Chapter 8

Tracy and I were in her family room with her parents. We were watching an old Esther Williams movie on Turner Classic Movies. Tracy and I were in the love seat, doing our best to occupy the same space, and her mom and dad were on the couch to our right. We were one big happy family.

Since our intimate encounter, Tracy and I were inseparable. I felt so safe in her arms. Me, the big bad super chick who took out five big gangbangers was feeling like a little girl in Tracy’s embrace. We had turned a corner, and I was in heaven. With her, I didn’t need to be in control or tough. I could be soft, feminine and totally in love. I had tried to hide the true nature of our relationship from people, afraid of what people might think. I no longer cared. If the losers at school called us filthy names or made fun of our relationship, I didn’t care. As long as they minded their own business, I could handle it. If someone made the mistake of interfering, well, I felt sorry for them.

The movie was so cute, one of those sappy musical romances. I never got them as a male, but I sure got them now. Tracy and I laughed in the same places, and I even teared up at one point. I cried a lot more as a girl, and didn’t care one bit. I was finally happy.

After the movie was over, Tracy and I volunteered to clean up the popcorn and cups.

“So, Betsy, how did you like the movie?” Tracy asked.

I smiled “It was wonderful! You know, Esther Williams was such a natural beauty. And the way she moved in the water was like, pure grace”

Tracy started laughing. “Betsy, you saw that movie with me as Brian 8 months ago!”

My mouth dropped open. “No way! I would have remembered it! Are you sure?”

“You hated every minute, when you even paid attention. You have arrived, my dear”

I had to start laughing. “Wow! I guess so. I never even thought about it the whole time. I kept putting myself in the character’s place. Like, what would I do if someone did that to me? Really getting into the story. You know, stuff like that”

She smiled at me and kissed my cheek. “I know exactly what you mean, sweetie”

We went to bed in our own rooms. Tracy’s folks were progressive, but not that progressive. Besides, any more nights like the night before, and I’d never want to get out of bed!

After a quick shower, I put on my nightie. It was a purple chemise Tracy picked out, and it was nothing a sixteen year old should wear (giggle). She liked it because it went with my eyes. Tracy wore nothing to bed, but I just couldn’t do that. Turning out the lights, I got the impression that someone was watching me. I looked out the window, through a crack in the blinds, but could see nothing. This was something I couldn’t dismiss. My ‘feelings’, if you could call them that, were usually spot on. If someone was watching me, I’d know soon enough.

I sat on the bed, in the lotus position. Clearing my mind, I began to focus my mind. Soon, I was outside the house. Things looked different when I got outside my body, as it were. Although it was dark, I could see everything as if it were a bright day. I moved around the house in a circle, not really walking, not really flying. Then I saw the reason for my uneasiness. A man was in the tree across the street, looking toward my bedroom window. He looked like some kind of ninja or something. His face was covered.

“Why that little bastard!” I thought. “What is he doing up here, and peeking into MY window. I kind of floated up to where he was, and touched his head with my hand. A flood of his thoughts hit me, and it took some time to sort them out. The thoughts were in Japanese, but his intentions were clear. He was sent to observe me. Why? Then I saw Sensei Ozawa’s face talking to him.

The shock from seeing that caused me to lose concentration, and I was back in my room. What had just happened? Ozawa was alive? Or was he. How old was that memory? I could sense he was from Tokyo, and was associated with something called the Hand, which I guessed was some kind of, I don’t know, some quasi ninja group or something. This was goofy.

I was too keyed up to go to sleep, so I put on my robe, and went downstairs for a glass of milk (hey, I’m a growing girl), and a couple of Pop Tarts out of the cupboard. I liked them untoasted.

Munching on my midnight snack, a flood of memories of the night mom and daddy were killed came rushing back. I would die if anything happened to Tracy and her parents. I couldn't let that happen again. I reached for my phone in the charger and dialed Agent Finn. I got his voice mail and entered the emergency code he gave me incase I needed him.

About a minute later, my phone vibrated. It was Agent Finn.

“What’s up, Betsy? I know this isn’t a social call” He sounded concerned.

“Agent Finn, something is up, and I’m scared. Can you come over?”

“I’m already on the way. Stay put, and I’ll be there in five.”

“Okay, but don’t come with sirens blazing, okay? Everyone’s asleep and I’d like to keep it quiet.” I cautioned.

A voice from behind me startled me, causing me to jump and squeak. “Everyone but me, that is” It was Tracy. “What’s up?”

“Don’t DO that,” I said in a hoarse whisper “you nearly scared me to death!”

“Who is that?” said Finn, with a note of alarm.

“Just my silly girlfriend, who is going right back to her room” I answered.

“I’m a couple of minutes away; do you want me to stay on the line?”

“No, thank you. I’ll see you when you get here”

I disconnected, and looked at Tracy. “You need to go back to bed, okay? Everything’s all right”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. Things are peachy. That’s why Agent McDreamy is coming over. What’s going on?”

“Someone is across the street looking at me, and I’m scared. I don’t want a repeat of the bomb that killed my parents, and I’m not taking any chances” I said quickly.

Tracy’s eyes got big “Oh my god! Where?”

“Across the street, in the big oak tree. Some kind of ninja looking guy.” I sensed someone and then went ghost to the shadow plane to have a look around. Then I saw him.”

She stood up. “I’m getting mom and daddy! We can’t keep this from them!”

“Do we have to?” I don’t want them to worry, or worse, kick me out.

“Oh, stop it. They love you like one of their own. They need to know, dopey”

There was a light knock at the back door, and Finn came in to the kitchen. “Okay, girls. Is everything cool here?”

I replied for the both of us. “Yes. Tracy’s going upstairs to wake her parents. She thought they needed to know”

He nodded “I agree. Tracy is right. Now what happened?”

I explained what happened and the reading I got off of the ninja guy.

Finn rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I see. I have been briefed on the Hand. It is a secret organization of thieves in Japan. They are some real tough hombres. Even the Yakuza gives them a wide berth. They generally keep to Japan, though. I’ll do some checking.” He paused. “I suspect that Ozawa had some connections to this organization somehow. What those connections are, well, I have no idea”

“There is no way Sensei was a thief. And what if he is alive? That doesn’t make any sense”

“I agree, Betsy. But we won’t know without some investigation.”

Tracy came back into the kitchen with her parents, who were understandably perplexed. Finn explained the situation to them, and assured them that the house would be checked out at first light. He had already called a team in and they were on their way.

I felt much better, and asked Finn if I could go upstairs to get some rest.

Tracy announced “I’m going up with you so you won’t be alone”

As we got to the top of the stairs I whispered, “We are going to SLEEP, Tracy. No funny business from you and you wear pajamas! No nudies in my bed tonight.”

“Ohhhh, I know. You big prude. You are more of a girl than I ever was” she swatted my bottom, eliciting a girly squeal.

“Owwww! You little creep, I’m tired! Stop it”

“Okay, Miss Iron panties. I’ll keep my hands off, for now”

“Thank you” I retorted.

I fell asleep as Tracy’s cuddled me. I felt a lot better with her holding me.

Six o’clock AM rolled around, and I was not ready to get up. If I didn’t get eight hours of sleep in a night, I felt terrible. I was working on four hours. Tracy was already in her room getting ready and I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. I took care of potty business and took a shower. Getting ready as a female was a lot more complicated than as a male, but the more I did it, the better I got, and the results were, simply put, so worth it.

Tracy set my outfit out for the day, and I was beginning to regret letting her pick things out for me to wear. This number was another casual dress, a tiered print circle dress; she set out a matching lavender bra and panty set. The bra was a demi cup, and the panties were string bikinis that weren’t quite a thong, but I would know they were back there all day. I did my hair down, parted down the middle, and did the makeup a little bit more dramatic than normal trying the smoky eyes that I had been practicing. My new almond shaped eyes were my favorite feature, and I wanted to play them up.

I put the dress on, and it was barely to mid thigh, but still tasteful. Looking in the mirror, I actually stopped to look at myself. I was hot, but I didn’t want to look too hot for school. I attracted enough attention as it was.

“Tracy!” I called. “Could you come here, please?”

“Sure. Give me a second, Okay?”

She came in a minute later and I posed for her. “What do you think? Too much for school?”

Her mouth fell open “Oh my god, Betsy! You look like you just walked off a runway”

I smiled turned my head to the side and pursed my lips in my best supermodel pout. “You think so?”

“God, yes. I look positively drab next to you”

Then I noticed what she was wearing. A University of Michigan sweatshirt and a pair of jeans with trainers.

I folded my arms and shook my head. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Tracy shrugged her shoulders and said “What?”

“You dress me up like your own personal Barbie doll. I don’t mind, because I love you. I go to the trouble of putting on a little extra makeup on to look special for you and only you. I know that looking this way will make me the subject of whistles and unwelcome propositions all day. And you come in here looking like the cover model for ‘Dykes Monthly’. Why? Don’t you care how you look anymore?”

She was taken aback by my display. “What? Don’t you like my look?”

I rolled my eyes in exasperation. “Now who’s dopey?”

She got a little guilty smile. “I suppose I should level with you, Hon.”

My pout could have set new records for poutiest pout. “Yes, I suppose you should”

“I am dressing you like this because I want you to learn to be a girl. To enjoy the ruffles and bows. I want you to learn what it’s like to have to walk like a lady, to be careful how you sit, or how you bend down to pick things up. I put you in the frilly lingerie to feel feminine. To wear shoes that scream ‘I am a girl, deal with it’”

She continued. “Tell me. How do you feel right now?”

“Angry with you”

She smiled and laughed “No! About yourself!”

I paused, knowing the answer but not wanting to give her the satisfaction of being right. “Pretty, I suppose” I mumbled.

She held her hand up to her ear “Eh, Dearie?”

I continued to pout. “Pretty!” came the curt reply.

She came over to me. “I have had my whole life to learn these things. It’s second nature to me. You’ve had this whole sex change thrown at you, and are having to learn what it’s like from an age when you shouldn’t have to learn these things. If you weren’t careful, you would be someone that didn’t fit in anywhere. A beautiful girl who shambled around like a linebacker. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

I had to agree. “No, I guess not. But that’s still no excuse for you looking like I used to!”

“Oh, really. Let me show you something”

Tracy proceeded to pull up her top and exposed a pretty pink bra, and pulled her jeans down to show a matching low rise thong with a front that barely covered her pubic mound. I felt a twitch in my tummy, and my mouth started to water.

She gave me a seductive smile. “Did you wear these under your clothes, Brian?”

“No, and you made your point. Now cover yourself back up, you slut!”

She laughed even harder at that one. “Sorry, honey, but you are in hard core girl boot camp for the foreseeable future”

“I get it now. I won’t complain anymore.”

We grabbed some yogurt and granola bars on the way out the door. The special team Finn talked about was hard at work installing security systems and sniffing for explosives. Finn was supervising and nodded at us as we were on the way out. He said he would call me later in the day. One of the workmen saw me and walked into a doorframe. I liked that.

Tracy drove my car to school and I rode as usual. She put me in four inch stilettos, and I really didn’t want to drive in them. Besides, girls let their “boyfriends” drive them, and as long as Tracy wanted to dress like a boy, lingerie be damned, I’d treat her like one.

I was starting to love school again. I wasn’t Miss Popularity, and that suited me fine. The few girl friends I had were enough, and I couldn’t believe how we hit it off. I guess the “girl training” was paying off. At lunch, we all sat down together to eat what little was edible of our state mandated lunch (blecch). Our group was Katelynn Edwards, Nicole Samuels, Taylor Dean, Tracy, and me.

The five of us were all unattached to boys, and this resulted in a lot of lesbian rumors, which weren’t true (ok, true in my case). The truth was, we didn’t like the boys that were available to us. Of all the ones we knew, only Josh Green, a really nice sophomore boy who was either gay or transgendered (I say maybe transgendered because he would be really pretty with makeup!) was really nice to be around. He was a really good friend.

We were enjoying ourselves and Josh came and sat down with us.

“Hi ladies!” he said brightly. “How is your day going?”

“Hi, Josh!” I said. “We’re doing great! I hope you are too!”

“I’d be a lot better if that idiot Gary Ponski would leave me alone. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he wanted a date!”

We all giggled at that one. Gary was a well known homophobe and bully who had made life for Josh a living hell for the last two years. He and his group of cronies had nearly cornered Josh a couple of times for a beating, but were foiled by the timely appearance of teachers each time. I knew his luck wouldn’t hold out forever.

Just as we were talking, Gary came strutting over. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, but his personality made him as horrid to me as Frankenstein.

“Sooo, the little fag is looking for protection from the lesbians. I thought as much.”

Josh rolled his eyes, but I could see he was scared. Enough of this. A little concentration, and…

Gary turned around and spoke in a loud voice “I’d like to have your attention. I would like to make an announcement!” The cafeteria got silent. “I would like to apologize to Josh Green for bullying him. I was wrong for doing it, and can only explain my actions by saying that I was compensating for my small penis and my lack of control over my bowels! Thank you!!

The place erupted in laughter. Gary realized what he had said and proceeded to run out of the cafeteria and into the waiting arms of the monitor, who took him to the principal’s office, presumably for improper communication or something like that.

Tracy knew what had happened, and was crying with laughter. The rest of the girls were shocked, and then started laughing along with Tracy. I just sat there.

As I thought, my outfit was the cause of a lot of unwanted attention from some of the more forward boys. I wanted to make them all pull their pants down and walk around quacking like ducks, but I decided to be a lady, and smile prettily and deflect. No thank you was said more than once. I wanted to punch a few lecherous idiots. But I didn’t want to break my new French tips. I thought to myself, I’d still rather put up with this with what I’ve gained that go back to what I was.

Cain Marko was sitting along the shore of Lake Erie, in a secluded area. He didn’t want any companionship. The transformation had made him immune to hunger or thirst and his new endurance allowed him to run at a sprinters pace for hours at a time. He moved at night to avoid conflict or detection. He wasn’t ready to come out to the world yet. The Braddock girl had him thinking. Her situation was not unlike his own. They both had been given power, and she was still just a scared little girl who had the guts to defend someone she loved from little pukes who she should have killed outright. The kid was okay.

He looked out across the lake. It was getting toward October, and the temperature was getting down towards 40 at night. He didn’t feel it though. His new found powers had made him immune to heat, cold and pain. He wasn’t numb, but things that should hurt him didn’t.

Cain wasn’t in his Juggernaut form, but this was only an illusion. His massive power was still there. Seeing a large rock, he decided to try skipping it across the water. The rock was eight feet across and two feet thick. Cain estimated its weight at 12 tons. He switched to his true armored form and picked the rock up as easily as one would a plate. His hands actually made indentions n the rock. Drawing back, he flung the rock towards the lake. He had misjudged the angle a bit, and the rock flew off into the distance, over the horizon, and out of sight. The papers in Ohio would later report a rock coming out of the sky.

As he was considering his situation. Amahl Farouk appeared out of a dimensional hole.

“Did you deal with the Braddock girl?”

“Nope, I’m not gonna, either”

Farouk’s temper flared. “That wasn’t our deal! You were to eliminate the girl in exchange for your power!”

Cain didn’t even look at Farouk. “Yeah, that’s the thing about negotiating with me. Don’t give me the power first, moron”

Farouk smiled “So you refuse to do my bidding?”

“Juggernaut does no ones ‘bidding’. And who the hell says bidding anymore anyway. Get lost”

“Oh. I’ll do more than that, Marko” he shouted. “DIE!!”

At that, another dimensional hole opened up, and a large, what can only be described as a dragon appeared out of thin air. It was black, 40 feet long, and had a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Roaring, it charged Marko.

Marko charged back. The beast and Juggernaut met in a huge thud that sounded like someone dropped a semi load of steaks off a cliff. The beast struck Juggernaut with its massive tail. Juggernaut simply caught it, spun around, and with it, dragged the beast in a circle.

“Farouk, now you will learn why I call myself The Juggernaut. I CANNOT BE MOVED!”

With that, the dragon beast went to strike with its snake-like head at Juggernaut, only to be met with a massive armored fist. The beast’s head exploded in a shower of black colored brains and gore. Marko easily lifted the beast and hurled it into the distance, to land somewhere in the center of the lake.

“This cannot be!” marveled Farouk.

“Not only can be, but is. Your little lizard was nothing. Come at me again, and I won’t stop with whatever you throw at me. The Braddock girl is under my protection, not that she needs it. You pissed the wrong guy off, Farouk.”

Farouk quickly retreated into his dimensional hole and was gone. Shadow King was not pleased. His plans had gone awry, but something may yet be salvaged. Juggernaut was far too powerful to be dealt with lightly. Cyttorak had screwed him over but good.

Shadow King would ponder this. Another ally? But who?