Masks XXII: Golden Opportunity

by

Rodford Edmiston

Part One

"Whew!" said Vic, sagging with relief when the pregnancy test came back negative.

"Oh, babe," said Michelle, bending to hug Vic as the martial artist sat on the lid of the toilet in their shared apartment's tiny bathroom. "I'm so glad. You didn't really think Stone had... done something while you were out, did you?"

"No," said Vic, with a tired sigh, as she tossed the stick into the trash. She looked up at her love with mixed emotions. "The point was I didn't know, thanks to my regeneration."

She scowled.

"He said he liked my genes."

"I've heard worse pickup lines," said Michelle, grinning as she straightened. She didn't mention all the things this test didn't prove, but instead focused on getting Vic's mind on other matters. "Well, let's celebrate. Wok on the Wild Side?"

"I thought you'd never ask..."

* * *

"I'm worried about Jenny," said Michelle, later, as they sat in the restaurant after their meal, contemplating desert. As usual, Vic had eaten roughly four times what the beautician had. Which was why the martial artist usually picked up the check.

"I think I know what you mean," said Vic, quietly. She put the menu down and looked at Michelle. "She needs to find someone. Problem is, who can measure up to an alien prince?"

"I hadn't actually thought about it that way."

Vic leaned back in the booth seat and sighed, then snuggled closer to Michelle. She no longer had an appetite for desert.

"Get a room, you two," said Sheila, the waitress, smiling at them as she passed by. "Sheila" was actually a very convincing guy in drag, and knew the pair well enough to joke with them.

"That is a very good idea," said Vic, sliding her left hand under the table and putting it on Michelle's thigh.

They were an odd couple. Vic appeared to be about sixteen, and a mix of Asian and Caucasian, while Michelle was an attractive Black woman in her late twenties. Victor Peltior's ancestry was actually largely French on both sides, and she was close to Michelle in age. As well as originally XY.

"Getting back to Jenny, I think this might just be a situation where we need to let nature take its course," said Michelle, who, after all, had more experience with being female. She was also not allowing herself to be distracted by Vic's attentions. At least, not right then. "If we try to arrange something it could backfire. Let's just keep doing things like inviting her to parties and out to dinner with other friends and hope she finds someone."

"You mean keep her socially involved," said Vic, nodding. Giving up - for the moment - on flirting, she gave Michelle a lopsided grin. She spoke much more quietly, saying, "The problem there is getting her out of that mask."

"Oh. Right," said Michelle, also quietly. "I'm so used to seeing her in that I sometimes forget about it."

"Well, classes start soon," said Vic, philosophically though still quietly. "We've got several new supers coming in, both students and teachers. Maybe something will gel."

* * *

Unfortunately for the plans Michelle and Vic had for their friend, as the Fall semester began at Ramsey Technical College Energia seemed even less inclined to casually socialize than previously. Most others at the college - including those in similar programs for advanced degrees - were too intimidated by her reputation to want to socialize with her.

Not that Vic didn't try. Having known her longer than any one else at the college had, and having fought in the same war - with her own tragedies and triumphs - she was not intimidated by Energia. Well, not much intimidated. However, Energia was preoccupied with her education plans. Despite their talk a few months earlier, neither she nor Vic were much interested in getting doctorates. In fact, Energia claimed she was getting close to leaving college... though not before attaining a certain goal: her Master's Degree. Seeing an end this close, she was redoubling her efforts to both take the classes she needed and to get good grades. As well as finally just get out of college.

"That's about my course of action, too," said Vic, grinning at her pun, as she and Energia talked in the cafeteria a few days after the martial artist's dinner with Michelle. Other students were so used to seeing Energia in her green and blue costume they hardly gave her a second glance these days, except for a few newbies. However, few would sit with her or even at the same table. Energia therefore valued Vic's company. "Are they calling yours 'Master's Degree in Superhuman Criminology and Law Enforcement' like mine?"

"'Master's Degree in Application of Superhuman Resources in Law Enforcement'."

"Huh. Makes sense. Though those are both too wordy."

"I'm also getting credit towards a physics minor," said Energia, with a slight laugh. "Mainly for helping the Space Technology Development Center here at Ramsey with their work on the field control for an FTL drive."

"All I'm getting is international certification as a self defense instructor," said Vic, perhaps feeling a bit inferior. "Is that the group established by the Lunies as an extension program?"

"Well, by the Lunies and NASA."

"I thought the Lunies and some other humans had already built FTL drives."

"Yeah, there have even been some trips made to the closer star systems," said Energia, waving a forkful of mashed potatoes. "Mostly those used drives from wrecked alien ships, some of them left here thousands of years ago. They usually required repairs, which were of varying quality. In fact, some of those expeditions never returned, at least not without help. However, neither the previous, actual, human-built prototypes - which were all mad science devices - nor the alien drives were easy to duplicate. Or even possible to duplicate, in most cases. This one will be as fast as some of those, but can be built in just about any factory which can make a modern generator or power converter."

"That sounds fantastic," said Vic, grinning. Her gaze grew distant. "We'll be able to explore strange, new worlds, as that old TV show put it."

"Yeah, well, we still have to negotiate some pretty intricate interspecies politics if we go more than about fifty light years in any direction." Energia heaved a great sigh. "It sucks being the new kids on the block, especially when it comes to interacting with interstellar societies. Thing is, we - that is, humanity - get certain legal perquisites from the recognition we'll receive as an interstellar society, if we can make our own FTL drives. So there's a balancing act between benefits and added expectations and responsibilities on the part of the bigger universe. The Lunies, especially, are pushing for this. They have things to trade with those outside."

Vic wasn't sure what to say to that, so she focused for a while on her third fish sandwich.

"Anyway," said Energia, with another, much smaller sigh, "I'm pretty busy this whole semester. So, busy for the next several weeks, then looking forward to the holidays for a rest, or at least a change. Then back to busy."

"Bit early to be doing that," said Vic, smirking, around a mouthful of sandwich. "Planning for Christmas, I mean."

"Don't talk with your mouth full. Anyway, my family starts buying Christmas gifts in June."

* * *

The days went by, then the weeks. Energia and Vic were both teaching some Freshman classes. However, the College administration was well aware they were both working towards their Masters Degrees and hoping to leave the college soon. The two veteran supers were therefore not overburdened. Perhaps the federally appointed board of directors currently in charge of Ramsey were concerned that one or both might transfer somewhere else or simply abandon their plans for an advanced degree if their progress was impeded. Or maybe the administrators wanted the first Masters degrees in the specific topics the pair were working on to be awarded by them. Either way, Energia and Vic both found their advisors a bit disappointed that they weren't going for doctorates, but supportive.

Perhaps it was fortunate that things were slow on the super crimefighting front just now... though the pair did have occasional opportunities. Energia the moreso, because of her greater mobility.

As an unusually warm October moved into a record setting hot November, one such opportunity to aid the public good presented itself. Though it would turn out to be both mundane and very aggravating.

Early one weekday morning, as Energia was flying to the nearby city for some quick shopping before her first class, she picked up a police call on her earbud. There was a report of an impaired driver on a freeway near the school. She changed course, and soon found the problem vehicle.

It wasn't traveling all that fast, but it was all over the road. Other drivers were blowing their horns, swerving out of the way and flipping the driver off. From what Energia could see, the offending man was completely oblivious to both his own bad driving and the objections of other drivers. In fact, he seemed oblivious to everything, appearing mostly asleep.

Energia made sure to look through the rear window, just to make sure the driver wasn't someone who had panicked while trying to get a sick or injured person to a hospital. Energia had once needed to give a literal lift to a speeder whose wife turned out to be laying in the back seat, in labor. In this case, the rest of the car was empty. Well, unless he had a body in the trunk. In which case he really needed to be stopped. The driver was a well-dressed, middle-aged man who appeared not only unconcerned but barely conscious. Energia raised the car a safe distance above the rest of the traffic and deposited it on the narrow shoulder. She wasn't a car person, but it seemed like a late-model, solidly middle-class vehicle, one which already had several substantial dents. However, while she was calling 911 the driver simply took off again.

Energia shorted out the car's ignition system just as the operator answered. With a quick, silent thanks to Gadgetive for the hardened phone, she gave a brief description of the problem, the location of the vehicle and its make, model and license plate. Then she shoved the slowly rolling car firmly against the guardrail, stopping it. That done, she hung up and flew off. The driver was still trying to get his car to move, but it wasn't going anywhere without repairs.

She just happened to give one more glance back, and saw him opening the door.

Energia quickly grabbed the door with her magnetism and shoved it closed, as she reversed course. She heard him yelling in anger, and realized she had his leg caught in the door. With a growl of aggravation Energia moved closer. She saw that he still had his seatbelt fastened! Which wouldn't have stopped him from opening the door far enough to put it in danger of getting hit. She released the door, and as soon as the man jerked his leg back inside she shoved it back closed. Drivers had been noticing her activities, of course, but for the most part were dealing with them competently. However, traffic was slowing, and rapidly getting thicker, which was creating hazards separate from what the presumably drunk driver had been causing. People in passing vehicles were staring at the spectacle of a flying woman in mask and costume dealing with a drunk driver. Energia needed to finish and get out of there before she distracted someone into a collision. As well as get her groceries, put them away and get to class! Energia moved closer to the car, so she could see in detail what was going on. She was now hovering in a horizontal posture above the vehicle's roof, using her other senses - including the super ones - to check the inside of the car. There was still a small chance this guy was having some sort of medical crisis.

The man, oblivious to her presence, was still trying to force the door open. Energia, fed up, used heat to weld the anchor to the latch. Then stared in complete incomprehension as the man still tried to get out, through the now lowered window. This time his seat belt was undone. Horns blared and oncoming vehicles swerved.

"Get back in your car!" she shouted, thinking she should have made sure the entire electrical system was disabled so he couldn't roll the window down. How could she have predicted the need for this, though?

Reflexively, the startled driver obeyed. He looked around, but still didn't spot the flying super, who was hovering above his vehicle. Energia magnetically refastened his seat belt, spot welded the buckle to the latch, then drew the heat out before it could harm the driver. For good measure, she similarly fused the recoil mechanism. He might put be able to put a hand or foot out of the car window, now, but not far enough to get hit.

Energia watched for a few seconds to make sure he was securely held, then flew off. There were sirens in the distance, but given the heavy traffic they would be a while getting there.

* * *

Vic entered their apartment after school that afternoon to find Michelle already there, and working on her computer in the tiny den. Vic remembered, now, that Michelle was home early so they could get ready for a concert that night. Vic moved closer and gave the other woman a kiss that was definitely more than Platonic. Then stared in disbelief at what was on the screen.

"What the Hell is that?" said Vic, confused. "Whoah! Is that woman naked?! Only she's so twisted around you can't see anything!"

"Ferret yoga!" said Michelle, laughing. "Someone took stock photos of contortionists - yes, some of them naked - and gave their poses mock yoga names. I think there's even a version where someone took actual photos of ferrets and used human filters on them."

"I knew there were cat filters for humans," said Vic, frowning, "but not that there human filters for animals."

"Oh! That reminds me."

She opened a folder, found a specific image file and opened that.

"That's me, with a male filter," she said, smirking at the image of a nude Black man. "Don't I look handsome?"

"That image is doing strange things to my libido," said Vic, uncomfortably.

"Well, you took the photo," said Michelle, smirking.

"Hey, can you do me? Remember, I didn't just change sex, but general appearance. I'm curious about how I'd look if I'd changed but stayed male."

"Sure," said Michelle.

To Vic's extreme discomfort, Michelle found a nude photo she had taken of Vic posing on their bed. The "male filter" turned out to be capable of doing a full body conversion. A full frontal body conversion.

"Not all that impressive," said Michelle, frowning. "I could tinker with the defaults some..."

"Okay, that is doing really strange things to my libido," said Vic, grimacing as Michelle performed some "enhancements."

Michelle laughed, then made a show of saving the image.

"Hold on," said Vic, in protest to her preserving the image of what looked like a stereotypical male porn star who just happened to resemble Vic's current form.

Meanwhile, now that Michelle had figured out how, she went back and started tinkering with her own male image. "You aren't attracted to guys. You're not TG, either. So why all... this?"

"Hey, I'm curious."

"Lesbian/curious?" said Vic, laughing.

"More like human/curious."

"Let's see what other filters you have in this thing," said Vic, squeezing in beside her.

"Hey, get your own chair!" said Michelle, laughing.