My Super-powered Diary Chapter 6 Escape 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?

“Who the hell are you, and how did you get that information?” the General’s voice half growled on the other end.

Day two of our captivity, started with ‘Jade’ and Phantom bringing in breakfast. Phantom didn’t stay long and, as we both spent most of the time she was there glaring at one another, I noticed that she was trying to hide the odd wince of pain whenever she moved or turned too quickly. I knew just how much broken ribs hurt, but she had gotten off easy in my opinion so I didn’t exactly feel much sympathy for her. Once we had all made a show of hugging and happily chatting with ‘Jade’ though, Phantom left after a brief threat for me to behave myself, ‘or else’. I wasn’t really feeling too great myself so I merely gave her an unladylike snort as she made her little threat and left.

Breakfast turned out to be a variety of sugary kids’ breakfast cereals, milk, and some orange juice. Tasha’s sixth sense had warned us that the bastards had spiked the milk this time around so we all had to eat the cereal dry, but at least the orange juice was drug-free. After we had gotten dressed we began working with our powers while Blair tried to get some idea of exactly what they were, though she would have been able to do that, and test our limits, better in her lab. Most of our powers seemed somewhat obvious, except for the twins, but Blair was concerned that there could be secondary more passive abilities as well or physiological issues, particularly with me and Vanessa.

To tell the truth I was having similar concerns. I had not slept well, and not just because I had been blaming myself for losing concentration the night before. In the early hours of the morning I had started to get cramps in my abdominal area and they had been getting progressively worse the whole morning. By the time Blair had left us, to ‘report in’ and try to find the source of the signal interference, I was feeling very uncomfortable and in a bit of pain, though I tried not to show it to the others. I didn’t dare practice with my powers either though, for fear of blowing something up.

I staggered to the bathroom, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the cramps and the feeling like someone had been poking and twisting my insides with a rusty bayonet. It was as I pulled down my underwear and sat down to go about my business that I noticed the small blood stain. There was blood dripping into the toilet as well from between my legs. "Something’s wrong! The change must have damaged me inside!" My soldierly discipline collapsed as I started to panic, uncertain what to do. I tried to get a grip on myself. "No dying until you finish the mission. Get the girls safely out of here first!"

I just sat there uncertain of what to do. I couldn’t let the girls see me like this, especially the twins. They couldn’t know about this. They all needed me to be the strong one and get them through this. A knock at the bathroom door made me jump and I winced at the discomfort it caused me. “Mer, are you okay? You’ve been in there a while,” Vanessa’s voice came through the door sounding concerned. I sat there frozen, unsure of what to do. I needed to say something to reassure her that I was okay, but the words just wouldn’t come to me.

The door was thrown open and Vanessa rushed in. When she saw me sitting there staring at my blood-stained panties she quickly shut the door. “Oh, okay, you’re just having your period, do you want me to grab you some of the tampons or pads Blair bought?” Then she seemed to realize that I was in shock. “OMG… this is your first isn’t it? Didn’t your mom or Blair give you ‘the talk’?”

As what she was saying penetrated my panicked thoughts I broke down crying. I couldn’t be sure if I was happy that I didn’t seem to be dying, or upset that this officially put the final nail in Maddock’s coffin, though it was probably a mix of both. I hadn’t even thought of that as an explanation; the women in my life never really advertised that they were on the rag, I never asked, and I certainly never thought that it would ever apply to me. Vanessa held me while I cried and gave me ‘the talk’, then once we had both finished she got a new pair of the cartoon panties and some tampons and panty liners for me from the hygiene stuff that Blair had bought us and showed me how to use both of the latter.

“I thought I was dyin’,” I admitted once I managed to calm down. “I thought tha’ somethin’ wen’ wrong when I changed, I didnae e’en think o’ this. Tae be fair though, this is only ma second day as a girl, an’ ma new body ne’er came wit’ an owner’s manual.”

“Second day as a girl?” the mermaid repeated before a pensive expression settled onto her face, replaced quickly by realization. “OMG you were a guy before?! That makes so much sense! The way you move, how you told me you were different before, how much you were freaked out about things like your new looks, how your own sister didn’t know who you were, and how you seem to know nothing about being a girl.”

“Aye,” I admitted, unable to look her in the face. “I was older too, part o’ a Spec Ops team sent in tae rescue ya girls. Phantom killed ma whole team an’ I could’nae stop the bomb, so I hid in one o’ the cells. The girl in there jus’ faded intae nothin’ an I guess Phantom thought I was ‘er when she collected us, ‘cause I became a girl aboot the same age.”

Once we left the bathroom together, I told the others the whole story, minus any sensitive military details, since I didn’t figure that there was any point in hiding it anymore. “That’s got to suck,” Tasha said as she looked me over sadly. You got a gender swap and you look like the one of the youngest here. Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable? Your body I mean.”

I considered for a moment how to explain it to them before finally responding. “Only this new complication, but tha’s prob’ly ‘cause I was no’ expectin’ it, an’ the cramps an’ such. Blair tol’ me once aboot wot ‘appens when we Activate. Powers and form kin be heavily influenced by wot yuir thinkin’, feelin’, or the conditions ya Activated in. I was worried aboot all o’ ya girls an’ ya were mostly really young, so tha’ sorta explains why I’m so young an’ look like ma sister. But since there’s often trauma involved when folks Activate, yuir H Chromosomes try tae spare ya more trauma and kin alter yuir mind tae be comfortable wit’ yuir new form. Ma body feels… right tae me since I woke up yesterday, an’ and tha’s been scarin’ me. I tried thinkin’ o’ m’self as a guy last night while lyin’ awake, picturin’ m’self in ma old body an’… it made me feel sick. I dinnae think I could go back, but I ne’er wanted tae be a girl, an’ I ‘ave no idea how tae be one.”

“Don’t worry Merida, we’re gonna teach you to be the best girl ever!” Mei encouraged, looking toward her sister and the pixie she had summoned earlier for confirmation and grinning like a maniac.

The pixie nodded as Shu did the same, with a grin that matched her sister’s. “We’re gonna totes make you the girliest girl ever!”

“I’m all for helping her adjust and learn,” Vanessa put in calmly, “but maybe we should take it slow and let her ease into it girls. I mean like sure we can teach her all this stuff, but she needs to be able to put it into practice at her own pace.”

At supper time Blair came in looking a bit rushed and checking her watch after getting the food cart in place. “Okay girls, eat fast and make sure ya give yuir nightgowns and anythin’ else that ya want to bring with ya to Shu to put away. We have exactly twenty-seven minutes before that mini EMP goes off an’ then my tracker start’s transmittin’ an’ everything goes into high gear. Merida, as soon as the lights go out, get yuir force field up an’ try callin’ in yuir contacts. Ya shouldn’t have any problems getting’ a signal, I built that phone myself, we could be a mile underground an’ it would still work. Two miles might be pushin’ it though.”

We all ate as quickly as possible after being told which foods were safe to eat and then Shu opened one of her holes in the air and stared shoving in practically everything that Blair had brought for us the other day, except for what we were currently wearing. We had barely finished when the lights flickered for a moment and then went out completely. I summoned my force field immediately, bathing the room in a ruddy light as I started dialing the number that my team members had been instructed to only use as a last resort.

“Hello,” General Nelson’s voice came up as he picked up. It was an encrypted cell phone that he kept for situations where a team was in deep shit and wasn’t sure who else they could trust. I was only using it because I sounded like a little girl now and didn’t want the switchboard giving me the runaround because they thought I was playing a prank.

I quickly jumped into what I had to say before he could say anything more. “General Nelson I ‘ave a message fer ya from Cpt. Maddock Ainsely. ‘Mad Mac’ is in the lion’s den as lone wolf, the pack ‘as been hunted an’ he needs support from Alpha Wolf. Identification confirmation is three-se’en-charlie-foxtrot, whiskey-se’en-four-one, alpha-six-two-nine-romeo.”

“Who the hell are you, and how did you get that information?” the General’s voice half growled on the other end.

“I cannae explain now Sir, but ‘tis me, Cpt. Ainsley, an’ I could really use some backup ‘ere. I’m in Omega’s ‘eadquarters wit’ the HAA inside agent an’ four o’ the kidnapped girls, an’ attemptin’ extraction. HAA agents should be en route soon, I dinnae ken the location so yuir gonna ‘ave tae trace this cell signal or coord’nate wit’ HAA.”

“If you’re Ainsley, then what did I say to your team before you left the base?” the General asked.

“Ya tol’ us tae come back in one piece an’ the drinks would be on you. An’ then ya tol’ me tae take some time and visit ma damn sister while I was ‘ere.”

“Good enough, I have a feeling that we’re going to be having a long talk when I get there soldier, but I’m glad that at least two of you got out of that mess alive. I’ll have local units coordinate with Agent Smith from HAA and I’ll be on the first plane I can get there. You keep yourself and those girls alive until help arrives, that’s an order.”

“Aye Sir!” I replied as I disconnected the call. Then I checked the text that had come in while I was talking to the General and smiled as I turned to Blair and the others. “Help is on the way. Andy said tha’ they got yuir location an’ are mobilizing, an’ General Nelson is gonna ‘ave local military coordinate wit’ them.”

“Okay, let’s get the hell out of here then an’ find an exit,” Blair said with a nod.

“We all stick t’gether,” I ordered everyone. “Co’er the twins an’ keep yuir eyes open. Tasha let us know the minute somethin’ feels off. ‘Nessa, get as much water as ya think ya kin ‘andle afore we leave this room, your prob’ly gonna need it. Mei, we’ll hold yuir power in reserve in case we need a surprise. Shu try tae keep on yuir toes an’ stick close, I know yuir power is no’ suited for combat. Blair, use the strength an’ durability from yuir suit tae try an’ keep me an’ ’Nessa covered.”

Once we were all prepared we exited the door into a hallway with a lot of similar doors. The halls seemed to be cut from stone rather than built, so I guessed that we were actually underground. At least they had emergency lighting so we could see where we were going without my force field as the only light. “This is the female dorms area, male dorms are on the other side of the complex an’ there’s a guarded steel door in the common area tha’ I think may lead outside,” Blair explained as we followed her.

“Shit, someone’s coming!” Tasha gasped as she pointed down the hall in the direction that we were going.

I turned to look at Vanessa who was hovering off the ground with her lower half in a large sphere of water. “As soon as ya see ‘em hit ‘em wit’ a water blast.” I didn’t like putting that much pressure on her, but she was really the only one of us with ranged abilities and we didn’t have any weapons.

A dark-haired woman walked around the corner ahead of us and a burst of water flew past me to nail her square in the chest, just as she noticed us. The blast sent her flying back a good six feet where she got up laughing. “Nice try kiddies, I actually felt that, but I have Cat three invulnerability, so if that was your best shot you should all just pack it in and go back to your room like good girls.”

“So much fer stealth,” I muttered, launching myself toward the woman as quickly as I could, while creating a boxing glove construct around my fist and pouring enough energy into it to make it wildly unstable. She may have had invulnerability, but she didn’t carry herself like someone who knew how to fight and I seemed to be both faster and stronger whenever I had my force field on. I needed to take advantage of that and hit as hard and fast as I could and hope that the explosive properties of the energy combined with my strength and speed would have some sort of effect.

I nailed her in the solar plexus with a loud explosion and enough force to send her flying back, into and then through the thick rock wall twenty feet ahead of us. “Let’s move! We dinnae wan’ tae be ‘ere when they come tae investigate.”

We tore off at a run, all of us sticking close together, as Blair led us down hallways and into the common area where the door she mentioned was. That’s where Phantom and four others were waiting, three men and an Asian woman in bright yellow spandex. Phantom wore a vicious smile as we all ran into the room and stopped cold. “You can kill that traitor Jade, but the boss wants the others alive,” she instructed. “It looks like they’ll have to learn the hard way now.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing tha’ I’m neither Jade nor a traitor,” my sister replied while deactivating her disguise and removing her mask and hood. Then she casually added, “Engage combat mode.” Her bodysuit exploded at the seams as whatever she was wearing beneath it expanded, covering her in some sort of dark green power armor with a helmet, a full face plate, and a pair of what I thought might be weapons on her forearms that were humming loudly. Then a pair of tiny missiles about the size of ballpoint pens launched from her shoulders straight at Phantom.

Phantom quickly teleported out of the way making a grab for Tasha as she reappeared, though Tasha had already teleported away herself. The missiles though, kept along their intended path, right past where Phantom had been and hit the walls to either side of the large pair of steel doors, which exploded outward. Two of the people Phantom had with her failed to move quickly enough and were caught in the blast, falling to the floor, either unconscious or dead.

I went after Phantom as Vanessa launched high pressure water blasts at the woman in yellow, who was apparently a speedster as she kept deftly avoiding her attacks and Blair attacked the last of the three men who suddenly burst into flames. "Blair! 'Nessa! Switch opponents!” I called out as Phantom avoided another of my attacks. “Tasha! Get the twins outside an’ find cover!” Now Blair was firing energy blasts from her forearms at the speedster, one almost hitting and succeeding in getting the woman’s attention while Vanessa was raining little water blasts at the pyromorph and obviously hurting him. Tasha had already led the twins outside, so it looked like I could focus completely on Phantom now. She was toying with me though, constantly teleporting out of my reach and refusing to give me an opening.

That’s when it hit me, “I don’t need an opening, she does. She’s waiting for my powers to give out and, given our first fight, I have a pretty good idea of where she would attack once they do.” I smiled to myself and then forced myself to put a strained look on my face as I made the energy of my force field flicker and fade, instead redirecting my energy into a construct as Phantom vanished once again.

“Huuuuurk,” the teleporter’s voice croaked out from behind me.

I turned and gave her a cold smile as I saw her impaled through the chest by the sword I had formed in the air behind me. I placed my hand on the hilt of the weapon and twisted it. “I’ve had a bad couple o’ days. Ma team was killed, I was left fer dead or worse, ma whole body was changed, an’ now I’m in a right pissy mood an’ bleedin from a part o’ ma body I didnae e’en ‘ave two days ago, an’ it’s all yuir fault! I tell ya what though bitch, if ya manage tae survive we’ll play again sometime. Or maybe no’.” I could see the recognition in her eyes as I twisted the blade once more, then the light left her eyes and she collapsed to the floor in a dead heap.

The pyromorph was put out and Blair had given him a good solid punch to knock him unconscious for good measure. “Where’s the speedster?” I asked.

“Over there,” Blair replied, pointing toward the ruined doorway where the woman was twitching on the floor like a fish out of water. “I overloaded her nervous system, she won’t be goin’ anywhere fast fer a while. She managed to call fer reinforcements though so we need to figure out what to do about tha’. The HAA can follow my locator to this general location, but my GPS puts us somewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains an’ its gettin’ dark. They’ll probably be usin’ choppers with search light to find us, so it could take a while.”

We went outside to join the others and I quickly explained the plan I came up with. “Okay, Mei if’n anyone comes out those doors afore our reinforcements arrive I want ya tae use yuir powers tae create a distraction. I dinnae care what ya make appear so jus’ make it the biggest an’ scariest thing ya kin think of aye?”

Okay Merida, I’ll do my best,” she promised.

I turned to the others and laid out the rest of the plan. “Tasha, yuir gonna keep in contact wit’ me while I go an’ make sure the choppers can see where we are. Blair an’ ‘Nessa, yuir gonna ‘ave to be ready to fight in case Mei’s distraction doesn’t work an’ if tha’s the case Tasha will call me back.”

“I hope I have enough water left, I think I only have enough for a couple more blasts,” Vanessa told us with an uncertain sigh.

“I stored some away in case we needed it when we escaped, we should have close to five gallons,” Shu offered with a smile before a look of concentration settled over her face. “Just a sec… no that one has our nighties and stuff. Nope that’s the yucky drugged food, I should get rid of all that. Aha there it is!”

Water started pouring out from nowhere above Vanessa’s head and the mermaid quickly added it to her pool with a grin. “Thanks Shu, that was good thinking,” she said, still beaming at her.

“Okay good, we’re set then,” I said, smiling at Shu’s forethought. “I kin hear choppers in the distance, I’ll go get their attention.” Then I approached the cliff face that the steel doors had been camouflaged in by some brush before my sister blew the hell out of them both. It was nearly a ninety degree rock face, but it looked like it went pretty high and I wanted some altitude so the choppers could see me.

Climbing a cliff in the dark while in a dress is not something I recommend, it was dangerous and a little scary even with my force field. I nearly fell once before I thought to add claw-like constructs to the ends of my fingers to make it easier to get a solid grip. I managed to make good time though, getting to a fairly high rock ledge where I hoped the choppers could see the light from my force field, they were really close now and I could see their searchlights approaching. That was when Tasha’s voice said, *We have a large group coming at us from inside the mountain, Mei is about to do her thing.*

As soon as Mei did her thing I knew it, it was pretty hard to miss after all. I just stared for a second and then looked upward. “Oh ma God… zilla?” The creature vanished only a few minutes later, though I had heard more than a few frightened screams from below by that time.

As the king of kaiju vanished Tasha was in my head once again. *Mei couldn’t hold it, she just passed out. It was enough to scare most of them back into the base, but we’re still outnumbered, we might need you down here soon.*

I waved frantically for the choppers, torn between reinforcements and the girls. The girls were my mission, maybe even my friends, though so they had to take priority. I stepped off the cliff trusting in my force field to keep me safe, but instead of falling I just stood there in midair. “Wait the same thing happened when I kicked Phantom, I just floated until I cut out my powers. Maybe if I…” I concentrated on my force field like I would one of my constructs, willing it to move forward. Much to my surprise it did. “Holy shit I think I can fly.” I thought with a grin as I moved myself to the ground as quickly as I felt that I safely could.

I hovered above the battle, taking it in. Blair was shooting people with those blasters on her arms, and there were already four on the ground in twitching heaps. Tasha was carrying Mei in her arms and teleporting away anytime anyone even came close to connecting with an attack, while Vanessa was trying to keep herself and Shu safe by firing water blasts at anyone who got too close. She was barely holding off a large man with silvery skin so I flew at him as quickly as I could, unloading with an explosive punch and sending him flying. I had failed to notice the small red-skinned woman with the pair of submachine guns though and I was just in time to see her fire at Shu and Vanessa as I turned around.

“Look out!” I shouted.

Shu acted quickly and the spray of bullets vanished in mid-air, well most of them anyway. A few buried themselves in the darkened brush I think, but I was more concerned about the one that got past the water shield that Vanessa was trying to put up and hit her in the shoulder, causing her to scream in pain. In fury I grabbed the red-skinned woman and threw her into a tree before going to check on my friend. I hardly noticed as the choppers hovered overhead and began dropping our reinforcements as I looked for any sign of injury in the light provided by my force field. “Are ya okay ‘Nessa?” I could only see a nasty bruise and I was a bit confused since I was almost certain that she had taken a bullet.

“Yeah, that hurt like a bitch, I guess my shield slowed it down after all,” she said while rubbing at the bruise.

We were quickly joined by the others and Blair was looking her over as well, “Looks like it’s just a bruise, you should be fine,” she said with relief.

The cleanup went well, HAA agents and the military units backing them up managed to either neutralize or capture all of the Omega members in the base. Without Phantom to teleport them they couldn’t get away, and only a few of them were any real threat to the attack teams. The boys were freed and after some psych assessments they would likely be returned to the orphanages they were taken from. We were allowed to rest once they figured out that we were the group of girls and the HAA’s inside woman. Now we were on our way to Los Angeles Air Force Base, where Agent Smith and General Nelson would be debriefing us, as soon as the General’s plane landed.

“You kids did well,” one of the pilots, who had introduced himself as Captain Phillips, told us once we had landed at the base. “You have good heads on your shoulders and you were like regular superheroes when we got there. We would have taken a lot longer to find you if one of you hadn’t shot that bright red flare. We followed that and got there just in the nick of time.”

“Tha’ was no’ a flare, tha’ was me,” I corrected him.

“Well good job then Flare,” he said with a chuckle and a wink. “Now let’s get you all to the base housing so you can rest until you can be debriefed.”

“Flare… tha’s no’ a bad name,” I mumbled to myself as we were led to the car that was waiting for us.