My Super Secret Life…Scarlet-4

Chapter 4

I exhale a long slow breath as I finish my second nice cold bottle of water and smile at the sort of stares that I’m getting from the two teenagers behind the counter of the 247-Mart I stopped at on my way home. I’m dirty and grimy and smoky and I likely smell to high heaven of the smoke and soot.

But honest to god they are still checking me out.

I’m not interested but it’s still oddly kinda cool.

One of them screws up the courage and asks. “Uhm hey…didn’t we just see you down town on like the TV with like all the other superheroes?”

“Yeah I was there trying to lend a helping hand.”

“Oh that was like cool.”

“Well it sorta wasn’t cool with everyone getting hurt and stuff but actually helping out was pretty cool and getting to work with and see the Ark Angels was pretty cool but honestly guys it was really scary and bad down there. A lot of people got hurt.”

“Oh man, that like really sucks. So what like happened?”

“Honestly I don’t know, some of the super bads were up to something and I have no idea what.”

“I hope you guys stop whatever messed up shi…uhm stuff they’re planning.”

“Me to uhm..,(Nametag check.) Raj, me too.”

I actually get a few things while I’m there some ice cream and some junk food and pay with the bit of cash I had stuffed in my bra.

Okay…it’s kind of funny the way the boys are staring at me when I fish the twenty out. Lord knows that I’ve stared at girls when they pull something out of their bra’s when I’m in Dale mode. I just smile at them. Hey I’m a girl that’s a part time guy and all guys look. I’m not all offended by it and I don’t read a lot into it either.

I kind saunter out of the shop despite the aches that are starting to settle I and touch the power and take to the skies.

And my hurts fade away with it too there is something just so awesome and so pure to your heart when you can fly. I really should go home but it’s getting close to dawn and there’s something I want to do. I pull a loop and fly out past the city and push the speed and head out to Great Sable Island. It’s this old colonial settlement that got abandoned a long, long time ago but they had left the livestock there and it’s now a colonial protected park.

Full of wild horses now.

I’ve always wanted to see this place but even given this day and age it’s really, really expensive like close to four thousand dollars for a three day trip.

Now I’m sitting on the top of this great big hill of several hundred feet high watching this big herd of like sixty some horses waking up with the sunrise coming up over the ocean and eating fudgecicles.

If I never made the choice I’d never have gotten this close to my family history, I’d never had been able to help like I did and never would have gotten to do this. Fame, money…I don’t really care about those things but this….

I can’t help but smile and laugh at the baby horses running and bucking full of energy and life. Horse rolling in the wet grasses getting a dew bath and just being happy and free.

Coin of the soul stuff.

I don’t have classes and nowhere to be so I finish the entire six fudgecicles in the pack and lean back and lay in the grasses myself. It doesn’t take too long for me to fall asleep there in the fresh salt sea air and in the sunshine.

I never slept that good since I was a kid.

It was the cold that woke me up. Waking up in Darcy mode instead of Scarlet mode the very open oceans breezes are quite chilly and while not in northern waters I’m still in the northern hemisphere and that’s chilly.

I power up and head back but spot one of the tourist boats that are like small cruise liners where the eco-tourists stay between going out to see the horse on the hover platforms or do birding…? The place is a bird sanctuary too.

I fly up to them wave and circle before coming close there’s people staring and a few cameras going off and some of the bridge crew come out.

“Permission to come aboard?” I ask.

“Granted.” This guy says and I’m going to assume he’s the Captain even though I know nothing about boat ranks he’s got the captainey hat/cap thingy on.

I land and he’s looking at me. “Is there some kind of danger, some problem miss?”

“Oh…no, no I just haven’t had time to get changed yet from the incident in Ark City there’s now problem sir.”

“Then why did you stop here, do you need our help?”

“Kinda…It’s a long flight back to Ark City and….can I use your little girls room?”

………………………………...........................................LOL! I don’t know what threw him more me asking him or me calling the bathroom on his boat the little girls room.

I get home and found a decent spot where I could downshift to Darcy and headed home but once inside I power up and undress. I’m not sure that the place that stores my uniforms cleans them. Besides it’s kind of a weird honor to was the battle grime out of them.

They’re really beat up and torn I need some more and some spares. Since I change and look different I might go with a Scarlet Angel wardrobe or something. I take a long hot shower still powered up because this magic is sort of alive maybe? Like a force that’s part of me.

What do they call them?

Oh yes, Avatars.

So maybe what ever this is that makes me Scarlet would appreciate a long hot shower. I know I enjoyed it there is something about just getting a shower or a bath like thins that just makes me feel extra good and I’m not talking about the adjustable showerhead but I do…well you know…

The orgasm as Scarlet was intense….I think, I think…no know I flashed red energy when it happened and while nothing seems hurt or burned…It was…and I literally have afterglow like this…there’s a play of red energy like a blush under my skin….and it’s afterglow because when I sort of come down from it, the light under my skin fades away.

I’m so starved after that and I raid my house for food just in my panties and one of Dale’s shirts. I’m not a big cooker but I’m a Midwest kid and if there’s one thing that I can make that’s good for me is chili.

I know there’s lots of this is authentic and that’s authentic but here it is. Mine has meat in it and lots of it. It has beans in it, three kinds no less and lots of vegetables too. I brown off onions first and set the aside, then my bacon just a few strips and get it crispy then take it out and cook the ground turkey. Now I’m like my family does we cook that burger until it’s almost burn’t and all hard and crunchy. This give a lot of flavor to the chili and they’ll soften up in the sauce. Next is celery and shredded carrots because they have to cook and then the dried spices like the chili powder and the cumin and I put in just a bit of cinnamon and cocoa powder and some dried chilies. Mushrooms are next, then once the get the juices coming out of them I add the cooked onions, and the beans…black, red kidney and pinto beans then its three cans of tomatoes a can of tomato paste and a medium jar and juice of red fire roasted and green fire roasted chilies.

The bacon goes last as a chopped up condiment like the other things that I like such as corn or BBQ corn chips.

I won’t need to cook for awhile and while that’s cooking away I eat a bag of microwaved popcorn and a breadless ham sandwich…(blush) No…it was just me with cooked ham/deli sliced package ham…eating it right from the package after slapping a processed cheese slice on it.

It’s not girly, but maybe it is girly…I’ve known a few high school girlfriend that’s do this no problem…but I just….Lazy, tired…? Yeah that’s it I’m having an adrenaline crash….

I watch a little TV channel surfing for about an hour before getting three bowls of chili then freezing some and leaving a decent amount in the fridge.

There was this girly movie on one of the Fem networks and it was some cowboy bit about a girl that got married to young and never got to have a life because of her controlling ass of a husband who beats her and the asshole dies in a car wreck but she can’t handle the farm/ranch by herself and this guy comes along as a ranch hand but he was like this geek she knew in high school all grown up and come back to town and he starts helping her not just fix the place and keep her from losing it and stuff but he encourages her to start singing…and they end up falling in love together.

I get so into it.

It’s like the girl that I am can just empathize so much …I get sucked in…I sob, cry, laugh even and ….Wow…it was cool…I feel so…

Drama, emotional stuff all this classic girly stuff people snub and rolls their eyes at…it’s not dumb or stupid it’s just good…like…like connecting to emotional stuff’s like exercising you’re psyche…it’s just kinda like why girls are girls…there’s this rush too like the endorphins but without pumping iron or running your legs off.

I even sort of dream about it when I crash and go to bed…dream about the movie…me as Dale being the hero, me as Darcy or Scarlet being the girl…long detailed love making dream…I think I flashed red in my sleep…

I woke up as Dale my bracelet glowing and vibrating like my phone? Waking me up? Yes waking me up.

I can sort of smell the results of last night’s “Red Flash” on my sheets and well me. I have to rinse and wash out the washer first because there was a bit of sooty/smoke scent still lingering there but the dryer was fine.

I spend the rest of the week as myself actually busy with classes and my labs and pretty sure that I’m being safe when I get my head shaved off for cancer treatments. There are cures not for cancers, between the gene-treatments, drugs, focused radiation and nano-tech it’s not a death sentence any more. But it is something hardwired into our genes as part of our natural exasperation date. Yes I know it hits people young and randomly but that’s genes, and environment and stuff. Point is 99% of them are treatable in this day and age. It’s the costs…so we raise money for treatment now instead of research most of the time. Hey it’s hair. I’m not part of a frat or stuff like that but I do support them when they do good stuff like this but not the dumb stuff they do either.

The coolest part though was seeing Nikki and buying her a hot chocolate afterwards.

I liked the way that she was looking at me again. God she’s sexy but not hot sexy…okay she’s in a pea jacket and jeans with a big wool sweater and buckskin and fleece boots but she’s drinking her hot chocolate with both hands but with these fingerless glove on and a knit beret like cap and it all goes with her hair and her eyes that are happy eyes right now peeking at me from behind these cute narrow rectangular lensed glasses that add that hip-chick soulful look.

I’m really liking her and the fact she’s this girl all the time it’s not a front. She’s just Nikki…sweet, shy and smart…I’d say more but I’m just yet getting to know this girl.

But the way she’s watching me is…

“Hey…what…”

“Nothing…”

“No you were giving me this look?”

“I was just thinking.”

“Thinking?”

“Yeah, you’re so not like a lot of the people I know.”

“That’s a good thing right?”

“Yes.”

“So how am I different?”

“You’re…you’re just you around me. I get that some people don’t like me because I’m VG and don’t fit their little boxes they need to put people in but I miss the normal.”

“The normal?”

“Yes, I have friends and stuff but a lot of them are Gay or Les or VG and that’s fine but there’s a lot of the whole “Gay” lifestyle stuff like gossip and clubs and the whole subculture thing that kind of comes with being part of the community…it’s not a bad thing but I’m just tired of it? And my straight friends think they have to talk about this stuff just because I’m VG. You, you just treat me like I’m just Nikki, just like anyone else…It’s nice Dale.”

“I’m glad to oblige, I was actually thinking sort of the same lines too about you.”

“About me?”

“Yeah, just the way you look and dress and are Nikki, you really don’t “fit” the whole general college VG, Gay, Lez crowd thing…and I get what you mean by the whole OTT thing with them but the straight crowd does it too a lot…you’re just not one of those girls that’s Y’know trying so hard to be someone that they come across as Y’know fake.”

“I don’t.” She’s blushing a bit but smiling too, it’s a really nice smile too…real.

“No, you’re just I don’t know…you’re Nikki and I like you.”

“You like me.”

“Yeah, not like that…well sort of like that but actually liking someone genuinely just for who they are…” I’m blushing a bit.

“Thanks Dale….that’s actually the nicest thing I’ve heard…well to be honest since the last time we got together.”

There’s that smile again…Y’know what kind of smile that is? It’s rare, it’s always been rare more than likely…it’s that I’m not afraid to be the real me smile. I can’t help but smile back especially when she stands on her tip toes and runs her fingers through my head stubble.

“That feels weird, I’ve never had hair this short.”

“It feel kind cool actually from this side of things and it doesn’t look too bad.”

“Really?”

“You got that kind of tough guy look hiding under the layers of student, farm boy and hipster.”

“Thanks, anything else?”

“Get a leather jacket Dale it’ll look good on you.”

“So fashion advice then.”

“You’re my friend, If I can help you find a nice girl then that’s cool. Besides that way I ca live vicariously through you.”

“Huh?”….Huh?

She blushes but does that two handed sip/hide with her hot chocolate. “I got the double whammy gender and sexuality wise.”

“Oh….oh!…you’re a lesbian?”

“I’m a Sapphic.”

“Uhm…”

“Sapphics are lesbian but we don’t have a problem with men, we don’t have hang ups with the social bullshit the hardcore lesbians have.”

“Huh like a sort of Vegetarian/Vegan thing only with you’re sexuality.”

“Yeah, kinda like. I love women, I am a woman in my soul but it’s just why the heck would I want to hate or limit someone based on their sex, or anything else not in the Femi-psycho mentality.”

“There are those…so I take it you’re looking for a nice Sapphic girl?”

She nods, sips, sighs. “Not all that easy to find…well really Sapphic and not put off buy my uhm extra bits…that’s hard to find. I can find flings sure there’s always curious girls but I don’t want curious. I’d love just to find someone that really doesn’t mind me being me and won’t cave into the pressure of the “hardcores” telling her to dump me because of my spare parts and lack of others.”

Yeah….I’m so thinking right now about…and…but there’s also the secret identity thing and me being a guy…or at least part of the time and….the more I think about it the more complications there are but…I’m still thinking about it.

We get to where we part ways for our other classes and I almost say that I’ll see her tomorrow. “Uhm so where do you want to have Darcy pick you up at?”

“Here…” She takes out a post it, sticks it to my chest and writes on it. “It’s my address and phone and stuff.”

She hugs me and there’s that smile. “Thanks Dale, thanks for letting me ramble and blow off some steam and just be me…”

“Hey, no big.”

“Yeah, yeah…you accept me more than anyone else. That’s a big deal Dale.”

She kisses my cheek but it’s lingering and just…it’s real and so’s the completely unafraid hug that she gave me with it.

Then she’s gone heading into the Life Sciences building and I’m…Oh…

I think I’m already girl crushing but as a guy and the whole thing and complications and stuff…scares me.

I want to skip my next class.

I want to shift and go home and Darcy shift and cry.

I want tomorrow to come a lot faster too.