Denise Roberts crouched down behind a parked car, breathing heavily as she carefully peeked around the back side, desperately hoping that no one was there. When she saw it was clear, she let out a sign and allowed herself to relax just a little.

“I’m safe,” she told herself, knowing that this was a lie. She wasn’t safe. No one in Baltimore was.

After resting for a minute, Denise picked up her backpack, took another look to make sure it was still clear, then ran to the cover offered by another car. She did this several more times before making it to the mouth of an alley, where she ran down it. Hopefully, this would be a better place to hide, one where she was less likely to be seen. Unless of course, others were already hiding in there, in which case, her situation might become even worse. Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Denise collapsed down behind a dumpster, ignoring the foul smell. Anyone who spent years running and hiding, got used to things like this…to disgusting smells and dangerous places. At the moment, this dirty alley was far safer than her own home had been.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Denise wondered how this had happened. She’d lived in Baltimore for five months…which was the longest period that she’d been able to stay anywhere in years. She had a small apartment, a place where she could perform her research in peace, and for the first time in years, she’d been able to really relax and get comfortable. She should have known better than too get comfortable.

In the middle of the night, she’d awoken to the sounds of screams and explosions from outside her apartment window. She quickly discovered that there was no power, and when she looked out the window, every building was dark. Every car was motionless, without a single headlight visible. It was as though the entire city had been struck with an EMP, and the only light to see by was what had been provided by the full moon, or buildings and cars that were on fire.

People were rioting in the streets, attacking each other, busting through doors and windows to attack those inside, and simply destroying everything in sight. Denise had been shocked when she saw the violence and destruction that was occurring right outside of her apartment, though she knew better than to just hunker down and hide. She’d immediately gotten dressed, then grabbed her backpack, which she always kept filled with the essentials in case she needed to leave fast.

Denise had barely managed to get dressed when several of her neighbors burst into apartment, breaking down the door with a sledge hammer and charging in like a horde of viking berserkers. They were clearly insane…or enraged beyond understanding. Instead of fighting, she’d immediately grabbed her bag and ran for the bathroom, where she locked herself inside and then slipped out through the window. The last thing she’d seen, when she’d looked back, were the flames coming out of her windows.

“My work,” she gasped, angry and horrified. “Those monsters burned my home…and my lab.”

Denise didn’t really care about most of the belongings that she’d lost when they set her apartment on fire, since she was used to traveling light and not owning much. What she did care about, was the small lab that she’d managed to put together, and where she’d spent months researching a cure for her condition. And now, all that research was gone…burned to ash.

“DAMN,” Denise spat out bitterly. And she didn’t even know why it had happened.

While running away from her apartment and trying to avoid the rioters, she’d seen a woman in a long red coat…who’d been walking down the street and laughing in delight at the chaos. It hadn’t taken much to realize that she was somehow behind it all. After all, when a group of cops had confronted her, each of them suddenly turned and joined the rioters. Once Denise saw that, she’d not only avoided the woman, but had hurried off in the opposite direction.

At first, Denise had thought the chaos would have been contained to a block or two, but now, she knew that all of Baltimore was affected. And since there were no phones or TV, for all she knew, it might have spread over the entire world. That was an especially depressing thought, and one that she tried not to dwell on.

“One thing at a time,” Denise told herself. “Survival first, then make my way out of Baltimore.”

The area where Denise was currently hiding didn’t look as though it had been burned down and looted quite like the area around her apartment. Instead, the buildings seemed much more intact, though the streets were nearly empty. She’d seen a few looters and such, but not on such a massive level. When she had seen other people, she’d avoided them entirely.

Suddenly, Denise heard a woman screaming. “HELP! HELP!”

Denise froze, caught between the logical response of running away from this clear sign of danger, and going to help. She had to remind herself that she was no hero, and there was nothing she could do to help. All she could do, was get herself into even more danger than she already was.

“I’m not a hero,” Denise told herself as she heard another scream for help. She winced at that. “But I am a doctor, or at least, I used to be…”

With that, Denise picked up her backpack, which contained a few emergency medical supplies, and hurried towards the cries for help. She tried to keep down, hoping that no one would see her, and she managed to reach the source of the yells without being seen. Then, as she saw what was going on, she crouched down behind another car, watching the scene unfold with a mixture of curiosity and horror.

The woman who was frantically screaming for help, had her back almost pressed up against the front window of a clothing store. She had a baseball bat that she was desperately swinging back and forth, trying to keep her attackers from getting too close. There were nine of them, normal looking people who had her completely surrounded. They didn’t seem angry or violent, like the rioters had been. Instead, they were oddly calm and orderly.

Then Denise looked closer, and gasped in surprise. The people surrounding that woman, all had glowing green eyes. Glowing lines radiated out from around their eyes, almost looking like patterns from a circuit board. As Denise watched, the group all came at the woman at once. She hit one of them, an elderly man, though he didn’t even flinch. The rest of them grabbed her and pushed her to the ground, pinning her there while a teenage girl, put her hand on the woman’s forehead. The woman stopped screaming and went motionless.

While this was going on, the attackers didn’t say a word, yet they still worked together with an odd synchronization. Denise remained where she was for another minute, wanting to run but needing to know more. She was a scientist, and she needed to understand what was occurring. Finally, the woman who had previously been screaming, stood up and joined the others. Her eyes now glowed green, and Denise could see the glowing circuit pattern that radiated out from them along her skin.

“They infected her,” Denise mused, her mind racing over the ramifications of this. It appeared that Baltimore was undergoing a major outbreak, though their symptoms were definitely different from the people who she’d previously seen rioting. “What in the world is going on?”

The group of infected individuals abruptly split into two smaller groups, each containing five of them. And without any form of communication that Denise could see, each group turned and went in separate directions, though both groups walked towards nearby doors and vanished inside the buildings.

“We need to be quarantined before this spreads,” Denise said, not wanting to be trapped in the quarantine zone with those people.

Denise turned and ran, not only wanting to get away from those infected individuals, but also out of Baltimore before everything was locked down. However, she hadn’t gone far before she tripped and fell. She caught herself with her hands, right before her face would have smashed into the asphalt. Unfortunately, she scraped her palm in the process.

“Damn,” Denise muttered, quickly scrambling back to her feet, until she realized that her palm didn’t just sting…it itched and burned. It was a sensation that she hadn’t felt in months, but she immediately recognized it. “NO,” she gasped in horror. She stared at her palm, and the skin that was starting to turn blue. “Not again… Not now…”

Denise scrambled for one of the pockets on the side of her backpack, where she pulled out an already filled syringe. It had been months since she’d had an episode, but she still made sure to keep her medication close at hand. If she got the genetic stabilizer into her system quickly enough, she might be able to halt the episode before it went too far. She jabbed herself with the needle, without hesitation, desperately hoping that this worked.

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

Joselyn stood back, looking over the gathered heroes, and especially at the latest arrivals. The Guard had arrived on the scene just a few minutes after Witch Girl discovered that she could somehow walk right through the barrier, followed shortly by the solo heroes Marvel and Praxis. However, the additions that interested Joselyn the most, were the ones who’d only just arrived. These ones were the remaining members of Knight Force. Her family.

“About time you got here,” Joselyn teased her sister Evie, who was wearing a green and black costume, in a style very similar to the one she herself was wearing. And since Evie was in costume, she was also using her codename of Figment.

“Oh yeah,” Evie responded with a grin. “I went back to bed and got a few more hours of sleep.”

Joselyn just snorted. “Bite me…” Witch Girl had been standing back a short distance and came up, giving Evie a curious look. “This,” Joselyn announced, gesturing to Evie, “is my big little sister Figment.”

“Big little sister?” Witch Girl asked in confusion.

“Lady here was born a few years before me,” Evie explained with a smug look. “But I’m older than she is.”

Witch Girl blinked at that, then demanded, “How the hell does that work?”

“It’s complicated,” Joselyn and her sister said at the same time, right before they both burst into giggles.

Joselyn looked over, noticing the rest of Knight Force coming towards them. Her uncle Leon…AKA Neon, was the closest, and she absently noted that Mannequin from the Guard was giving him a wary look. That was obviously because of his days in the Elite, where he’d actually been teammates with Force, and Mannequin had been one of their enemies…and the catalyst for the team to disband.

“How’s my favorite niece?” Uncle Leon exclaimed, giving Joselyn a hug, much to her embarrassment.

“I thought I was your favorite niece,” Evie exclaimed, punching him in the arm.

Joselyn grinned. “And I bet he tells Katie that she is…”

“I thought I was,” her cousin Angie added as she came up with her brother Ryan. Of course, since they were both in costume, they were Agony and Shuriken at the moment.

And then, right beside her cousins, came her aunt Gina...AKA Target. In fact, Aunt Gina, even wore a white costume with a big red bullseye on both her chest and back. She gave Joselyn a quick hug, then asked, “Where’s your father?”

Joselyn gestured towards the command tent. “He’s in there, trying to figure out what those assholes are planning…”

Her uncle Leon nodded and stared at the barrier. She couldn’t see his expression since his mask covered his entire face, but she could hear the frustration in his voice as he muttered, “Damn it, Scott. Every time I think you can’t get any crazier, you go and prove me wrong.”

“It’s not your fault that Force is an idiot,” Aunt Gina told him, right before the two of them started for the command tent.

Joselyn watched them leave, then paused to look around. Exile had vanished around the time Witch Girl had walked through the barrier, though Joselyn’s sixth sense told her that the golden woman was still watching them…just from a greater distance. Somehow, Joselyn didn’t think that Exile was going to make another appearance, but that wasn’t her sixth sense talking, just her common sense. That woman clearly didn’t want to get involved.

“Too bad,” Joselyn mused. If nothing else, she would have liked to talk to her. Then, she considered all the people who were present and willing to help, and shook her head in disgust. “We have enough power here to easily conquer a small country, and we can’t even walk into Baltimore.”

Suddenly, Witch Girl exclaimed, “I think my dad has something…”

Joselyn turned her attention to the command tent, where the Face had come out with a sense of purpose. He walked towards the barrier, pausing in front of it before holding out his hand. There was a glow as he did something with magic, though Joselyn couldn’t tell what.

“Alleycat,” the Face called out. “Can you please come here…”

A woman with dark hair, naturally tan skin, and a gray and crimson costume walked towards the Face, casually asking, “What do you need?”

The Face looked at his teammate and asked, “Please attempt to pass through the barrier.”

“Are you out of your damn mind?” Alleycat asked, gesturing to Mega. “If she couldn’t break through that damn thing, what makes you think that I can?

“Me,” Witch Girl announced, sounding a little offended that her teammate was questioning her father’s judgement. “I got through.”

“Good point,” Alleycat reluctantly admitted. After Witch Girl had done that earlier, several other heroes had attempted to simply walk through the barrier as well, but none of them had succeeded. Obviously, Alleycat was remembering that, as she didn’t look the least bit confident in her own success.

Alleycat stepped up to the barrier, then reached out to touch it. Her arm passed through the barrier, and after making sure that she could pull it back, she stepped all the way through and vanished. Since the barrier was transparent, she could be seen a little from the other side, and Joselyn watched as the hero turned and came right back through.

“What the hell?” Alleycat demanded.

“How come we can get through?” Witch Girl asked Alleycat. “The only thing we in common is…” Then she paused with her eyes going wide in surprise.

“This confirms it,” the Face stated. Then in a louder voice, he announced, “I know the barrier’s weakness…”

All the heroes immediately pushed forward so they could hear. After spending hours, standing helplessly outside the barrier, each and every one of them was eager to make some progress, and this was the first bit that any of them had really seen.

“How do we get through?” Joselyn’s father asked, the eagerness clear in his voice.

“You cannot,” the Face admitted. “And neither can I.”

“Explain,” Icarus demanded, looking irritated and impatient.

The Face nodded at that, with his expression hidden behind his golden mask. “This barrier is high level magic,” he explained. “High level and very powerful.”

“I believe you’ve already mentioned that,” Joselyn’s father pointed out impatiently.

“Indeed, I have,” the Face agreed. “Every high level spell has an exception…what you might consider a loophole or an Achilles heel. For many, these might be seen as a flaw in the spell, but an experienced sorcerer like Baron Nevermore, would know how to turn this to their advantage. Instead of a weakness, this becomes an escape path so that he himself does not become trapped within.”

“And you’ve identified his back door into the system?” asked Interface, a member of the Guard.

Joselyn looked at Interface, who was a Hispanic man with a red and gray costume, with a few grey metallic pieces. She’d never met him before, but a short time ago, she’d learned that he had experience dealing with Circuit Monger, or at least, with the man who’d become Trojan, and eventually, Circuit Monger. From what she’d picked up, they even acquired their powers from the same source.

“Yes, I have,” the Face answered, though he didn’t sound very pleased by this. “The Slackers have informed us that Baron Nevermore initially returned to life by possessing the body of a teenage girl. It seems that he may still be using a female body, because when he crafted this barrier, he used that as the key to pass through it.”

“Dad,” Witch Girl blurted out with a worried look on her face.

Joselyn stared at Witch Girl in a sudden realization that was only confirmed by her sixth sense. “She’s like me…”

“I am sorry,” the Face told his daughter, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I would prefer to protect your privacy, but this is too important…”

Witch Girl slumped over, suddenly looking extremely self-conscious. “I understand…”

The Face slowly looked around the gathered heroes before announcing, “Only those who have changed genders can freely pass through the barrier…” There were some gasps of surprise, and a lot of attention was instantly focused on Witch Girl and Alleycat.

“Circuit Monger used to have a male body,” Icarus pointed out thoughtfully. “And if we assume that the Sinner and the Scepter aren’t replacements, but that they were brought back in new bodies the way Nevermore was…”

“Then three more of our foes will be free to pass through the barrier as well,” Radiant added.

“Alleycat and Witch Girl can pass through the barrier,” the Face said, definitely not sounding happy about it. “And if Hardshell were present, she would be able to go as well. Unfortunately, they do not have the power to defeat all of the enemies within.”

Joselyn stared at Witch Girl and Alleycat, feeling stunned at the revelation that they were both like her. She stepped towards the barrier, whispering, “This is why I had to come…” And with that, she stuck her arm into the barrier, up to her elbow. “What do you know,” she loudly announced, trying not to show how nervous and self-conscious she felt. “I used to be a guy before my powers developed…”

“You too?” Witch Girl blurted out in surprise, and a bit of relief. Joselyn grinned back at her.

“Way to go, sis,” Evie said, coming forward and giving Joselyn a hug. “I know that couldn’t have been easy…”

“It wasn’t,” Joselyn admitted, looking towards the other girls who’d changed genders. “But at least I’m not alone.”

Several seconds later, Mannequin stepped forward and announced, “I used to be a man, before some mad scientist stuffed me in this body…”

She was followed by Lady Hexx, who looked around defiantly and admitted, “I used to be a guy too, until Force knocked me into some toxic waste…”

There were a few gasps at that, and someone exclaimed, “No wonder you went after Force…”

“I can probably pass through the barrier,” Praxis said as she stepped forward.

“I should be able to,” Glamour Girl added as she stepped forward as well. She stared at the barrier with a fierce look of determination. “I couldn’t blast it, but if what you say is right, I should be able to just walk through…”

Chrome stared at Glamour Girl in stunned disbelief. “You were a guy?”

Glamour Girl shrugged, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “I still am,” she answered awkwardly. “Most of the time.”

“Damn,” a little girl zombie stepped forward, obviously not happy. Deadbeat scowled in disgust, muttering, “I guess that means I have to go too…”

“Ditto,” Mystik added, stepping forward and clenching her staff.

Invincible Woman and Ghost Boy shared an odd look before they stepped forward. Ghost Boy, the apparent sidekick, said, “I believe we qualify for entry as well.”

Next, Ms. Miracle and Counterweight stepped forward, obviously volunteering though neither said a word. A number of the heroes stared at Ms. Miracle in surprise, shocked that such a famous hero was one of those who would be able to get through the barrier.

“The original Ms. Miracle was my mom,” she announced, obviously uncomfortable with the attention. “I inherited her form along with her powers.”

“So,” Mega said, giving Ms. Miracle a sympathetic look. “Baron Nevermore didn’t kill you. He killed your mother…”

Several of the Miracle Men stepped close, with Rumor giving her a hug. Joselyn didn’t need her powers to tell her that their relationship was a bit more than just being friends and teammates.

“What the hell,” Kaboom commented as she stepped forward. “Those asshats need to go down. I’m in too.”

“And so am I,” Legacy stated with a dark expression that made Joselyn shudder. “Loki and I have unfinished business.”

“It seems that there is a lot of unfinished business to go around today,” Joselyn’s father said, not looking very happy. “We can’t let that interfere with the job. We have to put our personal issues on hold and remain professional.” He was staring straight at Legacy as he said this.

“Unbelievable,” Icarus exclaimed, staring in surprise at all of the heroes who’d stepped forward. Two of them were from his own team, Faction Zero, but he was clearly stunned by how many of them there were. “We have fifteen…gender switched people…”

“And only one of them is currently male,” the Face pointed, briefly looking at Ghost Boy. “The chances of seem seem…unlikely.”

“Unlikely or not,” Agent Briggs pointed out with a strange expression, “it seems that we have enough people who are able to pass through this barrier, that we can actually send in multiple teams.”

Marvel was standing a short distance behind Joselyn, and commented, “At one time, my fiancé would have been able to go through…but I really don’t think he’d be willing to go through that again…even to save Baltimore. Then again, I think he misses the powers…”

Agent Briggs gave her a curious look, and mused, “I know a sniper who would be perfect for this mission…”

Mystik looked around at all the other volunteers, then turned her attention to the Face. “I can probably change three more people,” she said, holding her staff up a little. “But it would wipe me out for the fight. Still, a three for one trade would probably be worth it…”

“Perhaps,” the Face agreed. “But those three would then be fighting in unfamiliar bodies, and there wouldn’t be time for them to adjust…”

“It takes awhile to get used to it,” Kaboom agreed. “My powers changed when I did, so there’s also that…”

Joselyn looked around, staring at each of the other people who’d stepped forward, stunned by just how many of them there were. When she’d first changed, she’d thought she was a freak, that no one would understand what it was like to go through an overnight sexy change. But as she’d learned, she wasn’t nearly as alone as she’d thought.

While she was standing there, her dad put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and saw him watching her with a worried expression. Of course, that was to be expected. She’d just volunteered to go in and fight some of the world’s most dangerous villains, and the situation was serious enough that he couldn’t say no, though he obviously wanted to.

“Now that we know who can get through the barrier,” he announced, his voice tense, though she knew that most of these people didn’t know him well enough to pick it out. “We need to decide on teams.”