My Super-powered Diary Chapter 44 Stand-off 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?

Jordyn had asked Agent Smith to play the video one more time, so that she and Khestrid could take a closer look. I didn’t watch because the mere sight of the reconstituted Phantom sent chills down my spine and had me so afraid that I was having trouble keeping my force field from bubbling wildly out of control. It had activated as soon as I had seen her on the screen and as much as I would have liked to deny that it was Phantom, I knew in my gut that it was.

“Yeah, that’s a vengeful spirit Khestrid,” Jordyn said with a nod, agreeing with whatever it was that her spirit passenger had told her. “Just look at that aura. Merida, you said that you killed her right?”

“A…aye,” I managed to respond, still trying to control my force field and my shaking.

“Then it’s probably the desire to kill you that’s keeping her tethered to the world of the living,” the Medium surmised. “Those nightmares that you’ve been having, has she been in any of them?”

I looked down at my knees and nodded slowly, trying to slow my breathing and heartrate before replying, “Aye, she’s been in all o’ them. Usually they start as nightmares aboot bein’ trapped in a cell, losin’ control, or sumthin’, but she always seems tae work ‘erself intae them somehow.”

“Wait, are you saying that she’s haunting Mer?” Hana asked, a dark frown spreading across her face.

Jordyn shook her head. “No, not physically anyway. If she had been following Merida in spirit form I would have sensed her and Mei probably would have sensed something wrong even without training, but Merida is the reason that her spirit is still here so she’s connected to her at some level, no matter where her ghost actually was, and I think that Merida has been sensing that subconsciously, which is why Phantom has been appearing in her dreams. There are ways that we can deal with her, but Khestrid says she needs about an hour to prepare.”

“I wasn’t sent here to make plans. I was sent to collect Merida, put an inhibitor collar and handcuffs on her and deliver her so that the HAA can turn her over before midnight. I have less than five hours to do that and a plane ready to take us to Los Angeles,” Agent Smith said with a morose shake of his head. At the barrage of angry responses to that he held up his hands, “Wait! Hear me out. That’s what I was sent to do. The higher ups may be willing to sacrifice Merida on the chance that this Phantom might keep her word, but I’m not. Merida, you have three choices here. First, we can do exactly what I was sent here to do. Second, you could use that DVD that I gave you as leverage to get my bosses to back off on this, but while they might play ball with you for now, they won’t like that you have that information and she likely will kill the Governor.”

Whatever was on that DVD Smith gave me on my birthday, it was something that the higher-ups in the HAA didn’t want finding its way into the light of day and it was apparently valuable enough to blackmail them with. This didn’t seem like a break glass in case of emergency kind of emergency yet though, it wasn’t the first time the organization had tried to throw me to the wolves to save face, and it likely wouldn’t be the last. As much as I was terrified of facing Phantom again, I had beaten her before, and I could do it again and I figured that it would be wiser to keep my ace in the hole in reserve for when I really needed it.

“What’s option three?” Vanessa inquired cautiously.

“Option three is that we come up with an option three, and we don’t have a lot of time to do it,” the agent replied with a shake of his head.

“You don’t have to do this Mer, there’s got to be a better way,” Hana told me pleadingly. Her eyes were moist with tears and her concern was written all over her face. Everyone in the house had given us a few moments to be alone before Agent Smith would slap the cuffs and collar on me and take me to the car he had waiting outside. I had already said everything that I needed to say to Mom, my sisters, the Fairies and everyone else, but I’d saved Hana for last.

“If I dinnae dae it this way Phantom will kill the Gov’nor an’ the HAA will ‘ave a warrant out fer ma arrest on some trumped up charges afore ‘is blood is e’en dry,” I said, trying to point out what little choice that I had in the matter.

“Screw the HAA! You’ve got leverage on them, so use it!”

“I cannae le’ someone die when I could dae sumthin’ tae prevent it,” I said with a shake of my head. “Ya ken tha’, ‘cause I dinnae think tha’ you could either. If the HAA tries tae bury me wi’ this incident, no matter ‘ow it turns out I wan’ ya tae find out wot’s on tha’ DVD an’ use it. It’s in the bottom drawer o’ ma desk in ma bedroom ‘ere in the house.”

My new girlfriend nodded grimly but pleaded, “At least let us come and cover you. Maybe we can take her out before she can move on you or kill the Governor.”

I shook my head and held her close for a moment, earning a protest from Peaches in her sling. “We both ken tha’ yuir team is no’ suited fer tha’ Hana. Jordyn is still no’ used tae 'er body or 'er new powers ye’, mos’ o’ ya are close range fighters, an’ ya dinnae ‘ave yuir invulnerability in tha’ form. All o’ ya would jus’ be in danger if’n she saw ya an’ decided tae ge’ serious. Ya saw wot she did tae those kids, and she’d kill all o’ you first jus’ tae make me suffer. Please, jus’ watch o’er Peaches fer me.” I removed the sling and placed both it and the infant Meidragon in her arms.

Hana bit her lip as she gave me another long look with misty eyes. “You’d better come back to me Merida.”

“Aye, I’ll come back. I promised tha’ I’d come tae yuir place fer Labor Day tomorrow. I plan on keepin’ tha’ promise.”

She leaned over and kissed me, leaving no doubt in my mind how she felt out me. It was the kind of kiss I’d seen often enough but never experienced for myself before, when a girl knows that the person she loves is going to do something dangerous and might not be coming back. “For luck,” she told me, “and a taste of what you’ll get when you come back.”

“Tha’s a good reason tae come back,” I agreed, feeling that warm pleasure lingering throughout my body from the kiss. It was a good thing that my costume had built in support or everyone would have seen how hard my nipples were when we returned to the living room. Agent Smith was waiting for me at the door and while he didn’t seem happy about it, he put the cuffs on me and secured the inhibitor collar around my neck with an audible click, and then led me outside to the car.

It was just after eleven o’clock when Agent Smith pulled the nondescript black sedan up to the Beverly Hilton where Governor Michael Brown had been attending a Gala fundraiser of some sort and giving a speech on live television when Phantom came in, killed a bunch of people, and took him hostage. Smith spoke on the phone for a few minutes and then turned his attention back to me in the back seat where I was flanked to either side by a young blonde woman to my right and to my left by a brunette who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Both they and the large black man sitting beside Smith in the front seat were wearing sunglasses, tactical gear, and HAA jackets. “She’s holding him in the ballroom. No other hostiles or hostages, it looks like Governor Brown was the only one she was interested in keeping, alive anyway. Most of the attendees escaped and we’ve cleared the hotel and a two block radius around it and have a cordon in place.”

“O’ course she was only interested in him,” I grumbled. “He’s wot she needed tae ge’ ya tae bring me ‘ere.”

“Good luck. Be careful, make the exchange, and get the Governor to safety,” he said as my escorts opened the doors and stepped out. We entered the hotel and made straight for the ballroom, the women still flanking me while the large man followed a step behind, trying to control his breathing when he was obviously trying not to freak out. Not that I could blame my rear guard, we had all seen what she had done to those kids.

With a nervous sigh I opened the door and stepped inside to see Phantom standing in the middle of the dance floor with the Governor in a chokehold. “Le’ go o’ him,” I called out clearly, “it’s me tha’ ya bloody wan’.”

Phantom looked up and that familiar predatory smile spread across her new face. “You brought me a present,” she said, taking in my costume and then the inhibitor collar with a look of glee.

“You heard her,” said the blonde to my right, “Let the Governor go. Once he’s walking toward us we’ll send our captive over to you.”

Phantom snorted, removing her arm from around Governor Brown’s throat and giving him a shove forward. “Take him, the brat is the one I want.”

“You can have her, she’s been nothing but trouble,” the Brunette to my left said with a bit of a smirk and giving me a push of her own.

Phantom sneered at me as I approached. “You look different from the first time we met big boy, wait, don’t tell me… you did something with your hair.” She laughed at her joke as I frowned and added, “Don’t look so glum I’ll be putting you out of your misery soon… after I make you suffer a bit. On second thought, I think I’ll make you suffer a lot.”

“Yuir one tae talk, yuir lookin’ a lo’ less dead than when I las’ saw ya,” I retorted. “I guess I’ll need tae make sure it sticks this time ‘round, aye?” The Governor was a few paces in front of me now and I could see Phantom grinning again, her eyes on the inhibitor collar around my throat. She was about to make her move, not for me, but for either the Governor or one of my guards. She wanted me to suffer before she killed me so she was going to rip them to pieces while I was helpless to do anything but watch. Only once she had done that would she do the same to me so that I could fear it coming. *Now!* I thought.

My male companion appeared before me, snatching up the Governor before disappearing again seconds later, an instant before Phantom teleported in to make her grab. *Got him!* Psyche sent along our psychic network. *I’ll drop him and the infiltration suit off with Agent Smith and be right back. And I’ll be bringing some friends.*

Phantom screamed in frustration and teleported again grabbing the blonde’s arm. When she tried to teleport away with it nothing happened. She tried harder, her face contorting in concentration so that she looked like she was constipated or something. Brooke merely smiled as she took off her sunglasses with her free hand and raised an eyebrow. “We haven’t met, I’m Safeguard. Is something wrong? Can’t get off my arm? Here, let me help you.” She wound up her other arm with a punch that Phantom only barely managed to avoid by teleporting ten feet away to look at Safeguard intently.

The brunette’s hair began to change to pink and lavender and her features became younger as Aquarius returned to her normal form, only keeping her legs in place of her tail since she had no water on hand at the moment. “That little trick isn’t going to work with us, Phantom. Gadget-Girl figured that while you might be able to rip normal people apart like paper anyone, with any sort of invulnerability would take a lot more effort. You might be able to even do that to someone with Cat one or two invulnerability if you tried hard enough, but Safeguard there has Cat five invulnerability and I have Cat three.”

That was when Psyche’s voice came back along the psychic network. *I’m back in the hotel with our insurance policy. The Fairies are placing the six relays and I’m setting up the field generator now. We just need one more minute.*

Phantom shrieked in fury. She was absolutely seething as she was informed that she couldn’t harm either of my companions We stared each other down, both of us knowing full well that there was only one other person she could try to hurt. She was considering it, weighing her options and that was when, one by one, each of the Fairies voices called out *Ready!* Phantom teleported, but by the time she appeared behind me my force field was already up and I was pumping explosive energy into constructs surrounding my fists. Fawn flew from where she was hiding in my hair, delivering an explosive punch to Phantom’s face that knocked her back several steps despite my Fairy friend’s current small size. Fawn switched to her human-sized form and now Phantom found herself confronted with four people that she couldn’t hurt.

She glared at me, especially the collar around my throat. “How?! You’re wearing an inhibitor collar?!”

“Oh aye, only it doesnae really inhibit anymore since Gadget-Girl took those bits out,” I informed her with a grin as I snapped off my handcuffs and the four of us attacked. “Wot’s the matter Phantom, I thought tha’ were goin’ tae kill me. No’ quite as scary now tha’ yuir no’ much more’n a wee bairn, are ya?”

*Activating the field now girls,* Psyche sent. Almost immediately the whole room began to hum and Phantom looked around warily. My idea was to wear Phantom down and keep her busy and focused on those of us that she couldn’t hurt until we had the hostage safely away and our safety net in place, and now that had happened. Her powers may have been the same as those of her old body, but this was a younger body with less physical training and stamina and the powers weren’t as developed. We could wear her down and once she was too tired to teleport we would finish her off.

“I just bet that you’re wondering what that humming sound is,” Aquarius taunted. “That’s an electromagnetic field. You see, when we were your captives and Gadget-Girl was pretending to be Jade she had a lot of time to study the energy field that was keeping any transmissions from going in or out. You were the only one able to bring people in and she figured out why. You teleport electromagnetically and the field that they were using was at a frequency that allowed you to pass through. This one doesn’t, and guess what, the controls are outside.”

“You’re trapped in a box with us, and you can’t hurt any of us,” Safeguard said with a grin. “And after what you put my sisters through, I really want to hurt you.”

Phantom looked at each of the four of us in turn. Even Fawn looked like she wanted to kick the living crap out of her. Then she screamed in agony and fell to her knees. “Ya should ‘ave listened when they tol’ ya tha’ yuir trapped,” I pointed out helpfully. “Feel free tae keep tryin’ though, I dinnae mind seein’ ya screamin’ in pain one bit.” She grabbed a chair and teleported to swing it at me, but the wood just snapped to pieces on my force field. She may not have been able to teleport outside the room, but she could still teleport around it. As we started to put the pressure on her once again I wondered how the others were doing.

All day long Jonas had wandered the orphanage, trying desperately to get the attention of someone, anyone. There were certainly enough people wandering around between the police and the people in suits. Nobody could see him or hear him though, in fact most of them just walked right through him. It was a frightening experience and sealed the fact that he was dead. The one person that he thought was his friend had stolen his body and changed it to something horrible.

Once evening had set in he found himself sobbing in the play yard. He couldn’t even do that right though since he had no body. The tears couldn’t come and he just seemed to fill up more and more with a feeling of profound loss. The yard had been cleaned up and most of the blood was gone, but he could still picture how he had killed those boys.

No. He hadn’t killed them she had, using his body. Now not only did he have no friends, no family, and no body, but he had no hope either. His whole life had been a disaster, it seemed only fitting that it should end that way as well. He could feel the pulling sensation that told him where his body was, but he had no idea how to get it back and that pull seemed to be getting fainter by the minute. What would be the use anyway? Even if he were alive, what would he have to live for?

“Well we’re here, at least I think we’re here. I’ve never tried opening a dimensional gate to a place I’ve never been before, especially with a crappy surveillance photo.” He heard a voice whispering, it sounded like a girl’s voice outside the gates, but that couldn’t be right this was an orphanage for boys. Curious, he floated along toward the voice as another spoke. It was woman’s voice this time, though it seemed distorted somehow, almost electronic. “There’s the sign. St. Sebastian’s Home for Orphaned Boys, this is the place that Smith said it happened. He said it was in the play yard. Do you sense anything yet Genesis?”

“No Mo… Gadget-Girl, but I’m still new to this. Trance and Khestrid said that he should be here, unless he’s following his body. He’s not really dead, his soul is just displaced. I just hope that I can do what Khestrid told me to do if we do find this Jonas.”

Jonas’s heart soared at the mention of his name and from the sound of it whoever this was knew what had happened to him as well. He flew through the gates coming face to face with what looked like some big robot woman. She was dark colored with some sort of gold oval on her chest. If he hadn’t been a disembodied soul already the sudden sight of her in the darkness probably would have made him one. He practically squealed in fear and almost didn’t notice her two companions, a pair of Asian girls who looked even younger than him from what he could see past their strange costumes. One was dressed up like an old-time pilot or something and she had a pair of guns hanging from her belt while the other looked like some kind of Pokémon trainer.

It was the latter who gasped in surprise, taking a step back as she looked straight at him squinting as if to try to see him better. “You… what’s your name?”

“Jonas Lake,” he answered quickly.

It was hard for Jonas to read her expression with her face mostly covered with a bandana and a baseball cap. But her voice was gentle and caring as she reached out her hand and said, “I’m Genesis, and this is Packrat and Gadget-Girl. We’re here to help you Jonas. Please, I need to know the wording of your contract with Phantom.”

“Contract? She called me a Contractor when she left here. I…” the disembodied boy hesitated as he tried to remember what had happened before the killing began. I don’t know, I just wanted the other kids to stop bullying me. She said that she could stop them from ever hurting me again and I told her that if she could have anything she wanted.”

“You agreed to let her keep your body?”

He shook his head furiously. “I didn’t know that she was going to do that, she just said that we had a deal and took over. Th…then she killed the other boys and … and left with my body.”

“You’re a Hyper, Jonas, a kind of Medium known as a Contractor,” Genesis explained patiently. “That means that you can let spirits stay in your body for the use of their powers, but you need to be very careful when making contracts and both parties need to agree to terms. If you’re not careful then things like this happen. I think that we may be able to get your body back, but first I need to see your contract.”

“See my contract?” Jonas asked in confusion.

“I’m kinda new to this,” the girl replied sheepishly, “I’ve only just learned to see souls but I have a friend who told me that you are both bound by the contract. I need you to focus on Phantom, close your eyes and think very hard about the contract. It is imprinted on you both, body and soul. Make it appear.”

Jonas thought very hard, just like she had asked him to, but how would he know how to make it appear? Suddenly his right arm began to tingle and when he opened his eyes he could see a string of unfamiliar letters encircling his arm from just beneath the shoulder to just above the elbow. “Is that…” he asked in wonder.

Genesis nodded and reached out to very gently touch his arm where the writing was. Wait, she was actually touching him! His heart would have soared had he possessed one at the moment. Her body stiffened as her hand made contact and her eyes glowed with a bright golden light. She was like that for several minutes before just as suddenly as she had tensed up, she relaxed again. Then she looked at him and laughed. Of course, she was just like the others, enjoying his suffering. His thoughts began to spiral downward until she said. “You can trust us Jonas. Take my hand and let’s go face Phantom.”

“Is he ready?” the woman called Gadget-Girl asked.

Jonas hesitated for but a moment before reaching out and taking the girl’s hand. Maybe she really was here to help him. She probably couldn’t make things any worse. As soon as he took her hand she nodded and said confidently, “We’re ready.”

The other girl, the one called Packrat, held her hand out and suddenly the air in front of her seemed to shimmer as she said, “Let’s get going then, the others might need us. Step into my dimension everyone, next stop Los Angeles.”