After a mission goes horribly wrong, an elite Army sniper must deal with the consequences and what they mean for life and career. This story takes place in my Legacy Universe.

I had originally planned on writing a different Legacy story next, but my muse kept turning to this one so I wrote it out of the order I’d previously intended.

This is the twenty-first story in my Legacy Universe, but like the others, it can be read on its own. A complete list of the Legacy stories will be provided at the end of the story as well as the order in which they were written.

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The burning sun beat down on me, baking me alive and making me think that this is what it must feel like in hell. I was sweating so much that my uniform was soaked through, or at least it would have been if it the sweat didn’t evaporate almost instantly. Add that to the fact that I’d somehow gotten sand in my ass crack and I was extremely uncomfortable.

At the moment, I was in an undisclosed location in the Middle-East, being cooked alive under the desert sun and remaining absolutely still in spite of my discomfort. I was currently on top of a ridge, laying on the ground and staring through my scope at the terrorist compound below me.

The compound wasn’t much as far as terrorist bases went, being neither hidden in a cave or in the middle of a civilian populace. In fact, our intel suggested that this was just a temporary base that hadn’t been intended for long term use. It was out in the open and its security was a joke, consisting of a single watch tower and constantina wire that had been run around the buildings. However, I knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy location to take. After all, they didn’t need much security since some of those inside were classified as extremely dangerous.

My crosshairs were currently locked on a specific figure, a man who stood just under seven feet tall and who had muscles like a bodybuilder. He was dressed in a tan covered jumpsuit that looked more like my desert fatigues than what the other people in that compound wore. Of course, he wasn’t actually part of this particular group…at least not ideologically. This target was an Italian mercenary who’d been hired to help the terrorists out, probably from the unknown party who was using the terrorists as pawns in some game.

“Harbinger,” a voice said in my ear. I perked up at the sound of my call sign. “We’re in position.”

“Roger,” I responded over the radio, bracing myself for the attack.

My name is Roland Gettz and I was a Staff Sergeant in the US Army, assigned to the 3rd ADU…Anti-Developed Unit. We were a special unit that was specifically tasked with fighting developed threats...like the one in front of me.

Our current mission was to recover a container of an extremely dangerous mutagen that was capable of causing people to develop powers. From what my briefing said, you were far more likely to die from exposure than to become developed, but there were always people who were willing to take that kind of risk for the chance of gaining powers.

An unknown party had somehow acquired the mutagen and then gave it to these terrorists, perhaps so they could remain in the shadows while these terrorists took the blame for using it, or perhaps because they didn’t want to risk their own people. What I did know was that the mutagen was in the compound in front of me.

Intelligence said that these terrorists had exposed more than two dozen volunteers and that they’d gained two developed of their own as a result. Both of those developed were present, along with the Italian mercenary. That meant we would have to go through three developed in order to complete our mission.

“We are a go,” our unit leader, Captain Burke called over the radio, just a moment before the rest of my unit began their attack.

The 3rd ADU was relatively small, consisting of only eight highly trained members. Seven of them were attacking the compound directly while I stayed back in sniper position. Normally, I’d have my spotter Mike here to help me gauge wind speed and direction, but Captain Burke wanted the extra fire power up close for this operation. Fortunately, I was only about a hundred and fifty yards out and could handle this without help.

My unit launched several RPGs…rocket propelled grenades at the compound, taking out several people in the initial volley. The people in the compound returned fire, with one of them suddenly flying into the air and floating above the compound. I just kept my crosshairs locked on the big guy, though I didn’t pull the trigger. Intel said that he was bulletproof so I didn’t want to waste any shots. That would have been unprofessional at best.

The flying man fired blasts of green energy from his hands but my team took cover from that as they would any other attack. The third developed appeared at this time, running out of the compound at super speed and going straight towards several of my teammates. He was moving fast enough that he could probably slit their throats before they even realized he was there, except that he ran straight into the nest of claymores that we’d set up in preparation for him. Even moving at that speed, he couldn’t escape the explosions and shrapnel which came at him from every direction at once.

I was tempted to take out the flyer, but that wasn’t the plan. I kept my crosshairs on the big guy, waiting for my opportunity. He charged towards Mike, who only pointed towards me. The large man paused to look in my direction and I smiled, pulling the trigger and sending a depleted uranium round right through his eye. His skin might be bulletproof, but there were ways to get around that with either the right ammo or the right aim. I’d used both. The bulletproof developed collapsed to the ground dead.

To my surprise, the flying man was still active and firing blasts of energy. The plan had been for Splatterhouse and Chuckwagon to focus on him once he appeared and take him out. Then as I watched, one of his blasts destroyed the boulder that Chuckwagon had been using as cover, killing my teammate and friend in the process.

“Chuck,” Mike called out over the radio.

“What’s the situation on flyboy?” I asked over the radio, keeping my voice calm and professional.

“Some kind of force field we didn’t count on,” Mike responded. “Everything we throw at him bounces off.”

I turned my scope and my attention to the flying target, letting the rest of my team deal with the few remaining non-developed threats. As I watched him through my scope, I noticed a flicker in the air around him, a flicker that faded away whenever he was actually firing one of his energy blasts. That was his weakness, the moment when the energies were redirected away from his defense in order to power his offense. I waited until he fired another blast and then pulled my trigger. His head exploded and a moment later, his body fell from the air.

“The harbinger of death does it again,” Mike called out cheerfully over the radio.

“Keep a watch Harbinger,” I heard from my radio. “We’re going in to secure the site.”

I remained where I was, looking out for any remaining hostiles while the rest of my unit overtook the compound and secured it. It was only when they called out an all clear that I allowed myself to relax at all. But even then, I continued to keep a close watch for any threats that might jump up and bite us in the ass.

I thought about the mutagen that was the target of our mission, considering just how much damage it could cause in the wrong hands. I was just thankful that we were able to stop this group from being able to create their own army of developed soldiers. I’d lost friends to roadside bombs and could only imagine how much more damage they could have done with super powers.

Of course, as dangerous as developed could be, they could still be stopped…as I’d just proven. For the most part, I didn’t see much difference between some guy with a rifle and one who could shoot laser beams from his eyes, except perhaps for the fact that the laser beams are easier to conceal. Most developed could still be killed with a bullet to the head, and those who couldn’t merely needed better weapons or more careful planning. But in spite of that, I wouldn’t want to put developed powers into the hands of an enemy any more than I’d want to give them a 50 cal.

“We found the target,” Bugs announced on the radio, sounding a little worried. “It looks like they wired it in to some kind of bomb…”

“They’ve weaponized it,” Splatterhouse exclaimed, sounding eve more worried than Bugs. “There’s a timer… Fuck…”

Mike’s voice came next, yelling, “RUN. They set the damn thing to go off in case we took them…”

I stared through my scope, watching my team run from the shelters on the compound as fast as they could. Suddenly, the small building they’d just come out of exploded in a massive blast that caught Bugs and Splatterhouse. But as bad as that was, a thick ground cloud of green smoke was coming from the ruins and spreading out. I jumped to my feet, hearing my friends scream as the gas caught them.

“Eyes,” I called out Mike’s call sign. “Mike…”

The radio went dead though I continued calling out for the rest of my team, getting no response. They’d been caught in an explosion and then in the gas. If they were still alive, they weren’t in any condition to respond. It took me a few more seconds to realize that the green cloud was coming towards me. I’d positioned myself downwind from the compound in case they had any dogs or developed with an enhanced sense of smell, but now that very precaution put me directly in the path of the green cloud.

Even though I was worried about the rest of my team, I had to focus on saving my own ass. I covered my nose and mouth with a cloth, wishing that I’d had my gas mask and hoping that this would do the trick long enough for me to get away. I tried moving as fast as I could but the cloud had already surrounded me and I could feel the burning in my lungs and on my skin. I staggered, trying to keep going but after only a few yards, I fell face first into the sand and lost consciousness.

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I was in a dark haze, feeling a burning pain through my entire body yet a strange numbness at the same time. Images flashed through my mind, memories of Chuck getting hit by the flying developed, of the explosion that killed Frank and Leon…and of the green cloud enveloping me.

Flashes of scrambled memories continued to come in no particular order before eventually settling down. A part of me knew that I was dreaming, but I couldn’t quite remember how I got here or why.

I found myself stepping into a dive of a bar, one located just off base. For some reason, I couldn’t remember which base…not that it mattered. One dive bar was pretty much like another. There was the dingy feel, the smell of stale cigarettes and old beer, and of course the pool tables that had seen better days.

Leon, known as Bugs due to his fondness for snacking on carrots, was busy trying to hustle Chuck over a game of pool. Chuck usually acted a bit slow, but that was only because he liked to think about what he was going to say before he said it. Most people mistook that for his not being very bright, though the truth was quite the opposite. As I watched the game, I would have put down a twenty that Chuck was the one playing Leon.

Frank was sitting at the bar by himself, drinking a beer and not looking at anyone else. He was a skinny guy who’d earned the call sign of Splatterhouse due to his love of gory movies. The fact that he always rooted for the psycho killers…and that he just happened to be an asshole, often made it difficult for even his friends to tolerate him for very long.

Then I looked at Mike, my spotter and best friend, standing at the bar about halfway down from Frank. He was lean and wiry, with dark skin and the most diverse ethnic background of anyone I’d ever met. He proudly boasted that he had family roots on four continents. At the moment, he was deep in conversation to the new guy on our team.

The new guy was a kid named Kyle who’d only been on our team for one mission so far and had yet to be given a nickname or a call sign. But as I approached and overheard their conversation, I realized that this was what they were talking about.

“And that’s how Chuck learned the name Chuckwagon,” Mike told Kyle, taking a puff on one of those thin cigars he liked to smoke.

“Jack and Coke,” I told the bartender, then looked to my friend.

“And Roland here is Harbinger,” Mike told Kyle as he gestured to me.

“The harbinger of death,” Kyle said, giving me a respectful look. “I’d heard. They said you’ve killed more developed than anyone else in the unit.”

“Most of them never see it coming,” Mike agreed with a grin. “Roland here is death from on high.”

I just grunted at that, then took a sip from my drink as it was placed in front of me. It always annoyed me when Mike talked about me like that, which of course is one of the reasons he did it. Sure, I was good at killing…damn good. I wasn’t ashamed of that…but I wasn’t proud of it either. It was just something that sometimes had to be done…and something that I didn’t want to dwell on afterwards.

“So,” Kyle asked, gesturing to the tattoo of a wolf that was prominently shown on Mike’s upper arm. It was the unit tattoo that we each had. “When will I be able to earn the right to wear the tat?”

“Three missions,” Mike told him with a chuckle. He took a drag on his cigar and said, “Your ass has to survive three missions.”

“You did good on your first one,” I told Kyle approving.

He’d been assigned a support role, but when the mission turned south, he stepped up and went at the developed soldiers we were fighting as though he’d done that kind of thing before. He was fast, decisive, and almost seemed to act as though it was old hat. It was pretty impressive since most people had a natural fear of fighting anyone with developed powers.

“I think we need to get you a call sign,” I said to which Mike nodded agreement.

Kyle grinned at that, looking quite pleased. “If I have any choice in it…I’d like to be called Charger. It was a nickname from my…football team back in high school. I’m used to answering to it.”

“I was thinking more in the line of Pansyass,” Mike joked while I chuckled.

Kyle gave him a faint smile, saying, “As an old buddy of mine would say…you’re an asshat.”

Mike and I both chuckled at that. Then Mike looked to me and admitted, “Well, he definitely charged in…”

I just nodded at that and took a sip of my drink before responding, “That he did. Lucky he didn’t get his ass shot off.”

“We’ll have to run it by the others,” Mike told him, “but you just might be able to keep it…”

A few minutes later, the new kid was starting a pool game with Chuck, who’d soundly beaten Leon, while Mike and I remained at the bar. We drank in silence for a few minutes before Mike finally broke the silence.

“I’m gonna ask her,” Mike told me. “I’m gonna ask Sheila to marry me.”

I gave my friend a speculative look and raised an eyebrow. “Our line of work isn’t exactly good for relationships.”

Of course, that was actually something of an understatement. We were all on call and could be sent anywhere in the world without warning at any time. We usually didn’t know how long we’d be gone and weren’t allowed to say even if we did. Afterwards, we weren’t allowed to talk about where we were or what we’d done. That kind of thing was extremely hard on a relationship and most marriages couldn’t survive our line of work for more than a year or two.

“I know,” Mike agreed with a sigh. He took a drink of his beer and didn’t look at me as he added, “I’m thinking of dropping out…of taking a position as a trainer.” Then he finally looked at me and added, “I was hoping you’d be my best man.”

“Of course,” I responded with a grin. “I’d be honored.”

“All right,” Leon exclaimed with a grin of his own as he came over to join us. “That means a bachelor party…”

Just then, another voice called out, “That sounds fine and dandy…but right now, we have work to do.”

I looked at Captain Burke, our team leader, who’d come in without anyone noticing. He was a short and stocky black man who could burn with an intensity that drew all attention to him, or as he usually did in the field, he’d seem to fade into the background so that you didn’t notice him. He was so good at this that there was even a rumor among the unit that he had some low level developed ability.

“Okay men,” Captain Burke announced, looking at each of us with a steady look. “We have a mission. Dress for warm weather.”

With that, the dream began to fade away until I once again found myself in darkness. This time, there were no dreams or flashes of imagery, only the peaceful nothing.

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I awoke to a faint but steady beeping sound, one which had gotten into my dreams and had finally drawn me out of them. When I opened my eyes, I saw the white tiled ceiling and smelled the antiseptic scent that told me I was in a hospital. The fact that I was in a hospital bed and had some sort of medical equipment hooked up to me only confirmed that.

I closed my eyes again, taking several deep breaths as I tried to steady myself. I remembered the mission and the disastrous way it had ended. I was obviously still alive, which is more than I’d hoped for before I lost consciousness. However, I had no idea of my physical condition.

Taking inventory of myself, I noted that my eyes, ears, and sense of smell all seemed to be working fine. I could wiggle my fingers and toes without effort, which I took as a good sign. At the same time, my entire body ached, which could merely be an indication of massive bruising, though it could also be an indication of something worse. For now, I could only wait and try not to let my imagination get the best of me.

A nurse arrived a short time later and then almost immediately left to get a doctor. When the doctor came in a few minutes later, he stood back and looked me over for a moment before he actually approached me. I noticed how slow he was moving, how hesitant he seemed. He was afraid of me…or at least very nervous.

“Where am I?” I asked, my voice sounding rough and shaky.

“Landstuhl Germany,” he answered me with an obviously forced smile. “You arrived yesterday.”

“Did anyone else arrive with me?” I asked. The truth is, I wanted to know if anyone else in my unit survived, but I had to be careful not to give away any potentially classified information.

“No,” he admitted, losing the fake smile. “You were the only patient to arrive.”

I scowled at that, feeling a surge of grief and anger at the loss of my friends, though I quickly compartmentalized the emotions as I’d been trained. It was premature to grieve for them when I didn’t know for certain that they were dead. And at the moment, I also had other things I needed to focus on.

“What’s my situation?” I asked the doctor grimly.

The doctor hesitated a moment and looked away from me. Then he took a break and carefully answered, “You were exposed to some kind of toxic chemical that is playing havoc with your systems. It doesn’t seem to be killing you, but…” He paused and shook his head. Then he sighed and told me, “I’m afraid that I can’t tell you anything more. I was given orders to contact someone else once you woke up.”

I stared at the doctor for a moment before nodding my understanding. The stuff my team had been sent after was classified so I could see how even the doctors would be kept out of the loop. However, I knew what that stuff did, which meant that I had plenty of fuel for my imagination.

After the doctor left, I sat up in bed, finding that in spite of the heavy aches in my body, I could still move without problem. I had a momentary impulse to look for some clothes so I could haul ass out of here, though I knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. I hated hospitals, having spent more than enough time in one after being shot nearly two years ago. In spite of my desire to leave, I forced myself to be patient and wait. Patience is a virtue that every sniper learned.

Eventually the door to my room opened again and this time the man in full service uniform who entered was someone I recognized. He was tall and solidly built, with dark hair that was starting to gray and eyes that looked as hard as iron. Captain Burke had been the team leader of my unit, but Colonel Ryley was our commander and the one whom Captain Burke took orders from.

“Sir,” I greeted him grimly.

“At ease, soldier,” Colonel Ryley said, staring at me with a dark look.

I braced myself and then asked, “How many others made it, sir?”

“Besides yourself?” he responded, his expression not revealing anything. “None.”

I winced at that, shaken by the news that my team was dead…that my best friend was dead. Of course, I’d known that they probably were the moment they were hit with the green cloud. I’d survived and had hoped that they had as well. I was disappointed by this confirmation but not surprised. I took several deep breaths, trying to control the emotions that burned inside me. This certainly wasn’t the first time I’d had friends die and I doubted it would be the last…not unless I went first.

“This isn’t my preferred place for a debriefing,” Colonel Ryley told me, sounding almost sympathetic. Almost. “But I need you to tell me everything that happened.”

In spite of what I was feeling, I kept my emotions locked as tightly as I could and tried to remain as calm and profession as possible. I described our mission and everything that had happened in as much detail as I could. The Colonel let me finish my story before he began asking questions.

Once Colonel Ryley finished questioning me, he said, “They weaponized it. Intelligence only now found out what they were really up to…” He paused at that, scowling intensely as he stared off to the side with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “We’d assumed they were going to use the mutagen to try creating an army of developed. They were, but not like we’d expected. They’d decided it was too dangerous to risk so many of their own.”

I considered this, realizing that the mutagen would make a very dangerous weapon, though normal chemical attacks would have been just as effective and far more efficient. The very fact that any survivors might develop powers and then come in search of revenge would be a good motivation not to use the mutagen in that fashion. But from what the Colonel said, they may have weaponized it, but they still intended to use it to create developed.

“They intended to disperse the stuff,” I thought aloud, considering why they would have used the mutagen with a bomb. “They wanted to expose as many people as they could without warning…”

Colonel Ryley nodded. “That’s what intelligence thinks. They believe the terrorists were going to foment a large anti-American protest, then release it. Hundreds would have died, perhaps thousands. Any survivors would blame us for the attack…for the deaths of their friends and family members. They would likely gain powers and have more than enough motive to turn that power against us.”

“And whoever was behind this?” I asked, hoping that we had more intel on whoever it was who’d given the mutagen to the terrorists.

“Nothing,” Colonel Ryley responded with a grim look. “We still haven’t found anything on who it could be. It could be a foreign power or even one of those so called super villains. The only thing we know for certain is that they were interested enough in how the terrorists used it that they sent a developed to guard the mutagen for them.”

Since we’d already covered all the business related to the actual mission, I decided that it was time to focus on the subject that was of immediate interest to me. “What about me? About my situation?”

It had been taking nearly all the willpower I possessed to remain as calm and professional as I have been. But with every minute, the mask was getting harder to keep in place. It was all I could do not to start yelling.

Colonel Ryley stared at me for a moment before answering. “You received a much smaller exposure to the mutagen than the rest of your team…which may be why you survived. According to the doctor, your body is in the process of changing, though we don’t know how. What we do know is that you’ve lost body mass…and were measured as being five foot eleven.”

“I shrunk two inches?” I asked in surprise, trying to clamp down on the worry and compartmentalize it.

“They don’t know what it’s doing to you yet,” he said carefully. “I want to fly you back to the States. There are some experts that will want to have a look at you. And if you see any signs of developing any powers, let me know immediately.”

Once Colonel Ryley left a few minutes later, I disconnected myself from the machines and climbed out of my hospital bed. My body hurt, but I saw absolutely no reason to remain stuck in the bed when I didn’t have to. Besides, I had to piss like a racehorse and wasn’t about to use a catheter or piss pan when I didn’t have to.

I went to the tiny bathroom and did my business, then I looked into the small mirror above the sink. I’ve been told I was decent looking, in a rough sort of way. My nose showed the signs of having once been broken and I had a two inch long scar along my jaw, but I’d never had much problem with the ladies. But at the moment, I also looked like crap.

My eyes were sunken in a little and had dark circles under them. Overall, I had the same look about me as I usually did when nursing a bad hangover. I can’t say that I actually felt much better either.

While I looked myself over, I was very aware of what Colonel Ryley had told me about the way my body was changing. I couldn’t really notice the height loss yet, but I did somehow look smaller at the same time. It was faint, but I was sure that I’d lost muscle mass. Of course, the Colonel had mentioned that I’d lost mass, but I’d just assumed it was just the height loss. After a moment, I did notice one other thing that struck me as odd. I hadn’t shaved in several days, yet there wasn’t a trace of stubble on my face.

“Damn,” I snarled, thinking of my lost team and my own traitorous body. I wished I could go to the gym and work out some of my frustrations, or better yet, the firing range. Instead, I tried choking down the worry and frustration again. After all, I had a long trip to make.

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I scowled in annoyance as I waited for the doctor to arrive, thinking that after all the traveling I did to get here, the doctor could at least be on time. But since this doctor was supposedly some kind of expert on developed physiology and might actually be able to help me, I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot. I allowed my expression relax so that I would appear calm and in control.

Colonel Ryley and I had left Germany late last night, catching a flight out of Ramstein Air Force Base and spending most of the night crossing the Atlantic. Military aircraft weren’t known for luxury or comfort so it had been a very long and uncomfortable flight. I’d caught a little sleep, but not much.

Once we landed in the States, we were picked up by a car and were taken to some kind of research facility. I was a little surprised that Colonel Ryley had accompanied me, but he seemed to have taken a strong interest in my situation.

The doctor finally arrived and was revealed to be a woman who appeared to be in her fifties. She had hair that was brown but heavily streaked with gray and was tied back into a bun. She even wore a lab coat as though it was some kind of uniform. Maybe she considered it to be exactly that.

“I am Doctor Alvere,” she greeted me with a pleasant smile. “And you are Sergeant Gettz?”

“Yes ma’am,” I responded.

Dr. Alvere nodded at that and then asked me to come with her. When Colonel Ryley started to follow, she gently told him, “Just the patient please.”

A minute later, we were in a room that looked like it was half doctor’s office and half mad-scientist’s laboratory. Doctor Alvere asked me to sit down on a stool, then she stared at me for a moment with a thoughtful expression.

“I was told that you were exposed to a dangerous and unstable mutagen that is altering your body,” she finally said. At my nod, she asked, “What symptoms have you seen so far?”

“I’ve been shrinking,” I responded in a casual tone that concealed the real worry I felt. “I’ve lost three inches of height…and some muscle.”

Colonel Ryley was normally only an inch taller than me, but on the trip here I’d been very aware that he now seemed taller. My clothes had even become a little more loose on me as I wore them. It was more than a little disconcerting.

Dr. Alvere nodded and then went to a shelf and pulled out a syringe. I’d been through enough medical exams that I knew what she was after and rolled my sleeve up so she could take the blood sample.

After this, Dr. Alvere had me undress and then weight me, measured my height, and even had me stand inside some type of X-ray machine that looked a bit like an old fashioned phone booth.

When we were done with the exam and Doctor Alvere let me get dressed again, she told me, “We’ll need to do this all again, twice a day as long as you continue to change.”

“Do you think you can fix me?” I asked her grimly.

“I don’t know yet,” Dr. Alvere answered me honestly. Then she stared at me for a moment before letting out a sigh. “But honestly…probably not. Your body is changing in an unknown way. I can try to understand how it’s changing and perhaps halt the process, but biological mutations are notoriously difficult to reverse.”

I stared at her for a moment before nodding. “Thanks for being honest.”

“You seem the type to prefer honesty,” she admitted with a faint sigh. Then she added, “We do have guest rooms in the building so you can stay here. That will make it easier to study your changes and help you to either halt or understand them.”

After this, Dr. Alvere gave me a quick tour of the facility, which had only a few other people present. I was a bit surprised to find a very nice rec room as well as a fully stocked gym.

“And here is your room,” she told me when we stopped at one door. There was a tag on the door with the word ‘Splash’. Dr. Alvere removed the tag and said, “That belonged to the previous occupant. She and her friends moved to a more secure facility.”

Dr. Alvere excused herself at that, leaving me to check out my temporary quarters. It was a relatively small room, but damn near a luxury suite compared to some of the places I’ve stayed.

I plopped down on the edge of the bed and muttered, “Damn I could use a drink…” In fact, I could use a whole bottle of bourbon about now. Unfortunately, Dr. Alvere had warned me to stay away from alcohol while my body was in the process of changing. If she hadn’t, I’d be out looking for a bar.

My whole body shook slightly as my emotions finally began to burst forth, no longer needing to be contained for professionalisms sake. I’d lost my whole unit. My best friend had died. And now, my entire body was changing in ways that were freaking me out.

“Damn it,” I screamed, letting the grief turn to rage. That was much easier to deal with.

A few minutes later, I was back in the gym to burn of some of my anger. I didn’t trust myself the free weights or even any of the weight machines, not with my body shrinking the way it was. However, the punching back was about perfect.

I pounded on the punching bag until I couldn’t do it anymore. With my body already hurting like hell, that didn’t take nearly as long as I would have liked. Fortunately, there were other things to distract myself with until it was time for my next exam.

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I was once again sitting on the stool in Dr. Alvere’s examination room, watching her with quiet scrutiny. We’d just finished with my fourth examination since I’d come here yesterday, and I could tell from the look on her face that she had some news.

I kept my face a mask of calm, though that didn’t sooth the emotions I actually felt inside. After all, I was currently just under 5 foot 8. I’d lost five inches of height. I’d also lost most of my muscles, leaving me with a build that looked more like that of a teenage boy than of the soldier I was.

There were other changes to my body as well, ones that weren’t quite as drastic. I’d lost nearly all of my body hair, except for what was between my legs. Even my face was as smooth as a baby’s butt, even though I hadn’t shaved since before my last mission. And ironically, while I’d lost all that hair, the hair on top of my head had actually grown five inches. Dr. Alvere said that this was simply one of the ways my body was trying to expel the mass I was losing.

In spite of all the ways my body was changing, I still hadn’t seen any signs of developing powers. If all the mutagen did was shrink people, I would have been all in favor of letting those terrorists use it on themselves.

“I’m afraid that I have some good news and some bad news,” Dr. Alvere told me with a professional look. She paused for several seconds before adding, “The good news is that I’ve discovered more about how your body is changing. The bad news is that you’re not going to like it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked with a scowl.

“Your body has begun to develop new sexual organs,” Dr. Alvere explained patiently. “And your Y chromosomes are being changed into X chromosomes…”

“So I’m turning into a woman,” I said grimly, keeping my voice calm and steady.

Dr. Alvere looked at me in surprise, perhaps because she didn’t expect me to understand what that meant. It wasn’t the first time I’ve had people assume that because I was a soldier, that they had to spell things out to me before I’d understand.

“It looks that way,” Dr. Alvere said a moment later. “You wouldn’t be the first person to go through a sex change as part of being developed. I’ve seen several cases with my own eyes and have heard of several more.”

I was a little startled at that. “Is that common?”

“Not common,” Dr. Alvere said. “But certainly not unheard of either. Oddly enough, every case I’ve heard of involved a male becoming female. I have several theories on that…”

“Go on,” I encouraged her, more to buy time to absorb this than because I was really interested.

Dr. Alvere nodded, seeming pleased that I appeared interested. I’d noticed a long time ago that they best way to distract someone was to get them to talk about something they’re interested in. It didn’t usually take much to get people started.

“I have a theory that your body may be misinterpreting the Y chromosome as being a damaged X chromosome,” Dr. Alvere explained almost pleasantly. “As part of the process of becoming developed, your body may simply be trying to heal what it mistakenly sees as damage. Another possibility is that your body is trying to improve and evolve, and on some level, it may see the chromosomal redundancy of a double X chromosome as being more stable…”

I just sat there in silence, shaken by the idea that I seemed to be turning into a woman. On one hand, there was a faint sense of relief that I actually had an answer about what was happening to my body. But on the other hand, I did NOT want to become a chick.

“Can you reverse it?” I asked Dr. Alvere. “Or at least stop it?”

“Now that I know what’s happening,” Dr. Alvere said carefully. “I could probably halt your changes…but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Your body is currently in a state of flux,” she answered thoughtfully. “Your bones, muscle, internal organs, and hormones are all unstable and in the process of changing. I might be able to prevent them from changing any further, but that wouldn’t stabilize your body. Leaving you halfway changed would have serious repercussions to your health and might very well kill you in a short time. In fact, I suspect that you’d begin suffering rapid failure throughout your body within a month.”

I stared at Dr. Alvere, taking in what she’d just said. Either I finish changing, or I would get sick and probably die. I could only imagine what it would be like, but I didn’t think it would be pleasant.

I’d once served with a guy whose leg had been badly mangled, shattering the bone and severely damaging the nerves. The doctors had told him that they could save his leg, but it would be completely useless and he’d never be able to stand on it again. In the end, he’d chosen to let them amputate his leg so that he’d be able to use a prosthetic and eventually walk again. I suddenly felt like I was being forced to make the same decision.

“I…I need to think about this,” I finally said.

I wondered what Colonel Ryley would say about this, but he’d taken off yesterday while I was going through my first examination and I had no idea when he was going to be back. Truthfully, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him or anyone else since this whole situation was humiliating.

--------------------

My body was in motion, running on the treadmill as I had been doing for the last fifteen minutes. Since my entire body hurt from the transformation I was undergoing, I was already pushing my limits.

Suddenly, my muscles all froze with cramps and I was thrown back off the treadmill. I hit the ground hard and just curled up in pain, waiting half a minute until it faded.

“Damn,” I muttered, slowly sitting up and taking several deep breaths.

Ever since I’d woken up in that hospital in Landstuhl, my body has been hurting like one solid bruise. But as if that wasn’t bad enough, I kept getting odd cramps and seizures that would hit me out of nowhere and then fade away again less than a minute later.

I got back to my feet and then gave the treadmill a dirty look. With my body behaving like this, it seemed that I couldn’t trust myself with this kind of exercise.

With a sigh, I started back towards my room, wishing I’d taken Dr. Alvere up on the chance to halt my changes. Of course, when I’d gone back to her to get more information, her description on what would probably happen to my body had been enough to make me decide that it wasn’t worth it. I’d rather be turned into a chick than have my own body start melting apart from the inside out.

When I reached my room, I tugged at my clothes which were now hanging loosely from my body. They’d fit perfectly fine when Dr. Alvere had given them to me yesterday and were yet another reminder of how much my body was changing.

I removed my clothes and dropped them to the ground, thankful to be out of them. They were soaked through with sweat from my brief workout, and I’d even gotten a little vomit on my pants leg from an incident right before my workout.

I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, trying to remain calm and steady. It was getting harder and harder to do this, to pretend to be calm and in control. Not when my very body was betraying me so drastically.

At the moment, I was only 5 foot 6. Even Dr. Alvere was taller than me now. I was becoming increasingly aware of how much everything around me seemed to be growing. My entire body was dwindling away and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

Most of my muscles were gone and I looked like a teenage boy…or even a teenage girl now. My skin was becoming soft and smooth, with all of my scars having already faded away. Even my unit tattoo was fading and was barely even visible anymore. And then there was my hair. I’d cropped it all off last night and it was already past shoulder length again.

I reached up and grabbed a handful of my black hair and then gave it a gentle tug before releasing it. For someone who was used to being close cropped, suddenly having that much hair was almost as odd the soft puffiness that was starting to form on my chest. Almost.

Then I reached between my legs and winced. My balls had pulled up inside my body and vanished completely while my dick had obviously shrunk. I’d always thought of myself as being a little larger than average, and I still was…for a toddler.

“Not much longer,” I said, running my hands over my chest and then shaking my head in disgust. “Shit, at the rate I’m going, I’m going to be a damn midget.”

With that, I went and took a quick shower, then got dressed in another suit of clothes that Dr. Alvere had left for me. A smaller set that was actually a better fit for my current body. Of course, I wouldn’t be wearing them long since I had another examination coming up soon.

An hour later, I went to my next examination with Dr. Alvere. By now, I was more than a little familiar with the whole process, from getting my blood drawn to going through the fancy X-ray machine.

When we were finished, Dr. Alvere told me, “You are now five foot five… I wasn’t expecting you to reach that height for another few hours so it looks like your rate of transformation may be increasing.”

“Eight inches,” I said grimly, letting some of my frustration through. “I’ve lost eight inches.”

Dr. Alvere gave me a sympathetic look before adding, “If it’s any consolation, I believe your transformation should be finished sometime tomorrow.”

“It isn’t,” I told her honestly. “Not in the least.”

Dr. Alvere nodded at that. “Your eyes appear to be changing as well. Your irises have changed into a golden color and it appears that something is happening with your sclera…the whites.”

I felt a surge of worry at hearing that my eyes were changing. “What does that mean for my vision?” I demanded urgently.

I couldn’t help but feeling extremely concerned at the thought of losing my vision. Among other things, I was a shooter which meant that I was completely reliant on having good vision. If my vision began to fail, then what good was I?

“I don’t know yet,” Dr. Alvere admitted, giving me a curious look. “Have you noticed any difference in your vision?” When I shook my head, she told me, “Keep me updated if anything changes.”

After a little more discussion on how my changes were progressing, I left Dr. Alvere and went to go look for something to keep me occupied. Normally, I was very good at being patient and waiting, but for some reason this was different.

Of course, I was trained to face death, knowing that every fight could potentially be my last. This was a risk that I understood and was prepared to face. Unfortunately, nothing had prepared me for what I was dealing with now.

A short time later, Colonel Ryley returned to check up on me. When I saw him, I nearly gasped in surprise. He seemed huge, as if he’d grown a lot taller. It clearly showed just how much I’d shrunk.

“Sergeant Gettz,” he greeted me, staring down with a look of surprise at how much I’d changed. The attention made me very uncomfortable, though I did my best not to show it and to just act nonchalant.

“Any chance I can get back into the field soon?” I asked him.

“We’ll have to see,” Colonel Ryley told me, though from the tone of his voice I didn’t think he was expecting much. However, he did give me a sympathetic look which seemed completely out of character for the hardened soldier I knew. “I hope you get well soon, Harbinger.” Again, his tone didn’t contain much hope of that.

I carefully kept my expression calm as I told him, “Alvere doesn’t think that’s likely. She says my changes are permanent.”

“Any signs of developing a power yet?” he abruptly asked, giving me a speculative look.

“No sir,” I shook my head. If I was going to go through all of this, at the very least, I could get some kind of impressive power. Unfortunately, that didn’t appear to be happening.

Colonel Ryley didn’t stick around long, just long enough to see me and get a briefing on my status from Dr. Alvere. Once that was done, he was gone again.

Once Colonel Ryley was gone, I went back to my room to hit the sack a bit early. I removed my clothes, thinking that they were starting to feel a little loose now too.

I felt my chest, which was now soft, smooth, and a bit swollen on both sides. My nipples had gotten a little larger and were starting to feel a bit sensitive.

“I’ve got tits,” I spat out bitterly, even though they barely qualified as such. Still, that was more than enough.

After this, I went to piss, finding that I had to sit down to do the job. My dick had gotten so small that it was no longer up to the job of standing up. I tried not to think of what that mean, or how little I had left.

As I washed my hands in the sink, I looked up into the mirror and froze at the sight that met me. I no longer looked anything like myself. My features had softened and now looked not only younger, but female.

Then I saw my eyes. Dr. Alvere had pointed out that my irises had become golden, and I now saw that she was right. However, I was startled to see that the whites of my eyes were no longer white. They were black. My eyes now looked solid black, except for the golden rings of my irises.

I turned away from the mirror with a cold knot in my stomach. I wanted to rage or cry, to smash the mirror and scream out at what was happening to me. But I was determined to stay professional. I might not have any control over what was happening to my body, but that made it even more important than before that I remain in control of how I acted.

--------------------

When I woke up, I immediately realized that my body no longer hurt as it had been for the last few days. It still felt weird…wrong…but it didn’t hurt.

I climbed out of bed and began to look myself over. My chest had continued swelling so that I now had a pair of tits. Actually, I didn’t know if they were quite large enough to qualify as tits, though they were definitely breasts. They were relatively small and perky. I usually preferred my women with larger assets, but since they were on me, I’d be satisfied keeping these ones small.

Then I checked out my crotch, finding that there was no trace my cock or balls had even been there. Instead, I had a pair of feminine lips, just like every girlfriend I’d ever had. It was enough to send a cold chill down my spine.

After taking several deep breaths, I forced myself to slip into my mission mindset. I had to ignore unnecessary distractions and focus on getting the job done. Right now, the job was getting dressed and ready, then making it through my day without losing my cool.

I went to throw my clothes on, only to find that the clothes I’d been wearing last night were definitely too large for me. I tried not to think about what that meant as I dug through the other clothes Dr. Alvere had left in my room, and was soon dressed and ready for breakfast.

Every morning, Dr. Alvere and the few other people who were on her staff all gathered to have breakfast together. When I walked into the cafeteria this morning, they all stared at me, making me feel self-conscious and fully aware that I was now the shortest person in the room. However, I refused to show any sign of discomfort and instead grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to eat.

While I sat at the table, I was suddenly aware of just how large the table was compared to normal. I was so small that I nearly needed a booster seat in order to eat. The cup and fork both felt too large in my hands, and I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was a little kid sitting at the adult table. From the way everyone was staring at me, I had a feeling that they probably had the same impression. This was especially annoying since a week ago, I would have been the tallest person in the room, not the shortest.

I took a sip of my coffee and looked to Dr. Alvere, commenting, “I think my changes have finally finished.”

“I don’t see how you can act so calm about this,” a woman blurted out.

“Who said I’m calm?” I responded almost pleasantly.

By the time I was finished with my breakfast, I’d discovered that the one thing that hadn’t gotten smaller was my appetite. I ate a plate with the same amount of food on it that would have satisfied me before my change, then I went back for seconds. Dr. Alvere said something about my possibly having an enhanced metabolism now.

A short time later, I was once again going through the familiar examination process, though this time Dr. Alvere was even more thorough. Some of the tests were pretty damn uncomfortable and even humiliating, but I refused to complain or even show my discomfort. I’ve come face to face with developed who had the power to melt the flesh from my bones, so I sure as hell wasn’t about to let some middle-aged doctor make me squirm.

“It’s official,” Dr. Alvere told me with a sympathetic look. “You are now one hundred percent female.”

“I’d guessed that much,” I responded wryly. And if my brief self-exploration this morning hadn’t already convinced me, the intrusive gynecology exam that she’d just put me through certain had.

“You are currently five foot two,” Dr. Alvere told me, nearly making me wince at that even though I’d been expecting it. I’d lost nearly a foot of height. “Fortunately, your system is now stable so you shouldn’t be changing any further.”

“At least there’s that,” I muttered.

Dr. Alvere acted as though she hadn’t heard me and continued on, talking about my weight and fast metabolism. “And your eyes have taken on a very interesting configuration.” I nodded at that, knowing exactly what she meant. My eyes still looked exactly as they had last night before bed, all black except for the golden irises. It had a somewhat odd looking effect. “I’d like to actually test your vision next…and the rest of your capabilities.”

Dr. Alvere had me look at an eye chart and then some other things to test my vision, and to my surprise, not only could I easily make out the smallest writing, I could also see in the dark. She quickly followed that up by testing the rest of my senses as well.

“It seems your concerns about losing your vision are unfounded,” Dr. Alvere told me afterwards, seeming almost amused “Your vision is now well beyond normal human standards and falls within developed levels. The rest of your senses appear to push the edge of what might be expected of a non-developed person.”

I stared at Dr. Alvere and shook my head, unable to help but feeling disappointed. “So I go through all this, and the only powers I develop are enhanced vision…”

“We haven’t tested everything yet,” Dr. Alvere pointed out. “And now that your body has stabilized, any special abilities you may have developed should start appearing. Trust me, we’ve only begun to test.” There was an almost evil glee in her eyes as she said that last, giving me the feeling that she was messing with me. Oddly enough, that actually made me relax.

After this, Dr. Alvere attached some sensors to my skin and ran me through a variety of different tests, starting off with having me stretch and bend to see how flexible I was, then to testing my reflexes. I was impressed by the results of both, finding that I was a lot more flexible than I’d ever been in my life and that my reflexes had really improved.

It was only after we were done with these light tests that we moved on to testing how strong as I was. After I’d lost so much size and mass, I was actually dreading this part since it would point out just how weak I’d now become. But to my surprise, the results were the exact opposite of what I’d expected. We started off light and just kept adding weight until I was bench pressing just a little over half a ton. I was absolutely stunned that a tiny little slip of a thing, like what I’d become, could lift so much.

Eventually, Dr. Alvere had me running on a treadmill at a full sprint, measuring my running speed and how I was handling it. I ran at a full sprint for nearly an hour and wasn’t even breathing hard when Dr. Alvere finally asked me to stop. I stepped off the treadmill, shaking my head in disbelief at how easily I’d handled that. I was used to a lot of physical training and running, but this was in a different category entirely.

“Impressive,” was all Dr. Alvere said.

Colonel Ryley had arrived just a short time after I’d begun running and he’d stood back watching me in silence the entire time. Now that I was done, he was giving me a strange look that was difficult to read. I carefully kept my expression blank as I looked up at him, feeling dwarfed by our comparative heights. I didn’t want him to see how awkward I found this.

“Sergeant Gettz,” he said carefully, revealing a look of sympathy before he quickly covered it back up. “Doctor Alvere says that you’ve finished changing…and that this is permanent.”

“Yes sir,” I responded, keeping my emotions from my face and voice. Then I hopefully asked, “Will I be allowed back into the field?”

Colonel Ryley stared at me for a moment before commenting, “That run was damn impressive, soldier.”

“Thank you,” I replied, feeling rather proud in spite of myself.

He looked to Dr. Alvere who nodded and then looked to me. “Roland…Sergeant Gettz has been undergoing testing all morning. He…she…” She paused at that, giving me a curious look as if unsure of which pronoun to use.

I knew intellectually that I now fell under the category of ‘she’, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit it aloud. Instead, I stood there, impassively waiting for her to continue.

“And the results?” Colonel Ryley asked with a deceptively calm tone.

“In spite of her drastic physical transformation and new appearance,” Dr. Alvere said carefully, keeping her own expression calm and professional, “her physical abilities have all been enhanced. Her senses are all at the peak of normal human levels, except for her vision which is far better. Her strength, speed, endurance, and reflexes are all heightened to above human standard for a woman of her size and build.” Then Dr. Alvere paused for a moment to glance at the computer tablet in her hand before adding, “It also appears that she has an enhanced healing ability.”

“How enhanced?” I asked calmly, a little surprised because I hadn’t seen anything to suggest I could heal faster.

“You won’t instantly recover from an injury,” Dr. Alvere told me with a faint smile, “but you should be able to heal broken bones within a few days at most. From what I can tell without further testing, anything that doesn’t kill you should be able to eventually heal without even leaving a scar.”

I was a little impressed by that, as well as the list of all my apparent enhancements. Since I’d lost so much of who I was, it was nice that I was able to at least get something out of the deal. The fact that I wasn’t nearly as weak and helpless as I looked was actually a huge relief.

Colonel Ryley scowled, not looking happy. “Then in your professional opinion,” he asked Dr. Alvere, “does Sergeant Gettz qualify as developed?”

“Her enhancements would be considered low level by most developed,” Dr. Alvere explained thoughtfully. “However, instead of having just one or two large scale enhancements, she has wide spread enhancement of nearly all her physical capabilities…” Then she paused, apparently realizing that she was starting to drift. “Yes. She is definitely developed.”

“Damn,” Colonel Ryley said, surprising me with his displeasure.

I stared at Colonel Ryley for a moment, realizing that there was something going on that I didn’t know. Of course, that wasn’t unusual since the higher ups usually kept a few facts close to the vest and only dished them out on a need to know basis.

“What does this mean for me, sir?” I asked grimly. “What happens next?”

For a long moment, Colonel Ryley just stood there with a grim look on his face. Then he finally said, “The third ADU is officially being disbanded. After the loss of my unit, I’m being reassigned.”

“Disbanded?” I asked in surprise.

Then again, I realized that there wasn’t really anything left to disband. Other then Colonel Ryley, I was the only survivor of the unit. Two people didn’t make a unit, especially when one of them was a desk jockey and the other was… The truth was, I didn’t know where I stood anymore.

Colonel Ryley nodded and then let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, you’re to be discharged from the Army.”

“What?” Dr. Alvere asked in surprise, giving Colonel Ryley an almost dirty look. “Is this because she’d been turned into a woman?”

“No,” I said in suddenly realization. “Because I’m developed.” At her questioning look, I added, “The Averton Accords.”

Dr. Alvere’s eyes widened slightly in understanding while Colonel Ryley nodded agreement. The Averton Accords meant that there was no choice but to discharge me.

The Averton Accords was an international arms treaty that had been put into place nearly three decades ago and which strictly banned countries from having developed in the military. This was the reaction to a growing fear that a new arms race was about to start where the developed would be the weapon of choice.

Of course, most so called super-heroes were openly in favor of the treaty, not wanting to risk the chance that they’d be drafted into the military for the rest of their lives. A lot of people simply didn’t like the idea of relying on people we couldn’t control for our national defense. And of course, everyone was concerned about what would happen to the world if large scale armies of developed went at each other.

Ironically, one of the biggest proponents of the treaty in the United States had actually been the Pentagon itself. This was largely a matter of pride as they insisted that they didn’t need developed powers to protect the country, and then there was the fear that allowing developed into the military would make normal soldiers obsolete.

In the end, most developed countries signed the Averton Accords and enforced them even more strictly than they did the Geneva Conventions. And to deal with those who didn’t, there was advanced weaponry and units like the third ADU.

“I hate to lose you,” Colonel Ryley told me with a shake of his head. “You were a damn good soldier.” I noticed that he used the past tense.

“That’s it?” Dr. Alvere asked, looking offended. “She goes through all this and you just kick her out?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice in the matter,” Colonel Ryley pointed out with a scowl. “You’ll get a medical discharge with full disability.”

There was a certain irony in getting disability payments because I had abilities that were too good. However, I knew that this was the way that the military had chosen to deal with people who developed powers while serving. It got them out quietly, without making a big deal of it, and it gave a bit of a payoff so that there wouldn’t be as many hurt feelings.

I felt as though the rug had just been yanked out from under me, knocking me flat on my tight little ass. First I lost my team, then my own body, and now I was losing my foundation. I was a soldier in the US Army…a sniper. Without that, what was I?

“Soldier,” Colonel Ryley said in a gentle voice, putting a hand on my shoulder and shocking me as he did so. I’d never seem him act this familiar with anyone. He’d always been hard and professional. “Roland... The Army is going to miss you and your skills, and if it was up to me, I’d find a way to keep you. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about that, but I still might be able to help you. I’ll have to make a few calls to see.”

Colonel Ryley left a minute later and I was left trying to make sense of his behavior. I wasn’t sure whether to feel touched that he’d actually tried being comforting, or offended that he was treating me like some helpless girl instead of like the professional soldier I was.

“Are you okay?” Dr. Alvere asked me with a look of concern.

I took a deep breath and put my emotions on lockdown. “Of course,” I responded in a calm and even voice, even giving her a faint smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

--------------------

I was sitting on a bar stool, holding my drink in hand and marveling at just how large the glass felt. It almost made me feel like I was getting twice as much booze as what I was actually paying for. Then I looked up, staring into the mirror behind the bar and at my still unfamiliar reflection. I startled every time I happened to see that girl reflected back at me from some mirror. She was very cute in a petite sort of way. I hated that.

After I got the bad news yesterday that I was being unceremoniously drop-kicked from the Army, I’d thrown myself into testing my new abilities in an effort to distract myself. I spent the rest of the day in the gym, but it hadn’t been enough to take my mind off of everything I’d lost. Now that my changes were finished and I knew what my developed abilities were, I wasn’t sure why I was still sticking around that facility, other than the fact that I had absolutely nowhere else to go.

A short time ago, I’d gone in search of the nearest bar so I could get a stiff drink, only to find another problem with my new body. I looked like I was a nineteen year old girl, and with very little effort, I could pass for sixteen. Between my youthful looks and my lack of any kind of ID, I had a hard time being let through the door. Fortunately, a hundred dollar bill can make people forget about pesky questions involving age.

I finished my drink and ordered a third. “Jack and Coke,” I told the bartender, who gave me an odd look. “Hold the Jack.”

When I got my new drink, I took a long sip and then let out a sigh. With my smaller size and body mass, I’d assumed that I’d be able to get drunk faster and for cheaper. Unfortunately, it was looking like my metabolism was really slowing things down. I was expecting to be half plastered by this point, but I was barely beginning to feel a buzz.

“Damn,” I muttered, realizing that my new bladder definitely couldn’t hold as much as I was used to. I had to piss like a racehorse. Unfortunately, I reminded myself with a bitter snort, from now on I’d be pissing like a male rather than a stallion.

I left my seat and started for the bathroom, fully aware of the way that several guys were watching me. I gave no indication that I noticed them at all, knowing that even glancing in their direction would be misconstrued as an invitation to approach me. These men had been watching me almost from the moment that I’d entered the bar, and I imagined that they were all wondering what a cute little thing like me was doing all alone in a place like this.

I carefully made sure that I used the women’s bathroom, not wanting to accidentally walk into the men’s room and then have to deal with the awkwardness. I’d long ago learned that paying attention to your surroundings and what you were doing was the best way to avoid potential trouble. Of course, I was kind of in the mood for trouble at the moment, but I didn’t want to deal that particular kind.

When I came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, one of the men who’d been watching me had decided to make his move. He’d moved to a different spot where he could ‘accidentally’ bump into me. I saw what he was planning and began to take a different route instead. Unfortunately, he didn’t give up quite that easily.

“What’s a cute little thing like you doing in a place like this?” he asked me.

I let out a faint sigh, wondering if I might have developed some kind of telepathic power as well. However, Dr. Alvere had tested for that kind of thing and verified that all my abilities were physical. This was merely the fact that I’d spent more than enough time being the guy with the bad pickup lines.

I looked up at the man who seemed enormous to me, even though he was only an inch or two taller than my old height. Thanks to my new height, nearly every guy was huge in comparison and even most women were taller. Still, in spite of the height difference, I didn’t feel the least bit intimidated. Instead, I merely felt annoyed.

“Not interested,” I told him flatly as I started back to my seat.

The man moved to block my path again, giving me a big fake grin. “Hey cute thing, I just wanted to talk.”

I gave him a cold look and stated, “Leave me alone, Romeo.”

Romeo didn’t seem to understand English because he reached out to put a hand on my shoulder. Before he even touched me, I grabbed his wrist and then kicked his ankle, knocking his foot out from under him and using his own weight to slam him into the floor. He hit hard, twisting his wrist since I still had a firm grip on it. Then I let go and stepped back.

When Romeo got back to his feet, he looked angry and for a brief moment, I thought he was going to attack me. But then he paused and looked down at me before shaking his head.

“I must have slipped,” he said, turning to leave me alone.

Apparently, his pride wouldn’t let him actually fight someone who looked like me…or even admit that I’d gotten the best of him. That kind of attitude might come in useful someday, but at the moment I merely found it insulting.

I returned to my seat and downed the rest of my drink before ordering another one. It was then that a woman sat down in the seat beside mine, not even looking at me as she ordered a beer. I used the mirror behind the bar to look her over without seeming to do so.

The woman was only a couple inches taller than me, which made like her just a little simply for the fact that she didn’t tower over me completely. She was dressed in a nice suit and had shoulder length black hair. She was also watching me through the mirror as well.

“Rough day?” the woman asked, finally turning to look at me directly.

“You have no idea,” I responded.

“You might be surprised,” she told me with a faint smile, holding out her hand. “I’m Elizabeth.”

I hesitated a moment, realizing that I couldn’t tell her that my name was Roland, but I hadn’t even considered what new name I might use. “Roselyn,” I said, grabbing the first name that came to me. It sounded vaguely similar to my real name.

“I saw your little…encounter,” Elizabeth said, gesturing to the direction of the would be Romeo. “It was actually pretty funny.”

“Glad to amuse,” I responded flatly, watching her as she looked around the room. There was something about the way she was sitting and the way she was watching everyone intently. It took me a moment to realize what it was. “You’ve served.”

Elizabeth gave me a surprised look and then smiled. “The Marines. But that was a long time ago and a whole other life.”

I just nodded at that and took another drink, wondering just how many of these I’d have to have before I was well and truly drunk. I suspected that I’d have to buy a few bottles and go test that out on my own. Maybe Dr. Alvere would have a few glasses with me. After all, she had been interested in testing my other limits.

“You know,” Elizabeth said carefully, “I don’t think you’re the kind of person who just gives up when things get bad and goes to hide in a bottle.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” I snapped at her.

“Roland Gettz,” she said, immediately catching my full and undivided attention. “Twenty-eight years old, born in Colorado, and your father was a former Marine who owned a shooting range…though he died of a heart attack four years ago.” She gave me a flat look as she continued, “At the age of sixteen, you came in second place at a national sharpshooting competition. After joining the Army, you became a Ranger and earned distinction as a sniper. You were eventually assigned to the third ADU, which led to your current situation.”

“Who are you?” I asked her in a deceptively calm tone. I had my glass in hand, looking as though I was about to take another drink though the truth was that I was now prepared to use it as a weapon if necessary.

“Elizabeth Briggs,” she answered me pleasantly. “I’m with the Developed Affairs Department.”

I stared at her for a moment as I absorbed that, wondering what the Developed Affairs Department wanted with me. They were the national agency that dealt with monitoring and policing the developed. The third ADU had even performed a few missions in partnership with them. Then it dawned on me why they might be interested in me. I was a trained killer who also happened to now be developed. I was exactly the kind of potential threat that they were formed to deal with.

“And what does DAD want with me?” I asked her, keeping my expression calm. I wanted to see how she answered as well as buy time to consider my next move.

“Actually,” she said, giving me a thoughtful look. “I’m here to offer you a job.”

“What?” I asked in surprise, losing my mask of calm.

Elizabeth nodded and said, “From what I understand, a friend of yours gave a copy of your resume to my boss, along with a strong recommendation. My boss agreed that your skills and experience would be a great asset.”

I continued to stare at her, wondering who this ‘friend’ could possibly be. Just about everyone I would have called a friend had died out in the desert last week. But then I realized it had to be Colonel Ryley. He’d said something about trying to help me out, so this must be what he’d meant.

“To be honest,” Elizabeth told me with a frown. “There is another reason as well. You see, we’d rather give you something productive to do than find you on top of a tower in a couple years, trying to take down the Protectorate, just to prove you could.”

I wanted to protest and deny that I’d ever do such a thing, but I couldn’t. I was a professional, trained by Uncle Sam and a nasty instructor named Bill Thudwater, to take down dangerous developed. As a professional, I’d always studied powerful developed and looked for weaknesses I might be able to use against them in case they ever entered my crosshairs. I’d often wondered how I could take down someone like Vigil or Ms. Miracle. Of course, I’d never had any intention of actually doing so…at least not without direct orders. But under the right circumstances, I could definitely see myself doing what Elizabeth suggested.

“I take it that Colonel Ryley gave you a copy of my last psyche eval,” I commented wryly. Then I pointed out, “In case you’re forgetting, technically, I’m developed. The Averton Accords…”

“There is no technically about it,” Elizabeth said with a chuckle. “You are developed, but that isn’t a problem. You see, the reason the Averton Accords have lasted so long is that there are enough loopholes in them that most countries can follow the letter of the agreement and still have developed working for them. The accords only ban developed from the military…and we don’t answer to the military.”

I leaned back at that, taking a sip from my drink and then setting it back on the bar. Elizabeth had talked about why they wanted me, but she hadn’t said anything about why I should consider taking her offer. Then again, she didn’t really have to.

I had a very specialized skillset that would be difficult to make use of outside of the military. Sure, I could go to work on a SWAT team somewhere, but most police departments would hesitate to hire a SWAT member who looked as small and helpless as I now did. And even if I could get past that, my status as developed would be considered a problem, not an asset. Of course, I could go freelance, but that could lead to some very bad places.

Elizabeth looked me in the eyes and let out a sigh. “Look, there is a reason I was the one who was asked to talk to you. You and I have a lot in common.”

“Doubtful,” I responded. Other than a vague physical resemblance, with us both being short women with black hair, I couldn’t imagine that we had very much in common.

Elizabeth stared at me with a strange expression, then she carefully looked around to make sure no one was within hearing range. “This is classified,” she said carefully, keeping her voice low. “But I didn’t always look like this.” She gesture down at herself. “Like you, I was once a man.”

My calm mask slipped again and I blinked in surprise. “Really?” I looked her over and had a hard time believing that claim.

“I was…injured in the line of duty,” Elizabeth told me with a dark look on her face that told me this wasn’t a pleasant memory. In fact, that very expression made me think that maybe she wasn’t making this up after all. “My body and life were destroyed. I thought that it was the end… But then someone offered me a second chance…a fresh start.” She paused at that and shook her head before looking me in the eyes again. “This isn’t the life I’d ever imagined for myself, but I haven’t once regretted it.”

I stared at Elizabeth for several very long seconds before quietly asking, “A fresh start?”

Elizabeth nodded at that. Then she held up her beer, as if to offer a toast and said, “To a fresh start?”

I took a deep breath, having already made my decision. It wasn’t like I had many other opportunities knocking on my door. I held up my glass and agreed, “To a fresh start.”

--------------------

The sound of helicopter blades roaring was one that I’d always found oddly soothing, something that could easily lull me to sleep. I’d often had to fight that urge to nod off while traveling to and from various missions. And though I’ve ridden in helicopters countless times before now, I had to admit that this was the quietest one I’d ever been on. Of course, this was a model that I’d never seen before. It was sleek, smooth, and faster than a cheetah with a rocket strapped to its ass.

Just a few hours ago, I’d said goodbye to Dr. Alvere and had thanked her for all her help. I might have been disappointed that she couldn’t stop or reverse my changes, but I appreciated all that she had been able to do for me. I didn’t know if I’d ever see her again, but I kind of hoped I did. She reminded me just a little of my mom, back before she’d passed away.

Elizabeth Briggs and I rode in the back of the helicopter, not really talking much during the trip. I was busy thinking about what I’d gotten myself into, especially since she hadn’t been extremely forthcoming as of yet. She said that she wanted to show me, not just tell me, so that I’d have a better understanding.

When the helicopter began to descend, I looked out the window and saw that we were landing on the roof of a large building. There were three helicopter pads build on the roof with one of the other ones already being occupied by a helicopter that appeared identical to the one we were in.

Elizabeth and I went to a secure elevator and began to descend. She looked at me and began saying, “DAD primarily deals with hostile developed using tactics similar to your old unit. We rely on skills, tactics, and advanced weaponry. When a threat is beyond our usual methods, we bring in developed groups such as the Protectorate or Faction Zero. This has worked well in the past, but there are several problems.”

I nodded at that, well aware of the issue. In my old unit, we used to have a lot of discussions about super heroes and the potential problems they represented. Sure, they often took down developed villains and saved lives, but they operated solely on their own, acting on their own whim without having any accountability.

“They’re independents,” I said carefully. “They can’t be relied on to be willing or available to accept missions.”

“Exactly,” Elizabeth agreed. “Because of that and a few other reasons, DAD has started our own unit of developed operatives.”

We reached the floor Elizabeth wanted and left the elevator. Our conversation appeared to be on hold as we walked down a hallway briefly and stepped into a large room that was obviously some kind of training facility. There were four people present who were wearing costumes and appeared to be practicing with their powers.

“We call this unit Sanction,” Elizabeth told me, gesturing to the costumed people. “You can think of this as the DAD version of a SWAT team.”

“A SWAT team that wears yellow spandex?” I asked skeptically, staring at a man in a yellow and black costume.

“Don’t let the costumes fool you,” a new voice said from behind me.

I turned and saw that the speaker was a Hispanic man who seemed tall to me, though I doubt he’d seem so to most others. I estimated him to be about 5 foot 8 and in his forties, though he looked like he was in pretty good shape. And unlike the people in costume, he was actually wearing a suit that made me think ‘spook’.

“You must be the one Agent Briggs was asked to recruit,” the man said, looking at me with a thoughtful look. “Gettz.”

I nodded at that, noting that he’d avoided using my first name or my rank…former rank. “Yes,” I responded.

“Roselyn Gettz,” Elizabeth said with a faint look of amusement, using the name I’d made up in the bar. I gave her a quick glare which she didn’t seem to notice.

“Roselyn,” the man mused. “Good choice. Colonel Ryley had good things to say about you.” Then he held out his hand and introduced himself, “I’m Richard Martinez…the agent in charge of Sanction. You can think of me as the commanding officer.”

“What exactly is Sanction?” I asked him, wanting to hear his explanation as well as get some more information. After seeing the spandex, I was beginning to fear that I’d made a bad decision in agreeing to come, but I wasn’t ready to call it just yet.

“Agent Briggs called us a SWAT team,” Martinez said carefully, “which is accurate in a way. We were formed to provide a way to meet developed threats on their own terms. Specifically, we usually deal with threats that are too delicate, time sensitive or classified to trust to freelance super hero teams. Our secondary purpose is to provide backup to the military should a foreign power use a developed force against us. In those situations, we would not be under military authority and would be classified as civilian contractors providing specialized support.”

I nodded at that, thinking that it made sense. As Elizabeth had said, there were plenty of loopholes to work around the Averton Accords and this was obviously one of them. I’d always suspected the government would have some type of developed forces, in spite of the treaty, though I didn’t know the details until now.

“There is another purpose for Sanction as well,” Martinez told me with a scowl. “The super heroes.”

I nodded again, not at all surprised by that. “I see.”

“By definition, these super heroes are vigilantes,” Martinez explained, though he didn’t need to as I already knew where he was going. “They are self-appointed enforcers of the law, though they have no authority, accountability, and in most cases, training. Many seem to think that just putting on a costume makes them above the law, and they often cause nearly as much damage as the villains they fight. However, we could spend all of our time, budget, and resources going after just the super heroes alone and barely make a dent in them. Trying to do so would just start a war that we couldn’t possibly win. So instead, we overlook most of their activities and try to make use of them instead. We let them deal with the bulk of the developed criminals for us. We even provide information to some of them and try to direct their activities when possible.”

“Most of them are good people who just want to make a difference,” Elizabeth added. “But in spite of their powers, they are human.”

“Fortunately, the hero community has a form of peer pressure that usually keeps most of their own from going too far,” Martinez continued with a scowl. “We give them a lot of leeway, but occasionally they cross the line and need to be stopped. This is the other reason Sanction was formed…to stop rogue heroes.”

“I’d guessed as much,” I responded.

Martinez gave me a careful look as he asked, “Would you have a problem fighting against someone like Vigil or Doctor Power if they became a threat?”

“No, sir,” I responded without hesitation. That seemed to surprise Elizabeth just a little.

In my old unit, we used to have conversations about developed heroes and whether or not we’d ever be sent after one of them. We always knew that it was a possibility, that one of them might get compromised somehow or just change sides. There was an old saying that power corrupts and some of those heroes had a hell of a lot of power.

“Then the only thing I’m really concerned about is your…situation,” Martinez told me. “You’ve just gone through a very drastic change and haven’t had time to fully adjust. I don’t want to put you into the field before you’re ready.”

“I’m fine,” I told him, keeping my expression calm and controlled. “I’m a professional.”

Martinez nodded at that. “Regardless, we do have a counselor on staff if you need someone to talk to. In fact, you’ll be required to talk to her before you’re cleared for duty. She and I are the only ones here who know about your past and it will remain that way unless you tell people yourself. I thought that this would be easier for you.”

“Thank you, sir,” I responded, grateful that I wouldn’t have everyone laughing at me behind my back. Of course, that meant they’d all just assume I was a woman which wasn’t much better. “But what about her?” I looked to Elizabeth, having noticed that he’d neglected to mention her as one of the people who knew.

“I’m not part of Sanction,” Elizabeth told me with a faintly amused look. “I just work as a liaison with them on occasion. I came to talk to you as a favor.”

“I’m still not sure why Rice recommended that you be the one to make contact,” Martinez told Elizabeth. “But I do appreciate it.” Then he turned to me and said, “Let’s introduce you to the rest of the team.”

Martinez made a call and a short time later, more people began to arrive in costumes. There were nearly a dozen costumed people in total before Martinez indicated that everyone was present. I looked them over in silence, noting that most of them wore costumes of the same style, a very sleek and lightweight body armor, just with a different color scheme. That made the costumes look at least a little more like uniforms.

Appearing to guess my thoughts, Martinez told me, “The costumes are largely for public relations, to make us appear less like a military unit and more like a hero group. Having people perceive Sanction as a hero group makes us appear less threatening and reduces certain problems.”

“Like reducing questions about whether or not the Averton Accords are being violated?” I asked. Martinez merely nodded at that.

“You aren’t the first person to be discharged from the military due to developing powers,” Martinez told me a few seconds later. “There are several others present on the team as well, which makes it even more important that people don’t associate us with being part of the military.”

I perked up at that and looked over the group in front of me, trying to determine which ones might have been former military. One of them was pretty easy to guess while I had suspicions about a few others based on how they carried themselves. While I was at it, I also tried guessing what powers these people might possess.

While I was lost in thought, Martinez continued, saying, “Sanction is split into two teams. Team one is the primary team. Team two consists of the people with abilities that are too specialized for most missions. They back team one up on an as needed basis, but are otherwise given solo assignments or loaned out to assist other DAD groups.”

I nodded at that, suspecting that I’d end up being assigned to team two. After all, I had a very specialized skill set that wouldn’t be needed for every mission. Then again, most SWAT teams had a sniper so I couldn’t be sure. I’d just have to wait and see where they wanted me.

Martinez gestured to the man that I’d previously noted for wearing yellow spandex. His costume wasn’t actually spandex, nor strictly speaking was it yellow. It was the same lightweight and very sleek armor that the others were wearing and it was about two thirds a golden yellow color and a third black.

“This is Michael Bloom,” Martinez introduced me to the man, who looked to be about my old height and build. “He goes by the code name Discharge and is Sanction’s field leader and my second in command. You’ll be answering to him in the field and for most daily operations.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I said politely.

“This is Roselyn Gettz,” Martinez introduced me, making me wince internally as he used that name. I should have corrected Elizabeth when she’d told him that name. Now it looked like it was too late. “She’ll be joining the team.”

Discharge, since he was in costume, looked down at me with a moment and his expression held a faint look of disappointment, followed by dismissal. He was obviously unimpressed by what he saw, which didn’t surprise me much because I wasn’t very impressive looking anymore, other than perhaps my eyes.

“What are her powers?” Discharge asked Martinez, not even bothering to ask me directly.

“Overall physical enhancement,” Martinez told him. “Strength, speed, agility, and endurance. And of course, her vision is equally enhanced.”

“Enhanced strength and speed can always be useful,” Discharge mused to himself.

“Why don’t you give her a demonstration of what you can do,” Martinez suggested.

Discharge nodded and looked at me again. “I can disintegrate matter, store the energy in my body, and then discharge it again.” With that, he began walking towards what looked like some kind of training dummy.

“Michael was already a DAD agent before he developed his powers,” Martinez commented. “An accident while trying to acquire an alien device.”

Then Martinez gestured to Discharge, who touched the training dummy. It glowed red for a moment and crumbled to dust while his skin and hair turned into a gold metal color.

“His body forms a protective shell when he’s storing energy,” Martinez explained. “It gives him additional armor in the process, making him more difficult to injure.”

Discharge held his hand out and a blast of red energy shot out of his palm, hitting another training dummy and blowing a hole through its chest. The gold color faded from his skin and hair.

“Impressive,” I commented, noting that if I ever had to fight him I’d probably have to make sure he’d already discharged all of his energy before I took my shot. Of course, that depended on just how tough that golden metal shell of his actually was.

“He can store a lot more energy than that,” Elizabeth commented. “I’ve seen him disintegrate several cars, then have enough energy to keep blasting for the rest of the fight.”

Martinez gestured to a slender young man in a red and black costume who couldn’t have more than twenty at most. “This is Platoon…formerly of the US Army.” He gave me a faint smile. “His ability is to create copies of himself…”

Platoon took the hint and then gave a goofy grin before there were suddenly six of him standing there, all looking identical. Then one of the Platoons came towards me, saying, “I can do a lot more… Want to see?”

“That should be enough for now,” Martinez told him.

Just then, all of the Platoons vanished, except for one. I wasn’t even sure if it was the original one.

“They aren’t just copies,” Martinez told me. “They all share a single mind, and when they vanish, he chooses which body becomes the primary body that remains. If even one of his bodies survives, he does. It makes him very difficult to kill, which is a major asset. Unfortunately, he can only do this for fifteen minutes at most.”

“Give him a weapon and you suddenly have a whole platoon,” I said, definitely impressed by the ability. “You can outnumber an enemy and overwhelm them with expendable soldiers.”

Martinez nodded at that, then explained, “Other than the time limit, the only other weakness to his powers is that he can’t copy anything besides himself…and his specially made costume. In order to arm him, we’d need to bring the weapons separately.”

“Team one, I assume,” I said, knowing that even with those limits, his power would still be extremely useful in terms of extra manpower and numerical advantage.

“This is Malcolm…code named Jarhead,” Martinez said as he introduced the next person.

Jarhead was tall and muscular, standing at least a head taller than my old height. He wore a green and black costume, and between his codename and the fact that his hair was cut into a high and tight, there was little doubt that he was a Marine.

“You’re a cute little thing,” Jarhead said, staring down at me with a leer on his face. I immediately disliked the man. “Damn, you’re barely bigger than my dick…” Now I disliked him with an intensity I usually reserved for people who kicked dogs.

“I’d watch what I said next, if I were you,” Elizabeth said with a cold look in her eyes.

“Jarhead is the muscle of team one,” Martinez quickly said, sending Jarhead back without even having him demonstrate his powers. However, I’d seen enough to guess that he was a typical brick, strong and tough.

“Armor piercing,” I mused to myself quietly. “Eye or mouth.”

“Did you say something?” Martinez asked me.

“No sir,” I responded, carefully keeping my expression calm and professional. “Please continue.”

Next, Martinez introduced me to an Asian woman called Meridian who was wearing a purple and black costume. Without saying a word to me, she gestured to a training dummy which suddenly floated up into the air about four feet off the ground, then went flying across the room where it smashed into a wall.

“My gift is telekinesis,” Meridian told me, being polite but a little distant. “I look forward to working with you.”

“She can levitate herself as well,” Martinez pointed out as Meridian turned to leave. “But her speed while levitating is pretty limited.”

“I’m Jessica,” a pretty blonde exclaimed, coming towards me without waiting for Martinez to introduce her. She was about five foot six and wore a gray and black costume. I couldn’t help but noticing that she had a handgun holstered on her belt. “My code name is Stealth.”

“Roselyn,” I said, keeping my expression and voice calm and even as I used that name. Since I seemed to be stuck with it, I might as well own it. “What is it you do?”

“Flight and invisibility,” she answered with an easy grin. “I’m the team scout.”

With that, Stealth flew up into the air and then vanished from view. Or at least she became transparent and barely visible at all. I could still see her a little, and as I focused on her it became easier to make her out. Since she was supposed to be invisible, I suspected that my odd eyes were responsible for my still being able to see her.

“And this is Ambush,” Martinez said, gesturing to a brown haired man with a blue and gray costume that had a little white trim. He had a pair of what looked to be energy pistols strapped to his side. “He’s recently been switching from team two to team one.”

Ambush nodded in our direction and then he suddenly vanished, or at least, he vanished about as much as Stealth had. I could see a very faint image of him there in what looked to be a soap bubble just a little larger than his body. A moment later, the bubble seemed to pop and he reappeared fully.

“Ambush can create a bubble that’s out of phase with reality,” Martinez explained. “For all practical purposes, he becomes invisible and intangible. He can see out but no one else can see in, which means he can use it to gather information, or as his name suggests, ambush people.”

I stared at Ambush for a moment, considering his power and how it could be used. All I could think of was about how useful something like that would be for a sniper. I’d be able to take position and not have to worry about being found before I’d completed my mission. And afterwards, I’d be able to slip back into that bubble in order to avoid detection and escape. It was the perfect power for a sniper. I was actually jealous for him.

“We’ve found that he can use his power in the middle of a fight as well,” Martinez told me with a smile. “He can use his power to avoid enemy attacks, then come back out to return fire.”

“Very impressive,” I agreed, still keeping my expression controlled.

After this, I was given a brief introduction to the team two members who were present, though I noticed that these introductions were shorter, less descriptive, and didn’t really include as much showing off. I was definitely getting a feel for the fact that there were the popular kids…and the others.

When the introductions were over, Discharge looked me over again and said, “We’re going to have to come up with a code name for you.”

“Harbinger,” I stated flatly, earning several looks of surprise at that. I could see a few curious looks as well as they wondered why I’d chosen that code name. However, I wasn’t inclined to explain myself right now. “Call me Harbinger.”

--------------------

I awoke from a nightmare and immediately bolted upright in bed, shaking and sweating. I couldn’t remember the dream, only a few glimpses and impressions. An image of Mike flashed through my mind, an image of him being surrounded by a green cloud and then melting into a puddle of goo, screaming the entire time. I shook my head to clear these images from it.

When I swung my feet over the edge of my bed, I winced slightly at how high up I seemed. I turned on the light and then held my hands up in front of me. They seemed so small and dainty. My entire body did. I absolutely hated it.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, steadying myself again. As much as I hated this, I couldn’t afford to whine about it or sink into self-pity. I was a professional and I was damn well going to act like it. I just had to keep my mind off of my situation as much as possible and focus on the job instead.

My thoughts drifted back to the dream I’d just woken up from, especially to the image of Mike dying so horribly. I hadn’t actually seen his death with my own eyes, but that only made it worse since it left room for my imagination to work.

“Damn,” I muttered, suddenly thinking of Mike’s girlfriend and would be fiancé Sheila. I hadn’t even thought about her and how she was doing with Mike gone. I’d been so caught up in my own problems that it hadn’t even occurred to me. I couldn’t help but feeling a little guilty for that, though admittedly, I couldn’t very well just show up at her door now and tell her that I was a friend of Mike’s.

After a minute, I shook my head and finished climbing out of bed. I walked around my quarters, which were similar to the ones I’d been given at Dr. Alvere’s facility, just larger and more luxurious. This was actually a small suite of rooms with my own private bathroom that even included a large tub. Or at least, it was a large tub from my new perspective.

I took a quick shower, trying not to dwell on how different my body was or how sensitive my nipples were. I kept myself emotionally detached and imagined that I was just washing someone else up. That made it a little easier to avoid being distracted.

A short time later, I was dressed in my new uniform which had been custom made for me last night. I was still impressed by just how quickly the unit’s quartermaster had been able to take my measurements and then get this made for me. It was just like the uniform that most of the team wore, a costume that seemed to be something of a cross between spandex and lightweight body armor. It was light, flexible, surprisingly comfortable, and mine was dark blue and back.

My hair had been cut to shoulder length and I pulled it into a pony tail. I’d never liked girls with hair that was too short, but I was seriously considering the idea of going for a pixie cut or something equally short. I’d never had my hair this long before in my life and it was a bit distracting, hence the pony tail.

This was my second day here as part of Sanction and I still had no idea what to really think of the place. I’d gotten a brief introduction to most of the other team members yesterday, except for a few team two people who were currently off on assignment. After that, I’d spent the rest of the day getting a tour, doing paperwork, and getting set-up.

I was a little disappointed that Elizabeth was gone since she was the only one around here who I could connect with. She hadn’t given me a lot of details on her own history, but I was looking forward to talking about it someday over a beer or two. I was really curious about how she’d been able to adjust. Unfortunately, she wasn’t part of the Sanction unit and had to go back to her normal job, which apparently didn’t have anything to do with recruiting.

Martinez had been called away yesterday on some kind of business trip as well, so he’d taken off just a short time after introducing me to the others. That meant Discharge was the top guy and he didn’t seem all that impressed with me. Of course, I was confident that I’d change his tune once I got a chance to show what I could do.

I went to the cafeteria and found three other people from Sanction already sitting at a table. I grabbed my food and then sat with them, deciding that I had better get to know my new teammates. I might need them to save my ass someday so I’d better make sure they thought it was worth saving.

As I sat there, I noticed that everyone present was from team two. “Where’s team one?” I asked curiously.

“They got called out in the middle of the night to back up a prisoner transport,” a cute redhead told me.

“Prisoner transport?” I asked with a faint scowl. “Is that common?”

“Not really,” the redhead responded with a shrug. “But I guess this is a pretty powerful guy and the Protectorate only barely managed to defeat him. The higher ups just wanted to make sure that there was no chance he’d escape before making it to Mount Prometheus.”

I nodded faintly at that, looking at the redhead who’d been talking to me. She was wearing a red and white costume with just a little gold trim, and I remembered from the brief introduction yesterday that she was called Micra.

“I don’t think Martinez ever told me what your power was,” I commented.

“I shrink,” Micra responded with a self-conscious shrug. “Not exactly an impressive power.”

“How small?” I asked her.

Micra shrugged again before answering. “The smallest I can get is about an inch. Good for infiltration and sabotage missions.”

“I’d imagine,” I said, nodding at that. Then I looked to the woman sitting next to her, a slender black woman who was wearing a pair of glasses. I remembered her as being introduced as Reader. “What about you? What can you do?”

“Tactile telepathy,” she answered, giving me a curious look. “If I touch someone, I can read their minds. As you might guess, my specialty is interrogation.”

“Just don’t let her touch you,” the only other guy…the only guy at the table said. “She’ll know every secret you have.”

I gave Reader a wary look, making a mental note not to let her touch me. This wasn’t just a matter of how embarrassed I’d be if everyone found out about my recent sex change, but also due to some of the things in my head. I’d been involved in some highly classified missions, things that Uncle Sam wouldn’t want to get out.

I turned my attention to the young man who was more than a foot taller than me. He had spikey blonde hair and a solid build that indicated that he spent a lot of time in the gym. He radiated an air of ‘fratboy’, but his code name was almost the opposite of what I’d guess based off his appearance.

“Hacker,” I said as I looked at him. He grinned at that, whether from the attention or the fact that I remembered his code name, I didn’t know. “I can guess your specialty, but what exactly do you do?”

“I talk to computers,” he replied with a smug look. “They call it technopathy. You ought to see what I can do with robots…”

Micra laughed, then explained, “The last time he went out with team one, they were going after some guy with a giant robot.” She gestured to Hacker and said, “By the time Rob here was done, he actually had it dancing the robot…”

“I wanted to call myself Doctor Hackenstein,” Hacker said with a grin. “But Martinez shot that down.”

“You’re not quite what I’d expect of someone called Hacker,” I said carefully, trying not to offend him.

“I know, right,” he responded with a chuckle. “Have you ever seen a hacker with guns like these?” He flexed his muscular arms to show off his biceps.

Micra giggled while Reader shook her head slightly and said, “Please don’t encourage him.”

“I used to think that only dweebs worked with computers,” Hacker admitted, looking embarrassed. “Then I got this power and damn… Now I make hacking look cool.”

Reader gave me a curious look and said, “I understand that you have some form of enhanced strength and senses.” Her tone made that statement into a question.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Most of my physical abilities are enhanced. I’m just a little beyond what an Olympic athlete would be able to do, but not much. And as for my senses, that’s mostly just my eyes.” I pointed to them and added, “I’ve got built in binoculars and night vision.”

“How much can you bench?” Hacker abruptly asked me, giving me a curious look.

“About eleven hundred,” I answered nonchalantly.

“Damn,” Hacker exclaimed, looking impressed. “You sure don’t look it…”

Micra nodded at that. “I think the only ones here who are stronger than you are Jarhead and Nocturnal.”

“I don’t think I’ve met Nocturnal” I said, assuming that he must be one of the team members that had been sent out on assignment.

“She’s sort of like a cross between a ninja and a vampire,” Micra explained with a shake of her head. “Really dangerous at night…but kind of useless during the day.”

“She’s a total babe,” Hacker added. “Real kickass too. I can’t wait till she gets back.”

“So she can turn down your advances again?” Reader asked with a faintly amused look.

At this point, the three of them talked about Nocturnal while I listened in and took mental notes. She definitely sounded like someone I’d be interested in meeting, as well as someone that I’d have to be very careful around. While this conversation was going on, I noticed another member of team two coming into the cafeteria, though he made no move to come towards us.

The newcomer wore a costume that was unlike that of anyone else on the team. It was a black outfit that covered his entire body and which looked a little organic, almost like it had grown over him. There was even an odd dark gray facemask that covered his entire face and which seemed to melt into the rest of his costume as though it was all one piece.

The black figure, who had been briefly introduced to me yesterday as Barracuda, went to the cook who handed him a coffee thermos instead of a plate. Then Barracuda turned and left the cafeteria again, barely even looking in our direction.

“What’s his story?” I asked, trying to get more information.

“He ain’t exactly friendly,” Hacker commented. “Kind of freaky if you ask me.”

“Barracuda used to be a Navy SEAL,” Micra explained. “I don’t know all the details, but I guess he was testing some kind of experimental diving gear when it bonded to his skin. Now he can’t take it off.”

“The dude can’t even take off his mask,” Hacker added. “He’s stuck with some kind of liquid diet. Nasty. It’s no wonder he’s always in a bad mood.”

I frowned as I considered this, having heard other stories of power suits and physical enhancement weapons being tested by the military. That kind of thing would normally fall under the category of being a weapon system, which meant that the Averton Accords wouldn’t apply. I couldn’t help but wondering why Barracuda’s system would be any different, except perhaps that it was permanently bonded to him.

“His armor lets him breath underwater,” Micra continued, not seeming to notice that I was distracted. “And something about being bonded to it activated some kind of powers they didn’t even count on…” I looked at her, realizing that this must be the answer to my unspoken question. “He’s got some kind of aquakinesis and can control water around him. I mean, you should see how he can move underwater… He’s like a torpedo or something…”

“Yeah,” Hacker agreed. “Put him under water and he’s a total badass...but take him and he’s just a guy in a suit.”

“If he’s really a SEAL,” I said, giving Hacker a flat look, “then he’s never JUST a guy in a suit.”

After this, I continued eating while Micra gave me a lot of the gossip on various members of Sanction. Hacker and Reader occasionally added a little, but Micra was the talkative one and the one who I assumed was the team gossip monger. I just listened and nodded, occasionally offering a word or two of encouragement so that I could pick up more intel on my new team.

An hour later, every Sanction member who was currently at headquarters had reported to one of the training rooms for practice. This meant myself, the three people who’d been at the table with me for breakfast, and even Barracuda. Barracuda didn’t say a word to me or the others and merely went to work.

The training room was enormous and looked like the elementary school playground from hell. The room was set up with various obstacles and exercise units, and if you made a loop around the entire room, it made a nice obstacle course.

I started for the nearest obstacle, finding it far easier to get through than I would have before my change. I scrambled up a rope at incredible speed and then ran across a thin wooden beam as easily as if it had been the width of a hallway. It soon became obvious to me that I could now include an improved sense of balance as one of my developed abilities.

I went from one obstacle to another, testing my new abilities and becoming more familiar with them. While I did this, I kept an eye on the others and watched how well they did. Thanks to my new endurance, by the time even Barracuda had stopped for a breather, I was still going strong and not even feeling winded.

“Look at her go,” Micra called out while she stood back watching me. “She doesn’t even look tired…”

“She looks damn fine too,” Hacker added, watching me with an appreciative look that I did my best to ignore.

All four of them were watching me, even Barracuda, though he didn’t say a word. In fact, I hadn’t heard him utter a single syllable so his armor might very well be making him mute along with providing the other difficulties.

I turned my attention away from the others in order to focus entirely on what I was doing. I went for something that looked like a jungle gym on steroids and jumped at it, slipping through bars with ease. I marveled at my own body and what I was capable of, actually feeling just a little excited. However, my budding excitement crashed when I remembered the cost of these abilities.

As impressive as these abilities were, I reminded myself that they wouldn’t really do me a lot of good. Extra strength, agility, and endurance might be great…but they were of limited use to a sniper. Giving a sniper enhanced strength was about as practical as giving laser vision to a desk jockey. It might be a cool ability, but it was out of place for someone in that position.

I finally came to a stop, only to realize that my audience had changed. While I’d been focused on testing my abilities, I hadn’t noticed that that Hacker, Reader, and Barracuda had left or that Discharge, Jarhead, and Stealth had come in. Those three weren’t doing any training themselves and merely stood back watching me.

“That was kind of intense,” Stealth commented when I came over.

“She went at that pace the entire time too,” Micra added with a grin.

I felt a little self-conscious at being watched like that, though I was careful not to show it. I just said, “I’ve only had these abilities for a few days so I’m still testing my limits.”

Jarhead stared down at me with a leer on his face, looking as though he was mentally undressing me. I felt more than a little annoyed but refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing any discomfort. Instead, I did my best to ignore him and looked to Discharge, who actually seemed impressed rather than dismissive like he’d been yesterday.

“Having that kind of maneuverability and speed could be very useful,” Discharge said, giving me a thoughtful look. “Exactly how strong are you?”

I gave Discharge another description of my physical abilities, and this time he seemed to pay a little more attention. “If you’ll excuse me,” I told him when I was finished. “I’ve got an appointment with the quartermaster and I’d like to clean up first.”

“Why don’t I come with you?” Jarhead offered. “I can keep you company…”

“I think she’s fine,” Stealth told him with a glare.

“Come on,” Discharge told him. “We’ve got a few things to do as well.”

I left the training room and found that Stealth was leaving with me. “I’m sorry about Malcolm,” she told me. “Not only is he a macho asshole, but he also has a thing for petite women.”

“Great,” I responded with a scowl. “So what you’re saying is that I’m that asshole’s wet dream.”

“I wouldn’t exactly phrase it like that,” she said with a chuckle. “And he does have a thick head, so if you aren’t interested, you might need to hit him in the head a few times with a baseball bat before he gets the clue.”

“I’ve worked with Marines before,” I commented with a wry smile, thinking of my own dad who’d gotten out of the Marines on a medical discharge after getting a bullet through his knee. “Nearly every one I’ve ever met has a hard head. Damn good in a fight…but stubborn as hell.”

“You were in the military?” Stealth asked, giving me a faint look of surprise. Of course, I looked like I was only nineteen…or younger, so that kind of reaction wasn’t unexpected.

“Army,” I answered with a faint smile. “I’m older than I look.”

“Gotcha,” she replied with a nod of her head. “I was in the Air Force. Second Lieutenant and in line for my promotion when I got my powers.”

“A butter bar,” I mused, giving her a curious look and then a chuckle. “I would have had to solute you.” Then I abruptly asked, “What happened? I mean, how did you get your powers, if you don’t mind?”

“I was part of a project testing an experimental cloaking device,” she explained pleasantly. “Long story short, it exploded and I was too close. I absorbed a lot of the energy, and afterwards, I found I could generate the same cloaking field we were trying to make. The field not only lets me bend light around me, but I can also use it to fly.” Then she gave me a questioning look and asked, “And you?”

After she’d been so forthcoming, I couldn’t just claim that it was classified. “Accidental exposure to a chemical weapon,” I said, deciding that it was close enough to the truth while still being acceptably vague. “It was a miracle I survived. My friends weren’t as lucky.”

“Oh,” she said, giving me a sympathetic look.

Stealth and I went our separate ways at that, with me going to my quarters so that I could clean up. While I did that, I made a mental note to ask the quartermaster about getting spare uniforms.

A short time later, I walked into the quartermaster’s office. He was a slender man in his late twenties, and even after I’d spent an hour with him yesterday, I still didn’t even know his name.

The quartermaster looked at me and brightened a little. “You’re three minutes late,” he said, though he didn’t really look bothered by that. “Come on in.”

“I’m already in,” I pointed out, feeling vaguely amused.

He looked at me for a moment as though I’d caught him by surprise, then he responded, “Why so you are.”

“Look,” I said carefully. “Do you have a name? No one told me and I didn’t want to keep calling you quartermaster…unless that’s your code name.”

“Of course I have a name,” he said, pausing to look over his desk. After several seconds, he seemed to remember what we’d been talking about because he said, “My name is Garrett.” He didn’t say if that was his first name or last. “But most people here call me Q since I’m the one who issues the toys.”

I nodded at that, then asked, “You have something for me?”

“Of course,” he responded, handing me a manila envelope.

I looked in the envelope and was surprised to find a driver’s license with my new picture on it and the name Roselyn Gettz. Thankfully, it listed me as being twenty-one rather than nineteen so at least I’d be able to buy booze. There were other papers as well, such as a high school diploma and a social security card. As far as this paperwork was concerned, I was now my own kid sister.

“That was fast,” I said, impressed by the speed and how legitimate these all looked.

“Now, for the other reason you came to see me,” Garrett told me.

With that, he led me down the hall to where he entered a code into the key pad beside a thick metal door. When the door opened, we went inside and I stopped and stared in delight, suddenly feeling like a kid in a candy store.

“The armory,” Garrett said unnecessarily.

I looked over the racks of weapons, seeing handguns, rifles, explosives, and even a few things that I didn’t recognize. I picked up a metal canister that looked like it might be a cannon shell of some sort.

“That’s my thermos,” Garrett said, snatching it out of my hand and then unscrewing the top. He looked down into it and let out a disappointed sigh. “Empty.”

“A nice selection,” I commented as I casually walked around checking the selection. “I noticed a few of the others packing.”

In fact, about half of Sanction seemed to be carrying weapons of one sort or another. Even Reader and Hacker had holsters on their side, though they’d both been empty at the time.

The only people in Sanction that didn’t seem to be armed where those like Discharge or Meridian who had powers that could be used for offense, or ones like Platoon and Micra who had powers that didn’t work well with weapons.

I decided to start with the hand guns, picking them up one by one and feeling them in my hands. The guns felt much larger to me now which made them more awkward to hold. It was yet another reminder of my changes, as if I needed another.

Once I’d settled on a weapon that I’d be able to use, Garrett showed me the firing range. It was an indoor range, perfectly fine for practicing with this kind of gun, but nowhere near the distance I’d need to practice with a rifle, much less a sniper rifle.

I wasn’t the only one at the range though as Stealth was already there practicing, as was Discharge. His powers meant that he didn’t need a gun, but I remembered that he’d started off as a standard DAD agent before gaining his powers. It looked like he wanted to stay in practice.

I didn’t stop to talk to either of them and instead took a firing position. I loaded the clip and then fired a shot down range at the target. To my surprise, I missed badly. I fired a second shot and didn’t do very well either.

“You’ll need a lot more practice before you can use that in the field,” Discharge said, giving me a disapproving look again before he left the firing range.

“It seems I’m out of practice,” I told Stealth with a scowl.

“Well, this is the place to fix that,” she said.

I stared at the gun in my hand, knowing what the problem was. Between my altered body and the way that this gun still felt too large for my hand, everything was off balance and wrong. However, I’d spent countless hours on a firing range and wasn’t about to let a setback like this deter me.

After taking a deep breath to steady myself, I slipped into my shooting mindset and took aim. My shot came closer to target. I adjusted my stance and after several more shots, I was hitting dead center.

I stared at the gun in my hand and grinned, feeling much more like my old self. “Now this is more like it.”

--------------------

I was sitting in a comfortable chair across from a middle-aged woman with dark blonde hair. She was dressed in a professional manner and was giving me her full attention. I’d put this meeting off as much as I could, but unfortunately, I still had to talk to the Sanction counselor if I wanted to be cleared for duty.

Dr. Voight and I had been talking for half an hour already, and she’d already made it perfectly clear that she knew who I really was and had access to my last psyche evaluation. However, she’d been polite and encouraging, trying to get me to talk about my feelings. I found her efforts to be obvious as well as insulting. I had absolutely no intention of talking about my most personal thoughts and feelings with a complete stranger.

“You’ve been through a very traumatic ordeal,” Dr. Voight told me. “You’ve lost your friends, your career, and even went through a drastic physical transformation. Everything in your life has changed at once and you can’t be expected to just shrug it off and go on as though nothing has changed.”

“I’m a professional,” I told her, keeping my calm and professional face in place. “I just want to get back to work and don’t see why this should stop me.” I gestured down at myself.

Dr. Voight smiled pleasantly and said, “I know that if I went through such a drastic change, I wouldn’t be able to accept it so easily.”

“Soldiers get killed or injured every day in the line of duty,” I pointed out. “I always knew that there were risks to my line of work, that I might end up missing in arm or in a wheelchair. I went into this knowing the risks so I’m not about to go crying about it now.”

She gave me a thoughtful look, then calmly asked, “Are you comparing being a woman to being handicapped?” Oddly enough, she didn’t sound offended, just curious.

I shook my head slightly and weakly joked, “Well, I did lose a vital body part and the Army is giving me disability for it.”

“You’ve only just changed,” Dr. Voight told me. “You probably haven’t had time to fully absorb it yet or to realize exactly how much this is going to change your life. You are still the same person inside, but between becoming a woman and developing powers, it is going to change how other people see you and how you interact with the world.” She shook her head slightly and added, “I fear that at the moment, you might still be in denial.”

“Denial?” I asked in surprise. I grabbed my perky tits and said, “I can’t exactly deny these are here, no matter how much I try. Trust me, I’m fully aware that I’ve changed.”

Dr. Voight just gave me a knowing smile and responded, “That isn’t quite what I meant.” Then she abruptly changed tactics and asked, “How have you been sleeping?”

“All right,” I responded, giving her a suspicious look.

Then she asked, “Have you been having any dreams that you can remember?”

“A few,” I answered, then admitted, “A few nightmares. I can’t really remember the details though.”

“That’s to be expected,” she told me. “You’ve been through a very traumatic experience and your subconscious is still trying to deal with that. Honestly, I would have been more worried if you weren’t having bad dreams. There is a possibility you may have some PTSD.”

I scowled at that, not saying a thing. I would have liked to deny it but I had to admit the possibility. After all, I’d seen soldiers with PTSD before and knew that even the best and toughest could sometimes get it.

We continued talking for a little longer before Dr. Voight told me, “I’m going to clear you for duty for now, but I would like you to continue visiting me so I can see how you’re adjusting. Consider me as a friendly ear, someone you can come talk to when you’re having problems or just want to blow off steam.”

“Thank you,” I told her politely, though I was mostly glad that this little session was over.

I left Dr. Voight’s office and went to floor that served as the living areas on base. It was currently considered downtime so nearly everyone was in civilian clothes and relaxing. Of course, everyone was still on call in case of an emergency as well.

When I stepped into the main common area, which was like a rec center, I saw Platoon sitting at a table playing checkers with himself. Platoon, or Aaron since that was his real name, was obviously just trying to show off a little. A third version of Aaron was at another table, playing a card game with Malcolm and Ambush. I still didn’t know Ambush’s real name.

“Hey, you want to come over and join us?” another version of Aaron asked from near me. “With one more we can start playing teams.”

“No thanks,” I told him.

Malcolm looked over and gave me an appreciative look with his less than subtle way. “Hey little lady,” he called out, waving for me to come over. “I’ll even let you sit on my lap if you want.”

“Fuck off,” I told him with a scowl. “I’m not interested.”

“I don’t think she likes you,” Ambush told him, barely even looking at me.

“She doesn’t even know me yet,” Malcolm responded smugly.

“Sorry about him,” Aaron told me apologetically, giving me a goofy grin. “He’s not usually this bad. I think he’s just trying to show off for you.”

“You can tell him that if he even thinks of pointing his dick in my direction,” I said loud enough for Malcolm to hear. “I’ll cut it off and shove it down the garbage disposal.”

Malcolm acted as though he hadn’t heard me but everyone else was laughing. “That, I’d like to see,” Micra exclaimed with a grin as she came into the room with Stealth and Meridian.

“Hey Roselyn,” Stealth…Jessica greeted me. It was still easier to think of her and the others by their code names. “We were just going out to see that new romantic comedy that came out last week. You want to come along?”

“No thank you,” I said pleasantly, trying to keep the distaste out of my voice.

It was actually kind of weird that the women all thought of me as one of them and tried to include me in this kind of thing, but in a way, I kind of wished they wouldn’t. It made me feel…awkward. Sure, it was nice that they were being friendly, but I wasn’t really sure how to behave in a social setting. As Dr. Voight had pointed out a short time ago, I was still the same guy inside that I’d always been.

“We were going to go shopping afterwards,” Micra…Penny exclaimed with a grin.

I forced a smile at that, knowing that I really did need to get more clothes and other things, but I certainly didn’t want to go out with a group of women when I did. In my experience, women liked to make shopping into some kind of an event, taking half the day to do it. I just wanted to get in, get what I wanted, and get back out. I had better things to do with my time.

“I appreciate the offer,” I responded carefully. “But I have other things I need to take care of.”

“Perhaps another time,” Meridian told me with a faint smile.

I looked to Meridian, still not knowing her real name. This was only the second time she’d spoken to me since we met a couple days ago so I was still trying to get a feel for her. My impression was that she was very professional but distant, but Penny said that she was just slow to open up.

Just then, I noticed Meridian’s eyes shifting to Malcolm, who’d stood up from his seat for some reason. Then as Malcolm went to sit back down, his chair suddenly moved back and he ended up falling on the ground. Meridian quickly looked away and acted as though she hadn’t noticed, though she did have a faint smile on her lips. I suddenly liked her more already.

“We should ask Janine,” Penny said, referring to Reader.

Jessica shook her head. “She said she was heading out to spend time with her boyfriend.” Then she looked at me again and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

“I’ll take a rain check,” I told her.

A few minutes later, I was on my way to take care of the business that I’d been looking forward to all day. I went to see the quartermaster, finding Garrett already waiting in the armory. He wasn’t the only one as Barracuda was there, sitting in front of a small table with a weapon disassembled and spread out in front of him. I watched him for a moment as he cleaned the parts and began reassembling them, then I turned my attention to Garrett.

“I’m here for the gear we talked about yesterday,” I told Garrett. “And of course, a weapon.”

Garrett gestured around the armory and said, “Help yourself. Let me know if you don’t find what you’re looking for. Martinez said you might request something special, and that if you did, I should get it for you.”

I’d looked around the armory yesterday, but at the time I was focusing mostly on the hand guns. This time, I was looking for something with a lot more distance and power to it. I started looking at the energy rifles, which definitely had some power. However, as impressive as those might be, energy blasts quickly dissipated the further they traveled and were only good for medium range at most. Anything capable of reaching the distances I was aiming for would require a LOT more power than these things could produce. After looking over the rest of the rifles, I decided that there was nothing that suited my purposes.

“You don’t have what I need,” I told Garrett, who was sitting back and eating a bowl of microwave spaghetti…with chopsticks.

I described what I was looking for to Garrett, naming my preferred model and even providing an acceptable substitute. He nodded along as I did this, though I wasn’t sure how much he was really paying attention because he continued to eat. Barracuda had turned and was watching me, though I couldn’t see his expression through the mask that covered his face.

When I was finished, Garrett gave me a thoughtful look and said, “You’re looking for a sniper rifle…something with a lot of range, accuracy, and power.” Then he abruptly asked, “How strong are you?”

I blinked in surprise, then answered, “I’m stronger than I look. Trust me, I can handle the weapon.” It annoyed me that he’d just assumed I was too small and weak to handle that kind of equipment.

“I heard that,” Garrett responded with a grin. “If you’re strong enough…I just might have something you can use.”

Garrett took me to the back of the armory, in a section that seemed to be the heavy weapons area. There was something that looked like a miniature missile battery, a hand held energy cannon that was so large that Jarhead was probably the only one on the team capable of using it, and there was even some sort of personal gatling gun. However, Garrett ignored that and instead put his hand onto a strange looking weapon that was sitting on a desk.

If an M60 machine gun and an energy rifle had a baby, this weapon would probably be it. It was shaped like a large and bulky rifle with a barrel and stock, but it looked high tech and the body resembled some of the energy rifles I’d seen.

“What the hell is this?” I asked as I looked it over. The thing was nearly as long as I was tall and looked heavy as hell. It would have to be a pain in the ass to haul around.

“It’s a rail gun,” Garrett responded with a grin. “Instead of a chemical reaction, it uses an electromagnetic field to fire projectiles. If you want range, accuracy, and firepower…this is it.”

I stared at stared at the rail gun for a few more seconds as I considered what Garrett had said. “I’ve heard of rail guns before…but I thought they were massive.”

“This one is designed to be vehicle mounted and computer controlled via a servo system,” Garrett explained. “It fires armor piercing rounds with a high level of accuracy over a great distance.” Then he paused to grin at me before adding, “Officially, it was meant as a high precision tank buster, but personally, I suspect it was really designed to take out some of the tougher developed.”

“I’ve never heard of this,” I said, touching the weapon and feeling impressed. Garrett really knew how to get my attention.

“The military scrapped the project,” Garrett explained. “It only fires one round at a time and isn’t full auto. In the end, they decided this level of precision wasn’t necessary so traded out some accuracy for more explosive power and went with a new anti-tank missile system instead.”

I bent down and looked even more closely at the rail gun, licking my lips as I thought about firing this thing. If I’d still been a guy, it probably would have given me a hard on. As it was, I guess nipping out was as close as I was going to get.

“It’s made with high density materials that make it more durable but also heavier,” Garrett said. “It’s too heavy for most people to use without a mount, but if you’re strong enough…” He gave me a knowing grin. I found myself grinning back.

Then Garrett flipped a switch on the site of the rail gun and there was a faint humming sound that came from it. He pushed another switch and then barrel began to retract, becoming a foot shorter. Once that that was done, he folded the stock in, making the gun a bit shorter and more portable.

Garrett dug into a box and then said, “Here are the rounds…”

The round was four inches long and shaped like a standard bullet, but it was one solid piece without a shell. There were also faint spiraling grooves around it that would probably work with the rifling to add even greater stability and distance.

“There are several types of rounds available,” Garrett added cheerfully. “You have standard rounds for maximum range as well as the high explosive and incendiary armor piercing rounds.”

Without saying a word, I picked the rail gun up and was relieved to find that it didn’t feel that heavy to me. I extended the barrel and stock so that it was a little more awkward due to its size, but I was pretty sure I could handle it.

“I’ve had this thing for several months,” Garret told me with an excited grin, almost looking as excited about this as I was. “I didn’t think I’d ever find someone who could actually use it.”

“That still remains to be seen,” I responded. “First, I need to find some place with enough space to test this out.”

“I know just the place,” Garrett said with a smug look. “It’s where the team goes for full scale training.”

After Garrett told me how to get there and gave me keys to one of the ‘company’ cars, I was on my way. I arrived at the destination an hour later, finding that it was an abandoned stone quarry and a lot of empty land around it. This would be perfect.

I used the car to drive out and set up targets at various distances, then went back to the ridge that I’d picked as my shooting spot. I aimed at the nearest target and took my shot. As with the hand gun, it took me a few shots to familiarize myself with the new weapon and get it sighted in. Once I began hitting the target, I shifted to the next one out, slowly working my way back to the furthest one.

When I got to the furthest target, I stood up and stared at it, being able to see it quite well without even having to use my scope. I smiled faintly as I considered the advantages of my new eyes. Then I positioned myself and began using my scope again in order to get the target in my crosshairs. Once I took my shot, I verified the results and grinned. I still had it.

“Very nice,” I said as I got back to my feed, holding my new weapon tightly and thinking that I may have just found a new best friend. “Mama likes.”

--------------------

The entire Sanction team that was present at headquarters was gathered together in this training room. We’d all set our weapons aside because we didn’t need them for this particular training exercise. Discharge wanted us to spar with each other in order to practice unarmed hand to hand combat.

“This isn’t a power training exercise,” Discharge said. “So no powers.”

“Then how does that affect Jarhead and Harbinger?” Meridian asked, gesturing to us both. “Their powers are enhanced physical abilities which can’t be turned off.”

“I’d rather not fight Jarhead if I’m not armed and can’t use my powers,” Ambush commented.

“You’ve got that right,” Platoon agreed.

I noticed that they didn’t mention having any of those reservations about fighting me. Of course, I didn’t look nearly as big and intimidating as Jarhead. Even knowing my abilities, they probably thought that I’d be easy to take in a fight.

“I’ll spar with Jarhead,” I volunteered.

Jarhead grinned at that and said, “I don’t want to hurt you little lady.”

“You won’t,” I responded flatly, earning odd looks from the others.

“This should be interesting,” Stealth mused.

Micra gave me a worried look. “Are you sure? I mean, he is pretty big…”

I just gave Micra a faint smile and said, “I would have thought that you above anyone here would know that you shouldn’t judge a person by their size.”

“But he’s also a lot stronger than you,” Reader pointed out with a worried look of her own. “And he definitely has the advantage with reach.”

Discharge stared at me for a few seconds before nodding. Then he looked to Jarhead and said, “Just be careful not to hurt her.”

After that, we paired off to practice. Some of the pairings looked pretty unbalanced, such as with Reader and Ambush or Stealth and Barracuda. However, after awhile we were supposed to switch partners.

Jarhead smirked down at me and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on you.”

I didn’t respond to that and decided to let my skills do the talking for me. Jarhead circled me at first, hesitant to actually get physical with me. I couldn’t help but feel simultaneously insulted and amused.

Since he wasn’t going to make the first move, I did. I lunched forward, punching him in the stomach and then pulling back. He let out a loud gasp, obviously surprised that I’d hit him, though he wasn’t hurt. Then to prove that it hadn’t been a fluke, I did it again.

‘You’re fast,” Jarhead admitted after I’d gotten past his defenses.

He swung at me, obviously holding back so that he didn’t hurt me. I avoided his swing with ease. Then when he tried it again, I grabbed his wrist and used his own momentum and lack of balance to send him to the ground.

“I thought you would have learned how to fight in the Marines,” I taunted him, guessing that he was so used to relying on his strength that he might have forgotten any skills he actually possessed.

Jarhead got more serious about our fight after that, though he couldn’t lay a finger on me. He was bigger and stronger but he was also slow and clumsy compared to me. And though I couldn’t hurt him, I was able to take his feet out from under him and knock him to the ground several more time.

By the time we were done sparring, Jarhead was looking at me with a new expression. There was something in it that might very well have been a bit of respect. But then, he gave me another of those leers.

“Cute looking and can fight,” Jarhead told me. “How about we spar again tonight…” The tone of his voice and the look he gave me made it pretty clear what kind of sparring he meant.

I sparred with Hacker next, though this time I had to really hold back to keep from injuring him. He was in good shape and fairly strong, but his fighting style was a lot like Jarhead’s, using brute force instead of skill. With Meridian, I had to hold back even more.

When we were done with the sparring, Discharge gave me a thoughtful look and said, “You’re a lot better at hand to hand than I would have guessed. Then again, you do have the enhanced strength and reflexes.”

“I learned to fight long before I got those,” I pointed out.

“I was thinking about how to use your abilities in the field,” Discharge said. “Jarhead used to carry heavy ordinance but he kept destroying the weapons by accident so now we he doesn’t bother. But with your strength, speed, and endurance, you should be able to carry some of the heavier weapons without being too encumbered.”

“What do you mean?” I asked in a flat voice, definitely not liking the sound of that.

“We have a gatling gun that you might be able to handle,” Discharge told me, sounding rather proud of that. “You don’t even need to aim…just point it in the general direction and you hit everything in its path.”

“That’s probably too much gun for the little lady,” Jarhead said.

I gave Discharge a cold glare, feeling insulted by the very suggestion that I should use a gatling gun. As a sniper, I was all about stealth, precision, and efficiency. My goal was one shot…one kill. Something like a gatling gun went against everything I was as a sniper.

“Forget it,” I snapped. “You can keep your damn gatling gun… I’ve got my own way of doing things and that isn’t it.”

Discharge glared at me, obviously not happy with me for refusing to go with his plan. I was used to following orders, but I was also used to having a unit commander who knew what he was doing. Discharge had been trained as a DAD agent, but he’d never been in the military and seemed to lack a certain level of experience in this kind of thing.

Just then, Martinez came into the room and looked us over. He’d returned from his business trip this morning but we hadn’t yet had a chance to talk about where I was to fit in. From the expression on his face, that was going to have to wait a little longer.

“You have a mission,” Martinez announced, going straight to Discharge and handing him a computer tablet. “An armored figure and some monsters just arrived at a train yard and appear to be looking for something.”

“Looking for what?” Platoon asked.

“I assume something in one of the train cars,” Martinez answered flatly, giving Platoon a faint look of annoyance. “And apparently, they have no problem killing anyone they see.”

“How does this relate to Sanction business?” Discharge asked, his tone and expression going completely professional.

“Normally, it might not,” Martinez admitted. “But this is occurring close to us so we can get there before anyone else.”

Stealth nodded and pointed out, “And it makes good public relations for people to see us behaving like heroes.”

“I’m just glad for a chance to kick some ass,” Jarhead said.

“Do we know anything about them?” Ambush asked with a thoughtful look.

Martinez shook his head. “That’s the problem. We have no pictures or clear intelligence yet.” He looked to Discharge and said, “You’ll have to find out what you can when you arrive. Be careful though. These are unidentified hostiles.”

Discharge was staring at the computer tablet and finally said, “There doesn’t seem to be much here.”

“But that’s all we have now,” Martinez told him. “I’ll send you more as we get it. Good luck.”

Martinez turned and left while Discharge looked us over. “Team one will handle this. Team two can stay back…and that includes you Harbinger.”

I kept my expression controlled, not showing my annoyance at being singled out that way. Just a few minutes ago, Discharge had been suggesting that my powers made me suitable for team one, as long as I carried the heavy weapons. But now that I’d been ‘difficult’, he had decided to move me to team two instead.

I could have argued with Discharge about my placement, but there was no time for that right before a mission. Nor would it have been professional at this time. However, there was something else that caught my attention and that I felt forced to point out.

“You’re going into a probable combat zone,” I said carefully. “Why aren’t you taking Barracuda?”

I got several looks of surprise but it was Discharge who responded in an almost patronizing tone. “Because there won’t be any water nearby and his powers would be useless.”

“I thought that was obvious,” Jarhead said while several others shook their heads, apparently thinking that I had to be stupid.

“You have SEAL on your team,” I pointed out calmly. “A highly trained combat specialist, and you’re leaving him behind because you don’t like his power.” I gave Discharge a flat look and asked, “Are you a fucking moron?”

Hacker burst out laughing at that while Stealth covered her mouth to hide her laugh. Barracuda stared at me but his mask and silence made it impossible to guess his thoughts. Discharge just turned red and glared at me.

“We’re going to talk about this when we get back,” Discharge told me with an angry look. “I’m beginning to have doubts whether or not you’ll be of any use to this team.”

With that, Discharge left the training room while the rest of team one followed him. I scowled in annoyance, thinking that Discharge was likely to get the rest of the team killed if he wasn’t careful.

Just as they were leaving, I heard Platoon ask, “What does Harbinger even mean anyway?”

“I don’t think Discharge likes you very much,” Micra told me with a chuckle.

Reader gave me a worried look and said, “That wasn’t very smart. Discharge might kick you off the team.”

“Maybe not,” Hacker added. “But man she has balls of steel…” Then he paused, suddenly looking embarrassed. “I mean, if she had balls and all…”

I didn’t say a word and just walked out, fully aware that they were all staring at me, including Barracuda. I went back to my quarters, wondering if I’d made a mistake in coming to Sanction. I’d thought it was an opportunity, a chance for me to continue doing what I did best. Now, that was starting to look like it wasn’t going to happen.

There was a half-empty bottle of Southern Comfort on my counter that I’d bought last night to celebrate after testing out my new weapon. I picked it up and took a long drink, then set it back down.

“Damn it guys,” I muttered with my eyes closed. “Why the hell did you have to get yourselves killed. If I ever find out what asshole gave that mutagen to those terrorists…”

I took another drink from the bottle at that and then wondered if I was starting to drink too much. I’d never been one to drink on duty before, but then again, Discharge didn’t seem to think that I’d ever be on duty.

“You’re a professional,” I told myself firmly. “Put your big girl panties on and deal with it.”

It suddenly struck me as ludicrous that I was actually wearing girl panties and even a bra, even if it wasn’t a big one. Whether I liked it or not, I was now a petite young woman and that was exactly how everyone else saw me. It was no wonder that Discharge and Jarhead had such a hard time taking me seriously. I wouldn’t have taken me seriously either.

“At least I didn’t turn into sexy miss big tits,” I muttered. If I’d turned into a busty blonde or something similar, then I probably would have had to deal with everyone trying to get into my panties, which was bound to be even worse.

With that, I put the bottle away and left my room to get back to training. Even if Discharge did have me kicked off Sanction before my first mission, I was damn well going to take advantage of these training facilities while I could.

I hadn’t gone very far down the hall when I saw Martinez, who gave me a look of surprise and asked, “Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be out with the team?”

“Discharge didn’t want me to come,” I answered, keeping the emotions from my voice. “He doesn’t seem to think that I’m a good fit for the team.”

Martinez scowled at that, not looking happy. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this threat,” he finally said. “We don’t know anything about them so I want you to go back the team up.”

“Yes, sir,” I responded, not even bothering to hold back my grin.

My first stop was the armory where I picked up my sidearm and slipped it into the holster on my belt. The rest of my belt contained spare clips for it as well as ammo for my new rail gun. Between that, the combat knife that was strapped to my leg, and the rail gun, I was fully armed and ready.

Once I was armed, I went to the garage and acquired a vehicle since my destination was close enough to actually drive. Martinez had given me the address of where I needed to go, but I didn’t go there directly. Instead, I looked for something a little more appropriate, such as a tall building that was nearly a mile away. That would be perfect.

I ran up the stairs as fast as I could and made my way to the top of the building where I looked over the distant train yard. My eyes were sharp enough to make out a little, though I still needed my scope to really see what was going on.

A single good look was enough to show that my team was in a very bad position. In fact, they’d all been caught. I scowled as the sight, feeling worried though I put pushed the emotions aside to focus on what I needed to do.

I extended the barrel and stock of my new rail gun, smiling faintly as I moved it into position. It was large and a little awkward, but it still felt like it belonged with me

I’d known guys who actually named their guns, though I’d always avoided that practice. After all, even my favorite rifle was just a tool, one that was ultimately expendable and which might have to be discarded or disposed of. It had always struck me as foolish to get emotionally attached to something like that. Still, if I was the kind of person to name their weapons, I would probably end up calling this one Monster.

I pointed not-Monster at the train yard, using the scope to take in every detail of the situation. I saw the monsters that had been reported, five of them. One was a huge minotaur with reddish fur, one was a scaled woman with a snake tail instead of legs, and the others were scaled and furry creatures that looked only vaguely human.

Then I spotted the man in armor. It was a full body suit of red and gold armor that even covered his entire head. He had a red cape which billowed behind him, and he even held a golden metal staff in his hand.

“Shit,” I muttered, recognizing the armor and the identity of the man within even though I’d never seen him before in my life.

Back in the 3rd ADU, we had a list of developed who were considered targets of opportunity. These were dangerous developed who the Pentagon had decided were threats to our country and which we had been ordered to kill if we ever had the opportunity. The armored man below me had been on the list.

“The Alchemist,” I stated, trying to remember everything I could about him. I’d always made a habit of reading all the available reports and information about these targets of opportunity.

The Alchemist claimed to be over four hundred years old and was reported to have extended his life using some sort of alchemy. As his name indicated, he was an expert in alchemy and was considered to be powerful and dangerous. He’d fought the Protectorate a few times, had conquered his own island nation, and had created a small army of monstrous slaves.

From what I remembered, he had some kind of bath of chemicals that he would soak people in, turning them into powerful monsters and making them absolutely obedient to him. And of course, he had the armor itself. It was supposed to be completely indestructible, and it was also loaded up with alchemical potions that the Alchemist could use as weapons.

After a moment, I turned my attention to my own team, all of whom had been captured. Stealth was entangled in some sort of net which was being held by one of the monstrous creatures, one with a head like a dog. I suspected that they’d found her using smell rather than vision.

There were seven versions of Platoon present, one of whom was being held by the snake woman, three of which were entangled in metal tentacles that sprouted from the ground, and the remaining ones appeared to be stuck in the ground up to their knees, as though they’d stepped in quicksand.

Ambush was in one of his bubbles that kept him out of phase with reality. I doubt anyone else would be able to see him where he was, kept nice and safe, though the enemy apparently knew where he was and what his powers were. One of the monsters was standing right in the same place he was. If Ambush tried reappearing, he’d end up occupying the same space as the monster and would die.

Meridian was on the ground, appearing to be either unconscious or dead. I couldn’t tell from where I was at. Discharge was floating in the air nearby, held there by a swirling mass of smoke that seemed to somehow be levitating him and tying him up at the same time.

Jarhead just stood there, holding a huge piece of metal over his head and looking as though he had been frozen in position. I could see him screaming something that looked like profanities, but he didn’t seem able to move anything besides his mouth.

I locked my crosshairs directly on the Alchemist, scowling as I did so. At the moment, my options were limited. If I did anything to the monsters, the Alchemist would be able to immediately kill his prisoners. Unfortunately, the Alchemist was the key to this whole situation.

I struggled to remember every detail I cold about the Alchemist. His armor was created from some alchemical formula that made it nearly invulnerable. The report said that his armor was reputed to have a single flaw but hadn’t said what that flaw was.

I could attempt to hit him with armor piercing rounds, but if that didn’t work, I’d only give away my presence and get my team killed. There were his eye slits, but I wasn’t confident enough with my new weapon to aim for something quite that precise in this situation. If I missed by even half an inch, or if the lenses for his eyes were treated with the same stuff as his armor, my team would be dead.

“Patience,” I reminded myself. “Wait for the opportunity.”

I watched as the Alchemist had his monsters search some of the train cars and one of them came back with a large metal box. Since he was an alchemist, I assumed that he was after an ingredient for something big. However, what he was after wasn’t nearly as relevant as what I was.

Then Platoon faded away and vanished as the time limit on his powers ran out. It wasn’t just a single one of his bodies that this happened to, it was all seven of them. That meant Platoon had another body that he’d held back and which had avoided capture.

“Clever move,” I mused. “But what are you doing to do now?”

I didn’t have to wait more than a minute because I saw two dozen copies of Platoon begin to pour out from inside of one train car. Several of them were armed with rifles while others appeared to have grabbed metal bars, rocks, and anything they could get their hands on. They charged the Alchemist and his monster, which I thought was foolish since this could get the others killed. However, I’d back his play if I could.

The Alchemist’s monsters dropped their prisoners and began going after the various Platoons. The only one that didn’t move was the one who kept Ambush locked down.

Then the Alchemist held out his hand and a spray of green liquid sprayed out from his palm and hit one of the Platoons. I wasn’t too concerned about Platoon since he could survive the loss of his bodies, as long as one of them remained. And after his last move, I was pretty sure that he was still keeping one of them in reserve.

Suddenly, the Platoon who’d been hit with the liquid froze and actually turned to stone. However, what was even more shocking was that every other Platoon was turning to stone as well. Whatever the Alchemist had hit him with, it wasn’t just getting the one body…it was getting all of them. In mere moments, there were two dozen statues.

I felt angry that Platoon had just been killed and I hadn’t been able to do a thing. Sure, I could have taken out some of the monsters, but the problem with the Alchemist was still there. Since I still couldn’t do anything, I compartmentalized my emotions and continued focusing entirely on the mission.

After the Alchemist looked over the newly made statues, he checked the contents of the box his monsters had found. Then he turned to Discharge and actually removed his helmet, revealing a bald man with skin that was slightly grey.

“Go ahead and gloat,” I said, watching through the scope as the Alchemist talked to Discharge. I was pretty decent at reading lips so it looked like the typical gloating monologue that these megalomaniacs seemed to like. I looked to Discharge and his response seemed to be mostly defiance.

Without saying a word, I pulled the trigger and watched as the Alchemist’s head exploded from the round. I was already moving the crosshairs, pulling the trigger a second time and the monster blocking Ambush died with a whole through his chest.
At this point, the monsters were looking around frantically while my own team were looking around in confusion as well. With the death of the Alchemist, his magic seemed to be failing because Discharge fell out of the air and Jarhead suddenly staggered and dropped the metal he’d been holding.

“Bullseye,” I said, unable to resist that as I fired a round right through the minotaur’s eye. Several more shots quickly followed, taking out the rest of the monsters before they could think to go for cover.

My team was now free, but they all looked completely shocked and were looking in all directions, trying to see what had freed them. I smiled faintly at that and continued watching them a little longer, waiting until they were back in control of the situation. Only when they were done did I pack up my rail gun, sling it over my back, and start back down the building.

When I returned to headquarters, I found that the other team had beat me back, probably because they’d gone out in one of the helicopters rather than by car. I went to the briefing room and paused just outside the door, hearing them talking.

“I can’t believe he killed Platoon,” Stealth exclaimed, sounding as though she was crying.

“I can’t believe that guy’s head just exploded,” Jarhead said. “I mean…boom. It was gone.”

“A sniper,” Ambush said firmly. “It had to be.”

I decided that this was the perfect time for me to enter the room. I still had my weapon…Monster slung over my back. Everyone froze and stared at me.

“Good work,” Martinez told me, scowling slightly. “I wish you could have done something about Platoon, but you saved the rest of the team.”

“Thank you, sir,” I responded professionally.

“Wait,” Discharge blurted out, staring at me in wide eyed disbelief, the same look that the rest of them had on their faces. “That was Harbinger?”

“No fucking way,” Jarhead blurted out.

Martinez held up his hand and looked over the team with a scowl. “Unfortunately, I had to leave before I had a chance to get Harbinger settled in here. It seems that I neglected her introduction and integration to the team so I’d like to begin again.”

“But we’ve already met her,” Meridian said with a confused look.

“Let me introduce you to the newest member of team one…the Harbinger of death,” Martinez said, gesturing to me but keeping his eyes on the rest of the team. “She is formerly of the Army Rangers and was a key member of an elite anti-developed unit. She is one of the most lethal snipers in the world…and has eliminated more hostile developed than the rest of this team combined.”

The entire team had frozen at that and they were staring at me with looks of utter shock and disbelief. This reaction tickled my ego a bit though I refused to let it show on my face.

Martinez looked to Discharge and said, “Giving Harbinger a gatling gun is like pitching a whiffle ball to Babe Ruth.”

“I’m going to get my weapon cleaned and put away,” I told Martinez, gesturing to my back. “Then I’ll come back for my debriefing.”

Martinez nodded at that, then said, “In case I forgot to say it before, welcome to the team Harbinger.”

--------------------

I scowled as I walked through the mall with Stealth and Micra…Jessica and Penny, hardly able to believe that they’d actually managed to drag me out on some girls bonding time shopping trip. I felt as though I’d accident stepped into some kind of cheap stereotype. Unfortunately, I had to admit that I didn’t really have anyone to blame but myself.

After I’d first arrived at Sanction, I’d called Colonel Ryley to thank him for hooking me up with the job. He’d been kind enough to also arrange for all my stuff to be packed up from my old apartment and sent to me. It had all arrived yesterday afternoon, but while I was unpacking the boxes, I’d been forced to realize that I’d have to throw about half of it out. Not a single piece of my old clothes would fit me anymore.

This morning while eating breakfast, I’d made the mistake of mentioning that I was going out to get some new clothes for myself. Penny and Jessica had immediately seized on that as an excuse for a full blown shopping trip. Meridian had politely declined and excused herself from the activity. And though Reader…Janine might have come along if she’d been able, she’d been loaned out to another department to help with some interrogation work.

“Too bad Meridian couldn’t come,” Penny said cheerfully. “She’s really gonna miss out.”

Jessica gave me a quick look, indicating that she knew the real reason Meridian had stayed behind just as well as I did. She was a little afraid of me now. It had been nearly a week since I’d saved the lives of team one, and since then, everyone was now looking at me differently. Before then, I was the one who they thought was small, cute, and harmless in spite of my developed powers. Now most of them looked at me as though I was a killer who might turn on them at any moment. That was a little closer to the truth, but it did make things awkward.

“Oh look at this purse,” Penny exclaimed, pointing through the window of one store. “I love it…”

“Here we go again,” Jessica commented as Penny ran into the store. At my curious look, she chuckled. “I love a nice purse as much as the next girl, but Penny takes it to another level. She probably has more purses than anyone I know.”

I just let out a sigh and shook my head faintly before following Jessica and Penny into the store. I didn’t want to be here, but I was a professional who was used to being calm and patient under stressful and hostile conditions. I could handle this.

As Jessica predicted, Penny left that store with a new purse. Unfortunately, she repeated the same process a minute later when she ran into a shoe store. This time, Jessica seemed nearly as enthusiastic about it so I was forced to follow, wondering whatever had happened to my quick and easy trip to get just what I needed.

“I love these ones,” Penny said, looking at one pair of shoes and then frowning. “Too bad they don’t have any in my size…” Then she grinned, “Fortunately, my size is a little flexible. I have a whole wardrobe of clothes that are normally just a little too small for me.”

“Lucky you,” Jessica told her with a chuckle. “I kind of wish I could do that.”

“You’ve got to try these ones on,” Penny told me with a grin, holding up a pair of high heels. “They’d look great on you.”

“Forget that,” I responded with a faint shudder. “I don’t need those kind of shoes.”

“Of course you do,” Jessica said. “You always need something for nice occasions.”

I gave her a flat look and responded, “I’ve got two pairs of footwear…the sneakers I’m wearing now and the boots for my uniform. I don’t need anything else.”

Penny and Jessica both stared at me with looks of disbelief. Of course, technically I did have more shoes and boots but they were now far too large for me to even consider wearing.

“Maybe I could get a new pair of boots,” I admitted, though I certainly didn’t like their selection in boots for a woman of my size. In fact, they didn’t have anything that looked like practical work or hiking boots at all.

“You need some nicer shoes too,” Jessica told me with a thoughtful look. Then at my flat response, she smiled faintly and added, “You never know when you’ll need to go undercover…”

“Haven’t you ever been on a date?” Penny asked me with a curious expression.

“Not for awhile,” I admitted. I didn’t mention the fact that the last time I went out on a date, it had been as a man.

“I figured you would have been all over the heels,” Penny told me cheerfully. “I mean, with the extra height and all…”

I froze at that, unable to resist looking at the shoes again. This time, I wasn’t looking at them as something for women to look nice wearing but as something that could add a few extra inches to my height. Both of my companions looked to each other with smiles that seemed to say, “Gotcha.”

“I’m not saying you’re short or anything,” Penny quickly added. Then she joked, “Trust me, I know all about being small… But…”

“But I am short,” I responded with a sigh.

Jessica gave me a look that seemed to say, “You said it, not me.” Then she told me, “And they’d look nice on you…”

After a little more convincing, I eventually left the store with three new pairs of shoes, a pair of low heels, a pair of high heels, and a pair of wedges. I had absolutely no interest in wearing such feminine shoes or trying to look good, but I couldn’t deny the temptation to recover even a little bit of my lost height.

“I was wondering,” Jessica said carefully as we walked towards the next store. “How did you get into…well…doing what you do?”

I smiled faintly at that, not at all surprised by the question. After all, I’d known that sooner or later one of the team would have asked that question or one like it. They were all curious about how a cute little thing like me could have become a sniper and gotten into an elite unit. I certainly didn’t look the part, at least not anymore.

“My old man owned a firing range,” I explained pleasantly. “I grew up shooting guns the way other kids raced their bicycles. As soon as I was old enough, I began competing.” I shrugged at that. “It’s just something I’ve always been good at.”

“No wonder you’re such a tomboy,” Penny blurted out. Then she blushed. “Sorry, I don’t want to sound like I’m teasing you or anything.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle faintly at that. “Don’t worry, I’ve been called much worse than that.”

As we continued the shopping trip, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t nearly the torturous experience that I’d expected. Of course, that was entirely due to the presence of Penny and Jessica, not to the shopping itself. For some reason, I found myself feeling relaxed and at ease with them. I suspected that this was largely due to the fact that they didn’t tower over me nearly as much as most men now did.

For most of my life, the only time I’d ever really hung out with women had been either professionally or when I was trying to get into their pants. The idea of just hanging out with no other reason just seemed…weird. But at the same time, it was also oddly nice.

By the time we were done with the trip, I had the extra clothes that I needed, though I’d been urged to buy a few more things than I really wanted. I had at least one ‘date worthy’ shirt and the rest of my clothes were just a little more feminine than I would have preferred, but I had to admit that that they fit my new body and look a little more than what I would have picked out on my own.

I couldn’t help but wondering what Dr. Voight would say about my shopping trip and the female clothes I’d bought. Maybe if I told her, she’d stop saying that I was avoiding my new gender. I doubted it, especially since I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

When we got back to headquarters, I dropped my new purchases in my room and made my way to the cafeteria for dinner. Penny and Jessica had gone to their rooms as well so I was on my own for now.

Jarhead was finishing up just as I sat down, and after giving me a polite nod, he got up and left. Ever since I’d saved his ass, he’d avoided patronizing me or hitting on me too much. Of course, the fact that I later suggested that I might ‘accidentally’ shoot his balls off might have had something to do with that as well.

I was about halfway finished with my meal when someone sat down across from me. What surprised me was the fact that it was Barracuda, who never actually ate in the cafeteria. In his usual silent fashion, he suddenly reached out and set something on the table in front of me. It was a bottle of my favorite bourbon…the expensive stuff.

“What’s this for?” I asked, feeling both surprised and confused by his behavior.

“Carazon,” Barracuda answered in an odd and raspy voice.

I froze, staring at Barracuda for a moment before calmly stating, “You can talk.” I carefully kept the surprise out of my voice.

“Difficult,” he responded in the same eerie voice, the words coming slowly. “Armor extends down my throat. Had to relearn.”

I nodded at that, understanding that it had to be difficult to learn how to work around his armor. It must have taken him awhile to do this which was why everyone else thought he was mute. The fact that he’d chosen to talk to me suggested that he must have a good reason.

“Carazon,” I said flatly, knowing that name well.

Carazon was the name of a small island off the coast of Argentina, one where I’d spent two weeks. Nearly two years ago, my unit had been assigned to back up a team of Navy SEALS who had been assigned the task of taking down a self-proclaimed dictator who’d taken over the island of Carazon.

Uncle Sam probably wouldn’t have cared about the petty tyrant except for the fact that he’d acquired an electro-magnetic pulse weapon which he planned on using to destabilize Argentina so he could take over. The US didn’t want to see him destabilize the region at that time so the SEALs were ordered to capture or destroy the weapon, then take him out if possible. Unfortunately, the dictator had a few developed mercenaries working for him, which was why the 3rd ADU had been assigned to work with them.

I stared at Barracuda for several very long seconds before quietly saying, “You were there.”

“I knew a sniper called Harbinger,” Barracuda said carefully. “Roland Gettz. Same code name. Same last name. I contacted old friends…found third ADU was destroyed. Only one survivor. The details were classified.”

I continued staring at Barracuda, surprised that he knew who I was…that he’d figured it out. He was one of the SEALs on Carazon, one of the ones I’d fought alongside. Then I looked to the bottle of bourbon that he’d placed on the table and I suddenly knew who he was.

An image came to mind of a lean and bald black man. He’d been a crappy poker player but had been someone I’d happily have watching my back. After I’d saved his life by killing the developed who’d been about to disintegrate him, he’d promised me a bottle of my favorite booze as thanks. When the mission was over, our units went our separate ways so he hadn’t been able to keep his promise…until now.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Penny asked as she came towards our table with Jessica at her side.

“Barracuda,” Jessica exclaimed. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you sitting down in here.”

“Tyler Garrett,” I said to which Barracuda nodded. “You look a lot different than you did back then.”

“As do you,” Barracuda responded.

“Holy shit,” Penny blurted out, staring at Barracuda in surprise. “You can talk?”

“Wait,” Jessica exclaimed, staring at me and then Barracuda. “You two know each other…”

“We met before in a past life,” I answered.

Barracuda nodded at that and stood up. He gestured to the bottle of bourbon and said, “Enjoy,” before he walked away.

Penny stared at Barracuda as he left but Jessica stared at me. “What is that all about?”

“He was just fulfilling an old promise,” I answered before going back to my dinner.

Jessica and Penny got their own dinners and sat down to eat with me, though they kept asking questions which I refused to answer. Not only was Carazon still classified but it was something that I didn’t want to talk about right now.

When I was finished eating, I grabbed the bottle of bourbon that Barracuda had given me and started back to my quarters. I hadn’t made it more than ten feet from the cafeteria door when I nearly bumped into Ambush.

“I was wondering if I could get a little advice on shooting,” he said just a little awkwardly, obviously embarrassed to be asking me this. “My accuracy at a distance is only mediocre at best. I was hoping to improve it…perhaps enough so that I could act as a backup sniper if necessary.”

I nodded at that, enjoying the boost to my ego that he’d ask for my help like that. Of course, Ambush was usually very professional and had been polite and respectful to me even before he found out that I was more than just the petite girl that I appeared.

“Sure,” I told him with a smile. “We can go out to the range tomorrow and I’ll give you a few tips.” I paused to look him over for a moment, considering his usual method of fighting. “Your usual style is to ambush the enemy at close to moderate range. I was thinking that using some grenades to drop and vanish would also be pretty good for you…”

“Good idea,” he agreed with a thoughtful look of his own. “I might have to start carrying some…”

Ambush and I talked about battle tactics for a few more minutes before he went to get his own dinner. I continued on my way to my quarters, though I quickly realized that I was being followed. Jessica was invisible and keeping her distance, but I had yet to tell her or anyone else on the team that I could see her. This wasn’t the first time that I’d noticed her watching me while invisible. I didn’t let on that I’d spotted her, though I delayed closing the door to my quarters long enough to give her an opportunity to ‘sneak’ in.

I set the new bottle down and reached for a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels and a couple of the cheap disposable plastic cups that I’d been using. After mixing two Jack and Coke’s, I finally looked straight at Jessica and held out one of the cups. “You want one?”

Jessica gasped and turned visible again, looking visibly shaken. “How did you know I was here?”

“Enhanced vision,” I responded calmly. “Your powers don’t work on me.”

“Oh God,” she groaned, turning bright red and obviously being extremely embarrassed to have been caught like this. She took the cup and then took a long drink.

I gestured for her to have a seat and then commented, “But I am curious why you’ve been following me like this…”

Jessica took another drink from the cup before answering, “Curiosity. I wanted to know what was going on between you and Barracuda. I think Martinez is the only one here who knows his real name, and he hasn’t said a word to any of us until now. Suddenly, it turns out you two are best friends.”

“Not best friends,” I told her with a faint chuckle. “We were on a mission together awhile back…before I got…before I got my powers and he got stuck in the armor. I had no idea who he was until a little bit ago.” I paused at that and took a sip of my own drink. “But I’ve seen you following me a couple times before then.”

Jessica let out a sigh and shook her head. For a moment, I thought she was going to try escaping the situation by leaving. Instead, she said, “You saved my life last week and I really appreciate that, but you just don’t add up.”

Then she paused and looked around my room, at the boxes which were open with some of my belongings scattered about. She stood up and reached for one of my old uniform shirts, one which was now far too large for me to use. She held it up and stared at the name tag.

“Does this belong to your brother?” she asked me curiously. Then she hesitated a moment before adding, “Husband?”

I stared at her for a moment, knowing that I could easily lie and make something up. However, a team needs to have some trust in each other so I decided to give her a little.

“It’s mine,” I answered, trying to keep my voice calm and under control.

Jessica gave me a blank look. “What?”

I let out a sigh and then took a long drink from my cup. I finally said, “I didn’t always look like this.” I gestured down at myself and gave her a wry smile. “My unit was trying to recover a dangerous chemical…but our enemy turned it into a weapon against us. I survived but the rest of my unit was killed.”

“Oh my God,” Jessica gasped. “And that’s how you gained your powers.”

I nodded at that. “But I also lost a foot of height, half my body mass…and my outie turned into an innie.”

Jessica stared at me for a moment with a blank look, then she looked at my shirt again and she blurted out “You’re a guy?”

“I was as of a couple weeks ago,” I responded with a scowl. “Now the doctors say I’m female all the way down to my DNA.”

After continuing to stare at me for several long seconds, Jessica sat back down again and gave me a sympathetic look. “That actually explains a lot. Who else knows?”

“Martinez, Voight, and Barracuda,” I answered. Then I gave a wry smile and added, “Barracuda figured out who I was on his own. Then again, I haven’t been doing a good job of hiding it.” I let out a sigh and shook my head. “Please don’t spread this around. It’s not exactly a huge secret but it’s pretty embarrassing and I don’t want everyone to think of me as a freak.”

“I’ll keep it quiet,” Jessica promised.

I nodded at that. “Thank you.”

Jessica continued watching me for a moment and then she suddenly burst out laughing. “I was just thinking,” she explained with a chuckle. “The way Malcolm kept hitting on you and the way Penny and I took you shopping today… That must have been really uncomfortable for you.”

“You have no idea,” I admitted with a wry smile of my own. “But you did help me out quite a bit. I still don’t have a clue about women’s clothing sizes.”

“So, what’s it like?” she asked abruptly. “What’s it like changing sides like that?”

I thought about it for a moment before admitting, “So far, I think the hardest part is turning into a damn midget…” Jessica giggled at that while I added, “Honestly, I try not to think about being a chick too much. I’ve just been trying to focus on my job and taking things one step at a time.”

I continued talking with Jessica for another hour, finding that it was nice to actually be able to talk openly with someone about my situation. Martinez was my commander and Dr. Voight was a shrink, which meant that neither of them were people I could comfortably talk with. Dr. Voight had told me that talking about my issues might make me feel better and she was actually right, though I certainly wasn’t going to admit that to her.

Eventually, Jessica had to leave. Before going, she paused to stare at me again, saying, “I really do appreciate how you saved my life. If you hadn’t taken out the Alchemist and his people, all of us would have died…not just Aaron.”

Then Jessica surprised me by leaning forward and grabbing me, giving me a kiss. Not only were her tender lips pressed against mine, her tits were pushing up against me as well. Seconds later, she pulled back, gave me a wink, and then hurried out my door.

I stood there for a minute, smirking as I thought about that I’d just had a hot looking blonde kissing me and pushing her tits all over me. Before my change, that would have been enough to give me an instant stiffy. It was really nice to know that I still had my old mojo. But then, my sense of smug satisfaction faded and I felt a cold chill run down my spine as I realized that I hadn’t felt anything sexual about that at all.

--------------------

I was on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, being soaked through with the rain but refusing to let it distract me. My attention was locked firmly on my scope and the oil tanker that was off in the distance. There were several smaller craft surrounding the tanker, but the tanker was where my I kept most of my attention.

A crew of modern day pirates had captured the tanker and had taken the crew hostage. Not only were they demanding a ransom for the crew, they were also demanding more money under the threat of dumping all the oil from the tanker into the gulf. After the big oil spill from a few years ago, no one wanted to risk another such event and the pirates were taking full advantage of that.

There were two reasons that DAD and Sanction were involved instead of the Coast Guard or some super hero group. The first reason was because the leader of the pirates was developed. The second, and perhaps even more relevant was that these same pirates had previously gone after several yachts, including one with the niece of a US senator aboard.

At the moment, I was keeping watch while the rest of my team got into position. Barracuda was under the ships, making preparations and waiting until the signal. Stealth was flying to the oil tanker while an inch tall Micra was catching a ride. Since Micra was that small, Stealth could not only carry her but also keep her covered with her invisibility field. Unfortunately, the pirates had some nice tech available and were on a lookout for anyone sneaking up on them so we couldn’t risk sending anyone else.

Discharge, Meridian, Jarhead, and Ambush were all on the oil tanker with me, waiting as backup in case it was needed. If needed, Meridian could use her power to fly the rest of the team to the ship. I suspected that by the time they got there, it would be over one way or another. Still, they were here, though Discharge, Meridian, and Jarhead were inside where it was warm and dry.

Ambush was crouched down beside me, using a pair of night vision binoculars to keep an eye on the tanker along with me. He was serious about wanting to learn more about what it took to be a sniper so I was training him to be my spotter. He didn’t complain about the rain or about being out here when he could have been dry with the others. Ambush was a professional and I couldn’t help but respecting that.

“I’m not used to dealing with the weather while waiting,” Ambush commented, not as a complaint but as a simple observation.

Ambush frequently spent periods of time hiding in one spot, waiting for just the right time and perfect opportunity to strike. In a way, we were very similar in how we operated, except that his powers meant that he didn’t have to fear discovery or deal with the weather while waiting. Still, he had the mindset of a sniper…just not the ranged accuracy.

I just nodded faintly, not taking my eyes from my scope or the pirates who were on deck. Between the rain and it being dark, any shots I took would be difficult ones. If ever I needed a spotter to help me gauge wind speed and distance, this was it. At that moment, I really missed Mike, but I pushed those emotions aside and focused on the job at hand.

Some of the pirates were on deck and all the hostages were currently down below. If I started taking out any of the pirates now, the hostages would be killed and the oil dumped. As usual, I would have to be patient and wait for the right opportunity to act.

“At least this is more interesting than the last two missions,” I said, still not taking my eyes from the target.

A couple days ago, we were sent after a teenage girl who’d recently developed some sort of ice powers and she’d decided to become a super hero. However, she’d caused multiple cases of frostbite and hypothermia against people she’d considered to be school bullies and against innocent bystanders. As soon as she saw us, she’d come along peacefully. Martinez said that she’d probably only get a light slap on the wrist and that some super hero group would probably take her under their wing to teach her how to control her powers and use them responsibly.

The day before that, we’d been sent after a reputed super villain, only to discover that he wasn’t a villain or even developed. He was just some office monkey who tried playing a prank on a coworker. His little joke had gotten completely out of hand, resulting in us being called unnecessarily.

“We’ve reached the tanker,” Stealth’s voice said in my ear. “Micra and I are going inside.”

After my first mission with the team, I’d talked with Martinez and strongly recommended that we use radios to keep in contact in the field. Being able to coordinate our actions would make us a lot more efficient, and it might prevent what happened with Platoon from happening again.

“This is Harbinger,” I announced. “I have you covered topside but won’t be able to help you down below. Be careful.”

Stealth and Micra went down into the ship to complete their tasks, securing the hostages and neutralizing the explosives that would blow the side of the ship open and dump out all the oil. This was a mission that required stealth which meant that the rest of the team would have to wait along with me.

I glanced quickly to Ambush, knowing that with his powers, he could have been quite useful on this particular mission. Unfortunately, there was no way to get him on board that ship without being seen.

After half an hour, Micra called out over the radio. “I’ve removed the bombs.”

Stealth followed a few minutes later, “I’ve locked the bulkhead doors and secured the hostages. We’re good to go.”

“Barracuda,” Discharge said over the radio. “You’re up.”

A moment later, there were explosions on the smaller boats surrounding the tanker. Barracuda had planted explosives on them from below and had now removed those vessels from the board. Any pirates who were struggling just to stay afloat in the water weren’t going to be much of a threat, especially against Barracuda.

As expected, most of the pirates in the tanker rushed up top so that they could see what was going on and fight off any attackers. I waited until there didn’t seem to be more coming, then I called out over the radio, “The deck is full, Barracuda.”

Barracuda suddenly burst out of the water, shooting high up into the air like a rocket with a stream of water trailing behind him. When he reached a little higher than the deck of the tanker, he held out two machine guns and opened fire, mowing down the pirates. Gravity quickly retook him and he fell back into the water, only to emerge again moments later from the other side of the tanker. This time, he landed on deck and continued to fire.

“He’s good,” Ambush said, sounding impressed.

I didn’t bother nodding at that. Instead, I kept my attention focused on where it was really needed, on watching Barracuda’s back. I fired one shot and took out a guy who appeared to have a rocket launcher.

I was keeping an eye out for the captain of the pirate crew but I had absolutely no idea who the captain was…at least not until a woman burst into flame and suddenly became a human flame thrower. Waves of flame rushed towards Barracuda, driving him back. In just a moment, he’d be forced to jump over the side. I couldn’t be sure enough of my aim under these conditions to try for a head shot so I went for center of mass and blew a large hole through her chest.

Then I suddenly noticed something moving on deck, something that had been hidden beneath a tarp and that I hadn’t noticed. I cursed as a large energy cannon rose up and extended, then I cursed even more as it rotated to aim directly at the oil platform. They’d either realized that we were staging the attack from here or they just wanted to cause as much damage as they could as punishment for crossing them.

“Look out,” I cried, grabbing Monster and jumping to my feet, knowing that an energy cannon like that would be extremely destructive.

I helped Ambush to his feet and was about to run for cover when the world suddenly exploded around me. Everything was flames and red…but no heat. It took me a moment to notice that I was within a red glowing bubble that was barely big enough to contain Ambush and myself. I looked to him, realizing that he’d just saved us both with his powers.

“So this is what it’s like in here,” I commented, pulling in the barrel and stock of Monster so that it would take a little less space.

When the flames and smoke cleared enough, I saw that nearly a third of the oil platform had been destroyed. The metal was melted away and when I looked down, I could actually see the ocean below us. We were being held up inside of Ambush’s power. I wanted to call out for a rescue but knew that we were cut off from any outside communication.

“Can you move this bubble?” I asked Ambush, thinking that it wouldn’t take much to get to stable spot so we could get out of here.

“No,” Ambush responded. “We have two choices. Stay here and wait for someone to come for us, or I can drop the bubble and we go down into the water.”

“That’s a long drop,” I responded.

Ambush nodded at that. “I can drop us several feet and shift us back here, then repeat the process until we’re down. I got down from an airplane like that once. It’s a bit slow, but it works.”

I let out a sigh and said, “I’d rather wait. I don’t like the look of that water right now or the risk of being smashed up against a pylon.”

I sat beside Ambush, trying to stay calm and patient. At the moment, we’d both been removed from the playing field and could no longer do anything. A few minutes later, Meridian arrived, floating in the air while she looked for us. There was a worried look on her face as she searched.

“Get ready,” Ambush told me, then released us from the bubble. We immediately began to fall, but then Meridian spotted us and used her telekinesis to keep us from falling any further.

“I’ve got you,” Meridian called out in relief.

Meridian set us down on the other side of the oil platform, the side that was still undamaged. Discharge and Jarhead were already there waiting though they both seemed relieved to see us.

“Glad you’re alive, little lady,” Jarhead told me. Then he looked to Ambush and added, “You too asshole.”

“I’m glad to be alive,” I responded, looking to Discharge. “What’s the status of the mission?”

“We have control of the tanker,” Discharge told me. “After you killed their captain and Barracuda blew up their cannon, the rest surrendered.”

“Stealth says that none of the hostages were harmed,” Meridian added with a faint smile. “I just wish Barracuda didn’t have to kill so many of them…”

She looked pretty bothered by that and I hoped she’d be all right. Meridian was a decent person who didn’t like seeing anyone hurt, even the bad guys. I couldn’t really fault her for that.

After this, there wasn’t much for us to do except wait for the Coast Guard to come in and take control of the hostages and remaining pirates. Once they had, we were then able to get into the helicopter and head home.

It was nice to sit back and relax after that mission, not to mention get dry again. Ironically, the first thing I planned on doing when we got back was take a nice long shower. I closed my eyes, lulled into relaxing further by the sound of the helicopter blades, smiling faintly as I imagined how good a hot shower would feel. But while I was doing this, my mind began to drift. I remembered what it was like, sitting in that bubble with Ambush, my body being so close to his. Then I found myself imagining him being that close to me in my shower.

As soon as I realized where my thoughts were going, I bolted upright, once again wide awake. I scowled, glaring at Ambush as though it was somehow his fault that I’d been thinking about him that way. However, blaming him was easier than thinking about where those thoughts had really come from.

--------------------

I was in the base rec room, sitting down at the poker table and staring down at the cards in my hand. I carefully kept my expression calm and unreadable, a skill that I’d always been proud of before, but this was the first time I’d had a chance to test my poker face since I got my new face.

Without saying a word, I took a sip of my drink and then took a puff on my cigar. I normally didn’t smoke, but I’d always made an exception for cigars on poker night. After all, certain things were sacred tradition.

After glancing at my cards again, I looked over the table and the rest of the players. Discharge, Ambush, Malcolm, Jessica, and Rob were all present, with everyone but Jessica having a cigar. Of course, Discharge had a lit cigar as well, but I’d noticed it was more for show as he wasn’t actually smoking it.

My eyes went to Discharge, who’d just dealt this hand. Once he realized what I could do, he pulled the stick out of his ass and started treating me with respect. All in all, he wasn’t too bad a team leader, though he could have used some more military experience. As it was, his biggest problem was that he kept putting too much focus on what people could do with their powers and not enough on their skills. Of course, I was working on changing that perception.

I looked to Ambush, having recently learned that his real name was Gene. However, I continued to just think of him as Ambush since I wanted to keep things completely professional between us.

“Read em and weep,” Rob exclaimed, looking smug as he showed his hand.

“I’ve got ya beat,” Malcolm said, showing his own cards.

I hesitated a moment before sighing. “I’m out.”

“It looks like I’ve got this hand,” Jessica said, looking to Malcolm and joking, “Sorry… Oh wait…I’m not.”

“Damn it,” Malcolm grumbled while I just chuckled. I knew the feeling quite well, of thinking that you’d just won the pot only to find out that someone else got that honor.

“Just be thankful that Barracuda isn’t here playing,” I commented, leaning back and taking a puff on my cigar. Instead of being able to play poker with us, Tyler was off on some mission to fight mutant shark men of the coast of Florida.

“Is he a good poker player?” Rob asked me.

“Not really,” I responded, blowing the smoke out. “But he’s got one hell of a poker face.” That garnered a round of laugher from the group.

“You know,” Malcolm said, giving me an odd look. “Don’t be offended, but I’m starting to just think of you as one of the guys.”

“Keep thinking that way and I won’t have to shoot your balls off,” I told him with a grin, earning more laugher from around the table.

We played another hand, and when it was over I said, “That’s it. I’m cleaned out for the night.”

“Me too,” Ambush admitted. “I’m done.”

That seemed to be enough for everyone else to decide that they were done as well, except for Jessica who had the most winnings. I shook my head, never having suspected that some former Air Force officer would be able to kick my ass at the card table. The fact that she was a woman somehow made it even worse.

“Yay girl power,” I muttered to myself as a reminder that I was playing for that team myself now. I put out my cigar and then downed the rest of my drink. “See you guys in the morning.”

“I’m heading that direction myself,” Jessica said.

As I got up and began to walk away from the table, there was a faint click click sound from my shoes. I was currently wearing a pair of stiletto heeled shoes, not because they’d make my legs and ass look good or anything like that. I just wanted the extra few inches of height.

I’d been wearing my high heels and wedges lately when I was off duty, finding that they weren’t nearly the problem to walk in that I would have thought. My enhanced sense of balance made walking in these shoes nearly as easy as walking in my sneakers.

I was about to leave the rec room with Jessica when two other people came in. One was Reader…Janine, who had come back from a loaner mission earlier today. The other person was a woman whom I’d never seen before in my life, though I knew who she was from having read her file.

Nocturnal was an athletic and sexy looking woman who stood nearly six feet tall. She was blonde, had great looking tits, and a fantastic ass. However, her skin was a little pale and she was wearing dark sunglasses. The fact that all her clothing was black gave her a slightly goth feel.

“You’re back,” Jessica greeted Nocturnal.

“Yes,” Nocturnal responded, staring at me though I couldn’t actually see her eyes well through the glasses. “And you must be the new recruit.”

“Harbinger,” I introduced myself. “Or Roselyn if you’re feeling friendly.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you Harbinger,” she said, smiling faintly though it was an almost predatory smile. “Reader told me that you see in the dark. Perhaps we will work together.”

“Perhaps,” I responded neutrally. Then I smiled faintly and said, “Nice sunglasses…”

“Thank you,” she responded with a faint smile of her own. “My eyes are sensitive to the light.”

I made a mental note of that, adding it to everything else that I’d read from her file. Her file hadn’t mentioned the sensitivity to light, only that she had enhanced strength and agility during the night, as well as some strange shadow powers, but that during the day she lost all of her powers and became too weak to do much of anything.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Nocturnal said. “I have to go have a word or two with Hacker. While I was gone, he broke into my quarters and left pictures of himself all over…”

With that, she looked towards our poker table and Rob who suddenly looked worried. Without a word, he hurried out of the rec room through the other door while Nocturnal stalked after him.

“What’s that about?” I asked curiously.

“Don’t let her fool you,” Jessica told me with a chuckle. “She and Rob have this thing… He constantly hits on her and she threatens to rip his head off. It’s sort of a game between them…”

“It does get…amusing,” Janine added with a faint smile of her own. “I think scaring the hell out of him is just her way of flirting.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, hoping that she didn’t decide to start flirting with me.

Then Janine asked, “What happened to Meridian?” She gave Jessica a curious look. “I saw her a few minutes ago and she has a big black eye and was walking with a limp. I didn’t get a chance to actually talk to her…”

“Oh,” Jessica responded with a chuckle, “A super hero happened to her.”

“We were sent out on a domestic violence call this morning,” I explained. “One of the people involved was a super hero. Apparently, she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her and decided to teach him a painful lesson. Broke both his legs.”

“Ouch,” Janine gasped with a sympathetic look, though I wasn’t sure which of the two she felt sorry for.

“The local police were called for the domestic disturbance,” Jessica explained with a shake of her head. “She didn’t take it well and things got out of hand.”

I nodded, remembering how she’d attacked us when we showed up, throwing cars and everything else she could get her hands on. Meridian had accidentally been hit by some flying debris and it was only then that this so called hero realized that people were getting hurt and finally surrendered. Of course, I could have ended things a lot sooner if I’d been given the go ahead, but since she was a super hero, Discharge had told me to hold back.

“That poor girl,” Jessica said with a shake of her head.

“Poor girl?” I asked in surprise. “It’s the boyfriend I feel sorry for.”

Jessica gave me a defiant look and argued, “He cheated on her…”

“She broke his legs and he was as helpless as a kitten against her,” I pointed out. “He didn’t know she was a super hero…or even developed. She’d been lying to him about something that important for their entire relationship. Their entire relationship was based on lies.”

Jessica snorted at that. “But he didn’t know that when he cheated…”

“Didn’t he?” I asked with a faint smile. “Always running off without explanation. Telling awkward lies that are easily disproven. And I’m sure there were lots of other things that could have set off his suspicions. He might not have known she was developed, but he probably knew that something was up. Probably just thought she was cheating on him.”

Janine nodded, looking just a little guilty. “I think Roselyn has a point. I mean, I wasn’t there or anything, but it sounds like she violated his trust first.”

“Look,” I said carefully. “I’m sure as hell not an expert on relationships, but I know that you can’t have a real one without trust. And you can’t have that if you’re always lying and keeping secrets like that.”

I scowled, thinking about how many guys I knew who’d lost their marriages because of things like that. When you were on classified missions and couldn’t tell your spouse where you were or what you were doing, it created suspicions and distance. And that was with people who at least knew you were in the military and on a mission. I couldn’t even imagine how these super heroes with secret identities could look their friends and loved ones in the eye after keeping such a secret from them. Then again, I reminded myself, most of my current team didn’t know about my secret.

Just then, Rob came racing towards us, or at least for the door, calling, out, “Look out, here I come…,” while Nocturnal chased after him.

“When I catch you,” she snarled, “I’m going disembowel you and hang you by your entrails…”

Neither Janine or Jessica seemed worried by those threats, though it took me a moment to realize why. Rob was in good shape by normal human standards, but his developed powers had absolutely nothing to do with his physical abilities while hers did. If she really wanted to catch him, she could do it with almost no effort. As Janine had pointed out a minute ago, this was just a really twisted form of flirting with each other.

As Rob raced past us, he accidentally bumped into Janine, who was knocked into me. “Sorry,” Rob called out even as he was leaving the room. A moment later, Nocturnal was gone as well.

“Sorry,” Janine said as she backed away from me, now staring at me with a look of surprise. “Oh… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”

I scowled, remembering her powers to read the minds of people she touched. I kept my voice calm and controlled as I asked, “What did you see?”

“Not everything,” she blurted out, looking awkward and admitting. “But enough…” She hesitated at that and then gave me a sympathetic look, “Your friends… And the way you changed…”

“It seems that nearly half the team knows about you now,” Jessica told me with a faint chuckle. “Maybe you should just tell everyone.”

I responded with a weak smile of my own and mused, “At least that would get Malcolm to stop hitting on me.”

Janine gave me a self-conscious smile and said, “Well, you do make a little more sense to me now…”

I scowled and looked back towards the poker table, relieved to see that everyone who’d been playing had already left through the other door or were far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to hear our conversation. I looked back to Janine, wondering if this was going to be public news now.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Janine quickly promised me, probably guessing what I’d been thinking. Then she smirked faintly and added, “Trust me, I have a lot of experience in keeping other people’s secrets.”

“Thank you,” I told her with a nod.

“I need to get going,” Janine told me, looking down the hall. “I want to go see how Meridian is doing…”

Jessica and I continued walking down the hall, and when I stopped by the door to my quarters, she put a hand on my arm to stop me. She gave me an appreciative look, then leaned forward to give me a kiss. I kissed her back, enjoying the experience but it felt like something was definitely missing.

When Jessica pulled back, she had a look of distaste and said, “Maybe we should try this again when you don’t taste like one of those disgusting cigars…” She stuck her tongue out at that and added, “If you’re interested that is… Maybe dinner and…”

I put a hand out to stop her, feeling happy by the suggestion but I shook my head. “You’re a beautiful woman and I’m honored that you’d think of me that way. But I really don’t want to get into that kind of relationship with a coworker. It’s unprofessional.”

Jessica took a step back and gave me a flat look, though she didn’t really look offended. “I think you’re a little too focused on being professional. We’re not in the military anymore. You can take that stick out of your cute little ass and relax a little…”

I stared at Jessica, suddenly remembering what Dr. Voight had told me when I’d talked to her yesterday during our appointment. She’d accused me of using my professionalism like a security blanket. Of course, she was full of crap, but I didn’t like hearing something similar from Jessica.

“Maybe we can try this again later,” Jessica repeated, giving me a faint smile before walking away.

I shook my head and went into my quarters, locking my door behind me with a sigh. I took off my high heels and dropped them on the floor, followed quickly by my clothes. My bra was casually tossed to the side where it landed on the chair, right about where I’d aimed. Finally, I removed the elastic band that I used to keep my hair in its usual pony tail.

After a quick shower and brushing my teeth, I settled down to relax a little before going to bed. I flipped through some magazines I had but my thoughts kept going back to what Jessica had told me…and to what Dr. Voight had said. Was I too professional? Was I just using professionalism as a shield? Was I just using that as an excuse to avoid dealing with my situation?

I thought of Jessica’s kiss and realized that my before my change, I probably would have gone for it regardless of it being unprofessional. Before my change, I’d had a pretty decent sex drive, but I haven’t had sex at all since then…or even tried jack off. This was the perfect chance to satisfy the old curiosity about what sex like for chick and I hadn’t even explored my body in any form of sexual way. In fact, I’d been trying hard to not even think about sex.

“Damn,” I muttered, reluctantly admitting that Dr. Voight really might be right. It almost hurt to do that, though I sure as hell wasn’t going to admit it to her.

I’m not the type of person to run away from my problems and I never have been. I’d always taken a certain pride in facing them and dealing with them as efficiently as possible. The realization that I’d actually been avoiding my own body actually struck my pride. With a grimace, I decided that I was just going to have to face this one head on and get it over with.

One of the things that Colonel Ryley had sent to me from my old apartment was a box containing my entire porn collection. I hadn’t looked at any of it since it had arrived, but I pulled it out now and began to flip through some of my skin mags.

The models looked just as hot as I remembered, though this time I couldn’t help but compare their assets to my own, with me coming up on the short end of nearly every comparison. I even looked at some of my favorite centerfolds, but something was missing…the same something that had been missing with Jessica. I didn’t feel the least spark of desire.

I eventually put porn down and went straight for my own body, hesitantly rubbing my nipples and slit. My new parts were definitely sensitive and it didn’t take long before I actually began to feel something. My nipples hardened like little erections and my slit was getting wet, with all of it feeling pretty damn good.

“Not bad at all,” I mused, deciding that I rather liked how it felt. Sure, it was different and I missed having a nice firm hard-on…but this definitely wasn’t bad.

I continued jacking off…or jilling off as the case might be. It felt good and as I ran my finger in and out of my slit, I could feel the pressure building. Damn, it felt weird but so good at the same time.

I tried imagining the hot models from my magazines, even focusing on one of my favorite sexual fantasies. I then thought about Jessica and fantasized about having a little lesbo action with her. However, none of that really seemed much more exciting than thinking about cars.

Then my thoughts drifted on their own, and instead of picturing Jessica, I imagined it was Ambush…Gene I was making out with. My heart seemed to race and I felt more excited by the idea…even more turned on.

Even though thinking about Gene while jilling off was completely and totally wrong, I was too into it to stop. I continued fantasizing about him as I masturbated until my body exploded with orgasms, sending shiver of pleasure all through me.

When I was done, I just lay on my bed, breathing hard and enjoying how good I felt. I thought about Gene, about his lean body and handsome features. I couldn’t help but realizing that I was definitely attracted to him, as if fantasizing about him while jilling off hadn’t been proof enough.

“Damn,” I muttered to myself, knowing exactly what this meant. Back when I’d been a guy, I’d been straight as an arrow, and it appeared that I still was. I let out a sigh and quietly admitted, “I’m a woman…and I like guys.”

--------------------

The free weight bar was long and thick, more like the weight bar I once would have used for squats rather than for a bench press such as what I was doing now. I grunted as I lifted the weight, exactly half a ton. It was a lot more weight than I ever would have been able to life before my transformation and being able to pump so much iron made me feel a bit more manly. After everything that had been happening to me lately, my ego needed that little boost of testosterone. Heaven knows my body wasn’t getting it.

Once I was done with my set, I put the bar on the rack and sat up stretching my muscles and feeling like I was really getting a workout. Of course, the nature of my changes meant that I’d probably never show any muscle growth even if I did get stronger. Still, keeping in shape and getting stronger was the whole point of this, even if I didn’t get the muscles to show off.

I looked around the gym, seeing that there were only a couple other people here at the moment. Hacker…Rob was off working his biceps with some curls while Meridian and Discharge were currently working up a sweat on the treadmills. I was thankful that there weren’t more people here as I didn’t exactly feel like dealing with anyone else at the moment.

The last couple days had been difficult for my psyche. I’d always been a red blooded man with a healthy interest in attractive women, but that had now changed. Now that I’d realized I was now attracted to men instead of women, it was like a flood gate had opened.

Over the last couple days, I found myself looking at nearly every man, trying to decide if they were attractive or not. It was the same way that I used to scan women…and I couldn’t seem to really help it. To make it worse, I still wasn’t even quite sure what I found attractive in men or even what my type was. It was very confusing.

I was obviously attracted to Ambush, his lean muscles, handsome face, and even his confident professionalism. Just thinking of him was enough to get me warm and wet. I’d also begun to notice Rob, though I certainly wasn’t about to let either of them know I was having these kind of thoughts and feelings about them. I refused to show any indications of this strange shift that had gone on in my head.

But as weird as all that was, there was something else just as bad. Over the last couple days, I’d started feeling aches and discomforts when there was no real reason for it, especially with the way I now healed. It hadn’t taken me long to realize what was happening. After all, I’d always been a practical person and after I’d turned into a woman, I’d read a few feminine health and hygiene manuals in order to prepare myself. And then this morning, it happened. I was having my first period.

I went and burned off some more of my stress by going to work on a heavy duty punching bag. Unfortunately, the activity made my aches even worse, though that only made me work harder. After awhile, I noticed that Jessica had come in and was watching me.

“You look like you’re in quite a mood,” Jessica commented when I finally stopped.

“I’ve had a rough couple of days,” I responded with a scowl.

I was about to go back to punching when Jessica said, “Look, about the other day…”

I paused at that and turned back to her. “It’s all right,” I said with a sigh. “You were right. I was using the whole professional thing as an excuse.”

Jessica brightened at that. “Then maybe tonight we could have dinner together…just the two of us.”

“About that,” I said carefully, deciding to just be honest. “It still wouldn’t work between us…” I paused and admitted, “Whether I like it or not, it seems I’ve switched teams.”

Jessica gave me a blank look for a moment. “What exactly do you mean?”

“I’m attracted to guys now,” I blurted out, feeling humiliated and quickly glancing around to make sure no one else had heard me.

“Oh,” Jessica responded, staring at me for a moment before she began laughing. “Sorry, I know that probably isn’t funny to you, but…”

I snorted at that, still not at all happy about it. “If you think that’s funny,” I told her with a shake of my head. “Then you’re going to find this hilarious. I just got my first monthly visitor.”

Jessica stared at me for a moment and then began to snicker, though she tried covering it up. “Sorry,” she apologized. “But it is kind of funny…”

“Oh yeah, fucking hilarious,” I muttered, having expected at least a little sympathy from her. Then again, she went through this every month so I couldn’t very well go whining to her about it. I silently told myself to be a man and suck it up. The irony of that didn’t escape me.

I stayed in the gym for a bit longer, spotting Jessica as she used a few free weights. Then when she went to the stair climber, I excused myself to go get cleaned up. As I was going through the rec room, I saw Ambush sitting at a table with a chess board, though I didn’t see any opponent.

Just then, I heard Penny call out, “Attack my minions… Destroy this invading army.”

I looked a little closer and realized that Penny was standing in the middle of the chess board, shrunk down the same size as one of the pieces. She went to a knight and began pushing the piece to its new spot and then looked up at Ambush and smirked.

“You really get into the game, don’t you?” I commented wryly.

The tiny Penny looked up at me and grinned. “It’s a lot more fun this way. You should see when I visit my niece and play dolls with her…”

I nodded and then looked at Ambush, feeling my heart race a little. Then I felt a sudden surge of jealousy that he was spending time with Penny rather than me. Those emotions caught me by surprise and I immediately clamped down on them, feeling horribly embarrassed for feeling that way at all. I might be attracted to guys now, but I was still a professional…not some teenage girl with a crush.

“Are you okay?” Ambush asked me with a concerned look that almost made me weak in the knees.

“I’m fine,” I lied, keeping my expression perfectly calm and controlled. “I’ve got to get going. I have some things to take care of.”

I walked away, letting out a sigh of relief once I was out of the room. I couldn’t believe I was feeling this way, that I was actually crushing on a man. I shook my head, feeling a little disgusted by myself and blaming it entirely on my period. Some girls I’d talked to insisted that their periods didn’t make them more emotional, but I definitely disagreed.

As I was going down the hallway, trying to think of what I could do to distract myself from these emotions and the discomfort from my period, I was startled to see a familiar face coming towards me. Elizabeth Briggs was dressed much the same as she was the last time I saw her, and when she saw me she smiled.

“Roselyn,” Elizabeth greeted me. “How are you adjusting?”

I knew she wasn’t referring to how I was doing with the group. “All right,” I responded, then admitted, “But it’s been a bit rough.”

Elizabeth nodded at that. “It does take a bit of adjusting. At least I actually chose this… Honestly, it wasn’t much of a choice since it was this or a slow and painful death, but knowing that I had actually made the choice made it a lot easier to accept.”

“So what are you doing here?” I asked pleasantly. “Here to check up on me?”

Her expression turned serious which told me that this wasn’t some social visit, not that I’d really thought it was. “I’m here on business,” she told me. “I was just going to talk to Martinez about a mission we need Sanction on.”

Two hours later, I was cleaned up and dressed in my uniform, as was everyone else. We were sitting in the briefing room while Martinez and Elizabeth stood up front, both looking serious. She’d told me that she sometimes worked with Sanction but this was the first time I was going to have a chance to actually work with her.

“Most of you know Agent Briggs,” Martinez said, indicating Elizabeth. “She has a mission for us that requires Sanction’s special abilities.”

“It’s nice seeing you all again,” she said in a professional tone.

Martinez nodded faintly and said, “Because of the situation, I’ve brought someone else here for the briefing as well. I’d like to introduce you all to our new liaison from the Pentagon. With that, another familiar figure came into the room from side door. “Colonel Ryley of the US Army.”

Colonel Ryley stood at the front of the room and looked us over, his eyes settling on me. “Good to see you again Harbinger.”

“Thank you sir,” I responded with a faint smile. “Likewise.”

Penny leaned towards me and asked, “You know him?”

“He was my commanding officer before I came here,” I answered, earning several curious looks from the others.

Elizabeth took over and explained, “Some time ago, DAD acquired a dangerous chemical mutagen that we call PF78. Exposure to this chemical can be quite lethal, but it can also cause mutation and developed abilities in the survivors. Unfortunately, one of the scientists that we had studying this chemical stole the samples and went into business for herself.”

I stared at the screen on the wall in front of me, feeling a cold knot in my stomach as she showed pictures of the canisters that the PF78 was stored in. I was having a strong feeling of deja-vu as some of the information in this briefing was proving to be far too familiar.

“Before we captured the scientist responsible,” Elizabeth continued, “she sold two of the canisters to an unknown party. We have been unable to identify who this person or group might be. What we do know is that they provided one of these canisters to a group of extremists with strong anti-western views. But since these extremists and the canister were outside of the US and DAD’s jurisdiction, we turned recovery of the canister over to the military.”

Colonel Ryley took over the briefing at that. “Intelligence located the extremists and indicated that they had three developed guarding the compound. Because of that factor, we sent an elite Army unit of anti-developed specialists. This unit eliminated the guards and seized control of the compound, only to find that the chemical had been weaponized and detonated in retaliation. The entire unit was killed…except for one.”

“You should have sent the Marines instead of the Army,” Jarhead commented with a smirk. “We wouldn’t have fucked up the mission.”

I glared at Jarhead with a cold anger and snapped, “Those were my friends…”

“What?” Jarhead asked in confusion.

“Harbinger is the sole survivor of that mission,” Colonel Ryley stated, giving me a sympathetic look. “Her powers are a direct result of exposure to the PF78.”

Nearly everyone in the room stared at me while I was hit with simultaneous waves of rage and grief. I wanted to take my anger out on Jarhead, yet a part of me also wanted to start crying. Damn, I was REALLY starting to hate my period and what it was doing to my emotions. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, silently reminding myself that I was a professional. I pushed all those feelings aside and opened my eyes again, seeing that everyone was still looking at me.

“I’m sorry,” Penny said putting a hand on mine as she tried to be comforting.

“Considering this briefing so far,” I said, carefully keeping my voice and expression calm and under control. “I assume that our mission has to do with either the last canister or the middle-man who supplied the canister to the terrorists.”

“Correct,” Elizabeth said, giving me a thoughtful look. “We’ve located the last canister…and it’s here on US soil. That puts it under DAD jurisdiction. We need Sanction to recover the canister and find any information we can on the person or group who acquired it from our rogue scientist.”

I stared at Elizabeth, feeling a new emotion starting to rise. Fear. Ever since that mission, I’d been having nightmares about that green gas…about it killing my friends and changing me. The very thought of getting anywhere near that stuff again terrified the living shit out of me. However, that alone was more than enough reason to go on the mission.

As I sat there, a cold smile formed on my lips. I channeled all of that emotional energy inside of me into one thing…determination. I had unfinished business and now I’d been offered the opportunity to take care of it. I was a professional and had never let my missions get personal. What I did was often nasty, but it had always just been something that needed to be done. But this time was different. This time it was payback.

--------------------

I was positioned on top of a construction crane with Monster firmly in hand. At the moment, I had my scope pointed to a three story building with a fenced compound around it. This was the target for our latest mission.

The building was a chemical research company that had possession of the last canister of PF78. Intelligence said that they were studying it in order to try replicating the chemical, but also, that they’d found a way to make it less lethal and had created some developed of their own.

The Developed Affairs Department wasn’t about to just sit back and let these people create their own developed assembly line, especially with some chemical that had been stolen from a DAD compound. And of course, they had information we wanted about who provided them with the PF78.

Normally, some DAD agents might show up at the front door with a search warrant but that wasn’t an option this time. Not only did they have some developed guarding their facility, but the DAD agents who’d been investigating them had ‘disappeared’. According to Elizabeth, that meant the polite option had been turned down in favor of Sanction.

I grimaced as I looked over the building and the guards out front. This mission was personal and for once I wanted to be there, right in the middle of things. Instead, I was stuck a good distance away as always. As much as I hated to admit it, that was actually a good thing.

This mission was too personal for me, and intellectually, I knew it shouldn’t be. All the people who were directly responsible for my team’s death were already dead. In fact, we’d already killed them before we’d been hit with their booby trapped retaliation.

I took a deep breath and forced my emotions to the side. In spite of what Jessica had told me, I needed to be more professional…at least right now. I couldn’t afford to let this be personal or be distracted because of it. An emotionally invested sniper was a sloppy sniper, and a sloppy sniper could get the wrong people killed.

“I’m on the rag, emotionally messed up, and I have a grudge,” I muttered to myself. I was definitely the wrong person to be here at the moment, but since I was here, I was going to have to be as cold and professional as possible.

I glanced up to the moon which was bright and nearly full. It provided too much light for what we were doing, neutralizing much of the advantage of a night attack. Then I turned my full attention back to the compound and waited while the rest of my team got into position.

“I see two guards at the front entrance,” Stealth commented over the radio. “There are several more inside. I count three roamers on the North, South, and East sides of the building.”

Stealth had been circling the building while invisible, scouting their defenses and giving us warning about what we’d have to deal with. I continued watching through the scope and then saw a flicker of light from one corner. I turned my attention to it and saw a man in the shadows, another guard. Then I saw the faint flicker of light from around him again.

“We have another roamer,” I called over the radio. “He’s on the West side, near the North corner. I’m pretty sure he’s developed.”

“I’ve got him,” Nocturnal said.

“Then it’s time to get this started,” Elizabeth said.

I watched through the scope as Elizabeth walked towards the main entrance of the building, wearing a uniform similar to what the Sanction team wore, though hers was black with green. I found it somewhat amusing that she was actually coming into the field with us and going on the front line. Since she wasn’t developed, that meant it was extra risky for her.

“I’m with the Developed Affairs Department,” Elizabeth called out to the guards, holding up her badge. “I need to speak with the person in charge.”

The guards didn’t hesitate and opened fire, shooting at her with energy pistols. To my surprise, Elizabeth jumped out of the line of fire with ease, and a moment later, the guards were hit with a blast of red energy. Discharge had disintegrated the front gate and came charging in with the rest of the alpha team.

“Alpha team go,” Discharge said. “Beta team go.”

A moment later, Jarhead, Barracuda, and Meridian joined Discharge and Elizabeth. There was no water nearby but Barracuda had been dangerous in a fight long before gaining his powers. He was armed and opened fire on the guards who began coming out of the building.

One of the new guards suddenly began growing, proving that he was one of their new developed. He became twenty feet tall and began to try kicking my team. Meridian gestured at him and his feet were yanked out from under him, knocking him to the ground where Jarhead punched him in the head.

This attack on the front door was largely a distraction while beta team snuck through the back door. Stealth, Micra, Ambush, and Hacker were heading inside to find the canister and all files related to it. Ambush would be able to protect Hacker from hostiles while Hacker would be able to get them through the security and recover the files. Reader was being held back but kept nearby so that she’d be able to interrogate any prisoners.

The developed guard that I’d spotted began to move to join the fight, but Nocturnal suddenly appeared behind him, dressed in an all black uniform. She had a sword in hand and used it to slice the guards legs, dropping him to the ground.

“This guard is neutralized,” Nocturnal commented.

However, the guard was already getting back to his feet, his injuries appearing to have healed. He glowed and fired a blast of energy at Nocturnal, who jumped to the side and avoided it.

“A healing factor and energy blasts,” Nocturnal commented. “An uncommon combination…”

The guard attacked her again and she jumped to the side, going into a shadow where she vanished. A moment later, she emerged from another shadow and jumped at the guard from behind. The energy around him flared and she was thrown back.

I didn’t say a word as I fired a shot, hitting the guard in the head and sending his headless body to the ground. Nocturnal looked in my direction and flipped me off, apparently not happy about my interfering in her fight. Then she took off to finish taking down the rest of the roaming guards.

“Discharge,” I called out as I saw a new threat. “Incoming from above.”

Discharge immediately fired a blast at the flying developed who had been approaching from above. The flying developed dodged aside, though Meridian rose up to deal with that threat.

The giant that Jarhead had been dealing with had gotten to his feet and was growing again, now standing fifty feet tall. Even Jarhead was starting to look a little intimidated, especially when the giant kicked him and sent him flying.

“Harbinger,” Discharge called out over the radio. “Feel free to lend a hand.”

“Copy,” I responded.

Barracuda was opening fire on the giant but the ammunition didn’t seem to pierce his skin. Discharge touched the ground, disintegrating the concrete and creating a hole. He then turned and fired an energy blast at the giant, only to have a new developed appear and block the blast.

Two more developed had joined the fight, both having come out of the building. The one who’d blocked the blast was a large and muscular man who had a faint blue glow around his body. As soon as Discharge’s blast hit him, the glow became stronger and the man didn’t appear harmed at all.

The other newcomer was a woman whose entire body appeared to be made of gold metal, which made her look almost like she could have been Discharge’s sister. She held out her hand and gold metal tentacles extended from her body and lashed out at Barracuda.

In spite of the new arrivals, I didn’t fire just yet. As much as I wanted to just open fire, I forced myself to remain patient and wait for the right opportunity.

Then I saw it when the giant was facing in my direction. At his larger size, he provided quite a large target. However, as he’d already proven against Barracuda and Jarhead, he was pretty tough. I aimed at his eye and then fired an armor piercing round right into his head. The giant toppled over and spasmed as though having a seizure while his entire body shrank back down to human size.

“She really is the Harbinger of death,” Jarhead exclaimed as he charged back into the fight. “Cute and lethal.”

While I’d been dealing with the giant, Meridian had telekinetically slammed her opponent down into the ground. The man was twitching and moving, but he didn’t look like he was in any shape to continue the fight.

Barracuda threw a grenade at the golden woman, which sent her back but didn’t seem to really harm her. He opened up with his rifle, again distracting her without appearing to cause harm.

Discharge fired a blast of energy and the blue glowing man, but then the golden woman sent her tentacles to entangle him. He grabbed the tentacles and they glowed for a moment before he disintegrated them. Then he fired another blast of energy at the golden woman, sending her flying back where she hit the ground. She tried sitting up briefly before collapsing.

The last opponent left was the glowing man, it appeared that he had a force field that protected him from everything that they sent at him. Jarhead rushed him and punched him as hard as he could but the man’s force field glowed a little brighter while he just laughed. Then he punched Jarhead, who was sent flying back while the blue glow faded away to almost nothing.

“His force field appears to absorb energy,” I called out over the radio. “And from the way he hit Jarhead, I’m guessing he’s using that energy to fuel his strength.”

“Great,” Discharge complained. “The more we hit him, the more powerful he gets.”

“Stand clear,” I called out, “I’m going to take a shot.”

I fired an armor piercing round right at the man’s chest, but as with the other attacks, his force field blocked my attack. I’d been hoping I could get through but wasn’t surprised.

“I can’t penetrate his field either,” I admitted over the radio. “I recommend Meridian take a shot. She should be able to take him out of the fight without giving him any more ammunition.”

Meridian took my advice and used her telekinesis to life the main up in the air. He swung his fists but he had absolutely no leverage to do anything at all. It seemed that he couldn’t absorb the telekinetic energy she was using to hold him because his blue glow only faded and he remained her prisoner.

“We found the chemical,” Stealth called out over the radio a minute later. “Hacker should have their files in just a minute.”

“Damn right,” Hacker called out. “As easy as scoring a touchdown against a junior varsity team.”

“We found a prisoner too,” Ambush added. “The person who seems to be in charge here. We’re bringing him out for Reader to have a talk with.”

“Let’s finish securing this place first,” Elizabeth said.

Meridian left her prisoner tied up and helpless and then the team started into the building. Elizabeth took the tail so that those with powers would be able to deal with upcoming threats.

But then, the man with the force field suddenly began to glow brighter and snapped out of his restraints. He charged straight at Elizabeth who was the closest, but she suddenly snapped around, grabbed his fist and tossed him nearly twenty feet.

“Shit,” I whispered, staring at Elizabeth in surprise. She was developed.

When the man got back up, his force field was glowing a little brighter from the impact. He charged Elizabeth again, but as soon as he got close, her fist began to glow green. She reached out and grabbed his arm and the man suddenly screamed and dropped to the ground, no longer moving.

The others had gone inside and didn’t seem to have realized that Elizabeth had been occupied outside. It looked like I was the only one to see her use her abilities. My first thought was to wonder why she wasn’t with Sanction, but then I realized that she was intentionally keeping her powers a secret. If she didn’t want anyone knowing about them, I sure wasn’t going to blab.

“Briggs,” I called out over the radio. “You good to go there?”

“Just fine Harbinger,” she called back. “Just doing a little clean up.”

After this, the rest of the team was able to take control of the facility without trouble. They’d sent all their developed out to deal with us so all that was left were a few security guards and scientists who were working late.

I remained where I was, continuing to watch the front of the building even though there no longer seemed to be any threats. At times like this, it sucked being a sniper. I felt left out, as though I was no longer doing my part. Still, I kept watch just in case.

Eventually, Reader finished her ‘conversations’ with the people we’d captured. “They never met in person,” Reader told us over the radio. “And they don’t even know if the supplier was a person or group. But we do have a name. Epoch.”

--------------------

Dr. Voight sat across from me, giving me an odd look. I hadn’t been exactly cooperative in our sessions and I think she was starting to get a little annoyed.

“I’ve noticed that you’ve taken to wearing high heels,” she told me politely. “Have you tried wearing makeup yet?”

“No,” I responded calmly. “And I have no intention of putting that stuff on. It serves no practical purpose that I’m interested in.” I gestured to my feet. “These give me a little extra height.”

“Have you tried wearing a skirt or dress?” she asked me curiously.

I snorted at that. “Certainly not, and I have absolutely no interest in wearing that kind of stuff.”

Dr. Voight nodded and said, “I’m encouraged by your wearing high heels. But I think you need to expand on that and try experiencing more of what it means to be a woman.”

I gave Dr. Voight a flat look and then smiled faintly, though it wasn’t a nice smile. It was the same smile I got when I was on a mission and I’d been waiting for a long time and then finally spotted my opportunity.

“Then are you saying,” I started in a pleasant tone, “that in order to be female you MUST wear high heels, makeup, and dresses? If that’s the case, I know some women who…according to your rules…aren’t actually female.”

“That’s not…,” she started, looking completely caught off guard by that.

“Are you going to insist that I play with dolls in order to learn what growing up female is like?” I continued. “You do realize, that attitude is extremely sexist. I would have thought you would know better. Maybe you should talk with someone about this sexist perspective you have…”

“Stop that,” Dr. Voight snapped angrily.

I’d pushed her buttons enough to finally get some genuine emotion from her, something outside of her professional mask. Since she’d been after me to drop my mask of professionalism, I’d thought it only fair to help her do the same.

“Do you know that I’ve just finished my first period?” I asked her, only to see her give me a look of surprise. “Or that I’ve started being attracted to men?”

“No,” Dr. Voight responded, obviously confused by my sudden openness. “Why haven’t you said anything before now?”

“To be honest,” I answered, still keeping my voice calm and pleasant. “Because it isn’t any of your business. You’re basically a stranger pretending to be my best friend and it comes off pretty insulting. I’m dealing with my changes at my own pace and I don’t need you to walk me through them.”

“Roselyn,” Dr. Voight said carefully, “I think you have a misunderstanding about what I’m doing here?”

“Do I?” I asked as I stood up. “I know you’re trying to help, but I don’t really need your help. And if you want someone to really open up to you…maybe you should drop that professional mask you hide behind.”

With that, I walked out of her office and then burst out laughing at the look on her face. That look had definitely been worth the annoying sessions and the long wait for the right opportunity.

For just a moment, I wondered if maybe I should have been open with her rather than messing with her that way, but then I shook it off. I’d never been particularly fond of shrinks. They were always too fond of getting into other people’s heads and seemed to think that they had a right to everyone else’s most personal thoughts and feelings.

If I had opened up to her, I would have had to tell her about how much I’d hated my damn period and how grateful I was that it had finally ended. It had given me a lot more perspective about what women…what other women went through every month. I suppose that going through such an unquestionably female experience had helped me to actually start thinking of myself as female.

And if I’d been sharing with Dr. Voight, I would have told her about the mission last week. We’d recovered the PF78 and had even gotten a name for who it was who’d provided it to the terrorists and these scientists. Epoch. Unfortunately, we didn’t know if Epoch was a person or organization so we hadn’t really learned much.

Even though that mission had touched on old business and had been successful, it hadn’t given me any sense of closure. None of the people who’d actually been involved in the death of the 3rd ADU had been involved and we hadn’t even found out anything useful about the mysterious middle-man. I had a feeling that DAD might be chasing that lead for a long time before finding anything.

“Maybe if I was a detective instead of a sniper,” I mused, wishing that I could do something to help track those people down. Unfortunately, that was outside of my experience and skillset.

While I was lost in thoughts, I started for the training area, more out of habit than anything else. I wasn’t dressed in either my uniform or my workout clothes so I wasn’t actually set to do any training myself. Since I was there, I decided to see what everyone else was up to, and when I heard sound coming from one of the rooms, I peeked my head in.

Four of my teammates were in the sparring room, practicing unarmed hand-to-hand combat. Stealth and Micra were going at it with each other while Barracuda and Ambush were also opponents.

Stealth was obviously a bit better than Micra, and when I looked at the other pair I knew that Barracuda was the better fighter. But in spite of that, I couldn’t help but watch Ambush with interest.

Even though I’d accepted that I was now attracted to men, and to Ambush in particular, I had had no intention of acting on that. The idea of having sex with a guy might turn me on now, but it also creeped me out a little at the same time.

Stealth and Micra finished their sparring and started for my direction. Micra…Penny nodded to me and said, “Hey Roselyn. I’d love to stay and chat, but I really need to hit the little girl’s room…”

“Yeah, you go ahead and run,” Jessica called back with a laugh.

“I take it you had a good sparring session,” I commented with a smile, my eyes darting back to where Barracuda and Ambush still fought.

“It was pretty good,” she responded with a grin. “How was your meeting with the shrink?”

I shrugged at that. “I think I enjoyed it more than she did.”

Jessica’s eyes widened. “What did you do?”

I grinned back and chuckled. “I pointed out some of her hypocrisy and told her to take some of her own medicine.”

“I bet that didn’t go over well,” Jessica responded wryly. Then she stared at me, catching me as I took another look at Barracuda and Ambush. “You like him, don’t you?”

“What?” I asked, a little surprised by her question.

“Ambush,” she replied. “I’ve seen the way you look at him. And the way you go shooting with him every day. Hell, you even let him try firing that monstrosity you call a gun and you don’t let anyone touch it… You like him.”

I was silent for a moment, not sure how to answer that. I blushed, embarrassed at being found out, then I finally nodded.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “It kind of crept up on me…” I shook my head and let out a sigh of disgust.

“Then why don’t you ask him out?” she asked.

“You know why,” I told her with a snort.

“You’re a woman now,” she pointed out with a faint smirk. “Girls and guys go out all the time.”

“Yeah, I’m attracted to guys now,” I tried to explain, blushing brightly. “And Ambush…” Then I took a deep breath and said, “But it goes against everything I knew for most of my life… I mean, until this happened, the idea of having sex with guys was about the same as having sex with a monkey. There was no way I’d even think of it. I can’t just ignore an entire lifetime of conditioning.”

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to change like that,” Jessica said, staring at the floor and saying, “I’ve always liked both…ever since I was a teenager and realized that I was crushing on both my best friend and her brother.”

I nodded at that and looked back at Barracuda and Ambush. They’d stopped their sparring and seemed to be talking, which was odd since Barracuda still rarely bothered talking unless it was something important. And from the way they looked in my direction, I had a sudden suspicion that they were talking about me.

“I don’t think there’s a chance of anything happening with Ambush, even if I was willing,” I told Jessica with a sigh. “I think Barracuda just warned him away from me.”

“Oh yeah,” Jessica whispered, giving me a sympathetic look. “He does know, doesn’t he…”

I let out a sigh and shook my head, feeling foolish for having these feelings. I’m a professional, or at least that was how I thought of myself. These emotions just weren’t professional, but whether I liked them or not, they were still there.

“I’ve got to go,” I told Jessica, turning and leaving the room.

I went down the hallway and stopped, leaning up against the wall and trying to gain control of myself. I was on the verge of actually bursting into tears, something that I didn’t think I’d have to worry about now that my period was over. I took several deep breaths, using all of my self-control just to keep from crying.

Then someone put a hand on my shoulder and I jumped. I snapped around, startled to see that it was Ambush.

“Are you okay?” Ambush…Gene asked me with a concerned look. “You ran out of the room like someone was chasing you…”

“I’m fine,” I lied, giving him a forced smile. “Just…female problems.” I knew from past experience that those words were enough to keep any guy from asking many questions. Of course, I’d been on the other end of the line but that was how I knew it worked. “I’ve got to go.”

With that, I hurried off, blushing brightly and feeling even more foolish if that was even possible. Suddenly, I regretted screwing with Dr. Voight because right then I actually could have used her advice.

--------------------

One dive bar was pretty much like any other. Nearly every dive bar I’d ever been in had been dark, dingy, and filed with old smells and seedy customers. Admittedly, the bar I was in now was at the upper end of that, being in the gray area between dive bar and respectable sports bar.

I was sitting at the bar, downing my second bourbon on the rocks and trying to build up some more of the liquid courage. I was aware of the guys in the bar and the fact that several of them kept looking in my direction. There were slightly predatory looks in their eyes but that didn’t bother me. I was confident in my ability to take any or all of them if it came to that.

One of the men sat down beside me, giving me a ‘friendly’ smile and saying, “Hey, I’m Tom…”

I looked Tom over, noting that he was a little heavy set but not too bad looking. Normally, I would have told him to fuck off and leave me alone, but instead I gave him my own fake smile and responded, “Roselyn.”

Then Tom froze, staring into my eyes and gasping, “Hey…your eyes…”

I smiled faintly, having wondered if he’d actually notice my odd eyes. “I’m developed,” I answered, seeing him immediately tense. Of course, that was no surprise since anyone who was developed could be potentially very dangerous. “My powers aren’t anything to write home about,” I said pleasantly. “I mean, my vision is like having a pair of binoculars built in and I can see in the dark. Not exactly super hero material.”

“Cool,” Tom responded, immediately relaxing, though the look of interest in his only grew stronger.

I was attractive in a cute and petite sort of way, but I was no Blondie McBigTits and guys wouldn’t be tripping over themselves to get my favor. However, the fact that I was developed had just made me a rare and prized trophy. Most guys would happily fuck me just for the bragging rights of being able to say that they’d fucked a developed.

I downed the rest of my drink and continued giving Tom my fake smile. My heart was racing, not because I was particularly attracted to Tom but because I was extremely nervous about what I intended to do with him. At the moment, I really wished that I’d had another couple glasses of bourbon down before he’d approached me.

The fact that I’d come to this bar for the sole reason of getting laid and popping my cherry was still hard for me to believe. I knew intellectually that I was now female and I’d even begun accepting it on many levels. However, I still had a lot of problems as well as some urges that needed to be scratched.

Effectively, I’d found that I was afraid of the idea of having sexy with a guy and had decided to confront that fear head on. And though I would have preferred doing this with Ambush, with Gene, I didn’t dare get involved with him or anyone else on my team. That meant a one night stand with someone I’d never see again.

Suddenly, a woman’s voice exclaimed, “Hey Roselyn, have your herpes cleared up?”

Tom’s eyes widened and he backed away from me. I let out a sigh and turned to look at the blond woman who took a seat beside me.

“You can thank me by buying me a beer,” Elizabeth said, giving me a grin.

“I didn’t need to be saved,” I said in annoyance.

Elizabeth looked startled at that and gave me an odd look. “If you’re really looking for guys, you can do a lot better than him.”

“So what are you doing here?” I asked to change the subject. “Doing more recruiting?”

“Not this time,” she responded with a laugh. “I was here to do some paperwork for Martinez and decided I’d track you down. I was going to ask if you wanted to go out for a beer, but it looks like you beat me here.”

“I’m efficient that way,” I said with a chuckle.

After ordering new drinks, Elizabeth and I sat there and drank in silence for several minutes. She finally said, “Thanks for not spilling the beans about my powers.”

“You didn’t tell everyone my secret,” I responded with a shrug. “I figure you’re entitled to your own.” Then I hesitated a moment before adding, “But I am curious why you’re hiding them.”

Elizabeth just took a sip of her beer and hesitated for several long seconds before answering. “I used to be a guard at Mount Prometheus.”

I stared at her, just a little surprised. Mount Prometheus was the ultra-secure prison that had been built for the sole purpose of holding developed criminals. Being a prison guard might not be very impressive normally, but when the prisoners were dangerous super villains…

“There was a massive prison break,” Elizabeth said, still not looking at me. “A prisoner named Toxic attacked me and destroyed my body. I was dying slowly and very painfully, then DAD showed up and offered me the opportunity to get a new body. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so of course I agreed. They switched me into Toxic’s body and sent me on an undercover mission to infiltrate the Black Guild. Once the Black Guild was broken, I was given the choice of witness protection and a new identity…or going to work with DAD as a full agent.” She gave me a grin and said, “You can see what I chose.”

I nodded at that, considering what she’d told me. “And the reason you’re not with Sanction is the Black Guild…”

“I made a lot of dangerous enemies,” Elizabeth agreed. “It’s better if I don’t give them any reason to believe I’m still alive.”

“So,” I said carefully, gesturing to Elizabeth. “So that’s really the body of the woman who fucked you up…”

She nodded at that. “It made looking in the mirror very…uncomfortable for awhile. I’ve gotten used to my new face though and don’t think of it as hers anymore, or at least not very often.”

“And what happened to Toxic then?” I asked.

Elizabeth scowled for a moment and then smiled faintly, though it wasn’t a nice smile. “She was put in my body and got the slow painful death that she’d set up for me. She only lasted a few weeks after the exchange before dying.”

After this, Elizabeth and I spent the next twenty minutes talking about how we were dealing with our new genders. She had a bit more experience than me and a lot of advice that sounded useful. I just wished that I’d been able to get some of it a little sooner. She also told me that we weren’t the only ones in our situation, saying that she knew of a few more guys who’d become chicks as well.

“I think it’s more common than anyone realizes,” Elizabeth told me. “I suspect that as many as ten percent of new developed may have some sort of gender change…and most of those are male to female for some reason.”

“That’s hard to believe,” I told her a little skeptically.

Elizabeth shrugged at that. “The numbers are probably a bit lower than that. It’s difficult getting an accurate number when most people who go through this are embarrassed and keep it quiet.”

I was about to ask her more when my cell phone began to ring. I answered it and listened for a moment before hanging up with a sigh. “I’ve got a mission,” I told Elizabeth. Then asked, “Is this related to why you’re here?”

“No,” she responded with a shrug. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

Elizabeth and I both returned to headquarters, though we went our separate directions once we arrived. I went to my quarters and switched into my uniform, then I had to kill a little time before the scheduled briefing.

When I left my quarters, I saw Nocturnal and Rob going down the hallway together. She was leaning on a cane and walking slowly while he walked beside her, holding what looked to be a shopping bag. She suddenly staggered and was about to topple over but Rob quickly caught her and let her use him for support.

I smiled faintly as I watched the two, thinking about how much different this was than how they behaved towards each other at night. At night, Nocturnal was strong, fast, and very dangerous. She could even teleport through shadows over short distances. But during the day, she not only lost all of her powers but became weak and lethargic. During the day, she had less strength and stamina than a normal person, leaving her somewhat sickly and frail. It was interesting to watch Rob taking care of her.

As I turned to walk down the hall, I couldn’t help but wondering if the reason Nocturnal was so aggressive at night was because she was overcompensating for her helplessness during the day. Maybe she was just trying to convince herself and everyone else that she wasn’t weak and helpless, that she was tough and capable of taking care of herself. I suddenly had a better understanding of the woman.

I went to go find Elizabeth again and looked into the rec room. The moment I stepped through the door, I saw Ambush and Micra, both in uniform and laughing. Ambush grabbed Micra into a hug and I suddenly felt my chest jumping into my throat.

“Damn,” I muttered, stepping back out of the room and into the hallway where I paused and tried to keep the tears from coming.

I couldn’t believe how emotional I’ve become lately and how ready I was to cry at the drop of a hat. I’d thought that once my period was over this would all fade away, but there was no such luck. Instead, I just stood there with my eyes closed, trying to keep control of myself and the swirl of emotions that threatened to tear me apart from within.

“I can’t believe I’m jealous of Penny,” I muttered to myself in frustration, clenching my fists and feeling both angry and foolish at the same time.

I’d always thought of jealousy as a silly emotion, but I’d never felt it quite like this either. This also made me feel guilty since Penny was a friend and a good person. And of course, if Ambush was seeing her, I didn’t have a chance. She was prettier and more developed than I was.

With that, I took several deep breaths, trying to calm my mind and push those emotions aside. I slipped into my professional state though I was still a little shaken. I just couldn’t wait until we were off on the mission, whatever it was, because it was always easier to stay focused when I had something to focus on.

“I’m a professional,” I reminded myself firmly. “I don’t have time for this crap.”

When I opened my eyes again, I realized that Barracuda was standing a short distance away, looking straight at me. I felt embarrassed but refused to let that show on my face. I just wished that my vision enhancements included X-ray vision so I could see his face.

“Neither of us is who we once were,” Barracuda said in his slow and eerie voice.

I thought that Barracuda was about to say something more but Discharge called out from down the hallway, “We have a briefing to get to people…”

A few minutes later I was sitting in the briefing room, right next to Elizabeth. She was still wearing her clothes from the bar rather than her own version of our team uniform so I assumed she didn’t intend to come with us.

Once the briefing began, Martinez gestured to Elizabeth and said, “Agent Briggs will be sitting in on the briefing but isn’t involved in the actual mission.”

“What’s the nature of the mission?” Ambush asked calmly.

Martinez scowled before answering, “We have a rogue super hero.”

“Oh no,” Meridian gasped, looking worried. There were other grim expressions as well since no one liked the idea of having to go after a hero.

An image appeared on the monitor in front of us of a slender man in his early-twenties, if he was even that. I would have put down a twenty that he wasn’t twenty-one. He had dark blonde hair that was nearly brown and wore a costume that was white with dark green trim.

“This is Warper,” Martinez said. “The picture was taken five years ago when he was a member of the Protectorate. He’s a powerful teleporter with the ability to warp space. Unfortunately, using his powers trigger a chemical imbalance in his brain which results in symptoms similar to paranoid schizophrenia. According to our records, he usually kept this under control via medication and limiting how much he used his abilities. In spite of that, there were several minor incidents which were quickly contained by his team. Five years ago, after one such incident, he retired as a super hero and promised never to use his powers again. He disappeared off our radar after that.”

“Until now,” Discharge said grimly.

A new picture appeared on the monitor, one of the same man and he was wearing the same costume. However, he looked a few years older and he was standing in mid-air.

“This picture was just taken by a witness with a camera phone,” Martinez said. “Warper reappeared on the scene today and he did so in a big way.”

“He’s just a teleporter,” Jarhead commented with a snort. “How dangerous can he be?”

Martinez stared at Jarhead for a moment before answering, “He teleported a building full of people half a mile in the air…then dropped it on top of another building.”

The picture on the monitor changed to show a town that looked like it had been hit by a massive earthquake. Several more pictures appeared on the screen, each showing the devastation. There were bodies in the pictures…and parts of bodies. I’ve seen worse, but not often. Meridian actually began to empty her stomach.

“Our records had no indication that he was that powerful,” Martinez commented. “It appears that he’d been holding back on his powers even more than anyone realized.”

“Oh God,” Jessica gasped.

“I had Hacker do some investigation,” Martinez continued as he looked over the stunned and silent room. “Warper lost his job about two months ago and has been unemployed since. He was evicted from his apartment last night which seems to be what triggered this episode. He appears to have stopped taking his medication and began using his powers again which started a downward spiral. Now he’s on a rampage.”

“The Protectorate,” Discharge said grimly. “It’s Force all over again.”

I nodded at that as did everyone else in the room. Force had once been a powerful hero and one of the most famous members of the Protectorate…until he went rogue. I’ve read his file and knew that there were a few incidents as well as other signs that something wasn’t right with him. However, his own team ignored them, excused them, or covered them up. And even though he’d been a member of the Protectorate, his own team hadn’t done a thing to take him down.

“As you all know,” Martinez said grimly. “The Force incident is one of the main reasons that Sanction was formed. Many of these heroes seem unwilling or unable to police their own, which leaves us to do it for them.”

“He’s a teleporter,” I said thoughtfully. “If he’s as powerful as you say, then he can be on the other side of the planet in the blink of an eye. How are we supposed to find him?”

“Finding Warper won’t be a problem,” Martinez said. “He hasn’t moved since he began his rampage. We just have to get there and stop him before he decides to move on.”

“Then it looks like we have our mission,” Discharge said as he stood up and looked around at us. “Let’s go bag a super hero.”

--------------------

The helicopter flew in low over the Nebraska town, giving me a good view of the devastation. It looked like a disaster zone, as though the town was simultaneously hit with an earthquake and a tornado. Some buildings were completely gone while others looked like huge bites had been taken out of them. And of course, there was shattered debris everywhere, leftovers from buildings and cars that looked to have been teleported high into the air and then just dropped.

Until now, I’d always thought that teleportation was a harmless power, good for traveling over distances, surprising opponents, and providing quick escapes, but I’d never considered it as dangerous. I’d never thought that teleportation could be used as an offensive ability. After seeing this, I was completely revising that view.

“Damn,” Stealth exclaimed. “This is…” She paused to shake her head.

“This guy needs to be taken down,” Ambush said grimly, checking his weapons.

A moment later, we saw a figure in the air. We’d spotted Warper, who was actually standing in mid-air as though he was standing on something solid. At first, I wondered how he could do that since his power was teleportation rather than flying or levitating, but then it came to me. He was bending space so that the bottom of his feet were resting on something solid somewhere else. I felt a cold chill go down my spine at that realization. That was an indication that he was definitely a lot more flexible than any teleporter I’d ever run into before.

“Set me down over here,” I said, gesturing to a three story building that would provide me a clear view of Warper.

I hopped out of the helicopter before it even landed then ran across the roof to take up a sniper position. I would have preferred to be dropped somewhere else and then make my way into position more stealthily, but Warper may already have seen the helicopter and my team would go into action too soon for me to sneak into a better position.

I watched from my position as the helicopter landed closer to Warper and my team climbed out. The only person who was present from team two was Barracuda. We weren’t anywhere near a body of water, but Discharge had taken my advice about using Barracuda for his combat experience rather than just for his power control powers.

As the helicopter took off again, Warper turned and stared at it for a moment. He gestured to the helicopter and the whole thing suddenly vanished. I didn’t see it reappear anywhere so was left with absolutely no idea of where Warper had sent the helicopter and pilot.

I watched as my team immediately went into action. Discharge grabbed a car and the whole thing glowed reddish-orange before it crumbled away and his skin turned into a metallic gold color. He then gestured to Warper and fired a blast of energy towards the former hero. However, I could already tell that Discharge was too far away and most of the energy from his blast would have dissipated well before it reached him. Warper suddenly vanished before the beam could hit, reappearing a short distance away.

“Harbinger,” Discharge called out. “Warper was a hero. We’re going to try taking him alive.”

“Roger,” I responded, keeping my tone calm and professional, in spite of the fact that I thought Discharge was being an idiot.

I scowled as I watched them through my scope, having a bad feeling as Discharge slowly walked towards where Warper was floating. “We’re here to talk,” Discharge said, keeping his radio open so that I could actually hear what was going on.

“You damn aliens won’t take this planet,” Warper exclaimed. “I’ll die before I let you conquer us…”

“What the fuck?” Jarhead exclaimed. “What aliens?”

“He thinks we’re aliens,” Meridian exclaimed in surprise. “He’s delusional…”

“The fucker is as nutty as a fruitcake,” Jarhead exclaimed before charging right at Warper.

Warper didn’t even move but Jarhead suddenly vanished. I heard a yelling and looked to see Jarhead falling out of the sky a distance away. Jarhead crashed through the roof of a building and vanished from view. However, Jarhead was pretty tough so I was confident…or at least hopeful that he’d survived that fall.

“Die alien scum,” Warper yelled.

An instant later, a car appeared in the sky and fell right towards Barracuda. He dove to the side, barely avoiding being smashed. Then he returned fire, opening up with the energy blaster he’d brought with him. His blast looked like it would have hit Warper right in the chest, but suddenly the beam went off at a right angle and nearly hit Stealth instead.

“Listen to reason,” Meridian called out to the crazed hero. “You’re sick… You know you have a disease…”

“Stop trying to confuse me,” Warper snarled, gesturing to Meridian who suddenly disappeared.

“Meridian,” Discharge called out over the radio. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she answered. “I’m just on the other side of town.”

Since Discharge had told me to hold fire, I kept watch for anything that could help. Then I saw a huge chunk of building appear in the air and called out, “Look out above…”

Everyone remaining scrambled to get out of the way in time, though Warper immediately followed this up by gesturing and sending a powerful blast of something orange away from him. Ambush slipped into his bubble to escape being hit while the others scrambled away.

“LAVA?” Stealth cried out. “How is he shooting blasts of lava at us?”

“Probably teleporting it out of a volcano,” I responded grimly. If he could do something like that, then he was even more dangerous than I’d thought.

“Maybe we can still reason with him,” Meridian suggested, though she sounded doubtful.

“Not likely,” I responded.

During our briefing about Warper, Martinez had told us that the more he used his powers, the more unstable he became. And from the look of this town, he’d been using his powers a LOT. I was pretty certain that Warper had gone well past the point where any kind of reason would work.

Warper suddenly vanished though I noticed him reappear elsewhere, still standing on the air as though it was solid ground. “He’s moved a hundred yards northwest,” I called out over the radio.

“I’ll get him,” Stealth said.

Stealth turned invisible and flew straight towards Warper, pulling out her gun at the same time. She obviously meant to shoot him, though from what I knew of her, she probably wouldn’t aim to kill. Still, as long as she was able to hurt him enough to keep him from using his powers against us, it would be nearly as effective. But then as she nearly reached him, she suddenly vanished.

“Shit,” Stealth called out over the radio a moment later, sounding like she was in pain. “A damn wall suddenly appeared in front of me…”

“Are you okay?” I asked her, letting just a little of my concern into my voice.

“I think I broke my arm,” she responded. “I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck…”

“Harbinger,” Discharge said in a grim voice. “Do your thing.”

“Roger,” I responded.

I had my crosshairs on Warper, but he suddenly teleported before I could pull the trigger. I quickly found his new location, made much easier by the fact that he was standing in mid-air. If he’d been at street level, I wouldn’t have been able to see him through the obstructions. It only took me a moment to get a lock on him again and pull the trigger. But even though I should have blown a massive hole through Warper’s chest, nothing happened. I scowled in annoyance, sure that I hadn’t missed. I fired a second shot to the same effect.

“I can’t touch him,” I said, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. “He must be bending the space around him.” I scowled, feeling even more annoyed. With his power to bend space, any round I fired at him could end up anywhere else. I could end up hitting my own teammates if I continued with this.

Warper remained where he was, apparently unaware that I’d just tried putting a couple rounds through him. Instead, he was turning to face Meridian who was now flying towards him. She used her powers to grab a chunk of rubble from one of the destroyed buildings and telekinetically flung it at him. The chunk of rubble vanished before it could reach Warper, only to reappear right in front of Jarhead who’d been running to rejoin the fight. Jarhead was hit head on with Meridian’s attack and sent flying backward into a wall.

Barracuda, Discharge, and Ambush were close enough to Warper again that he was within range. All three of them opened fire, trying to hit him. Unfortunately, none of the attacks were able to reach him and Discharge’s blast was actually sent right back at him, nearly hitting Ambush who had to dive into his bubble to avoid being hit.

I continued watching Warper, frustrated by my inability to do anything. Normally, I was confident that even though I was away from the direct action, I could still do a lot of good for my team. But now, even a clear line of sight shot couldn’t be trusted. Warper’s power was really starting to piss me off.

Suddenly, a new voice yelled out, “William…”

I immediately spotted the newcomer, a woman in costume who was standing on what appeared to be floating metal disk. She looked to be in her late twenties and had shoulder length brown hair. Her costume was red and light gray, but also included grey metal armor pieces on her shoulders, belt, forearms, and knees. And on top of that, she was holding a gray metal staff of some sort.

I’d never seen this woman before but I knew who she was. This was Lodestone, a former member of the Protectorate as well as a former teammate of Warper. I even knew that her powers were ferrokinesis, the ability to control metal and move it around.

Since the Protectorate was probably the most famous super hero group in the world, I was familiar with most of their members from the past few years. The fact that I’d done a little research on Warper’s past while in route to the mission probably helped as well.

Discharge still had his radio open which let me continue to listen in on what was going on. Lodestone called out, “Stop this Billy… This isn’t you…”

“Lodestone,” Warper called out in surprise. Then he grinned. “You’ve come to help me fight off the alien invaders…”

“There are no aliens,” she argued angrily. “Look around you… You’ve been killing civilians…innocent people.” Then she gestured to Discharge, adding, “And heroes… You’ve got to stop this…”

For a brief moment, it looked like Lodestone was getting through to him. Then he suddenly blurted out, “You’re a liar… You’re just trying to trick me…to confuse me. You’re not Lodestone…you’re an alien impostor…”

Warper snarled and held out his hands, sending another blast of lava right at Lodestone. She threw her metal staff and it suddenly melted and reformed into a disk that hovered in the air in front of her, acting like a shield and protecting her from the lava.

“Enough of this,” Lodestone called out. “I don’t want to hurt you, but…”

What Lodestone was starting to say was cut off as her body from the waist up vanished. There was a spurt of blood as the metal disk she’d been standing on and her lower body all toppled to the ground. And though I had no idea where Warper had sent her top half, I was pretty certain that she hadn’t survived.

“I can’t believe he did that,” Meridian cried out in horror over the radio.

“Then you haven’t been paying attention to the body parts on the street,” Jarhead said. “She ain’t the first person that cocksucker did that to…”

“Kill the bastard,” Discharge ordered us.

While the rest of my team launched more useless attacks against Warper, I continued watching. Then I noticed Stealth had arrived and had landed on the roof a short distance away from me. I gave her a quick look, seeing that she was holding her arm and wincing in pain.

“You okay?” I asked her.

“Broken arm,” she answered with a wince. “I don’t think I’ll be of much more use in the fight…”

I didn’t say anything to that, not wanting to point out that open combat wasn’t her strength anyway. Her greatest contributions to the team were more subtle ones but certainly no less valuable.

Warper suddenly teleported again, this time appearing much closer to my location. He looked around and saw me.

“Alien scum,” he cried out, this time audible to my own ears rather than over the radio.

“Look out,” I told Stealth, jumping to my feet while she flew up into the air and turned invisible.

I swung Monster towards Warper, but then the air around me began to blur. I immediately jumped back and there was a sudden popping sound…just as the front half of Monster vanished.

“I missed,” Warper exclaimed in surprise. “Trixie alien…”

“Damn,” I muttered, tossing aside the ruined remains of my weapon. “That’s what I get for naming the damn thing.”

Once again, I saw a faint blur, this time along the ground, or more accurately, the roof of the building I was standing on. I was in motion immediately while a huge chunk of the building suddenly vanished from beneath me. I just barely managed to jump in time.

“Stealth,” I called out as I ran, “Stay in the air and act as spotter.”

“Gotcha,” she called back.

There was a ripple in the air above me and I jumped aside an instant before a car fell from the sky. I dove off the top of the building, not that there was a lot of it left. I expected to the ground hard and have to roll, but I suddenly found myself floating in the air.

“I’ve got you,” Meridian said, gently lowering me to the ground.

“Thanks,” I told her, appreciative of the help even though I hadn’t really needed it.

“No problem,” Meridian responded.

She used her telekinesis to lift a piece of rubble from the ground and fling it at Warper. I saw the ripples in the air around him and when the rubble hit the ripple, it vanished and reappeared from another ripple that appeared a short distance away. The rubble came at me but I was able to dodge it.

“Those ripples,” I mused, staring at them and realizing that I was seeing where Warper was bending space. The ripples he’d created hadn’t vanished and were still present in the air. There were other ripples in the air around him. “Do you guys see the ripples in the air?” I asked, having a suspicion but wanting to check it.

“What ripples?” Meridian asked in confusion.

I smiled faintly, realizing that my enhanced vision gave me an advantage. I could see Warper’s powers as he used them the same way I could see Ambush when he was hiding in his bubble. That gave me a little warning when he was using his abilities.

I stared up at Warper and then looked around, gasped when I realized that there were people and body parts sticking out from the asphalt in the middle of the street. He’d teleported people right into the ground…and from the looks of it…several dozen of them.

“Sick bastard,” I snarled, my finger twitching as I wished I still had Monster. Still, I wasn’t unarmed and pulled my pistol out of the holster.

“Harbinger,” Ambush called out, not only through my radio but so that I could hear.

I snapped around and saw Ambush, Discharge and Barracuda running in our direction. There was no sign of Jarhead but I knew he was too stubborn to be dead just yet. Moments later, I saw him in the distance, running towards us as well.

“Meridian,” I called out, having an idea. “Maybe you can grab him with your power directly…”

“Good idea,” she called back.

Warper was suddenly yanked higher into the air and then thrown right down to the ground. But before he could hit, he vanished. I looked around but saw no sign of him.

“He ran away,” Jarhead exclaimed with a laugh.

“Careful,” Ambush said, looking around warily.

After nearly fifteen seconds, Warper suddenly reappeared. An instant later, Meridian let out a scream as everything from her torso down vanished. Everything that was left of her body fell to the ground the same way Lodestone had.

“Meridian,” Discharge screamed in rage while Stealth began crying.

“Bastard,” I said, glaring at Warper and knowing that no matter what happened, I was going to kill him. No matter what, I wasn’t going to let him walk away from here alive, not after what he’d done to Meridian.

Ambush snarled and opened fire, as did Discharge and Barracuda. I held my own fire, already knowing that it would be pointless right then. I could see the bent space between us that was diverting any attacks directed at him.

Jarhead was yelling out a steady stream of profanities and then he picked up a car and threw it straight at Warper. I saw the ripples in the as they appeared and immediately dove at Discharge, knocking him aside right before the car slammed into where he’d been standing.

“Better recharge,” I told him with a faint smile, gesturing to the wrecked car.

Discharge nodded, obviously shaken at how close he’d come to being flattened. “Good idea,” he said with a forced smile. “And thanks.”

“As God washed away the corrupted masses with his flood,” Warper called out with a manic look in his eye. “I shall wash away you filthy alien invaders…”

This time, I saw a ripple through the air that seemed to cover the entire sky above us. I called out a warning to my team but what seemed to be a small lake appeared above us and was immediately caught by gravity. All the water crashed down on us.

Ambush grabbed Discharge and the two of them vanished into Ambush’s bubble while I ran for closest building, reaching the door before the water hit. Waves poured through the opening and threw me back, but I’d avoided having it all hit me from above. With that much water, I suspected that it would have been like being hit with concrete.

“Is everyone all right?” Stealth called out, the worry clear in her voice.

“I’m fine,” Jarhead responded with a laugh. Then he added, “And what do you know…fish face is too.”

I came out of the building and found the ground covered with six inches of water, though it was quickly flowing away. Then I saw Barracuda standing in the middle of it with the water swirling around him, now under his control.

Barracuda could only control the water within several feet of him, at least for more than a few seconds, but he was taking full advantage of it. The water rose up and surrounded his body, forming what appeared to be a suit of armor. A moment later, there was a ten foot tall figure composed of water with Barracuda floating right in the middle of it.

“You’ve fucked up now,” Jarhead exclaimed. “You gave Barracuda some ammo…”

Barracuda responded by holding his hands out. The water giant mimicked his movements exactly, and a moment later, fired blasts of water from the hands. The water armor didn’t shrink since Barracuda continued drawing more water in through his feet, using it like fire hoses.

Warper vanished, only to reappear a short distance away. Barracuda charged towards him, the water armor’s arms turning into giant blades. I had no doubt that they’d be razor sharp.

Then I saw the blur in the air in front of Barracuda, right before he was about to run into it. “Look out,” I called out a warning.

Barracuda must have realized what I meant because he stopped before completely running into the ripple in space. Warper snapped it shut and suddenly all the water around Barracuda crashed to the ground, no longer in his control. It took me a moment to see why. His right arm had been caught in the ripple when it vanished. Warper had just taken his arm.

Discharge immediately ran for Barracuda who’d dropped to his knees, though he hadn’t made a sound. I rushed to his side as well, keeping a close look for more ripples in space.

To my surprise, Barracuda’s armor was actually growing over the stump of his arm and covering it completely. I stared at in amazement then grimaced in cold anger.

In spite of having just lost his arm, Barracuda shakily got back to his feet, drew a pistol from his holster and then fired several shots at Warper. The attack didn’t do any good but I couldn’t help but being impressed. He’d just lost his arm and it had barely slowed him down.

“Are you okay, Tyler?” I asked him.

He looked at me and simply said, “Hurts like hell…but I will survive.”

Then I suddenly noticed the ripple starting to form around Ambush. I didn’t hesitate before throwing myself at him, knocking him back just a moment before the ripple fully formed. I had no doubt that if I’d hesitated for even a second, Ambush would have been somewhere else or dead. Probably both.

“He almost got you,” I explained as I helped him back up, after having just knocked him to the ground.

“You can really tell when he’s about to use his powers?” Ambush asked in amazement.

I gestured to my eyes and commented, “One of the advantages of my odd eyes.”

“Besides being beautiful?” he asked with a grin.

I grinned back and responded, “You mean creepy as hell…”

“Any ideas how we can stop him?” Discharge asked aloud. “We can’t get near him and he can kill us just by looking at us.”

“At least the little lady can give us some warning,” Jarhead pointed out, gesturing to me.

“There is that,” Discharge agreed, giving me a thoughtful look.

Then I noticed the ripples across the sky and called out, “He’s trying something else.”

A moment later, large amounts of snow and huge chunks of ice began falling on us. Jarhead bent over Discharge and Barracuda to try blocking them from being hit. A chunk of ice the size of a city bus crashed nearby, sending a spray of ice shrapnel everywhere. Ambush let out a scream of pain, then jumped at me, grabbing hold and sending both of us into his safety bubble.

“Are you okay?” I asked him in concern, noticing blood dripping down his leg.

“A piece got my leg,” Ambush responded with a grimace. “Damn… These suits are supposed to be bulletproof…”

“But apparently not ice proof,” I responded wryly.

Our uniforms were lightweight armor and were supposed to stop small caliber bullets, but they weren’t knife proof. From what I saw of Ambush’s leg, a sharp shard of ice had actually sliced through his upper leg pretty good.

“This is going to slow me down,” he told me with a forced smile.

“Then it’s a good thing your specialty isn’t running after people,” I told him with a grin of my own.

“I can’t believe he’s dropping glaciers on us now,” Ambush muttered with a scowl. Then he looked at me and his expression softened. “There’s been something I’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had the guts…” He paused for a moment before asking, “If we get out of this alive…will you go on a date with me?”

I stared at Ambush in surprise, then blinked and asked, “What about Penny?”

“Penny?” he responded with a look of confusion. Then his eyes widened in understanding and he grinned. “She’s my cousin. We got our powers in the same incident when we were teens…”

“Your cousin?” I asked in surprise.

Ambush chuckled. “I thought everyone knew.”

I was still a bit stunned by this and was trying to regain my mental balance. “But didn’t Barracuda warn you away from me?”

“What?” Ambush asked with a faint look of surprise. “When I asked him if you had a boyfriend, he just said that you had some things in your past that you probably wouldn’t want to talk about…but that I should give you a chance.”

Ambush leaned forward and gave me a kiss, which surprised me again. I kissed back, finding that it was a little different than kissing a woman. However, my heart began to race and I felt myself start to get wet. It was different but I definitely liked it.

“Yes,” I said when we pulled apart. I stared at Ambush and grinned, “I’d be happy to go out with you. But first, we have some ass to kick.”

With that, Ambush dropped his protective bubble while I put my professional face back on. I saw Warper was gone and that Discharge and Jarhead were running down the street, obviously chasing after him. Barracuda was following as well, but he was moving more slowly, still holding a weapon in his remaining hand.

“That guy doesn’t give up for anything,” Ambush commented beside me, obviously impressed. He took several steps, moving slowly and wincing in pain but continuing as best we could. We had gotten past all the snow and ice wreckage when he finally stopped and shook his head. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I can follow Barracuda’s example. My mobility is too limited like this and I’ll only slow you down.”

“Then stay here and do what you do best,” I told him. “Set up an ambush. I’ll see if we can lure him back here for a surprise.”

I ran down the street where I’d seen the others going, seeing even more signs of devastation. Several faces peered out of windows before ducking down again. It seemed like everyone in town was hiding, which was a good thing. Unfortunately, that was of limited use against someone who could teleport whole buildings if he wanted to.

“We need a new tactic,” I called out over the radio. “We can’t touch him and he’s taking us out one at a time.”

“I know,” Discharge responded. “But we can’t let him leave either. If he gets bored and leaves, we may never be able to catch up to him again.”

When we caught up to Warper, he was now standing on ground level, crouched down beside the body of a little girl who looked like she’d been dropped from a great height. I’d seen plenty of bodies before but the sight of dead children always made me sick. A cold anger settled over me as I considered the monster we were dealing with.

“Look what you aliens did,” Warper exclaimed. “You’ve destroyed the city and killed all these people…” He glared at us and spat out, “I’ll make you pay for that…”

“Nuttier than a fucking fruitcake,” Jarhead snarled.

Discharge didn’t say a word and merely opened fire, but the blast hit a newly formed ripple and came out of a different ripple, blasting a hole in a wall instead of in our target. I had a clear line of sight, or at least I would have if there hadn’t been ripples moving around Warper. I didn’t bother wasting my ammo. Instead, I had to be patient and wait for an opportunity.

“I have an idea,” I said, looking to the others. “Ambush stayed back there in wait… If we can lure Warper back there and then hit him from all directions at once, he might not be able to counter it.”

“Good idea,” Discharge said. “But how do we get him back there?”

“Leave that to me,” I said.

“Be careful,” Stealth called out to me.

Once the rest of my team had cleared out, I took a deep breath and called out, “You foolish human… Once I activate our doomsday weapon, this whole planet will be destroyed…” I tried giving my best evil villain laugh, which probably wasn’t very convincing with my new voice.

“You fiend,” Warper yelled as he stared at me with a crazed look that held almost nothing that even resembled sanity.

The air began to ripple around me almost immediately, but I dove to the side at the very first instant I saw it. If it wasn’t for my enhanced vision letting me see when his powers were kicking in, or my enhanced physical abilities, especially my reflexes, there was absolutely no way that this would work. But as it was, those abilities made me the most likely out of all of Sanction to survive against him.

I turned and ran, dodging several ripples that opened around me. Stealth called out a warning over the radio and I jumped to the side, just before a car landed where I’d been. Warper appeared ahead of me and I changed course, trying to lead him to where I wanted him to go, but also giving the rest of my team time to set up.

At that moment, I really wished I was back at a safe distance with a rifle in my hands. That was how I was most comfortable fighting, not like this. Still, I was a professional and I was going to do absolutely everything I could to stop this crazy bastard.

“Come and get me you ugly human,” I called out to Warper. “I’m going to use my PU thirty-six explosive space modulator to destroy this planet…”

“I’ll stop you first,” Warper called out angrily, trying to catch me in several more space folds.

I ran around the block while Warper kept teleporting ahead of me, attacking me with falling cars and chunks of rubble. My powers gave me the edge I needed to avoid being killed, though only barely. The fact that Stealth was floating overhead and calling out warnings for the falling objects also contributed to that. I might be able to see when Warper was using his powers, but I couldn’t watch in every direction at once.

Then Warper got more serious as I saw the ripple cover a fast food restaurant. I immediately changed directions and ran as fast as I could while the building appeared in the air well above me. I avoided being hit directly by the building, but enough debris was flung out that several pieces hit me from behind, sending me flying to the ground face first.

“Roselyn,” Stealth called out in horror.

I grimaced and sat up, feeling bruised over my entire body. My side hurt especially bad and I saw that something sharp had been flung right through my side, puncturing my uniform and my internal organs. I grimaced in pain and slowly got to my feet, certain that this stop was going to kill me.

“Over here,” Stealth called out, now visible and taunting Warper. “I’ve kidnapped the president and…and I’m turning him into a mind controlled zombie.” As soon as Stealth looked at her, she turned invisible again.

“Thanks for the distraction,” I said into my radio, wincing as I began moving again. Then I called out to Warper, “You suck. No wonder we took over this planet so easily.”

My wounds definitely slowed me down as I ran, but I did my best to ignore the pain while I continued leading Warper back to the ambush point. Stealth helped me, coming into view just long enough to taunt him and distract him from me, then she’d vanish again before he had a chance to really focus on her. Tag teaming Warper with the distractions allowed us to lure him right back to the area where the others were waiting.

Unfortunately, when Warper teleported to the ambush point, he was standing a dozen feet above the ground rather than at ground level like we’d hoped. Still, we had no choice but to try.

Several explosives that Barracuda had set went off, not being close enough to catch Warper in the direct explosion but enough so that he was thrown back and fell all the way to the ground where he hit hard. From the splatters of red on Warper’s costume, it appeared that he’d been hit with small bits of debris. Before he could even get to his feet, nearly everyone attacked.

Ambush appeared out of nowhere and opened fire with his guns while Barracuda opened fire as well from the opposite direction. Discharge fired a blast of energy while Jarhead threw a large chunk of rubble, not wanting to risk getting close enough to punch him. I held my fire, already seeing that it was too late as Warper had swirls of folded space layered around him. In spite of being almost on top of him, I didn’t have a clear shot.

“It didn’t work,” Ambush said with a snarl.

Discharge shook his head. “He’s bleeding. It’s proof that we can get through…”

“Sorcerers,” Warper shouted out with a manic look to his eyes. “Witches…” At this point, he looked like he was nearly frothing at the mouth. With as much as he’d been using his powers against us, I could only imagine what this had done to his brain.

“I thought we were aliens,” Jarhead responded. “Make up your damn mind.”

Ambush threw a grenade at Warper, though it suddenly appeared by Jarhead’s feet. The explosion didn’t really hurt my teammate, but it shredded his uniform pretty badly and pissed him off.

Discharge bent down to touch the ground, disintegrating a hole in the road as he recharged his powers. Then he fired at Warper again, apparently doing that because he couldn’t think of anything else to do. Warper made the blast suddenly twist at a right degree angle and reflected it back at me where I was able to just barely avoid it. Then Warper vanished again, reappearing fifteen feet away. Discharge immediately fired another blast, which disappeared halfway between them and reappeared a short distance away, smashing into a wall instead.

I looked around, seeing ripples in the air all over the place. These weren’t new ripples that Warper was in the process of creating, but folds in space that he’d previously made. As I’d been running away from him, I’d noticed that he’d left these things all over the town nearly every time he used his powers. They appeared to be slow in closing on their own and he no longer seemed to be thinking straight enough to bother closing them himself.

“Hey Ambush,” I called out to my teammate, suddenly having an idea. “Move seven feet to your left.” He gave me a curious look but did as instructed. I nodded when he was in the right spot. Then I moved ten feet and called out to Warper, “Okay hero, you win.” I reached into my belt pouch and pulled out a short clip with six rounds for Monster, then I set it on the ground in front of me. “Here’s the doomsday device… It’s all yours…” With that, I backed away.

“Doomsday device?” he asked, looking completely confused. His mind was so scrambled now that he no longer seemed to remember why he’d been chasing me. If he didn’t go for the bait, then this wouldn’t work.

“You remember,” I called out. “You wanted this to stop me from blowing up the Earth…”

Warper suddenly teleported and appeared right in front of me. He bent down to pick up the clip, still looking confused. I just smiled, though I was certain it wasn’t a pleasant smile.

“Ambush,” I called out, “shoot that car.” I pointed at the ruined car in question.

To my relief, Ambush didn’t hesitate or question why I gave him instructions that didn’t make any sense. He shot at the car…and the ripple in the air that was right between him and the car. As I’d seen Warper demonstrating earlier, that ripple was connected to another one…one that was now located immediately behind Warper…behind the warped space shields he was using. Ambush’s energy blast missed the car but was redirected right into Warper’s back.

Warper fell face first to the ground, having been hit in the back by Ambush’s energy blaster. The ripples that were acting as shields around him vanished and I noticed that the remaining ripples around us were quickly fading as well. Everyone stared at Warper in disbelief while Ambush had an expression that seemed to say, ‘Did I do that?’

Stealth landed a short distance away and then became visible. She was holding her arm and still looked like she was in pain. After staring at Warper for a moment, she let out a sigh of relief and said, “It’s over…”

Warper grunted and struggled to get to his knees. He leaned back in obvious pain and looked at me. Then I noticed the ripple beginning to form around his body as he was trying to escape. Without hesitation, I fired a single round between his eyes.

“Now it’s over,” I said firmly.

Everyone was silent for a moment before Jarhead exclaimed, “Damn… She really is the harbinger of death…”

It was at this point that my injuries and loss of blood hit me enough that I could no longer remain standing. I collapsed to my knees while Stealth ran to me and Ambush limped over.

“You’re hurt,” Ambush said, giving me a worried look as he tried looking at my wound.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” I joked weakly.

“If you think that this is going to get you out of our date,” Ambush teased me with a grin, “then you’ve got another thing coming.”

“A date?” Stealth asked me with a weak smile that didn’t fully reach her eyes. I could tell that behind them, she was still seeing Meridian’s death. “Once we get patched up, you’re going to have to tell me all about it.”

I looked at Ambush and smiled, knowing that I was probably blushing like crazy. “After this,” I told him, trying to keep my expression calm and controlled but probably failing miserably. “I expect steak and lobster, or at the very least, some damn good bourbon.”

“Deal,” Ambush agreed without hesitation.

I chuckled at that. “If I knew you’d give in that easily, I would have asked for a five star restaurant.”

“Don’t push it,” Ambush teased. “Now lay back and be quiet while I bandage you up.”

I leaned back and closed my eyes, fully aware of Ambush’s close presence and his hands on my skin. In spite of being in pain, this was actually strangely comforting. Then I considered the events of the day, noting that I’d not only been injured but I’d also lost Monster and a teammate. But on the other hand, I got to test my skills against the most dangerous developed I’d ever seen, and I even got a date out of it. All in all, if I didn’t take Meridian into account, today would have balanced out pretty evenly.

--------------------

My eyes were closed as I took a deep breath, forcing myself to remain calm and in control. I was a professional and wasn’t going to let anything shake me, not until I’d achieved my goal.

“Okay,” Jessica said. “You can open your eyes now.”

I opened my eyes and looked at Jessica, who was standing beside me with her arm in a cast. She was also looking rather proud of herself as she held up the hand mirror so that I could see myself.

I blinked in surprise at the reflection, hardly able to believe that this was me looking back. My hair was not in its usual pony tail but was hanging loose, after it had been styled just a little. And of course, my face was nearly unrecognizable due to the makeup.

“I look…nice,” I said almost in surprise.

Though I’d always looked pretty, this was the first time I’d actually thought that I looked sexy. I admired the job Jessica had done on me and then cautiously reached up to touch the earrings I was now wearing as well.

“Gene had better appreciate this,” I said, standing up and looking down at myself.

I was currently wearing a black dress with stiletto heels, which combined with the work Jessica had done with my makeup, actually made me look very attractive. I felt rather pleased by that since I wasn’t used to thinking of myself as being a hottie.

“You know,” Jessica told me with a smirk. “If you ever change your mind about only being interested in guys, I’d be happy to go out with you.”

“Thanks,” I told her with a laugh. “Not that long ago, I would have been more than happy to take you up on that offer.” I looked down at myself and sighed. “But I guess things change.”

It was hard to believe that I was not only a woman now but was actually going on my first date. But more than that, I actually had every intention of losing my female virginity tonight…though neither Gene or Jessica knew about that. Not only was I very curious about what sex was like as a woman, I was also eager to take that final step into my new gender.

“At least Gene and I are up to it now,” I said after a few seconds, absently touching the spot on my side where I’d been injured.

It had been three days since our battle with Warper, and thanks to my enhanced healing abilities, I was back to full health. My bruises had all faded away within a day while my more serious wound had taken a couple days. Now, there was a bit of a scar there and faint tenderness, but even that should all be completely gone by tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the rest of my team had to heal at a normal human pace, though they were still lucky. Meridian didn’t have that option. Warper had made sure of that.

“So,” Jessica asked me. “How is your new gun working out?”

“Gunzilla?” I asked, thinking of the new rail gun that Garrett had given me that morning. It was the same model that Monster had been and I’d spent several hours at the range sighting it in. So far, I was liking Gunzilla…which was no surprise since it was Monster’s twin brother. “It works great.”

“You and your ridiculously large guns,” Jessica teased me. “Don’t you know that it’s not the size that counts…it’s how you use it.”

“But being large doesn’t hurt either,” I pointed out with a smirk. Both of us burst into laughter at that.

After we finally stopped laughing, Jessica looked me over and admitted, “You know, I’m kind of surprised you gave into wearing a dress and makeup so easily. I mean, since you used to be a guy, I figured that I’d have to do some serious sweet talking…”

I nodded at that, not sure how to explain what I was thinking. I might be a woman now but I had absolutely no intention of being the girlie girl kind. However, I decided that as I was now female, there was no shame in dressing like one. In fact, I’d agreed to dress like this partly because a large part of me was resistant to the idea.

“It’s my first date as a woman,” I told her. “I wanted to do it right.”

That was definitely true as well since my pride insisted that if I was going to do something, I should do it right. Another part of that was that I wanted to impress Gene. I’d always appreciated it when a chick went out of her way to look extra nice for me so now I wanted to do that for him.

After a few more minutes of talking, mostly with me getting advice from Jessica on how a ‘lady’ should behave on a first date, I was ready to go. I was nervous but forced myself to remain calm and confident, knowing that this wasn’t like walking into combat. Then again, that was probably what made me nervous about it. I’d been in combat countless times and knew what to expect. This was the first time I’d ever gone on a date as the woman.

As I walked down the hall to go meet up with Gene, I saw Barracuda ahead of me. He paused at the sight of me and stared, though of course I couldn’t see his expression.

“How do I look?” I asked him.

“Beautiful,” Barracuda answered. “Ambush is a lucky man.”

“Thank you,” I responded, blushing in spite of myself. Then I asked, “How’s the arm?”

Barracuda held up his arm and showed the stump where Warper had cut it off. However, the stump was six inches longer than it had been when first severed.

After Barracuda had lost his arm, his armor had immediately sealed over the wound and kept him from bleeding to death. But as we’d discovered over the last few days, that wasn’t all his armor was doing. It was actually regrowing the missing arm, and the doctors said that within a week or so he should have the whole thing back.

“My armor integrated far more than previously thought,” Barracuda told me. “Not just bonded to my skin. Bonded to nervous system and bone.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not,” I admitted.

Barracuda was silent for several seconds before answering, “Me either. But life is change. We adapt or die.”

“True,” I agreed, having learned that lesson very well myself. “Good luck with your arm.”

“And you with your date,” Barracuda answered. Then he paused before adding, “And do not hurt Ambush too much. We still have training tomorrow.”

I stared at Barracuda, a little surprised by the joke. If I’d been able to see his face, I was pretty sure he’d be grinning. I chuckled at that as I left, not making any promises.

I met up with Gene a minute later and saw that he was dressed up nicely in civilian clothes, though not as nicely as I was. Still, the way he stopped and stared at me made me feel a little giddy. That expression made this whole getting dressed up thing worth it.

“You look fantastic,” Gene finally said.

“Thank you,” I responded with a blush.

Then he held out a bouquet of flowers, which while nice, didn’t really interest me. I might be a woman now but I hadn’t suddenly gained an appreciation for flowers. Still, I accepted them with a smile and a thank you.

“Um…Barracuda suggested that you might like this better than the flowers,” Gene said, now holding out a bottle of my favorite bourbon.

I laughed at that as I accepted the bourbon. “You were wise to listen to him. Thank you.”

Gene grinned and grabbed me in a hug, holding me firmly. It was strange that he towered over me so much but I didn’t feel at all as though he was trying to intimidate me with his size. Instead, I felt strangely comforted and protected. The feeling was odd but kind of nice. I certainly didn’t want to feel like I was the little lady who needed a big strong man to look after her, but I could handle feeling like this every once in awhile.

As I stood there, being held tight in Gene’s arms, I realized that if we were going to have a relationship…if we were ever going to be anything more than a few dates and some sex, I’d have to be honest with him. I’d have to tell him who I used to be before I became Roselyn. However, that could wait for a few dates, at least until I had a chance to see if this might become something more.

“Now we should be going,” Gene told me proudly. “I’ve got us reservations at a nice place with great food. I want to make sure that this is a night you won’t forget.”

We started walking again, going slowly as Gene’s leg still had a long way to go before it was fully healed. But that was all right since I didn’t mind walking slowly, hand in hand with him.

“You have no idea,” I mused to myself, looking up at Gene and licking my lips at the thought of what I had planned for the two of us after dinner. After all, a girl certainly wasn’t going to ever forget her first time.

--------------------

Megan scowled as she returned home, her thoughts still lingering on her job even though she’d left work half an hour earlier. At one time, she’d actually enjoyed her job as a super market cashier. She’d enjoyed socializing with her coworkers and talking with the customers who came through her line. But somehow, that had all changed.

Over the last couple months, Megan had found herself growing increasingly annoyed with all of her coworkers and customers. They were foolish and stupid…getting on every nerve she possessed. She only wondered why it had taken her so long to notice that before.

“I’m twenty-nine years old and beautiful,” the attractive red-head told herself as she unlocked the door to her apartment. “I deserve much more than this.”

Once Megan went inside her apartment, she immediately looked around for the one thing in her entire life that brought her happiness. Then she saw him, the black cat that was sitting on the back of the couch and watching her intently.

“Ebon,” she exclaimed. “I’m home… Let’s get you fed… I have a nice tuna steak in the fridge...”

Megan went to feed her cat, absently thinking that most cats didn’t eat nearly this well. But of course, most cats weren’t Ebon. She knew that there was something very special about him and was absolutely certain that she had to take very good care of him.

It had only been two months since Megan had found Ebon on the street but it felt as though it had been much longer. It felt almost as though Ebon had been with her for her entire life and she couldn’t imagine life without him.

Suddenly, a man’s voice announced, “So this is where you have been hiding…”

Megan snapped around, shocked to see two men standing in her living room though she hadn’t noticed them coming in. She gasped in surprise, certain that she’d locked the door behind her.

The first man was dressed in a black costume that made her think of a ninja uniform. He had black metal shoulder pads that resembled layered feathers and he had some sort of partial helmet over his head, with the part on his forehead vaguely resembling the head of a bird. The man’s face was mostly covered and all she could really see of it were a pair of glowing red eyes.

The other man was tall and thin, wearing black clothes that looked like they could have come right out of a Charles Dickens novel. His black hair was brushed back and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of round sunglasses. This man leaned against a black cane but his other hand held Ebon, clutched firmly by the back of the cat’s neck.

“Leave Ebon alone,” Megan demanded, desperate to protect the cat even at the cost of her own life.

The ninja drew his sword in a swift move, revealing the all black blade but making no move to attack. Instead, it was a warning for Megan to stay back.

“There is no need for that,” a woman’s voice said.

Megan jumped in surprise and looked to see that there was a young woman in her apartment as well, a beautiful blonde who looked to be in her mid to late teens. She was wearing a strange outfit that was purple and black and which included a black cloak that had the hood up over her head. Bits of grey metal decorated her clothes, forming skull shaped broaches for her cloak as well as another skull on her belt buckle.

“Who are you?” Megan demanded of the girl.

“Nevermore,” answered the man dressed in Victorian era clothing, the man who was holding Ebon.

“My associates are called Edgar Munin and Alan Hurin,” the scary blonde girl announced. “I am called Nevermore…”

Megan stared at the girl and gulped, feeling a surge of terror that she was certain came from Ebon as much as herself. She suddenly remembered a famous super villain, one that they’d talked about on TV.

“Like Baron Nevermore?” she asked cautiously.

Nevermore smiled faintly at that, though it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “The same.”

“What…what do you want?” Megan asked.

“I have come to retrieve my errant servant,” Nevermore said, gesturing to Ebon.

“Mistress,” the man that Nevermore had called Edgar Munin said carefully.

“Yes Edgar,” Nevermore responded.

Edgar bowed his head slightly and said, “It appears that our old associate has already dug his claws quite deeply into this one.” The cat squirmed in his hands and hissed. “Enough of that,” Edgar warned the cat, who then settled down though glared at him with hate in his feline eyes.

“Yes,” Nevermore said, starting at the cat who seemed to cringe back in Edgar’s hand. “I see this…” She looked to Megan and said, “Ebon has indeed bonded to you quite deeply… You are well on your way to becoming his pet…to becoming his slave…”

Megan blinked at that and then stared at her cat, suddenly having a cold feeling down her spine. “What do you mean?” she demanded, feeling a growing anger, though she wasn’t sure who it was directed at.

“Ebon is no mere cat,” Edgar answered in an almost pleasant tone. “Like Mr. Hurin and I, he once served our mistress…until he abandoned his duty. Now he has bonded to you and reforms your mind and personality to serve his will.”

“Ebon has failed his duty to me and must be punished,” Nevermore announced, looking at Megan with a thoughtful expression. “However, I still have need of his powers.”

Megan stared at Nevermore and then at Ebon, suddenly realizing that they were telling the truth. She’d known that Ebon was not a normal cat, but it wasn’t until now that she realized how much she’d changed since finding him. Ever since Ebon had come into her life, she’d begun feeling contempt for everyone she’d once thought of as a friend. She’d begun wanting more from her life…though she hadn’t really known what that meant.

“Your link to Ebon may prove useful for me,” Nevermore said, giving Megan a cold speculative look. “I have a proposal…”

Megan was silent as she listened to Nevermore’s offer, getting the impression that if she said no, it might be the last thing she ever did. However, once Nevermore was finished, Megan knew that she’d accept this deal even if it hadn’t included the implied threat.

“Then we have an accord,” Nevermore said a minute later, turning away from Megan and staring at the terrified Ebon with a cruel smile. “Now then my little friend…we have a punishment to see to.”

The END

For those who have not yet read them, the story of Elizabeth Briggs can be read in The Infiltrator and With a Golden Staff.

Baa Baa Black Sheep is listed as number zero because it is a non-tg story
that was written several years before the first Legacy Universe story. I
originally had no intention of Black Sheep being part of this universe, but at the time I was writing The Knight is a Lady, I ended up tying him into the Legacy continuity.

00-Baa Baa Black Sheep
01-The Miracle Legacy
02-A Change of Heart
03-Hardshell
04-The Praxis Crossing
05-Mannequin
06-The Vengeance of Lady Hexx
07-Glamour Girl
08-Counterweight
09-Grendel and Beowulf
10-The Dark Legacy
11-The Witch Seed
12-Marvel and Meyhem
13-The Infiltrator
14-The Return of Red Blade
15-With a Golden Staff
16-The Knight is a Lady
17-Kaboom
18-The Legacy of the Seven
19-Invincible
20-A Velvet Touch
21-Harbinger