By Jenny North
Artwork by Fraylim and Splutt

Trixie and I made our way back to Prodigy's garage and as we arrived she did an amusing little double-take when she realized that she had walked into a nearly exact copy of the old garage. Prodigy, still at the computer, glanced over his shoulder at us and gave Trixie a dirty look.

"Do me a favor and this time try not to invite anyone over who wants to kill us," he told her.

"My faux pas," she responded.

I walked over to where he was sitting. "I got her up to speed and we think we have a way in to the Sanctuary. How are things looking here?"

He squared his shoulders confidently and nodded in a self-assured manner. "We're pretty much fucked."

He turned back to the computer and pulled up a map of Faraday City that was covered with little red dots, each of which was surrounded by a circle. The circles overlapped to blanket the entire city.

"I'm guessing those aren't cell phone towers," I said.

"You're not far wrong, kid," Prodigy said. "They're broadcast devices. Demetria is taking her 'reconditioning' city-wide. She's going to affect every person in the city at once."

I looked at him in alarm. "Meaning that some people are going to go bat-shit crazy like Killdozer did?"

"Oh, it's so much worse than that," he said as he pulled up a schematic. "Look at these readings."

I stared at the screen. It was a complicated set of graphs and numbers.

"Mmm," I intoned as I nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Though, uh, maybe you should explain it for Trixie," I suggested.

He rolled his eyes. "Look. When the Turning Point hit, people for a hundred miles were exposed to mutagenic radiation that affected their DNA. Most of them will live long and happy lives and never realize it, and they'll just quietly pass it on to their kids. But if the metagene gets activated..."

"Super powers," I whispered.

"If they're lucky and it doesn't kill them outright. But, yes."

Trixie looked gravely at Prodigy. "You're saying her device is going to activate the metagene of every person in the city?"

"Yeah, and between that and the fact that some of them are going to go psychotic from the experience, you're looking at a catastrophe that'll make the Turning Point look like a sorority house pillow fight."

I knew he wasn't exaggerating. The day of the Turning Point, dozens of metahumans ascended simultaneously and it nearly destroyed the city as they struggled to control their new powers. Many didn't survive the experience, and the results were often explosive. Since that time the number of metahumans had grown dramatically as latent powers became active, but it had happened over time and these days Faraday City had a quarter of a million people living in it. But this time we weren't talking about dozens of people struggling with their powers, it would be most of the population, all at once. It wouldn't matter if the brainwashing worked or not, the number of accidental deaths would be in the tens of thousands. Or worse.

Trixie shook her head. "We have to warn Demetria. She's not insane, she—"

"She's counting on this," I said as I made eye contact with Prodigy. "She said she's building Utopia, remember? In one move she gets a quarter of a million new superheroes, all reconditioned to fight for truth and justice."

Trixie was horrified. "But it'll be chaos when all their powers activate all at once! And you said some of them become psychotic—"

"A whole lot of people are gonna die," I said.

"Mortar in the building blocks of her Utopia," Prodigy muttered.

Trixie looked at the map. "So, we have to destroy those transmitters, right?"

Prodigy nodded again. "Yeah, that'd be the 'we're fucked' part. They're broadcasting from warp space, probably from that Sanctuary of hers."

"Can we block the signal somehow?"

He considered that. "Yeah, maybe. But I'd need the modulation waveform information, and we can't get that from out here."

"Okay, so back to Plan A," I said. "We sneak in and get the...modu-wave thingy."

Trixie's eyes darted around as something seemed to occur to her. "Ohhh, that's not good. Demetria called for an all-hands gathering today. Everybody is going to be there. That's dozens of supers who all think that she walks on water."

"Fabulous," Prodigy said. "Bet you're gonna be sorry you missed seeing that," he said to me.

I looked at him, puzzled. "What are you talking about? I'm going with you."

He pointed at the computer. "Someone has to stay here and run the program to block the signal from out here. And unless you've got a Doctorate in Applied Physics stuffed into your bra, I'm guessing I'm the only one of us who knows what that 'wave thingy' is, so I have to go. And I need her to find my way around in there. So you're the lucky winner on computer duty."

"Can't you trigger it remotely?"

"Yeah, sure. My old computer setup could do it easily," he said. Then he snapped his fingers. "Oh, wait. That's the equipment that got reduced to its component molecules earlier today," he said sarcastically. "We have to make do with what I've got here."

"You're going to need me with you if things get ugly in there," I said.

"I would have said when things get ugly, but this is the team we got."

I thought quietly for a moment. "If you think I can run this computer program, it must be pretty easy to use, right?"

"Yes, even a complete idiot should be able to manage it, so you're qualified."

I nodded slowly. "I think maybe I have another solution," I said as I gave him a significant look.

He furrowed his brow for a moment before his eyes snapped wide in realization. "NO," he said emphatically. "Absolutely not. Abso-fucking-lutely n—"

* * * * *

"Can I open my eyes yet?" Caleb asked excitedly as I guided him into Prodigy's garage. At first when I'd gone to see him I was worried he wouldn't even want to speak to me, but he could never hold a grudge, even after that one time that we got into a heated argument over who would win in a fight, Robocop or the Terminator, and I may have said some impolitic things about where he could cram his Skynet. Anyway, after I apologized he was only too happy to help, especially when I informed him that I was about to make his greatest dream come true. ("Help save the city?" "Check." "Cute superheroines?" "Well...me and Trixie." "It's a start. I'm in.")

Now, Prodigy looked like he was about to have a brain aneurysm as I guided Caleb into his supposedly secret hideout.

"Caleb, for the last time, I told you, you don't have to close your eyes. Seriously, don't get your hopes up, it's not that impressive."

"C'mon, it's my first lair!"

I shook my head as Trixie and Prodigy stared at us incredulously. "Okay, we're here. Have a party."

Caleb opened his eyes and beheld the cluttered garage. "Huh," he said.

"And there it is," I said flatly as I spread my hands in a flourish.

He turned around, taking in the place. "Huh," he repeated.

I shrugged apologetically to the others for the delay as I turned to Caleb. "See, it's like I told you, it's really not all that—"

"This place is awesome!" Caleb cried.

"Huh?" I said.

He ran over to a workbench and started poring over the gadgets.

"Put that down!" Prodigy snapped.

"Holy cow, is this a bionic incubator?" Caleb said breathlessly. Then he ran to one of the racks that was piled with junk. "And this! Tell me this isn't one of Tectonica's pocket seismographs! Oh, my God, is that one of Keepsake's totem figurines? In mint condition?"

Prodigy turned to look at me. "I like him better than I like you," he said.

"That's not saying much."

"It really isn't."

*ZANNNG*!!

A bolt of silver-blue energy sizzled through the air dangerously close to where Trixie was standing. Stunned, we all turned to look at the source of the blast to see Caleb standing stock still as he delicately held an irregular-looking metallic object.

"Oops," he said.

"This is why I work alone," Prodigy growled. "All right, show and tell is over," he said as he snatched the device out of Caleb's hands. "Look with your eyes, not with your hands," he warned. "Or better yet, don't even do that."

Chagrined, Caleb made his way closer to where I was standing and spotted Trixie. He rushed over to introduce himself.

"Charmed, pretty lady," he said, taking her hand in a genteel gesture.

"Oh, Lord," I muttered. Trixie just seemed amused.

"My name's Caleb. I manage PG's online presence," he said to her. "Oh, crap, I shouldn't have said that. I should have used a code name. I-I mean, hi, my name is...uh..."

"Flamebait?" I deadpanned.

"Hey, that's not bad," he said.

"Thanks."

"Kind of funny you just pulled that off the top of your head, considering when you needed a code name you couldn't even—"

"Uh huh, irony is hilarious. Can we move this along? Countless lives at stake and all?"

"Right this way, nincompoop," Prodigy said as he yanked Caleb over to the computer. I thought Caleb was going to plotz at the notion of having access to the machine, and apparently Prodigy noticed it, too. "Ah ah ah! No touchy-touchy!" he said as he grabbed Caleb by the shoulders and pushed him down into the chair. "Okay, here's what I need from you. First Rule: Don't touch anything. Conveniently, that's also Rules 2 through 99. Got it?"

"Y'know, PG warned me you were a charmer, but you're just electric in person, aren't you?" Caleb said.

Prodigy gave him a deadly look, and Caleb's jokey attitude vanished. Having been on the receiving end of that glare, I felt sympathetic.

"Listen, harebrain," Prodigy growled in as gravelly a voice as I'd ever heard him use, "the only reason you're here is because we didn't have time to run to the pet store and train a monkey to do this job. All you have to do is listen in on this communicator, and when I give the word—and only when I give the word—you punch in the code I give you and push this button," he said as he pointed to the computer. "Your ass does not leave this chair until I get back, comprende?"

"What if I have to use the bathroom?"

Prodigy maintained the intensity of his glare while his eyes widened just the teeeeensiest bit.

Caleb nodded nervously. "I'll hold it," he decided.

Trixie sidled up beside me and commented, "I know I really shouldn't talk considering that my mentor brainwashed me and is threatening to destroy the city, but I definitely think you could do a lot better than this guy."

Prodigy approached us. "So, what's your big plan for sneaking inside this 'Sanctuary?' Demetria is going to have her entire force in there, so this had better be good."

"Oh it is," Trixie said. A wicked grin spread across on her face as she presented the glittering crystal pendant she'd recovered from Harridan. "Tell me, Prodigy. Are you familiar with the curse of Venus Castina?"

* * * * *

"This is a terrible idea," Prodigy said.

"No, it's not. Just stay positive," I said as Trixie gave me a knowing little look for stealing her line.

"Glamour and misdirection. It worked for Harridan," Trixie said. "I never had any idea. Besides, the Sanctuary is going to be packed with people and we need to sneak in unnoticed."

"Trixie and I should be able to just walk right in," I said. "We were both welcome there, but Demetria thinks you and I died in the explosion and that Harridan dealt with Trixie. So she would have no reason to go out of her way to tell people that she and I aren't on the guest list anymore. So we just walk in alongside Trixie here and we're part of the club."

"You mean the fucking Girl Scouts," Prodigy grumped as Trixie, Caleb and I all smirked at each other. The Morphex crystal had done a number on my mentor, who now appeared to be a pretty blonde teenage heroine dressed in a skimpy bubblegum pink leather costume with baby blue highlights. He was short and cute and looked more like a skanky teen girl who was all set to go to a rave rather than an actual heroine to be taken seriously. I had to admit it must have been the perfect cover for Harridan, as absolutely no one would have expected the hardened and aggressive warrior woman to be hidden in such a perky and diminutive package. Much less my aging and prickly mentor.

He plucked disconsolately at the leather outfit. "I look like Tactical Barbie," he grumbled.

Even his voice was cute and bubbly. I couldn't stop grinning. "You so seldom see a hero costume done in pastels, but you really pull it off," I teased.

He shot me a dark look and pressed his lips together into the most adorable pout as he wrinkled his nose like a little bunny. "Don't you dare fucking enjoy this," he warned.

"I could just eat you up with a spoon," Trixie said with a leer.

I arched an eyebrow and looked down at him, enjoying the fact that I was taller than him for once. "You'd best watch your language, young lady," I said, doing a fair approximation of a mom voice.

Prodigy squared his petite shoulders and was obviously just about to tell me off. However, as he took a deep breath to do so the top buckle on the front of his bustier popped loose.

"Eep!" he exclaimed in a perky little chirp as he madly fumbled with the clasp to avoid exposing himself.

I turned to look at Caleb. "There, you see? That's why a bustier on a costume is a bad idea," I told him.

"I still think the belt is cool," he muttered.

Caleb then wheeled his chair over next to us and said to Trixie, "Hey, if we survive this, can I borrow that crystal doohickey?"

Trixie looked puzzled. "Why on earth would you want—"

"He wants to use it to sneak into the girls' locker room," Prodigy said.

We all turned to look at him.

"What? I'm old, I'm not dead."

I gave a slight shrug as I made eye contact with Trixie. "Well, the day's not over yet."

Before he could reply, she opened up her warp space portal to access the walk-in closet 'waiting room' that connected to the Sanctuary. "We need to get moving. I've no idea how long this transformation lasts and I'd rather not have it wear off at an inopportune moment."

"Good luck, girls!" Caleb called after us with a huge grin. Both Prodigy and I gave him a look, and Trixie, perhaps unconsciously sensing that she was the only genuine female on the team made a queer little face at the remark.

We filed into the small room and the portal closed behind us, quickly replaced by a new portal as Trixie entered the second code. We then stepped through it and I couldn't help but pause for a moment to admire the stunning vista in front of us and the entrance to the garden. I had to admit it was still quite breathtaking.

"Unbelievable," Prodigy whispered, taking in the scene.

"I know, right? It's incredible how they—"

"Would you fucking look at this place? Unparalleled access to the greatest technology the world has ever known and they build a goddamn lawn. Those stupid hippies are probably growing hemp."

"Oh, for—"

"Ladies, welcome back," a woman's voice came. I turned and saw a tall tough-looking heroine with taut muscles and a challenging demeanor flanked by two other equally imposing women. The one who spoke had her hands on her hips and as she looked me up and down I noticed the fingers of her right hand twitch just slightly within quick reach of the lethal-looking blaster slung on her hip.

Trixie quickly stepped forward. "Calamity! It sure is busy here today, huh? Lots of people," she volunteered conversationally as she noted the traffic coming in from the adjoining entrance portals. But when the other woman didn't respond, Trixie smiled politely and continued. "I don't think you met Prodigious Girl the last time she was here. She's a friend."

"Is that right."

I nodded. "Yep, Demetria showed me around and invited me back. Loved the garden. Big fan." She continued to stare at me challengingly, so I took a half-step forward. "You like gardening? You look like you've done some hoeing in your time."

I held my breath as I maintained my gaze, mentally playing out how this fight could go. None of the scenarios I worked out in my head ended particularly well for us.

Calamity chuckled. "Well, you've got more spirit than most of the bleach blonde bims that come through here. Oh, howdy, Candy Scrapper! Didn't see you there," she said as she smirked at Prodigy.

Trixie and I nervously cut our eyes over at each other as I quietly prayed that Prodigy would have the good sense to stay in character and not—

"Blow me, Sasquatch," Prodigy shot back in his cute little voice.

Calamity laughed out loud. "God, you always crack me up, princess. You kids move on, we need to keep this area clear."

I quietly breathed a sigh of relief as Trixie led us down one of the paths. "That was a really good idea to answer her the way Harridan would have answered," I said to Prodigy.

He peered up at me through his blonde bangs. "What nonsense are you blathering about?" He snapped his fingers twice at Trixie. "Hey, Princess Di. Get me to a computer."

Trixie tensed up. The expression on her face told me her patience was wearing thin.

I shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. He gets cranky in the afternoons if he doesn't get his nap."

Trixie led us to the library and we found a little cubicle off in a quiet corner with a computer.

"So what now?" I said. "We search under 'E' for 'Evil Plans?'"

"I doubt they'd be that accommodating," Trixie said.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Prodigy said as he retrieved a device from his belt pouch. "They did offer us a key." He held up the thumb drive that Demetria had given me, the one I'd used to hack Prodigy's computer.

"Will that work?" I asked.

"With a little finesse." He turned to Trixie. "Hey, blondie. I need a few minutes. Stand guard and make sure we're not disturbed."

To hear my mentor's dictatorial sass coming out of the mouth of a cute blonde teenager bent my brain, and Trixie looked like she was about ready to smack some respect into him. But, as usual, he had a point. I made eye contact with her and through a complicated series of eyebrow movements tried to apologize for him and get her to back down. Eventually with a humph she stepped outside.

Ten minutes later, both Trixie and I were getting nervous as the place began to clear out and we started to look more conspicuous. As I looked helplessly at the screen I had no idea what Prodigy was doing and wondered if I'd even realize if he'd been successful, like if there would be some friendly beep from the computer or one of those big "ACCESS GRANTED" pop-ups that you always see in the movies. Finally I saw a map of the city pop up with the overlapping circles.

"Caleb, are you there?" I said on the I-Comm.

"I didn't touch anything!" he protested, a little too vehemently.

Prodigy shot me a warning look.

"Yeah, stand by. I think we've got the code for you."

Prodigy read out the number and made Caleb read it back twice. Then he looked at me apprehensively. "Now hit Enter."

"Got it," Caleb's voice came back.

Tense seconds ticked by. Then several more. The screen hadn't changed.

"Um, should that map look any different now?" I asked.

"What did you do?" Prodigy snarled into the communicator.

"I did what you told me!" Caleb exclaimed. "I punched in the code just like you said! I pushed Enter, just like you said! Monkey push button!"

Trixie poked her head back inside. "What's going on? Is it working?"

Prodigy didn't seem to be his usual belligerent self, and my eyes narrowed to slits as I looked at him. "Are you kidding me with this? Your invention didn't work?"

He held up a finger defensively. "If we had been using the equipment in my old garage, this would have worked!"

"Oh, my God," I moaned as I slumped to the side and buried my face in my hand.

Trixie leaned past me to examine the screen. "Wait. It's working. Look!"

Sure enough, the display had changed and the broadcast circles were now a bright yellow. Prodigy frantically typed on the keyboard and even before he said anything I knew it wasn't good news.

"They've started broadcasting," he said.

* * * * *

"How long do we have?" I said.

"I don't know," Prodigy replied as he typed madly on the computer. "I can't tell from here. Right now Demetria is psychically linking herself to everyone in the entire city. Once she's done with that, she'll start making changes, and then..." He didn't finish.

Trixie looked at the map. "Will it affect us here in the Sanctuary?"

"No, we're safe here in warp space. She's broadcasting from here, but we can't just pull the plug, either. Right now she's plugging into the minds of thousands of people. If we just shut it down while they're all connected, there's no knowing the amount of psychic damage that could be done."

"Can you shut it off from here?" I asked.

Prodigy shook his head. "It must be a standalone system. I can't even tell where it is. Enchantrix?"

Trixie shrugged helplessly. "It's just...secrecy is anathema to how she runs things here. People can go wherever they want. I've no idea where something like that would even be."

My eyes cut over to Prodigy. Even with his features hidden under a magical disguise, I could see not only his worry for our current situation but also how rattled he was that Demetria could be capable of doing something this horrific. For a moment his girlish countenance mixed with his ever-present scowl and I wondered what he and Demetria had been like when they were still young and full of hope and—

I gasped. "I know where it is," I said. "Her meditation garden. She said it was private and I saw a small building there. Maybe there's something underground."

"That's on the other side of the compound," Trixie said. "That's a long way to go without being noticed."

Just then the computer beeped and Prodigy turned to look at it. He hurriedly typed something and then forcibly yanked the thumb drive out of the computer.

"Do they know we're here?" I asked as I read the worry on his face.

"They know somebody's in here somewhere. We need to get moving. They're going to be searching the whole place for—" Right in the middle of his sentence his perky chipper voice cut down in to a much lower register. "—intruders," he finished in his normal male voice. A moment later the illusion of the blonde teenage heroine faded, leaving my gruff and aging mentor sitting there in her place. An elderly male hero who was going to be very very conspicuous among the superpowered young women that populated the Sanctuary.

We sat there for a moment just staring at each other, all of us trying to figure out how to get out of there and across the compound without drawing the attention of dozens of the superpowered warrior women who were actively hunting for us.

Trixie found her voice first. "You know, I would give real money to know what my horoscope said was going to happen to me today."

My eyes scanned around the library and I spotted a small private cubicle with a video screen and camera. "Hey," I said, prodding Trixie. "Can that thing get an outside line?"

"Sure, but—hey, where are you going?"

"I need to make a call. Wait here."

* * * * *

Twenty minutes later we were still hiding in the library and had moved from room to room as we tried to avoid being spotted by the search parties who were tearing the place apart. Since Trixie had a chance of blending in we sent her out to try and misdirect the searchers, but we counted three teams of two searching the place so she had her work cut out for her. Meanwhile, Prodigy and I hid in an office that overlooked the outside where we could see even more people searching.

After a few minutes of anxious waiting, the quiet made me uncomfortable. "So, any words of wisdom from your years of experience dealing with these kinds of situations?" I tried.

"Yeah. The bad guys have ears, so shut up or they'll find us."

I nodded.

We heard the sound of someone's hand on the doorknob and tensed up as it slowly turned and the door started to open. It was too slow and tentative to be Trixie since she knew we were in here. We knew we'd have to take out whoever it was quickly and quietly, but we had to wait for her to step all the way inside.

"Mari!" I said with relief, recognizing her as she entered. I waved Prodigy off and hurried over to her and closed the door. "Mari, we need to get to Demetria's meditation garden. She—"

She signed something frantically, and I struggled to follow it.

"How many? Where?" I said as I watched her response.

"What's she saying?" Prodigy whispered.

"I'm not getting all of it. Something about trackers or enhanced senses..."

She touched her nose repeatedly.

"Tracking us by scent," Prodigy said.

"Swell. Is it too late to cover our tracks with aromatherapy?"

The door opened quickly and Trixie ducked inside. "Good, you found them. They're almost here, I gotta risk 'porting us outside. Mari, try to cover for us."

A moment later we found ourselves in the bushes outside the library as we ducked down and watched a stream of people hurry past.

"This is ridiculous," Prodigy growled. "We should make a run for it. We're going to get caught out here."

"We can't. It's—" Trixie started, but then froze when two young heroines in capes wandered nearby. "It's too far," she whispered when they passed. "And there's almost certainly guards. If they spot us, they'll bring the whole place down on us."

I checked the time again. "Come on..." I muttered impatiently.

Trixie peered at me. "Who did you contact, anyway? The Liberty Squadron?"

Prodigy and I shared an uneasy glance. "We're not really on speaking terms with them at the moment," he said.

"Yeah, they hate us enough to ignore my call but not enough to get off their butts and come arrest us. That's an annoyingly specific level of hate."

Trixie looked puzzled. "Okay, so who did you call?"

Off in the distance we heard the unmistakable sounds of an intense combat break out from over by the entrance portals as distant explosions sounded and a variety of energy blasts scorched through the air. There was a lot of yelling and screaming and we watched everyone rush in that direction to repel the invaders. From off in that direction we saw a bunch of figures take to the skies above the tree line as a pitched battle broke out between the two forces.

Trixie was about to say something when from off in the distance one of the flying figures in powered armor gave the distinctive cry, "SUPERNOVA STRIKE!" as he let fly with a burst of razor-sharp energy flechettes.

"Blaze?" she said incredulously.

"He did say he knew a lot of people," I said as I watched the mass of supers in the battle under the protective dome of the Sanctuary. "I guess he wasn't kidding."

"What the heck did you say to get him to come here?"

Twenty minutes earlier, I'd glanced over my shoulder to make sure Prodigy and Trixie were out of earshot as I dialed up Blaze's contact information. I was dreading this and wasn't keen to have to do it in front of an audience. As I waited for the call to connect, half of me hoped he wouldn't pick up. But then I thought to myself, maybe he'd see reason.

I really do crack myself up sometimes.

His image popped up on the vidscreen. "Well, Tits, this is an unexpected surprise. Need help getting out of your bra?"

Don't do it. Don't do it. I told myself. "Blaze," I said through gritted teeth. "I'm in trouble. So's Trixie. We're pinned down and we need your help."

"Uh huh. I'm not an idiot, girl. I know there's a warrant out for your arrest."

I nodded. "Yep. Awesome. Come and get me. Bring lots of backup."

"Yeah, if your boobs were brains—"

"—I'd be a rocket scientist. Heard it. Look, Blaze, there's some crazy stuff going on to the people of the city, right?"

He looked uncertain. "...Yeah, so?"

"So, I'm at ground zero. I'm in a huge, um, armored stronghold filled with supers who are looking to take over the city. You can get to it through the warp gate portals. I'm sending you the coordinates now," I said as I typed into the computer.

He didn't say anything, so I decided to push it over the top. "Dude, this is the big score you've been dreaming about. Come in, kick ass, save the city. You said you know all those heroes and villains, just get them to come here and you can save the day."

Blaze made a slow smile. "Aww, you had me going for a minute there, Tits. You just want to me to bring the bad guys and vigilantes to you so you can corral them all in one place to get the collar and make yourself look good. Probably got your little girlfriends there to help you, don't you?" he taunted.

I gritted my teeth again and heard my knuckles crack as I squeezed my hands into tight fists. He wanted to do this the hard way? Fine. We'd do this the hard way.

"Okay, why don't you just sit this one out," I told him. "You can just stay home, do your nails and sing the sissy song, Nancy."

He froze and his mouth dropped open as though he wasn't sure if he'd heard me correctly. I couldn't see his eyes under the visor of his helmet but his head cocked just slightly to the side as he obviously started to make the connections in his brain, linking Chris, the high schooler and bosomy crossdresser who'd publicly humiliated him by making him sing the 'sissy song' with the equally bosomy but decidedly female Prodigious Girl he now faced.

"Patterson?" he whispered incredulously.

"Did I mention I have a video of your sissy performance? I love your singing voice, you should try out for glee club. I'm thinking about posting it online so everybody can enjoy it and see you for what you really are." Much to my eternal regret I didn't in fact have such a video, but of course he didn't know that. However I had no doubt that hitting him that hard in his big fat narcissistic ego could lead to only one possible outcome.

His face contorted into a grimace of absolute fiery loathing. "I'm gonna fucking annihilate you, you little fag."

"Yeah, well, you know where to find me. My advice? Bring plenty of backup. I did." Then I hung up.

Now, as Trixie stared at me in disbelief, I just nodded simply. "I just prevailed on his better nature," I told her.

There was the sound of another explosion in the distance.

"We should go," Trixie said.

"Good idea."

* * * * *

I carried Prodigy and Trixie and flew across the Sanctuary and kept as low a profile as possible by flying just above the tree line. Meanwhile Trixie stayed alert in case a quick teleport was needed, but by this point things were so chaotic that we apparently didn't warrant a second glance. To a casual observer Prodigy obviously didn't fit with the rank and file, but since I was holding on to him I supposed they thought he was my prisoner. Or, since we weren't shooting at anybody, we were just somebody else's problem.

We landed in the small courtyard still on our guard, but apart from the faint sounds of fighting in the distance it seemed as serene and peaceful as the last time I'd been there. I thought that was ironic since when Demetria had invited me here I'd been on my guard for an attack that never came, but somehow I didn't think I'd end up being so lucky a second time.

I motioned toward the small building. "This is it. I bet..."

My voice trailed off as I turned to face Prodigy, who had stopped and was staring at the life-size statue of Starbrite in the center of the fountain that was surrounded by the brilliant luminescent flowers that sparkled against the water.

My mouth moved mutely as I struggled to think of what to say, or even if I should say anything at all. "I-I'm sorry—" I started.

"Let's go," Prodigy said, all business.

We hadn't taken a half dozen steps before four of Demetria's charges entered the courtyard. Prodigy tensed up for a fight but I just turned to him and said, "You go. Enchantrix and I will hold them off for you."

"We will?" Trixie said.

Prodigy's eyes cut over at the group that was forming and then back at me and raised an eyebrow.

I leaned close. "That's Beatbox," I said quietly. "Class 2 sonic energy projector, vulnerable to energy attacks." When Prodigy gave me a surprised look, I gave him a wry smile. "You know, I have been reading those metahuman dossiers you gave me."

Prodigy nodded. "Right. Have fun, ladies," he said as he headed into the building.

As the group of supers moved closer, Trixie edged up to me to prevent them from flanking us.

"So, uh, you've got this, right? You know everybody's weaknesses?"

"Mostly," I nodded nervously, drawing a more intent look from her. "Well, I haven't read all of them," I hedged. "We'll be okay as long as we fight people from the beginning of the alphabet."

Just then, a hugely-muscled woman leapt in and hit the ground so hard that the earth shook.

"Surrender, Prodigious Girl, to the might of Zendarra!"

"Crap."

"On your left! On your left!" I cried as another bolt of crimson energy came sizzling through the air towards Trixie. She barely managed to get a portal up in time to redirect it before two more lethal blasts came streaking in.

Outnumbered five to two against these gals in the garden, we knew we were in trouble. We would have had a better chance of success if we could have led them on a running fight through the Sanctuary or towards the rest of the fighting, but unfortunately our primary goal was to block anyone from entering the building after Prodigy, so we found ourselves confined to the suddenly claustrophobic courtyard area as we executed a frenzy of feints and retreats.

On the plus side, between my flight and Trixie's teleportation we were able to keep them from boxing us in, and we were taking frantic advantage despite the fact that Trixie frequently had to use her portals to deflect attacks and I still needed to get close to hit anyone. However, our adversaries were young and relatively inexperienced, and although they'd clearly gotten some combat training from Demetria, they hadn't gotten as much live-fire experience as we had, which gave us some unique advantages. For instance, while they were smart enough to use coordinated attacks against us to try and fence us in, they hadn't fully intuited how much support Trixie was giving me...had they all simply focused on taking her down first, I would have been easy pickings. However, being inexperienced, the young heroes were especially vulnerable to psychological warfare.

And I, dear Reader, am a truly stupendous smartass.

So while good tactics might dictate that they focus on Enchantrix, my steady stream of taunts and jibes enraged them to the point that pretty much everybody was trying to get the shot that took me down. That wasn't particularly good news for me especially against those odds, but I could take a punch better than Trixie could.

I paused in mid-flight for just a moment to address our opponents. "I gotta say, you guys are so pretty! Well, not you, Zee, obviously, but the rest of you look good. I bet you have a day spa here, right? See, my cuticles are a mess from all this fighting, but you gals look so elegant and glam!"

I spun madly out of the way to avoid the sudden hail of attacks that came my way from the angry young heroines who were eager to prove they were tough and not to be underestimated. My time as Prodigious Girl had taught me how quickly people zeroed in solely on my appearance, so I figured this would be a sore spot with them, as well. Zendarra in particular took a swing that nearly took my head off.

"Whoa! Hey, Zee, don't take it so personally! I know a guy with laser vision, and I bet he could make short work of that mustache. Ha ha—OOF!"

Her punch connected that time and sent me sailing into a fire blast from her comrade, and I tried not to cry out as pain lanced through my side. My completely undeserved bluster notwithstanding, Zendarra was unfortunately proving to be quite the bruiser who shrugged off many of my best shots.

But then out of the blue I recalled a lesson from my childhood. Apparently when I was a tot I had a tendency to play rough with my toys, so one Christmas my parents had the bright idea to buy me really durable toys like metal Tonka trucks and Fisher Price toys that were made of seemingly indestructible plastic. But after only a few minutes of play, I discovered something: unbreakable toys are useful for breaking other toys.

"Taxi!" I yelled as I grabbed Zendarra and launched her with all my might at the building. It seemed to be solidly built and if my plan didn't work I figured it might at least make an impression. Zendarra, seeing where I'd aimed her, managed to twist herself around to try and punch through the wall fists first, but fortunately Trixie was equally quick and portaled the speeding heroine twenty feet to the side and caused her to ram full-speed into a heroine with an energy rifle who'd been giving Trixie some trouble.

"You guys are the worst!" I laughed, noting with satisfaction that the gal with the rifle seemed to be staying down.

One by one, we whittled them down and while I hated to admit it, my (admittedly spotty) knowledge of their weaknesses was extraordinarily helpful...for instance, Electro Lass didn't last long once we'd dunked her in the fountain, shorting her out and stunning her into unconsciousness. (Plus she looked like she was dressed like a stripper, which was just idiotic. Who fights like that?) And through our frantic improvisations Trixie and I even learned some new uses for our powers. At first I was focused on knocking out our foes, but I quickly learned that a bit of flight and a strong heave-ho could toss the ones without movement powers a goodly distance, and if they weren't knocked unconscious from the landing it got them out of our hair for a while. Meanwhile, Trixie had discovered that if she fired one of her energy blasts into one of her portals she could tag someone from any direction she wanted, which made quick work of one of our opponents who was susceptible to such attacks.

I hovered over the fountain to catch my breath and raised Trixie on my I-Comm.

"Mercuria is starting to piss me off," I said. She was super-fast and agile and nearly impossible to hit. "Any thoughts?"

"She seems really fast...on the ground."

"Ha. Bait and Switch. Got it."

I landed on the ground and a split second later Mercuria was on me, hitting me dozens of times before I could land even one punch. But she was so focused on me that she didn't notice Trixie's portal at our feet until it was too late.

The next thing we knew we were a hundred feet above the garden in free fall. Or at least she was. Gravity had her in a nice predictable vector straight down, which gave me an easy target and I flew up and tagged her with an impressive kick that sent her sailing towards some distant trees. She wasn't going to be walking that off anytime soon.

"Nice kick. Did she bounce off the dome?" Trixie wondered.

"Nah. That one's not gonna have the distance."

Our final foe—numerically and alphabetically—was Zendarra. By that point both Trixie and I were exhausted so I threw Zee across the courtyard to buy us a few seconds and flew up next to my haggard-looking teammate.

I gasped for breath and looked over at Trixie. "Can't you...I dunno...?" I waggled my fingers vaguely in an approximation of casting a spell.

"What do you think I've been doing?" she groaned. "Can't you...?" She crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out as she bopped her fist against the side of her head.

"Crap, here she comes again," I said as I braced for the impact.

"Try and hold her!" Trixie called just before Zendarra plowed into my midsection and tried to tackle me. I managed to stay upright by using my flight to get leverage and sneaked around her as she overextended herself on a punch. It made me feel a little better to know that she was getting tired, too, and I was able to get her into an improvised hold as she struggled to break free.

"Now what?" I yelled.

I got my answer as another of Trixie's portals opened up at our feet and we fell right in. I was a bit disoriented since we came out sideways and for a moment almost used my flight to stay aloft before we splashed down into the fountain with me on top of Zendarra, who was submerged underwater.

"Oh, I get it," I said as Zendarra struggled under the water. The splashing wasn't helping at all, and she managed to kick me in a tender spot but I managed to hold on to her like I was wrestling with a slippery, feisty, thrashing...I don't know, dolphin, I guess. A problem dolphin with anger management problems that didn't get enough love in its childhood. Who could also bench press a truck.

Zendarra stopped struggling and for a minute I thought I had her before she managed to slip an arm free and she roughly elbowed me in the boob. She didn't have much fight in her by that point but it stung enough that she managed to slip loose and toss me off.

Bleary-eyed, I saw her stagger to her feet before Trixie blasted her. And then blasted her again. And then I saw a large boulder that had been on the far side of the courtyard appear through a portal fifty feet above her and come smashing down on her head. Zendarra collapsed in a heap and Trixie blasted her once again for good measure.

"I think you got her," I groaned as I clambered to my feet and out of the fountain.

We both looked uncertainly around the quiet courtyard and carefully counted the number of unconscious bodies.

"We did it!" Trixie cried.

We had started to move towards each other when I noticed something in the sky behind her. It was coming up fast, and as it roared closer I heard an all-too-familiar high-pitched whine build up to a critical pitch.

"GET DOWN!" I screamed as I shoved her away.

The words were barely out of my mouth when the entire courtyard was covered with a deadly rain of energy flechettes that cut down everything in their path. I cried out as they lacerated my skin, cutting mercilessly. But as I recovered my first thought was of Trixie and I saw her lying face-down on the other side of the courtyard, unmoving. From the blast pattern on the ground it looked like I had been at the center of the attack, but she wasn't invulnerable like I was.

"Trixie—!"

"You've got problems of your own, Patterson," Quasarblaze sneered as he landed between me and her. He was wearing some new armored suit that was much more heavily armed than I'd seen him wear before. He looked me up and down and even through his full-coverage helmet I was sure he was leering at me since I was still dripping wet from my fight in the fountain.

"So you won your first wet T-shirt contest as a girl. You must be proud, Tits."

"You usually announce that attack before you fire it off," I retorted as I winced at the painful cuts.

"I figured you wouldn't mind since we're old friends." He made a gesture with his hand and before I could react he launched a fight of mini-rockets at me and I was sent flying as they slammed me with their concussive force.

My head was spinning, but I cried out to him as I found my bearings. "Blaze! There's no need to fight, we're on the same side!"

"Same side," he sneered as he fired off a laser blast that I barely managed to dodge at the last second. "What side is that, the top-heavy tranny bimbo side?" he said with a taunt as he tagged me with a particle beam that painfully singed my bicep. "I don't know how the fuck that's you in there, Patterson, but you humiliated me in front of everybody, and now I'm going to return the fav—OOF!"

I slammed into him full-speed and we hit the base of the fountain hard enough to shatter the stone basin. I followed up with a couple of vicious body blows that dented his armor but didn't have nearly as much effect as I'd hoped. Any hope that I could just tear him out of that tin can was dashed as I heard a click-click-click followed by a searing burst of pain as he hit me with some kind of energy attack. Dazed, my ears were buzzing and at first I thought I was seeing stars before I realized I was looking at the starburst-like flowers that surrounded the fountain.

Flowers...

I heard Blaze's jetpack roar to life as he flew above me to put some distance between us. I knew I was in no shape to take him in the condition that I was in, but I had an idea. But to pull it off I'd have to get close. Very close.

I laughed once. "You know the stupid thing? I wanted to be just like you," I told him. "Not as much of a dickwad, of course," I said as I dodged one of his blasts. "But I wanted the flashy name, the cool costume, people looking up to me. 'Cause that's what heroes are supposed to be like, right? But you know what, Blaze? They lied to us. They just want us to follow in their footsteps so we can validate the jerkass decisions they made. We don't have to be like them."

"I'm not gonna be like them," he said. "'Cause I'm gonna show 'em how it's done. And I'm gonna start by showing the world who and what you really are, girl."

As I stood there in the courtyard and I looked up at him flying overhead, I braced myself as I saw his suit start to deploy a number of launchers for all sorts of evil-looking weapons.

"Yeah, well, there's one thing you haven't considered," I told him.

"What's that?"

I tensed my muscles. "I can fly, too, dumbass."

I launched myself at him with as much speed as I could muster and slammed into him with terrifying velocity. But instead of just punching him I held on and grappled with him, clawing at his armor as I tried to work my fingers into one of the seams. The next thing I knew my entire body felt like it was on fire as he tagged me with some kind of neural disruptor—which was totally illegal, that cheating bastard—and then hit me with everything he had. Electroshock shielding, hypersonic emitters, and some things I didn't even know the names for that were definitely ruining my ordinarily sunny disposition. All I knew at that point was that I was in excruciating pain, and I would have given anything for it to stop. But through the agony, I kept my grip on him and pulled at his armor as hard as I possibly could.

And that's when I blacked out.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground. As I forced my eyes open I saw the statue of Starbrite above me and I realized I must have fallen into the shattered fountain among the flowers, and as I lay there I thought that this would be a fitting place to end it, here at the feet of the young heroine who had sacrificed her own life in the pursuit of justice.

"Any last words, Patterson?" Blaze taunted. I turned my head and saw that he was standing only a few feet away from me, but I could barely hear him through the buzzing in my ears.

"Yeah," I gasped. "You never learned. Even the older heroes never forgot...the importance...of...teamwork..."

I slumped back amidst the rubble and as he scoffed and raised his arm to finish me off, he finally heard the buzzing, too.

A dark cloud descended from the garden and soon a swarm of flying insects filled the courtyard: the bees that had been pollinating the flowers. And there, standing confidently on the other side of the courtyard, was Bhramari.

Blaze saw her and laughed. "Bug girl?" he snorted. "Yeah, that's hilarious. I'm supposed to be afraid of a mosquito bite? News flash, bitch, I'm protected in here in climate-controlled comfort."

"Uh huh," I told him. "Mostly."

As the swarm descended on him he looked down and noticed the seam on his armor that I'd been pulling at earlier. The damage I'd inflicted was minimal, hardly more than a dent, but it had opened up a small hole. Just big enough.

"AAAGGGHHH!" Blaze screamed as the insects poured in through the breach. He shot wildly and ineffectually into the air as he writhed about in agony before he finally collapsed in a heap.

Mari walked over and stood over his defeated form, licked her index finger, and then made a mark in the air.

"That's one," she mouthed mutely.

"Nice," I groaned as she helped me to my feet. "Oh, God, Trixie," I said as I saw her lying on the ground. I started to go check on her before Mari touched me on the arm and signed a message.

"You're sure she's okay?" I asked.

She nodded.

I groaned again as I felt the lacerations, burns and bruises across my entire body and tried to keep from falling over. And as I looked down at myself I noticed that the rends and tears across my costume weren't repairing themselves like they usually did, either. I guessed that Blaze must have hit me with some kind of localized EMP attack to fry the nanobots, probably in anticipation of hitting me with another corrosive acid shell to dissolve my costume so I'd be running around naked.

"Asshole," I muttered.

I then turned to Mari. "Okay, I need to get in there and help Prodigy. You get Trixie and get out of here."

She shook her head and signed a message emphatically.

"Fine, join me when you can. But I gotta get inside," I told her. But as I hurried for the building—as much as I could as I nursed my wounds—I worried about what I was going to find. I just hoped Prodigy had it all under control because I knew I was in no kind of shape to help.