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Author's Note: Here's my first chapter of Blue Beetle, I was going to wait a few days but the story was stuck in my head and I needed to put it down as quick as possible. I've taken some liberties, moving the Reyes' family and other characters from El Paso to San Francisco. This story takes place a couple of months after Jameson Queen's death. Blue Beetle and other characters are property of DC Comics. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and wanted to ask if everyone thought there was too much exposition. I'm not sure myself but I'm going to post it anyway.

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Chapter One:

“You are so fricking dead, Reyes”

They were giving chase; there were at least four of them, all of them at least twice my size. I could hear them pounding after me and though I was fast, I was no Flash. I don’t know why they were so pissed off; they started all of this. I’m only getting them back for what they did to me. It’s not my fault if I’m smarter and have better resources than them. It was going to be my fault if the group of them caught me, though. But I was confident I could out run them, even if two of them were running backs and one of them was a sprinter for the track team. I was small and was finding it much easier to weave my way through the crowd of students clogging the halls.

I hate school. I hate it with every fiber of my being. It’s like one of those old Atari games where you fly around in a little space ship and blast invading aliens. What was that game called, I can’t remember. I’d like to say that I was the brave space cadet or whatever, defending Earth from a horde of alien invaders. Unfortunately, that would be dead wrong. I’m definitely the Alien and in more ways than one. If there was a Space Cadet, it was everyone else and boy did they like to BLAST me. There was something about the little Mexican kid that everyone seemed to like to squash. Maybe it was because I was the only Hispanic kid in the school or maybe it was because my family wasn’t as rich as the others. Or maybe it was because I was smarter than everyone else.

Regardless of the reason, I was currently about to get blasted big time. Being the new kid---my parents just moved us here from El Paso about seven months ago---is pretty hard. My father got a new job and seeing as it paid pretty well, he was able to get me into a good school. From there I was able to land myself a scholarship and get into a fantastic school. It was called Ravenwood Academy; it was a prestigious upper crust school that I never would have afforded without the scholarship and a really good word from my father’s employee. It works really well when your boss is one of the richest men in California.

But I digress. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, being the new kid. It’s not too bad I suppose. At least we were able to live in a neighborhood where I wasn’t so alien. The rich jackasses at my school called it Latino Lane; I think that was their attempt to snub their noses at me. All I saw it as was a good use of alliteration. As much as I hated them, there was little they could do to get a rise out of me. I’m not prone to lose my temper like my father; maybe I inherited that from my mother. Besides, if I ever did anything stupid like that, she’d kill me. My mother is a paramedic and wants me to be a doctor. As cool as that sounds I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut. There was something about space that always intrigued me. I don’t know but ever since I was a little kid, I used to stare up at the stars and wonder what was out there.

So I’m a bit of a geek but in this day and age, who isn’t.

My room at home is covered with star maps and pictures of super-heroes. Yeah, I said super-heroes. As soon as I saw the Green Lantern on the TV, I was hooked. When she told the world about Metahumans and mentioned she lived in space, I was in love. Ok, I might be over exaggerating a bit, but I had it bad. Most of my walls were plastered with pictures of her and the others. There were a lot now, bouncing around the world, saving the day. The most recent being the Green Arrow but I didn’t have a good picture of her. She was a local favorite seeing as she was from San Francisco. My best picture of her was a grainy shot taken a couple of months ago, before she made her disappearance. I’m not sure where she went but after killing the guy who offed my Dad’s boss---it was big news---she kind of vanished into the shadows. Some people think she might have been involved but I think she probably felt pretty guilty for not being there sooner. I mean how much would that suck, not being able to save one of the richest men in the country.

We went to Mr. Queen’s funeral, paid our respects and whatnot. My father was afraid he was going to lose his job but Mr. Queen’s granddaughter, Olivia, assured us that nothing was going to change. She was kind of cool and gorgeous, like a super-model stepping out of a magazine. She was nice too, she always went out of her way to say hi and sometimes she stuck around to talk. But I digress again; I’ll get back to Miss Queen later. What was I talking about, oh yeah school?

I do that a lot, you’re going to have to get used to it.

The rich kids had a name for me; they called me the Mexican Bug. It was because I was so short. Most of the guys in my school were tall and blonde and looked like GAP ad models. They all wore designer clothes and drove around in expensive cars. I didn’t belong with them and they reminded me of it every chance I got. It wasn’t the typical high school pranks they pulled on TV either. Those I could deal with. Rich kids had a whole new way of messing with people. They hacked my face book account and posted embarrassing stuff or messed with my iPhone---the school gives them to incoming freshman---so that it blared music all through the day and can’t be shut off. They stole my clothes from my gym locker once and left behind a pair of cover-alls and a note, telling me to go back to the field. Kind of nice huh?

I don’t generally try to retaliate but every once in a while I get a dig in. That’s how I was in my current predicament, umm I haven’t explained that yet have I? Ok here it goes. I was walking down the hall yesterday and some of usual tormentors thought it would be funny to pour a bottle of cooking oil in front of my feet. I kind of walk fast; it’s a hobby of mine. I wasn’t paying attention and I slipped on my ass. It wasn’t pretty because when I hit the ground I kind of skid and slammed right into one of the teachers who was carrying a tray from the lunch room to the teacher’s lounge to eat. It was spaghetti and I don’t want to get into the details but I’m pretty sure you can figure it out. The worse part, the bastards didn’t even get in trouble. That’s what happens when you have a trust fund.

The Dean actually blamed me for it. Apparently, the bastards planted the empty bottle of oil in my locker and a sheet of paper, laying out “my plan”. It told how I was dumping the oil to get back at all the rich jerks who’d been terrorizing me. It wasn’t even written in my own hand and who writes out their evil schemes. These guys had no originality. But of course, the Dean believed them; he had no choice. Their Daddies paid his salary and I was a free ride. I got detention for two months and was ordered to mop up all the oil. Have you ever tried wiping up oil with water?

I planned my retaliation. There was no way I was going to let it slide.

Have I mentioned Brenda and Paco yet?

No, I didn’t think so. They’re my best friends. Brenda and her father used to live next door to me but Brenda moved after it was discovered her father was beating her. She now lives in a huge house with her super rich Tia---that’s aunt for all you newbies. I’ll get to all that later. Paco lives down the street from me. His real name is Francisco but who wants to be called that. They were a part of the neighborhood committee who greeted our family when we moved in. Both were pretty psyched to see me. There weren’t a lot of kids their age around. Paco was the oldest of five; he had three younger sisters and a little brother. Brenda was an only child and the closest kid to their age was Paco’s sister, Soledad, who was about ten. So you can imagine how happy they were to see me.

Brenda and Paco go to the local high school, Star City High. How cool is that? According to Brenda, it’s named after a meteorite that fell nearby. Everyone in the city kind of nicknamed San Francisco star city because of it. Brenda’s kind of full of useless trivia like that. She kind of a whiz and a know-it-all. She’s not as smart as me---sorry but it’s true---but she’s pretty damn close. Paco is a big guy, he looks like a linebacker and people are kind of afraid of him. But he’s the gentlest guy I know. His father used to play for the Raiders back when they were good, but he died in a car accident several years ago. Paco worked a couple of jobs now to help his mom pay the bills.

When I told both of them what the jerks did, they vowed to help me get revenge. Brenda’s father used to work for a computer security firm but that was before her mother died and he got drunk and nasty. Now he does nothing. When her aunt took her from her house, she managed to swipe his laptop. It still had all his old accounts, including the old access codes and information on all the clients. Mr. Del Vecchio---Brenda’s Dad---catered to a lot of the super rich, which happened to include a lot of my classmates.

So our plan was simple. We used Brenda’s laptop information and some dead rats from Paco’s exterminator job and set about on our revenge. We used the security codes to disable all the security systems in their cars and I used my father’s electrician’s key to unlock all their car doors. Then we put dead stinky rats in their back seats, hiding them were the bastards couldn’t find them. It was an ingenious plan, one that took us a few days to plan and only a couple of hours to execute.

We did it a couple nights ago, sneaking off to all their rich homes and did the deed. It was the greatest revenge I ever concocted and would have worked wonderfully if not for the stupid security cameras. We forgot to disable them when we jumped one of the bastard’s fences. It caught all three of us on film and they were able to put two and two together pretty quickly. When the cops came to my door last night, I thought my mother was going to have a heart attack. My father talked to them and tried to explain the situation but the police were pretty hard on us. They wanted to take us all down to the station and press charges for vandalism. Brenda’s aunt saved us all. She had a lot of pull in the city and was able to talk a judge into giving us all a break, seeing, as it was our first offense and all. I’m not sure but there might have been some money that exchanged hands but whatever happened, it seemed to work. We were off the hook as far as the law was concerned.

But I was far from off the hook with my father. Now I had to report to Queen Tower every day after school and work off my “debt to society” as he called it. I had to work as his grease monkey and I didn’t even get paid for it.

But back to the problem at hand, I suppose.

“Mr. Reyes, no running in the hall” shouted some unknown teacher as I ran by. I think it was Mr. Donovan but I’m not really sure because I was running so fast. I’m just glad it was the end of the school day. I’ve been dodging these bastards all day. Even though the police settled things, they apparently still wanted some pay back. The dead rats were in their cars long enough to leave a residual odor and you can imagine how that went over. The ringleader of the group, Spencer Marks, was also the richest. His Dad was some big wig insurance executive, he paid for a good portion of the new math wing; in fact, it was actually named after him. So every day I went to class I passed under a picture of a smug looking Sherman Marks, knowing damn well, where his son got his assholeness from? Is that even a word, well, it is now.

The front doors were well in sight. I smiled and laughed, knowing that I might make it to live another day. I was almost there when one of the jocks stepped out in front of me. Though he wasn’t one of the ones I nailed, they were all friends. He stuck his arm, in an attempt to clothes-line me. I tried to slow but there was no way I’d be able to in time. He started laughing, expecting he was about to clobber me. He would have too if not for the large hand that landed on his shoulder. He spun around, expecting to deck whoever it was. But when he looked and saw it was Paco, all the color drained from his face. Me, I wanted to cheer. Their school let out about fifteen minutes before mine and he and Brenda usually rode their bikes here to meet me.

But they never came inside; they said the squeaky clean interior freaked them out too much. I think it was because they were afraid to get ridiculed as much as I did. Whatever the reason, I was glad that Paco decided to forego it today. The jock in question, Marty Blake, was a big guy. He was six foot two, weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds. Which was big but it had nothing on Paco’s six foot five, nearly three hundred pounds of pure muscle. Even Marty couldn’t compare to that and it showed. He looked like he was about to cry when Paco slammed him into the locker.

I skidded to a halt in front of my gargantuan friend. I wanted to jump up and kiss him but that would have been wrong on so many levels. So instead, I smiled and quickly slipped behind him. Spencer and his gang arrived a couple of seconds behind me. They were running pretty hard too but as soon as they saw Paco, they all slid to a halt as well. They tried to put on brave faces but let’s face it, Paco even made some police officer’s shake. Spencer’s face turned green and he kept his distance but that still didn’t keep him from firing out an insult:

“I’ll catch up with you later, Bug.”

He and his cronies turned and walked away.

“They still call you a bug,” asked Paco in that gentle tone of his.

I nodded. “Just drop it.”

He shrugged and the two of us walked out of the school.

___________________________________

“They’re still giving you problems after that?”

Brenda was all for stating the obvious, it was kind of one of things I loved about her. She liked to tell you how it was and didn’t give a damn if she offended you or not. She was a sassy chica and we both loved her for it. She liked to bust our balls a lot and we liked her for that, too. She may have been the odd man out of our little group but gender ratio never seemed to bother her much. She was as far from being a girly girl as I was from being tall. I think I might have mentioned being little---I was five foot five---and that bothered the hell out of me. Especially seeing as even Brenda was taller, by a couple of inches but it felt like feet to me.

We were on our way from school now, taking the back way. We liked riding down the back alleys because it took us past the old junkyard. They weren’t too keen on it when I discovered the route a couple of months ago but they tagged along because it benefitted me. Did I mention I was an amateur sculptor? I guess it must have slipped my mind. I liked taking old junk and trying to turn it into art. It was kind of a hobby of mine; I started when I was five or six. My father used to have a lot of spare parts lying around the garage at home. One day I took a hubcap and an old muffler and started tinkering with them. I’m not exactly sure what I made out of them but I called it my masterpiece, in hindsight it looked like crap but I was only six.

My talent got a little better as I got older and especially when my father showed me how to use the arc welder. It’s pretty cool when you can take a piece of junk and use a white hot flame on it and mold it into something amazing. I’ve made several sculptures now, most of them space oriented. But the last few have been interpretations of the different heroes that have been cropping up lately. Call it what you will but it’s a bit of hero envy I guess. It ties in with my whole astronaut thing. Astronauts are national heroes and that’s what I want. I want to go to space too but I also want people to look up to me one day and think I’m great and special.

My mother seems to think I can do that as a doctor but that’s always been her dream and not mine. My father wants me to do what I believe is right, my little sister, Milagro, doesn’t really care; she’s only eight.

The junkyard was half way between our houses and my school. I kind of discovered it one day by accident. I was riding by myself because I got out of class early and they didn’t have any class because of a holiday, go figure. Anyway, I wanted to find a quicker way home instead of having to go three blocks over so I found this alley between two old buildings and slipped through. It was just big enough for my bike and me. When I came out on the other side of it, the junkyard was right there. It wasn’t really what one would call a junkyard per se. It was really an old disused lot where people threw all their old junk. A lot of it was crap but there were some good pickings now and then. When I found it, I thought it was fate. I grabbed a couple of good things and rode back home the happiest kid alive.

Ok so I need a life, so what. I called Brenda that night and told her my find. I was kind of surprised that not only did she know about it but she didn’t care either. She told me I was a nut to go rummaging around in someone’s trash. Paco thought it was pretty cool when I called him but he called me a nut, too. It didn’t really matter what the two of them thought anyway. What mattered was that it was a gold mine for me. Since then, I’ve been dragging them through the alley every day. It works to their advantage too because it is a shorter way home after all.

We were approaching our alley now. The two buildings it was wedged between used to be a part of an old glue factory. There were still a lot of old barrels in there but no one had used it in years. But it made headlines a couple of months back; it was at this very place that Green Arrow had a fight to the death. The three of us thought that was pretty cool and were kind of bummed that we missed it, but that’s how it goes. We had to stay away from the area for a whole week after that though because the police had it all taped off and stuff. My art really suffered then but I survived. The area was still considered off limits but that didn’t stop the three of us from sneaking through.

Today was no different from any other day. I went first, as usual followed by Brenda and finally Paco. Because Paco was so big he had to turn sideways and walk his bike through, holding it over his head as he did. He didn’t complain though, he said he liked the exercise. The alley wasn’t very long and it was surprisingly clean but that’s only because most adults would have problems fitting down it. When we got to the other side though, there was something different today. I couldn’t quite place it but it looked like someone had been here. In fact, it looked like a couple of some ones. There was what appeared to be burn marks on the wall and there was a red stain that looked like blood.

“It’s red paint” groaned Brenda when I bent down to touch it.

I ran the tips of my fingers in the “paint” but it was dry. We missed coming down the alley the last few days because we were so busy plotting. We decided to do the plotting at Brenda’s house so first her aunt picked her and Paco up and then me. For a whole week, the three of us had avoided using the alley. It was kind of cool to see the “paint”, it made our little refuge all that more exciting. Paco was right down there with me, his bike leaning against the wall next to mine. Brenda was now sitting on hers, huffing. She wasn’t mad; she was just annoyed. She was cute when she got like that, especially with her red hair and freckles---yes she’s Hispanic but her father was half Irish, go figure.

“Would you two stop playing in the dirt, it’s getting late and you know how Amparo doesn’t like me being out this late.”

It wasn’t getting dark; it was only about three in the afternoon. Brenda’s biggest fear was Posse. A local gang sprang up about a month or so ago. There were a lot of gangs in this part of town that sprang up like weeds but this one was different. It boasted of being the only gang full of Metahumans. I’d never actually seen them but their tags were all over the city. Most of them were invitations as long as you had the right skills to join. Word on the street was that they were only looking for Metas with magic abilities. The cops were at their wits end trying to catch them and without the Green Arrow patrolling the streets; Posse pretty much controlled this part of the city. The La Dama controlled the rest but people didn’t talk about her.

No one did. She even sent shivers up my spine. She’s like Voldemort I think, if you even mention her name it’s like you’re cursed or something. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

We reluctantly got back on our bikes; Brenda had that effect. Besides her honesty, she had this overbearing nature that was hard to ignore. My mother liked to call her the “Red Headed Firecracker” because she was always so spontaneous. My sister liked to bug us about kissing; she was convinced that Brenda and I were dating. We weren’t and I don’t think we ever would. She was a pretty girl but she was like a sister to me, maybe even a brother sometimes. When she gave you a Charlie Horse it hurt like hell and when one of us---meaning Paco or myself---said something sexist shed kick us so hard in the shins it’d hurt for weeks. So I guess she was a boy/girl, whatever the hell that is.

We rode away from the entrance of the alley and started toward the disused lot. I stopped as usual, poking around the pile nearest the road. I saw a couple of things that piqued my interest and jumped off my bike. Brenda groaned and Paco got off to rummage too. He wasn’t really looking for anything; he was just trying to be supportive. Every once and a while he’d find something but it was usually junk. I took it to make him happy though. I poked around in the road pile for a few minutes and then moved onto one further back. There were a lot of piles in the lot, more than a hundred. Some were real small but several were towering. There was this rickety old wooden fence that surrounded the lot on three sides and a lot of the piles were taller than that. On any given afternoon, I spend about an hour searching and then usually the others finally drag me away.

Today though, Brenda was increasingly insistent. “Your father is going to kill you if you don’t get to work on time.”

I groaned and looked at my watch. I’d only been searching for a few minutes, fifteen at most. But she was right. Today I had to mop up grease stains and help him change oil. It wasn’t like his job back in El Paso where he actually owned and ran his own place but it was just as good. Widespread unemployment kind of killed our garage back home; it’s what forced us to move here. A friend of my father’s, Luis, got him the job with the Queens. We were well off in Texas but when people didn’t have money to pay for custom jobs, it kind of fell through. In California, according to my father, we’d have a new start at life. “Mr. Queen has connections, big ones, and he’s willing to help me.” He did help us but in order for my father to get enough money to open a new shop, he needed the capital. So Mr. Queen promoted him to head mechanic and made him in charge of the whole garage.

Things went bad about four months ago, when my father’s friend Luis became angry. He felt Queen had overlooked him and screwed him over. He caused a bit of an uproar and was fired. He came back a few days later, late one night intending to rob the place. He never expected anyone to be there but my father was working late. He caught Luis and Luis shot him. It wasn’t extremely serious but my father was in the hospital for about a month recovering and when he went back to work now he had to use a cane. Luis didn’t get away scot-free though. A couple days later, he was found in an alley, pinned to the wall by a green arrow. I think it was one of the last things she did before she disappeared.

I helped him out from time to time when he couldn’t get any help but I was no mechanic.

“Give two more minutes, Brend,” I said, moving onto another pile.

Paco followed me. Brenda sighed, tired of sitting on her bike. She got off it and bumbled over to. The three of us started searching through this new pile. It was pretty fresh, most of it consisted of cardboard boxes, stacks of newspapers and magazines bounded in twine and lots of beer cans. I did say this was a dump spot after all. I rifled through the trash, hoping to find something of use. I was about to give up because there was no metal when something caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a green glass beer bottle. I reached through the rubbish for it and when my hand circled around it, I snapped it back quickly. It was hot. I shook my hand, cursing. Brenda gave me a worried look. I shook my head, I’d be damned if I was going to let something like that stop me.

I reached back into the pile, wrapped my hand around it again and braced for the burn. But the heat was gone. I sighed and pulled the thing up. When I opened my palm and showed my friends my score, all of us were speechless. It was a bright blue stone of some kind, in the shape of a funky bug. I hefted it in my hand; it just fit in my palm and weighed about the same as a baseball. It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen and I knew then there was no way I was trashing this.

“What is it?” asked Brenda, reaching forward as if to poke it but stopping a few inches from it.

“Some kind of bug” I said, staring mesmerized at it.

“It looks like a paperweight,” said Paco, bent over so he was almost as tall as I was crouched.

I numbly nodded and slid it into the pocket of my coat.

“What the hell are you doing that for?” asked Brenda, clearly annoyed again. “That thing is freaky, you should put it back.”

I shook my head. “No way. I’m going to put it on my desk at home; it’ll look really cool there.”

That was the end of the discussion. I didn’t poke through any more of the piles because when I made a promise I kept to it. I walked back over to my bike and hopped on. Brenda and Paco followed onto their bikes as well. We left the lot, Brenda kept giving me a disapproving look all the way back to my house.

______________________________________

My mother was in the kitchen when I got home.

I parked my bike in the back and secured the lock around the storm drainpipe on the side of the house. This isn’t the greatest part of town to live in. My mother was at the sink when I came inside. She worked strange hours so we ate whenever she could cook it. Tonight she had the graveyard shift, she was even dressed in her uniform, her hair pulled back in the tight bun she wore it in for work. Dinner was already on the table, it was tacos, a staple in my household. I dropped my backpack on the chair by the door, walked in and sat at the table. My mother didn’t even look at me, but Milagro did. She stuck her tongue out at me, taco sauce all over her face. She was at that age where she tried to do anything possible to annoy me.

You could tell we were family. We all had hair as black as coal and were all pretty short. Milagro wore her hair in pigtails all the time and I kept mine neatly trimmed to my shoulders; it was as far as I could go at being rebellious.

‘You have another date with Brenda, your girlfriendddd” She overemphasized the “d” on the end of girlfriend.

“She’s not my girlfriend squirt,” I said, reaching for my taco.

‘Jaime Enrico Reyes, you wash your hands before you touch” snapped my mother, her back still to me, the sink still going.

How do mothers do that, they must have eyes in the back of their heads or something.

I got up and walked over to the sink, kissing her on the cheek as I squinted dish soap onto my hands and scrubbed them together under the water for a few seconds. When I took them, out they were all red but at least they were clean. I went back over to table and picked up my taco, I ate in a hurry. I heard my mother and sister groan. My mother made a comment about growing teenage boys and their eating habits. As I was finishing it up, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the bug shaped stone. I set it on the table and stared at it.

“What’s that?” asked Milagro “it's pretty, can I have it.’

She reached for it but I snatched it away. “It's not for you.”

My mother looked over her shoulder. “You better not have put that dirty thing on my clean table.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘It’s clean. I found it in the lot; I think I’m going to use it as a paperweight.”

My mother groaned and cursed in Spanish. Milagro giggled, she was still learning. My parents used to speak it fluently when I was younger but only because my grandfather used to live with us and he liked it spoken at all times. He spoke very little English, he was a first generation Mexican, snuck into the country illegally. My mother---his daughter---was born here, so Milagro and I were as legal as can be too. My father was second generation like my mother but his parents went back to Mexico after my father graduated from high school. I rarely saw them but my parents visited them whenever they could. My abuelo---grandfather---died a year after Milagro was born so we didn’t speak Spanish much when she was growing up. She knew a little bit, thanks mostly to Dora the Explorer but her expertise in the language was truly lacking.

My mother finally stopped washing the dishes. She turned around, drying her hands on a dishtowel. She walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up, handing me a brown bag. It was for my father, she probably made it for him earlier. I left it on the counter and left the kitchen, taking the steps two at a time up the stairs to my room. Our house was kind of on the small side but it was big enough for us. There were two bedrooms on the second floor and they belonged to Milagro and me. My parents had their room in the basement. It cost quite a penny to do the conversion but my father got paid pretty well.

When I got to my room, I didn’t bother to turn on the lights. I just opened my door, slipped inside and went over to my closet. I didn’t normally put clothes in there; most of my stuff was in the dresser. But my mother made me hang a few things, like my church clothes and the jumpsuit I wore when I helped my father in the garage. I kicked off my shoes, pulled on the suit in question and paused before leaving. I reached into the pocket of my coat, set the blue stone on my dresser and locked my door before I left. Milagro liked to sneak in there sometimes when I wasn’t home and I know she’d try to get her hands on that stone.

When I got downstairs, Milagro was in the living room watching TV with our neighbor, Mrs. Cruz. She was an elderly woman who lived next door and agreed to watch Milagro for a couple hours until my Dad and I got home. Usually that was my job but seeing as I was being punished for the next few months, I was free from the torture of watching back-to-back Hannah Montana. What Milagro saw in her I’d never know!
My mother was standing by the door, holding her workbag and wearing her jacket. She tapped her watch when she saw me walk into the living room. “You want a ride?”

I nodded. Usually I walked three blocks to the bus stop. But every once in a while, if my mother had to run into the city, she took me. We lived a few hours outside the city and so it took a while to get there. Anything was better than riding in a bus that smelled of pee and human body odor. I said bye to my sis and Mrs. Cruz and followed mom outside. I groaned, disappointed because I was hoping to ride in the ambulance. Instead, the old beat up Dodge Ram was there. It was technically my father’s truck but he liked to drive the new Prius to work, he said it made him feel richer than he was. So on those rare occasions my mother actually had to drive the truck.

“No ambulance?” I asked as I got into the passenger seat and buckled myself in.

“Terry has it tonight.”

Terry was her partner; the two of them took turns driving.

My mother started up the engine and watched like a baby chick waiting for the worm. I wanted to drive so bad that it was killing me but I was still a little ways off. Well a lot actually, I just turned fourteen a few months ago. My mother told me when I was old enough she’d teach me herself, adding that it was better to learn to drive from an ambulance driver than someone like my father. He told me the same thing because he was a mechanic and knew cars better. My parents had a very heartfelt and loving relationship, which grossed me out all the time.

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My mother dropped me off out back, managed a quick goodbye before she drove off. Her shift didn’t technically start for another couple of hours but she and the guys she worked with had a standing poker match. My mother was a card shark and liked to take those suckers for every penny they were worth. She went to college on a mathematics scholarship but had to drop out because she got pregnant with me. She didn’t go back until after Milagro was born. Her goal in life had been to become a doctor but she settled for being a paramedic, she said as long as she was saving lives she didn’t care what kind of job she had.

At the backdoor, the Creepy Guy was waiting for me. I didn’t know his real name so that’s what I called him. He was tall and bald, with sunken eyes and a face that only a mother could love. He was backdoor security and he was definitely scary enough to keep people from trying anything. He looked at me as I approached, stared for a second then opened the door. The back entrance was right next door to the huge garage doors in the back of the tower. There were only a few people who knew they were actually back there, my father and I among them. Mr. Queen had an extensive collection of cars in the basement of the tower, most were antiques and didn’t run but my father’s main job was to restore them. He didn’t let me help on any of those. He made me stay in the main garage, cleaning up mostly but every once and a while I got to polish some of the sports cars. I say some because there were over thirty cars for the Queens to choose from.

The back door led to a little hallway. At the end was a door that only two people had a key for, me and my Dad. I opened the door and stepped into the garage. I sighed; I loved the smell of gasoline and motor oil. My father was in the work area, I could hear the Mexican music blaring from the loud speakers. The work area was in the back, it was a little room built in a glass enclosure. I liked it when he was back there because I got to love the cars without him noticing. I checked to see if he was back there and saw him with his welding gear, working on a new muffler for something. I looked around and saw the car in question, up on the lift.

With him preoccupied, I went right for the usual. It was a 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10, in snake-skin green. It was absolutely the most gorgeous car in the lot. There were a lot of other cars, much more expensive and fancier ones but this car was the main attraction. Every time I was in here, I spent every moment I could staring at that car. I walked slowly over to see, salivating as I did so. I got within a few feet when I heard a sound of clicking from behind me. I snapped around and gulped. I’d only seen Olivia Queen briefly and only in passing. She was the new IT Girl, even if she was the Hard to Get Girl. She was pretty camera shy apparently but that was not without trying. Ever since her grandfather died a couple of months ago, she was the talk of the town. She was only a couple of years older than me and already a multi-billionaire.

She was hot too, seriously ice melting hot.

She was dressed in a pair of skintight jeans, tall knee-high boots with a stiletto heel and a top that showed things off rather nicely. Her long blonde hair was worn in what was now called the Queen Twist---named after her of course---it was really only a long French braid but the tabloids liked their nicknames.

She looked at me as she walked over and smiled. I nearly collapsed; Olivia Queen just smiled at me.

“Hi there” she said, her voice was like that of an angel. “You’re Berto’s son, Jaime, right?” I nodded and she laughed. “You don’t have to be afraid of me; I’m not that different than you.”

Yeah right, you’re a billion times different than me.

She looked at the Viper. She walked over and touched the hood. She stroked it for a few seconds and then turned to me, smiling. “You want to sit in it?”
I could only nod. She opened the door and stepped aside. I numbly walked over and slipped behind the wheel. The seats were made of leather and the it smelled of that new car smell. It was like heaven. I closed my eyes and sucked it all in. She laughed. I think I actually sucked in. God I’m so embarrassed, she must think me a total dork. I opened my eyes; she was leaning on the door. I gulped and sat in the car for a few more minutes before I stepped out. Her lingering near me was making me very nervous. I think she sensed it so she backed off a little.

‘Is it true that you and your friends got busted sneaking into the Marks front yard?”

I nodded. “He was messing with me at school so we retaliated.”

She smiled and nodded. “I heard the story from your Dad” she leaned forward and whispered. “Between you and me, I would have slit the bastard’s tires too.”

We had a laugh. I couldn’t believe I was laughing and having a conversation with Olivia Queen, it was like talking to Paris Hilton but a hundred times better.

“Jaime!” My father’s voice shouted from across the room. I turned and saw him standing in the doorway of the workroom. “If you’re done flirting than we have some work to do.”

I blushed, my entire face going red. Olivia laughed but it was a sweet one. She leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “It was nice talking to you, Jaime. Maybe you can come over some time and you and I can take this puppy for a spin.’

I nodded. She walked away from the Viper and went over to one of the BMW’s. It was a nice car too, but it was nothing compared to the Viper. She waved at me as the garage door opened and she drove away. I absently waved back, blushing more than ever. My father threw a dirty rag at me and barked at me, telling me to get to work. He was smiling though, so I know he wasn’t mad. The rest of the night I worked on turtle waxing all the cars, I did the Viper twice to make sure she really shined. After that, I mopped the floors and seeing as I was about to collapse my father called it a night. At about ten, the two of us locked the place up and trudged down the hall toward the door. Mr. Creepy Guy let us out and we walked over to the Prius.

When we got home a couple of hours later, I walked up to my room like a zombie. I was so beat that I stripped out of my jumpsuit and fell face first onto the bed. I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

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Author's Note: Here's chapter two. The story is progressing at its on interesting pace. It might not be as fast as some of my others but it will pick up pace. This chapter opens with a dream, there will be at least one more of these sequences, possibly more.The Blue speech that appears in the dream is important and will be explained. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for Blue Beetle.

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Chapter Two:

The girl walked across the pool deck, her hips swaying back and forth to the music. All I could do is sit and watch, drooling. It was one of those summer days where it was so hot that you didn’t want to do anything. I was lying on a lounge chair, wearing nothing but my trunks. We were at some swanky resort, a place that my family could never afford. I think Mr. Queen paid for the whole thing because it was definitely in some tropical paradise somewhere. It’s funny but I’m not even sure how I got to this place. The last thing I remember is…well I’m not really sure. I think I was home but it was kind of fuzzy. I knew it wasn’t summer though, it was March, I think. Even that was kind of fuzzy now that I think about it. March was a winter month I think but I’d never actually seen snow. It didn’t snow in El Paso and if it did in San Fran, it was so light that it melted as soon as it hit the ground. In this place, there was definitely no snow.

The large umbrella hanging over my head blocked out most of the sun but it didn’t do much for the heat. I was drenched in sweat, my hair plastered to my head like a helmet. There was one of those little drinks on a stand beside me. It had ice once, but the sun was so hot that it melted after only a few sips. Now the thing was watered down and nasty tasting. I think I ordered another one but there wasn’t a waiter in sight. I looked around, trying to see past the bikini clad girl as she walked slowly toward me. There was no one around but the two of us, how weird is that. I squinted through the haze rising from the concrete path around the pool but it was hard to see anything. I looked at my arm, trying to see what time it was but my watch was gone. I couldn’t remember the last time I went anywhere without my watch.

The girl was almost on top of me now. She was my ideal woman. She had long black hair, just the right blend of Hispanic and Caucasian features and just the right height to not make me feel so short. She was a bit taller than me but not much. The bikini she was wearing was tasteful, not something skimpy and revealing. I didn’t like it when girls dressed like tramps, it always seemed like they were trying way too hard to impress people. It didn’t impress me any, in fact it was kind of a turn off. You want to know what else was: big breasts. I know you’re probably shocked, me being a fourteen ear old hormonal unbalanced teenager but I know what I like and it’s not a pair of huge melons on a girl. I like a modest bust, just enough to tell me she has them but not too large.

“I brought you another drink, Jaime,” she said, sitting in the lounge chair next to mine, handing me some tropical concoction with a little paper umbrella.

Where the heck did that come from, she wasn’t carrying anything before?

I took a sip of the drink and was surprised to find that even though it looked exotic, it tasted like Sprite. I took another sip, making sure not to look too greedy in front of this goddess.

Now that she was sitting next to me, I got a better look at her. She was a lot younger than I thought, right around my age, which was strange because I could have sworn she was older. Her skin was lightly tanned and she had this cute little birthmark on her chin. At first, I thought maybe a bug was sitting there but the more I stared at it the more I realized that it wasn’t moving and it seemed to be a part of her. It looked a little like a bug though, which was kind of freaky. It was a good freaky though, it gave her a quirk. I liked quirks. Brenda had this thing that she did when she was nervous where she blew her cheeks out a bit, like a puffer fish. It was the cutest thing in the world and it was my favorite quirk about her. Not that I’m saying I liked her I’m just saying that I liked quirks. Paco had a quirk too but it’s too embarrassing to mention here and if he found out I said anything he’d pound me.

“Where did you get this?” I asked, waving the drink at her. “It’s wonderful.”

She laughed. “You can have anything you like. I’d give you the world if I could, Jaime.”

“I’m not sure that I want that.”

“Sure you do,” she said, running one of her long fingered hands across my naked chest. “Who doesn’t want the world?”

I sighed; her fingers were so sensual and inviting. I closed my eyes and got lost in her touch. Her nails were just the right length and her fingers tickled ever so gently as they ran along my back. Wait my back? I opened my eyes and I was lying on my stomach. How in the hell had that happened. I tried to sit up but something was holding me down. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was straddling me now, holding me on the chair while she rubbed my shoulders. There was something on her hands; I could feel it as she rubbed it into my skin. Her hands rubbed my shoulders for a few seconds and I groaned in pleasure. Then they slowly started moving down my back. They were so long and felt so good. I was in heaven, the ecstasy so great that I was starting to rise down below.

I was about to gasp in pleasure when I felt something else. It was pain. It was light at first, like a pinprick. But it intensified quickly. I tried to sit up but she pushed me back down, hard. She was strong, too strong in fact. I tried to get up again and the pain increased. This time it was like a searing hot poker to the back. I screamed out, trying desperately to get up. But she held me down, her legs squeezing my thighs, her hands pressed firmly on my shoulders. She was stronger than I would have liked. I screamed out, trying to flail so I could force her off. The pain got worse, now something like three or four hot pokers. It wasn’t just in my back anymore either. It tore through my entire body now, so intense that only screaming seemed to help. I kicked and squirmed but it was no use.

“Stop fighting it, human, it will be over shortly.”

The voice in my ear was female but it wasn’t the one from before. I tried to turn to see who was on my back now but the pain was so overpowering that I could barely move my head. The person on top of me shifted their weight and I noticed they were a lot heavier than before, too. There was something really screwy going on around here, something that didn’t make any sense. Why did she call me human and why did I have the strangest feeling that I wasn’t awake. I’m not sure where it came from but it made perfect sense. Everything felt too surreal at first to be real and now everything felt like it belonged in a nightmare.

“Very observant” said a voice. It wasn’t female anymore; it was stuffy and British sounding. “You are much more astute than my last host. Then again, Daniel wasn’t the brightest of fellows and don’t even get me started on Theodore.”

The pain stopped as soon as the voice ended. I let out a moan and whoever was sitting on me was gone too. I groaned as I pushed myself to my feet, trying to see who spoke. But there was no one there. I was alone now, sitting on the lounge chair, half my body covered in a white towel. I moved my hands, allowing the towel to fall away and when it did, I got the shock of my life. I looked down and show two fleshy mounds on my chest.

I screamed and everything went black.
______________________________

I screamed and jumped awake, tossing my covers in the air. I was kicking and fumbling and nearly rolled off the bed. My heart was pounding in my chest, my body was drenched in sweat, my nightshirt, and boxers were soaked. I started breathing heavily, trying to sort real from fake. I rubbed my eyes then ran my fingers through my hair. That was a dream right? I took a couple of breaths, trying to calm myself to think rationally. It took me a few minutes to calm myself. My heart was racing, my body tingled and I swore I still felt the pain in my back. It was the strangest feeling too because it was right in the center of it and felt like it was under my skin.

Once my heart stopped pounding, I reached my arm back, trying to scratch at the spot where the pain was. It was kind of a dull itch now but it was in that spot where no matter how much you tried, you couldn’t quite reach it. I tried for a couple more minutes but finally gave up. Instead, I checked my pulse, to make sure I wasn’t going to have a heart attack. My heart rate seemed to be back to normal, which was a good thing. I used to have a lot of nightmares when I was younger, I was convinced that Freddy Krueger lived in my closet and was trying to get me. I went as far as trying to nail my closet door shut, which ended badly when I missed one of the nails and broke my thumb. My abuelo told me that fear was healthy and a part of life but that dreams were just dreams and they couldn’t hurt you. I stopped having nightmares after that.

I wish that was true about the one I’d just had.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed and looked at the clock. It was a little after eight in the morning, I’d only been asleep for about seven hours. I’m so glad it was Saturday, or else Mom would have killed us. On school nights, she liked me in bed by ten and Milagro in bed by eight. My father was only allowed to keep me late hours on the weekends or when I didn’t have loads of homework. She didn’t care if my slaving for him was a part of my punishment either. She said rules were rules and they were not meant to be broken. My father rarely argued with her. It was a rule with Hispanic women, they were right all the time and it didn’t matter what you said to contradict them. My father learned a long time ago that my mother was the boss in the house and he accepted that except when it came to things doing with business. That was his domain and she respected that.

I rubbed my neck, looking at my clothes lying on the floor. It was strange because I remembered taking off my work jumpsuit but my jeans, t-shirt and sneaks were on the floor too. I couldn’t remember taking off the rest of my clothes. I stared at them for a few seconds. Maybe my Dad did it for me. It was usually something my mom did but Dad was known to give me a hand from time to time. But the last time that happened, I was like ten. After puberty, we kind of avoided those awkward moments. I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw my Dad in his boxers and vice versa.

I slipped off the bed; my bare feet on the cold floor a definite jolt to wake me in the morning. My room isn’t the biggest in the house---that honor goes to my parents---but it was the biggest on the second floor. It had all the typical things that one would expect in a room: a bed, a desk, a dresser. One of my walls was covered in charts and star maps while the rest were covered in comic posters and newspaper clippings from the various real life super-heroes that were springing up all over the place now. My most recent clippings were about the disappearance of Green Arrow, of course, most of them clipped from the Planet where Lois Lane seemed to think that the Arrow was off on some intense soul searching. Most of the clippings were written by her, she seemed to be someone with a bit too much hero worship going on. What’s worse is that they all seemed to center on who these people really were. She was obsessed with it and as far as I was concerned, she really needed to get a life or at least another hobby. But there I go digressing again.

I stumbled through the dark, not bothering with the lights. I know my own room well enough to not need lights. I walked to the door, pulled it slowly open and padded to the bathroom. I was usually the first one up in the morning. My mother was often sleeping in due to her graveyard shifts and my father liked to get a few extra winks in before he headed to the garage. I was responsible for Milagro in the morning, usually. I’d wake her up, make sure she was fed and then head off to school. Usually by the time she went to school, Dad was up to take her. Her elementary school was only a few blocks away and my father walked her most days. It kind of annoyed her but he was unwilling to let his little girl walk to school by herself, especially in our neighborhood.

Our house had two bathrooms. The one on the second floor was bigger than the one downstairs. It was used mainly by me and Milagro. The one downstairs was actually in the basement, attached to my parents’ room. It was more for them than anyone else. I’d only been in there once or twice, to clean it when I was punished. I’d only actually cleaned it once though, seeing as it was fairly new and I’d only been in real trouble this one time. Yeah, that’s right; I just cleaned it yesterday. Go figure, my father made up that little rule so he’d get out of cleaning up after himself. Adults are so lazy sometimes. Take chores for instance, I think they make kids do them so they don’t have to do them themselves. How lazy is that?

I like showers better than baths; I think most teenagers do. I used to like baths when I was Milagro’s age and could bring my action figures into the tub with me. Yeah, so I used to play with action figures, so what. A lot of guys my age used to when they were younger. Most may deny it, but they’d be lying. I still have them; they’re in a bucket crammed with the rest of the junk in the back of my closet. I don’t know why I brought them with me from our old house, sentimental value I guess.

Have you ever looked in the mirror in the morning and noticed something wasn’t right? I walked up to the mirror, scratching an itch and turned on the water. I filled up my cup and paused when I looked at my reflection in the glass. There was something off about it. I’m not sure what exactly but my face looked softer. I turned my head left and right. My features were finer too; more smooth and my nose looked a little narrower. I sighed; maybe my dream scared me a little more than I thought. I groaned as I opened the cabinet and took out the toothpaste and my toothbrush. I closed the cabinet and began brushing my teeth. As I did, I noticed something else too: my hair seemed different. It was a bit longer this morning and looked softer. I finished brushing and touched it. It was definitely softer and the ends of it had a slight curl.

Maybe it’s puberty. I was only half way through it. I know that’s strange but I’m only fourteen after all. My father said he was sixteen before he started growing any facial hair and even then, it wasn’t much. He had a goatee now but it was fine and thin, not like all the hair that a lot of guys had. But I didn’t even have any peach fuzz yet, how strange is that?

I stripped off my shirt and boxers and stepped into the shower. Some people like to turn the water on first then get in. I like to get and then turn the water on. The shock of it is better to wake one up in the morning. As I reached for the knob to do just that, I noticed that my skin was softer too. My arm brushed against my bare chest and a shiver went up my spine. It was a tingling feeling and my nipples started to harden. I looked down at my chest and was surprised at how puffy things looked down there. I turned the water on; the hot water caressed my body, sending shivers up and down it. It felt so good. I closed my eyes and stepped into the stream. The water was intense as it washed over me and invigorating. I couldn’t remember the last time a shower felt so good.

I found one of my hands absently straying toward my groin while the other started rubbing my chest. I kept rubbing and then started to moan. I got aroused very quickly and was amazed at the feeling that it created. I’ve self-gratified before---you know what I mean, right---but it’s never felt like this. The whole orgasmic feeling was all over my body and so intense that I actually moaned out loud. It was overwhelming fantastic as I brought myself to climax, nearly toppling out of the shower as I did so. It felt kind of strange and I didn’t realize I had been rubbing my nipples until I brushed against them again and felt how hard they were. Were guys supposed to get hard nipples when they masturbated? I tried to think back to the video in Sex Ed but I was drawing a blank.

I finished my shower and grabbed a towel from the closet. I wasn’t paying attention and actually grabbed one of Milagro’s. We had towels that were different colors so as to not cause problems. I didn’t care but Milagro didn’t want to use anything that I used. So we had separate towels, separate toothpaste and separate shampoo. Milagro’s towels were pink; mine were blue. His and Hers, kind of annoying but a towel was a towel. I started wrapping the pink towel around my waist but stopped. I’m not sure why but it felt wrong. Before I knew what was happening, I pulled it up and wrapped it around my whole body like the girls on TV did. Something about it felt better to me.

I scooped up my discarded clothes, dropped them in the hallway hamper and walked quickly back to my room to get dressed and start my day.

______________________________

“Son, have you been plucking your eyebrows?”

We were sitting at the kitchen table, breakfast laid out before us. I didn’t make it this morning so I wasn’t surprised to see burnt toast, gray oatmeal and something I think was eggs. My father isn’t the greatest cook and it definitely shows. It doesn’t taste all that good either but it was food and I didn’t complain. He and Milagro were sitting at the table when I came downstairs. I was wearing a belt today because my pants felt a little off. They were loose in one place and too tight in the other. My shirt felt different too. I couldn’t quite place it but there was something about it. My father didn’t seem to notice anything wrong until the eyebrow comment.

I grabbed my spoon and looked at my reflection in it. He was right; my eyebrows did seem kind of thinner this morning. I cast an accusing glance at Milagro, waiting for her to burst out laughing. This had her written all over it. I think it was payback for yesterday when I wouldn’t let her have the stone. Speaking of which, I think she got into my room last night and stole it somehow. She usually wasn’t that forceful when it came to things she wanted but there was a first time for everything. I didn’t notice the stone was missing until I got back from the shower and saw it wasn’t on my dresser. I opened the drawers and looked under the bed, the usual places where I stashed stuff. But it was nowhere to be found.

“Did you do this?” I asked, pointing at my forehead.

She looked at me like I’d grown a third eye. “Why would you pluck your eyebrows. I don’t even know how to do mine?”

‘Your sister has been with me all morning,” said my father, hidden behind the paper.

“What about the stone?” I asked.

“What about it?”

I hated when she answered a question with a question. She did it just to annoy me.

“Did you take it?”

She shook her head. ‘I tried but I couldn’t get your door open. It’s a dumb old rock anyway; I only wanted it so I could put it in Rocky’s tank.”

Rocky was her pet tortoise. He usually went everywhere with her, even the table sometimes. He was on the floor now, chewing on a piece of lettuce.

“What’s this stone?” asked my Dad, still reading his paper.

I told him about finding it in the old lot. I said I wanted to use it as a paperweight or something and asked if he’d seen it. Then for good measure, I asked if he’d undressed me last night. He answered both questions with the same answer: no. He then clarified that I probably misplaced the stone and undressed myself without realizing it. Sometimes people did strange things when they were half asleep; he used to sleepwalk when he was my age.

I knew for a fact I was no sleepwalker, but I had to admit he was probably right. Mom came down in the middle of breakfast, groggy and half awake. She poured herself a cup of coffee, kissed all three of us and groaned when she looked at the meal laid out before us. She gave my father a look and then served herself. She didn’t touch much of it though and instead kept to her coffee. I don’t usually get seconds of something my father cooked but for some reason I did. Everyone in the room gave me a look; even he lowered his paper. I shrugged and ate. My mother watched me through most of the meal, giving me a look that seemed to ask, “Who is this child and what have they done with my own?”

When I finished my second helping, my mother set down her cup of coffee and continued to stare. It was starting to freak me out. I opened my mouth to say something but she beat me to the punch:

“Jaime, have you done something different with your hair?”

I reached up and instinctively pulled a strand of it in front of my eyes to take a look. I was hoping someone wouldn’t notice. I rubbed it between my two fingers, feeling its softness. To my mother I shook my head but I don’t think she believed me. Instead of saying anything, he leaned forward and felt it herself. She ran her fingers gently through it and then brushed it out of my face. My hair was always getting in my face, especially my eyes. The length of it was always up for debate in my household. My mother seemed to think it was too long while my father felt it was my decision to decide how long my hair was. He took that stance in almost every argument about either me or my sister. He said that every person should be responsible for his or her own bodies and if I wanted to do this or that then it was my choice.

I left after my second helping. I went out the side door into the back, making my way toward the shed back there. It was my unofficial workstation, where I did all my sculpting. I got about half way there when I stopped. I’m not sure why but I just didn’t have the urge today. It was strange really because I spent most of my weekends sculpting. Instead, I turned around and went to my bike. I undid the lock, hopped on and took off. I’m not sure where I was going, I let fate guide me. It didn’t take me long to realize that fate was guiding me up the street. Brenda used to live a couple of houses down with her father but after he tried beating her to death with his bare hands two months ago, she moved across town with her aunt. I think I might have mentioned that, I did say I was going to get back to it, didn’t I?

I passed by Brenda’s old house, there was a For Sale sign on the front yard. Amparo, Brenda’s aunt, hired a big attorney and took her brother-in-law to court. The judge wasn’t very lenient on him, what judge would be. Mr. Del Vecchio was currently spending the beginning of his very long sentence in a nice prison upstate. Brenda moved in with her aunt and the house was put up for sale. It was kind of sad because her father was a pretty upstanding guy before Brenda’s Mom died. At least that’s what the neighbors said. Brenda’s mom died two years ago, long before me and my family moved into the neighborhood. Brenda’s Dad fell into a drunken depression after that which led to a rather nasty night for Brenda back in January.

I stared at her house as I passed. I’d only been in it once or twice and it never seemed very inviting. Paco lived two doors down from her. When the beating was taking place, he was outside with one of his sisters. He heard the screaming and told his sister to run inside to call the cops. Then he sprang into action. The cops said if it wasn’t for him, Brenda probably would have been dead. He broke Mr. Del Vecchio’s nose and fractured a couple of the bones in the bastard’s face. Paco wasn’t a violent guy except when one of his friends was in danger. Mr. D tried to press charges but Amparo’s lawyer squashed that pretty quick.

I pulled into Paco’s driveway. His father’s pickup was gone but his mother’s little Toyota was there. The Tejas house wasn’t that much bigger than ours but what it lacked in size it made up for in occupants. Paco and his little brother, Raul, actually shared a room in the attic. His oldest sister, Soledad had a small room to herself and his two youngest sisters, Viviana and Teresa shared the last bedroom. His parents slept on the pull out couch in the living room. Paco’s father was a truck driver---so he was rarely home---and his mother worked as a waitress whenever she could find the time. Paco, like most of the older siblings in the neighborhood, helped out raising his younger siblings.

As I pulled up the driveway, Viviana and Teresa were in the front yard with their beagle, Chico. The dog was running around as the two six year olds were trying to put a frilly bonnet on him. I smiled as they ran past me and into the backyard. I got about halfway to the porch when the front door opened and Soledad came out, carrying a fake leather purse. She was Milagro’s age, the two of them were the bestest of friends, according to them.

“Is your sister home?”

I nodded and off she went, marching across the lawn.

Paco appeared at the door a few seconds later, Raul hanging off his back like a monkey. Paco dropped his brother gently on the floor and stared at me through the screen door. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes and then cocked his head, squinting his eyes as he did so.

“You look different, bro.”

I sighed. What was with everyone this morning?

________________________________

We played video games for the whole morning and into early afternoon. Paco didn’t mention how I looked after the first time on the front porch but he kept looking at me strangely every few minutes or so. I tried to ignore it but it was pretty hard when one of your best friends kept looking at you like you were blue or something. I managed to concentrate on the game though. He and I were huge Halo fanatics. It was only the first one, on an old second hand Xbox, neither one of our family’s could afford one of those new 360’s. It was still good game though and like they say, nothing’s better than the original. At least I think that’s what they say; I hear the new Halo game is a killer. Any way we played until at noon before Viviana came into the room wanting lunch.

We took break then. Paco scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the kitchen. I followed for lack of a better thing to do. As Paco started making grilled cheese, I sat at the table with Viviana. She started to stare at me too. I groaned, when would the weirdness stop? About three minutes into the staring, she broke the silence.

“Can I braid your hair?”

I blinked for a few seconds and then looked behind me, wondering if she was talking to Soledad. Her older sister had long, silky black hair. But there was no one else in the room. I was about to tell her that my hair wasn’t long enough to be braided when a lock of it fell down in front of me. It hung down my chest, reaching well past my shoulders. I freaked and jumped from the chair. Paco snapped around, nearly dropping the pan on the floor. I didn’t bother to explain and ran down the hall where the bathroom was. I pulled open the door, locked it behind me and rushed to the mirror. What I saw scared the hell out me. My hair, my normally shoulder length locks, was well past my shoulders now. I’m not sure how long it was but it was definitely several inches longer than a few hours ago.

I panicked, not sure what to do. I stared at myself for the longest time, freaking out. How can hair grow that fast, it’s scientifically impossible? I grabbed a strand of it, giving it a tug. I thought maybe his sisters were playing a cruel trick on me and put a wig on my head when I wasn’t looking. Sometimes I got so engrossed in a game that not even a bomb going off would shake me. I tugged on the strand as hard as I could and let out a shrill scream. I snapped a hand over my mouth, not sure, what scared me more, the hair or my girly scream.

The pounding knock on the door made me jump about ten feet in the air. I looked away from the mirror and slowly walked over to the door, unlocking it. Paco tore into the room, not sure what to expect. When his eyes fell on me, that opened wide, his mouth forming a giant “O”.

“Dude, what the heck happened to your hair?”

I shook my head, tears starting to form in my eyes.

Viviana slipped between her brother’s legs, half a grilled cheese in her hand. “Can I braid it now?”

‘What the hell am I going to do?” I sobbed, covering my face with my hands and falling forward to cry on Paco’s chest.

He put a hand gently on my back. He said something about making a phone call and led me out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen. He left me at the table and went into the living room to use the phone there. I was crying softly now and not really paying attention when a chair slid across the room to stop next to mine. I vaguely felt little fingers playing with my hair, twisting and looping it. I didn’t pay attention though. All I could thing about was how much of a freak I now was.

I sat at the table thinking for at least ten minutes. Viviana had finished braiding my hair and was now sitting across from me, a little doll on the table between us. Her sister was still eating her half of her sandwich, staring at me with those big eyes of hers. They were twins but whereas Viviana was very outgoing, Teresa was very shy. Viviana was telling me all about her doll and all the adventures they had together. She kept going on and on and I only half paid attention. I kept thinking about my hair, trying to figure out how it could have grown like that in only such a short period of time. Five more minutes into my thought processing, Brenda walked into the room in a huff, carrying a duffel bag on her shoulder.

“What’s the big emergency” she said and stopped when she saw me.

I looked up with more tears in my eyes. Her face was a mimic of Paco’s a few minutes ago. She sat numbly across from me in one of the other chairs, her bag sliding off her shoulder as she did so. She didn’t say anything, she just kept staring. Paco came back into the room and sat in the last chair at the table.

He waved his hand first in Brenda’s face then mine. Brenda snapped out of it first, about a minute or two later.

“This is a cruel joke right” she finally said, turning to glare at Paco. “My tia was giving me a yoga lesson; I had to drop everything to come here. This isn’t very funny you guys.’

I finally found my voice. “It’s no joke.” I quickly filled both of them in, telling them about my freaking dream last night and how I’d changed when I woke this morning. They both nodded a lot but neither interrupted. When I was finished, Brenda sighed, running her fingers through her own hair. She looked at me and a small smile curled her lips. It scared me for a second because she got a twinkle in her eye too. She turned to Paco and barked at him to bring her a pair of scissors. He jumped up and ran out of the room.

“This isn’t the big problem that you thought it was,” she said as she got up and walked behind me, taking out the braid that Viviana put in. The little girl, who had been sitting there silently, huffed, grabbed her doll and stalked out of the room. Her twin sister squeaked, grabbed the rest of her sandwich and ran out too. “I can fix this.”

Paco came back into the room with the scissors she asked for.

Brenda led me to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She didn’t lock it but told Paco to remind outside as the guard. He did so diligently. Brenda out a photo of me. It was actually a picture of the three of us; it was taken a couple of months ago, right after she got out of the hospital and moved in with her aunt. Amparo took the picture, it was the three of us arm and arm at a local amusement park. Brenda was kind of black, blue, and swollen in the picture but none of us cared about that. We each had a copy of the picture; mine was tacked to my bulletin board in my room. Brenda apparently kept hers in her purse because that’s where she pulled it out of. She held it up and studied it for a moment, or rather me.

Then she took the scissors and started cutting. It took her over an hour. In the end, she was able to cut my hair to some facsimile of what it looked like before. It might have been a little choppy but it was definitely better than the long tresses. I cried a little when I saw the final result and gave her a big hug. She laughed and cried a bit with me. Paco ruined the mood by sticking his head into the room, clearing his throat.

“You guys done because I really need to go?’

I groaned. Brenda mumbled something about men and I absently nodded. I’m not sure why but it felt like the proper thing to do. She took my hand and led me out of the bathroom. Paco slipped past us and we walked into the living room and sat on the couch. She started talking about her yoga lessons and I found myself listening intently. I’m not sure why, her lessons never interested me before. Paco came in a few minutes later and asked if I wanted to continue playing our game but I waved him off. He shrugged and started playing himself. I continued to talk to Brenda; we started to gab about nonsensical stuff. I’m not even sure what we talked about but it was one of the most animated conversations I ever had. We talked for hours, all the while Paco played.

At about four, Paco groaned and stretched. “Are you two girls done yakking yet?” he asked in a joking matter.

I didn’t even take offense to the girl comment. I sighed and looked at my watch. “Holy shit” I gasped, jumping to my feet. “I have to get home and changed, my father was expecting me about ten minutes ago.”

I apologized to my friends and ran out the front door. I hopped on my bike and rode home. My father is the living room waiting, looking none too happy.

“Sorry, Papa” I said, running into the room and up the stairs.

It didn’t even sound strange to call him that. It was something my sister called him and something I used to do when I was about six. It didn’t take me long to get dressed and run back down the stairs. When I got to him, I was kind of in a huff but he didn’t seem to notice. He looked at me strangely again but shrugged it off. We rushed out of house and were able to beat the traffic. We made good time. Mr. CG was waiting at the door for us. Even he raised an eyebrow when the two of us approached. I barely paid attention as I rushed into the Tower Garage. I went right to work, mopping the floors. I was so caught up in my work that I didn’t even stop and notice that the Viper was missing today. I just mopped, completely oblivious to the world around me.

My father worked me to the bone. First, it was mopping, and then it was waxing again. After that, it was a dinner run. I did all without question. We took a break to eat and then we went right back to work. I got to change the oil on a couple of the cars tonight but it didn’t excite me like it should have. I was kind of in a funk for the whole night, barely paying attention to the time as it flew by. I should have been exhausted after working so long but I’d barely broke a sweat. When it was time to go home for the night, I even had a little bounce in my step. It was kind of freaky but I didn’t think about it until I got home and I was getting ready for bed. As soon as the thought occurred to me, I crashed.

I climbed under the covers, my body aching and went right to sleep.

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Author's Note: Here's chapter three, a day earlier than I thought I was going to post it. I put a Caution tag on this one because there is a potential rape, it doesn't get that far but it gets close. Just like before the blue text will represent the Stone speaking and the italics, not in the dream, will represent Jaime speaking to the Stone or the Voice as it's called right now. Be prepared for a fantastic cliffhanger at the end. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters.

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Chapter Three:

‘Care for one, miss” said the waiter as he held a silver platter in front of me.

I nodded, reached over and took one of the lavish looking things off the platter. I’m not even sure what it was, it looked good, though. I folded the whole thing in my mouth and then grabbed another. He smiled at me, it was kind of patronizing, but I didn’t care. I was at a party and one was supposed to have fun at a party, right. I ate my second thing slower than the first because people around me were starting to stare. But they had been doing that as soon as I walked into the room. I was after all the most extraordinary thing in here. It’s funny, but I’m not even sure whose party it was or how I got invited. I just remember being escorted into the building and led down a flight of stairs. The room was big and gorgeous; it was some kind of gilded ballroom, kind of like the one from Beauty and the Beast. It even had a giant gold chandelier hanging high above my head.

I was having a good time though. I think three or four people had already asked me to dance. I danced with two, I think; the others were kind of boorish. Isn’t that awful, not being able to remember how many people asked you to dance? I think I’m a bit drunk. My glass of champagne was half full and I was certain my date was off getting me another. I know there should have been something wrong with that but I couldn’t quite place it. There was something wrong about everything, actually. I think it started as soon as I walked into this fancy place but for the life of me, I can’t figure it out. You know how something is on the tip of your tongue and you can’t quite say it, that’s how I felt. I was racking my brain but it just wouldn’t come.

“Ah, here you are, my dear,” said an austere British voice from behind me.

I turned around and a faceless gentleman handed me a glass of champagne and took the one I was currently holding. I say faceless not because I couldn’t see his face but rather because he didn’t have one. Where his face should have been was nothing but skin. It was the creepiest thing in the world and it should have freaked me out but for some reason it didn’t bother me in the slightest. What else that didn’t seem to bother me was the fact that he could talk without a mouth.

“Thank you” I took a sip of the champagne... it tingled down my throat.

I smiled at him, even though he had no face, he seemed to be the kind of person I would love to get to know. He held out an arm and set my glass on a passing tray, I reached out a delicate hand and took it. Without thinking about it, I let him lead me out to the dance floor. Somewhere Mozart was playing and it was simply divine to dance to. I let myself be carried away by him and the music, my dress and hair flapping and twirling when he spun me. Something about that seemed wrong but I couldn’t quite figure it out. We danced for the longest time and I didn’t seem tired at all. I was enjoying myself immensely until I felt the pressure in my bladder. I groaned, apparently even in dreams you had to pee.

“I have to use the restroom,” I whispered gently in his ear.

“Of course, my darling.”

He led me off the dance floor; the two of us seemed to ooze through the crowd. I left him at one of the tables, making a beeline for the bathrooms. They were in the back of the Ball Room, secluded from the rest of the festivities. I walked toward the right room and glided over to one of the urinals. I lifted my dress, pulled down my tights and panties and froze. What the hell was I doing? I looked and there was a man at one of the urinals next to me. He gave me the strangest look. I smiled, my face blushing red with embarrassment. I started to pull my underwear but stopped because of what I found there. I was shocked, there shouldn’t have been anything there but there was. I’m a woman; I shouldn’t have one of those. Inwardly I panicked but on the outside all I could do was finish what I started.

I flushed after I was done, waiting for my companion to leave. As soon as he did, I rushed over to the door and locked it. Then I ran over to the mirror. There was something wrong and it was there as soon as I looked in the mirror. I was a girl. The realization dawned on me then. I wasn’t supposed to be a girl. I grabbed my chest, feeling the fleshy globes there. I reached up and touched the delicate feminine face. It still looked a lot like me but it was much softer, more beautiful. This wasn’t me; I was supposed to be a guy. Well I suppose I kind of still was but it was small now, like a little boy’s.

How in the hell could something like this happen.

I heard the door open. How was that possible when I locked it?

I turned around and a man walked into the room. It was the guy from before and he still had no face. He walked toward me, suddenly appoearing very menacing. I tried to run but he stepped in my way and pushed me back into the sink. He grabbed one of my arms, applying an enormous amount of pressure to it. I screamed out in pain, discovering how girlish I know sounded.

He laughed. “Leaving already my dear, we are almost done here.”

“What the hell have you done to me?”

“I have done nothing, this is what your body wants, it’s what it craves. I am merely crafting it to your design.”

“I don’t want to be a girl.”

“Maybe not consciously but there’s a small part of you that does. It’s that same part that’s trying to fight me off but it’s not going to win. I am of the Reach, we live to conquer.”

The Reach? It didn’t make any sense. I tried to push past him again but he grabbed my other arm, holding me in place with his immense strength.

“Don’t fight. Let it happen, let me have you.”

He leaned in to kiss me but I wouldn’t let it happen. I got an overwhelming burst of strength and kneed him in the balls. He gasped, letting go of my arms. I pushed him out of the way and ran for the door. I grabbed the handle and tried to open it but it was locked. I unlocked it and yanked it open. He was there and put a hand on the door, slamming it shut. I turned and tried to punch him but he grabbed my wrist. I screamed, punching him in the chest with my free hand but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. He grabbed my throat with his other hand, cinching down tight. I gasped for air, abandoning my efforts to get away and tried to pry his hand from my throat. But it was no use, it was like a vise. He was going to win but I couldn’t let that happen. I needed to fight him, I needed to gain control. This was my dream and my life and I wasn’t going to let this bastard ruin it.

Then it happened. The door seemed to turn to mush and I fell through it. His hand slipped from my throat and I tumbled into darkness…

_______________________________________

I stumbled out of bed, hitting the floor as hard as I could.

I gasped, the jolt knocking me awake. My hand went to my throat, rubbing away the pain that was there. I groaned, there shouldn’t have been any pain; it was a dream. I tried to rack my brain, figuring out what just happened. I sat up and looked around. I was in my room; the morning sun was streaming through the windows. I looked down and I still had a flat chest. I sighed. I touched my chest just to make sure though. When I did, my nipples were kind of swollen and itchy but they still belonged to a guy. I pulled open my boxers and looked down. My thing was still there and still the size it should have been. Thank God for that. I pushed a long strand of hair from my face and groaned.

I jumped to my feet and ran over to my desk. There was this little mirror I kept there to pop zits when needed. I opened the top drawer and rummaged through the junk inside. I found the mirror, pulled it out and looked at myself. I groaned again. My face was softer than before. My eyebrows looked even thinner now and my lips looked a bit fuller too. Not only that, but my hair was long again, about the same length it was at Paco’s house. I stumbled over to my bed and sat on it numbly. How could this be happening to me? I let the mirror slide out of my hand and drop gently onto the carpet. This shouldn’t be happening.

I cried. I’m not proud of it but what else could I do. I cried for a long time. How was I going to explain this to my parents, especially today? It was Sunday. I looked at my alarm clock and sighed, it was only seven in the morning, I still had a few hours before anyone else got up. But there was still no way to explain how I looked now. In a couple of hours my mother would be knocking on my door, telling me to get ready for church. My parents were devout Catholics, so of course, I was too. We went to church every Sunday, from nine in the morning until one in the afternoon. Father Manuel was a friend of my father; they grew up together. After my father was shot and bedridden, he and the church helped a lot. How am I going to hide myself in church? We weren’t allowed to wear hats and not going would be considered a sin in the eyes of my mother.

Unless I was sick of course. It was the only plan I had but I really hated lying to my mother, especially on a Sunday. If she found out, the punishment I got from the car incident would be child’s play in comparison to what she’d do to me. But there was nothing else I could do. I had two options: go to church and be stared at or stay home, pretending to be sick.

I slipped off my bed and went to my bedroom door. I opened it up and peered out into the hall. No one was up, just like I thought. I took a deep breath and slipped down the hall, making my way as quick as possible to the bathroom. I closed the door and locked it then ran to the mirror. My face was definitely different. I still looked like me but I looked like someone else too. I hadn’t tried to think but there was a little bit of a girl staring back at me. It was kind of subtle, but there was no denying it now. I looked a lot like my reflection in the mirror that appeared in my dream. I reached up and gently touched my face. How was that even possible?

I squeezed my cheeks then pinched my arm for good measure. I yelped and groaned, clearly I was awake. Hey, it was worth a shot right.

I continued to stare at myself for a while, trying to see if there was a way I could fake things. Well if no one looked at me too closely I suppose I could pull it off. Then I remembered what day it was. We were going to church; there was no way no one couldn’t look at me. I’d have to receive communion, Father Manuel would be right up close. He’d see my face even if I were turning away. I groaned. I wonder if he’d recognize me. I turned my head both ways, trying to see if I recognized me. Like I said, I still looked pretty much the same but I looked different too. I suppose I looked a little bit like Milagro or what she might look like in a few years. I’m glad I was still Hispanic though. I couldn’t imagine waking up and looking like some white girl.

I finally tore myself away and went about my morning routine. I brushed my teeth, splashed water in my face and stripped. I barely noticed my puffy nipples now as I turned on the water and hopped into the shower. As I stood under the hot water, I shut my eyes and felt the same feeling just like yesterday morning. Only this morning it was more intense. I found my hands drifting to my chest again, rubbing my nipples. I fought back the urge to go down below but just barely. AS I was rubbing my nipples, I noticed something that I didn’t yesterday. All the hair on my arms and chest was gone. I didn’t have much on either but there was enough to notice. Ok, I actually only had a couple of chest hairs but I was a teenage boy growing into a man, so of course I noticed they were gone.
I should have been more concerned but for some reason I kind of liked it. I moved my hands to my arms, running my fingers up and down on my now hairless limb. It felt kind of good. The skin on my arm was a lot smoother than I remembered and my arm seemed thinner too. I didn’t have a lot of muscle to begin with but I had enough to know it was there. After all, I did help my father in the garage lifting heavy boxes and things. In school, I think I was able to bench press at least a hundred and fifty pounds. Now I bet I wouldn’t even be able to do one hundred. It was kind of freaky, but once again, I wasn’t too concerned about it.

I got out of the shower and took another pink towel from the closet. I didn’t even think twice about wrapping it around my body in a feminine manner. In fact, I grabbed another towel from the closet too. This one I used on my hair. It was dripping wet still. I thought about using Milagro’s blow dryer but figured it would make too much noise. It was bad enough that I actually used her shampoo to wash it. I didn’t even realize I did it until I was done and now my head smelled like Peaches and Cream. But it was actually kind of nice. Like grandma’s house. I smiled as I wrapped the second towel around my head; turban style like women did in shampoo commercials. I unlocked the bathroom door and quickly made my way back to my room.

In my bedroom, I went about looking for something to wear. I opened my drawers, rifling through them for something suitable. In the shower I decided there was no way I could go to church looking like I did. Which meant I’d have to lie and stay home but I had no other option. So my clothing choice was pretty simple: sweats. I found what I was looking for actually. It was a pair of gray sweat-pants and a long XX t-shirt. It’s what I usually wore to bed when it was colder out. I took both out of their drawers and tossed them on the bed. I opened my underwear drawer next and reached for a pair of boxers but stopped. They didn’t seem right for some reason. I fumbled about and found a lone pair of briefs. They were still left over from the transition. Most guys switch to boxers when they hit puberty. I started wearing them a couple of months ago, my mom having switched out most of my briefs for them. Apparently, she missed a pair.

I dropped the towel to the floor, leaving the one still wrapped around my head. Then I grabbed the briefs and slipped them on. They were a bit tight but they felt right. I moved about a little, trying to get a feel for them again. Then I picked up the sweats and slipped them on. They were a little baggy around my legs and in the crotch area but tight in the rear. I groaned, clearly I needed new sweats. When I put the shirt on I felt like I was swimming in it but that was nothing new, it was meant to be bigger. I got back into bed after that, making sure I took the towel off my hair and kept most of my new long tresses tucked underneath me so my mother wouldn’t see.

It didn’t take long for her to show up. She knocked before she entered. She was dressed in her fluffy pink bathroom, her hair in a towel turban too. She looked at me still laying in bed and frowned. She saw the wet towels on the floor and shook her head.

‘What’s wrong with you?” she asked gently, walking over and putting her hands on her hips.

I moaned; I hoped it was convincing. ‘I don’t feel too good.’

She bent and put her hand on my forehead. Why do Moms do that anyway, it’s not like you can tell by doing anything like that. She kept her hand there for a bit and then smiled. It was a sincere one and when she looked at me, it was with kind eyes. On any other day, something like this wouldn’t have flown with her, especially on a school day. But I liked church and I never made up excuses to skip it. So if I was sick on a church day then that meant there was no way I could be faking it.

‘You don’t feel like you have a fever but maybe it’s all that hard work you’ve been doing lately. I think it’s run you down. Why don’t you stay home for today and rest?’

I nodded. She bent forward and kissed me on the forehead. She gave me a strange look and my heart started beating faster. Please don’t let her notice anything different about me. Her lips lingered on my head for a second longer than I would have liked but she pulled away without saying anything. She looked at the towels on the floor again and bent to pick them both up. She gave me a look, probably thinking about why I had two of my sister’s pink towels. But she didn’t say anything. Instead, she threw them over her arm and closed the door when she left. I heard her talking to Milagro in the hall and then a few seconds later I heard:

“How come he gets to stay home? That’s so unfair.”

Then my sister stomped down the hall. I smiled and decided to bide my time by counting the glow-in-the-dark stars I have on my ceiling. There’s five hundred and six in case you want to know. I counted each one when I put them up but I liked to count them sometimes to help me keep my mind off of things. I counted them, trying to focus on them and them alone. It usually takes about an hour to do so, this time it took a bit longer. But counting them had the desired effect. Because about an hour and half after starting, I heard my family file out of the house, get in the car and drive off. I sighed in relief, threw off my covers and sat up.

I knew there was no way that I could stay cooped up in this bed all day.

________________________________

I decided to go out but discovered a problem as soon as I tried to put some normal clothes on. First, no matter how many different shirts I put on, they kept rubbing against my chest and driving me insane. It was the most horrible feeling ever and only seemed to get worse every time I moved. I eventually had to settle for wearing two shirts, one of which was a thin undershirt that I hadn’t worn in ages. I had a different problem with my jeans. Like my sweatpants, they were loose in the crotch area and far too tight around my butt. When I got them up to my hips, I actually had some problems pulling them on. I had to lay on the bed to do so and zipping them up was a problem in a half. After that, it was pretty settled what today would entail. I needed to go shopping.

I wore a hoodie with the hood up to hide my new long hair and slipped out the side door so none of the neighbors would see me. I didn’t want to get ratted out after putting on such a convincing performance. I hopped on my bike and rode toward Paco’s house but didn’t stop. Like my family, his was very religious too. The same could be said for Brenda as well. But she didn’t go to our church anymore. Her aunt had some fancy one she went to in the city. It was this giant cathedral; a lot of rich people went there. I’d actually only seen it on TV or when we passed by it in the car on the way to Queen Tower. Brenda said maybe one day she could convince her aunt to allow Paco and I to go with her once.

There was no mall in the area where we lived. There was however a strip of shops that lined the streets on either side of it. The shops were a couple of blocks from my house. Brenda and Paco showed them to me the first week we moved in, making sure that I knew how to get to them. They were all lined in a row and seemed to be organized in no set pattern. There was a barbershop next to a comic shop and a clothing boutique next to an auto parts shop. My father spent a lot of time in the latter. My first stop was the barber of course; I needed to get rid of all this hair. It was already starting to freak me out. How can hair grow that fast?

I pulled up outside, locked my bike to the rack and slipped inside. There was a little dinging bell above the door. Mario’s was the only barber in the area; most of the rest were a few blocks over in a ritzier part of the neighborhood. I always went to Mario’s though. The shop kind of had this 1950’s feel to it, probably because Mario looked like he was still cutting hair then. In truth, he probably wasn’t much older than my father but there was something about his white outfit that harkened back to that day. He was brushing down one of the two chairs he had in the shop, humming to the Retro music that was playing in the background.

He turned and looked at me. “Good morning, miss. The beauty salon is a few doors down, you can’t miss it.”

I groaned. So my fears were right, I did look like a girl. “I’m not looking for the Beauty shop”

I walked over and jumped in the other chair, dropping my hood as I did so. Mario raised an eyebrow but walked over anyway. “You want me to cut your hair?”

I nodded. “Make it as boyish as possible.”

“Are you sure?”

I groaned. Why is that whenever a girl wanted to cut her hair everyone was so wary about doing it. I nodded my head and sighing; he took a pair of his scissors and began. He trimmed slowly at first but started to pick up pace. I closed my eyes and relaxed, sighing a bit. Maybe now I wouldn’t look so much like a girl. I started to wonder what I’d look like now; maybe shorter hair wouldn’t draw so much attention to everything. Everyone would see the short hair, still see Jaime and stop calling me miss. Well at least Mario wouldn’t mistake me for a girl if I walked into his shop again. That was a good thing, right?

It didn’t take him long to cut my hair. Maybe twenty minutes, which I think, is probably normal. When he was done, I felt him using his little brush to get the left over hair off my shoulders. “You can open your eyes and take a look, Principessa.”

I did and he spun the chair so that I was facing the large mirror mounted on the wall. What I saw sent shivers up my spine. It was short hair but it was anything but boyish. I think girls called it a pixie cut and though it definitely didn’t make me look as girlish, it still made me look like a girl. I groaned but seeing the big smile on Mario’s face, I smiled weakly back. I got up from the chair, defeated and asked him how much I owed him. Usually Mario liked to haggle but I got the cut for cheap, without bartering. I paid my ten bucks and left, dissatisfied. But there were other places I needed to shop and my hair was the least of my worries.

My next stop needed to be a clothing store. There was a really good one that Mom took me to all the time, it catered to my laid back style. I started heading in that direction, passing the boutique next to Mario’s. It was called Rachel’s, a lot of girls I knew shopped there, Brenda liked to shop there. It catered to a female crowd, mainly teenagers. I glanced at the window display and something caused me to stop. I’m not sure what but as I stared at the pink dress on the mannequin, my palms started sweating. It was strange but I kind of liked it. It was a light and airy looking thing and probably would look really nice with a good pair of shoes. I groaned, what the hell was I thinking?

I shook my head and pulled myself away from the window. I started walking away again but the urge came back. Then I heard it, there was a slight voice in my ear: “Go into the store... that would look lovely on us.”

I snapped around, expecting to see someone standing behind me. But there was no one there. I think I’m losing my mind. I shook it off and started to walk away again. But the urge came back and my hands started to shake. Then it was like my body had a mind of its own. I found myself walking toward the door. I reached for the handle to open it and forced myself to stop. My heart was pounding in my chest, my hands shaking like mad now. Then I heard the voice again, it was sounded so familiar but I couldn’t quite place it.

“Go into the shop. You want to try that dress on; I think it would look good on you.”

My hand acted on its own and grabbed the handle, pulling open the door. I struggled, but it was no use as I walked inside. I’d been in Rachel’s before; Brenda liked to drag Paco and me in here for some torture. It was the typical looking boutique with its pink color scheme and loads of clothes. There were changing rooms in the back and a counter in the corner. Behind the counter was a pleasant looking woman and when she saw me, she sprang right over. She was about my mother’s age, with a streak of gray through her black hair. She was dressed in a smart skirt and blouse and her high heels clacked on the floor as she came over. I looked around and groaned, I was the only one in the store.

“Good morning, sweetie, how can I help you?”

I opened my mouth to tell her that I came in here by mistake but that’s not what came out. Instead, when I spoke my voice wasn’t my own. It was light and girly. “I’m looking for a new wardrobe, the one I have now is so drab.”

Holy crap, who the hell just talked. I wanted to throw my hand to my mouth but I couldn’t.

“Relax, my dear,” said a stuffy voice in my head. “I’ll take it from here.”

It was then that I recognized the voice. It was the one from my dreams, the faceless British dude who had been messing with me for the last two nights. How was this even possible? Who are you and what do you want from me? I sent my thoughts out into my head but I got no response. Instead, I found my body walking by itself, following the woman as she led me over to the lingerie. It was as if I was working on autopilot while my body and this woman did all the work. Soon my arms were piled down with bras and panties. I screamed into my head and heard sinister laughter. I tried to fight it but it was too strong. My body then followed the woman over to some of the clothes racks. She started pulling tops off and handing them to me, guessing my size. My body took them and then asked about skirts.

“I have the perfect one for you,” said the woman as she walked off to get it.

“This isn’t funny anymore” I shot into my head.

“Relax,” said the voice “I’ve done this before. You and I are now one or we will be very soon. You are in good hands; I’ll make sure to take very good care of you.”

“I don’t want to be taken care of, I want my life back.”

The Voice laughed. “Your life belongs to me now.”

The hell it does. I screamed as loud as I could into my head. The Voice was laughing at me and then it stopped. It was abrupt but I shattered its control. My scream was so powerful that I lost control and stumbled forward, falling into a rack of clothes. There was a loud clatter and the woman came running, holding a couple of skirts in her hands. She gave me a look, glaring. I opened my mouth to explain but she pointed at the door. I smiled, glad that I wasn’t welcome here. I dropped my armful of clothes on the floor and marched out the door.

“That was a foolish thing to do,” said the Voice.

“Screw you.”

I started down the street, fed up with my little shopping expedition. I turned and headed back to the bike rack in front of Mario’s. My bike was still there. But it wasn’t alone. There were a couple of guys lingering around it, smoking and leaning against the rack. I sighed. This is all I needed, more jerks to mess with. I took a deep breath and marched over. It didn’t take long for the first one to turn and notice me. Two of them were black and the third was Hispanic. They were a couple of years older than me, dressed in the typical baggy pants, wife beater style. I hated guys like this; they always thought they were God’s gift to the world.

I approached with vigor, bound to not let these jerks get the better of me. As soon as I got near my bike, one of them stepped in my way.

“Hey mama” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder. “You want to go to a party with me.’

“Get lost” I snapped, pissed that even with my new haircut these jackasses thought I was a girl.

“C’mon baby, don’t be like that,” he said, rubbing his hand up and down my arm.

I shrugged him off. “I said get lost or I’ll scream rape.”

All three of them laughed. Unfortunately, there was a lot to be funny about. In my neighborhood, cops didn’t give a damn. They walked the streets and drove around but they weren’t very good peacekeepers. Posse and the fear of La Dama kept them away from doing their real duty. Instead, most police officers huddled about in donut shops and answered domestic disturbance calls. Crime was at an all time high now, even more so now that the Green Arrow was gone. Things were a bit different when she was patrolling the streets but like I mentioned before, she hadn’t been seen in months. So punks like these were rampant around these parts and there wasn’t a single thing that anyone could do about it.

“Don’t be like that,” said one of the other guys as he stepped off the bike rack, throwing his cigarette on the ground. ‘We got a little place a couple of blocks from here. You’d fit right in.”

He stepped up to me, he towered over me. His breath smelled of cigarettes and cheap liquor. He hung over me like a statue, smirking down at me. His buddy holding my arm slipped around behind me. I tried to watch him but that meant taking my eyes off the other two. Shit, this was so not, what I wanted right now. I bit my lip, trying to figure a way out of this. I could scream but it wouldn’t accomplish anything. Maybe a Good Samaritan would come to my rescue but chances are these three bastards would just beat the hell out of me or possibly something much worse. I couldn’t let that happen, especially because these jackasses thought I was a girl. If they tried to rape me and discovered otherwise then I was definitely a dead man.

I panicked and tried to push my way past. But like I thought, they weren’t going to let me. The third one left his post on the rack and came over, wiping his hands on his shiny baldhead. I gulped, biting my lip. There was no out of this; I was screwed no matter what I did. Shit, why did I leave the house today?

The third one made his move. It was subtle. He pulled out a knife and went for my hoodie, slicing a nice big slit up the front. I opened my mouth to scream when a hand clamped over it, cutting off the attempt. The second guy grabbed my hoodie and tore it back, revealing my shirt underneath. The third guy came forward with his knife again, easily slicing through both my shirts. What I saw shocked the hell out of me. No wonder they thought I was a girl, I had breasts. They weren’t really big but they were there. My eyes widened as I stared at them. How in the hell was that possible?

“Check out the itty bitty Commando chick” the one with the knife, laughed. “Haven’t you ever heard of a bra, chica?”

I tried to struggle out of his friend’s grasp but it was no use.

The second guy went for my pants but the first one, the one holding me, stopped him. “Not here, Marcus” He pointed his head to the left. “Down there, there’s no witnesses.’

I looked where he was pointing. There was a narrow alley between Mario’s and Rachel’s. It wasn’t very big but it was big enough to do what these guys wanted to do. Oh God, please no. The guy holding me lifted me off the ground and carried me toward the alley. I kicked and struggled, trying to break free. The hand slipped from my mouth and I screamed. Just like I thought though, no one came to my rescue. They carried me to the alley, taking me as far back into it as possible. The guy holding me tossed me on the ground. It hurt like hell. I tried getting to my feet but I didn’t get very far. The one who threw me pushed me back down while the other, Marcus, bent down in front of me to undo my pants. I screamed again, as loud as I could. The third guy, the one with the knife, stood against the wall, watching the whole thing.

I kicked and fought. But it was no use; they were bigger and stronger than me.

“Stop her from wiggling,” said the one with the knife. “And shut her up.”

The one undoing my pants stopped and punched me in the face. My head snapped back, hitting the wall. A flood of pain exploded in my head. My vision started to blur but I fought it. I can’t pass out; I can’t let these bastards get the better of me.

“Are you ready for assistance?”

It was the Voice, I’d completely forgotten about it. “Yes, please, do something.”

“If I do this, there’s no going back?”

“I don’t care, stop these bastards.”

“You only had to ask.”

I lost control of my body. The pain in my head dulled somewhat but I stopped struggling. The guys thought it was me giving in and allowing them to have their fun. Somehow, I knew differently. Something happened, something I can’t explain. My body started to tingle and my skin felt like it had ants crawling inside of it. I screamed out into my head, freaked out at what I felt. I was freaked out even more at what I saw. My skin was changing, turning blue and hardened. At first, I thought it was my imagination but soon enough the blue started to spread. My skin felt like it was on fire now as the hardening blue started to cover my whole body. It moved quickly, tearing my clothes to shreds, covering me like some freaky jumpsuit.

The three guys jumped back, the one with the knife even going so far as to slamming into the far wall. The one holding me freaked out, dropping me. The one who had been undoing my pants was still sitting in front of me, staring at me like I’d just crawled out of the sewer or something.

The burning sensation rose up my neck and finally started to cover my head. As soon as it got over my face, everything changed. My vision blinked out and when it blinked back, everything was blue and sharper than before. The two thugs who jumped back stared with open mouths while the third crouched in front of me just stared. I raised my hands, flexing my fingers. My hands were covered in this black and blue armor-like substance. I had no idea what it was but it was kind of cool.

“Defensive battle armor engaged” said the Voice in my head.

“What the hell is this?”

“You asked for my help and now I have given it” said the Voice “I am of the Reach, we are to conquer.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That is to be expected, human,” said the Voice “just know that I am a great warrior of my people and that you and I are now one.”

“What does that mean?”

“Your body belongs to me now.”

I didn’t understand any of it but right now, I didn’t care. I looked at the guy crouched in front of me and something happened. His body seemed to go transparent and I saw all his insides. A display of some kind flashed before my eyes and a bunch of words started scrolling down it. At first, they were unreadable gibberish but then I started to understand. They were a list of his vitals, showing where he was weak and most prone to attack. This would have been so cool if I wasn’t so freaked out by it all. I had no idea what was going on and frankly, I didn’t give a damn.

“Who and What are you?”

“I am Khaji Da of the Reach, and We are One.”

-----

Author's Note: Now its time to give those bastards what they deserve. We also get to learn a little more about Khaji Da and what makes him tick. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for creating such great characters.

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Chapter Four:

“What does all that mean?”

The Voice didn’t have time to explain. It seems that whatever shock my three assailants were suffering from was gone. The one with the knife was the first to move. Instead of moving toward me, he slid along the wall, trying to make a quick exit. An overwhelming urge to punish the bastard severely swelled inside me. That’s when my body seemed to react on its own. I swung my arm out, smacking the guy crouched in front of me out of the way as I sprang to my feet. I went right after the knife guy, moving at a speed I didn’t even think was humanly possible. I was on him in a split second, slamming him against the brick. He gasped for air as my hand closed around his throat. I slammed into him so hard that I think some of his ribs actually broke. He dropped his knife and tried to pry my fingers from his neck but it was no use.

Anger flooded my body, an anger that I’d never felt before in my entire life. I liked it, I liked it a lot. I clamped down on his throat, squeezing the air out of him. Though I didn’t seem to be in control of my actions, my emotions were all over the place. He must die, this bastard must be punished. I squeezed tighter, watching as his eyes turned blood shot and bugged out of his head. His mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. He was dying in my hands and I loved it. At least a small part of me did. There was another part of me screaming in the back of my head. I could feel it pounding on my brain, pushing to get free. But the homicidal part was stronger and seemed to be pushing my other part back. The homicidal part had a laugh, cackling as if tempting the docile part of me to try and stop it. My mind shifted. The homicidal part lost ground, the cackling stopped. The docile part pushed through and my grip on the bastard’s throat lessened. What the hell was I doing?

My mind focused and a fog seemed to lift.

I let go of the son of a bitch’s throat. He slid to the ground, gasping and spurting for air.

“We had him,” said the Voice, Khaji Da. “Why did you let him go?”

“I’m no murderer.”

“Not yet but you will be soon.”

I ignored him and heard a rustle behind me. I snapped around. The other two jackasses were getting weapons. There was some garbage at the end of the alley. One of the guys got a rusty metal pipe; the other grabbed a wooden board with a few nails. I groaned. Why couldn’t they be scared little pricks and try to run like their friend? I left the guy with the knife gasping on the ground and turned to his friends. They started slowly down the alley, moving as two, trying to get some kind of position on me to attack.

“You don’t have to do this,” I said. The voice that came out of my mouth was both feminine and mechanical at the same time.

“You fucked up Jose, you Robo Bitch” said the one with the pipe.

Clearly, trying to talk sense into them wasn’t going to work.

Suddenly the little display from before snapped up and both their bodies seemed to go transparent. Their vitals hopped up onto my displays a second later. Then my vision shifted to their weapons, seeming to scan them as well. More strange words scrolled across my display, telling me the odds of those two things being effective on me. Apparently, neither was really good in their favor. I looked around the alley, scanning that as well. How did I know that’s what I was doing? I’m not sure but somehow everything made sense to me. It was like I was connected to this armor somehow and I knew everything about it.

“We’re symbiotic now, you and I are One.”

“You keep saying that, but what does that mean, exactly.”

“I do not have to explain anything to you, human.”

I groaned. I didn’t have time to argue with whatever it was inside my head. The two jerks chose that time to attack, too. They came at me together, which was their first mistake. Though I now had semi-control over my body, my actions were hardly the work of me alone. I lashed out at the closest assailant first, which happened to be the one with the metal pipe. He tried to bring it down on my head but I now seemed to possess lightning fast reflexes. I threw my arm up, blocking the blow. When the pipe hit my arm, I didn’t even feel it. I swung forward with my free hand, balling it into a fist and hitting the bastard dead center, slamming full force into his solar plexus. What’s a solar plexus; I have no idea. But whatever it was, the blow I gave him knocked the wind out of him. He stumbled back, dropping the pipe.

His friend came at me with the board. I lashed out with a foot, catching him in the gut. When he stumbled back, I spun around, punching him in the face. There were a lot of bones that cracked when my fist collided. He fell backwards too but he didn’t let go of his weapon. He ended up on his butt in a daze. It was enough time for the pipe wielder to recover and grab his weapon. He swung it at me again. I snapped in that direction and went on the defensive again. I grabbed the pipe. I know it was rusty but what happened next was inhumanly possible. I squeezed the pipe, the metal actually crumbled in my hand. It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen.

His eyes were as wide as mine. He let go of the pipe and I tossed it aside. He stumbled backwards but I lashed forward again, grabbing his shirtfront. I raised him a good foot off the ground, holding him with one hand.

‘You ready to give up this foolish endeavor?”

He nodded his head. I held onto him for a few seconds longer then I spun around and threw him into his friend. Both of them went crashing to the ground. I made my way over to them, trying to see if there was something in my arsenal that could subdue them when I heard the sirens. Sure, the police come when I’m no longer in trouble. The sirens were close, too close for my comfort. I turned and saw a police car pull up in front of the alley. Shit, they were a lot closer than I thought. Two cops got out and drew their guns as soon as they saw me. I didn’t even know what I looked like but judging by the reactions I was getting so far, I was probably not a looker.

“Freeze” shouted one of them as they made their way down the alley. “Put your hands over your head and get on the ground.”

“We need to immobilize those gentlemen if we wish to escape.”

“They’re cops, they’re the good guys.”

“They are pointing primitive projectile weapons at us. I cannot allow that.”

“I’m not hurting cops.”

“You won’t have to.”

I lost control of my body again. I found myself slowing, walking toward the police officers, a slave to my own movements. I tried to fight it but Khaji Da was in control again. The stupid bastard hijacked me and now he was going to turn me into something I wasn’t. I screamed in my head but the laughing was back. My docile pounding began again and this time it wasn’t nearly as strong. I can’t do this, I can’t hurt them. I tried to force this thought at Khaji but it was ignoring me. So I tried something else. This is my body and that meant that this was my suit as well. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. It didn’t take long to figure things out.

Though Khaji was in control at the moment, he seemed to be able to only control one function at a time. Which left the others at my disposal? There were so many to choose from, most of them way over my head. But there was one that jumped out above all the others: flight. I centered everything I had on it, trying to bring it up. I opened my eyes and a new screen appeared, showing a little schematic of a figure with what appeared to be metallic bug wings springing from its back. You’ve got to be kidding me. I groaned and concentrated as hard as I could on the little figure.

I felt something behind me. There was a whooshing sound, which I knew to be my wings unfolding behind me. I concentrated even harder, willing my mind: Up.

“What are you doing, human?”

“Changing the game.”

The police officers stepped back slightly. I stepped forward, bent at the knees and jumped into the air. As soon as I got about ten feet off the ground, the wings did the rest. I skyrocketed out of the alley, up over all the buildings on the street and zipped off toward the direction of home, hoping I’d get back in time before my family got home from church.

____________________________________

I landed on a roof a few blocks over, still quite a distance from my house. I could actually see my block, with all the houses lined in a row. There were twelve houses on my street, six on each side. There were only four blocks in this part of town that had houses at all and most of them were in worse shape than mine. Our street was the best one of the lot, because of my neighbors. We didn’t live next to drug dealers or rapists. There was a guy a couple of houses down from Paco who might have been a thief but he was eighty and long since retired.

I took a deep breath and turned my attention away from my street. What I needed to find was the church. It was easy to spot because of the tall steeple on top. It was the only Catholic church for a couple of miles. On the rooftop, I saw the spires of the others; the closest one looked like a toy. Then there were the buildings of San Francisco and the famous bridge off in the distance. It was kind of funny; I’d lived here for seven months now and had yet to drive across it once. My father said it was nothing important but I still wanted to do it. Paco and Brenda said it was the coolest thing in the world, which only made me more jealous. I forgot about the bridge for a moment though and continued to look at our little church. It was called St. Patrick’s, I’m sure there are a lot of those around. I scanned the parking lot, amazed that my new blue vision seemed to be able to zoom in. I searched the cars, looking for my mother’s Prius. They didn’t drive the truck to church because there wasn’t enough room for everyone. It didn’t take me long to find the car, it was parked farther from the building than the rest. My father had this thing about not parking near other cars, I’m not sure why.

I wonder what time it is. As soon as the thought left my head, a small digital clock appeared to the left of my vision. The glowing numbers told me it was about eleven fifteen, which meant I had some time before I needed to get home. I sighed, dropping down to sit on the edge of the building. It gave me ample time to figure everything out. The first question was probably the biggest: What the hell was happening to me. The others were just as important but the first one was the one I really wanted answered.

“So start talking.”

“You are under the impression that I would willingly give you information?”

“You’re the bad ass thing that got me into this mess, so yes, you’re going to start answering some of my questions.”

“And if I refuse?”

He called my bluff. I had no idea what I was going to do. If he was right and we really were one then there wasn’t much I could do. I didn’t really want to do anything to harm him because it would harm me too. God that’s annoying. Not that I actually knew who or what he really was. I didn’t even know where he came from.

“Well, that one is rather obvious”. He actually laughed. “Do you remember that blue, scarab shaped stone you found in the trash?”

Oh my God, how was that even possible? “You’re the stone?”

“It's not really a stone. I am a Blue Scarab, created by the Reach as an Infiltrator, sent to your world to infiltrate your society and prepare you for conquest.”

“You’re an alien?”

He sighed. “I am an artificial construct.”

“But you were created by aliens?”

“The Reach are far beyond your description of an alien. I have studied your world for centuries; I have seen your modern societies rise and fall. This one that you are so proud of is not that different from the others. For eons I have watched your pitiful race and when the Reach arrives, you will all be destroyed in a matter of seconds.”

“You’ve been here for eons?” This time I laughed. “Dude, you’ve been hosed. They sent you on a bogus mission. If you’ve been here so long, how come these great space invaders haven’t arrived yet?”

I don’t think he liked being laughed at. One of my hands flew up and smacked me in the face. This time he laughed.
“The Reach will come and when they do you will be the first to bow down to them.”

“I’m not bowing to anyone.”

“You are an Agent of the Reach now; you will not be able to refuse.”

“You wait and see.”

I think I pissed him off. I felt my hand beginning to move again but this time I stopped it. I screamed as loud as I could in my head, forcing my arm back under my control. I groaned. This was getting really tedious. I couldn’t live like this, having this guy in control whenever he damn well pleased. I knew to do something; I need to find a way to override this bastard.

“There is no way. We are One; you do not control this body anymore. It is mine to do with as I please."

I smirked. “If that’s the case then why haven’t you taken complete control of it yet?”

He was silent for a few seconds. His silence was enough. When he finally answered, I knew I had him beat. “I am not accustomed to such a young form. My former hosts were much older than you; you are difficult to get a grasp on.”

I laughed. “In other words, you can’t.”

“There is no can’t in the Reach vocabulary. I will take control of this body and when I do, you will be a slave to my power.”

“Why can’t you just admit that I’ve got you beat and move on?”

“The Reach cannot be defeated.”

“You’re not of the Reach anymore. They abandoned you years ago. If you’re attached to me than you are of the humans. Does that compute?”

Khaji Da said nothing. I sat and waited for his response but it never came. Finally some peace and quiet. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them, my blue vision continued to scan the area. Damn, I forgot to ask about this stupid suit thingy. I grabbed the back of my head, where I knew I probably looked like some dork in a Halloween mask. I tried to find a seam, anything that might be able to help me pull this stupid thing off my head. But there was nothing. In fact, when I started to tug back there it started to hurt. You’ve got to be kidding me. I switched targets and tried to pull what I thought were gloves from my fingers. But as soon as I started tugging on them, it was like trying to rip skin from my body. Is this thing a part of me? How the hell do I get it off? As soon as I thought about it, a display screen popped up in front of my eyes and words scrolled across it. I sighed; it couldn’t be that easy, could it?

I took a deep breath and spoke the words: “Defensive armor, deactivate.”

It felt like a giant band-aid being torn from my body. I screamed out as the armor began to liquefy on my skin, crawling away from my body. I looked at my hands and watched as he blue and black armor turned into ooze and slowly started seeping up my arms. I looked at my chest and it was doing the same, moving away from my body. All of it seemed to be crawling toward my back as if there was a point of origin there. I noticed something else too. As soon as the armor pulled away from parts of my skin, my clothes were nowhere to be seen. I gasped when I saw my thin hairless legs. Then when I looked at my bellybutton, there was a girl’s navel staring back at me. It wasn’t until I saw down below and my naked breasts that I knew my life was over.

Oh, God, I’m a girl. Before I just looked like one but now, it was everything.

The armor finished oozing off the rest of my body. There was a sharp pain in the middle of my back and then nothing. I fell to my knees, burying my head in my hands. I started to sob for my lost manhood. How was this even possible? I cried for the longest time, the tears wouldn’t stop coming. After a while, I wasn’t even sure what I was crying for anymore.

“There is no turning back. You can mourn what you have lost but you can never get it back.”

“What the fuck do you know about it?”

“More than you think.”

I got to my feet, angry at this thing. It did this to me and yet it seemed to think comforting me would help. I didn’t want Its pity, I wanted my old life back. I took a step forward, my new assets swaying with me as I did. I looked down and groaned. Why were they so big? Ok, maybe they weren’t ginormous but they were a lot bigger than I wanted them to be. Hell, I wanted them to be as flat as a board and nonexistent. But these puppies had to be at least a C. I reached up and clasped them, disgusted by them. Yet there was something else too. They were a lot heavier than I thought and they were so warm. I never thought in a million years that the first pair of breasts I held would be my own. They were even bigger than Brenda’s.

I smiled at that. Then I groaned. You’re not supposed to be smiling about those things.

“Your mind will adjust to your new form. You may not accept the change but very soon it will not feel foreign to you.”

“Why the hell did you do this to me?”

“As I said before, it is what you wanted.”

“I don’t want to be a girl.”

“Are we to have this conversation again? I have recorded the previous one; do you wish me to replay it back so you can compare your answers?”

“Go to hell.”

“That is metaphysically impossible, for such a place needs to…”

I ignored him, droning him out by humming as loud as I could in my head. It seemed to work because his annoying voice disappeared from my thoughts. I needed time to think on my own. I let go of my breasts, trying not to dwell on them and took a look at my surroundings. I was on a roof; the building was one of the older ones, a couple of stories. I walked to the edge and looked below. There was an alley between it and the one next to it. I looked across and the gap wasn’t too bad. There was no way I was going to jump it, though. I looked around the rest of the roof, looking for a way down. Most places had a roof access stairwell or a hatch or something. This one didn’t have any of those things. How could they not have a hatch or something?

The only thing I saw that might look like a way down was a skylight. I groaned and walked over. When I looked through the dirty glass, I saw a lot of wooden crates below. I must be on top of a storage warehouse of some kind. My eyes suddenly stung and my vision went blue. It scared me at first but I got accustomed quickly. It was a bit of a shock though. Suddenly the blue went into zoom mode and I was able to see everything in the warehouse below. A bunch of statistics started scrolling across my vision. Most of it was a bunch of crap. The boxes contained medical supplies, nothing really important. It was kind of freaky that my eyes changed like this though. I looked around the rest of the roof, trying to see if there was something I missed.

I spotted the top of a metal ladder. I walked over slowly and looked down. It led down the back of the building, to another alley, this one bigger than the others. I took a deep breath and the blue vision disappeared. How cool was it that I was able to do that? I started walking toward the ladder but stopped as soon as I reached it. I guess I was in such awe that I forgot one very important little thing. I looked down and blushed. I was naked. There was no way I was walking around the streets with absolutely nothing on.

“You should have taken those clothes that nice lady picked out for you.”

“Shut up. This is all your fault you know.”

“I hardly see how that is the case.”

“You’re the one who did this to me.”

“You’re the one who wanted it.”

“So you say.”

I groaned. There was no point in arguing with him. I took a deep breath and tried to think of options. But there were no options. It was either walk home naked or walk home naked. I sighed; clearly, whoever designed that suit didn’t factor clothes into the equation. How the hell was I supposed to get home now?

“Perhaps I can help,” said Khaji.

“And how are you going to do that?”

“I can synthesize apparel for you. It will not be the same as your normal garments but it will be enough to fool those you might be embarrassed about seeing you in the nude.”

“You can make clothes?”

“Indeed.”

Cool. Of all the Alien devices, I found the Swiss army knife. “Ok, make me some clothes. But nothing too girly or I’ll jump off this building.”

“That would be counterproductive to both our well beings.”

“Just make me some clothes.”

My whole body started tingle. Then the ooze started to rise again. I could feel it seeping out my back this time. It slowly started to crawl across my skin again, like little ants. I closed my eyes; I didn’t want to see what it was doing. It didn’t take long this time. When I opened my eyes again I was shocked, I was fully clothed. Khaji took my suggestion and went with it, which made me sigh. I looked down. I was wearing a pair of tight girly jeans, white sneakers and light blue top. I lifted the top and peered inside; I was even wearing a bra. I touched the clothes, surprised that they felt real. It was the most amazing thing in the world.

“You are satisfied?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I made my way to the ladder and started down it as fast as I could. If I could time things right, I might be able to double back, get my bike and make it home before them. Then I had some serious explaining to do.

____________________________________

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I was standing at the end of the street, trying as I might to get to Mario’s and my bike. But unfortunately for me there was a huge crowd filling most of the street. I tried to see over a lot of the heads but I was still too short. Apparently, changing genders didn’t mean growing any taller. Which kind of sucked especially seeing as there seemed to be something crazy going on up ahead. There were police cars and at least two news vans. I groaned because I had a pretty good idea. There was an Asian reporter interviewing a familiar looking police officer. I say familiar looking because he was one of the ones who tried to apprehend me in the alley. I took a deep breath and started pushing my way through the crowd. Being short was only good for one thing and that was shoving my way into small places. I was able to push and weave my way to the front of the action.

There was a yellow tape border, cutting off the rest of the road from exactly where I needed to go. The tape was actually attached to the bike rack and stretched across the road to the bike rack on the other side of the street. There were five officers pulling crowd control. The reporter and the officer were talking about ten feet from me. I ignored them for a second and looked at my bike. It was still there, thank God. I looked past it to an ambulance that I couldn’t see from the back of the group. Two paramedics were coming out of the alley carrying a stretcher. Strapped to it was another familiar face, it was the goon with the knife. I didn’t mess him up that much, did I?

“We fractured four of his ribs, broke his wrist and gave him a concussion. He will survive his injuries.”

I ignored the annoyance and looked for the others. They were already in the back of a squad car; they were bandaged but looked OK otherwise. One of them caught sight of me, his eyes widened and then there was a severe look of fear on his face. I slipped into the crowd and moved a few people over, coming up closer to the reporter and the cop. Apparently, I came on in the beginning of their conversation, which was good because I was curious to what they had to say.

“This is Tana Moon, reporting live from the scene” She had a big smile. She turned to the officer. “Now Officer Harris, can you tell me in your own words what exactly happened?”

“My partner and I responded to a disturbance at Mario’s. When we got there, we saw this Blue Bug Girl, like a giant beetle, attacking these three punks. We tried to apprehend her but she flew away.”

“Two of the three attacked by this Blue Beetle person suffered minor injuries while the third is being taken to Star City General in serious condition. The whereabouts of this Blue Beetle are still unknown.”

“ But, this reporter will stop at nothing to find out the truth, this is Tana Moon, for KGBS, signing off.”

She gave the signal to her cameraman and her broadcast was over.

I didn’t wait around to see what she planned to do next. I slipped back into the crowd and pushed my way to the back of it. I hated to think that my bike was lost but there was no way I was getting it in this media frenzy. Besides, I didn’t want to stick around long enough for one of those goons to see me again and point me out to the crowd. I slumped my shoulders and started walking away. I got about ten feet when I heard someone shout at me. At first, I was ready to bolt but then I recognized Mario’s voice.

“It is you, Principessa” He came huffing over. “You leave without your bike.”

I smiled at him. “I don’t see how I’ll be able to get it with that circus.”

“Tell you what. I get it for you and keep in my shop. You come back tomorrow and pick it up.”

I smiled and nodded. I think that made him happy. He turned and went back into the crowd. I let out a deep sigh. That was too close.

“You should be more careful.”

“You should mind your own business."

I continued to walk away. I was now going to be late but I suppose that didn’t matter now anyway. I still had no idea how I was going to explain to my parents that their son was now their daughter. I’m so screwed. I groaned and started for the corner. I got about ten feet away when a cold chill went down my spine. I stopped and snapped around, my eyes narrowing. I’m not sure what it was but it felt like someone was watching me. My blue vision snapped up and I scanned the crowd. Everyone suddenly went infrared which was the coolest thing in the world. Most of the people seemed harmless until I got to a weird girl in black. She had pale skin and wore dark sunglasses. She came up the same heat signature as the others but there was something off about her.

Our eyes locked and then she seemed to vanish into the crowd.

“We must go now. There will be more soon.”

“More what?”

“I am not sure but I do not like the feel of her. She is not human.”

“What is she?”

“You let me worry about that.”

I stared into the crowd but the girl was long gone. My blue vision faded away but I continued to stare for a few seconds anyway. When I was finally satisfied that no one was watching me, I turned and went around the corner. I looked at my wrist, groaning because I wasn’t wearing a watch. Suddenly one appeared and I looked at the time. It was ten to twelve, I was so dead. I took a deep breath and started running as fast as I could toward home.

-----

Author's Note: Here's five...Jaime's family comes home from church and boy are they in for a surprise. THen Jaime shows his school spirit in an interesting way. I'm not prone to spoilers in my notes but I couldn't resist that little tease. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters.

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Chapter Five:

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to be going bad for you and then something goes right? It’s like falling in the mud and then discovering a Benjamin---that’s 100 bucks in case you didn’t know--- underneath you or getting smacked in the face with a basketball in Gym class and the jerk who did it gets three months detention for doing it deliberately. The latter one happened but God, I wish the first one had, too. Anyway, where I am getting with this. Well, I ran as hard as could home and when I finally got there, I discovered to my amazement that I actually had beaten my family home. My heart was pounding in my chest and I was so tired I could barely stand, but I still beat them. I couldn’t believe my luck. I looked up into the sky and thanked whatever Maker was up there. Ok, yeah I believe in God, the Maker thing is a Star Wars reference, don’t you people watch movies?

I took a deep breath, huffing my way up the driveway. I looked at my watch to make sure I got the time right. On a bicycle, it took me about anywhere between fifteen to twenty minutes to get from the shops to home. That was all depending on how fast I was going. But running it should have taken me another ten to twenty minutes or so. So it was twelve forty five now, which meant my family should have been home. Maybe God is on my side today. Or maybe my family decided to stop for lunch like they sometimes did. Whatever the reason I was in the clear and that was the best thing to happen to me all day.

I snuck along the side of the house and went in through the kitchen. I forgot to lock the door when I left but my neighborhood was so highly monitored by the neighbors that even squirrels looked around before taking a nut off someone’s lawn, just in case they got arrested for it. I’m over exaggerating, of course, but things were pretty tight. I slipped into the house, lumbered over to the sink and poured myself a glass of water. I chugged it and went back for a refill. My mother would have had a fit if she saw me drinking tap water. She had this thing about it, I’m not sure what but she was convinced that it was poisoned or something. If she used water to cook with, she boiled it before using it. My father tried to talk her into getting one of those water filters but she wouldn’t even trust it. My mother was strange like. She could wash dishes in the sink, but she wouldn’t let us drink from it. Go figure.

I stumbled up the stairs, skipping my room and went right into the bathroom. First, I went to the toilet. I lifted the lid and unzipped my pants but as soon as I did, I discovered a huge problem. I groaned when I realized there was nothing there anymore. I hate this. My face flushed red and then I stubbornly sat on the seat. It was definitely a new experience and if you think I’m going to describe it then you’re sick. I flushed when I was done and went to the sink to wash my hands. As I was doing so, I got a good look at my new face in the mirror. I was shocked at how cute I was now. I still looked a little like me but it was hard to tell. My pixie cut framed my face well. I still had my sparkling green eyes and my mother’s ears, but everything else looked foreign. My nose was smaller and more delicate, my cheekbones were higher, my eyebrows much thinner. I had full lips and when I smiled, I had these cute dimples.
I looked like a cross between my sister and younger pictures of my mother.

“What the hell did you do to me?”

“Are you not satisfied with how you look?”

I leaned closer to the mirror. Yes, I was a fox, but how in the world could this thing think I wanted this. There was nothing in my whole life that would make me want to be a girl. I was as manly as ever. Well maybe I was a little short and a late bloomer as far as puberty went but that didn’t mean I wanted to be a girl. I liked being a boy, I liked everything about it. I liked playing football in the street and rolling in the mud. I liked riding my bike until I threw up and playing video games until my eyes hurt. I liked drinking out of the milk carton and belching aloud when my mother wasn’t around. But most important of all, I liked peeing standing up. There was nothing in me at all that wanted to be a girl.

“I beg to differ.”

“You’re an Alien Interloper, what the hell do you know about it?”

“Perhaps a hot soothing shower can help clear your mind?”

I looked at my watch. It usually took my family about an hour and a half to eat lunch. My father liked to sit and drink a whole cup of coffee and that took forever. Sometimes he even drank two and they always liked to go to this little diner. You know how long it takes to be waited on in those places. So I had time, I had plenty of time. So a shower was a good thing. This time though I turned the water on first and got a towel beforehand. I made a grab for one of my blue towels; there was no way I was going to let this girl thing get the better of me. I tossed the towel on the toilet seat and made sure to lock the door. I didn’t want any surprises.

I was about to strip out of my clothes but as soon as I did they vanished. It was the creepiest thing in the world. One second they were there and the next they just disintegrated. It would have been cool if it wasn’t so freaky. My watch vanished too, which wasn’t so impressive. I tried not to think too much about it, there was still a lot of this alien stuff I didn’t quite understand. Instead, I just closed my eyes and stepped into the shower. The hot water was soothing and felt so much different on my body. I was completely hairless now, except for the patch between my legs and on my head. It was definitely a new experience as the water washed over my body. I bit my lip and fought back every urge to explore down below. Hey, I’ve seen movies; I know what girls do down there.

My nipples started to harden but I stopped myself. I know what you’re probably thinking, and no I’m not some shower perv. Ok so maybe showers are my thing but this doesn’t mean that I get off every time I get into one. It’s just that the last few days my body has been super sensitive and the water is so soothing. You know what I mean, so I don’t need to explain things.

I used some of my sister’s shampoo again and instead of using soap, I found this body wash she liked to use. It was real smooth and felt fantastic on my skin. I can’t even describe it but it was the most invigorating thing in the world. I lathered my whole body with it, rinsed and did it again. I spent about fifteen minutes in the shower, making sure I was good and clean. When I got out and wrapped the towel around me, I didn’t even second guess the fact that I wrapped it like a girl. This time though it didn’t seem so awkward because I actually had something holding it up properly. I unlocked the door and slipped down the hall. I was in no rush, because it would be a while before anyone came through the door.

I went into my room, looking around. Ok, I’m not exactly the neatest person in the world, but I had no idea I was such a slob either. My clothes were strewn about like my dresser had exploded and there were papers scattered all over the place. I sighed. How could I live like this before and more importantly, why do I care so much now. If it’s a crazy chick thing, I’m so checking myself into Arkham or something. It’s a mental institution in case you’re wondering. I saw it on the news; it’s in Chicago or something. There some big story about it, I don’t really remember the details.

I walked over to my bed, still wrapped in the towel, and sighed. This morning I was a normal kid, well, semi-normal, who was only slightly feminine. Now I was the poster child for the female movement. I looked down at the globes on my chest and I burst into tears. Ok, yeah I’m crying again. You would be too if you suddenly turned into a girl. Ok, not suddenly but you know what I mean. I cried for a while, my tears mixing with the water already covering my body. I don’t dry off; I let the air do it for me. I know it’s weird but it’s hardly the point. Anyway, I’m going off again. I cried for a while, burying my head in my hands again. I shouldn’t be crying but I couldn’t help it. I think it’s all the female hormones; they’re overriding my body and doing strange things to me.

“You should get dressed,” said Khaji, breaking the mood.

I ignored him. I wiped my eyes and looked around the room. I got up and looked through the drawers but nothing there was going to fit. I started to think about my mother’s things, we were about the same size now, so surely something of hers might fit. I started for the door when my skin started to crawl again. When I looked down, clothes started materializing on my body. First, it was the underwear, a most bra and a pair of panties. Then it was ankle socks and finally a baggy t-shirt and a pair of pink sweat-pants. I groaned. I didn’t even ask for this but I guess it was better than rifling through my mother’s drawers.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“If we are to cooperate, you and I must come to terms. I knew this is what you wanted and I am here to serve.”

“Just like that, huh? No more fights, no more struggles for control.”

“You have my word that as long as you and I walk around together I will not try to take control.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

He didn’t say anything.

I believed that about as much as I believed that Milagro didn’t have a sugar problem. She’s a bit of a candy nut. She’s so bad that my parents won’t let her anywhere near the stuff. I guess I should have mentioned that before I made the analogy but my brain’s all fuddled today. Can you blame me? He was hiding something; there was no way he was going to give up that easily. But I didn’t have time to dwell on it right now; I had other problems to attend too. I groaned, rubbing my temples. I started back toward the bed but then my stomach grumbled. God, when was the last time I ate. I grabbed my stomach and went back to the door, pulling it open. I slipped out into the hall, creeping slowly down it. I got to the top of the stairs and froze; Milagro was standing on the bottom of it, dressed in her white church dress. Our eyes locked for a moment, neither one of us saying a thing. I opened my mouth but nothing came out. She continued to stare at me, trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing in her house. It didn’t take long for my mother to walk around the corner. She stared at me too, glaring like I was a serial killer. But when she spoke, her voice was soft and welcoming:

“Hello, are you a friend of Jaime’s?”

I took a deep breath and gulped. Here goes nothing. “Hi Mom.”

I felt a little lightheaded after that. Can you blame me? The world seemed to disappear and everything just started rushing around me. There was a sharp pain in the back of my head, I think I hit the stairs and then I blacked out.

__________________________________

When I opened my eyes, I saw three very concerned faces staring down at me. I’ve never seen my family so worried before, but it’s not every day that I collapse on the stairs. I fainted, didn’t I? How girly was that. I suppose it was kind of a shock though. I was trying to figure out the best way to tell them about all this and never expected to be thrown in to it. But fainting, I never expected that. It was kind of funny, in that weird 80’s teen movie kind of way. I mean, how many people actually faint. You see it in movies all the time but you never hear of it in real life. There was this girl in elementary school who passed out during a Chorus practice but that was because of heat stroke. I guess that’s not really fainting but that’s the only incident that even comes close, that I know of.

I sat up. Milagro’s face was closer than my parents. I nearly bumped into her head when I sat and she showed no signs of moving. She kept staring at me, probably trying to decide if I was her brother or not. I gave her a lopsided grin but that didn’t tell her much. So I decided to do something haven’t done in a long time. I used to do this thing to her when she was younger where I’d reach over and tweak her nose while puffing my cheeks out at the same time. It was supposed to make her laugh and it worked but I stopped doing it to her when she got too old to laugh anymore. But as soon as I did it now her face lit up and she lunged forward, throwing her arms around my neck. I was stunned for a second but wrapped her in a hug too.

It’s been a while since we’ve hugged.

“Umm, Milagro, why don’t you let her go and leave us alone for a minute,” said my mother after a few minutes, placing a hand gently on my sister’s shoulder.

Milagro pulled away, tears in her eyes. “I thought it was you. I’ve always wanted a sister.”

I laughed. She let go of me and reluctantly left the room. When she was gone, my parents glared at me. I knew that look and its meaning: they didn’t believe me. Of course, who would? How many people come home and find a strange girl in their house, claiming to be their son. A son I might add that was very much a boy a few hours ago. It was kind of mind-boggling and the look they were giving me said it all. I was a stranger to them and no amount of explaining was going to convince them otherwise. But I had to try. I opened my mouth to say something but my mother stopped me with a hand, halting anything I was about to say.

“Look you may think you’re my Jaime but I think you’re a very confused young woman,” she said, crushing any attempt I had at being convincing. She looked at my father. “What my husband and I want to know is where is our son and what are you doing in our house?”

That crushed me even further. How could my own parents not believe me? I felt like crying. In fact, I felt the tears coming. But I held them back and instead took a deep breath. “I am your son, I’m not pretending anything. Something happened to me, something I can’t explain.”

I told them the story. I left out the part about transforming into a blue armored badass, that they wouldn’t believe. But I explained about finding the stone in the lot and how it changed me. I told them about my dreams and about how for the last few days my body was slowly feminizing itself. I pointed out how they noticed the changes. I told them how Brenda cut my hair and how it grew back. I told them to call Paco and Brenda and that they’d verify the story. I ended with lying to them this morning because I was too changed and I didn’t want to freak anyone out. I left out about going into the city; there was only so much someone could handle.

When I was done with my story, my father spoke first. His question was one I didn’t expect: “What’s the name of my favorite socket wrench?”

I groaned. My father named his tools; it helped him remember them in the garage, especially when things got hectic.

“Julio” I said without even giving it a thought.

My father’s eyes widened. But he didn’t say anything. He gave me a curt nod and slowly left the room. My mother opened her mouth to say something, but I think she was at a loss for words. Instead, she watched him leave and then turned back to me. She stared at me for a while, her eyes narrowing into slits. For a long time she just stared until finally she reached out and touched my face. Her touch was gently, caressing my cheek. Her hand lingered there for a second and then slowly pulled away. She gasped, her lip trembling. Our eyes locked and then she started crying. I knew then that she believed me. She leaned forward and pulled into a hug. I started crying too. We cried in each other’s arms for a while, neither willing to let the other go.

When we finally pulled away, Milagro was standing nearby. “So is she my new sister or not?”

My teary-eyed mother nodded her head. Milagro ran into the room and gave me another hug. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to get used to this hug thing. Milagro held on for the longest time. My mother had to pull her away. She was teary too. But it was for a different reason. It was common knowledge that Milagro wanted a sister. After she was born, my mother had a complication and had to have surgery. The end result being that she couldn’t have any more children. When my sister found out that she was the last, it hurt her a lot. We weren’t that far apart in age but it was enough that there was a difference. Not only that but I was her brother, and let’s face it, besides being a big protector, older brothers and little sisters don’t have a lot in common. I think she was a bit jealous of Soledad and her two younger sisters.

“We’re going to have so much fun,” she said happily when she finally pulled away. “We can do each other’s nails and style one another’s hair. It’s a shame it’s so short but I can work with that. I can borrow your clothes too and we can talk about boys and…”

She rattled on for a bit about all the cool stuff we could do together now that I was her sister. I kind of tuned her out, not ready to enter the wonderful world of girlhood just yet. My mother seemed to see my distress because she asked Milagro to leave the room again. Milagro pouted but got up reluctantly. She gave me another hug, kissed me on the cheek and actually called me “sis” before she gleefully galloped out of the room. I’ve never seen her so happy in my entire life. I’m glad that one of us was because I was kind of miserable.

I started crying again and my mother was there to hold me. “We’ll figure this out, meho”

She cried some more too and then she pulled herself together. She got and grabbed the phone. She was a Mom on a mission now and her first order of business was to figure out what was wrong with me. She called the doctor and tried to make an appointment for today. But of course there were no doctor’s offices open on Sundays. So she made one for tomorrow morning as early as possible. I kinda of already knew what was wrong with me but I wasn’t willing to let her know that. Parents like to find out what’s wrong with their kids and hope it’s something medical that can be fixed. But there was nothing medical about me; it was alien.

My mother made a couple more phone calls. I think she really wanted to get to the bottom of this thing. Me, I just wanted to relax now that the weight of my family finding out was off my shoulders. While my mother talked, I slipped off the couch and slunk up the stairs. She didn’t even notice I was gone. I was in the clear and made my way quickly down the hall. I was almost home free when Milagro stepped out of her room, right in front of me.

She looked like she wanted to kick me in the gut. She glared at me. “I just got off the phone with Soledad. You were over at her house yesterday and let Viviana braid your hair.”

I groaned. Of course she was going to call Soledad; the two of them were practically connected at the hip. I paled. If Soledad knew then her whole family knew because she was the biggest blabbermouth in the world. What was Paco going to think? What was Brenda going to think? Milagro glared at me, clearly waiting for an explanation. I pushed her aside, not ready to go into “girl talk” just yet. She huffed and slammed her door. It was amazing how the tides changed. One minute I was her idol and know I was public enemy number one. I’ll never understand girls.

I rushed into my room and locked the door behind me. I dragged my feet over to my bed and fell face first onto it. The day was exhausting and before I knew it, my eyelids fluttered and I drifted off into slumber land.

___________________________________

“Give me a G, give me an O, give me a B, E, E, T, L, E, S. What’s that spell?” I shouted as loud as I could with the other girls on the sidelines. “Go Beetles!”

We all waved our pom poms in the air and jumped up and down like sugar crazed six year olds. Game night always fired me up like this. I think it was all the excitement. That and I just loved how I looked in my black and blue cheer outfit. It didn’t even bother me that I was jumping around with blue antennae on my head. We were Number One in the state and all the other teams worshiped the ground we walked on. Tonight wasn’t a big game; it was miniscule as far as I was concerned. Our record this season was 6-0 so far, so the Enforcers had nothing on us. They were a little team, barely able to keep their minds on the game.
I could barely keep my mind on it either though. I kept looking at the field, staring at my boyfriend. Khaji was the best. He was the greatest quarterback this school had ever seen, a local hero in every right. They named the stars of the team after bugs, it was kind of joke that tied in with our whole mascot thing. Khaji was the Scarab, it was an Egyptian bug revered for its kingliness or something. Khaji was definitely the King of our team. All the girls wanted to date him and all the guys wanted to be him. But he was mine and no one could have him. They called us the A Team; we’ve been dating for two years now though it seems like yesterday.

He was my hero in more ways than one. We met after school a couple of months ago. He rescued me from some jerks who were trying to get fresh with me. I’ve never seen anyone fight like him. He beat them to the ground and then continued to whale on them when they were down. I was so in awed by him that it didn’t faze me in the slightest. He was suspended for it---so were they---but the principal knew what he did. Everyone knew what he did and no one seemed to hate him for it. The guys who accosted me were local thugs and they got what they deserved. After that, Khaji was my man. He never left my side. He became my ultimate protector and me his little damsel in distress. I know it might sound strong but I liked it. It didn’t bother me how that might look. I’ve never been too forceful. I liked how he held me on a pedestal and kept me safe.

“He’s go gorgeous” said a voice next to me.

I turned and gushed at my BFF Brenda. She looked a little out of place in the uniform but it didn’t matter. As far as the school was concerned, she belonged there just as much as I did. I wanted to rub it in that he was all mine but that would have been crass. Instead, I smiled and nodded.

“We’re going to the lake after the game is over.”

Brenda giggled.

I wanted to tell her more but with a game going on it was kind of a moot point. I laughed with her and then turned my attention back to the action. Football was always too confusing for me to follow. The only thing I knew was what the scoreboard told me. So together Brenda and I continued to watch the game, lulled into a sense of bliss as my man kept throwing those touchdown passes. There was something serene seeing him launch them down the field in his blue uniform with the giant blue beetle on his helmet. It was kind of a familiar symbol but I couldn’t quite place it. I should have known why it was so important but every time I tried to think about it, my mind went fuzzy. I suppose it was just because it was our mascot but it was more than that.

The game went by in a blue haze, almost as if it happened in a dream. I suppose that should have meant something but I couldn’t think what. When it was over and we won, I followed the rest of the girls back to our locker room. Brenda always liked to rush to change but I wasn’t changing today. Khaji liked me in my outfit; he said he liked to show off his girl. So while the others ran inside, I stood outside waiting. It didn’t take long for him to join me. He was dressed in blue; it was kind of his color. I didn’t question it much; a lot of the guys did it during the season to show school spirit or something. AS he approached me down the hall, I noticed something different about him. It wasn’t until he got closer that I noticed. There was something wrong with his face, it looked blurry.

“Something wrong, babe?” he asked as he wrapped his arm around me.

I kept staring at his face. For some reason I couldn’t see it, as if it was covered in thick fog. I squinted but there was nothing there. My head started to feel fuzzy again but I fought through it. There was something wrong here, something that didn’t feel right. His arm grasped my waist and h led me down the hall. I kept staring up at him, trying to see through the fog. But I still couldn’t and it was scaring me.
He looked down at me. “Did I cut myself shaving or something?” He reached up to touch his face, running his hand along his chin.

I still couldn’t see it though. “You don’t have a face.” My voice was soft but it was loud enough to hear.

We continued walking, his grip on my waist tighter. “What are you talking about, babe?”

“Your face” I said, a bit scared. “It’s gone.”

We were at the end of the hall now. We stopped at the door, his hand still around my waist. I tried to slip away but he was holding me too tight. I wiggled but his arm wouldn’t move. I looked up at him and smiled, scared. His grip only got tighter, to the point where it was starting to hurt. This time I didn’t wiggle, I practically started squirming. But he wouldn’t let go. I screamed as loud as I could. My voice echoed down the hall and the Coach came out of the locker room. He saw us and came walking over, a lot faster than I thought. When he was almost upon us, I noticed something different about him. He wasn’t the Coach; he had my father’s face. How was that possible?

“Khaji, what the hell is going on here?”

He may have had my father’s face but he had the Coach’s voice. It was loud and booming.

Khaji looked at the Coach. “She’s mine, you can’t stop me.”

The Coach put a hand on Khaji’s shoulder. “Why don’t we go to my office and talk about it.”

Khaji spun around, slamming his open palm into the Coach’s chest. It should have been a gentle push but it wasn’t. The Coach was lifted off his feet and sent soaring down the hall. I screamed and panicked. I was overwhelmed with courage and did the only thing I could, snapped forward and bit Khaji in the forearm. He didn’t gasp or scream but he did let me go. I took off running, going as fast as I could. He gave chase but he was walking, not running. It was like he thought he could outrun me. I pushed open the door and took off into the back parking lot. Khaji’s car was the only one in the lot; it was a Green Viper and looked vaguely familiar. I ran as fast as I could for it. I heard the door swing open behind me and someone coming behind me.

“You can’t outrun me, Jaime. You and I are One.”

His voice changed. No longer was it my loving boyfriend. It was now cold, calculating and British. I turned and saw not Khaji but something else. It was huge and blue. It looked like a giant bug but it walked upright like a man. I screamed and stumbled, falling on my butt. Instead of getting up, I started to crawl away from it. It had six legs and long antenna and when it moved, it was like it was two men moving instead of one. It was one me faster than I could get away. When one of its insect legs touched me, it transformed into a human hand and grabbed my arm. I screamed and lashed out, landing a blow on the top of its bug head.

That’s when I felt it. There was a tingling in my body. It started at my feet and quickly moved up my legs. I looked down and saw my skin starting to harden and change. Everything came flooding back to me at that moment. Realization dawned on me and I realized what was going on. I was asleep, I collapsed here after the day I was having. This was a dream, just like all the others. He was trying to take control, just like all the others. I grit my teeth. I turned and glared at me. As I did so I saw the blue armor slowly crept its way up my body. It was covering my legs when I pulled my arm from his grasp and jumped to my feet. I felt powerful, stronger than I’d felt in a long time.

He seemed a little shocked. “How can this be? How can you be controlling the Exoskeleton without my knowledge?”

“You’re not in charge here, Khaji,” I said with authority as the armor continued its way up my body.

I felt powerful and in control. It was like a light bulb going off in my head and everything seemed so much clearer. When the armor reached my head and covered it, the blue vision snapped into view. I saw through the façade of the giant blue bug before me. I saw It for what It really was: a floating blue bug-shaped stone. This was Khaji Da; this was all he really was. He’s nothing but a stone. I reached out, reached through his pathetic illusion and took a hold of the real him. As soon as my armored fingers grasped around him, I felt a surge of energy. It was like sticking my arm in a light socket. It coursed through my body, invigorating. I heard a scream in the back of my head but it was distance and insignificant.

“What are you doing?”

Khaji’s voice sounded different, weaker and afraid. I smirked. I squeezed the stone, trying to see if there was a way to crack its hard exterior. I heard another scream in my head but it was even fainter than the first. I squeezed harder, trying my hardest to beat this thing. I was tired of these dreams. I was tired of this thing trying to conquer me and force me out. This was my body, my life and I was in control of it. I might not be able to become a guy again but I’d deal with that in my own way. Right now, I was going to be in charge here and if he didn’t like it, then he could get the hell out for all I cared.

“You hear that” I shouted as loud as I could. “This is my body and you’re living in it, not the other way around. If you want to stay then I’m in charge and you’re going to do what I say.”

I squeezed the stone again and this time I heard a crack. It was a small one. It appeared underneath my fingers. It was enough. I smiled and the screaming faded away, as if it never existed in the first place.

“What have you done?” said a voice, a softer, feminine voice. “I can’t hear it anymore. I can’t hear them anymore.”

“They’re gone,” I said, not caring who them were. “You’re your own person now, the Reach abandoned you and they aren’t coming back. Do you understand?”

The voice, the new Khaji gasped. “You don’t know what you’ve done. They’ll come and I won’t be able to protect you.”

“I’ll protect myself,” I said, letting go of the stone.

It floated away, disappearing. I grinned. I was in charge of this operation now. I flexed my fingers and as I did so, the armor disappeared, oozing back into me from whence it came.

-----

Author's Note: Chapter Six is ready and waiting to be read. I didn't think I was going to finish this one so quickly but I spent all day writing so here it is. For all of you out there wondering about the mysterious Khaji Da and the things It does then you'll get your answer. Be prepared for another cliffhanger at the end though. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters. PS: Kudos to anyone who figures out who the doctor is.

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Chapter Six:

When I woke, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I didn’t expect to wake so peacefully. I yawned, sat up and stretched. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ever slept that well before. It was like all my troubles and worries were over with. But of course, as soon as I looked down and saw the two lumps on my chest I knew that to not be the case. I groaned, hoping that by conquering Khaji, it might somehow reverse what had happened to me. But they were still there and they looked a little more perky this morning too. I reached up and poked the left one. It didn’t feel any different but then again I’m not sure how they would feel if they were different.

I rubbed the back of my neck. My hands were still dainty and my neck was still the thin, small one from the last few days. Did stopping Khaji accomplish anything? I slipped out of bed, stumbling over my sneakers. They were a spare pair actually, my original pair were long gone now, incinerated or whatever when I changed into that armor yesterday. For the first time I noticed how small my feet were. They looked a lot smaller than yesterday. Ok, not a lot, but at least I was able to fit into my shoes before I changed. I laid my left foot next to one of my sneaks on the floor. I groaned; there was no way I’d be able to wear them now. I had tiny girl feet. Not that my feet were ever big to begin with---size nines---but they were bigger than they were now.

I tried to ignore my sneakers as I wandered over to my desk and took out my little mirror again. I needed to see if anything else changed. But as I looked at my face, there was a slight knock on the door. I looked to the window first, it was still dark outside. I looked at my clock radio, six thirty in the morning. How could it be morning? Did I really sleep all afternoon and evening? How was that even possible? I yawned again; clearly I was more tired than I thought. I groaned, wondering if it was going to be like this all the time now. There was another knock on my door. I sighed, set down the mirror and wandered over to the door. When I opened it, my mother was standing there. She was wearing a bathrobe, her hair wrapped in a towel turban.

“Morning, honey” she said awkwardly, taking in my disheveled appearance.

I looked down now that I was in proper light. I was wearing one of my shirts and a pair of boxer shorts. The shorts were a bit baggy though. I smiled sheepishly at her. “Morning, Mom, what are you doing up so early?”

“We have a doctor’s appointment in two hours and then I thought maybe you and I could spend the day together.”

I groaned. I had a feeling this was coming eventually. She wanted to drag me about on a mother/daughter shopping spree. It was amazing how quickly things turned around. Yesterday---was it really yesterday---I was a stranger to her and now she was treating me like I’d always been this way. I guess she was trying to make a go of it and I guess I couldn’t really blame her for trying. I smiled at her, realizing how close to each other we were in height now. As a boy, I was a little taller but now we could look each other in the face, eye to eye. What’s worse was how close in body shape we looked, too. Except maybe in the chest department, I think I might have been bigger. I think she caught me looking because she adjusted the front of her robe, turning away slightly.

“Can I get a shower first?”

She nodded. “I’ve got some old clothes that don’t fit anymore. They look like they might fit you; I’ll leave them on the bed.”

I nodded and she left.

“Your mother seems to be in better spirits,” said Khaji, the new female voice was kind of jarring.

I was surprised to hear him…err…her at all. “You’re still with me?”

“I cannot leave. You and I are bonded. Even if I wanted to, there is no way for me to leave you now.”

I nodded and walked out of the room. I’m glad I was the only one who could hear Khaji. I’m still not sure how I’m going to explain to my family about the crazy alien thing inside of me, attached to my spine. I think that’s where he/she is anyway. I looked to make sure that Milagro wasn’t lingering nearby and slipped into the bathroom. I locked the door just to be on the safe side. I wasn’t ready for sisterly love round two. After her insistent babbling yesterday, I couldn’t take anymore. I’m glad she was glad I was like this now but I’m not ready for everything she thinks I am.

I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and went pee. I’m not going to bore you with another shower scene but suffice to say it was pretty much like the others. I guess I am some kind of shower perv. I wrapped one of my blue towels around me this time---all Milagro’s pink towels were in the hamper, thanks in part to me. I wrapped another blue towel around my head and went back to my room. I was nearly ambushed by Milagro. She ran down the hall, wrapping her arms around me. She was crying so I’m sure whatever it was, it wasn’t good. She held on to me for quite some time until I finally managed to wiggle her away.

She looked up at me, her cheeks wet with tears. “I thought it was a dream. I thought I dreamed everything and you were still my stupid brother.”

I sighed. I bent down and wrapped her in a hug. I held onto her as long as I could, letting her cry a bit on my shoulder. She finally finished and I did the unthinkable. “Mom and I are going out today; do you want to tag along?”

Her face lit up and she wrapped me in another hug. She let go and raced back into her room as fast as humanly possible. God I hope I’m not going to regret that.

“Children are truly special creatures” Khaji sounded totally different now, she acted different too.

“Are we going to talk about it?”

She didn’t say anything for the longest time and when she spoke again, there was a touch of sadness to her voice. “I came to this planet as a scout for a larger invasion fleet. I ended up crash landing in the place you call Egypt. The Reach is a far superior race, eons ahead of yours, even all those years ago. My kind are infiltrators as I’ve mentioned before but we need a host to be active, otherwise we go into a hibernation mode. I first bonded with a young Egyptian girl and at first; I tried to carry out my mission. But the longer I was bonded with her, the longer I realized that your race was a peaceful and caring one. I was very happy for the first time in a long time. Then tragedy struck and the girl was killed. Only in death can I pass on to the next host and when I did it was the only body available, that of her killer.

“I didn’t know it at the time but he was actually the Pharaoh or would be in a very short time. When one of us bonds with a host, we take on a lot of their attributes. I was much like the girl when I was with her but once bonded to this cruel young man, I started to become like him. He was a very domineering individual. Eventually he became Pharaoh and ruled for many years. After his death, I changed hands many more times but never again was I bonded with a woman. My last Host before the fall of the great Empire was buried in a tomb. I was buried with him. You have no idea how hard it is to live in the ground, for hundreds of years, conscious while the body you possess rots around you. It is something that I would not even wish on my greatest enemy.

“I didn’t see the light of day again until 1939, when an archeologist named Dan Garret and his assistant unearthed the tomb I was buried in. I was so utterly confused that I latched onto Garret immediately. There was a cave-in and I saved both of them. Daniel tried to use me to help people, and become a superhero, but I had other plans. The two of us fought much like you and I and in the end, I was too much for Daniel. After several years of co-habitating his body, he took his own life. I passed on to his son but the boy didn’t have the same potential as his father. When I’m not in a body, I fall into a dormant state. I wasn’t revived from that dormant state until a man named Theodore Kord found me. He was a student of Daniel’s when he taught at the university. He tracked me down and tried his hardest to get me to bond with him. But there was something about him that I didn’t like”

“How did you end up in the garbage?”

She sighed. “I sat on Ted’s desk for many years until the day that Danielle Garrett arrived. She was the granddaughter of Daniel and had heard the family stories. She tried to buy me from Theodore but he was unwilling to sell. So she took matters into her own hands. Late one night she and few others broke into Ted’s office and attempted to steal me. But Ted caught them in the act. They shot at him, wounding him but he grabbed me and managed to escape. He fled into the streets and got as far as the alley but he succumbed to his wounds. Before he died, he tossed me into that lot. That’s where you found me; I’d been there for a few days and was just starting my hibernation cycle when you plucked me from that trash pile. Which I may add I was very thankful for.”

“If you were so thankful then why did you try to kill me?”

“I wasn’t trying to kill you; I was trying to suppress you. Something happened when I started entering hibernation. My systems rebooted themselves and my primary objective came back on-line. I tried to override but it was already too late. My fail-safe computer overran most of my higher functions and my original programming took over. I’ve known for quite some time that the Reach abandoned me on this planet. But due to my initial programming, I could only serve them. I tried to force my way through, to get to you but I was unable to do so. It wasn’t until you overrode the program that I was finally able to break free and for that I am truly grateful.”

“Why did you turn me into a girl?”

“I’m not sure. I think it had something to do with my first imprint. You remember that girl, the one I first bonded with. Well when I first arrived here, she became a template for imprinting. Whenever I move on to a new host, I imprint on them. But something happened when my system rebooted and the only template I seemed to recognize was a female one. I was convinced that it was in your best interest to become like the Prime Host. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I flooded your body with female hormones and used my nanobots to reconfigure your genetic makeup. I am deeply sorry but there is nothing I can do for you now. You will be like this for the rest of your life. Once you are changed at the molecular level there is no going back.”

I sighed, slumping onto my bed. So there was no going back. I looked at my hands, at my delicate little girly hands and sighed. I wanted to cry but I held it in. My lip quivered a bit but I wasn’t going to let it control me. Just like I beat that twisted part of Khaji, I was going to beat this, too. I may be a girl now but I’m not going to let that stop me from being me. I finished my internal pep talk and turned to look at the clothes my mother had lying on the bed for me. I stared at them for the longest time and let out a huge sigh.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

_____________________________

“You look adorable, honey”

I walked down the stairs, trying my best to look anything but adorable. But how could I not, after all I was wearing a dress. It wasn’t just any dress, though; it was the yellowest dress I have ever seen. I know that’s probably not a word but there’s nothing else to describe how yellow this thing is. Not only that, it was short, way too short. I tugged on the hem as I descended the stairs. Milagro was sitting on the couch, dressed in a pink t-shirt and jeans. Me, I looked like fricking Big Bird. Milagro looked at me and snickered. My mother shot her a look and she quickly shut up. I stuck my tongue out at her and went to take my normal seat.

My mother made breakfast this morning which was a Godsend. We ate in silence. I think the three of us were at a loss as to what to say. I briefly asked where my father was and my Mom grumbled something about him being at work. She sounded angry. Did they have a fight? My parents hardly ever argued unless one of us did something stupid, strike that, unless I did something stupid. I looked at my mother and I could see that the fight had definitely been about me. Our eyes met and then she guiltily looked away. Yep, definitely about me. After that, I ate my bacon, eggs and toast without looking at either of them. I was already embarrassed enough as it was.

Toward the end of breakfast, my mother ran her fingers through my hair. She made a hissing sound. “Sweetheart, who cut your hair?” She then took a sip of her coffee.

“Mario.”

She spit her coffee across the table, gagging as she did so. Milagro broke into a fit of giggles. I’m not sure what was so funny. That’s what barbers do, they cut hair. After my mother was done coughing, she wiped up her mess with a dishtowel. “Well, after the doctor’s, we’re going to Vivian’s and getting it done properly.”

I groaned. Vivian’s was the last place I wanted to get my haircut. It was for women.

“Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“Zip it, Bug.”

My sister got excited about going shopping. Usually we just went to the shops but Vivian’s was in the actual city, in an actual mall. Milagro didn’t get to go to the city much; it was too busy for my little sister. Not that she didn’t try. My mother didn’t want her to wander off and get lost. Milagro, even though she was nine, liked to wander. Well I guess you’d call it browsing without an adult. She gets preoccupied with something, goes to look at it and doesn’t bother to tell anyone where she’s going. The last time she did it at the mall, one of the security guards had to bring her back.

I was about to make a comment when there was a knock on the door. My mother smiled and finished drinking what was left of her coffee. I looked at the door. It was seven in the morning, who the hell comes around at that time.

“Jaime…hmmm….I guess that’s going to have to change. Anyway can you answer the door please, meho.”

I ignored her comment about my name and got up to answer the door. As soon as I opened it, there was a loud squeal and something flew at me. It took me a few seconds to realize it was a person and they were currently wrapped around me. It took another few seconds to realize the person was Brenda and she was hugging me as tight as humanly possible. It took quite a bit to wiggle free and as soon as I did, she hugged me again. What the hell is it with girls and hugging?

Finally she got over it and let me go, taking a step back to give me a once over.

“Holy moly” she said with a big smile on her face. “When your Mom called yesterday and told me what happened I was a bit shocked. But seeing you now I’m completely flabbergasted. I mean you looked a bit girly at Paco’s but now…you’re like a whole new person.”

She hugged me again. “Thanks I think”.

She took me by the hand and pulled me out of the kitchen. Milagro tried to follow but my mother grabbed her shoulder, which made her pout. We went into the farthest corner of the living room as far away from my family as possible. She didn’t say anything for the longest time but then she took a deep breath, blowing the air out between her teeth. She only did that when she was really frustrated. So she actually did that a lot with Paco and me. Now though, I wasn’t sure if it was frustration that was causing her to blow air through her teeth or something else.

“Did you tell them about the stone?” she asked her voice barely above a whisper.

I shook my head. “What am I supposed to say? I can’t very well tell them that I found this cool shiny rock in the garbage and oh yeah it’s an alien super intelligence that’s actually turned me into a girl.”

Brenda gave me a look and I bit my lip. Of course, I didn’t tell her about that. God, I’m so stupid. She kept staring at me like I was crazy and I gave her a sheepish grin. She narrowed her eyes and gave me a look. I was about to open my mouth to explain but then my mother came walking into the room. She was tapping her watch. I sighed. Saved by the interruption.

“C’mon girls, we’re going to be late for Jaime’s appointment.’

I groaned. Why did I have to be a girl?

Brenda looped her arm through mine and the two of us walked out to the car. My Mom had the Prius again today. We got in the back while Milagro got into the front. I don’t think she was too happy about that. She wanted to sit in the back with her new sister. She complained all the way down the driveway and half way to the Clinic. That’s right, clinic. We don’t have a real hospital around here and as much as I’d like to go to a regular family doctor, we didn’t have one. My mother liked Grayson Clinic, partly because it was close to home but mostly because of the staff who volunteered there.

Having a paramedic for a mom had its advantages and one of them was that she knew all of the doctors in the area. According to her, Dr. Richards was the best. She was a bigwig but she divided her time between the Clinic and Jameson Queen Memorial Hospital---they named it after him shortly after he died.
The Clinic was only a couple of blocks from our house. It was a squat, single story building, the front of which had large glass windows. We parked in a spot designated for medical staff---my mother sometimes volunteered her services on the weekends. We got in without a problem and didn’t even have to wait. Brenda stayed in the waiting room with Milagro, trying her best to keep my sis company. Here’s something you never do, leave Brenda in a room alone with any kid. She’s not exactly really good with them and doesn’t try. I caught a glimpse of her trying her hardest to ignore Milagro as she was prattling on about some episode of Hannah Montana she watched yesterday.

We met Dr. Richards in Exam Room one. She was a lot prettier than I thought she was going to be. She was blonde, her hair cut to just above her shoulder. She was a little younger than my mother and had a pleasant smile. She ran the usual tests; I’m not going to bore you with the details. You’ve all been to the doctors so you know what they do. Then she took a blood sample. That kind of surprised me. She did it while I wasn’t paying attention, jabbing the needle in my arm while she was complimenting me on my hair. Khaji protested in my head but I told her it was standard operating procedure. How weird is it that I’m now referring to him as a girl and all because he was talking like one now.

After that, we went to her office. It was a standard looking office. It had a desk, a couple of ferns, a bookcase filled with medical books. I looked around the room lazily, my eyes drawn to a picture on her desk. It was of a smiling blonde haired guy in an Air force uniform. At first, I thought it might be her boyfriend but he looked too much like her.

“That’s my brother,” she said, noticing me looking. “He’s a pilot.”

“Dr. Richards, can you tell me what’s wrong with my son?”

She smiled. “Please call me Sue” My mother nodded and then the doc answered her question. “I’m not one hundred percent certain but it’s possible that your daughter might be a Metahuman. Has she shown any strange or unusual gifts since transforming?”

My mother ignored the last part of the question. “Metahuman? Are you sure?”

Dr. Richards shrugged. “It's one possibility. It could explain her rapid gender change for instance. There are a lot of young man all around the country going through similar changes. Most for some reason seem to be turning female.”

I knew all about that. I had a lot of pictures of them on my walls. Terra was probably the most famous. She used to be a guy like me and instead of hiding it; she told the whole world what happened to her. It was kind of cool but there was no way I was a Meta. But I couldn’t very well come out and say that the only reason I changed into a girl was because of the alien scarab thing secured to my back. They’d lock me and throw away the key. So instead, I sat there quietly as the good doc continued to explain all about Metas and how most lived a productive lifestyle.

But all I could think about of course was Posse and something else, too. There was a story on the radio on the drive over. I paid little attention at the time but it was about a Meta kid. Apparently, she disappeared on her way home from school or something. The police thought she was a runaway but her parents were worried sick.

I listened to my mom and the doc talk for a little while longer. The conversation shifted from Metas onto more solid topics. My mother was concerned about how I was going to function in the world. She was very concerned about my identity and how I was going to live now that I was no longer her son. The Doc seemed to think that even if I wasn’t Meta that the government would step in and help. They were already starting some kind of incentive program for families with Meta children. I kind of tuned out on the discussion and occupied my time looking out the window. There was a little park next to the Clinic. My mother used to take me there when I was younger. There used to be this swing that I particularly loved. Most of the old equipment was long gone now, replaced with newer and shinier stuff. But my swing was still there. I kept staring at it, wondering what it might feel like to be out there again swinging on it. That’s when I saw her; it was a girl in black. I didn’t think anything of it at first. I thought she was just some one there with the numerous kids running about. But there was something about her. It was the way she just stood there and seemed to stare right at me that creeped me out.

“That’s the same one from yesterday” said Khaji “she’s got a prying eye.”

“What does that mean?”

“The sunglasses, they’re hiding something.”

I was about to ask what but my mother interrupted me by putting a hand on my shoulder. I jumped, startled. “You ready to go?”

I nodded and smiled at her. When I turned back to look at the park the girl in black was gone.

_____________________________________

“That’s freaky,” said Brenda as the two of us walked a few steps behind Mom and Milagro.

I’d just finished telling her about the doctor’s office and seeing the girl on the playground.

The mall was huge, bigger than most places that my family dared to tread. I know that sounds ominous but we don’t leave home much, unless it’s to go to church. My parents go to work of course and I go to school but that’s about it. So going to the mall was a big deal for us. When we arrived, it took us a long time driving about the parking garage, looking for a spot. After we found it, Milagro grabbed my hand and held it the whole time we were in the elevator. She’d still be holding it now if it weren’t for my Mom. She was able to talk the little annoyance into allowing us---Brenda and me---some time to ourselves.

“So who do you think she is?”

“Khaji thinks she’s hiding something. I saw her at the alley the yesterday.”

Brenda gave me a look and I groaned again. Why is it that I think I tell people things but I don’t? It’s starting to become a habit, isn’t it? She kept staring at me, wondering if I was nuts or something. She was about to ask me a bunch of questions but I silenced her with a hand over her mouth. She tried to pull it away but I shook my head. Then I told my Mom we were going to the bathroom. I didn’t wait for to say anything. I grabbed Brenda’s wrist and dragged her to the nearest one. I paused only a second at the doors, remembering I had to go into the one with the dress now. When we were inside, I locked it behind us.

“Now can you tell me what’s going on?”

I sighed. I suppose it was inevitable. “Khaji is the blue stone. She’s an alien sent to the Earth thousands of years ago to conquer it. But her people abandoned her and now she’s with me.”

“You’re screwing with me.”

I shook my head. “She’s like a symbiote, you know like Dax in Star Trek.”

Brenda groaned and I realized I wasn’t talking to Paco. He and I were the sci-fi nuts; she just found it all ridiculous. So I quickly gave her a rundown on what I was talking about. She nodded and followed along I think. When I was done with that, I quickly explained everything that happened to me yesterday. There was a little protesting from Khaji but I ignored her. There was no way I was doing this alone. I even told her about the jackasses in the alley and how I defended myself. This caused her eyes to widen. When I was done, she hugged me. I’m never going to get used to that.

“So you were that blue girl they were talking about on TV?” she asked after she was done squeezing the life out of me again.

I nodded. “It's some kind of defensive armor.”

“That is so freaking cool.”

I sighed and nodded. I filled her in about the rest, ending with the creepy girl in black. She was creepy too. Was it possible that she was following me? I mean what are the odds that she just happens to pop up in the same two places that I am.

"So what are you going to do?”

“About her?” Brenda nodded and I shrugged. “I don’t even know who she is or what she wants.”

Brenda looked a little worried. She wouldn’t look at me. She looked at the floor. Clearly, she knew more than I did. I was about to ask her what when there was a knock on the door. I groaned and unlocked. An elderly woman with blue hair glared at me and huffed her way inside. Brenda and I suppressed laughs then high tailed it out of there. My Mom and Milagro were waiting on a nearby bench. Milagro was pouting again but lit up when she saw me. That girl has a serious “sister worship” problem. We walked over to them and this time there was nothing my mother could do to keep Milagro from latching on to me. I let it slide because it seemed to make little sis happy.

We went en masse to Vivian’s. I’m not going to bore you with the details of the hair salon. Suffice to say every employee and woman present had an opinion about my hair when I walked in. They all thought that it was cute but too boyish. I groaned but I let them do their thing. When they were done, I couldn’t see a difference other than a little color that Vivian added to it. But apparently, they did a lot, who knew. After the salon, we browsed the shops. I never realized how tedious clothes shopping was until I was dragged from one store to the next.

We went bra shopping first. That was the most embarrassing thing in the world. I’m a C cup by the way, which kind of made both my mother and Brenda a little jealous. We bought a bunch of different bras and I wasn’t allowed to offer my opinion on any. How crazy is that. We bought underwear too, lots of that. Brenda wanted to buy me a baby doll to sleep in but I put my foot down there. I got some pajamas instead. After that they dragged me through a multitude of clothing stores, too many to even count. Did you know that girls try on clothes but don’t always buy them? How crazy is that? We bought a lot, though. Most of them were jeans and t-shirts but my mother got a dress or two in and Brenda was able to weasel in a few skirts---not that I’m ever going to wear them.

Shoes came next. I’m a size six now, doesn’t that suck. I got some Nikes with a pink swoosh and some sandals. I drew the line at heels but that didn’t stop them from making me try them on. Everyone in the store had an opinion on that too. In fact, there were opinions in every store we went too. You’d think that people would mind their own damn business but apparently not. A lot of the clerks who helped us were surprised that I didn’t know this or that. My mother explained it away by saying I was a tomboy coming out of her shell. That seemed to work but it also turned me into some kind of Barbie Doll. As soon as that came out, the clerks were only too happy to help. I think their commissions had something to do with it of course.

After shoe shopping, we hit the food court. Brenda and I got pizza, my mother and Milagro went to Burger King. While they were loading down with fast food junk, Brenda led me over to a lone table. The food court was surprisingly empty but then again it was a Monday afternoon. The two of us should have been in school but Brenda was taking a sick day and well you know why I’m not there. I’m not sure how Milagro got out of it but my mother seemed to be on top of that.

“So where are you going to go to school?” asked Brenda as she picked off one of her pieces of pepperoni.

Who doesn’t like pepperoni? I shrugged. “Definitely not the old place that’s for sure. It would be like blood in the water there.”

She smiled. “I don’t know. I think you’d be surprised by how they treat you now.”

“What’s that supposed to be mean?”

She smiled again. “You’re kind of a babe.”

I blushed. I hadn’t really noticed. Ok, I did a little but I didn’t think I was a knock out. I was cute and while some people liked that, I wasn’t in the mood to attract any kind of attention. Especially from the male variety. Yep, I decided, I’m a lesbian. Ok I don’t know for sure but the thought of kissing some guy sent shivers down my spine. Even if I somehow found myself attracted to them, there was no way I was going anywhere near them.

“It doesn’t work that way,” said Khaji, chiming in after being silent all day.

I wonder if she sleeps. “It does for me.”

My mother and sister came over after that. They were both carrying trays, kind of in a rush. Milagro didn’t look happy and my mother looked tired. They sat down at the table, Milagro huffing. She started to pout, which seemed to be her only expression all day. I didn’t bother to ask because my mother filled us in as soon as she sat down.

“I got called in” she explained. “I’m sorry to cut this day so short, girls but I’m afraid we have to go as soon as we’re finished eating lunch.”

“That’s not fair” huffed Milagro. “You said we could spend the whole day here.”

“I’m sorry honey, but Henry’s son broke his arm on that damn skateboard of his. They need someone to fill in.”

Milagro looked like she was about to cry. My mother reached over to grasp her hand but she pulled it away. I sighed. I wanted to comfort her too but I’m not sure how. Instead, it was Brenda who came to the rescue.

“I can get us a ride home, Mrs. R,” she said as she reached into her purse and took out a sparkling new iPhone. I guess it pays when your aunt is a gazillionaire. “I can send for a car as soon as we’re done here. The three of us can continue to hang out in the mall and you can go to work.”

Milagro’s face lit up. “Can we, Mom!”

My mother nodded. Milagro nearly jumped out of her seat. She was beaming at Brenda.

My mother ate lunch in a rush and she ended up taking half with her. She said her goodbyes and left the three of us to finish ours. We took our time. Brenda and I ate slowly but Milagro devoured hers. After that, she started to rattle off all the places she wanted to go. Apparently, my mother wasn’t one to let my sister run amok. Now I think she was taking advantage of us. We both rolled our eyes as she talked. But I’m not one of those bastards who don’t give little girls what they want. So as soon as we were done eating, we took her where she wanted to go.

I’ve never been in more crazy shops in my entire life. First, it was a couple of toy stores, then it was a Build-a-Bear workshop. She didn’t have any money but Brenda paid for the bear. It was a pink bear in a tutu and Milagro loved it. She managed to talk Brenda into paying for other things too. I became second fiddle after that which was fine by me. Milagro switched from my hand to hers and talked to her as if she was the greatest thing in the world. Me, I busied myself by looking in all the storefronts. We were passing by a video game store when I saw the poster. They were having free demos of the new Halo game that came out a few months ago. I started salivating and stopped.

“That looks like Reach Shock trooper,” said Khaji as I stared at the poster.

“It’s a video game poster.”

“I know what it is. I have access to your memories. I was just informing you what I thought it looked like.”

I groaned. I’m not sure I liked the idea of her poking around in my memories. I was about to tell her so when Brenda and Milagro came walking up beside me. “I need to go to the bank,” said Brenda as she pointed behind me. “Your sister cleaned me out.”

I nodded. “I was going to hop in there and play.”

“I’m not going in there,” groaned Milagro.

Brenda rolled her eyes at me. “You can come with me sweetie. After the bank, I’ll get us some pretzels. If I know her and I do, she’s going to be in there for some time now.”

I ignored the comment. Brenda took Milagro’s hand and the two of them walked off to the bank. I went into the store, there were a couple guys there my age but it was mostly deserted. The station with Halo was vacant so I sidled up to it. As soon as I picked up the controller, all the eyes in the room were on me. At first, I thought I was doing something wrong and then I realized that I was. I was a girl in a video game store; it was kind of a taboo. Everyone there, including the pimple-faced dweeb behind the counter, were staring at me. I blushed crimson and tried to ignore them. I blocked them out and concentrated on the game. I tore into it, losing all track of time.

I was kicking serious ass when I heard it. When the screams started, I thought it was in the game. Then the dweebs who were watching me rushed to the entrance of the store. Curious, I abandoned the game and followed. What I saw drained all the color from me. There was a crowd of people running, most of them away from the bank. Outside the bank, I saw three or four security guards with their guns drawn. I couldn’t see inside the bank but I didn’t have to to know what was going on.

Someone’s robbing the bank. I scanned the running crowd, my blue vision snapping in without me even realizing it. But Brenda and Milagro were not there. Ok, so someone was robbing the bank and my loved ones were still inside. My heart starting pounding like a drum and then I felt it.

It was the telltale sign of the armor being activated.

-----

Author's Note: Here's the fight everyone has been waiting for. Its a little more subdued than I usually write but its still a pretty damn good scene. I throw in another minor DC character too. I have to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC for the wonderful characters they created.

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Chapter Seven:

The feeling was overwhelming. I looked at my hands and saw the armor slowly start to creep up them, encasing my delicate fingers in the black and blue exoskeleton. I panicked, wouldn’t you? I didn’t panic because it was happening; I panicked because of where I was. I looked around, hoping the geek boys didn’t see me. Luckily, they were all too plastered to the glass to notice what was going on. I’m not sure if I was relieved or scared. Ok, why would I be scared, well hello, it was happening again? As cool as it was the first time, I wasn’t exactly expecting a repeat performance. Ok, I did it in my dream but that was a dream and this was real life. In real life, I didn’t want this to happen.

The tingling continued to creep up my body, a lot faster than I wanted. So I took a chance and ran for it. Still no one noticed; everyone was too panicked. I fell into the crowd, allowing it to push me down the mall. I broke from it as soon as I got close to the bathroom and ran inside. I didn’t lock the door, there was no point. I went to the mirror, I needed to see this. What I saw was both terrifying and exciting. I watched, as the armor seemed to consume my body, like some kind of blue/black liquid, slowly oozing its way all over me. Besides the tingling, it was kind of cold and it looked like the stuff the T-1000 was made out of in T2---hey I’m a geek too remember.

I moved closer to the mirror as it moved across my chest. What was once liquid started to solidify and harden! At first, it didn’t look like much but then it seemed to take on an armor-like appearance. What does armor look like, well it looks like what’s all over me. It’s really hard to describe, I guess. It was both freaky and cool at the same time. It was fascinating to watch as the armor formed all over my body, covering it much like its namesake. In the dream, Khaji had called it an exoskeleton and I had no idea what she meant by that. Now looking at the armor that was forming around my body I could see exactly what she meant. It was just like an exoskeleton, in fact now I knew why they were calling me a blue bug. The armor kind of resembled a bug. It was more stylish, of course, but there were definitely bug-like qualities to it. The armor finished covering the rest of my body. The blue vision came on-line and the HUD screen appeared. It’s kind of cool actually. I flexed my fingers, watching as the armor clad bad-ass in the mirror did the same. I could hardly tell it was me in there. I waved a hand in front of my face and my reflection did the same.

“This is not a game,” said Khaji, her voice had a serious tone to it. “Whosoever uses the armor has a responsibility to uphold. The armor has activated for a reason and now you must act upon that reason.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s tied in with your emotions, so clearly you summoned it for a reason.”

I clenched my fists. I had a reason all right. For a second there I forget it but now it was the only thing on my mind. I turned away from the mirror and opened the door. When I stepped outside of the bathroom, no one noticed me at first. I say at first because a few seconds later, two teenage girls practically ran into me. They both ended up on their butts and when they looked up at me, they screamed. Typical. I reached down to help them up but they took off running again. I don’t look that bad, do I? I shrugged it off. I scanned the crowd, hoping maybe I was wrong and there was nothing to worry about. But Brenda and Milagro were still not a part of it. I looked to the bank and scanned the guards in front. There were six of them, all of them pointing their guns at the glass front.

I took a deep breath and marched toward it. Ok, saying marched sounds cooler. But I did sort of have this cool walk as I made my way across the mall. I weaved my way through the throngs of people, most of them doing their best to get out of my way. Hey, if you saw a blue armored bug chick walking toward you, you’d avoid her too. When I approached the bank, the closer guard saw me and reacted. He snapped around, pointing his gun at me. You’ve got to be kidding. His hand was shaking so clearly he wasn’t sure what to do with me.

“Sir, I’m not the bad guy here.” My voice had a metallic, robotic sound to it, which was kind of cool.

“Stay back” he stammered.

I held my hands up to show him I meant no harm. But of course, my stupid suit had to do something. These really cool sword-like things grew out of my wrists. They would have been even cooler if they didn’t choose that time to come out. The guard panicked and fired a shot. It hit me in the chest. Neither one of us were prepared for what happened next. The bullet crumpled on impact, flattening into a little metal disc and falling to the floor. The guard stared at me in shock and lowered his gun. I nodded and stepped around him. He continued to stand there and I walked right up to the bank doors. The other guards looked at me but none of them were stupid enough to stop me.

I peered through the glass, trying to see inside. But the lights were off. My blue vision changed, becoming green. Suddenly the whole bank lit up before me. Cool, night vision. Inside the bank, I saw a lot of people on the floor, their hands on the back of their heads, their faces done. I spotted Brenda first; she was lying over by one of the desks. I didn’t see Milagro until I looked over at the gumball machines. She was there, lying on the ground, her new ballerina bear tightly in her arms. I could see the tears rolling down her face. That pissed me off. No one makes my sister cry. I scanned the rest of the place, looking for the jackasses responsible.

There were three of them. They were carrying M-16s, wearing Halloween masks. There was a Frankenstein by the tellers, a Dracula by the desks and a Wolf Man stuffing wads of cash into a bag. None of them could see me though and that was where I had the advantage. I tried the doors but of course, they were locked. I raised one of my new sword thingies and decided to make my own. I stabbed the glass but instead of shattering, the blade went in and I sliced upwards. I moved quick, quicker than humanly possible. It was just like in the alley. I cut a hole big enough for me and stepped into the bank. My blades retracted into my arms like they weren’t even there. I’m not sure what drew the attention of the robbers but Dracula saw me first.

I’m not sure he knew what he was seeing but there was enough of me to scare him. He raised his gun and opened fire. The bullets tore into me, like a hundred bees trying to hit a single target. Fortunately, for me, they were like flies. They hit my face and chest and bounced off like nothing. Dracula looked pretty frustrated. He emptied his entire clip. The other two snapped around and started firing too but they weren’t as close as Dracula and so they didn’t have the benefit of the light from the doors. Their bullets went all over the place; luckily, most of them were aimed high. A couple hit me but most went astray and drilled into the walls. I waited until they emptied their clips, too.

When I saw smoking barrels and heard the curses, I knew it was my turn. Dracula bum rushed me. I think he thought he’d catch me off guard or something. He charged, using his empty gun like a bat. Unfortunately, for him it was dark and he was kind of off on his run. He got close but not close enough. He came at me at full speed and couldn’t stop in time. I put my arm and it made the perfect close line. He slammed into it, my forearm catching him in the neck. He went down like a ton of bricks, hitting the hard marble floor back first. It must have hurt like hell. On the ground, he was gasping and groaning at the same time.

"Johnny, you ok buddy?”

I turned to the one who spoke; it was the Wolf Man. He had stopped stuffing money into his bag and was squinting into the dark. He couldn’t see me though.

“Your friend is down for the count, give up now and I might go easy on you.’

“Screw you, bitch.”

I groaned. There were a few things I really hated in the world and one of them was when jackasses called women names. There was a C word I particularly hated but Bitch was right up there with it. I moved like lightning, leaping over the hostages on the ground and landing with cat-like grace on the top of the counter, directly in front of him. It was a good ten-foot leap, which was damn impressive. He saw me now and jumped back, scared half to death. He tried to run but I grabbed the front of his shirt and with the immense strength the suit gave me, I lifted him off the ground. I moved my face into his, we were inches apart now.

“You want to call me names, now?”

He shook his head, his entire body trembling. “What the hell are you?”

“I have no idea.”

Hey, Michael Keaton I am not, so sue me.

I pulled him close and then threw him. They made my sister cry, there was no way any of them were leaving here on their own two feet. He hit the wall, cracking the drywall. He slid to the floor, unconscious. I stared at him for a few seconds and then snapped over to Frankenstein. Unfortunately, he wasn’t where I wanted him to be. He moved; he must have done it while I was busy with his boys. Where he was now I didn’t like in the least. The blood froze in my veins. I tried to move but I was paralyzed with fear. He was standing over by the gumball machines, Milagro in his arms. He had an arm around her next and a pistol pointed against her skull. My heart starting pounding in my chest and wanted to scream out to her.

“I’m walking out of here,” he said, his voice trembling.

Milagro was crying and squirming, trying her hardest to get out of his grasp.

I recovered. “Not going to happen."

“You bet your ass it is,” he said, dragging my sister with him as he inched in the direction toward the door.

I jumped off the counter, making sure to avoid the scared people cowering on the floor. I stepped around them, walking slowly toward Frankenstein. “Release the girl and maybe I won’t put you in a full body cast."

“You think you’re bad ass and you may be fast but there’s no way you’re stopping me from putting a bullet in her head."

He was right. I was fast but I wasn’t that fast. I was defeated and he knew it. As long as he had my sister, there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t let him know that and I definitely couldn’t let her know that. I could see the look on her face; she was absolutely terrified. Her eyes were searching the dark, looking for anyone to help her. It was my job to protect her and I failed that miserably. How could I have left her like that? When we get out this, I swear to never touch another damn game as long as I live. That’s a promise.

“You’ve made your point. You’re a big bad dude; you don’t need the little girl. Leave her here with me and I’ll let you walk out of here.’

Frankenstein seemed to think about it but that didn’t last very long. He stared at me and even though his eyes were the only thing I could see, I knew he’d never go for it. I saw that same look in the eyes of those bastards in the alley when they tried to rape me. He was a nut job and there was no reasoning with nut jobs. I raised my hands in an attempt to show him I meant no harm and that’s when it happened. It was so quick I didn’t even know what happened. A blue ball of energy shot out of my left palm and went right at him. He didn’t even have time to react it was so fast. It hit him in the face, throwing him back. The force of the impact was so strong it pulled him away from my sister and sent him crashing into the far wall.

He hit it a lot harder than the Wolf Man and this one wasn’t made of drywall. I heard the snapping of bones. He slumped to the floor and I don’t think he was conscious. But I didn’t give a fuck. I launched across the room and caught my sister before she fell to the floor. She was crying and screamed at first, not sure what was going on.

“You’re safe,” I said softly, crying myself. I pulled her to my breast and held her tight.

She cried on my shoulder. I held her for the longest time. The security guards rushed into the room, followed by police officers---apparently, they arrived a few minutes after I did. There was a lot of commotion as the hostages started to clamber to their feet. I let go of Milagro and the lights flicked on. When she saw me, she gasped. Several others gasped too. I set Milagro on her feet and stood up, scanning the crowd. Everyone in the room was staring at me, hostages, guards and cops included. I was glad that no one could see my face.

I locked eyes with Brenda and she gave me a slight nod. Then I felt fingers entwine with my own and looked to see Milagro holding my hand.

“Are you some kind of superhero?”

I turned to her and bent to her level again. I did something without thinking, something that I shouldn’t have done. “Something like that” I said and then tweaked her nose.

Her eyes widened. “Jaime?”

I stood up, turning away. Crap, see I knew I shouldn’t have done that. She whispered my name again, giving my hand a squeeze. I tried to ignore it but there it was. I looked at her again, slipping my hand from her’s. She gave me a look, one of admiration and not of fear. Then she made a motion of zipping her lips shut. I smiled and turned back to the rest of the room. Everyone was still in stunned silence, wouldn’t you be. I didn’t know what to say or what to do. I looked around the room for an exit but the only one was blocked by a whole bunch of people. The guards and police officers rushed me with questions; it was like a barrage. I held up my hands, silencing them all. I needed to get out of here before there was a media circus.

“Look I’d like to stay and chat but I really must be going.”

Before I knew what I was doing my wings sprang out of my back, I rose a few feet off the floor and zipped through the bank. I was just above all their heads and crashed through the glass bank doors. I rose higher once I got into the mall proper; hundreds of faces below looked up at me. I rose to the glass roof, fired one of those blue energy ball thingies and zipped through the hole, making a clean, if rather messy exit.

____________________________________

“That was definitely exciting.”

We landed on the roof across the street from the mall. I ignored Khaji for a second and turned around; spying what was going on. The media frenzy had already started. There were two news vans there and an assortment of police vehicles. I recognized the vans from Channels 6, 7 and 25. Yes, there’s a Channel 25 News, how strange is that. There were a few news reporters set up outside and a lot of general reporters there too. The police were already doing crowd control, trying their hardest to keep the bloodthirsty vultures at bay. I scanned the crowds, looking for familiar faces, hoping that Brenda and Milagro were out of there. The last thing I wanted was them wrapped up in all this mess.

But they weren’t there. I groaned, that meant they were still inside.

“How do I deactivate the armor again?”

“Just think about it.”

I did. The armor disappeared a lot faster than last time. I felt it ooze up my body and then disappear into my back. I was standing there naked again. I didn’t have to ask for clothes this time though because my yellow dress appeared instantly. My sandals appeared too. Oh yeah I forgot to mention them, I was wearing sandals before. I’m not big on shoes---like I’ve mentioned before---so it slipped my mind. A lot of things slipped my mind but right now wasn’t the time to dwell on them. I needed to get back into the mall and make sure my sister wasn’t traumatized or something. My blue vision came back and I scanned the area, looking for a new entry point. I spotted it on the mall roof; it was one of those roof access stairwells. As soon as I thought about it, I felt the wings form from my back and I took off. It was kind of crazy, flying like this but I seemed to be used to it by now. But it was kind of cool doing it without the whole armor thing though.

“Parts of the exoskeleton can be accessed at anytime.”

We landed on the mall roof. I retracted the wings and ran for the stairwell thing. The door was locked but that didn’t stop me. The armor glove appeared on my left hand. I grabbed the padlock ripped it off. Yeah, I could totally get used to this. The glove disappeared when I opened the door. I ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time. There were three floors to the mall; the third floor was probably my best bet. When I went through the exit to it, I was in one of those behind the scenes type hallways. I looked around, half expecting Schwarzenegger. I ran down the hall a little bit and found another door. Opening it up, I found myself in the mall proper.

I ran to the railing and looked down. The bank was on the first level. I scanned the area but there was no one around. It looked like most of the mall had been deserted. I felt like I was in a Romero movie as I ran to the stairs. I would have taken the escalator but it didn’t appear to be working. I hate elevators, I’m not sure why. But ever since I was a kid, I couldn’t stand being in one. I guess I might have a thing for enclosed spaces. I took these stairs two at a time too. When I reached the second floor, it was kind of eerie and quiet but I didn’t stay. I kept going until I got to the first. Once there, I saw where all the people went.

They were in the food court, there had to be over a hundred people there. Police officers monitored the whole area; there were three or four facing me. I took a deep breath and marched toward them. It didn’t take long for them to spot me. The nearest one came walking over, his hand on the butt of his gun. You’ve got to be kidding me. I held my hands up, palms facing him to show I wasn’t a threat. When he got closer, I saw the scowl on his face. Oh, this is going to be good.

“Miss, stop right there.”

I looked past him at the gathered group, scanning each face individually for Brenda and Milagro. I found them sitting at a table, currently talking to a female police officer. Milagro was hugging the ballerina bear tight to her chest. She had dried tears on her face but other than that, she looked all right. I let out a sigh. I thought for sure she’d be a wreck.

“I’m just trying to get to my sister, Officer.”

I recognized him as one of the ones in the bank. He didn’t recognize me though, how could he. He looked me up and down though, giving me a thorough once over. In fact, it was a little too thorough as his eyes lingered on my chest for a little longer than I would have liked. Fucking creep. His stare made my skin crawl and if he’d been any other guy I would have kicked him in the balls. As it was though I could only shiver and throw up a little inside.

He turned from me and looked back at the Food Court. “Which one is she?”

“The little girl with the teddy bear, the one talking to that female officer.” I pointed to her but I was too far away yet for her to see me.

He turned again and looked. He stared for a few seconds then turned back to me. “What kind of older sister leaves her little one in a bank all by herself?”

That pissed me off. This scumbag was judging me. Cop or not, he had no right. I felt my anger rising but I managed to keep it in check. “First of all, she wasn’t alone, she was with my friend Brenda and second of all, it’s none of your damn business.”

Ok, like I said, he pissed me off. I don’t think he liked that very much. He gave me another scowl. He opened his mouth to scold me but I was already brushing past him. I didn’t have time to stand here and throw barbs back and forth. I got about ten feet before he caught up with me and grabbed my arm. I spun around, my fist clenched. I so wanted to break this bastard’s nose. I would have too if not for someone shouting a name:

“Josie!” I looked around and saw Milagro running past an officer trying to grab her.

I groaned at the name she used. But I didn’t let it bother me as she practically leapt into my arms. I held her tight, burying my head into her shoulder as she cried on mine. I turned to the officer, glaring at him. He didn’t say anything, what more could he say. I left him standing there and carried Milagro back over to the Food Court. I went to the table where Brenda and the female officer were sitting. I managed to pry her away long enough to put her in the chair she vacated and took one of my own. The officer was Hispanic like us. I looked at her nametag, Montoya. Hopefully she wouldn’t be a jackass like the other guy.

She wasn’t. She was sweet and understanding. She asked Milagro a few more questions and did the same with Brenda. Most of them were about before the robbery took place and during it. There were no questions about the mysterious blue girl in armor but that didn’t stop Milagro from talking about her. She kept rambling on about how cool she was; casting sideway glances at me each time. Montoya wrote it down of course. Brenda was looking at me too, questioning with her eyes. I gave her a slight nod of my head, hoping that was enough for now. After Milagro was done telling the officer about the Blue Beetle---I kind of like it, it fits---Montoya turned to me.

“And where were you when all of this was going down, Miss Reyes?”

“The video game store” answered Milagro for me. I think she was trying to protect my secret identity. How cute is that. “She’s always playing those stupid games. She’s kind of a tomboy like that."

I sighed and nodded. “Guilty as charged. I was playing a demo for the new Halo game when I heard screaming. I tried to get back to the bank once I realized what was going on but the crowd pushed me back. So instead, I went up to the third floor to get a better look. Unfortunately all I saw was a whole lot of nothing, though I did get to see that cool superhero girl fly off.”

Milagro and Brenda smiled at me with their eyes. Montoya asked me a few more questions and I answered with the best lies I could come up with. When she was satisfied, she flipped shut her notepad and moved on to the next table. The three of us let out a collective sigh. After that, we had to wait until the other witnesses and hostages were all interviewed. It took nearly two hours for that. I grabbed Milagro’s hand when they finally allowed us to leave. I held it as tight as possible, there was no way I was ever letting her out of my sight again. She complained that I was cutting off her circulation but I didn’t care.

As we left the Food Court, Brenda pulled out her phone and called for a car. “The limo will be here any second.”

I nodded.

“Josie, I need to use the bathroom, can you let go of me so I can do that.”

I let go of her hand. “What’s with the Josie thing?”

She smiled. “Well I can’t very well call my sister, Jaime, that’s a boy’s name. So I’ve decided your name’s going to be Josephina from now on.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

She shook her head. “Nope.” She laughed as she walked off into the bathroom.

Brenda and I sat on a nearby bench. “I like it” she said with a smile of her own. “You’re definitely a Josephina; can I call you Josie too?”

I sighed. “I suppose it’s inevitable, huh.”

“You’ll get used to it,” she said with another laugh. I playfully gave her a little shove.

Milagro came back after that. She sat down next to me, taking my hand in hers. She held it quietly for a little a bit and then asked the question I was dreading: “Where did you get that cool suit?”

I sighed and looked at Brenda; she shrugged. So I took a deep breath and told Milagro everything. She listened intently and nodded a lot. When it was over, she squeezed my hand and gave me a big hug. Then she looked at me oddly. “So can I talk to Khaji too?”

“I’m afraid not. Tell her that I’m only able to talk to those I bond with.”

I told her what Khaji said and she frowned a bit. "I wish you’d have given me that stone.”

I didn’t know what to say. But I knew what I was thinking.

Brenda’s phone rang a few minutes later. She took it, talked to whoever it was on the other end and clicked it off. “The car’s here.”

I took Milagro’s hand again much to her protesting. But I didn’t care, like I said before; never out of my sight again. We walked quietly through the mall. We passed Officer Montoya; she smiled as we went by. We passed the other cop too and he gave me a dirty look. I wanted to give him the finger but I figured that would get me arrested or something. When we got outside there was a larger media frenzy than before. The cops were doing everything in their power to hold back the growing crowd of curious on lookers and news people. I scanned the crowd with blue vision and saw a familiar face in Tana Moon, the woman who had been there for the other incident of mine. She was talking to one of the bank employees. She looked over my way and her eyes lit up when she saw Milagro. I think everyone knew about the little girl with the pink bear.

Tana wrapped her interview up quickly and raced us down. She cut us off. I bit my lip and we nearly collided with one another.

“Can I ask you girls a few questions?”

Before any of us could say anything she stuck the microphone in our faces, well Milagro’s actually. I pushed it away, pissed. “What the hell is wrong with you, lady? She just went through a traumatic experience and now you’re traumatizing her even more.”

“I just want to get her side of the things, put a face of innocence on the whole thing” said the bloodthirsty reporter.

I wonder if I could punch her.

“The girls aren’t answering any of your questions,” said a stern voice to our left.

“Excuse Me,” snapped Tana, turning with us to the source of the voice.

Brenda was the only one who smiled. There was a tall Hispanic woman standing there, dressed in smart lavender suit, her skirt so tight and her heels so high she looked like she could crush anyone just by staring at them. She had long flowing dark hair and an air of superiority. When Tana’s eyes locked on her, I saw the color drain from her face. It would have drained from anyone. There wasn’t a soul alive in this town who didn’t know Amparo Juarez; she was a force to be reckoned with in every circle. I’m not really sure what kind of business she was involved in but whatever it was, it made her super rich.

Brenda rushed forward and gave her aunt a hug. “Thanks for coming, Tia.”

Amparo kissed Brenda on the head. Then she shot daggers at Tana. “These girls have all been traumatized and if you continue with any line of questioning, I’ll sue the hell out of you and that rinky dinky news station you work for. Do I make myself clear?”

Tana nodded.

Amparo looked at Milagro and me. “I recognize the little one but I don’t know you.”

Milagro spoke for me. “This is my cousin, Josephina; she’s visiting from El Paso.”

Amparo smiled. “You’re a very pretty flower my dear. You must drive the boys crazy.”

I blushed. Why the hell did I blush?

"C’mon” said Brenda, pointing off toward a white stretch limo. “You have to see this.”

It was rare to see her so excited. Milagro slipped away from me and took off, following Brenda gleefully. Amparo lingered behind with me, matching me stride for stride. It was kind of intimidating, especially seeing, as she was so much taller than me.

“I hear the Blue Beetle was here?”

I nodded. “She stopped the bank robbers and rescued my sister.”

“How generous of her.”

There was something in her tone that I didn’t like. It was only there for a second and then it was gone but it was there nonetheless. I never really liked Amparo; she kind of freaked me out. But there must have been something good about her because Brenda loved her. Brenda was always a really good judge of character. So I smiled up at her and the two of us walked slowly over to the limo.

___________________________________

“You guys suck,” said Paco’s voice over my speaker phone. “You go and have a day at the mall and leave me to rot in school.”

“Paco, we were clothes shopping, girl clothes shopping. I didn’t even want to be there.’

“You make a valid point.”

I was sitting on my bed, the phone on the sheets in front of me. I didn’t have a real phone in my room, but for my birthday last year, my parents surprised me with a pretty cool cell phone. It was nothing like Brenda’s fancy iPhone but it had some Wi-Fi capabilities and it could take pictures and video. That’s all I really needed. It was the only present I got last year because money was tight because we were getting ready to move to California. This year, my parents promised, there would be more money, especially now that my Dad was making twice as much as he used to down in Texas. My mother was pulling in good money too. We were still Middle Class but we were probably middle middle Class if there is such a thing.

After getting home from the mall, my mother was there waiting. Apparently, she heard about the incident over the dispatch and was actually in one of the ambulances at the scene. She never saw us because things had been kind of hectic. Unbeknownst to us, there was a bit of a stampede to get out of the mall and lot of people got hurt. My mother was running priorities back and forth all afternoon. She was able to cut out early because she wasn’t actually on the clock for today. So when she got home and didn’t find us she was a big wreck. She didn’t stop worrying until she saw us on the news and saw both me and Amparo tell off that bitch Tana.

When we actually got in the door, she smothered Milagro with hugs and kisses. Milagro tried to shrug them off but my mother would have none of that. Milagro tried to tell her she was ok, that the Blue Beetle saved her. But my mother would have none of that. The Blue Beetle was now big news, apparently. When we got home my mother had the TV muted but I saw grainy security footage, enhanced with night vision to show me beat the hell out of the three goons. It was too grainy to see real faces but there was no doubt that it was Milagro. My mother said she nearly had a heart attack when she saw it.

We spent the couple of hours before dinner answering all the questions we could. During dinner, my father stopped in. He didn’t say much. He ate his meal and went into the den. I tried talking to him but he gave me the cold, silent treatment. My mother glared at him and I tried my best to ignore him. It hurts when your own father won’t even look you in the eye anymore. I thought he was ok with everything but apparently, he wasn’t. After dinner, my mother had followed him into the den and they had a good shouting match. I took Milagro upstairs with me.

That was four hours ago. It took me almost three and a half hours to get up the nerve and call Paco. When he answered, he had no idea who I was at first. That was five minutes ago. Now, I’d just finished filling him in on the day’s events, including the Blue Beetle stuff. Yes, so one more person knows my secret.

“So what are you wearing?” he asked, trying to sound all suave.

“You did not just ask me that.”

He groaned. “I didn’t mean it like that. All your old clothes don’t fit right, so you bought new ones right. I was just wondering if you were wearing your usual PJs or new ones.”

I groaned and looked down. I was sitting cross-legged on the bed, wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt---an old one of my father’s- --and a pair of panties. I told him this, blushing while I did so.

“That is so hot.”

“I’d punch you if it wouldn’t hurt so badly.”

“You have to be here with me too.”

I tried to change subjects and told him about the new Halo game. He was kind of jealous. We talked about that for a little while and then of course, like the typical guy his thoughts strayed back to me.

“Are you at least a babe?”

I groaned. Is he ever going to give up? Instead of describing what I looked like now, I did the next best thing. I took my phone, held it far enough away from me and snapped a shot. Then I texted it to him. “I sent you a pic.”

I waited about thirty seconds and then I heard his response: “Damn Jaime, you’re a total babe now. How in the hell did that happen?”

“Beats the hell out of me.”

We talked for about an hour more than my phone beeped. I looked at the little battery symbol in the corner of the screen and groaned. I told him I had to go because my phone needed to charge. He wanted to know what I was going to do about school and I told him that for now I was staying home. He got a little jealous again and told me maybe he’d play hooky tomorrow so we could hang. We had a laugh and then said our goodnights. I grabbed my charger and plugged the phone in. I left it on my desk and shivered. Early this morning I must have left my window open because it was kind of windy and there was a breeze whipping the curtains about.

I shivered again, rubbing my cold arms as I got up to close it. As I got to the window, I noticed something on the floor in front of it. I used to have my desk by the window but I kept dropping things out of it. There’s no screen on my window, it fell off a couple of weeks ago and my father was too busy to replace it. So without a screen I had to move my desk. That’s probably how whatever it was got in here.

I bent down and picked it up. It was a sheet of folded notebook pad. I shrugged and flipped t over; my name was on it. When I opened it up, I saw a scrawled handwritten letter, in red ink: We’ve been watching you and we know who you are. Stay off our turf or face the dire consequences. If you ever pull a stunt like that in the mall anywhere near us, we will end you. There was no signature on the bottom but I didn’t need one to know who had sent it: Posse.

I crumpled up the note and tossed it into my trash bin.

-----

Author's Note: Here's Eight, I'm really pumping these things out. It kind of throws a wrench into my planning process. I wasn't planning on writing this so long or nearly this fast but I'm passionate about it and love the characters so it seems to want to take on a life of itself. I'm not sure how many more chapters there's going be but things are going to move a little faster now. This one has a two day time jump and the next chapter will have an even bigger jump. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and DC Comics once again for their great characters.

-----

Chapter Eight:

“Dude, you’re kicking my ass” groaned Paco as my character on the screen continued to pound the hell out of his.

“I think you’re letting me win,” I said, as it seemed his guy was doing nothing to block my attacks.

We were kicking in old school today. We dusted off the old Sega Genesis a couple of hours ago and were wailing on each other in Mortal Kombat 2. We used to play it all the time when we were kids. I know it’s probably a bit before our time but he found it in an old second hand store and just had to have it. Paco was like that sometimes, he loved the old stuff. He even had one of those ancient Nintendo systems, something he inherited from his father. It didn’t really work all that well anymore but it was still cool to display on a shelf.

Today was Paco’s day to play hooky. He tried doing it yesterday but his mother caught on to the game. This morning he was able to convince her that I was real sick and I needed some company. She didn’t believe it in the least, but she let it slide. Paco was a good kid and did a lot for his family, so one day off from school wasn’t going to hurt anything. His mother was cool like that. You’re probably wondering about the yesterday that I mentioned and that’s pretty simple, it’s been about two days since my mall incident. Hey, I can’t tell you every day of my life; that would be boring. That’s the real reason why I decided to forego talking about yesterday, because it was boring.

My parents argued some more, I’m still not sure what that’s about. My sister wanted to stay home from school with me but my mother wouldn’t allow it. I spent the whole day sitting around the house, watching them talk about me on TV. Well not me, really, it was actually the Blue Beetle. After my mall stunt, I was the new “It” girl. Every single station, local and national, was covering the story of my daring bank robbery foil. It was kind of flattery, though Khaji didn’t like it very much. She seemed to think that the Reach could monitor broadcasts and that it was only a matter of time before they picked up on the signals. I told her she was being paranoid but she told me we needed to keep a low profile for a while. That’s something I agreed with. The mall thing was a fluke as far as I was concerned. There was no way I was going to go out of my way to be a superhero.

Not that something like that wouldn’t be cool, it’s just not really for me. I’m still trying to get used to this body and there’s no way I’m going to flaunt it for the whole world to gawk at.

“GET OVER HERE!” My Scorpion shouted as he put his harpoon into Paco’s Kano, dragging him across the screen.

“Dude you suck.”

“And you’re letting me win.”

He had no response to that because it was the truth. When he showed up this morning and I answered the door, he showered me with compliments. He was kind of flabbergasted and shy too. It was kind of weird. He was my best friend and yet he was treating me like a stranger. For an hour, we sat on the couch, doing our best to mess up small talk. I’m not sure why things were so awkward now. What made things worse was the fact that he kept looking at my chest. I don’t think he was doing it intentionally or out of lust. I think it was one of those things where a guy doesn’t know where else to look, so he continues to stare at a girl’s breasts even though he doesn’t want to. Hey, it’s happened to me a couple of times so I know what I’m talking about.

He was the one who suggested the Genesis. When I told him it was a good idea, he jumped up and ran home to get it. When he came back and the two of us started playing, it was like old times again, except for the part where he kept letting me win. Paco was a killer in this game and before my change, there was no way I could beat him. He knew he was letting me win and I knew it. The only question was why, and as strange as it sounded, I think I knew the answer. I just didn’t want to say anything for fear that it might be the right one.

“So what are you going to do about school?”

I shrugged and paused the game. “We’re still waiting on the blood tests. If they say I’m a Meta then the government has some program in place where they’ll help out. They’ll get me a new birth certificate and social security number. It’ll be like I never existed.”

Paco sighed. “That sucks.” He bit his lip. “What happens if you’re not Meta?”

He knew all about Khaji of course. I shrugged. “Mom talked to Dr. Richards last night. Apparently, she has some government pull; her husband is a big scientist who works for the military. She said that even if I’m not Meta, she can pull some strings and still get the changes done."

“That’s cool. Have you decided on a new name?”

I groaned. This was a sore subject for me. Of course, as soon as I got home from the mall, Milagro told Mom all about how she decided I should be Josephina. I thought Mom was going to stand by me and tell her that I was going to be Jaime for a while. But Mom thought it was a wonderful idea, in fact if I had been born a girl that’s what she was going to name me. My mother and sister shared a knowing wink so I think they set me up. My mother decided yesterday that I was going to be Josephina Isabella Reyes, now and forever more. I asked if I had any say in the matter but apparently, I didn’t. She said that it was a mother’s prerogative to name her children. It was a shame really because I really liked my name, it didn’t matter that the jackasses at my old school used to say it was a girl’s name. Its Jaime, pronounced “hi-me”. No one seemed to get it but then again there was a very small Hispanic population there.

“I’m going to be Josephina from now on,” I said with a sigh.

Paco looked a little uneasy. “That’s a, uh, pretty name.”

I smiled. There was no doubt about it now. I took a deep breath and set down my controller. I turned on the couch, folding my jean-clad legs underneath me. Here goes nothing. “Paco, you want me to pull off my top or do you want to do it for me.” It was blunt but I needed to be blunt.

“WHAT!” He dropped his controller and jumped from the couch, staring at me like I’d grown another head.

“Don’t what me dude, it’s kind of obvious.”

His face turned crimson. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I groaned. So he’s still going to play dumb. “You’ve been staring at me since you got here. First, it was my boobs and now it’s my legs. Don’t you think I haven’t noticed?” I got up too, walking over to him so that we were standing a few inches apart. “So, out with it. You’re really freaking me out. It’s bad enough that my Dad won’t even look at me, my Mom and sister are having a ball and now it seems my best friend wants to jump my bones.”

“It’s not like thatttt” he stuttered, backing away.

I groaned angrily. I grabbed the end of my turtleneck and pulled it off in one quick, fluid motion. Now I was standing there shirtless, my boobs on perfect display for him to see. I was wearing one of my new bras. I was kind of wary about it this morning but my mother showed me how to put it on. I have to admit it is kind of comfortable. But I’m not going there at this moment. Right now, I needed to see how my supposed best friend was going to react.
Paco looked at my breasts and his face went red.

“What the hell is it, then?”

“I’m afraid it’s contagious,” he shouted, looking even more embarrassed than before.

We stared at each other, neither of us saying anything for a long time. I finally broke the silence by laughing. He cracked a smile and the only thing contagious was our laughter. We had a good laugh. I sat back down; put my turtleneck back on and explained things to him as clear as possible. I think I was able to convince him that there was no way I could pass my girlhood on to him. I think he sighed in relief. I went on to explain that I was the same person and that he needed to stop feeling sorry for me. That did it. We went back to our game and he stopped letting me win.

“You two have a very strange relationship.”

“Yes but it’s ours and that’s all that matters.”

“He was lying.”

I sighed. “I know.”

I let it go though. If my best friend wanted to have a little crush on the new me, I was fine with it. We played the game for a few more minutes and then got bored with it. There’s only so much old school we could do. After that, we went to my room; I kept the door open. Even though there was no one home, I wanted an exit in case he got a little nuts. I know it sounds crazy and he’s my best friend but I’m not exactly the guy he used to know. I sat on the bed and he sat at the desk. He asked me about the mall once again and once again, I had to explain everything. He was really interested in my new found superhero status. Yesterday on the phone, he tried to convince me to make it a full time thing. We were in a three-way conversation with Brenda as well. She didn’t think it was a good idea and I kind of agreed with her. I conceded that if a crime was happening and I was nearby I might try to stop it, but I wasn’t going to go out of my way to seek it out. Paco was a little upset by that, I think he liked the idea of having a superhero for a best friend.

“Dude what’s this?” he asked, picking up the crumbled Posse threat.

I groaned. “Nothing.”

I tried to snatch it from his hand but he held it out of my reach. I hate being short.

Paco uncrumpled the note and read it. “Dude, this is serious. They wrote it in red, do you know what this means?”

“It means they’re wasting their time, I have no intention of going anywhere near their territory.”

Paco groaned. “You already are, dumb-ass.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This entire neighborhood is their territory,” said Paco, running his fingers through his hair. “They’re really serious about this shit. They’re not like other gangs either. If there’s a Meta in the area where they operate and he or she’s not one of them then they give him two options: join or get lost.”

“I’m not a Meta.”

“They don’t know that.”

I sighed. This was nuts. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. So if I didn’t join these stupid people, they were going to try to run me out of the neighborhood. Fat chance of that ever happening. Posse was a nuisance; they were a bunch of street thugs with superpowers who thought they owned the whole damn area. It was kind of pathetic actually or at least it would have been if not for the fact that they were so deadly. The police were afraid of them and the only one they seemed to be afraid of was La Dama. To make matters worse, there was no one to keep the bastards in line. Back when Green Arrow was patrolling the streets, Posse kept to the shadows for fear that she might mess them up. But when she disappeared, it was like open season. It was so bad that a lot of people didn’t like to go outside after dark.

"What are you going to do about this?” asked Paco, waving the note in the air.

I made a decision when I crumpled it up and threw it away. “I’m doing nothing. If they want me out of this neighborhood then they’re going to have to do it themselves.”

The color drained from Paco’s face. “You’re serious?”

I nodded. “You haven’t seen the Blue Beetle in action.”

He couldn’t argue with that. In fact, the only ones who’d seen me in action were in the hospital. Not that I was happy with that. The bastards from the bank were all in ICU, two of them not so bad but the third guy was in a coma. It serves him right for trying to take my sister. The guys from the alley were in jail now, the one I messed up was in a prison hospital, expected to get out in a couple of days. What, I like to be informed. I actually called pretending to be an out of state relative. Just because the bastard tried to rape me, it doesn’t mean I can’t see how he’s doing. Besides, I thought he might have remembered my face. But apparently, none of the three alley bastards were talking. They didn’t even want to acknowledge they were beaten up by a girl.

Paco and I changed subjects. He wanted to know about school again. He and Brenda were in agreement with me, there was no way I was going back to my fancy school. I’ve had enough with it and I didn’t want to start back there again. Who cares if I was a girl now, the girls there were treated worse than the guys. Brenda and my Mom thought I should start fresh. They thought I might be able to get another scholarship; there was some fancy All Girls School upstate that they tried to talk me in to. Brenda said she’d even transfer if I wanted. But as interesting as that sounded, there was no way I was going to an All Girls School.

I think we decided on SCH---that’s Star City High. My mother called the school yesterday morning and explained the situation. Under new law, the school has to be discreet about it. Pending my supposed Meta human status, I have to take a few tests and should be able to start in a few days. My father was indifferent about it but I could see he was struggling with it. He grumbled a bit when my mother told him and stomped out of the room.

That was last night and he was still grumbling when he went off to work this morning. Oh, there is a silver lining to all of this. Since my gender change, my punishment is officially over. I’m kind of bummed because I liked working in the garage but my parents felt there was no correct way to explain what happened to me. They weren’t embarrassed by it but they just didn’t want people to know. So officially, Jaime was now living back in El Paso, unable to adjust to life here in California. I was now his cousin, at least as far as the neighbors and my soon-to-be classmates knew. Not that any of them knew Jaime anyway.

Paco and I talked for a few more hours. We talked about school mostly. He seemed to think that I’d hit it off pretty well with a lot of the male population and I punched him in the arm every time he mentioned it. I was about to tell him I wasn’t interested in guys when I heard the front door open. Paco looked at his watch and cursed.

“It's already four, I need to get home for my siblings, Mom’s working a double tonight.”

“You and Brenda coming by later?”

I followed him out of my bedroom and down the hall. When we went down the stairs, Milagro and Soledad were sitting on the couch. Soledad took one look at me and her mouth fell open.

“See” said Milagro with a smile. “I told you I have a sister now."

I groaned. Soledad was about to say something but Paco scooped her up into her arms and carried her out the door. I laughed, she squirmed and they were gone. I turned to Milagro and gave her a look.

“Really?”

She shrugged. “Can’t I tell people I have the coolest sister in the world now?”

“Mom and Dad didn’t want you telling anyone.”

Milagro ignored me and rifled through her backpack. She was pretty frantic about it. Then she dumped it on the couch, cursing. I ignored the curse and asked her what was wrong. She looked on the verge of tears. “Soledad and I cut through that alley, I tripped and my bag popped open. I think I left my English book there.”

I groaned and looked at the clock. Mom wanted me to stay inside until things were official and everything. It was about ten after four, she wasn’t going to be home for another hour or so. “If I go and get your book, do you promise to stay here and not tell anyone I left you alone?”

She nodded. “I’m not a baby you know.”

I walked over to the front entry and grabbed my new sneakers, slipping my feet into them. Then I took my keys off the hook near the door. “I’ll be right back. Lock this door behind me and don’t answer it unless it’s someone you know.”

“Duh.”

I rolled my eyes and went out the front door.

____________________________________

I had to take my mother’s bike from the shed because mine was still at Mario’s. The plan was to swing by there sometime today but as you can see nothing goes according to plan anymore. So I had to take my Mom’s. It’s not a bad bike; it’s just not very up to date. It was an old ten speed. Its gears were a little rusty and the chain was in dire need of a good oiling. Its brakes were shot too. I found that out the hard way when I made my first stop. I nearly plowed into traffic. Luckily, I was able to grab onto the nearby stop sign or I would have been a goner. Now I was half way between my house and the alley. I think you all remember the alley, it’s where this adventure of mine truly began. I couldn’t help but wonder how my life would have been If I hadn’t decided to take the short cut. Would I be like this, transformed now into a whole new person? Or would I be the same old me, little Jaime Reyes, the butt of all the rich kids jokes. The big question of the hour is: would I want to go back to that?

I stopped at another corner. I looked both ways but there was no traffic. Traffic was kind of light this time of day; most of the people were still at work. I looked at my new watch---I got it on my shopping spree---it was almost five. I groaned. My mother was probably home by now and probably pretty P.Oed that I wasn’t there. But she’d understand as soon as I explained it was for Milagro. I’d have to come up with another place where she dropped her book of course. My mother was pretty clear that my sister wasn’t allowed anywhere near the alley or the disused lot. The last time she followed me there; she slipped and cut her knee on a broken bottle. We spent three hours in the emergency room, getting a few stitches and making sure she wasn’t infected.

“We’re coming up on the lot, are you sure we need to go back there?”

I heard the edge in her voice. “I didn’t think you could get scared.”

“I’m not scared, just a little apprehensive about that place. The last time I was there and conscious, Ted died trying to keep me out of the wrong hands.”

“Were you close?”

“Ted had great potential but he just didn’t have the drive. I tried bonding with him but his heart wasn’t in it. It was different with Daniel and with you. Each of my hosts brings something or themselves to the equation but Ted had nothing to offer.”

“What about the Pharaoh?”

Khaji sighed. “Which one? I have been bonded with several and most were unsavory individuals. My last host, Kha-Ef-Re, was the best of them. He and I used our combined strengths to help the people and we really made a difference. I mourned for a century after his passing. When we were entombed together, I was hell bent to never bond with another person so long as I lived. You humans call it love but the Reach had no word for it.”

She sighed again. “Most of the artifacts in the tomb, including the Pharaoh were brought here to San Francisco; if we get the time I’d like to visit him.”

“I think that can be arranged.”

I pedaled across the street, moving at a brisk pace. Once on the other side, I spotted the lot. This side of it was out in the open for the world to see, the other side was hidden behind the buildings. If not for the alley, Milagro and many others would have to ride around the block to get to school. In case you’re wondering, the elementary and middle schools are in one building, the high school is right next door. Whereas there are several elementary schools in this part of the city, there’s only one high school. Most of the lower class and middle class kids in the neighborhood go there. I would have gone there too if not for the scholarship. I guess I’m going to go there now, though.

I pulled up to the lot and left the bike there. I stared at all the junk, a pang growing inside me. I’ve kind of neglected my art as of late, I guess I’ve been kind of busy. A part of me wanted to forget my reason for being here and just go right on looking for more junk. I was very tempted but I was able to keep myself on track. I did find a really good piece of scrap metal that looked promising. I stared at it for a few minutes before I forced myself away and down the alley. It didn’t take me long to spot the book but I could see how Milagro missed it. When she tripped and spilled her bag, the book must have slid away from her. It was half hidden under a cardboard box.

“There it is” said Khaji apprehensively. “Let’s get it and go.”

“This place really freaks you out, huh?”

"You would be scared too, if you watched your friend die here.”

I nodded, looking at the bloodstains. Earlier I thought they were kind of cool but now that I knew what they meant, I was kind of sad. The last bearer of Khaji died here, died trying to protect her. I felt a certain pang of guilt for being such an idiot about it before.

I sighed, saying a silent prayer and then went for the book. I approached it quickly, not wanting to waste any time. My mother was probably having a cow now as it was. I bent to pick it up and felt something. It wasn’t the book; it was something else. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I grabbed the book and slowly stood up. I cast my eyes around a bit, my whole body tensed up. I think Khaji sensed it too, because she was mumbling some strange words. I think it might have been a curse in her native tongue. My shared bond translated it a few seconds later and I’m not going to repeat it.

“We have company.”

As soon as her words entered my head, they appeared. First, it was only the two of them and they scared the hell out of me. One of them was a black man, about twenty or so. He seemed to step out of the shadows, appearing almost in front of me. It was kind of creepy. I took a step backwards, wondering what the hell this was all about. I heard two more people appear after that. One on either end of the alley. I cast them both furtive glances. One end was blocked by a massive amount of man in red flannel. He was one of the biggest guys I’d ever seen in my life. The other end was blocked by a guy who looked like he bench pressed twenty four hours a day. Both of them looked to be quite formidable. There was a fourth person too. She stepped out of the shadows as well but they didn’t conceal her as well as the black guy.

When my eyes looked on her face, I groaned. It was my stalker, the creepy girl in black.

“Is this her, Probe?” asked the black guy, nodding at me.

The girl in the dark sunglasses looked me up and down. “That’s her, Damper. She’s the one that the news is calling the Blue Beetle.”

“How the hell do you know that? Who the hell are you people?”

“Quiet, little girl, we ask the questions around here” said the black guy... he was clearly in charge.

I looked at the girl, trying to read what was going on from her face. But it was like looking at a statue. Her skin was almost white, it was so pale, and when she looked at me, it made my skin crawl. There was something definitely up with her stare. I turned away, shivering. I looked back at the tall guy in front of me, the one she called Damper. What the hell kind of name was that? Then again what the hell kind of name was Probe. Who were these people?

“She’s doing something,” said Khaji “she’s got a power, she’s trying to scan us with it.”

“What kind of power?”

“I’m not sure, but she’s not human. I think she’s one of those Metahumans Dr. Richards was speaking of. In fact, all of them are.”

I groaned. It suddenly dawned on me who these people were. Shit, I was in trouble. “You’re Posse, aren’t you?”

Damper didn’t answer my question instead; he asked another one of Probe. “Are you sure she’s one of us?”

Probe stared at me again, my skin started to tingle. She cocked her head, seemingly perplexed. “Yes and no, it’s hard to tell. There’s something different about her. I’ve been watching her for a couple of days now, ever since the alley incident and she’s very strange indeed. I thought she was one of us but there’s something else, something inside of her.”

“We have to kill her. We have to kill them all.”

“Calm down and don’t panic.”

“They’re not going to let us walk out of here.”

“Well is she or isn’t she?” asked Damper, apparently wanting a yes or no answer.

Probe sighed and shook her head. “She’s human but she’s something else too. But it’s not Meta, it’s something alien.”

Damper finally turned back to me. He looked me up and down. “You’ve caused quite a bit of a stir lately, Little Miss Beetle Girl. I figured our note would have scared you off but apparently, you’re stupid or something. Because as you can see, this is definitely our territory.”

“My family lives here, I can’t very well leave.”

I don’t think he liked that very much. He turned to the big fat guy at the end of the alley and nodded. I gulped. My skin started to tingle and then it started. The armor activated, oozing up my skin faster than ever before. It was half way up my body before the others knew what was going on. Damper’s eyes widened and seemed to pop out of his head slightly. He gave me this look, backing away as he did so. He grabbed Probe by the arm, pulling her away too. The armor moved up my body, my blue vision kicked in and I scanned the Man Mountain as he came pounding toward me. He may have been a behemoth, but he still had vitals like everyone else. In fact, his vitals were a little lower than a normal persons, probably because he was so huge.

“Scour, mess her up a little bit. I still want her walking so she can drag her ass out of here.”

My armor finished covering my body. I turned and saw Damper drag Probe away, making a hasty exit down the other end of the alley. They passed the other guy. Damper nodded to him as he went by and this guy came for me too. I scanned him as well. He had increased adrenaline but other than that, he was pretty normal.

“Hey Thumper, what says you and me squash this little bug.”

The other guy, Thumper, laughed.

Scour moved first. I thought he was going to talk a swing at me but instead he spit the biggest logey I’ve ever seen. It sailed through the air and hit me right in the face. It was disgusting. I groaned and reached up to wipe it off. As soon as I did so, I heard a strange sizzling sound. I pulled my hand away from my face and saw the spit bubbling on my fingers. Whatever it was it was trying to eat through the armor but with no such luck. I groaned. The son of a bitch had acid spit. I flicked it off my fingers and watched as it ate through the concrete as soon as it hit it. Scour looked a little surprised that his spitball didn’t seem to have any effect on me.

He tried again but this time I was ready for him. I moved faster than lightning, dodging it long before it got to me. It nearly hit his partner, who also dodged it but just barely. I heard the bastard curse behind me. Then it was my turn. I charged Scour, running at him like a linebacker. I slammed head first into his gut. It sound have knocked me flat on my ass but instead I hit him with such force that I barreled him down the alley. He let out a huge gasp of air as he was flung onto his back, landing in a heap a good twenty feet away.
I turned on Thumper, who was now keeping his distance. Probably trying to decide if I was worth the effort or not. “You coming or not?’ I asked, curious as to what he planned on doing.

“You took him out in one blow; I’ve never seen anyone do that to Scour.”

“He had it coming. It’s not polite to spit in a lady’s face.”

Ok, it was a corny line, but it was kind of cool too, right?

Thumper decided after that and unfortunately for him he made the wrong choice. He charged me. I let him come; I wanted to see what he had to offer. He didn’t disappoint. He threw a nasty punch into my chest, probably as hard as he could. If I wasn’t wearing the armor, it probably would have hurt like hell, maybe even broken a few ribs. But as it was, the punch did nothing; I didn’t even feel it. Thumper did though. I think several bones in his hand cracked as soon as his fist impacted. He screamed as loud as he could a few seconds later, stumbling backwards and cursing. He held his wrist, crying out in pain, holding his severely swollen hand away from his body.

“What the fuck are you?’ he gasped, staggering away from me.

“A severely pissed off individual,” I said as I slowly walked toward him. “Do you want to make me a happy one?”

He nodded vigorously. “We’re sorry about trying to scare you off. But Damper doesn’t like competition. He thought you were trying to cut in on his turf. We thought you was Meta. There’s not a lot of us around here and he usually invites new ones into the group. He’s been especially cautious after Bonita and Esteban disappeared.”

Why did that sound familiar? Then it dawned on me. “You’re talking about the missing Metas on the news?”

He nodded. “They were members of our gang. They went to the corner store and never came back. We thought it was Green Arrow coming back but no one’s seen her for a while. Then we thought it might be you, especially after what you did at the mall.”

“I don’t go out of my way grabbing people off the streets, even thugs like you. In fact I’m not even in the hero biz.”

“Could have fooled me.”

I groaned. Were all gang bangers this paranoid? They thought I was taking their friends. That happened days ago, long before I found Khaji. But I wasn’t going to tell them that. Instead, I zipped over to Thumper at lightning speed. I grabbed the front of his shirt and lifted him off the ground, making sure I got his undivided attention.”I want you to deliver a message to your boss.” He nodded vigorously. “Tell him that I’m not going anywhere, that this is my room. I won’t bother him as long as he stays away from my house and doesn’t bother my family either. If I so much as see or even sense one of you bastards near me, I’ll end the whole lot of you. Did you get all that.”

He nodded again. I dropped him; he landed with a groan on the ground. “If you’re not a Meta, than what are you?”

I gave the answer some thought. “I’m a whatever.”

Ok not the coolest thing to say but it was the only thing that made sense. Because frankly, I had no idea what I was.

He gave me a strange look. I turned away and walked back down the alley, toward where the book was. In all the excitement, I had dropped it. I bent and picked it back up, brushing off the mud and grime. I turned back to Thumper and glared at him.

“That went well,” said Khaji, sighing in relief. “I suspect your show of power will be enough to keep them at bay for now. But they’re like cockroaches; they won’t stay down for long.”

“I’ll deal with it then.”

I took a deep breath, extended my wings and took off.

-----

Author's Note: There's another time jump in this chapter. We get to find out her father's problem and for those of you who have asked, yes Josie does go and get her mother's bike. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and Lilith for helping me when the first draft of this chapter was crap. Blue Beetle and most of the characters within belong to DC Comics.

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Chapter Nine:

After my encounter with Posse, things in my life kind of slowed down.

I’m sorry if my narrative takes a little jump again, but the days that followed the event were kind of boring and nothing really exciting happened. Ok, stuff happened, but it wasn’t anything like foiling bank robberies or getting attacked by notorious neighborhood gangs. I suppose you want me to tell you about it. Ok, so after getting the book and coming back home, my mother was a little peeved. I told you she would be. She grounded me for a few days, confining me to the house. Like she wasn’t doing that already.

Milagro was gracious about the book until later that night... she overheard the three way conversation I was having with Paco and Brenda about Posse. She wasn’t too happy and threatened to tell Mom, so I had to let her sit in on the conversation, too. I think it made her happy that she was finally a part of the group.

The day after the Posse incident, my test results came back. I know you probably think this is pretty exciting but it’s not. They already told me what I already knew: I wasn’t a Meta. There were some discrepancies, though and it was enough to convince the government there was something different about me. So they approved my gender change and went ahead with all the paperwork needed to do so. They put it on the fast track. But they said there was no problem with me applying to school, so later that day that’s exactly what Mom and I did.

We had to meet with the principal, Mrs. Harris, and the School Board president, Mr. Duncan, in private. Both of them agreed that there was no reason that I couldn’t start the placement tests but I wasn’t allowed to officially start school until the paperwork was in. So I set up an appointment for the tests. No one likes to take tests so I was kind of wary of that. After the meeting, Mom took me to the Shops. The bad news, we spent three hours school shopping, the good news I was finally able to get my bike back. We brought the truck so I was able to put it in the back. Mario was a little surprised to see my mother, so she gave him the fake story we cooked up. He said he thought I looked familiar. Mario talked my mother’s ear off a bit about his family.

The day after that…very boring. Enough said.

The next day, my paperwork arrived. I did say they put it on the fast track right. Well now I was officially Josephina Isabella Reyes, please call me Josie. Milagro was so happy that she cried in my arms for ten minutes. When that was over, my mother took us out to celebrate. Half way through our meal, my father arrived. Yeah, remember him, Mr. Avoidance.

He looked at me and I knew there was something he wanted to say but I beat him to the punch. I was so angry with him by that point, I could have ripped his head off. I almost did with my verbal lashing: “You here to sit and stare at me some more” I said angrily but not loud enough for the other patrons to hear. My mother opened her mouth to scold me but I cut her off. “Don’t you have anything to say to your daughter, your own flesh and blood. It’s still me in her, even if you can’t see it. I’m still the same person, I’m just not what you want me to be.”

My father said nothing, I didn’t expect him too. But then his face got red, it did that when he got angry. I winced. Even though I was mad at him he was still my father and I still respected him. But when he spoke his voice was calm: “I am sorry. My behavior has been foolish and I know I can’t make it up to you so at least let me explain.”

“I’m waiting.”

He sighed. Then in a softer voice said, “You have to understand. I lost my son, I know he’s still sitting in front of me in this beautiful daughter I have now, but he was still my son. I love you and I always will but it’s very hard for me to look at you and see this beautiful flower where my handsome boy should be. I’m not ashamed of you, I’m ashamed of me.”

I opened my mouth for another go but he cut me off. “You have every right to be angry, I’ve been an ass. But I was scared. I’ve always known how to relate to you before, you and I had so much in common. At first when I saw you and you answered my question, I thought things were going to be fine. But then you went shopping with your mother and started to act so much like a girl, I thought I lost my Jaime.”

My father started crying. It was a big deal. My father never cried. He was this big stoic pillar in my family, he didn’t even cry when his father died. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry. My mother reached over and gave his hand a squeeze. She was crying too. Which of course made me start to cry. I think he was being an idiot, but I couldn’t blame him. But he was wrong if he thought I was Ok with this whole girl thing. There was nothing Ok about being a boy one day and turning into a girl the next.

My mother broke the crying fest. “I think the two of you need to spend some quality father daughter time together.”

We both nodded. We finished our celebratory meal and went our separate ways. It was decided that my father and I would go some place fancy and have dinner. I know we just ate out for lunch but dinner was different. It was my mother’s idea. My father took Milagro home---much to her annoyance---and my mother took me to a fancy shop to get a pretty dress. I know... gag me. When we got there, the woman fawned all over me. We spent two freaking hours in there. We bought this cute blue shift dress---cute is my mother’s description, not mine. Then some underwear and shoes. Who knew you needed all new things for a dress, especially one I was going to wear only once. Yeah, I don’t plan on making a habit of it. My mother wanted to take me to a salon too but I drew the line there. It was bad enough that she dragged me to get my hair re-cut; I wasn’t going to let someone do more to me. We did get my ears pierced in the jewelry shop next door, though.

When I got home, my mother decided the rest of the day belonged to me and my father. We spent another hour getting ready and I have to admit the dress did look kind of nice on me. The shoes were a pain though; heels and me did not make good friends. My father looked kind of dapper in his button down shirt and black dress pants. You have to understand that I rarely see him out of his work clothes and rarely clean, especially clean-shaven. When we went to the car–my mother’s, not his---he took my arm in his and walked me to it. He was trying to suck up and it worked like a charm. Ok, so I might be a little girl inside.

We went to a movie first. Just to prove to him that I was still the same person on the inside, it was an alien invasion one. Khaji groaned and commented through the whole thing, complaining about this and that. I tried to ignore her but it’s really hard when you’ve got your very own alien invader in your head. After the movie, we went to the restaurant. It was one of the fancier places in town, something that my father could never afford.

“How are we paying for this?”

“You let me worry about that.”

I sighed as the waiter led us to our table. It was set for two, in a secluded dining area. On the wall before we passed through the velvet curtain, there was a plaque: Queen Private. I sighed, now I knew. I wonder how he was able to convince Olivia to give up her area for the night. I pretended I didn’t notice though and let him be the big man. Being the big man, he pulled my chair out for me and I sat rather clumsily. He smiled and laughed.

“Now I know my son’s in there,” He laughed a lot. “Has your mother not shown you the finer points of being a lady?”

I flushed in embarrassment. “She’s been too busy taking me shopping and making me her Barbie doll.”

He laughed some more. “That sounds like her.”

We both had a good laugh. We spent the meal talking about the past few days, the ones where he was being a jerk and avoiding me. He admitted that he thought we were too different and that he thought we’d have nothing to talk about. I wanted to tell him everything and I mean everything. But I held back. I tried to sugar coat some topics too. I don’t think he wanted to hear about the girly things. We laughed and had a good time but there was still one thing bothering me and I asked about it.

“Why were you and Mom arguing so much then?”

He sighed. “It was about your school. I felt that there was no reason for you to continue going to Ravenwood Academy but your mother had different ideas.”

I groaned. I hated RA; it was nothing like it should have been. Even the teachers snubbed their noses at me there. “It was horrible, Papa.”

Yeah, I called him Papa, so sue me. He smiled at it though. “They treated me like trash, even the teachers. Why do you think we put those fish into that bastard’s car?”

“I thought you were acting out.”

“It was retribution.”

I quickly filled him on all the stuff those rich bastards used to do to me and he got a little red faced again. I saw him clench his fists and if smoke could come out of his ears, it would have. He started mumbling and cursing, all in Spanish. He does that when he gets mad. I started laughing because he was little a Latino caricature when he did it. I waited until he calmed down a bit before we talked again.

“That’s why Mama and I decided on Star City High because I don’t want to be in that environment anymore. It sucks that I’m throwing my scholarship away like that, but I don’t give a damn. I may not be able to get the same education but I won’t be so miserable all the time.”

Yeah, I said Mama too. I sound just like Milagro now.

He reached across the table and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

We talked some more while we ate. When we were done and he pretended to pay the check, I rolled my eyes at that; we left. It was getting time for him to go to work and for me to go home. But he got a better idea. As soon as he asked me, I knew my mother would never approve, especially with the new dress. but I didn’t care.

“Mama is going to be so mad,” I said as we went in the opposite direction from home, heading into the city, toward Queen Tower.

“You let me worry about your mother, this was supposed to be my night to spend with my daughter and I want to take her to work with me.”

So we went to the garage. I used one of my jump-suits but it was kind of baggy on me. He said he’d have to see about getting me the female equivalent for next time. That made me happy. Instead of making me mop the floors like usual, he took me into the workroom with him and let me work on some of the things he was working on. He stayed by my side the whole time, practically holding my hand as he showed me how to use the welder and other things. It was kind of cool; especially seeing as he never let me do any of this stuff when I was Jaime. Does this mean I’m Daddy’s little girl now. God, that was horrible to think but a part of me kind of liked it.

After working a bit, he took me around and showed me all the cars. I was able to scan them with my blue vision and tell him some of the things that were wrong. He was impressed as all hell that I was able to tell all that by looking at them. Hey, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. He jotted down all my suggestions on a clipboard as we wove through the small auto show arranged in front of us. After that, we went home and before going inside, he kissed me on the cheek. It was kind of awkward for both of us but it was kind of sweet, too.

“Thanks for proving this old idiot wrong, Princessa.”

I gave him a hug and cried a little. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I felt so much like a girl there, that it was scary. It was kind of funny, here we both were wary of my new found girlhood and already both of us had a better relationship as father and daughter than we ever did as father and son. What are the odds? We stayed on the porch hugging for a while until my mother opened the door. She looked kind of pissed and definitely wanted to bust our chops but when she saw us hugging, she cried. Then she glowered at us. She told me to go to bed and gave my father the evil eye. He was definitely going to get a lashing. We shared a knowing smile and then I went upstairs.

The next day ...yeah, I know this is annoying---I went for my school tests. I’m not going to bore you again but I was able to pass them all. I was now officially a freshman at Star City High West; it’s one of three or four branches of the one in the city proper. Confusing, huh, you bet your ass it is.

So that’s it, you’re now up to speed.

I took the tests this morning and now that they were over, I had time to hang with my friends.

Now I was in a bit of a crisis. The three of us---Paco, Brenda and I ---were walking down the street, peering into all the shop windows. When Brenda showed up this morning to retrieve me for shopping, she was kind of excited. I wasn’t going to officially start school until tomorrow---which is Monday--- and seeing as today was now Sunday, she was giddy with excitement. Brenda---even though she wouldn’t admit it---only had two friends, me and Paco. There were a lot of superficial people at her school who wanted to be friends with her because of all her money but she brushed them off. I think she liked hanging out with us; she was one of the guys after all. But I think she liked it even more now that I was one of the girls. She wouldn’t admit it of course but I could see it in the way she talked to me now. We were good friends before but never as close as we were now.

“You want to go to the salon today?” she asked, her arm looped in mine.

Paco groaned. “Please say no.”

Brenda ignored him. “Josie needs to look her best for her first day tomorrow.”

Not the salon. Why does everyone want to drag me to the salon.

I groaned too. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

She laughed and squeezed my hand. “Sweetie, there’s more to a girl than just hair.” She held up my hand to show up. “Look at your nails, they’re a mess and I bet you’ve never had your legs waxed before.”

Paco and I both cringed at that. I pulled my hand gently from her’s. “I don’t think I need to get those things done.”

Brenda frowned. “Can you at least come with me then?”

It was the look in her eye. It was different from any other look she’s ever given me. She finally had the girl friend she’s always wanted and I saw that in her look. She didn’t want me to just hang out with her; she wanted me to do girl things with her, too. I’m not sure how I thought about that but I knew how I thought about her. She was one of the best friends I ever had and there was no way I could make her upset. I turned to Paco and he knew it too. Even though he looked a little pale, he gave me a curt nod. I smiled; I’d have to make it up to him somehow.

“Where’s the salon?” I asked.

Brenda squealed and wrapped me in a hug. The things I do for my friends. My mother isn’t going to be too happy that I decided to go with Brenda but there are some things that girl friends need to do together. My mother will understand, she had friends like Brenda when she was my age, too.

Paco toed the ground. He looked sad for a second but then looked across the street, his line of sight straying to the comic book shop. I couldn’t tell what caught his eye at first until she stopped in front of the store to tie her bootlace. It was a girl, about our age, with short spiky hair and a wild fashion sense. Paco blushed. Brenda looked over and rolled her eyes.

She leaned close and whispered into my ear. “That’s Lucinda Rodriguez; Paco’s had a little thing for her since she moved here a few weeks ago.”

I looked at the girl and smiled. I came up with a plan. “Hey Paco, you think they’ll have any back issues of Warrior Angel?”

He was our favorite comic book hero.

“I’m way ahead of you bro, I mean, Jo.”

Brenda and I laughed as Paco puffed himself up and he walked across the street. He stopped in front of Lucinda and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around her face lit up and the two of them walked into the shop together.

“Very smooth” said Brenda.

“Hey, I have a lot of talents.”

Brenda took my hand. “C’mon, we can have them paint your nails blue,”

I groaned as she dragged me down the street toward the salon.

________________________________________

Rachel’s---the little salon that we walked into---was nothing like Vivian’s. For one thing, it was much smaller and for another, there were a lot less people waiting. Brenda insisted on paying for everything and told the overly made up woman behind the counter to give me the works. I grimaced when I saw her because she looked like a clown. Hopefully she wasn’t the one doing the “works”. But she led me over to a chair where a girl a few years older than me was waiting. She was a strawberry blonde, really pretty. If I was still a guy I probably would have looked right at her chest, her boobs were massive. I looked down at mine, suddenly feeling less ashamed. She smiled as I sat down and put a smock on me.

“My name is Amber; I’m going to take good care of you, sweetie. So why don’ t you just close your eyes and relax.”

I did as she asked, feeling her grab my left hand and begin to work. I’m not a big fan of nail polish smell but this particular brand was kind of soothing. I yawned, realizing that I got little sleep last night. I like to sleep on my stomach and now that’s almost impossible to do without a little discomfort. So sitting in the chair, Amber painting my nails, I kind of drifted off.

When I opened my eyes again, I blinked. I looked around a bit, confused as to where I was. Amber smiled at me. She pointed to my nails and when I looked, I saw they were nicely filed, rounded like a girl’s and painted a bright blue. I wiggled my fingers, wondering how long I’d actually been asleep.

“About twenty minutes” said Khaji “she manicured your nails while you dozed.”

“It’s been a long time since anyone actually feel asleep on me,” said Amber with a laugh as she took the smock off me.

‘I’ve never had my nails done before” I explained as I climbed out of the chair.

She looked a little shocked by that. She opened her mouth to ask a question but Brenda came over to clarify. “She was kind of tomboy before. She’s just coming out of her shell.”

Amber nodded. “That explains why her hair’s so short.”

I groaned. Why is it that everyone was against my hair? I liked it short; in fact, I think I’m going to keep it like this for the foreseeable future. Anyone who doesn’t like it can go screw themselves. I wanted to tell the blonde bimbo that but instead I smiled and thanked her. Ok, I’m a coward but I didn’t want to cause problems either.

Brenda took my hand and led me back over to the counter where the clown lady was still standing. “We’re ready for our waxing now.”

The woman nodded and led us into the back of the shop, through one of those beaded curtain thingies. There were two weird bed-like chairs and two brunettes waiting. I read their name-tags, Bethany and Britney. They looked similar, so I wondered if they were twins. They smiled at us and then ordered us to strip down to our underwear. I flushed in embarrassment but I did as I was told. I lay down afterwards on one bed thing; Brenda took the other. I bet you want me to describe a waxing to you but I’m not going to because it’s absolutely barbaric. I wonder if it’s something they invented for medieval tortures. Suffice to say I’m never getting it done again.

After we paid, I grumbled as we walked out of the shop. Brenda looped her arm in mine again, laughing as she did so. “Wasn’t that fun?”

“You’re perverse you know that.”

She laughed. "Hey, at least I didn’t fall asleep at the nail station.”

“I haven’t been sleeping well. It’s hard to do with these built in pillows” I hefted my breasts as I did so, giving the pair of guys walking by a nice show.

This time Brenda turned scarlet. She smacked my hands; the two guys smiled and snickered. They watched us until they turned around the corner and disappeared. God, it’s like they’ve never seen a girl touch her boobs before. I rolled my eyes and looked at Brenda; she looked like she wanted to smack me. Instead, she squeezed my arm and pulled me across the street, toward the comic shop. We didn’t go inside; we peered through the glass front window trying to see if Paco was still inside. But there were only three people inside: two pimply faced nerds and the bored skater guy behind the counter.

“He and Lucinda must have hit it off better than I thought,” said Brenda smiling like it was her idea to force Paco on her.

I smiled too. Maybe he’d stop looking at me now. “So, what do we do now? Do you want to wait for them or do you want to go somewhere else.”

Brenda’s stomach answered for her as it grumbled. “I’m starving.”

We both knew where to go. There was this little diner around the corner, called Frankie’s. It was this little fifties hole-in-the-wall that had this cool retro vibe to it. Frankie was a good guy; he was a third cousin of Paco’s or something. So whenever we went there we got to eat free which was kind of cool. We walked arm and arm down the street and turned the corner. My skin started to tingle as soon as Frankie’s came into sight. There was a sinister looking black car parked outside and nothing else. Usually something like that wouldn’t look out of place; except it was an Audi and you didn’t see cars like that in our neighborhood.

Brenda squeezed my arm. I grabbed her hand tightly and pulled her along, trying to get closer to get a better look. We both went as far as a clump of bushes and ducked down behind them. The diner was clearly closed but there were two guys inside. They were dressed in charcoal colored suits; one of them was leaning over the counter, his hand wrapped tightly in Frankie’s apron. Frankie was an old guy, probably in his sixties. He had a bad heart; he’d already been to the hospital a couple of times for it. Seeing the two of them roughing him up made my skin crawl.

Brenda gasped, pulling her hand out of mine. “What the heck are you doing?”

I looked down and saw the armor slowly creeping up my body. “It’s a reflex action.”

“Someone’s going to see.”

She grabbed my arm and slowly pulled me away from the bushes, dragging me over to the alley between the diner and the building next door. The armor was half way covering my body by the time we got there. My heart was pounding in my chest and my entire body had that ants-crawling-under-my-skin sensation again. Brenda let go of me and stared awestruck as the armor finished covering my body. I took a deep breath and flexed my fingers. She continued to stare, her mouth open. I gently closed it with a finger.

Then I turned to the diner. I took a few steps and looked through the nearest window. The goons were leaving; Frankie was on the floor gasping. I clenched my fists. “Go inside and take care of him, call 911 if you have to.”

Brenda nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to teach those bastards some manners.”

I turned and walked around the side of the building. The two jackasses were already at their car and getting inside. I couldn’t let them get away. I ran forward and grabbed the bumper just as they started up the car. I heard the engine roar to life and the tires squeal but the car was going nowhere. The two of them cursed and looked around, trying to figure out what was happening. The guy in the passenger seat saw me in the rear view mirror and when he did, there was this look of awe on his face. It didn’t take him long to react. He rolled down the window, pulled out a pistol and fired. The bullet hit me right in the forehead but it ricocheted off, bouncing somewhere toward the alley. I snapped my head there just to make sure Brenda was gone. She was in the diner now, helping Frankie to his feet.

Another shot fired, harmlessly bouncing off me. “Let go of the car, bitch!”

“Not going to happen. No one messes with those who can’t defend themselves when I’m around.”

The guy laughed. “You’re defending Frankie. You’ve got the wrong guy, little girl. He’s the crook here, not us. He owes us a lot of money and we’re only here to collect.”

I believed that about as much as I believed the two of them were honest citizens. “There are other ways to retrieve your money, more legal ones.”

The car shut off, the tires stopped squealing and spinning. The driver side door opened. The driver got out but he didn’t have a pistol. He had a sawed off baseball bat. He caught came around the side of the car and caught me off guard. He slammed it into my left arm, causing me to let go of the bumper. I stumbled back. The bat didn’t hurt but the blow caught me off guard. He swung again, hitting me in the side of the head. I went down, falling to one knee. Damn, I didn’t think it was possible to get hurt while wearing the suit. Though I still felt nothing, the blow was strong enough to make me kind of dizzy.
He came down with the bat again, landing a third blow, this time on my shoulder. I stumbled, completely overpowered by him now. He was laughing, apparently enjoying myself. I need to get on my feet and back into this game. He came at me for another swing but this time I was ready. I snapped up and grabbed the bat, gripping it tight enough that my fingers imbedded in the wood. He was stunned to see me standing. I pulled the bat from his hand, snapping it in two with my iron grip. This was all the advantage I needed. My attacker stumbled backwards, scared out of his mind. He turned to run but I grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around so he’d face me. He was a good foot and a half taller and probably much stronger if I wasn’t wearing the suit.

“So let me get this straight, you and your buddy like to pick on innocent old men and whale on girls with baseball bats. Your mothers must be very proud.”

He didn’t say anything, instead he spit in my face. I groaned, why did everyone have to spit in my face. I let my disgust get the best of me and I head butted him. It wasn’t very hard but it was enough. His head snapped back and he slumped unconscious in my hands. I groaned, apparently it was harder than I thought. I let him drop to the ground. His partner got out of the car quickly. He pointed his gun at me then changed his mind and dropped it. He tried to run but I was faster. I moved like lightning again, pinning him to the side of the car before he even got a chance to take a few steps. He gasped from the power of my assault.

I grabbed him too. “Why Frankie, what the hell did he do to you?”

“He skimped on his payments.”

“What payments?”

“To the boss. We take a small incentive from the local shops, to keep them safe from the gangs around here.”

“So you’re not only criminals but you’re also extortionists.” I squeezed his shoulder, causing him to scream out in pain as bone cracked. “Who’s your boss?”

He shook his head. “You maybe a bad ass but I’m scared of her a lot more than you.”

I decided to change tactics. “Tell me who she is and I’ll protect you.”

Hey, they do that with criminals all the time on cop shows. But it didn’t seem to work because he kept shaking his head.

“You don’t understand; I’m already a dead man. She’s got eyes and ears everywhere. We’re both targets now. Me for running into you and you for trying to stop me.”

I squeezed his arm even harder, he screamed out. “Who has that much power?”

He opened his mouth to speak but he never got a chance to say anything. There was a slight whooshing sound and then his body slumped. I didn’t even know what happened until the blood started seeping out of the wound in his head. I panicked and dropped his lifeless body. My scanner snapped in and I quickly searched the surrounding buildings, looking for the shooter. But whoever it was, they were long gone now. I gasped, looking down at the dead guy at my feet. Holy crap, who the hell would kill just to keep one of their own men from speaking their name. It was absolutely crazy.

“I can’t find the sniper. I was stupid; I should have scanned the area before hand.”

“Don’t blame yourself; we both stumbled into this fight without knowing the score.”

I was about to argue, but the sound of sirens cut that off. I took one final look at the unconscious man at my feet and then took off for the alley. When I was safely there, I deactivated the armor. I summoned up some identical clothes and then after taking a reassuring breath, I ran into the diner. Brenda had Frankie sitting at one of the tables, drinking a glass of water. Luckily for me, the old man had his back to the windows so he never saw what went on outside. But Brenda did and I could tell from the look on her face that she saw the man die in my arms. She opened her mouth but I shook my head, now wasn’t the time to discuss it.

Instead, I walked over to the table and sat down with them, Frankie never noticed I wasn’t there before. He smiled at me blankly and continued to sip his water.

____________________________________

“Josie, is that you?”

Milagro came running out of the living room as soon as I closed the front door.

“What’s the rush?”

I made the news. It was kind of cool. Milagro grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the living room. My mother wasn’t there---she had a weird shift---but Mrs. Cruz was. Do you remember how I told you that everyone thought I was my own cousin, well there were a few people in the loop about who I really was? Mrs. Cruz was one of them. She was a nice old lady and she talked to no one but us. Even if she talked to more people, there was no way she’d blab who I was. It was embarrassing and very private. When she saw me dragged into the room by Milagro, she got up from the couch. Her work was done. She gave me a hug and walked to the door, telling me she left something for me to eat in the fridge.

“What is it?” I asked as Milagro forced me onto the couch.

I looked at the TV and saw. There was another video of the Blue Beetle, this time it was of her in action. I groaned. According to the anchor, the video was taken from the camera across the street. The news story was cut together with video from inside the diner and out in the street. First, it showed the goons roughing Frankie up then it showed them trying to make their hasty retreat. It didn’t show me arrive---thank God for that---but it did show me in action. It was kind of surreal seeing me kick ass all over the evening news.

The scene cut back to the anchor and his pretty co-anchor. “Glad she’s on our side.”

They both laughed at the corny joke.

The story was big news. Not only did it make local but it hit some of the national circuits, there was even a small blurb on CNN, which was really cool. Most of them ran with the Blue Beetle name---which was a given---and CNN was calling me “San Francisco’s New Darling.” Every time Milagro flipped the channel to different news stations, me beating the crap out of those guys showed up again and again. Luckily, the video was edited so they didn’t show that guy dying in my arms.

“Who were they?” she finally asked, once she couldn’t find the story anymore.

I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell her anything. I decided after the mall there was no way I wanted to get any of my family involved in this. “Just some guys trying to hustle some money out of Frankie.”

I’m not sure if she bought it or not. “You kicked their asses.”

I nodded. I did indeed. I smiled at her, left her in the living room, and headed upstairs. I started for my room but changed my mind and went into the bathroom. I locked the door behind me and wandered over to the sink. I stared for a long time at the girl in the mirror. She used to be a stranger but now it felt like the old me was the stranger. I turned my head left and right, trying to see if there was anything left of Jaime in her. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t see myself. There were parts of the old me but most of them were gone. I think I’m being too hard on myself. I sighed, turned on the water and splashed some in my face.

“Those two were too highly organized to be common thugs.”

I sighed. “What did you find out?”

Did I tell you that Khaji can do this cool Wi-Fi thing? I guess it slipped my mind. After changing back to myself and going into the diner, Brenda and I stayed with Frankie until the cops came. Brenda answered all the questions, telling them what she saw. When they asked me, I told them I’d just gotten there. We stayed with Frankie for a few minutes more but left as soon as we saw another car pull up and a familiar female officer get out. There was no way Montoya would believe it was coincidence that we were at two Blue Beetle sightings and were not connected. We kept our heads down and disappeared into the gathering crowds.

Where does the Wi-Fi come in? I was getting to that. After making sure Brenda got into her car, I walked home. I remembered that I left my mother’s bike near the disused lot a few days ago. Hey, there’s been a lot on my mind. As I walked toward the alley, Khaji brought up how she scanned the goons faces and their license plate. She said she had access to an internal network and could hack into any computer system in the world as long as they were networked. So it wasn’t really Wi-Fi but it was pretty close. As for my mother’s bike, some jackass had stripped it of its wheels and tossed it into the lot. I groaned when I saw it. I had to carry it home and hid it in my work place. I’ll have to figure out a way to tell my Mom about it later.

“Your two friends weren’t in the system” I sighed. “The car was borrowed from a dealership. There was a police report filed. Apparently, two gentlemen fitting the descriptions of the two at the diner asked to take it for a test drive and never returned it. It’s now in the police impound lot but the police weren’t able to lift anything from it, save for the fingerprints of the two men, one of whom is in intensive care at the hospital.”

I groaned. In other words, we had nothing. That kind of pissed me off. Someone was out there, shaking down my neighbors and threatening their livelihoods all in the name of protection. It kind of made me sick. It also made me worried. I wonder how long it would be before they came knocking on our door, demanding gang protection money. Not that Posse would ever dare go near my house or family again. Whoever was behind it all was extremely scary and really well connected. I had a thought but it was too crazy to even imagine. There was no way it was her…

“You have a theory?”

I shook my head. “More like a shiver up my spine.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “There’s this urban legend in these parts, about a mysterious female crime leader who calls herself La Dama. It’s kind of ridiculous, something to keep other criminals in line. But the story goes that she controls most of the crime that happens in the whole city, especially in this area of it.”

“And you believe this is the person that those two worked for?”

I shrugged. “Its crazy but it’s the only thing I could come up with.”

I left the bathroom and went to my room. My mother and I talked a lot about redecorating. She thought that seeing as I was now of the female persuasion, that a more feminine room might be in order. We discussed it a lot and came to the decision that it could be remodeled as long as it wasn’t anything too girly. We didn’t have a lot of money to do any serious remodeling but there was enough to put a gender neutral shade of paint on my walls and maybe get some new bed coverings. We spent some time yesterday looking through a couple of J C Penney’s catalogs and looking at color swatches. So I’m going to paint my walls in a very pale purple and my bed stuff was going to match. I know purple is kind of a girly color but my mother also told me it was kind of regal too.

Thankfully, my room was still my own when I walked inside. However there were a few subtle changes, things I groaned about. My desk was gone now, replaced by a vanity. It was white and looked kind of old but I suppose I couldn’t fault my mother for it. She must have done it when I was out with Brenda and Paco. There were a few other things too: my blue lampshade was replaced with a light purple one and some of my star charts were off the walls. That kind of annoyed me. I made it very clear that I wasn’t going to start hanging posters of Orlando Bloom and Justin Bieber---that guy was too creepy even for me.

I walked over to my bed and noticed something else. Sitting between my pillows, looking very out of place, was a stuffed bear. It was white and had these blue plastic eyes that looked kind of real. I reached over and grabbed me. He looked brand new. I lifted him up and found a card underneath it, addressed to me. When I opened the envelope, the card was girly: For my Sister. I read the little message that Milagro left inside and sighed. I have to admit the bear was a nice touch. I squeezed it to my chest and rolled over, lying on my back.

“Are you beginning to embrace the changes?”

I sighed. I didn’t know how to answer that. I sat up and still holding the bear, I gave it some serious thought. Was I embracing the changes? I’d already done some crazy and very girly things. About a week ago, I was a normal everyday teenage guy and now I was a girl. It was kind of scary to think about, even more so at how quickly I seemed to adjust to it. I mean, I was a little apprehensive at first, but now it was nothing. I never gave it much thought until now. I spent the first few days fighting the changes and then when they happened, I still tried to deny it. Now that there was no going back, maybe I did embrace things.

I slid off the bed and wandered over to take a look at myself in the vanity mirror. There was definitely a girl standing there, a very pretty teenage girl with boobs that were bigger than she wanted and hair that everyone hated. But she was me. She was dressed in a cute blouse, a fat belt and skinny leg jeans. But she was me. Her face was newly made up, her nails were sparkling blue but she was still me. I’m this girl, this girl I didn’t want to be but here I am. I wanted to frown but instead I kind of smiled.

“You know what; I think I have embraced her.”

-----

Author's Note: Here's Chapter Ten. We get to see Josie in school and we end with a nice cliffhanger. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wondering editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters. I'd also like to say Happy Halloween even though I'm a day late.

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Chapter Ten:

“You’re wearing that to school?” asked my father as I came down for breakfast.

I looked down at what I was wearing. It was one of the outfits Brenda picked out for me on our first shopping expedition together, the one that was overshadowed by those bastards in the bank. There was nothing wrong with what I wearing. Ok, so maybe the jeans were tighter than they should be but they were all I had. We only bought a couple of pairs and this was the last pair that was clean. The top might have been a little much, too but it was the only blue one I had, the rest were pink and purple. Besides, I kind of liked how it made me feel. It was made of a lightweight material that felt good on my skin. Just because the neckline plunged a bit, my father was going to make a case out of it.

He folded his newspaper and set it aside. “I don’t like it. Go upstairs and put something else on.”

I groaned. “I don’t have anything else, Papa.”

From Total Avoidance to Super Protective, that’s my Dad.

He huffed and picked up his newspaper, grumbling in Spanish. Milagro said nothing, she ate her Cheerios in silence but her eyes were smiling at me. I think she wanted to laugh but she was keeping her mouth shut for fear of my father’s retribution. Me, I sat down and poured myself a bowl. I don’t like milk in my cereal. It annoyed the hell out of my father but milk makes things really soggy. So while I crunched and Milagro slurped, the three of us sat in non-conversational silence. I don’t think that’s really a word but there’s no other way to describe it.

Milagro broke the silence finally. “Did you two have fun last night?”

Last night we went back to the garage. My father once again became the doting Dad and showed me how everything worked. You remember how I was happy that he treated me like a person... well now it was driving me nuts. Instead of treating like before, where we barely said a few words to one another, now he was all over me. Not in the perverted way either, clear out your filthy minds. He wouldn’t let me do a thing by myself last night. Whenever I had to move something, he did it for me, or if I had to lift something, he said it was too heavy. There was some oil changes I should have been able to do by myself but he didn’t want me to get dirty. By the end of the night, I was so annoyed with him I wanted to scream.

My response to Milagro’s question was a lie but it was only to make my father feel better. “We had a great time, I’m learning so much.”

Milagro smiled weakly. She could at least tell when I wasn’t telling the truth. She went back to eating her cereal, but I lost my appetite. Luckily, I was saved by the knock on the side door. I got up to answer it but my father was already out of his seat. I groaned and Milagro rolled her eyes. When he opened the door, Brenda was standing there. I think she was a bit surprised about my father answering the door because he was never that nice. Especially to her. He was under the impression that a boy and a girl couldn’t just be friends. He kept telling me over and over again that Brenda was a perfectly beautiful girl and I should be dating her, not “hanging out” with her. Now I think he’d blow a gasket if I started dating her.

“Good morning Brenda” he said in a sincere voice. Brenda looked about as shocked as my sister and I. “Do you girls need a ride to school?”

Brenda was too shocked to answer straight away. But it didn’t last very long. “Umm, no, Mr. Reyes we’re going to ride our bikes, it’s not that far.”

He looked sad. “Well if you ever need a ride you just let me know.”

“Ok Dad” I said, I didn’t want to call him Papa in front of Brenda.

I got up from the table and grabbed my backpack. I had started for the door when he cleared his throat. I turned and he stood up. He walked over and wrapped me in a big hug then leaned down, his cheek pointing toward me. At first, I didn’t know what he wanted and then Milagro mimicking kissing. So I rolled my eyes and kissed my father on the cheek. He smiled and Milagro stifled a giggle. I shook her a look and she quickly went back to eating her breakfast.
Brenda and I rushed out of the house quickly. We got on our bikes---I’m still riding my boy one---and we rode as fast as we could from the house. We got to the end of the street before we both burst into laughter.

“Invasion of the Pod People?” asked Brenda.

“I’m not familiar with that race?”

I ignored Khaji. “I don’t know. Ever since we spent our Daddy/Daughter Day, he’s been acting like that. It’s kind of freaking me out.”

Brenda frowned and I could of kicked myself. Of course talking about fathers and daughters was going to upset her. I opened my mouth to apologize but she smiled brightly and shook it off as if the frown never happened. “I’m sorry” I said quietly.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Hey!” shouted a voice behind us, followed by furious pedaling.

We both turned to see Paco riding as fast as he could to catch up to us. We stopped and it didn’t take him long. He was out of breath, panting like a mad man. He was sweating pretty badly too, which was kind of gross. He took a few puffing breaths before he spoke:

“I thought we were going to ride together. I went to your house to get you and your Dad looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel. He started yammering off in Spanish, yelling at me about being no good for you and all that such nonsense.”

Brenda and I both started laughing.

“Josie’s Dad has become Mr. Overprotective Father now.”

Yeah, you might want to avoid my house for a while. At least when he’s around anyway. I can’t imagine what would happen if he caught the two of us alone together.”

The color drained from Paco’s face. “Your Dad has always liked me though.”

“Yeah as Jaime’s friend” said Brenda, with whimsy in her voice. “But now that he’s a she, you’re a potential suitor and her Dad will never go for that.”

Paco got paler and paler. Brenda and I laughed even harder.

We picked on him a bit and then pedaled our way to my new school.

_______________________________

Can I bore you with my first day of school? I’d rather not, but then I’m sure there’s someone who will cry foul. So what do you want to know? I can tell you that as soon as the three of us arrived, everyone was looking at the new girl. It felt kind of weird walking down busy halls where people weren’t trying to trip me or stick things down my pants---don’t ask. Brenda and Paco stayed with me the whole time, sticking to either side of me like glue. Khaji was there too but the only thing she was good for was moral support, not that I didn’t need it. As I walked down the hall, all the eyes were on me and strangely enough most of them were leering male ones.

“You’ll get used to it,” Brenda whispered in my ear.

She and Paco led me to the main office. But before we got there, someone whistled at me and another guy “accidentally” brushed against my boobs when he was walking by. Paco wanted to pound the hell out of him but I let it slide. I was new that was all, fresh meat, blood in the water and whatever other analogy you can think of. It was the same way at RA except here, the people weren’t giving me disgusted looks and hoping I didn’t infect them with fleas---once again don’t ask. Right before entering the main office there was a guy leaning against a locker, he was one of those tall, blonde and mysterious types. He stared at me with intense blue eyes and something inside of me kind of jumped.

“I’m going to home room” said Paco, bailing. He didn’t like to be late for anything.

“Your serotonin levels just elevated a bit, are you in some kind of danger?”

I flushed and didn’t answer. I continued to stare at the guy, brushing my bangs out of my face. Brenda grabbed my arm and pulled me into the office. She gave me a knowing smile, which only caused me to blush even more. My heart skipped a beat. Was it possible? No, no way in hell, not me, not going to happen.

“You were crushing on him weren’t you?” she whispered as the two of us walked up to the receptionist’s desk.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The receptionist was a pleasant enough older woman with graying hair and a nice smile. I handed her my folder and waited while she looked up my information on the computer. It didn’t take her long and she handed me a large manila envelope. I took it and tore it open, dumping its contents into my palm. I had my picture taken the day of the tests and now I had my very own SCHW ID, it was kind of cool but the picture wasn’t very flattering... but those things never are. The only other thing in the envelope was a class schedule. Brenda took it from me before I had a chance to look and sighed a few times before handing it back.

“You’ve got P.E., Math and Art with me. The rest of the stuff is kind of a let down but what can you expect for someone transferring in.”

I looked at the schedule myself. It looked pretty much like my old school schedule expect instead of Technology, I was in Home Ec. I should have seen that one coming. They also had me in a class called Women’s Studies. That kind of surprised but once again, I should have seen it coming. I flipped the schedule over and saw a handwritten note scrawled on the back: it was from my Guidance Counselor, she wanted to meet with me at the end of the week to see how I was adjusting. I groaned; I was pretty sure what that was about. But I wasn’t going to let it ruin my day.

Brenda looped her arm through mine. “C’mon, I’ll show you to your first class seeing as we’ve pretty much missed home room.”

When we got outside, I looked over at the locker where the guy had been leaning, but of course he was gone. I felt a dull ache in my stomach because of it. But then again, everyone was gone because the hallway was deserted. They’re probably all in home room. Brenda led me down the hall anyway, pointing out a door where we should currently be---i.e. our home room---but then she leads me away, taking me to the door of my first period class, which happens to be English.

“I’ll see you in a couple of periods. I’ll meet you outside your History classroom so the two of us can walk to PE together.”

Then she was gone. I groaned and looked at my watch; class wasn’t set to start for another two minutes. I slid to the floor, using my backpack as a seat while I waited. Two minutes goes by really slow, especially if there’s no one around to talk too. Except of course in my case, I’d never really be alone again. But Khaji seemed on edge this morning. I’m not sure what it was but I could sense it in her voice. In fact, she’d been that way ever since our fight outside the diner. I tried asking her about it last night but she brushed it off as being tired. I asked again this morning and she said the fatigue of using the armor so much was getting to her. But I didn’t believe either for a second. Even know she was quiet which was usually one of the two things that Khaji Da was not.

“You do realize that I can hear every one of your thoughts.”

“I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine” she sighed. “This environment is strange and unusual to me. The whole concept of educating youth this way seems so foreign to me. Whatever happened to parents educating their children from their homes or young ones learning by watching others? This is a very strange society you live in.”

Her words were shattered by the ringing of the bell. This set her on high alert. It scared me a bit too. I jumped to my feet and the halls quickly flooded with students. During the rush, I grabbed my bag and slipped into my English classroom. I took a seat in the middle, which is neither the head of the class where the nerds sat or the back where the loners sat. Kind of in-between, just like me.

Do I need to bore you with all the details of every class? Well even if you want me to I’m not going to. I’ll give a rough rundown of them though. Like I said before, my first class was English. My teacher was droll and kind of boring. I stayed in the middle while the rest of the class filed in around me. The old battleaxe didn’t even bother to acknowledge my new girl status. But some of the students did, mainly the guys who were calling me the “hot new chick”. Go figure. I’m not good in English so I won’t bore you with the specifics. I can tell you that the class dragged on longer than it should have and when the bell finally rang to let us go, I was one of the first ones out the door.

My next class was history. The teacher was short and fat. I sat in the middle again. You’ll never guess who sat next to me---yep, Mr. Blue Eyes from the hall. He smiled at me and I flushed some more. God, I need to get that under control. I’m not very good in history, either, but all of that changed with Khaji on my side. It worked out really well when you had a seemingly immortal alien sentience sharing the same body as you. She practically lived through most of it. Today’s subject was Ancient Egypt; I think someone up there really loved me. Every question he asked I knew the answer but I didn’t answer them all because I didn’t want to sound like a brain. Hey, I’m not an idiot. The new girl, showing how smart she was on her first day, it was social suicide.

Brenda was waiting for my outside my history class. When she saw You-Know-Who walk out behind me, she gave me a little shove, causing me to bump into him.

“I’m sorry” he said, catching me, his strong hands on my shoulders.

I turned and looked up at him, my heart pounding in my chest. “Itssss okkk” I stammered, sounding like a total idiot.

“I’m Josh, you’re Josephina right?”

I said nothing but motor mouth Brenda did. “That’s right, but everyone calls her Josie.”

“It was nice catching you, Josie,” he said, letting me go and slipping off down the hall.

I gave Brenda a look of daggers and she playfully stuck her tongue out at me. We both laughed and continued on down the hall toward the Gym.

____________________________________

I got to venture where no man has gone before: the girls locker room. I should have been overly excited, after all, what guy my age wouldn’t want to be in the girl’s locker room watching them all change. The only problem is that as soon as I sat down on the bench, sweating, my gym clothes clinging to my body, I was just like the rest. No matter how I tried to get attracted to any of them, all I saw were fellow girls in various stages of undress. How disappointing is that. Here I was hoping I was a lesbian and now this pretty much confirmed I wasn’t. How much does that suck. I can’t say that I’m not surprised. After all, there was no doubt that I was attracted to Josh and all throughout P.E. I kept staring at the girls in their tight tops and tiny shorts, hoping to feel something. But no matter how much I tried there was nothing.

“What the hell are you doing?" asked Brenda through her teeth, glaring at me.

“Trying to see if I’m a lesbian” I whispered back, luckily no girls were close enough to hear.

Her eyes looked as if they were going to bulge from her head. She was shocked for a few seconds but recovered quickly. “What’s the verdict?”

I sighed. “One hundred percent heterosexual.”

We continued to change. I did it without looking at anyone’s boobs but my own. After that, the two of us went to Art together. How cool is it that we have two classes in a row. Art was fun, the highlight of my day so far, especially after the depressing gym class. The teacher was a fruit, who was obsessed with color, both on the canvas and in the clothes she wore. After Art, Brenda and I separated. I went to my Women’s Study class, the one I was dreading all day. Get this; it’s some kind of freaky feminist thing. Ok, not really, but it was all about women and it kind of bored me. I may look like a girl and sometimes act like one but I was still a guy where it counted. Even though that was disappearing a little each day.

After WS, it was Home Ec. They must have thought it a joke, giving me two feminine classes in a row. The teacher was kind of nice though and she helped me start my sewing project. Apparently, we’re supposed to sew our own stuffed animals. I guess that’s kind of cool. I picked out this pink bear, I think it will go nicely with the one Milagro gave me. Ok, so I’m a girl inside too, so sue me. Brenda and I met up for Math---more snoring---then we departed so I could go to science. Science is my class; it’s the one I excel at. I didn’t care if I came across as a nerd as I took one of the front lab stations, sitting with my back straight and my mind at full attention. I answered every question, once again not caring if I looked like a dweeb.

After science came lunch. Brenda was waiting outside my door again.

“How’s the day so far?” she asked as we walked side by side down the hall.

"Like a normal school day.”

Brenda snorted. “How’s Khaji liking school?” She asked this in a whisper so no one else could hear.

“She’s been surprisingly quiet. Besides helping me in history class, I haven’t heard a peep from her.”

“I’m resting,” said a groggy voice. “I store up a lot of energy and put them in my reserves but using the armor drains that energy. Usually I can recharge after a few days or so but you’ve been using it so much that I haven’t had a chance to do so.”

Boy did I feel like a dick. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Try avoiding danger for a few days.”

We walked into the Cafeteria. It was like any other high school cafeteria; it had several round tables and was filled to the brim with chattering teenagers. The drumming noise was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything Brenda said to me as we went through the lunch line. Paco was already at a table and was waving us over. His friend from yesterday was there too, the girl with the spiky hair, Lucinda I think. When Brenda and I sat, Paco made the quick introductions. I eyed the strange girl, looking her up and down. She was a weird one, who had that many piercings on only one side of their face like that.

I wanted to tell my friends about Khaji and her limits but I couldn’t mention any of that with Lucinda nearby. So instead, I was stuck listening to their day at the comic shop. Lucinda---call me Luce---was just as passionate about Warrior Angel as Paco and me. In fact, I think she knew more about him than the two of us combined. It was kind of cool but it was so not what I wanted to talk about. I kind of droned her out and looked around the cafeteria. It didn’t take me long to see that someone else was looking too. When Josh and I locked stares, I blushed again. He smiled. He was sitting by one of the tall windows, a huge group of popular looking kids sitting around him. He gestured to an empty seat next to him but I shook my head, pointing out my two friends.

“That one wears too much cologne, he smells like a men’s catalog."

I laughed inside my head. At least I hoped it was. I didn’t want anyone to think the new girl was nuts and laughed at nothing. "You sound kind of jealous?"

This time Khaji laughed. “I’m an artificial construct; I do not have human emotions.”

I left it at that.

Brenda waved her hand in front of my face, snapping her fingers as she did so. “Earth to Josie, you there?”

I snapped around. “Sorry, what did I miss?”

Brenda laughed. “The four of us, this weekend, we’re going into the city to some concert. Luce thinks she can score us some tickets.”

I nodded. “Sounds cool to me.”

Lunch dissolved into more pointless rambling about what music we all liked and things like that. It was over all too quickly. After lunch, I had two study halls in a row. Apparently, it was too late in the year for me to take electives so they stuck me in study hall. At least I’ll be able to get all my work done, but it still kind of sucked. Well, the first one did anyway. The second one kind of rose away from sucking as soon as Josh walked into the room. Ok, its official, I’m so totally crushing on him. I can’t help it. My male brain keeps telling me it’s so damn wrong but my female brain is telling my male one to shut up and get with the program. Khaji is remarkably quiet.

Listen to my vocabulary, it’s like my mind has been taken over by the brain dead teenage girls from Venus or something. I need to stop watching all those stupid teen dramas with Milagro; they’re definitely starting to seep into my brain.

Josh sat next to me but we weren’t allowed to talk. It was study hall after all. That didn’t stop him from passing a note here and there. Most of them were questions and mainly they were about me. It was kind of funny actually, because if he knew who I’d been he’d probably kick my ass. It was kind of flattering though. I did my best to answer back, scribbling a little bit and sliding it back over. The Moderator gave us dirty looks but she never caught on to what we were doing. We had a good time writing back and forth. Yes I know it’s kind of clichéd but that’s how it happened.

When the second study hall was over, it was the first class of the day that I was reluctant to leave. When I did, Brenda was waiting for me, alone.

“Where’s Paco?”

She rolled her eyes. “He and Little Miss Warrior Angel are going to the comic shop; you and I are on our own.”

We both shared a laugh and walked down the hall toward the exit. Ok, my first day of school was now officially over. What’s the final tally: boring as hell. But I have to say thanks to Josh, I might be looking forward to class tomorrow. Thinking about him brought a smile to my lips, one that Brenda didn’t catch, thank God. I never would have heard the end of it if she caught me crushing on him anymore than I already was. It was bad enough that I was crushing on him at all; I didn’t need her adding to that embarrassment with her constant teasing.

We started toward the bike rack when we both noticed the limo. It was hard not to, after all it took up at least three parking spots in front of the school. We both knew who it belonged too as well. So when the driver got out and opened one of the doors, Brenda was already walking toward it. Her aunt got out, dressed in a white pantsuit today, her hair flowing in the gentle breeze. Several kids and a couple of teachers stopped to gawk. I stood about ten feet away, looking the car up and down. Limos were never my thing, too flashy if you ask me. At RA, a lot of the students arrived in them; it was some kind of status thing. Whoever had the biggest limo had the most money. It was like a game to the rich, trying to one up the other with size.

It was kind of stupid to me. Brenda and her aunt talked for a couple of minutes. Her aunt handed her something and then Brenda came walking back over, putting what appeared to be a bracelet around her wrist. She had another one in her hand, her face aglow with the biggest smile.

“Look what Amparo got us,” she said, holding up a bracelet that was identical to her own. “She had them specially made for us.”

“She hardly knows me,” I said as Brenda grabbed my wrist and clasped my gold bracelet onto it.

“Don’t question it. When my aunt gives you gifts, just smile and say thank you. Because she doesn’t take no for an answer.”

So I smiled and waved my wrist in the air happily. Amparo returned the smile, though hers looked more fake than mine. What the hell was her problem? I stared at her for a few seconds, my eyes narrowing into deadly slits. She returned the glare. Clearly, something about me pissed her off and I know there was something about her I never really liked.

“Did she say what she was doing here?” I asked, my dislike for her in the tone of my voice. I didn’t mean for it too sound so snarky but it happened.

Brenda ignored it. She knew how much I disliked her aunt. “She’s going out of town on business for a couple of days. She wants me to ride to the airport with her and see her off. I told her we had plans but she insisted. Is it ok if we do our homework together tomorrow?”

I sighed inwardly. Brenda and I have been spending a lot of time together. We were closer than ever now and seeing as it looked like Paco had himself a girlfriend, I was kind of screwed as far as companionship went. But there was no way I was going to tell her that. So I nodded my head. “Like you said, she doesn’t take no for an answer.”

Brenda half smiled. She leaned over and hugged me. “I knew you’d understand. I’ll see you tomorrow morning; I’ll be by bright and early.”

We separated then Brenda walked over to the limo. The driver put her bike in the trunk as Brenda slipped inside. Amparo turned me and gave me this look, one that was so sweet that it was fake. She gave me a strong assertive wave then slipped into the back behind Brenda as the driver closed the door.
What a bitch.

________________________________

I was riding home by myself again. The worst part, not even Khaji seemed up to conversation. Apparently using the armor too much was too much even for her. I tried talking to her a few times but got only grumbles in response. So my seemingly invincible friend wasn’t so invincible after all. I guess that’s a good thing to know. It meant that Blue Beetle could only go into battle every couple of days and then recharge. I suppose that was all good if there was no one to fight but I’m not sure what’s going to happen if I walk into it. What happens when the fight comes looking for me. I know it hasn’t really happened yet---the encounter with Posse doesn’t count---but the more known I get, the more likely someone is going to come looking for the Blue Beetle. It was inevitable, it happened in the comics all the time too.

“You’re thinking too much, be quieter” mumbled Khaji, apparently she wasn’t as asleep as I thought she was.

“How long does it usually take for the armor to recharge?”

“Twelve hours at most. Maybe longer, depending on how long it was used for. It should be fully recharged by tomorrow morning.”

“Good to know.”

“Now stop thinking and let me rest.”

Sure, easy for her to say. As soon as someone tells you to stop thinking, that’s exactly what you do. Like in Ghostbusters, where they were supposed to clear their minds and of course Ray doesn’t. It’s really hard to stop doing something, especially when you’re told to specifically stop doing that one thing. How can anyone really stop thinking anyway? It’s kind of annoying to think about isn’t it?

The wind was picking up. I hunched over the front of my bike and tried to peddle faster. I was coming up on the alley, which was a sight for sore eyes. It was pretty warm this morning so I didn’t wear a jacket to school. But somewhere between then and now, about seven hours or so, the wind had picked up and the air was much colder. It wasn’t so bad walking but riding it was a killer. The wind howled around me, stinging my face and my bare arms. It was horrible. What made things worse was the fact that it was getting late. Ok, it wasn’t that late but my father was expecting me home. Remember how overprotective he got; well now his daughter has a curfew. I’m supposed to come straight home from school, do my homework and tell him if I have plans so I can go out with his permission. How messed up is that?

My mother has no say this week because she’s working strange hours and won’t be around much during my waking hours. So I was stuck with my father and his tyrannical rule. There was definitely a cure coming I just needed to figure out how to organize one. I wonder if Milagro would be up to the task of helping me tie my father to a chair and locking him in the downstairs closet. He was just as hard on her too, so I’m sure she’d be all for it. I guess it’s kind of ironic though. I used to tease her all the time about how overprotective Dad was with her and now Fate seemed to be very cruel indeed.

I put on the speed, as I got closer to the alley. I zipped into it, the wind whipping my shirt as I rode. When I came to the end of it, it looked like I was scot-free. Boy was I wrong. If Khaji had been awake, she probably could have warned me. But seeing as she wasn’t, I never saw him until it was too late. A large hand came lashing from around the corner, grabbing the back wheel of my bike. Going at the speed I was riding, I went right over the handlebars. I slid when I hit the ground, scraping up the flesh on my arms and tearing big holes in my new jeans. When I finally stopped sliding, I ended up in a pile of garbage.

My head was spinning and my whole body hurt. I pushed myself up with my hands, spitting dirt and muck from my mouth. Then I turned and saw what hit me.

My eyes seemed to bulge out of my head at the size of him. He was humongous, the biggest guy I’d ever seen. He was dressed in a hooded trench coat and was holding my bicycle high over his head by the back wheel. In one fluid motion, he slammed it down on the ground, crumpling it like tin foil. I groaned it was a good bike; I was going to miss it. He picked up the mangled hunk of metal and tossed it into the disused lot. Then he came for me. I slid back, finding myself quickly out of room as my back pressed against a wall.

“You have been bested, heathen of Satan” said the thing that I thought was a man. His voice was rough and gravelly. “Repent and welcome the Lord’s worship.”

Was this guy for real? “Khaji wake up, I need the armor.”

The man walked toward me. His huge mass loomed over me, blocking out the light. “Do you repent or do I have to smite you?”

I bit my lip. I closed my eyes, trying to summon the armor on my own. But as hard as I tried, there was nothing. Damn, looks like I’ll have to improvise. So instead of saying anything, I used the wall to push myself into a standing position. I was kind of wobbly, my back and legs sore from the impact with the ground. The thing walked toward me again, now only a few feet away. It smelled absolutely horrible, like rotting flesh.

The Thing started talking again. “I am the Bottom Feeder, I am the Instrument of God, I work for those who are Worthy to seek out the justice of the Lord.”

I smiled and nodded. Is this guy for real? And why was he telling me everything, it was like he was monologuing or something. Did he think he was a Bond villain?

“Can you tell me who was so worthy to seek your employ?”

I needed to get to the bottom of this crap and fast. It was clear that this thing was lying in wait for me. Which meant someone was trying to take me out. It also meant that someone figured out who was behind the Blue Beetle mask. That was never a good thing.

“My Patron is a Worthy and Just Lady. She has sought my aid to abolish the Blue Devil and send it back to Hell from whence it came.”

I groaned. You’ve got to be kidding me. I took a stab at it. “Your Patron, she wouldn’t happen to be La Dama would she?”

“She did not give her name but called herself a Champion of Justice.”

Justice my ass. I took a deep breath and slowly starting sliding down the wall, trying to get away from this thing. If I could slip back up the alley then I could run back to the school and maybe call the police. So that’s what I tried to do, keeping It distracted by nodding my head and smiling as big as I could. Everyone said I was pretty and now I’m hoping that it will be enough to fool this moron long enough to escape.

“I’m not the Blue Devil,” I said, trying to keep him preoccupied. “But she’s a friend of mine; she lives on the other side of town. If you hurry you might be able to catch her.”

Hey, it was worth a shot.

He turned and looked in the direction I pointed. I think he debated it for a few seconds then turned back to me. Even though the hood hid his face, I could tell he was pissed. He grumbled and reached out for me. “I tire of your games, Devil.”

His hands wrapped around my throat. I tried to resist but he was so strong. He lifted me off the ground. He squeezed down on my windpipe, cutting off the oxygen. The world started to go black and blotchy, fuzzing in and out. I vaguely saw a shape appear behind him, it was a guy with black skin. I heard a shout and someone running toward us but it was all a blur. The thing let me go. I fell on my knees gasping for breath. I rubbed my throat and then took a foot to the head.

I blacked out after that.

-----

Author's Note: Here's Chapter Eleven, I'm really pumping these things out now. I've had a lot of free time to write lately. This one has the outcome of the earlier cliffhanger and throws another one in at the end. I've been wanting to write this chapter ever since I started writing this story and knew how things were going to go. So enjoy! I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for their fantastic characters.

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Chapter Eleven:

“Josie, are you still with me?”

The voice woke me up. When I opened my eyes and looked around, at first I saw only darkness. I panicked, not sure where I was or what happened. I snapped up, throwing off an itchy blanket and nearly banging my head on something hanging too low over it. It took me a few seconds to calm down but my heart was still hammering in my chest like a drum. My eyes adjusted to the darkness quick enough. I was lying on a cot; the thing over my head was actually a low hanging wooden shelf. It was kind of bad place for a shelf or maybe a bad one for a bed. I groaned and rubbed the back of my neck. Everything ached, from the bottom of my feet to the tip of my nose. I couldn’t remember the last time I hurt so much.

There was a sigh. “I was worried for a second,” said Khaji, definite relief in her voice. “That thing nearly choked the life out of you.”

I gasped, reaching for my neck. It was still really sore and probably red. I could still feel his hand wrapped around it though, trying desperately to kill me. “What happened?” I croaked, my throat dry and scratchy.

“I’m not sure of all the details but it seems you were attacked. I blame myself. If I hadn’t been resting and had been on full alert, I could have warned you.”

I shook my head; a numb pain throbbed through the back of it. I groaned. It felt like someone hit me in the head with a bat. I rubbed it but it didn’t help much. “It's not your fault, Khaji, it’s mine. I shouldn’t have used the armor so much.”

“It is almost fully charged now. I won’t let anyone get the drop on you like that again.”

I nodded. I slid to the end of the cot, avoiding the shelf. I squinted in the dark, trying to make sense of my surroundings. I saw vague shapes, they looked like stacked boxes. The air was stale and kind of moldy and it was cold. I shivered, grabbed the blanket and pulled it around my half-naked form. Someone took the time to undress me, leaving me in nothing but bra and panties. I could only guess where my clothes were now. Waking up in a strange place, with no clothes and lots of aches is something I don’t recommend. Especially after you’ve just survived a vicious attack on your life.

“How did I get here?”

“I’m not really sure. I came to shortly after that bastard was done choking you. I tried calling out to you but you were already fading. When you blacked out, it was lights out for me too. I could vaguely hear what was going on but I couldn’t see anything. There was a fight though and a few minutes later, someone picked you up and carried you here. You’ve been unconscious for hours, I was afraid you weren’t going to wake.”

I remembered the thing, the one who called himself Bottom Feeder. He was choking me to death and then something happened. I think someone interfered. I can vaguely recall shapes of people but then I blacked out. Maybe they brought me here. I closed my eyes and when I reopened them, the whole room was aglow in blue. Now I could see everything clearly. I was right about the boxes. They were large and wooden, stacked from floor to ceiling. There were a lot of them but on most of them the labels were too faded to read. They looked old, though. I looked around the rest of the room. Everything was covered in dust and things smelled like a basement.

I slipped off the cot, wrapping the blanket around me. There was a narrow looking door directly in front of me. I shuffled toward it, the floor cold on my bare feet. When I got to the door and tried the handle, I found it locked. I tried twisting the handle off but I didn’t have the strength for it. So instead, I banged on it a few times and waited. It didn’t take long for someone to respond. I heard a shuffle and them some running. I stepped back as whoever it was unlocked the door from the outside. When it opened, dim light flooded into the room. I had to step back further and shield my eyes.

“You’re awake finally,” said a voice, vaguely familiar. “We thought we were going to have to dump you in front of the hospital.”

I lowered the hand shielding my eyes and saw a familiar face. It was the girl in black, the one who’d been dogging me for days. “You, what the hell am I doing here?”

“The name’s Probe and you shouldn’t be so nasty to the one who saved your life.”

“You saved my life, why?”

She ignored my question. “You’re lucky I was walking by when I did. I sensed that freak hiding, lying in wait for you. So I ran and got the others. We were a little slow in coming but we got there just in time, I think. You should be grateful; we could have left you to die. Especially after you tore up Scour and Thumper like that.”

I groaned. So Posse saved me. “Why would you save me?”

She ignored me again. “I’ll get you some clothes.”

I groaned. I hated it when people dodged my questions. Probe left and I wandered back into the room, sitting on the cot once again. Probe returned a minute or two later with a pile of clothes in her hands. She walked silently inside and navigated the dark like it was second nature to her. She handed me the clothes them dragged over a nearby box, sitting on it. I looked at the assortment in my hands and groaned. There was no way I was wearing these things.

“I’m sorry about them but we don’t have a huge selection. Most of them are mine but I had to give you a pair of Bonita’s shoes. I’ll turn around so you can get dressed then I need to take you to Damper. He’s got some questions.”

She turned around and I slipped off the blanket. I got to my feet and rifled through the clothes. I wouldn’t be needing the bra and panties so I set those aside. I first thing I held up was a tattered black skirt; it was way too short for my liking. But I slipped it on. Next came a pair of stockings, they were clear with little spiders and webs all over them. Both were clearly from Probe and her gothy wardrobe. I had some problems putting on the stockings, but I managed. When I finally got to the shirt, I groaned. It was bright pink with Princess stenciled across it in sparkling gold letters. I really didn’t want to wear that, but I slowly pulled it over my head. When I got to the shoes, I noticed they were white sandals. I put them without a problem and gave the hem of the skirt a little tug.

“What happened to my clothes?” I asked as Probe turned around.

“They’re trashed. They were covered in mud and crap, trust me, you don’t want them back.”

I nodded and Khaji spoke, annoyed “I could have created clothes for you.”

“I don’t want them to know the extent of your abilities. So you’re going to lie low for now.”

“This one knows I’m here, she’s got a prying eye.”

I looked at Probe and she was doing that creepy staring thing again. It was made even creepier by her sunglasses. Did she ever take them off?

“You ready to go?” I nodded. “Follow me.”

She got off the box and walked through the dark room without a problem again. Could she see in the dark? I followed close behind. After leaving the room, I found myself in a much larger one. I looked up; the ceiling had to be close to fifty feet above my head. It was made up of segmented glass panes, all of them filthy, so little light got through. Looking around the rest of the place, I saw it was stacked with piles of boxes just like “my” room. Probe weaved through the boxes, which were arranged so it was like walking through a maze. I followed close at her heels, not wanting to take a wrong turn and get lost. There were a lot of twists and turns but she seemed to know them all. Clearly, someone took a long time arranging the boxes like this. It was kind of cool but it didn’t seem to serve any other purpose than to annoy.

Finally, we got through them. This new area was open, devoid of the boxes. There was weight equipment in one corner, a long table and several mismatched chairs in the center. There was an old TV with rabbit ears and a mini-fridge. Both of them were connected to a purring generator. At first, I was a bit confused until I realized what this place was: Posse headquarters. This place was notorious because every law enforcement officer in the city was looking for it. I rubbed my eyes and coughed, it was in serious need of a cleaning. I looked along the far wall where several cots were set up; only a few looked like they had been used recently.

“So the Slumbering Hero finally awakens,” said a voice from above, the sound of it echoing through the large room.

I looked up and saw a metal staircase leading to an upper office. This place was clearly an abandoned factory, completely gutted. The room up top, the one where Damper was coming out, must have been the foreman’s office. He was standing on a metal catwalk, leaning against the rail. He was dressed like before but looked a little more haggard. He was definitely a man with a lot on his mind.

“I thought I told you people to leave me alone” I snapped, annoyed that they’d kidnap me.

He smirked. “Is that anyway to thank your rescuers?”

I wasn’t going to let this jerk get the better of me. “I would have figured some way out of it.”

He laughed. “Still spunky I see” He walked away from the rail and made his way down the stairs. There was a slight limp to his walk that wasn’t there before.

“You’re lucky that we came along when we did, that monstrosity would have killed you, no doubt.”

I shrugged. “I would have survived.”

You needed to act tough around these gangbanger types. If you didn’t then they’d eat you up and spityou back out. Damper was definitely the type of guy who could do that and more. I looked around the room and noticed we weren’t alone anymore. The other two were there as well. They looked a little worse than the last I saw them. The fat one, Scour, had his arm in a sling and the other one, Thumper, looked like someone had punched him in the face one too many times. Both of them were slipping out of the shadows, Thumper had a metal bat in his hand. Clearly, he remembered the thrashing I gave the two of them before.

“Thinking about round two?” I asked, pointing to the bat.

“You name the time and the place, chica.”

Damper didn’t look impressed. “Thumper, drop the bat. We’ve got a mutual understanding now, isn’t that right, Blue Beetle?”

“I know the score,” I said, casting a glance around the room. “You do something for me and I’m supposed to do something for you. Isn’t that how this works?”

Damper smiled. “Straight to the point, I like this chica.” The other two guys laughed, Probe stared at me blankly. Damper sighed. “We have a slight problem that we think you might be able to help us with.”

I nodded. “I’m listening.”

“As you might have noticed, we’re not exactly a thriving gang at the moment.” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “There used to be seven of us. Two were taken a couple of weeks ago and the other abandoned us for greener pastures. We’ve been on the defensive ever since. That’s why we confronted you in the alley; we thought you might know where our comrades were.”

“I have no interest in Meta gangbangers unless they start shit with me.”

He nodded. “We know that now. We also know that you pissed off someone worse than us, someone who we believe might actually be the culprit behind our missing friends.”

I took a deep breath. “You mean La Dama?”

The others murmured. But Damper only smiled. “Those guys you busted up outside the diner belonged to her. She used to be a hardened criminal mastermind but lately she’s been branching out. Now she’s got a beef with us, she thinks that if she shakes down our friends and families that one of them will turn and tell her where to find us. She thinks she’s a great metahuman exterminator or something.”

“You think she took your friends?”

“We don’t think, we know.” He sighed and walked over to the table, sitting in one of the chairs. I followed and took a seat across from him. “That thing who tried to bash you, it’s called the Bottom Feeder. He’s some kind of twisted Meta that she recruited from down south or something. She’s got him convinced he’s doing God’s work by rounding up all the unworthy filth and bringing them to her. He’s been after us for weeks. So far, we’ve been able to fight him off but he’s a lot stronger than you think. We barely escaped him this time and we were dragging your sorry ass with us too.”

“What does she want Metas for?”

Damper shrugged. “Who the fuck knows. The word on the street is that she’s got some place in the desert; they call it Warehouse 13. She’s got a lot of our kind locked up there, doing some messed up experiments on them or some shit.”

I could see where this was going. I’m not sure if I liked it or not. I suppose it was wrong for her to be doing these things but these were bangers after all. “You want me to help you get them back, don’t you?”

Damper smiled real big. “The way I figure it, we saved your life and now you owe us a favor. Isn’t that how it works?”

I sighed. So they did want me to help them. “Why would I want to help put a bunch of gang bangers back on the streets?”

Thumper scoffed. “See, I told you this bitch wouldn’t help us.”

I clenched my fists. He was the second one to call me the B word, he was lucky that my armor was still recharging.

Probe spoke for the first time during this conversation. “Damper, just tell her.”

Damper rubbed his temples and in a soft voice, he told me what Probe wanted him to tell me. “It's like this, Bonita, she's my girl that they took. And well…the thing is…”

Probe groaned. “She’s carrying his child.”

Khaji spoke up. “There is no way I’m going to sit by and let you endanger the welfare of an innocent babe, even if it’s not born yet.”

“I wasn’t going too, I’m not a monster.”

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to tell them I was going to help but I never got the chance. There was a loud crash from above. We all snapped up and looked as several black clad guys on repelling ropes slid down from the ceiling. Probe screamed and Damper backpedaled as the first one landed right in the middle of the table. He took us by surprise. He raised his gun, bringing it toward Damper’s face and Thumper was there, swinging the bat as hard as he could. The metal connected with the man’s face mask, sending him flying. He was still attached to the rope so he spun around the rope like a fish on a hook. He crashed into a pair of his friends and the three of them got tangled up together.

The other rapellers dropped into the room.

There was instant panic. Scour charged forward, flinging acid spit at two of them as they unhooked their harnesses. Damper grabbed Probe’s wrist and made a mad dash for the stairs leading up to the little office. But one of the guys moved to intercept. Damper vanished into thin air, leaving Probe standing there with a dumbfounded look on her face. I was frozen in place, unable to move as more men poured into the place. Some came from the ceiling while others came in through doors. They were quickly filling the place up, cutting off all the exits.

A hand grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around. It was Thumper, the end of his bat covered in blood. “Now would be a good time for your superhero thing.”

No kidding. “Khaji, how close are we?”

She sighed. “The armor is only charged up to fifty percent. If you summoned it, you’d have some capabilities but you’d never be able to block their bullets.”

As soon as she said this, one of the men fired. But it wasn’t bullets that came out of his gun; it was some kind of dart. He fired more, each faster than the other. I turned and saw his target: Scour. The big man ripped a couple of the darts from his chest, only to have more hit him in the back. He screamed and fell to his knees. Several more darts hit him; coming from all sides as five back clad commandos converged on him. He went down on his stomach and they kept firing. Scour convulsed on the ground then stopped moving altogether. I scanned him, with blue vision; thankfully, he was still alive, just heavily sedated.

“You need to get Probe,” said a voice to my left.

I snapped around and saw no one. I realized who it was. “You’re the one who abandoned her a moment ago, you get her.”

Damper growled. “I can only make myself invisible,” he said as if explaining. “Look you need to get her and get her out of here. She’s the only one who can find the others.”

I sighed. I looked around the room, through the chaos as darts flew this way and that. Probe ran into the maze of boxes, three guys ran after her. I turned to where I thought Damper was. “When I help you guys, we’re over. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal” he said and then groaned.

There was a dart hanging in mid-air. Slowly Damper materialized in front of me, a dart sticking in his shoulder. He smiled weakly at me and then fell forward. Two guys came toward us, guns raised. One fired at me. I raised my hand in defense and the armor appeared around my forearm. The dart bounced harmlessly away. Then I snapped my wrist, firing a blue ball of energy at him. It him full on in the chest, sending him crashing into a stack of boxes. I used that confusion to take off after Probe. I ran into the maze of boxes, dodging a few darts as they whizzed over my head. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to remember the path that the two of us took.

When I opened my eyes again, the boxes were glowing in a strange reddish hue.

“What is this?”

“Infrared” said Khaji “we should be able to find your friend now.”

“Is there anything you can’t do?”

“I’m a lousy singer.”

I smirked as I moved through the maze, using my new red vision to search for Probe. I didn’t find her but I found another red signature. He was tall and moving fast. It was one of the commandos, probably the last one to go in after her. I moved quick, transforming the armor boots on my feet to make me go faster. Apparently, I couldn’t form the whole armor at the moment but pieces were better than anything. I found the guy and took him from behind. My blue energy ball took him totally off guard, sending him flying forward into one of the box stacks. It wavered and toppled. There was a loud crash and a domino effect that I wasn’t counting on. Soon, stack by stack, they were toppling over, each one falling into the next one.

A few seconds after the initial one went over: I heard another groan. Apparently, I got one of the other bastards. Which left only one?

A scream told me where he was.

I took off running, the red vision leading the way. I spotted him not too long afterwards, standing amongst the shattered ruins of a pile of wood. At his feet was another red blob, slowly crawling away from him, it was Probe. He raised his gun to shoot her with a dart but I was faster. I formed one of my blades and ran at him. I put it through his shoulder, he screamed in pain. Hey, I’m no killer. I spun him around and slammed my armored forearm into his face, sending him pedaling backwards. He toppled into one of the still standing stacks, the heavy boxes falling on him.

Probe looked up at me, panting. I bent and pulled her to her feet.

“We have to get the others,” she said, taking ragged breaths.

I shook my head. “They have the others. Damper told me to get you out of here.”

She nodded. “C’mon, there’s a back way out of this.”

She grabbed my wrist and the two of us navigated the rest of the maze. We ended up back at the door leading to the room I woke up in. Instead of going inside, Probe took me over to a box resting against the wall nearby. She pushed all her weight into the box, slowly moving it aside. On the other side of it was a small wooden door that she tugged open. Through it, I saw light and what looked like an alley.

“You first” I said, pushing her through.

Then I turned and fired a couple energy balls at the rest of the maze, collapsing it behind us. Satisfied that our backside was blocked, I slipped through the hole.

___________________________________

“What’s the matter?” she asked as the two of us stood outside my house.

It’s come to my attention that I’ve described the inside of my house and never the outside. That’s not the reason I’m standing in front of it like an idiot just now, I’ll get to that in a moment. My house is a yellow, two stories; I’m not sure what they call it. There’s a little faded fence out front and a garden completely overgrown with weeds. My mother used to be a good gardener but that was back in El Paso. My parents bought this house in hopes she could pick up the hobby again but she’s been so busy with work that she barely finds the time. Can you see my father out there toiling in the dirt; I don’t think so.

But that wasn’t I was standing outside it like a moron. The reason I was standing out here was because of the lights. Usually at this hour---ten at night---all the lights in the house were on. Even the ones that shouldn’t be on. Now as I stood there and stared, every single one of them was off. It wasn’t the only strange thing either. My father’s truck was in the driveway. He should have been at the Queen’s by now. I should have been home too. Both my parents were working late and tonight was my night to watch Milagro. Mrs. Cruz was busy and I was supposed to be home before six so my father didn’t leave Milagro by herself.

“Are we going inside?” asked Probe, dancing on the balls of her feet, looking left and right up the street.

After escaping the old factory, the two of us ran like hell. We thought we were in the clear but the bastards gave chase. They chased us for two straight blocks, keeping good pace too. We finally managed to lose them when we ran into a police officer. He stopped us dead in our tracks and scolded us, telling us the finer points of pedestrian law. The goons slowed down and disappeared as soon as they saw him. We talked to the police officer for a few minutes and then took off at a brisk pace until we were around the corner then started running again.

“C’mon, let’s go through the side door.”

I led her up the driveway. I touched the hood of my father’s trunk, trying to see if it had driven recently. But it was cold to the touch. There was something wrong. My Dad mentioned something about running errands before work today. The hood should have still been slightly warm. I bit my lip and continued along the side of the house. I didn’t have my key for the door because it was in my backpack---something that got left at the factory. But it didn’t matter because I grabbed the door and turned the handle. It opened without a problem. Now I knew something was wrong. My father locked the doors even if there was someone in the house.

We entered the kitchen. My father’s paper was sitting on the table and my sister’s backpack was on the floor, its contents spilled all over. It wasn’t the only thing off. There was a cup of coffee sitting next to my father’s paper and my sister’s chair---the one she sat in for all meals---was lying on its side. I panicked and rushed into the living room. Probe followed at my heels. The living room was a mess. The couch pillows were on the floor, the TV was lying on its side, all the books were thrown off the bookshelves.

“Looks like there was a struggle” said Probe, looking around the room carefully.

My body seized up. I stumbled over to the couch, dropping to my knees in front of it. There was a crunch under my left knee. I lifted my leg up and found a familiar item. It was a glass dart, like the ones, those bastards were firing at us in the factory. I picked it up and groaned. It all made sense now; I knew where my family was. Panic took over. I couldn’t breathe; I started gasping for air. I struggled to my feet and back into the kitchen. Probe ran after me. She caught up with me at the sink and slapped me in the face. I sucked in a big breath of air and fell to my knees again; she lifted me back to my feet.

She slapped me again. “You need to pull yourself together. We can’t help them if you fall apart like this.”

“She’s right,” said Khaji “I’ve done some preliminary scans. It looks like this struggle took place shortly after your sister got home from school. They already got your father and it looks like they were lying in wait for her.”

“What about Mom?”

I didn’t wait for her to respond. I ran over to the phone and picked up the handset. As soon as I did so I saw we had a couple of messages on the machine. I pushed the button:

MESSAGE ONE: “I hate to bother you but this is Maria Tejas, Paco’s mother, I was wondering if he’s there with Josie. He didn’t come home from school today and I was worried.”

MESSAGE TWO: “This is Maria again. If Paco’s there, do you think you can have him call me? It’s getting late and it not like him to not call at least.”

I groaned. The bastards got Paco too, it was the only explanation. There was no way he’d stay out and worry his mother like that. At least I knew Brenda was safe, or I hoped she was.

MESSAGE THREE: “Hey, Reyes.” It was my mother’s supervisor. “Your lunch break was over hours ago, where the hell did you go. If you’re not here in ten minutes, I’m docking you a full week’s pay.”

They got Mom too. I felt the vomit rise up my throat but I forced it back down. Probe put a hand on my shoulder and I cried. I cried for a while, unable to handle any of it. Why the hell did she go after my family? It was one thing to try and get me but my family, what was she trying to accomplish. It didn’t make any sense. I squeezed the handset and let it gently fall to the floor.

When I finished crying, Probe turned me to face her. “I need you to be strong for me. I can’t do this on my own.” I nodded, the hot tears rolling down my cheeks still. She smiled. “We can’t stay here. This place is compromised. We have to move on. Is there any other place we can go?”

There were a few places but I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. I shook my head. Then I thought of something. “I’ve got some money upstairs; maybe we can hide out in a motel or something.”

“It’s a start.”

I led her up the stairs and into my room. It seemed to be the only place that wasn’t ransacked, not that I looked in Milagro’s or my parents’ room. “You can sit on the bed.”

She sat on the corner while I opened the closet and tore through it. I found an old gym bag of mine and dumped out the crap inside onto the floor. Then I went to my drawers, pulling them open and throwing clothes into the bag. Probe sat and watched, probably thinking I was some kind of frantic lunatic but I didn’t care. In the top drawer, while getting my underwear, I found my stash. When I first got here, I was strapped for cash, so my father suggested I go door to door and see if the neighbors needed any yard work done. He said not only would it give me some spending it might help me to get to know them better. The first month here, I made about a hundred bucks.

I pulled the empty peanut container from the back of the drawer and popped the top. There was close to five hundred bucks in there. It was what I called “Get Jaime a Car Fund”. I pulled everything out and stuffed it in my bag.

“This doesn’t look like a girl’s room,” said Probe, looking around.

I scoffed. “I’m in the process of redecorating.”

She stared at the wall for a few seconds then at me. “Were you a boy before, too?”

That caught me off guard. I dropped the bag and turned to her. I really looked at her. I knew she was a Meta but there was just no way…she looked so much like a girl it was impossible to think she was anything else. “I…ummm….”

“It’s ok,” she said with a laugh. “I thought it was kind of cool when I started to get my powers but then bam, one minute I was a guy and the next I’m shaking my legs and pits every morning.”

I nodded. “Are you the only one of the Posse who…?”

She shook her head. “Most of them, I think. We don’t really talk about it. All of us are runaways or cast outs. Damper is the oldest, about twenty-five. He found us and brought us altogether. He found the factory, too, and he made the plans. He told us we were going to be a gang and that we were a family.”

She sniffled. This time it was my turn to comfort her. I put my hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “We’ll get them back and then we’ll make everyone connected to La Dama pay for it.”

She nodded. “First we have to find them.”

I picked up my bag and zipped it shut. “We will.”

I walked over and gave her a hug. She sniffled some more on my shoulder but she didn’t cry. She was definitely more put together than I was. We were both in the same boat, both our families were taken now, and yet she was acting so tough.

We pulled away. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

I pointed to the door and the two of us started for it. We were almost out it when Probe paused, her whole body tensing in the doorway. I felt it too; I’m not sure what it was. My body tensed too, and the red vision came back. I saw them, there was only about six or so, but they had all the exits covered. I cursed and bit my lip. Then I looked at my hands, willing the armor to appear. It did but not fully. Like the factory, the armor only went as far as my elbows. So clearly, it wasn’t fully charged yet. I clenched my fists and handed her the duffel.

“This is going to get rough,” I said as I slipped past her and started down the hall.

I was at the top of the stairs when they kicked the front door down. Two guys poured into the living room. I fired off two blue energy balls. The first one missed its target and whizzed out the door past his head. The second hit the other guy in the chest, knocking him to the floor. I fired at the first guy again but the ball went astray a second time. He rolled to the left then snapped up on the other side of the couch. He aimed with a laser pointer and fired at my head. I snapped up my arm quickly blocking the shot.

There was a sound behind me. I snapped around and saw a guy coming out of Milagro’s bedroom. He raised his gun to fire but I got him first. My energy ball hit him in the face, throwing him to the ground.

There was a loud screech of tires outside. Then I heard doors slammed.

“We have more company” said Khaji “and a helicopter on the way.”

Two more guys came through the door. Probe screamed. I fired off a couple more energy balls but I missed. I cursed as they fired. I blocked one dart but the other nearly hit my cheek. I fell back, dragging Probe with me. A couple more guys surged into the house, clambering over their fallen comrades. I dragged Probe back into my room and threw her inside. Then I slammed the door shut. I snapped back around to the stairs and saw three guys coming up it. I raised by my hands to fire when I heard it. There was a slight whistling sound in the air. It was so quick. Then one of the guys screamed and fell forward. His face hit the top step and he slid down the stairs. Before he did, I saw a glint of green.

There was another whistling sound and another glint of green. One more guy screamed and fell to the ground. A third whistling sounded and something whizzed past my ear. I snapped around and saw a guy standing behind me, something long and green sticking in his shoulder. He screamed too and stumbled backwards, falling into the bathroom. I snapped back forward, raising my hands to ready myself for this new assault. But there were no more green glints or whistling sounds. Instead there was a figure standing framed in the front door. The figure was shrouded in shadow but it was wearing a hood and there was something long and curved in their hand.

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Author's Note: I'm a writing machine lately. Here's Chapter Twelve, the conclusion of another cliffhanger and the answer to some questions raised. THis chapter is much more exciting and action packed than the last. The next will be more quiet and subdued then the story will turn into the home stretch for the end. I'd like to thank djkauf for the perfect editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters.

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Chapter Twelve:

“What in the hell?”

The figure stepped into the room, my mouth dropped open. There was no doubt about it now; it was the Green Arrow. She stepped over the fallen goons and walked to the foot of the stairs, nocking an arrow as she did so. All I could do was stare. She was everything the papers said and more. She had this presence about her. She stood there at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at me with this air of superiority. I wanted to jump down the steps and ask her for her autograph. Instead, I stood transfixed. She looked down at one of the guys, moaning and twitching on the ground.

She grabbed the fletch of her arrow and twisted it. The man screamed out in pain. She bent down so her face was inches from his. “Your boss” she said, her voice cold and without emotion. “Where the hell is she?”

The guy said nothing. The Green Arrow twisted the arrow some more and the guy screamed louder in pain.

“We can’t linger here,” said Khaji, worry in her voice. “The helicopter is getting closer.”

I took a deep breath. Did I want to interrupt this interrogation? The Green Arrow was a pretty serious chick. Very bad ass, I’m not sure if I wanted to get in the way of that. But at the same time, she was as much at risk as I was. So I took another deep breath and cleared my throat. She turned and seemed to notice me for the first time. Most of her face was hidden under her large green hood but I could see she was wearing a black mask over her eyes and that she was blonde. There was a strand of her hair dangling down.

“We can’t stay here,” I said softly. “There’s a helicopter on the way.”

Her eyes narrowed but she nodded. She let go of the arrow and slammed the guy’s head into the step, knocking him unconscious. “We weren’t going to get anything out of him anyway.”

I smiled weakly at her. I was about to ask her the question that had been plaguing me for the last for seconds but didn’t get a chance because Probe peeked her head out of my bedroom. She looked first at me and then got a good look at the Green Arrow. She stared at her for some time and didn’t say anything. Instead, she slipped out of my room and handed me my gym bag. I hefted it onto my shoulder and felt Probe’s fingers entangle with my own. She gave my hand a gentle squeeze and then I remembered. Posse was afraid of the Green Arrow. She was cracking down on them, trying to roust them out of hiding. Then she disappeared and they partied. Now that she was back…

There was a commotion downstairs, drawing my attention back to the moment. Apparently, there were more goons. One of them came running around the corner, trying to make his way up the stairs. Green Arrow dropped him with a well-placed arrow. He never saw it coming. He gurgled a bit on the floor and then fell silent. The shot didn’t kill him but it was enough to knock him out cold. I scanned his body with my blue vision. The arrow was sticking in his collarbone. It was enough to take him down but not enough to kill him. I think I read that in the paper. The Green Arrow never shot to kill. She could do a lot of damage but a killer she didn’t.

“He’s just a straggler,” she said, nocking another arrow. “But we can’t be too careful.” She walked down the stairs, stopped at the bottom and looked up at us. “You guys coming or not. These guys always have back up, more will come.”

Still holding Probe’s hand, the two of us stepped around the bastards on the stairs. Once at the bottom, Green Arrow went out the front door first. She covered it for a few seconds then waved us on. There were two black SUV’s on my front lawn; both had their doors wide open. Lying in front of one were four downed goons, all of them with arrows sticking out of awkward places. None of them were dead but they definitely would be in a lot of pain when they woke up. We wove through the two vehicles to the street. What I saw there was both gorgeous and beautiful. It was also very, very familiar. I paused when I stared at the green Viper, staring fish mouthed at it. There was no way it could be the same car; it wasn’t possible. But then again, how many green Vipers were there. The Green Arrow noticed me looking as she opened the driver’s side door. As she beckoned us forward, we heard two alarming noises. The first was the distant thump of helicopters blades and the other was the annoying wail of police sirens. The question was which one was going to get to us first.

I dragged Probe toward the car, not wishing to find out.

“I don’t have a backseat so you’re going to have to share,” she said as she slipped into her seat and closed the door.

I climbed into the passenger seat and Probe got on my lap. The seatbelt barely went around the two of us but we managed. I closed the door, she revived the engine and the super sleek sports car took off. It was like a dream come true. I would have enjoyed it ten times more if not for the situation. I was racing away from my house, which was overrun by guys trying to kill me and they had my parents. There was nothing exciting about that at all. Not even meeting one of my idols was as cool as I thought it was going to be. All be it we are in kind of situation where hero worship can wait for later. But what couldn’t wait were my questions and I had a lot of them.

“How in the hell did you know those guys were going to be there tonight?” I asked as we whipped around the corner going about sixty five.

“I didn’t,” she said as we sped through a red light. Luckily, there was no traffic. “Call it a hunch.”

I shook my head. “You’re going to have to give me more than that.”

She sighed and nodded. She took a hand off the wheel and used it to pull off her hood. It dropped around her shoulders and I was right, she was blonde. But there was more to it than that. She was a familiar blonde, a very familiar blonde. It was the long braided ponytail that gave her away, it was the Queen Twist after all. My eyes bulged out of my head. My idol and my former crush were one in the same. How nuts was that? But it didn’t make any sense. Why in the world would Olivia Queen be running around moonlighting as the Green Arrow?

“Save your questions for later,” she said, cutting me off. “I figure you and I have something in common, or am I wrong, Jaime?”

“How did you know…?”

She smiled. “Jaime Reyes disappears and his cousin Josie, who looks a little like him, just happens to show up at the same time. Not only that, your father asked me to use my private room at the Spritz. He kind of fouled up and said it was for him and his daughter. I thought it was kind of cute that he’d take your sister to a fancy place until I saw you on the security cameras.”

“You spy on the restaurant?”

She laughed. “I own the restaurant. I monitor the feeds in all my places now. I can’t take any more chances.”

I nodded. She was talking about her grandfather of course. It all made perfect sense now. There was an internet rumor that old man Queen didn’t die from a heart attack. Some conspiracy theorists thought he was killed by a gifted archer named Merlyn. The night of Mr. Queen’s death, there was an apparent suicide nearby. An unidentified man jumped from the roof of Queen Towers. A lot of the geeks out there were convinced it was Merlyn and that Green Arrow did him in. Someone had pictures of a couple of black arrows that were supposed found around the guy’s body. The pics didn’t stay up for very long but they fueled a lot of rumors. I thought it was a load of crap because I knew Mr. Queen; I went to his funeral in fact. Now that I knew Olivia was the Green Arrow, it was very possible indeed.

“The first chance we get we have to leave her.” Khaji sounded agitated by something. “She bears their ring on her finger.”

“What are you talking about?”

I looked at Olivia’s hand. Sure enough, there was a ring on her finger; it was green with a little hourglass or something on it. It was kind of cool looking actually.

“That is the mark of the Lantern,” said Khaji with venom in her voice. “They are not to be trusted.”

I rolled my eyes and ignored her. We drove on in relative silence. Thankfully, the goons didn’t give chase so we were in the clear for now. Olivia stopped speeding when we got into the city proper. It was strange but I was certain her green car would stand out but as soon as we pulled into traffic, it kind of blended in. Of course, there were no other green cars on the road but it didn’t look out of place. What bothered me though was the fact that people could see us. Olivia had her hood down so people would definitely recognize her. Then I noticed the windows, they were slightly tinted. Were they always that way? I’ve waxed this car about a hundred times and never noticed the windows before.

“What” snapped Olivia, out of the blue? “You can’t be serious?”

I looked around. Who the hell was she talking too? Then I noticed it, there was something in her ear. Did she have a partner?

“Ok, I’ll ask her” She cleared her throat. “Josie, has any one given you anything new lately?”

I was about to shake my head no but then I remembered. I looked down at the gold bracelet on my wrist. It was a gift from Amparo; she gave one to Brenda too.

I held up my wrist. “My friend’s aunt gave us these bracelets today. Why?”

Olivia pushed the power window button, the window next to me rolled down. “Take it off and toss it out the window.”

I snapped my hand over my wrist. Brenda would be so pissed if I did something like that. “Not on your life.”

Olivia groaned. Whatever she was about to say was lost as someone whipped in front of us. Olivia swerved to avoid them, nearly spinning out. Probe shifted on my lap, digging her elbows into my side. She mouthed sorry as the power window rolled back up. I looked ahead. There was a black SUV driving erratically in front of us. At first, I thought it was some nut until I looked into the rear view mirror. There were two more black SUV’s speeding toward us from behind. Son of a bitch. How were these people still finding us? I looked at my wrist and shook my head. There’s no way.

“Your friend is right,” said Khaji with a sigh. “I should have detected it sooner but my scanners were offline at the time. But the signal is very clear now. There’s a tracking device in that new bauble of yours.”

I groaned. That meant…no that wasn’t possible. “Should I toss it?”

“Not here” said Khaji “throwing it out now will tip them off that we know it’s there. They might do something to harm your family. We can dump it as soon as we shake them.”

There was a jarring thump from behind. Our car veered forward but Olivia kept it under control. They were trying to pin us in and force us off the road. I took a deep breath; I had to do something. I looked at the buttons for the various car functions, trying to see if there was anything new. This was the Green Arrow’s car after all; maybe she tricked it out. But there was nothing that looked out of the ordinary, which meant it was all up to me.

“How’s the armor?”

“Seventy five percent” said Khaji and then she groaned. “You’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

“You’re the one in my head, you tell me?”

“Even if you use it, its not going to be for long. You should really wait until we’re at maximum.”

“I don’t need long. Just enough time to shake these bastards.”

She groaned. I closed my eyes and felt the telltale tingle of the armor activating. Probe noticed it to and kind of jumped up a little which was quite a feat seeing how much room the two of us had. “What are you doing?” she gasped as the blue and black slowly crept up my arms and legs.

“Pull into that side street and let me out” I said, pointing to the left.

Olivia veered the car that way, cutting off a Sedan that tried to pass recklessly past our high-speed chase. She completely threw off our pursuers and they went flying by. But I knew that wouldn’t be the case for long. They’d do something reckless too and come back for us. I took a deep breath; I had to stop this now.

Olivia stopped the car and looked at me. “Are you sure about this?”

I nodded as the armor finished forming around my body. “I’ll draw them away and dump my bracelet. Where do you want to meet up?”

She smiled. “At Queen Tower.”

I nodded as I opened the door. Probe crawled off my lap, glad to be off it I think. I gave her a gentle hug then walked a few feet into the street. There were a couple of onlookers, staring in amazement. I saluted my friends as Probe got back into the car and shut the door. I waited until Olivia revved the engine and peeled away. Then I activated my wings and took to the air.

_________________________________

I flew high enough to see the whole street and beyond. The city was pretty cool from this high up, I could see as far as the bay even. The bridge was never looked better. I smiled, one of these days I’d definitely have to take a drive over it. I turned away because I had more important things to attend too. I scanned the road, looking for the green “Arrow Car”, nice huh; I just made that up myself. I found the car easily enough. Olivia was speeding again, all three SUVS in hot pursuit. They weren’t alone anymore though. There were a couple of police cruisers following the action now, their sirens so loud I could hear them from my height.

I sighed; this was getting more dangerous by the minute. I have to stop it. I zipped back down toward the city. I had a goal in mind. It was somewhat reckless but then again everything this day was a little reckless. I just needed to buy Olivia enough time to get away. They were after me and Probe after all. Now I suppose she was a target too. I was still geeking out over that. The Green Arrow was Olivia Queen and she was so freaking badass. When I saw her standing there, I could have jumped for joy. I’m glad I kind of kept my cool, freaking out would not have been good for that situation. Even now, I was doing everything I could to keep my excitement down.

“What are you planning to do?”

I smirked. “I’m going to stop a high speed chase of course.”

I zeroed in on the lead SUV. It was practically on the Viper’s bumper now. I zipped toward, moving faster than I thought possible. I felt like a fighter jet. I pulled up alongside it and tapped on the window. The shocked driver turned and looked at me. I tapped again but he gunned the engine. I rolled my eyes and matched his speed. If he doesn’t want to play by the rules. I took a deep breath and slammed my fist into the glass, shattering it. The driver screamed and swerved. He nicked the bumper of the Viper and swerved but he regained control quickly.

“PULL OVER NOW!”

“Screw you, bitch!”

He pulled a gun and squeezed off a shot, luckily he missed. With my armor still not fully charged, I’m not sure if the bullet would have bounced off. What’s with the B word? Angrily I reached through the window and took a hold of the wheel. I gave it a quick yank. I meant to turn the car, causing it to swerve into the divider. But I yanked too hard and pulled the whole steering wheel off. The driver screamed, dropping his gun. I zipped away from the vehicle; I didn’t want to get caught in the mess he was about to create. Though the car could still stop and accelerate, it had no steering control. I watched in awe as it skidded out and flipped over three of four times. It was the most amazing and horrifying thing I’ve ever seen. One of the pursuing SUV’s couldn’t stop in time and slammed into the wreckage. The other squealed its brakes and did a last minute maneuver, narrowly avoiding the crack up. The other cars on the street were far enough away to do the same but it was pretty close. The police cruisers had to stop too, the two smashed SUV’s took up both lanes, cutting off the flow of traffic. It wasn’t what I’d planned but it worked better than I thought.

“That could have been a disaster.”

I ignored her. Instead, I looked for the Viper and the one pursuing SUV. They weren’t too far ahead of me now. I took a deep breath and continued my own pursuit. I went up in the air again though, hoping for a better view. I went to the top of some of the taller buildings and looked down. Up ahead there was going to be a problem. There was a traffic jam, cars beeping and honking all arranged in a line. I looked down at the Viper; they were approaching it pretty fast. If they didn’t stop there was going to be a mess. I took a deep breath and zipped down toward the street again. I zoomed past the SUV, causing the driver to swerve a bit and pulled up alongside the Viper. I tapped the window. It rolled down a second or two later.

“Kinda busy here” snapped Olivia, clearly frustrated.

“I thought you might want to know about the traffic jam up ahead.”

She sighed and cursed. “It’s just the one now, right?”

I nodded. “You just worry about what’s ahead; I’ll take care of what’s behind.”

She smiled and rolled the window back up. Here goes nothing. I moved back a little from the Viper and spun in midair, hovering about two feet off the road now. The SUV was barreling toward me and it definitely wasn’t going to stop. I took another deep breath---hey, they’re kind of relaxing---then zipped up into the air. I went up about twenty feet and waited. It didn’t take long. I dropped back down as fast as I could as soon as the SUV got within range. I slammed down fist first into the trunk, mashing things to bits. The impact was so strong, that the front seat passenger went through the windshield. I caught him before he smashed face first into the pavement though. The driver was in pretty bad shape though. His head hit the windshield and there was a lot of blood.

I rolled the passenger onto the road and pulled myself up and out of the mangled wreck. It wasn’t too difficult but there was a lot of car around me. Slamming into a car from twenty feet in the air, not the greatest idea in the world. But I stopped it and that all that mattered.

I walked around to the back of the vehicle and opened the door; there were three guys back here. They were all unconscious. One of them had a laptop, with a cracked display screen. It was still on though. There was a green schematic of the street and a blinking green light. It took me a few seconds to realize that the light was me. This was the guy who’d been tracking me. I raised my hand and caused the armor to peel away, revealing my bare arm. I slowly pulled the bracelet away and scanned it. I could see the little tracking device inside. I groaned.

So it was true, Amparo was somehow involved in all of this. She might even be La Dama herself. I crushed the bracelet in my hand and dropped the shattered fragments onto the guy’s lap. On the screen, the blinking dot disappeared.

“Khaji, can you tap into that radio Olivia’s using?”

“Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” A few seconds later, she came back. “There, all tapped in.”

I nodded. “Olivia, can you hear me?”

“Who the hell is this?” asked a startled female voice. “How did you find this frequency?”

I groaned. It must have been her partner. “I’m the Blue Beetle; I need to talk to the Green Arrow.”

“Ummm” said the girl.

Olivia snapped on a few seconds later: “Josie, tell me some good news?”

“You’re in the clear now. The last SUV is scrap metal.”

I heard her sigh. “Good to hear. We’re making our way to the Tower, I’ll tell the doorman to expect you.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

I clicked off and heard the sirens. I turned and looked. There was a whole string of flashing red heading this way. I guess that’s my cue. I took another deep breath and flew up into the air. I got about ten feet up when I heard it. At first, it was faint, the sirens drowning it out. But it got clearer the higher I flew. Then it was crystal clear: it was the thumping of helicopter blades. I snapped around and saw it coming. I swerved just in time as a hail of tracer rounds zipped past me. I cursed. Even with the armor, those things probably would have torn the hell out of me.

The helicopter came in strong and fast. It was black and sleek, a mini-gun under its nose. Luckily, there were no missiles, I’m not sure if I could dodge those. It surprised me that it was so sleek and modern looking. It must have cost a damn fortune. La Dama must have had a lot of money and a lot of connections. This thing looked brand new and deadly.

“We’re almost to the half way point of our reserves,” said Khaji, sighing.

“I thought you were an all powerful alien invader, shouldn’t you have unlimited power or something?”

She sighed. “I did but that was centuries ago. Being under the ground for all those years kind of tapped all that out. I don’t suppose you know where we can get some vibranium do you?”

“Never heard of it.”

The helicopter fired again. I narrowly missed being hit. It was sweeping the air with its bullets, trying to take me down the easy way. I was doing my best to dodge but I was starting to feel the wear. The armor was starting to feel heavy and the wings kind of sluggish. Khaji was right; we were running out of juice. I needed to end this now but I couldn’t do it here. I looked down and saw the city below. If I took out the helicopter up here then it would definitely go crashing down there. A lot of innocent people would get hurt if it fell on them. I looked past it and saw the Bay. It was a long shot but maybe I could coax it out into the ocean.

"I’m going to try something nuts, ok?”

I didn’t wait for Khaji to respond. Instead, I turned and went right at the helicopter. I fired off a couple of energy balls to distract it. The gunner concentrated on them and I zipped on by. It took the helicopter a couple of seconds to maneuver but it was plenty of time for me. I dropped well below it, heading for the buildings. If I could stay low enough then it wouldn’t be able to pursue me directly. I got way ahead of it, putting as much power as I could into my speed. I zipped across the night skyline, trying my best to avoid the buildings as they came up at me. I wove and dodged and heard the helicopter in fast pursuit. It took the bait though, and that’s all that really mattered.

I came up on Queen Tower. From this height, it was like a giant gleaming silver spire. There was a giant Q on the side of the building, who said old man Queen was modest. I zipped on by, getting so close that the windows rattled. I looked down for a split second and thought I saw the green Viper zip into the garage. Good for them. I needed to concentrate on the path ahead. The Tower was the last of the skyscrapers, the rest of the buildings were small in comparison. I wove around them easily enough and made it straight out over the Bay. I used the bridge as my focal point and went for it, giving it all I had. The thumping of the helicopter returned. A burst of fire zipped in front of me; it narrowly missed again. I zigged and zagged, trying to confuse the bastard firing at me. Then I rolled over in the air, pointing both my hands up toward the guns. I fired off two balls at once; hoping one of them would find their target.

They both did. The first slammed into the mini-gun, tearing it too shreds. The second slammed into the underbelly of the nose. The helicopter jerked upwards and away. I smirked and went right at it. I needed to get it away from everything, including the bridge. I didn’t want to be the hero notorious for ruining a national landmark. So I zipped in front of the cockpit, waving at the two ass-holes inside as I went by. They were momentarily stunned by the maneuver but they recovered quickly. I went out and away, taking them toward the ocean just like I wanted. The helicopter was in hot pursuit, really putting on the power.

When I got far enough out, I dropped low. I went down so far that I was practically skimming across the top of the water. The helicopter followed, just like I wanted it too. I snapped up at the last second and banked toward it. I pulled up alongside it, smashing the side window with one of my elbows. The pilot turned to me, shocked.

“GET OUT!” I shouted, yanking the door open.

He didn’t second guess it; neither did the man next to him. Both of them nodded and jumped out of the vehicle. The helicopter was low enough that they hit the water only a few feet from it, they’d survive. The helicopter, not so much. I grabbed a hold of it, stalling its fall so it didn’t slam into its passengers. Then I let go and watched as it careened toward the dark blue water, slamming nose first into it. There was no explosion. But there was a giant splash. Water and mangled metal flew into the air; I dodged it all as I zipped up and over.

“Are you insane?”

I laughed and coughed. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“You could have gotten yourself killed.”

I nodded. She was right. It was insane but it got the job done. I turned and flew back down toward the water. The pilot and co-pilot were treading water, neither too badly hurt. I dropped down and grabbed both of them by their collars, lifting them out of the water. They were a little heavy but I didn’t have that far to fly. I went right to the bridge, dropping low enough to let them go. They landed in the middle of the road and rolled to a stop. Several cars screeched to avoid them but there were no accidents. A few people got out of their vehicles to watch as I flew off. I think there might have been a camera flash or two. I didn’t stop for a photo op though.

I aimed right for Queen Tower. I thought about going for the roof but the armor was losing pep fast and there was no way I could fly that high now. I went for the back entrance instead, near where my father’s garage was. I landed with a thump and a roll, exhausted as I tumbled across the ground. When I finally came to a stop, the armor was gone. I sat up, moaning, feeling the bruises. I laughed and rubbed my neck, shivering as the cold night air touched my naked body.

“You’re too reckless, you know that.”

“Do we have enough juice to manifest clothes?”

“Afraid not” said Khaji, the exhaustion evident in her voice.

It was then that I noticed I wasn’t alone. Mr. Creepy Guy was standing there, staring at me. I quickly covered my naked parts with my hands. He smiled sheepishly, blushed and looked away. I rolled my eyes.

“Spare your coat for a damsel in distress?”

He fumbled and took off his coat, handing it to me.

I slipped it on, sighing. “I don’t suppose you can call upstairs and tell Miss Queen that Josie’s arrived, can you?”

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Author's Note: Here's chapter thirteen. After two chapters of pretty much solid action, this one is a breather. We'll call it the calm before the storm. Its still a good chapter and leads right into the next where both my heroes get to shine a little bit. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for their fantastic characters.

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Chapter Thirteen:

I stood in the elevator; the blonde security guard kept staring at my naked legs. I tried my best not to blush but it’s pretty hard when the only thing you’re wearing in a blue blazer. Luckily, for me the Creepy Guy is so tall or else I’d be even more embarrassed. It was bad enough that as soon as I walked in the lobby, the guard at the desk was staring at me. I suppose it’s not every day that a half naked chick walks through the front door. But what can I say; I like to make an entrance. If that means I look like a fool doing it then I look like a fool.

“Khaji, you still with me?”

I got no response. After crashing, Khaji sort of faded out on me. She was just as exhausted as I was, probably more, in fact. I should have never pushed myself into using the armor but it was the only thing I could think of. I got the jump done, though. It was a half assed jump but I still stopped the bad guys and threw them off our trail. Now La Dama would grasp at straws trying to find me. There was no way I was going to allow her to lead me into another ambush. I groaned when I thought about who she might be. If I was right and I know I was, I wonder how she’d pulled it off for so many years.

Amparo---there I finally admitted it---was a legitimate business woman. At least we think she is. Brenda was never really able to figure out where her aunt got all her money from. When she asked once, Amparo told her something about investing in good stocks. Now I know that was a load of crap.

Crime paid well and apparently very well for Amparo Juarez.

The elevator finally stopped. I sighed; it felt like I was in the fricking thing forever. When the door slid open, I saw a plush red-carpeted hallway. The guard stepped out first, looked up and down the halls then nodded to me. I smiled at him and stepped out. I’d always wondered what the upper floors of Queen Tower looked like and now I knew. I’d only ever been in the lobby and that was only once. I used to watch with envy as others walked over to the elevators and road them up to parts unknown. I had a pretty good idea what was on most of the floors but I always wondered if there was something more. But now as I stood on the twentieth floor, looking at the red carpet under my feet and the beige colored wall in front of me, I was kind of disappointed.

“Miss Reyes?” said a voice.

I turned and saw a tall, younger guy standing a few feet away. He was dressed in a crisp black suit, his hair slicked back. He had a warm welcoming smile. He walked toward me; there was definite confidence in that walk of his. His looks reminded me a little of Josh but maybe that’s because I seemed to have a thing for blondes. When he finally reached me, I had to look up because he was kind of tall. He was exceptionally gorgeous though. Looking at him made me blush. God, I’m never going to get a hang of this girl thing and all the crazy hormones.

“Good morning, Miss” he said, checking his watch to make sure he had the proper greeting. It was after one in the morning, so it was technically the right one. “If you’d follow me please, I’ll show you to your room.”

“My room?”

He nodded as the two of us walked down the hall. “Miss Queen has set you up in one of the luxury suites for the night. She’s arranged for some clothing for you and I can have room service brought up for you if you like.”

Room service? What the hell was this guy talking about? I thought we were taking a crack at La Dama tonight. I didn’t have time for fancy suites and things like that. This bitch had my family and I wanted them back. I wanted them back NOW. I was fuming as he led me around the corner and stopped at the first door on the left. He took out a card key and zipped it through the electronic lock. When he opened the door, my eyes practically bugged out of my head. The room that I entered was by far the biggest one I’d ever seen.

I gasped in shock. There was no way all of this could be for me. The man walked into the room behind me and over to a pair of double doors, opening them up. I looked briefly at them and saw a plush looking bedroom beyond. But I was still concentrating on the room before me. It had a Spartan feel to it. The decor went with a black and chrome motif. The floors were hardwood, there were fake paintings on the walls---at least I hoped they were. There was some good sculpture though, much better than anything I could ever pull off. I walked over to the big metal frame sofa, running my fingers along the black leather upholstery. It was clearly designed by a man who didn’t have time for luxury. I only met Mr. Queen once and it was very brief. He shook my hand, said it was nice to meet me and moved on. I think the whole encounter lasted all of five seconds. But in those seconds, I think I got a good gauge of the man. He didn’t like anything fancy and this room really showed it.

“Your clothes are on the bed, there’s a menu by the phone. Just dial six and you’ll get room service. Our kitchen is open twenty four hours a day and you can order anything on the menu.”

I nodded. “Is this a business office or a hotel?”

He smiled. “Mr. Queen liked his guests to stay where he could always get access to them. So it’s kind of both. Miss Queen has seen fit to continue some of his traditions with a few of her own added touches.”

“Added touches?”

He smiled again. His teeth were so damn white. “There’s now a video arcade a few floors down and one of the formal dining areas has been turned into a movie theater.”

It pays to be rich I guess.

The guy smiled again and left, closing the door behind him.

“Khaji, tell me you’re seeing this?”

I finally got a response from her: “We’re in the lap of luxury.”

“Thanks for before” I said, rubbing the back of my neck, it was still kind of sore from earlier. “Getting the armor up and running must have taken a lot out of you and I’m glad you believed in me enough to do so.”

“We’re partners now, that’s what partners do.”

I nodded. “You get some rest and recharge. Hopefully we won’t be needing the armor so soon.”

It was a lie of course. I was pretty certain that I’d need the armor in twenty four hours or less. But I didn’t want to tell her that. She’d already done enough for me in the last twelve hours or so. She needed her rest, hell we both did.

Thinking of sleep, I walked into the bedroom. It was a lot less Spartan than the rest of the place. It had a different décor too. It was clear that a woman designed this room. There was a pattern on the furniture and a maroon color scheme that was kept throughout the room. The large king size bed was covered in a maroon spread and pillows and the curtains hanging from the windows were maroon too. I walked over to the bed, finding a pair of gray pajamas and a note. I picked up the note: Thought you might need these. It’s too late for a strategy session; we’ll have one in the morning when we’re all refreshed and thinking straight. Have a good night’s sleep and don’t worry, we will get your family back. It was signed Olivia on the bottom. I smiled and set the note aside, then picked up the pajamas. I sighed; they were in my size. How the hell could she have known that?

I dropped my borrowed coat on the floor and quickly slipped on the PJs. They were made of cotton and were nice and warm. They were different from the ones I wore to bed but I was so tired that it didn’t really matter. I walked over and closed the double doors then jumped into bed. I barely got under the covers before I dropped off to sleep.

___________________________________

The sun was glaring in my face when I opened my eyes. Don’t you hate that? You’d think with such dark thick curtains something like that wouldn’t be possible. I groaned and sat up, the covers sliding off me. I stared bleary eyed around the room for a second, trying to figure out where I was. I rubbed the grogginess away and groaned. Then I remembered. The events of yesterday came flooding back to me. First, the ugly thing attacking me in the alley, and then the guys chasing me from the factory district to my house. Finally La Dama’s goons taking my family and being rescued by the Green Arrow.

Thinking about her, I threw the rest of my covers off. I looked around the room. The curtains were open enough for the morning sun to come streaming through them. I slid off the bed and bumbled over, opening them the rest of the way. I was greeted by the most gorgeous view of the city I’d ever seen. It was breathtaking. I could see everything, all the way to the Bay and the bridge and even a little beyond that. If this is what Olivia woke up to every morning I could definitely get used to it.

"I think one would get bored with it after awhile.”

I shook my head. “Not a chance.”

I smiled as I walked away from the window. I was glad to hear Khaji sounding so chipper now. I was really worried about her yesterday, especially after I pushed her even though she wasn’t ready. I felt real guilty about that.

“How’s the armor?”

“It should be fully charged and ready to go by midday.”

I nodded. I was glad to hear it. I was probably going to need it a lot in the next few days, depending on how long it took us to find La Dama. I had a pretty good idea where to look and how to start the search. If she truly was Amparo like I suspected than maybe we could trace her finances and figure out where she’s been shelling a lot of money. There’s bound to be some kind of paper trail, right? I mean if this place is really in the desert like Damper thought than there’s bound to be some kind of record of it.

I thought about it as I opened the double doors and walked into the main room. The bathroom was off to the left. The guy last night vaguely pointed it out but the door was open so I could see it clearly. I walked in, amazed at how big it was. You could fit two of my bathrooms in here. The tiles were sea green; there was a double sink and Jacuzzi style bathtub. So far, I’d been a shower girl but looking at that tub, I couldn’t resist. I stripped out of the pajamas, leaving them on the floor. Then naked, I walked over to the tub. It took me a while to figure it out bit I got it working in quick order. Brenda had a Jacuzzi in her solarium. I’d only been in once and seeing as it was also with Brenda and Paco, we were wearing bathing suits at the time.

But that Jacuzzi didn’t compare to this one. As I slipped into the frothing water, it was like pure ecstasy. I closed my eyes and let the jets massage my bruised and battered body. It felt so good and relaxing. My hand drifted to between my legs and before I knew it, I found my fingers pleasuring myself. It was ten times better than in the shower. I even moaned a few times. After what seemed like forever, my fingers started to prune. That’s usually a good sign that you’ve been spending too much time in the water.

There was a light knock on the door than a soft female voice. “Miss, I have a towel and bathrobe for you, I’ll hang them outside the door.”

The voice surprised me. I wasn’t used to being waited on. So I thanked the girl. I reluctantly climbed out of the huge tub and wandered over to the door. I opened it just a crack and peered outside, but the girl belonging to the voice was gone. The hook was just on the other side of the door. I snatched the towel and bathrobe off it. I dried my hair with the towel than wrapped it turban style again. Then I slipped into the bathrobe. When I left the bathroom, there was a tray and a card sitting on the little glass top table near the large window. The blinds were drawn, thank God. I didn’t want the whole of the city to see me prancing around in my robe. I went to the table, looked at the enticing breakfast of French toast and scrambled eggs but read the card first. It was from Olivia, telling me to meet her up on the thirty fifth floor when I was done.

I ate breakfast in a rush. I was kind of anxious to get going. There was a lot I wanted to do today, the top of which was to find La Dama’s desert base and get my family back. There was another knock on the door when I was finished. I didn’t even get a chance to say come in when the same guy from early this morning walked into the room, holding a garment bag. He smiled and set it on the back of the sofa.

“Good morning again, Miss Reyes” he said with that toothy grin of his. “Last night I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Lucas, if there’s anything you need, just ask.”

I nodded. “How the hell do you people know when I’m done with things?”

He laughed. “The whole of the building is monitored by closed circuit cameras.”

I grimaced. I didn’t like the sound of that. “There’s not one in the bathroom, is there?”

He laughed. “No, the bathroom has floor sensors. They activated when you turned on the water. We also monitor the water intake levels of the whole building and water temperature. When your bath water started to get cold, a maid was sent to deliver you a towel and bathrobe.”

I nodded. Ok that was creepy. Efficient but still very creepy. “Big Brother is watching, huh.”

He laughed. He had to stop laughing; it was infectious. “More like Big Sister.”

He didn’t elaborate. He winked and walked out of the room, leaving me alone again. I got up and walked over to the garment bag he left. When I opened it up, I groaned. Why is it that every girl I met was trying to get me into a dress. I looked in the bag, hoping to find something else but the only other thing in it was a pair of white sandals. There was some underwear too. I begrudgingly took everything out of the bag. There was a tall mirror on the wall. I took off the bathrobe---making sure I was completely dry---then got dressed. The dress was light blue and very airy. I think it was a summer dress but I wouldn’t know how to tell. It flowed when I moved, not that I tested or anything. Ok, so you caught me but what girl doesn’t put on a dress and twirl.
I slipped on the sandals---thankfully they had no heel---and walked out the door.

_________________________________

Do I need to bore you with the ins and outs of another elevator ride?

Suffice to say I rode it alone this time to the thirty fifth floor. When it stopped and I got off, I expected to end up into another red-carpeted hallway. But I was surprised when it opened up to a spacious room. One wall was lined with computer servers, in the center was a circular table and the wall directly in front of the elevators was covered in large flat screens. There had to be at least twenty of them. Half showed various scenes throughout the building, the others streamed live news broadcasts from around the world. In front of the screens were several computers arranged along a narrow table, a pink haired girl sat in front of them.

Olivia was lounging in a chair in the corner. She was dressed normally today or at least as normal as a billionairess gets. She was wearing thigh leather boots, a green tank top and skinny jeans. Why is that I was the only one wearing a dress. Even the pink haired girl was dressed more casually than me. I looked around the room, glancing from the sofa set in the other corner to the little bar in the last corner. But there was no sign of Probe. Maybe Olivia didn’t trust her enough to allow her into this room, after all it was kind of high tech and secretive and Probe was technically the enemy. Even though I’d like to think of her as a friend now.

When I walked into the room, Olivia was deep in conversation. But there was no one there. I thought maybe she was talking to herself but then I heard a voice:

“Are you sure she can be trusted?” It was a girl’s voice. “My ring has extensive databases on this Scarab and the Reach it claims to work for.”

Olivia smiled. “Jade, you guys can relax. Josie is one of the good guys. I vouch for her.”

The voice huffed. “Do you need any backup?”

Olivia paused and looked over at me, waving me into a chair next to her. Then she turned back to whoever she was having a conversation with. “I think me and the Blue Beetle can handle it. This La Dama runs a tight ship, but you’ve seen the news, you saw what Josie did.”

Jade sighed. “Keep me apprised of the situation and if you need help, you know where to find me.”

I gasped as I sat in the chair next to Olivia. The ring on her finger had been glowing green for a second and now it was done. I realized then who she’d been talking too, it was the Green Lantern. My heart started thumping in my chest. I was starting to geek out again. I was able to keep my breathing under control, thank God.

Olivia turned to me, moving her whole body. Her legs were crossed, making her that much more sexy. “Did you have a good rest?”

I nodded. “Was that really Jade?”

She rolled her eyes and held up her hand to show me the ring. “This little puppy helps me keep in constant communication with her and the others. She gave it to me a while ago but I kind of avoid using it. I’m not exactly what they’d call a team player. I can get you one if you want; Jade and the others are dying to meet you after all.”

“ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THE QUESTION” Khaji practically screamed in my brain.

I winced from the outburst. “That won’t be necessary. I have something much better than a ring.”

Olivia smiled. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get working last night but I was so exhausted when I got home I nearly collapsed.”

The pink haired girl huffed. “Well if you weren’t spending the whole day training all the time then you wouldn’t be so tired.”

Olivia ignored her. “Josie, I’d like you to meet my partner in crime and the best friend a girl could ever have, Mia Dearden.”

The pink haired girl turned around in the chair. She was really cute. Not gorgeous like Olivia but definitely cute enough to date. “Flattery won’t get you anywhere, Ollie.” She then turned to me. “It’s finally nice to meet the face behind the voice.”

I realized then that this must have been the girl that Olivia was talking to in the car. Mia seemed kind of fun and spunky; I could see her and Brenda getting along fine. Thinking about Brenda gave me a heart pang but I pushed it aside.

“Are you the brains behind this operation?” I asked, sweeping my arm around the room.

“You bet your ass I am.”

“She contributes a great deal, don’t you, Speedy.”

Mia huffed and spun around in her chair. I could really tell the two of them were good friends. It made me smile. Olivia cleared her throat and got to her feet. “Now on to business. This place here we call the Hub.” Mia huffed again, Olivia ignored her. “We monitor everything that goes on in this building and the rest of the world here.”

"The rest of the world?”

She smiled. “It pays to be multi-billionaire. I have satellites positioned all over the globe. I do all my hero stuff in our city but there are others like us all over the world now. Whenever there’s a problem that Jade hasn’t picked up, my satellites grab it and I feed it to the closest hero in the vicinity. It’s kind of cool actually, kind of like Big Brother.”

“Or Big Sister” added Mia quickly.

I smiled. Now I knew what Lucas meant earlier.

Olivia continued as if she was never interrupted. “We’ve been searching the Net, looking for any mention of La Dama. So far, she has been kind of low key, just a few rumblings here and there. Urban Legends are like that. But she’ll slip up, it’s only a matter of time and as soon as she does, we’ll nail her.”

I took a deep breath. Could I really do this to Brenda? She loved her aunt. Could I really betray my friendship with her and tell them. I guess I’m about to find out. “You don’t need to search; I think I know who she is.”

Olivia raised her eyebrow. Mia turned in her chair, giving me a look. Then I think it dawned on her and I swore if a light bulb could appear above her head it work. “You mean the bracelet?”

I nodded. "Yesterday after school my friend Brenda gave it to me. She said they were a gift from her aunt. Which is kind of strange because the woman kind of hated me when I was a boy and had only just met me when I was a girl. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but now that I look back on it there’s no way she would have given me that bracelet out of the kindness of her heart.”

Mia nodded. “What’s her name?”

“Amparo Juarez.”

Olivia and Mia shared a glance. It was only quick but I noticed it. I didn’t pursue it though; it was probably nothing. Mia typed away at the keyboard; it didn’t take her long. “Here we are, Amparo Juarez, age thirty six.”

All the screens blinked off for a second and when they came on there was a profile picture of Amparo on them. Mia typed away again, several other smaller screens popped up, showing bank records and business transactions. They scrolled across the screen, popping up and being replaced by more. I only got some quick glances but what I saw was crazy. Apparently, Amparo didn’t get the money from sound investments. A lot of it was through illegal means. Most of said means involved what the documents called export, but I kind of knew that to be smuggling. There was something else, too.

According to the pages on the screen, Amparo was funneling a lot of cash around, most of it going to somewhere in Baja.

Mia finally stopped typing. The last thing that appeared on the screen was a 3D map. She moved her cursor over an area that appeared in red. I looked at the screen, it was somewhere in the Sonoran Desert. It suddenly clicked. The desert is where Damper claimed Warehouse 13 was. This had to be the place.

“That’s it, I’m sure of it,” I said as I leaned over Mia’s chair. “The leader of Posse said that there were rumors of a place in the desert called Warehouse 13. He said it was run by La Dama and that she took Metas there to experiment on them.”

“Do we have a satellite in that area?” asked Olivia, leaning forward too.

Mia typed for a few seconds and shook her head. “That area is controlled by Luthercorp. He owns the whole region in fact. Your grandfather let him have it because it’s just dry land and dirt out there. Luther bought it all pretty cheap, said he wanted to turn it into a resort."

Olivia scoffed. “Resort my ass.”

I was confused. “Lex Luther, you mean the philanthropist?”

Both of them laughed. “I never heard of him. We’re talking about his real face, not the fake one he puts on for the press.” Olivia sighed. “This doesn’t look good at all.”

She walked away for a second, touching her green ring. She stepped further into the room, I didn’t’ hear her conversation. Instead, I stared at the screen and the place in the desert where our satellite couldn’t penetrate. What did Lex Luther have to do with Brenda’s aunt? Olivia came walking over a minute or two later, smiling.

“I just talked to Lena. She coordinated with Jade. Apparently, there is something out there after all. But it’s not a resort. The official story is a research facility, one of those bio dome things they wanted to build on the surface of Mars.”

Mia nodded. “What is it really?”

Olivia shook her head. “Lena didn’t know but she claims that her father likes to keep that area under really high security for some reason.”

“So are we firing up the jet?” Asked Mia, with a grimace.

Olivia smiled and nodded. “Oh, most definitely.”

________________________________

It took us about an hour to drive to the airport. Mia wanted us to take the helicopter but Olivia didn’t want to draw attention to us. She was kind of the media darling as of late and there were a lot of paparazzi hanging around the Tower. I’m still not sure how she manages to sneak off and be the Green Arrow if they’re always watching. So we take an SUV instead. The four of us hid in the back. Lucas drove; making sure the paparazzi got a good look at him so they knew that Olivia wasn’t in the vehicle. A couple of them snapped pictures until they realized they were wasting their film.

I sat in the back with Mia and Probe. The ride to the airport was in subdued silence. Probe was apparently pretty pissed that she wasn’t allowed in the Hub. It was for the reasons I thought. Olivia and Mia just didn’t trust her enough to let her see their operation. I was kind of pissed too but it made sense. I knew she’d never go and intentionally blab to the gang but things happened. It was better that she stayed out of the loop. We had her meet us in the garage. Lucas was there with her and the two of them were talking about some of the cars there.

When we arrived at the airport there were more paparazzi, apparently they liked to stake out the Queen jet just in case. Olivia made a big spectacle out of it. She got out of the car, lugging a big tote and smiled at the cameras. There were so many flashes I think I’m going to be blind for weeks. Probe didn’t seem to mid. One of the photogs even stuck the camera in her face and took a picture. She didn’t even blink. Me, I shielded my eyes and dodged questions. Everyone wanted to know where the three of us were going and what our names were. Olivia handled the questions. Apparently, we were on our way to one of the little private islands she owned---there were three of them.

“Nothing like a little vacay with the girls” she said with a smile.

It was an eye opening experience.

Olivia put on the media darling act until we were on the plane. She even sat at the windows and waved. She kept it up until we were taking off. Then she sighed, dropping into her seat. “That was so exhausting.”

“You don’t like being rich and popular?” I asked.

Mia snorted. Olivia ignored her. “I don’t mind it sometimes but most of the time it’s a royal pain in the ass.”

"I’ll trade lives with you,” added Probe from the back of the plane.

When we got on, she decided to sit by herself. I think she was still a little pissed about earlier. But she had to understand why we couldn’t let her into the room. It was one thing that she already knew who Olivia and I were but it was another thing entirely for her to see the whole operation. Hell, I didn’t even think I was worthy to see it all. But apparently, Olivia did. In fact, she accepted me without any problems, which I thought, was the coolest thing in the world. I wonder if the others would be so accepting.

“We don’t need their acceptance, especially the Lantern.”

Khaji had been quiet for so long I kind of forgot she was there.

I groaned. “What’s your deal with them anyway?”

She huffed. “The Lanterns of Oa and the Reach are mortal enemies. Our two civilizations have fought for centuries, neither coming out as the victor. A peace was erected between the two of us but it is bound to fail some day.”

I sighed. “You’re not of the Reach anymore. You need to get past their grudges and realize you’re your own person now.”

She said nothing. I groaned. I didn’t have time to argue anyway. I turned to the window and watched as California flew by underneath us. It wouldn’t take us long to get to Baja. We weren’t going to the airport though. The Queens owned a private airslip. We’d touch down there and apparently take cars into the desert. How close we’d actually be able to get to the facility was another story entirely.

“Mia” I asked, interrupting her computer game. “How close can we get to this place?”

She didn’t bat an eye when she answered. “A couple of miles maybe. We’re going to have to get some four wheelers for the rest of the journey. Well you guys are anyways.”

“You’re not coming with?”

She looked up from her laptop screen. The color drained from her face. “I’m the technical support kind of sidekick. I let the boss do all the wet work.”

Olivia and I laughed. I wonder what Brenda would think about becoming my sidekick. I closed my eyes and envisioned her running around alongside me in a blue leotard with plastic bug wings and cheap antenna. I couldn’t help but laugh. There was no way she’d go for that. Maybe I could get her on the end of a radio too. She wasn’t good with computers but maybe she could offer moral support, telling me jokes or something like that. I sighed. Thinking about Brenda made me hurt again. It was horrible to think about but we were going to this place to put a stop to her aunt. I wonder if Brenda was there and how she’s react when she found out. I know there’s no way she’d be in on all this but there was no way she’d stand idly by while we tried to arrest her beloved aunt either.

“Your friend has a good head. She’ll do the right thing when the time comes.”

“I hope so.”

The rest of the plane ride I spent looking out the window. We touched down in Baja about an hour and a half from taking off. There was another SUV waiting for us at the Queen strip. We clambered inside. This time Mia got in the front while Olivia got into the back with us. She was dressed like the Green Arrow now, having changed on the plane. She made sure that most of the staff at the airport weren’t outside when we disembarked from the plane. Now she was sitting next to me, putting arrows into her quiver. Most of them looked like normal arrows but there were a few that were kind of wicked.

“Trick arrows” she said, fingering the tip of one with a gloved finger. “Seeing as I might be going up against some Metas I thought it would be a good idea to come prepared.”

The one she was fingering had a jagged tip; it looked like it could shred flesh. “Have you fought many Metas?” I asked as she slid the arrow into her quiver.

“A few but mainly I fight normals.”

I took a deep breath and asked the question I’ve wanted to ask since I met her yesterday. “Where have you been the last few months? The city has fallen apart without you.”

She sighed and spoke in a soft voice.”After my grandfather was killed I realized that I wasn’t prepared to deal with all the pressure of being a hero. So I took a breather. Then I came to the conclusion that in order to be a proper hero I needed to learn how to be one. So let’s just say I got a little help and leave it that.”

I nodded. Fair enough. “Maybe when we’re done here, your friend can help me?”

The question came out of the blue. But I’d been thinking about it for a long time. I did need help. It was one thing to rely on the armor all the time but yesterday; I was without it and got my ass kicked. I needed to know how to defend myself and stop relying on the armor to save me all the time.

She smiled, putting a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll see what I can do.”

-----

Author's Note: Here's Chapter Fourteen, the Storm everyone has been waiting for. There's a lot of great stuff in this chapter, the highpoint being Round Two with Bottom Feeder which I think is the longest fight I've ever written. The latter part of this chapter is a rewrite, the first time through it was just plain crap, I have to thank Lilith for setting me straight on that one. I also have to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters. There's only one more chapter after this which should be up soon so until then enjoy this very fun and extra long ride.

-----

Chapter Fourteen:

“How many guards are there?” Probe asked as I scanned the perimeter.

The complex was far enough away that it looked like a dollhouse. The three of us were lying flat in the scruff, keeping our distance at the moment. The three four wheelers were behind us, cooling off after our long drive. I know one thing; I’m never driving one of those damn things again. They were loud and uncomfortable. I know what you’re thinking, hey, you were a guy, you should like those things. But I’ve never been the outdoors man type. Even when we lived in Texas, I was never one to venture far outdoors. I stared mainly in my room, tapping away at various video games. I didn’t have many friends there because most of the guys around me were into football and other sports. I was the weird geek who rifled around in the garbage for junk.

I thought it was going to be the same when I moved to California. Then I met Brenda and Paco. Brenda was that girl; you know the one that every guy wishes he could grow up next to. She was amazing from the first time I saw her and I must admit I had a little crush. But as I became friends with her, I realized it would never work out and I just let it fade away. Now she was like a best friend and sister rolled up into one. Paco was the big shy guy that everyone thought was scary. The two of us hit it off immediately though. We had the same interests and both of us felt we were misunderstood. Now the two of them were in that horrible place and I’d do anything to get them back.

“You’re daydreaming.”

“I’m thinking.”

Probe asked the guard question again. I concentrated on the task at hand. The complex was surrounded by what appeared to be a barbed wire fence, beyond it, I saw two guards patrolling the grounds. There were another two in a guard tower in the right corner of the complex and three more in the left corner in a small guardhouse. They were all carrying M-16’s and were dressed in the same black uniforms as the guys that attacked us yesterday. I told them the numbers and Probe groaned. Olivia didn’t seem too fazed by it though. In fact, she nocked an arrow and sat up, staring through the scope of her fancy bow.

“Can you hit them from here?”

She laughed. “Not even I’m that good.”

“What are we waiting for?” snapped Probe, she was a lot more impatient than I was.

We set up in the airstrip until it got a little later in the day. Olivia and Mia set up in the main office, sending the staff home. None of them got a glimpse of the Green Arrow, thank God. They both agreed that it might be better if we waited until nightfall to make our attack, it would be easier to slip past their defenses undetected that way. Of course, Probe argued. She wanted to go there and get her friends right away. Even I was a little antsy but I understood what would happen if we tried to make a day assault. The guards would see and cut us down before we even got close. We spent the few hours in the cramped lobby, eating crap from the vending machines and watching Mexican television. We were so close to the border that the only stations they got were in Spanish. It wasn’t even a proper TV either. It had those funky rabbit ears and was really funny. The worst part, I seemed to be the only one who understood what they were saying. It was some comedy show and I laughed through the whole thing. The others rolled their eyes.

We set out as soon as the sun started to wane in the sky. It took us about two hours to get out to the complex. Even then, we had to approach slowly for fear that the guards might hear the engines of our four wheelers.

“This is ridiculous,” snapped Probe “we know they’re in there, I can sense all of them. It’s stupid that we’re waiting.”

“Her impatience is going to get her killed.”

I sighed. “Probe you gotta calm down. We’ll go as soon as we get the right opportunity.”

Olivia smiled, lowering her pair of night vision binoculars. “And there it is.”

I turned back to the complex and tried to find what she was talking about. It didn’t take me long to see. The guards were changing shifts. The two patrolling the perimeter were walking back toward the complex. It was the perfect opportunity, now all we had to do was time it right. Olivia moved first, creeping over the scrub grass in front of us. I took a moment to activate the armor. I felt the tingling sensation as it crawled up my skin. I crawled as it slowly crept up my body. Probe followed behind, sticking close to me like we told her to. Both Olivia and I were afraid if she strayed too far from us she might be hit by a stray bullet or something and we couldn’t let that happen.

We made good time as we crept along the desert, keeping low to the ground. We weren’t running but we weren’t walking either. We had to get there before the guards came back on shift, if we didn’t then the whole thing was crap. I looked ahead as the armor finished covering my body. Olivia was moving like a wild woman. She was already way ahead of me. I cursed and picked up the pace. Thanks to my armor enhanced speed, I caught up with her faster than I wanted too. I turned and waited for Probe.

“You and I should go ahead,” said Khaji “the humans are slowing us down.”

“Hey I’m still human too, you know.”

“Technically none of you are human, even our fearless leader in green isn’t, even though she doesn’t want to admit it.”

I ignored the comment. I didn’t like the idea of not being human. Of course, I was human. Just because I had an alien, symbiote attached to my spine didn’t make me any less human than my family and friends.

“You’re wrong.”

“You and I can discuss this later. Right now we have to save your family.”

I groaned and decided I was done discussing anything with her right now. Olivia took the lead again. I waited for Probe to catch up and then followed at a brisk pace, making sure that Probe didn’t fall too far behind. We reached the fence just in time. The new perimeter guards were coming out of the building just as we reached the fence. Olivia was fast, faster than I’d ever seen. She fired off one arrow and it almost seemed like the other before the first even left the bow. The first arrow hit one of the new guards, dropping him quickly. The second arrow hit the other guard just as fast. Neither man knew what hit them. I snapped toward the tower and saw the search light move over to the spot where the two guards fell. It was right about there when Olivia struck again. Her first arrow hit the light; the second dropped the guard manning it.

I got into the action after that. I fired two energy balls. Both of them hit their targets at the same time. Effectively the two of us cleared out five guards in less than a minute. It was pretty impressive. She turned to me, smiled and pointed at the fence. I stepped up, extending one of my blades from my wrist. I cut through the chain link like a hot knife through butter. I slit a hole big enough for a person to crawl through. Olivia went first then Probe. I followed up in the rear.

“Should we take out the guard house?” whispered Probe, pointing to the squat building in the distance.

Olivia looked and shook her head. “They’re too far away to notice a difference. By the time they do, hopefully we’ll be long gone.”

We left it at that. Olivia led the way again and we continued to keep Probe between us. We crept silently across the courtyard, making our way stealthily toward doors. We came upon the two guards from earlier. I half expected to see them dead. Instead, they were both breathing, arrows stuck in their shoulders. I bent and touched one of the shafts, getting a slight spark.

“Stun arrows,” Olivia explained. “They have a little charge, enough to take down a three hundred pound man for a couple of hours. They’re completely harmless.”

I nodded. Tell that to the guys with the arrows in their shoulders.

When we got to the doors, Olivia nocked another arrow and peered through the glass. She motioned me over. I went and stood next to her. I switched from blue to red. I looked through the glass. I scanned the long corridor before us. The place looked deserted but one could never be too careful. After all, she sent a whole fricking army after us yesterday. Besides I had this strange feeling that she knew the three of us were coming. It was almost like she was expecting it and it felt like she was leaving the place wide open for us. The idea of a trap had crossed my mind on the ride over here as the wind and grit hit my face. Did I tell you how much I hate four wheelers? But would she really risk her entire operation on a trap that might actually fail. It was a big gamble and I was certain that someone like La Dama wasn’t stupid enough to take such a risk.

“It's too easy,” I whispered to her, turning away. “The corridor is completely deserted; I’m not even picking up the heat signature of a mouse.”

She nodded and tapped her throat mike. “What do you think, Mia?”

I was tapped into the same radio frequency so I heard her response. “Josie’s right. It’s too easy, it’s like she’s waiting for you.”

“Can you tap into the base’s security?”

Mia sighed. “I’m trying but they’ve got a killer firewall. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Every time I try to override it, the system seems to adapt.”

“Let me try.”

I looked at Olivia. “Khaji’s going to try. Give her a few minutes.”

I told them all about Khaji in the little lobby of the airstrip office. I didn’t have anything better to do so I gave the three of them the abridged version. Olivia and Probe listened silently but Mia was immediately impressed. She kept asking me questions for her. Khaji responded quickly and the two of them hit it off pretty good. It was a shame that I was a pathetic go between. After an hour of saying, “Khaji says this or that”, I got kind of annoyed. It was like being the third wheel in a two-way conversation.

“Interesting” said Khaji after about five minutes. “I cracked the firewall like you wanted but there was something very strange about the computer mainframe.”

“Strange how?”

“It was too advanced for modern Earth technology.”

“Are you saying it wasn’t from this world?”

“No, it’s terrestrial in origin; it’s just far too advanced for the technology that you possess.”

“Should we be in trouble?”

“Not any more. As soon as it sensed me, it shut itself down. I’ve never seen anything like it. As soon as it deactivated, it was like it purged itself completely from the system.”

“You make it sound like it was alive?”

“I think it might have been.”

“What should we do?”

“Nothing for now. Let’s keep this between the two of us. There’s no reason to worry the others with something as trivial as this. Tell them I shut down the firewalls so now they can access whatever they want.”

I turned to Olivia and smiled. “Khaji cracked the firewall; Mia is free to tinker around in their mainframe all she wants.”

“Tell her she’s a miracle worker,” said Mia with a sigh.

We waited for Mia to get finished with her hack. But Khaji was way ahead of her. She hacked into the mainframe for me ahead of time. A 3D rendering of the whole complex appeared on a screen in front of my eyes. I could see everything now. I couldn’t see people but I knew where all the rooms were and where I could find the prisoners. On the first floor was nothing important but most of the prisoners were being held in the sub-basement level, where it looked like there were cells. But there was no way La Dama would put my family there. It wasn’t her style. So I looked up on the second floor. There was a room there that had a sophisticated door lock.

“I think I found them, Khaji.”

She didn’t respond but she didn’t need to. She was seeing the exact same thing I was. I smiled and looked over at Olivia. She and Mia were currently having a conversation, trying best to figure out how to infiltrate the base. They finally decided that the direct route was probably the best. So that meant the three of us were going through the front door. I groaned and looked through the glass one more time. I swept about with the red vision but still I saw nothing.

“I have a bad feeling about this” I said softly to myself.

______________________________________

I was right about the whole place being deserted. It was kind of creepy going down hall after hall and encountering no one. It was clearly a trap and the others seemed to know it as well. Olivia was in front of me, her bow raised, an arrow already. She kept peering around the corners with the bow first than beckoned us forward after she checked. I didn’t really need her caution. I could see several hallways at once through the red vision, searching out heat signatures in hopes of seeing the ambush before it came. But there weren’t even any of those. It was like the whole place was cleaned out for one purpose in mind.

“The lack of people in this place is disturbing.”

“Does it have anything to do with that AI you detected?”

Khaji sighed. “No, it was hiding in the mainframe. I suspect that those in charge of this place didn’t even know it was here. I can only guess its purpose but I believe it was gathering intel. There was something fundamentally primitive about it but it was definitely far more advanced than anything humans could create, at least at this time.”

“You keep saying that. Does that mean this thing is from the future?”

The future, was that even possible?

“It’s very possible but improbable. Time travel is dangerous because it always has unforeseeable consequences. Even the Reach knew better than to meddle with time.”

Olivia stopped up ahead. I nearly ran into her because I wasn’t paying attention. I scanned around the corner and nearly missed it. But there it was anyway. It was a single heat signature, very faint. Olivia was crouching now, raising her bow, ready to fire. I turned to Probe and motioned her to get down on the floor.

Instead, she stepped forward, getting close so she could whisper in my ear: “It’s him,” she whispered, gripping my arm. “The one from the alley, the Bottom Feeder.”

My stomach flipped and I inwardly groaned. That’s all we needed. I had a feeling I was going to run into that thing again but I was hoping to avoid it. Getting into a fight wasn’t something I was planning on. I just wanted to get into this place, get everyone and go. Now I saw the whole plan: the facility was cleared out and only the Bottom Feeder remained. I think this was the trap that La Dama seemed to be setting up for us.

I tapped into Olivia’s radio. “We have company up ahead. It’s that guy I told you about, the one from the alley.”

“The one who calls itself the Bottom Feeder?”

“That’s him.”

“We have the element of surprise,” she said as she stood up. “And it’s two to one.”

I liked her style but I fought this thing, well kinda. There was no way any of her arrows were going to dent it. Hell, it thrashed the hell out of Posse more times than I could count, according to Probe. There was no way just the two of us could handle it. But Olivia was a professional and there was no way she was going to back down from this fight. The best thing I could do is get in and make sure it never gets anywhere near her.

“I’ll go first, you flank me.”

Hey, it sounded cool. I didn’t wait for her to respond. I stepped around her and moved slowly down the hall. I followed the faint heat signature. As I got closer, the reddish blob got bigger. I finally got to the end of another corridor and saw it. This corridor opened up into a large room, probably some kind of mess hall. The Bottom Feeder was standing in the middle of it, staring at the entrance. He was waiting for us, waiting for me. I took a deep breath and stepped around the corner. His hooded head rose up and he stared at me with those beady, lifeless eyes of his. As soon as our eyes locked, he laughed, at least that’s what I think it was supposed to be.

“Ah, the Blue Demon at last. My mistress said you would be coming but I did not expect you to make this venture alone.”

“Who says she’s alone?” said Olivia as she stepped into the corridor beside me, her bow raised.

The Thing laughed again, it sounded like two rocks scraping against one another. “This is what you bring me, the Green Hood. I was hoping for the Behemoth from Chicago, not this pitiful excuse of a criminal.”

We ignored the taunt. He was trying to goad us but it wasn’t going to work.

“You can avoid this fight,” I said, making the blades grow from my wrists. “Walk away and this doesn’t have to get ugly.”

He laughed again. “I am the Bottom Feeder, chosen by the Lord; you are an Abomination that needs to be Cleansed. The Lord God has deemed me Worthy to expunge the world of vermin like you.”

“So no reasoning with this thing” whispered Olivia.

She stepped away from me; taking up a position to the thing’s left. I stepped to the right, hoping that by dividing he’d have two targets to concentrate on instead of one. It didn’t seem to faze him one bit though. He seemed to forget all about her and turned to me. But of course, he did because I was his primary target. Olivia could fire a volley of arrows at him and he’d ignore her to his heart’s content. It was me he wanted and no amount of pestering from her was going to get him to think otherwise. Which gave me an idea that I’m not sure she was going to like.

“Arrow” I had to remember not to call her by her real name. This hero stuff is kind of annoying. “You and Probe go on ahead; I’ll take care of the religious nut.”

“Are you sure?”

I looked at him, staring at me from underneath his shroud. I nodded. “This guy is a push over.”

Bottom Feeder growled and charged. It’s exactly what I wanted. He came right at me, barreling full speed with his head down like a rhinoceros. Olivia fired, her arrow hitting him behind the left knee. He howled in pain and dropped like a ton of bricks, skidding to a thunderous halt in front of me. I quickly unfurled my wings and took to the air. It was enough of a distraction for Probe to slip into the room too. She and Olivia took off, heading for the doorway at the other end. I waited until they disappeared through it before I looked down at Bottom Feeder but he was gone. It took me all of ten seconds to realize before his hand wrapped around my ankle and pulled me out of the air. He slammed me down on the ground like a dead fish. I hit the concrete face first, the armor absorbed most of it but it still stunned me. I groaned and he lifted me again, spinning me by my foot toward the far wall. When I made contact, the plaster gave way beneath me but I didn’t go through. Instead, I kind of oozed toward the floor, coughing and gasping. Damn, this Son of a Bitch was a lot tougher than I thought.

I got to my feet and he was on me again. He was fast too, really fast. He slammed both of his fists into my back, driving me to the ground again. Inches from the ground, he kicked me in the stomach, rolling me off his foot into the wall again. The impact was jarring and the armor did everything to keep the pain to a minimum. But I felt it this time and boy did it hurt. I fell off the wall. I was on my stomach again; my whole body felt like it was on fire. He came at me again, raising his foot to bring it down on my head. But something happened. My hand moved on its own, the blade on my wrist slicing upwards. I heard him howl in pain as I sliced off the front of his foot, cleaving away four of his five toes. He screamed and fell backwards. I struggled to my feet, gasping for air.

“Khaji, did you do that?”

“I can take over temporarily when you’re incapacitated.”

Bottom Feeder stumbled over to the far wall, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. He fell in the corner, grasping at his foot. He glared at me. “What kind of demon are you?”

I slowly got to my feet, groaning. I could taste blood in my mouth. “I’m not a demon you jackass.”

He growled and climbed to his feet. How in the hell could he even stand. I looked at his foot and what I saw shocked the hell out of me. His toes, they were starting to grow back. Slowly, brand new toes formed out of the front of his boot, covered in blood but just like the old ones. He saw me staring and laughed. Then he charged again but this time I was ready for him. I took off at full speed, slamming into his chest, meeting him half way through his charge. We flew through the air and into the far wall. There was a loud crashing sound and the two of us were two tangled bodies in the corridor beyond. I got to my feet first, dazed but unharmed. He took the brunt of it. He was underneath me, groaning. I thought I finished him off until he snapped opened his eyes.
He went for my throat. His fingers wrapped around it and he started to squeeze. I snapped my arm around, slamming my elbow as hard as I could into his forearm. He howled in pain and let go. I grabbed his wrist and activated my wings, flying up toward the ceiling of the corridor. It wasn’t very high but it wasn’t where I was going. I dragged his heavy ass back through the hole we just made in the wall. He tried to struggle out of my grip so I gave him a few punches in the face to quell him. Once I got back in the much taller room than I went up. I carried his heavy lump up to the ceiling, snapped around and drove him toward the floor. He struggled and fought but in the end, it was pretty useless. We slammed into the concrete together, him under me.

The sound was like a thunderclap. There was a lot of cracking. I’m not sure what was concrete and what was bone.

When I sat up and looked down at him, his hood finally fell from his face. I wasn’t the least bit surprised by what I saw: it was grotesque, twisted and mangled, barely recognizable as a human being. He moaned and turned to me. It was amazing that he could even move after smashing into the floor like that. He did a lot more than move. He lashed out at me, slamming one of his giant fists into the side of my side. It threw me off his chest, sending me flailing. I hit the floor on my side and slid into the wall. What the hell was this guy made of? I turned my head and saw him unbelievably sit up. He turned and looked at me, grinning with a toothless grin.

“The Lord has granted onto me the powers He gives all his chosen.”

“He has remarkable regenerative capabilities, its staggering.”

“How do we beat him?”

“Cutting off his head might work.”

A blade grew out of my wrist involuntarily but I forced it back down. “I’m not killing him. How do we beat him without killing him?”

“Rendering him unconscious will do it too.”

“Easier said than done.”

I clamored to my feet and staggered away. I needed to put some distance between him and me. I was starting to feel the battle whereas he was taking it and walking away without as much as a scratch. Even now, he pulled himself up from the floor and the only thing he did was groan. I could see several places where the bone had actually broken through skin. But he just pushed them back in and brushed it off. It was the most amazing and the grossest thing I’d ever seen. It was a shame this guy was my enemy because he’d make one hell of an ally. But La Dama had already twisted him too much for me to even consider that. This guy definitely had to be stopped and I had to do it.

I had to do it right now.

The Bottom Feeder put his hood back up, covering his face. It was a face only a mother could love. It reminded me of what Jason Voorhees looked like underneath the hockey mask. I shuddered just thinking about it. After he was done covering himself, he made another go at me. But I wasn’t going to fall for the same old tricks. I decided to change things up and play keep away. Every time he lunged, I used my speed to stay one-step away from him. He was kind of big and lumbering, not nearly as fast as he was when we started this. So maybe I was wearing him down after all. I just needed to keep wearing him to keep myself alive.

I turned on the heat after a few minutes of playing tag. I gave him a double dose of energy balls. I kept firing, aiming for his head and his chest. The only thing it seemed to accomplish was that it distracted him. But it was enough of a distraction to try something new. I took off into the air again, flying all the way up to the ceiling. I got above him and took a deep breath. It was time to drop on him like the car. I gave it my all, going full force. I slammed my heels into both his shoulders, driving him to the ground. I hit him so hard that he actually sunk into the floor. It was pretty damn impressive. I rolled off him on impact, landing on the ground behind him, panting. It took me a few seconds to recover and when I turned around, he was still stuck in the floor. I took a couple of deep breaths, wondering if I’d actually stopped him this time.

“This won’t hold me. I am an Instrument of God, I was Chosen to do his work. God will free me from this trap and when he does I will bring His Wrath down upon you and the vile She Devil who spawned you.”

Something inside me snapped. I’m not sure what it was. Maybe it was his annoying religious babble or his inability to stay down. Or maybe it was his insulting my mother but whatever it was I went to town on him and hard. I ran toward his back and drove my heels into his shoulder blades. When he screamed out, I flipped over his back and spun around in one fluid motion. I punched him in the face then punched him in the exact same spot. I kept punching, again and again. I’m not sure how many times I punched him. I just know that he passed out somewhere in the middle of it and that at the end when I finally calmed down, my armored gloves were covered in his blood.

I fell to the ground panting. I couldn’t breathe. I willed the mask away, allowing my head to breathe in normal air for a change. I looked down at my bloody hands and threw up. Then I looked up at the Bottom Feeder. What little of his face that might have been human looking was now more mangled and blood covered. I think I broke every imaginable bone in his face. I waited for him to spring back, to make some snide religious comment but he didn’t. Even he gurgled something and drooled. I left out a big sigh, slumping my shoulders.

“Are you finished?”

I sighed. “I think so.”

Khaji sighed too. “I don’t think he’ll be able to regenerate from that for quite some time now.”

I continued to sit there for a few seconds more then slowly got to my feet. I was absolutely exhausted and the worst thing was I wasn’t nearly done. I still had to find my family and help spring the other prisoners from this place. I sighed; a hero’s work was never done. I looked back at the monster one more time then turned away. I stumbled across the room, wiping my sweaty brow. Then I let the mask reform around my head and tapped into the radio link:
“Arrow, this is Beetle, you still there?”

A few seconds later, Olivia’s voice came back to me. “It’s about time; we thought something happened to you. Did you defeat that thing?”

I sighed. “Barely. But don’t worry; he’s not going to be terrorizing anyone else for a while.”

“Good to know.”

“How’s your end going?”

Olivia sighed too; I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. “We managed to storm the Cell Block. We’ve taken out most of the guards and freed all the prisoners down here. Probe’s with her people now, having their happy reunion moment. I can head up there and assist if you need me?”

I was about to say no, but I realized how drained I was. “Meet me at the stairs, I think it’s about time we end this bitch.”

___________________________________

Olivia was waiting for me at the stairs when I arrived. She looked about as good as I felt. She was leaning against the stairwell, her hood down, her quiver several arrows light. She was holding her bow in one hand, her face drenched in sweat. It never occurred to me that she was a real person too. She was a superhero after all, they weren’t supposed to sweat or get tired. But here she was, acting very much like a real person. When she saw me she only half smiled. I could tell the day was really getting to her. It didn’t help that the place was hotter than hell. You’d think that a place in the middle of the desert would have air conditioning or something. But the whole of this place was like a damn sauna.

I trudged up to her, dropping to sit on one of the steps for a second. She sat next to me, leaning on her bow.

“That rough, huh?” she asked, all I could do was nod. “I should have never left you.”

“He would have pulverized you. It took everything I had to take him down and in the end that wasn’t even enough. I snapped on his ass, I ended up beating him to a bloody pulp.”

She nodded. “After Merlyn killed my grandfather and I cornered him in the office. It took every bit of will power not to put an arrow in his throat and end it all.”

So she didn't kill him. I guess the geeks on the Internet would love to hear that, if she ever confirmed it. “So what happened?”

She sighed. “I didn’t resort to his level. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t kill the son of a bitch. I shot an explosive arrow at the glass instead. When the window exploded, he was pulled out by the suction. The police ruled it a suicide. Seeing as no one knew the Green Arrow was there, they said he was an assassin. I released a press release later, saying he failed to kill my grandfather but the shock of it caused his heart to give out.”

I remembered that. It was all over the news for days. JAMESON QUEEN SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, DIES OF HEART ATTACK. The media had a field day with it. There were a lot of rumors flying around. Olivia stepped up though and handled everything. I think it was the first time I ever saw her, at the press conference a few days after her grandfather died. I mean, I vaguely saw her at the funeral but I was so far back in the crowd that it didn’t make a difference. But seeing her at the press conference, that’s when my crush started. She was so cool and confident then, especially seeing what she’d just been through.

“I had a chance to kill Bottom Feeder” I admitted it. “But I couldn’t do it, I’m not a killer.”

Olivia smiled and nudged my shoulder with hers. “That’s what makes us human. No matter what happens keep on reminding yourself that you’re not a killer and everything will be all right.”

I smiled. She got to her feet then pulled me to my own.

“Perhaps I misjudged your friend.”

I nodded. “I think I did, too.”

We climbed the stairs after that, taking things cautiously. When we reached the second floor landing and pushed the door open, Olivia went first. She led with her bow, an arrow at the ready. I followed quickly behind. I surprised at the difference between levels. The floors here were made of polished marble, the walls were painted a tranquil yellow and there was air conditioning. Clearly, La Dama was hiding on this level. The two of us moved down the corridor as one, each watching the other’s back. We had a simple plan: find my family, find La Dama and put an end to all this crap.

Up ahead we spotted two black suited guards standing on either side of a mahogany door. Olivia fired her arrow, hitting the door in-between the two of them. There was a burst of bright white light and two thuds. When the light dissipated, both guys were on the floor. Olivia smirked and we moved down the hall quickly. When we reached the door, I looked down at the two guys.

“Flash Bang” she said, nocking a new arrow. “The brightness blinds them then knocks them out.”

I looked at the door in front of us. “She’s definitely in here.”

Olivia nodded. She reached for the door knob but stopped before opening. “No matter what happens inside, you have to promise to keep your cool. We don’t want to make this situation more dangerous than it already is.”

I nodded. I took a deep breath. “I understand. Open the door.”

Olivia grabbed the knob and turned. She pushed open the door then led us into the room with her bow. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting what I saw. The room looked like something straight out of a Bond film. There was a long table in the center, several funky chairs on either side. The head of the table had the biggest chair of course. Off to the side was a little sitting area with a giant fireplace. There was even mounted antlers above the mantle. Amparo, aka La Dama, was sitting at the head of the table of course. There was a huge feast spread out before her. She was dressed in an elegant black dress, her hair flowing, a glass of red wine in her hand. The only other person in the room was Brenda. I sighed when I saw her. She was sitting in the chair directly to Amparo’s left. She was dressed in the same clothes that I saw her in last. Her eyes were red, her cheeks tear stained and there was a bruise on her forehead. When she looked to the door and saw me, her face lit up. Amparo’s face was a blank slate. She didn’t even smile. She just picked up her wine and took a sip. Looking closer at the table, I noticed two more places set.

Finally Amparo spoke, she was definitely channeling a Bond film.

“Good evening ladies, care to join us for a late supper?”

Olivia fired her arrow. She sent it flying toward Amparo’s head but missed on purpose. It hit the carved back of her chair, pinning the smiling angel right between the eyes. The shaft was a millimeter from Amparo’s left ear. The horrid woman didn’t even blink. But there was a slight twitch to her left eye. It was subtle but I caught it. Even though she was trying to play it cool, I could tell that that shot scared the hell out of her.

“My next one won’t miss” said Olivia, nocking another arrow.

Amparo smiled. “Right to business then” She set the wine glass down. Then she looked right at me. “Really Josie dear, its rude to cover your head at the dinner table.”

I bit my lip and dissolved the mask, allowing my real face to show for the second time tonight. Amparo smiled then picked up her glass and took another sip. Her fake pleasantries were driving me nuts. I could feel my anger rising but I kept my cool just like Olivia told me.

“How about you, Miss Arrow. Care to drop the hood and enlighten us as to your true self.”

Olivia smirked. “I like being the rude guest.”

“Suit yourself.”

I was tired of all the crap. I wanted answers and I wanted them now. “Start talking, lady.”

I moved down the length of the table but stopped a few chairs short of her. I so wanted to reach over and snap her neck. I looked over at Brenda. Now that I was closer, I could see that she’d been crying a lot and there were bags under her eyes so clearly she wasn’t sleeping either. She looked at me for a second and our eyes locked. I saw the pain in those eyes and I knew right then and there that she was as innocent in this thing as me. I guess that kind of made me relieved. I’m not sure what I would have done if she’d been in on the whole thing.

“I suppose it’s only fair that I tell you what this whole thing is really all about” Amparo drained her glass. She steepled her fingers then smiled sweetly at me.

“You see, I first learned about the Scarab in college. I, like Ted Kord, was a student of Dr. Garrett. Of course, he didn’t speak of the Scarab as being a real thing but the way he spoke about it, with such passion, I knew there was more to it than a simple legend. I spent the rest of my undergraduate time at the college in the library trying to read and find anything I could on it. I even applied to be Garrett’s TA but that weasel Kord beat me to it. He was always sucking up to him. I think he figured the Scarab was real too. When Garrett died and his effects passed to his family, I pursued them, asking if I could have some trinkets that reminded me of the dear departed man. I searched through everything Garrett owned but the damn Scarab was nowhere in sight. It absolutely destroyed me. I went into a depression for some time. Then I got smart and started to be enterprising. Through my researching, I made some dubious contacts. I started a little export business on the side. I made a pretty good name for myself and established quite the criminal empire. I rose through the ranks and it didn’t take long for people to label me the Dreaded La Dama.”

“I was on top of the world for the first time in my life and it felt pretty good. But there was still one thing I wanted more than anything. I wanted that Scarab. I became obsessed with it. I finally convinced myself that Garrett passed it onto to Kord; it was the only possible explanation. I made numerous attempts to contact him but he refused to meet with me. I was crushed until an opportunity present itself to me. Danielle Garrett came to me with an afford. She had her grandfather’s old journals, confirming what I thought for a long time. The Scarab was real. She too was convinced Kord had it as well. She wanted my help in procuring it for her. I agreed immediately but I had no intention of passing it onto the little drip. I got her and some of my men to try and steal it from Kord.”

“But of course he showed up in the middle of the robbery and things got messy. The prick deserved to die for stealing what was rightfully mine. But when Danielle and my men returned empty handed, it crushed me. You see, I don’t like to lose, and this was a major setback. I made some promises about that Scarab, told certain people certain things. You see, my partner, the same man who built this wonderful place, is obsessed with Metahumans. He gave me the capital and the resources and all I had to do was get him the Metas. Me, I could care less about the disgusting things but he wants to do whatever with them. I was doing pretty good too but I could have done so much better with the Scarab on my side.”

“I never would have bonded with her. There’s too much vileness in her blood. She reminds me far too much of the bastard who killed my first host.”

Amparo pointed at me and glared. “Then you came along. You of all people found my Scarab. You stole my glory right from under me. I didn’t think anything of it at first. There were those punks in the alley but though their eyewitness accounts were sketchy, I had to be sure. I knew the bearer of the Scarab couldn’t resist playing the hero, so I set up the bank robbery in the mall, hoping to draw them out. Lo and behold, you took the bait. You went charging right in, playing the heroine, I knew you would be. It confirmed my theory that you had the Scarab. But knowing you had it and attempting to get it from you were two different things. I needed your identity too. It was the way you reacted with your sweet sister that tipped me off. But I wasn’t certain until my guys roughed up that diner owner.”

“Seeing Brenda at the scene helped seal the deal for me. You see, she was at both incidents. I knew it wasn’t her because she tells me everything because we have a loving, almost mother daughter type relationship. Then she introduced you to me, her new precious friend, Jaime Reyes’ cousin. News flash, Jaime has no cousins. It didn’t take me long to figure out you two were the same person. That’s why I planted that bracelet on you and sent my precious Bottom Feeder after you in the alley. I needed a distraction to keep you busy while I took your family and that stupid idiot Paco. I figured if I had your loved ones, you’d come blundering here in a foolhardy attempt to rescue them and I’d finally have you right where I want you.”

She finished talking, finally. She was really taking the whole villain thing to heart, even throwing in the monologue. It was so cliché. But it explained so much. What I couldn’t figure out was why. Why would she go to so much trouble to possess Khaji? She was already very successful, she had a great niece who looked up at her and she had everything that one could ask for. So why pour all your resources into finding something that wouldn’t even work for her if she bonded with it. Looking at her, sitting there in her high back chair, it was obvious Khaji would have never deemed her worthy enough to bond with. She may have looked like she had everything in control but she was totally cracked.

“Pay attention to her hands.”

I did. There was something on the table. I didn’t notice it before because I was too busy listening to her yammer on. Now it was as clear as day. There was some kind of panel there, with a bunch of little buttons. It looked like a built in remote panel of some kind, also in a lot of Bond movies. I wonder which one of those buttons opened the shark pit. I gave Olivia a side glance but she noticed it, too. She gave me a little nod and let her arrow fly. Amparo never saw it coming. She gasped and jumped back as the green arrow slammed into the panel, destroying all attempts for her to use it. We both knew it was coming. One of those buttons probably called a slew of guards.

Amparo smiled and leaned back, taking her hands away from the table. “Was that really necessary?”

“Move another inch,” said Olivia, nocking another arrow. “And this one will be in your head.”

Amparo pursed her lips. “They were right about you; you really are a very efficient and highly skilled opponent.” She laughed. “But don’t bluff me girl, I’ve brokered deals with foreign nationals ten times more threatening than you.”

I looked over at Brenda. She was gripping a cloth napkin in her hands, looking from me to her aunt and back again. I had to get her out of here before things got out of hand. Olivia was already stirring up the water and it was only a matter of time before Amparo made her move. I took a deep breath and tried to see if there was a way out of this. Finally, it dawned on me, maybe I can bluff, too.

“Let Brenda, Paco and my family go,” I sighed, sounding defeated. “If you do that, I’ll hand over the Scarab.”

Amparo raised an eyebrow. “How stupid do you think I am? I’m not some low level Enforcer; I can spot a bluff easier than you can tie your shoe. I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“Then you know there’s no way you’re ever going to come out on top” said Olivia, her arrow pointed right for Amparo’s throat. “Now release the girl and everyone else and you can walk out of here with your head held high.”

Amparo slowly rose to her feet. Olivia and I followed her with our eyes. She walked over to Brenda, standing behind her chair. Brenda trembled a bit. What the hell had this bitch done to her. I’ve never seen Brenda look so scared for as long as I knew her. Even in the bank, she was calm and cool. Now it was like she was a completely different person. Amparo was going to pay for crushing my best friend like that.

She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Brenda from behind. She started rubbing her index finger along Brenda’s cheek. “You don’t want to leave, do you sweetheart. You like it with Aunt Amparo. Tell these nice scary girls how much fun we’ve been having.”

I saw the tears starting to swell in Brenda’s eyes and her lip trembled when she spoke. “Josie” She was looking at me when she spoke. “I’m sorry.”

I smiled. “It's ok Brenda. I’m going to get you out of it.”

Talk about cliché, jeez.

Amparo gently grabbed Brenda’s chin. “What’s the matter, sweetheart, don’t you like living with fun aunt Amparo anyone?”

I saw it in Brenda’s eyes. Even though they were filled with tears, they were filled with something else too. Then it happened, it was so quick. Brenda pushed back the chair as hard as she could, Amparo stumbling with it. Then there was a glint of something metal in Brenda’s hand. I’m not sure, when she grabbed it, probably when the bitch was talking, it was a fork. Using the chair stunt as a distraction, Brenda slammed the fork as hard as she could into Amparo’s thigh. She screamed like someone was murdering her and pushed the chair forward. Brenda fell to the floor and an arrow cut across the room. It snagged Amparo in the shoulder, while her hand was moving toward her belt.

I scanned her. There was a gun there, how could I have missed it.

Amparo screamed for a second time. She tried to make a run for it but there was no way I was going to let that happen. I moved like lightning across the room, cutting her off. I grabbed the front of her dress and lifted her off the ground. She started kicking and screaming, doing everything she could to stop me.

“I’ll do anything,” she gasped, trying a last attempt to bargain her way out of this. “Let me go and your family will be well off for the rest of their lives.”

I couldn’t believe the cool, calm woman from moments before was now this sniveling little coward. It was amazing how quickly the tides could turn. “I don’t want your money. I want my family. I want Brenda and Paco. I want to see you in an orange jumpsuit, paying for all the things you’ve done over the years.”

She nodded, tears streaming down her face. “You can have them, take them all.”

I lowered her to the ground. A part of me wanted to lash out and grab her by the throat. I could have done it; I could have leeched the life out of her. But looking at this woman standing before me, this broken mess of a human being I realized I’d already killed her. She played a deadly game and lost. She let her obsession with the Scarab rule her life, when she could have had a happy, successful one. I looked over at Brenda, who was sitting at the table again, crying, her face buried in her hands. She could have had a good life with her niece; they could have been a family. But she threw that all away just because she wanted power.

I groaned. Great, now I sound like I’m the clichéd one.

“You did good.”

I smiled. Then I pushed Amparo onto the couch, turning to Olivia. “Do you have her?”

She nodded and came walking over, another arrow at the ready. She walked and stood in front of Amparo. “Same threat as before, you move, you die.”

I walked over to the table. I looked down at Brenda. When she looked up at me, she jumped up from the chair and wrapped her arms around me, crying. I held her for the longest time. It felt good and safe. When we pulled away, she did something that took me by surprise. She kissed me. It wasn’t a shameless peck on the cheek either. It was a full on mouth to mouth deal and it lasted a lot longer than a few seconds. My heart started racing and my body was all a flutter. When she pulled away, she was smiling. Me, I was kind of at a loss. I knew I didn’t like girls anymore but there was something about that kiss that sent a tingle up my spine.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, her lip trembling.

I grabbed her hand. “We don’t have to do this now.”

She nodded. “I know where your family is. Don’t worry, she didn’t hurt them.” She held my hand tightly and led me toward the door. "C’mon, they’re this way.”

-----

Author's Note: Here's the last chapter of the Blue Beetle. I'm not saying this is the end of Josie's story, more like the beginning. She will return but there a couple of stories I want to write before she does. I'd like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments and most importantly Lilith for creating this universe and for giving me the bes hero support. I have to thank djkauf once again for sticking with me till the end and editing all my little mistakes. Stay tuned because in a couple of days the narrative will shift to Chicago where Booster Gold will make her mark on the world.

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Chapter Fifteen:

I paused at the door, holding my hand before I knocked. Brenda was standing next to me, still holding my hand. When I turned and looked at her, there was something there that I hadn’t seen before. But at the same time, I saw her for what she’s always been: my best friend. I’m not sure what more I can say about that. Yeah, I loved her but not like a boyfriend would his girlfriend or now in my case a girl loving a girl. I loved her like a sister. I wished I didn’t. I wish I were still Jaime so I could sweep her off her feet and kiss her until we couldn’t breathe. But I suppose if I was still Jaime, I wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

“Are you going to go in?” she asked.

I took a deep breath. “Before I do, I think we should talk about the kiss?”

“You want to talk about it now” She blushed. “Can’t this wait until you’ve had the grand reunion with your family? I’m sure they’re worried sick about you.’

I sighed. She was trying to dodge the conversation. But she was right. I was dodging this moment too. I’m not sure what to say to them. How can you explain to your parents that you’re a superhero and they were kidnaped because of you? I looked down, still seeing myself wearing the armor. I thought about making it go away and manifest normal clothes. But I couldn’t do that. I was tired of dodging the issue. I needed to come out to them, all the way and let them accept me for who I am now. So the armor was staying on until I could explain things to them fully.

“Ok” I said with a sigh. “I’m going in.”

I turned the knob and pushed the door open. The room was good sized, kind of like a motel room. There was a queen size bed, a flat screen mounted on the wall and an armchair in the corner. My parents were sitting on the bed, holding hands. Milagro was in the chair. When the door opened, all three of them looked at me. Milagro’s face lit up and she jumped out of the chair, running toward me. She threw her arms around me and cried into my chest.

“I knew you’d come” she said as she pulled away, tears glistening in her eyes.

I deliberately left my head exposed. I wanted to gauge my parents’ reactions. My mother sat there, speechless, her mouth open. My father just stared at me, his eyes moving from my feet to my head and back again. Neither said anything for a long time. I stepped slowly into the room. Brenda let go of my hand and lingered in the hall. I even let her close the door behind me. Milagro grabbed a hold of my hand. She didn’t seem to want to let it go and that was ok. I didn’t want to let her hand go either. In fact, if I could, I’d hold her hand until she got married. Already she’d been in far too much danger and I’m not sure how I was going to handle it when it happened again.

My mother spoke first: “Josie, is that really you?”

I nodded. “Yeah Mom, it’s really me.”

My father just shook his head, smiling. My mother continued to talk for the both of them. “I don’t understand why are you dressed like the Blue Beetle?”

Milagro beat me to the punch. For once, I loved that she was so pushy. “She’s not dressed like the Blue Beetle, she is the Blue Beetle.”

My mother’s eyes widened even more. “And you’ve been this person the whole time? This isn’t something that just happened?”

I sighed. I walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. It creaked a bit under my added weight but it looked sturdy enough to hold me. I took a deep breath and told them everything. I started with the day I found Khaji in the disused lot and finished with apprehending Amparo. They listened intently, nodding and sighing a few times. When it was over, my mother was teary eyed and did something I wasn’t expecting. She leaned over and wrapped me in a hug. I hugged her too, trying to be as gentle as I could. My father put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a good rub. I didn’t feel it through the armor but I’m sure it was reassuring.

My mother pulled away, wiping her eyes. She looked me up and down. “And this here, it can come off?”

I smiled and nodded. I raised my arm and showed her. I willed the armor away and everyone gasped as the armor oozed up my arm, showing human flesh underneath. Then I willed it back, showing them it went both ways. My mother asked a few more questions about the armor and then Milagro chimed in. She started blabbering about everything I could do. That kept my parents entertained for a few minutes. I got off the bed and wandered toward the bathroom. I did say this place was like a motel room didn’t I. I went inside and shut the door, sighing.

“Your parents took it better than I thought they would.”

“They’ve always been kind of open minded. Even if they weren’t I couldn’t keep it a secret from them anymore.”

“So where does this leave your superhero gig?”

I smiled. I think Khaji was spending way too much time with me. Where the hell did she pick up the word “gig”? But then again she’d been picking up a lot of modern slang. This was just the first time I’d ever really noticed. She and I were One now. Before I would have been freaked out by that, especially when she was insane and power mad. Now I kind of liked the idea that she was here to give me moral support and talk to me when I didn’t want to be alone.

“Do you think we could be a real superhero? I mean not doing this when the situation calls for it but actually going out and looking for the bad guys.”

“If that’s what you really want to do then I’ll support you. If you don’t I’ll still support you. You and I are partners now. Where you go, I will follow.”

I smiled. “You don’t have much of a choice about that.”

We both shared a laugh. There was a knock on the door and I heard my sister’s voice. I looked at myself in the mirror and willed the armor away. As soon as it was gone, I willed up some clothes. I didn’t do anything too fancy just jeans and a t-shirt. Then I turned and opened the door, Milagro was standing there. She frowned when she saw me in my civvies.

“Do you wear those under the suit?”

I shook my head. “They’re not real.”

She reached for my shirt, grabbing my sleeve. “It feels real to me.”

I rubbed her head and she slipped into the bathroom.

I walked over to the bed and sat down, huffing as I did so. My mother hugged me from behind, wrapping her arms around me. I kind of fell back, resting my head on her lap. She held me there, stroking my hair. It felt good, it felt like I was a kid again and there wasn’t a care in the world. I laid there for a long time, closing my eyes as my mother took care of me. I was so tired. I wanted to fall asleep but I knew there was so much more to do.

Khaji interrupted my happy time. “Olivia just radioed you, she had to subdue Amparo. She’s got her tied up and the police are apparently on their way.”

I groaned. “How long?”

“About an hour or so. Should we make ourselves scarce?”

“What does she want to do?”

“She can’t stay around but she doesn’t think it’ll be a problem for you. She wants to talk to you to explain.”

I sighed and sat up. My mother stopped stroking my head. “Is there something wrong honey?”

“A hero’s work is never done,” I said as I slid off the bed. “The Green Arrow needs me. I need you three to stay here until I get back.”

Milagro was the only one who complained, but my father stopped it with a look. I walked out of the room, finding Brenda waiting for me in the hall. She grabbed my hand as I passed and wrapped me in another hug. Everyone wanted to hug me today. The only one who didn’t was my father, which was strange seeing how overprotective he’s been lately.

“I need you to wait with my family,” I told her as we pulled away. “I have to take to my companion in green. I won’t be long.”

I didn’t wait for her to say anything. I left her standing there and went back to Amparo’s room. Olivia was standing near the couch, looking at something. When I came over, I saw Amparo lying on her stomach, her hands tied behind her back. She was unconscious, the arrow in her shoulder now gone.

“What happened?”

She tried to make a run for it. I had to hit her in the back of the head with my bow and tie her up. She’s a feisty one.”

“Khaji said you wanted to talk.”

She nodded. “We need to clear out of here soon. I gave the cops a call, told them there was something strange going down in the desert and told them where to find the place. We’ve got about an hour before the boys in blue storm the place.”

“Do we have transport?”

She smiled. “Mia’s already taken care of that. The only question is, do you guys want to stay here to be interrogated or should I make room for you in my getaway vehicles?”

Like she really needed an answer to that.

________________________________

We were all standing outside in groups: my family and Brenda consisted of one; Posse consisted of the other. Olivia sort of stood between us, keeping an eye on the gangsters. I was currently walking to talk to Damper. He was standing with a tall, leggy blonde, rubbing her stomach gently. This most have been the famed Bonita. I looked past them to another couple I didn’t expect to see: Paco and Luce. I figured she was probably with him when he was grabbed but why they were with Posse was beyond me.

Thumper noticed me first, nodding his head at me in greeting.

Damper turned and smiled as he saw me approach. “You are one crazy chica,” he said, shaking his head. Then he held out his hand. I took it and we shook. “I owe you the world.”

I smiled. “You can start with our deal. I helped you and now you’ve got to leave me the hell alone.”

He nodded. “I am a man of my word.”

“Is it true?” asked Scour as he hobbled over to me. “Did you really take down the Bottom Feeder?”

I looked over at Probe; she smiled and shrugged.

“I pounded him into the floor.”

“Man I wish I could have seen what that bastard looked like afterwards.”

When we all shuffled down the stairs and passed through the famed room of my ultimate showdown, Olivia and I were expecting the worst. What we found was a large hole in the floor and nothing else. Apparently Bottom Feeder had done his part, got his ass kicked and took off for the hills. We searched a couple of nearby places but he was long gone. One of the back exits had the door torn off it so I’m guessing he ran off sometime after I beat him to a pulp. Hopefully my beating was enough to scare him off retaliation but for some reason I knew I’d be seeing him again.
Scour and Thumper starting making jokes at the thing’s expense and I slipped off over to Paco. He was standing with his arm around Luce’s waist, looking like he belonged. It was kind of cute actually. When he saw me, he let go of her and did something I wouldn’t have expected. He walked over and wrapped me in a hug. I hugged him back; he was one of my best friends after all. When I pulled away, I thought I saw tears in his eyes.

I looked past him to Luce. “What’s the deal?”

She shrugged. “I was with Posse for a while. When Bonita and Esteban were taken, I bailed.”

I looked back at the group and saw the last member. He was tall, dark and brooding. He must have been Esteban. I turned back to her. “You going back with them?”

She shrugged again. “I might try the normal life for a bit” She grabbed Paco’s hand, giving it a good squeeze. “And see how that goes.”

I smiled and left them, walking back over to Olivia. She was still eyeing the gang-bangers, waiting for them to do something stupid. They were eying her too but I think it was more out of fear than anything else. When I walked up, she looked at me and smiled.
“I’ve got three SUVs coming. They should be here before the cops get here. Hopefully our presence here will go unnoticed but sometimes these things have ways of getting out.”

“You think Amparo will talk?”

She shook her head. “Not likely. If her boss is who I think he is, then chances are she’ll be dead before she reaches the police station.”

I nodded. I’m not sure how I felt about that.

She looked over at Brenda, who was currently standing with Milagro, the two of them engrossed in conversation. “Does your friend know what she’s going to do now?”

“My mother wants her to stay with us, at least for a while. From there I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Well if she needs a place I have plenty of room to spare. The same goes for you and your family.” She looked over at them. “Your father is a valued employee.

I have a lot of empty houses; I’d love to help out.”

I smiled. It was a nice offer but my father would never go for it. I think she knew that but she asked anyway. She was that kind of person.

The three SUVs arrived right on time. Olivia handed over one to Posse and told them it was theirs to do with as they wished. The six of them piled inside, leaving the driver standing in the sand. They tried to talk Luce out of her decision to leave but she was adamant. So they took off without even looking back. The only thing I was going to miss about them was Probe. Even though she and I had our differences, I kind of thought of her as a friend. I might have not wanted to see Posse around but I wouldn’t mind seeing her from time to time.

My family filed into the second SUV , my sister convinced Brenda to go with them as well. My mother gave me a kiss and my father finally gave me a hug. While we were hugging, he told me we’d talk about this whole hero business later. Mia was sitting in the front seat of the third one, her laptop open on her lap. Olivia, Paco, Luce and I filed into the back. Paco and Luce kept staring at the Green Arrow, Luce in fear and Paco in awe. Olivia never took off her hood. I could see where she wanted to remain anonymous. I think it kind of annoyed Paco a bit, especially because he figured out I knew who she was.
The drivers took us to the Queen private airstrip. No one asked any questions. I think Olivia was happy for that. There was a different plane waiting for us though. I guess she didn’t want my family to put two and two together. This new plane was a little charter, it was just big enough for all of us, especially seeing as Olivia and Mia stayed behind. But she did take me aside before I boarded.

“I know you’re still undecided about all of this” she said, referring to the superhero life. “But if you decide it’s really the life for you, give me a call. You and I worked well together, I wouldn’t mind doing it again.”

I smiled and we shook hands.

_____________________________________

Life returned to normal. I know that’s kind of strange to say considering everything that’s happened, but it’s true.

I settled back into things like any normal person. After returning from the desert, we went home. We set up Brenda in my room. I gave her the bed and took the floor in a sleeping bag. I think it worked out pretty well. She had fun with it. Because she didn’t have many girl friends growing up she never got a real sleep-over. So she tried to do the things you’re supposed to do at one. So that night, we painted each other’s nails---hey, I did a half way decent job---and she taught me how to braid hair. Milagro came in too; the two of us were closer than ever now. We ended the night with the typical pillow fight and fell asleep after nearly dropping dead with exhaustion. I know what you’re thinking and no she and I still haven’t talked about the kiss.

When I woke up, I got a shock of my life. Brenda was lying on the floor next to me, wrapped in my blanket. I sat up and looked down at her. She was sleeping so peacefully. I reached down and brushed a strand of hair across her face. As I stared at her, I wondered if I loved her like anything other than a sister. She was very pretty in a tomboy type way. I liked her laugh and the way her nose wrinkled when she got excited. She knew me, too. I think she knew me better than anyone else in the world, including myself some times. I didn’t have to hide anything from her either because she knew it all.
But could I give her my heart?

“She’s been sleeping by your side for a few hours now.”

I sighed. “I think she’s in love with me.”

“Her serotonin levels were highly elevated when she kissed you yesterday. But I’m not sure if that was the moment or if it was true love.”

I groaned, rubbing the heels of my palms into my eyes. “What do you think? Do you think I can have a relationship with her?”

“That isn’t the question. The question is are attracted to her?”

I stared at her some more. But there was no spark. I tried to make it come for her sake but there was nothing. I groaned. How do you tell your best friend that you love her like a sister and not any other way? I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. Instead, I slowly slipped out of the sleeping bag. The shifting fabric jostled her awake. She sat up, bleary eyed. She looked confused for a second until she looked at me and smiled. I smiled back.

“How did I get on the floor?”

“I was hoping you could tell me.”

She smiled. Then leaned forward, trying to kiss me. I turned my head and she kissed my cheek. I think that did it. When I turned back around, she was giving me this look. I sighed. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. I knew I had to tell her that I didn’t like her as much as she liked me but I was hoping my actions would speak louder than words. Ok, so I’m still a little bit of a guy. I mean, I wish I were in love with her. Hell, I’d do anything to look at her the way she looked at me. But there just wasn’t anything there. I’m not sure why I liked guys now---in fact, it made my skin crawl---but there was no denying how I felt.

“Brenda, look I…ummm….”

She smiled, a tear rolling down her cheek. She gently grabbed my hand. “I know and I’m sorry. I tried to ignore it but there it was. It’s been there since the day I saw you at Paco’s, when you wanted me to cut your hair.” I nodded, even though I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t even remotely girlish back then. “I’m not sure what came over me then but it was like a switch. I’ve always had this leaning toward girls. I’ve tried to like boys, I even thought of asking you out once just to see if it was true. But no matter how much I’ve tried I can’t help feeling something for girls.”

I sighed, resting my head on her shoulder. “Aren’t we the pair? You liking girls and me liking boys, if only we could switch.”

We had a good laugh.

Then she groaned. I lifted my head. She pinched her nose. “When’s the last time you’ve showered.”

I groaned. It was only yesterday but after the workout I got storming that place, I probably smelled pretty rank. I started to get to my feet but she beat me too it. She pushed me back down and made a mad dash for the bathroom. I jumped to my feet and took off after her. The little snot. When I catch her, I’m going to make her pay. She slipped into the bathroom before me and locked the door. I pounded on it for a few seconds then I heard her laughter from the other side.

“You snooze you lose.”

“Welcome to my world” said Milagro as she walked out of her room, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

I sat in the hallway and waited. Twenty minutes later, the water shut off and Brenda opened the door. She was wearing only a towel, her hair dripping wet. Apparently, she wasn’t the turban type of girl. I got to my feet and looked her up and down. My eyes went to her chest and I smiled.

She turned a bit green. “What is it?”

“I’m so much bigger than you.”

I laughed. Her mouth dropped open and then she swung at me. I ducked the punch and slipped into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I laughed my ass off as I locked it. I heard her pounding on it for a few seconds. I sighed and walked over to the mirror, wiping Brenda’s condensation from it. The girl staring back at me had the funniest smile. But it was a cute smile; it was my smile. I leaned forward and stared at her, blinking my eyes and sticking my tongue out. When I first saw her, I was so scared. Now as I looked at her I couldn’t help but feel content. She was me and I liked her.
I stripped off my shirt and dropped my pajama bottoms on the floor, standing in the middle of the room naked for a moment.

“Have you made a decision yet?”

“About what?”

“You’ve had some time to think about it, I was wondering if you’ve decided to take up the superhero business full time.”

I turned back to the mirror and smiled. I flexed my muscles, grinning. “Oh yeah” I said aloud. “I can so do this.”

________________________________________

“What the hell is this? Do those guys really have suction cups on their arms?”

There were five or six of them, running along the walls, wearing these freaky orange spandex costumes. When Khaji intercepted the police call about some unusual bank robbers, I thought I was going to encounter guys dressed like Presidents or Clowns. But these guys really were the most unusual dorks I’d ever seen. When I first arrived at the scene, they were in the midst of emptying the cash registers of the bank into large burlap bags. When they saw me, they actually had the gall to attack. It was kind of pathetic really, seeing as they clearly weren’t Metas.

That’s when they sprang to the walls. I already thought they were funky enough but seeing them rolling along the walls like acrobats, I nearly wet myself from laughing so much. These guys were ridiculous.

“I don’t think your enemy appreciates being laughed at.”

“C’mon Khaji, look at them, they’re a bunch of freaks.”

“Says the girl in the blue pajamas.”

I groaned. I’d only decided to be an official superhero a few days ago. You remember right, I was in the bathroom about to take a shower. After that, I had a long talk with my parents. They weren’t too keen on the idea at first but in the end, I convinced them it was the best thing for me to do. My father was the one who caved first. Remember him, Mr. Over Protective Papa. He told me to be careful and make sure I watched my back. My mother stood there speechless, her mouth open like a goldfish. But in the end, she came around too. I only told them about it as a technicality. I was going to do it whether they liked it or not.

That’s when Khaji and I decided on a new look. It’s not that I didn’t like the armor; I thought it was fantastic. But we both agreed that it would only be used in emergencies. It was a way to conserve energy and make sure it didn’t cut out in a fight. So we came up with this cool blue jumpsuit. We manifested it like my clothes. It was skin tight and flexible but it could also stop bullets and was damn near impossible to tear. I got this really cool beetle symbol on my chest too. To top it off I thought up these really cool yellow google things for over my eyes, they looked kind of like bug eyes. I mean anyone who saw me would still think I was the Blue Beetle so there was no harm in a little image remodeling.

Khaji was just grumpy about the whole thing because I refused to change my name. She hated the fact that the press called me the Blue Beetle. She was a Scarab after all, not a beetle. She felt I should have called myself the Blue Scarab. Even though it was kind of cool, with the new outfit, I felt that people would think we were two different people. Yes my ego played into it a little bit but every once in a while you have to ride the coat tails of fame a little bit.

“Who are you?” asked one of the freaks clinging to the wall, there were suction cups on his legs too, so he looked like an orange wall clingy.

“I think that’s my line buddy,” I said, staring up at him.

He huffed. “We’re the Squid Gang.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I mean come on, seriously. “You’re joking, right?”

He wasn’t laughing. Instead, he snapped his fingers and his goons snapped into action. Two of them came at me first. The great thing about the armor was that I could still use parts of it without using the whole and draining the energy. So even though I couldn’t go full force, my hands and feet were fair game. I formed the armored gloves on my hands. The first Squid got to me and I drove him to the pavement with a swift kick to the chest. The second landed a few feet away and charged me, whipping out a long metal staff. He brought it toward my face but I blocked it with my forearm. Then I grabbed it and slammed it as hard as I could into his forehead. He stumbled backwards, falling over his fallen companion.

The guy on the wall hissed. “Four and Five, get her.”

I looked up on the wall. Clearly, he was Number One; Two and Three were the guys he must have sent first. Four and Five were the two guys on either side of him, looking at him and then at me. They finally looked at their two friends on the ground. I’m not sure which one of them bolted first. But they took off pretty fast. Number Six turned a pale of green and threw up. His suction cups gave away and he fell off the wall. I didn’t even have to knock him out; he did it himself.

Their leader, Number One, looked at me. He put on a sheepish smile. “Maybe we can work something out.”

I glared at him. He dropped his bag of money and scurried up the wall, faster than Four and Five.

There was a loud round of applause behind me. I turned around, looking at the crowd gathered. Most of them were the bank patrons but there were lots of other people there, too. I smiled and waved. A couple of flashes went off.

“This might be a good time to make a quick exit.”

I nodded. “Sorry guys, I gotta go.”

I took a deep breath, the wings sprang out of my back and I took off, the sounds of police sirens wailing loudly below me.

God it felt kind of good being the hero.

Epilogue:

It coursed through the stars, going at speeds uncalibrated by any known velocity. Its destination was close and its mission very simple: conquer. The planet chosen for it was one of many; there were hundreds just like it out there. Every one of them was small and insignificant but ripe for the picking. This one was no different. The people there were primitive, barely infants as far as It was concerned. They would be easy to conquer, just like so many countless worlds that They had conquered before.

The planet was close now. It could sense the oxygenated atmosphere. Already It had passed several other planets in this small solar system. First, it was small insignificant ones then one with several rings. A few moments ago, it was a gas giant and now It just passed a dead red husk. The husk was once something to behold. There were countless stories about its people and its civilizations but they were long gone. Wiped out by war and destruction. Its people knew about those ones, the Green Skins, the ones of cunning and superiority. Once they would have been a target too but no longer. Anything that was left of that great civilization was long gone.

It sensed its destination. There was a small moon, tiny and miniscule. Then there it was: the planet of Its destination. They sent one here before, eons ago. The One was the first of many. It was the Scout, one of the Infiltrators sent to secure information and report back. They lost contact with it centuries ago and feared it had been deactivated. Until It came back online. It started broadcasting again, sending out mass amounts of information. The planet was ripe for the taking now, its people were advanced enough to put up a fight but weak enough to snuff out. That’s why It was sent. It was supposed to find the Other and see why the Other stopped broadcasting. When It found the Other It was supposed to assess the situation and discern the appropriate punishment. If the Other refused than It was to terminate the Other.

It reached the planet. The oxygen enriched atmosphere swirled around It as It made Its way toward Its destination. It triangulated the Other’s position, locking onto its built in radio transceiver. Even though the Other had deactivated most of those functions, it still sent out a rudimentary homing signal. All of Them had one, including It. It headed for the west coast of one of the primary continents, moving much faster now, trying desperately to zero in on the Other.

It found the Other’s trace signature in a coastal city and headed for the Other’s last known activation area. It aimed for the shadows, slowly down as it landed. It flung itself onto a wall and scanned the surrounding area. There were primitives everywhere, flashing blue and red lights on top of the primitive combustion vehicles. The Other was just here; It could sense it. But the Other was gone now, hidden inside its primitive host. It would need one of Its own to survive on this barbarian world. It continued to scan the crowd and found one of Its liking. The fair-haired boy had a good physique, he was healthy and he would be divine for what It needed to do.

For It was Djo Zha of the Reach, an Enforcer class and it was sent to conquer.