."

With that, Chelsea and Brenda took their positions, each sitting beside a candle and facing towards the center of the triangle that they were forming. Melanie took her position as well, holding the book on her lap and carefully beginning to read the strange words that were written inside.

Melanie read the spell for the next minute, and as she was doing so, all three girls felt a cold chill along their skins. They squirmed, then let out gasps as the candles suddenly began to flicker.

"This is really freaking me out," Chelsea whispered to Brenda, who nodded but didn't say anything.

Suddenly, the flames from the candles shot up more than a foot high, turning a strange green color at the same time. Chelsea and Brenda each let out a loud squeal, while Melanie dropped the book with a gasp of surprise, having only half expected anything to actually happen.

Then without warning, there was the crash of thunder from outside... from a sky that had been completely clear just half an hour earlier. At the same time, the darkness seemed to increase around the shed, with dark swirling cloud beginning to form directly above their heads. A cloud that seemed to be composed of pure shadow.

"I really don't like this," Chelsea whimpered, while Brenda put a hand on hers, equally terrified but not sure what to say.

And just as they didn't think anything could get more frightening, there was sudden burst of red lighting bursting from the cloud above their heads... striking Melanie who let out an ear shattering scream. At that very instant, the candles suddenly dropped back to their normal flicker, while Melanie collapsed forward.

For a long moment, everyone was silent as they looked around, feeling the air charged with something strange. There was something else... a new presence. They could feel it. A scary presence.

"M... Melanie?" Brenda finally brought check on her still slumped forward friend.

With that, Melanie slowly sat back up, while Chelsea and Brenda both let out sighs of relief. But then, she raised her face as she stared at the other two... revealing her eyes. Eyes that glowed red and were filled with a deep malevolence. And then, Melanie smiled at her friends... a cold cruel smile.

Chelsea gulped with an increasing terror as she sat back, "Melanie..."

Suddenly, the air was filled with the fluttering of wings and a shadow flickered across the room before a dark shape landed on Melanie's shoulder. And without even a moment of hesitation, the black bird turned to them and cawed, "Nevermore..."

Sam leaned back from his computer and rubbed his eyes, simultaneously smiling as he listened to the soothing sounds of Pink Floyd playing in the background. He had been busy working for several hours straight and was somewhat startled to look over at the clock and see that it was already into the afternoon.

"Damn," Sam muttered, standing up to stretch, "Time flies when you're having fun."

With that, Sam shook his head, took a look out the window and glanced back at his computer. He had been working hard on his project for most of the day and the work had paid off well so far. His latest software project was coming close to completion. Just a few more days and he'd be able to turn it in and get the rest of his payment.

"Maybe I'll take Anne out for dinner," he thought to himself.

For a moment, Sam just stood there, thinking about his wife Anne. They had been married for 17 years, and unfortunately, haven't been able to go out together as much as he would have liked. But with their kids getting older and not needing a sitter, Sam thought that it was high time that he and Anne took a little time for themselves.

Thinking about Anne quickly led Sam to thinking about their two wonderful kids. There was 16 year old Todd, who was a pretty good kid and not too rebellious, and 12 year old Emily who was her mother's little angel. And that reminded Sam that it wouldn't be too much longer before they both got out of school.

"I think I'll take a walk before they get home," Sam thought to himself.

Being able to take walks in the middle of the day was only one of the many benefits of working from home as a freelance software designer. Of course, there were many others as well. Sam was his own boss and could work at his own pace with no one staring over his shoulder. He could take breaks as often and as long as he wanted. And he could even take the whole day off if he really felt like it.

After relieving himself in the bathroom, Sam looked at himself in the mirror. Not too bad, he thought, for being 38. He still had a full head of dark brown hair, with no sign of it thinning or receding. Sam hadn't even developed the beer belly that so many men tended to grow when they reached his age.

"Not bad," Sam mused, "Even if I do say so myself."

Of course, with Anne still having a good shape, Sam wasn't about to let himself go too much and risk losing her to some other lucky schmuck. It was much better to do a few sit-ups and walk a few miles than go through that.

It was only a minute later that Sam was out the door and walking down the quiet streets of his neighborhood. He wasn't completely sure where exactly he was going, not since he tended to just let his feet move and see where they took him. However, as usually happened, Sam found himself walking to the park.

The park was a patch of extra space in the middle of suburbia, little more than a large grassy field with a few picnic tables and trees scattered around to provide some variety. This was Bison Park, named not after the animal, but after a man who had one time had been a local civic leader.

"Not a bad day," Sam mused, as he slowed his pace in the park, "Not a bad day at all..."

Of course, he reminded himself with a chuckle, any day that he wasn't trapped in an office was a good day. And since he worked at home where he could spend more time with his family, that made every day a good day.

Suddenly, Sam froze as he saw the light appear ahead of him. All that he could do was stand still and stare at it in surprise... It was a swirling mass of light... almost as though a rainbow had been balled up and left to float in the air in front of him.

"What the hell is that?" Sam gasped out, quickly glancing up but the sky was completely clear. And it hadn't rained in days; so there was no way that it could be a rainbow... even some sort of deformed one.

After a moment, Sam cautiously stepped closer, thinking that it didn't look dangerous. It just looked like a swirling mass of colored light. And a rather pretty mass of light as well. Sam even smiled faintly as he suddenly thought that Emily would absolutely love that display.

Then without warning, the swirling light seemed to jump straight at Sam. Before he had even realized it, the light was all around him... Or more accurately, he seemed to be inside of it. He gasped, staring at the swirls of color moving all around him... surrounding him on all sides.

And then... Sam felt it. There was a warmth from the colors... a pleasant warmth that seemed to be soaking into him. He felt sort of... tingly. It would have scared him if it had hurt in even the least, but this only tickled at the very worst.

Sam just stared around him in awe and confusion, trying to make sense of it when he heard the voice. But it wasn't his ears that heard it. The strange voice seemed to be in his head.

"SAM JOHNSON," the voice filled Sam's head, "YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN."

"What..." Sam started.

However, the voice interrupted him, continuing as though it hadn't heard him at all. Perhaps, he suddenly thought, it hadn't.

"A DARKNESS HAS COME TO YOUR WORLD," the voice stated.

Suddenly, the light around Sam began to flash, showing images... images that he somehow associated with the voice. There were images of forests... of strange looking trees and birds. And then there was an image of a city... some sort of marble and golden city in the distance. It was filled with light; similar to the rainbow swirl that Sam was currently within. And though Sam couldn't make out any real details about the city or the people within it before the image vanished, he knew that it was glorious.

"A DARKNESS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO FIGHT," the voice continued.

The images returned, but this time they were harsh images... images of creatures straight out of nightmare rushing through holes of blackness into the streets of what could have been New York or any other big city. And then there was a silhouette... an image of shadow with glowing red eyes, which was quickly replaced by the image of a big black bird. But like the previous images, these ones flashed across too fast for Sam to get anything but the quickest impressions from before vanishing.

"THE POWER TO FIGHT THIS DARKNESS SHALL BE PROVIDED YOU."

"What are you talking about?" Sam demanded, trying to shake the images from his mind and focus on the voice. "I have been chosen for what? How?" Sam was getting even more shocked and confused by the moment.

However, the voice didn't respond. Instead, the swirling lights grew brighter... then imploded. Sam started to scream as the light all flowed inside of him, but them gasped at the sudden surge of raw energy. It didn't hurt... but instead was more of an intensification of the tickling sensation that he felt before. But this time, it was a thousand times stronger.

"Oh God," Sam gasped out, feeling it inside of him... an energy that was rushing through every fiber of his body.

After just several seconds, it seemed to stop and Sam collapsed to the ground, breathing hard but feeling all right. However, he knew that the energy wasn't gone. He could still vaguely feel it there inside of him. It wasn't burning around inside of him anymore though. Instead, it felt more... dormant.

Suddenly though, Sam somehow knew that he could make the energy active again. That scared him because he didn't know how he knew. He just did. Just like he knew that if he activated it, the energy would transform him somehow and give him the power to fight the darkness... whatever that was.

"What the hell is going on here?" Sam stood up and demanded of the voice, though he could see no sign of whomever it had come from or the mass of colored light. Not surprising since the light now seemed to be inside of him. Sam grimaced, looking around him and demanding to know, "Why me?" But again, there was no answer.

For a minute, Sam just stood there, looking around him and thinking that it was a good thing that Bison Park was empty. If there had been anyone around, he didn't know how he would have explained about that light and what had happened, especially since he wasn't too sure himself.

"What is this darkness," Sam asked again, this time to himself as he tried thinking it through, "And why was I the one they chose to fight it?"

The whole thing made little sense to Sam, and the more he thought about it, the more questions he had. In fact, almost all that he had was questions. He didn't know who that voice had been... Where was that strange place... that rainbow city that he had glimpsed in the vision? Of course, there were a thousand other questions too.

"Damn I'm getting confused," he rubbed at his temples. Then he gulped, "How am I going to explain this to Anne? She'll think I've lost my mind..." Yet at the same time, Sam wasn't completely sure that he hadn't. After all, seeing strange balls of light appearing in the air and hearing voices in your head weren't exactly signs of good mental health.

Of course, Sam reminded himself after he'd thought about it for a minute, there was one way to prove to himself that he hadn't lost his mind. That what he'd thought just happened actually had. And perhaps it might even help answer a few questions.

Sam closed his eyes, feeling the energy... the light inside of him. He could sort of picture it as a tight ball of swirling colored light deep inside, and all that he had to do was throw a mental switch to wake it up. And since that seemed to be the logical place to start looking for answers, Sam did just that.

Almost the instant that Sam did so, he could feel the light awakening, could picture the ball of light unraveling inside of him. The warm tingling sensation rushed through him again, and a second later, the light burst through his skin like a rainbow leaking out... and then began to swirl around him.

For a brief moment, Sam could only stand there stunned from the overwhelming sensations, staring at the swirling rainbow around him. It was similar, but not quite like when the light that had surrounded him just a short while earlier.

But then, Sam suddenly realized that the strange things he was feeling weren't just the same tingling as before. There was something else as well, though he couldn't really make it out. Sam felt his body... shifting. That was the only thing he could think of. It was like his entire body was changing.

This all happened extremely quickly, and before Sam could make out anything more than that he was changing... it stopped... The swirling lights vanished from around him, though he could still see faint traces. And at the same time, he was immediately aware that his body felt... different.

Sam stood there for a long moment, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths as he tried to stay calm and brace himself for whatever he was going to face. And with that, he slowly opened his eyes and looked down at himself, still not ready for the shocking sight.

Somehow, Sam bit down the shocking gasps of exclamation that threatened to burst from his lips, and even the quiet mutterings of disbelief. Instead, he took another slow breath to steady himself and silently surveyed the drastic changes to his body.

There were more than a dozen things that Sam immediately noticed, though the most obvious were the nice round female breasts pushing out from his chest. He estimated them to probably be about C cups... and very shapely ones at that. And from a single glance that swept down over the rest of his body, Sam could see that the rest of it looked just as female. And just as shapely.

"Um... I'm imagining things," Sam whispered, then announced louder, "I have to be." Yet at the same time, he realized that it was a girl's voice that he was hearing come from his mouth.

Trying to regain his composure and focus, Sam took another look at himself, trying to remain as objective as possible, which as the moment was not much. He definitely seemed to have a female body, and a very nice one from what he could see... which was actually quite a bit. Even his clothes had been changed by the light.

At the moment, Sam discovered that he was now wearing what seemed to be a green and yellow spandex costume that, from a glance, looked like it could have been worn by Brittany Spears in one of her videos. It consisted of only a single piece that covered him from the waist down, and a halter-top which covered his breasts and upper torso, leaving his midriff completely bare. Other than that, the only thing else that his costume consisted of was a pair of short fingerless green gloves on each hand.

"I'm practically naked," Sam muttered, though it wasn't quite true. Still, the costume was fairly skimpy and being spandex... or something of the like, didn't really conceal a whole lot.

Then Sam's eyes were drawn to his exposed skin, realizing that it was glowing. It was as though there was a faint light coming from just under his skin, giving it somewhat strange, thought not an unpleasant appearance. For a moment, all that Sam could do was stare at it.

Frowning, Sam looked up again, repeating his earlier demands of the voice, "Why me? Why did you choose me?" Then he couldn't help adding, "And why the hell turn me into a girl?" But of course, there were no answers, nor had he really expected any.

Letting out a sigh, Sam slowly reached up and felt his face. It felt soft and smooth under his fingers, and it was obviously not his face. At least not his normal face, though he certainly couldn't make out much detail from just touch.

Next, Sam slowly reached for his hair, discovering that it now reached down to the middle of his back, and when he pulled a handful in front of his face for a good look, he saw that it had turned blonde. Not just blonde... but a golden blonde that seemed to glow faintly from the same inner light that came from his skin.

Sam paused, knowing that he should be completely freaked out at having turned into a girl, but somehow he wasn't. It was as though there was some sort of inner assurance... and somehow, knowledge knew that it wasn't permanent. Sam couldn't explain it, even to himself, but he sensed that he could turn the light off... could flip that mental switch and change back to normal, just as easily as he had changed in the first place. If it hadn't been for that strange certainty that he could change back, Sam suspected that he would already be panicking.

"Still," Sam mused, just a little nervously, "It wouldn't hurt to prove it."

However, just as Sam was about to flip that mental switch again, two things suddenly occurred to him. He glanced around the park, still not seeing anyone but realizing that someone could come along at any moment. And two... that voice had said something about him having the power to fight the darkness... whatever that was.

"What kind of power did it mean," Sam muttered to himself. Then with a wry grin, he added, "Somehow I don't think that being able to change sex or glow in the dark is going to do much..." Then again, Sam silently reminded himself, since the powers were supposed to fight some sort of darkness, maybe being a living nightlight was the idea.

But as Sam stood there, he suddenly realized that he did know what kind of powers that the voice meant. He knew it the same way that he knew that he could change back to normal. The fact that he knew it was somewhat disturbing to him, though he tried to remain focused.

Sam grimaced, knowing that he just couldn't turn off that light and change back to normal until he'd at least tried out those supposed powers. There was absolutely no way that his curiosity would let him.

With that, Sam took a deep breath, and tensed himself. A faint ribbon of rainbow light swirled around him as if in anticipation. And giving a silent prayer, Sam suddenly shot straight up into the air, glowing a little brighter than before with a trail of rainbow tinged light trailing behind.

"I did it," Sam blurted out as he stared down at the ground, now more than fifty feet below him, "I'm flying..."

Then Sam was suddenly struck by the realization that he was more than a couple stories above the ground with absolutely nothing holding him up but a rainbow. He was struck by a surge of fear and immediately fell back under the influence of gravity, falling straight towards the ground. Sam let out a howl of terror but somehow reclaimed his control of the light and paused, hovering merely ten feet away from what would have been a VERY messy landing.

For a moment, Sam just remained where he was, breathing deeply and fearing that he had just filled his pants. Then he looked down again, gulped nervously and muttered, "Air brakes," suddenly thinking about a Bugs Bunny cartoon he used to watch as a kid, where the famous rabbit had pulled the air brakes on a crashing plane and kept it from hitting the ground at the last minute.

Once Sam had gotten over his initial shock and given a silent thanks for his safe recovery, he decided to land the rest of the way, thinking that flying might be just a little too dangerous. However, just as he stared to slowly descend, he noticed an old man standing out on the edge of the park by the street, staring at him.

"Shit," Sam muttered, guessing that the old man had seen the glowing light up in the sky and started moving in for a closer look. He certainly hadn't been there when Sam looked around a couple minutes earlier. "Just what I need... an audience."

Sam scowled, deciding that at the moment, an audience was the absolute last thing that he wanted to deal with. The whole situation was strange and embarrassing enough as it was and he didn't want a witness to it. After what had just happened, Sam didn't really like the idea of flying away, but it would be the quickest way to get out of there and get some privacy. So with a muttered curse, he once again rose into the air.

At first, Sam was quite afraid to be so far above the ground, realizing now just how dangerous it could be. If he fell again... But after several minutes, it grew a little easier and he became a little less afraid of losing his control and falling again. However, he remained a bit wary of it, especially when he looked at the ground or the tops of houses.

"If man were meant to fly," Sam muttered to himself, "he would have had feathers. Not rainbows..."

Somehow, Sam found himself taking the long way home. The very long way. He had meant to fly straight there, yet he couldn't resist trying out his new ability to fly, even if it did make him a bit nervous. He flew higher and faster than he had intended, and amazed himself at the same time with the fact that he had even dared.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Sam... a realization. Sam stopped flying and just hovered in the air, staring down at himself and gulping. He was flying... he was flying by himself. Did that mean...

"I've... I've developed powers," Sam whispered, shaking as he thought about it. "Does that mean I'm a developed..." God, he silently hoped not. However, as he looked down at the ground, and at the skimpy spandex clothing that he was wearing, he groaned. "I am..."

"Damn... damn... damn," Sam spat out, running his hand along the 'costume' he was wearing. "I can't be a damn developed. I've got a wife and kids..."

And he absolutely knew that things like becoming a developed only happened to people far away. People that you only saw on TV. Those kind of things never happened to people that you actually knew, much less to yourself. Unfortunately, there was little doubt that the strange voice had actually done it to him.

After a moment, Sam grimaced, "Once I get back home, I'm going to change back to normal and never use these weird powers again. I'm going to forget they even exist..." That would teach that damn voice to mess with his life like that.

***

Sam hovered high in the air, surrounded by a faint golden glow as well as a rainbowlike swirl of light. He grimaced as he looked at his newly female body and the spandex 'costume' that adorned it. The sight just reinforced his decision to go home and change back to normal, then forget that the whole thing had ever happened.

"These weird powers already nearly got me killed once," Sam muttered, thinking about how he'd nearly fallen to his death a short while earlier.

Then, just as Sam started to fly back home, he noticed the mall in the distance and decided that it wouldn't hurt to take a slight detour. After all, he'd already taken a long detour on the way home and he thought that a quick fly by of the mall, and maybe giving the people in the parking lot a glimpse of a 'real live developed', might make for a good final use of his new powers.

Less than a minute later, Sam was in the air above the mall, watching curiously when he noticed a TV news crew out in the parking lot, along with a small crowd of people. Sam wasn't quite sure what was going on, though from the big banners around the parking lot, he suspected that it had something to do with some made up celebration to attract more business to the mall.

Sam briefly thought about buzzing them, guessing that it would give the crowd a real thrill. However, that was a bit more exposure than he wanted to deal with. So instead, Sam started moving away, hoping that they didn't look up and see him. Suddenly, the idea of giving people a bit of a show was no longer quite so appealing.

"Besides," Sam thought aloud, "Todd should be home soon..." If not already, he added silently.

But just as Sam started to slowly move away from the mall, he caught sight of something down below... something that made him freeze for another look. Sam's eyes went wide as he saw what he could only describe as a... a creature.

"What the hell?" Sam gasped.

The creature was human sized, but only vaguely human in shape. In fact, it looked to be part human, part cat and part bat. It was covered with black fur and had a very feline looking head, with glowing red eyes. A pair of large bat wings spread out from it's back, though it wasn't using them at the moment as it crouched on the roof of the mall.

Suddenly, Sam felt something strange... a coldness coming from the creature. He let out a gasp, suddenly wondering if this creature was the darkness that the voice had warned him about. For some reason, he suspected that it was... or was at least tied to this darkness somehow.

"Too convenient to not be," Sam mused, knowing that developed and strange creatures weren't exactly normal in that area. So for him to be given those powers and a warning about a darkness, then see that creature so soon afterwards... Sam didn't think that it was coincidence.

Just then, the creature abruptly leapt from the mall roof... and dove straight down at the crowd, letting out some sort of roar as it did so. The air was filled with screams as the crowd scattered, which seemed to excite the creature, which then pounced at one of the people running away.

For a moment, Sam remained frozen where he was, staring at the creature and the scattering people in horror. What was that creature? Why was it attacking them? Sam didn't know, but at the moment, he was suddenly VERY thankful that he was up in the air and out of range. At least, he reminded himself, until it used its wings to fly up after him. Every instinct in Sam's body screamed to get out of there as fast as he could, and before he'd even given it any conscious thought... he slowly started moving further away from the scene.

However, a woman screamed and Sam winced, cringing at the sound just as much as at the sight. He grimaced, "I can't do anything," he protested against his conscience, "I'm not a superhero..."

Sam clenched his fists so tightly that his now longer nails dug painfully into his palms, threatening to draw blood. Though he knew that the smart thing to do was run, and his instincts screamed out at him to get himself to safety, he couldn't help worrying about those people. And more, there was a voice screaming at him from the back of his head, reminding him that this was what that strange voice and the light had given him those powers for. Too fight that darkness...

"I didn't ask for this!" Sam yelled to no one in particular. Whether it the voice that had given him those powers... or himself, he didn't even know.

Then in spite of everything that Sam's common sense told him, he dove down at that creature, knowing that he had the power to do something and he'd never forgive himself if he didn't and people died because of it. And a moment later, Sam hit the creature, punching it and sending it flying into a car more than a dozen yards away.

Sam stood up on the ground, clenching his fists and getting ready fight that thing if it stood back up. And stand back up it did, letting out a roar that revealed lots of sharp teeth, then tearing deep gouges in the side of the car with long sharp claws. It glared at Sam, it's glowing red eyes looking quite evil before it launched itself at him.

Somehow, though he didn't know how, Sam stood his ground, waited for the creature to get close, then punched it again, sending it flying once more. He gulped, amazed at just how hard he'd send that thing.

"How strong am I?" Sam gasped.

Though Sam knew that he was a lot stronger than normal, the same way that he knew he could fly, he sure didn't feel any stronger... nor obviously look it. He flexed his arm, which certainly didn't look like it could have knocked that creature all that way away, but it obviously had. Unfortunately, Sam didn't think that he was any tougher than normal. There wasn't any instinctive knowledge that he was suddenly invulnerable... which he was sure meant that he wasn't.

But before Sam could think about that any more, the creature was charging him again. This time, Sam flew up above it, earning a yell from the creature before it spread its wings and came up after him. Sam cursed as he went higher, then turned and punched the creature again, sending it back to the ground.

Sam hesitated a moment, feeling pretty nervous at the thought of those sharp claws. However, he knew that if he didn't do something about that creature now, it would come after him again... and probably all those people who were running away in fear, who didn't have ANY powers to protect them.

Deciding not to wait for the creature to come after him again, though it had been working so far, Sam decided to go on the offensive. Sam landed, tearing the door off a car with an ease that surprised him, noticing as he did so that the rainbow effect seemed to increase for a moment while he was doing that. However, he didn't waste time thinking about that before charging at the creature and smacking it with the car door.

The creature let out a roar, tearing the door right out of Sam's hands, then lashing out at Sam with its claws. Sam jumped back, but as the creature charged at him again, claws extended. Somehow he managed to avoid them, though it wasn't easy. That thing was fast.

Sam jumped up on top of a car to avoid the creature's next attack, and when it lunged up at him again... he was ready. With a growl of his own, Sam hit the creature with both hands, slamming it into the ground as hard as he could. And as a follow up, he hopped off of the car, then picked up the side and lifted. Two of the wheels came up off the ground with a surprising ease, though not effortlessly. A rainbow swirl of light surrounded him as he lifted.

"Take this," Sam growled, lifting higher and rolling the car over... right on top of the creature.

Though the creature's lower body was trapped under the car, it continued slashing out with its claws, tearing deep gouges in the metal. It growled and hissed, and as Sam watched, slowly pulled itself out.

"Not this time," Sam growled.

Deciding not to give the creature another chance to attack him, Sam didn't even wait for it to get all the way to its feet. Sam charged the creature, putting every once of energy he had into his punch. His fist glowed brightly, surrounded by a swirl of brilliant colors, which seemed to explode at the moment of impact, sending the creature flying into the side of a car.

Sam grinned in satisfaction, "Gotcha..."

The creature pulled itself away from the car, but it wobbled badly as it took its first step towards Sam. Then it paused... shaking badly before finally collapsing to the ground. This was a sight, which brought a smile of relief to Sam's face. It looked like it was over.

Still, Sam was extremely cautious as he crept closer to the creature and stood next to it, waiting for the expected horror movie 'surprise' where it would suddenly leap up at him again. However, the surprise wasn't at all what Sam had expected. The creature's features started to... change. As Sam watched, it seemed to shrink... to slowly become more and more human. Until finally, where the creature had been was now a naked man. A man who seemed vaguely familiar to Sam.

After staring at the man and trying to place where he might have seen him before, Sam suddenly realized that the crowd was starting to return and gathering around him. It appeared that their curiosity overrode their good sense once the obvious danger seemed to disappear.

"You kicked his ass," one man yelled out to Sam.

A moment later, a woman called out, "Who are you?"

Sam frowned, feeling rather nervous as he looked around. He wasn't at all comfortable with the fact that so many people where staring at him. Especially not with the looks that the men were giving him. And quickly remembering that he didn't have to stay and deal with it, Sam gave a rather nervous wave... then flew up into the air where they couldn't follow him.

"Home," Sam gulped out, already flying there as fast as he could, "And no more detours..."

As Sam flew, thoughts about what had just happened ran through his mind. The whole situation was so... strange. Never in a million years would Sam have thought that he'd be turned into a woman, be given super powers and fight a strange monster as well. And all within an hour. If someone had told him that just several hours earlier, he would have laughed his head off at the pure absurdity. But now...

"Just great," Sam grimaced in realization as he thought about that monster, "Now I'm not only a developed... but a superhero too..." It had definitely been a weird day. "Anne's never going to believe this..." And what the hell was he going to tell her?

When Sam landed in his back yard a minute later, he let out a sigh of relief and rushed into the house before anyone could see him. And once he was safe inside, he let out another sigh of relief. He was home, safe and sound. And from the look of it, he was there alone.

"Imagine that," Sam shook his head, "Me... a superhero."

That very thought still seemed preposterous, like some sort of adolescent fantasy. But at the same time, Sam had to admit that it was sort of exciting. Hell, he'd never been as excited as when he'd beaten that monster and saved those lives. In spite of his earlier determination to never change or use those powers again, Sam wasn't sure that he wanted to give it all up just yet.

Then Sam paused, hesitating a moment before looking down at himself again and gulping. With that, he rushed to the large front room mirror for a better look at himself and froze with his mouth open at what he saw.

"Oh..." was all that Sam could think to say.

Staring back at Sam from the mirror was the face of a girl... a teenage girl. She looked to be about 15 or 16, about the same age as his son Todd.

"I'm a kid," Sam blurted out, his hands reaching up to touch his smooth face. He couldn't believe it.

The girl... Sam looked young and pretty. Very pretty, with a very nice body and beautiful blue eyes that almost seemed to shine. His face was framed with the same golden hair that he'd noticed before, though now he got a much better look at it. There was little doubt that he would have been all over this girl if he'd run into her back when he was that age.

With his young female body and the costume he was wearing, Sam suddenly realized that he looked a bit like one of those teenage pop singers. He'd already thought that of the costume when he'd seen it, but the body went right along with that image.

And then, Sam noticed his ears. They were... pointed. His ears came to points at the tops, which gave him something of an Elven appearance, enhanced greatly by his glowing skin and hair.

"Weird," Sam whispered, hesitantly touching his ears and then shaking his head. "That damn voice turned me into some kind of elf girl..."

Sam just stared at his reflection, trying to make any kind of sense WHY. He couldn't understand why he'd been turned into a girl... or at least why he turned into a girl when he used his powers. Of course, he still didn't understand why he was given those powers in the first place either, but at least he had been told that it was to fight some sort of darkness. However, what did turning into a teenage girl have to do with using super powers or fighting darkness?

"None of this makes any sense," Sam shook his head, grabbing and his breasts and then gulping. They felt so... strange.

After a moment more, Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes, deciding that he'd had enough of that for the time. He felt for that mental switch and flipped it, feeling the rainbow lights swirling around him again before he opened his eyes and actually saw them.

Once again the rainbow swirls surrounded Sam, enveloping him and filling him. He could feel his body tingling yet again, the same sensation that he'd felt when it had transformed him into a girl. It only took the space of time that Sam needed to take several deep breaths, then the light all pulled back inside of him and went back into that dormant seed, while he had been returned to his normal male body. Even his own clothes had miraculously reappeared as well.

"Well," Sam took a deep breath as he checked himself over to verify that he was indeed fully back to normal, "That was weird."

Sam was relieved that his intuition... or whatever it was had proven correct and that he could easily change back to normal. Though he hadn't thought about it, there had been a small part of him that had been worried.

However, Sam realized that now there was something else to worry about. Like what in the world he was going to tell Anne about that... It was pretty embarrassing, yet the whole thing was far too big to keep from his family. And of course, Sam smiled faintly at the idea, knowing that it might also give him a chance to impress them with what he had done at the mall. Even if Anne would probably yell at him for risking himself afterwards.

It wasn't much longer before Sam's son Todd came home from school. He rushed into the house, looking excited, then hurried towards his room, barely sparing a nod for Sam. Sam was a little disappointed at the brief glimpse he'd caught of his son, but not surprised. Such behavior wasn't at all unusual for a 16 year old boy.

Less than five minutes after Todd had returned home, Emily came bursting through the door too. She was the spitting image of her mother, or at least looked like a 12 year old version of Anne. Emily was going to be a bit of a looker once she grew up a little, though the thought filled Sam with pride and worry at the same time. Emily grinned at Sam, calling out, "Hi daddy," before she rushed off to her own room as well.

"At least she could spare a hello," Sam chuckled to himself, knowing that it shouldn't be much longer before Anne was home from work as well. "Maybe I'll start dinner," Sam thought to himself as he started for the kitchen, deciding that he would 'spill the beans' about his day over the dinner table.

When Anne finally came home, Sam was determined not to let her slip past him like the kids had, so he met her at the door and surprised her with a kiss. "Welcome home," Sam told her with a grin.

"What was that for?" Anne asked, grinning back.

"Maybe because you deserve it for spending all day in that stuffy office," Sam responded, "Maybe because you're the best accountant in the state..."

"The state?" Anne asked with a mock warning tone.

"The world," Sam corrected, "And maybe because I just wanted to."

Anne laughed, giving Sam another quick kiss on the cheek before she went into the living room and turned the TV onto the news as she did every day. It was her custom to help relax after a long day. Sam didn't envy her commute or office existence, thankful yet again for his decision to go freelance and work from home.

After a minute, Anne looked at the dinner table and sniffed the scent of food in the air. "You made dinner," she noticed.

Sam just shrugged at that, "What else is a house husband going to do?"

With a grin, Sam turned away from Anne and took several steps towards the kid's bedrooms and calling out, "DINNER." He knew from experience that they might both have their radios or TV's on... but would still hear that magic word and be out in a minute.

Then Sam looked over at the TV, gulping when a moment later the news started showing scenes from the mall. His eyes widened when it actually showed HIM on the TV... or at least the girl him that he had been earlier. They had the whole damn fight with that creature on tape... It was all that he could do not to curse.

"Oh my," Anne gasped as she watched it, "That's our mall... There was a real superhero around here?"

Sam nearly choked, his mind racing as he tried to think of how he could explain this to Anne. This wasn't exactly the way that he'd intended to tell her.

"Anne..." Sam started.

But then Emily gasped, "Oh wow," from beside Sam. He hadn't even noticed his daughter coming up. Her eyes were glued to the TV and she moved closer, gasping, "Look at her... She's so pretty..."

"Hell yeah," Todd agreed as he came up too.

After watching Sam beat the creature on TV, Emily grinned excitedly, "I want to be just like her..."

Sam quickly turned to stare at his daughter, but at the same time, Todd announced, "I stopped at the mall on the way home from school and I actually saw her fly away."

"What?" Sam gasped, looking at Todd in disbelief. His own son had been there at the mall? He gulped, suddenly realized that the creature could have gotten Todd... If he hadn't stepped in to stop it when he did... "Oh God..."

"She was so hot," Todd exclaimed with a dreamy look on his face. A look that sent chills down Sam's spine as he immediately recognized it. It was the same look that Sam had when he'd fallen for that one girl a few months earlier and moped about her for weeks. Sam groaned at the realization that his own son had a crush on him... or at least his female alter ego.

"Oh shit," Sam groaned again, beginning to feel a bit sick.

Anne just snorted in disdain, "Well she looks like a little tramp to me."

For a moment, Sam just stood there, frozen in shock. He stared at his wife, then his kids. With each moment he felt the lead ball in his stomach becoming heavier.

Sam knew that what had happened to him that day was probably the biggest thing that had happened to him in his entire life, and there was no way that he would have kept that from his family... no matter how embarrassing it was. At least that was what he'd thought until just that moment.

However, after the conversation that they'd just had, there was no way that he could tell them now. It would be hard enough now that Anne had decided that his alter ego was a tramp, but with Todd having developed a crush on her... There was absolutely no way that he could tell them.

"Damn," Sam muttered under his breath, feeling a bit disappointed that he couldn't share his secret with his family. Then deciding that it might be a good time to change the subject, Sam announced, "Well guys... dinner's ready."

Dinner was strange, and very uncomfortable for Sam. He tried not to flinch as Emily went on about how great she thought that superheroine was... while Todd went on about how great he thought she was too... but for an entirely different reason.

After we had all finished eating, Emily cleaned up in the kitchen since it was her night, and Anne went in to help since I had been the one to make dinner. So while the girls were busy taking care of that, Todd and I went back to watching the news, seeing that they were showing more about my little fight at the mall.

"I guess a developed showing up around here is big news," Todd commented, "Especially one that cute..."

Sam just nodded at that, his eyes glued to the screen. They were starting to show some interviews with the people who had been around there watching.

One man who they interviewed was excitedly exclaiming, "I don't know who the hell she was," he told the camera, "but the way she was glowing and all... Damn that girl was glamorous."

"Well," the news anchor said when it shifted back to him a moment later, "it appears that even though her identity is still unknown... a lot of people owe their thanks to this mysterious glamour girl..."

"Glamour Girl..." Todd mused aloud, then announced, "That could be a cool name..."

Sam just grunted, not trusting himself to say anything more about the situation. He didn't know how to respond to anything about his alter ego. It was just too... uncomfortable.

But then, the news anchor disappeared while they showed a close up picture of the man that the creature had turned into, or at least a close up of his face. "The identity of the man left at the scene has just been identified," the anchor announced from off screen.

"Oh shit," Todd suddenly blurted out, "That's coach Higgens..."

"What?" Sam asked, staring at Todd in surprise.

"That's coach Higgens," Todd gasped, staring at the picture on TV. "He's our gym PE teacher... and coaches the football team..."

Sam just stared at Todd for a moment, feeling stunned at that. Then he quickly turned his attention back to the TV, seeing that they verified what Todd had just said. The monster that Sam had fought had indeed been Roland Higgens, a local high school gym teacher and football coach. But from his actions, Sam doubted that he had been in his right mind during that fight.

"This is too much," Sam sighed as he rubbed at his eyes, wondering yet again why in the world he had been chosen... and for what exactly. None of that weirdness fit into his nice normal suburban family life. Not in the least.

"What's too much?" Todd asked from beside him.

"Hmmm... this news," Sam said, changing the channel and the topic. "They're going to run this story into the ground..."

Then as Sam leaned back with a sigh, glancing at Todd who was already getting up to go hide in his room, he thought to himself that it had definitely been a strange day. It had not only been the strangest day in his entire life, stranger than anything he had even imagined could ever happen to him, yet at the same time he couldn't even say a single word to those closest to him.

That irony was not lost on Sam, who leaned further back in his recliner and muttered, "Glamour Girl my ass..."

Sam scowled, glaring at the computer monitor in front of him. He just couldn't seem to focus on his work or finishing up his project. All that he could think about where the events of the day before, and how he had chickened out on telling his family, even after having decided that he would.

"It's not like I had any choice," Sam muttered to himself.

He could just imagine how humiliated Todd would have felt after going on about how much of a crush he had on Sam's alter ego. There was no way that he could have done that to the boy... or himself for that matter.

Then Sam stood up from the computer to take a break, pausing for a moment to listen to the absolute quiet of the house. It was all his at the moment, with everyone else out on their normal daily business, whether that be school or work. Sam wasn't quite sure whether to be relieved at the quiet or annoyed by it. As he did ever day, Sam decided to be grateful for the temporary calm.

However, as soon as Sam caught sight of the local newspaper, his thoughts immediately went back to the day before. It was right there on the front page... a picture of his alter ego. And it appeared that they had taken a clue from one of the news anchor's comments the night before, because they clearly called Sam's alter ego by the name of Glamour Girl.

"Glamour Girl," Sam groaned, hating the fact that the news people had gone and made that name official. It somewhat annoyed him that when they didn't know someone's name, they actually had the audacity to create one and pass it off as fact. "And they call that news," he grumbled.

As Sam stared at the picture in the paper, he thought about what it had been like the day before. If it hadn't been for all the news about 'Glamour Girl', he might have thought that it had all been some sort of weird dream. But there was the evidence, right in front of him.

After a minute, Sam smiled hesitantly, even nervously. Once he'd gotten over his fear of falling, which had only been overcome by the greater fear of being torn to pieces by that monster, the flying part had been rather enjoyable. And as he thought about it, being able to toss a car around like that had been kind of interesting as well.

"I'm just lucky I didn't get killed," Sam told himself responsibly. "Running around like some damn superhero could have gotten me killed. Then where would Anne be?"

The knowledge that he could have gotten hurt was quite sobering, and had not been far from his thoughts since it had happened. In spite of all the stories about those developed who ran around and played superheroes, Sam knew that it wasn't a game. Running around in spandex could get you hurt... or worse.

"Still," Sam thought to himself, "It wouldn't hurt just to it out again..." After all, it wouldn't be like he would actually be doing anything dangerous.

With that, Sam closed his eyes and felt for the ball of dormant light within him. It was right there, just below the surface. It was so easy to feel that Sam was surprised that he hadn't really noticed it much. And just a moment later, it began to unravel... to fill him and then burst out of his skin in a swirl of rainbow colors. The ribbons of light danced simultaneously in and around Sam, leaving him unable to truly tell where he ended and they began.

Once the light withdrew, Sam just stood there motionless as he absorbed the changes. It was immediately obvious that he had once again become 'Glamour Girl' and was even wearing the same clothing. He slowly raised his hands to stare at the feminine fingers, then down at his returning breasts.

"I just hope Anne doesn't come home early and find me like this," Sam muttered, knowing that this was extremely unlikely as it wasn't even lunch yet.

Taking a deep breath, Sam looked into the living room mirror again, still stunned by the sight that met him. Of course it was identical to the day before, but that didn't make it any less impressive. Taking a man in his late thirties and transforming him into a teenage girl was somewhat... impressive.

Since Sam had the house to himself for some time to come yet, he saw no reason to be shy and stripped off his shirt, dropping it absently to the floor and staring down at his naked breasts. He smiled faintly, a bit embarrassed, though that didn't stop him from pulling off his pants. They seemed to cling to his very skin one moment, and the next they slid off with ease. It was almost as though they could sense that he wanted to take them off... so made it easy for him to do so.

"Yet one more mystery," Sam mused as he stared down at his pants on the floor.

Now completely naked, Sam stared at himself in the mirror once again, feeling extremely strange and somewhat uncomfortable as he did so. He looked like a teenage girl, so he wondered if that made this some sort of twisted pedophilia or something. At the moment, he certainly felt a little bit like a pervert.

Sam looked over his naked body, amazed at what he saw... at what he felt. Every single inch of him appeared to be one hundred percent female, which he still found hard to believe. However, as fascinating as it was to check his new body out, it was just too strange and he finally decided that he'd had enough.

"Time to go back to normal," Sam told the cute girl in the mirror as he willed the light to go dormant again.

The light quickly swirled around Sam yet again, returning him back to his normal self. At the same time, he suddenly remembered the clothes that he'd taken off and left on the floor, yet when he looked at them, he was startled to seem them vanish in a bunch of sparkles, leaving no trace that 'Glamour Girl' had been there at all.

"Convenient, I guess," Sam thought as he rubbed his chin. At least there would be no chance of Anne or the kids stumbling across any clothes left behind and putting two and two together.

Then on an impulse, Sam closed his eyes and willed the transformation back into Glamour Girl again. As soon as the transformation was completed, he looked down at himself, seeing that he was once again fully dressed in the clothes that he had taken off. He had suspected something of the sort might happen.

"I guess that would save money on buying extra spandex," Sam mused with a slight smirk. But it apparently also meant that he couldn't exactly change costumes either. What he wore when he transformed into Glamour Girl seemed to be the standard uniform.

Since Sam had discovered what he wanted to know, he thought about changing back to normal again but decided against it at the moment. Instead, he smirked, thinking that it wouldn't hurt to stay that way for a little longer, not as long as he didn't get carried away. And he had no intention of going down that uncomfortable alley again.

After that, Sam sat down in his new body to watch TV for several hours, occasionally pausing to poke at his new breasts and convince himself that they were indeed real. Eventually though, he decided that he'd had enough and changed back to normal so that he could get back to finishing up his software project.

"Weird voices and super powers don't pay the bills," Sam sighed as he went back to work.

***

Endless forests rolled past Sam as he flew over them, his eyes catching sight of the occasional brightly colored bird darting from the sanctuary of the trees. Soon the trees came to a break, revealing a great lake with perfectly still waters. The very surface looked as silvery as a well-polished mirror.

Then everything shifted and Sam found himself in the middle of a city, though unlike any city that he had ever seen before in his life. All of the buildings seemed to be made of marble and towered into the sky, along with spiraling towers and bridges nearly a dozen stories above.

A moment later, a dark shadow spread over the city, causing everything to darken into a grim twisted version of what it had been. And in an instant, the whole of the city around Sam had transformed into what could have been any major city that Sam had seen... except for what it might look like after a major disaster. Buildings were shattered, the roads and cars were all torn apart. And in dark sky above, Sam could see the flickering movement of bats... and creatures that he could not even imagine.

Suddenly Sam bolted upright in his bed, gasping from just how powerful and clear that dream had been. It was the same dream that he'd been having for the least several nights. And there was no doubt in Sam's mind that it had come from the voice that had given him his power, that it was some sort of warning. Or perhaps, he reconsidered; it might be his unconscious mind trying to make sense of all those images that the voice had shown him within that sphere of light.

"Stupid dream," Sam muttered, though it had been beautiful. At least the first part where he was flying and just going into that strange city. However, that second part with the shadows and all... He strongly suspecting that it might be some sort of reminder that the darkness was coming. "Whatever that is." He still didn't have any real idea what that voice meant.

Sam shook his head, then went to the bathroom to relieve himself. And as he was washing his hands afterwards, he looked up into the mirror above the sink and let out a gasp. It was Glamour Girl's face staring back at him.

"What the..." Sam gasped, quickly looking down at himself and seeing that he was indeed his normal male self. And when he looked back into the mirror, it was his own face that stared back at him, not that of the teenage girl he turned into. "Must be my imagination," he told himself, not quite certain of that.

Though Sam tried to shake it off, the brief image in the mirror had shaken him. He wondered if perhaps he had been spending too much time as Glamour Girl in the four days since he had first gained the ability to transform into her. Not likely, he decided after a moment.

Sam had only changed about once a day, doing so when his family was gone and he had enough time alone. He had transformed because of the excitement that his new form offered him, and the dangerous thrill that he got from flying. It was like a roller coaster... one that he controlled. He had flown up into the sky above, feeling almost like a real superhero, protecting the weak and helpless. However, Sam had to smirk slightly at that as the most heroic thing that he had done was to rescue an old lady's cat off of her roof.

"It's not like this is a crime infested slum," Sam chuckled, knowing that there hadn't been any real crime around for him to stop even if he had been a real hero. The closest that he'd come was that creature at the mall...

With that, Sam shook his head and tried putting thoughts about Glamour Girl and his powers out of his mind while he went about his morning routine and prepared to go to work. He had been working on a custom database for a local company that wasn't thrilled with the normal stuff on the market, and he'd promised to have it finished for them before the next week.

It was several hours later when Sam leaned back from his computer and glanced at his watch, seeing that it was coming up on lunchtime. He smiled faintly, deciding that it might be time to go for a quick flight and stretch his Glamour Girl muscles.

"Time to do that superhero on patrol thing," Sam told himself with a chuckle, "You never know when that darkness will show up..."

Of course he knew that he had no intention of actually doing any real superheroing or anything of the like. Nor did he expect there was much likelihood of running into that mysterious darkness. For all he knew, the creature had been it and he was now a free agent.

"Not like I ever agreed to the job or signed any contracts anyway," Sam sighed, getting up and stepping back from the computer so that he could will the change.

A minute later, Sam was once again Glamour Girl and standing in the middle of the living room. He checked his appearance in the mirror, still amazed though it was hardly the first time that he'd seen that reflection. Then he went out the back door and flew up into the air.

It was only once Sam was far above his house and looking down that a thought suddenly struck him. He had been flying right out of his own yard, with several other houses nearby. People could see him, and though he doubted that they'd ever think that HE was Glamour Girl, they were sure as hell likely to get suspicious if they saw her coming from his house. Fortunately, he was fairly confident that no one had seen him as of yet. Most of the people nearby were all at work around the time he'd used his powers so hadn't been around. However, Sam realized that the key word was YET. Sooner or later someone would see him... and then there would be a lot of questions. Questions that he didn't want to have to answer.

"I guess I'll have to be more careful from now on," Sam sighed, realizing that this would make things more difficult. But it would be safer that way.

Then while Sam looked down on his quiet suburban neighborhood, he smiled, suddenly having a great idea. He would drop in on Anne and surprise her for lunch. With his ability to fly, he should be able to get there a lot faster than he would be able to in his car, and without the hassle of traffic either. And once he got there, with a nice quiet spot and a snap of his fingers, he would be back to normal and ready to go.

Sam smiled as he quickly flew towards the city. It was a bit of a commute for Anne to drive there and back every day, but she thought that it was well worth it to their home in such a nice, family friendly area. Sam had to agree, but then again, he wasn't the one who had to spend that much time driving. And at the moment, he smirked slightly, not having to spend any time at all behind the wheel... and still arriving in the city much more quickly than Anne could ever hope to, even if the roads were perfectly clear.

Once Sam arrived in the city, he looked down upon all of the huge buildings, feeling somewhat nervous. It was one thing to fly about a quiet suburban area with few people watching him, but to do it in such a crowded place, with people who could be watching every move he made at any moment was just a little different. He silently reminded himself to be extremely careful about where and when he changed back to normal.

"This certainly beats looking for a parking spot," Sam mused as he looked down on the streets below. No stop lights. No idiots cutting him off. No driving around in circles and no having to pay a meter or parking attendant just to leave his car there. "Flying definitely has its advantages..."

But as Sam took his time heading towards the building where Anne worked, he caught sight of something in the distance. There was a flash of light from the top of a building, followed by second and a burst of smoke. Sam stared for a moment, then started flying towards it for a better look.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Sam mused as he moved closer.

When Sam had gotten close enough to make things out, he was startled to see that the rooftop of the building that he'd seen the flash of light coming from had a group of people fighting on it. There were five of them... and they were all wearing strange costumes.

Sam gasped, "Developed..." He'd stumbled onto one of those superhero fights that he'd seen on the news. Or that he'd been in, he silently reminded himself.

Pausing for a moment, Sam remained where he was and watched, trying to make some sense of what was going on. From what he could see, there seemed to be two sides in the fight, two of them on one side and three on the other. However, he couldn't tell which were the 'good guys'. Perhaps both were... or neither. None of it really made sense.

One of the developed was a woman who seemed to be made out of some sort of blue and white glowing energy that kept sparking around her. She was floating up in the air, shooting what looked like blasts of lighting at someone else from her hands.

Then, another one of them, a man dressed in a green and black costume that covered his entire body and looked something like a ninja uniform, yelled up at the glowing woman. "Stop playing with them Shokra... Kill them all!"

"I'm trying," the glowing woman... Shokra yelled back, obviously pissed. She even fired another blast of electricity as if to prove her point.

The man in green and black snarled, turning away from Shokra and jumping halfway across the roof in a single leap, lashing out at someone from the other side with his ninja sword. His would be victim was a girl who looked to be about 17 or 18, with short blonde hair and wearing a costume that was blue and gray with white trim. She gasped at the sight and held up her hands.

However, before the man in green reached her, another man who seemed to be made entirely of silver metal stepped in the way, catching the sword on his arm with a metallic clang. Then the silver man's hand stretched... melting and reshaping until it was a sharp edged blade as well.

Without a moment of hesitation, the man in green shifted tactics, apparently deciding to go for an easier target. He rolled to the side and lashed out with his foot... hitting the girl in blue with his foot and sending her flying backwards... and over the edge of the building.

Sam gasped in horror, and without even giving it any conscious thought, was diving after the girl. He flew towards the falling girl as fast as he could, his heart racing in fear of what might happen to her, though he knew that it was nothing compared to what she had to be feeling. And Sam knew something of that from when he'd fallen right after gaining his powers.

"Gotcha!" Sam cried out as he grabbed the girl up in his arms and took control of the fall. He used his powers to slow them both down, silently praying that he could do it. That was unlike anything that he'd done since gaining his powers, but all that he could do was try. "I hope I can hold us both..."

Somehow, Sam managed to bring them to at stop in the air, holding them where they were and letting out a sigh of relief. The girl stared at Sam with a look of shock on her face, then gulped nervously, "Um... thanks."

Sam nodded, not sure that he trusted himself to speak right then. He was just amazed that he hadn't screwed it up. That he hadn't dropped her, or stopped her too suddenly and broken her neck from whiplash. Both were considerations that hadn't dawned on him until after he'd had her well in hand.

"Can you get me back up there?" the girl asked, pointing up with a fearful look on her face. "My friends need me..."

For a moment, Sam just stared at her, half sure that this girl was crazy. She'd just been attacked and thrown off of a huge building... and she was eager to go right back up. Finally, he nodded weakly, "I'll try..."

With that, Sam started flying up, finding that it took a little more effort than normal since he was carrying a passenger in his arms, but it wasn't nearly as difficult as he had feared. Up he went until he reached the roof, where he set the girl back down.

"Thanks," the girl told him, already running back into the fight.

"She must be crazy," Sam gasped.

Sam gulped, suddenly realizing that he was now in the middle of the fight... and he didn't even know who was the good guy. But then again, from the way that the man in green had kicked the blonde off the building, Sam doubted that he was one of them.

Then Sam noticed the blonde that he'd rescued... She had made a ball of bluish white light appear in the palm of her hand... and then threw it. As soon as the ball hit the ground near the man in green, it suddenly exploded outwards, expanding rapidly until there was a ball of the white light about ten feet in diameter. And as soon as it reached that size, it popped and vanished like a bubble. But everything that had been inside seemed to be covered with ice. However, the man in green wasn't there, having slipped out of range just in time... though he had left his sword, which seemed to be covered with frost and shattered.

At the same time, the silver man was being hit by blasts of electricity from Shokra, and not seeming too bothered by that. His hands were back... but all of his fingers were stretched out and looking as sharp as knife blades. Sam wouldn't want to shake his hand.

Finally, Sam's attention went to the last person in the fight. She looked to be about 17 or so, with long brown hair and wearing a blue and violet costume. Her hands were glowing green and beams of green light shot out up at Shokra... who was dodging those and firing lightning back at the roof top almost randomly.

A moment later, the man in green was coming towards Sam, his fist raised as though to punch. Sam grimaced, realizing too late that he was in the middle of a developed fight and couldn't very well be a spectator. And since this guy was obviously not one of the good guys, Sam didn't think that he'd feel all that bad if he hurt him.

But as soon as Sam punched his attacker... the man split. There were suddenly two of him, each one identical to but smaller than the original. And both off them were coming at Sam. Sam lashed out with his arm, catching one of the two with his arm and sending him flying, though he split again in midair... again having two smaller versions.

"What the fuck?" Sam gasped out in confusion.

"He's called Locust," the blonde that Sam had rescued called out to him.

Just then, Shokra yelled at Locust, "Enough of this... We're outnumbered and we've lost the element of surprise..."

"AGREED," Locust responded simultaneously from all three of his smaller bodies.

Then with a stream of profanity, Shokra released a storm of electrical blasts all over the rooftop... hitting only the silver man and one of the small Locusts before she took off higher into the air.

At the same time, all of the Locusts were running... and each one splitting apart as they did so. Within mere moments, there were hundreds of him running around and bouncing all over the rooftop, each one no more than several inches tall. There had to be hundreds of tiny versions of him moving about.

"A swarm," Sam muttered in realization as he stared at them all, "A swarm of locusts..."

Sam ran to the edge of the building that the Locusts had vanished from, and he could see only faint traces of them vanishing from below. Somehow, he doubted that even in spite of that height, which had to seem MUCH further to them because of their size, that they would be hurt. He probably wouldn't have jumped off if there were a risk of that.

Just then, Sam realized that the remaining three were standing there, staring at him. He gulped, feeling nervous and hoping that they didn't expect him to continue the fight with them. Not when he didn't even know who they were.

"Relax," the blonde told the others, "She saved my life..." Then she turned to Sam, "Thanks again..."

"Um... no problem," Sam responded, still nervous but not nearly as much. The blonde didn't look like she was threatening him or anything.

"If you're on our side," the silver man demanded of Sam, "Then why did you let Shokra get away? You could have flown after her..."

Sam frowned, then offered a shrug of apology. The truth was that he hadn't even thought about it, nor did he think that it was any of his business when he didn't even know what the hell was going on. He didn't know who any of those people were or why they were fighting.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked, looking towards the blonde since she was the one who'd spoken up for him, and that he'd had the most contact with.

"Locust is an assassin," the blonde responded, "We stopped him from killing a target so he came after us for revenge and brought Shokra as backup."

"So who are you?" the man in silver demanded, standing there with his arms crossed.

"I'm..." Sam started, then took a deep breath, "I'm Glamour Girl." He winced slightly as he made the name that the media had stuck him with official.

"They call me Zero Kay," the blonde grinned at him.

"Zero Kay?" Sam repeated, thinking that it was a weird name. Then again, he guessed that was sort of standard for the developed spandex set.

Zero Kay shrugged, forming a ball of bluish white light in her hand, just as he had seen her do before. Then she tossed it to the side, where it once again rapidly expanded and popped, leaving everything within covered in frost and ice.

"Zero Kelvin," Sam gasped in realization of where the name came from. "Zero K. Absolute Zero."

"Yeah," Zero Kay grinned back, "I flash freeze things. Pretty much the same power as my brother Shiver. He's with Faction Zero..."

The name Faction Zero sounded vaguely familiar, though Sam was pretty sure that it was one of those superhero groups. He'd never really kept up on who all of those developed people were, though he thought that considering what had been happening to him, it might be a good idea to start doing so.

"I'm Chrome," the silver man announced.

With that, Chrome stood there and the silver metal that covered his body started to melt and flow right off of his body. A moment later, he was revealed to be a bald black man of about 18 or 19 years old. He stood in what looked like a puddle of mercury, yet at the same time, the silvery metal seemed to drying up and crumbling into a black powder.

"He makes some kind of liquid metal come from his body," Zero Kay told Sam, "and can shape it a bit..."

"Nice to meet you," Sam nodded, but Chrome just grunted.

Then Zero Kay gestured towards the other girl, the one with the blue and violet costume and the brown hair. "That's Channel." Channel blushed, looking a little embarrassed by the attention.

"And she shoots energy blasts," Sam nodded, remembering her doing just that. But she seemed a bit different during the fight than she did right then... More daring and outgoing...

"Not exactly," Zero Kay told him. "She channels the dead." At Sam's look of disbelief, Kay continued, "She sort of calls out for help, and some ghost that has the ability to help, and a reason to do so possesses her body. And while they're in control, they can even use whatever powers they had when they were alive."

Sam shivered at the thought of some dead person taking control of his body. "Sounds... freaky."

"Yep," Kay nodded.

Suddenly, Chrome demanded, "Where the hell is that lazy bastard. I didn't see him out here..."

"What?" Kay gasped, looking around and frowning, "Our secret headquarters gets attacked and he didn't even help defend it?" Then she snapped, "I'm going to kick his ass..."

Sam blinked, "Secret headquarters?" He didn't see anything that looked like a secret headquarters. Just an apartment building.

"C'mon," Kay gestured, "I'll show you..."

"You sure this is a good idea," Chrome asked her, eying Sam suspiciously but not pushing it any further.

A minute later, Zero Kay had led Sam down some stairs into through a doorway. After she gestured for Sam to go inside, he stopped and looked around in surprise. It was an apartment... that looked pretty much like any cheap apartment that he'd ever seen. There was even a coffee table covered with pizza boxes and soda cans, as well as couple beer bottles.

"This isn't exactly what I'd imagine a secret headquarters to look like," Sam admitted, thinking that it looked more like the place he shared with a couple of guys in college.

"We're a pretty low budget super team," Channel told him, obviously a bit embarrassed about it.

"It happens when you ain't got some millionaire giving you mansions and paying the bills," Chrome added.

"But what do you expect with a group called the Slackers?" Kay admitted, looking embarrassed as well.

"The name is Deadbeat's fault," Chrome muttered. "Why don't we change it to the Killer Quatro like I suggested?"

Zero Kay rolled her eyes, "Puh-leeze... We can't say how many there are of us in our name..."

"The Seven do," Channel pointed out.

But Kay continued, "And what happens whenever they gain or lose someone? Either their name isn't accurate anymore... or they have to change it."

Then before that talk could go any further, Chrome kicked the couch and gestured to the person that was sitting on it. Sam gasped in shock at the sight. The man sitting there looked to be in his mid twenties, but he looked... horrible. That was putting it mildly His skin was all gray and his eyes were sunken in. There was a stink about him and several flies buzzing around his head. And if it wasn't for the fact that he was reaching for a bottle of beer, Sam would have sworn that he was staring at a corpse.

"This here is Deadbeat," Kay told Sam, glaring at the object of their conversation. "Proof positive that just because someone is a lazy couch potato when they're alive doesn't mean that things are going to change any when they come back from the dead."

"Dead..." Sam whispered, taking an instinctive step back from Deadbeat, who nodded absently at him before turning his attention back to the TV.

"He's a zombie," Chrome snorted.

"I ain't no zombie," Deadbeat said, his voice a bit rough and gravely. "Not exactly... I'm more like a ghost..."

"He possesses dead bodies," Kay sighed, "At least until they get too bad. Then he has to go find another one to use."

"I'm just glad that my powers don't work with him," Channel commented, looking a little disgusted. "He can't possess me... even if I call for help," she told Sam, "But even if he could... I wouldn't let him anywhere near my body."

"I wouldn't want to be in your body," Deadbeat commented with a smirk. "At least not that way..."

Then Chrome demanded, "Where the fuck were you man? We were fighting up there..."

And while Chrome was busy yelling at Deadbeat, Channel and Zero Kay were both looking embarrassed. Sam guessed that having a cheap apartment for a 'secret headquarters', a team name like the Slackers and a member who couldn't be bothered to fight weren't exactly points of pride for them.

"Sorry you're not seeing us at our best," Kay apologized.

"We're not as messed up as we seem," Channel added. "We're actually pretty good at what we do."

"Not as good as the Protectorate or anything," Kay admitted, "But we do all right."

"Well," Sam gave an embarrassed smile, "I'm kind of new at this myself..."

Zero Kay grinned, "Cool."

Sam smiled nervously, feeling somewhat relieved that they weren't treating him as some sort of freak. But then again, being developed and superheroes, a glowing girl must be absolutely nothing unusual for them. Especially not when they had a walking dead guy as one of them.

Several minutes later, Sam was sitting down and talking with them, mostly listening as they excitedly told about some of the things that they'd done. Chrome seemed about the most eager to do that, showing himself as a little bit of a braggart. Or at least that was the impression that Sam got.

While sipping at the soda that Channel had offered him, Sam just nodded along, interested in the stories, even in spite of himself. He couldn't help staring at them a little while listening, but he was beginning to see that they weren't just developed or superheroes like he'd seen on TV. They were people... just like anyone else. They just happened to be normal people, or at least relatively normal people with strange powers. Sam wasn't sure if that made him more comfortable or less since he knew just how imperfect normal people could be.

After a short while though, Zero Kay looked at Sam thoughtfully, then asked, "So... you want to join us?"

"We can really use someone who can fly," Chrome admitted, giving Sam a welcoming smile. Apparently his suspicions had disappeared when Sam listened to his stories.

"Hey," Channel protested without much force, "I can fly too..." Then she blushed, "At least sometimes..."

Sam stared at them all in surprise, feeling somewhat stunned by the request, as we as a bit thrilled. "Um... wow," he finally responded. Then taking a deep breath, "I'm honored... but I can't." He shrugged apologetically, trying to think of how to explain to them without giving anything away.

However, Zero Kay sighed, "Let me guess... You won't have much time because of school and other secret identity stuff..."

"Something like that," Sam admitted with a nervous smile.

"Cool, I understand," Kay told him. "It's kind of hard doing the hero thing all the time when you've got school and everything..."

"Tell me about it," Channel muttered.

Then Sam looked at their clock and gasped, realizing that it was later than he'd realized. It was probably too late to meet up with Anne for lunch now. He grimaced at that, disappointed by that after he'd gotten his expectations up.

"Well," Sam sighed as he got up, "I've got to get going..."

"It was nice meeting you," Zero Kay grinned.

"Ditto," Deadbeat responded, not bothering to get up from his seat on the couch, for which Sam was thankful.

After a quick round of good-byes, Sam told them, "It was nice meeting you all too. Maybe we'll run into each other again."

And then, Sam waved to them all before jumping out the window and flying up into the air. As he left the building behind, he let out a sigh of relief. The Slackers had definitely been pretty nice, and it had been an extremely interesting experience talking to them. However, none of them knew who he really was. None of them knew that he was really a man... or that he was old enough to be their father.

"Too bad about missing lunch with Anne," Sam sighed as he started flying for home, deciding that he didn't regret at all what he'd ended up doing instead. "Guess it's a good thing I didn't call her and make plans ahead..."

***

Sam scowled as he looked down at the street and houses below, his eyes nervously darting from place to place, though seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Still, he looked... feeling it. Feeling something. Something... dark.

It had been a week since Sam had first gained his power and been warned that the darkness was coming. It had been a full week since he had fought that strange creature in the mall parking lot. And though Sam had not seen anything else like that creature, over the last couple of days, he had been feeling something... Something that reminded him a great deal of that creature. It was something that he couldn't put in words, but somehow, Sam was sure that he could feel the darkness nearby... just as he had when fighting that creature.

During the last several days, Sam had been feeling the darkness... more and more. He had been seeing things... or at least catching the faintest glimpses out of the corners of his eyes, though had never actually seen anything solid. Sam had never seen any solid proof that there was anything wrong... though he could still feel it.

"The darkness is coming," Sam muttered to himself, thinking of the warning that he had been given, and the strange dreams which had reinforced it. Now Sam was strongly beginning to suspect that the darkness was already there.

Though Sam's first thought had been to ignore those warnings and the nervous feelings that had started to form, to pretend that it had nothing to do with him, to remind himself that he had never asked for any of it... he couldn't. Sam had seen that creature at the mall, and like it or not... it did have something to do with him. That strange voice had made sure of that when it had given him those powers.

"I didn't accept responsibility," Sam had told himself, more than once. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't responsible.

Then, as Sam thought about that viscous creature... and the fact that Todd had been right there at the mall and could have been hurt by it, Sam realized that it was also rather more personal. That creature could have hurt his son... And if the darkness behind that creature was still around, it would probably be very dangerous for his whole family... and everyone else in the area.

Because of this, Sam had grimly decided to take the initiative and go looking for the darkness. Before it came looking for him and his family. He had been flying overhead, looking... searching for any sign of it. However, other than that nagging feeling that the darkness was somewhere nearby, Sam had not found a thing.

Sam let out a sigh of tired frustration and started to land back in an empty corner of Bison Park. He had recently taken to changing back and forth there rather than at home because there was much less likelihood of him being spotted... or anyone being able to connect the two of them. But just as Sam touched the ground, he froze... feeling it again. The darkness...

"What the..." Sam gasped, quickly looking around, though seeing nothing... yet.

It took a minute, but Sam quickly found it... the source of what he was feeling. He couldn't help gasping at the sight, staring for a moment in disbelief. There was another creature standing in the middle of the park, tearing apart what had been some children's playing equipment. It stood there with the merry go round in torn from its supports and raised above its head. The feeling of darkness reeked from it, just as it had from the previous creature.

"Oh shit," Sam gulped at the sight of it.

But even though this new creature radiated the same kind of aura... gave Sam the same kind of feeling of darkness as the last, it looked absolutely nothing like it. In fact, it looked more human, though not by too much.

This new creature was human in shape and undeniably female. However, she stood seven feet tall, had pure white skin and glowing red eyes. Her figure and features were somewhat attractive, or would have been had they not been so harsh. She had pointed ears, sharp teeth and long black hair, all of which gave her something of a vampiric appearance. Her clothing, if it could be called that, seemed to be more like lightweight black armor, which covered most of her body from the neck down.

Not sure what else to do, Sam asked the huge woman, "Why don't you put that thing down so we can talk..."

However, the woman just growled at Sam, then with a snarl, threw the merry go round straight at him. Sam easily avoided it, especially since her aim was more than five feet to the left of him. But she roared and charged straight at him, her armor covered fingers all stretched out and clawlike.

"Not this again," Sam groaned, flying up into the air before the woman could reach him. And when she let out yet another howl, this time filled with frustration, Sam called down to her, "Not too talkative, are you?"

From the lack of conversation, even a little profanity, Sam was beginning to suspect that she couldn't talk. Just like the creature at the mall...

Since Sam obviously couldn't reason with his opponent, he knew that he was going to have to use force. He grimaced at the thought, knowing how dangerous something like that would be but also knowing that at the moment, he didn't have a choice.

Sam snarled and dove straight at the monstrous woman, then punched her as hard as he could. His fist glowed with swirls of light as it impacted with her face, sending her flying back and straight through a tree. For a brief moment, Sam had thought that he'd done it, but she got back to her feet and let out another growl.

"This is getting tiring," Sam muttered, though the truth was that he was afraid. However, he wasn't about to back down now.

It was pretty obvious that the creature didn't share Sam's fear, as she didn't hesitate a moment more before charging straight at him. Sam grimaced, knowing that he could easily fly out of range again... but instead, he opted for another choice.

Sam waited until the huge woman was close enough, threw out his hands and unleashed another of his powers... one that he had instinctively known about but hadn't tried until that moment. It was as though a rainbow exploded from his hands and straight into the charging creature. The creature howled as it was engulfed in swirling lights, and to Sam's amazement... it dropped to the ground.

"It... it worked," Sam gasped as he stared down at the motionless creature.

But even though she wasn't moving, Sam hesitated in getting too close, once again clearly remembering in monster movies that the monsters always got back up for one final go. Sam was almost disappointed when like the one at the mall, this one began changing instead.

"Let's see what you look like," Sam whispered, still keeping his distance until the changes were finished.

Once the Amazonian creature had fully reverted to human, Sam just stood over her and stared in disbelief. She was a girl... A teenage girl of about 17 or so, with shoulder length black hair and several rings piercing her eyebrow. She reminded Sam of what Todd would call a Goth. That certainly seemed appropriate considering what she had just been.

But as Sam stared at the unconscious girl, he suddenly realized that he now had another problem. What to do with her? He hadn't had to worry about that issue after he'd fought the other monster at the mall since the cops were close by, but this time they were nowhere in site. And it was pretty obvious that Sam couldn't just fly over to the police station and drop her off. That might work in the comic books, but in real life there would be too many questions... not to mention the fact that he had absolutely no proof that the girl had just been a monster a short time before.

Finally, Sam shook his head, muttering, "What would a real superhero do?"

Unfortunately, Sam didn't have his own private prison for super villains, or a close friend on the police force. In fact, now that the girl was back to human, Sam wasn't even sure that she was really responsible for what she'd been doing. Or would have done had he not stopped her.

"Damn," Sam spat out, shaking his head before finally deciding to just do nothing.

He'd stopped the monster, and that seemed about all that he could do at the moment. So giving another nervous look at the naked teenage girl on the ground, Sam flew back up into the air, telling himself that it wasn't his problem anymore. Still, it just didn't seem right to leave a teenage girl lying around naked in the middle of the park, so he stopped at the edge of the park and used the pay phone to call the police. They'd get to the park before anything could happen to the girl. And if nothing else, they might be able to get her for public exposure.

Sam nodded and gave an occasional grunt to acknowledge that he was indeed listening to Anne while she explained her long and frustrating day at work, though the truth was that his thoughts were on anything but her story. Not that Sam would let her know this. After so many years of marriage, he knew better than that.

At the moment, Sam was barely even managing to pay attention to the dinner in front of him or the rest of his family who sat around the table. Instead, he thought about that Amazon creature that he had fought at the park a few hours earlier. The darkness was close by... he could feel it. Now if he could find it... or understand what he was supposed to do about it.

Suddenly, Emily blurted, "Guess what?"

Emily had been excited and looking as though she was about to burst ever since she had come home from school, though Sam couldn't figure out why. From the excited look on her face, he guessed that he was about to find out.

"I saw Glamour Girl today," Emily exclaimed proudly.

"What?" Todd asked, giving his little sister his complete attention for once.

Not sure what to say, Sam responded with a careful, "Oh..."

"She flew over my school," Emily announced with a broad grin. "I was going to my next class, and someone said that they saw Glamour Girl above us... and when I looked up, there she was. Right above my school..."

Sam wasn't sure whether to smile or groan from his daughter's reaction. He had flown over Emily's school that day, having been close by and deciding to stop over for a quick peak at where his daughter was. However, he hadn't thought that anyone would notice him, or that anyone would make such a fuss over it. Now Sam was beginning to think that it might have been a big mistake, except that when he saw how happy his little trip had made Emily, he decided that maybe it had been a good idea after all.

But while Sam was thinking about his flying over his daughter's school, Emily and Todd were still talking about it. "You can't see Glamour Girl's panties," Emily was protesting, "She wears pants..."

"Oh yeah," Todd sighed, "I knew that..." Then he quickly added, "I just think she'd look better in a skirt..."

After Todd and Emily continued their conversation, which for most other people would be considered arguing, Anne became annoyed. She scowled, then tried to change the subject, "So, how was school today?"

"All right," Todd mumbled, suddenly more interested on the food on his plate.

"It was great," Emily grinned, "It was really boring at first, and we had a test in math, and Kelly tried starting a fight with me, but then I got to see Glamour Girl..."

At this point, Anne groaned while Sam had to suppress a smile at the way that Emily had started bringing the top right back around to her favorite superhero. It still amazed Sam, both that Emily like Glamour Girl so much, and that he was actually her.

Anne quickly looked to Todd, "Surely your day was more than all right..."

Todd hesitated for a moment, looking a bit uncomfortable. Finally, he muttered, "It was weird."

"Weird?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Todd responded slowly, seeming a bit more animated as he thought about it, "School's been getting real weird lately."

"Because you're there?" Emily asked with a smirk.

However, Todd didn't take the bait and shrugged, "It's hard to explain. I mean... everything sort of feels... weird. Like I'm being watched whenever I walk down the hall. And some kids aren't acting right. They're acting..."

"Weird," Emily supplied with a grin.

Todd nodded, "Especially the cheerleaders. I swear, some of them are even starting to dress like Goths... And what happened with coach Higgens..."

Sam just gasped and stared at Todd in surprise as he absorbed everything that his son had just told him. Coach Higgens had been that monster at the mall. And then that girl at the park earlier... she had looked about high school age.

"Are you all right?" Anne asked Sam, looking a little worried.

"Fine," he told her with a weak smile, "Just thinking about a project I've been working on..."

"Well you take it easy," she told him, "Just because you work at home doesn't mean that you can do so during dinner."

"Of course," Sam smiled back.

Still, Sam couldn't stop thinking of what Todd had said. He thought about it for the rest of the night, and the more that he thought about it, the more suspicious that school sounded. Somehow, Sam was going to have to check it out a little more closely.

It was late in the next morning when Sam stood at the kitchen counter and sipped at his coffee. He let out a faint sigh as the caffeine began to do it's work, and strongly suspected that he was going to need the divine brew to get going even more than normal.

That night's sleep hadn't provided quite as much rest as Sam would have liked, thanks in no small part to the dreams. They were getting worse... both more vivid and more insistent. In them, he could see the darkness spreading, and it was as though they were telling him that there wasn't much more time. Soon the darkness would become too strong...

"I've got to do something," Sam muttered; just to get a good night sleep if nothing else. And then there was the consideration of what might happen to his family because of that darkness.

Especially Todd, Sam thought grimly. After all, everything that Sam had seen about the darkness indicated that it had something to do with Todd's school. And what Todd had told him the night before during dinner had made it seem even more so. Sam hadn't liked sending his son back into that kind of potential problem, but until he found something a little more solid, there was nothing that he could do to keep Todd away from school.

"Maybe I'm just being paranoid about his school," Sam told himself, though deep inside, he was sure that he wasn't.

Sam thought about how he could get in to check out his suspicions, but there didn't seem to be anything good. Sure, he could fly over Todd's school, just like he had Emily's, and if the darkness was there, he was sure that he'd be able to sense it. Of course, that also left the problem that if the darkness saw him... then he would lose the element of surprise. And at the moment, Sam thought that this might be his greatest advantage.

Somehow, Sam was pretty sure that even if he went there, he wouldn't be able to sense the darkness as himself, only as Glamour Girl. "And it's not like Glamour Girl can just walk through the front door..."

Then, thinking that it might help him think, or at least get him into the right frame of mind, Sam set down his coffee and triggered the change into Glamour Girl. Once the light ceased swirling around him, he could immediately feel his no longer completely alien body. But still, he couldn't help running his hands over his feminine curves.

And shaking his head slightly, he muttered, "I'll never get used to that."

Sam frowned slightly and held his arm up in front of him, staring at it intently. The glowing skin was rather fascinating, though it did make him rather hard to miss seeing. And that made it VERY hard for him to sneak up on much of anybody, much less this mysterious darkness that he was supposed to be chasing down.

After a minute though, something occurred to Sam. He stared at his glowing skin again, this time a bit more thoughtfully. And with a silent prayer, Sam began to concentrate. To his amazement, the light that was coming from his skin began to dull. He willed the light to recede further, and it slowly did so. Within a short time, the light coming from Sam seemed to have vanished entirely.

"It worked," Sam whispered, not having been sure that he could even make the light pull back until then.

Sam stared at his now normal looking skin for a moment, then rushed to the nearest mirror. The glow had gone out from around his entire body, making him look pretty much like any other teenage girl. His glowing, golden blonde hair had even faded back as well to a somewhat more natural looking blonde.

Then once he had gotten over his initial amazement, Sam smiled weakly and muttered, "Well, I guess takes care of the problem about walking through the front door..."

Of course, Sam knew that this left a number of other problems. Problems with which he was going to have to find solutions... and quick. He didn't have much more time before it was too late. At least not according to his dreams.

For the next hour, Sam carefully thought about what he was going to have to do. He didn't particularly like it, but he didn't see many other choices.

Finally, Sam braced himself to do what he had to do and take the next step in his plan. He changed back to normal then drove to a store to buy some new clothes for his 'daughter'. Afterwards, Sam found a safe place and changed back into Glamour Girl, then toned down his light and put on the clothes.

"Time for another round of shopping," Sam grunted as he adjusted his somewhat uncomfortable clothes.

He had been forced to guess at his size and now regretted it somewhat. However, he had been expecting that and had already been planning on going out shopping again, even though he didn't really enjoy the thought.

"At least this time I'll be able to try them on and make sure they fit," Sam told himself as he started back towards the store.

Sam tried to hurry, as he looked through the clothes, though the very nature of his task, not to mention his unfamiliarity with it made it take much longer than he would have preferred. He tried keeping in mind what he had seen real teenage girls wearing, hoping that he'd never catch Emily wearing some of that stuff. And slowly, he picked out his selection, buying just enough for several days.

When it came time to buy a bra, Sam hesitated, not wanting to wear one and sure that he could do without. However, he reminded himself what the goal was grimaced, bracing himself for the inevitable. He stared at the garments that he'd had such familiarity with removing from a female body, but had never worn himself, realizing that he didn't even know what size he wore. Fortunately, a kind sales lady was happy to help him out.

Once Sam had finished with his shopping trip, he let out a long sigh of relief. Unfortunately, he still knew that the hardest part was yet to come. Wearing those new clothes in public and trying to pass himself off as the teenage girl that he appeared.

"Tomorrow is NOT going to be fun," Sam told himself grimly before changing back to his normal self and returning home.

***

Sam burned with a nervous anticipation as he faced the morning, and the process of getting his family out of the house. First was Anne, who rushed off to work, facing a long commute to work that was ahead of her. Then came the kids, Emily and Todd, whom Sam could barely wait to get out the door.

"Good luck in school," Sam told Emily as he rushed her out the door, then he weakly joked, "And don't go getting in any fights..."

"I won't," Emily giggled back.

Todd shrugged, looking a little less enthusiastic about going to school. In fact, he looked as though he wanted to bite someone's head off. Somehow, Sam saw a lot of coffee to get the boy going in the future. Like father, like son, or so they said.

"What are you up for so early anyway?" Todd asked him gruffly, apparently annoyed at the slight alteration of his morning routine. "You usually don't get up until we're gone..."

Sam gulped, not having expected that question. It wasn't an exactly inaccurate observation, though there had been other times that Sam had gotten up before they left. But then again, at those times he was usually still hanging around in his bathrobe and only getting up minutes before they left.

"I have an early phone conference with one of my clients," Sam lied, not having to put much distaste in his voice as it came with the very thought. There had been a couple of times when clients insisted on talking to him, either by phone or in person, at what Sam considered to be unreasonably early hours.

However, Todd just nodded absently, apparently not even really listening to Sam's explanation. Then with a deep scowl, he left the house on his way to school as well.

"Finally," Sam muttered once the house was empty.

For a minute, Sam just stood there, feeling relieved, yet at the same time, even more nervous than before. Now there was no longer an excuse to put this all off. He was going to have to go through with his plan or abandon them, and abandoning them at that stage reeked too much of cowardice. As much as Sam disliked the idea, he refused to be a chicken now.

"Put up or shut up time," he muttered as he went to the spare bedroom.

Once Sam was in the storage room, which doubled as a guest bedroom, he willed the transformation into Glamour Girl. He gasped as he felt the light filling him, then the strange sensations of his now female body.

Sam paused long enough to look down at himself and stare at his body, which he knew he would never get used to seeing. Then he shook it off and stripped out of his Glamour Girl clothes, dropping them to the floor.

"Let's see," Sam mused as he pulled the clothes that he'd bought the day before from their hiding place. There were two days worth of clothes. "Which should I wear..."

Rolling his eyes at the ridiculousness of it all, Sam made his choice and began getting dressed. He cursed almost all the way through the process, especially when he put on the bra. It wasn't quite as difficult to put on as he had feared, though it was a bit uncomfortable to wear. Sam just didn't like the constrained feeling that it gave him, though he reminded himself yet again that it was a necessity for what he had planned.

When Sam had finished getting dressed, he stood and stared at stared at himself in the mirror, almost immediately realizing that he'd almost forgotten something VERY important. He was still glowing. And after he pulled back the light, he nodded his approval. Now Sam really did look just like any other teenage girl.

Letting out a sigh, Sam muttered, "Oh joy..." However, he was a little more pleased at that than he would have liked to admit.

Sam picked up the small back pack that he'd also bought, stuffing his Glamour Girl clothes into the bottom, then putting a few other items that he thought he'd need for school, such as a notebook and some pens. Then he started for his car, but paused, suddenly realizing one other problem. He couldn't exactly drive his car to school at the moment, nor could he use his powers and fly there. That would give away the whole reason for his buying the clothes and going undercover in the first place.

"Damn," Sam muttered grimly.

Of course, Sam realized that he could either drive or fly to somewhere near the school and walk the short remaining distance, but that still provided the problem of what could happen if anyone actually saw him. No, he realized, it was too much of a risk. Instead, he was going to have to walk,

"At least it's not too far," Sam grumbled to himself, though he wasn't exactly looking forward to the walk. "I guess I won't be getting there before school starts..."

Then letting out a sigh of frustration, Sam started walking in the direction of the high school. It was even more annoying since he knew exactly how easy it would have been for him to either drive for fly, saving himself both the time and effort.

By the time that Sam arrived at the school, he had missed the starting bell and it was probably well into first period. However, that didn't matter to him as he was immediately faced with something much more important.

The moment that Sam had come close to the school, he could feel it. He could feel the darkness radiating out from the school, or perhaps, more like a black hole... he could feel it trying to draw everything else in. Sam shuddered instinctively, standing at the edge of the school and stared at it in horror and disgust.

"It's here," he whispered, his voice shaking slightly from the fear that suddenly swelled up.

Sam shook as he felt just how strong that darkness was. It was MUCH stronger than what he'd felt when facing either of those two creatures. In fact, it overshadowed those two entirely, and Sam realized that the power of this darkness was probably just as much stronger as well.

There was absolutely no doubt in Sam's mind, that somewhere within the walls of that school was the very darkness that he had been warned about. The darkness, which he had been having ever escalating nightmares about every night since he had gained his powers.

"Damn," Sam gulped, having to fight to keep his light contained. The power within him wanted to jump out at the very nearness of the darkness. "Okay," Sam told himself after a minute, "I know that it's in here somewhere... but I don't know where."

Or even what, he silently reminded himself. Sam had been looking and looking for the darkness, but he still didn't even know exactly what it was. The mysterious voice that had given him his powers hadn't been exactly very precise.

Then after a minute, Sam braced himself and stepped into the school grounds. He grimaced, trying to ignore the feeling that he could sense all around him. It was as though there were a dark cloud hanging about that he could see out of the corner of his eye. However, whenever he turned to look straight at it, it was gone... or at least not where he was looking.

But before Sam had gone very far down the hallway, he heard someone behind him and snapped around. There was a plump woman just a few years older than himself... his real age.

"What are you doing out in the hall?" the woman asked, a hint of suspicion on her eyes. "Do you have a hall pass?"

"Hall pa..." Sam started, then frowned, remembering that at the moment, he was just a high school student. "I'm new here," Sam told her, giving his best 'lost little girl' look.

The woman whom Sam assumed was a teacher, nodded, looking somewhat sympathetic. "And you got lost," she sighed before asking, "Can I see your schedule?"

Sam smiled sweetly at that, having come up with his cover story the day before. "I don't have one. We just moved in yesterday and I haven't registered here yet..." Then at the teacher's look of disapproval, Sam quickly went on, "But my mom told me that I should come here today anyway and look around."

"I'll have to call your parents," the teacher started, though Sam quickly told her that they had just moved in and didn't yet have a phone number. She let out a long sigh before shaking her head, "I suppose it won't hurt to let you stay for the day. But you'll have to have your parents come to the school and register as soon as possible..."

"Okay," Sam told her, "Thanks..."

After the teacher asked Sam a few more questions to determine what grade he should be in and what to do with him, she led him down the hall and to a classroom. She went inside for a minute to talk to the teacher, then gestured for Sam to come in as well.

"This is..." she started telling the teacher of that class, then paused to look at Sam questioningly.

"Sarah," Sam offered, having come up with the name the day before. "Sarah Jones..."

"Sarah is a new student and will be starting here soon," the teacher whose name Sam still didn't know told the class. "She will probably be in this class, but until her schedule is straightened out, I'll need someone to show her around for the day."

"I'll do it," one boy in the class raised his hand, grinning a bit lecherously. Several other boys seemed to have similar ideas.

Sam grimaced at that, knowing exactly what was going on in their minds since he had once been a teenage boy as well. However, it as a bit disconcerting to be on the other side of those kind of thoughts and fantasies, though he tried not to let it bother him.

"I'll show her around," one girl sighed, looking over at the boys who'd volunteered with a frown.

"Then I'll leave her in your hands for today," the teacher that had brought Sam there smiled and turned to leave, pausing only a moment to remind him, "And remember to have your parents come in right away for registration..."

Once that teacher was gone, the one who remained in class told Sam to take a seat. He hesitated a moment, glancing at the leering boys, then moved towards an empty seat next to the girl who'd volunteered to show him around.

Sam smiled nervously at the girl. She was rather pretty in the girl next door way, with dark blonde hair that was on the verge of being a light brown. And from the looks of her, Sam suspected that once she finished filling out, she would make for an attractive woman.

"Hi," the girl smiled back, "I'm Samantha Johnson... but everyone calls me Sam."

"Sam Johnson..." Sam repeated quietly.

For a long moment, Sam just stared at her in surprise, a sinking feeling beginning to form in the pit of his stomach. He gulped, continuing to stare at the teenage girl who had the same name as himself, his mind racing.

"Do..." Sam took a deep breath, "Do you ever go through that Bison Park?"

"Oh yeah," the other Sam responded with a grin, "I cut through there ever day on the way home from school..."

All that Sam could do was respond with an, "Oh..."

And though Sam's tongue remained tied, his mind was racing. Ever since he had been given his powers by that mysterious voice, he had been filled with unanswered questions. Time and again, Sam had been asking himself 'why me.' But now... now he knew. He wasn't the chosen one... It was a case of mistaken identity and the only reason that he had been transformed and given those powers was because he happened to have the same name as the person whom they actually had been intended for. Sam realized that this also explained why it was that he transformed into a teenage girl.

"An accident," Sam whispered, feeling somewhat stunned and disappointed. He had thought that he was special... that he was some sort of chosen one, but now he knew the truth and it was somewhat bruising to his ego.

"Are you all right?" Samantha asked Sam with a slight frown.

Sam gulped, forcing his attention back to where it was, "Um... yeah."

Just then the class teacher coughed for attention, "If you two are through talking..."

With that, Sam gave an embarrassed smile and sat still through the rest of the class. It was hard to just sit there after so long away from school, though it was interesting as well, but more for novelty's sake than anything else. Most of the information was old stuff, things that he'd learned back when he was in school but had long since filed into the back of his mind and forgotten about. Still, it was a refresher, as well as provided some new things.

When Sam went to Samantha's next class with her, he found that it was much the same. He was getting a lot of school experience and a better understanding of his kids actually spend their day, though there was still nothing unusual... or at least nothing that immediately stuck out as being tied to the darkness. However, that soon changed.

Once the second period was over, Sam was heading to the next one with his new friend who shared his name, feeling somewhat nervous. He was nervous, not because he'd seen something strange, but because he hadn't. Though he could feel the darkness around him, like some unseen threat, he didn't see anything to indicate where or what it might actually be.

Then Sam suddenly froze, catching sight of four girls coming down the hallway. The very sight of them sent a faint shiver down his spine, though he couldn't tell exactly why except that they were somehow tied to the darkness. They were all cheerleaders, and all four were very attractive. But there was something strange about them... something dark. On the surface, their eyes seemed normal, yet at the same time, they seemed like black pits. Their expressions were all identical masks, which somehow seemed blank yet cruel at the same time. And what those masks covered, Sam had no idea.

"Watch out for them," Samantha gently tugged Sam back, whispering, "I think that they might be on drugs or something..."

"Drugs?" Sam asked her once the cheerleaders had walked past.

Samantha just shrugged, "It's just a rumor, but the cheerleaders are all acting kinda weird so the word is that they're all on something..."

But before Sam could think of anything to say in response to that, Samantha grabbed his arm and urged him on to the next class. He nodded and went along, though his thoughts were still on the cheerleaders. Whatever was going on there with the darkness, they were involved. And so far, they were the biggest clue that he'd found to the secret of the darkness.

However, once Sam went into Samantha's next class, his thoughts were quickly torn off of the cheerleaders and the darkness by the sight of his own son Todd sitting at one of the desks. Sam gulped, trying hard not to stare at Todd, though it wasn't easy. It was even harder when a part of him was half afraid that Todd would see right through him and know him for who he was, not to mention the fact that it was extremely embarrassing for Sam to be seen like that by his son, even if Todd didn't know who he was.

After a brief explanation to the teacher, Sam sat down next to Samantha through the class, though he had to keep fighting back the urge to look at his son... to see if Todd was looking in his direction. Running into Todd was a complication of going undercover in that school that Sam hadn't really considered, though he now realized that he should have. And it was a complication that Sam definitely wanted to avoid.

It was about halfway through the class that Sam took his attention off of Todd and looked around at everyone else in the room then paused, his attention locking on a boy in the corner. He was big... possibly a football player. And Sam didn't know why, but somehow he thought that there was something wrong with him. Then it dawned on Sam. The boy's expression was similar to the ones that the cheerleaders wore.

"Oh," Sam whispered with a feeling of dread. Somehow, he suspected that finding another one like that was NOT a good sign.

The rest of the class was even harder to sit through than the first half. Now his attention was divided between glancing at Todd to make sure that Todd wasn't looking at him, and glancing at the guy in the corner, hoping that he didn't see Sam either. And on top of that, he had to at least pretend that he was paying attention to the lesson.

By the time that the class was finally over, Sam suspected that this would be a great way to get an ulcer. And of course, he knew that this class was only a start of the real stress. He still had the rest of the day... not to mention the rest of his mission to go.

When the class was over and they were leaving the room, Sam suddenly noticed the way that Samantha was staring at Todd. It caught him a little by surprise. Not sure what to say, Sam cautiously asked, "Who's he..."

Samantha blushed brightly, "Um... just a guy in class." But when Sam gave her a level gaze, she blushed even more, "Okay, I'm like... major crushing on him."

Sam blinked at that, at the way that she'd just admitted that she had a crush on his son. Sam smiled, feeling a surge of fatherly pride at that. "Does he know?"

"Oh no," Samantha gasped in embarrassment.

Sam stopped her in the hall at that, giving her a gentle smile. He hadn't known Samantha for long, but he did like her and decided to do Todd a favor. "Then why don't you tell him? Maybe ask him out?"

"I couldn't do that," Samantha gaped at him.

"It's the twenty first century," Sam reminded her, quoting something that Emily liked saying, "and those ideas belong in the last one." He cringed slightly, always getting annoyed when his daughter told him that his notions were old fashioned, though he had to admit that at the moment it seemed appropriate.

With a giggle, Samantha started a weak protest, "But..."

"No buts," Sam told her with a gentle smile, "Go ahead and ask him. Maybe he'll say yes..."

It was about this time that Samantha finally surrendered, then promised, "All right... I'll do it."

"Great," Sam grinned, suspecting that she and Todd might get along pretty well. And hopefully, having a real girl around might help take his mind off of that silly crush that he had on Glamour Girl.

By time that lunch had arrived a little later, Sam had spotted several more of those darkness zombies, or at least that was what he had started to think of them as. One had been another cheerleader, one a scrawny boy who fit into the 'Goth' description, and the third was apparently one of the more popular boys in the school.

"How many of them are there?" Sam asked himself grimly.

However, that was before Sam stepped into the lunchroom. He gulped, quickly spotting several more of the darkness zombies. They looked and acted pretty much like everyone else, but there was something about their expressions... and he could sense a darkness behind those blank masks. Sam didn't know what was making the kids like that, but it definitely couldn't be good.

"Why didn't the voice get the right person?" Sam asked himself nervously.

Then he'd be at home where it was and safe, while Samantha would be the one finding out about the darkness. And since she already went to school there, she probably would have already found the problem and dealt with it.

"But then SHE would be the one in danger," he reminded himself, hating the thought of seeing such a sweet girl like her getting hurt.

It was then that Sam felt a chill run down his spine, followed by an even increased sense of the darkness being present. He turned around, trying to act nonchalant as he looked for the source. But all that Sam saw were three more cheerleaders walking nearby.

Two of the new cheerleaders were darkness zombies... though they seemed a bit more... intense than most that he'd run into to. As if the darkness were just a little stronger in them. However, the third... The third cheerleader was a blonde girl who was wearing sunglasses so he couldn't get a good look at her eyes. But her expression, as cruel as the sneer on her face seemed, he could tell that it wasn't a mask like the others. She wasn't a darkness zombie.

However, for some reason, Sam couldn't stop staring at the last one. Though she wasn't a darkness zombie, there was something about her... something not right. Sam was sure of it.

"Ugh, the bimbo squad," Samantha muttered to Sam as she noticed him looking, apparently not fond of cheerleaders in general. "The one with the shades in front is Melanie, the head bimbo. The other two are just her usual sidekicks."

"I take it you don't like her," Sam commented with a faint smile.

Samantha snorted, "About as well as I like acne." She paused, as if trying to decide if she should say anything more before finally continuing, "She was always a snob, but lately she's gotten pretty mean..."

Then, as if to prove Samantha's point, Melanie stuck her foot out and tripped another girl, who fell face first into the ground, scattering her lunch everywhere.

"Watch where you're walking," Melanie sneered at the fallen girl, "You almost tripped me..."

"Definitely not on Santa's nice list," Sam muttered to his guide, who nodded full agreement.

Once they had finished eating and had left the cafeteria, Sam noticed one of the girl's who had been with Melanie, standing off to the side and talking to some skinny boy who was obviously not a darkness zombie. He looked both excited and nervous, and Sam could see why. Even if she was a darkness zombie, the cheerleader was very pretty.

"Why don't we find a nice quiet corner..." Sam overheard the girl tell the boy, who looked quite happy to do just that.

Sam just shook his head and scowled, trying to figure out what was going on with all of the darkness zombies running around. Then he just let out a sigh, telling himself to just be patient. All that he could do at the moment was watch and listen... and hope that he would learn more that way.

Before long though, he was sitting in yet another class next to Samantha, and to his great discomfort... Todd, who was in that class as well. And worse, this time Todd actually said 'Hi' and tried talking to him once or twice. Fortunately though, Samantha was there to distract Todd by gently and nervously flirting with him.

"That's my boy," Sam smiled proudly to himself while he watched Todd taking more interest in Samantha.

That class and the next both passed slowly, much like the ones earlier that morning, though without Sam discovering a single new detail that he could use. He saw a few more darkness zombies, but they were no longer quite so surprising. It was almost becoming common for him to see them, which made him feel very nervous.

But then, while walking through the hall to the next class, Sam spotted yet another darkness zombie. It had almost gotten to the point that Sam didn't give them a second look. However, he had to do a double take after seeing him, because he'd seen this one before. It was the very same boy who had gone off with that darkness zombie cheerleader. The boy hadn't been a darkness zombie before, but now there was no doubt about it.

Sam froze to stare at the boy with a sinking feeling. "Oh shit..."

Though he didn't know what to do, Sam could feel the urgency increasing. It was spreading. More kids were being turned into darkness zombies. And Sam gulped, suddenly worried that Todd could be next. There was no way in hell that he was going to let his son get turned into one of those things...

And with a grim expression, Sam continued following after Samantha, though his attention was on anything but her next class. The darkness was there, and though he'd seen signs and symptoms of it all day long, at least in the form of darkness zombies, Sam hadn't seen what was causing it all.

"Holy shit," Samantha exclaimed from in front of Sam.

"What's going on?" Sam started to ask as he caught up, then paused to gasp in surprise.

There was some sore of fight going on the middle of the hallway, if it could be called that since one of was completely dominating the other. The surprise however was in which of the two was obviously winning.

One of the boys in the fight was a fairly large guy, while the one who had him pressed up against the wall was a skinny... nearly scrawny boy who was about 5 inches shorter. However, all that Sam needed was a single glance to see that the smaller of the two was in fact a darkness zombie, while his victim most definitely was not.

As the darkness zombie lifted the larger boy up, there was a gasp of surprise from the gathered students, and a look of complete disbelief... and then fear on the larger boy's face. The smaller one gave a cold, cruel smile, obviously enjoying the it.

"What's going on?" Samantha gasped, repeating Sam's previous question.

Another girl glanced at Samantha, "Oh Sam..." She shrugged, looking somewhat stunned, "I don't know... I guess Brian tried picking on Casey... and Casey turned around and threw him against the wall. I've never seen anything like it..."

Sam was shocked at the sight, realizing that the smaller boy, the darkness zombie could hurt the other one. He thought about stepping in, but then realized that he might accidentally give something away. But then he saw a teacher stepping close and let out a sigh. At least until he saw the teacher.

"Oh shit," Sam whispered.

The teacher who was standing there was the same woman that he had run into upon first arriving at school. But now... now she was a darkness zombie. Teachers obviously weren't immune. And from the way that she was just standing there with a somewhat cruel sneer on her face, it was obvious that she had no intention of stopping the 'fight'.

But just a moment later, another teacher was there was well, this one not a darkness zombie. He quickly split the fight up, though for a moment, it seriously looked as though the skinny boy, the darkness zombie was going to turn on him too but then thought better about it. Within just a minute, the crowd of students that had gathered around to watch had all dispersed again.

Sam let out a sigh of relief that the trouble was over, but then he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes that made his heart threaten to jump. It was that darkness zombie cheerleader that had been with the boy before he'd become one himself. And she was just walking around the corner.

For a moment, Sam hesitated, then he turned to Samantha, "I've really got to get going..."

"What?" Samantha asked in surprise.

"I'll see you later," Sam told her as he rushed after the cheerleader.

Then leaving a somewhat confused Samantha behind, Sam followed the cheerleader. He didn't know what he hoped to find out, but so far she seemed to be his best clue as to discovering it. And his impulse to follow her seemed to be the right one as she didn't appear to be heading towards any classroom. Instead, she was heading out the back of the school.

Sam stayed far back, hoping that she didn't see him and growing more curious as she left school grounds. He had thought that the school was the center of everything, but if she was leaving...

After Sam had been following the cheerleader for awhile, she came to a small park where there were several adults and about a half dozen small children playing on the toys on the other side. The cheerleader just stood there for a minute, while Sam watched her, trying to figure out what was going on.

And then, just to confuse Sam even more, a black bird... either a crow or a raven landed on her shoulder. It remained there for only a moment before suddenly taking off again just as quickly.

Suddenly, Sam felt a cold chill run down his spine, just before she turned a bit and he could see that her eyes were now glowing red. The cheerleader snarled, just before her face started to stretch out. Her whole body began to shift and change until her clothes could no longer contain it and she burst right out of them. And once she was finished, she was no longer human, just another one of those darkness creatures.

"Oh shit," Sam gasped in horror.

Somehow, the cheerleader had transformed into some type of cat creature. She now stood more than 6 feet tall, though she hunched over, with black fur that covered her entire body. A tail dangled from behind her and her hands and feet were both clawed... and very dangerous looking. And finally, there was her head, which looked much more like that of a wild cat than a human, with a stretched out snout and a pair of evil looking eyes that glowed red.

Then Sam realized what her goal might be. He gulped, glancing at the people in the park, though they seemed all right at the moment. The cat creature was just crouched there, as if watching its prey. She showed no sign of doing anything... yet. Sam was going to have to do something, even if it meant him charging in and blowing his cover.

However, Sam quickly realized that he did have another choice. If he hurried... Taking a deep breath, Sam willed the transformation back to his normal self, then before he even had time to take a breath, he triggered it yet again. Just a moment later, he was once again Glamour Girl... back in costume and glowing again.

It seemed that Sam had finished changing just in time because the former cheerleader almost immediately started charging for the people. Sam had no idea why she was attacking them, but he knew that he had to stop her. He was already in motion the instant that he'd seen her move.

Sam hit the cat from behind, catching her by surprise and sending her flying. "Bad kitty," he snarled.

The cat turned around and growled at Sam, apparently just as talkative as her predecessors had been. Sam scowled as they glared at each other, wondering just what she was up to. Leaving school and attacking those people made no sense... All that she would do was hurt innocent people and create a lot of fear...

There was no time to think it out though as the darkness creature charged straight at Sam, using the same tactics as the other ones. Sam grimaced, already having experienced that kind of fight twice and getting more than tired of it. So he waited until she was close and then punched her, letting loose with a burst of brilliant light from his fist at the same time. As brilliant as he could possibly make it.

"Damn cat," Sam snarled as the creature flew backwards and hit the ground.

Sam looked up at the people in the park, who had noticed what was going on and had quickly gathered up the children and started running in the opposite direction. He let out a sigh of relief at that, thinking it a VERY good idea.

Then Sam turned his attention back to the fallen cat, who was already beginning to transform back into her cheerleader form. Sam let out another sigh of relief at that, glad that he'd managed to take her out with just a single punch.

"Well... that was easy," Sam commented to himself, though he couldn't resist silently adding the almost obligatory, "Almost too easy..."

Sam just stood there for a minute to make sure that the girl finished changing back to normal. Then he turned to leave, finally letting himself relax again. Just then, he heard a cawing sound and quickly glanced back to the girl to see that the black bird was back... and sitting on top of her naked body.

"What the..." Sam started, feeling a cold chill run down his spine as the bird turned to look at him.

Sam quickly looked behind him to see if there was another source, but there wasn't any. And when he looked back at the bird... it was gone. As well as the girl. There was no sign of either of them.

"Weird," Sam whispered, deciding that this was definitely NOT a good thing.

After remaining there for another minute, Sam shook his head and decided that he'd had enough of investigating for the day. He'd already learned quite a bit and would have think about what it all meant. Letting out a sigh, he knew that he'd have to go back to the school to learn more. That was not something that he was looking forward to.

With that, took to the air, then started flying home. He was so tired after all that he'd been through that he didn't want to go through the whole hassle of going to Bison Park or someplace else and then walking the rest of the way right then.

Just a few minutes later, Sam landed in his back yard, using the tree to provide some coverage from the neighbors... not that he thought any of them would be home or watching at that time. And once safely inside his home, Sam calmly walked to the living room, letting out a long sigh of relief.

"That was one hell of a day," he muttered to himself. And then with another sigh, Sam activated the transformation back to his normal self.

Suddenly, Sam heard a loud gasp from behind him. He snapped around, his heart nearly jumping as he let out a gasp of shock himself.

"D... daddy?" Emily asked with a look of complete shock and disbelief.

***

Sam stared down at his daughter Emily in shock and horror, seeing from the look of absolute shock on her own face... the confusion and disbelief in her eyes, he had no doubt at all that she had just seen the whole thing. She had just witnessed him transforming back from Glamour Girl into his normal self.

"Emily..." he started, not sure what to say.

However, Emily just continued staring up at him before gasping, "Daddy?" Then she took a deep breath and suddenly blurted out, "You were Glamour Girl!"

Sam winced at that. He had been trying so hard to keep the secret from his family and cringed at the knowledge that he had not only been found out, but found out because of his own carelessness. There had been a good reason that he'd been changing back and forth away from home, though he'd thought it was more to avoid the neighbors than his own family.

"You... you're not supposed to be home from school yet," Sam squeaked out.

"We were sent home early because a monster came to our school and tore it up." Emily gulped, "I was really scared..."

"A monster?" Sam gasped in horror.

"It only tore up the parking lot," she continued in a rush. "And almost no one got hurt..." Then Emily quickly changed the subject back to the one that Sam had dreaded, "You were Glamour Girl..." Then she stared at him as if demanding an explanation, or at least confirmation that she hadn't been imagining things.

For a moment, Sam was tempted to lie to her and tell her that she had been imagining things... But not only wouldn't Emily buy that, it would have been horribly insulting to her as well. So reluctantly, Sam nodded and admitted, "Yeah..."

Emily's eyes went wide, "YOU WERE GLAMOUR GIRL!"

"Um... yeah," Sam responded, feeling even more embarrassed and uncomfortable. He took a deep breath, then gestured for his daughter to sit down. Once she had, he paced back and forth for a moment before forcing himself to sit down as well. "I'll tell you what's going on," he told her, then firmly added, "But only if you promise not to tell ANYONE."

"But I can tell mom..." Emily started.

"No," Sam quickly told her. "No one. Not your mom... not Todd... and not even your very best friend."

"But..." She began to protest weakly.

"No one," Sam stated firmly. "Promise."

Emily sat there for a moment before finally nodding. "Okay... I promise."

Sam let out a sigh of relief at that. Emily had always been very good about keeping her promises and he was sure that he could trust his daughter. At least not to tell anyone intentionally.

"And no writing it down in your diary," he added as an afterthought. Emily nodded at that, still staring at him with a strange expression, as though she thought she were in some sort of a dream.

After a moment, Sam slowly began, "It started more than a week ago... the day Glamour Girl first appeared..."

Sam carefully told Emily almost everything that had happened to him, though he glossed over some of the details, such as how he had nearly fallen out of the sky the first time he'd tried flying and just how scared he'd been while fighting the monsters. Not to mention the recent discovery that the powers hadn't even been meant for him. It wasn't easy at first, but as Sam continued talking, he found it a bit easier to open up and even nice that he finally had someone that he could share his secret with.

Once Sam was finally finished explaining, he and Emily sat there in silence for nearly a minute. Finally, she blurted out, "WOW," and jumped to her feet. "My dad is Glamour Girl." And suddenly she threw her arms around Sam in a hug.

"Yeah," Sam smiled weakly, "It is kind of embarrassing though..."

That didn't seem to bother Emily though who giggled and begged, "Can you change into Glamour Girl? Please..." She gave Sam her best puppy dog expression.

"All right," Sam agreed with a sigh.

He looked around nervously, then went to pull the curtains shut. After what had just happened, he thought that it might be a good idea to play it better safe than sorry. There was no way that he wanted someone else to catch sight of him transforming through the living room window. Having one person discovering his change that way was more than enough.

"And now for the magic words," Sam grinned at Emily in excitement, willing the light within him to awaken and transform him. "Abracadabra..."

Just a moment later, Sam had transformed back into Glamour Girl. He glanced down at himself, at the teenage girl's body that he now wore again. Then he looked over at Emily, who was staring at him with an expression of complete awe and excitement.

"Wow," Emily exclaimed in delight, "That is so wicked..."

Sam grinned, "It is rather interesting..." He held out his hands to stare at them. "But it's kind of weird for me being like this..."

Emily just nodded. "You're so pretty..." She let out a sigh, "I hope I can be that pretty some day..."

"You're already pretty," Sam responded, not sure what else to say.

But Emily just stared at Sam before abruptly changing the subject again, "And you even have real super powers..."

"Yes," Sam smiled, having already covered that part before. But almost as soon as he'd responded to the question, Emily demanded to know what they were, even though he'd already told her that as well. "Let's see... I can fly... I'm pretty strong like this..." Sam flexed his arm, which made Emily giggle. "And I can sort of shoot light..." With that, Sam made the rainbow colors swirl around his hand, causing Emily to gasp in delight.

"So pretty..." she whispered, "Like a rainbow..."

Almost in spite of himself, Sam was beginning to enjoy this. It was rather nice having his daughter give him that look of hero worship, and he enjoyed making her happy.

"Oh yeah," Sam added a little smugly, "I can do this too..."

And with that, Sam started to do something new with his powers. The idea had come to him earlier, but he hadn't really found a reason to try it until then. He concentrated and the light around his hand began to shimmer, the swirling colors blurring and fusing. Then he held his hand out with the palm up... revealing a tiny image made out of light which looked exactly like Emily.

"That's me!" Emily exclaimed in surprise, then delight.

"A hologram," Sam explained with a smile. "An image made out of light..."

Emily didn't seem to be interested in the explanations or the science behind it however; she just wanted to look at it. She stared at the hologram, excitedly watching as Sam got rid of it and created several other ones, trying out that ability for his own amusement just as much as his daughter's.

Finally though, Sam got rid of the hologram looked to Emily. "Now," he started gently, "Tell me more about this monster that attacked your school..."

Sam was nervous, even afraid as he slowly made his way back to the high school. After the day before, that was the last place that he wanted to go, yet obviously the place that he needed to check out the most. The darkness was there and he was close to finding it...

He paused, thinking about the story that Emily had told him about the monster attacking her school. Apparently it had done so around the same time that he had been fighting the cheerleader cat. It had smashed through the parking lot, apparently interested in just causing destruction, though fortunately no one was seriously hurt before the police arrived and hit it with enough lead that it decided to leave.

"At least they can be stopped the normal way," Sam muttered, feeling a little relieved that it didn't necessarily take super powers to stop the monsters.

Then Sam thought about Todd and he grimaced, feeling a bit guilty. After what Sam had seen around that school the day before, there was absolutely no way that he was going to let his own son go back into that and risk getting turned into a darkness zombie himself. Because of that, Sam had been forced to take drastic measures.

While Todd had been fixing his normal protein shake for breakfast that morning, Sam had taken the opportunity to spike it with a bit of liquid laxative. It didn't take long at all before Todd was rushing to the bathroom with a case of the runs. Now Todd was staying home for the day, thinking that he just had the flu.

"I hope he's all right," Sam winced as he thought about it.

Sam had never even imagined that he would do something like that to his own son, but then again, he never would have imagined that there would be a danger of his son being possessed and turned into some sort of darkness zombie either.

Once Sam had arrived at the school, he pushed worries about Todd out of his mind. At the moment, Sam didn't have to worry about Todd who was still at home where it was safe and sound. It was he himself who was now in danger.

When Sam had left the house, it had been after telling Todd a story about having a long meeting in town with a client. Then he had rushed out to a safe place to change first into Glamour Girl, and then into his disguise as Sarah Jones. It had taken him a few minutes to even remember what name he had been using the day before. But he was going to have to remember it if he wanted to stay in character.

"Here goes nothing," Sam muttered, feeling nervous... even afraid. But he still took a deep breath and went inside.

Like the day before, Sam was late getting to school, this time missing the first period entirely as well as most of the second. However, he didn't really consider that much of a problem. It just meant that he'd have to be a little more cautious going inside. And on the plus side, he already had his cover story set up from the day before. So all that he'd have to do is find Samantha and go along for the ride again.

"And if any teachers ask," he muttered to himself, "I tell them that my parents are coming to register me later today..."

Sam was careful, waiting until class let out and then joining the crowds that surged through the hallway. Then he started for Samantha's next class, planning to meet up with her there.

But as Sam walked through the hall, he was stunned to realize just how many darkness zombies there were. They were everywhere... In fact, about half of the people that Sam saw were now darkness zombies, which he knew was NOT a good sign. Not in the least.

At the same time, it was obvious that the invasion from the darkness had not gone completely. The nervousness and tension on the faces of nearly every student who was not a darkness zombie was unmistakable, though it was obvious that they had even less idea of what was going on than he did... They only sensed that something was seriously wrong... but had no idea just what that was.

"It's a good thing I kept Todd home," Sam whispered, just wishing that he'd found a way to keep Todd home the day before.

By the time that Sam had finished the short walk to the class, he was not in a good mood. In fact, he was even more apprehensive than he had been upon first arriving, and he wouldn't have thought it possible. Whatever was happening with the darkness, it was spreading. And soon, he had no doubt, it would spread too far. Sam could feel the time running out.

Then Sam went inside the class and he let out a sigh of relief. At least now he'd have Samantha for company, and if nothing else, it would make him feel much less alone. She might not have the powers that had been intended for her, but just having her there seemed to offer Sam some degree of moral support.

However, as Sam slid into the seat beside Samantha, he froze, staring at her in horror. He gulped, feeling a heavy knot in his stomach as he looked into her masklike expression. They had gotten to her... Samantha was now one of them... a darkness zombie.

"Is something wrong?" Samantha asked, a cruel gleam in her eyes as she offered a false smile.

"Um..." Sam gulped, "Nothing..."

In spite of his enhanced strength, he felt a bit weak at the moment. And taking a deep breath, Sam shifted into his seat, knowing that it was going to be a VERY hard day. But then again, he reminded himself, trying to find some grain of hope in the situation, he now had a darkness zombie that he could keep a close eye on throughout the rest of the day, and perhaps learn something from. He just silently prayed that he could find some way to change her... and the rest of them all back to normal.

Sam had a hard time sitting next to Samantha for that, and the next class. Every moment, he was fully aware that she looked like the same Samantha from the day before and even acted mostly like her, but she was obviously not the same sweet girl. There was now a darkness in her soul, which made Sam cringe inside every time he looked at her.

Then came lunch, and by that time, Sam was feeling even more frustrated than before. There seemed to be nothing that he could do, and little clue as to what was even causing the problems. He had tried talking to Samantha about the tension, though she gave no real answers and he couldn't ask more without drawing suspicion.

Just as Sam was starting into the cafeteria for something to eat, Samantha grinned at him, and it was not a pleasant expression. "You want to see something cool?" she asked.

"Sure," Sam responded curiously, feeling a bit nervous as he suddenly remembered what had happened to that boy who had gone off with that darkness zombie cheerleader. However, this just might give him some answers so he nodded, "I'd love to..."

"C'mon," Samantha told him with a bit of a smirk, tugging on his arm as she started walking in a different direction. Samantha quickly led Sam to the gym, then gave a cruel smile as she ushered him inside. "Right in here..."

As soon as Sam stepped inside of the gym, he froze, gasping in horror as the feeling of darkness slammed into him like a wall. But that was nothing compared to the sight in front of him.

"Oh shit," Sam gulped.

The gym and everything inside of it looked as though they came straight out of some sort of nightmare. All of the walls, ceiling and floor were splattered with what seemed to be some sort of green slime and mold. But the condition of the walls was nothing compared to the people within... if they could even be called people anymore.

Sam shuddered as he looked around the two dozen darkness zombies that stood around the gym, each staring at him with a dark maliciousness. And he saw that one of them was the same Goth girl that the Amazon monster in the park had turned back into.

However, the darkness zombies were still the least of Sam's worries, because he also saw several... creatures crouching around the far side of the gym. One was covered with long, sharp looking spikes, one looked like a werewolf and there was even one that appeared as though it could have been made out of a nasty looking green slime. But none of them made a move towards Sam, and he could see why.

Then, Sam finally let himself really look at what was truly the center of attention for the gym. The center of power. A throne. A black stone throne set against the far wall, atop a small mound of human skulls. And of course, the throne was occupied.

The figure upon the throne was that of a beautiful teenage girl with long blonde hair. In fact, Sam immediately recognized her as Melanie... the head of the cheerleaders. However, at the moment, she did not look the least cheerful.

She was wearing some sort of purple and black costume that was decorated with a metal skull on the belt and wearing a black cloak with the hood back, and two metal broaches in the shapes of skulls holding it to her. The cheerleaders face had a cruel expression, made even harsher by her glowing red eyes.

Melanie was obviously the leader of these creatures... and Sam could feel... the source of the darkness. It came from her... Everything was coming from her. He gasped in shock. She had been right there in front of him and he hadn't even realized it...

Somehow, Sam was able to tear his eyes off of Melanie long enough to notice the two cheerleaders which stood on either side of her throne. They were the same cheerleaders that Sam had seen with Melanie before, though this time he knew there names, having asked around a little earlier.

The pretty blonde was Chelsea, and she was the very same cheerleader that he'd watched transform into that cat creature and then fight, while the other one, the brunette was named Brenda. Sam didn't know as much about her, but somewhere between when he'd seen her the day before and then, Brenda had gone Goth. She'd gotten her nose, eyebrow and lip pierced, was wearing dark red lipstick and now had a studded collar around her neck.

Suddenly, Melanie sat up straighter and loudly called out, "Edgar... Allen..."

A moment later, there was a fluttering of wings as two black birds flew down from the gym rafters and settled upon the shoulders of Chelsea and Brenda. Neither girl flinched or showed the least surprise at this action.

Melanie smiled faintly as she looked at Sam, and it was not a pleasant smile. Then she stepped down from her throne and announced, "Yet more recruits," as she took several more steps in Sam's direction.

It was only then that Sam glanced back and realized that he wasn't alone. The darkness zombies had brought in several other normal people... But before he could think through the full fearsome ramifications, several of the darkness zombies had grabbed him by the arms. Their grips were strong... stronger than a normal person. And they were pushing him towards the throne. Him and the other 'recruits'.

Sam gulped as he was moved closer to Melanie, not knowing what to expect. For a brief instant, he was tempted to throw them back, but he thought better of it... for the moment. Maybe he could learn more if he got closer...

Once Sam was several feet from Melanie, she raised her hand to touch him. He could feel the darkness radiating from her hand... from her. Her glowing red eyes were locked on him, but her expression was almost bored. As though she had done this quite frequently. And from the number of darkness zombies around, it appeared that she had.

Since it didn't look as though Sam was going to get anything else out of going alone, he was just about to break free. However, when Melanie's hand got several inches away from him, the light inside of him came alive of it's own will and flared out. A massive burst of rainbow light erupted from his skin, sending Melanie and the closest darkness zombies all falling backwards.

"THE NEW GIRL IS GLAMOUR GIRL," one of the other prisoners gasped on shock before a darkness zombie put a hand over her mouth.

"GET HER," Melanie screamed as she scrambled back up from the ground, looking pissed.

Before Sam realized what was happening or could think of what to do, he found himself grabbed from behind by slimy green tentacles. He let out a gasp, glancing back and seeing enough to realize that the tentacles were actually growing right out of the gym floor. Sam struggled against them, but they held him tight.

When Sam looked back at Melanie, he was startled to see that she was holding out her hand and staring at it with something of a look of horror. "DAMN," she snapped furiously, "I broke a nail..."

Sam blinked in surprise at that. Sure, a comment like that was expected from a cheerleader... But coming from the source of the darkness and these monsters?

"You BITCH," Melanie snapped as she turned to glare at Sam. She paused, taking a deep breath and calming down considerably. Then almost calmly, she continued, "So you're the one who's been bothering my servants..."

"That's me," Sam responded with a forced smile. Inside though, he was terrified.

Taking a deep breath, Sam nervously glanced beyond Melanie and let out a faint gasp. The cheerleaders... Chelsea and Brenda had both changed. Chelsea had transformed into the same black, catlike creature that she had before, while Brenda's transformation was much less extreme, but just as fearsome in it's own way.

The brunette cheerleader Brenda now looked like some sort of vampire, with pure white skin, long clawed fingernails and glowing red eyes. She sneered, giving a glimpse of her sharp looking fangs that seemed so eager to taste blood. The black bird... a raven, Sam guessed, was still perched on her shoulder

Then Melanie drew Sam's attention back by muttering, almost to herself, "The way you glow... Your blonde hair... You remind me of her..."

"Who?" Sam asked, trying to delay... hoping that he could figure out what to do.

"The bitch who left me there..." Melanie spat back with a sneer, "Ms. Miracle."

Sam let out a gasp of surprise, "What..."

Melanie gave him a dangerous glare and continued, "She threw me into that nightmare prison... where I would have remained if it hadn't been for this girl trying to summon a demon and calling me instead..." Her eyes bore into Sam, burning with a deep darkness. "I escaped into her body..." Then she gestured down at herself and smirked, "And here I am... close to returning to my full power..."

"Who..." Sam stared at Melanie in confusion, "Who are you..." He tried to keep his voice from shaking with the fear, "What are you doing?" She was certainly not just some high school cheerleader.

"Perhaps I should not tell you," she mused, "but I do have a taste for melodramatics."

For a moment, Sam just stared at Melanie, burning with curiosity and apprehension. He gulped, knowing from the moment that she had mentioned Ms. Miracle that this would not be good. Ms. Miracle was a major hero... and if Melanie... or whomever she was had been fighting Ms. Miracle...

With that, Melanie... or whomever was within her body stood up straighter, holding her hands out before proudly announcing, "I am Baron Nevermore..."

Sam let out a gasp of horror, having heard that name before. Just about everyone had. It had been all over the news some years back... Baron Nevermore had been the one to kill Ms. Miracle. Or at least he supposedly killed her since she had eventually returned.

"Still," the false Melanie mused, "I supposed that at the moment I no longer look like a Baron, so you may just refer to me as Nevermore." Then she gave a cold grin, "Though you soon call me mistress..."

"Never," Sam spat back with all of his refusal.

Melanie... Nevermore glared at Sam with an expression that almost seemed to be something of a pout. Then to Sam's expression, she stamped her foot on the floor like a petulant child, "You will, you will, you will..."

For a moment, Sam just blinked in confusion. That certainly wasn't the behavior that Sam would have expected of a world-class super villain, even one reincarnated in the body of a high school cheerleader. Then again, Sam suddenly wondered if maybe there was still a bit of Melanie in there. From that... and her reaction over breaking a nail, it sure seemed likely.

However, Sam realized that he didn't have time to worry about that at the moment. He had to figure out how to escape and stop her.

"You will soon have no choice," Nevermore explained, having regained control over herself and was no longer acting like a spoiled cheerleader, "Once my forces are strong enough, I shall plunge this world into a nightmare and become a virtual goddess..." She let out a cruel laugh at that.

"NO," Sam howled at the thought of what she would do to his kids... to his family.

And with a burst of strength that he didn't even realize that he still had in him, Sam tore loose from the tentacles and was free. But the instant that he was, he was pounced on by several darkness monsters, though he threw them to the side.

"You WON'T escape me," Nevermore hissed, glowing red balls of fire appearing in each of her hands. She threw them at Sam, one after the other, though she hit one of her own darkness monsters with them by accident instead. The monster let out a howl of pain before disintegrating right before Sam's eyes.

Sam remained frozen in terror for a moment, realizing that the situation had just gotten even worse. He had been afraid of Nevermore but hadn't realized just how dangerous she was personally until that very moment. She had killed her own creature and had another ball of glowing red fire forming in her hand already.

"Oh no," Sam gasped, his eyes darting around as he looked for something he could use... and then a means of escape.

Then he spotted it, and in a moment where thought and action were one, made his move. He shot up and exploded through upper gym window, turning on the speed to get away from the flying creatures that were trying to follow him. But he was faster and soon left them behind.

"Finally," Sam whispered in relief, his heart racing with fear and shame.

He had run away. Instead of fighting Nevermore and all of her monsters, he had ran away. That was not the action of a superhero...

"But I'm not a hero," Sam reminded himself grimly.

He was a family man. And he only had those powers by accident. They had never been intended for him. But still, he couldn't deny that he had to do something. There was no way that he was going to let that darkness take his family, and he knew that just running away from it wouldn't work forever. He would have to find a way to stop Nevermore.

"Damn," Sam spat out.

Sam knew that there was no way that he could do anything against Nevermore. She was too powerful. And Sam knew that with half of the school having been turned into darkness zombies, he was badly outnumbered as well.

But then, Sam realized something else. Baron Nevermore might be a powerful villain... the kind that the Protectorate dealt with... but from what he'd seen, that wasn't exactly who he'd been facing. Nevermore seemed to be some sort of fusion between Baron Nevermore and Melanie. Half powerful villain... and half cheerleader.

"Maybe there is a chance," Sam tried to convince himself.

However, there was still the matter of the darkness zombies and the monsters. Sam was more than a little outnumbered and there was absolutely no way that he could take care of the situation by himself.

With that thought in mind, Sam changed direction and started for the city, muttering, "It's time to call in the reinforcements."

***

Sam scowled intensely as he flew over the city, his eyes scanning for the right landmarks. He had flown there as fast as he could, having only stopped long enough to change out of the school clothes that he has escaped from Nevermore in, and back into his Glamour Girl uniform. And now he was almost to his destination.

"There," Sam muttered as he spotted the right building, the 'secret headquarters' of the Slackers. They were the only developed that he knew... and he only hoped that they would help him. That they could help him.

With that, Sam shifted direction slightly and started heading straight for the building, thankful that he had at least remembered about where it was. He had been more than half afraid that he wouldn't be able to find it again.

But as Sam drew close to the building, there was a sudden rushing of wind as something shot right past him. Sam froze, hovering in the air and looking around for what it was. And then he saw it... a figure floating up in the air above him, silhouetted by the sun.

Sam strained his eyes, then flew up a little higher, shifting position so that he could make out the figure much better. He was somewhat startled to see an angel... or at least that was his first impression, though he just as quickly realized that it wasn't exactly an accurate one.

It was a woman... a girl of about 18 or so, with somewhat dark skin and short black hair, as well as a pair of gray feathered wings sprouting from her back like those of an angel. But Sam quickly realized that she wasn't some heavenly creature, but another developed. She was wearing a costume that was mostly white but with a bit of black trim, as well as a few pieces on her shoulders, wrists and belt that were made of gray metal.

"You think you're going to catch us by surprise?" the girl sneered, glaring at Sam. "Well I don't think so..."

She suddenly dove straight at Sam, moving with incredible speed. Her fist hit him with incredible force, even though he was already in the process of flying back out of the way. Sam was sent flying back, gasping from the impact and sure that he was going to have a nasty bruise from that punch.

"Damn," Sam grimaced, flashing a burst of light in the girl's face as she came at him again.

The girl howled and covered her eyes, but to Sam's near surprise, she didn't start changing back into a normal human. But then again, he realized that he didn't sense the darkness from her so she wasn't one of those darkness creatures like he had suddenly feared when she'd attacked him.

Just as the girl was recovering, and Sam was bracing himself for another charge, a voice called out, "Stop that..."

Sam looked for the source and gasped at the sight of a small tornado coming in his direction. At least that was his first impression, though he quickly realized that it was another developed. A girl in a green and white costume with a long vortex of swirling wind trailing behind her. And as she got closer, Sam looked into the green metal mask, which covered half her face and thought that he recognized something familiar in what little of her face that he could see.

Then the tornado girl positioned herself between Sam and the girl with the wings before announcing, "The name's Mister Twister... and this here gal in my head says y'all better stop fightin..."

Blinking at that, Sam had to take another look at the tornado girl and only then realized why she seemed familiar. In spite of the new costume and Texas accent that she seemed to have developed, this was Channel...

"She says this here gal is a friend," Channel... or Mister Twister... or whatever she called herself announced, gesturing to the building rooftop. "Says we should have a nice talk down there..."

The girl with the winks gave Sam a suspicious look then nodded her agreement. And once Sam was sure that this girl wasn't going to attack him again, he slowly landed, with the winged girl and so called Mister Twister landing right behind him.

Almost as soon as they had landed, Mister Twister started to shimmer, then her costume faded away, leaving Channel standing there in the same blue and violet costume that he had first seen her in. Her expression changed as well and Sam realized that he had just witnessed her using her power to channel others... namely Mister Twister.

"Who are you?" the winged girl demanded of Sam. She glanced at Channel and seemed to relax a little though she still looked suspicious.

"This is Glamour Girl," Channel explained, giving a weak smile. "She's a friend..."

The winged girl stared at Sam for a moment more before nodding slightly. "Sorry for jumping you like that... I thought you were attacking..."

"Um... okay," Sam responded cautiously.

Channel gave Sam an apologetic smile and gave an embarrassed, "Sorry about that..." Then she gestured to the winged girl and told him, "This is Nike. She just joined us..."

"Nike?" Sam asked as he stared at her.

"As in the Greek goddess of victory," Nike responded grimly, "Not the shoe..."

Sam nodded and gave Channel a bit of a grin, "I guess you guys found your flier after all..."

"Yeah," Channel smiled back shyly, "But she can do other things too..."

"Oh?" Sam looked at Nike, who shrugged.

"Actually, my wings don't do much good," Nike stated, "I'm too heavy for them to lift me. I really fly because of this invisible force field I can generate around myself. All I have to do is will it to move, and I fly. The wings just help with stabilization and maneuvering."

Nodding thoughtfully at that, Sam couldn't musing, "She said you can do other things too... The force field?"

Nike nodded, seeming a little friendlier now that they were talking. "I'm nearly invulnerable when I have it on. And I can alter its shape to a limited degree... like this..."

With that, Nike held out her hand and had a brief look of concentration before she did a karate chop on the rooftop. Her fingers only came within a foot of the actual roof... but to Sam's surprise, a gash was actually cut upon... As if an invisible sword had cut the rooftop...

"I can stretch my field into blades or claws," Nike stated proudly.

"Sorta like my powers," another voice added as Chrome stepped onto the roof, without the metal that he drew his name from being visible. "Except with a force field..."

Nike snorted at that, quietly muttering, "Mine are better..."

"So what are you doing here?" Chrome asked with a smile. "Come to join us after all?"

Sam frowned, wincing as he thought about why he was actually there. "Actually..." He took a deep breath, "I need your help..."

Just a minute later, Sam was inside of the small apartment that the motley group of Slackers called their secret headquarters. He shifted slightly on the ratty couch that he was sitting on, nervously looking around at the group that surrounded him, seeing that they were each eager to hear what he had to say. He only hoped that they would help him.

There was one face across from Sam that was unfamiliar. It belonged to an overweight, middle-aged man... or at least that was what it appeared to be. However, from the pale, grayish skin, and the beer in hand, Sam had immediately realized that this was Deadbeat, now in a newer... and fresher body.

"You said you needed our help," Zero Kay prompted.

Sam nodded, trying to decide exactly what to say. Finally, he started, "A high school has just been taken over. And... and half the students have been turned into monsters and zombies..." He couldn't help glancing at Deadbeat as he said that last bit.

"Bummer," Deadbeat commented with a shrug, taking a drink from his beer.

"Or at least they're possessed by something," Sam corrected thoughtfully as they were not dead. Then he looked up, slowly taking in the others, "And it's spreading. Fast."

"These zombies and monsters are at your school, aren't they?" Chrome asked sympathetically.

All that Sam could do to that was respond with weak, "Sort of..." It was his son's school, and that was close enough.

With that, Sam started to give them a brief description of the darkness zombies... and of how they turned into the various monsters that he'd seen. He didn't know for sure if all the darkness zombies did, but it seemed that it was pretty likely.

"Nasty," Zero Kay muttered with a grimace. Then she grimly announced, "We've got to stop these freaks before they spread too much..."

"There's more," Sam told them reluctantly.

"More than an army of monsters?" Deadbeat asked in surprise.

Sam could only nod at that. "The one behind them..." He took a deep breath, "The one who made them that way is Baron Nevermore..."

"THE Baron Nevermore?" Nike gasped in surprise while the others just stared at him.

"That's it," Deadbeat gulped, "You're on your own..." He started to get up, muttering, "I may be dead, but I sure as hell ain't crazy enough to mess with someone like him... There are some things worse than being dead..."

"Sit down!" Zero Kay snapped at him.

Chrome muttered, "Chickenshit," though he looked a bit unnerved himself.

"He's... he's not quite himself," Sam sighed. "Or at least I don't think so. I've never met the old Baron Nevermore."

"Old Baron Nevermore?" Channel asked. "That's a strange way of putting it..."

Sam looked at Channel and told her, "Well... I guess it's sort of like your powers. He has a new body... He's possessing a teenage girl... and it looks like her personality is rubbing off on him..."

"Then how do you know for sure it's really him?" Chrome demanded.

"I don't," Sam responded grimly, "But that's who she claims to be, and from what I've seen... I believe her." Then almost as an afterthought, Sam told them, "At the moment, she's dropped the Baron part of her name though and is just calling herself Nevermore."

"Well I don't care what she calls herself," Chrome growled, "We'll go kick her ass... His ass... Or whatever..."

"But if this is Baron Nevermore," Channel started nervously, then paused to shake her head. "I mean, he's Protectorate level... Isn't he a little out of our league?"

Before Sam could think of anything to say to that, Chrome snorted, "What? Like we have their number on speed dial? How the hell do we even get hold of those guys?"

"We don't have much time," Sam admitted grimly. "She said that she was getting close to reaching her full power... And at the rate that the darkness is spreading, I don't think that it will be long before they reach critical mass and become unstoppable..."

The others all stared at Sam for a moment, giving him a look of surprise. But it was Nike who spoke first, firmly stating, "Then I suggest we hit them hard and fast... before they have time to get any stronger."

There was a moment of silence, as everyone looked at each other, then started to nod their agreement, some more reluctantly than others. Deadbeat looked particularly unhappy with the mission, but the look of determination on his face told Sam that even he would do what he could.

Just several minutes later, Sam had followed the others out of the building and down to an alley behind it. There he was introduced to their means of transportation, and old van that looked like any other van. Sam wasn't too surprised though as it fit right in with their 'headquarters'.

"I know it's not much," Zero Kay told him with a look of embarrassment, "But it'll get us from here to there..."

"And it's not like we have some billionaire sponsor to buy us a private helicopter," Chrome muttered.

And then, as if to purposely embarrass the Slackers even more, their van wouldn't even start. Deadbeat sat behind the wheel, cursing it and pounding the dash to no effect. Zero Kay just shook her head, looking almost mortified.

Channel grimaced, and a moment later, her expression changed. Sam watched with fascination as she got up and announced, "Looks like ya need a mechanic..." However, the tone of her voice had changed drastically.

While channel went to work under the hood, Sam glanced over at Zero Kay, "Is she..."

"Channeling someone?" Kay finished. "Yeah."

Sam blinked, "But her clothes changed earlier when she was channeling Mister Twister..."

"That only happens sometimes," Deadbeat grunted.

"Only when she's channeling someone with a real strong self image," Kay told him. "Like when she's channeling a hero or villain and gets their uniform."

Sam was a little startled at the mention of her channeling villains, though before he could think to ask about it, Channel asked Deadbeat to start the engine. This time it started right up. Channel had a bit of a smirk as she closed the hood, then paused while her expression shifted back to normal and she looked just a little bit embarrassed while climbing back inside.

"Finally," Kay and Chrome muttered at once.

There were a few nods of agreement and sighs of relief as they finally started to pull out of the alley and begin the trip. But at the same time, Sam could only grimace, feeling a knot of nervous tension in his stomach. Fighting big-shot villains might be old news for these kids, he thought, but it was still new to him and he didn't fool himself about just how dangerous it was going to be.

By the time that they arrived near the school, Sam was feeling even more nervous. He could feel the darkness, and that did not comfort him. It had grown so strong... Sam shuddered at the thought of what it would be like if that actually spread over the whole world like Nevermore wanted.

"For my family," Sam muttered to himself as he climbed out of the van, the reminder of why he was really doing this giving him the courage to continue. There was no way that he was going to let Nevermore or that filth anywhere near his family.

"This is it?" Nike snorted as she looked around, "I don't see any army of monsters..."

"Trust me," Sam responded grimly, "They're there..."

Channel just stared at the school, which was still nearly hundred yards away. She frowned, though her expression was a little hard to read. When she caught Sam looking, she explained, "I just wish that I could do something for once..."

"You do stuff all the time," Deadbeat grunted, gulping down the last of the beer in his bottle before tossing it into the van.

"No," Channel looked at him, "My replacements do stuff all the time. All I can really do is call up someone to do what I can't..." Then she let out a sigh and formed a determined look, "And speaking of which..."

With that, Channel's expression suddenly changed, which was immediately followed by her costume shimmering and doing the same. Gone was her normal blue and violet costume, replaced by something completely different. Her new costume was red and golden yellow, with a large golden yellow M covering much of her chest.

However, what surprised Sam the most was that he recognized that costume... Almost anyone would... It was the unmistakable uniform of Ms. Miracle.

Everyone stared at Channel in surprise, while Chrome gasped, "What the..."

"Who are you?" Zero Kay asked suspiciously.

Channel stood straight, her posture changed from what it had been previously. She started to glow with a faint golden light before she proudly announced, "I'm called Ms. Miracle. And I came to help..."

"No way," Chrome blurted out, "You can't be her..."

"What he means," Zero Kay started cautiously, as if afraid of offending her, "is that Channel can only bring up people who are dead..."

"And everyone knows that Ms. Miracle came back," Chrome finished for her, "She ain't dead no more..."

The person in Channel's body who claimed to be Ms. Miracle gave him an intense stare, then slowly looked around at everyone. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I can assure you that I am Ms. Miracle and I have never come back until now."

Sam just stared at her, his mind racing. But everyone knew that Ms. Miracle had come back from the dead... He'd even seen her on the news just a week or so earlier.

For a moment, everyone was staring at her in silence before Zero Kay muttered, "Either Channel's powers don't work quite like we think they do... or there's something off."

"An impostor?" Nike asked with a scowl.

"Maybe a clone," Chrome suggested, "Or an android..."

Ms. Miracle just shook her head impatiently, growling, "I'm just here for Baron Nevermore. That bastard killed me..." Then her expression suddenly turned sad. "I never even got to tell my son..."

"You have a son?" Kay asked in surprise.

However, Ms. Miracle quickly changed the subject, "Nevermind that." Her eyes narrowed, "We have to stop Baron Nevermore..."

"She's just calling herself Nevermore now," Sam pointed out, though Ms. Miracle only nodded faintly, not seeming surprised, either by the gender reference or the name change. Sam guessed that Channel had already told her since they seemed to have some sort of mental communication going.

Finally, Nike growled out, "Enough with the talking already. Let's just do this..."

There was no more argument... no more talking. Only action. With a silent understanding, Sam flew up into the air with Ms. Miracle and Nike, who were the only other ones who could fly. At the same time, Chrome, Deadbeat and Zero Kay charged straight for the school.

Sam grimaced, his heart racing not only at the thought that he was about to fight an army of monsters, but that he was doing so alongside Ms. Miracle. The real Ms. Miracle... one of the most famous heroes ever. And one who just happened to have been dead for years.

Nike suddenly cried out, "Look... a flying monkey..."

"What..." Sam gasped.

But then Sam saw what she was referring to, flying towards the school from the other direction. However, it wasn't exactly a monkey... but more like a gorilla with giant bat wings on it's back. And it let out a loud roar as it saw them.

"He's mine," Nike announced, already charging straight for him.

"We go after Nevermore," Ms. Miracle announced from Channel's body, diving back down at the school, with Sam only glancing back at Nike before following her.

As soon as they reached the schoolyard below, Sam gasped in horror at all of the darkness zombies, then quickly looked at the ground bound members who had just charged in as well.

"I don't see no monsters," Deadbeat called to Sam.

However, it was at that very moment that the darkness zombies chose to reveal themselves, with their eyes beginning to glow red. Sam thought that he heard an "Oh shit," from Deadbeat, though he couldn't be sure as he was too intend on the darkness zombies who were beginning to transform into monsters right in front of him.

"These are still students," Ms. Miracle called out. "Try not to hurt them too badly..."

"Easy for the woman who's already dead to say," Zero Kay exclaimed.

Sam grunted, quickly wondering if they could be cured... turned back to normal. He desperately hoped so. The thought of Samantha having to remain as one of those creatures turned his stomach.

"Thank God I kept Todd away," Sam muttered to himself, suddenly no longer feeling guilty in the least for what he'd done. A few hours on the toilet would be infinitely better than being trapped in that.

But then Todd had no more time to consider these things as the fight began. Both creatures and darkness zombies charged at the heroes, who now had to deal with the large numbers, without really harming them.

With a grimace, Sam quickly grabbed two of the creatures and threw them back at the largest cluster, taking out several more with the impact. Then he had to deal with more close up creatures, releasing a burst of swirling rainbow light into the face of the nearest.

Suddenly a cry of, "Look out," came from behind Sam. He snapped around, just in time to see Ms. Miracle lifting a creature that had been about to attack him from behind, high into the air.

"Thanks," He called back to her, then quickly returned his full attention to the creatures around him.

From the corner of Sam's eye, he saw a flash of bluish white light, obviously Zero Kay's powers in use. Once he had an open moment, he glanced over and saw that a large section of the ground covered with frost, and a number of creatures slipping about on the ice. However, she probably couldn't use her powers on them directly without killing them.

Ms. Miracle seemed to have an easy time dealing with the creatures, picking them up and tossing them to the side with ease. She would even fly some up into the air before dropping them upon groups of their fellow creatures. And she was fearless, but then again, that was not surprising as she was not only invulnerable but already dead as well. ' Chrome too was doing quite well, his silver metal shell making him impervious to their injuries, though he seemed to be limited to how much he could fight them back. Still, the blades that grew from his armor were excellent weapons, even if he could not use them to cut his opponents to ribbons, as he was clearly capable.

What surprised Sam the most was the sight of Deadbeat charging straight in without the least bit of fear. He never would have expected to see that one so involved in the fight, not considering his name and reputation.

"Come and get me," Deadbeat screamed out.

Then Deadbeat grabbed an alligator creature that was slashing at him and lifted it above his head, revealing that he was far stronger that a normal person. This creature was thrown at another, yet even more came at the dead hero. One of them a red skinned man with chitenous armor and a long scorpion tail growing from his back.

"Look out," Sam called to Deadbeat, rushing to his aid.

However, Sam was too late as the scorpion creature struck with his tail, driving the spike deep into Deadbeat's back... and out his front. To Sam's horror, he collapsed to the ground.

"NO," Sam yelled as he charged at the scorpion creature and punched it with everything he had, sending the creature flying straight into the school wall where it left a sizable hole. "Deadbeat," he turned to the fallen hero.

Then to Sam's surprise, Deadbeat was already getting back to his feat, grinning at Sam, "Don't hurt a bit..."

But before Deadbeat could get up entirely, several monsters jumped on him at once. Sam started to rush to his aid, only to be slammed into by a large scaly man wearing the shreds of a football jersey.

"Get out of my way!" Sam yelled at him, punching the former football player with all of his strength, though the creature just staggered and swung back.

Sam didn't have time to deal with him the hard way, so grimaced and punched him again, releasing his light at the same time. The burst of light, combined with the force of Sam's punch seemed to be enough as the creature was sent flying through the air, and almost immediately after hitting the ground some distance away, was already beginning to return to human form.

But by the time that Sam turned back to Deadbeat, he was horrified to see that he was too late. The creatures had already torn into him with teeth and claws, tearing his body to shreds. With a loud roar, one of them sent what Sam thought was Deadbeat's heart flying.

Sam was too shocked to do anything but stare in horror. They had not only killed him... they had torn him to pieces. Sam had seen the movies and knew that not even a zombie would be able to survive that...

Suddenly, Zero Kay called out, "Glamour Girl!"

Sam snapped around, then gasped as he saw what she had been calling to him for. Two black birds were circling overhead... birds that were very familiar to him. However, it was not the birds that had made Sam gasp, but what they were circling around. Floating in the air above them was Melanie...

"Nevermore," Sam whispered, feeling the cold chill run down his spine.

For a moment, Sam just stared at her in fear, knowing that as bad as things had been just minutes earlier, they had just gotten MUCH worse.

***

Nevermore hovered in the air just a short distance above the battle, watching silently as her two ravens circled about her. Everyone, including the darkness zombies and monsters paused in order to look up at her.

Sam gulped as he stared at her. Nevermore didn't really look at that dangerous, not with her pretty blonde cheerleader's body, yet with the darkness and power, which emanated from her, Sam had no doubt as to just how dangerous she really was.

Suddenly the ground started to shake and pillar of black stone erupted from the Earth beneath Nevermore, scattering her own monsters to the side as it raised up until it reached her. The pillar stopped at that point, leaving her standing atop it without her having had to move an inch.

At that moment, more than a half dozen darkness zombies and creatures came forth and stood near the pillar. Sam recognized the creatures that Brenda and Chelsea had become, and as well as two more monsters, there were three darkness zombies, each in a cheerleader uniform. After taking them all in, Sam guessed that this was the cheerleading squad.

It was then that Nevermore demanded, "Like, who the hell do you think you are coming to my school..."

"Your enemies," Ms. Miracle grimly announced as she came down and settled in the air a short distance in front of Nevermore.

For several long seconds, Nevermore just stared at Ms. Miracle, first with a look of confusion, then one of surprise and disbelief. "You..." Nevermore finally gasped out, her eyes going wide, "It can't be..."

"But it is," Ms. Miracle snapped back.

Nevermore smirked faintly and gestured down at herself, "It appears that we both came back with new bodies..."

"But this one was lent to me willingly," Ms. Miracle pointed out, the hatred dripping from her voice.

However, Nevermore just sighed, "What-ever..."

Sam was unsure of what to do. Though he thought that the best idea would be to just hit Nevermore now, he couldn't help looking up at Ms. Miracle for direction. After all, she was the real hero... the one with all of the experience in those kinds of situations.

"Maybe it's a good thing you came back now," Nevermore sneered, "I was just about to scatter my new army to spread fear and havoc... And with that kind of fear... my powers will grow exponentially..." Then Nevermore laughed, though it was a cold laugh. "Now you will be her to witness it... Or better yes," her eyes glowed a brighter red, "I'll just kill you again"

With that, Nevermore threw a blast of red energy from her hand, though Ms. Miracle easily dodged out of the way. And with that blast, the signal had been given and the fight was back on. Sam quickly went at the new cheerleader monsters, hoping that Ms. Miracle could take care of Nevermore... especially without getting Channel's body hurt.

Everything quickly erupted into chaos, even worse than the battle before Nevermore arrived. Because this time, Nevermore was there, throwing blasts of red energy around, almost at random. Several of them hit her own creatures, destroying darkness zombies and monsters. And, Sam realized with horror, removing any chance of returning those people back to normal.

Then Sam noticed that one flying monster was attacking Zero Kay from above. Sam gave a quick punch to the monster that he was fighting and flew to her aid. Without a word, he grabbed the creature's wings and used them to throw it straight at another creature that was trying to sneak up on Ms. Miracle from behind.

Suddenly, Nike flew through the air, just feet away from Sam, letting out a loud howl as she dove straight into three creatures at once. And then she kept going after them, so intent, so viscous that Sam was suddenly very thankful that she was on his side and not theirs.

But while Sam was watching Nike, he didn't see creature, which hit him from behind. Sam hit the ground with a grunt, just feet away from a mass of squirming tentacles, which had just burst out of the ground. One of the tendrils reached out and wrapped around his let, making him curse as he struggled to pull free.

"I've gotcha," Chrome exclaimed, already slashing through that... and several other tentacles with a long metal blade that grew from his armored shell.

"Thanks," Sam grunted.

Then he looked up to where Ms. Miracle was fighting Nevermore, or at least trying to. It seemed like something of a stalemate, with Nevermore throwing all sorts of energy blasts and green glowing balls at Ms. Miracle, who kept dodging them, and Ms. Miracle being unable to get close enough to Nevermore to do anything to her.

"I hope she's careful with Channel's body," an unfamiliar girl's voice exclaimed from behind Sam.

Sam snapped around, startled to see a very pretty teenage girl with blood all over her clothes. "Who the hell..." Sam started, wondering who this girl was and how she knew who Channel was.

The girl looked at Sam blankly for a moment, then smirked, "It's me... Deadbeat." She looked a bit embarrassed as she gestured down at herself, "I had to find a new body... And, Nevermore had conveniently killed this one a couple minutes ago..."

"Deadbeat?" Sam blinked in surprise, not sure that he completely believed it. He had been so sure that Deadbeat was really dead after seeing him torn apart like that, but then again, since Deadbeat possessed dead bodies, that kind of thing apparently didn't matter much.

"Yeah," he shrugged uncomfortably, "But this chick's body was all I could find. Besides, it ain't the first time..."

Sam would have loved to talk to Deadbeat more about that, but he knew that this was definitely not the time. They had a lot more important things to do than talk about their experiences as the wrong gender.

Just then, Zero Kay called out, "Forget these guys... We've got to go after the big fish..."

"Then I say we bring her down to OUR level," Chrome yelled back.

With that, Chrome charged straight for the black stone pillar that Nevermore was standing on and started slashing at it with his metal blades. He kept going at it in the same spot, putting several gashes into the stone, but obviously not doing as much damage as he wanted.

And while Chrome was doing that, Deadbeat was standing there behind him with a crowbar that he... or she had picked up somewhere, and was using it to bat at the darkness zombies and monsters that were coming towards them. It was almost hard for Sam to believe that this was indeed the same overweight guy that seemed more interested in drinking beer than saving the world.

After a minute of this, Zero Kay ordered, "Stand back..."

She was already standing there with a glowing ball of bluish white light in her hand. And once Chrome and Deadbeat had stepped back, she threw it straight at the pillar. The ball hit, then suddenly expanded into a large sphere, which just as suddenly vanished, leaving a coating of frost over everything that it had touched.

"Instant flash freeze," Key gave Sam a grim smile.

Then before anyone could do more, Nike landed in front of them, announcing, "My turn..."

Nike gave some sort of battle cry as she launched herself against the stone pillar, hitting it as hard as she could, using her force field to not only slam into it but to protect her from the impact as well. There was a shaking, and a large section of the stone started to crack.

Sam didn't wait for an invitation to give them a hand, going for the pillar as well, though doing so in a slightly different manner than the others. They had been attacking it at the base, but he knew that a bit of leverage might be able to do even more damage. That was why he hit it closer to the top, flying up there and using all of his enhanced strength to push it as hard as he could.

To Sam's relief, he heard a loud cracking sound, just as the pillar began to move forward. He pushed even harder, and it continued to move even further until gravity had taken over entirely.

"TIMBER," Deadbeat called out.

There was a horrible crashing sound as the pillar collapsed to the ground, along with a long stream of profanity from Nevermore, who had been unceremoniously dumped onto the ground amid her own creatures. She was definitely not pleased, as the sudden explosion that came from her and liquefied everything near her... including three of her own creatures.

"You bitch," Nevermore howled out, though whether she was referring to Ms. Miracle or Sam, he didn't know.

"And we're going to take you down in more than one way," Nike told her the air above.

"We're taking you ALL the way down," Ms. Miracle snarled furiously as she landed in front of them. "I'm going to send you all the way down to hell where you belong..."

"Been there, done that," Nevermore responded. Then her eyes narrowed as she glared at Ms. Miracle, "In fact it was your offspring who sent me there..."

"My offspring?" Ms. Miracle looked confused.

But while Ms. Miracle was distracted by that, Nevermore muttered something under her breath and a moment later, a mass of squirming tentacles burst from the ground beneath the heroine. And while Ms. Miracle was struggling with the tentacles, Nevermore took the opportunity to throw something else at her, what looked like a swirling mass of glowing red string.

"Channel!" Zero Kay cried out.

At the same time, Sam called out, "Ms. Miracle..."

When the glowing ball of string hit Ms. Miracle, instead of her bursting into flame or disintegrating, as Sam had feared, the string unwound and wrapped around her, trapping her up even more than the tentacles had.

Nevermore laughed, "I think that this time I will kill you slowly..."

"You're not killing anyone," Chrome growled as he charged straight at her.

However, before Chrome could even hit her, he was slammed by several of her monsters and thrown back, then buried beneath a mass of them. Sam would have been worried, but he was pretty sure that Chrome's shell could take it.

"Oh, but I am," Nevermore smirked.

Just then, two of Nevermore's monsters stepped to her on either side. One was a cat creature, and the other a vampiress. Brenda and Chelsea. It was obvious to Sam that for some reason, those two seemed to be Nevermore's favorites.

"Edgar," Nevermore called out, "Allen..."

The two raven's swooped down at that, one landing upon each of the monsters had had previously been the cheerleaders Brenda and Chelsea. As soon as the raven's set down, their eyes glowing a bright red shadows seemed to seep from the feet and into the bodies of the former girls.

"What the..." Deadbeat gasped.

Suddenly, the cat creature seemed to become just a little bit more human, though not much. She stood up straighter, a swirling mass of darkness moving about her body, almost as if alive. She radiated an aura of power and darkness even greater than before.

At the same time, the vampiress had a darkness about her as well, though it all seemed to coalesce within her hands and form into a single solid object. Within her hands was a large scythe, which appeared to be made of a black metal.

"Let me introduce Pit and Pendulum," Nevermore smirked, just before ordering, "Kill them all..."

Sam assumed that Chelsea, the cat creature was Pit because of the black swirl around her, and that Brenda had to be Pendulum since she had that black scythe. However, he didn't have time to give it much consideration before they leapt.

Chrome had dug himself out from the pile of bodies and used the blade from his armor to block Brenda... Pendulum's scythe. However, to Sam's surprise, the scythe cut straight through Chrome's blade, severing it entirely. Chrome jumped back in shock, his armor melting slightly and forming a new blade in place of the old. But he was now cautiously circling Pendulum.

At the same time, Deadbeat picked up one of the creatures and threw it at Pit, though Sam couldn't see whether he hit her or not since she had vanished into a swirling mass of shadows. There was no telling where she was in there, though that didn't stop Deadbeat from charging in after her.

"Bad kitty," Deadbeat growled as he disappeared into the shadowy mass.

Suddenly, Deadbeat was sent flying back out, several nasty torn in his new body due to Pit's claws. However, they didn't seem to bother him much as he sat back up, looking down at himself and grimacing.

"Guess I'll have to find a new body that much sooner," he muttered.

Then before Sam realized what was going on, Nike dove straight for Nevermore, but as Nevermore formed a ball of red fire in her hand to throw, Nike abruptly changed directions and hit Pit from behind instead, sending the vampiress straight into the mass of darkness that hid Pit. She didn't even hesitate before flying in there herself just a moment later.

While the others were busy dealing with Pit and Pendulum, Sam turned his attention to Nevermore... and Ms. Miracle. And he saw that Zero Kay had the same idea as she was in the middle of throwing one of her cold spheres straight for the villainess.

"I don't think so," Nevermore scowled, casually flipping her wrist and causing Zero Kay's sphere to stop as though it had hit an invisible wall.

"Fucking bitch," Zero Kay snarled, forming another sphere to throw.

This time though, Nevermore wasn't even allowing her to go that far, because before Zero Kay could throw her sphere, a mass of tentacles erupted from behind her, leaving her to give that her full attention instead.

"Now for you," Nevermore told Ms. Miracle with a cold sneer.

Sam wasn't about to let Ms. Miracle get hurt if he could help it, nor Channel for that matter since she would be along for the ride. He grimaced and flew straight at Nevermore, releasing a burst of rainbow light from his hands as he did so.

Nevermore screamed and covered her eyes, jumping back and cursing viscously. Spikes of stone began to erupt about her feet, as well as slimy green tentacles. She lashed around, her eyes glowing a brighter red than before, her aura seething with raw malevolence.

"Get me out of here," Ms. Miracle told Sam as she struggled to get loose from both the red tangled string and the tentacles which both held her in place.

But just as Sam reached for her, the ground started to rumble beneath them. He quickly looked up in time to see another black pillar of stone growing beneath Nevermore and lifting her off of the ground. And before Sam realized it, there was yet another one... this time forming beneath Ms. Miracle and the mass of tentacles, which held her tight.

"No problem," Sam muttered since he could easily fly up to the tops of the pillars.

Sam grimaced and flew straight to the top of the pillar, straight at Nevermore. The villainess seemed surprised, though only for a moment before she responded, sending a barrage of black spikes flying at him from her hand. Sam dodged, though knew that it wasn't going to be so easy to get near Nevermore now that she was on guard. Ms. Miracle had already proven that.

For some reason though, Nevermore momentarily looked worried as she stared up at Sam, but that quickly passed and she snarled, "Pit... Pendulum..."

There was a loud roar from below Sam, and as he glanced down, he saw the catlike Pit leaping up at him, a swirling mass of shadows dragging behind her. At the same time, Pendulum was scampering up the pillar, obviously getting in position so that she was closer to Sam as well.

"Damn," Sam flew higher, just in time to avoid Pit, who quickly fell back down to the ground.

"Get these guys off my back!" Sam called to any of the Slacker's that could hear him.

Then Nevermore threw a glowing red ball of energy at him, which Sam was able to dodge. But only too late did Sam realize that Nevermore had just been herding him back within range of Pendulum, who was already in midair with her scythe flying towards him.

"I've got your back Glamour Girl," Nike yelled as she rammed into Pendulum again, this time driving her towards the ground. "I'll take care of this bitch... You get Channel free..."

"Gotcha," Sam responded, already flying towards the pillar where Ms. Miracle was held prisoner on the top.

"SHE'S MINE!" Nevermore howled, "And you can't have her!"

Suddenly, Sam was hit from behind by a flying creature, one who looked like a humanoid bat. And while he was trying to regain his balance and figure out how to deal with his attacker, Nevermore struck.

"Glamour Gi..." Ms. Miracle started to call a warning.

However, the warning was too late as swirling ball of red string hit Sam from behind, just as a similar one had hit Ms. Miracle such a short time earlier. And before Sam barely even had time to register that he'd been hit, the string had sprung tightly around his body, and he was falling towards the ground.

This time it was Zero Kay who screamed out, "Glamour Girl," but it was a scream of fear rather than warning.

But then Sam hit, landing right on top of one of the darkness creatures. A creature that seemed to be made of green slime. It was a messy impact, though a soft one. And once Sam realized that he hadn't died, he let out a sigh of relief, followed by a gasp of horror. He was on the ground again, but he was tied up, unable to move and completely surrounded by monsters and darkness zombies.

"Oh shit," Sam squeaked out, suddenly wishing that he had never heard of Bison Park or that voice.

However, as horrified as Sam was, that was nothing compared to what he felt as he saw the next darkness zombie that was heading towards him with a malicious look on her face. It was Samantha... the one who should have become Glamour Girl.

"Sam..." Sam gasped out at her, begging, "You've got to stop."

To Sam's surprise, Samantha did stop, though his momentary relief was quickly gone. Samantha had started to change... to transform. Her skin was turning blue, her fingers stretching to claws... Samantha was becoming one of the creatures.

"NO!" Sam screamed out, struggling against the glowing red strings that held him as hard as he could. A part of him knew that he had no chance of breaking them if Ms. Miracle couldn't, but he didn't care. His rainbow aura swirled brighter as he tensed his muscles, then the strings that bound Sam suddenly burned away in the raw intensity of his glow.

Sam let out a roar of raw fury at what Nevermore had done to such good kids, still glowing as brightly as a flare. The darkness zombies and creatures all cried out and scrambled to get away from him, trying to cover their eyes. But Samantha, who had been right in front of him had collapsed to the ground and was shaking, already reverting to human form.

When Sam eased up a bit, he stared down at Samantha and gasped. He quickly checked her pulse, relieved that she was all right but afraid that it wasn't over for her. Somehow, he doubted that it would be that easy to free her... and any of the others from Nevermore's grasp that easily.

"The voice told me to stop the darkness," Sam whispered to the now unconscious Samantha, tears forming in his eyes as he did so. "It should have been you..." He scowled more deeply before promising, "I swear that I'll find some way to stop it..."

Sam stood back up and grimaced with a renewed determination. Somehow... somehow he was going to put an end to this madness. He was going stop the darkness. And that meant going for the head of the snake... That meant going for Nevermore. However, Sam looked up in her direction, knowing that first he would have to get close to her, and as he had seen, that was not easy.

But then as Sam flew back up into the air, a thought occurred to him. He remembered the trick with the hologram that he had shown Emily... Maybe... Maybe he could use that.

After taking a deep breath and focusing his attention, Sam willed the light to form and take shape. It took more concentration that he had expected, but his efforts paid off when an image that looked like an identical copy of him formed by his side. Completely identical except for the fact that it was slightly transparent.

"I wonder," Sam muttered, regathering his attention to attempt it again.

Just a moment later, a second hologram duplicate of Sam hovered beside him, and soon there were yet two more. Now Sam floated there, surrounded by four illusions of himself, though he did not remain there long. He willed his illusions to fly away from him, so all of them scattered in different directions.

"What?" Nevermore gasped as she looked back at Sam and saw several of him flying through the air.

With a howl of rage, Nevermore started throwing blasts of energy at them, while at the same time, two of her flying creatures started diving for Sam's illusions. The fact that they passed through the illusions didn't seem to stop them from trying to attack again.

Then, using the chaos and confusion provided by his distractions, Sam took a page from Nevermore's book and attacked her from behind. He let loose with a concentrated blast of rainbow light, but at the last minute, Nevermore shifted position so that instead of hitting her, the blast hit Ms. Miracle instead.

"NO," Sam cried out in horror.

However, an instant later, he saw that instead of hurting Ms. Miracle, his blast had caused the tentacles and strings that were holding her to burn apart. She burst free with a cry of, "I'm free..."

Nevermore snapped around with a look of horror, then yelled out, "Shadowlings..."

Suddenly, two swirls of shadows began to twist and form behind Nevermore. Two creatures took shape and appeared, each of them humanoid in shape, with a pair of batlike wings. And each of them was solid black, as though they were the deepest darkest shadows given solid form.

"Damn," Ms. Miracle growled, "Those things again..."

"You've seen them before?" Sam gasped, not taking his eyes off of either Nevermore or her latest creatures.

"Yes," was all Ms. Miracle said in response, though she stood as though ready for a fight.

Sam gulped nervously, "I'll take the right one..."

"No," Ms. Miracle told him, turning to look at Sam with a grim expression. "I'll deal with the shadowlings... You get Nevermore..."

"What?" Sam gasped in surprise.

Ms. Miracle was the real superhero... She was the one with all of the experience against Nevermore... And she was the one with a VERY personal reason for taking her down. It made no sense to Sam that she would ask him to fight her instead...

Before Sam could make any sense of Ms. Miracle's plan, the shadowlings dove at them both. Ms. Miracle shot out with blinding speed, glowing a bright golden light as she attacked them.

Then Ms. Miracle quickly looked back at Sam and yelled, "Your light... Use..."

However, she didn't get to finish what she was saying as one of the shadowlings tore at her with its long claws. And at the same time, Nevermore threw a ball of glowing red fire straight at Sam, who had to no more concentration to spare on Ms. Miracle.

Sam dodged Nevermore's attacks for a minute, looking for an opportunity. He had no idea how in the world he was supposed to get to Nevermore when Ms. Miracle hadn't been able to, though he sure as hell intended to find a way.

After dodging several more of Nevermore's attacks, Sam had an idea. He backed up a little, deciding to use the hologram trick again. He willed them to form, only two of them this time. Nevermore was watching him, so there was no surprise in that. In fact, she had seen him create them and knew which was the real one and which the fakes.

"Now to mix things up," Sam muttered grimly.

With that, Sam took a deep breath and willed his rainbow aura brighter, bright enough so that it was nearly like a flare, hiding him AND his illusions within it's glare, as well as providing a little room to work. Then after shifting positions, Sam and his illusions attacked.

"WHAT?" Nevermore gasped out in surprise, attacking all three the Sam's that were coming at her at once.

However, while Nevermore was dealing with the two illusions that Sam had created... as well as the third, which he had created under the cover of the rainbow flare, he hit her from the side where she wasn't looking for him. Nevermore went flying from the pillar, held firmly in Sam's hands as he knocked them both to the ground.

"I've got you," Sam growled at her.

Sam immediately realized however, that this still left the very important question of what to do with her. Nevermore had to be stopped... And as much as Sam hated it, his first thought was that he was going to have to kill her. But then, Sam thought of Melanie... the cheerleader whom Baron Nevermore had possessed. What of her? Surely he couldn't kill an innocent girl... But if it was the fate of the world at stake...

"Let go of me," Nevermore demanded, though Sam continued holding her arms, not giving her the opportunity to throw another spell at him.

As Sam clutched the villainess tightly in his arms, he cringed at the feeling of raw darkness, which radiated from her. It sickened his stomach. There was the darkness... the reason that the voice had looked for a champion. The reason that the voice had given him those powers.

Suddenly a thought ran through Sam's head. Although the voice had given those powers to the wrong person, it had given them to him for a reason. It had given them to him to stop the darkness... And he quickly realized that the best way to get rid of a room full of darkness was to simply turn on the light.

With a deep scowl, Sam grimly told Nevermore, "You're done for..."

And even as he said that, gathered up all his strength, all his energy and all his light. He willed all of the light within him to awaken, causing his body to flare brightly with a rainbow aura. However, he did not leave it at that, and seeing the cringing look of terror on Nevermore's face, Sam grew surer that he was doing the right thing and willed the light into her. He pushed it through his hands, gasping from the raw intensity of it.

"NOOOO!" Nevermore screamed out, though Sam barely heard her as he pushed more and more of his light into her body.

Finally, just when Sam was sure that he couldn't give it any more, he felt a sudden tearing in reality. And in an instant, the horrible stain that was the darkness fled from beneath Sam's hands. It was gone.

Sam dropped the body that he was holding, staggering at the exhaustion. He had used so much of his energy, so much of the light that his skin was barely glowing at all.

"Ooooh," Nevermore groaned from the ground where Sam had dropped her.

But as she slowly sat up, Sam saw that her expression had changed entirely. Gone were the glowing red eyes and the aura of dark maliciousness. Now there was something else entirely.

"Melanie?" Sam asked her carefully.

For a moment, she just looked up at him in confusion before responding, "Yeah... Who are you..."

Sam let out a long sigh of relief. Somehow, it had worked. He had been able to use his light to destroy the darkness within her. He had destroyed Nevermore... or at the very least driven him out of her body.

After staring at Nevermore... at Melanie for several more seconds, Sam slowly turned and looked around him. He let out a gasp at the sight. Wisps of darkness that looked like black smoke were billowing out of the darkness zombies. Their eyes were no longer glowing red and more and more of them were looking around in confusion. At the same time, all of the monsters had stopped fighting and had collapsed to the ground as well. And each of them were already well on their way to transforming back into their human forms.

"It's over?" Chrome gasped as he looked around.

His silvery metal shell had a number of nasty looking scratches, tears and dents in it, but as Sam watched, it sort of melted and reshaped itself until it looked brand new and in perfect condition.

"We did it," Nike exclaimed, landing on the ground amid the confused and mostly naked students, who just moments before had been an army of darkness zombies and monsters. "We defeated Baron Nevermore..."

Sam nodded vaguely at that and rushed to where he had left Samantha a short while earlier. She was still there, seeming unharmed, unlike many who had been injured in the fighting. Samantha was even beginning to sit up, having the same confused expression as nearly everyone else as she looked around.

"What's going on?" she gasped. "How did I get out here..."

"Are you all right?" Sam asked her gently.

Samantha nodded, "Yeah, but my clothes..."

Her clothes were torn from her transformation, though since she had stopped before completing the changes, enough of them remained to cover her body and protect her modestly. There were a great many others waking up to find themselves completely naked.

Then Samantha suddenly stared at Sam with her mouth open, "Sarah?" she gasped out.

"What?" Sam gulped, surprised at her recognizing him. But then again, he glanced down at himself, with his skin no longer glowing... He looked like a normal person again.

That was quickly followed though by someone else nearby exclaiming, "Hey... that's the new girl..."

Another voice echoed, "The new girl is Glamour Girl..."

"Damn," Sam muttered without much force, "So much for a secret identity." However, he couldn't resist smirking, as he knew that none of them had the least idea of who he really was.

"You're Glamour Girl," Samantha exclaimed as she stared at Sam, "I can't believe it Sarah..."

"It's a long story," Sam told her. "But I don't have time to tell it..."

Just then, there was the loud sound of police sirens; just before the cop cars began to arrive. "Now they show up," Sam grumbled. "Where were they when the fighting was going on?"

"Actually, this is pretty normal," Ms. Miracle said as she came up behind Sam.

"What?" he asked.

Ms. Miracle shrugged, "When the police see these situations with developed, they usually know that they're outclassed so just stay back and watch to see how it turns out. Then afterwards, they come rushing in to get in on some of the credit."

"I guess we showed all of them," Deadbeat said as he shambled over, still in the teenage girl's body that was somewhat worse for the wear.

For a moment, Ms. Miracle just looked around before saying, "I guess it's time for me to go." Her expression turned sad and she muttered, "I just wish I had time to tell my son..."

But just at that moment, Ms. Miracle's body began to shimmer. Her costume seemed to vanish, replaced by another, while at that same moment, her expression changed dramatically. Sam knew that it was now Channel that he was looking at. Ms. Miracle was gone.

"I guess that we should get going too before the cops want to ask us a bunch of questions," Zero Kay announced.

"I just want to get back before the big ball game starts," Deadbeat muttered.

"You want to catch a ride back with us?" Zero Kay asked.

Sam shook his head, "Thanks, but I can manage."

"You did good," Nike exclaimed with a grin, looking a bit more approving of Sam than she had earlier.

"You're still welcome to join," Chrome told her.

"Thanks," Sam responded, feeling honored by those words, "But since the reason that I got my powers in the first place has been taken care of, I'm not even sure that I'll still have them for very long."

There were a few more kind words before the Slackers rushed off back to their van. Sam tried to fly away at the same time, but was annoyed to learn that he couldn't. He'd used up too much of his light taking care of Nevermore and didn't have enough for that.

"Damn," Sam grumbled, reduced to running away from the school in order to avoid the cops and the questions that he didn't want to have to answer.

Sam didn't know where to go, though he soon found a spot behind a cluster of trees beside the road where no one would see him. He let out a sigh of relief as he hid himself among them, then winced at the discomfort. It was only then that he looked at himself and realized just how many bruises and lacerations he'd received during the fight. Fortunately none of them were too serious.

"Just scratches," he muttered, wondering how he was going to explain those to Anne.

With that, Sam tried willing himself back to normal; only do discover that he couldn't. He let out a loud gasp, trying again, but he didn't have enough light to pull in and change him back.

"No," Sam gasped in horror. He was stuck. Stuck as a teenage girl. His heart raced and he had to struggle to keep himself from panicking. Somehow he managed to remain calm, or at least somewhat.

Sam closed his eyes and sat there for several minutes, just taking deep breaths. When he opened them up again, he felt a little better, though there was still the fear that he would be stuck... trapped as Glamour Girl. But then he looked down at his skin and paused at the realization that it was beginning to glow again. Not very brightly, but enough so that he could notice it.

"All right," he let out a sigh. His light was beginning to come back...

After remaining where he was for nearly an hour, Sam thought that he had enough light build back up for it to work. He gave a silent prayer, and was relieved when the light swirled around him and his own body returned. And he didn't even have a scratch on him.

Letting out another sigh, Sam muttered, "It worked."

And a moment later, Sam was on his way back home. He hurried, only just becoming aware of the time and the fact that it was nearly time for Anne to be getting home from work. Sam hoped to get back before she did, though as soon as he arrived and saw her car in the driveway, he knew that he'd failed.

"Hi honey," Sam said as he went inside and saw his wife already waiting for him, "How was your day?"

Anne just gave him a curious look. "Not bad. But where have you been? Todd has been home sick all day" There was the hint of an accusatory tone, and Sam gulped, knowing that if he didn't have a good explanation, than this simple question could turn into something a lot more serious.

However, before Sam had a chance to say anything, Emily suddenly ran up and gave him a hug. "Hey daddy," she grinned.

"Hi honey," he grinned back.

Then Emily looked up at him and asked, "How was that big meeting you said you were going to be at with those important clients?"

"You were at a meeting?" Anne asked, looking a bit more impressed.

Sam quickly glanced at Emily, who winked back at him. He couldn't resist grinning, suddenly feeling very thankful that Emily did know about his little secret. At least now he had someone to help cover for him like that.

"Oh yes," Sam told Anne with a wry smile, "And it was a very... interesting day."

There was absolutely no question about that, though Sam knew that 'interesting' might be something of an understatement. He'd actually met Ms. Miracle... And he'd not only fought Baron Nevermore, one of the most dangerous villains in the world and survived, but had actually defeated him as well. It had been a very interesting day indeed, though Sam intensely hoped that he never had another one like it.

Over the next two weeks, Sam was relieved to have life return to mostly normal. Nevermore had been taken of and had not been seen since. There had been no signs of any more darkness zombies or monsters in the area, nor had Sam felt even a twinge that anything of that darkness remained nearby. Even Sam's dreams had returned to normal. Gone were the nightmare warnings of the darkness.

The incident at the school had been all over the news for several days, though that eventually died down as there was no actual recording of the fight itself, and most of the students had no memory of the events that had happened. And soon, the reporters found other things more interesting, such as the brief appearance of the monster Grendel elsewhere in the state.

As might be expected, with all of the damage to the school, it had to be kept closed for close to a week for the cleanup and repairs. Todd had been quite pleased at that, though had lost some of his enthusiasm once he realized that those days would have to be made up for at the end of the school year. Fortunately, the damage had mostly been to the school courtyard rather than to the building itself.

Sam was mildly surprised, though also rather pleased to notice that Todd had gotten a new girlfriend. It appeared that Samantha had taken Sam's advice and asked Todd out, because they were soon dating and actually seemed to be a very good couple. Sam had good hopes for their future together, though he knew better than to mention it.

Once Todd had discovered that the new girl 'Sarah Jones' had really been Glamour Girl, he had complained frequently over the fact that he hadn't met her and hadn't recognized her. That amused Sam a great deal, though he was thankful once Samantha's presence dampened such comments. The thought of his son having a crush on his alter-ego still left Sam somewhat uncomfortable.

And then there was Glamour Girl. Sam had barely transformed into her since the fight with Nevermore. There was little reason for him to do so, and little need for a superheroine in their quiet suburban neighborhood. But Sam had other reasons as well.

Sam continued to think of the mysterious voice that had given him the powers, and why. He still had no idea who that voice was, or why he was so interested in having Nevermore stopped. And though Sam hadn't truly been the intended recipient, he had done his best, and by some miracle, managed to drive back the darkness. He had done what he had been asked to, what he had been given the powers for...

There was a part of Sam that felt reluctant to use those powers for something other than what they had been intended for. But more than that, he feared that since they were no longer needed, that the voice might return to claim them again. That it might take those powers back at any time. Perhaps even when he was Glamour Girl and needed them most.

However, Sam had not given up his role as Glamour Girl entirely. If anything, he remembered the sense of freedom that it had given him. He remembered it every time that Emily looked at him with that new expression of admiration. But more than that, until those powers were taken away, Sam knew that they... and Glamour Girl, would be there to protect his family.

Elsewhere, an old and long used cemetery lay quiet in the dark depths of night. The light from the moon glinted through the hazy fog, almost making it seem like a thing alive.

Suddenly a flash of movement swept through the silent graveyard, and in a flutter of wings, a solitary black bird landed atop an old tombstone, one so old and faded that the name it bore was illegible. Then the bird's eyes seemed to glow red as it opened its beak and cawed, "Nevermore..."