Chris always dreamed of being the kind of superhero who could inspire people. But between fighting crime as Prodigious Girl and then having to dress as a girl in his off hours, he wasn’t exactly living the dream. Even less so when his latest thrilling escapade was to babysit his little cousin for a weekend. But when a cunning body-swapping villain sets his eyes on our young hero(ine), Chris finds himself in far more danger than he expects! (A tale of Faraday City.)

Identity Crisis: Adventures in Babysitting

By Jenny North

The trick to immortality, Xenos had discovered, was not dying.

An observation like that might seem obvious to some, but considering that he'd managed to survive for centuries, he was doing better than most. Though it seemed that the group of furious Revenant cultists who were pursuing him were intent on bringing that span to a painful and abrupt end.

"Spread out! She's in here somewhere!" the leader of the Revenants yelled. Xenos didn't know the man's name, but then of course it had been a very recent promotion considering that Xenos had only just assassinated Archmagister Ithor, the former head of the organization. Though it didn't appear that this new leader was inclined to do Xenos any favors for the service.

Xenos's eyes adjusted to the darkness of the catacombs, which were dimly lit since many of the passages were illuminated only with magical torchlight. Few people even knew these passages existed beneath the shining metropolis of Faraday City above, and fewer still knew the secrets of those who dwelled here. As far as most people were concerned, the Revenants were little more than a street gang, one of several that plagued the residents of the modern city above and kept in check by the numerous superheroes who made their home there. Others assumed that the Revenants were merely a cult, running around in magical robes with deep hoods and dangerous curved blades. However, Xenos knew them for the scourge that they were, practitioners of death magic.

He edged away from his pursuers down one of the curving mazelike corridors that had been hewn from the very rock itself, careful to tread softly in his feminine body...his latest "mount," a vigilante known as Bloodraven. Xenos grumbled quietly to himself. All this fighting would have been much easier as a man, but circumstances dictated this minor concession. And unfortunately, since Bloodraven's magical abilities were learned and not innate, they were unavailable to him in this stolen body. However, her form was still athletic and nimble, and she had other ways of defending herself.

The sounds of angry guards and patrols echoed all around him as he pressed deeper into the catacombs. It seemed that his actions had worked the Revenants into a particularly homicidal furor.

Xenos pressed on, but as he turned the corner, he ran into three Revenants, all of them with their weapons out.

The closest one moved in for the quick kill. "You'll die for your trespass, witch!" he spat as he jabbed his blade at Xenos in a forceful thrust.

There was a loud clang of metal on metal as Xenos parried the blade with his own. Bloodraven's sword was a masterfully crafted weapon of both ethereal beauty and deadly precision, and from the startled looks on their faces, the Revenants clearly recognized it. The weapon was both elegant and sleek in its design, with a slender yet strong blade that shimmered with a faint crimson glow that hinted at the potent magic woven into its very essence.

Bloodraven's body was smaller and not as strong as these opponents, but centuries of experience told Xenos he could easily dispatch his attackers. However, his greater concern was how long it would require since reinforcements were already on the way, and timing would be critical for his plan to succeed. Moving quickly, he raked his sword across the first Revenant's arm...it was little more than a scratch, but the sword practically sprang to life, having tasted blood.

Meanwhile, one of the Revenants cast a spell that launched a lethal blast directly at Xenos, which he nimbly dodged. Furthermore, the dexterous maneuver also revealed the third attacker, who had been standing immediately behind the space that Xenos just vacated, as he had been moving in for a sneak attack. However, the unlucky Revenant caught the deadly blast fully in the chest, killing him instantly.

Xenos pressed his lips into a self-satisfied smirk. That right there was one of the reasons he preferred to work alone.

The Revenant who'd just shot his ally was so shocked at his mistake that he hesitated momentarily. It was a vulnerability that Xenos immediately capitalized on as he ran the man through with his sword.

The final Revenant, now standing alone, readied his weapon, but other searchers had no doubt heard the sound of combat, and Xenos knew that it was time to finish this. He parried a strong but clumsy swing by the Revenant, and then jabbed the man with a vicious stab to the abdomen that not only went through the Revenant, but straight into the stone wall behind him. The ferocity of the blow killed the man and pinned his body upright in place.

Xenos could hear that the others were nearly on top of him, and he pulled at the hilt of the sword. It didn't budge. Leaving him unarmed, defenseless, and trapped in a stronghold of enemies who were bent on his utter destruction.

The plan was proceeding perfectly.

Xenos took off running and navigated the warren of tunnels with surprising adeptness before he came to a heavy wooden door. He opened it to reveal that it was a storage room filled with various racks and chests. It was also a dead end.

In the corner of the room was an unconscious metahuman, a man dressed in high-tech black-and-white body armor that had a bright red metallic mask just visible under a deep hood. Xenos bent over the man and pulled back the hood to reveal a neuroweb dampener, a device resembling an intricate skullcap. He turned it off and removed it, watching as the man on the floor began to stir.

Xenos had only one power of his own, but it was a good one—the ability to swap bodies with another. He used this power right at this moment as the other regained consciousness. However, while this sensation was all too familiar to Xenos, his targets tended to find it highly disorienting.

"Wait... What...?" Bloodraven murmured, suddenly back in her own body. She then looked up at Xenos. "You! You—"

Unfortunately, Xenos had used the time she'd spent re-orienting herself to retrieve his multiplex energy rifle, which was now trained directly on her. Her words were cut short by the sound of a stun blast as he shot her, knocking her to the ground and leaving her dizzy and disoriented.

"Kill... you..." she muttered.

"You have more pressing problems, I'm afraid," Xenos informed her. "You just murdered Archmagister Ithor. It's all quite dramatic...the leader of the Zealot witches assassinating the leader of the Revenants, right in his seat of power. Your followers will deny your involvement, but it's well known that you've used your blood magic to bond your sword so that only you can use it. It was the murder weapon, and it's being recovered by the Revenants as we speak. Lovely blade, by the way."

"But... war..." murmured the dazed woman.

Xenos nodded. "Most assuredly. With any luck, the Revenants and Zealots will annihilate each other. And when the conflict inevitably bubbles over into the city, the chaos and death they sow among the citizenry will bring them to the attention of the so-called heroes."

"Why...?"

"You're a mage, that's reason enough. Good luck. I doubt you'll survive the night."

With that, Xenos activated his cloaking field and vanished. Bloodraven stumbled out into the hall after him, but there was nobody there. But from just around the corner, she heard the raised voices of the Revenants drawing closer and looking for vengeance...

The trick to immortality, Xenos had discovered, was not dying. But since death eventually came to everyone, the real secret was getting someone else to pay that price for you.

Xenos was a master of that.

Later that evening, Xenos settled in at his mansion and removed his armor as he tended to some minor wounds. Escaping the Revenants had taken a bit more effort than he'd anticipated, but he'd left none alive who could identify his involvement. He paused for a moment to examine his reflection, a handsome gray-haired man with somber blue eyes and rugged features. This man, Carson Beaumont, had been a good mount, and his body had served Xenos well these many years. He'd been doubly useful given his vigilante alter ego, Chimera. Unfortunately, age was settling in, and a new mount would soon be needed. As ever, Xenos looked to the future.

Especially now. Now, at a time when humanity was visited by gods.

Metahumans, people called them in this age. "Superheroes." "Supervillains." Xenos smiled at the human proclivity to attempt to assign morality with those labels. Did it give them comfort, he wondered? To believe that if a supervillain threatened the masses, surely a superhero would rise to meet the challenge?

Xenos harbored no illusions which label people would assign to him. If anybody knew he existed.

That, of course, was his dilemma. This new age of miracles brought with it new perils. New technologies. New ways of being detected. A century ago, he might have stolen a new mount and slipped away overseas, out of the reach of any who might pursue him. The world, however, had become smaller. So, like a stage magician whose tricks no longer fooled people, it was time to develop a new trick.

Or perhaps in this case, a very old one.

It was not in Xenos's nature to barter. It was far easier and more satisfying to take what he wanted. Nevertheless, this time the price of failure was too high. And the man who stood in the path of what Xenos wanted was...complicated.

Prodigy.

Xenos picked up a data pad and scanned over the hero's dossier. Over the long years, Xenos had developed a knack for seeing through pretense and artifice, and Prodigy reeked of it. Prodigy played at being an older man, but he was neither as old nor as infirm as he appeared. The hero was well-prepared for a variety of contingencies, and he had a suspicious mind. Under different circumstances, Xenos might have enjoyed matching wits with him and perhaps even taking him as a new mount, plundering his wealth and leaving the man to be the latest in an endless string of people left behind to pay the price for Xenos's immortality.

Confronting Prodigy head-on was dangerous. And Xenos had not lived this long by being reckless. Fortunately, in this case, it was unnecessary.

He swiped the data pad and looked at the next image. It was Prodigy alongside his latest sidekick, "Prodigious Girl." Interesting.

She, too, was dangerous. Strong, invulnerable, able to fly. It was a curious assemblage of powers, especially among metahumans, who tended to be more thematically linked, with a single core power that might be used to different ends. But not in this case. Xenos guessed that there was something more to this one.

He zoomed in on the picture, that of a teenage girl playing at being a superhero. At first glance, her costume was typical for a younger heroine, and also done up in dark blues and purples to match her mentor. Tights and a miniskirt, long boots and gloves. But also with odd choices. Long black hair, impractical in combat. And her domino mask that would do little to hide her identity.

And then, of course, there was her figure. She had a bosom of impressive—one might even say prodigious—size for a girl her age. And with her cleavage visible in an open "boob window" on display, no less.

Xenos stroked his chin thoughtfully. This girl wasn't merely showing off, she was desperately trying to divert attention from something.

"Well, well, well. And just what secrets are you hiding, Prodigious Girl?" he mused.

One thing that I'd noticed even in my relatively short career as a superhero is that different people react to crises differently.

Faraday City was no stranger to catastrophe. Though even in a city where supervillain attacks were practically mundane, there were still the occasional events that would manage to get everybody's attention. "Natural" disasters such as earthquakes and tidal waves induced by mad scientists were certainly fan favorites, but occasionally we'd get a really juicy alien invasion, or large parts of the city might submerge into the Terror Dimension as the veil between worlds thinned to dangerous levels.

I mean, I don't know where you live, and I'm not trying to be competitive or anything, but let's just say that when we here in Faraday City celebrated Shark Week, we weren't sitting on our couches watching the Discovery Channel. It was a little more intense.

The thing is, for those of us who chose to make Faraday City our home (and especially for those such as myself who'd chosen to become its protectors), a lot of these kinda blur together. Just the same, even though I like to kid around, I nevertheless knew to meet such calamity with the appropriate level of gravitas and grim resolve befitting the danger to the city and the lives of the people who made Faraday City their home.

The reason I go out of my way to mention all of this is that to see a fellow superhero and comrade in arms meet such a cataclysmic event with giddy delight was...unusual.

"C'mon, hurry, we're going to miss it!" Enchantrix gleefully called over my iComm communicator, which I'd linked to the mic on my helmet. I was pacing her pretty well on the ground riding my motorcycle as I threaded through downtown traffic, as up in the sky I could see flashes of her magic as she teleported in jumps.

Trixie pulled ahead of me as she dropped into another glowing mystic portal and popped out of the next, her dark cape and long platinum blonde hair whipping dramatically in the wind with every jump. I had to admit, she wasn't normally quite this animated. Like me, she was a teenage superheroine and she was no stranger to the occasional quip or dry retort, and her English accent always seemed to me to class things up.

"Kronos's exalted taint, Prodigious Girl, why are you stopping?" she complained as I pulled my bike over. (Which, y'know, still classy with the accent.)

"I got a signal, I need a sec," I told her as I tapped at my iComm. A very annoyed Trixie teleported next to me, looking very polished and sleek in her dark blousy top and dark red tights and boots, along with her long flowing cape.

Trixie turned to look in the direction of the action, practically fidgeting in anticipation. We were close enough to see the large energy shield that had enveloped that part of the city for several blocks.

"They say nobody can get through that shield," I said absently as I tapped on the device. "Whoever's inside there is on their own."

"I can port us through," Trixie said confidently. She then peevishly glowered at my bike. "Ugh, I can't believe you chose today to ride that stupid thing! We're in a hurry! I mean, you are aware that you personally can fly in three dimensions faster than that thing can drive in two dimensions, right?"

I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Prodigy still won't let me drive his car. Besides, this is...cool," I said weakly.

She gestured to my helmet. "Also, why are you wearing that? Your stupid invulnerable head is tougher than the helmet."

"I...want to be a good role model," I said. "I don't want people seeing me riding around without a helmet and think that's okay."

"I see. Or—and hear me out on this one—maybe don't ride the bloody thing in the first place?" She made an overdramatic huff of annoyance and again turned in the direction of the energy shield, craning her neck to see. We were too far to make out details, but I could hear some deep booming sounds and a lot of energy blasts. It sounded like quite a fracas.

I sighed and glanced over at her. "Trixie, what's the big deal?"

"Peej, it's a demonic invasion. Actual demons from the netherworld! This is my thing, girl. Dark magic is my jam!"

I can't say that her answer filled me with a lot of joy. It wasn't that long ago that we'd learned that Trixie used to be a villain until a heroine named Demetria basically brainwashed her into becoming a hero. Trixie took the news pretty hard at first, having thought that her change of heart had been her own idea. But lately she seemed more okay with it. Though behavior like this made me wonder how close that other version of her might be hiding beneath the surface.

She checked her iComm. "Transmissions are still jammed, but last I heard, that new corporate supergroup Team Dynamic was on the scene. But the Liberty Squadron is off-planet or gods only knows where. We could really kick some butt in there."

"And save people," I retorted dryly.

"Yes, fine. Save people and kick demonic butt." She groaned as I continued to fuss at my iComm. "Peej, c'mon, we're missing it! Just imagine if it was an invasion of big-boobed aliens or something," she teased.

Being teased for my figure was hardly new to me. It came with the territory with a figure like mine, especially with a name like Prodigious Girl. It was embarrassing, but it was...useful. I figured that if people were fixated on what I looked like, they wouldn't think to look beneath the surface. So far, that seemed to be working gangbusters. After all, Prodigious Girl the teenage hottie was so different from Chris Patterson the underdeveloped male teenager that people weren't likely to make the connection.

Of course, being a superheroine had never been 'Plan A,' but I was adjusting. Back when my friend Caleb helped me to craft my Prodigious Girl identity using my nascent shape changing abilities, I thought it'd be for a few weeks, tops. Though to my surprise, I'd found myself settling in to the role. And it did prove useful to throw people off the scent that I was actually a guy.

Although given what I had to wear in my free time these days, that was debatable. For a teenage guy, I'd lately been spending a lot of time in skirts.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Of course, I hadn't mentioned any of this to Trixie. As far as she was concerned, I was just another superheroine. I had a bad feeling that the truth would come out eventually, but I wasn't sure how she'd react. So, in true heroic fashion, I avoided the problem.

"Wait, I've got it locked in now. It's a mayday signal three blocks from here," I said, pointing. Which naturally was directly away from the glowing energy shield and the horde of invading demons. From the look on Trixie's face, you'd think I'd canceled Christmas.

To her credit, Trixie didn't complain—at least not out loud—but I could see her face contorting through some uncomfortable mental gymnastics as she came to the only reasonable conclusion. Mayday signals from other heroes were always to be taken seriously. Furthermore, since this one happened to be removed from the big city-threatening event, it was a good bet that other help wasn't likely to be coming to their aid anytime soon.

"All right. Although I'm going to remember this the next time an armada of big-boobed aliens attacks the city and you're all like, 'But this is something I want to do,'" Trixie warned as she teleported off in that direction.

As I surveyed the scene, it appeared that we'd arrived too late, but there had definitely been a scrap here. I couldn't see any wounded heroes (or civilians, thank goodness), but the street was pretty torn up with various half-destroyed and up-ended cars, smashed pavement, and a good deal of random debris scattered around. There were also a number of scorch marks on the pavement and the walls of the surrounding buildings, suggesting that someone had been shooting some energy blasts, too.

However, there were the two supervillains standing idly in front of an apartment building, next to a single tree that was planted out front.

"Are you seeing this?" I muttered over the communicator.

"Yeah, yeah. Make with the punching," Trixie responded from the nearby low rooftop, a location where she could survey the scene and provide support. Though I might have felt better if her enthusiasm was born out of concern for my safety and not FOMO on a demonic invasion.

I recognized these guys. My superhero mentor Prodigy was a stern taskmaster, but one useful thing he'd made me learn was a "who's who" manual for metahumans who frequented Faraday City. Although these two I would have known without coaching.

Their names were Vagabond and Echelon, and they made quite a pair. Vagabond was a dark magic user, and as his name suggested he might easily have been taken for a homeless person in his ragged pants and a peculiar dark tattered trench coat. As well as the elaborate spiral tattoos that covered his upper body.

Echelon could not have been more different. It was rumored he'd once been part of the cybernetic gang known as the Techrats, and now his entire body below the neck seemed to be a mismatched set of cyborg and metallic parts. He was a walking tank, and very likely even stronger than I was.

Really the only thing they appeared to have in common was that they were both wearing round goggles and bowler hats. I suppose the goggles might have been functional, but I could only assume that the hats were a fashion flourish. Although considering that I was a 16-year-old guy who was currently running around as a busty superheroine who showed off her assets in a boob window, I really wasn't in a position to be critical of anybody's fashion choices.

And at the moment, they seemed to be...standing there.

I flew in slowly and from the side, hoping to get some idea what their intent was.

"Vee, what are we waitin' for, again?" I overheard Echelon wonder.

"You already know," responded Vagabond.

"Oh. Sorry. I guess I shoulda asked myself 'fore I bothered you."

Vagabond then seemed to notice my approach as I hovered closer. I landed on the ground not too far from both of them.

"Afternoon, young 'un," he said as he tipped his hat, a gesture that Echelon repeated. "Never you mind us, we're just waitin'."

"Waiting for what?"

Vagabond nodded knowingly. "That is the real question, innit? My comrade and I were just musin' over that very same perplexity. To a mayfly, our task might seem a lifetime, but in the span of a redwood, it might surely feel as fleetin' as a summer breeze."

"It feels like it's already been a few mayflies," Echelon offered.

"Ooo-kay." I scanned around at the debris and rubble scattered about. "I'm here because a hero called for help."

The two villains looked at each other and then peered up and down the street. Seeing nobody, they merely shrugged.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light from way off in the distance. It had come from where the demonic invasion was taking place.

My iComm crackled with Trixie's voice. "Gods, now there's even a sky beam? Peej, what are you doing down there? Just hit them, already!"

I took a tentative step closer, but Vagabond and Echelon barely seemed to take notice. "Okay. Um, look, I'm on kind of a schedule here, so...I'm arresting you."

Vagabond nodded. "Oh, I see. Well, that do sound serious. And under what authority will you be conductin' said law enforcement endeavor?"

I was nonplussed. Nobody had ever asked me that before.

"I'm...a superhero," I said. I plucked at the edge of my cape and held it out like I was offering it as evidence.

"Yes, indeedy. That do explain the tight clothes."

"Which we appreciate," Echelon politely offered.

"We surely do. Though as I recall, you and your mentor Prodigy are both vigilantes. That'd make you a bit of an unsanctioned heroine. Or is that not bein' the case?"

"I...well, yes," I admitted. "Okay, then I guess I'm making a citizen's arrest."

Vagabond turned to Echelon with an air of wistfulness. "Ah, the citizen's arrest. Lolo, that right there is a practice with a rich and storied tradition. D'you know that the citizen's arrest can trace its roots back to medieval England?"

"I was not aware."

"All right, that's enough," I said firmly, trying to take command of this situation.

"Yes, yes," Vagabond said agreeably. "But y'see, for y'all to make a citizen's arrest, you require a felony in progress, or lackin' that, a breach o' the peace. And as you can see, my companion and I ain't troubling nobody."

I turned and looked at the devastation up and down the street. I was 99.99% positive that the scorch marks were from Vagabond's dark magic, and the flipped-over cars and smashed up items were Echelon's handiwork. In fact, as we were talking, I saw Echelon twist his mechanical wrist, and little bits of rubble fell out.

I straightened up and drew myself to my full height, trying my best to look commanding. "I have—darn it, what do they call that?" I snapped my fingers. "Probable cause."

Vagabond screwed his face into an apologetic frown. "Ah, no, honey, what y'all have is what's called 'reasonable suspicion,' which is in fact a lower standard. This here is what you'd call circumstantial evidence, and we are victims of said circumstance."

"Me, too," Echelon chimed in.

"Yes, I included you in that. Insofar as we are all of us victims of circumstance, if'n you think about it."

Echelon nodded sagely. "Nothing to be done."

I turned and looked up at the building where Trixie was watching all of this, and she was gesticulating madly. At the villains, at me, at the now-fading sky beam.

I beckoned for her to come closer.

A moment later, a magical portal opened right next to me, and an incredulous Trixie stepped through.

"Peej, what are you doing? Quit dicking around and punch them."

"It's just...they're not really doing anything right at the moment, so I'm feeling a bit like—"

Trixie flashed me an angry look, and I could tell that she was done messing around. Tendrils of glowing eldritch energy encircled her fists, and she stepped around me to blast the two miscreants herself. But as she did so, Vagabond's face lit up in recognition.

"Lady Blackwood?" he said breathlessly, stopping Trixie dead in her tracks. Echelon, meanwhile, straightened up with a visibly panicked expression on his face.

"What? Where?" the big man said, looking around nervously.

"No, no, you're thinkin' o' the other one. That's Rhiannon. This one here's her kid."

Echelon breathed a heavy sigh of relief and rested his hand on his metal chest. "Whew, you gimmie the willies there for a second."

"Now, now, don't be that way!" Vagabond chastised him. "This is still quite an honor! Renata Blackwood, my goodness. I must say I'm rather verklempt. Spellchild, Doomsoul, Dawn Scourge. Slayer of the Ethereal Dreamers. Princess of the Nightmare Dimension. An' may I say, I really love what you've done with your hair."

Vagabond removed his bowler hat and swept into a surprisingly courtly bow. Echelon, evidently not entirely sure about the proper etiquette, executed a surprisingly dainty curtsy for someone of his broad metallic girth.

Trixie's eyes darted about as she glanced around to see if anyone else might have overheard him, and she signaled for Vagabond to lower his voice. "Okay, just...listen. A few things. First, nobody ever actually calls it that. Also, I'm reformed, I don't do any of that stuff anymore. I go by Enchantrix now, okay?"

"Call yourself what you will, little miss, but y'all have an impressive resume for one of your tender years. Why, the bedlam and discord that you sowed in Amsterdam...truly, y'all did your malevolent momma proud." He brought his fingers to his lips and made an exaggerated chef's kiss of approval.

I wasn't sure what he was talking about, but then I hadn't met Trixie until after she'd been "reformed" by Demetria's mind-whammy. I'd made a point to impress upon her that I supported her, and I never went back to look up the things that she'd done beforehand, but times like this made me wish I knew more than I did. It made me edgy to hear about her earlier villainous ways. Based on her awkwardness and distress in reaction to his words, Trixie clearly felt the same.

Still, we had to deal with these two. But a momentary reprieve came when I finally spotted the superhero who'd obviously sent out the mayday.

Euphoria.

Even from a distance, I recognized her immediately. I'd even teamed up with her once. Her signature long blonde hair was unmistakable, especially adorned as it was with the big trademark girlish bow she wore in the back. Although most guys never got that far, since her superhero costume was quite distracting. It was designed to resemble a form-fitting black lace leotard, and it flashed a scandalous amount of skin, giving the impression of something you might see at a high-end lingerie fashion show rather than in a superhero fight. In truth, she could have been wearing a burlap sack and she'd still turn heads...she was stunningly beautiful, and she knew it.

Sadly, she was also a complete nitwit.

"Oh, bloody hell," Trixie said as she saw who it was.

Euphoria had emerged from a nearby coffee shop carrying what appeared to be a grande latte of some sort, and as she spotted us, she gave us a friendly wave as she daintily stepped over some rubble.

"C'mon," I said to Trixie as I started to move in Euphoria's direction. Trixie cast a suspicious look at the two villains and then hurried after me, peering over her shoulder to keep an eye on them.

"What makes you think those two aren't just going to shoot us in the back?" she hissed under her breath.

I waved a dismissive hand. "It's okay. I've got kind of a feeling about these sorts of things."

This is going to sound a little strange, and I didn't want to get into it with Trixie in the heat of the moment, but in my short career as a superhero, I'd discovered that I had kind of a knack for picking up on danger. It wasn't a superpower or anything like that, but I'd been in enough dangerous situations that I could get an intuitive read of a situation. I was confident that we weren't in any immediate danger.

Trixie shot me another disapproving look, but since the two loitering villains didn't seem keen on starting a fight at the moment, we headed over to talk to Euphoria. Trixie and I took position behind an up-ended car in order to give us some privacy to talk, and we waited interminably as Euphoria took delicate mincing steps in her high-heeled boots as she weaved carefully through the debris in the road.

"'Allo, girls! I am Euphoria. One of zee heroes of Faraday City," she said, introducing herself in her thick French accent.

"What the hell is going on here?" Trixie said.

"Oh, oui. I saw zee, 'ow you say, supervillains over there. Their presence frightened the poor citizens, so naturellement I jumped in to help. I used my super-powairs to try and distract them and get them to leave, but quelle horreur, my abilities, they were not very effective."

"This is my shocked face," Trixie deadpanned as she and I shared a glance. Euphoria's powers seemed to rely on a combination of pheromones and a level of mental control that allowed her to influence the behaviors of others, mostly men. And always using her feminine wiles to her best advantage, I'd noticed.

Trixie didn't have much use for her, but Euphoria wasn't completely useless. Her powers were subtle and involved a lot of misdirection and attraction, and her skimpy outfit certainly didn't hurt matters any. She really was gorgeous. My eyes drifted downwards to the curve of her hips where her flawless creamy bare skin was left uncovered by her lacy costume that clung to her supple physique. That gentle curve swept backwards into her magnificently rounded rear end, which was profoundly broad, looking like a—

Trixie snapped her fingers in front of my face. Euphoria had been sipping her coffee as she peered over the car towards the villains, and she apparently hadn't noticed that I'd been checking her out. Meanwhile, Trixie regarded me with a look somewhere between disgust and pity as she silently judged me for ogling her.

"I have la notion," Euphoria offered before I could say anything. "I will be—"

Trixie crossed her fingers as she muttered under her breath, "Bait, bait, bait..."

I smacked her on the shoulder. She then smacked me back as her eyes cut between Euphoria and myself, making an exaggeratedly vacant kissy face.

"I will move off to zee side while you get zheir attention," Euphoria said to me. "And then you"—she gave Enchantrix a disdainful look—"you do whatever thing it is that you do."

"Tres magnifique!" Trixie sniped back sarcastically, giving me another barbed glance. "Her joie de vivre is so avant-garde, don't you think, PG?" (Though of course she pronounced it more as "pee zhee," to properly ensure that I hadn't somehow missed her pokes at my expense.)

However, if Euphoria picked up on Trixie's sarcasm, she didn't comment on it. Instead, she turned to us and blithely asked, "But, oh, I am sorry, what are your names, again?"

"I'm...um, Prodigious Girl," I responded uncertainly. We'd only teamed up the one time, but I thought I'd made more of an impression.

"Enchantrix," Trixie said brusquely. "We've met. Several times."

"Oh, I know. I just wanted you to introduce yourselves for the benefit of my audience." She pointed at the side of her head, where she was wearing a headset microphone.

Euphoria casually started to move off, but Trixie grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"Wait a second. Are you telling me you've been live streaming all of this? While we're making our battle plans?"

"Oui, c'est bon. My followairs, they love these peeks into zee life of a superhero."

Trixie's finger darted out as she pointed in the direction of the two villains. "How do you know they aren't listening?" she hissed.

"Oh, we are!" Vagabond called back.

"Big fan!" Echelon yelled.

I buried my face in my hand.

"I can actually feel my IQ dropping," Trixie declared. "Right, new plan. Allons-y!" she called out.

A split second later, one of her mystic portals opened up right below my feet, and I fell in. It took me a moment to realize that she'd put me in free fall immediately above Echelon, and I was going to slam right into him. Since I had little choice in the outcome, I figured it'd be better to commit fully, and I used my flight to increase my speed as I torpedoed towards him at breakneck velocity. I hoped that if I could catch him unawares, I could—

*CLANG*

—plow into him, and then rebound off of him harmlessly. This was not good.

I rolled back up onto my feet barely in time to catch his arm that was in a mighty downswing punch that would have slammed into me like a piledriver. As it was, I was barely able to arrest the movement of his arm as it brought me down to one knee, struggling against his superior strength.

"Hey, you're strong," Echelon said.

"Yep. Unnngh. Thanks."

"Not as strong as me, though."

"Yeah. Noticed."

I tried to use my flight to gain some leverage and maybe muscle him off of his feet, but he'd somehow managed to brace himself, and he wasn't going anywhere. Still, being able to defy gravity had its uses...as I held his arm in place, I was able to get myself off the ground for a moment so that I was able to spin into a surprise kick, straight to his solar plexus. Sadly, my attack didn't seem to bother him very much, but at least it staggered him back a bit, and I was able to get some fighting room.

In a blink, I pressed my attack, launching myself for a punch to his head, which unlike the rest of his hulking behemoth of a metal body, seemed to be mostly human. My fist connected with a metal bracer he had underneath his jaw, but I figured this would at least rattle him as my punch landed with a resounding clang.

He chuckled. "Sorry, kid. Mum always said I had a thick skull."

A thick skull reinforced with carbon titanium alloy, apparently.

This was not going well. I needed some support, but as I chanced a glance over to Trixie, it looked like her own fight against Vagabond wasn't going any better. He'd summoned three small eerie ghostly-looking creatures that floated above the ground and swirled around him, and they were so dark they practically seemed to absorb the light. They also appeared to be equally effective at absorbing Trixie's energy blasts and had a preternatural ability to block any shots she tried to make, even when she tried indirectly shooting through her portals trying to catch Vagabond unawares.

Unfortunately, the time I'd spent assessing Trixie's situation had given Echelon the time he needed to mount his own assault, and I quickly found myself desperately blocking his punches as he whaled on me.

"Stop!" I cried out, moderately surprised when he actually paused his attack. I blinked piteously and looked at him in disbelief. "You'd actually hit a girl?"

My answer came in the form of a haymaker with which he pummeled me that sent me sailing back 80 feet. As my butt hit the pavement, I careened into an out-of-control reverse tumbling somersault that only stopped when I slammed into a car that had been up-ended in the previous fight.

"It was worth a shot," I muttered as I pulled my butt out of the crumpled metal and clambered unsteadily to my feet.

As I straightened up, I heard a sizzle-choom of one of Vagabond's energy blasts, and I looked up just in time to see Trixie's limp body being knocked forcefully back! I rocketed over to her and managed to catch her in mid-flight, and the two of us sailed backwards. I managed to protect her from the worst of it as we hit the ground and skidded to a stop, and I was relieved to see that she was alive and conscious.

"I cannot believe we're losing to these morons," Trixie griped. Then she noticed that we'd come to a stop close to where Euphoria had taken cover behind a low brick wall.

"Hey! Ding-a-ling! Can't you do anything to help this?"

Euphoria stayed low and crept closer. "I am trying! Zee villains are too powerful! Also, I think they may be..." She made a fey, limp-wristed gesture.

Trixie shook her head as she stood up. "Zut alors," she said sarcastically as she gave me another reproving look. "I wanted to fight demons."

We squared off for another round when out of nowhere there came a sound like an egg timer going off. It took me a moment to realize that it had come from Echelon. Vagabond seemed to check the time, and before we could react, we saw that he'd formed a field of darkness that enveloped the two of them from behind.

"Fun scrappin' with you, kiddo!" he called as the pair of them vanished.

A strange quiet descended on the street as Trixie and I stood there, not entirely sure what had just happened. Slowly, Euphoria stood up from her hiding spot.

"Once again, zee forces of light emerge victorious, and justice prevails!" she declared.

"What in the name of the Spirits of the Silent Death are you talking about?" Trixie shot back. "The only reason they left is because they got bored of kicking our— You... You're not... You're not actually talking to us, are you?" she realized as Euphoria continued to narrate the 'victory' for the benefit of her streaming audience.

By that point, I could hear the sound of sirens getting closer. I took a quick glance around, and although there was a fair bit of property damage, fortunately nobody seemed to be injured. Also, Vagabond had been right about one thing—I was a vigilante, and after having been unjustly framed by a well-known and much-beloved hero, I was not entirely simpatico with law enforcement these days.

I started to edge slowly backwards in the direction of my motorcycle and chucked my thumb over my shoulder. Trixie did an agitated double-take as she noticed me starting to make my exit.

"No...no!" she hissed as she stole a glance over at Euphoria. "Peej, don't you dare leave me with this little—!"

I spun around and flew off to get my bike. Yeah, she'd be fine.

Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there must be an equal and opposite reaction. (I've never entirely figured out how that works when I'm able to fly and still lift a car or throw a punch, but Newton was a smarter guy than me, so I figured I'd let him skate on that one.) However, I'd personally come to suspect that when it came to luck—particularly my own luck—the same could not be said. In my experience, whenever something good happened, it was usually followed by something worse. Thus, instead of merely maintaining the status quo, it injected energy into the system as I invariably was forced to scramble around to overcome the new adversity.

I've taken to calling it "Patterson's Law of Karmic Imbalance," or PLoKI for short.

Give it time, it'll catch on.

A fine example of PLoKI would be...me, for instance. I had been an otherwise normal teenage goofball who out of the blue got amazing superpowers. Karmic balance was then restored as said goofball later finds himself fighting crime as a buxom superheroine in a miniskirt. But the karmic imbalance was then created after my parents discovered a stash of girls' clothes that I'd been wearing as said heroine. Then, to keep them from learning that I'd been sneaking off to fight crime as a teenage superheroine, I had to suggest that I'd been secretly dressing up in the clothes. This led them to conclude that the big secret that I'd been keeping from them was that I was maybe transgender. Which is why I now had to wake up early every morning to put on my makeup and dress up as an equally buxom girl in a cute blonde wig and pretend like I'm living the dream.

Some interested observers with whom I have shared this theory will occasionally point out that in breezing over some of the relevant details, I'm also conveniently omitting some of my own culpability in these matters. For instance, some point out that the only reason I was Prodigious Girl in the first place was because I'd originally tried to scam Prodigy out of his superhero name because I wanted a cool name for myself. Or others might observe that the reason that I was having to crossdress as a girl every day was because I'd point-blank lied to my parents and didn't want to come clean and face their (likely reasonable) fears about how I was charging off and risking my life as a secret superhero behind their backs. So, y'know, maybe I was getting what I deserved.

To those well-meaning and interested observers, I will usually say, "Yeah, but here's the thing...shut up." Because clearly, they didn't understand the subtle nuances of PLoKI.

By way of another example, the end of the school year had in many ways been a blessing. Because while my parents were content for me to continue to dress as a guy at school, it took about a microsecond for my classmates to discover that I was dressing as a girl in my off hours. Which made my high school experience that much more...colorful.

As you can imagine, being out of my classmates' teasing eyes for a few months over the summer was welcome. However, my superhero mentor Prodigy had offered me an internship position at AGON, the company he ran in his own secret identity as Marty Maddox, tech entrepreneur and former superhero sidekick. And since my crossdressing edict had been extended by my parents full-time through the summer, that meant that Christie Patterson was swishing her skirts off to work every morning.

PLoKI is once again validated.

My one small bit of consolation was that my parents were often as befuddled by the situation as I was...

"No, no, the most recent presentation is on the other server," I said as I marched downstairs with my cell phone glued to my ear. My purse and my work bag were slung over my shoulder even as I fumbled to get my earring into my other ear.

As I briskly headed into the kitchen, I ran into my parents. My mom was casually dressed for the day and seated at the kitchen table typing away at her laptop as she checked some numbers in a spreadsheet. Meanwhile, my dad was dressed in a dark blue suit and was leaning against the counter drinking some coffee as he checked his phone.

I smiled at them as I entered.

"No, that's the old one. Check your email. She made some changes to it last night, but she uploaded it to the wrong place. I don't know why. Oh, my God, is that coffee? Yes, please," I said to my dad, handing him an insulated bottle from my bag.

I was obviously a bit distracted, but I wasn't too oblivious to notice the look that my parents shared as my dad poured the coffee for me. After all, it was only several weeks earlier when they'd likely thought that maybe they'd finally gotten their hands around handling a teenage son. Now, however, that selfsame son was breezing into their kitchen looking for all the world like a career-driven and overworked twentysomething woman from the beginning of a romantic comedy.

"Thanks," I mouthed to my dad as he handed me the bottle, and I took a quick sip of the hot liquid.

My dad was normally pretty unflappable, but I'd noticed that even he was having trouble adjusting to my changed appearance. He didn't want to interrupt my call, but he furrowed his brow slightly as he pointed at my hair. Or, more accurately, my wig.

"Chris...?" he offered, gesturing indistinctly. Then he turned to my mom. "Heather?"

My mom looked up from her laptop and then at me, apparently having spotted the problem. She stood up and walked over to me, and while I continued talking on my cell, she tugged on my wig and I felt as she tucked a stray lock of my natural black hair up under the cap.

"Thanks," I whispered as she smiled back. "No, that's the production server. You want the other one," I said. "I'll see you guys later."

Before I could make a move, I saw my mom's eyes widen as she clearly wanted to add something. My parents then shared a peculiar glance before looking back at me.

"Hang on a second," I said into the phone. "Something else?" I asked, slightly concerned. It wasn't like my parents to be quite so guarded.

They shared another glance, and evidently they both came to the same conclusion.

"It'll wait until tonight," my mom said. "You have a good day at work," she said as she gave me a kiss on the cheek, still clearly a little thrown by how her lackadaisical teenage son had turned seemingly overnight into a hectic and bustling office girl.

Truthfully, I could relate.

I managed to get through the morning, but I didn't have a lot of time for lunch, so I hustled on down to HeroBurger. It was a well-known Faraday City original whose menu items were named after famous superheroes. It was also an opportunity for me to drop in on my best friend Caleb, who'd gotten a job working there that summer. However, as the line dragged on, I found myself eyeing the currently vacant line for superheroes, since HeroBurger honored the unofficial Faraday City policy for letting registered superheroes jump the line.

I have to confess that was a bit of notoriety that I probably would have enjoyed. After all, a lot of out-of-towners made a point to drop by HeroBurger on the chance of spotting a hero in person.

However, as my mentor Prodigy frequently liked to remind me, it was also a well-known haunt for supervillains who would take up position in the neighboring buildings to get a jump on an unwary hero as they emerged. The price for skipping the line was that people then knew of a place that said hero liked to frequent. Predictable patterns usually made for superheroes with short life spans.

I sighed and listened in as the couple in front of me—obviously first-timers—placed their order. Caleb was working the register, and even his usual laid-back personality seemed to be stretched pretty thin. He was looking pretty haggard.

The guy squinted at the menu. "Let's see...I'll have a Promethean Burger with a side of the Tinsel Tots and a chocolate Tundra milk shake. Honey, what do you want?"

His female companion peered uncertainly at the menu long enough that I began to wonder if she was attempting to decipher hidden messages left behind by a long-forgotten civilization.

"Hmm. The Spire kebob sounds pretty good, but I'm not sure. What's the Euphoria?"

"That's a French dip," Caleb informed her.

I snorted loudly. When they turned to look at me, I cleared my throat and looked away, pretending to look at the menu.

"Yeah, I think I'll have a cup of the Calm Clam Clan chowder, a small Wildflower salad, and a blueberry Ragamuffin. And a soda."

Caleb dutifully rang up the order, but his disaffected attitude drew the attention of his manager, who was standing nearby. The man raised his eyebrows at Caleb meaningfully.

"Do you want to Brobdingagian-size any of that?" Caleb asked, affecting a forced-cheerful tone.

By the time they got it all sorted out, paid, and received their order number, I was starting to wish I had super speed. Then I realized that to a super speedster, probably every interaction they had with another person must feel like this. I shuddered at the thought. It made me wonder if all superpowers had some weird price to pay in order to balance out the cosmic scales, and who got to make that decision. Like if there was some cosmic arbiter who decided the price you had to pay. However, as I attempted to make a discreet adjustment to an errant brassiere strap and brushed the long blonde hairs of my wig out of my face, I knew what my penance was. I quietly resolved to squarely kick that individual in the nads if ever our paths should cross.

Finally, it was my turn.

"Still no Prodigious Girl on the menu?" I joked to Caleb.

He gave me a sardonic grin. "I'll ask."

"Just the usual. And four black coffees," I told him as he dutifully rang me up. Normally he'd have some funny comment to make, but I could tell that the lunchtime rush was obviously starting to wear on him, so I gave him a supportive smile.

I'd just paid for my order and Caleb had handed me my order number when a heavyset woman barged to the front of the line.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" she said insistently as she waved a plastic cup in Caleb's face.

"What?" he snapped. Then, getting a warning look from his manager, he forced his expression into a toothy grimace that was a loose approximation of a smile. "I mean, welcome to HeroBurger, how may I help you today?"

"There's something wrong with your cups," the woman said indignantly.

"I would be delighted to help you with that," Caleb said through gritted teeth.

"This cup is leaking," she told him, holding up the plastic tumbler.

"Oh," he replied, clearly relieved to be faced with a problem that seemed to be both genuine and one that he could easily solve. "Cool, I'll get you another one."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Another one won't help! This is my third cup! They're all leaking!" she said, exasperated.

Caleb gave her a discerning look. "You think they're leaking...why?" he asked slowly.

"Look, here," the woman said in a patronizing tone as she held out the cup for inspection. "It's all wet!"

"Right," Caleb agreed neutrally as he carefully eyed the woman. "I suppose you put ice in the cup?"

"Of course!"

"Uh huh. Then you put the soda in? Then, a couple minutes later, the outside of the cup was wet?"

"That's right!"

Caleb took a slow, shaky breath and forced a pleasant smile. When he spoke, it was in an artificially patient tone of voice that personally I'd only had cause to adopt as Prodigious Girl when I was attempting to negotiate with armed lunatics.

"Madam, what you are experiencing is called condensation. It's what happens when a cool surface is exposed to warm air. It causes the water in the air to condense."

The woman gaped at him like he'd grown a second head. "What are you talking about, 'water in the air'? There's water on the outside of my cup! What are you, simple? I want a cup that isn't broken! These are all...sweaty!"

Caleb's eyes cut briefly to the side to confirm that his manager was still watching him like a hawk. "Lady, it's not the cup's fault. It's simple physics. Every cup does this."

"My cups at home don't do this! And when I was in here last week, these cups didn't do this!"

Caleb fixed her with a look. "Yes, they did. Of course they did."

"No, they didn't! Now, I want you to fix this! Haven't you ever heard that the customer is always right?"

Caleb looked like he was about to climb over the counter and inflict a lesson in applied kinetic physics of his own when his manager hurried over to intervene. The guy quickly apologized to the woman and pulled Caleb aside, where the two of them engaged in a hushed but intense conversation. It culminated with Caleb hissing, "I can't change the laws of thermodynamics!"

The manager left Caleb standing there seething, and I watched as the guy eased his way over to deal with the irate woman.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, he's new. These are the new promotional cups for the upcoming AquaVengers movie. It enhances the flavor of the drinks and provides cooling moisture to beat the summertime heat. They're collectible."

The woman was nonplussed but maintained her haughty attitude. "Collectible, huh? Well...I guess I'll take three more, then."

The manager nodded agreeably as he rung up the sale while the woman gave the stink eye to Caleb, who was standing there slack-jawed.

"I can't believe he didn't know that. I swear the people who work here get stupider every year."

"Yes, at HeroBurger we make a point to provide work opportunities for the developmentally challenged."

"That's nice," the woman said nodding as she accepted her three new cups. Then she looked directly at Caleb and over-enunciated in a loud voice, "You're really lucky to have this job! You should be very grateful!"

As she walked away, Caleb looked helplessly to his boss, but the guy flatly announced, "Shapiro, you're on fryer duty. Conrad, you're up!"

A clattering noise of metal on metal came from somewhere deep in the kitchen, and a sweaty and haggard-looking teen sped out from in back with his arms raised in praise.

"Deliverance at last! Praise be to mighty Hephaestus, god keeper of the fire!" Nearly delirious, he shucked off his apron and threw it to Caleb. He then took his place at the register with the relieved and crazed look of one who had gazed too long into the pits of madness.

Caleb looked down at the apron in his hands in disbelief and then stared at me with a haunted expression.

"I'm in hell," he mouthed silently to me.

With his manager's permission, Caleb seized the opportunity to take his break, and he headed over to talk to me while I waited for my order.

"Y'know, all of a sudden, my job doesn't seem so bad," I joked.

"That'd be the job working for a billionaire industrialist?" Caleb countered.

"Hey, I'm sorry your work isn't more fulfilling, but don't take it out on me. Besides, you're acting like the job was a gift. I earn my pay. It's not easy!"

Caleb gave me a deadpan look. "You're a secretary."

I looked at him, aghast. "I am— you think— with my— that is—" I sputtered.

"Uh huh," Caleb said with a smug look.

Over behind the counter, a young HeroBurger employee with a goatee brought forward a tray of food, and checked the number on the receipt. "Fifty-eight!" he yelled loudly.

I returned my attention to Caleb and held up my ID badge as I tapped on it with my manicured finger. "See what it says here? 'Administrative Synergistic Coordinator.' That's what it says!"

"It says that, but I'm still hearing 'secretary.' It also says your name is Christie Patterson."

"That's...a cover. Kind of," I said as he stared at me dubiously. "Hey, I have four bosses! Five, if you count Marty! I manage schedules, review documents—"

I felt myself getting worked up, but he simply nodded along in an easygoing way that I was starting to find particularly aggravating.

"...Pick up coffee for your bosses..." he dryly interjected.

"Ye—well, not as part of my regular assigned duties."

"Didn't you just now order a bunch of coffee?"

I scoffed nervously. "I was coming here for lunch, anyway! I was just being friendly! I am a very friendly person!"

"Your bosses ever ask you to get them coffee?"

I stared him in the face for a long moment. "They know that I am a very friendly person."

"Easy on the eyes, too," he joked.

"Hey!"

He leaned close and tapped my ID badge, which was perched on my protruding breast. "Secretary."

"That is not—"

The HeroBurger employee at the counter scanned the faces of the crowd in front of him suspiciously. "FIFTY-EIGHT!" he yelled again, this time almost loud enough to hurt my ears.

I decided to drop it. "Hey, sorry I couldn't make it to gaming last night, Trixie and I had a...thing," I said, careful not to be too specific with people around.

Caleb looked puzzled and lowered his voice. "You did? That's weird. I follow PG on HeroTracker, but I didn't see anything." He pulled out his phone and shook his head. "Yeah. I saw Trixie had something with Euphoria, but that's it." He smiled. "That Euphoria sure is a hot little—"

"Is she? I hadn't noticed," I said, cutting him off. I sighed heavily. "It figures nobody would bother to tag me. I feel like I've been basically invisible to everybody anyway."

"I wouldn't sweat it. You free this weekend?"

"I dunno. Maybe? I, uh, thought I might try and ask Leah Paredes out for a date."

"The girl from your study group? I totally thought you'd chickened out on that."

Now it was my turn to lower my voice. "Yeah, it turns out that it's a little awkward for a guy to ask a girl out on a date when his boobs are bigger than hers."

He glanced down at my jutting bosom. "Well, I mean, technically those are just falsies, right?"

"I'll be sure to mention the distinction."

The HeroBurger employee behind the counter took a very deep breath. For a third time, he called for order number 58, which is what he said out loud. But the volume and tone of his voice very clearly communicated the implied message, "I will murder every single last one of you wretched motherfuckers if this asshole doesn't pick up his goddamn hamburger."

The couple who had ordered in front of me finally looked down at their ticket. "Oh, that's us," the woman said.

"I'd better get back to work," Caleb sighed.

"Yeah, same."

I emerged with my order a few minutes later. I still had a little time for lunch—plus a few extra minutes if I shaved some time off by flying back as Prodigious Girl—so I discreetly retrieved my phone, which I'd linked to my iComm communicator. I noticed that there was a trouble spot very close by calling for heroes, and when I saw that Frosty Joe was involved in a robbery, my eyes lit up.

"Oh, yes," I said, as I looked for a quiet spot to change. For weeks, that stupid jerk and I had been crossing swords, and every time, he'd somehow managed to get the better of me. It was time to get some payback!

An awkward amount of time later, I exited the executive elevator at the top level of the AGON building, looking rather frazzled. I clutched my notebook and papers to my chest as I held a cup of coffee in my other hand. As I got off the elevator, the chipper, fresh-faced receptionist smiled when she saw me.

"Hi, Christie! Looks like they're keeping you busy, huh?"

I brushed an errant blonde hair out of my face and nearly dropped my papers. "Hey, Grace. This gets easier, right? Tell me it gets easier."

She looked like she was about to say something but then changed her mind and gave me a tight smile. "You looking for Marty?"

It was funny to me to hear people at the company refer to him in such a casual way as opposed to "Mr. Maddox," but apparently he'd gone to lengths to seem approachable, despite the fact that he owned the place. Personally, I thought that was particularly rich since in his heroic identity as Prodigy he seemed to go to far greater lengths to be prickly and unsociable. After I'd first learned of his dual identity, I'd hoped that his gruff and demanding demeanor as Prodigy had actually been an affectation that he'd adopted to cover for his friendly and gregarious personality as Marty. Unfortunately, it turned out it was the other way around.

"Yeah," I said. "His calendar was blocked out, but it didn't say with what. I need to get him these files before the 1:00 meeting."

Grace smiled knowingly. "He's at lunch," she said, flashing her eyes upwards.

"Oh," I said flatly.

"I think it's really cool how he goes out of his way to do what he does. Not many people would take the time."

I forced a smile. "Yeah, he's something else, all right."

Grace's eyes cut over towards the door to the roof stairwell, so I thanked her and opened the door and clambered up the metal steps. When I got to the top, I heard muffled voices and quietly opened up the heavy metal door to the roof. It was a bright sunny day, and I squinted as the wind whipped through the long blonde hairs of my wig as I clutched my papers against my chest. I then silently closed the door behind me and paused as I heard the distinct sound of someone crying. It was a young woman, and she appeared to be talking to someone.

Although I couldn't make out her words, I knew exactly what she was saying.

I edged closer and discreetly peered around the corner to see Marty standing there near the edge of the roof. He was a balding and pudgy man with a slightly stooped posture that discreetly shaved an inch or two from his height and distracted from his otherwise toned and muscular form that was artfully disguised by the fat-suit padding hidden beneath his outerwear. His business suit appeared to be slightly ill-fitting, but even that was a carefully tailored illusion designed to suggest a doughy and overweight physique. It galled me that everything about him was false.

It galled me even more that before I was aware of that truth, I'd bought his act just like everybody else. Hook, line, and sinker.

Of course, I was in no position to be critical of anybody else's attempts to misdirect their identity. I was, after all, a guy who was crossdressed as a blonde girl, and one who regularly shapeshifted into a superheroine. Every time I walked into a public restroom, I had to stop and look down to remind myself who I was supposed to be so I could choose the right door.

As I watched, Marty gave a supportive hug to a superheroine who I couldn't quite make out at first. But after a moment, she broke the embrace and sniffled audibly. I immediately stiffened up and set my jaw as I realized what had just transpired. Then there was a sudden bright flash as she whirled into a vortex-like energy tornado and flew off into the sky.

I stood there stunned for a moment, struck speechless. Marty, however, calmly bent over to pick up the paper bag that held the remains of his lunch. Without even turning to look at me he said, "Spare me the teenage condescension."

I blinked in surprise as my eyes tracked the flight path of the retreating heroine. "W-was that Fidget Spinner?" I asked. She was a teenage superhero just a bit older than me with energy control powers that let her throw around energized tornadoes. I'd teamed up with her a few times as Prodigious Girl, and she was good people...a little moody and distracted, but a solid young hero, I thought.

"Not anymore," Marty said as he took a carefree bite from his apple. He pulled something out of his lunch bag and offered it to me. "Brownie?" he asked.

"You fucking asshole."

He shrugged and held the apple in his mouth for a moment as he dropped the brownie back into his paper lunch sack. Then he took another bite of the apple and said, "Suit yourself. You girls and your diets."

I blocked his path to the access door. "You just convinced her to quit being a hero, didn't you?"

"I didn't have to convince her of anything. She came to me," he said. "You all came to me."

"She could have been a great hero, and you know it!"

He looked me in the face. "Do I know that? Because what I do know is that after only three times chatting with her for a grand total of less than an hour, she gave up on her own. If her commitment can be shaken that easily, then she's not ready for this. She did herself a favor."

"That's bull! You should be out here mentoring and inspiring new heroes!"

His face darkened. "You've got some nerve telling other people how to live their lives, Miss Patterson," he taunted. "I wouldn't have expected someone with all the answers to be stuffing his bra with falsies the size of cantaloupes."

We glared at each other for a long moment but—as usual—I was the one to blink first.

I made a decidedly unfeminine growl of displeasure. "I don't know what pisses me off more, the fact that you do this, or the fact that it actually seems to work."

"Damn near worked on you."

"Once upon a time," I retorted. "I am committed." Then the wind blew the long blonde hairs of my wig into my face and I brushed them back awkwardly. Flustered, I tugged at the earring that had gotten tangled up in my wig and glanced down at the girlish outfit I was wearing. "I'm deeply committed."

Then, determined to retake the moral high ground, I added, "It's still crap. Fidget was—is!—a great hero. She loves being a hero. She helped me fight the Vector Enforcers last week!"

"You could have handled those losers on your own."

At first I was thrown that he even knew about that fight since I hadn't mentioned it to him, but as always he seemed surprisingly well-informed.

"That's not the point!" I insisted, my tone whinier than I'd intended.

Marty made a throaty grumble that was a noise that I was far more used to coming out of him as Prodigy. He moved to put his hand on the door handle.

"Drop it," he warned.

I interposed myself again. "I'm not going to drop it!"

"Now I'm not sure what's more annoying, the rebellious teenager act or the sanctimonious attitude. I'd lock you up here on the roof to stew on that question overnight, except that you can fly, so it wouldn't do me any good."

"Fidget is a good hero! What makes me so different from her?"

Marty made an equivocal expression, and he shrugged. "You got heart."

I stood there for a moment waiting for more of an explanation than that, but none was forthcoming.

"That's it? I got heart?"

He checked his watch, sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Kid, I don't know what to tell you. I've been in this business long enough to know that not everybody has it in them to go the distance, and those that don't usually end up getting killed, getting somebody else killed, or both. Meanwhile, the rest of us all stand somberly around their casket—usually in the rain, 'cause we really need to stop inviting the bereaved weather controllers to those things—and cluck about what a shame it is, and how unexpected it was, and then wax philosophical about all the good they could have done, and yammer on about the tragedy of a life cut short. But it's all bullshit, because it's totally preventable. Not everyone is cut out for this."

"But you can tell?"

"Actually, yeah. Even so, I didn't convince her to quit. I didn't have to. She came to that conclusion on her own. Now if you want, I could tell you about how your little friend's father is out of the picture, and her mother is working two jobs, and her kid brother has leukemia. Then I could tell you about how she's had to drop out of high school to take a job to help cover the bills. Then, you and I could argue at length whether with all that going on, if going out and fighting crime is really the best use of her limited time and resources. But then after that, I'd point out to you that her confiding all that in me was a blindingly stupid thing to do because she's basically all but told her secret identity to a near stranger, and she's even thoughtfully drawn targets on all of the important people in her life. But all of that—all of that—is totally beside the point, because what it really comes down to is that when the chips are down, she doesn't draw strength from all that. It's dragging her down like a T-Rex in a tar pit."

I stood there stunned as he told me all this. I'd fought alongside Fidget Spinner a few times and we'd chatted a bit, but I had no idea all the things that were going on in her life.

Marty shoved past me and opened the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late for the review session." He paused for a moment to look at me and plucked away the papers I was holding against my chest. "I'm guessing these are for me." Then he took the coffee out of my hand. "And this. I'd thank you for it, but truthfully, this stuff is swill."

I followed him down the metal staircase. My head was still reeling, but his comment caught my attention. "Then why do you drink it?"

"Because I'm the great Marty Maddox, superhero groupie and the original kid sidekick to the Liberty Squadron. People expect me to be into this HeroBurger crap."

"Then why not just put coffee that you like into a HeroBurger cup?"

He stopped on the stairs and turned to look at me. "Why does Prodigious Girl wear a mask?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You wear a mask. This, despite the fact that you've shapeshifted into a girl who looks absolutely nothing like you." His eyes cut down to my chest. "Mostly nothing like you," he amended. "You're literally wearing a mask on a mask. Why bother?"

I shrugged. "People expect me to. Anybody trying to figure out who I really am will assume that I must look like her in my secret identity. If I didn't wear a mask, they'd get suspicious. They might stop to wonder if I'm hiding my identity some other way."

Marty gave me a sarcastic grin and held up his coffee. "Cheers."

He took a sip and made a disgusted face. "I don't believe I ordered iced coffee."

"It wasn't. Originally," I said quietly, glancing away with a guilty expression.

"Jesus, is that twerp still giving you trouble? He's a nut job with a freeze ray. How have you not taken him down already?" He shook his head and continued down the staircase.

"Frosty Joe is a lot tougher than he looks," I contended, hurrying along behind him. "He's really— That is, he's very—" I sputtered. "He's very...spry."

Marty looked at me with an expression of pity and disgust, shook his head again, and continued on. I actually got a lot of practice reading disdainful expressions.

I clutched my hands into fists. "He had three freeze ray pistols! Three! Who even carries three pistols? God, I hate that guy!" I grumbled.

Marty pushed the door open from the private stairwell into the main office, signaling that the time for shop talk was over. As he crossed the threshold, my taciturn mentor transformed before my eyes. As he made his way towards his office, he was all smiles, waving at people as they passed, presenting himself as the gregarious and approachable 'Marty.' His assistant Grace was up out of her chair to meet him as we approached his office door.

"I think it's so inspiring how you always take time out of your day to help encourage a new generation of heroes," she offered brightly.

He gave a modest smile. "I'm glad to do it. It's time well spent. Sometimes just the right word at the right time is all it takes."

"Especially if they got heart," I said flatly.

When Grace looked at me strangely, I flashed a bright grin. However, while her back was turned, Marty shot me a dark look.

Grace ran through Marty's afternoon activities as well as some key meetings and decisions, and then excused herself. I watched her move towards the exit as I gave my own report.

"Mr. Barnes had to cancel the 2:00 meeting, but I reviewed your itinerary and saw that you had an opening next Tuesday at 3:30. I also got the latest versions of those specifications for the new non-lethal interdiction devices that R&D has been working on, and I uploaded them to your private cloud drive."

"Thank you, Ms. Patterson. Anything else?" Marty said as he sat down behind his desk.

My eyes cut over to track Grace as she headed towards the door. "There was one other thing, sir..." I began as she exited. Then, as the door clicked shut, I turned to Marty desperately. "Am I a secretary?"

He shook his head. "No, no. I'd say you're more of a glorified secretary," he said with a dismissive shrug as he typed away at his computer. Then he blinked in realization. "Oh, wait, no. You're a—" He snapped his fingers twice and waggled his fingers in my direction, trying to remember.

"Level 1 Administrative Synergistic Coordinator?" I said dryly.

He chuckled. "Heh. Yeah, the girls didn't like being called secretaries, so we changed the name. It gives them the illusion of a career path."

"And you thought this would be perfect for me?"

"Kid, you're a sixteen-year-old girl—or a reasonable facsimile thereof—" he said as I shot him a petulant look, "—with literally zero qualifications. Count your blessings."

I folded my arms defensively. "I have qualifications."

He leaned back in his chair. "Right, sorry. I forgot about your five weeks last summer working the snack shack at the community pool. Remind me again how you lost that job?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "I caught my boss embezzling. He overcharged for the snacks and was pocketing the difference."

"Thank God, another criminal empire shattered. Chris Patterson, social justice warrior to the rescue. It really wasn't a big step from that to fighting crime in a miniskirt, was it?"

"Or being an overworked secretary, apparently."

"Are you still bellyaching about that? At least you're qualified. Minimally."

"Plus, I'm easy on the eyes," I said sarcastically.

Marty's eyes narrowed as he regarded me. "It's fascinating to me how a pretty girl who's fishing for a compliment is indistinguishable from a woman who's laying the groundwork for a sexual harassment lawsuit. I honestly can't tell the difference anymore."

I pursed my lips and gave him my best "you think you're funny but you're not" face.

His eyes skimmed over his computer screen in a distracted fashion. "You're lucky, I had to do some arm twisting to get all four of those other managers to agree to take you on."

"Exactly how is having five bosses a good thing?"

"Kid, having lots of bosses means that whenever you're unavailable, they'll assume you're doing something important for someone else. You're the ultimate messenger girl, which means you're a teenage girl who gets to meet with the CEO without raising any eyebrows. Plus, you get to skate by on unexplained absences. Does that sound like something conducive to your other extracurricular activities?"

Wow, when he put it like that, that actually made a lot of sense.

"So...I can mostly do nothing and everybody will assume I'm helping someone else," I realized. "Wait, what happens on a day when more than one of them hits me with an assignment I can't dodge?"

"Heh, yeah, those days are gonna suck," he chortled. Then he snapped his fingers. "Which reminds me. Just in case you need to be, ah, 'unavailable' during work hours, I wrote a computer program that can cover for you."

I was impressed. "You created an artificial intelligence to fill in for me?"

"Oh, Jesus, no. It's more of a basic rules engine. It's designed to randomly send out inquiries to people with questions that you should already know the answers to, respond to any taskings with weak excuses, and reflexively respond to any memes people send you with 'ROFL' followed by two exclamation points and one of four different emojis."

"Amazing."

"By the way, I'm going to be off-world the next couple days, so try not to set the place on fire while I'm gone."

For a moment I wondered if by 'the place' he was referring to the AGON building, our secret mechanic's shop superhero hideout, or the entirety of planet Earth. I figured it was probably the latter.

"What's going on, is it important? Should I come?" I asked, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice. I'd never been off-world before.

"Implying that you wouldn't want to come if it wasn't important?" Marty questioned, arching an eyebrow. "No, no need. I'm mostly just going to keep an eye on that asshole Arcturus."

"Asshole," I dutifully chimed in along with Marty. Prodigy had a standing rule that if you ever mentioned Arcturus's name, you had to use the word 'asshole' twice in the same sentence to make it clear that's how big an asshole he was.

He wagged a knowing finger at me. "You're catching on."

"What's your beef with him, anyway?"

He sniffed indignantly as he obviously recalled some unpleasant memory and shook his head. "He wants to save the world."

I shrugged. "So? I want to save the world."

"Which is only mildly less annoying," he countered. "No, the difference is that he wants it saved, but only if he's the one to save it. Assholes like that, you keep an eye on."

"What will you be doing?"

"Ah, some nimrod set off a gang war between the Revenants and the Zealots. Meanwhile, since our resident asshole has a connection to the Revenants, he thinks he can broker a truce if he travels to this other world to take a leak in some sacred puddle or some shit like that. He claims that'll confer upon him the right to act as an arbiter and get them all to settle the fuck down. But I'm going because I don't trust that he's not going to twist all that around and somehow get both groups to swear allegiance to him or something."

"You think that's likely?" I asked.

He shrugged. "That's what I'd do."

It was always interesting to talk to my mentor, because the longer any given conversation went on, the more likely it would end with me learning something horrifying.

"Enjoy your weekend," I offered.

Craving recognition for his exploits as Prodigious Girl, Chris makes a terrible blunder that unknowingly draws both him and his young cousin into a deadly trap set by the body swapping villain!

Identity Crisis: Adventures in Babysitting

By Jenny North

I was late getting home that evening. As usual, I took the bus home, but traffic was delayed on account of a supervillain fight somewhere downtown. Fortunately, the Faraday City police had responded, and nobody seemed to be hurt, but one of the downsides of public transportation was that it was a little tricky to excuse myself to lend a hand without attracting a lot of attention. For a while, I'd actually flown back and forth to work as Prodigious Girl until Prodigy berated me for taking unnecessary chances simply to shave a few extra minutes off my commute. I wondered how many other secret superheroes were watching the fight while stuck in traffic.

I fully appreciated that sitting there dressed as a girl, I was the poster child for the stupidity of what you had to go through to maintain a secret identity. Although the whole "protect those you care about from reprisals" was a pretty solid selling point. As was not having to come clean to my parents about what I was doing, especially given their feelings about superheroes. Although lately, I'd come to feel like having two identities was just an opportunity to fail twice.

As Chris, I spent my days at work as a crossdressed errand girl. And as Prodigious Girl, I wasn't exactly on a hot streak, either. My two identities were increasingly getting in the way of each other. If it wasn't for maintaining my cover as Chris, I wouldn't be taking the bus, and I could have swooped in to help with that fight. Meanwhile, as I girlishly crossed my legs and discreetly tugged down on my short skirt, it was obvious that PG wasn't doing Chris's social life any favors.

I pulled out my phone and opened Leah Paredes' contact info and stared at it. Dating someone was a stupid risk, I knew that. This would just be someone new to have to hide my superheroics from. Still, Leah liked me even despite the fact that I was running around as a girl. She didn't have to do that.

I caught a bit of motion in the sky and my eyes flicked upwards to see a superheroine I thought I recognized racing towards the fight. I wondered what she was sacrificing to be there. Then I thought back to Marty's conversation with Fidget Spinner on the roof at AGON today, and how she wasn't able to find a balance.

My fingers sped over my phone's screen and I messaged Leah before I could think about it.

ChrisP_Critter: hey hows it going?

I stared at the screen. She might not answer. She's probably busy. I doubt she even remembers m—

UnbLeahvable: hey stranger :)
UnbLeahvable: sup?

Holy shit. Holyshitholyshitholyshit. Okay, dude, you're a superhero. You fight supervillains, you can handle this. Play it cool.

ChrisP_Critter: just sittin on a bus, u?

Or I could play it stupid. Good plan.

UnbLeahvable: thrilling :)
UnbLeahvable: u get a summer job?
ChrisP_Critter: yeah, internship
ChrisP_Critter: boring admin stuff
ChrisP_Critter: not saving the world :)

Sheesh, why don't I just write, "Totally not a superheroine named Prodigious Girl, LOL!" Good God, I sucked at this.

UnbLeahvable: well, not 2 brag but
UnbLeahvable: Im folding blouses like a boss
ChrisP_Critter: rofl

I winced after I typed it. At least I'd omitted the two exclamation points that Marty had programmed into his non-AI computer substitute for me.

UnbLeahvable: u still girly?

Whoa, she just went there. I wasn't ready for that. Which was kind of ironic considering that to read her message, I practically had to crane my neck to peer past my prodigiously oversized falsies. Still, it was a fair question, considering that the last time she'd seen me, I was splitting my time between Chris and Christie. I guessed there was no point in avoiding it.

ChrisP_Critter: yeah
ChrisP_Critter: out and about

"Out and about?" Where the hell did that come from? I sounded like my grandmother.

UnbLeahvable: cool cool

I wasn't quite sure how to read that. I guess that was good?

I took a breath. Okay, time to make a move.

ChrisP_Critter: you free this wkend?
ChrisP_Critter: just to hang
ChrisP_Critter: wherever
ChrisP_Critter: no big
ChrisP_Critter: just curious

For the love of God, stop typing, you idiot! Amazing. They say smells can't travel across the Internet, but in less than 60 characters I'd invented a way to transmit the scent of desperation across wireless devices.

My wait for her response was interminable.

UnbLeahvable: sorry I gotta work :(
UnbLeahvable: next time!

I stared at the screen for the longest time, trying not to feel as dejected as I did. That sounded an awful lot like, "Thanks, but no thanks."

ChrisP_Critter: no worries
ChrisP_Critter: bus is at my stop, gotta go
ChrisP_Critter: chat later
UnbLeahvable: fo sho

Great, now I'm lying about my bus arriving just to invent a reason to disengage. Coward. I stared at the messages for a long moment. Then I felt a nudge in my chest as a creepy guy sat down next to me and "accidentally" bumped against one of my big falsies with his arm.

Ugh.

I put my phone back in my purse and shrunk back in my seat as we all patiently waited for someone else to save the day.

I got home in time for dinner, but as I walked in the front door, I saw my mom retrieving a pair of overnight bags from a closet.

"Are you going somewhere?" I asked.

My mom looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "Oh, sorry, we forgot to mention. It's just for Saturday and Sunday. It's a conference related to my grant proposal, but since it's down in Atlantic City, I convinced your dad to come along with me so we could spend the weekend together."

"Oh," I said neutrally. "Cool."

This would normally have been great news. With both Prodigy and my parents out of my hair for a couple days, I was free to do some serious superheroing with nobody looking over my shoulder for a change. Although after having just been shot down by Leah, I was still kind of smarting about suddenly not having any weekend plans myself.

However, Mom's attitude about the whole thing was weird. She seemed almost nervous to see me.

"Dinner's read—oh, hey, Chris," my dad said as he walked in from the kitchen. "I wondered if that might have been you."

"Yes, father, it is I," I responded in a deliberately stilted fashion, mocking the peculiar way they were acting around me. I was about ready to start looking for the pods that these impostors had hatched from. I eyed them suspiciously. "What's going on?"

The two of them shared another odd look, and my mom sidled up next to my dad. "Chris—" she began, "—your father has a favor to ask you." Before he could react, she clapped him on the shoulder and retreated into the kitchen. "I got her all warmed up for you!"

People sometimes wonder where I get my attitude from. They clearly never met my parents.

My dad was an Assistant District Attorney for Faraday City, so he was a man who was seldom at a loss for words. However, after I'd started running around as a girl, it definitely threw him. It's not that he was awkward around me exactly, but just a little perplexed by my sudden transgender inclinations. I imagined it to be sort of like the well-meaning but confused attitude of a magpie whose egg hatches to discover that it had been replaced by a cuckoo's egg, but then gamely goes along with taking care of the baby bird, even though it's not quite what was expected.

He gestured for me to sit down on the couch, and then took a seat on the chair across from me. I have to admit, it did feel a bit like I was about to be deposed.

"Chris, your mother mentioned we'd be out of town for a couple days."

I smiled. "Dad, if you're worried about me throwing a party or something—"

"No, no," he said. Though he had an uncertain expression on his face as he looked at me, likely wondering what the demographics of such a party might consist of. "That's not it."

He cleared his throat. "Your Uncle Jack and Aunt Jessica..." he began, "...need a favor."

"From...me?" I said. Honestly, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Uncle Jack was my dad's brother, and the last time we'd all gotten together it went badly, mostly because of me. It was pretty obvious that my aunt and uncle didn't much care for my apparently transgender inclinations, and it had caused a lot of friction.

He nodded. "Your cousin Tommy is going to the state finals for his karate tournament this weekend, and your aunt and uncle are going to cheer him on. But they didn't want Lydia around all that fighting. They asked us to watch her, but of course we're going to be out of town. So..." He let the sentence hang.

"You volunteered me to babysit her all weekend?" I asked, incredulous. "And Uncle Jack and Aunt Jessica are okay with this?"

"They're...not enthused..." my dad said.

My mom, who'd obviously been listening in on this whole conversation, stepped in from the kitchen. "Chris, you can say no—"

"Okay. No."

"—but, it might help mend some fences," she hurriedly added, as she looked over at my father. "Lydia knows you, and they've apparently exhausted their other options—"

My dad snorted. "That's putting it mildly."

My mom came and sat down next to me on the couch. "Chris, your dad and I would never want to put you in an awkward position. And we know how responsible you are. But the fact that they trust you to take care of her is kind of a big deal. They would definitely owe you one after this."

I looked at them for a long moment, then sighed and closed my eyes. "How many are you gonna owe me?" I asked.

My mom laughed and gave me a big hug. Meanwhile, my dad said, "I'll call and let them know." The phone was already in his hand.

Oh, what the hell. It wasn't like I had better plans, anyway.

One minor factoid that my parents had neglected to mention during their pitch was that my aunt and uncle had stipulated that I stay over at their house while watching Lydia. So, after dinner, my mom sent me upstairs to pack an overnight bag. At first I wondered what the big deal was, but then I realized that it was my first overnight trip as a girl. As a guy, this would normally have consisted of grabbing shorts, a t-shirt, socks, and a change of underwear, but as a girl it felt more like I was packing up my entire room.

However, I was also nervous about this for an entirely different reason—my little cousin Lydia knew that I was a superhero, and a six-year-old with that kind of information was not something I was comfortable with.

As with so many things in my life, it had been my own damn fault. With little time to react or think about it, I'd reluctantly involved her in my superheroics while stopping an armed robbery in broad daylight. She hadn't actually seen me in costume or knew my hero name, but she'd seen me use my powers, up close and personal. I needed to nip that in the bud, somehow.

I threw myself onto my bed and my little dog Undie climbed up there with me.

"I guess you still need me, huh, boy?" I said mildly as I scratched behind his ear. I had to admit it was kind of nice to have someone in my corner who didn't mind if I was a guy or a girl.

As that thought crossed my mind, I grabbed my phone and opened up my messages, and I saw my exchange with Leah. For a moment I thought about messaging her again, but then I sighed and figured there was no use digging that hole any deeper for myself. Then I thought about messaging Caleb to let him know I'd be out this weekend, but I decided it could wait.

I was feeling kind of down on myself, so I figured I'd do a vanity search of myself online...or rather that is to say, I looked up Prodigious Girl. Caleb had cautioned me strongly against checking what people were saying about me—or some of the artwork they'd drawn of me (eww!)—but I figured a quick peek on HeroTracker couldn't hurt. It was a social media site where people could track where they'd seen heroes and post comments. I figured it might be a little pick-me-up to read a few. I mean, heck, of the people posting comments there, I'd probably just saved the lives of a bunch of them. It couldn't be too bad.

I pulled up Prodigious Girl's entry, and noticed that just as Caleb had mentioned, my presence at the fight with Vagabond and Echelon had gone unnoticed, even though people had dutifully tagged Enchantrix and Euphoria, which was kind of bullshit. Heck, Euphoria even made me introduce myself to her stupid podcast.

Then I noticed that my lunchtime fight that I'd had with Frosty Joe wasn't tagged, either. Now that was weird. There were plenty of people around, and usually at least one bystander could be counted on to log the fight. Not that I was in any hurry to take credit for that debacle, but still.

Then as I skimmed through the log, I noticed something even stranger. People had tagged that they'd seen me flying around at various points around the city that I knew couldn't have been me. Was somebody impersonating me? Or maybe there was another superheroine who had a costume similar to mine? In fact, as I looked at the time stamps, most of them were squarely during work hours when I was running errands at AGON, which—

"Oh, you fucking prick!" I said aloud. Undie raised his head and looked at me in confusion like he wondered what he'd done.

Prodigy. It had to be. I knew that he'd hacked the superhero registration system, so it would have been nothing for him to hack HeroTracker. In his office today, he'd mentioned creating a program to help "cover" for me. He must have also developed a worm or something to eliminate or change the times I'd been spotted, and maybe even create some false sightings to throw people off the trail.

I was furious. This was no big deal to him, since he was already rubbing elbows with the big heroes of the city. But people paid attention to stuff like this! No wonder I was feeling so unappreciated, people probably hardly even knew that I existed!

I threw my phone down on the bed, still fuming.

As I cooled down a little, I got why he probably thought it was a good idea. The two of us were vigilantes, and I was still wanted for questioning for my assault on Promethean, so some degree of discretion was probably smart. And throwing a few false positives during work hours to establish an alibi was a good idea. All the same...

Ugh. How the hell was I supposed to inspire people if they didn't even know me?

My phone beeped in a special tone that let me know that a message had been routed to it from my iComm, meaning it was a message for Prodigious Girl. It was almost certainly Prodigy wanting me to do something, so I picked it up, fully prepared to tear him a new one. Or at the very least complain that he hadn't even mentioned all this to me.

But the message wasn't from Prodigy.

It was...

I read it twice to make sure I'd read it correctly.

I made a decidedly girlish squeal of delight, and I grabbed Undie and gave him a big hug. Though once again, he looked around in startled bewilderment wondering what he'd done to warrant such a reaction.

Xenos was seated in the high-backed chair of his opulent study, and he groaned a little as he massaged an aching bicep. His ongoing crusade against the mages, wizards, and witches had been going well of late, and he'd managed to scratch more than a few off of his "hit list," but the war was beginning to take a toll again.

Beaumont's body had served him well, and his enhanced physiology as the vigilante Chimera had certainly proved useful. Nevertheless, it was time for a new mount. Thankfully, there were many enticing possibilities.

Xenos had encountered other body swappers during his long years. At one point, he'd even encountered spirits of the archetypical seven deadly sins who would possess the bodies of mortals. But they were all clumsy and arrogant. They flaunted their power with flagrant disregard of the consequences, thinking themselves invincible and untouchable. For a very long time, that was true.

Until humanity caught up with them.

Humans of the modern age had once been slow to believe in what they called the supernatural, and Xenos and his ilk had taken advantage of that skepticism. If a woman noticed her husband acting distant and strange, she was more inclined to believe he was having an affair than that a supernatural being had taken over his body.

The dawn of this new heroic age changed everything. Suddenly the impossible had become not only probable, but mundane.

Xenos's brethren had been unprepared. Some had believed that since metahumans were so public and flashy, they could afford to be, as well. They were caught or killed quickly.

Others of his kind had become enthralled at the possibility of inhabiting bodies with metahuman powers. Where once they would walk among humans and seek to commandeer a body that was young, strong, and wealthy, suddenly power—real power—became a tempting possibility.

Hopping into the body of an especially mighty metahuman like Promethean was a great temptation. Nevertheless, powerful men had both powerful allies and powerful enemies. People who would take notice. A sufficiently gifted sorcerer might be able to force a switch back to "put things right," sometimes banishing the interloping spirit into oblivion, or worse. Or a dangerous adversary might seize the opportunity to finish off the suddenly oddly-behaving hero who now lacked the prior experience to use their superpowers to their fullest potential and defend themselves properly.

Any body swappers who remained had been dealt with personally by Xenos. His primary crusade was against the magic users, but he knew from hard experience that other body swappers were frequently sloppy and drew too much attention. Attention he could ill afford. At one point, he'd nearly been caught when hunters were on the trail of another body swapper. Xenos quickly intervened to dispatch their prey and save them the trouble.

Xenos had come to suspect that he was the last of his kind, and that suited him just fine. He wouldn't be caught as easily as the others. He'd learned the wisdom of playing the long game. Rather than haphazardly jumping from person to person and leaving a trail of querulous victims behind him a mile wide, he instead took extended residence in a mount. He'd choose a man with whom he could get comfortable. Oh, he might indulge in a bit of light body swapping from time to time when it suited his purposes, but he would always come home to the body he'd chosen.

Regardless, it was nearly time to move on.

He looked at his data pad and opened up his list of potential targets. Powerful men, and even a few women. Xenos much preferred being a man, especially for his long-term "home body," but he'd been enough women over the years that when measured against the scales of eternity he could afford a bit of minor disinclination. And it had its compensations.

The risk, as ever, was getting caught. Being noticed. People of this caliber had friends, allies, and secrets. People who would notice a sudden change in behavior. He needed an edge.

However, he would soon have one. In the very near future, such concerns would be a thing of the past.

A low beep sounded from his computer, capturing his attention. He turned to read the message on the screen and smiled.

The stage was set, the trap was laid. Now, he simply needed to wait for the opportune moment to strike.

The next morning, I woke up in a delighted mood, eager to meet the day. I was up early, showered, dressed, and did my makeup in record time, so that I was already waiting for my parents when they emerged. Given my surly attitude towards this babysitting gig the night before, that caught them a bit by surprise, but since I'd made the coffee that morning, they weren't complaining.

"You sure you're okay with this?" my mom asked.

"Yep, yep, should be fun," I said. I then checked the time again. "You guys probably want to hit the road, right? Beat the traffic?"

"It's Saturday morning," my dad said.

"Good point, probably even more traffic with the weekenders. You guys ready to go?"

My befuddled parents and I piled into the car, and they gave me a ride over to my aunt and uncle's house. My parents had picked up on my unexpectedly good mood, but they clearly thought better than to press the point so long as I was willing to go along with this insanity.

The awkwardness at my aunt and uncle's began the moment we pulled in the driveway. My parents glanced at each other as my father parked the car, obviously calculating if it would be more difficult and uncomfortable for them to come in with me and say hi before leaving, or if it would be better to just drop me at the curb as they took off with their tires squealing. The latter option clearly had its charms, but they opted for the former.

My dad and his brother had always had a bit of an uneven relationship. Their politics were incompatible, and I got the impression that Uncle Jack was jealous of my dad's success. As a result, having me pop up as either their openly crossdressing son or their transgender daughter pretty much helped to push things past the tipping point.

It was a hot day, so when I'd gotten dressed that morning I'd opted to wear a pink t-shirt with a berry-colored magenta miniskirt, figuring that would be casual but sufficiently feminine as to not make waves. Or so I thought.

"You know what would be cute," my mom had said when she'd seen me, "is if you wore that one jacket you have."

I was just about to protest that I'd have to be crazy to wear a jacket in this heat when I'd read the look on her face. Translation: Those big falsies aren't going to win you any points with your aunt and uncle, so do what you can to minimize your bustline. Message received, Mom.

Not that it mattered. When we arrived for the most awkward greeting ever, my uncle didn't even make eye contact with me, and my aunt took one look at my chest and muttered something to herself that made me glad I didn't have super-hearing.

My parents excused themselves so quickly that they nearly left a pair of vapor trails. I can't say I was all that upset. They quickly realized that their presence was only exacerbating an already awkward situation. So, after a hug and a quiet "good luck," I was on my own. Meanwhile, I'd spotted my little cousin Lydia when we arrived, but she'd hidden behind her mother and then took off upstairs to her room like a flash before I could say anything.

My aunt then walked me through a health and safety briefing akin to what I expect you'd get if you were stationed in a nuclear missile silo.

I was informed that I would be staying in the guest bedroom ("and only the guest bedroom," though I wasn't quite sure what that was supposed to mean), then we ran through the lists that my Aunt Jessica had prepared. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say that it started off with not-unreasonable things like their cell numbers and emergency contact information, and the neighbors' numbers. However, I began to get a little suspicious when she included the actual phone numbers for both 911 ("911") and the operator ("0"). Her briefing then devolved into a level of panic that pretty clearly managed to communicate the message, "Oh my God, what have we done, we've invited her into our home unattended for nearly an entire weekend."

When I inquired about the Wi-Fi password, Aunt Jessica regarded me with a horrified expression. She looked at me as though I'd just politely inquired if it would be okay while they were gone if I could go rummaging through her closets and try on all of her clothes.

Fortunately, my cousin Tommy was a bit more forthcoming when I asked him. I'd wandered upstairs and found him in his bedroom packing a duffel bag.

"Hey, good luck at the tournament, that's really awesome," I volunteered, standing in the doorway. I glanced around at his room, feeling a little bit envious. Tommy had some of his trophies and martial arts stuff around the room, and he had more of an interest in horror movies than I did, but other than that, his room wasn't all that dissimilar from what mine used to look like. But once all of my girl's clothes had moved in along with my wig stand, makeup, jewelry box, vanity set and mirror, and other little accessories, it had taken on a decidedly different vibe. Even the normally unflappable Caleb seemed slightly taken aback the first time he'd seen my room after I was forced to "redecorate."

"It's not a big deal," Tommy said.

"I'm a little jealous. I never really went out for sports, so I never, uh..." My voice trailed off since I suddenly realized that the seemingly obvious reason was probably related to the fact that I was currently dressed as a girl. Tommy never seemed as freaked out by my change as his parents, but he obviously wasn't entirely comfortable with it, either.

"That is, I didn't—huh?" I said, feeling a tug on my skirt. I looked down to see Lydia looking up at me, wide-eyed.

"Hi," she said. "I need...um. You need to—"

Tommy interrupted her. "Quiet, Shrimp. Adults are talking," he sniped.

Lydia shrank back, and I whispered I'd drop by in a minute. She took off running down the hall and into her bedroom.

Tommy paused to look around the room. At first I thought he was trying to remember something he'd forgotten to pack, but I noticed that he had a more concerned expression.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

He looked over at one of his trophies. "This used to be fun, y'know? I mean, I like the competition and all, but things are nuts. Now it's all about winning. Bringing home the trophy, getting the ranking. I kinda miss when you and I would play around with RC cars out on the driveway." He glanced over at me, his eyes dwelling on my chest. "I guess you don't do that kind of stuff anymore, either."

"Less and less," I admitted. He turned to zip up his duffel bag, and I checked the time.

He slung the bag over his shoulder. "You got a hot date, or something?" he said with a smirk. Before I could say anything, he gave a little upwards nod towards my wrist. "You keep checking the time."

I gave him a nervous smile. "Me? No. Just want to make sure you guys get off in time, that's all."

Shortly, my aunt, uncle, and Tommy were heading out the door. Aunt Jessica called for Lydia to come down and say goodbye, but all she got was a perfunctory, "'Kay! Bye!" shout from upstairs. I got another dirty look as though somehow this was due to my bad influence, but they said nothing as they left.

I checked my watch again. "Okay, okay, okay," I whispered to myself. "Plenty of time."

Then I glanced up the stairs towards the bedrooms. Now, I only had to get Lydia on board with my little scheme, and we'd be off to the races.

"Lydia?" I said, knocking on the frame of her open door as I entered. "You in here?" I peered around, but at first glance, the room seemed empty.

"Yeah!" she called back. It took me a minute to realize that her voice had come from inside her closet, which was closed. As I recalled, it wasn't even a walk-in closet, it was a wardrobe with a bi-fold door. "Just a sec!"

"Um, okay. Look, Lydia, I need to talk to you about some stuff, okay?" It felt weird talking to a closed closet door. I leaned closer.

"Don't look!"

"Okay!" I said, spinning around. I took a few steps towards the window, and my gaze fell on the big plastic cage that was there. Lydia's pet chinchilla Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle was rustling around. The little critter had been dressed in an adorable white wedding dress with lace and sparkly stars, with an elegant crown on top that was decorated with white fabric flowers. The getup was precious, but she didn't seem to be very comfortable in it.

"I know exactly how you feel," I empathized as I wriggled to adjust one of my breast forms in the cup of my brassiere. Then I peered more closely at the chinchilla as I heard the closet door open behind me.

"Is there something wrong with her eye? It almost looks like she's winking at m—oh, my God," I said as I turned around to look at Lydia.

She was dressed as a superhero.

Or at least, as much as a little kid might reasonably attempt with clothes on hand. She was wearing a pink short-sleeved top along with a slightly mismatched darker pink skirt, which both had white trim. On her legs, she had baggy socks almost like legwarmers in a darker raspberry color. Tied around her neck was a small pink-and-white kerchief that barely went down her back, but I gathered was meant to simulate a cape. I had to admit that it was a straight-up adorable look, especially when combined with her brown hair that had been tied back in a pair of low pigtails that gave her a feisty appearance. I might have just assumed it was a cute outfit, except for the totally mismatched bright blue domino mask she wore over her eyes.

"Oh, Lord," I muttered. "Okay, Lydia, this is kind of what I wanted to talk to you about—"

"Wait, wait. Look, look, look," she insisted. She then struck a heroic pose where she turned slightly to the side with her chin up and her arms at her sides, looking like she was staring resolutely into the future.

Dang, that was actually pretty good.

"Listen, Lydia—"

"Ask me my name!" she said.

I wasn't sure if I should be encouraging this, but in light of what I had lined up for this afternoon, I supposed some of this was inevitable.

I sighed. "What's your name?"

"I'm—" she paused dramatically, "—Pretty Good Girl!"

You know, I'd actually heard worse.

"Get it? It's on account of I'm pretty, but also I'm good," she explained. Then she furrowed her brow. "By the way, what's your name, again? Not Chris, I mean the other one."

"That's what we need to talk about," I told her. I took a seat on a low bench by the window, and I motioned for her to sit down next to me. "You haven't told anybody about me, have you?"

"No," she said in a dismissively sarcastic tone. "I'm not little, I can keep a secret."

"Lydia, this is kind of grown-up stuff, but it's really, really important, okay? I know you're only six years old—"

"I'm seven," she corrected.

"Oh. Well, happy birthday. But—"

"Plus, that was like two whole months ago, so really I'm seven and a half."

I nodded. "Okay, so not so good with the fractions just yet. But see, that was all a big mistake. You weren't supposed to see me do all the stuff that I did."

"But I helped," she protested.

I winced at the memory. I'd used her as a distraction in that little caper. Twice. Admittedly, I was under a lot of pressure at the time, but it wasn't exactly my quickest thinking ever.

"Yes, you did. You were very brave. But being a hero is really dangerous, and you could get hurt."

She nodded. "Uh huh. That's why you gotta give me powers."

"Oh, man," I groaned. "Look, Lydia, I can't—"

"Sure, you can!"

"Lydia, I can't. I can't even if I wanted to. That's not how having powers works. I can't just give you some of mine."

Her little face was a mask of disappointment. "Oh. Then how'd you get your powers?" she asked.

"I—"

I actually wasn't entirely sure. I knew that after I ran headlong into a tree I woke up with my powers, but needless to say I suspected there was more to the story than that. I also knew that if I told Lydia that much, I'd soon find her outside plowing full-speed into the stately maple tree in the front yard. At that point, I'd have a quick trip to the emergency room on my hands and a lot of explaining to do to my very irate aunt and uncle.

"I, uh, don't know," I admitted.

"Oh!" she repeated, but this time her voice was suddenly more cheerful. "Then maybe I can get them, too," she decided.

I checked the time. We needed to get moving.

"Look, Lydia, sometimes being a superhero means doing different things. Like sometimes we rescue people in trouble. Or sometimes we fight criminals to bring them to justice."

"Uh huh. Like that time I helped you. When you used me as bait for those bad guys."

"O-okay, let's maybe not refer to it quite that way. But, yes. My point is that I've actually got something super-important to do this afternoon, so I need you to come with me. Okay?"

Her eyes lit up behind her little plastic mask. "Yeah! You mean superhero stuff? I'm really good at punching, I've been watching Tommy practice. Here, see?" She threw a few spastic punches at the air and then kicked over a stuffed giraffe. Suddenly I had a better idea why Aunt Jessica had been concerned about exposing Lydia to scenes of violence.

"That's—okay—that's—whoa—" I said, trying to get her focused. "Yeah, this isn't a punching thing. It's a lot of talking."

Lydia frowned slightly. "That sounds dumb."

"Well, it's not. It's very important," I said, feeling strangely defensive. "It's adult stuff. You wouldn't understand."

She seemed unconvinced. Then she asked, "Are you going like that?"

"No, I'm not," I said with a smile as I retrieved my small handheld CosFit device from my skirt pocket. I was just about to push the button when I hesitated.

Lydia was looking at me in wide-eyed anticipation. "What?"

"I'm not used to doing this in front of somebody," I said. Then I shook it off and activated the CosFit.

Over the next minute or so—and under Lydia's careful gaze—the CosFit's nanobots transformed my civilian clothes into the durable nanomesh fabric of my Prodigious Girl costume. While that was going on, I used my shapeshifting power to shift my body underneath from Chris into Prodigious Girl.

Lydia watched quietly through the whole transformation, and I gave her a friendly smile as I slipped into a confident pose. She had to be geeking out, with an actual superhero standing right there in her bedroom.

"Huh," she said finally.

Not exactly the reaction I'd been expecting.

Quietly, she gave me a thorough once-over, moving to the side and behind me as she scrutinized my appearance. She reached out with her little fingers to feel the fabric of my cape. I was starting to feel a bit self-conscious.

"It's really dark," she said, studying my costume.

I wasn't about to try and explain how I'd patterned my blue-and-purple look after my mentor, Prodigy. "It helps me be inconspicuous at night," I said.

"Huh," she declared, looking at my chest.

"Yeah, well...yeah," I muttered, crossing my arms.

"What's your name?"

I smiled broadly. "I'm Prodigious Girl," I told her.

"Oh," she said simply. Not that I was overly hung up on the opinion of a seven-year-old, but I was still holding out for a slightly bigger response. I waited quietly as she paused to consider that.

"That's a dumb name," she decided.

"Ehh," I equivocated, giving a little shrug.

A small wrinkle creased her forehead as she seemed to give it further consideration. Then she looked at me and took a sharp inhale, obviously about to ask a question.

"'What does prodigious mean,' right?" I volunteered before she could ask.

"Yeah."

I cleared my throat quietly. "It means...uh, 'wonderful,'" I said. (Which, I mean, technically that is true. The superlative pronoun is a classic. Y'know, strictly speaking, Prodigious Girl isn't really any different than 'Wonder Woman' or 'Supergirl.' Though I had no intention of explaining the concept of a double entendre to my seven-year-old cousin.)

Then she kicked me in the shin. Hard.

"Hey!" I said. "What was—"

"You didn't feel that at all, did you?" she said excitedly. Then her eyes darted around the room, obviously looking for something heavier to clobber me with.

"Stop. We're not hitting, okay?"

"Okay," she said in kind of a distracted manner. Then something occurred to her. "You lifted a car that one time! I saw you! What else can you lift? Can you lift...um, the house? Lift the house!"

"I can't lift the house."

"Oh. But you can fly, right? Do some flying!"

I smiled a little, and then I floated upwards so that I was hovering about a foot off the floor. Her room was cramped enough that I couldn't exactly fly around, but it had the desired effect.

"Cool," she whispered as she waved her arm underneath me like she was trying to figure out a magic trick. "What other stuff can you do?"

I was—admittedly, extremely belatedly—starting to worry about over-sharing.

For some reason, I'd found myself being leery about talking about my ability to shapeshift. I could instantly shift between my two identities, but to change one or the other into something else took time, sometimes a couple hours to look like a different person.

However, it struck me that I hadn't actually played with my shapeshifting power all that much recently. When I'd first gotten my powers, it was a big lark because I hadn't yet settled on my Prodigious Girl identity, so I had an extra "template" slot to mess around. I could slowly change my alternate form into various celebrities—a trick that Caleb particularly enjoyed—but then instantly swap back to Chris when my parents were around. Though lately since I'd kind of settled in to my two identities as Chris and Prodigious Girl, it felt weird to mess with either of them very much.

My other superpower was my power mimicry ability, but I didn't think I was ready to explain that. That was in no small part because I didn't fully understand it myself. Sometimes under periods of duress, I'd found myself able to mimic the superpowers of other nearby metahumans, and it's no exaggeration that it had saved my life a few times. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I couldn't control it consciously. That was the power I understood the least.

None of which I wanted to get into with my seven-year-old cousin right at the moment.

"That's pretty much it," I told her as I floated back to the ground.

She pursed her lips slightly. "But...you just changed into this girl," she pointed out. "Ooh! Can you change into other stuff, too? Change into a rabbit!"

"We gotta get going," I told her, to her obvious disappointment. Though given how excited she was, I knew she'd love having me take her for a flight into the city.

"Nooooo!" Lydia shrieked. "Too high! Too high, too high, too high..."

Well, it had seemed like a good idea.

In my defense, we had already been running late. I wasn't about to let her go out in public in her 'superhero costume,' so I'd made her change back into her regular clothes. Or at least, that's what I told her to do. When she emerged, however, I could tell that she was wearing her regular clothes on top of her "costume." It didn't look quite as stupid as it sounded, but even when I'd warned her that she'd be too hot like that, Lydia steadfastly refused to change.

She was also carrying a small pink backpack that I suspected contained her mask. So, with a sigh, I asked her if she wanted to bring a toy or a stuffed animal along, and I started to reach for a plush white rabbit with a top hat that was clearly placed in a place of honor on a shelf.

Lydia was aghast. "No," she said, as she slid her hand-held electronic game and airpods into her bag. "Besides, I'm not allowed to play with that one."

I looked at the rabbit and shook my head. "Good grief, you have stupid rules in this house," I muttered to myself. Of course, in my house I was running around dressed up as a girl and fighting crime, so I probably wasn't in a place to judge.

My aunt and uncle's house was a bit secluded, so once we were outside I'd figured I was safe to take off without being seen. I'd planned to give Lydia a fun little ride with plenty of time to majestically swoop around some buildings downtown to get her excited, and I'd still have plenty of time to make my appointment.

Of course, that plan hit the skids once I took off with her in my arms and her shriek of what I'd initially assumed was delight turned into a blood-curdling scream of panic and terror. While I was still less than fifty feet off the ground.

If it weren't for my invulnerable skin, I suspect Lydia's diminutive fingers would easily have drawn blood, so I landed and we tried again, more slowly. Then, a third time. Much more slowly.

By the time I hit a comfortable cruising altitude, I was hovering about six feet off the ground and moving at a brisk walking pace. As we floated above the sidewalk, a bicyclist sped past us.

I mention all this by way of explaining how it came to pass that Lydia and I were soon riding the Faraday Transit Authority's Connector bus #621 heading downtown. It was pretty embarrassing to be dressed as a superhero and riding public transportation, but Lord knows I'd endured worse.

I was typing away at my iComm when a creepy looking middle-aged guy leered at my boobs and opened his mouth like he was about to say something.

"Keep on steppin'," I said without even looking up.

I pulled up the time again. "Dammit," I swore under my breath.

"What's so important, anyway?" Lydia asked me.

I looked down at her, unsure how to respond.

The truth was that I'd been going through a bit of a rough patch in my superheroics. I mean, I'd been fighting the good fight and all, but there comes a time in every young hero's life where you'd just like a bit of positive reinforcement to justify all of the ass kickings you've endured in the cause of justice (or whatever gets you out of bed in the morning). I didn't regret becoming a hero or anything, but an occasional "attagirl" would've been nice. Though I don't think it would surprise you to know that the "thanks" one gets when one is a heroine of curvaceous proportions aren't always appreciated.

But you know what? I could have lived without any of that. Truly. One doesn't sidekick to Prodigy without developing a thick skin.

What I wanted—what I really wanted—was to inspire people. Saving people was great, but if I could inspire people to do greater things, I felt like I could really make a difference. But right now I wasn't even sure people knew I existed.

So, I'd decided to do something about it.

The night before my babysitting gig, out of the blue I'd gotten a last-minute invite to be the guest of honor at a ceremony that was dedicating a new center for Faraday City's underprivileged youth. The plan was that I'd smile and wave, pose for a bunch of photos with the kids, and say a few words to the crowd. I was so, so ready for this.

Or so I kept telling myself.

"I...it's complicated," I said to Lydia. I then returned my attention to my iComm device where I'd pulled up a notes app that I was using to jot down some things I wanted to say at the ceremony.

"Hey, um, PG?" Lydia asked. Before we'd left, I'd explained at some length not to call me Chris, but either 'PG' or 'Peej' was fine since she obviously wasn't enamored with Prodigious Girl. Then she kind of mused on it for a moment. "PG. Pee Gee. Ha. Hey, you wanna know what's funny? You're PG, but since I'm Pretty Good Girl, I'm Pee Gee G—"

"Lydia," I interrupted her, lowering my voice. "Now's not a good time, okay? I'm trying to get this figured out, and it's really important. So, can you maybe quietly play your game or look out the window, or something?"

She didn't say anything, but she just quietly sat there with a forlorn look on her face.

Xenos watched through the telescopic sight of his multiplex energy rifle as he assessed the situation. This was...unexpected.

He'd always known it was unlikely that his plan would go flawlessly...any encounter with metahumans could be counted upon to take on unforeseen elements. Still, it was unusual for things to take on such unpredicted quirks even before the encounter had begun in earnest.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder and expelled a long slow breath of air. It was unlike him to be indecisive, but the young heroine had presented him with an unexpected opportunity. The most difficult part of his plan had always required the services of a third party to decode the information he required. He had one lined up, and he'd used them before, but it would take precious time he didn't have. Furthermore, in his experience, more people only meant more ways for things to go wrong. But this might allow him to do everything himself.

Simple, neat, and quiet.

He backed away from the window and activated his cloaking shield. He didn't enjoy using it—it blurred his own perceptions and gave him a wicked headache—but the near-invisibility it provided was extremely useful in ops like this one.

However, if everything went to plan, he wouldn't need it again after today.

After Lydia and I exited the bus, I checked the time again. We were going to be late, but I'd hoped it would be fashionably late. After all, people who engaged the services of superheroes for these sorts of events usually appreciated that we were, after all, superheroes. If they pressed me, I figured I could humbly imply that I was busy saving the city from a runaway meteor or an intelligent radioactive mutant pterodactyl. (Which, in fairness, Prodigy and I had actually done last month. Fractaldactyl was likely spoiling for a rematch.)

Suddenly, my iComm beeped, signaling that Chris's cell phone was ringing. I was about to ignore it, but then I remembered how rotten my luck was, and I realized who it had to be. I retrieved my phone from my utility belt, checked the caller ID, and swore under my breath. Aunt Jessica. Because of course it was.

My mind raced as I realized the myriad problems in my current situation. My problems had problems. First, we were supposed to still be at home. Second, I was currently a girl, and one who didn't sound like Chris. So, if I picked up the phone, my aunt would no doubt be curious why I'd left her young daughter in the care of a teenage girl they didn't know within the first two hours of my babysitting duty. I made a mental note to petition Prodigy to make me some kind of voice-altering app for my phone to deal with situations like this, but at the moment, I didn't have a lot of good options.

My one bit of good luck was that we were standing near a quiet alleyway, and I was able to hustle Lydia over there. By the eighth ring, I'd managed to shapeshift back into Chris and picked up the phone as I ducked down behind a stack of empty boxes. In that amount of time, I wasn't able to use my CosFit to change my costume, so I looked like a teenage guy badly dressed up in a Prodigious Girl costume.

"Aunt Jessica! How's the trip? I didn't expect to hear from you so s—" I nodded as I listened. "We're great. We're all great. Both of us, that is. Great."

Lydia was standing there, looking at me strangely. I hadn't had a chance to explain why I was a guy in PG's costume, so she was looking me up and down like I was nuts. I tugged at my short skirt reflexively.

I tried to cover the mouthpiece to cover the sounds of nearby downtown traffic. "No! No, of course we're still at home. I wouldn't dream of taking Lydia out. We're watching an... educational... nature documentary. About birds. That live in downtown areas."

A loud horn sounded. "Jerkass!" a redheaded woman shrieked out her open window at another driver as she drove past.

"That w-was a...red-tufted jerkass bird," I explained. "They're very rare. They—" I paused. "Oh, sure."

I covered the mouthpiece and turned to Lydia. "Your mom wants to talk to you," I said to her hurriedly. I wasn't sure in the span of scant seconds how to explain everything. "You need to—"

"Lie," she said flatly as she took the phone. "Hi, Mom! Nuh-uh, Chris hasn't made lunch yet. Yeah, it's about dumb birds. Uh huh, I will. I love you, too."

She handed me the phone back, and I fully expected to get reamed out by my aunt, but she'd already hung up. Under Lydia's watchful eye, I quietly shapeshifted back into Prodigious Girl as I returned the phone to my utility belt.

"Thanks," I said, feeling strangely more comfortable talking in my girl's voice, dressed as I was. I brushed my hair back over my shoulder. "Y-you know, heroes try not to lie—"

"I get it," she said, a sour little expression on her face.

I started to lead her back onto the street and then stopped as I turned to look at her.

"What?"

"It just occurred to me. I can't let you out of my sight, but it's going to draw attention if people see me walking around with a kid. If there are cameras and anybody recognizes you, then they might start to wonder about the connection between us."

"Plus, Mom will kill you."

I tilted my head in quiet agreement. "You're going to need some sort of dis—"

I stopped short as her face lit up brightly.

"No. No, that's not what I— Lydia—"

It was too late. She was already peeling off her outer layer of clothes.

I sighed heavily as we arrived at the event. I noticed that there were lots of people around, but I quietly edged away from them since even a lesser-known superhero like me tended to draw attention, and I didn't have time to deal with autograph hounds. I saw that there was a backstage area and headed over there as briskly and inconspicuously as circumstances allowed.

Lydia, for her part, was grinning like an idiot walking along next to me in her pink costume and mask. She'd even picked up a confident little swagger.

I had to admit I was getting fairly excited. It was a good-sized crowd out front, and they even had a live band playing to keep people entertained. A lot of money was obviously going into this redevelopment, tearing down the old buildings to make way for some new civic grounds with a new youth center to serve the needs of Faraday City's underprivileged kids. In the back of my head, I could practically hear my mentor Prodigy's cynical growl that it was probably all a big tax dodge and boondoggle, but I thought it was worthwhile. And it was pretty thrilling to think that I was the guest of honor!

The space backstage was abuzz with activity, but so far nobody seemed to be paying us much mind. I was still practicing in my head what I was going to say. I thought it was inspirational but pithy, and I figured I might even coax a little laugh from the crowd with a joke. I was chuckling to myself at my own cleverness when I made eye contact with a harried-looking production assistant holding a tablet. She immediately started to hurry in my direction when she spotted me.

I turned to Lydia.

"Listen. I need you to stay out of the way for a little bit, okay? I need to talk to this lady, and then I'm going to go on stage for a few minutes. You go wait over there, okay?" I said, pointing at an area to the side of the stage that was out of the way, but where I could still keep an eye on her.

"But I wanna help!" she complained.

"You'll be helping by staying out of the way," I told her. "After I'm done talking, I'll come get you. We may have to hang around for a bit afterwards, so stay close to me, but don't talk to me like you know me."

"Super," Lydia said. From a child development perspective, I wasn't certain of the median age by which a youth might master sarcasm, but I felt like Lydia was busting the curve.

I gave her a gentle nudge to get moving and watched as she took position leaning against one of the big metal support pillars. She had her arms crossed indignantly in front of her, and she had a surly expression that was plainly visible under her little plastic mask.

The production assistant did a double take as she hurried up to me, her eyes cutting quickly between me and Lydia. "I didn't think sidekicks could have sidekicks," she offered.

I bristled slightly at the title, a none-too-subtle reminder that I wasn't considered a full hero in the eyes of Faraday City.

"It's an internship program," I told her.

She let the comment pass. "My name's Kim, I'm helping to organize the event. Things are already underway, but your bit is going to start very shortly," she said. But as she did so, she looked me up and down with an odd expression. With my costume and figure, I was used to getting some funny looks from time to time, but usually people tried to be a bit more discreet.

"I'm sorry," Kim said as she peered at me uncertainly, "but...are you Prestigious Girl?"

My face fell.

"No, I'm Prodigious Girl," I said with a heavy sigh, putting an emphasis on the first part of my name.

"Excuse me?"

I shook my head helplessly. "Ugh, this happens more often than you'd think. We get each other's messages all the time."

"So, you're not—?"

Her inquiry was cut short when a sudden puff of magical smoke burst into existence a few feet away from Kim and me. The quickly-dissipating cloud smelled of spring flowers, and out of it emerged a fresh-faced teenage heroine in a glittering mask that covered the top half of her face. She had a winning smile and wore her hair in a cute blonde bob that stood in sharp contrast to her black costume that was highlighted with blue rhinestones, making it resemble the outfit of a stage magician's assistant.

"Hey, Presty," I said to her.

"Oh, hey, Peej!" she said brightly, obviously surprised to see me. A quizzical look crossed her face for a moment, but she quickly read my expression as realization dawned.

"Oh, man. Not this again?"

I shrugged helplessly. "I think they wanted Tiggy—"

In the midst of this new confusion, an agitated man came hurrying up to us. He was an older gentleman with graying hair at the temples and was dressed in an expensive suit, and he seemed puzzled by the appearance of two heroines. "Where is she? We need her on stage right now!"

The befuddled Kim turned to the new heroine. "Are you Prestigious Girl?"

"No, I'm Prestitigious Girl," Presty explained.

"I hate this city," Kim muttered.

The older man, clearly having no patience for this nonsense, turned to her and curtly said, "Just pick one." Then without so much as acknowledging us, he hurried off towards the sounds of the crowd.

The beleaguered production assistant looked like she was about to call after him to say something, but eventually her shoulders slumped and she turned to look between Presty and me. I appreciated full well that she was stressed and obviously under a lot of pressure, but it would have been nice if she could have at least made it look like her choice was in any kind of doubt.

"C'mon," she said to Presty as she grabbed the other heroine by her hand and escorted her towards the stage. "Sorry," she called over her shoulder to me as an afterthought. Meanwhile, I stood there by myself as I heard the sound of one of Presty's flashy magical spells, and the crowd erupted into cheers.

Crestfallen, I let out a heavy sigh. I supposed there was nothing else to do but to collect Lydia and take the bus back and finish my babysitting gig, which was apparently all that I was good for.

Except that Lydia was gone.

I rocketed over to where Lydia had been standing a moment ago, hoping that maybe she'd simply gotten distracted by Presty's improvised magic show she was putting on and had moved to get a better look. But she wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere.

I could feel myself starting to panic, and I wanted to scream out her name, but I had the good sense to bite my lip since yelling out her name would draw attention to us, and maybe even paint a real target on her back. A lone little girl in a Halloween costume people might ignore. But if people knew they could use her as leverage against a superhero, then all of a sudden she might find herself in real danger.

In the back of my mind, I could practically hear Prodigy lecturing me about not losing my head. I tried to get my surging emotions under control as I flew up to a higher vantage point and looked for her. There were plenty of people in the assembled crowd, but not that many. Certainly not so many that a little girl in a bright pink costume wouldn't have stood out. I hovered there for a minute, trying to think logically. The odds that someone had just grabbed her were low, even in a place like Faraday City. I hadn't been that far away, and I'd had line of sight. She would have screamed or made noise. Hell, even Presty might have noticed something.

Okay. She wandered off. Maybe to use the bathroom? Or maybe she was hungry? She mentioned us not having lunch. I ran my hands through my hair as I started to wonder if she'd seen a freaking churro stand or someth—

"Prodigious Girl!"

The shrill voice caught my attention immediately, and I quickly spun in the direction I'd heard it come from, over next to one of the vacant buildings set to be demolished. And there, standing right in front of one of the open doors, was Lydia, waving to get my attention.

I flew over to her in a blink and swept her up desperately in my arms, squeezing her tight.

"There you are! I was so worried! Don't you ever ever ever do that again!" I said breathlessly. I gave her another hug and then held her out at arm's length and ran my hands over her face and body to make sure she was all right.

"Prodigious Girl, somebody's hurt!" Lydia said, pointing towards the door into the building. "We gotta help him!"

I peered inside. It was basically just a shell of a building. What the hell had she been doing in there? Had she heard someone? I didn't hear anybody now.

"He was in here!" Lydia said, tugging on my hand. "This way, I'll show you!"

I glanced around. There was nobody else nearby. I would have killed for a security guard or someone who I could leave Lydia with while I checked this out.

"Was there anybody else in there?" I asked her.

"No, just the man. But he was on the ground, I think he's hurt. C'mon, we gotta hurry!"

She slipped my grasp and headed inside, and I charged in after her. It was probably just a homeless person or something, but I wasn't inclined to take any chances.

I grabbed her by the wrist. "Don't run off like that," I admonished her. "Maybe you should wait outside."

"I wanna stay with you," she complained as she squeezed my hand tight. "He's right over here, I'll show you!"

She led me into the next room. I freaking hated this. How had she gotten over here so fast? My delicate and finely-honed inner sense of danger was setting off all kinds of alarm bells, and I pulled Lydia closer.

As we rounded the corner, I saw a man slumped over on the ground. Wearing a costume.

I couldn't make him out clearly, but from my vantage point, I didn't recognize him. He could have been a hero or a villain, I wasn't sure. His costume was black-and-white medium weight body armor, not unlike the kind that Prodigy used. It looked like he had some kind of utility belt, and a black hood obscured his head. Laying on the ground not too far away from his prone body was some kind of high-tech rifle that looked like some kind of energy weapon.

I froze. Okay, we weren't fooling around anymore, this was superhero stuff. I didn't know what was going on, but I had to get Lydia out of there. Etiquette be damned, I had to go interrupt Presty on stage and get her to come help me out, and—

"Maybe you should call for help? Or an ambulance?" Lydia offered.

"Right," I said absently. I glanced around again to make sure there was nobody else nearby looking to jump us, but signaling for help was a good idea. I could call EMS, and if I set off an emergency beacon, it'd grab the attention of any nearby heroes, including Presty. I tapped out the access code on my iComm and had just begun to signal for help when I felt a shiver up my spine.

Lydia was staring right at me. I didn't think it was my imagination that her eyes had taken on a distinctly ruddy glow, just visible in the dim light of the room.

In that moment, I learned an extremely important lesson that I would carry forward with me in my career as a superhero.

That lesson was that I did not, in fact, possess any sort of "danger sense" that preternaturally warned me of threats. I now realized this because the creeping sensation I'd been experiencing just a moment before had been pointing me in 100% the wrong direction.

With time and the benefit of hindsight, what I would later come to appreciate is that novice superheroes do not possess any such intuition. However, what almost every single novice superhero does experience is a sense of overconfidence that leads them to mistakenly believe they have a sense for danger.

I would reflect on such musings later, but at that particular moment I was busy having my soul forcibly ripped from my body.

I screamed. Or at least, I think I screamed. It felt like my entire body had been dipped in cold fire, but it didn't burn me so much as...I wasn't sure what. The last time I felt something this disorienting was when I'd entered a telepathic bond with Demetria and my senses had gone entirely out of control, but that had felt like sensory overload. This felt more like dying.

Whatever was causing it had come from Lydia—or not Lydia, it was very confusing—but the second I felt it, it triggered some kind of reflex response in me.

This time, I did hear a scream. I wondered if it was me.

Slowly, I tried to pull myself up from the ground and looked around bleary-eyed. I felt weird. Weak. Weaker than I'd felt in a long time. And the floor was so cold.

"What the hell...?" a man's voice came, and I realized it was from the metahuman in the body armor. I wasn't sure if he'd been genuinely unconscious or just playing possum, but he seemed awake right now, but disoriented. I could relate.

I had to get Lydia out of here. Now.

Fighting through my dizziness and disorientation, I forced myself to my feet and—

—and suddenly realized that I was in the body of a seven-year-old girl.

I felt frail. And small. And very, very vulnerable. I looked down in disbelief at Lydia's little hands with their skinny arms. I touched my face and body to confirm what my benumbed mind was still only grappling with. I was wearing Lydia's clothes, I realized. Somehow, my mind had an easier time wrapping itself around that notion rather than the more abstract concept that I was now Lydia.

"What's going on...?" I heard a girl's voice say. Not Lydia's, though. No, this one was older. By now, my lethargic brain had started to catch up to my situation, and as I turned to look in her direction, I suspected what I was going to see. I just couldn't bring myself to believe what my eyes were telling me.

Seeing Prodigious Girl standing there in front of me was jarring enough. I was absolutely not prepared for a giant Prodigious Girl the size of a professional basketball player.

Right. Because I was small. Okay, it would really be helpful if my brain were fully engaged, here.

I heard a groan from the man in the costume. He was on his feet as well, but unsteady. I got a better look at him now, but his costume wasn't ringing any bells. He was gigantic—no, I reminded myself, that was me, again—and I saw what at first looked light a bright red face visible under his black hood, until I realized that it was a red metallic mask to obscure his identity. I watched him pull something from his utility belt that I immediately recognized as a stim pack, and he jammed it into his upper thigh. He yelled out in pain, but from my experience with Prodigy, I knew those were like mainlining adrenaline. You didn't use one of those unless you expected to get into a fight.

"Rrraaaaagh!" he howled out in pain, getting even Lydia's full attention.

Lydia's face contorted in shock, and I grabbed her by the hand to try and get her to focus. My mind raced through options, and none of them were good.

The hooded figure paused for a moment and glared directly at Lydia. But I realized that wasn't what was happening. He was trying to swap bodies with her! That was his plan all along. He'd taken over Lydia, and he'd tried to lure me in using her body. But for some reason it was my body that he wanted. Then—somehow—Lydia had landed in it by mistake. However, whatever he was trying to do right now obviously wasn't working. I hoped that was only temporary. If he wasn't able to trade bodies with us anymore, then—

I tried to push it out of my mind.

"We have to fight him! You have to fight him!" I yelled at Lydia as she looked at me in bewilderment. "We can't let him—"

In the time it took me to say that, our attacker had executed a nimble combat roll where he dived for his energy rifle that was laying on the ground, and he'd come back up aiming it directly at us while crouched on one knee. He thumbed a control on the side of the rifle, and I heard it make a rapidly escalating high-pitched whine that signaled an overload blast! He wasn't fooling around!

I was standing right in front of Lydia, and it took me a split second to realize that while my old body might be able to take a blast of that magnitude, it would make short work of the little girl I now was. With nowhere else to hide, I ducked behind the sturdiest cover I could find—namely, Lydia.

There was an electronic screeching noise accompanied by a blinding flash, and even though I was protected from the worst of the blast, I could still feel the massive heat from the energy discharge.

"Owww!" Lydia shrieked.

Our attacker stood up and pressed his advantage, and the room was illuminated with two more quick blasts from his gun as he got to his feet and took careful aim. Not as powerful, I realized. Stun blasts, maybe? I'm sure they still hurt like crazy.

"Ow! Quit it!" Lydia cried out, holding up her hands to protect her face as he blasted twice more into her midsection. She backed up and shied away from his assault, and I tried to stay behind her, hoping that our foe didn't decide to toss off a quick shot to pick me off. But as we edged nearer the doorway, Lydia bumped into a heavy metal bench. With one free hand she grabbed at it and wrenched it free and swung it wildly, so close to my head that I could feel it brush one of my pigtails. She threw it at the guy like it was a softball and forced him to dive for cover as it landed with a tremendous crash.

I tried to ignore how close Lydia had come to accidentally killing me. The middle of a superhero fight was no place for an unprotected seven-year-old!

"Good! That's good!" I told her. "More of that! Get closer! Get in there and punch—" As I barked orders at her in my little voice, it suddenly hit me that this was the kind of stuff that Prodigy did to me in our earlier outings, yelling at me in the middle of combat when mostly I was concerned about not dying. Lydia looked at me in shock and disbelief with tears running down her face. My face.

I could see it clearly. She wanted to run.

That's when I noticed that she was floating four inches off the ground.

"No, wait!" I yelled. Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed her around the waist, hugging her as tightly as I possibly could. That's when Lydia took off flying.

Back when I first got my powers, my earliest attempts at flight were...memorable. It took me a while before I was able to learn any measure of real flight control, much less more refined things like hovering. At the time, I was glad that nobody was around to see those early attempts, because there was a lot of flailing and no soft landings. Sadly, Lydia wasn't doing any better.

Her intense desire to get away gave her adrenaline-fueled retreat a level of chaotic disorder than even I'd never experienced in those early attempts. We jinked around and madly corkscrewed around the room, and it was all I could do to hold on. My eyes were squeezed tightly shut, but I could hear the high-pitched blasts as our hooded attacker tried to tag us with his rifle. Lydia wasn't giving him a very easy target, but that wasn't much consolation.

"We have to go down!" I yelled, my tiny fingers digging in as tightly as I could into her midsection, my knuckles white with the strain. "We have to fight him!" I yelled.

I had no idea if she was even listening to me. I didn't want to face him either, but I knew for a fact that he was the only one capable of swapping us back to the correct bodies. I thought that maybe if we could knock him out or something, we could force him to—

That thought was cut short as the air was practically ripped out of my lungs as Lydia took off at terrifying speed. It was all I could do to cling on to her as we crashed through what sounded like a window, and we were suddenly outside. Her velocity increased even more, and I struggled for breath as I clung on to her as the wind roared around us at deafening levels.

Finally, her speed slowed and I felt a cold wind against me. My stomach lurched as we sailed upwards to our apogee and then began to drop again as gravity took hold. I'd had my face buried in her midsection, but I slowly chanced a peek to take a look where we were.

We were at least a thousand feet in the air. The city was laid out in front of us like a tiny model. The skyscrapers were like little boxes. The gleaming metallic Spire that stood in the center of the city resembled a small silver toothpick. I could clearly make out the gentle curvature of the coastline, with the vast ocean receding off towards the distant horizon.

And I had no powers. I wasn't even certain that Lydia remembered that I was still there. If she dropped me, there was zero chance she'd be able to catch me.

I was going to die.

Lydia and I both screamed.

Chris and his little cousin Lydia, now stuck in each other’s bodies, struggle to deal with the change. And Chris soon learns that the super-powered dangers of Faraday City look a lot more menacing from the perspective of a defenseless young girl!

Identity Crisis: Adventures in Babysitting

By Jenny North

Echelon sat on a large rock, his hulking metallic body slumped forward as he turned his ankle this way and that.

"Vee, me boot's bothering me again," he complained.

Vagabond leaned against a nearby tree as he picked some dirt from beneath his fingernails. "Lolo, that there's not your boot, it's your foot. I am legiterally baffled that all o' them surgeries to install those cyborg implants didn't make more of an impression."

"Yeah," Echelon said absently. "Me foot's bothering me again," he complained.

They sat there quietly for a moment.

"Vee, what's the score, again?"

Vagabond sighed heavily. "Lolo, it is an ongoin' source of fascination to me how you phrase these interrogatives. Now, on account of I'm a gentleman, I will refrain from mentionin' my own takedown count, except to say that it is not an insignificant number. However, in answer to your unspoken question, I will propound that the score with which you should be concerned is your own. Which remains steady at zero."

"I took down that one hero just the other day."

"That was last week. We restarted."

Echelon kicked the dirt. "Hardly seems fair. I soften 'em up and then you knock 'em out. I'd take down more heroes if I could move faster. But I can't, on account of this busted boot."

"Well, it's a poor craftsman what blames his tools, innit?"

The two of them fell quiet again.

Then, out of nowhere, a girl's high-pitched shriek came from above them, followed by a cacophony of broken branches as a blue-and-purple brunette missile slammed through the limbs of the tree and impacted on the ground immediately in front of Echelon. On top of the dazed heroine was a little girl in a pink costume with pigtails who was clinging on to her for dear life.

"That's two!" Echelon declared.

I don't have a clear recollection of our landing, so I can't say this definitively, but there's a fair chance that I was saved by Prodigious Girl's boobs. I do recall thinking that they helped cushion what was otherwise an extremely rough impact.

I did know for a fact that Lydia's little body was not built to take this kind of punishment. For the second time in only a few minutes, I found myself getting shakily to my feet. Lydia was laid out on the ground barely conscious after having carved out an impressive divot in the pavement, but at least she seemed to be breathing.

That's when it hit me. We'd lost the body swapper. He could be absolutely anywhere by now. And without him, we were stuck.

Permanently.

"Oh, shit," I said to myself as the magnitude of that seeped in.

"Y'all best watch your language there, missy," an extremely familiar voice said behind me.

I turned around slowly and adjusted my little plastic mask that had come askew on my face. Vagabond and Echelon. I hadn't fully registered their presence, but now as my mental faculties started to catch up with me, I realized that they'd been arguing about something. But now, they were both staring directly at me.

"Ohhh, shit," I repeated.

Vagabond wagged a reproving finger at me. "Little lady, you'd best clean up your act," he warned. Then he leaned slightly to peer past me at Lydia on the ground. "What all's the story here? What is this, 'Take Your Daughter to Work Day' or somethin'? Couldn't your momma there find a sitter?"

I put my hands on my hips. "She's not my mom. I'm the babysitter."

Vagabond and Echelon looked at each other.

"Well, that there jus' raises more questions," Echelon said.

"Uggh," I heard Lydia groan as she started to come around.

Vagabond cracked his knuckles. "All righty. Gotta say, she seemed a sensible sort, but we all know where this is headin'. May as well skip on over to the inevitable culmination," he said as dark energy started to ripple down his arms into his hands, and he began to take aim at Lydia.

"Wait!" I yelled. "You can't do that!"

He looked puzzled. "'Course I can."

Lydia was holding her head in her hand, clearly still shaking off her multiple injuries as she struggled to get her bearings.

"She's not...ready," I said weakly. Clearly, I wasn't exactly operating in top mental form yet, myself.

Vagabond seemed slightly taken aback by that. He turned to Echelon.

"Lolo, y'all correct me here if I misspeak, but I didn't believe that temperance or fair play were necessarily qualities to which you or I aspired."

"Is you fixin' to blast her?" Echelon inquired.

"I is, indeed."

Echelon let out a huff of disapproval and held out his hand. "Well, Vee, this here's what I been talkin' about, innit? Firstly, y'tell me that these two takedowns here don't count for me—"

"They rightly don't."

"—and now you're fixin' to lay her out and get the easy takedown fo' you'self."

Vagabond considered that. "Lolo, I must say, you do lay out a most compellin' argument. Your scintillatin' logic has moved me. Tell you what, I'll match you for dibs."

I felt like I needed to interject something, but before I could say anything, the pair had already executed a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors.

"Ha! Scissors cuts Paper!" Echelon declared.

Vagabond clicked his tongue. "Dang. I truly thought I had you there. You always choose Rock."

"Yeah. That's why I chose Scissors this time."

"Lolo, once again, your feats of intellectual acuity today continue to impress."

Echelon clapped his huge metal hands together in a loud metallic clang! "All righty. Time to waste a hero," he said.

He took a step forward, and the ground shuddered from the impact, practically knocking me from my feet. However, I'd been so preoccupied with watching the pair that I hadn't realized that Lydia had managed to clamber woozily to her feet. But now, faced with the mountainous hulking metallic brute in front of her, she snapped to full awareness. He loomed massively over us, and once again, the ground shook from another of his thunderous footsteps.

"Holy FUCK!" Lydia screamed.

"That's where the little one gets it from," Vagabond opined.

I ran up to Lydia and threw my arms around her waist as my fingers fussed at her utility belt. She looked down at me in confusion and I hissed, "Close your eyes and count to three and fly us out of here!"

"But—"

"And not so high!" I admonished her. A second later, I opened one of the containers on her belt, and I threw a pair of small capsules on the ground in front of the two villains. I felt my stomach lurch as Lydia again took to the air, and I squeezed my eyes shut as the two flashbang grenades went off, hopefully blinding them for a few critical seconds while we made our escape.

I clung tightly to Lydia and prayed that our next landing would be less harrowing. I tried to focus my mind on that, because I had no idea what our next move after that was going to be.

Back at his mansion, Xenos poured himself a stiff drink as he focused his mind and tried to slow his breathing. Using the stim pack had been a necessary evil, but the spike in adrenalin was slow to wear off. He was still jittery from the chemicals running their course through his body.

Although in fairness, his jitters weren't entirely because of the stim pack.

What the hell had happened back there?

He looked down at his hand at a faded scar from several years earlier. He'd been in this mount off and on for over twenty years, as long as he'd ever been in a body. He knew it well. He also knew that by rights he shouldn't be in it right now.

His plan had been solid. Taking over the little girl had been a slight deviation, but a useful one. He'd taken her as a mount and then incapacitated his male body with her inside of it before she even realized what was going on. That part went as expected.

Then, when he tried to make the jump from the child into Prodigious Girl...it was all a blur. He'd taken her body, or at least he thought he had. It was almost like...

Like something that wasn't possible.

Whatever had happened had shifted him back into his body, obviously. Back into his original mount. It also seemed like the two girls had been left switched into each other's bodies. Which meant that he'd jumped twice? First into the heroine, and then back into this body. That would explain why he wasn't able to switch back into the heroine's body...the residual energy of taking a new mount always took a few minutes to dissipate, which prevented him from immediately jumping back into a body he'd just vacated.

He had been in her body. Until he jumped again.

Or had she been the one to do it? How?

"Computer, open dossier for Prodigious Girl."

He scrutinized the file. She was a young hero. Tough, strong, she could fly. There was nothing in her dossier to suggest she was also a body swapper. Could another swapper have beaten him to it? Perhaps one of them was already using this "Prodigious Girl" as a mount, themselves? That might explain much.

"Computer, open dossier for Xenos. Known associates. Historical. Deceased."

He skimmed over the records, but his memory didn't need to be refreshed. Not about this, at least. He was the last living swapper, he was certain of it. He'd seen to that.

Except for what he'd just witnessed.

But if she wasn't a swapper, then somehow she'd—

His eyes darted back to her open file. Strength, flight, invulnerability. There was no unifying theme.

Xenos's heart beat faster, and this time it had nothing to do with the stim pack. It could be a coincidence, he told himself. Certainly, metahuman powers always had a unifying theme, he knew that. A fire blaster might use his powers to fly or shoot blasts of energy, but they were always tied back to a single core ability. They didn't also randomly teleport or control animals. But this one...

It was possible that her powers were derived from another source. Or she was somehow augmenting her natural abilities with other means, like magic or technology. Perhaps her ability to fly was through some kind of anti-gravity belt, for instance. Nevertheless, if she was a metahuman like she appeared to be, and these genuinely were her powers...

"Computer, open files on the Kindred," Xenos said.

An instant later, a new set of electronic records opened up on the screen. Several entries, but much less detailed. So little was known about them, but what Xenos did know—or at least what he suspected—was tantalizing.

There weren't many confirmed sightings, and much of it was pure guesswork. Some of the ones on his list likely weren't even true Kindred, but even the handful of possible names were titans. Promethean. Duality. Pantheon. Darkmancer. Halcyon.

Then there was the Mosaic. He knew even less about them, but he knew that they had an interest in the Kindred. Was the Mosaic recruiting them? Hunting them? For what purpose? Xenos had lived his entire existence operating in the shadowy fringes of the world, but even he only skirted the edges of the mystery of these groups. They were small, but they were powerful. Very powerful.

He added Prodigious Girl to the list.

"A Kindred," Xenos murmured to himself as he sat back and sipped his drink. He'd taken down big game before. His current host body was silent testimony to that. Still, this was something new. It might be tricky, but Prodigious Girl wasn't immune to his power, he'd demonstrated that. And right now, her extremely valuable body was also extremely vulnerable, being operated by a frightened little girl.

Her resources were limited. Her mentor Prodigy was gone for at least two more days, so she'd seek out allies. However, allies could be dealt with. Now that he had her off-balance, it was the perfect time to strike.

"Oh, I must have you," he said quietly as he stared at her image on the screen.

Lydia and I managed to crash land on the roof of a broad building not too far away that I soon realized was a local shopping mall. Miraculously, I somehow managed to escape from our ordeals with only minor scratches. Lydia, meanwhile, was nursing wounds from both crash landings and a handful of burns from the body swapper's energy rifle, but her pain and shock were more psychological than physical.

I could empathize.

"What's going on? Why am I...you?" she cried.

"Why didn't you do what I told you to do?" I yelled at her in my shrill little voice. "We were right there! He was just a guy with a gun! All we had to do was knock him out, and we maybe could have..." My voice trailed off. "Why didn't you listen?!"

"I don't know!" she wept. She sat on the ground and hugged herself as she withdrew further. "It hurt! It really hurt! And you were yelling, and I didn't know what was going on. Then suddenly we were flying..." She broke down and started sobbing inconsolably.

"God dammit!" I swore in frustration, the profanity sounding strange coming out in the voice of a seven-year-old girl. I didn't know what to do. But I didn't know anybody capable of switching us back to our proper bodies. The only person capable of doing that was the guy who did it to us in the first place, and as I looked out over the sweeping skyline of Faraday City that was visible from the roof we were on, I realized he could be absolutely anywhere by now.

No, it was worse than that. He could be absolutely anyone. Any small edge we might have had vanished the moment that Lydia crashed us through that window, leaving him hopelessly far behind.

Slowly, it started to enter my consciousness that we might not be able to reverse this. I'd be stuck as a seven-year-old girl, forced to repeat elementary school. Forget about ever being a superhero again. And Lydia...I didn't even know what to do about her. There was no way she could pass herself off as me. I'd have no choice but to come clean to my parents and tell them everything...about my secret superheroing, about what had been done to us.

"Shiiiit," I muttered to myself.

I could feel a sob of hopelessness and frustration working up in my throat, but I managed to choke it back. Pretty soon both Lydia and I would be sitting and crying together, and that wasn't going to solve anything.

C'mon, Chris, pull yourself together!

I breathed a heavy sigh and moved over to Lydia. I still couldn't get over how much bigger than me she was, I felt like I was comforting an NFL linebacker. I reached out and touched her gently and she whimpered and flinched away.

"Okay, I deserve that," I sighed.

I nestled up against her and stroked her hair, feeling uncomfortably like a little girl playing with a life-size Barbie.

"Lydia, I'm sorry. I'm just...I'm kind of freaking out right now."

"Wow, really?" she sniped back in a hoarse voice.

Yeah, we definitely mastered sarcasm early in my family.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm sorry for a lot of things. I should never have brought you to that stupid rally in the first place."

She didn't seem particularly consoled by that.

"But...y'know, you made a pretty good superhero back there."

She snorted. "No, I didn't. I got beat up, and I ran away."

"It's not always about who wins the fight. You saved my life back there. Twice. I wouldn't even be here right now if it weren't for you."

She sniffled and wiped her nose and looked at me, her eyes red with tears. "That's kind of funny, since that one time when you were the hero, you used me as bait."

"That's not exactly the same—"

"Twice."

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that," I said, although I noticed she had the beginnings of a smile.

She sniffled again and swallowed hard as she looked at me. "We're in a lotta trouble, aren't we?"

"Yeah," I agreed quietly.

"What are we gonna do?"

I leaned over and took her left hand and pulled it closer. "Well, the first thing we're going to do is call my fr—oh, fuck." As she flipped her arm over, I could see the iComm communicator on her wrist. It was broken, and the control plate was shattered.

"You swear a lot," Lydia said.

I let out a little laugh, given the ridiculousness of the situation. "I must have picked it up from Prodigy," I said. Then I turned to look at her. "Oh, and by the way, don't think I didn't notice you letting out a pretty epic f-bomb when you squared off with that big guy back there."

She made an embarrassed elfin smile. It was funny seeing such a uniquely Lydia expression on Prodigious Girl's features.

"He was scary. You're not mad, are you?"

"We'll talk about it later. Although given the circumstances, I'd have to admit that it was the correct use of the word in that context."

Lydia watched as I poked at the broken iComm. "Can you fix it?"

I shook my head. "I don't know how. But it's got some self-repair features built in, just like your costume," I said, pointing to how the nanomesh fabric was already fixing some of the scorch marks from the body swapper's energy rifle. "Hopefully, it can repair itself if we give it some time, but I don't think we can wait that long."

I motioned for her to stand up, and she winced in pain from her various injuries.

All right, we had to try this sooner or later, so no time like the present.

"Okay," I said to her. "Lydia, I know your body probably feels pretty weird right now—"

"Uh, yeah."

"—but I need you to concentrate. Like think really hard and focus on how your body feels. Then think about all the places that it hurts, and try and make it go away."

She scrunched up her face. "For real?"

"Lydia!"

"Okay, okay," she said. She closed her eyes, and for a long moment I didn't think it was going to work. However, over the span of the next minute, I watched as her cuts and bruises disappeared.

"You did it!" I said in relief. "I wasn't sure you'd be able to do that."

She lit up at the compliment, though as she took a deep breath, she winced again. "Oh! Ow, that one still hurts." Then she looked down at herself again. "What'd I just do?"

"Yeah, the bigger wounds take longer to heal. You'll feel better soon," I explained. Then I said, "You remember how I was able to switch between myself as Chris and PG?"

She nodded.

"Y'see, I kind of...created...this body. It's like a pattern. I can swap back and forth, but if I concentrate on this body, it tries to return to the original pattern. So, cuts and bruises go away."

"I don't think I get it," she said as she looked down at her unfamiliar hand. "Can I turn into other stuff?"

"It's not easy. And it takes a really long time," I told her. "Although that brings me to the next thing..."

I'll freely admit that not all problems can be solved with chicken nuggets. But they can brighten one's mood a little.

Lydia and I were musing on that philosophical koan as we sat in the food court having lunch. We needed a place to regroup, and as had been recently pointed out to me, I'd been negligent in seeing to lunch before our calamity began.

I found myself in a strange quandary. I desperately wanted to track down that body swapper so we could put things to rights, but I also didn't want to risk him somehow tracking us down and catching us unawares. My solution was for us to hide in plain sight by switching into our respective secret identities. For me, that amounted to covering up the pink "costume" I was wearing with the outerwear that Lydia had tucked into the backpack I was still wearing. As I'd warned her earlier, that made for a hot and uncomfortable combination, and it was making me grumpy. Though in hindsight, I had to give Lydia credit—when she'd worn all these layers during the bus ride out here, she'd never complained once.

Lydia's transformation was more dramatic. Fortunately, my CosFit was undamaged from the scuffle, so it was able to transform Prodigious Girl's costume into the outfit I'd been wearing that morning. Since it was warm, Lydia quickly ditched the jacket, and as she shapeshifted into my crossdressed male body, I winced a bit at the size of my falsies. It was bad enough as Prodigious Girl running around with those, but at least then it was... I'm going to go with 'thematic.' But absent the jacket to distract a little, her fulsome breasts gathered attention I'd just as soon have avoided.

Of course, it probably didn't help my perspective that they were like the size of my head right now.

When we went into the mall, I found myself walking in a land of giants. I'd gripped Lydia's hand tightly so that I could guide her, but I also found myself becoming anxious surrounded by all of the towering adults. By the time we'd made it to the food court, I was a nervous wreck. As a teenager I was used to adults blowing me off, but as a seven-year-old girl, I was practically invisible. When I'd ordered us lunch and put it on my card, the woman behind the counter smirked and in a cloyingly condescending tone told me what a very grown-up little lady I was. Lydia thought that was pretty hilarious.

As we ate our food, my eyes darted around at people as they passed by. I started to realize that maybe it wasn't such a good idea hiding out in a crowd, where presumably absolutely anybody could be the body swapper in disguise. We were committed now, but at least we were inconspicuous.

Mostly.

"Quit playing with those!" I hissed as Lydia gave her falsies another obvious nudge.

"They're itchy! And they're so dumb! They're not even real. How come they're so big, anyway?"

I...could actually empathize with all of that. Not that I wanted to get into that particular argument surrounded by people. "They just are, okay?"

Then she started scratching at the edge of her wig.

"Lydia!"

"It's itchy, too! And stop being so bossy! I'm the grown-up, now," she said in a lilting 'so-there' tone that was decidedly not very grown-up.

I dug around in the little pink backpack that was on the bench next to me and pulled out her hand-held electronic game that had miraculously managed to survive our various crashes and misadventures.

"Here, play with this," I told her.

She had an exaggeratedly sour look on her face as she accepted the device. I tried to remind myself that I was dealing with a seven-year-old, and frankly one who was dealing with all of this a heck of a lot better than a lot of people would in her situation, me included. Although seeing myself from this perspective was really raising my hackles. As Christie, my feminine impersonation had gotten pretty good, so it wasn't obvious that she was a guy dressed as a girl, but Lydia's conspicuously surly attitude was making me look very foolish. I glanced around to see if people were staring at us, but so far we seemed to be blending in.

I wasn't sure what bothered me more, that Lydia might draw attention to herself and everyone would realize that Chris Patterson was a guy who dressed as a girl, or that I was getting so good at it that they might not notice. All of my classmates already knew, and I worried that one of them might see us like this. It was one thing for people to know that I dressed like a girl, but it was something else to actually have to deal with people that way. I felt queasy.

Lydia made a frustrated little noise. "Ugh, stupid fingernails!" she complained. They were rounded and I didn't wear them super-long, but they were obviously giving her trouble with her game controls. Once again, I could empathize...it had taken me a bit of practice to get used to those.

She sniffed indignantly as she lifted a hand to flash her sport-length nails, in their glossy apple red color. "These are so dumb!"

"I dunno, I kind of like them," a girl's voice came from right next to us.

I was already operating on high alert, so my adrenaline spiked from the sudden appearance of this new visitor. But the voice had been strangely familiar, with a teasing lilt to it.

I turned to look up into the face of Leah Paredes. The girl from my disastrous texting the day before.

Leah had an easy smile, but she always had sort of a sideways look about her, like she was constantly sizing you up. It was a look that was emphasized by her short shaggy brown hair, a style that forever seemed messy, but I could never decide if it was meant to look that way, or if this was just a side effect of her personality. Her pale olive skin was a sharp contrast to her incredibly dark and perceptive brown eyes. When she looked at you, you felt like you'd been seen.

Which is when I suddenly realized that I'd been staring at her.

But...she wasn't even looking at me, which was weird. She was looking directly at Lydia for some reas—ohh, crap, I realized as the final neuron in my brain sparked and I made the connection.

Without being invited, Leah smoothly slid onto the bench next to Lydia, giving her a good-natured bump with her rump to make room and slide over. It was a playful gesture, and Lydia scooched over to maintain some semblance of personal space, but the over-the-top aghast look on Lydia's face from the brash intrusion would have been comical if my brain hadn't gone into total meltdown. Fortunately, Leah hadn't noticed.

"Hey," Lydia sniped sarcastically, still offended by getting shoved over.

"Hey!" Leah chirped back.

Lydia gawked at her incredulously. "Who are you?"

Leah looked like she was about to take offense herself, so I jumped in.

"We're playing a game!" I blurted out. "I'm uh...a princess."

Leah seemed charmed by my answer. However, from Lydia's look of distaste, I gathered that she'd evidently moved past her princess phase, and she didn't take kindly to me besmirching her reputation.

She leaned in and without a hint of irony said, "Well, if you're a princess, I guess that makes me a queen."

"Little on the nose, Chris," Leah muttered.

"Lydia!" I hissed at her angrily. Then when faced with Leah's odd look, I hastily added, "—is my name. I'm Lydia."

"Hello, Lydia!" Leah said to me in a patronizing sing-song tone. "My name is Leah. Wow, our names are kind of similar, aren't they? I hope things don't get confusing!"

"Too late," I said to myself.

Lydia had clearly gotten bored of all this and returned her attention to her game, ignoring Leah. Meanwhile, I was still trying to piece together what Leah was even doing here. At first I bitterly thought that she'd lied to me about having to work, and instead blew me off to go hang out with friends. It was then that I realized that she was dressed in dark slacks and a solid blue blouse...definitely not her usual style. I finally made the connection.

"Do you work here?" I asked her.

She smiled. "Well, not here at the food court, sweetie. But yeah, I work at one of the clothing stores." She turned to Lydia, who remained engrossed in her game. "Two people are out sick, and we have to do inventory this weekend, so I'm sorry I couldn't hang. Rain check, though, right?"

Aaaand now I felt like a complete idiot. I was so sure that she'd blown me off that—

I suddenly became aware that Lydia wasn't paying attention, and she'd ignored Leah's question. I gave her a swift kick under the table.

She was invulnerable, she could take it.

"Hey!" she said to me, then she saw my eyes cutting meaningfully over to Leah. "Um, yeah, sure."

"Cool," Leah said, kind of tilting her head to look at the game in which Lydia was so engrossed. "So, uh, what are you two doing here?"

"We're cousins," I said, jumping in. "Chris is my cousin. She's babysitting me this weekend. Right, Chris?"

No response, of course. I gave her another kick.

She lowered the game in a pouty huff and glared at me.

I pressed on. "Um, it's because my parents are out of town, and—"

"Quiet, Lydia, adults are talking," Lydia said to me with a smirk.

I was so stunned by her using my own words against me that I could only stare at her open-mouthed.

She turned to Leah. "Can I ask you a question?"

Leah shrugged with a little smile, playing along. "Sure."

Lydia arched her back slightly, a move that put her bosom even more on display. It wasn't a sexual move, but the overt artlessness of it made it all the more cheeky.

"Lydia said she thinks these are weird. Do you think these are weird?"

Leah coughed out a laugh and then looked at me in amused disbelief. "Lydia! You said that?"

I had no idea what to say. My mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.

"Well, I don't think they're weird," Leah said with a sly smile as she reached an arm around Lydia and pulled her into a sideways hug. "I think that—"

She stopped short as something grabbed her attention. She reached down and took Lydia by the hand. At first I thought it was a romantic gesture coming out of nowhere, but then I realized she was examining Lydia's fingernails.

Her short fingernails with the sparkly pink nail polish. Absolutely not the longer sport-length apple red nails that she'd had when Leah first sat down.

Leah blinked in confusion. "I could have sworn these were—?"

"The color changes in the light," I interjected quickly as I glared at Lydia, who suddenly looked a lot less cocky now that she'd been caught. I was upset with her for using her shapeshifting ability to change the style and color of her nails right in front of Leah, but even I had to admit I was impressed how quickly she'd done it. Small changes were relatively quick, but she did that like a natural.

"Oh. Wow, that's really cool," Leah said, equally impressed.

Then she sat back and looked Lydia straight in the eyes. "Hey, I gotta get back to work, but you want to maybe grab dinner somewhere during the week? I get off at seven."

Lydia was staring at her like a deer caught in the headlights, and her eyes flitted briefly in my direction where I was nodding my head emphatically.

"Yeah. Yes. I mean, sure."

Leah gave her a big smile and as she pulled away, her hand brushed against Lydia's in a quick but deliberate gesture.

I stared as she walked away, and in my peripheral vision I saw Lydia fussing at her fingernails as she looked at me uncertainly.

"I shouldn't have done that, should I?"

My eyes followed Leah's retreating form as she blended in with the crowd. "No. But somehow, you got me a date, so we'll call it even."

Then, as my eyes settled on the remains of our lunch, I sighed heavily. I only hoped that by the time I had my date with Leah, I wouldn't still be ordering a Happy Meal.

Less than a minute later, another figure appeared next to our table. This time it was Caleb. He looked tired and haggard, probably a combination of working the deep fryer at work and also by how rapidly he'd gotten here. My iComm was still on the blink, but my phone was working just fine. He was the first call I made before we came down here.

He had a worried expression. "Chris?" he said hopefully, looking at Lydia.

I raised my hand. "Over here."

Even the famously unflappable Caleb Shapiro needed to take a moment for that one.

"Dude, what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

The lunchtime crowd came and went, so the number of people in the food court had thinned out somewhat. As a result, we were starting to become a bit more conspicuous. A teenage guy and girl sitting with a little girl wasn't all that unusual, and arguably Lydia looked the most credible as she ignored us and fooled around on her game. However, the sight of her apparent boyfriend being deeply engaged in an intense and occasionally heated argument with the seven-year-old girl across the table from him did draw a few odd looks.

We decided to get up and wander around the mall as we talked. Caleb talking to a little girl while Lydia trailed behind playing her game was only slightly less conspicuous, but I was getting antsy just sitting around. I felt like I had a lot of pent-up energy.

"Caleb, you know this superhero stuff even better than I do! You're telling me you can't think of a single body-swapping metahuman out there?" I challenged him.

"Chris, I'm telling you, that's not how it works."

I raised my eyebrows and shot him an incredulous look and pointed between Lydia and myself sarcastically.

He sighed. "I'm not saying I don't believe you. Obviously. Sure, I've heard stories. But they're Freaky Friday stuff. I wouldn't take it seriously. I'm just saying it's not how metahuman powers work." He waggled his fingers in circles as he tried to sort out his thoughts. "Listen. When the Turning Point hit, everyone's metahuman potential got unlocked with the metagene, right? Which then got passed down as an inherited trait. Hell, even I'm metagene-positive. But only a tiny fraction of people with that gene become ascended metas. Like you."

I nodded. I was never entirely clear how that had happened. The day I got my powers, I saw a whirling pink energy vortex, and I took off running and slammed into a tree. When I woke up, I had my powers. Somehow I didn't think that a kinetic impact with bark was what did it, but that was a mystery for another time.

Caleb continued. "My point is, it's physical. It's tied to your body. Lydia has your powers now because she's in your body. A metahuman body swapper would only be able to make one jump. Then, the new person in their old body would inherit that power."

I didn't like where this was going. "What are you telling me?"

"Chris, this city is gonzo bonkers. Maybe there's some mad scientist out there swapping peoples' brains, but I'm just saying it's not a metahuman. I think it's something else."

"Magic," I realized.

He shrugged. "Maybe? I've read about a bunch of supers who claim to be magic users—like that Vagabond guy you ran into—but I'm not an expert. I think you need to call in Trixie for this one."

"My iComm is still busted. I think it's repairing itself, but I can't call her. I know where she lives, though. You'll have to go."

Caleb made a dry smile. "I'm not sure she's forgiven me for that time I almost accidentally blasted her in the head," he said, recalling the time in Prodigy's garage when he'd been fooling around with one of the more unusual trinkets my mentor had collected. "Besides, you and Lydia should go."

I shook my head emphatically, causing my pigtails to jounce around. "We don't have time. Look, I've been thinking about it. We don't need to find the swapper, because he's already looking for us. I don't know why, but that trap he set was for me, specifically. I figure that as long as we have what he wants, he'll find us eventually."

Caleb glanced over his shoulder. "You mean he's looking for Lydia." Then he lowered his voice and gave me a warning look. "Chris..."

Lydia hadn't really been paying attention, but she looked up from her game at the mention of her name. "You're gonna use me as bait again?" she asked.

I gave her a shrug and turned back to Caleb. "I don't know why he's gunning for me, but it could be days or weeks before he tries again, and we don't have that long. If we don't get this sorted out before my aunt and uncle get home tomorrow..." I let the sentence hang.

"You're headed back to elementary school, learning your times tables. Then, Chris's parents start asking uncomfortable questions about why she's acting so weird. Yeah, I get it. So, then where are you and Lydia off to?"

"I need to get back to Prodigy's garage, or at least to his database. That energy rifle the swapper used on us looked familiar. Maybe we can trace it back to him that way. There's just one thing I still don't underst..."

My voice trailed off as I looked in the display window of one of the stores. It was the Build-A-Bear Workshop, and there in the window was an elaborate display with a motorized carousel in the middle. Some stuffed animals were riding it, while others were standing around the outside watching.

But as I stared at all of the bears and other animals they had on display, something tickled at the back of my mind.

"Chris...?" Caleb prompted.

I wandered inside the store, leaving a very perplexed Caleb standing there with Lydia. Meanwhile, she finally looked up from her game and made a pleasant "oh" sound and went in as well, perusing the contents of the store.

Caleb followed us cautiously inside. As he did so, his body language signaled an impressive level of discomfort, like he was afraid of catching cooties.

I delved deeper into the store, pretty much the only place that a seven-year-old girl walking around unescorted wouldn't raise attention. Not that anybody was paying attention to me. Not the other kids, and not even the adults. There were exhausted and exasperated moms and dads standing around while their kids ran rampant all over the store, and the people who worked there looked like even their patience was strained by the pandemonium. As for me, it was like walking around unnoticed among giants as I made my way to a quiet corner of the store.

I picked out three pairs of stuffed animals. Two were of a pink bear in a tutu, two were of a small blue mouse in a mask and cape, and two of an orange T-Rex. I then sat down and arranged them in a circle. I started moving them around and was lost in thought as Caleb warily approached me.

"Hey, buddy..." he said in a tone of voice signaling that he thought I had clearly lost my mind. Then he looked at the ring of stuffed animals I'd been playing with, looking for all the world like they were sitting down for a tea party.

"Uhh, Chris, are you feeling okay...?" he asked, eyeing me strangely.

"I'm not playing," I said, my little voice dripping with an arch sarcasm that was no doubt completely adorable. "Here, look. This has been bothering me."

Caleb examined the blue mouse, pink bear, and orange T-Rex animals.

"Those are you," he realized. "You, and Lydia, and the swapper."

"Ooh," Lydia said as she picked up the pink bear in the tutu and clutched it tightly. I tried to avoid noticing how ridiculous she looked like that in my body, but at least she was staying out of trouble. She then proceeded to wander over to a display of little outfits. It occurred to me that she'd been acting so maturely that dressing up a teddy bear might even be a bit juvenile for her, but I smiled as I saw her chatting with a little girl as they picked out clothes for their stuffed animals.

Oh, what the hell. She'd had a rough day, too.

I grabbed another bear to replace the one she'd taken, and I turned to Caleb. "Here. This outside ring represents our bodies. This inside ring is our minds or spirits, or whatever," I explained as I arranged them. "See, this doesn't make sense. Look."

I exchanged the spirits of Lydia and the swapper. "He took over Lydia first." Then I exchanged the spirits of the swapper and myself. "Then things got confusing, but I'm pretty sure he jumped into my body. Lydia was in his original body, I was in Lydia, and he had my body."

Caleb nodded. "Makes sense. He knew you had superpowers. He wanted your body. I guess he jumped into Lydia first to get close to you."

"What I don't get is why would he swap again with Lydia back into his original body? He had my body, my powers. Why mess it up and go back?"

Caleb shook his head. "I dunno. Maybe he forgot his car keys or something? Or maybe there was something wrong with your body that he couldn't stay in there?"

"Something wrong with my body..." I said as I looked at the stuffed animals. Then the penny dropped, and I gasped. "Oh, God."

"What is it?"

I moved the stuffed animals back to before his swap with me. "Caleb, it wasn't him, it was me. I must have copied his powers with my power mimicry ability. When he tried to take over my body, I must have swapped with him, which forced him to do a double swap." I moved the mouse and the T-Rex, and then the T-Rex and the bear. "He tried to jump into my body, but I beat him to it. When he swapped, he couldn't go back into Lydia's, since he was already there. He was forced to jump back into his original body, which displaced Lydia into my body."

I looked up at him in shock. "This is all my fault."

"Chris, you can't blame yourself," Caleb said. "But if it was instinct, it was a good one. Otherwise, right now he'd be in your body. Both you and Lydia would still be in the wrong bodies, and we'd have an evil Prodigious Girl on our hands."

As usual, he had a point, but given the current situation, it didn't make me feel a whole lot better.

He looked at the stuffed animals. "Say you're right. How do we swap you back?"

"I don't know. I mean, if we could get close to him again, Lydia could maybe use my mimicry power to copy his power and swap with me."

"Basically, you'd need a seven-year-old girl to do something with your powers intentionally that you've been unable to do yourself despite weeks of practice. And then only by accident."

"...Yeah."

"I don't love that. What's the other alternative?"

"Well, let's assume that the swapper still wants my superpowered body, so we use that as bait. Then, when he tries to swap with Lydia in my body, she might instinctively do what I did, and force him to do a double swap." I moved the plush animals around to show the two swaps. "Wait, that's not good, either. That reverses things and gets me back home in my body, but then Lydia and the swapper would still be in each other's bodies."

"Then what? You ask him politely if he'd swap with her?"

"He probably wouldn't want to be a seven-year-old girl, so he might swap voluntarily. Assuming there's nobody else around for him to grab. We'd have to make it really tempting for him to change with Lydia."

At my mention of there being "nobody else to grab," a shadow of concern crossed Caleb's features. He clearly didn't relish the possibility of being stuck in the body of a seven-year-old girl, either.

My brow furrowed in concentration as I thought about it. I had an idea, but it was a really terrible idea.

Caleb wrinkled his nose as he looked at me and tried to read my expression. "Chris, are you thinking real hard, or are you taking a dump?"

"I'm potty trained!" I exclaimed, to the obvious amusement of a couple nearby mothers.

"Good, I wasn't looking forward to having to find a baby changing station," he teased. "I assume then that you have a crazy and ridiculously risky plan?"

He knew me too well.

I shook my head and felt my pigtails swing back and forth. "No, we need to be safe for once," I lied. "Okay, we need to get moving. Give me a shout once you meet up with Trixie, and hopefully she's got some good news for us."

Caleb gave me a concerned look. "Only if your luck changes," he said.

Lydia and I took an Uber over to Prodigy's garage, or at least the rough proximity. I thought I was being clever since that way we weren't being dropped off immediately in front of my mentor's hidden base of operations, but the split second the car door slammed behind us and the driver peeled away, I realized my mistake.

The garage was hidden on the south side of the city, in a run-down area on the outskirts of town. Walking the last block or two hadn't seemed like a big deal, but now that we were here, I realized that I had been thinking from the perspective of a teenager who was super-strong and invulnerable, not from the perspective of a helpless seven-year-old girl. One quick look at Lydia's panicked expression told me she wasn't likely to be of much help, either.

"I don't like this place," Lydia said quietly.

She held out her hand, and I took it, realizing it was more to calm her own nerves than my own. Although my own nerves were in need of some calming, too.

As we walked down the street, I flashed back to the first time I'd visited Prodigy in his old garage. Prodigy had chewed me out for choosing to show up as I did, in a blonde wig and wearing a short, flowered dress, saying how conspicuous I was.

That was nothing compared to the same blonde and curvy teenager walking down the street holding hands with a little girl. And that other location was positively ritzy compared to this part of town. I suddenly realized how much genuine danger we were in.

"Hey, honey! C'mere a sec!" a guy called out.

Lydia's head swung to look in the guy's direction, and I squeezed her hand and gave it an urgent tug. "Don't look! Just keep walking," I said.

We were close now, only half a block away from the hidden entrance to the garage. Unfortunately, in my rush to get there, I wasn't paying as much attention as I should, and we rounded a corner a little too close to the edge of a building. We practically ran right into a couple guys who happened to be loitering there.

"Hey, hey, whass' this?" one of them said as they blocked our path. I wasn't sure if they were gang members or not, but they looked like trouble. Young, muscular, and with attitude that was coming off of them in waves. One was wearing a bright red jacket with a bit of bling visible underneath, and the other had some fancy high-top sneakers. That meant they had money, and in this part of town, that wasn't good news.

"'Scuse us," I said, trying to move past them. However, as I pulled on Lydia's hand I realized that she was frozen in place. I gave her another more urgent tug, but she was petrified as she stared wide-eyed at the two guys. From my perspective, the two guys were giants, but even to her, they were a good deal taller and plenty intimidating.

As they moved closer, Lydia stepped back, and pulled me along with her. Worse, they'd positioned themselves in such a way that we soon found ourselves backed up against the wall of the building. They laughed as they penned us in, obviously enjoying the fear in Lydia's eyes. (And if I'm being honest, mine, too.)

I forced myself to get my anxiety under control and assess the situation with a clear head, as Prodigy had trained me to do. Luckily for us, it didn't look like these two belonged to any of the super-powered gangs that sometimes operated in this part of the city. I didn't see any of the tattoos favored by the Hemlocks or the high-tech equipment or cybernetics that the Techrats used, for instance. It looked as though these were just two regular garden variety thugs. Not that we were in any condition to deal with that, either.

"We don't want any trouble," I said. I instantly regretted it as the guys burst out laughing, clearly amused for a little girl to pipe up in such a way.

"Don't worry, baby, we don' wanna hurt ya, we wanna be friends," the guy in the jacket said as he leaned close to Lydia. "Don'cha wanna be friends, baby?" he said as he put his hand up against the wall right next to her head.

Lydia was close to tears, and she looked down and shook her head.

"But we're such frien'ly guys," he cackled as he leaned close, close enough to smell her perfume. Lydia was still looking down and afraid to make eye contact, and as he leaned closer, he leered at her sizable falsies that were tenting out the front of her shirt. I realized belatedly that I should have made her wear the jacket, or even just taken the falsies out entirely. As it was, she was drawing a lot of attention.

I can't say I was all that thrilled with the look his friend was giving me, either.

"You wanna go party, baby?" the first guy said, practically whispering in Lydia's ear. "Yeah. Yeah, you look like a party girl."

In a sudden move, he yanked Lydia's purse away and took a step back. She let out a squeak of protest and reached to grab it back, but he pulled it away before she could.

This...was actually a good thing, I realized.

Lydia was surprisingly mature and responsible for her age, but given our current situation I knew that I couldn't trust that she wouldn't leave her purse laying around somewhere. So, back at the food court, I'd transferred all of our valuables into my little backpack. My wallet, phone, keys, and significantly, also my iComm and CosFit devices. I'd even managed to squeeze Lydia's handheld game back in there. As a result, basically all the guy was getting was a hairbrush, some cosmetics, and a few other easily-replaceable sundries. As long as he didn't check the contents, this was the best-case scenario.

I needed to move this along. Which meant that I needed to make us more hassle than we were worth. My mind raced as I tried to think about what I could say to convince these guys to send us on her way. Then I realized that they probably weren't good with kids.

I burst out crying, trying to use my fear to stage an award-winning performance. "Chris, I'm scared!" I wailed as I clung onto her hand. "I wanna go home!"

Lydia, who was genuinely terrified, stared at me in utter bewilderment. Meanwhile, the two guys seemed less certain what to do, so I really hammed it up.

"These guys are scary! I w-w-w-wanna gooo hooo—whoof!"

I may have overacted a bit. The guy next to Lydia apparently had enough of my wailing and grabbed me with one hand and shoved me hard over into his friend's waiting arms. Before I knew what was going on, the guy had my arms pinned in an iron grip. Meanwhile, the other guy turned his full attention to Lydia, and had one of his hands on her breast. I was glad for her that it was just a prosthetic, but this was getting serious. Her reaction was to withdraw more and become more passive, which only served to encourage the guy even more, as though he needed it.

However, I had other problems to worry about as the guy holding me lifted me completely off the ground! At first I wasn't even sure what was going on when I realized that he was slipping my backpack off my shoulders, obviously keen to see what was packed away in the bulging little sack.

"Wait, no! I need that! We need that! Lydia!" I yelled, hoping to spur her into action. We couldn't afford to lose that backpack! But if she could land even one or two good punches—

"What th' fuck?!" the guy next to her blurted out. I looked up to realize that he had Lydia's blonde wig in his hand, exposing her short black hair...and her true gender.

"Ha, you got a tranny!" my guy chortled, enraging his friend.

Shit, this was about to get out of hand. I didn't think these guys could physically hurt Lydia, but we weren't simply going to walk away from this.

My eyes darted down to the derelict-looking building halfway down the block that hid the garage. God, it was so close. If we could get in there, we'd be safe. Not that there was any way these guys were going to let us—

Just then, a small electronic chirp came from my backpack. I recognized it immediately.

While my guy was distracted, I squirmed out of his grasp and spun and executed a perfectly aimed snap kick straight to his crotch. As he doubled over, I snatched away the backpack and opened it, rifling frantically through the contents. The thug took a swipe at me which I barely managed to duck, but he was clearly not in a laughing mood anymore. Then, as my fingers touched metal, I grabbed the device inside.

I'd recognized the electronic beep as having come from my iComm device, so apparently its self-repair systems had done their work. I pulled out the now-functional device as my fingers fiddled with it. The guy grabbed me by the arm and yanked me close, hard. But luckily for me, this code was designed to be easy to enter.

I didn't think these guys would recognize an iComm, but the high-tech display and blinking red emergency signal appeared to give them pause. I'd just activated the broad band "hero in distress" signal, the same kind that Euphoria had used to get my attention the other day.

"I just called in every cop and hero for miles, assholes," I said with a confident smirk. "You're gonna get your butts kicked now."

They clearly didn't seem to trust the word of a little girl on that, but my suddenly confident attitude appeared to throw a bit of uncertainty into the mix. However, the wailing sound of a nearby police siren seemed to put any lingering questions over the top. It might have been coincidence, but they obviously weren't inclined to take any chances.

As the guys bolted, I rushed to turn off the alert, fumbling with the device in my tiny hands. I managed to do so, but the sirens were growing closer.

The sound of the approaching police that only a moment ago had filled my heart with joy now scared the living hell out of me. For one thing, Prodigious Girl was still officially an unsanctioned vigilante. The cops might just as well be coming to arrest her as rescue her. But even if I ditched the iComm and told the cops that Prodigious Girl had flown off before they got there, they'd still be wondering what Lydia and I were doing walking around by ourselves down here. Best case, they'd want to talk to our parents. Worst case, they'd jump to some very uncomfortable conclusions about what a curvaceous teenage crossdresser might have been doing down here, and they would likely have extremely pointed questions about why she'd felt the need to bring along a little girl. And Lydia would not have good answers for any of that.

"We gotta run! Now!" I yelled as I gathered up the backpack and the blonde wig and grabbed Lydia by the hand. She was frightened and bewildered and wasn't sure what was going on, but she was all for getting out of there.

We got to the building and ducked into a secluded alcove just as a cop car drove past us, sirens wailing loudly. Lydia covered her ears from the noise, but I was already busy punching a code into a hidden panel. The weathered door slid open to reveal a reinforced steel door that belied its outside appearance, and the two of us hurried inside.

As the heavy door clicked shut, I finally breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I turned to look at Lydia, who had scrunched up her face and was pinching her nose.

"Ugh, it stinks in here," she said.

I paused to sniff the air, a generally unpleasant aroma that was a mix of dirty motor oil and gasoline along with some pungent chemical smells. I'd been begging Prodigy for months to fix the air filtration system, but he'd maintained that it was a low priority. Instead, he hung an air freshener by the computer.

I smiled. "I've never been so happy to smell that stench in all my life. C'mon, I need to look for some stuff."

I booted up the computer in Prodigy's garage. The place was more of a mess than usual since we'd been busy with missions and hadn't had a chance to tidy up. Prodigy's sporty dark blue car (which he simply referred to as "the car" despite my repeated efforts to give it a name) was uncharacteristically not up on the lift and was parked in ready position to leave through a concealed exit.

"Sorry the place is a mess, I didn't know we were having company," I said with a grin as I turned to Lydia, who was seated on a bench next to me. But the second I saw her, my smile faded. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Hey," I said consolingly. "It's okay. We're safe here."

She was hunched over slightly and hugging herself again as she shook her head. I'd retrieved the blonde wig that the thug had taken off her when we bolted, but I hadn't thought to give it back to her, so she had my usual short haircut as Chris. Had she been in more forgiving light and maybe with a better makeup job she might have looked like a girl with a boyish haircut, but as it was, it kind of shattered the illusion of "Christie." It made me uncomfortable to see myself that way, especially with Lydia in such a despondent state.

I swiveled out of the chair and sat down next to her on the bench. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I can't be a superhero," she said in a small, choked-up voice.

I blinked. I mean, I could empathize, especially in our current state, but on the list of problems we were facing, this didn't seem like one of our bigger ones.

"Lydia, you're only seven. You've got plenty of time to—"

"It's not that," she protested. "I'm so scared all the time! Those guys on the street, they didn't have powers or guns or anything! But now I have powers, and I was so scared I didn't do anything!"

"I'm scared, too. I'm scared all the time."

"No, you're not! Plus, you're seven years old, and you did something! You kicked that guy and called for help. I just stood there."

She started to cry, and I tried to reach my arm around her consolingly, but I was too little. Instead, I wrapped my arms around her bicep and gave it a squeeze as I snuggled up against her.

As she calmed down a bit, I looked her in the eyes and wiped away her tears, smiling a little at how my male face looked under the smeared makeup.

"Lydia, I know all of this superhero stuff seems like it's a lot of fun, but it's really scary," I said to her. Unfortunately, she didn't seem very satisfied with that, so I took a breath. I wasn't especially proud of this story, but she needed to hear it.

"I never told you about my very first time out as a hero," I said. "I'd just gotten my costume, and I was flying around the city, and it was amazing. I thought I could take on the world. I even made a friend, and she was a new superhero, too. Sounds pretty good, huh?"

She smiled a little and nodded.

"I thought so, too. Then we saw a family being mugged by some gang members, kind of like what happened to you and me, but there were a lot more of them. And they had powers."

"What'd you do?" she asked breathlessly.

"We jumped in there to save the family. But then, I froze up."

"Nuh-uh."

"It's true. I almost got my friend killed because of it. I was just standing there in my miniskirt and costume, and I felt ridiculous. Those guys were big! They were adults, and they were really scary. I mean, you saw for yourself what they can be like."

She got a pensive look on her face and her brow furrowed. "What happened?"

"Things got out of control, and they were going to hurt my friend. That's what snapped me out of it. We managed to fight those guys off together, and we saved that family. But afterwards...afterwards, I wanted to quit. I was so ashamed of freezing up and endangering us like that, that I was ready to quit being a hero my first day out. Fortunately, my friend talked me out of it."

She pursed her lips uncertainly. Then she looked down at herself, and then over at me. "You can fix all this, right?"

I took a breath, not sure how to respond. "I hope so. My friends will help," I told her. Then I took her by the hand. "Lydia, just in case they can't fix us, I need you to know something. You've got powers, but that doesn't mean you have to be a superhero. Lots of people choose not to do that, and that's okay," I said, thinking about Fidget Spinner on the roof with Marty. "But if you wanted to, I know that you could."

She looked at me in confusion. "Why?"

"I—" I stopped short. I hadn't actually expected that question. I tried to think of all the qualities of a hero, and I finally gave up. I shrugged and said, "You got heart."

Lydia shot me an epic look at was equal parts dubiousness and sarcasm.

"Okay, yeah, I know," I said hurriedly, trying to recover. "Though...think of it this way. You're in a different body! So far today, you've been in superhero fights—real superhero fights!—and you're not only still here to talk about it, but your big reaction to the whole thing was to have some chicken nuggets and get me a date with a girl I like. Most people would be hiding under their bed from all that. You're smart and you care about other people, and you want to do the right thing. Being a hero doesn't mean you never mess up, it's about sticking with it and persisting, no matter what."

"Even when it's scary?"

"Especially when it's scary," I said. "That's what being a hero is all about, even if you don't wear a cape. Does any of that make sense?"

"I think so."

"Good." I glanced over at the computer. "Okay, I think I know where that thing is that I'm looking for. Come with me. And don't touch anything."

It bothered me that I was starting to sound more like Prodigy all the time.

While Chris and Lydia search for answers, Caleb looks to Enchantrix and Bhramari for assistance, with unexpected results. But as they all prepare for their next encounter with the cunning villain Xenos, he readies his trap for them. And he seems to know them even better than they know themselves!

Identity Crisis: Adventures in Babysitting

By Jenny North

Caleb stood on the sidewalk and looked down at his phone yet again to confirm he was at the right address. He knew that time was of the essence to track down Enchantrix, but as he peered up and down the street, it wasn't at all what he expected. From what he knew of the magical heroine, she seemed more likely to have set her base of operations in another dimension, or via a hidden doorway under a bridge where you had to enter a faerie circle of mushrooms and speak a password three times. Not...a house.

He looked at the row of homes with their neatly maintained front yards, and for a moment he wondered if maybe the whole thing was a giant illusion. Like he'd approach and it would all melt away to reveal some fantastic otherworldly realm that didn't obey the laws of physics. Though by the time he walked up the steps and got to the doorbell, he was starting to suspect that the whole thing might be legit.

He rang the doorbell—just a regular ding-dong doorbell and not a deep booming gong or anything—and after a few moments, the front door opened and a teenage girl stood there. She was dressed casually in a camisole top and shorts, and her hair was a vibrant shade of auburn red that framed her face in long, loose waves. She looked at Caleb with a mildly curious expression, and as he made eye contact with her, Caleb realized that she looked very familiar.

"Enchantrix?" he said as he gaped at her.

"Hey, Caleb."

He stared at her incredulously. "Whoa. Is that your actual hair?" he asked.

"Yes, this is my actual hair," she replied in a deadpan tone, which her English accent seemed to make even more deadpan.

He continued to stare at her in awe and then blinked once. "Hey, I'm not looking to cast aspersions on your chosen career or anything, but you should not be in a line of work where you're covering that up. You should be doing shampoo commercials, or something."

"Uh huh. Look, I'm not real hung up on the whole 'secret identity' thing with the mask and all, but I do try to be a bit discreet, yes? So, having you come up to my front door and blurting out my hero name to the neighborhood isn't what you'd call super helpful."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Can I come in? PG needs your help. It's...not good."

"When is it ever?"

She opened the door and he entered. The inside was cozy with framed pictures on the walls, and with various vases and knick-knacks and decorations on display that had intricate and colorful designs. A family lived here. Again, not what Caleb expected.

"Enchantrix, Peej told me that Bhramari would be here, too?" he said.

She nodded. "Caleb, call me Ren. But yeah, she's upstairs. Her parents have let me crash here ever since the Sanctuary was destroyed."

Caleb stopped short. "Wait, how do you know my name?"

She smiled. "You blurted it out to me that time in Prodigy's garage, remember? Or do you prefer Flamebait?" she teased.

"Um, listen, that was just..." he said haltingly.

"Yeah, that's not your name, I know." She shook her head. "I looked it up. It turns out the real Flamebait is an earth controller based out of Terra Haute. Total waste of a good hero name, if you ask me. Here, c'mon."

Ren started to climb the stairs and Caleb moved to follow her, but she stopped once she got to the third step as if something had occurred to her. She turned and gave him an odd look.

"Problem?" he asked.

"Probably not. Depends how long you're gonna be here. C'mon, and tell me what's going on with Peej," she said as they continued upstairs.

Caleb watched as Ren threw herself back into her desk chair and expelled a long, slow breath as she looked at the ceiling, taking in everything he'd told her. Bhramari was there as well—or Aparna, he'd learned her name was—and she was listening to their conversation while also grooving to the muffled thumping of house music that played from some speakers inside a terrarium. Although Aparna was deaf, she could see and hear through the insects she could control, several of which buzzed about the room in well-orchestrated flight patterns.

Caleb was seated on one of the two beds that had been jammed into the cramped bedroom that the two girls shared, and as he glanced around, he found himself becoming strangely edgy. He knew that Chris's identity as Prodigious Girl was to be kept strictly secret, even from his parents who certainly wouldn't have approved. However, it seemed that Aparna's family was evidently more open about such things, and supportive of her superheroing. From surreptitious glances around the room at some photos on display, Caleb started to piece together that it might even be a family business of sorts. Though at the moment he didn't want to pry, and they had bigger issues.

"Metahuman powers are tied to the body," Caleb said, finishing his explanation. "So, I don't see how any of them could have body-swapping powers. That's why Chris thought you might have some ideas." Caleb made a little face as he used Chris's real name, but evidently he'd already shared that with Ren and Aparna during his visits here. At least his first name. They didn't seem to know that Chris wasn't really a girl, however, so Caleb made a point to watch his pronouns.

"It's Xenos," Ren whispered with a faraway look.

"That's...more specific than I expected," Caleb admitted. "You know this dude?"

"I haven't had the pleasure, but I know the story," Ren said. "Originally there were five of them, all mindless creations to serve an evil sorceress, centuries ago. Only one survived. He evolved and developed this ability to trade souls with someone else. I don't even know his real name, I've only heard him called Xenos. I'm not even sure if that's a name or just a title someone gave him."

Over from her seat, Aparna responded using sign language.

Ren shook her head. "I'm sure because he's hunted down and killed everybody else like him. Let's just say he values his privacy and didn't appreciate others like him drawing attention. You could probably trigger a body swap with an artifact or something, but anybody on Earth with this innate ability...I doubt there are many left."

"Sounds like you know this guy pretty well," Caleb said.

"I should. The sorceress who created him is my mother." Then when Caleb frowned and shook his head, she added, "Rhiannon?"

Caleb seemed more confused than ever. "Your mom is Ri-Ri?"

"Rhiannon, you dingus, not Rihanna. Rhiannon Blackwood?"

He snapped his fingers. "Ultra-powerful black magic evil sorceress. That does make more sense."

Aparna looked concerned and signed something else.

Ren shook her head. "I have no idea."

"What'd she say?" Caleb asked.

"She was wondering why Xenos would take an interest in Peej. Hell, until just now, I thought he was dead. The last stories I heard about him were from before any of us were born."

Caleb nodded. "I think we need to talk to Chris. Maybe she's figured something out," he said, taking care with the pronoun.

Lydia and I wandered through the storage area of Prodigy's garage, with its racks and racks of God only knew what. It wasn't nearly as spacious as that big warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it wouldn't have surprised me to stumble across the Ark of the Covenant tucked away in a dusty corner back here.

Unfortunately, if there was any unifying organizational structure to how things were stored back here, Prodigy hadn't seen fit to share it with me. There were photon grenades stacked alongside cans of motor oil, which were alongside a chessboard where all of the pieces looked like members of the Liberty Squadron. Caleb was even more of a hero nerd than I was, and he immediately geeked out when he saw all this stuff, but I had trouble getting excited. When I first saw it, it seemed like a lot of junk being kept by an aging hoarder.

However, the more I learned about these items, the more freaked out I was that Prodigy didn't take better precautions. It was hard to tell the good stuff from the bad, but I had a funny feeling that a lot of it would be better off kept deep in a secure vault at the Liberty Squadron's headquarters than—

—a sonic disruptor pistol sitting on top of an open box of breakfast cereal. I sighed. It bothered me that I wasn't even sure what was more lethal, the gun or the cereal. I was certain that I didn't want to know.

I thought I'd remembered seeing the thing I was looking for back here.

I peered over my shoulder to keep an eye on Lydia as she followed me through the stacks, and I saw her tentatively reaching for something.

"Lydia! What'd I tell you? Don't touch anything!"

Now I did sound like Prodigy.

She quickly yanked her arm back, and she fretted her fingers in a guilty gesture. "But...it's just..." she said, darting her eyes over to the side.

I followed her line of vision, and there on the edge of the shelf was a plastic Troll doll. Its pudgy little plastic body was about five inches tall, and it was topped with a preposterous and towering tuft of bright red hair. It had big dark eyes and a goofy smile, and it was wearing a bikini in a colorful floral pattern. Its arms were spread invitingly wide, like it was going in for a hug.

"Leave it alone, it's dangerous," I told her.

She looked at me dubiously, then back to the doll, and then back to me.

"It's a Troll doll," she protested.

I let out an exasperated huff, which was no doubt a hilariously pouty gesture coming from my small frame.

"Lydia, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what that thing is, but if it's sitting on that shelf, I know for certain that it's not what it looks like. It could be a grenade. Or it could open a black hole that'll destroy the city. Or maybe it holds the spirits of a cursed legion of a thousand undead samurai warriors bent on world domination! Leave it alone."

She crossed her arms petulantly. "Your boss is weird."

"No argument there," I agreed, as I spotted the object of my search. "Ah-ha! I knew saw this around here somewhere. Here, hand that to me, but be careful with it."

Lydia saw what I was pointing at and pulled the device down off the shelf and handed it to me. It was an energy rifle, and it was big and heavy—even more so from my current perspective—but I carefully slung the weapon over my shoulder. It was practically as tall as I was.

"And that's not dangerous?" Lydia challenged.

From over by the computer, I could hear the sound of my phone ringing. "Come on, we need to get that," I said to her.

"Xenos," I said, as if saying his name out loud might give me some better insight. It didn't. "We're sure about that?"

"Reasonably," Ren said. I wasn't entirely enthused with the ambivalence I detected in her voice.

"Okay. Let's assume that you're right. Do you know a spell or something to switch me and Lydia back?"

There was a long enough pause that I knew what was coming.

"No," Ren said. Much to my distress, this time her voice was filled with a good deal more conviction than her previous answer. "I mean, I could do some research and maybe there's something out there, or a magic item that'll change you back, but that could take weeks, maybe months—"

"We don't have weeks," I interrupted her. "Our parents are coming home tomorrow. Late afternoon or early evening. If they see us like this..." My voice trailed off as I looked over at Lydia, who seemed as concerned as I was. "Let's just say we won't be able to fool them. I mean, maybe for a few days, but—"

"That's not going to do it," Ren said.

There was a pause, then I heard her talking to Aparna. "Yeah, I agree. Xenos caused the problem, so he's the obvious fix. If we can ambush him, take him unawares—"

"No, that's too dangerous," I said. "We can't risk him swapping with one of you and making this whole situation worse than it already is."

"Good point," Caleb said. He had a funny tone to his voice, and it occurred to me he was probably looking at the girls and not relishing the idea of being stuck in one of their bodies.

"I might have something for that," Ren offered. "A protective talisman with a rune of spirit shielding should protect us."

"Should?" Caleb asked.

Ren made an equivocal noise. "As long as Xenos hasn't taken precautions against that. Though I don't think he'd expect us to use that kind of magic against him."

"I don't suppose you happen to have a talisman like that laying around?" I asked.

"No, but I can make some. I should have all the ingredients I need right here. Even so, it'll take several hours, maybe even overnight. Though that still begs the question how you're going to find him."

I glanced over at Lydia.

Her face lit up. "I'm going to be bait!" she said proudly.

"I'm not enthused with this plan, Chris," Caleb said.

Lydia said brightly, "Uh-uh, it's okay, I don't mind. Chris has used me as bait for bad guys before. Twice! Three times, counting today."

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

"I swear, it's like I don't even know you," Ren said.

While Ren had gone downstairs to the kitchen to start working on the protective talismans, Caleb busied himself by idly looking around the bedroom, trying to seem politely curious without being overly nosy. Aparna, meanwhile, had returned her full attention to her music. She'd turned it up, so it was now more clearly audible in the room.

"This sounds really familiar," Caleb said, listening to the music. It was an EDM remix of a popular song, but it blended in elements of hip hop and synth-pop in a really interesting way.

He snapped his fingers in realization. "Hey, I know this guy! I mean, I follow him. He does these really great mixes. I can always pick out his stuff because the percussion always has this kind of weird reverb to it. I haven't heard this song, though. Did he just drop it?"

Aparna turned to look at Caleb, and she had a knowing little grin on her face. At first he didn't follow her meaning, but then he looked at her laptop and saw a program open with a sophisticated electronic mixing board.

"Shut up," he said. "You're DJ B. Buzzy?"

Aparna maintained her smile and looked to the terrarium, and Caleb watched as the insects all stopped in place and began to drone in harmony, then quickly shifting into a very distinct thumping beat.

"Outstanding," Caleb marveled with a smile as Aparna tilted her head in thanks. "Dang, I totally assumed you were a guy."

"Kinda credited you for having better observational skills than that," Ren teased as she entered the bedroom and tossed herself down in her desk chair. "Okay, the base materials are cooking now. I'll check on it in a few hours, but this is going to take a while."

"Chris doesn't have tons of time," Caleb reminded her.

"If the ingredients take, I should have these done by tomorrow morning," Ren said. She then picked up a spindle of heavy thread and pulled out a length and put it on the desk. Then she began to twist it around itself into a complex braided helix pattern.

Caleb peered over her shoulder. "What's that you're doing?"

"It's complicated," she growled, obviously annoyed at his intrusion.

He watched her work. "Those must be the cords for the talismans," he reasoned. When she didn't respond, he offered, "You know, I help out PG with stuff all the time."

"You don't say," Ren said dismissively. She then made a small grumble of annoyance as she had to stop and unwind the last few twists she'd just made. She then haltingly tried a different pattern.

"Mmm," Caleb intoned. By now, Aparna had taken an interest in their conversation, and she looked up from her laptop with a puzzled glance. Caleb gave her a sly wink. Then, in a conversational tone to Ren, he added, "You know, I once made a macrame potholder..."

Ren slammed the twisted thread down onto the desk in annoyance and spun around in her chair to face him. "Listen, halfwit, this is a little more complicated than that."

"Oh?"

"Yes! They need to be woven in a very particular way with the threads of magic."

He looked confused. "You're weaving magic? I thought that was only a figure of speech."

"It's how it works," Ren snapped. "There's threads of magic all around us, if you can see them. Then as you twist them around, it has different effects."

"But I guess you can't cut them, huh?"

"Of course you can! Though you'd need an aetherknife, and I don't have mine anymore."

"Oh. You misplaced it, huh?" he said sympathetically.

"I didn't misplace it! I lost it when I—" Ren stopped short, suddenly aware of not just the inquisitive look that Caleb was giving her, but Aparna's rather amused expression as she listened in. It took Ren a moment to realize that he'd baited her into divulging more information than if she'd simply answered his question in the first place.

"Very clever," she said, turning her back to him and resuming her work on the braided cord.

This time Caleb took the hint. He resumed his polite examination of the bedroom, but stopped as he spotted something that had caught his eye earlier.

"Okay," he said with an amused smirk. "Who's the Hexes and Hos fan?" chucking a thumb towards the collection of paperback books on a small bookshelf.

Aparna had returned her attention to her laptop, so she was turned away and he couldn't read her expression. Which was unfortunate, because it meant that he couldn't see the pained smile she was making at his gaffe.

Ren stopped fooling with the cord on her desk and once again spun her chair around to look directly at him. However, this time she did it slowly and very deliberately. Caleb didn't really notice that, however, since he'd turned to check out the row of dog-eared paperback books with a smile.

"Oh. Do you know much about Hexes and Horrors?" Ren asked in a strangely casual tone, putting extra emphasis on the proper title for the series. Meanwhile, Aparna was doing her best to suppress a smile as she bit on a fingernail and pretended not to listen as she slyly peered over towards the two of them.

Caleb, unfortunately, remained oblivious.

He scoffed and broke into an easy smile, as though the idea was ridiculous. "Me? No, hardly."

"Not a fan?"

He made a nervous chuckle as he read her face and finally began to see the trap he'd laid for himself. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with them."

"Of course not."

"It's just... I mean, they're kind of..." He glanced over to Aparna who had now fully turned in her seat to watch the exchange. From her amused smile, she was clearly enjoying watching him squirm.

Ren gave him a heedless shrug that belied the intensity in her eyes. "Kind of...what?"

Caleb's smile was frozen on his face, but it faded microscopically. "I mean, c'mon. Don't take this personally, but you gotta admit, they're basically steamy romance novels. They're awfully...girly."

"That's an interesting persp—"

Just then, Aparna's smile suddenly faded, and she got an alarmed look on her face. She knocked urgently on her desk to get Ren's attention, and signed something quickly to her.

"Shit!" Ren swore as she spun around and began to madly dig around in her desk drawers for something.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Caleb said anxiously as he glanced around, trying to figure out what had set the two of them off.

"A-ha!" Ren said as she retrieved a small item from the third drawer down. It was a twinkling crystal pendant, and in a blink she was up out of her seat and came straight at Caleb with it. He froze in confusion, and it was only when it was far too late that he recognized the pendant as the Morphex crystal that he'd once seen her use on Prodigy.

"Don't take this personally," she said with a smirk as she placed the pendant around his neck.

"Wait—!"

The transformation was instantaneous.

There was a disorienting blur of form and color, and Caleb reeled as he felt his flesh and bones shift, at first shrinking down somewhat and then feeling as the flesh on his chest, hips, and butt became a lot more rounded and squishier than he was used to. He barely had time to process the magnitude of that change when his clothes transformed into a laughable and scant superhero costume in bubblegum pink with baby blue highlights. Although in addition to the color, the style was equally shocking, consisting of thigh-high boots, skimpy little shorts, and a buckled bustier that had hefted up his brand-new boobs and put them on a rather brazen display.

At first Caleb looked to Ren—who seemed altogether pleased with herself—but then as he spun to look at the nearby full-length mirror, he beheld the startled-looking girl reflected back at him, with her big bouncy blonde pigtails swishing about playfully.

He recognized his reflection immediately. It was the 'Candy Scrapper' disguise that Prodigy had worn to infiltrate Demetria's all-female Sanctuary using the Morphex crystal. At the time, Caleb had found it all very amusing, but at the moment he felt quite a bit differently about it.

His hands reflexively went for where the Morphex crystal should have been dangling around his neck, but all he saw and felt was his brand-new cleavage.

"Not so grabby," Ren hissed as she gave him a hard shove back.

Caleb gave a startled squeak as he stumbled back on his unfamiliar high-heeled boots as Ren cast another spell. By the time his butt landed on the bed, his superhero costume was gone, and he instead found himself wearing a totally different outfit...a light pink tee with a scoop neck, a dark pink print skirt, and sandals. It didn't seem like much of an improvement.

He turned angrily to Ren. "Change me b—!"

"Shush!"

"But I'm—!"

"Shush!"

"What's with all the shushing in here?" a woman's voice came from the doorway.

Caleb's head snapped around so quickly towards the source of the voice that one of his big blonde pigtails smacked him softly on his cheek. The person standing there was a middle-aged Indian woman with a round face and wide dark brown eyes, who Caleb guessed was Aparna's mother. And she was staring directly at him.

Caleb, still caught off-guard by suddenly being a teenage girl, said nothing and smiled politely. His eyes cut over to Ren, who was no longer joking and teasing. Although based on the intense look she was giving him, keeping his mouth shut was apparently the correct choice.

"Oh, hello," the woman said pleasantly. "Another one. Are you a superhero, too?"

Aparna gaped at her mother in open-mouthed shock and signed something to her. Caleb didn't know what she was saying, but her body language was instantly recognizable as that of a teenager embarrassed by her parents.

"Oh, suddenly you're worried about your secret identity," the woman scoffed in response. "If you ever brought home a friend who wasn't a superhero, that would be a shock."

Aparna signed something. Quite emphatically.

"You watch your language, young lady! I'd make you wash your hands with soap, but you should be doing that anyway." Then she turned to Caleb. "Are you a friend of Chris's?"

Caleb blinked. "Uh, yes," he admitted. His girl's voice was practically a chirp, making it sound like even more of a question than it was. Meanwhile, his mind raced to process that they were all on a first-name basis with Chris as Chris, not just Prodigious Girl. Though he was still practically certain they only knew Chris as a girl. Caleb turned to Ren in confusion.

"Mrs. Patel, this is Caylee," Ren offered, her eyes twinkling slightly as Caleb shot her an accusatory look at the name.

"Hm. Okay. Well, no costumes in the house, and no flying in the house. If that's even something you do. We're no strangers to superheroes, but we do try to be somewhat discreet," she admonished him before returning her attention to Ren. "And I'm assuming that foul-smelling brew you've got going downstairs that's ruining my good cookware is somehow for the good of the city?"

Ren looked mildly chagrined. "I'll also need the oven later. Sorry. It's not like these spells have microwave directions."

The older woman made a discomfited grumble. "Just clean up after you're done."

"Sure thing, Mrs. Patel."

"Ren, I've told you a thousand times. You're staying under our roof, which means you're family. Call me Mom."

Ren squirmed in her seat as she seemed to struggle with that. "Yeah, I...I don't see that happening. Thanks."

The woman nodded knowingly. "Ah, mother issues. It's because your birth mother is a satanic despot who tried to murder you, and then the woman who rescued you and to whom you looked for guidance broke your brain like so much peanut chikki, isn't it?"

Caleb cringed at the question, but to her credit, Ren simply tilted her head gamely in agreement. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"All right. Dinner is at six."

She made a move to leave, but then stopped herself and looked directly at Caleb. "Oh, and by the way, Caylee..." she began.

Aparna's shoulders visibly slumped in teenage exasperation at her mother's continued presence.

Mrs. Patel wagged her finger at Caleb like she was chastising him. "You need to tell Chris that she needs to find a better brassiere for her civilian outfits. Something that minimizes! She's not hiding anything. It's a wonder people haven't broadcast her secret identity all over the Internet. 'Prodigious Girl,' indeed."

"O-Okayyy..." Caleb said haltingly.

"She wears that tiny little mask as a hero, and then she comes in here with her long dark hair up in a ponytail like she thinks people aren't going to recognize those!"

As she made the comment, she gestured towards Caleb's own not-inconsiderable chest for emphasis. Since he'd only had breasts for less than two minutes himself, it took him a second for him to make the connection, but he nodded numbly in agreement.

"Caylee, do you have a boyfriend?" Mrs. Patel asked pointedly.

Aparna buried her face in her hand.

Caleb, whose brain was desperately trying to catch up with this situation, just shook his head, feeling his big ponytails jounce around.

"No? You see, that's good. Focusing on your studies first, I like that. There will be time enough for boys later."

Ren was clearly delighted watching "Caylee" squirm from all the attention. Aparna, meanwhile, had had about enough, and signed a message to her mother, who waved her hand dismissively.

"Fine, fine. You girls get back to your secret superheroing. Just try not to burn the house down. Or open a portal into the netherworld."

"It was just the one time," Ren muttered.

After she left, Caleb looked down at himself and gave his little pink tee a tug downwards, which had the unfortunate effect of making his cleavage more visible. He then looked up at Ren, who had an uncharacteristically mirthful expression on her face, especially as she saw his twin pigtails bouncing around.

"Remind me why I'm a girl, again?" Caleb asked in his ditzy high-pitched voice.

Aparna made a wide-eyed look of incredulity and signed something.

"Ha, you said it," Ren agreed. "Trust me, 'Caylee,' if she'd found us up here with a boy in our bedroom, it would have been a reenactment of the Manichean invasion."

Caleb looked down at himself again and fussed at his skirt. "Great. I have to stay like this until I leave?"

Ren made a pained face and cleared her throat gently. "Yeah, about that. Look, the spell was kind of a rush job, so I can't exactly just take the crystal off. It needs to run its course."

Caleb let out a groan that came out more like a girlish sigh. "How long?"

"Two weeks. Three at the outside."

"What?!"

"Don't worry! I'm not sure where you are in your menstrual cycle, but you probably won't even get your period."

Caleb smacked his knees together as he gaped at her in disbelief. Then he stopped and looked her in the eyes.

"You're messing with me," he said.

"Dang it. I pushed it with the period thing. You're not as gullible as you look."

Caleb swung his head to one side, causing his pigtails to bounce. "It'd be hard not to be." Then he gave her a more serious look. "How long?"

"I dunno. Maybe a day or two."

"What? I can't go home looking like this!"

"Yeah, welcome to the exciting and unpredictable world of the superhero, toots," Ren said as she spun around in her chair and returned to weaving the cord. Aparna, meanwhile, had already returned her attention to mixing a track on her laptop, leaving Caleb to look down at his changed body.

Ren cast an eye over at him and turned to pick up a small stack of printed pages from her desk and handed them over to him.

"Here. If you're bored, you can read my latest Hexes and Horrors fanfic. Let me know if you have any questions about the characters. Hopefully it's not too girly for you."

As she turned away, Caleb looked back in the mirror across the bed, seeing his feminized reflection staring back at him. He had to admit that the wide-eyed teenage girl with her blonde hair up in the two girlish pigtails did seem to fit the target demographic.

"Oh, boy," he lamented.

I needed time to research Prodigy's files, but I also had to do something with Lydia that I wasn't looking forward to. However, she was getting both antsy and snacky, so I figured a small break was in order. But first, I retrieved my CosFit and had her transform back into Prodigious Girl. She seemed more comfortable that way, and I think she liked wearing the costume. And I figured it might help ease her into the next activity I had in mind. Not that she was entirely accepting of the change.

"Would you stop fooling with those?" I hissed.

"But they're so dumb!" Lydia complained, looking fretfully down at her chest as she touched her stomach. "I can't even see where my belly button is!"

I turned to look at her. Her costume covered her midriff, so it wasn't like it would be visible, anyway. "Why would you need to see where your belly button is?" I asked.

"I dunno! It was never a problem before," she countered as she tried to peer past the fleshy obstructions. She wriggled her shoulders and gave a little shudder. "They're always just...there. Am I gonna be this big when I grow up?"

I sighed. "I don't know, Lydia. Probably not."

"Ugh, I hope not. I bet everybody would laugh."

"Fewer than you might think," I muttered. "Oh, thank God, we're here. Open this door, will you?"

She obliged me, opening up another storage area. Lydia stood back and gazed at the sizable stack of small meticulously organized bagged brown packages, all wrapped in heavy plastic. As she peered at them uncertainly, I dug around in the pile.

"What's a 'murray'?" she asked, bewildered.

"M.R.E.," I corrected her. "It stands for 'Meal, Ready to Eat.' It's like what soldiers eat when they're out in the field. Oh, this is a good one. It's got like a trail mix with M&Ms," I said, handing her the package. I found another one that included peanut butter, jelly, snack bread, and Skittles, figuring we could share.

Lydia continued to examine the large pile. "How come you have so many?"

"Prodigy likes to be prepared. Y'know, like if the world ends, or something."

Lydia read the label on her package. "If the world ends, you're gonna eat beef tacos and rice?"

"Just imagine what an amazing civilization we'll rebuild," I said, mostly to myself.

We returned over to the main area by the computer, and Lydia opened up the packages and we dug through the contents. She seemed quite taken with the concept, almost like we were camping, or something. I only picked at my food, but Lydia actually ate quite a bit. It was funny to watch her in my body as Prodigious Girl. She had an innocent, almost carefree air about her, which bent my brain. After all, right now she was in the body of a teenage superheroine eating military rations while we sat in my mentor's crappy superhero hideout, but to look at her from her attitude, she could just as easily have been sitting at home watching cartoons.

Meanwhile, I was freaking the hell out, not that I dared show it for fear of worrying her further.

"Lydia, I need to review some files to figure out what we're up against, okay?"

She nodded and munched on some Skittles. "Okay. I'll just play my game," she said, reaching over towards her backpack that was sitting by the computer.

"Actually, no. I've got something I need you to do. You're not going to like it, but it's really important, okay?"

She furrowed her brow in mild confusion and shrugged. "Sure, okay."

"Owwww!" Lydia cried out.

I glanced up from my data pad. "Lydia, you have to be faster. Pay attention. Go again."

A few moments later, I heard her shriek again. And again. And again.

"This is dumb! I don't want to do this anymore!"

"Again," I said in as uncompromising a tone as I could manage with my seven-year-old voice.

I hated doing this to her, but I didn't have a whole lot of choice. The lowest level of Prodigy's garage had a large open room with a somewhat elevated ceiling that we used for training. The room itself was nothing special, but Prodigy had worked out a training regimen for me which involved me wearing a VR headset to give the appearance of different environments. Meanwhile, I had to dodge incoming attacks from three small combat drones. Despite my invulnerability, even on their lowest stun settings their blasts stung like heck.

I hated these exercises with a passion, and Lydia wasn't a fan, either. Nevertheless, we needed to be prepared for our next encounter with Xenos, and I knew that dodging while flying required more than a little finesse. However, finesse wasn't easy to come by when you were constantly getting stung by three very angry and determined hornets. Which was kind of the point of the exercise.

"Ow! OW! Chris, I can't do this! It hurts!" Lydia complained.

"God dammit," I growled, the profanity sounding particularly unnatural in Lydia's little voice. I knew I shouldn't have been short with her—what I was asking wasn't easy—but what research I'd managed to do on our bodyswapping adversary made me edgy. Xenos was dangerous and methodical, maybe even more so than Prodigy. If we weren't ready for him, then our best-case outcome was that Lydia and I would remain stuck in each other's bodies permanently. In the worst case, not all of us were likely to survive. So, watching Lydia fail and fail and fail was getting me agitated.

"I'm doing my best," she insisted.

"You have to do better!" I snapped back. "Lydia, I'm sorry this is falling on you, but this guy is dangerous! He's not going to go easy on you just because you're a kid!"

Lydia was cowed by my words, but to her credit she straightened up, seemingly ready to go again. Then she fell to her knees and broke down crying.

Unlike earlier, seeing her like that was a harsh and unmistakable reminder that whatever she looked like on the outside, on the inside she was a frightened and overwhelmed little girl. It was like a bucket of ice water being dumped all over me as I realized what I'd been doing.

I moved over to her and put my diminutive hand on hers. "I'm sorry, Lydia. That wasn't fair for me to ask that of you. I know you're doing your best."

She wiped the tears from her face. "No. You're right, I gotta do better," she said, standing up and taking a breath. "It's like you said. Heroes can't give up, even if it's hard. I'm ready. Do it again."

It was amazing to see the change come over her. She was still afraid, but much more determined. She looked, dare I say, heroic.

But it was obvious this wasn't working. I realized that I'd been training her the way that Prodigy had taught me, with his usual harsh tactics and ruthless efficiency. That wasn't going to work here.

"I think maybe we need to try something different," I told her. "Come on, we need to find some higher caliber weapons."

"Brilliant, the talismans are cooking in the oven. It'll take several hours, but we should be in business," Ren informed Aparna and Caleb as she reentered the bedroom.

"They were kind of big, weren't they?" Caleb asked. Each one had been almost a foot across, and they'd had to load up a few cookie sheets to make enough for the whole team.

Ren shook her head. "It shouldn't be a problem. They get smaller as they bake. They'll be about a third that size when they come out."

Aparna got a puzzled expression and signed something to Ren.

"What the bloody hell are Shrinky Dinks?" Ren asked in response.

Aparna then went on to sign a much more involved message, and Ren furrowed her brow as she followed along.

"Okay, I have no idea what those are, but they sound like black magic to me," Ren informed her. "So, yeah, could be they're related."

Ren then cast a glance over at Caleb, who was still sitting on the bed holding a printed copy of her story.

"How're you enjoying that Hexes and Horrors story, Shapiro? Any notes?"

He peered at her suspiciously. "That depends. Are you asking as a writer looking to improve her craft, or as the temperamental witch who turned me into a girl because she thought it'd be funny?"

Ren shrugged.

"In that case, no notes," he informed her.

Aparna broke into a wide smile and signed a message to Ren, who smiled and nodded.

"Good point, except he's not actually going by 'Flamebait,' so I guess he can afford to be more guarded in his commentary," Ren joked.

"Hey, wait a minute," Caleb interjected, realizing something she'd said. "How'd you know my last name?"

Ren broke out into an impish grin as she summoned a small magical teleportal above her hand, and a few items fell into her waiting fingers. Caleb immediately recognized them as his wallet, phone, and keys.

"Hey, give those back!"

She put the items on her desk. "Why? It's not like you've got pockets in that outfit, hot stuff. We'll make sure you get a cute purse to carry them in before we send you on your way," she teased.

Then, she got a puzzled look on her face as something obviously occurred to her.

"Wait a minute. You were born in Faraday City, weren't you? That means you're almost certainly carrying the latent metagene, even if you haven't ascended to get actual powers."

Caleb regarded her carefully but said nothing.

Ren smiled and eyed him shrewdly. "And, anyone who's metagene-positive can reserve a name with the hero registration system. Of course, most assholes register one so that they can try to sell it for a profit to an actual hero, but it begs the question...what hero name did you reserve?" she wondered. "I know it's not Flamebait. And don't you dare try and tell me you didn't register one. I know guys like you. You're too close to the life not to want some skin in the game."

Caleb squirmed a little in his seat but remained silent.

Ren's face lit up. "Oh, it's good, isn't it? C'mon, tell me."

"No," he said, sounding very petulant in his girl's voice.

"Ohhh, it is good! All right, fine, let me see," she said, edging closer as she paced back and forth right in front of him, but keeping her eyes riveted on his face. Caleb shifted nervously at having her in such close proximity and being scrutinized so closely in his sexy little teenybopper body.

She stopped and leaned against her desk as she peered into his eyes. "Let's work this out. You love all this hero stuff, so you wouldn't settle for a throwaway name. That means you must think that it's good. Though it can't be too cool or you'd have just told me. So, the question is, would a guy like you have reserved a name in the hopes that you might someday get superpowers and use it yourself, or would you just hold on to it to sell to somebody?"

Caleb strained to maintain his neutral expression, but she obviously saw something. "See, someone like PG is a dreamer who would have hoped to use it herself. But you, you're more grounded, aren't you? You're a goofball, but you're practical."

"Thanks," Caleb said dryly.

"So, the name you reserved isn't one you planned to use for yourself," she decided as she tapped thoughtfully on her chin. "Hmm. You think it's a cool name, but not so cool that you'd tell me. But why wouldn't you just tell—"

Her face lit up in realization.

"It's a girl's name, isn't it?" she said brightly as she read his face and clapped her hands in delight. "Oh, now you are gonna tell me."

Caleb gave her an annoyed little pout. "If I tell you, you're just gonna transform me again!" he accused her.

Ren affected a wounded expression. "Do you really think that I would do that?" she asked in a plaintive tone.

Over at her desk, Aparna seemed to not be paying particular attention to their conversation, as she had her back to them and had returned to working on her laptop. However, in answer to Ren's rhetorical question, she raised her right hand and waggled it back and forth in an equivocal gesture.

Ren flashed her eyebrows and gave Caleb an evil grin. "You're still gonna tell me."

"You're evil. Forget it."

"I'm reformed. Basically. Tell me."

Caleb crossed his arms defiantly and fixed her with an obstinate glare that was nothing short of adorable on his girlish features, especially with his big blonde pigtails swinging about.

"Have it your way, then," Ren said as she edged closer to him. As she slowly began to invade his personal space, Caleb scooched back on the bed to retreat from her advance. "But I know something that you don't."

"Which is?" Caleb said apprehensively.

"I happen to know that hot little bod that you're rocking right now is very... very... ticklish."

"Uh oh."

Ren was on him in a trice as Caleb scrambled to get away. She was stronger than Caleb was in his new body, and she quickly pinned him on the bed and was kneeling astride him as she tickled him.

"Stooo-oo-op!" Caleb squealed in a high-pitched giggle as Ren continued her assault. Aparna turned to look at the two of them in disbelief and held her hands out helplessly and signed a message to Ren.

"No! The girl will surrender her secrets!" she cackled.

Tears streamed down Caleb's pretty face as he laughed. "Oh, God, stop, you evil witch!"

"Reformed witch! And I'm polytheistic! Your pleas for clemency mean nothing to me!" she cried as she tickled him. Eventually she stopped, and she tossed her long hair out of her face. "Had enough, sunshine?"

Caleb took a tremulous breath. "This is blackmail."

"No, this is coercion. Different thing entirely. Though depending on how embarrassing the name is, I may be able to blackmail you with it."

She grabbed his wrists, and as she pinned him fully under her weight, he became fully conscious of their strength differential. She tossed her long auburn hair again as it started to fall into his face, and as she moved close and licked her lips, Caleb saw her eyes flash seductively. Her insistent look had taken on a different air, and Caleb began to wonder if the encounter might be about to take a very different turn.

Ren leaned down even closer so that they were practically nose-to-nose, and Caleb squirmed slightly as he felt their breasts touch gently.

"Had enough?" Ren repeated in a low voice, her English accent giving it a smoky purr.

"Um...uh huh," Caleb said.

Ren pulled back briskly as she released his wrists. She was still kneeling astride him on the bed, and she put her hands on her hips as she loomed over him. "All right. Out with it, missy."

He looked up at her shyly. "Do you promise not to laugh?"

"I promise no such thing." Then she looked over at Aparna who signed a message. "She promises not to laugh out loud," Ren said with a smirk.

Caleb twitched his lip uncertainly and then got a resigned look on his face. "It's—", he took a deep breath and then sighed heavily. "Hissyfit."

Ren's eyes got wide and she looked like she was going to explode.

"BWAH HA HA HA HA!" she cried out in rapturous joy. She threw herself onto the bed and grabbed a pillow and hugged it tightly as she laughed uncontrollably. Caleb blushed and looked away, and he saw that Aparna was bent over her laptop with her face in her palm, practically trembling as she softly pounded on the desk with her fist.

"It's not that funny," Caleb said.

"Hi-Hiss-Hissyfit!" Ren stammered haltingly, trying to talk between laughs. "Oh, gods!" she wailed as she gripped her sides. "I can't breathe... I can't breathe..."

Caleb couldn't see Aparna's face, but she was slumped over and visibly shaking as she took ragged breaths.

He sat there and nodded gamely. "Yeah. All right. Okay," he said as Ren's laughter turned into little whimpers of delight.

She was still giggling as she touched his arm. "Oh, gods..." she gasped. "You caught me off guard. I wasn't ready. I thought... I didn't know what I thought. But... Hissyfit...!" she whimpered.

Aparna turned to look at her, and Caleb could see that she also had a huge smile on her face. Her hands trembled as she signed something to Ren.

Ren practically snorted. "Yeah, the pigtails didn't help," she agreed, looking over at Caleb as she sniffled and wiped away tears. "Gods, I don't remember the last time I laughed like that," she sighed.

"Glad I could provide some entertainment," Caleb muttered.

"Oh, don't be such a sourpuss, beautiful," Ren said as she scooched over to sit alongside of him and patted his bare thigh.

She checked the clock. "Okay, those talismans need another hour in the oven before I have to reduce the temperature. That gives us some time."

"Time for what?" Caleb asked.

"Well, I know you'd planned to sell that name to some lucky heroine, but you may as well get some use out of it in the meantime," Ren said with an evil grin on her face. "Luckily, now we have time to make Hissyfit her superhero costume."

I crouched down as I crept through the darkened garage. The standard lighting had been knocked out, leaving just the red emergency lighting. My little heart felt like it was beating like a hummingbird as I peered this way and that, clutching the heavy gun in my hands. Lydia was nowhere to be seen, and the only noises were some random beeps from the computer and some other automated systems.

This wasn't looking good.

I saw Prodigy's car parked 30 feet away and figured I could use that for cover, but that was a lot of open distance, and I fully expected to be spotted. Not seeing any choice, I breathlessly rushed across the span and pressed myself up against the cold metal of the car. My hands were sweaty as I held my gun at the ready and listened for a response, but all was quiet. I slowly edged towards the back of the car, peering into the dim light, looking for—

"Gotcha!"

I dove for cover around the back edge of the car, moving into a mad scramble as I dodged the incoming fire and spun around for a return volley. In the dim light, I saw the shadow above the car and let loose a fierce hail of automatic fire. My first shot went wide, and my target used the opportunity to pirouette nimbly out of the way, narrowly avoiding my second salvo. But I was ready, and I let loose another volley of shots that peppered my target ruthlessly.

"Haha, okay, quit it!" Lydia said, laughing.

I straightened up, holding my plastic rifle against my hip. Lydia was hovering a few feet off the ground holding her own plastic gun, with a number of plastic Nerf darts scattered all over the ground around her.

"It isn't fair, you're too little," Lydia said as we bent over to collect all the Nerf darts.

"You did a lot better that time," I told her. "I didn't hear you coming at all, and you even dodged my shots while you were hovering. That was a good spin."

"Thanks," she said, blushing at the praise.

The Nerf guns weren't exactly standard issue for Prodigy, so we'd made a quick trip to a nearby big box superstore to pick up appropriate armaments. Lydia took to this "training" with a lot more enthusiasm, and even I had to admit that it was kind of helpful for me to get used to sneaking around in her body, getting used to its smaller size. It was actually kind of fun...a word I would never use to describe the training regimen that Prodigy put me through.

My main focus was getting Lydia used to flying, and I pressed her repeatedly on practicing it. Even in the confines of the garage, her fear of heights prevented her from getting too far off the ground, but from experience I knew that being able to fly in a combat situation was too big an advantage to pass up.

We played our "war games" for a couple more hours in different variations. In particular, Lydia had picked up the "capture the flag" concept a lot quicker than I gave her credit for. Still, I was getting tired from all the running around, and I sat down on a bench over by the computer to get some rest and do some more research.

I woke up a couple hours later, not even realizing that I'd fallen asleep. Waking up in Lydia's body was disorienting to say the least, and it took me several seconds to figure out where I was. I heard a television playing, and I did a little double take as I saw Lydia watching some cartoons on the computer. She was hovering a few feet off the ground and "sitting" cross-legged. She was still in Prodigious Girl's body, but she'd also apparently used my shapeshifting power to shift her long hair from black to a golden blonde.

She took a quick glance over at me as I rubbed my eyes and chased away the cobwebs. I saw my phone laying nearby and reached for it.

"What time is it, anyw—oh shit!" I cried out as I saw the phone log. It was only around 8:00, but Aunt Jessica had called an hour ago!

A surge of adrenaline ran through me as I tried to think of some lie to explain why I hadn't answered. Of course, Lydia would have to be the one to talk to her, so I'd have to coach her on what to say.

"Lydia, your mom called. I need you to—"

"Yeah, I talked to her," she said absently, still watching her video.

"You..." I struggled to get my head around that. "You didn't talk to her as Prodigious Girl, did you? Because your mom wouldn't recognize her voice."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Chris, I did that, 'cause I'm a stupid idiot," she said with over-the-top sarcasm. "I turned into you first, duh."

"Oh. Well...good. That's good. What'd she say?"

"I dunno," she said with a more cavalier attitude than I'd have cared for. She seemed to think about it and shrugged. "She thinks you're doing a bad job."

"She's not wrong about that," I admitted, thinking over the events of the day. Then as I thought about how I'd abdicated my various responsibilities, I realized how late it was.

"I guess I should see about making you dinner," I said.

"It's okay, I already ate."

"You did?"

She gestured over to a few other opened MREs. "I didn't like the tacos, but the one with the spaghetti was pretty good," Lydia said.

I had to admit I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I was glad she'd eaten, and actually kind of proud of her for managing to handle it herself. On the other hand, it bothered me that she'd had to do so, since taking care of her was supposed to be my job. Which clearly I wasn't doing all that well.

As Lydia floated there, I found myself staring at her as something occurred to me.

"You changed your hair," I commented.

She touched her golden locks self-consciously. "I'll change it back."

"Yeah, okay," I said, though that hadn't been my reason for saying something. Lydia obviously had some affinity with my shapeshifting ability, having switched back and forth to my identity as Chris to talk to her mom, and changing her fingernails earlier, and here again to change PG's appearance. My first thought was if that might somehow give us an edge over Xenos, but I was extremely reluctant to go that route. For one thing, my shapeshifting power was slow. Swapping between Chris and PG was instantaneous, but making significant changes could take hours. Although even more than that, most people didn't know I had that ability, and I found myself hesitant for even Enchantrix and Bhramari to know I had it. It was a short step from there to them finding out that I wasn't really a girl, and I didn't know how they'd respond to my having deceived them.

Although even at that, I wasn't sure how much that trickery would benefit us against Xenos, anyway. We might be able to surprise him once, but after that, we'd still need to take him down.

The one good thing about all this was that it suggested that Lydia had full access to all of my powers, so that hopefully meant that she had access to my power mimicry ability, as well. I had no reason to believe she'd be any more proficient with it than I was—which was to say, not at all—but to get switched back to our proper bodies, we'd be relying on her to do whatever it was that I'd done to get us into this mess. I still had to explain all that to her, but unfortunately there wasn't much I could do to train her about that.

As I stared at her changed hair color, another thought popped into my mind, one that I wasn't comfortable with. I wondered if she could use that power to turn into a copy of herself. I knew that my power let me change my mass up and down somewhat, but I'd never attempted such a significant change. But it occurred to me...if she could pull it off, Lydia could go home. She'd have all of Prodigious Girl's powers, but her parents would be none the wiser. Meanwhile, I'd be stuck in her body, a powerless seven-year-old girl, and I'd have to face the music with my parents, telling them...God, everything. How this all happened, my secret outings as a superheroine, all of it. That would suck, but at least Lydia would get to walk away from this. After all, it was my fault we were in this mess, anyway.

I frowned as that thought tumbled around in my mind. If she could do it, we could walk away from all this right now. Even if Xenos was looking for PG, he'd have no idea where to look for Lydia. She'd be safe. Though I'd be stuck as a little girl. A powerless little girl.

I don't know why, but it was the "powerless" part that got me even more than the thought of being stuck as Lydia's twin for the rest of my life. I'd become accustomed to my powers and helping people and being special, and the thought of losing all that really bothered me.

Of course, the only way to get my powers or my body back was to trick or coerce Xenos into doing another double-switch, which meant Lydia and my body both needed to be there. Which unfortunately meant putting her in harm's way. I tried to console myself with the knowledge that she was strong and invulnerable and so was hardly helpless, but I hoped that I wouldn't have cause to regret that decision...

Xenos sat back in his chair as he examined the readouts and dossiers on his computer screen. Now in addition to the limited information he had on Prodigious Girl, he'd also pulled up her known associates.

"Children," he muttered. "I'm dealing with children."

Xenos knew better than to underestimate his foes, especially ones who had been pushed to the point of desperation. However, these were hardly Faraday's finest. Once again, he reviewed the list.

Prodigy was of course her most obvious and most dangerous ally, but he'd be off-world for at least another 24 to 48 hours, Xenos had seen to that. He'd calculated that would be enough time to complete his plan.

The best sources of information were the public tools like HeroTracker, the social networking app that monitored sightings of known heroes. Though it was interesting, because Prodigious Girl hadn't had any recent sightings. Xenos deduced that Prodigy must have been doing something to cover her tracks. Regardless, Prodigious Girl was young and still new to being a superhero, so while she'd encountered her fair share of metahumans who operated both inside and outside the law, most were acquaintances at best. He further deduced that her current vigilante status made it unlikely that she'd reach out to law enforcement or any established heroes like the Liberty Squadron. Especially since there appeared to be some friction with Promethean for unclear reasons.

That left her friends. People with whom she was close and could trust.

In her earliest outings, she regularly teamed with a group of four other teenage heroes. She'd evidently had a falling-out with the armored hero Quasarblaze, so he seemed an unlikely choice unless she was truly desperate. Similarly, it appeared he could rule out the hero Triggerhappy as a potential ally since he frequently partnered with Quasarblaze.

That left Enchantrix and Bhramari. Yes. Prodigious Girl would seek them out.

Bhramari's insect control and manipulation made her a talented scout, essentially invisible given her insect scrying ability. Not much use in a combat situation, though.

Then, there was Enchantrix. Renata Blackwood.

Xenos took a slow breath as he pulled up her dossier, scarcely needing to do so. This was a family with which he was intimately acquainted. Even just seeing the name Blackwood made him edgy, but he reminded himself he was dealing with the daughter. Renata was talented, but lately appeared to be curtailing her abilities now that she fancied herself as a superhero. It was unclear if that was by choice or if something else was in play.

Given Xenos's campaign against magic users, Renata Blackwood was certainly on his hit list, one whom he'd personally been looking forward to taking out. Luckily, there seemed to be no love lost between Renata and her mother, so he didn't think killing her would bring him to Rhiannon Blackwood's attention. Still, he didn't dare take that risk. Not yet.

But he was getting ahead of himself. The bigger question was what risk Enchantrix posed. Her teleportals and energy blasts were dangerous, but manageable. Though he had to assume that she'd deduced his involvement by now. At her age, he doubted that she had the expertise or materials to create soulshield talismans to negate his body-swapping ability, but he couldn't be sure. He'd need to prepare for that contingency.

That left the other two. Prodigious Girl and the little girl in pink.

There was no note of the child in the dossiers, but she didn't seem to have powers. At least nothing obvious. And Prodigious Girl had never referred to the child by name. Clever. Some sort of personal connection, most likely.

Since she and Prodigious Girl had swapped bodies, they'd be off-balance, ill-prepared, and desperate. They would also be looking for him, since he was the only chance they had of swapping back.

That gave him a significant advantage. One which he had no intention of wasting.

Xenos tapped a control which pulled up a map of the city. He quietly perused it, his discerning eyes flitting over various locations he'd marked.

He would set a trap. And since they were desperate to find him, they would walk right into it, even knowing it was a trap.

"Children," he scoffed again.

He closed their dossiers and switched over to his list of candidate "hosts" again. These were movers and shakers whose bodies he could potentially swap into in order to take over one of their lives. For years, his plan had been to jump into one of them just as he'd jumped into his current mount. Over 20 years ago, Carson Beaumont had made an excellent target given his wealth and enhanced physical abilities, to say nothing of the usefulness of his costumed identity as the vigilante Chimera. Xenos had always assumed he would jump into someone similar.

But now Prodigious Girl had entered the picture.

Xenos had always merely considered her a means to an end, and certainly she would serve that purpose. Her powers would be useful, but they were hardly exceptional. Once he was done with her, Xenos had always expected to move on, back to someone on his list of candidates.

Though if she was indeed one of the Kindred...that was something else entirely.

Xenos didn't much relish the notion of his primary host body being that of a teenage girl. He'd been countless women over the years, but they were never his favorites, and being a teenager would certainly complicate matters. Although at least she looked older than she was. However, if she had a fraction of the power he suspected... Well, he would be willing to make some concessions.

Xenos shook his head. The power of a Kindred was quite literally in the hands of a small child right now. Right within his grasp.

He would be ready.

I managed to find a couple cots and some simple bedding tucked away in a corner of the garage, so Lydia and I bedded down there for the night. Lydia wasn't wild about staying there, and I couldn't say I blamed her. However, getting back to either her house or mine would have taken a significant amount of time, and Xenos was still hunting us. Our best option of taking him down meant doing the battle at a time and place of our choosing...and based on what I'd learned about him, even with that edge, our odds weren't what you'd call great. Staying at Prodigy's garage seemed as good a hideout as any.

Fortunately, Lydia fell asleep quickly, which I guess wasn't surprising given the day she'd had. In truth, I wasn't far behind her. Even with the nap I'd had, my little body had had about as much as it could take, as well. And tomorrow was going to be a lot more demanding.

I'd been trading texts with Caleb to get some status updates, so I knew that our plan was on track, such as it was. We were going to rendezvous in the morning and then begin our hunt for Xenos. Though I wasn't sure "hunt" was even the right word. Assuming that he was after my body—or rather, Prodigious Girl's body—for some reason, he'd be looking for us as much as we were looking for him. That thought didn't fill me with joy.

I was in the mood for some reassurance, so I slipped out of my cot and grabbed my phone and headed over by the computer to dial up Caleb. It was late but not desperately late, so I figured he'd probably still be awake. He picked up on the third ring. Or rather, someone did.

"Hey," a girl's voice came.

"Um...hi?" I said. Wait, had I dialed Caleb's sister Lori by mistake? "Lori, this is..." I trailed off as I heard my tiny voice. My mind raced as I tried to think of an explanation why a seven-year-old girl would be trying to call Caleb at this hour.

"Chris, it's okay, it's me," the girl said.

"Oh. Okay," I said, still not sure what was going on. Unless Ren had lost her accent, it wasn't her. It obviously wasn't Aparna. Who else knew about my situation? That only left...

"Caleb?" I asked, incredulous.

"Yeah," the girl sighed. "I'm still over at Ren and Aparna's. I'm sleeping downstairs on their couch. She used the Morphex crystal on me. This is Ren's idea of being inconspicuous."

I blinked as I processed that. The last time I'd seen the crystal used, it was to disguise my aging mentor Prodigy as a sexy blonde teenybopper superheroine named Candy Scrapper, all dressed in pinks and baby blues, and with two big pigtails. My laugh came out as a girlish giggle of delight.

"Caleb, what'd you do?"

"I...might have teased her about her Hexes and Hos collection. A little."

I winced. "Ohhh, big mistake. She loves that series. You should not have made fun of that."

"Yes. I can see that, now."

"She even writes her own H&H fanfiction."

"I've had the pleasure," he said.

"Yeah? What'd you think?"

Caleb paused, maybe checking to confirm that Ren wasn't within earshot. "It's really girly."

"I know, right?" I agreed.

As we both considered that, a silence fell as we obviously both became acutely aware of our situations. He was now a teenage girl, and I could easily have been the little girl he was babysitting. We weren't exactly in a position to be overly critical of such things.

"I think I'd like to change the subject now," Caleb offered.

"Right there with you," I said.

"How are you and Lydia holding up?" he asked.

"She's doing better than me, I think."

"Don't worry about it, Chris. We'll catch this guy tomorrow and get everything sorted out."

"Yeah, about that," I hedged. "I did some digging. I found an energy rifle in Prodigy's storage that reminded me of the one Xenos used against Lydia and me. From there, I was able to backtrack it to an old vigilante hero named Chimera. Prodigy crossed swords with him over twenty years ago—that's where Prodigy must have gotten the rifle—but the file is pretty thin."

"Are you even sure it's him?"

"I found this photo," I said, texting it to him. It was a faded and blurry image of a super in some kind of body armor holding the old energy rifle.

"Ugh, couldn't you have cleaned this up a little?" Caleb asked.

"This is cleaned up. This is a guy who really doesn't like to have his picture taken. That's not the same armor or color, but it's similar. Though I definitely recognize that mask."

"I guess he updated his look. Probably his tech, too," Caleb said. "So, you think this Chimera guy is working with Xenos? Or maybe Xenos stole his body? Hey, if the real Chimera is out there, he might know stuff we can use to help take Xenos down."

I turned to make sure that Lydia was still asleep. I didn't want her to hear this part.

"Caleb, I don't think you get it. Back then, Chimera was the scourge of the Marchetti crime family, and things got really ugly. Then, 22 years ago, the feud ended overnight. Prodigy's notes from that time say he'd assumed that Chimera had been killed. Except that it looks like he popped up a few times after that. But never once fighting the Marchettis."

"Could be a different guy. Or he retired. Hero work isn't easy."

"Or there was a truce. Here, check this out, this photo was taken not long after. The guy on the left is Ferdinand Marchetti, the head of the Marchetti crime family."

The picture had clearly been taken with a telephoto lens. Hanging on Marchetti's arm was a buxom and stunning Latina woman with a cascade of chocolate brown hair in a skimpy and revealing dress, evidently his arm candy for the event.

"I'm not following," Caleb said.

"I couldn't find many more photos of her, but this is what I was able to dig up."

They were more long-distance surveillance photos, and the woman was often in the background. However, from the successive photographs it was obvious that she'd undergone a number of plastic surgeries that piece by piece had grossly hypersexualized her appearance. By the end, she was so outrageously curvaceous and pornographically suggestive that it looked like her surgeons had been trying to turn her into more of an inflatable pool toy more than a person. In every photo she was dressed as slutty arm candy, and she always had a bitter and ill-tempered look on her face.

"And this is...?" Caleb asked.

"Prodigy's file didn't have any information on her, but it listed her name as 'Chi Chi.'"

He paused to let that sink in. "Wait. Just...hang on a sec. You're telling me that 22 years ago, Xenos brokered a cease-fire with some gangsters. Then, in exchange, he trapped Chimera in that body, handed him over to the mob boss, and then just walked away in Chimera's body?"

"That's why Chimera disappeared. Any sightings of him since then have been Xenos all this time. Caleb, he didn't choose Chimera by accident. He specifically chose a loner, and one with access to technology and resources that would be useful to him."

"But...why would Chimera just go along with that?" Caleb asked. "Couldn't he—she—escape, and then—"

"I don't know. Maybe it was blackmail, or maybe they were threatening someone close to him. It doesn't matter. The point is, Xenos wanted it to happen, and he made it happen. He's ruthless, he's calculating, and he plans over the span of decades."

"So, how come he's after you?"

"I have no earthly idea."

Caleb let out a heavy sigh. "Terrific. Okay, let's say you're right. Maybe we can track down this Chi Chi person and see if she—"

I sighed heavily. "We can't. She's gone. There's no record of her after eight years ago. Best guess is that she was killed in a shootout with a rival gang."

Caleb and I both grew quiet. There was no way to know for sure if my hunch was right, but if Chi Chi really had been Chimera, that meant that he'd spent the last 14 years of his life in that outlandish body, trapped as the sexual plaything of his greatest enemy. That was nearly as long as either of us had been alive. I shuddered to think what that must have been like, but it seemed obvious that Xenos hadn't lost any sleep over it.

"Good grief, Chris, you really can pick 'em," Caleb said.

It was weird hearing Caleb sounding like a girl, though I could only imagine what he must think of me in my current body. But as my mind flashed to his "Candy Scrapper" transformation, a thought occurred to me.

"Actually, Caleb, there's something you might be able to help with..." I began.

With time running out, the team prepares themselves for a rematch with Xenos. They have a few tricks up their sleeves, but they know they’re walking into the devious villain’s trap. Are they ready for him?

Identity Crisis: Adventures in Babysitting

By Jenny North

The next morning, Lydia and I were up early, ready to head to our rendezvous with the others. For not the first time I wished Lydia could just fly us there, but her fear of heights made that impractical. Although as I flashed back to how I'd been clinging to her for dear life a thousand feet above the city, I can't say that I was all that eager for a repeat performance. It was dumb luck that we'd managed to survive.

I figured that our next best alternative that would keep us safely off of Xenos's radar was to once again enjoy the comfort and safety of the Faraday Transit Authority's Connector buses. Lydia seemed slightly taken aback that modern superheroing required the use of so much public transportation.

However, she had other things to occupy her attention. Since the point of the exercise was to remain incognito, she'd shapeshifted back into me as Chris, and was fussing and squirming at her wig and outfit. Seeing her like that perturbed me. It was one thing to see her as Prodigious Girl, but watching her as Chris was yet another uncomfortable reminder that she and I hadn't just been transformed, we were literally trapped in each other's bodies. I wasn't comfortable loaning her my cell phone, much less my body.

Meanwhile, I was back in a land of giants. When it was only the two of us at the garage it was easier to handle, but now riding the bus I was reminded that not only was absolutely everybody much bigger than me, the world wasn't designed for someone my size. The seats were enormous, and I couldn't reach the handrail, so every time the bus lurched, I had to grab onto Lydia for support. I felt so helpless. And it didn't help my mood that nobody seemed to think it was the least bit strange that I was clinging on to Lydia like she was my big sister, or something.

Once again the bus lurched to a stop, more abruptly this time. I grimaced in annoyance, but I suddenly realized what the problem was. Traffic had come to a complete standstill, which seemed unusual for a Sunday morning. Then, I watched as all the adults on the other side of the bus took a sudden interest in something going on outside.

Not good.

I jumped down from my seat and squirmed past the adults to get a better view. It was a traffic accident, but it was a bad one with a multi-car pileup. I could see a jackknifed tractor trailer, and a number of cars surrounding it. The accident had occurred in the lanes going in the opposite direction, but apparently it had spilled across the median to stop traffic in this direction, as well.

"AHHHH!" the crowd on the bus chorused in shock as there was an explosion, and a plume of fire and smoke. At first I assumed there was some kind of metahuman fight in play, but it looked like a high-tension wire had fallen and had ignited some spilled fuel. I saw people running from the blast, so hopefully everybody was okay.

Then I noticed that the latest explosion had caused the felled power line to fall in a different location. It was still sparking violently. Fortunately, people nearby had cleared out of their cars and moved away, but that's when I saw that the tanker truck was leaking fuel. Nearby, I could make out a number of cars with people in them who were either trapped or too scared to get out.

Along with a school bus. Filled with kids.

I turned and looked back at Lydia, who was wide-eyed with fear. I hurried over to her.

"We're safe here," I assured her. "It's on the other side of the road. It's okay."

There was another heavy thump-BOOM of an explosion outside. "AHHHH!" the crowd on the bus yelled, even louder.

Across the aisle from us, there was a little girl just a little younger than Lydia—that is to say, me, at the moment—and she had her face buried up against her mother, who had her arm around the frightened little girl.

"Someone's gonna help, right mommy?" the little girl implored. Her mother didn't say anything, but just squeezed her tighter.

"We're fine...we're fine," I repeated to Lydia.

Lydia nodded, and then she got a funny look on her face as she looked at me. "There's people in trouble, aren't there?"

I didn't say anything. Meanwhile, Lydia's eyes locked on the scared little girl.

"Chris, we should do something," she whispered. Then, she amended, "I should do something." She got a look of concern as the magnitude of that distinction seemed to settle in.

I spun and looked out the window on our side, wondering where the hell the fire and rescue drones and vehicles were. Or another superhero, for that matter. Surely, they could—

Then, from the window behind me, I saw a bright flash of—something—come from downtown, along with multiple plumes of smoke. Streaks of color like reverse lightning bolts came streaking up from the ground. I recognized what I was seeing as the energy blasts and flight auras of supers in some kind of pitched battle. Whatever was going on was much too far away to be a problem for us, but it explained why help wasn't coming—they were already occupied with something bigger.

By the time anybody got here...

"Chris?" Lydia prompted.

We had a different problem, one much more immediate. We were close to our rendezvous point with the others, which meant that we were nearing the place where I'd last encountered Xenos...at the redevelopment site where I'd tried to give my speech. It was the best place to look for him, which meant he'd likely be there as well, because he had to know we'd eventually come looking for him.

In other words, it was a perfect place for him to set a trap for us.

Or rather, almost perfect, since he knew we'd be on our guard.

But this...this was perfect. Xenos couldn't have unleashed a giant kaiju monster or whatever it was that was occupying those other heroes downtown, but he was more than capable of arranging this accident. He had to know I wouldn't let Lydia charge in against armed supervillains, but a low-grade industrial accident with innocent lives on the line? He couldn't possibly know we'd be in this bus, but it's possible he suspected that we'd be close.

*BOOOM*

"AHHHHH!!!"

"Chris!" Lydia implored.

This could be a trap. This could easily be a trap. Hell, it probably was a trap. I couldn't let her take that chance. We'd sit tight. Help would come. Eventually.

I felt as Lydia put her hand on mine, and she looked me straight in the eyes. "Chris, I can do this. I'm not scared."

That was a lie, of course. I could plainly see how scared she was. Although something in her face made me flash back to a conversation I'd had with Prodigy back when he'd tried to get me to quit being a superhero, warning me of the dangers. At the time I'd countered that the lives I saved had to count for something, too.

Xenos had me scared. Heck, he had me freaking terrified. But I didn't even know for a fact that he was here. I was so afraid of him that he had me jumping at the possibility that he was around.

Like hell was I going to live my life like that. Not when innocent lives were at stake.

"Come on," I whispered to Lydia. I led her toward the back of the bus. Pretty much everyone was focused looking out the other side, so nobody paid much attention as Lydia forced the back door open and we slipped outside.

We ducked for cover, and I dug into my backpack and handed her my CosFit device. She activated it, and as the nanites began the process of transforming her clothes into PG's costume, she shapeshifted into PG without me even having to remind her. She gazed in concern towards the direction of the explosions as I dug around in the backpack.

"Listen. You get in there, you save the people, and you get out. Don't try anything fancy. I don't think there's anything there that can hurt you—much—but don't take any chances, got it?"

"Okay," she said breathlessly. Then she turned to look at me.

I'd just finished pulling off my top to reveal that I'd been wearing her pink 'superhero' costume underneath. As she watched, I fumbled with my little blue plastic mask and tried to adjust the rubber band that had gotten caught up on one of my pigtails.

"You wore it," she said with a smile.

I shifted uncomfortably. "I...don't want anybody to recognize me. Now go."

The last 24 hours had done leaps and bounds to both redefine and expand upon my comprehension of the word "helpless." It started when Lydia had first gone missing when Xenos had abducted her. Then when I found myself as a powerless little girl in various superhero fights. Then when I tried to figure out a way for us to get swapped back. And now once again, I was a defenseless little girl edging much too close to a zone of life-threatening danger.

Danger that I'd just sent my seven-year-old cousin charging directly into.

I couldn't help her. I couldn't even direct her, since there was no way she could hear me over the noise. All I could do was watch from the sidelines. I also tried to keep an eye out for Xenos just in case he actually was here, but I'm not sure what I could possibly have done even if I saw him. I wouldn't even know what he looked like. If he was masquerading as a person trapped in one of those cars, he could easily swap with Lydia, and this would all be over.

I watched as Lydia ran right into the thick of things, clearly confused at what to do first. However, the people trapped in some of the cars were only too happy to get her attention. One by one, she used her super strength to muscle the cars out of the pileup and pulled off the odd door or two as people scrambled to safety.

That's when I saw the gas from the tanker truck starting to pool up and then trickle down towards the live electrical wire.

"Look out! Look out!" I yelled, pointing at the wire. She couldn't hear me, having instead focusing her efforts on getting the school bus loose.

I climbed over the embankment, cursing my diminutive body as I struggled to get past the obstacles in the way. I shouted at her as I ran closer, now fully aware that if the wire hit the gas leak, I was very much in the explosion radius. My only consolation was that I probably wouldn't live long enough to regret my mistake.

"The wire! Get the wire!" I cried out, pointing in that direction.

Lydia finally saw me and tore off in that direction, and it was a race to see if she was going to get there before the fuel spill. Luckily, she got there first and saw the fuel seeping towards her, and apparently understood the danger. Then she grabbed for the wire.

"Wait!" I shouted, but it was too late. She grabbed at the wire and shrieked in pain as the electricity raced through her, but to her credit, she focused through the pain and managed to move the wire up to higher ground. Then, with the immediate danger past, I instructed her to dig a small trench to keep the fuel from getting near any of the other fires.

"That might have been better if you'd been flying," I told her. "I think you were electrically grounded."

"Yeah, I don't know what that means. They're mostly still teaching us about magnets in science."

We moved over to the school bus, and Lydia was able to get it loose so that the kids inside could get out. They were apparently on a field trip, and most of them were only a couple years older than Lydia...well, than me, I guess. They seemed pretty fascinated with a genuine superhero having her own kid sidekick. The adults didn't seem to approve as much.

"She's Pretty Good Girl," Lydia said, introducing me as she helped another kid off the bus. "Ooh, I like your backpack. And I'm Purple Dishes Girl!"

I sighed heavily. I didn't think I could blame Prodigy for me not getting credit for this one on HeroTracker. Though now Lydia's comment about it being a dumb name suddenly made a lot more sense.

By this point, more of a crowd had developed, and emergency vehicles were finally on the scene, so I knew it was time to make our exit. With every extra minute that we stayed there, in the back of my mind I could practically hear Prodigy screaming that this whole thing could still be a trap by Xenos to draw me out...but the more I watched Lydia, the more entranced I became.

She'd handled the crisis well and saved the passengers, but now having to stand off to the side and watch her deal with the public was strange. I have to admit that it felt weird to see someone else getting credit for Prodigious Girl's good deeds, but in this case, Lydia had earned it. From the happy but flummoxed expression on her face, she enjoyed it too, but also wasn't quite sure how to process it. From her perspective, she'd saved those people simply because she could, without consideration for thanks or people looking up to her.

I was really proud of her, but it also made me feel ashamed of myself for counting the number of notices and mentions that I got on HeroTracker. My intentions were good, but I was so fixated on inspiring people that I never stopped to appreciate that I was doing that every day, with every action that I took. Good or bad, for that matter. Lydia had looked up to me and I'd frequently been short with her, having been so focused on my own fame and attention. I'd barked orders at her like Prodigy had done at me. But now, looking at her, I guessed she'd picked up a few good things from me, as well.

Lydia's growing look of panic from having to deal with the adults signaled that it was time to go. She made eye contact with me, and I motioned over to the side to meet with her. She'd only taken a few steps before she stopped short, staring blankly at the microphone being jammed into her startled face.

"Prodigious Girl! Meggan McKay, HeroVerse News," the fresh-faced young reporter said, introducing herself.

"Okay."

"First, congratulations on rescuing those people! That was quite an accomplishment."

The lack of an actual question in there seemed to throw Lydia slightly, so she responded with an artless and detached shrug in the awkward and exaggerated manner that only a child could deliver.

If Meggan was in any way caught off guard by Lydia's non-answer to her non-question, she gave no indication as she steamrolled forward.

"Many young heroines such as yourself have taken to launching their own music careers. Can we expect any hit singles from you anytime soon?"

Lydia's jaw went slightly slack, and her eyes narrowed as she furrowed her brow. She blinked twice.

"What?" she responded.

"You've already got a terrific look, and I bet you could really kill it. Maybe you could do like what Decibelle did with her—"

"I'm a superhero," Lydia said, interrupting her. She over-enunciated the word like she was explaining something blindingly obvious. "Superheroes just save people." She pointed towards the scene of the accident as if by way of explanation. I half expected her to punctuate it with the word "Duh," but instead she gave Meggan a comically overexaggerated look of sarcastic disbelief.

To my surprise, the people in the nearby crowd who had been listening in actually started to applaud.

Lydia seemed equally thrown by the sudden applause, but she nodded in agreement. "See? They get it."

I managed to grab her attention and jerked my head twice to the side in a way that set my pigtails to bouncing. Lydia gave me a wide-eyed look of understanding as she moved quickly over to meet me.

"You're gonna have to fly us out of here," I told her.

"Yeah, okay," she said as she swept me up into her arms. We were both holding our breath as she took flight, but to my surprise, she executed a pretty capable takeoff. I could only pray that the landing would be half as proficient.

As we took to the air, the last thing I saw was Meggan McKay turning to the camera with a look on her face somewhere between impressed and amused. I heard her say, "Wow. There you have it. A young heroine really focusing on the basics. Refreshing..."

Our rendezvous point with the others was in a parking structure a few blocks away from where we'd first fought Xenos. We'd gone back and forth over the location, and at first I'd suggested a tall building with a commanding view of the area, but we rejected it once we realized that Xenos himself might choose that as a lookout point. We repeated that conversation a few times until finally settling on a parking garage that was largely unused on the weekends, a location so shitty that Xenos wouldn't bother.

That said, I was still jumping at every shadow. My research had shown that as Chimera, Xenos had access to a personal cloaking device. Apparently it wasn't perfect, but it would be good enough to sneak up on us.

My one bright spot was that Lydia had become a regular chatterbox as she talked about her adventure. Saving people, and how much the high voltage hurt, and everything. I had to smile. It reminded me a bit of my first outings as Prodigious Girl, helping people out. It felt...good.

"Well, I think you made a very good Prodigious Girl," I complimented her. (We'd also had a conversation where I reminded her that my heroic identity was not in fact named after purple dishes.)

"Thanks," Lydia said with a smile. "You made a pretty good Pretty Good Girl, too."

High praise, obviously.

Fortunately, now that my iComm was working again, I was able to confirm that the big disturbance downtown seemed to be under control. I guessed that was something. At least it was one less thing to worry about. One of the exciting things about living in Faraday City was that disasters tended to get more hyperbolic until you were no longer able to prioritize which problem to solve. Catching bank robbers is important until a giant mega-parakeet kaiju shows up and threatens the city, which of course happens on the same day of an alien invasion. Although sometimes those problems tended to solve each other. (The aliens were absolutely not prepared for the mega-parakeet.)

For now, it was time to focus on problems that were closer to home.

"Listen, Lydia," I said. "You remember what we talked about earlier? We're gonna have to fight that guy in the armor with the rifle again. Xenos. Are you up for that?"

She nodded hesitantly.

"Good. Just remember what we talked about. Fly as much as you can, and dodge if he shoots at you. My friends will try to keep him off of you, but it's you he's after. Or, that body, at least."

She pursed her lips. "Yeah, I'm bait, again."

I smiled. "Sorry. There's one other thing, and it's really important. In order to put us back into our proper bodies, we need to get Xenos to do multiple body swaps with us, and he's not gonna want to do that. But if things go wrong and he tries, I need you to try and swap bodies with him at the same time."

"I can do that?"

"Kind of. You see, I can copy other people's powers when they're close by. Sometimes. I've never been able to control it, but I did it with Xenos accidentally. If you get close to him, you should be able to do it, too."

"How?"

"I...don't know. When it happens, it usually feels like an instinct, like your body wants to do it. Just go with it. It's super-important that you try. If we can force him to do a double-jump while I'm close to you, then that'll put me back into my own body, and we'll have a much better chance of taking him down."

Just then, one of Enchantrix's teleportals appeared a few feet away from us. A moment later, three figures emerged—Trixie, Mari, and a heroine I didn't recognize. Trixie and Mari were all smiles, but the new girl seemed strangely awkward and flustered.

She looked to be a teen like us, and quite pretty with a fairly stunning figure that was packed into what looked for all the world like a slutty and edgy Little Bo Peep costume all done up in dark pink and black, with a short and frilly skirt covered in fur and lace. As I looked at her in bewilderment, it occurred to me that with her domino mask she appeared strangely familiar, especially with her black hair that was styled into two huge ponytails that were bunched high on the sides of her head and bounced around with her every movement.

Suddenly remembering the big blonde ponytails that similarly graced Candy Scrapper's costume, I realized that this was Candy Scrapper, but with some cosmetic differences and a costume change. Then the penny dropped. As did my jaw.

"Caleb...?"

The girl waggled her head shyly in response, which had the unintended side effect of causing her ponytails to bounce about again. Even Lydia giggled.

"Why are you—" I gestured at him helplessly, "—Skanky Ho Peep?"

He shifted uncomfortably. He looked like a busty girl who got talked into dressing in a stylized maid's costume for Halloween and was now having second thoughts about it now that she was out in public.

"The name is Hissyfit," he corrected me.

"That does not make it better," I said, laughing.

Mari signed a message. My ASL wasn't the greatest, but she was suggesting we get moving.

"Good point, Mari," Trixie said, as she pulled out the small talismans and handed them out to us. "Wrap the cord around your left wrist. Theoretically, these should prevent Xenos from being able to swap with us."

"Theoretically?" Caleb asked.

"It was a rush job. If you find yourself in somebody else's body, you'll know it didn't work."

"Swell."

I handed mine back to her. "Keep mine for now. If he swaps with me, we're one step closer to putting everything back to normal. Not that I think he's going to want to be a seven-year-old girl. I'm speaking from recent experience."

"Hey!" Lydia complained, shooting me a look as she fumbled with her talisman. Bhramari helped her tie it on properly.

"Lydia, do that thing I showed you," I said to her.

"Oh, yeah!" Her face brightened up as she punched some codes into the iComm. A moment later there was a vorp sound, and my little "warp closet" opened up, a very handy extradimensional portable storage that was linked to the iComm. It was barely the size of my school locker, but it was big enough for me to fit a couple useful things from Prodigy's garage.

"That's so cool," Lydia marveled.

As she looked on, I retrieved the items and handed them to Caleb.

"Here's that old energy rifle of Chimera's. I've got it locked on what should be a heavy stun setting. And this is a force field belt. It should deflect most energy attacks."

Caleb nodded. "What about physical attacks?"

I paused to consider that. "I dunno. Kinetic energy is energy, right?" I shrugged. "Don't get punched."

Caleb slung the rifle over his shoulder. It made for a funny image, a girl in a short frilly dress packing such a big weapon. Then he held the belt out to me.

"Wait, you should keep this. You need to stay close to Lydia and Xenos in case he swaps."

I shook my head. "I tried it, I'm too little. We may as well get some use out of it."

"Plus, you can hide it under that skirt ruffle around your waist," Trixie teased.

"Terrific."

"Okay. Caleb here—I guess I need to start calling you Hissyfit—is our ace in the hole," I said. "Xenos has already met me and Lydia, and he'll probably be expecting Trixie and Mari. But he won't know about our newest member."

Hissyfit hefted his—her—rifle and took a quick peer down its sights. "Chris, you do know I've never actually fired one of these things before, right?"

"Well...let's hope you won't have to." But that reminded me of something.

"There's one more thing," I said. "Right now, our best edge has been that Xenos doesn't seem to know our secret identities. So, during the fight, don't call Lydia and me by our names." I turned to look at Lydia, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, and was nervously fretting at the edge of her cape. "From now on, you're Prodigious Girl, okay?"

Lydia straightened up and nodded. "Yeah. O-okay."

"What do we call you?" Hissyfit asked.

"I'm—" I let out a little sigh and glanced over to Lydia, whose face had lit up. "—Pretty Good Girl."

To their credit, the girls didn't scoff or giggle, but the amused look they shared between them was impossible to miss.

"That's...kind of a mouthful," Hissyfit said, with a slight quaver to her voice.

I thought for a second. Logical nicknames would be PGs, or Pee Gee Gee, but those were likely to be confusing. "You can just call me Pretty," I said, much to their obvious amusement.

"Gods, that is adorable," Trixie teased.

"All right, let's go get this jerk," I said to them.

As Prodigy liked to remind me, "Don't make battle plans when you're desperate. You'll make stupid dumbass mistakes."

It wasn't exactly Sun Tzu's The Art of War, but as usual, my mentor had a point. Still, as much as I would have appreciated his help right now, I was grateful that he wasn't here to witness this.

However, the plan started off well enough. If Lydia and I could get close to Xenos, then I knew we could entice him to swap with Lydia. It's what he wanted, and he'd likely be cocky since he knew that a seven-year-old girl was at the controls.

Then, if Lydia could instinctively do what I did and trigger a double-swap, that would put me back in my body. It would leave Lydia and the swapper still switched, but one problem at a time.

From what I'd learned about Xenos and what we'd observed firsthand, it didn't seem like he was able to switch immediately back into a body he'd just vacated for some reason. Otherwise, during our last round robin he'd simply have bounced back into my superpowered body immediately. That meant that once I was back home in my body, I was likely safe for at least a little while, hopefully long enough to subdue Xenos.

Then, finding himself in a seven-year-old girl's body and facing down a full-power superhero, I'd then need to turn up the heat and encourage him to swap with Lydia back into his original body.

Unfortunately, my best plan to do that was to put Lydia—or at least her body—in life-threatening danger as we did the swap. Xenos would swap out of danger into his original body, and he would know that I'd immediately focus on saving Lydia, even if it meant potentially letting him get away.

My immediate problem with this plan was that since I currently occupied Lydia's body, I would need to place myself in mortal danger. Also, as Lydia sagely pointed out, I'd be using her as bait. Again.

The bigger problem was that this entire plan hinged on the assumption that Lydia in my body could copy Xenos's powers and force him to do a double-swap. If she couldn't, then we were totally screwed. Because then Xenos would be in control of my super-powered body, I would likely die in Lydia's body, and Lydia would be stuck forever in the body of a stranger.

Mari snapped her fingers twice to get our attention.

Our battleground with Xenos was to be the same as last time, in the shell of the building that was being renovated. We'd moved to take position across the street, and from here I could even make out the smashed window that Lydia and I had busted through when we escaped our prior encounter.

This time was going to be different. For one thing, we had Mari to tell us exactly what we were walking into.

She stared off into space as she sensed the world through the insects she was controlling that were scouring the site. As she did so, she signed what she was seeing.

Trixie provided a translation. "In that big room you fought him in last time, there's a woman tied up, right in the middle of the room. She's conscious and yelling for help."

"Bait," Hissyfit and I said in unison.

"Or it could be Xenos in her body, trying to lure you closer," Trixie suggested.

A few moments later, Mari signed that she'd found two more people.

"They're on the next floor up. Two men, both alive, but unconscious. Some older guy with gray hair, and what looks to be a security guard. They've got—" She signed back to Bhramari for confirmation. "They've got some weird tech on their heads. Like a headdress or a tiara."

"It could be a neural scrambler," Hissyfit offered. "I read about those. Doctors sometimes use tech like that to induce comas. You could keep someone knocked out that way."

I shook my head. "I don't get it. How do those two fit into his plan?"

Trixie gave a half-shrug. "They might be bystanders. Could be people Xenos could swap into if things don't go his way. Maybe an escape route?"

Mari gave an excited snap of her fingers. My ASL was dodgy at best, but even I understood her message this time.

"You found Xenos? Where?"

"Sneaky little prick," Trixie said as she translated for us. "He's hiding in a crawlspace on the second level. We'd never have seen him if Mari's bugs hadn't gone in through the vents."

"You're sure it's him?"

"Oh, yeah," Trixie confirmed, nodding to Mari. "Just like you described him. Black and white armored costume, red mask, energy rifle."

Hissyfit looked confused. "I don't get it. How does hiding in there help him?"

"Mari says he's looking through the scope on his rifle. He must have infrared on it or something to see through the walls. But those interior walls are like cardboard. He could just sit up there and snipe."

"Freaking camper move," Hissyfit muttered.

I had to admit, it was a hell of a good plan. He baits us into the kill zone where he could snipe away to his heart's content. That rifle of his packed a wallop, so a few shots could even take Lydia down, much less the rest of us. He didn't have to get up close and personal like he did the first time...he could attack from safety, and then swap with Lydia after it was all over. Also, if things went badly for him, he could maybe swap with one of the hostages and turn it into a shell game.

I really hated this guy.

"So, what's the plan?" Hissyfit asked.

I blew out a slow breath of air and glanced up at Lydia. "She and I go in and spring the trap."

"Bad plan," said Hissyfit.

"We have to. He's expecting the two of us, and I'm not sending Lydia in there on her own. We need to let him think his plan is working. Meanwhile, Trixie and Mari sneak up there and ambush him."

"I can take him myself," Trixie said. "We can leave Mari on surveillance duty."

"No, we're not taking any chances with this guy. Plus, we don't even know if your talismans will protect us from his swaps. He probably wouldn't be able to use your magic in your body, but if he starts swapping with all of us, this will get out of hand in a hurry."

Hissyfit nodded. "Right. So, where am I in all this?"

"Not far away," I answered.

My heart was hammering and I thought I was going to throw up as Lydia and I entered the building. The whole thing had a nasty sense of deja vu about it. The last time I'd walked through this doorway it was me as Prodigious Girl with Xenos in Lydia's body entering into his trap, and now we were doing it all over again in the exact same space. Judging from Lydia's body language, she was feeling the same way.

"Stay close to me," I said to her in as reassuring a tone as I could manage. "Remember to fly and dodge, like we practiced. Don't let him get close."

"Okay."

As we entered the big room, the woman who had been tied to a chair saw us enter. Her eyes went wide in panic.

"Please don't hurt me!" she begged.

"It's okay," I said as Lydia and I approached, slowly and warily. The room still had the damage from our earlier fight, but I didn't see anything else that seemed out of place. "We're here to help."

"Are you superheroes? Please, you have to get me loose before he comes back!"

I signaled for Lydia to pause while we were still some distance away. We were probably already in range of Xenos's rifle, but we were closer to the door than the woman. He'd want us closer.

"What happened? Who brought you here?" I asked.

"I don't know. Some man. All I saw was a red mask, and the next thing I know, I woke up here. I don't even know where here is! Please, let me loose!"

I still wasn't convinced that this woman wasn't Xenos, somehow. I needed Lydia to free the woman from her bonds, but if Trixie's talisman didn't protect her, getting close wasn't a great move, either. Of course, it wasn't like I could prove this woman's bonafides by asking her questions. "Ask me a question only a hapless citizen would know" didn't really help things.

"Is there anybody else here with you?" I asked her.

She gave me an extremely irritated look. "Listen, little girl, I'm sure this is all really interesting to you, but the adults are talking here!" She then looked directly at Lydia. "You in the cape! Get me out of here!"

Lydia looked to me for confirmation, and I held my breath for a moment and then nodded.

The two of us moved closer, right up next to the woman. Center ring of the bullseye. But as Lydia used her strength to start to remove the woman's bonds, we heard the sudden sounds of furious combat coming from upstairs.

A few minutes earlier, Enchantrix and Bhramari appeared on the second floor of the building, having traveled up there through one of Trixie's teleportals. Not wanting to risk tipping off Xenos to their presence, they'd teleported in from a discreet distance and edged quietly closer. Each step was carefully placed to avoid making any noise, which was a particular challenge for Mari since her attention was split. She had placed a few of her insects in the crawlspace on sentry duty to keep an eye on Xenos, but for the moment his attention seemed to be riveted on the situation unfolding below.

Trixie and Mari silently signed back and forth. It started off simply enough with Trixie confirming their target's location using Mari's insects as spotters, but their conversation became more heated as Trixie seemed to call their plan into question, since it put a lot of pressure on Mari to be the one to score the first hits and take Xenos by surprise after Trixie portaled him in.

Mari's response turned from emphatic to outright vehement, until she finally ended with a gesture not found in any ASL book and followed by an impatient nod for Trixie to get on with it.

"Fine," Trixie mouthed sarcastically. Both of them were attempting to mask how on edge they were, but they got into ready positions.

Trixie prepared her spell and mouthed a countdown. "One... Two..."

By the word "two," Mari had already braced herself and then launched into a dazzling spinning side kick, seemingly aimed at the thin air between them. But her intent became clear as Trixie's portal opened a split-second later, depositing Xenos squarely in her target zone.

The red mask of his costume prevented the girls from seeing any shock or confusion on his face, but they weren't planning to wait to see it, anyway. Mari's kick was good, and it landed the moment Xenos was there, slamming him in the gut and causing him to double over. Mari immediately spun into a takedown move that snatched the rifle out of his hands and sent the two of them to the ground. Mari maintained control and executed it in such a way that she was able to carry her momentum to tumble back up to her feet while Xenos slammed down on his back.

She threw his rifle to the ground behind her, well out of Xenos's reach. However, Xenos's armor had obviously protected him from the worst of the impact damage, and he unsteadily tried to get to his feet.

This time, it was Trixie who didn't give him the opportunity. With her portal gone, she was able to focus all of her energy into three full-power energy blasts that slammed viciously into him. The first hit hammered him and knocked him back, crashing him against the wall. The next hit him hard enough that it knocked the wind out of him, and he was reeling. The third shot was practically gratuitous as he crumbled to the ground, slumped up against the wall, massively dazed and groaning in pain.

The moment stood frozen as the two heroines stood over him, waiting for him to make a move. But when it was clear that he wasn't getting up any time soon, they shared a relieved high-five.

"Nice kick. Never doubted you," Trixie said.

Mari playfully flipped her the bird.

"What's going on up there?" Chris's voice came over the communicator.

"We got him," Trixie replied. "Cocky git never knew what hit him. Give us a second to tidy things up, and I'll portal us all down to you."

"Ugggh...what the hell, man?" Xenos groaned.

The heroines were already wary, but immediately went back into high-alert stances.

"Stay the fuck down if you know what's good for you," warned Trixie, her hands glowing with a brilliant shade of crimson energy as she readied her next shot.

"Bitch, I think you broke my ribs, what the actual fuck?"

Trixie and Mari glanced at each other uncertainly.

He was still slumped up against the wall, but he unsteadily reached his hands upward to his mask.

"No tricks, or this is going right between your eyes!" Trixie warned. However, from the look on Mari's face, she seemed less inclined to give him even that level of consideration.

Xenos didn't seem to care. He fumbled at the bottom edge of his mask, and then pulled it off to reveal a heavyset guy, dirty and unshaven.

"Ugh, I couldn't freaking breathe in that thing. This is so not worth a hundred bucks."

Trixie was still lined up to take her shot, but she straightened up slightly. "What?"

"That dude. He gave me a Benjamin to cosplay in this stupid costume and hang out in that little space. That gun was cool, though. You could see everyth—"

Trixie's head snapped around to Mari, who had stepped back and was looking around nervously. Trixie could see that Mari was splitting her attention between what was going on there and checking in on the insects she'd set up as sentries.

She frantically signed a message.

"What d'you mean, the gray-haired hostage is gone? Gone where? He's got to be ar—"

Mari looked up just in time to see the rippling effect of Xenos's cloaking shield, right behind Trixie. Before she could react, the gray-haired man—Xenos—pounced and placed one of those technological neuro-disruptive 'crowns' on Trixie's head.

"Oh, bloody he..." Trixie murmured as she fell the ground, unconscious.

Mari was on him in an instant, leading with a snap kick to the face that he blocked, followed by a spin kick that he also blocked. It was quickly evident that he was bigger, faster, and stronger than her, and clearly knew how to handle himself in a fight. He threw a roundhouse punch at her head which she ducked beneath, and she then took advantage of her position to do a leg sweep to try and knock him on his ass.

However, to her surprise, he not only jumped over it, but he leaped over her entirely. He dove into a tumbling roll from which he then sprang onto his feet, continuing to race away from her. Belatedly, Mari realized that the reason that he'd telegraphed his punch so carelessly was because he'd set her up to do her leg sweep. His intent had been to elude her in a way that he could make for that side of the room.

Straight to where his rifle still lay on the ground, where she'd thrown it.

Two simultaneous droning noises filled the room. The first was that of Xenos's energy rifle as he snatched it up from the floor and activated it. The second was the high-pitched sound of insects pouring into the room, crawling and flying, seemingly from every crack and crevice.

Mari nimbly dodged as he loosed a blast at her, a lance of energy erupting out of his rifle. And then another. His first shot was close, and his second shot even closer. Worse, dodging his second blast had caused her to fall off-balance, and she struggled to regain her footing as he again took aim.

She chanced a glance to see that Xenos was covered in insects. Normally by now her target would be writhing around or panicking, taking reckless and uncontrolled shots. But Xenos merely stood there calmly. He might have been carved out of wood.

Mari took a bad step. One bad step, that's all it took. She looked up just in time to see Xenos fire at her again.

Downstairs, Lydia and I listened apprehensively as the sounds of combat upstairs died down. Then it got very quiet.

"Trixie?" I tried. No response. "Mari?"

A couple tense minutes passed as Lydia fussed at the captured woman's bonds, clearly not wanting to injure her with a misapplication of super strength. But the longer it took, and with still no word from the girls upstairs, I started to get tense.

Then I remembered that Mari had positioned some insects around here as a way of keeping tabs on us in case our comms went down. So, even if they couldn't get a message to me for some reason, maybe I could get a message to her. I then turned to look for the housefly that she'd been keeping dutifully parked on my shoulder all this time.

It was gone.

"Oh, shit," I whispered.

I looked at the woman still tied to the chair. She'd also heard the sounds of fighting and was nearly frantic. "Get me loose! Get me loose!"

Finally, Lydia was able to loosen the woman's bonds, and she was soon on her feet. I wasn't wild about this. I wasn't sure if she was a lure or decoy, or if she had some bigger part to play in Xenos's trap, but I figured with a body swapper on the loose, the fewer people who were on the playing field, the better.

"Get out of here!" I said to the woman. "Run!"

Whatever remaining qualms she may have had about taking orders from a little girl, this time she seemed perfectly happy to take my advice.

As she ran out the exit, I could see Lydia's eyes tracking her, looking rather longingly towards the escape route. Even she could tell we were in trouble.

"We're not leaving," I told her. "We gotta go check on the others, but he may have booby-trapped the stairs. Can you fly us up to that wall up there and punch through?"

"I think so," Lydia said as she picked me up and started to hover.

Just then, a stray beam of sunshine came in through the broken window high up on the wall. It caught my eye for some reason, and I peered through the gloom to see that there was a subtle twinkling effect in the hanging dust. And it was moving closer.

"Broken window, on the floor, 20 feet towards us," I whispered into the communicator. Then I turned to Lydia. "Prodigious Girl...get ready to dodge."

"But..."

"Now, PG! NOW!"

I clung on to Lydia as she executed a sudden pinwheeling turn, and immediately as she did so, the room erupted in weapons fire. Over by the door and entering the room was Hissyfit, blasting at the spot that I'd tagged. I wasn't sure if it was a natural ability with the rifle or good old-fashioned beginner's luck, but her aim was good, and out of a salvo of shots, she managed to tag Xenos twice. His cloaking field collapsed, and his high-powered blast at Lydia and me went wide.

Unfortunately, Xenos's armor as Chimera appeared able to take the brunt of Hissyfit's shots, and he didn't seem overly phased. As a result, he seemed to largely ignore Hissyfit for the moment, instead concentrating his fire on Lydia.

Lydia shrieked in alarm as bolts of energy sailed around her, and she spun so hard while dodging that we lost our grip on each other. I went sailing out of her grasp and went tumbling to the floor. However, that proved to be lucky for me as Xenos switched his rifle to a wide-beam sweeping energy burst that Lydia wasn't able to dodge. She cried out in pain and fell to the floor, but fortunately she didn't seem to be hurt too badly. Though it occurred to me that if I'd still been in her arms and taken the brunt of that blast, I didn't think I'd have been as fortunate. Xenos wasn't messing around.

Lydia was freaking out, and I can't say I blamed her. But Hissyfit pressed her attack. Unfortunately, her unfamiliarity with the rifle meant that her aim wasn't great, so she had to move closer to get a better bead on our attacker. Xenos, for his part, had evidently upgraded his threat assessment of her, and he squeezed off an impressive blast that hit her square in the chest.

I cried out in alarm, but apparently her force field belt did its job, and the energy dissipated as soon as it made contact. I watched helplessly as the two squared off against each other.

"Nice gun," Xenos said, recognizing his former weapon.

"I like yours, too. Maybe I'll take it when we're done," Hissyfit responded. She then edged backwards and fired a new barrage of shots at him.

To my surprise, Xenos didn't return fire, but instead he dexterously dodged the fusillade of incoming energy bolts. One blast managed to hit him and another grazed his leg, but his armor seemed capable of handling most of the damage. Then, he unexpectedly stopped and stood still, seemingly daring Hissyfit to take the shot.

She didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. But nothing happened. Her gun didn't fire.

"Yeah, that model had a tendency to overheat in the heavy stun configuration," he said.

It was then that I realized that Xenos had another reason for drawing Hissyfit's fire as he did. The cacophony of all of her shots had masked the telltale high-pitched whine that was coming from his own rifle. That was the reason he hadn't been firing his own weapon—his rifle was in overload!

Hissyfit tried to evade the blast, but the explosion of directed energy that erupted from Xenos's weapon made that impossible. I dove for cover behind Lydia as I felt the intense heat from the blast, even from a distance. Fortunately, Hissyfit's energy shield seemed to protect her from the worst of the blast, but the force of the attack knocked her halfway across the room, and she appeared to be barely conscious.

Xenos then turned to look directly at Lydia.

"We gotta run! Now!" I said to her.

Lydia seemed uncertain, but she clearly wasn't keen on sticking around, either. She grabbed me, and we flew towards the hole in the windows we'd made the last time. But as we got to it, we ran straight into a nearly invisible fine wire mesh—a stunweb lattice!

Lydia and I both cried out in pain as the energy discharge from Xenos's trap hit us, but luck was with me and she took the brunt of the damage. We fell and hit the floor, and I got the wind knocked out of me...just in time to see Xenos standing there, barely a few feet away.

Lydia lifted her arm defensively, and Xenos snapped off a quick shot with his gun. At first I thought he'd missed, until I realized that he'd blasted Trixie's protective talisman off her wrist.

"Prodigious Girl! Use your power!" I cried out to Lydia. It was now or never. If she could force him into a double-swap, I'd get my body back, and we still had a chance. If not...

I could only watch, powerless to intervene as Xenos and Lydia both seized up in unison. Then, as my body stood up straight with an arrogant grin on its face, I knew beyond doubt who was in control.

Xenos, now in my body, backhanded his old body in a ruthless display of strength that sent it—sent Lydia!—sailing across the room from the impact. A blow like that would easily have killed a normal man, but between the armor and Chimera's enhanced physique, I could only pray that Lydia was okay.

"Stop it!" I shrieked.

"Or what?" Xenos asked me dispassionately. He flexed his fingers into a fist and looked at it. "Curious. You're strong, but I expected more from one of the Kindred."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I couldn't just let him leave. I had to bluff him. Get him talking. Play for time. Something.

"What would you know about it?" I shot back.

"So, it is true," he said with a smile that sent a chill up my spine. "With the power of a Kindred, I'll make short work of the sorcerers still on my target list. In fact, your little friend upstairs is one of them. I may have to move her up to the top of the list while I'm here."

"You stay away from her!"

Xenos wasn't paying attention to me. "It's...odd. Something doesn't quite seem to fit. Something is—"

Before my eyes, I watched as he shapeshifted into Chris—my male body! He looked ridiculous like that still dressed in Prodigious Girl's costume, but it only took him a moment to appreciate the magnitude of what he'd just done.

"You're a shapeshifter," he whispered as he looked down at himself. He then shifted back into Prodigious Girl's body. "Ohh, little one. I take it all back. You have no idea what I can do with power like this. Once I get what I came for, I can truly be anyone."

He lifted off the ground, hovering there for a moment. Then in a blink he flew off at full speed through the exit.

I turned in stupefaction to look at Hissyfit, who had staggered to her feet. The two of us stared at each other in stunned disbelief as the magnitude of the situation hit us.

Xenos was gone. With my body.

And I had absolutely no idea where he'd gone.

My legs buckled beneath me and I slumped onto my knees on the cold floor. We'd lost. I reeled as my mind slipped into shock.

"Get on your feet," Hissyfit said as she staggered over to me.

I stared up at her blankly. "He's gone. He could be anywhere."

"Up!" she said impatiently. She was obviously in some degree of pain, but she reached down and hefted me up onto my feet. Yet another reminder of my diminutive size. Of my new body.

"He's gone," I repeated.

Hissyfit put her hands firmly on my shoulders. "Dammit, Chris, snap out of it! This isn't over."

I shook my head as I tried to process that statement. "Why do you think that?"

"Because we're still alive," she said as she looked me straight in the eyes. "And because this is what you would do, if this was anybody else."

I nodded a little.

She turned to look at the other end of the room. "Go check on Lydia," she said, staring at the prone figure wearing Chimera's body armor. "I'm going to go upstairs and check on the others."

Oh, my God. Lydia.

She was laying on her side and turned away from me, but at least she appeared to be breathing. She was alive. I made my way over to her, and as I got closer, I could hear her ragged breaths. At first I thought she might be hurt worse than I'd realized when I suddenly recognized her deep gravelly sobs.

I rushed over to her and managed to get that red mask off to reveal a gray-haired man in his late 50s. He was handsome and clean-shaven and had a strangely familiar look about him, but his face was contorted in absolute fear as he wept.

Not knowing what to do, I threw my little arms around Lydia, choking out a sob of my own before trying to pull it together for her sake.

"Lydia, it's okay," I said, not really believing my own words.

"It's not okay!" she cried. Her words were like a dagger in my heart. I'd failed her so completely. I had no idea what to say.

"Lydia, I—"

"This is all my fault," she sobbed. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

I looked at her in confusion. "Lydia, you didn't do anything wrong."

"Yes, I did!" she insisted. "You told me what to do! You told me to use that special power. And I tried! I really did! But I couldn't do it."

I touched her big male face gently, wiping away a tear. "Lydia, that's not fair. You did your best."

"You could have done it. You would have."

I didn't know what to say, but a moment later we were interrupted by the sight of one of Enchantrix's teleportals opening up. That was a sight I'd never been so happy to see. Out of it emerged Trixie, Hissyfit, and Bhramari. Trixie seemed okay but pissed off, and Bhramari looked like she was still unsteady and shaking something off as she leaned on Hissyfit for support.

Trixie looked like she was about to make some snarky comment, but then stopped as she looked at me and Lydia, realizing how dire the situation had become.

"The two guys upstairs are dead," Trixie informed me. "That security guard hostage, and the guy who Xenos hired to wear his costume."

"Covering his tracks," Hissyfit said.

Mari signed a message over to Trixie, who shook her head.

"I dunno," she answered. "He should have killed us. It would have made sense. He could have killed us and then taken off in Peej's body and taken the kid as a hostage," she said, casting a glance over at Lydia in Chimera's body.

"Why would he do that?" Hissyfit asked.

"Because then he gets everything he wants. He gets Peej's body as well as Chimera's, which is the one he's been living in, somewhere. He'd get to crawl back under whatever rock he's been hiding under all these years."

"Then why didn't he?"

"Because he's not going back to his old life," I interjected. "Now that he's got my body, he's planning on keeping it. He told me as much." I practically choked on the words as I said them.

We all fell quiet.

"No, he didn't," Hissyfit said. "Well, I mean, he did say that, but that's not all he said. He said something about 'once I get what I came for.'"

Mari signed a message, and Trixie nodded.

"Good point. He needed—he needs—Peej's body for something."

"Then after that, he's in the wind," I said.

"Right," Hissyfit agreed. "Still, it means we've got a chance. We just have to figure out what he's after."

"But I have no idea," I said. "I've been racking my brain, but I can't think of anything. He said something about hunting down sorcerers, but I don't know how that helps. He also said something about me being a 'Kindred,' but I don't know what that is. Do any of you know?"

They fell quiet again, but Hissyfit was quick to speak up. "Okay. That's a lead. Maybe he thinks you're part of a secret society, or something. We figure out what that means, and—"

"It's a red herring," Trixie interjected. "He's trying to distract us. 'Once I get what I came for,' remember? He wasn't after Peej for something that she is, he was after her for something she could get."

Hissyfit looked down at her rifle. "Like something of Prodigy's?" she suggested. "He's got all sorts of junk in that garage of his."

"Good idea. How about it?" Trixie asked me.

I thought it over. "Maybe? It makes sense. I don't get why he'd need my body, though. It's not like I have the location of the garage tattooed on my arm."

Hissyfit glanced over at Trixie and winced a little. "Actually, I think maybe you do."

I followed her line of vision to Trixie's wrist. To her iComm.

"My iComm," I realized. "If he could somehow unlock that, he could probably trace back the location."

Mari signed a message. This time I was able to follow what she was saying.

"You're right, it's not just a biometric lock, he'd also need the access code. That means he's probably going to need someone to break... the... encryption..." I trailed off as my eyes fell on Lydia, who had been quietly standing there all this time. "Holy shit."

"What?" Hissyfit asked.

"I never understood why he swapped with Lydia that first time. If all he wanted was my body, he didn't need her. He could have just ambushed me and swapped with me and left her out of it. But he made a big deal out of me calling in emergency personnel right away." I looked up at all of them. "He wanted to see me enter my access code. He didn't try to swap with me until after I tried to use my iComm."

"We gotta get to Prodigy's garage," Hissyfit said. "Fast. He's got a big head start."

We all turned to Trixie. She was the only one of us with movement powers that could traverse that distance quickly.

She regarded us hesitantly. "That's on the other side of the city. The more people I take, the shorter my teleport jumps become. I've never taken this many people that far. If it was maybe just one or two—"

"No. It's gotta be all of us," I told her. "He'll be even harder to take down now, now that he's in my body. Plus, it's a good bet that whatever he's after is gonna make our job more difficult. It's gotta be all of us," I repeated.

Trixie took a deep breath. "Right, stay close to me. This might get a little rough."

Xenos had lived long enough to appreciate the dangers of overconfidence, and he reminded himself that the day was not yet won. However, things were going exactly according to plan. With the girl's iComm code, he was able to quickly find her mentor's base of operations. Then, even despite Prodigy's cluttered disorganization, he was able to find the item he'd been looking for with little effort.

Now, Xenos flew back to his mansion—or rather, Beaumont's mansion, he reminded himself, now that he'd moved on to a new mount. It was daytime, but he didn't even bother trying to hide his approach. In fact, if someone were to witness Prodigious Girl entering the building, it could even be advantageous.

"Prodigious Girl," he sniffed as he peered disdainfully down at his new body. He'd certainly had worse mounts in the past, but it was still...undignified.

But it didn't have to be.

Xenos reminded himself that he was on the clock. He had the item in hand, but he had some work to do here before he could leave for his appointment. With time for one small detour along the way.

However, he decided that he could indulge his curiosity a little.

The girl's shapeshifting power wasn't entirely what he'd hoped, but it would more than suffice. He'd hoped for something more instantaneous, but it seemed that changing his base forms took quite a bit of time and concentration. By way of a test, he fixed his attention on his girlish fingernails in their purple color, and over the span of a few minutes, they faded to a more natural color. At that rate, he calculated that larger changes like impersonating another individual could take over an hour.

Nevertheless, he was patient. His skill would improve with time, and soon he would have all the time in the world. Very shortly, he would have all of the tools he needed to impersonate anyone he wished in an impenetrable disguise. His enemies would never see him coming.

He entered his study and activated the "warp closet" entrance to his hidden chambers. The extradimensional storage space had proved useful for Xenos over the years. It wasn't overly large—hardly the size of a studio apartment—but it had proved to be an excellent place to store his acquisitions that he'd gathered over his many long years. Best of all, with the proper infrastructure in place, it could be opened and accessed from almost anywhere. He could set up a new life somewhere else and still keep easy access to this little vault of treasures.

Xenos moved a few items from Beaumont's house into the warp space storage to take with him. It wasn't much. He knew how to travel light, and he wasn't sentimental. He'd used Beaumont's body as a mount for over two decades, and it, much like his entire life, was little more than an empty shell. Xenos, however, was fixated on the future.

He retrieved an iComm from the desk drawer and used it to close his "warp closet" storage with a soft vorp sound. He tossed his new mount's long dark hair over his shoulder and a small smile came to his lips.

"Computer, enable Prodigal Son protocol," he said, smirking at the irony of the name.

"Confirmed," the computer responded, and the iComm unit beeped a recognition code.

"Computer, activate Samaritan protocol. Encode one minute. Mark."

"Confirmed. Self-destruct in 60 seconds."

Xenos paused for a moment to look around the study at the various pieces of artwork he'd collected over the years. Beaumont had been an effective mount, but it was time to move on.

He retrieved the item that he'd collected from Prodigy's garage and flew out the window. Behind him, a series of explosions sounded as the mansion was engulfed in a blazing inferno.

Xenos didn't look back.

Still reeling from their disastrous loss at the hands of Xenos, Chris and the others race to find a clue that will help to track him down so they can thwart his plans. And for Chris and Lydia, to get him to swap their bodies back!

Identity Crisis: Adventures in Babysitting

By Jenny North

By the time we managed to get to the garage, Xenos was long gone. From the way the door had been forced, it was obvious that he'd been there, but apart from that, the place looked like it always did.

I didn't like being a step behind Xenos, but in this case it might have been a blessing in disguise. Trixie was wiped out from teleporting all five of us across the city like that, and she was in no condition to fight. In fact, she'd had to stop twice on the way here so she could catch her breath. She was apologetic, but it was obvious that she was pushing herself to her limits. Although as we reminded her, this was faster than whatever our next best option would have been.

Unfortunately, now things looked especially grim. We still had no idea where Xenos was, or any way to track him. Furthermore, since he wasn't here rummaging around, it was a good bet that he'd left with whatever it was he came for.

"What's the plan?" Hissyfit asked.

I took a long breath. Our only hope was to figure out what he took and hope that it would help us track him somehow.

"Everybody, fan out and see if you see anything unusual."

Hissyfit took one glance at all of the big storage racks with the haphazardly filled shelves and made a face. She was clearly about to say something sarcastic, but she held it back and began to wander amongst the passages and shelves. Trixie went off in another direction, while Mari took a seat and summoned up insects to scout for her.

This was hopeless.

Just then, I heard the familiar sound of my phone ringing. My stomach was tied in knots at the sound of it, but I had to know for sure. I fished the still-ringing phone out of my backpack to see that it was my Aunt Jessica calling, no doubt checking up on us and probably letting us know they were on their way home, or that they would be soon. I stared at the phone as it continued to ring, but it wasn't like I had any choice in the matter. She'd certainly want to talk to me as Chris, and that...wasn't gonna happen. I let it go to voice mail. It was an unpleasant reminder of the ticking clock, but right now in the universe of our current problems, my irate aunt didn't even rate.

I put the phone away and turned to see Lydia seated at the computer console. At first I thought she was looking at the screen when I realized that she was looking at her dim reflection in the glass as she touched her face and hair. I couldn't even begin to fathom what I'd gotten her into. Me being stuck as a little girl was nothing compared to what had been done to her. She was a middle-aged man, with 50 years of her life cruelly stolen from her by a madman. And all of it was my fault.

"Pull it together, Chris," I said to myself as I walked up to her.

She gave me a defeated look. I knew the feeling, but I couldn't afford to show that in front of her. Not yet.

"Don't worry. My friends will figure this out," I assured her.

Then, I noticed Chimera's energy rifle laying next to the computer. He'd left his weapon behind when he took off in my body, and Hissyfit had picked it up and brought it along in addition to the one that she'd been using. I hefted it and handed it to Lydia.

"You're gonna need this," I told her.

She accepted it and looked at me in bewilderment. "You're giving me a gun?"

I winced. "Yeah, let's maybe not phrase it that way," I said. Although in fairness, giving a gun to a seven-year-old probably wasn't even in the top five of my worst decisions today. "But I don't want you to use it."

"Then why are you giving it to me?"

"Because...you might need to use it," I said. "I put it on the stun setting. I think. Just think of it as laser tag. But with real lasers."

She nodded. It was bizarre seeing this man looking so confused and forlorn, but still with a glimmer of hope. Incredible.

I tried to give her a supportive grin, which she didn't quite return.

I sidled up a little closer. She peered over at me and I said, "Two cows are standing in a pasture. One turns to the other and says, 'Maya Angelou once observed that it's necessary to encounter one's defeats so you can learn who you are and what you can overcome.' Then the second cow turns to the first and says, 'Moo.'"

She looked at me in an expression of abject pity. "That's dumb."

"Yeah, you say that now, but you're gonna be telling that to your friends later," I countered.

As we were talking, a news alert popped up on the news channel that was constantly running in one window on the computer monitor. There was always some crisis or other brewing in Faraday City, but this one caught my eye.

On the screen was the scene of a large multi-alarm fire with numerous emergency vehicles around the blazing remains of a large house or mansion that had been destroyed. There were no casualties reported, but the text at the bottom read, "BEAUMONT MANSION DESTROYED. RECLUSIVE CARSON BEAUMONT MISSING." Then, in a smaller picture-in-picture window was a dated image of a gray-haired man.

The same man who was sitting right next to me.

"What does it mean?" Lydia asked.

I sighed heavily. "It means we're out of time."

Lydia followed me as I went looking for the others, but it wasn't like I had to ask how the search was going. I already knew.

I did a double take as I noticed a flash of blue and orange color on the floor next to one of the storage racks. I bent over to pick it up and saw that it was a Nerf dart, one of the ones that Lydia and I had fired when we were 'training' earlier. I had to smile in spite of myself. It wasn't lost on me that in a different situation, this probably would have been my biggest crisis...if Prodigy had found it and learned that we'd been running around his garage with Nerf guns, he would not have been pleased.

"Hey, there's a book missing," Lydia said.

I looked up at her in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. See, it's right here next to that killer Troll doll you told me not to touch. I'd remember if there'd been a book missing."

I had to get on tippy-toe to see the contents of the shelf, and sure enough, there was a series of old leather-bound tomes all in a row, but one of them was absent. Moreover, there was a scuff on the shelf where the dust had been disturbed, suggesting it had been pulled out recently. I couldn't read any of the titles on the spines since they were written in a spidery script, but they definitely had the look of magic about them.

I called for the others to come over, and I turned desperately to Trixie.

"Do you know these books?" I asked her.

She made a peculiar face. "Yeah, I think so. Gods, it's been ages since I've seen these. I haven't read these since I was little."

Hissyfit looked to me, and I gave her a shrug. "Home schooled," I explained.

She nodded.

Trixie traced her finger along the spines of the other books. "This doesn't make sense. These are incredibly rare these days, but they're almost useless. This is basic spellcasting stuff. There are much better books."

"Can you tell which one is missing?" I pressed.

She blinked once, slowly. Then she started bopping her head back and forth as she sang something under her breath.

The rest of us all looked at each other in confusion. "Uhh, Trixie...?"

"It's how they make you learn this stuff. There's kind of a nursery rhyme song," she explained. Then she went back to singing quietly to herself. "...blood rituals, astral magic, and thaumaturgy, shadow magic, demon magic, plus necrotic sorcery..."

"This is some Addams Family shit, right here," Hissyfit muttered.

Trixie stopped singing and frowned as she examined the books again, counting the number of books leading up to the missing volume. Then she did it a second time, more deliberately.

"You know which one it is?" Hissyfit asked.

"Yeah, but it doesn't make any sense. It's the Covenants of Loss."

"Well, that sounds terrible."

She gave a dismissive shrug. "They've all got names like that. But there's nothing of value in there."

"There has to be," I said.

"Peej, it's like stealing a copy of a Harry Potter book. The only thing of interest in there is the map to the Desolate Labyrinth."

"Right. That must be where he's headed."

"No, you don't get it," she said. "Look, this is hard to explain to non-magical people, but the thing isn't just a myth, everybody knows it's a myth. It'd be like one of you guys stealing a map to Santa's magical workshop at the North Pole because you want to capture a flying reindeer."

As soon as she said it, her eyes cut over to look at Lydia. "Uhh..."

"I know he's not real, I'm not a baby," Lydia huffed.

"Then what would he want with it?" I asked.

"Nothing! I'm telling you, it's junk."

"No!" I yelled. My outburst was little more than a high-pitched squeak, but this was our last hope of finding Xenos. If we gave up here, we were giving up on everything.

I tried to ignore the looks of pity they were giving me. "Listen, Trixie, he went to a lot of trouble to steal that. It had to be for a reason."

"Maybe he grabbed the wrong book?" Hissyfit offered.

Trixie sighed and looked back at the volumes all neatly lined up on the shelf. "I don't know. Maybe? I just don't see how any of these could help him. You'd have to be a complete moron to think that any of these would actually—"

She stopped short.

The room fell quiet as we looked at each other.

"I mean... Y-You don't mean...?" I said.

Trixie scrunched up her face as she tried to process that. "Vagabond and Echelon. You don't honestly think those two nitwits are—"

"They did say they were waiting for someone. Maybe it was Xenos?" I said.

Mari signed something and looked to Trixie.

"Yeah, you're right. That could explain why you guys kept running into them. Xenos must have been doing a job to retrieve this book for them."

"Why would he do that?"

"Search me. It's useless to him. I guess they must have something that he wants pretty badly, and he wants to trade for it?"

"Oh, my God, we gotta find those two idiots," I said.

"Um, you guys?" Lydia said.

"How? Chris, they could be literally anywhere by now," said Hissyfit.

"We have to start looking somewhere. Trixie, is there any way you can track Vagabond from his magic?"

"You guys?" Lydia repeated.

"Not right now, Lydia. Trixie?" I pressed.

"I don't see how. Maybe if he set off some big spell or something—"

"You guys!" Lydia exclaimed.

"What?" I huffed in the petulant put-out timbre reserved for miffed little girls.

Lydia held her hands together fretfully, obviously uncomfortable with speaking up out of turn. "I think maybe I know where they're going."

"Lydia, how could you possibly—"

"Well, it's just when you guys fought them the other day, I heard about it because my friend Evie lives over by there, and she told me about it."

"That's nice, but that doesn't—"

"No, listen! You gotta listen!" she protested. "I mean, it's just, it's weird right? Because she lives over at Lone Tree Apartments. But when you and me saw them, they were over at that Lone Tree Shopping Plaza."

We all looked at each other.

"Please tell me you're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting," Trixie said.

Hissyfit nodded. "Yeah, that's gotta be a coincidence. Those two places aren't even anywhere close to each other."

The two of them glanced at each other, and they shared an odd look. Then we all got quiet again.

I started to say something, then I stopped. Then I did it a second time. Then I finally said, "You don't think...I mean, if they'd made plans in advance to meet with Xenos to make whatever trade they have planned, you don't think they're actually stupid enough to have forgotten which 'Lone Tree' place they were supposed to meet him at, do you?"

We all fell quiet again.

I turned to Lydia. "What makes you think you know where they're going?"

Lydia's face lit up a little, clearly enjoying having something useful to contribute. "Well, y'see, it's really funny. Like, me and my friend Evie joke about it sometimes, because it's so weird."

"Lydia..." I prompted.

"Right, yeah, okay. But it's just funny. Because Evie lives at that Lone Tree Apartments place, right? Which is also the name of my school."

We all looked at each other in puzzlement, but Mari tapped on her iComm and pulled up a map. A quick search later, and there was a blinking marker right on top of Lone Tree Elementary School.

Hissyfit gave me a warning look. "Chris, we only get one shot at this. If this isn't it..." She let the rest of the sentence hang. I didn't need to be reminded what was at stake.

As I thought about it, a funny feeling came over me, like a feeling of clarity. I knew what we had to do.

As we got our stuff together to head out, Trixie pulled up the location on her own iComm map.

"It's awfully far," she said to me meaningfully.

I nodded understanding. "Can you make it if you just take Mari and Lydia?"

"Just three? Sure, easy. What are you two gonna do?"

I glanced over at Hissyfit. "We'll make other arrangements."

Ten minutes later, I was buckled into the passenger seat of Prodigy's car as Hissyfit floored the gas and went tearing around another intersection. We had the siren and lights going, which helped move some of the traffic out of the way.

"Oh, my God, this is amazing!" she cried out in delight. Then she did a guilty little double take when she looked at me. "Y'know, this should really be you getting to drive this."

"My feet wouldn't even reach the pedals," I pointed out. "Besides, if Prodigy ever asks if I drove it, I guess this way I won't have to lie."

She winced. "Ugh, yeah. Do me a solid and don't mention this, okay?" However, her concerned expression turned into another expression of joy as she hit another straightaway.

I took a heavy breath. "Caleb...there's another reason I wanted to get you alone."

She furrowed her brow. "Yeah?"

"I need to be clear with you what my objectives are, here. With my body in Xenos's hands, there's no way for us to trigger a double-swap, and there's no way he'll be stupid enough to swap into a seven-year-old girl. But we might be able to coax him back into his old body."

"What about you?"

"Caleb, I want to get back to normal. But I have to get Lydia back where she belongs. That's the only thing that matters to me. If we can get Xenos to swap with Lydia back into his own body, then maybe she can use my body's shapeshifting power to make herself look like she's supposed to."

"Chris, you don't even know if that'll work. Even if it does, aren't your parents gonna wonder why you're suddenly a little girl?"

I sighed. "I'll have to tell them the truth. About Prodigious Girl, about everything. At least Lydia will be okay."

Hissyfit sighed as well. "I don't like it. I don't like it one little bit." Then she glanced over at me. "What do you need me to do?"

I looked down at the energy rifle she'd been using, now propped up alongside me in the passenger seat. "Xenos used a rifle like this when he first jumped us. On a lower setting, it nearly knocked Lydia out while she was in my body. I think higher settings could hurt my body. Maybe even kill it."

She blew out a slow breath of air. "Okay. I'll have to be careful. I'll stick with the lower settings—"

I shook my head. "No. You're not following me. Xenos wants to keep my body. He's only going to leave it if he thinks he's in mortal danger. You need to make it feel real."

"Leaving Lydia in a dying body? What sense does that make?"

"I showed Lydia how to use my shapeshifting power to heal herself, at least a little. I doubt Xenos will have figured that out this quickly," I explained. "But...it gets worse."

"Because of course it does."

"Caleb, no matter what happens, we can't let him get away with my body. Even if I can't help Lydia, he can't get away. Trixie and Mari won't understand. They'll want us to wait for Prodigy to get back, or something. But you know what my body can do. Between the shapeshifting and his body hopping, we'd never see him again. He means to use it to kill people, people like Trixie. We can't let that happen."

She looked at me, then glanced at the road, then back at me. "You're asking me to kill him. Kill him in your body. Chris, I don't think I can do that."

"I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate. And I really hope it won't come to that. But if it does, you might be the only one who can stop him."

"We'll find another way," she said firmly.

"But if we can't—"

"We'll find another way," she repeated emphatically.

We drove the rest of the way in silence.

By the time Hissyfit and I pulled up to Lone Tree Elementary School, Trixie and the others had already arrived. They were standing near the edge of the building and beckoned us over.

"No sign of Xenos, but the kid was right," Trixie informed us. "Vagabond and Echelon are around the corner over there, hanging out by the playground."

"Is anybody else around?" I asked.

Trixie shook her head. "Mari ran a sweep, but it looks pretty shut down." She then turned to Lydia. "Nice work, kid."

Lydia beamed. It looked funny for the middle-aged man to be so pleased with himself. Then she wrinkled her nose. "I can't believe I have to go to school on summer vacation," she said.

"All right," I said. "Assuming Xenos is even coming, he hasn't been here yet, or they'd be gone already. We don't have much time. Let's go find out what they know."

We weren't taking any chances, so Trixie teleported us all over there at once, hopefully catching the pair by surprise. I'd hoped to do this without a fight, but I wasn't about to give up a tactical advantage.

As we portaled in, we heard Vagabond talking to Echelon.

"I told you, Lolo, we're waitin' for...oh, God, not you again," he groaned as he saw me glaring up at him in my pigtails and little pink costume.

Trixie gave him a warning look. "Don't stop on our account. Who are you waiting for?"

He tipped his hat to her, a gesture that Echelon belatedly copied. "Lady Blackwood. Charmed as always. 'Fraid I'll have to ask y'all to move along, though. Lolo and me got usselves a previous social engagement."

"We'uns is quite the social butterflies," Echelon offered.

"I get that," Trixie said. "Big day for you. Meeting with Xenos. Trading with him for the Covenants of Loss. Not many copies of that out there, I imagine."

Vagabond said nothing and maintained his gaze. "Not sure what you're referrin' to, young'un."

Echelon straightened up. "Sure you do, Vee! We said we'd meet him here, and he'd bring it. Our bad for trying those other places, but this is it, for sure."

Trixie raised an eyebrow to Vagabond, who grimaced and muttered under his breath, "Now he remembers."

"What do you even want that book for?" Trixie asked. "Just because something's rare doesn't make it valuable."

"Well, I s'pose I'm just beaucoup nostalgic and sentimental that way," he said with a sly smile.

Trixie returned the smile as she slid closer to Vagabond in a familiar kind of way. "'Fess up. What are you trading him for?" she asked, putting a friendly and slightly seductive lilt to her voice. "I bet it's good."

Vagabond shook his head at her. "You are no doubt your mama's little girl," he said.

She flashed her eyebrows and he relented, reaching into the pocket of his battered trench coat. He then pulled out what looked like a small silver locket that hung from a thin chain. It wasn't much to look at, it almost looked like junk jewelry—I think I saw something like it in a Claire's at the mall one time.

But whatever it was, it immediately caught Trixie's attention.

"What is that?" she whispered.

"It's what it looks like," Vagabond said proudly.

"Where in the seven hells did you find it?"

"There's a tale there, that's a fact," Vagabond said with a smile. "Let's just say this little beauty's previous owner parted with it under duress."

"Yeah, an' he didn't want to give it up none, neither," Echelon put in.

Whatever this thing was, it seemed to have gotten a reaction out of Trixie. I needed to remind her that we were very much on the clock.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The Eidetic Charm," Trixie said, almost reverently. She blinked and threw off her distracted air. "It's...a memory charm. With this, you could erase or alter memories. Or even...transfer them."

Suddenly, Trixie got an alarmed look on her face and shot an accusatory look at Vagabond. "Wait a minute. You're giving this to Xenos? Xenos the body swapper? Xenos, the mage killer? Do you have any idea what he could do with something like this? He could swap bodies with someone and read or steal their memories! He could change their memories afterwards to whatever he wanted! He could even fool telepaths! He could become anybody, anywhere! He'd be unstoppable!"

I quietly turned to look at Hissyfit and saw that she was giving a nervous glance back at me.

"He's out killing magic users! Don't you think you're on that list, too?" Trixie accused.

Vagabond made an easy smile. "Oh, I rightly do, Ms. Blackwood. Though I reckon I'm a good deal further down his list. Further down than, say, you are. Or more to the point, your esteemed materfamilias."

Trixie's manner darkened. "Give it to me. Now."

"The apple, it don't fall far, do it?"

"I'm not joking," Trixie warned.

"Neither am I," said a familiar voice from behind us.

I spun around to see Xenos standing there in my body, looking very self-satisfied. I had to admit that it was rather ironic. As Prodigious Girl, since I was usually tougher and more indestructible than my teammates, I made a point of being extra irritating and exasperating to our enemies, annoying them them with put-downs and jibes to keep their attention focused on me. I won't say I didn't enjoy it. Although right until this moment, I don't think I fully appreciated how desperately I wanted to smack that overconfident smirk off of that smug face.

"Hey, it's the potty mouth," Echelon said, turning to look at Xenos.

Vagabond was cagier in his manner as he eyed the newcomer. "Y'all's lucky, Xenos. We almost killed that there young'un earlier."

"I expect you'd have found that more difficult than you imagined," Xenos offered. "Even more so, now. However, I come bearing gifts." He held up the leather-bound volume.

"You're a killer," I snapped at him, hating how ineffectual my little voice sounded. "You honestly think you're going to just walk away from this with my body and continue murdering people?"

Xenos seemed puzzled by the question. "Yes, actually. Though you have no idea how many times people have said that to me over the years. They found the outcome...unsatisfying. If it gives you any comfort, I'll use your body more effectively than you ever did. It's nothing personal."

"It couldn't be more personal!"

"Right, enough of this," Trixie said. She took a few steps back, and then opened a pair of saucer-sized portals in front of her. Before anyone realized what she was doing, she reached into them, and we saw that the two companion portals were immediately next to Vagabond and Xenos. She yanked her hands back to reveal that she was holding both the book and the memory charm as the portals closed. I wasn't sure what she had in mind, but there was no way she could outrun all three villains, and she'd just painted a huge target on her back.

Now it was her turn to have a cocky smirk. "If we're going to have a fight on a playground, who's up for a game of Piggy in the Middle?" she taunted.

We all stared at her blankly.

"Keep Away!" she huffed.

That time, even Lydia understood the meaning. Quickly, the other four of us scattered even as she opened up almost a dozen saucer-sized portals in front of her, and tossed the items in, seemingly at random. Seemingly.

A portal opened up in front of me, dropping the Eidetic Charm into my waiting hands as I took off running. I didn't pause to look, but from the way that Vagabond had taken a sudden interest in Bhramari, I assumed she had the book. I heard him fire one of his darkforce blasts, but I also heard him swear as a swarm of stinging insects bore down on him.

Xenos took off flying and was on me almost immediately. At first I thought he was going to try to grab me, but instead he was winding up for a punch! He wasn't fooling around!

"Trixie, telegraph!" I yelled, praying that she wasn't otherwise occupied.

Luckily, my teammate was quick to the task, as always. Normally when we "telegraphed a punch" it meant something different, but she obviously understood my meaning. A small portal opened up directly in front of my face, causing Xenos's swinging fist to enter it before it could make contact with me. From the loud clanging sound I heard behind me, I gathered that the punch clobbered Echelon, instead.

However, Xenos was still right in front of me, and he wasn't likely to make the same mistake twice. But as he went in to grab me, there was a sudden zannng of a brilliant high-powered energy blast that came sizzling over my head, catching him right in the face! It knocked him for a loop and sent him flying back.

I spun around, thinking I had Hissyfit to thank for that, but to my surprise, it had been Lydia in Chimera's body holding the energy rifle that had just discharged.

"Sorry!" she yelled.

"Don't be!" I cried out as I raced over towards Trixie, hoping for more cover. "Keep doing that!"

"I'm actually pretty good at laser tag," she explained as she laid down a fairly righteous amount of covering fire.

The others seemed to have their hands full dealing with Vagabond and Echelon, I noted. And Trixie had apparently taken possession of the leatherbound book at some point, which was inhibiting her ability to both attack and open defensive teleportals at the same time.

"Kid! Incoming!" Trixie yelled as she tossed the book into a portal, and it fell into Lydia's surprised hands, who fumbled with it. Though fortunately for Lydia—and rather unfortunately for me—Xenos's attention remained riveted on me since I still had the Charm.

Xenos came flying directly at me at terrifying velocity. I wasn't sure if his intent was to grab me or just slam right into me, but I doubted I was going to survive either way.

Though now with both of her hands free, Trixie was able to temporarily fight a battle on two fronts and caught one of Vagabond's darkforce attacks which she redirected into Xenos, blasting him and catching him off guard. Then she opened another bigger portal right in front of me. The disoriented Xenos sailed right on through and came out the other side vertically, straight down. He slammed into the ground with a ferocious impact, straight through a geodesic climbing dome, and got tangled up in the bent metal struts.

"You don't have to look so happy about that," I said reprovingly as Trixie smiled at having given my body such a pounding.

"Sorry," she said, her tone a bit more mischievous than I would have preferred. She then glanced at the Eidetic Charm in my hand. "You should give me that and go find cover."

I trusted Trixie implicitly, but there was something on her face that gave me a moment's pause. But before I could say anything, I dove for cover as one of Vagabond's three eerie darkforce ghost creatures took a swipe at me. Trixie blasted it, but I could see the other two were hassling Lydia, obviously going for the book. Luckily, Hissyfit was on the case and laying into the creatures, who didn't seem to appreciate the brilliant white energy blasts from her rifle.

I spun around to see Bhramari squared off against Echelon, and somewhat surprisingly, she seemed to be doing okay against the mammoth villain. She wasn't likely to take him down, but her insects were blinding his vision and bothering him enough that she was able to duck and pivot to avoid his wild swings. Then I noticed she was trying to sign a message to Hissyfit, who clearly wasn't following her meaning.

I looked at what she was messaging. Her insects had found a weak spot! I shouted, "Hissy! His ankle! His left ankle!"

Unfortunately, Hissyfit's aim wasn't the greatest since she still wasn't entirely used to her rifle, but it seemed that she'd discovered some other settings. She switched it over to a short-range but high-powered cutting beam and then swept it in an arc back and forth. Her first pass caught Echelon across the chest and did a bit of damage, but on her swing back the other way, she was able to hit her target and caught him on the left ankle.

"Ah! Me boot!" Echelon cried out as he stumbled and slammed face-first into the ground.

Just then, I felt myself getting yanked off my feet! Xenos had apparently extracted himself from the playground equipment and grabbed me by my backpack and took off into the air!

Thinking quickly, I wriggled my way out of my backpack and fell to the ground before he could get very far with me. However, I was still really high up, and I would have been badly injured if Lydia hadn't managed to grab me in an awkward diving catch that caused us both to tumble to the ground.

Not far away, Xenos floated above the ground, looking right at us.

"I was prepared to leave you in those bodies, but you seem fixated on dying in them. Hand over the Eidetic Charm, and I'll allow you to live."

"Not so fun when someone takes your stuff, is it?" I taunted. "How many more lives are you going to kill and destroy in this insane crusade you're on?"

"Always just one more."

In fairness, it was easy to underestimate a teenage girl in a miniskirt. God knew I was quick to take advantage of that with my opponents. As a result, sometimes it could be a bit of a shock to witness the raw power of a superhero. In astonishment, Lydia and I witnessed as Xenos reached down next to him to grab a massive boulder and wrenched it out of the ground. It was eight feet wide and had to weigh at least a few tons, and he picked it up and heaved it right at us!

I was hoping for another last-second save from Trixie, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw that she had her back to us and was fully fixated on Vagabond and his darkforce ghosts. Lydia and I both shrank down as we waited for Xenos's improvised missile to finish us.

SCREEE! came a sound from immediately behind us, and a lance of pure energy sliced the boulder in half, causing it to split and slam to the ground on either side of us. We looked up to see Hissyfit standing there with her rifle.

"I feel like he's starting to take this personally," I said, panting as I turned to Hissyfit. "You're getting pretty good with that thing."

But as I dusted myself off, suddenly I looked down and realized that I no longer had the Charm! I looked around on the ground in a panic when I realized that I must have dropped it when Lydia caught me and we tumbled into the dirt.

Wait. Lydia had caught me, I realized. She'd needed both hands to do that, so she'd dropped her rifle to do so. But wasn't she also the last one carrying the—?

I spun around to see one of Vagabond's energy ghosts carrying the leather-bound book back to its master.

And there, much closer, Xenos was reaching down to pick up the Eidetic Charm.

Oh, God.

I turned to look at Hissyfit in horror. I didn't say anything. I didn't have to. This was exactly the moment I'd warned her about. Xenos was about to get away, and there was nothing we could do to stop him.

Nothing most of us could do.

A look of dismay crossed her face as she raised her rifle. She touched a control on the side, and I heard the high-pitched whine reach an ear-piercing crescendo as she took careful aim. By this time, Xenos had retrieved the Charm, but he'd obviously heard the sound, and he turned to look at Hissyfit. It was a clean shot.

I had to wonder what was running through Xenos's mind in that instant. How many lifetimes had he lived? How many lives had he stolen to make it happen? Did he have a sense of his own mortality in that moment? Would he try to swap with one of us to avoid that fate? If he did, was Lydia or I the one who was about to die?

Then, the expression on Xenos's face changed. I didn't understand it at first, but then when I heard the sound of Hissyfit's rifle powering down, I knew. It was the expression of someone who knew that he'd won.

Not far away, I could hear Vagabond taunting Enchantrix as he took possession of the book. Whatever he'd hit Trixie with had sent her reeling, and she clearly wasn't in a position to stop him.

"Well, Lady Blackwood, this has been a pleasure and three-quarters, but I reckon it is time we vamoosed. Give my best to your mum."

I watched as a field of impenetrable darkness formed and began to close in around both him and Echelon. It began to envelop them, and I realized that I'd seen him do this before, the first time we'd fought them. He was teleporting away.

"You can tell her in hell," Trixie spat as she cast a spell of her own. It was a another teleportal, but it had a very different look and energy signature than I'd seen her use before. She launched it sideways towards the two villains, heaving it at them as a deadly disc of force. It sailed past Vagabond, and at first I thought she'd missed, and it took me a moment to realize that she hit what she'd been aiming at—the darkness field itself. As her teleportal disc made contact with it, there was a violent explosion of magical energy!

A storm of magic erupted, and even from a distance, it knocked me solidly to the ground. Then, after the sound and light show passed, I looked up to see that there were portals everywhere. The entire area—around us and above us—had been covered with portals of various shapes and sizes. They would disappear and others would form in their place. Some of the portals looked like they traveled only a few feet away, others looked like they looked like they went to other places in Faraday City. Many others looked like they went to other dimensions entirely, many of them looking quite inhospitable.

"ARE YOU COMPLETELY MENTAL?" Vagabond bellowed, looking at the scene. "You could have killed us!"

"Now you're getting the picture," Trixie snarled as she wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth.

Xenos, meanwhile, was obviously uncertain what to do. He was still hovering there a few feet off the ground and clearly fully ready to make a run for it, but we were fully fenced in with portals, and I imagined that the notion of ending up anywhere in the infinite cosmos wasn't entirely to his liking. His gaze flitted from one portal to the next, seeing them open and close, trying to discern a pattern in the chaos.

I saw it first. The portals were opening and closing seemingly at random, but they were also getting smaller. Whatever Trixie had done, it was wearing off. And I saw that the "dome" didn't quite go all the way to the top, either. There was a vacant space without any portals right at the apex of the dome, just big enough to escape through.

Trixie and Mari had squared off against Vagabond and Echelon, but Hissyfit had gotten knocked for a loop by the magical explosion. I had an idea, but I was going to need help. Because there was absolutely no way I was letting Xenos walk away with his prize.

"Hey, get your rifle," I said to Lydia quietly, tossing a glance over to where it had fallen.

"Give it up, Xenos!" I said sharply, getting his attention. "Hand over the locket and switch us back, and we'll let you leave here alive. That's the best deal you're going to get today."

He laughed. "Arrogance in the face of utter destruction. I'd expect nothing less from one of the Kindred. You're exactly like all those mages I've killed. You think your power gives you authority. You're nothing."

"You're one to talk. You steal lives and years of life so that you can put off death. But you're not alive. You're connected to nobody. You kill from the shadows, and only for yourself." I gestured to Lydia. "She did more good with my body in one day than you'd do in a lifetime."

Xenos nodded. "You're just like them. I see that, now. You're going to die here, little one. And at your own hand, no less," he said as he made a fist. "Any final words?"

"Only this. ECHO-SIERRA-DELTA-BRAVO-TWO-SEVEN! TIMER-ZERO-ZERO-ZERO!"

I clearly remember the day that Prodigy introduced me to this. At the time, I admit I thought it was pretty stupid. After all, what possible reason could there be to want a voice command that simultaneously set off all of the grenades on my utility belt at once? Prodigy had explained that sometimes it was useful to be able to set it as a bomb and leave it somewhere. Of course, this was one area where my mentor and I had different philosophies. He tended to be more keen to include explosive and fragmentation grenades in his arsenal, whereas I (much to his chagrin) insisted on carrying only non-lethal equipment.

However, having a dozen or so stun, flashbang, and taserweb grenades all going off simultaneously was still a pretty satisfying show.

"AHHHH!!!" Xenos cried out in shock and alarm, covering his eyes from the unexpected explosion.

As he reeled backwards, I saw the glittering Charm fall to the ground. He was startled and temporarily blinded, but I knew I had precious seconds at best. I raced over and scooped it up, and in one continuous motion, I threw it over so that it landed right at Lydia's feet.

"Shoot it!" I yelled to her.

"Wait, no!" I heard Trixie yell, but she was cut short as she got tagged from behind by one of Vagabond mystic energy bolts.

Meanwhile, Xenos's vision cleared just in time for him to see Lydia take careful aim and blast the Charm. I half expected there to be another big magical explosion or something, but whatever last flash of magic it gave up was subsumed in the dramatic energy discharge from Lydia's point-blank shot.

"NO!" Xenos roared as he flew over to behold the twisted lump of metal.

I cast a glance over to the others. Trixie was busy with Vagabond, and Bhramari had squared off against Echelon again. The hulking villain rushed directly at her, but her insects had apparently obscured his vision, and his disabled foot turned his charge into an uneven and lumbering attack, at best. Mari, meanwhile, gracefully dodged his charge like a matador, and he stumbled past her through one of the portals. As he turned around in shock, she gave him a friendly wave goodbye as the portal closed behind him.

From behind me, I heard the high-pitched energy blasts from Hissyfit's gun, obviously back in the heavy stun configuration, splashing against Xenos. Then I heard them abruptly stop, and as I turned around, I swiftly realized why. Xenos was standing immediately in front of me with murder in his eyes. He already had Lydia by the scruff of the neck in one hand, and very quickly grabbed me by the bicep in the other. I looked over to Hissyfit for help, but she could only watch paralyzed since she couldn't risk a shot without hitting Lydia or myself.

I barely had time to process that before Xenos rocketed us up into the sky. By now he'd also spotted the opening at the top of the dome of portals, and he sped through it so quickly that it felt like the wind was being torn from my lungs. The next thing I knew, we were at least a hundred feet up in the air.

Easily high enough to kill us.

"Wait!" I cried out, but he wasn't listening. No more gloating, no more last words.

My mind raced as I tried to think of something to say, something that would matter to him, but my mind was a blank. Then suddenly, it was like the words came tumbling out of my mouth. They came so quickly, I didn't even know what I was saying.

"This isn't the end, Xenos! I'll never stop hunting you! You'll die alone and unremembered!"

Xenos briefly hesitated but said nothing. He then began to spin in a quick but graceful pirouette, and I realized he was going to use the momentum to launch Lydia and me in different directions. He wasn't taking the chance that Trixie might save us if he dropped us straight down.

"You think you have my power? You don't!" I cried.

I felt as the centrifugal force began to pull me away from his grip, knowing beyond doubt that he was going to let me loose at any second. Once he did that, I'd have a few seconds flying through the air, and that would be the end of me. The end of both of us.

I squirmed uselessly in Xenos's grip, reaching backwards to grab onto his hand. Trying to get purchase on something, anything. I was not giving up. I craned my neck back to look at him, and for a fleeting second we made eye contact. My little face was a picture of grim determination, and for a moment he seemed taken aback. There was a flicker of concern on his features.

Then I yelled something. At first I thought my words had been torn away by the wind, but then I watched as the concern on his face turned to genuine fear.

Without warning, I felt a sense of intense dizziness as a sense of staggering disorientation threatened to overwhelm me, and my senses went bananas, culminating with a strangely familiar sense of cold fire that coursed painfully through me. But...not my body. I realized that my spirit had somehow come untethered from my physical form. The pain of that disconnect was intense, and getting worse...I knew I couldn't stay like this for long.

And as I attempted to orient myself on this "spirit plane," I could plainly sense that Xenos was there, as well. Blocking me.

You reek of fear, I sensed him taunt wordlessly. You're weak. Powerless. Helpless.

The worst part was, he was right. I was terrified. Trapped in Lydia's body, I couldn't protect myself, much less anyone else. I was no good to anyone.

Meanwhile, my pain was getting even more excruciating. I knew I couldn't stay in this formless state much longer.

You fear death, he jeered.

That...gave me pause. It was true, but even more than my own, I was terrified for Lydia. And for my friends. It was my fault they were here. I'd gotten them into this mess. They'd—

They'd followed me. Selflessly.

Trixie and Mari were fighting for us. Caleb jumped in to risk his own life without hesitation. Even Lydia had risked her life to save dozens of people today, and she'd even joined this fight when we needed her. When I needed her. We'd saved each other's lives and the lives of others over and over.

When I was helpless, they jumped in to help. When I was afraid, they gave me courage. Just as they knew I'd do for them. That wasn't weakness, I realized. That was strength.

I suddenly realized that Xenos was projecting his own fears onto me. He feared his own death. He feared being powerless. He'd isolated himself, and he was filled with fear and hate. He was alone.

I launched myself at this spirit projection of him with that conviction burning in my heart. I was in pain, but I didn't let it consume me. I was afraid, but I didn't let it define me. This battle was mine to fight, but I was never alone.

Which is why I knew he would never win.

Our two spirit forms grappled with each other, but I could sense his rising panic as he realized that the outcome of our conflict was no longer in doubt.

Abruptly, my disorientation returned, but I breathed a sigh of relief as the pain disappeared, swiftly replaced with the familiar sensations of a physical body.

And then I suddenly felt something slip from the fingers of both hands.

It took me a second to realize that I was back in my body! I wasn't sure why Xenos had chosen to battle me like that, but it took me only a moment to realize that the other two bodies—Chimera's and Lydia's—were flinging away from me and both plummeting to their deaths! My mind raced, trying to think about single jumps and double jumps. If I'd somehow triggered a double-jump, we were all back. Though if it had been a straight swap, Xenos would be in Lydia's body, and Lydia would still be stuck in Chimera's old body. But Xenos was smart—he'd have to know that he'd stand a better chance of survival in Chimera's body. Had he swapped with Lydia to make that happen?

I was out of time. I could only save one of them, but I didn't know which one was—

"Mrs. Tiggy-Wiiiiinkle!!!" I heard Lydia's shrill voice cry.

I could just make out the little girl in her bright pink costume as she plummeted towards the ground, and I rocketed off in her direction so quickly that I feared I might overshoot, knowing that I wouldn't get another attempt. But I raced down to meet her and quickly leveled off so as not to break her bones as I snagged her in a full-body catch less than twenty feet from the ground.

"Oh, God. Oh, God. Lydia?" I asked, touching her face.

"Yeah, it's me."

"That was really smart. The chinchilla name."

"Thanks. Ow, Chris, you're squeezing me."

"I know," I said, holding her tight.

"No, you're squeezing me!"

"Oh, sorry," I said, loosening my grip on her, but only slightly.

She got a pensive look on her face, and her brow furrowed. "I'm not allowed to tell Mom and Dad about any of this, am I?"

I laughed and hugged her again.

I flew Lydia back just in time to see the fractured reality portals all starting to shrink and fade. Unfortunately, Vagabond wasn't there either, and from the sour look on Trixie's face, apparently he'd managed to get away.

"He got the book," Trixie informed me. "Not exactly our finest hour. But you two...?"

"Back to normal. I'm definitely calling this one a win."

"Not that I'm complaining, but how?" Trixie asked.

"I'm...not sure. I have some theories, but now's not the time. We need to find Xenos."

"I tried to track him as he fell, but I lost him over there," Hissyfit said, pointing. "But there's no sign of an impact."

We searched, but unfortunately, there was no sign of him.

I looked at Trixie. "Could he have fallen into one of those portals? By the way, what even was that? That was new."

"A trick I haven't done in a while," she said cryptically. "But yeah, he may have hit a portal on the way down. Chaos magic is...chaotic."

Mari signed a message to me.

"I don't know if he could have survived a fall from that height. He sure didn't think it was possible when it was Lydia in that body. Though between his armor and enhanced athleticism..."

"He's dead," Trixie said definitively. I wasn't sure if that was merely wishful thinking on her part or if she had some special insight. "You said it yourself, it was how he was going to kill him."

Before any of us could say anything, she spun and walked away, her long cloak trailing behind her. I wasn't sure what was eating her, but I wasn't about to question our good fortune. It was good to be home.

Oh, hell. Home. I checked the time on my iComm. We had to hustle.

We all raced back to Prodigy's garage to put everything back where it belonged. I gave Hissyfit the honor of driving the car back. She'd earned it, and I figured that if Prodigy asked if I'd driven it, I could deny it.

As we got out of the car and it spun back around on the turntable, Hissyfit gave me a concerned look.

"This isn't gonna be like a Ferris Bueller kinda situation where he checks the odometer and knows someone drove the car, is it?" she asked me.

"Literally the least of my concerns right now," I told her.

I took her energy rifle and energy deflector shield belt and put them back on Prodigy's shelves, with Lydia close in tow. As I did so, I paused and saw the series of leather-bound tomes, with one of the series prominently absent, the gap looking like a missing tooth. I turned to Trixie.

"Not sure what to do about that," I said.

Lydia got up on her tiptoes and reached over to the rightmost book and shoved it to the left so there was no longer a visible gap. She then looked up at us.

"Works for me," Trixie said.

"No argument here," I agreed as I gave Lydia a smile.

We returned to the main room to see Hissyfit holding the second newer rifle of Chimera's, which she'd picked up after Lydia dropped it. I sighed heavily and looked around, not sure where to hide such a thing. To me, Prodigy's garage was all a huge mess, but Prodigy had a knack for knowing when things were out of place. I wasn't in a hurry to let him know about this escapade.

Hissyfit hefted the gun and gave me a coy look. "Kinda thought I might keep it. Souvenir?"

"Caleb, that's a multiplex energy beam rifle that has a literal disintegration ray."

She shifted in an awkward way and raised her eyebrows hopefully.

I sighed and turned to Trixie.

"Pfft. Don't look at me, we're already sharing a bedroom. We don't have a place to put something like that." Then she snapped her fingers. "Though that reminds me."

Trixie walked over to Hissyfit and reached around her pretty black lace collar that adorned her neck. However, when Trixie pulled her hands back, she was holding the glittering Morphex crystal pendant. In a flash, Hissyfit transformed back into Caleb.

Well, mostly. It was Caleb, but wearing Hissyfit's pretty pink-and-black costume with the short skirt.

He gaped at Trixie in open-mouth disgust, now realizing she could have done that at any time. Trixie, meanwhile, had a playful smirk, although she gave him a warning look when it seemed he was about to say something. Caleb, however, wisely kept his mouth shut.

"I gotta get Lydia home double-quick," I said to Trixie. "Can you get them home?"

"Sure, no problem. C'mon, kids."

As the three of them headed towards the exit, Caleb cleared his throat loudly and plucked at his skirt as he looked at Trixie.

"I dunno, Shapiro, it's a good look on you," she said. "You've absolutely got the legs to pull that off..."

I then turned to Lydia.

"I gotta get you home, and we don't have a whole lot of time, so we can't take the bus. How do you feel about riding on the back of a motorcycle?"

She gave a shy little shrug. "It'd be okay if you want to fly," she said. "Y'know, whatever."

I held my gaze a moment longer as I read her face to make sure she was saying what I thought she was saying.

I picked her up and we flew outside as I took off into the sky and made directly for her neighborhood.

She kept her eyes wide open the entire time.

We arrived at my aunt and uncle's house with barely minutes to spare. I grabbed my CosFit device and shapeshifted back into Chris as my costume changed back into the t-shirt and skirt I'd been wearing. I paused to check my reflection in a hallway mirror as I ran my fingers through my wig and fussed at the falsies in my brassiere.

"I never thought I'd be so happy to see this view again," I said as I looked down at my jutting chest.

I breezed through the house to look for problems, but we'd only been gone a little over a day, and we'd only been there about an hour before we'd left. Heck, the beds were still perfectly made. I belatedly realized I shouldn't be seen wearing the same outfit as the day before and rushed to change clothes. I then hurried upstairs to Lydia's room to tell her to do the same. But as I entered her bedroom, I saw she'd already changed, and she was feeding her chinchilla.

"Were you always this responsible, or was I always just this oblivious?" I wondered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Listen, I need to talk to you for a minute."

I sat down on the edge of her bed and Lydia sat next to me, but she cut me off before I could say anything.

"Yeah, I know. I can't tell anybody what happened. Not Mom or Dad or Tommy, or even my friends," she said. Which, y'know, she nailed it in one, but I wasn't wild about the somewhat snarky tone with which she delivered it. Even though I had a pretty good idea where she'd picked that up.

"It's serious, Lydia. I need you to understand how serious."

"Uh huh. Like, a bad guy might show up out of nowhere and maybe kidnap them and then steal their bodies and try to get them killed a bunch of times."

"Yeeeees," I stretched out with a wince. "Hypothetically, that is indeed the kind of thing that could happen. Sorry."

"S'okay," she said.

"Y'know, I learned something about being a hero from you today," I said to her. She looked at me in surprise, and I nodded. "It's true. You see, I love helping people, but I've always wanted to be the kind of hero who people look up to. Because then I can help people without even being there, giving them hope and inspiration. I still want to be like that. But I thought I had to be famous to make that happen. Then when you saved all those people—which was amazing, by the way—and I got to see it from the outside. And it was incredible, what you did. All those people felt the same way."

"It was scary. I didn't even know what I was doing. I just tried to do what I thought you'd do."

I smiled. "I could see how scared you were. And how brave you were! You're an amazing little kid, you know that?"

Lydia seemed to consider that for a moment. Then she added, "Plus, then all those grown-ups wanted my opinion on stuff!"

"I know! What's up with that?"

She held her hands out in front of her in disbelief. "I wanted to be like, 'Lady, I'm just a kid, what do I know?'"

The two of us laughed. I pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head.

We separated, and she looked up at me with a puzzled expression. "What did you mean, it was the wrong place?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, what?"

"Before the bad guy dropped us, you were yelling at him. You said something about him wanting your powers, and then you said he went looking in the wrong place."

I furrowed my brow as I tried to remember the moment. It was all a blur. "I dunno. I was just saying stuff, trying to play for time. I don't even know what I was saying. I guess I got lucky that I managed to say something that seemed to throw him off like it did."

She nodded. Then she gave me an appraising look. "You're still my favorite babysitter," she said.

I laughed. "Thanks."

"But that's just 'cause the other ones are really bad."

"They'd have to be."

She wrinkled her nose, and her little finger reached out and poked me in one of my protruding falsies.

"Those are still dumb," she declared.

"Yeah, you get used to 'em," I sighed.

My aunt and uncle and cousin Tommy returned shortly, and I naturally got chewed out for not having answered her phone calls. However, I'd had the presence of mind to text her back, so instead of direct anger at me, I instead got a meandering diatribe about my generation's dependence on text messaging and how it prevented connection, and how we'd never really learn what it was like to walk in another person's shoes. I simply smiled and nodded.

I then got a text from my mom saying they were 30 minutes out with an implied suggestion that I be ready to cut and run. I went upstairs to check on Lydia one last time, and I found Tommy in his room, getting unpacked.

I leaned against the door frame and watched as he threw some clothes in the hamper. "I didn't have a chance to ask. How was the tournament? You have fun?"

Tommy sniffed. "Hardly."

"Ouch. That bad, huh?"

"I dunno. Parts of it were okay. I got to meet some guys I knew from online. And I guess getting to see the top-tier fighters was pretty cool."

"But...?"

He made a slight upward nod towards his open duffel bag, and I took that as an invitation to look inside.

"Dude, you took Sixth Place? Congratulations!" I said, holding up the little trophy.

"It's practically a participation trophy," Tommy declared. "Mom and Dad weren't impressed. They kept looking at their phones."

"Yeah, well, I'm impressed," I said in a tone that sounded almost sisterly. "You're number six in the entire state! I should be that good at something. Plus, you got to meet some friends and saw some cool stuff. I think that's worth a few inches on the trophy shelf, but that's just me."

Soon after, my parents picked me up. We left almost as soon as they arrived, but nobody seemed to mind. We said our goodbyes, and I climbed into the back seat.

"How was the conference?" I asked.

"Ugh," my dad groaned.

"Nightmare," my mom agreed. "Longest weekend ever." Then she turned and gave me a look. "How'd your weekend go?"

I shrugged. "Nothing to report."

"Yeah, well, we owe you one, kiddo. Thanks for covering."

My mind wandered as we drove home...

The irony wasn't lost on me that while I really wanted to inspire people as Prodigious Girl, I'd hardly even stopped to appreciate the effect that I'd been having on Lydia, both good and bad. I smiled as I thought back on my weekend with her and all of our adventures and escapes. I'd been so dismissive of her when I'd first arrived, but right from the get-go she'd been my biggest fan. I just didn't want to see it. I'd kept wanting to make a big splash and get noticed, but I forgot that sometimes all it takes is a kind word at the right moment to make a positive impact on someone's life...

Tommy finished unpacking the last of his stuff from his duffel bag and gave a heavy sigh. Then, as he reached down and picked up the bag, he felt something moving around inside. He reached inside and pulled out the little trophy. It wasn't much to look at, certainly nothing as fancy as some of the other trophies and awards that adorned his shelf.

He held the trophy and looked at it for a long moment. Then, with a small smile, he put it on the shelf in front of the other awards.

As we drove, I watched as the gleaming skyline of Faraday City came into view. I could even see a glimpse of The Spire, its silver metal glimmering in the sunlight. It made me wonder what being a hero even meant. I've heard some people say that anybody can be a hero. Others say that you're not a hero unless you're tested. I don't know. But one thing I was sure of is that heroes come in all shapes and sizes. And some of them are standing right next to you...

Caleb paused for a moment to admire Chimera's rifle. He wasn't so sure about the hiding place he'd chosen, but he knew that he needed to keep it someplace where it wouldn't draw attention from his parents. To say nothing of—

All of a sudden, his bedroom door flung open, and his sister Lori was standing there.

"Hey, privacy!" Caleb protested.

"You owe me big time for covering for you, dweeb," Lori hissed. "Mom and Dad knew your friend's folks were out of town, so they knew you weren't over there like you said. So, I told them you were out doing some all-night gamer geek sleepover with your friends. They think you're pathetic, but they believed me."

Caleb blinked. "Why'd you do that?"

"A few reasons. First, not to brag, but I'm a gifted liar. It's good to stay in practice, though. It keeps me loose. Second, you won't be able to cover for me if your rep is in the trash. And third, as I think I mentioned, you owe me."

"Fair," Caleb said with a tilt of his head. He had to admit, that was some pretty quality deceit. It was a plausible story, with details weird enough that it had to be true. "Thanks."

She flashed her eyebrows and smiled. "You can thank me by dishing. What were you doing? Oh, God, please don't tell me you were with that trans girl again."

"It's not like that! Chris and I are just...friends," Caleb said.

Lori rolled her eyes. "Uh huh."

Then, Lori turned and looked at the bedroom wall right above Caleb's bed. He had a couple sci-fi movie posters hanging there, and hanging very prominently on the wall right underneath them was Chimera's energy rifle.

Lori looked at the weapon and then shot Caleb a look of disdain. "If you're going to buy toys like a little kid, can't you at least hide them under the bed in shame like a normal person?"

Caleb breathed a small sigh of relief. Apparently hiding in plain sight was a good idea, after all.

"Hey, that right there is a movie-accurate replica of—"

Lori held up her hand. "Nice try. Don't change the subject."

"There was...a girl," Caleb said.

Lori's eyes lit up, and she flung herself playfully onto his bed. Caleb stiffened up, suddenly aware that she was scant inches away from a lethal energy weapon. He might need to secure that a little better.

"Go on," Lori said breathlessly. "Who is she? Do I know her?"

"She was visiting from out of town. For an...anime convention. She had this pink-and-black outfit, with her hair up in pigtails—"

"Ugh," Lori groaned. "What is it with boys being suckers for the pigtails? I wish you could see how ridiculous you all look to us girls."

"Mmm," Caleb intoned in tight-lipped agreement.

"You gonna see her again?"

"Kinda doubt it," Caleb said thoughtfully. "But you never know."

In my time as Prodigious Girl, I've come to appreciate that heroism can very often be subjective. One person's hero might be another person's villain. Sometimes even a momentary misstep could signal a hero's fall from grace. Redemption is often much more difficult, especially when temptation comes along...

Across town, Aparna and Ren were both situated in their bedroom, both working on their laptops with their headphones on. Or more accurately in Aparna's case, with the music being pumped into the terrarium, where the insects she controlled buzzed along to the thumping house music beat.

Ren had her laptop open to a Hexes and Horrors story she'd been working on, but then she slyly looked over her shoulder towards Aparna, masquerading it as a stretch. Then, once she was confident that her roommate was sufficiently distracted working on her music mix, Ren minimized the window on her computer and opened an old news report from a couple years earlier. It had shaky amateur video captured by a witness during a supervillain attack, and the title of the video was, "ANARCHY IN AMSTERDAM!" It showed a young woman dressed in black with long auburn hair gleefully loosing magical spells and attacks.

The low quality of the video and the survivors' inability to get a good look at the attacker had led many to speculate this was the archvillainess Rhiannon Blackwood, Ren's mother. It was more chaotic than Rhiannon's usual schemes, but it was a logical assumption.

But Ren knew better. As much as she wanted to blame her mother, it was Ren herself who'd gleefully rained down havoc on the city that day.

Ren beheld the old video of the villainess—of her younger self—in visible distress, and she fretted at her creased brow with her fingers. As the screams on the video intensified in her headphones, she glanced again at Aparna to make sure her roommate was still oblivious. She then paused the video and retrieved the remains of the Eidetic Charm from her desk drawer and ran her fingers along the twisted surface of the metal as she stared at the blurry image of her former self frozen on the screen.

Peej and the others didn't know it, but the spell she'd used during the fight to interfere with the portals had been a spell of annihilation. Dark chaos magic that she'd sworn never to use because it could easily have killed people. And she'd used it without thinking, without hesitation.

She then thought back to her earlier teasing of Caleb that day. How what had started off as good-natured fun had quickly taken a cruel edge to it. And...she'd liked it.

Ren's mind wasn't her own. She knew that. Demetria had brainwashed her into becoming a hero, and Ren hadn't been given a choice in the matter. But now, she did have a choice, and she didn't want to go back to the person that she used to be. Was Demetria's brainwashing wearing off? The Eidetic Charm might have told her. It might even have fixed her.

Her eyes were once again drawn to the frozen video of her younger self gleefully spreading chaos and destruction and tormenting innocent people. And her finger slowly traced along the twisted metal of the shattered charm...

I knew full well that superheroes fought the big fights, but I'd come to appreciate that it's still important to stop and remind ourselves that sometimes even the small wins can feel big. That events that might seem trivial in the grand scheme of things can buoy our spirits in ways we don't expect. Especially when we're with people close to us who can appreciate our little victories...

The room was dim and mostly lit by candles, and the flickering light didn't even reach the dimmest recesses of the abode. Heavy sounds of footsteps echoed in the space, particularly the off-kilter clangs of stumbling metal feet.

A pair of individuals entered the cozy space. Echelon led the way as he limped inside, with Vagabond doing his best to provide a supportive shoulder for his unsteady companion.

At first Vee tried to direct Lolo over to the waiting couch, but the larger man quietly shook his head and nodded to the other. Vee then headed over to the hearth with Lolo limping close behind, and he pulled out the leather-bound book they'd acquired. Then, with only a moment's hesitation, he lifted it up and slid it right into the waiting slot, a perfect companion to all of the other leather-bound books in the series. A complete, matching set.

Vee admired the collection for a moment. There were much better books for learning magic, but these were the ones from his youth. He thought back to all the times he sat by his momma's knee, listening to her tell the stories of rampant demons and fell beasts as he learned shadow magic. And he smiled.

Behind him, Lolo put a big supportive hand on Vee's shoulder as Vee leaned back against him.

Sometimes our victories are just for ourselves. Private moments that we keep hidden from the world, when we're able to take a well-earned respite from our unrelenting struggles and take a moment to nurture our inner selves...

Prodigy groaned as he entered the garage, rotating his arm slightly to work out the aches that he knew he'd be feeling for a while.

But the moment he entered the space, he knew something was off.

"God dammit," he grumbled, wondering what the kid had gotten into this time. Over the years, he'd learned to trust his intuition in such matters, so his eyes darted around the place, looking for anything that might be out of place.

Car, check.

Computer, check.

Prodigy shook his head as he rubbed his aching muscles. Something was off.

He made his way down towards one of the crowded storage shelves, pausing for a moment as his eyes settled on a set of leather-bound books. But before he could take a better look, an unexpected bit of color caught his eye. He turned to investigate it, and he looked down to see the little Troll doll with the big plume of bright red hair.

Prodigy glowered at the little doll, then raised his eyebrows. Surreptitiously, he glanced left and right to make sure nobody else was around, and then he tentatively reached over and plucked the doll off the shelf. As he held it, Prodigy took another furtive glance around, and then he gave the doll's hair a satisfying fluff with his fingers. He then left to change into some more comfortable civilian clothes, still absently fluffing the little doll's hair.

Of course, I couldn't stop thinking about Xenos. Trixie's confident assertions aside, he clearly wasn't the type to give up easily, and I knew that I'd made a powerful enemy that day. That evening, I saw a news alert saying that Carson Beaumont—Xenos's last "host"—had been found dead somewhere in downtown Faraday City under less than savory circumstances. I wondered if that was Xenos. Or if it was simply his latest victim, and he was now running around in some other guy's body, planning his next move. But in Faraday City, what goes around, comes around. He'd made enemies too, and it wouldn't be long before one of them caught up to him. Something told me that Xenos's days were numbered, and a time was fast approaching when his life would ultimately be revealed to be nothing more than a meaningless charade...

It was nighttime, and rain began to fall as Xenos stumbled forward, the neon lights of the city casting long dark shadows. He'd ditched the Chimera armor that had helped to save his life in the fall, but he knew that this mount wasn't long for this world. He'd skirted the edge of death countless times over the centuries, enough to know all of its moods, its flavors.

Xenos grit his teeth as he made his way down the darkened streets of the city. It was too dark. Too late. These were the mean streets of the otherwise gleaming city, and nobody was going to be out here if they could help it. And the rain would keep people indoors.

This was not where his story would end, he decided. Although as he winced in pain, he realized his body had other ideas.

But he was close. Perhaps just close enough.

Xenos collapsed face-first into a garbage-strewn alleyway behind a building. Up ahead, a metal door opened and closed, just enough for the heavy thumping music inside to sound briefly in the narrow alley. Xenos peered in that direction and saw that a man and a woman had emerged, and the two of them had gotten into a car there in the parking lot. At first he thought they might drive off together, but evidently they had more amorous plans in mind. Then, as he struggled to his feet and slowly approached the intimate couple, he made out the man’s face and smiled.

Xenos grimaced from the pain as he cautiously moved forward, like a lion on the hunt for its unsuspecting prey. But this predator scarcely seemed to be aware of the fact that he himself was being stalked by another...

Sometimes I thought that Prodigy's cynicism was getting to me. My mentor saw enemies around every corner, but I had to remind myself that sometimes allies came from the most unexpected places, as well. And when I say 'unexpected,' I mean crazy. This city could be downright bananas...

(One day earlier, in Lydia's bedroom)

"C'mon, Lydia, shake a leg," Prodigious Girl said to her little cousin as she again checked the time.

Lydia, meanwhile, after debuting her pink 'superhero costume,' had taken the time to put on a set of clothes on top of her costume to hide it. She then gathered up her backpack and put her plastic mask inside, as well as a hand-held electronic game and her airpods.

"Do you want to take a stuffed animal?" Prodigious Girl asked, reaching for a plush white rabbit with a top hat.

Not that one, idiot.

"No," Lydia said, aghast. "Besides, I'm not allowed to play with that one."

Prodigious Girl shook her head. "Good grief, you have stupid rules in this house," she muttered to herself. "C'mon, let's go."

The two of them left, but even from inside Lydia's bedroom could be heard the little girl's startled shriek as Prodigious Girl tried to take off outside with Lydia in her arms.

"Nooooo! Too high! Too high, too high, too high..."

From inside the cage by the window, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle stirred. She was looking particularly adorable in her precious little wedding dress with the lace and sparkly stars and her elegant tiara. She then stood up on her haunches and placed an eye patch over her bad eye.

There was a pile of shredded paper in the corner, and she rustled through it for a moment before emerging with a video communicator.

"League of Chinchillas, come in. Come in, League of Chinchillas. Nick Furry reporting in."

The video screen turned on to reveal a cute little russet-furred chinchilla with a gold waist sash.

"Chilla! This is Nick. I need you to—"

"BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Chilla cried out at seeing him in his outfit.

"Laugh if you want—"

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

"Laugh if you want," Nick growled, "But this is what deep cover work entails."

"If you say so, 'Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle,'" Chilla giggled. "Oh, God, is there a record button on this thing? Cap's gonna be sorry he missed this."

Nick was all business. "I need a location track on Prodigious Girl. I have to break cover here, but I need to make sure she doesn't double back and catch me."

"Looks like you're in the clear," Chilla said, checking the computer as she wiped a tear from her eye. "Wow, she's moving slow."

"Give me a shout if that changes," Nick said.

"Will do," Chilla responded. "Call anytime. Seriously. Oh, wow, I needed that..." she said, still giggling as the video screen winked out.

Nick escaped from the cage easily enough and jumped down to cross the room, pausing only to take time to lift the long skirts of his dress. They also made it difficult to climb up to the toy shelf, but he managed.

He then moved behind the plush white rabbit with the top hat, lifting a fold of fabric in its back. As he did so, it revealed a small video screen that was connected to the Nanny Cam hidden inside the stuffed animal.

Nick played back the footage, rewinding it to reveal that it had captured everything going on in Lydia's bedroom, starting from when her mother had turned it on a few minutes prior to Chris's arrival, right through Chris's transformation into Prodigious Girl in front of Lydia, and ending when the two of them left together.

"See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues," Nick deadpanned as he adjusted his little tiara.

He then skillfully wiped the video file. Then he damaged one of the wires to explain the device's failure when Lydia's suspicious parents checked it after they returned.

"You want something done right, you need a chinchilla," Nick declared.

A few days later, I was sitting in a booth at HeroBurger by myself. Marty had come back from his "business trip" crankier than usual, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with it, so I decided to take a long lunch to sort some stuff out.

In front of me, I had six small napkins that I had labeled, and for the last half hour I'd been moving them around. At first I think the people at the tables next to me assumed I was a germophobe repeatedly wiping down the table, but then started to look at me like I was a crazy person. I wish I could say they were wrong.

"Madame?"

I looked up to see Caleb standing there holding a plastic tray. Before I could say anything, he took a paper plate off of the tray and placed it in front of me like he was a waiter in a fancy restaurant.

"May I present to you 'The Prodigious Grill,'" he said solemnly. "A triple-decker sandwich featuring two plump grilled chicken breasts—"

"Nice."

"—amply complemented with generous amounts of both ham and cheese."

"Guilty as charged," I admitted with the hint of a smile. I then noticed that the pickle garnish had been cut into four equal spears, all arranged in a diamond around the sandwich. I looked at Caleb questioningly.

"Every time I see you, you're always in a pickle."

I nodded gamely as he sat down across from me in the booth. "Thanks," I said with a smile.

"It's not officially on the menu yet, but I thought you'd appreciate it. If you can somehow work onion rings into your costume, I feel like they'll go for it."

"Well, I'm pleased to be the first to have one," I said.

"Third, actually," Caleb corrected. He chucked a thumb over at a nearby booth. "Those two women over there are visiting from Texas and they saw me making it, so they ordered it off the menu."

I turned to see the two women, a brunette and a blonde, both give Caleb a friendly wave and a thumbs-up.

I was flabbergasted. "I'm...third? How did two people get ahead of me on this? I invented Prodigious Girl."

"You gotta move fast. People know a good thing when they see it."

Caleb then took a breath and gave me a serious look.

"Chris...I know we haven't had a chance to talk since...the other day. I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I know what we'd talked about in the car, but when the chips were down and Xenos was going to get away, I choked. I just couldn't take the shot. I'm not a hero like you. I don't have it in me to make those big life-or-death decisions."

"Caleb, you did make a big life-or-death decision. You chose life. Don't ever apologize for that. And you risked your life to help me. I was wrong to ask what I did. I gave in to fear and despair, but you chose hope. Trust me, today, you get to be my hero. I don't know if I can ever repay you for that."

He nodded soberly. Then he said, "I mean...I won't kid you, the Prodigious Grill is like fifteen bucks, and I'm making minimum wage..."

"Oh, yeah, sure," I said as I dug around in my purse for my wallet.

Caleb examined the arrangement of napkins on the table. "What's all this?"

"I've been trying to work out what happened with the body swapping."

"Gift horse, Chris?"

"Okay, fair," I conceded. "But...dude, this is really weird. The only way for us to have gotten back to our normal bodies was if there was a double-swap."

"Sure. The same kind of thing happened when Xenos tried to grab your body the first time, and you and Lydia got swapped. So?"

"So, it doesn't make sense," I said. "Xenos had all of the cards. He had his power to swap bodies, plus he had my body, which meant he had my power mimicry ability."

Caleb scratched behind his ear. "Maybe something in your body didn't agree with him. Like maybe he swapped, but then he accidentally triggered a double-swap because of your power."

"I thought of that. That's why I've been fooling with these," I said, pointing at the napkins. "See, there's two kinds of double swaps, because the outcomes are different depending on whether he swapped with me first, or Lydia first. But the only way we ended up the way we did is if he swapped with me first, in Lydia's body, which doesn't make any sense. First of all, why would he swap at all when he had everything he wanted? And second, even if he did have to vacate my body for some reason, why jump into a seven-year-old girl? He wouldn't. He'd have chosen his old body."

"This is making my head spin," Caleb said. "Still, that's what must have happened, because here you are."

I took a breath. "There's one other possibility. I triggered the swap."

"From Lydia's body? That's not possible."

"It's the only answer that makes any sense. My mimicry only seems to kick in when I'm in life-threatening danger, right? So, maybe while I was in Lydia's body, I mimicked his swapping ability, and then I jumped into him. Then, rather than being a little girl falling to her death, Xenos decides to trade up into his old body, and he swapped with Lydia."

A slow smile spread across Caleb's face. "Chris, I told you before, that's not how metahuman powers work. Metahuman as in metagene, as in physical body, remember? Besides, your other powers didn't jump with you. Your strength, flight, invulnerability, those all stayed with your body. Like they should."

"He went looking in the wrong place," I said quietly to myself. Those were the cryptic words I'd said to Xenos that freaked him out. Then I looked to Caleb again and pressed, "What if it did work like that? What if...a person could have powers tied to their body and powers tied to their, I dunno, spirit, or whatever?"

Caleb shook his head. "I don't think there's a name for something like that."

"I think maybe there is," I countered. "Have you ever heard of something called the Kindred?"

He shook his head again.

"There's one other thing that's been bothering me," I told him. "If some of my powers really are somehow tied to my spirit, I spent a lot of time in Lydia's body. You don't think maybe I could have, I dunno, infected her or something?"

Caleb laughed. "Chris, now you're just talking crazy. Lydia's fine. You two got lucky. Take the win and be satisfied for once, will you?"

I smiled and shook my head. "Yeah, sorry, I'm just being...me." Then I looked down at the sandwich in front of me. "Caleb, this thing is huge. Can I at least get a fork and knife for this?"

He looked offended. "Not on your life. The Prodigious Grill is meant to be both stupendous and formidable."

I gave him a sly smile. "Yeah, well, at least get me a knife to cut this thing in half. Because as far as I'm concerned, it's also meant to be shared with friends."

THE END

I hope you enjoyed the story! While you enjoy the closing credits, may I recommend:

Tiiiiiiing! Tap.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap.

Tommy was walking down the hallway to his bedroom when he heard the sound. Over and over. It was coming from his little sister's room. Her door was cracked partway open, so he knocked as he opened it the rest of the way, and he peered inside. As he did so, he saw Lydia sitting on the floor, flipping a coin in the air and catching it.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap.

He laughed at the picture. Only a little kid could possibly find that interesting. "What are you doing, Squirt?"

"Nothing," she said hurriedly. She couldn't have looked more guilty if she tried.

Tommy, suspicious, leaned over and plucked the coin out of her hand. "Let me see that." He then turned it over in his hand to reveal it was just a common quarter.

An easy smile came to his face. "Hey. Call it in the air."

Tiiiiiiing!

"Tails," Lydia said flatly.

Tap went the coin as it landed in Tommy's hand. He then revealed the result. Tails.

"Lucky you," Tommy said as he tossed the coin back to Lydia and headed out the door.

Lydia put the coin down and then retrieved a different one from the little pile of assorted coins that she'd dumped on the floor. The room was quiet apart from the sound of her chinchilla rustling around in its cage.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Heads.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Heads.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Heads.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Heads.

Lydia then switched the coin to her other hand and flipped it again.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Tails.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Tails.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Tails.

Tiiiiiiing! Tap. Tails...

Haha, sorry, I couldn't resist one last Marvel-style "post credits" scene. However, after having created the trading card images, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So, just for fun, here's a combined image of all our stars: