My Super-powered Diary Chapter 30 G-Force vs. Code Pink By Amethyst When Maddock Ainsley gets involved in a rescue operation with his unit things go horribly wrong and his life is forever changed. Can the newly minted Merida cope with being a girl and a teenage super hero?

We were all staring at the girl with the glowing golden hair and eyes; me, my sisters, and the members of Code Pink. She was naked, but there was ash on the ground beneath where she hovered, probably what remained of her clothes. The only thing left was the mask, the one that I had loaned Hiro, which was made of Mithrilex and meant to take the kind of punishment that those near-plasma hot pink and purple flames could dish out “H… Hiro?” I managed after a moment before turning to Shu, “Ummm… Packrat, dae ya think ya kin grab ma dress?” Yes it was definitely Hiro, I was sure of it, but it was a little hard to deal with right now because, well I had thought that he was going to die and now she was a very naked and very attractive girl.

“You got it Flare,” Packrat said reaching into one of her portals and producing the forest green floral print sundress that I had been wearing. I wasn’t too worried about it being damaged since it had been made and enchanted by the Taylors. She handed it to me and I tossed it toward the now female Hiro, who wasted no time pulling it over her head and adjusting it.

Genesis looked from the re-girled Hiro over to the pink-clad posers and giggled. “So you said you’d do the same to us if we didn’t join you right? I hate to break it to you, but we’re all already girls.”

“I didn’t… he shouldn’t!” Pinky sputtered, still trying to make sense of the situation. “How did you survive that?! I’m a Cat five! Nobody survives my flames!”

“I’m not nobody,” girl-Hiro said with a tired and slightly pained grin on her face as she looked at the pink-haired girl. “Y’know, Category five is pretty broad, unlike the other classifications there’s no real upper limit to the power levels in that class. All are pretty damn powerful. Some are just a little too powerful to be considered Category fours, some are definitely in the Cat five range, but some people get grouped in that class only because there’s no higher class to put them in. I can sense power levels in this form and two of you are definitely Cat fives. There are three people here right now that are so powerful that we really should come up with a new classification though, can you guess who? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not any of you.”

Golden light erupted from Hiro’s eyes in a blast that sent Pinky flying into the nearest wall causing one of the brunettes, the one with the long hair, to call out “Quartz! Are you okay?!”

Quartz’s answer was to stand and shake herself off, pink and purple flames igniting in her hands. “I’m okay Emerald, but that bitch is going to pay! These bitches had their chance, kill them all!”

Hiro gave me an apologetic look. “I really didn’t want you to find out this way, I was hoping to explain once we knew each other better. I’ll explain later, I promise. I’ll take the pink one and you take the blonde.” With that she flew straight at Quartz, unloading on her with another blast from her eyes.

I really wanted to know what the hell was going on, but we had more important things to worry about at the moment. I charged up my force field and flew at the blonde, who was going after Psyche, only to have her disappear as soon as she got in range to hit her. “Try hittin’ me instead, aye? Or would ya rather tha’ I star’ things off?” I hit her with my field only slightly enhancing my strength, since I didn’t want to kill her and I wasn’t exactly sure what her powers were. All of them seemed to have some degree of flight, but beyond that I had no idea.

She turned her head to look at me and laugh, though it didn’t seem to reach her eyes. “I have Cat five invulnerability. They call me Diamond for a reason, I haven’t felt so much as a tickle in three years. You haven’t got a chance, you really should have surrendered and taken the offer when we gave you the choice.”

“Oh really?” I replied, my face lighting up in a grin. “Ya ken, I’ve been ‘avin a real bad month. I jus’ wan’ tae explode sometimes, bu’ I’ve been carefully controllin’ maself, no’ wantin’ tae ‘urt anyone if’n I ‘appen tae go nuclear. Ya ‘ave no idea ‘ow much I’ve been wantin’ tae le’ loose.” I formed sparring glove constructs over my fists and filled them with enough explosive energy that they were nearly white-hot, then I hit her as hard as I could, a right jab to the solar plexus followed by a left uppercut to the jaw. This first folded her over with a grunt of pain while the follow-up had her staggering backwards.

I risked a quick glance to see how the others were faring. Hiro seemed to be absorbing all the fire that Quartz could throw at her and countering with eye-blasts while Emerald was going after Genesis, her hands glowing with a sickly green energy that I didn’t like the looks of at all. Genesis had summoned a pair of large wolf-like creatures to attack her, but they shrieked in pain when that energy touched them and Genesis quickly dismissed them in favour of a rock golem, though even that seemed to have trouble against whatever Emerald was using. The redhead had turned to the short-haired brunette and said, “You get the teleporter Sapphire, I’ll take care of the fish.”

“You got it Ruby,” Sapphire replied, drawing a pair of knives and vanishing in a puff of blue smoke to try to attack Psyche, who elbowed her in the gut and teleported away before she could strike. Ruby shifted into a human-tigress hybrid with nasty looking claws and went straight for Aquarius, who sent her flying with a blast of water she had gathered from the nearby fountain.

“Bad kitty!” Aquarius said with a glare as she floated toward her opponent on a bubble of water.

The sound of crazed laughing brought my attention back to my opponent. She was grinning like a maniac, a look of need in her tear-filled eyes. “I felt that, you actually hurt me! Again! Give me more!”

I backed away a step, uncertain of just what she was on about. “Look, I dinnae ken wot yuir on aboot, bu’ gen’rally people aren’t tha’ thrilled when I kick their asses. Are ya some sort ‘o masochist?”

“Let loose! Please! Hit me with everything you got! Give us both what we need!” Diamond insisted with that manic grin, taking another step toward me for each that I took back. “It’s been so long since I’ve felt anything! I need this, even if it’s pain! Fight me! Make me hurt! I’ll make you if I have to!” She directed a flurry of punches my way. She wasn’t as fast or strong as me with my shield up, maybe a Category two with her strength and speed, but she wasn’t backing off, even though my force field was easily absorbing her attacks.

Diamond didn’t seem to have any real fighting experience, she probably was just used to wearing her opponents down since she couldn’t be damaged herself. She didn’t have that killer instinct either, when she’d gone after Psyche, she had dialed down both her strength and speed from what she was using with me. Looking at the others on her team, who seemed to enjoy trying to hurt or kill others, she didn’t really fit in. I had to wonder how long she had been with them and why she had joined in the first place. Still, she wasn’t going to stop, and I couldn’t make her without giving her exactly what she seemed to want. She was right though, as much as she seemed to need to be hurt, I needed to be able to let loose and channel all the raw emotion that had been overwhelming me since my change. Regardless, I was hesitant to do so against someone who didn’t really seem that bad while the others may be fighting for their lives.

“Look! I admit t’would be good tae be able tae fight someone wit’out holdin’ back, bu’ yuir teammates seem pretty eager tae kill ma sisters an’ me, an’ I cannae le’ tha’ happen. If’n ya stand down fer now, you an’ I kin go a’ it later, no holds barred.”

There was uncertainty in her eyes as she looked from me back to the rest of the battle. “You’re right… I’m sorry, I just… I got caught up in the moment… it was nice to feel something, even pain. They’re… not really my team. This was supposed to be my first assignment with them. I wouldn’t have even joined them, but I had nowhere else to go… and they promised to help me. I don’t want to hurt anyone, and I don’t think I could hurt you in any case… do you promise we can fight later, no holding back unless I ask you to?”

“Aye, ya ‘ave ma promise on tha’, bu’ we dae it where nobody else kin ge’ hurt,” I replied.

Diamond nodded in response. “That’s good, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt, let’s see if your sisters need any help.”

We turned our attention back to the others. Ruby was insanely agile and was dodging all the water blasts that Aquarius could throw her way. She managed to get in close enough to rake the mermaid with her claws. To the tigress’ surprise though Aquarius only laughed. “I’m built to withstand the pressure of the deep ocean. Did you really think I can’t handle a few scratches Kitty? Thanks for coming in real close though, you were a pain in the tail to hit.” She encased Ruby in a sheath of water and hurled her at the nearest wall, where she fell to the floor unconscious.

Psyche was teleporting away every time that Sapphire teleported in close, but not before getting in a good hit each time. She was making good use of the hand to hand techniques and dirty tricks that I had been teaching everyone, making me grin proudly when she deftly avoided another attack only to appear behind the other teleporter. Once there, she delivered a solid strike to the nerve bundle at the back of the neck, causing Sapphire to fall down in a heap.

Packrat had been using her blasters on Emerald but she apparently had some level of invulnerability since the stun setting wasn’t doing anything to the pink and white clad brunette. She was adjusting the dials to a higher setting, but Emerald had managed to do enough damage to Genesis’ golem and the flock of imps that she had summoned that she had to dismiss them, and Emerald was now lunging for Genesis with a crazed look on her face. I’d seen that look before, on Phantom, it was the look of someone who really loved dishing out pain and death and was about get her fix. Diamond and I were both moving to intercept, while Genesis backed off and reached for a flashbang to try and buy herself some time, but Emerald was quick and I wasn’t sure if we could make it in time as Diamond called out, “Watch out! That green energy is like acid!”

Packrat reacted before any of us, not with her blasters, but opening up a dimensional portal in front of Emerald’s reaching hand, a portal that closed with her green glowing hand still inside. “Hands off! I won’t let you hurt my sister!”

Emerald screamed in agony, clutching the bleeding stump at the end of her right arm, where her hand and wrist had been a moment before. She was still screaming when I punched her hard enough to knock her out. Packrat stared for a moment, a horrified expression on what showed of her face. “I can heal her enough to stop the bleeding I think,” Genesis said. “Thanks sis, I owe you one.”

I was about to console Packrat, tell her that it was Emerald or Genesis, but to my surprise Diamond placed a hand on Packrat’s shoulder before I could. “Look kid, Emerald is crazy, and from what I’ve seen of her these past few weeks I’m pretty sure she gets off on hurting or killing people. She was going to kill your sister, I don’t doubt that for a second, but you stopped her and you didn’t go too far. You probably could have cost her a lot more than her hand, probably killed her if you wanted to, but she’s going to live and maybe learn her lesson. Sometimes you need to do the hard things for the right reasons, don’t feel bad about doing what you had to.”

I turned my attention to Hiro, who was still taking all the flames that Quartz could dish out and hitting her back with golden eye-blasts, though that seemed all that Hiro could do at the moment as she was trying to dodge any physical attacks, and barely managing that. It also looked like she was holding back on the power of her blasts, gradually increasing them to where she could hurt Quartz without killing her. Quartz turned her attention toward us and Diamond though. “What are you doing you stupid bitch?! You’re supposed to be killing them, not chatting!”

“Screw you Quartz! I told you I didn’t want anyone hurt and you promised me we were just here to try to recruit them. I should have left as soon as I discovered how bat-shit crazy you all were!” Diamond shouted back as she took her hand from Packrat’s shoulder and stomped over to where Hiro had Quartz pinned down with her eye beams and was starting to pour on the power. “Do you need help?”

“Yes! Take this he-bitch down so we can finish with our targets!” Quartz snapped.

“I wasn’t asking you Quartz, I’m way past done with you. If anyone is being taken down here it’s you,” Diamond said. “You’ve been lucky so far and you know it. Your flames aren’t doing anything and this guy… girl could probably have killed or seriously hurt you by now if she wasn’t holding back. So, since these people seem to be the good guys, I’m going to help them contain you.”

“You traitorous bitch! I’ll incinerate you!” Quartz screamed, lashing out at Diamond with her pink and purple flames. All she managed to do though was incinerate Diamond’s clothes.

“You know that your flames can’t hurt me, it’s why you asked me to join you in the first place, nothing hurts me. Well, not quite nothing I guess,” Diamond laughed as she shrugged the flames off and glanced in my direction. Then she turned to Hiro. “She’s not invulnerable, she’s got a Cat two transparent energy shield, anything around Cat three should be enough to overload it and knock her out.”

I had just enough time to notice Sapphire shifting on the ground before she, Quartz, Ruby, and Emerald all disappeared in puffs of blue smoke. “Bloody ‘ell! They go’ away!”

Diamond sighed. “They’ll be back, after all of us now probably. I should probably be pretty easy to find in jail, but they know they can’t hurt me so they’ll probably be after the lot of you.”

“Wot dae ya mean jail? I’m fair certain tha’ I promised ya a fight, an I dinnae see one o’ their uniforms on ya.” That just brought my attention to the fact that she was really naked now and despite the fact that she was attractive I wasn’t attracted, not like I was with Hiro right then. She had tried to do the right thing and help us, she didn’t strike me as the type of person that the other members of Code Pink were, and she wasn’t all that much older than us, probably sixteen or so like Tasha. I removed my cloak and handed it over to her. “Ya should pu’ this on I think, it’ll co’er ya ‘til we kin ge’ ya some clothes.”

Hiro glanced at me, nodding and smiling and I noticed my sisters doing the same as the boy-turned-girl said. “Lot’s of Hypers come here to Costa Verde, its not too surprising that another one showed up to help us out. I’m pretty sure I heard you deputize her too Flare, didn’t she say her codename is Safeguard?”

*Good idea Merida, my sixth sense tells me that she’s a good person. She’s not a criminal and she’s been through a lot, she’s a lot like us actually. She didn’t even try to hurt me when she came after me, I’m pretty sure she was just buying time while trying to figure out what to do,* Tasha sent us all over the mental link.

“Aye, an’ we kin always use another reserve member fer G-Force, maybe e’en a full member if’n she kin make the cut,” I responded to Hiro with a nod.

“You don’t have to protect me, I’m willing to take my punishment like a big girl,” the somewhat stunned former member of Code Pink said as she wrapped my cloak around herself awkwardly.

“Punishment fer wot? You an’ me, we were jus’ havin’ a friendly conversation, an’ ya didnae lay a finger on anyone else. Ya realized tha’ ya were on the wrong side an’ ya had the guts tae own up fer it an’ dae the right thing,” I told her carefully. “In fact, ya ‘elped us tae stop ‘em. Were you the one tae pu’ tha’ big ‘ole in the ceilin’? ‘Ave ya attacked anyone else? ‘Ave ya committed any crimes since Activatin’?”

She shook her head as she considered my questions. “No, that was Quartz. I don’t like hurting people unless its self defense, this was supposed to be my first mission and I only came along because Quartz promised me nobody would get hurt. Crimes? Does panhandling count?”

“There ya go then, there’s nothin’ tae charge ya wi’. We kin discuss it more after we all ge’ intae normal clothes an’ ya both explain yuirselves, right ‘iro,” I said looking pointedly at the girl with the glowing golden hair and eyes.

“Uhh yeah… that. You should call me Hana when I’m like this, or Firefly if I’m in costume.” A look of concentration passed over her features and the glow faded from her hair and eyes, leaving her looking like a regular Japanese girl. “This.., uhh… isn’t the first time I’ve changed forms like this. You’ll have to explain the incident to the cops, I can’t show my hero license since my ID bracelet was destroyed, but I have this form registered as well, as a reserve member of 4-Ward. I’m glad that we had a bunch of spare rings made though, damn that fire was hot.”

“Okay Packrat, kin ya ge’ e’eryone tae our place? Psyche, Safeguard looks aboot yuir size, mebbe ya kin loan ‘er somethin’ tae wear? Try tae call the other members o’ 4-Ward an’ le’ them know the fight is o’er an’ we’re meetin’ a’ our place. I’ll meet all o’ ya there when I finish reportin’ tae the cops.

After a long conversation with the cops and media about the mutant supervillains trying to recruit local Hypers, and us stopping them with the help of ‘Firefly’ and ‘Safeguard’, I made my way home. The other members of 4-Ward were already there and all of the Fairies seemed very interested in our new blonde friend. I quickly changed into something more comfortable and Shu placed my costume with hers and the others’.

Once we were all settled Brooke, Diamond’s real name, began to tell us her story. Three years ago, when she was thirteen, she had been living in a small commune of Hypers in the New Mexico desert. She had lost her whole family and her H Chromosomes Activated in a bomb attack that a group of anti-mutant extremists called the Right Hand later took credit for. She gained Category five invulnerability and Cat two speed and strength, but there was a side effect to her invulnerability. She completely lost her sense of touch. Her new skin couldn’t sense anything; touching, being touched, pressure, heat, cold, pain, pleasure, none of it. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure how she hadn’t gone insane after three years of that.

Since then she had been living on the streets, not really sure who to trust. Then, three weeks ago Quartz had noticed her when she had been hit by a truck and walked away, after pulling the driver from the wreckage. She had offered her a place to stay and promised to try to help her regain her sense of feel in exchange for joining her team. It seemed that her new teammates had taken far too much pleasure in trying to get her to feel pain, but nothing they could do hurt her. She had been considering going back to the streets when the mission to recruit us had come up. She had been half in shock when Quartz had tried to incinerate Hiro and that, her short conversation with me, and not wanting to see anyone hurt or killed had decided her.

“You can’t feel anything? Michelle asked, her face a mask of sympathy.

Brooke shook her head with a longing look in her eyes. “I still feel emotions, but nothing external, not since I Activated. Merida’s explosive punches were the first thing I’ve felt in three years. I know I probably sound like some kind of sicko wanting to feel pain, but it’s something.” She looked down at her hands folded in her lap for a moment looking ashamed. “I… about a year ago I lost hope, I tried to… end my suffering. I was hoping poisons might work, I tried everything I could think of, but… I guess I’m as resistant to them as I am to physical damage.”

“I kin unnerstan’ Brooke, I cannae imagine wot tha’s been like fer ya. I’ll keep my promise, an’ Mom is an expert on mutation an’ mutant physiology, so mebbe she kin fin’ a way tae ‘elp ya. We’ll dae e’erythin’ tha’ we kin,” I vowed as I absently petted Peaches in my lap.

There was a chorus of agreement to that from everyone in the room, Fairy and Hyper alike. Brooke started to cry a bit at that and we all pulled her into a group hug. She might not have been able to feel it, but we made damn sure she knew that we were there. Hopefully Mom could help her, and I felt that it might be a good idea for her to talk to Toxin as well. If anyone could understand what she was going through and help her, it was Kendra.

Once we had all let go of Brooke and were comfortable again Hana sighed and gave me an uncertain look. “I guess it’s my turn now. My parents and I are kinda hoping that your mom can help me too. It’s why we were so happy to have an expert on Hypers hired as the Chief of Medicine. We think that there’s a problem with my archetype. When I first Activated I was like this, I had absorbed a bunch of energy, but then I changed into a boy a few days later with mostly different powers. As Hiro I have the Cat three physical abilities, invulnerability, and flight like I told you, but I have this Cat five ability to absorb energy as well. It only seems to kick in though when the energy is too much for my invulnerability to handle.”

“So not wanting to be thought a Cat five, when it’s not a reliable ability, you keep that one quiet,” Tasha concluded.

Hana nodded. “The thing is I don’t have the ability to do anything with that energy as Hiro, or at least I don’t think so, because it changes me back to this form. I can still fly, but the only other powers I have are detecting power levels and the eye-blasts, using the energy that I’ve stored up, but I can’t seem to absorb any more. It’s a pain in the ass and I have to keep concentrating on lowering my power output if I want to look normal. As soon as the energy I’ve stored has all left my system I’ll be back in boy mode again. I’m guessing that will be about two days if I don’t get in any other pitched battles.”

“Could you be some kind of Shifter?” Vanessa queried.

“No, with Shifters transformations are natural and fluid. Every time I change I’m in agony, it’s like I’m being torn apart,” Hana replied with a shake of her head. Then she turned to me and sighed, looking down at her feet. “Sorry Merida, I wanted to let you get to know me more before telling you. I guess the date is off tomorrow. You couldn’t possibly be interested in me like this.”

The thing was that I was still interested. Very interested. It was confusing me, because I had seen a lot of hot girls since becoming one myself and not one of them seemed to make me feel any attraction. While I had been attracted to boys, there hadn’t been many of those either and it quickly went up in flames if they proved themselves to be jerks. That type of physical attraction seemed almost hollow to me until I met Hiro and got to know him better, like it was there, but just not important other than to catch my interest. I just seemed to click with Hiro, more and more as we spent time together and got to know one another. It didn’t really matter to me that she was Hana right now, I was just as attracted, maybe even more so, because she was still the same person inside.

I placed Peaches gently on the couch beside me and cupped Hana’s face in my hand. “I think I’ll be the judge o’ tha’ Hana,” I told her, and then I kissed her with every bit of interest I had.

“Ummm… wow I… uhh… you’re sure?” she fumbled to ask with a stunned smile on her pretty face.

“You’re no’ goin’ tae suddenly star’ likin’ boys on me, are ya?” I asked, giving her a mock-stern look.

“No! Ick! Even before I was a boy, I was attracted to girls. Boys don’t interest me at all, and there’s only one girl that does at the moment,” she insisted.

“Then the date is still on Hana,’” I told her, brushing a strand of hair from her face. A blush painted my face as the chorus of “Awwwwwww” reminded me that we weren’t alone.

‘ello agin e’eryone an’ welcome agin tae Merida’s Corner. Today I will be teachin’ all o’ ya aboot Mystics. Mystics are mutants who tap intae magic energy, one o’ the primal forces o’ nature, an’ use tha’ energy tae affect the world aroun’ them. Magical energy kin only be gathered from ley lines or from forces o’ nature, such as the sun, moon, the ocean, volcanoes an’ such. Mystics are a wee bi’ hard tae classify intae smaller groups since many use the energy they draw on fer a wide variety o’ diff’ren’ things, bu’ there are basically three types, Mages, Focused Talents, an’ Gifted.

Mages are those who able tae use the energy tha’ they gather tae learn an’ cast spells like Sorcerers an’ Sorceresses. Sorcerers an’ sorceresses are no’ really Hypers, they jus’ reg’lar humans who come from family lines wi’ a talent fer usin’ magic. Mages on the other ‘and come intae their magical talents when they Activate. Tha’s really the only diff’rence b’tween the two though as both kin learn a wide variety o’ magic types an’ are only limited by their power le’els, dedication to study, an’ areas o’ interest.

Focused Talents are Mages who only seem tae ‘ave the ability tae learn one or two specific types o’ magic. This could be anythin’, like healin’, transformations, summonin’, attack magic, defensive magic, or any number o’ other diff’ren’ types. They may only be able tae learn one or two tyes o’ magic, bu’ tha’ doesnae make ‘em pusho’ers. Their tight focus on those specific magic types usually make ‘em very powerful, though a lo’ does depen’ on their power le’els as well.

The las’ cat’gory o’ Mystics are Gifted, like Mei. They use the magic energy tha’ they draw on tae power a unique gift, often a mutant power from another class altogether. Because they draw on magic energy though, they usually ‘ave some le’el o’ magical talent as well, an’ kin usually learn magic tae some degree. This is no’ their specialization though, an’ many dinnae ‘ave time tae learn tae use magic on top o’ controllin’ their other powers. Many dinnae e’en ken tha’ they’re drawin’ on magic or ‘ave the potential tae use it a’ all. It takes a lo’ o’ dedication tae become a competent magic user an’ a develop one’s mutant powers as well.

Well, tha’s all tha’ I ‘ave tae say aboot Mystics today, so tha’s all fer now an’ I’ll see all o’ ya nex’ week tae talk aboot Mediums. ‘til then, this is Merida signin’ off.