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Author's Note: Here's something I wasn't planning on doing but it just came to me yesterday while I was shoveling the driveway. Its a one shot but there's a possibility of continuing it at a later date. I have to stress that it might be wise to read the whole of Some Kind of Wonderful before you read this one though seeing as it sorta hints to events in that story. I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilish good editing and DC Comics for their characters.

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Chapter One:

I never thought in a million years that I’d be going to my own funeral. You know it’s one of those things that most people don’t even think about. I mean, after all you’re dead so what’s there to think about. But me, I was one of those very few unfortunates who got to see the whole thing. Not that I was a guest, I mean how freaky would that have been. Not that anyone would notice me anyway. But I was the creepy guy who got to linger in the background---crouched behind a large tombstone no less---watching the whole thing happen. I had a pretty good turn out actually. Mom was there, crying. I’m not sure if it was fake or not. Cissie was there too, holding her hand. I saw Connor and Cassie; it was nice to see the two of them actually. The rest of the team was there, as well as a bunch of other kids from school.

You can tell a lot about a guy by how many people turn up at his funeral. There had to be at least a hundred people here or more. There were a lot more at the church for the service but it was nice that so many people came out to the cemetery, too. It made me happy to know that so many people liked me. But it also kinda pissed me off, too. Not the people, I loved that. It pissed me off that I had to die in the first place. You see it wasn’t my idea. In fact, I was fine with hiding in the basement for the rest of my life, having Cissie and Mom for company. Then I had to be the hero. Ok, so being the hero was kinda cool I guess. I mean not every guy can say that they flew through the air, smashed through a skylight and laid the smack down on a ten foot tall bronze Minotaur.
Yep that’s me. Eddie Bloomberg, Monster Slayer. Yeah it didn’t matter if it was that Amy chick who slew the beast, I helped. I suppose I should have bailed then but I’m one of those no good glory hounds. Besides, as soon as the thing was down, Amy collapsed. What kind of guy would I have been if I bailed on a damsel when she was in serious distress? So I stuck around. I stayed with her, making sure she didn’t like have a seizure or something crazy like that. Good Samaritan points and all that I guess. Yeah, I know.

I’m not sure how long I stayed with her but I know when the goons showed up. They came storming out of the elevator, guns drawn. Amy tried to tell them I wasn’t a threat but they hardly listened. They actually opened fire on me. It was a real bad time for me to find out that as soon as bullets touched my skin they melted. It was bad for them too because it turns out that when I’m really pissed off I breathe fire. Hey, it shocked the hell out of me as much as it did to them. It was cool actually. But you know what wasn’t cool, putting two of them in the hospital for second-degree burns. Yep, deep crap city.

They put me down with tear gas after that. When I woke up again, I was in a padded cell with my hands tied behind my back with some kind of flame retardant rope or something. I’m not sure how long I was in the room before someone came in to talk to me, maybe five or six hours. It was some severe looking blonde woman and she was mighty pissed. She asked me a lot of questions. I tried my best to answer them but when I didn’t she got even angrier. I think she probably would have tried something drastic if not for the dude with the white hair. He saved my ass actually. He came in and barked out the orders. He got me out of there, even brought me home. I’ve always wanted to be in an ice cream truck all to myself. It was one of those lifelong ambitions I had when I was a kid actually. It was a shame that there was no ice cream in there. Not that I could eat it anyway, it melted as soon as it touched my mouth. You have no idea how much that sucked.

When we got home, the white haired dude---Agent Faraday–read me the riot act. He told me I was to stay in my house until further notice. He said in a day or two someone would come by and they’d discuss options with me. I had a pretty good idea what that meant. It was pretty obvious that these were the people that Cassie was trying to keep me away from. She didn’t do too well with that I guess. Not that I blamed her, it was my own fault actually. I chose to help her when she called. I could have ignored it like my mother suggested. I think she knew what was going to happen before I did. But Cassie had sounded so desperate on the phone that it was hard not to want to help.

So I helped and got into a whole lot of trouble for it.

The funeral was finally breaking up. I tugged on my hood, pulling it closer around my body. It was dangerous for me to be out in the day like this, especially with all these people. But it wasn’t like I was alone actually. A few feet behind me, I had a pair of babysitters. Agents Maad and Fite, two of the most menacing looking dudes I’d ever seen. This coming from a running back with guys coming at me all the time. Fite was a giant black guy, looked like he played ball himself. Maad was a little Japanese guy but he looked like he could kick Jet Li’s ass any day. They were my official guardians now; at least until their boss decided I was too dangerous to keep in the general population. He’d already talked about locking me up. I think the jury was still out on that one.

“This blows” I said, loud enough so the two of them could hear me. I turned to them. “Have either of you been to your own funerals?”

“As a matter of fact I have” said Fite in his booming, Michael Dorn like voice. “Twice in fact.”

I shuddered. Who in the hell dies twice anyway. “Did they freak you out?”

He shrugged. “In my line of work kid, it comes with the territory.”
Maad said nothing. He continued to stare ahead, looking at me and not. His eyes roamed around, looking at the other tombstones around us. I think he thought someone was going to jump out from behind one of them and attack us. I hated to burst his bubble but I was the only scary monster hiding behind one today. At least I hoped so anyway.

“Dude, you need to lighten up a bit,” I mumbled as I turned back to the parting crowd.

People were starting to go back to their cars now. I locked eyes with Mom, she smiled sadly at me. She didn’t like this idea at all. I think she was still convinced that there was some kind of cure out there for me, something to make me human again. But apparently, Agent Faraday’s people took some of my blood and ran a battery of tests on it. Something to do with my Meta transformation, it completely rewrote my entire DNA structure. I was technically still human but I was something else too. I suppose that made sense in a way. My aunt Marla is a big movie producer, she’s involved with a horror movie series called the Blue Devil. It’s about a guy who sells his soul to a demon to get revenge on the people who murdered his family. But the demon double crossed him and turned him into a monster. It was an awesome series, Mom said I was obsessed. She once told me if I kept watching those movies, I’d turn into a demon too. You can imagine her surprise when it actually happened. After I got her to stop screaming, she was pretty cool about it.

After I was done staring at Mom, I looked over at Cissie. She was one of the only other people here that knew I was still alive. The other two were Cassie and Connor. The three of them were my only lifelines to the real world. Connor was my best friend, the best bud a guy could have. When he saw me the first time after my change, he was so totally cool about it. Cassie was the bomb as far as I was concerned; even though the first time we met, she tried to rip off my nuts. I deserved it, trust me. She was like me, a Meta. But unlike me, she used to be a guy, which kinda sucks I guess. Then again, if I were to turn into a chick, I think I’d want to be a hot one like her.

Cissie was my rock. When she found out, she accepted me without hesitation, even though I’ve been a major dick to her. She was the reason Cassie wrenched my sack. I’m not really good with girls and expressing my feelings toward them. Ever since I was little, I thought the way to get a girl’s attention was to do horrible things to them. In the third grade, I had a little crush on Susie Hansen and to show her how I felt I dipped her pigtails in red paint. Suffice to say it didn’t go over too well. I think I’m the reason she went gay actually. But Cissie was different. She shocked me when she confessed she liked me too. It made my heart sing actually. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t touch anyone anymore. As soon as my skin comes in contact with someone else’s, bam instant third degree burns. Mom and I found that out the hard way.

Cissie and I are working on it though. She’s real smart. She thinks she can get her hands on some fireproof stuff. Then maybe we can at least hold hands during our tutoring sessions. Yep, I can’t go to school for obvious reasons. It kinda sucks but Cissie is the greatest teacher. She’s real smart and takes her time even though I’m kinda dumb. But she’s real patient and doesn’t laugh at me when I screw up in Math or English.

She was walking with Cassie now, going toward Connor’s new truck. That annoyed the hell out of me by the way. The government gave him a new truck when he found out about Cassie’s powers and they wanted to stick me in some refrigerated underground bunker. Where’s the fairness in that. I stood up when the three of them walked by. She was far enough way not to see my face but she knew it was me. I told her where I’d be standing during the cemetery ceremony. She turned and looked at me. I could see her well enough to know she was crying. It made me feel like shit, making a swell girl like her cry that much for me. I wanted to go over there and give her a big hug but knew I’d put her in the hospital if I did.

I sighed. She smiled weakly. Cassie turned and looked at me, too. Then she looked at my two goons. It’s been about a week since I helped her take out that crazy bitch and her brainwashed army. The day after the incident, she raised hell when she found out they detained me. I think she might have been the reason I was released. I owed her a lot for that. I wasn’t too happy when I found out she was now working for them but she later told me she didn’t have much of a choice. The bastards gave her a choice: work for them or end up in a cell pretty much like the one they wanted to put me in to. She apologized a hundred times over for how the DEO was treating me but I told her again and again that it wasn’t her fault. It’s not like she asked them to capture me. It was my choice. I chose to stay behind, just like I chose to help her in her fight. If I hadn’t showed up when I did, that thing could have pounded them into the wall.
Fite was the only one who looked uncomfortable under Cassie’s gaze. I think he’d read her file, he knew what she was capable of.

“Scared of a little girl?” I asked with a laugh.

He didn’t say anything. But Maad smiled. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him show any kind of emotion whatsoever.
I laughed. Then I watched as Cissie got into the truck and drove off. I watched the others leave too, one by one until only Mom remained. I waited until I was sure the others were gone then I walked toward her. It would be later when they filled in my grave. I wondered what they put into the coffin because I definitely wasn’t in there. I couldn’t help but think that maybe it was filled with stones or something. When I watched up on Mom, I startled her because she jumped. She turned around, her hand on her chest and then she sighed. She made a move to hug me but stopped, remembering.
She frowned.

I sighed. “I’m sorry Mom.”

She nodded, tears in her eyes. “It was a beautiful service. It’s a shame your aunt couldn’t come in, she would have loved it.”

Aunt Marla knew about me too. When she found out, she flipped. Not in a bad way either. After all, she was the woman who produced horror movies for a living. She was ecstatic and would have jumped at the chance to go to my “unfuneral” as the two of us had called it over the phone. Unfortunately, she was caught up in post production on Blue Devil X. She did promise to send me an advanced copy as a condolence though.

“I saw Cissie and the guys; it was nice that they did this.”

Mom nodded. She didn’t say anything though. She just continued to stare at the large hole in the ground. I wanted so much to hug her that it hurt inside. I felt my anger begin to rise, the fire building inside of me. My hands started to heat up, singing my jeans. I cursed again, seeing the burned hand marks I left on them. I’d been having a lot of those accidents. Anger issues were starting to become a problem with me. The DEO was trying to arrange a shrink but it was taking some time. I think they were looking for someone they could trust. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t need one. I was fine as long as everyone just left me alone. But I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Mom’s back was to me now but she sniffed the air. “Edward is that smoke?”

I cursed and looked down. Though my pants weren’t really burnt, my hands were still smoking slightly. I sighed heavily. “Sorry Mom, I got angry again.”

She didn’t turn around. “We need to get a handle on that.”

We stayed in the cemetery a little while longer but finally we had to leave so they could finish with their work. Maad and Fite stuck to us as we walked back to the cars. They had this cool codename for me actually; they called me the Kid Devil. Ok it’s not so cool but it’s cool when they get on their radios and say things like “Kid Devil leaving the building” or “KD coming your way.”

We had two cars. Mom got to drive with Maad in a normal vehicle. While I got to drive with Fite in the back of a van. He opened the back and let me in, shivering from the cold. It was something that we got from a frozen food company actually. They used it to make smaller deliveries. They refurbished it for me; they even put a seat in the back. Not that I got to go to many places but it was still kinda cool---no pun intended---to drive around in the back of it. The best part, the cold didn’t seem to bother me.

“Into the Ice Box, KD” said Fite as he held the door open for me.

I smiled and climbed inside.

_______________________________

It started to rain on the way home; I could hear it drumming off the top of the van. It kinda sucked that there were no windows back here but there was an obvious reason for that. They didn’t want anyone peeking inside and seeing the red freak hidden there. The only way I knew what was going on was the little window slot that separated the front of the van from my back compartment. It was a recent addition, added so I could talk to whoever was in the front. The slot was shut now but I could hear the radio over the rain. Fite liked to listen to Jazz, which was fine by me. He was listening to some new age stuff when the music cut off.

I leaned forward and opened the slot, about to ask him what was wrong when I heard the voice over the radio.

“I repeat, the police are asking any pedestrians in the area to be on the lookout for this dangerous man. He’s driving a red Camaro, last seen going east toward the cemetery.”

Fite groaned and shut off the radio. “Damn fools can’t do their jobs so they’re asking civilians do it for them.”

The Chicago PD was stretched thin as of late. New Metas were cropping up every day and it was getting harder and harder to monitor things. I guess I couldn’t blame them. There were also reports of some masked vigilante stalking the rooftops now, taking the law into his own hands. The police were having a hell of a time catching him. They said he was like a shadow, appearing and disappearing without warning. It was kinda bad when someone in black was doing their jobs for them, better than them, actually. I thought it was kinda cool actually, glad that someone was out there cleaning up the regular mess.

I was curious about the guy in the Camaro though. “What was that all about?”

Fite groaned. “Some nut in a snake mask just robbed a jewelry store. He jumped about like a ninja apparently, put on quite a show actually. The guards tried to catch him but he was too fast. He went out the window and took off in a Camaro.”

“Did they say he was heading for the cemetery?”

Fite knew as well as I did that there was only one road there, what with all the snow cleanup from the recent storm. This was the only road open, which meant that the guy could be coming our way. Fite looked in the rearview mirror and saw the look in my eyes.

“Out of the question, Kid” he said, grumbling.

“You’re kinda a cop right?” He grumbled. “So if the guy happens to come across our path then you have to arrest him, right?”

Fite groaned. “I might assist if it comes to that.”

I wasn’t looking at him anymore. I was looking at the scene ahead. It was pouring pretty hard now and because it was so cold, it was now sleet. The front windshield was almost completely concealed by it. Fite was having a hard time driving, especially seeing as he could only see a few feet in front of him. Me, my eyes were better. I think it was a part of my mutation. I could see a good ten of fifteen feet in front of us actually. I could hear pretty well too, now. It was no surprise that I could actually hear a roaring engine coming right for us. I had a pretty good guess who it was too.

“Ummm….Don” I said, using his first name. “You might want to watch out. I think that guy’s coming our way.”

“What makes you think that?”

He got his answer before I got a chance to say anything. There was a loud screech of tires. Through the little slot, I saw the red Camaro spin out of control on the road in front of us. It swung around in a couple of circles. The van had better traction but there was no way we were going to avoid hitting him. When the crash came, I was jerked out of my seat. The sound of metal on metal was deafening. I’m not sure who hit who first but both vehicles came to a jarring and wrenching stop. I hit the floor of the van, rolling into the corner hard. I told them my seat needed seatbelts but they didn’t listen. It hurt pretty good when my head slammed against the floor of the van. The world started to spin as I pushed myself up, groaning and sputtering. My hands started to melt some of the ice underneath them as I pushed myself against the wall, sliding to standing position. I was a bit disoriented but I was okay.

I walked over to the slot but there was something blocking it. I groaned and looked around. The impact with the Camaro had caved in the left side of the van; luckily, it wasn’t the side I was sitting on. But it did help in a way because it also forced the back doors wide open. Fite locked them as soon as I got inside. The DEO were paranoid, I think they actually thought I’d run off if the doors weren’t chained shut. It was ridiculous actually; I mean where am I going to go. The only people who knew what I was were here. Besides my aunt of course but they would have caught me long before I got to Hollywood. Nope, I was stuck in Chicago. I was happy about it actually, I liked it here.

I slowly made my way to the back of the van, pushing the mangled doors open the rest of the way. When I jumped outside, the van rocked a bit. The rain pelted me, sizzling on my red-hot skin. It matted my long white hair to my head and kinda tickled on my face and hands. I pulled my hood back up, not a fan of being soaked from head to toe. I walked along the good side of the van, making my way to the driver’s side. When I got there, I found Fite slumped over in his seat, blocking the slot. I smashed the window with my elbow because I couldn’t get the door open. I reached inside to check his pulse but stopped inches from his neck, realizing what would happen if I touched his flesh. I cursed but as soon as I did so, Fite moaned.

I sighed in relief. He was alive, for now anyway.

I knew I should have probably tried to get his radio and call Maad. He and Mom left the cemetery about two minutes before us. I’m sure I could radio him and get him back here ASAP. But I couldn’t get Fite’s radio without touching his ear and besides I didn’t want Mom anywhere near this place. After all, the car that hit us was carrying a dangerous jewel thief. Which reminded me. I groaned and slowly crept around to the damaged side of the van. I half expected to find a Camaro smushed up against us. Instead, I found the huge dent but no car. There was a lot of carnage all over the road though, car carnage that it. I followed it with my eyes and found the Camaro.

The impact must have thrown the car off the side of the road. It was sideways in a ditch, the passenger side facing the air. The scariest thing was that the door was wide open. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant. I took a deep breath and moved slowly over to the car. I knew I’d find it empty even before I looked inside. Wherever the driver was, he was long gone now. I sighed in relief, glad that I wouldn’t have to deal with that little mess. I wonder if he was thrown free from the crash or escaped afterwards. I searched about the vehicle just to make sure.

On the left side of it, on the side of the road facing the forest, was a black bag. I bent down and picked I up. It weighed about a pound and when I opened it, I nearly dropped it. It was filled with jewels---diamond rings, necklaces, sparkling things that I didn’t even know the names of. My eyes opened wide. The jackass took off and left his loot behind. What a douche bag? As soon as the thought entered my head, I heard the click and felt the barrel of a gun press against my back.

“Drop the bag kid and slowly step away from it,” said a hissing voice.

Yeah, hissing. I did as I was told, dropping the little bag. The holder of the gun slid around the front of me, keeping the gun trained on me. I nearly laughed my ass off. It wasn’t just some guy in a snake mask; he was wearing a whole damn suit. Well, it was made to look like snake skin actually. It was skin tight, designed to look like scales. It was kinda cool, like something some professional would wear for Halloween actually. But it was February, not October. This guy looked like a nut. The mask was kinda neat though, his face inside a giant snake’s head.

He bent down and picked up the sack, not taking his eyes off me. Luckily, I was still wearing my baggy coat with the hood up and concealing my face. I wasn’t in the mood for giving two-bit crooks a heart attack.

“What’s with the get up kid?” he hissed.

“You should talk,” I said with a scoff. “I can’t believe you left the house like that. What the hell are you supposed to be anyway?”

He smirked. “I’m the Copperhead. The last face you’re ever going to see.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Here was a guy pointing a gun in my face and he actually just called himself the Copperhead. It was like he was bad villain of the week in a comic book. The Copperhead, what a fricken joke. I don’t think he liked that I was laughing at him though. He got really angry and lashed out. He spun his foot around, catching me in the side of the head. It was so quick that I didn’t see it coming. I’m not sure why he kicked me instead of shooting me but it was his mistake. The kick jerked my head to the side but nothing more. The worse thing it did was knock off my hood. As soon as it did, my entire head was visible. To say the guy was surprised as an understatement.

The color drained from his face. He took a step back, dropping his bag. He started to stutter. “D…d..d…de…monnn….”

I smirked. “Devil actually.”

I grabbed his gun, allowing it to get red hot in my hand. It got so hot that he screamed like a little girl, allowing me to have the whole thing. I tossed the burning red weapon over my head and advanced on him. He stumbled, slipping in a puddle and went down on his butt. He crawled away from me backwards, crying like a baby. All I had to do was walk toward him in a menacing matter and it was enough to scare the hell out of him.

When I finally caught up with him, I reached down and grabbed the front of his costume, lifting him off the ground. He wet himself, right then and there. I saw the wetness appear at his crotch. He looked down for a second and then passed out. I smirked and carried him over to the van, tossing him into the back and slamming the doors shut. He’d be safe in there until I figured out what to do with him. I then walked around to the front of the van just in time for Fite to wake up and miss all the action. He looked over at me and frowned.

"It was him, wasn’t it?” he asked, I nodded. “Did you at least scare him a little?”

I smiled real big.

______________________________________

“He caught a jewel thief, boss” said Fite, defending me to Agent Faraday.

Faraday sighed, rubbing his temples. “That may be but he broke our agreement too.”

Fite came to my defense again. “He never once used his powers to do it.”

I sat at the table, silently watching their debate. It was nice that he was going to such lengths to back me up but it was no use. It was clear that Faraday had already made up his mind. He was one of those people who took one look at the situation and decided what was best. In my case, I was a dangerous Meta that also happened to look like Satan. Not that he’d ever say that to my face of course.

That woman Chase might have though, thank God she was back wherever it is she came from. Not that it mattered though. In this situation, Faraday was the guy in charge and whatever he said was the rules.

Out on the road, it didn’t take long for the police to catch up with us. I hid in the woods so they wouldn’t see me, too many questions I suppose. The first officer on the scene didn’t really care what kind of vehicle Fite was driving. All he seemed to care about was that the Agent caught his man. When they dragged Copperhead---his name was actually Nathan Prince---he was babbling about seeing a “red demon”. I think the cop thought he was crazy or frost bitten or something. Shortly thereafter, Maad and my mother arrived on the scene. Apparently, he turned around when he couldn’t get a hold of his partner. While they were talking, I slipped into the back of Maad’s SUV. I kinda scorched the seats a bit but it was nothing that couldn’t be repaired.

Then the four of us ended up in the city at one of the numerous safe houses the DEO had in the city. That’s where we were now; Faraday arrived about twenty minutes ago. My Mom and Agent Maad were in the other room, me I was in here with the boss and Agent Fite. Fite was trying to explain the situation and it was looking like I might end up in that underground cell after all. I’m not sure if I was pissed or what. I knew I was angry because I could smell the smoke and burnt plastic from the chair I was sitting on. But I was strangely calm.

After they first apprehended me in the spa, Faraday laid out the rules. As long as I had no public displays of power I was free to live with my Mom, just like I had in the past. But if I put one toe out of line, I was done for. I think they were kinda harsh actually but I suppose it’s the way things worked. In truth, I was convinced I’d end up in the underground place no matter what I did. Faraday was scared of me; I saw it in the way he looked at me. Most of his men were scared of me too, except maybe my two babysitters and the pair that Cassie liked so much, Jay and Kate. But those two were gone now, back to DC or wherever the DEO called home.

I’m not sure why Faraday was still in the city. I think he might have been helping the authorities look for this vigilante. The DEO had an vested interest in him, I think. I mean he was not just taking out ordinary criminals. The other night---according to the rumors---he took out some nut in the sewers. It was some kind of Meta mutant like me, a Man Croc or something like that. This guy was huge; it was all over the Internet. Of course, the authorities denied it but some eyewitness shot an amateur video of the thing, it was freaky looking. Though Faraday would deny it if asked, I think he wanted this vigilante ten times more than any of us Metas.

Faraday looked at me, frowning. “What do you think, Eddie? Are you a threat to society?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think it matters what I say. You made up your mind about me the first moment you saw me.”

Faraday smiled. “You want to tell me what happened?”

So I told him. The story didn’t take long because there wasn’t much to tell. He didn’t say anything not even when I was finished. Fite did though. He confirmed everything I told him, which was strange seeing, as he was unconscious through the whole thing. I smiled at him, glad that he had my back. I hadn’t known him for very long but he was a good guy.

After a few minutes, Faraday sighed. ‘I’m going to let you go back home for now, Eddie but you need to keep your nose clean kid. It may not look like but I’m on your side. But I’m getting a lot of pressure from my boss and his bosses; they feel someone who looks like you might fire up the wrong kinds of people. There’s been some talk about dangerous Metas and what should be done about them.”

I nodded. I knew what he meant even if he didn’t say it.

After that, Faraday left and I was allowed to go find Mom. When I told her I was free to go, she sighed heavily. She got up and rushed over to me, almost making the mistake of hugging like before. The look on her face made me upset. I hated not being able to hug my own mother, especially when I really wanted to. It was cool that I had power and I had the potential to help people but it pissed me off that I couldn’t touch people to do so. You have no idea what it’s like not to be able to hug your mother or kiss your girlfriend. It was infuriating at times.

Fite drove us home in another refrigerated truck. It was lucky that they bought two. Mom made dinner but I wasn’t very hungry. To tell you the truth, I had problems eating now. Most of the stuff that touched my lips, burnt instantly. It kinda sucked not being able to eat a properly cooked meal anymore. It sucked even more that my life was so messed up now. I couldn’t play video games without melting the controllers and I couldn’t sleep on my bed without it bursting into flames. Don’t get me started about sleeping itself. I had nightmares almost every night, horrible ones about accidentally touching Cissie or Mom and then watching in horror as they burst into flames. The worst part was waking up and finding everything burnt to a crisp around me.

Most of the furniture was removed from my room. The only good thing about this weather was that it was really cold. At night I could sleep up there with the window wide open, the colder the better actually. It wasn’t flame retardant by any means but it helped. I had a fireproof mattress that cost Mom a fortune and a fire blanket. They were the only two things in my room now; I didn’t even have a TV anymore. I accidentally burnt it when I tried to change the channel without a remote. My room was a dark and cold shell of its former self, emptied of anything that once belonged to me, leaving nothing left. Whenever I sat in there---in the dark---I felt so cold and alone. There were a few times that I contemplated ending it all. I say contemplated because I could never really get past the planning stage. It was hard to figure out how to kill oneself when most of the most to do so wouldn’t work. I couldn’t shoot myself because bullets burned on my flesh and hanging was out of the question for obvious reasons. I suppose I could have jumped out a window but it turns out that I have wings too. You have no idea how hard suicide is when you can’t even kill yourself.

So instead, I sat in the dark most nights, staring at the wall. I was doing so now, wondering if they were going to change their minds. It was only a matter of time. I saw it in Faraday’s eyes. He said it was out of his hands and he might have been right but he wanted to lock me up just as much as his boss did. I mean, one look at me and you can see I’m a monster. I suppose I could run, it wasn’t out of the question actually. In fact, the other day Cassie and I talked about it. She even agreed to help me with it. We weren’t sure where I’d go, probably over the border into Canada. There were places up north where I could hide and live out the rest of my life. She researched them on the Internet for me actually. It worked out real well too because the cold didn’t affect me.

My mother knocked on the door, opening it a crack. “Honey, are you ok?”

Her tone of voice told me she’d been crying. She did a lot of that lately.

“I’m fine Mom,” I said, trying to hide my own tears. “Just thinking.”

She opened the door all the way and stood in the doorway. “I know what you’re thinking about and I don’t think it’s the smartest idea. These people are very dangerous. You might be able to run from them for a while but I have a feeling they’ll catch you eventually.”

I nodded. “They want to lock me up Mom.”

“Did they say that?” she asked, trying hard to stay in the doorway.

It was too cold for her to come into my room. It pained me that not even my own mother could walk into my room anymore.

“Not in so many words” I said “but it was clear from his tone. He told me to keep my nose clean but that his boss was seriously considering locking me up for my own safety.”

“Maybe we can write a letter to our Senator,” she said, sounding hopeful.

I smiled and nodded even though she couldn’t see me in the dark. ‘That sounds good Mom,” I said, trying to sound cheerful. “Why don’t you do that and I’ll think of something to say.”

She nodded. “Just promise me you won’t run away. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

Mom had had it hard in the last few months. Dad was in the military and we moved around a lot. We came here while he was stationed in Iraq. Things were supposed to be different but everything changed two months ago. He was killed in a roadside bombing. It nearly destroyed Mom. It took everything I had to keep her from joining Dad. In the end, Aunt Marla succeeded. She got Mom some good professional help. He was one of the best shrinks in the state and Mom was making good progress. Or at she was. Then this whole thing with my metagene happened. I’m not sure but I think she had another relapse. She was doing better but I could see it in her eyes, she was barely holding on as it was.

Even if I wanted to run or kill myself, there was no way I could do it. For Mom’s sake, I needed to stick with this. She left, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I sat in the darkness for the longest time, trying to decide what to do. Dad used to be the one with all the answers. If he was still alive, he would know what to do. He would have told Agent Faraday to go screw himself and he would have protected me until he was blue in the face. He made sure no one pushed our family around. He was a true American hero and died as one. I don’t know how many other people can say that about their Dads. In a situation like this, he would have told me that “there’s always a silver lining.” As much as I would have loved to agree with him, I just couldn’t see where one was.

Fortunately I didn’t have far to look. I’m not sure when I noticed the green glow but it grew brighter real quickly. It filled my room, so bright that I had to shield my eyes. I jumped to my feet, trying to see where the source of it was coming from. I snapped around, looking at the window. What I saw shocked the hell out of me. There was a girl outside, hovering there, bathed in a green light. She smiled at me. Then she raised her hand and flew through my window, landing gently on the floor in front of me. She looked around the room and shivered, rubbing her arms.

“It’s like a freezer in here,” she said, her breath visible.

I was dumbstruck. I knew her on sight; there were very few people in the world who didn’t know her. She was Jade, the Green Lantern. Her face was in the news all the time now. Some of the news people were calling her the Vanguard of the Meta Invasion but I saw her as a Saint. She was definitely heavenly, standing before me, looking very beautiful.

I finally found my voice. “I have to keep it cold” I said “or else everything burns.”

She nodded and then looked me up and down. “I can imagine.”

I smiled sheepishly. “You get used to it. It’s a face only a mother can love I suppose.”

She smiled. “No offense but I think my mother would die of a heart attack.”

We laughed. Then she looked around the room, frowning at how bare it was. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”

I didn’t laugh this time. “Burning things kinda takes a toll on the stuff that you own.”

She nodded and smiled sadly. “I can see where that might be a problem.” She reached out for me, attempting to touch my shoulder. I pulled back, afraid I was going to burn her. “Don’t worry; you’re not going to hurt me.”

Her hand glowed green and she touched me, showing that she could indeed do so. The only other person who had touched me and wasn’t harmed was Cassie. But she was in a whole league of her own. I’m not sure how this Jade person did it. Maybe it was her ring. I looked at it on her finger. It didn’t look like much but then again looks could be deceiving. If you looked at me, all you might see is monster and I’m much more than that.

"How did you do that?”

She held up her ring, just as I thought. “It can do a lot; it might even be able to help you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’ve got a great gift Eddie and don’t let anyone else tell you differently,” she said, the way she said it I knew she was referring to the DEO. “If you’re willing, I think maybe I can help you get over that handicap of yours.”

“How?”

She smiled. “The Devil is in the details.”

-----

Author's Note: I'd like to thank everyone who responded so well to my first story about Eddie. It was supposed to be an open ended one shot, with the possibility of more parts later down the road. But I got a lot of response from it, most of you wanting me to continue the story. So after putting my Green Arrow sequel aside---for the moment, I'll get back to it---I decided to give Eddie his own story. I'm not sure how long its going to be but I'll write it until I come to a satisfying conclusion. I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilish good editing and DC Comics for the characters.

-----

Chapter Two:

“How are you going to help me exactly?”

She smiled and a strange green ring appeared in her hand. It looked just like the one on her finger but not as shiny. I looked from her to the ring and back again. Clearly, she wasn’t trying to give me a cheap piece of costume jewelry. It looked kinda cool on her but she was a chick. On me, that big hulking thing would look pretty damn ridiculous. But I continued to stare at it anyway, wondering if she was going to explain things. For a while, neither of us said anything, probably waiting for the other to speak.

Finally she spoke. “Do you know the story of Terra Cross?”

I nodded. “I saw it on the news.”

Terra was one of the other Metas out there. She was just like Cassie in that she used to be a guy. They did a story on her a few weeks back on Nightline. She told the world all about herself, leaving out none of the secrets. It was kinda fascinating. Of course, back then, I’d been normal and it was cool because it happened to someone else. Was I a bit jealous, well maybe a little? After all, who doesn’t want superpowers? I got mine, of course, just not the way that I wanted. I don’t think I need to elaborate on that again, I think Cassie covered all that pretty well. The point being that Terra seemed pretty happy during the Interview, well adjusted to the circumstances. But then again her powers didn’t turn her into a hulking red freak.

“I gave Terra one of these rings, I’ve given them to others too,” She said, listing off a name here and there.

I remembered her mentioning something about a ring in the interview. It gave her a costume instantly. I groaned. “I don’t need a costume.”

Jade smiled. “This one is different. When my ring detected you and your strange mutation, it did some permutations of its own. After a few days it came up with a solution and created this ring for you.” She held her hand out toward me. “Instead of designing it to create just a costume, it’s been programmed to create an identity for you. Sorta like a camouflage, one that will allow you to walk around and interact with people again.”

I was speechless. I stared at the ring. I wanted to scream “Thank You God” at the top of my lungs. But all I could do was try not to cry. These last few weeks had been pretty hard. It was not easy hiding in the shadows, trying my hardest not to burn everything I touched. But as happy as I might have been, I had some worries too.

“What about my powers?”

She smiled. “The cloak that this ring creates is like a shield too. We’ll call it a Membrane. It covers your body, shielding it and you from harm. It is quite advanced and unique, but if I’m right, it should seal away your powers, making you a normal person.”

This time I did cry, burning hot tears rolling down my cheeks. “Does this mean I can touch people?”

Jade nodded. “If my ring is correct then you should be able to live a normal healthy life as long as the ring is on your finger, that is.”

I nodded then I reached for the ring in her hand. A normal healthy life, huh. I didn’t hesitate in the least as I reached forward and took it from her hand. She smiled. I held it in my own hand for a while. At first, I thought it was going to melt like most of the other stuff I held but it didn’t. I’m not sure what it was made out of but it was the strongest stuff I’d ever held. I tried burning it, squeezing my hand around it to cause some kind of damage. Hey, I was kinda curious. But when I failed, I smiled. Maybe this could work after all.

Excitement overtook me and I slipped the ring on my finger. I closed my eyes and only one person came into my head: Cissie. She and I could finally have the relationship that we always wanted. I dreamt about it a lot actually. What guy didn’t dream about the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Ok, I’m being a little premature but I think I loved her.

Finally, I opened my eyes and Jade gasped. I blinked raised my hands, half expecting to see the clawed red talons. Instead, though I saw normal human fingers. I felt like doing a back flip. But I stopped myself because there was something wrong about my fingers. They were thinner than before, dainty even. The skin was soft and my nails were longer, rounded off into nice tips. I flexed my fingers, surprised that they looked so girly. Then I looked down and what I saw nearly caused me to faint. There were two bumps on my chest. I realized now why Jade gasped. I stumbled, a lock of reddish hair falling in front of my face. Jade reached out and grabbed my wrist, keeping me from collapsing completely.

I ended up in her arms, going forward instead of back. What the hell was going on here? I couldn’t even think about it, it was just too much. It wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be possible. I looked up at Jade---tears in my eyes---and she frowned.

“What did you do to me?”

Jade raised her hand with the ring, clenched in a tight fist. “Ring, explain?” she demanded angrily.

“Edward Davis Bloomberg is dead, declared officially three days ago and put to rest this morning. I took that into account when I designed the ring for the person standing before us. His appearance was meant to be his own choosing.”

“My own choosing” I asked, my voice sounded weird and girly. “You son of a bitch, you could have warned me.”

My anger flared but for the first time in weeks, I didn’t burn anything. At least the shield of the ring was working. Jade didn’t look too fazed by my anger, if she even noticed. She was frowning though, so clearly something was upsetting her. Something was definitely upsetting me that’s for sure. This ring was supposed to help me, not make me a bigger freak than I already was. It was one thing to be a red demon dude but it was something else to be turned into a chick. I wanted to scream and pull my hair out but for some reason the only emotion I was feeling was anger.

“Ring” said Jade, clearly annoyed. “Is there nothing you can do for him?”

“This camouflage is very peculiar,” said the Ring “it should not have manifested itself in this manner. It was not programmed to behave this way. It is possible that there is something else at work here.”

“Are you saying that I wanted to be a girl?”

“Not consciously.”

I reached down and grabbed the globes on my chest, surprised that I was able to do so. I thought it was supposed to be fake and yet I could grab them. How freaky is that. I gave them a violent shake, glad that I felt none of that. “I did not want these,” I said angrily.

Jade didn’t say anything. At least for a while. Instead, she slowly walked around me, probably trying to figure things out. I was still a little confused myself actually. For starters, I was wearing clothes now. They were gender specific, so a girl’s shirt and jeans. The strange thing was that they didn’t feel like anything. I reached down and poked my leg. But the material underneath didn’t feel like jean. I’m not sure what it felt like but it definitely didn’t feel real. Well that’s because it wasn’t. This whole body was fake---like a mirage---created to shroud the real me from the rest of the world. It freaked the hell out of me that I was a girl now but if it meant going out, maybe I could let it slide once or twice. It’s not like it was my real bod anyway.

Jade came around front of me again, pointing her ring at me. A thin beam of green light shot out of it and harmlessly moved up and down my body. I shivered but not because I could feel it. I felt nothing. It just kinda gave me the willies that’s all. After the “scanning” was done, Jade sighed.

“I’m going to have to go back to my ship and run these findings through the database.”

“Is something wrong?”

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. It’s clear that you’re Meta but there’s something else. My ring didn’t pick it up before but there’s something off about you.”

I nodded. “My friend Cassie turned from a dude into a chick.”

“Is she a new Meta too?”

I nodded. “Don’t you keep tabs on all the newbies or something?”

She smiled. “I’m not privy to every single Meta emergence out there. In fact there’s probably a lot out there that I don’t know about.”

“Does that mean there’s bad ones out there?”

She nodded. “You can’t have the good without the bad.”

I thought back to what happened at the spa. I didn’t know all the details but I knew some really bad shit want down there. There was a lot of stuff that Cassie was keeping from the DEO too. After she got them to release me, the two of us had a little talk about it. All she’d willingly tell me is that there’s someone out there with a lot of power who could do bad things. I think she was trying to protect me but it definitely felt like she was talking down to me a bit. She did say that the bad chick was gone now and that everyone else involved was taken care of. There was brainwashing and drugs involved, I knew that much at least.

“You should talk with Cassie” I said, “She knows how to deal with the bad.”

Jade nodded. The two of us talked for a few more minutes. She wanted to make sure that I was going to be ok with all of this. I told her everything was going to be all right. But truthfully, I was scared to death. It was one thing to turn into a demon but this was something else. I knew I wasn’t really a chick---it was like a suit---but it still freaked me out. The worse part of it was trying to explain things to Mom and Cissie. It was great that I could touch them and things like but how were they going to react. With the ring on, Mom had a new daughter and Cissie had a girlfriend. I groaned at the latter. How in the hell was that going to work? Would she accept all this?

Finally, Jade and I said our goodbyes. She promised to look into the ring thing and get back to me as soon as she found some answers. I thanked her for help, lying to her once again about being able to deal with it. I don’t think she believed me. Hell, I wouldn’t.

I watched and waved as she flew off. Then I yawned, ready to drop off long before I trudged my lazy ass over to the mattress.

__________________________________

“Eddie, honey, it’s time to get up”

I heard the combination of my mother’s voice and the knocking on the door at the same time. But I wasn’t ready to open my eyes yet. I was having a good dream moments before she woke me. It involved Cissie and I were on a tropical vacation. We were lounging by the pool, basking in the glorious sun. She was in a tiny white two-piece and I was in a blue one. There were cabana boys serving us drinks in their white uniforms and this guy was sitting on the other side of the pool. He kept looking in our direction and smiling. Cissie thought he was cute but I thought he gave me the creeps. Just because I had boobs and a nice bod it didn’t mean….I let the thought stray as my eyes snapped open. Holy shit, I did not just dream that. The realization of the dream came to me quickly. Cissie and I were both girls and I was enjoying it. How in the hell could I even dream something like that. I groaned as I sat up, running my fingers through my new long hair. It freaked me. I looked at my hand and saw the ring. It didn’t look like much but it was the root of my whole problem. I glared at it and reached for it, wanting to pull the damn thing off my finger.

I hesitated though. With it gone, I’d be a guy again but I’d be that thing too. I groaned a second time, angry that my life would come to this.

My mother knocked louder. “Edward Davis Bloomberg, you get up this instant.”

I hated it when she used my full name. But I didn’t want to get up. I figured if I lay in bed long enough, maybe the memory of the dream would fade away. Some dreams do that actually. There are a lot of dreams I have and I remember them so clearly in the morning. But by late afternoon, they’ve faded away in my mind. I know some people keep dream journals but those things are for nerds. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that I was a chick in the dream and I was enjoying myself.

My mother knocked louder. I groaned, deciding that no matter how much I tried to ignore it there was no way that it would go away.

“I’m up” I shouted then gasped, throwing one hand to my throat and the other over my mouth.

No shit, I even sound like a girl.

My bedroom door opened and my mother poked her head inside. “Edward?”

She locked eyes with me and I saw the confusion. Then it was quickly replaced by fear. I can only imagine the thoughts coursing through her head. Here was a strange person in her son’s bedroom, a girl where a boy should be. She opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off quickly. I needed to get this over with fast, like tearing off a band-aid. “Mom” I said, removing the hand from my mouth. “Don’t freak out.”

She found her voice. “Who are you?” she asked angrily. “Why did you call me Mom?”

I sighed. “I’m Edward.”

She laughed. “Last time I checked I had a son instead of a daughter.”

“I am your son,” I said then quickly added. “I can explain.”

“You better” she said angrily. “Its not every morning that a mother walks into her son’s room and finds a half naked girl.”

Half-naked? I looked down and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. I was no longer wearing the clothes the ring manifested for me last night. Instead, I was wearing some kind of sheer nightgown. It was made of silk and clung to my fake curves nicely. I groaned. Not only did the thing turn me into a girl but also apparently, it changed my clothes to fit the occasion. It must have thought that this is what girls wore to bed. What the hell kind of ring was this?

My mother was still glaring at me. I bit my lip. It was time for another band-aid rip. “I guess the best way to tell you is to show you.”

I reached for my finger and pulled off the ring. As soon as it was free, my façade disappeared. I didn’t feel a thing but my mother’s eyes widened and she gasped loudly. When I looked down, I was kinda happy to see red skin and no boobs. I let out a sigh of relief. My mother did too, but she was still really confused. I took a deep breath and told her about last night. She didn’t say a word; she looked from me to the ring and back to me again. When I was finished, I smiled and slipped the ring back on my finger to show her. The nightgown was gone now, replaced by jeans and a t-shirt. I’m not sure why I put the ring back on, I guess I was just tired of looking at my demonic self.

My mother finally spoke. “And you can’t change into a boy with it on?”

I shook my head. “Jade is trying to figure it out. She took some scans and said she’d get back to me.”
My mother nodded. Then her emotions got the better of her. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. I flinched, half expecting her to scream at the top of her lungs. But she didn’t. Instead, her head sunk to my shoulder and she cried. I gently wrapped my arms around her, letting her cry. I cried a bit, too. It had been weeks since I’d been able to hold anyone and this felt good. Having physical contact again was almost worth looking like a girl. The only sad part was that I couldn’t feel her. I knew she was holding me but it was like wrapping my arms around nothing. I left that part out of my explanation; I didn’t want to upset her anymore than she already was.

After about five minutes, she let me. She brushed a strand of hair from my face, smiling. “This is going to take time getting used to. I had a handsome son and now I have a beautiful daughter.”

I groaned. “It’s not real Mom.”

She smiled. “It is to me. I love you Eddie and it didn’t matter what you looked like. But you have no idea how hard it was for me as a mother not to hold and comfort my son when I could see he was hurting.”

“I know Mom,” I said, tears streaming down my cheeks.

Mom pulled me into another hug again. This one didn’t last as long. When she pulled away, she was still smiling. “Are you hungry, sweetheart?”

I was about to tell her no but my stomach grumbled. She laughed and took me by the hand, dragging me toward the door. I tried to protest, knowing damn well that food didn’t mean much to me anymore. But Mom wasn’t having any of that. She was as giddy as a schoolgirl. It made me kinda happy actually. For so long---the last few weeks more so than ever---she’d been so unhappy. To see her like this though, laughing and dragging me about, it made me happy. When we got into the hall, Mom flicked on the lights. I shielded my eyes, not used to it. Like my room, mom kept most of the lights in the house off. She tried to limit the light so that I wouldn’t see myself in a reflection somewhere and get angry. Do you remember the Beast’s room in the Disney cartoon, how smashed up it was? Well that’s what happened to the living room the first time I caught my reflection in a mirror. It was purely accidental and I apologized a hundred times for it but I was so scared and angry.

From that moment on, Mom turned off the lights and made sure there were no more mirrors in the house.

But as she was dragging me down the hall, I noticed her bedroom door open. As we went by, I caught sight of her dressing mirror. It was on the far wall and when we passed by, I saw a glimpse of my mother and girl. I stopped dead in my tracks, pulling my wrist from Mom’s hand. I think she realized what I saw. She tried to stop me, afraid I’d flip out again. But I brushed past her and went into her room. I walked toward the mirror and what I saw made me gasp. It was a teenage girl, about sixteen or so. She had long hair that reached down her back, a fair complexion and vibrant green eyes. I looked a lot like Mom except she was blonde. The girl in the mirror looked almost Irish, which made since seeing as Mom was Irish on her father’s side. Dad of course was Jewish and before I looked a little like him except blonde.

It kinda pained me a bit that nothing of him seemed to pass over to my girl “mirage”.

I reached up and touched my face. “Is that me?”

Mom came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry sweetheart. I’m sure this Jade person can fix it.”
I nodded numbly. I didn’t want to say what I was thinking. I was kinda cute, almost hot actually. I could see why that dream guy kept looking at me. Thinking about that made me blush and then I groaned. I didn’t just blush because some dream guy found me attractive. I felt my anger rise but I forced it back down. A part of me wanted to tear the ring off my finger but I didn’t. I saw the look on Mom’s face---it was one of fear---I think she thought I was going to get angry too. So I flashed her a smile, trying to show her that everything was all right.

She smiled back weakly. “Come sweetheart, let’s get something to eat.”

I nodded and followed her out of the room, taking one last look at the fox in the mirror. I kinda smiled, even though doing so disturbed the hell out of me. I followed Mom down the hall and the stairs after that. She went to the kitchen, turning on lights as she did so. I heard her sigh every time she flicked a switch; I think she was kinda glad not to live in darkness anymore. Once we got into the kitchen, she pulled open the curtains, allowing the morning light to stream into the room. I flinched and shielded my eyes, not used to so much brightness. When I changed, she purchased dark curtains to make things as comfortable for me as possible. I hated that she did so much to accommodate me but I think it kept her from going completely insane. But I could tell it depressed the hell out of her. It made me happy to see how happy she was now.

She fixed breakfast, something simple like toast. When I grabbed the first piece, she watched me with anticipation. The first thing I was happy about was the fact that it didn’t burn to a blackened crisp in my hand. But my happiness was short-lived. Though it didn’t turn to ash at my lips, it had no taste. Clearly, the ring was only on the surface and as soon as the toast went into my mouth, it burnt up. I groaned inwardly, sad that food would still be as bad as it was before. But I put on a good face for Mom; I didn’t have the heart to disappoint her. I smiled real big and gave her a thumbs up. She sighed in relief then set about cooking me a bigger meal. She made some bacon and scrambled some eggs. It made me happy to see her bounce around the kitchen just like old times.

After breakfast, she talked. We stayed at the kitchen table and she discussed things with me. Now that I could hide my true self behind the ring’s mirage, she wanted me to get my life back on track. I think she was a little sad that the government forced her into “faking” my death but she was happy that it wasn’t real. Now, according to her, we had to come up with something else. She was excited about it in fact. I think she was a bit upset that I’d been cooped up in the house for so long, letting my life pass me by. Now I had a chance to live again. Of course, it was going to require us to make some changes. She talked about what she wanted to do and then she set about making the first phone call, which I’m not so happy to report was to the DEO.

An Agent arrived at noon. He was well groomed with slick backed hair and a sparkling smile. When he walked into the house---dressed in his thousand-dollar suit---I was surprised that this guy actually worked for the government. He looked like some overpriced lawyer. He was even carrying a briefcase and had a blue tooth in his ear.

“Mrs. Bloomberg, my name is Damon Matthews,” he said, flashing those pearly whites of his.

My mother shook his proffered hand. I lingered in the shadows, trying to get a feel for this guy. So far, the only DEO guys I liked were Fite and Maad. This guy seemed to be like the rest. He was smug and arrogant. He waltzed into my house like he owned the place, his lip even curled a bit when he looked about. Hey, it’s not easy when I burn pretty much everything I touch. I had half a mind to slip off the ring and burn this son of bitch’s nuts. What can I say, Cassie is very inspiring.

Damon sat at the table, setting the briefcase down in front of him. He opened it up and took out a file folder. “Am I right to assume that this young lady over here is in fact your son, now?”

My mother nodded. When she called, she gave the DEO a rundown of events. I’m not sure if they believed her or not but I was willing to show them if they had any doubts.

“She is.” Mom said then quickly added. “I explained all this to the agent on the phone.”

Damon nodded. “I’m just being thorough Mrs. Bloomberg.”

And thorough he was. He laid out all the cards, telling us what was going to happen now. It seemed the DEO wasn’t going to let me off the hook even though I could mask my powers. Fite and Maad would still be around to monitor me but now they’d be in the shadows, following at a distance. Damon also seemed kinda wary of the ring. He said the government knew of them and had had dealings with Jade in the past. She explained the use of them to his superiors and how they weren’t harmful. I thought for a second he was going to ask me to take it off but he didn’t. He probably knew what I looked like without it and didn’t want any part of it. Not that I could blame him.

“Now that we’ve gotten some of the pressing details out of the way, I want to get to the legal aspect of all this” he said, taking out another folder. “In here is your daughter’s new identity.”

I spoke up for the first time. “My what?”

He smiled at me. “The new you sweetie.”

I groaned. I hadn’t even thought about that. But I guess it made sense. If I wanted to live a normal life, I couldn’t very well do it as Eddie Bloomberg. But I thought it’d be a few days before they sprung this on me. “So who am I now?”

He opened the folder, allowing me to see. There was no picture of course. But there was a name. I’m not sure if I liked it. Mom sure didn’t when she read it aloud. “Ellie Jackson?”

Damon nodded. “Before you start to complain, Mrs. Bloomberg, let me remind you that we had your son declared legally dead a few days ago. Your husband has no family and your sister isn’t married. We couldn’t create a niece for you so we had to come up with an alternative. So Ellie Jackson will be a foster child that you took in to help fill the emptiness in your heart after losing your son.”

I got angry. “This is bull shit. I can’t be related to my mother anymore?”

“Not legally on paper.”

Mom frowned. “How will I explain her to others?”

Damon nodded, tapping the folder. “It’s all in here. Ellie” he said, stressing my name. “Won’t be able to officially start to live in this house until next month. It gives you time to grieve. Then we’ll enroll her in the same high school and take things from there.”

I groaned. This was definitely bull. “Does that mean I have to leave here?”

He shook his head. “No but it does mean that you’re going to have to remain in the house for the time being.”

My Mom didn’t like that. “I just got my son back and you want him to continue to hide?”

“Just until we get everything sorted.”

I wanted to punch the guy in the face but that wouldn’t have solved anything. So instead, I angrily bit my lip. Mom continued to frown but in the end, she agreed, a little bit reluctantly I might add. Damon smiled, leaving the two folders on the table. He stood up and shook Mom’s hand. When he tried to shake mine, I blew him off. There was no way I was going to let that slime touch me. I don’t think he was too upset. He sorta thumbed his nose at me and left, Mom showed him to the door. I stared at the folders on the table for a while. They were my new life now. I wanted to scream as loud as I could. Things were going too fast. I was still convinced this new look of mine was temporary anyways, Jade was confident she could fix it. I wonder what would happen to Ellie Jackson then.

Mom came back into the kitchen a minute or two later. She was frowning. “They want you to come into the city in the morning. They need to get your picture taken and do some tests.”

I nodded. “If you think it’s for the best Mom.”

She came into the room and hugged me. I cried on her shoulder this time. This whole thing sucked majorly.

We went into the living room after that. I sat on the couch, watching TV. It felt good to be able to hold the remote again. I sat there for a couple of hours, until about two thirty. When the doorbell rang, I didn’t even think about it. I just got up and answered it. Mom was downstairs in the laundry room and seeing, as I was the only one, I had no choice. It was kinda stupid when you think about it; I should have never answered the door. I regretted it as soon as I opened it and saw Cissie standing there. She was holding a stack of books close to her chest. When she saw me, she looked really confused.
Shit. I forgot about Cissie.

“Hi” she said softly, probably a little surprised to see a pretty girl answer her boyfriend’s door. “Is Eddie here?”

I groaned. This was not going to be easy.

-----

Author's Note: Here's Ch. 3. It might be a little shorter than the others but there's a lot in it. This story is going to be a lot faster paced than most of my other stories because its not going to be as long as them. I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilish good editing and DC Comics for the characters.

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Chapter Three:

It wasn’t easy, well not at first.

“Cissie” I said, smiling.

She looked even more confused. She had this look on her face like she thought she should know me but couldn’t quite place me. I hated that feeling. Every once in a while it used to happen to me in school. I’m not saying I’m a jerk that forgets people but there are some people who just slip my mind. It’s really hard to remember the names and faces of everyone you meet, especially if only for a second. It was worse for me, being on the football team and all. There were a lot of people in school who thought just because they saw me on the field that they were my best friends. I hated those people, especially when they got angry that I didn’t acknowledge their friendships.

“I’m sorry,” she said, frowning. “I don’t know you.”

I smiled. “You wouldn’t.”

She looked even more confused. I reached forward and gently took her hand, leading her inside. I wanted to jump for joy. I wanted for so long to hold her hand and even though I couldn’t feel it, I knew I was doing so. I led her through the living room and into the kitchen. Mom was still downstairs so we had a few minutes. The folders that that jackass dropped off were still sitting on the table. I groaned when I looked at them. There was nothing in there that said I couldn’t tell people about all this. Even if there was, there was no way I was going to let the government dictate my life anymore.

I took Cissie over to the table and we sat down. She still looked like someone who had no idea what was going on. I hated keeping her in suspense but I needed to be sure that she could handle things. I looked into her face, trying to gauge her. She’d been very welcoming and trusting of my true form. She might have been a little apprehensive when she first saw me, but she accepted me. From the day of the revelation until two days ago, she’d been coming to my house everyday to tutor me. Two days ago that ended because Eddie Bloomberg was dead and I was no longer a student. So the last time I saw her was at the cemetery, which is pretty strange given she was there to mourn me even though I wasn’t really dead.

Finally she spoke. “Look, if Eddie doesn’t want to see me, I can go.”

She tried to stand up but I gently pushed her back down. I took a deep breath. “He wants to see you; in fact he’s seeing you right now.”

There, just like a band-aid.

Cissie looked more confused. Then her eyes roamed over my body and they widened. “Eddie?” she asked in a soft voice.

I nodded. “In the flesh, sorta speaking.”

She gasped. “I don’t understand.”

I smiled weakly then took the biggest plunge of my life. I took a deep breath and told her about what happened last night. After I was done, she didn’t say anything. So I showed her. I slipped the ring off my finger and poof, Ellie Jackson was gone. Cissie gasped and almost reached forward to touch my hand. I pulled it away quickly. She stared at me for a while, tears in her eyes. I let her look at me for a few more minutes and then I slipped the ring back on my finger. My demonic self disappeared, replaced by the mirage again. Cissie smiled but she looked like someone ran over her cat.

“Hey, it’s still me,” I said.

She reached forward slowly, touching my cheek. It sucked that I couldn’t feel her touch. She kept her hand there for a few seconds and then pulled away slowly. I reached forward and did the same to her but I didn’t pull away. Instead, I moved the hand across her face to her hair. I ran my fingers through it, caressing it. You have no idea how long I wanted to run my fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes, letting me caress her cheek with my other hand as I continued to run my fingers through her hair. Then I took another plunge. I moved gently forward, pressing my lips to hers. It was a little awkward at first. I think she was a little hesitant but it didn’t take long for her to get into it. Soon we were going at it.

After a minute or two, we pulled away. There were tears in Cissie’s eyes. I smiled and she shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, still running my fingers through her hair.

She shook her head, pushing my hand away. “You’re not him.”

She pushed my away violently then jumped to her feet. She dropped her books on the floor and ran out of the kitchen. I gave chase, calling to her but she didn’t stop. She ran for the front door and pulled it open violently. I took off after her but she was half way down the street by the time I got out the door. I flinched at the light, not used to show much brightness. I had to shield my eyes as I watched my girlfriend run away from me. Then I cried. I dropped to my knees on the front lawn, burying my face in my hands. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The ring was supposed to make me normal and now I was more repulsive with it on than I was with it off.

I cried for a long time until I felt some one gently help me up. I turned and buried my face in my mother’s chest. She held me and the two of us stood on the lawn for a while.

_____________________________________

She didn’t officially break up with me but she didn’t come back.

For the next few days, I stayed in my room, crying for most of the time. Things weren’t supposed to be this way. The ring was supposed to be the answer, not the problem. My girlfriend was repulsed by the fact that she was kissing a girl. So the ring wasn’t going back on. It was sitting in a drawer on the far side of the room, locked away. Forever for all I cared. I caused so much pain with it and I wasn’t going to do that again. I hoped that Cissie would come around. I tried calling her, telling her that the ring would never go on again. But she wouldn’t return my calls.

The day after Cissie left, Cassie came by. The two of them were friends and I’m sure they had a little “girl talk.” Cassie was already in the loop too. She worked for the DEO now, even if she didn’t want to. When she showed up, I didn’t talk much. But she did. She told me that Cissie was scared and that she couldn’t deal with it. She sounded kinda annoyed about it actually. I hated the fact that Cassie was at odds with Cissie over this but she told me that we had to stick together. As far as I knew, there were only two of us in Chicago. Amy was gone; she disappeared a few days after the spa incident. Not that anyone besides me, Cassie and Connor remembered her. It was like she never existed. Cassie said they told her that their psychic fixed things. How creepy is that? I wonder if the psychic could make Cissie forget she ever loved me. When I suggested that to Cassie, she punched me. It wasn’t very hard but it kinda hurt.

“Give it some time,” she told me “I’m sure Cissie will come around.”

But I could tell by her tone that she wasn’t very confident. It was nice that she tried though.

I talked to Connor too. He seemed to think that Cissie was being stupid. I had to agree with him there. He tried to comfort me by cheering me up but it didn’t really work. He offered to come over and play some games with me but I wasn’t really in the mood to watch him play---I can’t touch the controller because they melted in my hands. And like I said before, I’m not wearing that damn ring again.

My Mom tried to cheer me up too. She was back to wallowing too. I felt kinda bad for that but she’d have to deal with it. Yeah, I know now I’m being a jackass. But didn’t matter, nothing mattered anymore. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. She tried to talk to me about it but I didn’t want to talk. All I wanted to do was cry and try not to think about it. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face. It hurt so much that I just wanted it to stop. It didn’t help that every time my emotions got a little overloaded, I burned things. There were now several new burn spots on the carpet and a new chair was now cinders.

But it didn’t stop Mom from trying.

She knocked on the door, trying to get my attention. “Eddie, you can’t stay in there all day.”

It hadn’t just been all day. It’d been the last three days. The only time I came out was to eat and that was only once a day. I wonder if she even understood that. “I’m not coming out.”

My mother sighed; I could hear it through the door. “I know you’re hurting sweetheart, I understand your pain. But you can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

She was right even if I wasn’t ready to openly admit it. I’d been wallowing far too long and not just about Cissie. It was partly about her but it was mainly about me. I knew it was only a matter of time before she left me actually. It was hard to think that a pretty girl like her would stick around with me---a freak---for very long. I could already see it actually, her attention waning. It was little things, like how she kept coming a few minutes later each day and the way she shied away from me when I got too close. I tried to ignore it at first but it was hard too. Now the nail was in the coffin and we were done. At least she could have been remotely civil and officially break up with me.

“Mom” I said, sighing heavily. “I think I’ll lie down for a while.”

My mother sighed too. “Ok sweetheart.”

I pulled myself off the floor and wandered over to the dresser in the corner. The only time I wore the ring now was when I slept. So before when I said I didn’t wear it anymore, I was actually telling a half-truth. But wearing it while I was sleeping didn’t really count, did it? I don’t think so. Besides no one was going to see me while I slept. Not wearing the ring was dangerous too because of nightmares. Heavy emotion and I did not go hand in hand any more.

I slipped the ring on my finger; the clothes it manifested were a pair of pink pajamas. I’m not sure how it knew this but somehow it did. I tried not to think about it. There were a lot of things about the ring that troubled me and so far, I had no answers. I wanted to talk to Jade about it but I had no way of contacting her and she’d yet to show up with answers. It made me wonder if she had abandoned me too.

I sighed heavily as I lay down on my mattress and let sleep take me.

_______________________________

I dreamed but I’m not sure what it was about. But I saw that man again, the one from the pool side in the other dream. He was sitting in a chair, smiling at me in this new one. He didn’t look familiar but there was something about him that was really off putting. I think it was his eyes; there was no life in them. They kept staring at me, like they were burning into my soul. When I woke up a few hours after falling asleep, those eyes were on my mind for the rest of the day. True to my word, I went downstairs to eat something; I think Mom was just happy to see me out of the room. I’m not sure why but I kept the ring on, still in the mirage of the pink pajamas.

Mom didn’t say a word about it.

When I went to bed that night, I had trouble sleeping. I think I was afraid I’d have another strange dream. When I finally did fall asleep, he was there again. We were in a room together; he was sitting in that chair of his, this time next to a large fireplace. He didn’t say anything but he stared at me again. Those eyes were horrible. They were like two black pits that didn’t seem to end. When I woke up the following morning, I once again couldn’t get them out of my head.

At breakfast, Mom noticed something was wrong. “Are you all right, honey?”

I sighed, running my fingers through my long red hair. “I’ve been having unsettling dreams.”

She nodded. “Do you want me to call someone?”

“A shrink?” She nodded and I shook my head. “They’re not that bad, Mom.”

But I was lying. They were troubling, really troubling. I just didn’t want to see a shrink about it. How would I explain things anyway? Ellie Jackson wasn’t supposed to be here for another week or two and Eddie Bloomberg was dead. Who would the shrink think I was? But there were other problems, too. I didn’t want to discuss what else was going on with me. I’m not sure if it was the ring or if it was me all along but I kinda liked seeing Ellie in the mirror. I’m not saying that I’m that way but it was kinda nice. She was pretty and other than Cissie’s aversion to her, I think others might actually like her. As strange as it sounded, I was kinda looking forward to going back to school as her. Why the change of heart? I’m not really sure but I woke up this morning feeling like a million bucks, besides the creepy guy in my dreams, of course.

That night when I went to bed I was feeling pretty good about myself. That is until I dreamed again and something happened. I was in the same room as before---with the fireplace---but this time I knew I was Ellie and he was smiling. His other facial features were clear to me now too, not just his eyes. He was a sinister looking man with shoulder length white hair and a sneer. He was holding a silver goblet, his legs crossed. Then he did something he’d never done before, he spoke.

“You think you’re so clever, hiding what I gave you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

He smirked. “It was a wonderful gift, something I give to very few people my dear. I wanted it to be something very special to you as well. After all it was a part of the agreement.”

“Agreement? What agreement?”

He waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter, nothing matters.” He got up from his chair, the goblet disappearing from his hand. He walked over to me, almost gliding across the ground. Then he was in front of me, in a blink of an eye. “This is not what I had planned for you but it is so much better.”

I looked down for the first time and noticed I was wearing a tight red dress. It should have freaked me out but I felt kinda sexy. “Who are you?”

He smiled the corners of his mouth curling up a bit so I could see his teeth. What I saw wasn’t possible. They weren’t human teeth, he had sharp incisors like a dog or maybe a vampire. “Not a vampire, nothing as bland as that. As far as a name, I have several but if you must call me by one then you can use Neron.”

“What do you want from me?”

He laughed, it was a cruel laugh. “I want your allegiance, dear girl, I thought that was abundantly clear.”

“I’m not a girl,” I stammered.

“We both know that and yet when you put the ring on, you chose this form above all others.”

“There was a glitch.”

He laughed. “We both know that’s not true. That’s why your little friend hasn’t come back because there’s nothing wrong with the ring. This form of yours was of your choosing” He walked around me, taking in my whole body. “And what a form it is. Very lovely indeed.”

I shuddered. “I have powerful friends,” I said, trying to see if I could scare this guy away.

He laughed. “The demigod?” He laughed even louder. “The Olympians have no sway over me. They cannot enter my Realm and I cannot interfere with theirs. It is a mutual understanding we have.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He laughed. For the first time I noticed the trembling echo of his laugh. “Of course you don’t. You’re a minion, a lesser being, a means to an end. I need an army and you’re one of the soldiers. Do as I say and everything will be fine, but cross me and you’ll be sorry.”

I’m not sure what happened but it was like a light bulb. I suddenly knew what this thing was. “You’re some kinda demon,” I said with an angry sneer.

“Something like that.”

Something else dawned on me. “You turned me into that thing didn’t you?”

“A little slow on the uptake aren’t you.”

My anger flared again. “I want nothing to do with your plans. You’re a monster!”

He shook his head. “I so wish you hadn’t said that” He wagged his finger. “Now I’m afraid I’m going to have to punish you.”

A large fireball appeared in his hand. I backed up, trying to get away from it. He smiled, his vile fangs showing. Then he reared his arm back and threw it at me. I put up my hands to shield myself but it was no use. The fireball hit me and burst on my body, engulfing me in flames. I screamed at the top of my lungs, burning to death in my own dream…

_____________________________________

When I snapped my eyes, the first thing I noticed was all the smoke. The second thing I noticed was the intense heat. I snapped up in bed and screamed. The whole room was on fire. The flames were everywhere. I looked at my hands, have expecting to see them red and taloned but they weren’t. They were human hands, Ellie’s hands. How was this even possible? I tried to wrack my brain for answers. There was just no way that I could manifest flames through the cloak of the ring. Jade promised it would shield my abilities. Unless…unless the dream was real. I shook my head, that was crazy.

A blaring noise shattered my thoughts. The smoke detector. I looked around the room, trying to see through the piercing flames. Even though I was wearing the ring, I wasn’t getting burned. So apparently, it only shielded my powers from escaping but it I still had them. I wonder if that meant that I caused this. Being burned to death in a dream can be a very scary thing, too scary in fact. Did that mean I lost control and somehow brought about these flames? Was that even possible?

My thoughts were shattered again by a scream. Oh my God, Mom.

I didn’t think about anything else as I ran for the door. I grabbed the burning hot knob and tore the door off its hinges. I didn’t even wonder where I got the strength. I ran into the hall and froze. The flames were here too. In fact, they were all over the place. I could barely see through the thick black smoke but I managed to move down the hall, making my way toward Mom’s room. About two or three feet from my bedroom, a piece of the burning ceiling dropped in front of me, a near miss. I barely dodged it. I cursed, jumping over the burning beam. The whole house was definitely on fire. But I tried not to think about it, it was just a house after all. I needed to get to Mom.

I tore down the hall, moving as fast as I could. A normal person would have collapsed by now due to all the smoke but I wasn’t normal. I’m not sure what I was but a little smoke wasn’t going to stop me. When I got to Mom’s room, I kicked open the door. She was on the bed, coughing, the whole room a sea of flames around her. I shouted for her but she couldn’t hear me over the roaring noise. So I took a deep breath and charged into the room. I jumped over her flaming armchair and landed on the bed next to her.

“Eddie” she said weakly, her face and clothes covered in black soot.

“I’m here Mom,” I said, relief overwhelming me.

She was lying on the bed and reached up for me. I bent down, allowing her to touch my face. “My sweet boy, I’m so proud of you.”

I nodded, frantic. “We don’t have time right now Mom. We can talk as soon as I get you out of here.”

She coughed and shook her head. “I’m so weak Eddie.”

I bent down and scooped her into my arms, surprised at how strong I was in the Ellie form. A few days ago, I wasn’t this strong. “Hang in there Mom; I’ll get you out of here.”

She smiled weakly at me. She reached up to touch my face but her hand dropped limply. I knew the truth but I wasn’t willing to admit it. So instead, I did what I promised and turned toward the door. I jumped off the bed and the next thing I knew I was in the hallway. I’m not sure how I jumped that far but right now, it didn’t matter. I charged down the hall, flaming debris from the ceiling kept falling around my head. I dodged it all, moving like a man possessed. When I got to the stairs, they were already gone. The whole house was a total loss, roaring with flames and black smoke. I took another deep breath and jumped.

I’m not sure how but it was like I glided to the floor. When I landed, I didn’t think about it and kept running. I went right for the front door, turning sideways as I slammed into it. I smashed it from its hinges and stumbled out into the lawn. By then there were fire trucks on my front lawn, firefighters running here and there. When I came charging out of the house I don’t think they knew what to make of it. One of the closest ones looked at me. He stared for a long time, paralyzed with shock. It didn’t last long as he shook it off.

“Miss, you need to get checked out now,” he said.

I shook my head. “I’m fine, take care of my mother.”

I held her out to him and looked down. I nearly collapsed. What had once been my mother was now gone, in my hands was her badly burned body. I numbly dropped her into his arms as the world went in slow motion around me. I heard the police sirens and saw the cars pull up. There were five or six of them. They were followed by two black SUVs. When the doors of them opened, I saw some men in suits run out. I had a pretty good idea who they were. It was especially apparent they knew who I was too because they pulled their guns on me.

I snapped back into reality after that. I held up my arms. “I didn’t do this.”

“GET ON YOUR KNEES NOW!” shouted one of the DEO agents.

I shook my head. “There was fire when I woke up but it wasn’t me.” I flashed him my hand. “This ring prevents my powers from coming out.”

They didn’t listen. I got angry that they weren’t listening. They kept shouting at me, screaming at me at the top of their lungs. They were moving in, both agents and cops, all of them with their guns drawn. My anger got the better of me. I’m not sure how it happened but the fire came. I screamed at them, shouting that I was innocent and as soon as I did, the fire came out of my mouth. It tore through their ranks, burning them on contact. It scared the hell out of me. It wasn’t supposed to happen. The ring was supposed to prevent it.

I looked on my hand, wondering if it was broken. But the ring was gone. What the hell?

The guys in front of me screamed as they flailed around in flames. I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. So much death, so much pain and suffering. I had to get out of here, I had to get away. I felt a tug at my back and a rush of air as I went up. I’m not sure what was happening but my neighborhood got smaller the higher I went. I turned in the air, noticing the red of my skin and the flap of my leathery wings. The ring failed, and I was the monster once again.

I turned west, trying to get away as fast as I could.

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Author's Note: Here's Ch. 4. At some point I might change the picture for this chapter and the ones that follow but I'm not sure yet.

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Chapter Four:

I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew I was waking up. Talk about rude awakenings too. Have you ever woken up in a tree, let me tell you, it’s not pretty. I groaned and twisted, a nasty branch sticking into my back. It hurt like a bitch too, especially because I didn’t seem to be wearing a shirt. I groaned, looking down at my bare breasts. That’s when it hit me, everything at once. First I was naked and a girl and second I was feeling pain. Pain as in a sense of pain, something that shouldn’t be happening because I was wearing the ring. I knew I was wearing the ring because I was still a girl.
But as soon as I looked at my hand, I saw the ring was gone.

I freaked, flailing about. The branch I was on cracked loudly and before I knew what was happening I was falling. Let me tell you, I miss feeling things. I tried to put my hands out to stop my fall and I only succeeded in creating a lot more pain. Luckily, for me I wasn’t that high up or else landing like that would have broken something. As it was, the only thing broken was my pride. I laid there for a few seconds, panting and thinking. Something had clearly happened to me and not the good something. The ring was gone---that much was certain---but with it went my lack of senses. I’m not sure if I was happy about that or not. It would be good to be able to feel things again but there were some disadvantages to that as well.

I groaned again. If the ring was truly gone then why was I still a girl. It didn’t make any sense. Not that any of this did. I tried not to think about what happened. It was too painful to think that I might have killed my mother. Every time I thought about her---in my arms---it made my chest ache. It was horrible to try and forget about it but right now, I needed to figure out where I was and where I was going. I couldn’t go back home because I was sure the DEO were looking for me now. Last night when I fled, it had been in a western direction. I’m not sure why but the only other person I could think of was my aunt Marla.

It was a stupid plan but it was the only one I had at the moment. Now all I needed to do was figure out where I was and maybe get some clothes.

The figuring out where I was part was going to be a lot harder than I thought. Looking around I could tell that I was in a forest somewhere. There was snow on the ground so that at least meant I was still in the Midwest, I think. I don’t pay all that much attention to the weather in other places. The trees all looked kinda familiar at least. I say familiar because they weren’t palm trees or something like that. They were just like the trees around my house, which meant ---or I at least hoped---I was still in Illinois. But that didn’t still help resolve my other problem.

I needed clothes.

I’m not sure how I lost mine. Well, ok technically I wasn’t wearing any. All the clothes I had on before were generated from the ring and now that it was gone. I looked at my hand and sighed heavily. I’m still not sure how that happened. As much as I tried to push that little inconvenience from my thoughts it was hard not to. Looking down was enough to confirm that I had breasts and no ring. The implications of that scared the hell out of me. No ring meant no camouflage and yet the camouflage was me as a girl. But here I was as a girl and with no ring. Did that mean? I groaned, shaking my head. I can’t be a girl. I’m a guy, the Meta change just made me into a demon. This girl thing, I’m not sure what it is but it’s not the real me. It can’t be the real me. It was only supposed to be when I was in public and only for a short time. There had to be some answers. If only there was a way to contact Jade but without the ring…

There I go again, thinking about too many things at once. I had priorities and right now, that wasn’t one of them. Clothes, they were on the top of my list. I took a deep breath and turned around in a clumsy circle, trying to decide which way to go. All I could see was trees and snow. At least I wasn’t cold. So even though I looked like a girl my body appeared to have the same powers I had before. I’m not sure how that was going to work. Did that mean I was still me somewhere inside? Did that mean I could still burn things? I shook my head. I’d worry about that later. I needed to stop getting distracted and stay on target.

I decided to head north. Don’t ask me how I knew I was going north. Let’s just say I’ve always been good with those things and leave it that. So I went north, the snow crunching under my feet as I walked. I tried not to think about it but no matter how hard I tried, the events of last night came into my head. My mother was dead and the DEO was probably looking for me. I think I killed those men too, innocent guys who didn’t deserve to die. Thinking about it made me cry and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get the image of me burning them alive out of my head. They were gone and I was responsible for it. I was responsible for everything in fact.

I killed my own mother. What kind of monster am I?

My mother was on my thoughts as I walked. I tried not to think about her because it hurt so much but I couldn’t help it. Every time I had a thought, I could see her face in my head. Then I saw the fire and it took every bit of will power I had not to throw up and fall to the ground in a fit of tears. I tried as hard as I could not to think about her but it was difficult. To keep myself preoccupied, I tried to figure out how long it would take for me to get back to civilization. I’m not sure how long I’d been walking but the sun was not overhead when I started so at least a few hours. Without a watch, I couldn’t tell what time it was but it had to be almost noon now.

I sighed. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been outdoors this long. Ok, so that’s not true. The last time was a few days before my change. The coach had dragged me and a few of the others out for a midmorning running. He wanted to whip us all into shape during the off-season. I think I was one of the few players who didn’t play other sports. Connor was on the baseball team like a lot of the other guys, some were wrestlers and a few were a part of the men’s track and field team. There were only six of us who weren’t what the coach liked to call “Year Rounders”. It’s not that I didn’t like the other sports---I did---it’s just that there’s so much work to be done to keep up with all of it.

It was bad enough that coach worked us to the bone even in off-season. He wanted all of us “One Timers” to keep up with the “Rounders” so that they didn’t get better than we were. It was a load of crap as far as I was concerned. But we all humored him. We let him run us through the paces and every once and while we had fun with it. Luckily, he only did it once or twice a month; football was not the only sport he taught. The Athletic department was shorthanded so the Coach---like a lot of the other Coaches---doubled up on his sports. So besides coaching football, he also coached girls’ basketball. So when he wasn’t terrorizing us “One Timers” he was off giving the girls hell.

But I’m digressing again. That last Saturday morning run was two days before my change actually. I remember it because I started to feel a little woozy toward the end. The Coach noticed and made me stop to take a breather. When I didn’t readily return he came over to check on me and could tell I looked off. He let me go home early, which was a Godsend.

Now as I crunched through this snow I couldn’t help but wonder what the Coach would think. I had a lot more endurance now than before and like I said, the cold didn’t seem to affect me. So I could walk around like this---totally nude---and not feel a thing. Ok, once again not true. I could feel it but it didn’t feel any different than if I wasn’t in the cold. For all my body knew it was sunny and eighty-five which was cool and creepy at the same time. Especially when I looked down and saw how hard, my new nipples were getting. That freaked me out some. I tried to look elsewhere but hey I was still a guy in my head and it was a naked chick that I was looking down at. I didn’t care that that chick was currently me.

Kinda messed up huh.

After walking for another hour or two---again, I have no concept of time---I spotted something green up ahead. At first, I thought t was a bush until I got closer and saw a bit of blue with it. It wasn’t a bush, it was a tent. I let out a big sigh of relief. I pushed myself further on. There were two tents and a small fire pit in the center of them. It looked like someone was out here doing a little camping. Why they were doing it in the middle of winter was beyond me. Ok, so it’s February but it’s still too damn cold to be camping.

I approached the little camp slowly, not wanting to startle whoever was in side. Just in case, they were hunters with a gun. When I got close to the first tent, the flap opened. I stopped, frozen in place. The person who clamored out of it had their back to me but I could tell it was a guy. He was about my former height with shaggy black hair. He was kinda gangly even though he was wearing a thick winter coat.

“Hey sis, why do we have to be out here again?”

The other tent flap opened. This one was facing me. A girl’s head poked out. She had black hair too---you could tell they were siblings because they looked alike. She sighed. “I need to do some research for a class.”

The brother groaned. “Its freezing out here, can’t we do it in the mall or something.”

The sister rolled her eyes. “You’re pathetic Marvin.”

She crawled halfway out of the tent and stopped. I think it was then that she noticed me. Her eyes got real big, her mouth dropped open a little. I’m not sure how long it took her brother to notice but he turned his head. I thought he was going to drop dead right there. I know I would have. I sighed and took a step forward, waving a bit.

“Hi, you guys wouldn’t happen to have some clothes I could borrow?”

_____________________________________

“I think this might fit,” said the sister, Wendy, as she handed me one of her bras.

I blushed as I took it from her and then slowly put it on. Thankfully, she didn’t have to show me how to do it. I’ve actually seen enough girls undressing in movies and things like that to know how to put a bra on and take one off. Thank God for that. I might have looked like a real idiot and had more explaining to do. As it was, I think she and her brother were having a hard time believing the story I gave them. After getting over their initial shock of seeing naked girl in the woods, I quickly gave them a bogus story about a prank gone wrong. I’m not sure if they bought it but it was the only one I was going to give. After that, Wendy ushered me into her tent to keep me from her brother’s wandering eyes.

“So you said you’re on some kind of fact finding mission?” I asked as I finished putting on her bra. I winced at the tightness of it. Wendy was kinda flat chested but it would do for now.

She nodded. “I’m doing a research project for my thesis at Iowa State.”

Big shocker of the day for me: I was in Iowa. Don’t ask me how.

“You don’t look old enough to be in college?”

She smiled. “I’m not. I’m a brainiac. Marvin and I are twins belief it or not. Our day’s this super genius but I’m the only one who inherited his IQ. Marvin has his own talents I suppose, I’m not sure what they are but I’m sure he has them.”

We both laughed. I liked her, she reminded me of someone I could hang out with.

I finished getting dressed; Wendy sat at the other end of the tent quietly. It wasn’t all that big but it was big enough for the two of us. Her clothes were a little tight, especially around my chest area but they fit ok. I promised to give them back to her as soon as we got back to civilization. She didn’t seem to mind though. After I finished dressing, we crawled out of the tent. Marvin was sitting on a log, poking at the fire with a stick. When he saw us, he smiled. His eyes lingered on me for a few seconds longer than comfort. I shuddered a bit but masked it under the impression I was cold.

After a few seconds of silence, Wendy spoke. “Marvin we’re cutting this trip short. I want you to start packing up so we can get Ellie here to someplace where she can call for a ride.”

“You don’t have to end your trip on my account.”

“Yes we do,” said Marvin happily, as he got to his feet.

Wendy stuck her tongue out at him. Then she sighed. “It was kinda a bust anyway. I was trying to record the effects on gradual exposure to cold temperatures on the human body but my human subject was uncooperative.”

Marvin groaned as he started taking stuff out of his tent. “You wanted me to sit out here for ten minutes in my underwear.”

“It was for science.”

“Science my ass. You just wanted to see me make a fool of myself.”

“Trust me, Marv,” she said with a laugh. “You don’t need me for that.”

They bantered like that for a while. It made me wish I had a sibling. I smiled as I watched the two of them slowly take their little camp apart. It didn’t take long. I tried to help but Wendy was convinced that I was still recovering. Apparently being exposed to temperatures like this as long as I had been---if she only knew---was supposed to have adverse effects on the human body. I was surprised she didn’t whip out a notepad and start jotting notes down about me. I did help them carry their stuff back to their truck though. I wouldn’t take no for an answer. It took us three trips to walk the half mile to where they parked. When we were all finished, thankfully there was enough room for the three of us in the cab. Marvin got behind the wheel while Wendy say next to him.

It was a mistake because the two of them argued the whole time.

Ten miles and about an hour later, we found a little diner. It looked like something out of the fifties but we were certain it had to have a phone. When we pulled up it was thankfully pretty deserted. There was a big rig and a few motorcycles but that was it. When we went inside, I saw a trucker at the counter and a gruff looking group of guys in a booth. They were dressed in leather so clearly they were the bikers. Marvin nodded to them but they laughed, clearly they thought him to be as much as the doofus as he looked.

Wendy and I went to the counter, Marvin found a booth.

The woman behind the counter was in her fifties, dressed in a yellow waitress uniform. “What can I get you lovely dears?” she asked in a sweet grandmotherly tone.

Wendy smiled. “My friend here was wondering if she could use your phone.”

“Sure sweetie. All we have is pay phone though; it’s in the back next to the restroom.”

I nodded. Wendy turned and handed me some change from her pocket. I took it, promising to pay her back as soon as I got some money. It was a lie but I think it helped. I walked to where the woman pointed, finding the pay phone off to the side. In truth, I had no one to call. I suppose I could have called Cassie and tried to explain my side of things. She did work for the DEO now. But I’m not sure if they’d be able to track me or not. I groaned. I picked up the handset, about to pretend to dial when I realized there was someone I could call. I took a deep breath, inserted my quarter and called Marla.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Aunt Marla” I said, sighing. “It’s me, Eddie.”

She didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then she sighed heavily. “I didn’t recognize you at first. Your mother told me what happened but I find that hard to believe.”

“Its true” I said, nearly choking up. I needed to tell her everything else too.

But she beat me to it. “They have a picture of you all over the news. An Agent Faraday called me an hour ago, wanted me to report you if you called.” She sighed heavily. “Tell me you didn’t do what I they think you did.”

I shook my head, tears in my eyes. “I can’t because I don’t know.”

I quickly gave her a rundown on what happened. The voice of the phone asked for more money so I put in another quarter.

“Where are you now?”

“I can’t tell you that. Just know that I’m safe for the moment.”

There was another few seconds of silence on her end. “I want you to come here. I’m not sure how but I want to help you. The government thinks you’re a dangerous murderer but I know my nephew…ahhh….niece or whatever you are now.” She laughed. “If you tell me where you are I can wire you some cash of something, help you buy a bus ticket.”

I bit my lip. Did I want to put her in this position? Well I had no one else to turn too so I told her my approximate location. She said she’d make some calls and wire the cash to the nearest bank. I told her to put it under the name Wendy White and asked her not to ask any questions. We talked for a few minutes more then I told her I’d hopefully see her in a few days. When I hung up, I felt pretty bad. I hated getting her involved in all of this but what choice did I have. I was scared to death. I killed my mother and several other people and now I was apparently a fugitive. I needed help and right now, she was the only one I had.

I hung up the phone and turned around, sighing. Life couldn’t suck more. Then I saw the TV mounted on the wall and the newscast.

The volume was already up. “Government authorities are looking for this girl,” said the news caster, an Artist’s rendering of me appeared on the screen. “She’s wanted in connection to a dangerous act of arson and questioning for the deaths of three Chicago police officers. If anyone has any information they’re asked to call…”

I tuned out after that, cursing. So they already had a picture of me. I looked around, hoping that no one here would make that connection. When I looked back into the diner, no one was looking at me. I’m not sure, if they didn’t notice or if they were being extra suspicious. I took a deep breath and slowly walked over to the booth where Marvin and Wendy were sitting. Wendy smiled at me when I sat down, Marvin gave me a look. I knew from that look that he put two and two together. I looked from them to the door, wondering if I could run before he ratted me out.

“It’s not what you think,” I said softly.

He didn’t seem so convinced. “Did you or didn’t you?”

I sighed. “I did but it was not in my control.”

Wendy butted in. “I believe her,” she said quickly though even she didn’t look so convinced.

“I can’t explain it, at least not here. But I swear I’m not a bad person.”

Marvin nodded. “You might be able to convince us but not them.”

He gestured his head over at the bikers. They were murmuring to themselves, one of them caught me looking and quickly glanced away. I cursed. So they did notice it was me. The worst part was that they were between me and the door. If I tried to run, they’d definitely try to stop me. I tried to weigh my options but running was the best one I had.

“We have to go now.”

“Who’s this we stuff?” said Marvin.

“We walked in with her idiot,” said Wendy sternly. “There’s no way they’re not going to believe we aren’t involved.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Wendy smiled. “Don’t worry about it. You can make it up to us but telling us what’s going on.”

I nodded. Then I slowly got to my feet, pretending to stretch. Wendy did the same but Marvin was too clumsy about it, banging his knee on the table and cursing loudly. I drew the attention of everyone, including the bikers. They looked at me then at the door. It didn’t take them long to realize what we were doing. They got up too, I groaned. This was all I needed. There were three of them; they were burly, far too much for the three of us kids to get around. If there was trouble---no doubt now---then they’d definitely come out on top.

“Just let us go and things won’t get complicated,” said Wendy.

The lead biker smirked. “You and zit face can leave but the pretty red head stays here.”

Wendy puffed up her chest. “Not going to happen.”

I sighed. “Wendy, Marvin and you aren’t involved with this. Take the guy’s advice and leave.”

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving you to these guys.”

The biker stepped forward. “You should have listened to your pretty friend.”

He grabbed Wendy by the arms, squeezing hard. She screamed out. Marvin rushed forward to help her but one of the other bikers punched him in the gut then gave him a violent shove. He crashed into a bunch of tables, getting tangled up in a few chairs. The bikers laughed. Wendy screamed louder as the one holding her spun her around, her back to his chest. He put his hand on her throat, glaring at me. My anger flared, I couldn’t help it. Wendy and Marvin were innocents, two people who helped out a stranger in trouble. There was no way I could let them both get hurt for me.

I’m not sure what happened but I could feel it rising.

My voice took on a dangerous, rumbling tone when I spoke. “Let her go now.”

The biker’s eyes widened a bit. I reached out toward him, my dainty girly hand transforming into a red talon. I gripped his forearm, sending red-hot pain into it. He screamed at the top of his lungs, loosening his grip on Wendy. She pulled away from him quickly, rubbing her throat. She ran and stood behind me. I continued to hold the biker’s arm as he screamed. The others stared on in horror. His two biker buddies came at me, one with a chair. He slammed the chair onto my back. It shattered but I felt no pain. I snapped around, my other hand turning into a talon. I grabbed his leather shirtfront and threw him backwards. He sailed into the far wall, cracking the surface with his body.

The third biker stopped his assault. “Demon” he whispered, making the sign of the cross on his chest.

I turned to Wendy, still holding the screaming biker by the arm. “Get your brother quickly” I said, my voice back to normal.

She nodded numbly.

I let go of the screaming biker, throwing him to the floor. I turned to the stunned waitress and trucker, smiling sadly. “All they had to do was let me go and this could have been avoided.”

The waitress nodded. Wendy helped Marvin to his feet; my hands went back to normal. I looked at them, shocked at what I did. I’m not sure what it was but I didn’t like it. I wanted to crumple into a ball and cry. Instead, I sucked it up and slowly followed Wendy as she half dragged, half-carried Marvin out the door. Once we got outside, I looked over at the motorcycles. I glared at them, fearing that the bastards might follow in retaliation. I opened my mouth and a stream of fire emitted from it, engulfing the bikes in flame.

“Holy shit” gasped Marvin as I turned to him and his sister.

“We have to go now,” I said, pointing to the truck.

Wendy nodded but Marvin wasn’t done.

“What the hell are you?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I have no idea.”

_______________________________

We made a couple of stops when we got into the nearest town. The first was at the nearest bank. I hoped that Marla had been true to her word and wired me the cash she said she would. I went inside with Wendy while Marvin stayed in the truck nursing his wounds. On the ride from the diner, I explained everything as best as I could. I told them my whole story, afraid that if I left anything out they’d hate me. Marvin thought it was pretty cool but I don’t think he like the “MIB” after us part. His words not mine though it did make sense. I’m not sure they believed me about the whole being a guy thing though. I told them about Cassie and they believed me a little more after that.

“You’re one of those Metas then?” asked Wendy as we walked into the bank.

I nodded. “Something like that I think.”

“Are your power is fire?”

I nodded. “I think so.”

She must have noticed I was scared because she reached over and gave my arm a squeeze. “I might not understand everything but I’m going to help.”

“Its not like you have much of a choice now” I said, sighing. “I’m really sorry about getting you and Marvin involved.”

She shook her head. “We chose to stay. Our parents taught us never to abandon someone who was in trouble.”

I nodded. “I’ll make this up to you I swear.”

At the teller, we told her what we hoped would work. She typed up on the computer and nodded at us. Aunt Marla came through big time, wiring me about two thousand bucks. I’m not sure how she knew Wendy’s bank account information but I didn’t care. Marla was a big time Hollywood Producer with a lot of connections. She did a lot of things that most people tried not to ask explanations for. When we got the money, Wendy’s mouth dropped open. Mine kinda hit the floor too. The teller smiled and we left.

“So we good?” asked Marvin when we got into the truck.

“Oh yeah” Wendy and I said at the same time.

We did some shopping after that. All three of us decided it might be a good idea to get me some kind of disguise. So the first place we went was a clothing store. We spent about a hundred in there, getting me a lot of clothes I might need. I wore a brand new hoodie out of the store, the hood up and covering my head. In the next store, we bought me a pair of sunglasses. It wasn’t much but it went a long way to hide my face at least. It took us about an hour to do all the shopping we needed to do. At the end of it we stopped at a fast-food restaurant, all three of us were starving.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Marvin as he munched on his sister’s fries.

I looked at my new watch. It was too early to strike out anywhere extensive tonight. “We should probably find some place to crash.”

“We could always go home,” said Marvin “our house is only a couple of miles from here.”

Wendy smacked him in the back of the head. “And drag Mom into this mess?”

He rubbed his head. “Bad idea, sorry.”

She glared at him. I smiled. “We can get a motel and then in the morning you two can take me to the bus depot or whatever.”

“Just you?” asked Wendy, I nodded.

“I’ve put the two of you through enough already. I need to get to California and I can’t let you guys make that trip with me.”

Marvin tried to argue but in the end, Wendy was the voice of reason as usual. He grumbled a lot through the rest of the meal. Wendy asked me all sorts of questions, in a hushed tone of course. She wanted to know all about my powers. I told her as much as I could, leaving out the part about my strange dreams of course. Then I told her more about what happened at the spa, about Cassie and Amy. Even Marvin was impressed by that. I think he got little hearts in his eyes when I talked extensively about Cassie. He frowned a bit when I told him she was dating my best bud.

We left the restaurant and drove until it was dark. We put the town behind us, trying to put as much distance from us and the little diner back there as we could. On Marvin’s road map, we found a bus depot in a town three towns over. We all decided it might be the best bet. So with exhaustion looming, we found a roadside motel. Marvin took some cash and got a room for the night. WE could only get one with a single bed, which meant he was sleeping in the chair. On the news that night, we saw the diner. I suppose it was inevitable. The newscaster talked to witnesses, including the lone Biker I left unharmed.

“It was some kind of demon” he said angrily then pointed behind him. “I mean look at what she did to my bike.”

I smiled at the charred remains.

“Who is this Red Devil?” asked the newscaster.

Marvin muted it. “That is a cool name, you should copyright it.”

Wendy hit him with a pillow and we laughed. It felt good to laugh again.

After watching some more TV, we went to bed. I didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable getting into bed with Wendy. I thought maybe turning into a chick would make me instantly like guys like it did with Cassie. But thankfully, I was still into chicks. Wendy was really cute but she wasn’t really my type. Besides, I think I was still kinda hung up on Cissie. I thought about her as I lay there, trying my hardest to get to sleep. I thought about Wendy and Marvin too. They were complete strangers, I’d only met them hours ago and yet they were already knee deep in this.

I sighed, promising myself to make it up to them.

That night---after falling asleep---I had another dream. This one was all about fire again. I was back in my house and everything was burning. I was in my room but I wasn’t alone. Wendy and Marvin were there too. They were tied up, back to back, coughing and struggling. I tried to get to them but the flames were too high. I called out to them but they couldn’t hear me. Then I heard laughing, maniacal laughing that I knew belonged to the demon. I lunged off my bed toward them and then hit the floor hard. It snapped me awake and I found myself on the floor of the motel room. I jumped up, half expecting the room to be on fire.

It wasn’t thank God.

I sighed and walked over to the bed. I sat on the edge and looked down at the sleeping Wendy. She and her brother were good people but the dream had disturbed me too much. I couldn’t let them continue any further with me. I sighed heavily, realizing what I had to do. I know I promised them that I’d wait until morning but there was just no way I could. I had to get out of here and now. I got on my shoes, grabbed the pack with my new clothes and paused at the nightstand. I bit my lip, looking at Marvin’s keys. I sighed heavily again, debating what to do.

“Shit, I’m sorry guys,” I said, snatching up the keys.

I wrote a quick note and left them four hundred bucks. I know it wasn’t much but I promised to send them more as soon as I got to where I was going. I glanced back from the doorway before I left, hating my decision but I had no choice. There was no way I could drag them into this any further. I took a deep breath and left the motel room.

I got into Marvin’s truck; made sure no one saw me leave and drove west.

-----

Author's Note: Here's five. Thanks to everyone for their feedback on my floundering support for this story...I've decided to follow it to the end, whenever that may come about :) I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilish good editing and DC Comics for their characters.

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Chapter Five:

I’m not even sure where I was, not even when I got there. I spent the night in the truck, it was rather uncomfortable. I felt bad about stealing the truck but I was good with my promises. As soon as I got to California, I would definitely make sure the two of them were compensated for it. Did I want to steal the truck? Not really, but it was the only way. Or else I would have been walking to the damn bus station.

As soon as I pulled into the parking garage across the street, I left the truck there. It was almost out of gas anyway. I locked the doors, leaving a note telling Marvin where he could find his keys. Then I walked across the street to the bus depot. The first thing I did was buy a ticket---I still had a few hours. So the second thing I did was rent a storage locker. I put the truck key and another hundred dollars inside. Then I took the key and gave it to the girl behind the counter, telling her that a guy named Marvin White would definitely come looking for it. She didn’t ask any questions.

After that, I left the station, heading down the street toward a little shopping district I saw. After all, I had a few hours to kill. I was never much of a shopper as a guy. I used to go with Mom on occasion but it always used to bore the hell out of me. In the end, I always ended up in the Arcade or in some sporting goods store. I trusted her to do all my clothes shopping; after all, it was mainly jeans and t-shirts. I’m not a trendy guy, not like the other guys on the team. Mom didn’t make a lot of money either so I couldn’t afford to be in style even if I wanted too. Connor was the same way, what with living with his cousin and all. Of course, his Dad and mega rich model Mom sent him cash every week, he put most of it away for college.

Me, money burned holes in my pockets.

So as I browsed the racks, trying to decide if I should buy something, I couldn’t help but think that something had changed in me. I’m not sure what it was but it was definitely something. I wanted to spend the money but not on this stuff. Yet here I was in some clothing boutique, browsing girls clothes, wondering if that would fit me right. Frustrating, isn’t it? I haven’t been a girl for more than a day and already I was clothes shopping. It should have annoyed the hell out of me but it didn’t. That was the scary part, I was kinda enjoying it. I wonder if this is what happened to Cassie too. I never really knew her from before. I knew Connor had a really good friend named Charlie---he talked about him a lot---but I never met the kid. I guess he was kinda a loner dweeb, at least according to the other guys on the team. But if Connor liked him that was enough for me. Connor was a good guy and a good judge of character.

I pulled a pink top from a rack and held up to my chest. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I did it. As soon as I did, I groaned. I shoved it back real quick. What the hell is wrong with me? I moved on quickly but found myself in a similar predicament a few seconds later. Now it was jeans and I was holding a pair up to my waist. I groaned, forcing them back on the rack. I gave up after that---realizing there was no way I could do this with a level head. So I decided just to bail. I made my way toward the door as quick as possible, not watching where I was going.

I ran into a girl as she was coming in. I bumped into her lightly, shoulder to shoulder. We looked each other in the eye for a moment. She was pretty, long blonde hair, sharp features. She had these eyes that were bright blue and mesmerizing. Looking at her made my heart skip a beat.

“Sorry” we both said at the same time then laughed.

I stepped to the side to allow her to pass and as she did so she wobbled, falling. I caught her, her hands falling on my chest. Both of them cupped my breasts for a second and we both blushed. She apologized with a string of curses then pushed away, disappearing into the store. I turned to see if she was all right but I lost her in the stacks. I thought about following but I couldn’t bring myself to go back into this dreaded place. I shrugged it off and went out the door. I wandered the streets a bit after that, doing a little window shopping. I finally came upon a little diner and went inside. I ordered a cup of hot chocolate, sitting at the counter. When I finished it, I reached into my hoodie front pouch to get my wallet and found it gone.

I panicked, wondering what must have happened to it. My mind flashed back to the boutique, I must have dropped it when the girl ran into me. Luckily, I still had enough of Wendy’s change to pay for the drink. After I left the diner, I ran back to the boutique and asked the girl behind the counter if she saw it. She didn’t. I looked around the shop a bit but came up empty. I would have looked more but my bus was coming. I bit my lip and cursed, all my money was in there. Thankfully, I kept my bus ticket in my pocket or else I would have been screwed.

I made my bus on time though. I did a lot of bus traveling and not just to school either. We were always getting on buses, going to away games and things like that. But this was the first time that I’d ever been on a bus like this. Earlier I bought a one way ticket, meant to take me from Iowa all the way to California. It was a Greyhound, the ticket cost about two hundred and fifty bucks and to get there it meant I had to switch buses three times but it was worth it. Anything to get as far away from Illinois and the troubles I left behind. When I got on the bus, I found a seat by the window, anxious to get things going. I stared out the window, looking at the station. It pained me to be going so far away but it wasn’t like I had a choice. The only life I had was in Chicago and now it was all gone. I might upset a few people---Cassie and Connor and maybe Cissie---but they probably thought I was an evil murderer anyway.
I wanted to get away from all that; I needed to get away from all that. Then why was I crying?

“You ok?” asked a voice from behind me.

I turned; ready to tell whomever it was to mind their own business when I gasped. It was the girl from the boutique. She smiled and slipped into the seat next to me, not even bothering to ask if she could. It didn’t matter. A girl that pretty, I’d let her sit on my lap.

“I’m fine,” I said softly, wiping tears.

She laughed. “You’re not crying because you dropped this are you?”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out my wallet, waving it front of my face. I was elated. I quickly took it from her. Then I did something stupid and opened it, making sure everything was still there. I’m glad I did, there was some cash missing. I looked at her, frowning. “You take some of this?” I asked, anger in my voice.

She frowned and lowered her voice. “I’m real sorry but I was desperate. Look I’ll pay you back but I need to get out of here.”

I got angry. “What the hell kind of person finds a wallet, steals money from it and returns it to its owner?”

She shrugged. “Look, I’m real sorry. I told you I was. I’m good for it; I’ll pay you back as soon as we get to where we’re going.”

“And where are you going?”

She smiled. “California, just like you.”

I was about to say ok but then something dawned on me. “How do you know where I’m going?”

She opened her mouth and closed it real quick, like a fish gasping for water. Then she bit her lip. She cursed under her breath. “This is going to sound crazy but that’s where I saw us going together.”

It did sound crazy. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She opened her mouth to say something but then her eyes widened. She gripped the arms of her seat and cursed. “Shit, I thought it was going to take longer than that.”

I turned to where she was looking, which was clearly out the window. What I saw drained the color out of my face. It was two guys in suits, talking to a man in uniform. The guys flashed their badges, looking all official. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who they were. I cursed, it was the fucking DEO. They were after me. I turned to tell the girl it was me they were after but her face was pretty pale. She looked like she was going to throw up.

“Are you ok?” I asked, reaching over and touching her arm.
She shook her head, her hand reaching forward and grabbing mine. I had to admit, it was kinda nice. “Look I don’t have time to explain but we have to go now.”

“What go?” I asked, “We can’t go, this bus will be leaving in a few minutes.”

She shook her head. “They’re going to stop it or try to anyway. They’re bad people, real bad people.”

I shook my head. “They’re government morons but they’re not bad. Besides what makes you think they’re after you.”

That gave her some pause. Then she reached into her purse, taking out a bottle of pills. She popped one and closed her eyes. She gripped my hand tightly, digging her nails into my flesh. I winced under her tight grip then it relaxed. She let out a big sigh and opened her eyes, tears running down her cheeks.

“You’re right,” she said, letting go my hand. “They’re not here for me. They’re looking for you I think.”

That made me pause. Then I pushed myself up in the seat, ready to bolt. She grabbed my arm, pulling me back down. She was a lot stronger than she looked.

“They’re not going to find you. The bus is going to start and the two of them will still be standing there when it does. They’ll shout and give chase but they won’t catch us.”

I looked at her like she was crazy. “How do you know that?”

“Trust me, I just do.”

I frowned. “This coming from the girl who stole my wallet.”

She smiled sheepishly. “I’ll pay you back, I promise.”

I huffed and turned away from her. I looked out the window again, trying to ignore the crazy girl sitting next to me. Instead, I watched the two Agents continue to talk to the uniformed man. I watched and waited but whatever they were talking about seemed to take longer than they thought. Then the bus engine roared loudly and the bus started to move. Soon it was moving at a good pace. I watched in shock as the two agents shouted and gave chase, trying to catch us as we slowly pulled away from the station. They gave up when it was clear they weren’t going to catch us. I smiled widely then turned back to the not-so-crazy girl sitting next to me.

She smiled. “Told ya.”

“How did you do that?”

She smiled and stuck out her hand. “I’m Rose by the way, Rose Wilson.”

I numbly shook her hand.

_________________________

Rose liked to talk---a lot---and mostly about herself.

I didn’t mind though, it was kinda refreshing actually. She didn’t get into too many specifics but now I knew why she was in such a rush to get away. She was running from someone. She didn’t exactly say from who but from what I could gather, it might have been her father. He sounded like a real ass, the complete opposite of mine. Though both had a military background, her’s apparently worked for the Department of Defense. He was a Colonel of some kind, strict and overbearing. She didn’t say why she ran but I think it had something to do with a massive argument they had. It was all she said about it. The rest of her talking was about her days on the run---she’d been gone from home for two months now. What amazed the hell out of me was that she’d actually started in Washington, DC.

“DC?” I said, flabbergasted.

She nodded. “I slipped out of my bedroom late one night two months ago after…” She sighed and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m finally on my way to California.”

I nodded. “What’s there?”

“My Mom” she said with a smile then quickly added. “I think.”

“You don’t know?”

She sighed heavily. “The Colonel” she said, that’s how she referred to her father, never as Dad. “He said she abandoned me when I was just a baby but I don’t believe him. I got a post card from her about a year ago; her address listed her in California. I tried to talk him into letting me go and see her but he wouldn’t allow it. But after recent events there’s no way I’m going to stay there with him.”

“Recent events?”

She laughed. “Water under the bridge” She sighed again. “I never thought I was going to make it this far, especially on my own. If I didn’t find companionship soon I was going to go crazy. But that’s all settled now because I have you.”

She wrapped her arms around mine and rested her head on my shoulder, smiling. Not that I didn’t enjoy it but it was a little awkward.

“You don’t even know me; in fact we’ve just met.”

She nodded. “I know but I have a feeling you and I are going to become great friends.”

We got on the bus at six in the morning and didn’t make our first transfer until five hours later when we reached Omaha. We barely got time to stretch our legs before the bus started moving again. I was a little nervous the whole time we were at the bus depot there. I had the strangest feeling that the DEO were going to jump out of the shadows and grab me. But Rose did her thing again---whatever that was---and told me that they hadn’t caught up with us yet. It made me happy when she included “us” in her bit. I’m not sure why she cared so much but she did. Another thing I didn’t understand was how she was doing whatever it was that she did. But she didn’t want to talk about it. Shortly after we left Iowa, I tried to ask her about it but she changed the subject. But if we were going to continue this journey together, we needed to be honest with one another.

I took a deep breath. “I think you and I should talk.”

We were now twenty minutes out from Omaha, having just left the depot there a little while ago. Rose was lying with her head against my shoulder, pretending to sleep. She opened her eyes and looked up at me, frowning.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said sternly.

“Then don’t talk,” I said, “listen.”

That got her attention. She moved her head from my shoulder and sat up. I took a deep breath. It felt strange to be so close to someone, even someone I’d just met a few hours ago. But the last day or so was all about the unknown. First, it was everything that happened back at home, then waking up as a girl, meeting Wendy and Marvin and now this. I never in a million years thought I’d be so open with strangers before, but Wendy and Marvin were good people. I’m not sure if Rose was the same, ---she did rob me after all---but I felt I could be open with her, too. Even though she probably wouldn’t admit it, I think the two of us had a lot in common.

“I think you and I are a lot alike” She opened her mouth to protest but I held up hand. “You’re different aren’t you, different than other kids our age. Something happened to you, something that you can’t explain and don’t want to talk about. Your father knows, I think, and that’s why you’re running from him. How am I doing so far?” She nodded, I smiled. Then I took a deep breath. “Can I ask you something?”

She sighed. “You’re going to whether I want you to or not.”

I smiled. “What’s your name, your real one?”

She sighed heavily. It took her a minute or two to respond. “Wade.”

She tried to explain but I cut her off. This time I held my hand out to shake hers. “Hi Wade, nice to meet you. My name is Eddie.”
Her eyes bugged out of her head after that. She numbly shook my hand.

I told her my story. It didn’t take long. She didn’t interrupt me at all, listening like a captive audience. When I got to the end, she looked a little pale though.

“And that’s who the guys in the suits were?”She asked, referring to the ones back in Iowa. I nodded, she shuddered. She leaned over and gave me a big hug, it felt nice. When she pulled away, she was crying. “I’m sorry about your Mom.”

“Thanks “I said, sadly, crying a bit myself.

We didn’t say anything for a few minutes then she said: “We can’t go to your aunt anymore.”

That took me by surprise. “Why not?”

She sighed heavily. “Trust me, I’ve been a Colonel’s daughter all my life and if I know one thing then I know how these people work. They’ll be waiting for you at your aunt’s house, the conversation you had with her on the phone was being monitored. That’s how they knew to get you at the bus station.”

I groaned, I hadn’t even thought of that. But it made sense I suppose. But I still had no choice. “I have nowhere else to go.”

Rose smiled. “Yes we do.”

She reached into her purse, rummaging about a bit. Then she pulled out a folded piece of paper. She opened it slowly and handed it over. It was computer printout showing a roughly drawn map, an address and a name in big block letters: TERROR TITANS. I was a bit confused. “What the hell is this?”

“One of the real reasons I’m going to California.”

“I thought you were looking for your Mom?”

She nodded. “I am but these people are a bonus.”

Ok “I said, looking at the sheet of paper in my hand. “Who are the Terror Titans?”

She smiled. “They’re like us” she lowered her voice to a whisper. “They’re Metas.”

My eyes bulged out of my head. “You’re kidding?”

She shook her head. “I read about them in an underground forum. They’re a group of kids like us---runaways---they went through the change and for one reason or another, they left their homes. They’re local but according to the ClockKing42, they accept members from all over.”

“Who’s ClockKing42?”

“He’s the guy in charge or the group. I’m not sure what his real name is but that’s his handle. Sounds pretty cool right?”

I shrugged. “I’m not so sure.”

She frowned. “But they’re like us.”

I bit my lip. I knew I was prying but I couldn’t help it. “You still haven’t explained that.”

She sighed, folding the piece of paper. She stuck it back into her purse and looked around; making sure no one was eavesdropping. “Ok, remember how I said my real name was Wade?” I nodded. “Well it is but I’m the only one who ever called myself that. You see, I’m a girl, I have been since birth. But inside I was a guy, a guy called Wade.”

“You’re one of those transgendered people?”

She nodded. “My father always knew I was different but he wasn’t willing to except that. You see he doesn’t just work for the DOD, he works for a scientific branch of it, one that until recently was working on mind control. But when the Meta human outbreak---his words, not mine---occurred, Dad switched gears. He ordered the scientists under him to figure out what makes a Meta tick so they set about finding the perfect test subject.” She sighed heavily.

“Was it you?”

She shook her head. “When they couldn’t find one, that’s when he turned to me. He was only trying to help, I think. My Dad knew what the Meta change did to some people, how it changed their genders. So he told me all about it, asked if I wanted to be his son for real. You have no idea how fast I jumped at the chance.”

“He doesn’t sound like such a bad guy.”

She frowned. “Something went wrong” She took a deep breath, tears running down her cheeks. “You see the US Government ran this experiment where they took some of their soldiers and tested them for the metagene. When they found viable candidates they got them to agree to allow them to activate the gene inside of them.”

I nodded. “I’ve met one of them.”

She smiled then continued. “My father got his hands on the same drug they used---don’t ask me how---and he injected me with it. Like you said, he might have been doing it to help me but it was mainly to help himself. He’s never been happy to have a daughter and if he could get a soldier and a son out of the deal, he was willing to risk it all. Well, suffice to say things didn’t work out as he planned.” She waved her hands up and down her body. “You see, what my father didn’t know was that in order for the drug to work properly, the recipient of said drug has to have the metagene in them to begin with. Well it turns out that I didn’t.”

“So you remained a girl?”

She nodded, crying. She tried to tell me more but it was incoherent through her tears. I reached over and pulled her into my arms, holding her tight. She cried like that for a while. Someone sitting across from us asked if she was all right and I told him it was her “time”. He turned a little white and learned not to butt his head into other people’s businesses. I felt pretty good after that. I let Rose cry herself out on me. After that, she slowly drifted to sleep, her head on my lap. It appalled the hell out of me that a father could do such a horrible thing to do his daughter. What the hell kind of government agency funded an operation like his? I thought maybe it was DEO but it was even too sinister for them. Whatever group it was, I could see why she ran from it.

I let her sleep. We reached our next transfer stop, which was Denver, that was around ten at night or so. I reluctantly woke her up. She was a bit groggy and apologetic for sleeping on me. I told her everything was fine. I helped her off the bus and onto the next one. We sat quietly after that. I knew there was more to her story that she wanted to tell but I could see it hurt her to do so. After about an hour, she rested her head on my lap and fell back to sleep. I had to wonder how much sleep she’d actually had in the last few months. It must have been rough, always on the run like that. It made me wonder if that’s what my life was going to be like, too. I know she was really excited about these people in California but they sounded kinda fishy to me.

I’m not sure when I drifted off to sleep but I dreamed again. There was more fire and laughing. Wendy and Marvin were in it again, this time they were in submissive roles. Neron was sitting in that big chair of his and my new friends were at his feet. They were dressed in bondage outfits; the black leather looked particularly unwelcome on Marvin. Neron kept laughing. He looked at me again, those horrible black eyes burning into me again.

“Join Me,” he said in that echoing voice of his. “Join me or your friends will be mine for the rest of eternity.”

There was a lot of flame and screaming after that.

___________________________

I snapped awake, drenched in sweat, my heart pounding a minute.

I looked around, confused as all hell. I blinked a few times, wondering where I was. Then I looked down and smiled. Rose was still sleeping, her head on my lap. I reached down and stroked her hair. It felt good to have someone that close again. I’m not saying anything was going to happen between the two of us but it’d been so long since I’d even been able to let someone touch me. It made me feel all gooey inside. It also helped me forgot about my horrible nightmare. I tried to force it from my head. I looked out the window at the dim morning lights. I blinked again, wondering where we were now. I reached into my pocket and took out the bus schedule, comparing it to my watch. According to both, we were somewhere in Utah.

Six in the morning. I groaned, which meant I’d been on this bus for a whole day. We still had another sixteen hours or so before we got to California. The prospect of spending another sixteen hours on a bus was not very comforting at all. I tried to busy myself any way I could but it definitely wasn’t easy. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Rose woke up. She was as bleary eyed and as confused as I was, at first anyway. She looked up at me though and smiled.

“I’m sorry,” she said, moving stiffly from my lap.

“Its fine” I said with a smile. “You looked like you needed it.”

She stretched. “You bet your ass I did.”

She excused herself after that and ran to the bathroom. She came back a few minutes later, dropping back into her seat with a sigh. We didn’t say anything for a while but then she got talking again, mainly about this group she wanted to meet. As I said before, she was really excited about them. I think it impressed the hell out of her that there were people out there who would actually take in people like us. When she said “us” though it was with sadness.

“Do you want to finish your story?” I asked after a minute or two of more silence.

She shook her head but said. “Yes” She took a deep breath. She collected her thoughts. “After injecting me with the drug, the Colonel was pretty confident that both of our wishes would come true. But when nothing happened right away, he grew kinda agitated. I think it annoyed him that the changes didn’t happen right away like in the other subjects. His annoyance and agitation grew into frustration. Then he locked me in my hospital room. I think he was afraid I was going to tell someone what he did. After all, he performed an unsuccessful experiment on me and nothing had come of it, which was real bad. I didn’t find out until later that it was an unsanctioned, illegal experiment. The Colonel thought it was a failure but it wasn’t.”

“Did you tell him?”

She shook her head. “Not at first. But he discovered something was up when I accidentally touched him and blurted out that he was going to drop his coffee mug on his lap in the next five minutes. He thought I was messing with him until he came back into the room five minutes later with coffee all over his pants. After that, things got bad. He started forcing me to touch people, trying to get readings off them. But it angered him that my “visions” only went a few minutes into the future. He said they were useless but he didn’t know how much wrong he was. After that he tried to come up with ways to make me have longer and better visions.”

She reached into her purse again and pulled out the bottle. She turned it so I saw the label. She sighed heavily. “It turns out that I can’t control when my visions come unless I pop one of these. They’re adrenaline pills, something inside of them acts like an accelerant to my ability. Once I put one in my mouth, it forces the vision to come whether I want it to or not.”

“That’s horrible” I said, appalled and then remembered she did it when she first met me. I shuddered at the thought.

She nodded, teary eyed again. “He started using other drugs too, trying to make my visions longer. That’s when I decided to run.”

I nodded. “How did you get out of there?”

She smiled. “You remember how he thought my visions were useless?” I nodded. “Well, being Daddy’s little girl---the daughter of a military man---he made sure I had self defense. Well Daddy took it one-step too far and made sure I had the best possible training. I’m currently skilled in several forms of martial arts; I’ve been a student since the age of four. I take to it like a fish to water. All the kids in my group used to call me the Ravager because I’m so vicious on the mat.”

I shuddered at that too. “Is that how you escaped?”

She nodded. “Being able to see a few minutes into the future helps when you’re fighting someone.”

“I’ll bet.”

She smiled. “I’ve been on the run ever since. You know the rest.”

We laughed and talked after that. She told me about the struggles of growing up as a boy stuck in a girl’s body. I felt kinda bad for her, even more so knowing that even after having a Meta change forced on her she didn’t get her wish. But she said she was content now. I found that hard to believe but according to her if she was meant to be a boy, it would have happened. She said that with sadness. I tried to tell her maybe Jade could give her a ring and make her appear like one, it worked for me except I didn’t want it of course. But she didn’t want to be a bother. So we changed the subject and I’m not sure how but we got talking about sexual orientation.

“Its really hard being in the locker room and seeing all these naked girls around me” She said with a shudder. “You have no idea how hard it was to keep myself restrained.”

“So you’re a lesbian?”

She shook her head. “Everyone else saw it that way of course. But to me, I was a healthy teenage guy getting a metaphysical hard-on for the girls around me.”

“That must have sucked”

She nodded and looked at me. “What about you?” I gave her a confused look, she sighed. “Girls or guys?”

I laughed. “Girls definitely.”

We both blushed and shared a smile. Time passed quickly talking to her. It was different being with her too, not at all like Cissie. I still cared a great deal about her but with Rose, it was like I wasn’t hiding myself. With Cissie, I was afraid I was going to hurt her. But with Rose, I didn’t have that problem. I suppose that’s not a fair assessment because Cissie didn’t stick around, so I wouldn’t hurt her. In the end, she hurt me. I tried not to think about it. Instead, I looked at my watch, shocked that so much time had passed. It was three hours from the time we woke up. Rose was in the middle of telling me about little league baseball, begging the Coach to let her play on the boy’s team. She was in the middle of her story when she stopped suddenly just after our hands briefly touched.

“We have to get off this bus at the next stop.”

She shocked the hell out of me. “What? Why?”

“They’ve got a road block up ahead. There’s a bunch of cars and everything. Someone on here recognized you from the news and called it in. The police are going to stop the bus right outside the next city.”

I groaned. “Are you sure?"

She nodded. “If we stay on, they’ll get you.”

I cursed. She grabbed my hand and squeezed gently. We got to the next town ten minutes later. We were just inside Nevada now, far from where I wanted to be. We filed off the bus with some of the other passengers. Rose talked to the bus driver, making him get our bags. I don’t think he was too happy about it but she took some of my money to grease his palms. That shut him up. I wasn’t really sure why she so anxious to get her things, they were just clothes, right. I could buy us some more. But I saw as soon as he got her stuff: she had a guitar too. She slung it on her shoulder, making sure if was secure. She carried both our bags too: my backpack and her duffle.

I reached for my pack but she shook her head. “A gentleman should carry the ladies bag,” she said with a laugh.

I laughed too, looking at the guitar case. “I didn’t know you played the guitar?”

She smiled. “I don’t”

We left the little bus depot in a rush after that. I’m not sure where we were going to but it was a lot better than being caught. I just hoped Rose knew what she was doing because I sure as hell didn’t.

-----

Author's Note: Here's Ch. 6, its a little shorter than the others. Things will move a lot faster after this so I apologize for the shortness of things here. I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilish good editing and DC Comics for the wonderful characters. So I've done some tweaking with the picture for chapters 2-5, you'll understand when you read this chapter I think. So if you back to them you'll see they have a different picture. I'll be using that one from now on and the one here less.

-----

Chapter Six:

“So what’s the plan?” I asked as we filed into a cab.

Rose didn’t say anything. She kept looking over her shoulder, staring at the little depot. She watched it until we started to drive down the road, then she let out a sigh. The driver asked us where we wanted to go and Rose quickly told him to the nearest area with a lot of people. He nodded, not asking anymore questions. I think they were paid not to ask those kinds of things. I planned on paying him more than his fair share just to keep him quiet. I’d pay Rose too, if it got her to tell me what was up. I asked again but she kept her mouth shut. She kept glancing over the back of the seat, fidgeting. I looked too but if there was anyone tailing us I couldn’t tell.

The cab dropped us off at a crowded shopping center. I paid the driver and the two of us filed out. Rose still didn’t say anything. But she took my hand, leading me through the crowd toward a food court. We didn’t go anywhere near the food places but just sat there. She finally let out the breath it seemed that she was holding for so long.

“Now will you tell me the plan?” I asked, she smiled.

“Sorry about that, but it’s been in my experience that you can’t trust anyone.”

I raised an eyebrow. “The cabby was out to get us?”

She shrugged. “My father has a big reach with long arms.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. If her father was really as bad as she claimed then we were in real trouble. But I was certain my goons would keep his at bay. At least for the moment. A part of me wondered if it might be safer if the two of us ended up in DEO custody. At least they might be able to protect Rose. That is, of course, if her father wasn’t working for them to begin with. It was scary to think about but she did say he worked for the government so it wasn’t too far of a stretch.

Rose still looked a little paranoid, looking around the food court like each and every one of the people here were her enemy. I looked at the faces too but only to see if I recognized any of them. After all, it was only a matter of time that I did. I was certain they had figured out we weren’t on the bus anymore and it was only a matter of time before they figured out where we went. Paranoid, I know, but you’d be paranoid too if you had a clandestine government agency chasing after you.

Rose finally stopped making me so nervous. “I think we’re good for now.”

I still looked for a few more seconds. When I finished I looked over at the pizza stand. “Do you want to get something to eat?”

She didn’t answer, just smiled real big. I got up, leaving her alone as I went to get us some food. I was starving, the last time I’d anything real substantial was almost two days ago when I stopped with Wendy and Marvin. Back then, I hadn’t really thought about it but the food actually tasted like real food. I wonder if that meant my demon self was gone now. I know I did some crazy fire stuff back at the diner but what did that mean exactly. I tried not to think about too much as I went and ordered. I got us a couple slices of cheese and pepperoni. A few minutes later, I carried our slices back to the table. The two of us ate in relative silence. I kept staring at her, trying to figure her out. I knew what she told me but looking at this girl sitting across from me, it was hard to see a boy hiding inside there. I know what she said but it was just so hard to fathom. Here was this girl---this gorgeous blonde---it was just hard to believe that she wanted to be a guy.

She stopped eating when she noticed me staring. “Do I have sauce on my chin?”

I shook my head. “You’re just so pretty” It slipped out and I felt really stupid afterwards.

She blushed. I blushed too. Neither of us said much more after that.

We ate quickly then decided what to do. It was clear that we still wanted to get to California but neither of us were really how to go about it. We knew that taking a bus was probably not an option anymore, trains were probably out, too. In fact, any mode of transportation like that was probably too risky. I didn’t even suggest a plane. So we decided we’d probably have to drive, most likely hitchhike. But there was even some risk there. Not in hitchhiking of course but in roadblocks and things like that. I’m sure by now most of the local authorities had my picture and they were probably checking each car for me. The only way I could possibly get past them was with a…

“A disguise” said Rose as we left the food court.

I tried to protest but she wouldn’t have any of it. She grabbed my wrist and dragged me to some place I didn’t expect. When we stepped into the Goth themed store, I tried to dig my heels in but she was too strong. Never in my wild dreams would I have been caught dead in a place like this. As Eddie, I’m ashamed to say that I used to hassle the hell out of girls who shopped in places like this. I just don’t understand why someone would want to make themselves look like a painted freak. Ok, so harsh but I was an ass sometimes. Even now as Rose pushed me around, pulling clothes off the racks, I felt really uncomfortable.

A blue haired girl with several eyebrow rings tried to help us but Rose got rid of her. I think she didn’t want to draw attention to us. I was glad for that, looking at all the rings in that girls’ face made me nervous. It didn’t take her long to find the outfit: don’t ask me to describe it. She forced me into the changing room and I put it on reluctantly.

“Why do I have to be a Goth chick?”

Rose laughed. “Because they won’t be looking for one. Everyone looks at girls like this and doesn’t give them a second glance. You’ll be able to walk right under their noses and they won’t even see you.”

I groaned. The worst part of the outfit were the boots, they were clunky platform things with a massive heel. They made me feel like I was ten feet tall. Rose took off all the tags and took them to the register. Me I followed behind, stumbling in the heels and tugging on the skirt---it was too damn short. At the register, Rose grabbed a bunch of makeup from a display and actually talked the girl into allowing us to have the purple wig off a nearby mannequin. The girl frowned at us, probably thinking we were two friends pretending to be something she was. I smiled at her, mouthing “sorry” She gave me a dirty look, after that I didn’t feel so damn sorry.

Rose put the wig on my head before we left the store. When we got out into the mall proper, my outfit had the opposite effect. It was supposed to make me inconspicuous but it drew all the eyes to me. I felt really uncomfortable. Rose grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the nearest ladies room. She pushed me inside and locked the door. She dragged me over to the mirror and went to work on my makeup.

“How do you know how to do this?” I asked as she started putting a pale foundation on my face.

She smiled. “I went through a goth phase in middle school.”

I laughed. “I bet you looked cute” I blushed after saying that, not sure where it came from.

It took her about twenty minutes to do my makeup but when she was done, I hardly recognized myself. I was shocked as all hell. If anyone came looking for Ellie Jackson they’d definitely not look in my direction. I had to smile, shocked that the Goth Goddess in the mirror was me. I opened my mouth to make a comment but Rose grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the bathroom. We were on the move again; more people began to stare at me. Our next stop was a tattoo parlor, I immediately refused but we weren’t getting anything permanent. Rose talked me into a temporary one, ironically one that looked like a red She-demon.

“We should definitely get you pierced in a few places,” said Rose as she dragged me out of the parlor.

I dug my feet in. “Not happening.”

She frowned. “Fine, let’s get out of here then. “I’m getting tired of being on my feet.”

The two of us hailed a cab, telling him to take us to the nearest motel. The whole way the driver kept glancing in the rearview mirror, giving me strange looks. I glared every time he did so. I kept glaring at Rose too, not that she noticed. This disguise was supposed to make me look less conspicuous not more. At least I looked nothing like myself, which was a good thing. Especially when we came upon the first roadblock. Rose reached over and gently took my hand, closing her eyes when she did so. After a few seconds she opened them and smiled, shaking her head. I hope that meant we were in the clear. When we reached the police officer, he motioned for the driver to roll down the windows. The two of them exchanged some words and he looked into the back at us. He squinted then frowned. The whole time I was holding my breath.

Then he smiled and waved us on. Rose squeezed my hand harder.

“Told you it would work,” she said softly in my ear as the cab drove on.

____________________________

Rose was paranoid again after we left the roadblock. She kept doing her looking over shoulder thing, making me nervous too. She got me looking as well, wondering if there really was someone following us. But after a few blocks, she seemed to relax some. I helped by gently holding her hand. It was kinda strange really. I wish I was doing all of this with Cissie. I liked Rose a lot but no matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t get Cissie out of my head. I know it was crazy---that she had abandoned me---but it still stung a bit. I guess I’d always feel a little longing for her but that life was over and behind me. She was Eddie Bloomberg’s girlfriend and Eddie was dead. I know it’s harsh but there was no way I was going back there, not after everything I did.

Rose smiled at me when the taxi finally stopped at a reasonable motel. Rose paid him with some of my money and the two of us went into the office. I half paid attention and didn’t really notice when she got us a single. The manager gave us a look though, raising his eyebrow. I felt a little disturbed by that, it made me wonder what he thought about the two of us,. I smiled at him and played it up a bit, slipping my arm around Rose’s waist. The guy went as white as a sheet as the two of us walked out of the office.

“I wish I had a camera,” said Rose and both of us laughed.

We walked toward our room but my arm remained around her waist.

When we got inside, Rose got paranoid again. She searched the room thoroughly. She pulled the covers off both beds, stripping them completely then opened all the dresser drawers, pulling them off and shaking them. After that, she lifted up the mattress and checked under the lampshades. She lifted the two pictures in the room off the wall and even went so far as taking the batteries out of the remote. It confused the hell out of me. After searching the main room, she went into the bathroom and turned it upside down as well. The whole thing took her about an hour and when she was done, she dropped down on the bare mattress and sighed heavily.

“Are you done being crazy yet?” I asked as I flopped down next to her.

She nodded. “I had to be sure.”

I laughed. “I heard that thing about bed bugs too, but I don’t think they’re that dangerous.”

She smiled and punched me playfully in the arm. “This is serious.” She looked around the room again. “When I walked in here I had this feeling…”

I lowered my voice. “Did you have a vision?”

She shook her head. “No but this is the kind of place that they would bug.”

I nodded then helped her off the bed. Since she had trashed the room, I made her help me put it back together. It took us another hour or so. When we were done, we flopped onto the bed together, exhausted. Lying on my back, next to her, felt kinda good. I turned and we looked each other in the face. Our heads were so close together that I could feel her breath on my face. I took a chance and leaned forward, kissing her. It was a little peck and she didn’t protest. When I pulled away, she smiled and kissed me back. It wasn’t a little peck. Before I knew what was going on, she was on top of me and shirts were on the ground. I know this is crazy and the two of us have only known each other for a short time but we couldn’t help ourselves.

It was a fury of kissing and flying clothes. She got me down to my skivvies; I got her down to just her panties. Her breasts were wonderful. I grabbed them and held on as I kissed her hard and passionately. We rolled around a lot, like two wild animals. Neither of us went any further than kissing but with most of our clothes off it felt much different. It felt wild and crazy and I liked it. I tried to envision myself doing something like this with Cissie but I couldn’t. There was no way that she was this kind of person. I’m sure she would have been an excellent lover but she was too shy and meek to do anything like this. Especially with someone they barely knew.

Rose was definitely not meek.

We fooled around for about an hour, after which time the two of us lay there for a while panting. Neither of us said a thing. I looked at her though, seeing the big smile on her face. During our foreplay, she was definitely in the dominant role. As Eddie, I would have felt really disturbed by that but for some reason it felt kinda nice now. I’m not saying I enjoy being submissive but it felt kinda nice to let her do most of the work, not that there was much work involved in kissing. I wonder if this meant that the two of us were together now. I know it sounds kinda strange but I liked what we did, a lot. I’d been dreaming about doing something like for so long---with Cissie---but to do it with Rose was something I hadn’t planned on.

“That was really good,” I said, reaching for her.

She reached for me too but suddenly stopped. The smile disappeared from her face and sprang up quickly in bed. The look on her face when she did so was very scary. “Son of a bitch” she said angrily as she jumped off the bed, scrambling around for her bra and shirt.

I sat up lazily. “What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling the sheet up to cover my partial nakedness.

“They’re coming,” she said as she put on her bra.

It was like ice water to my veins. I sprang out of bed too, the euphoria of our shared intimacy gone in a heartbeat. I found my shirt, pulling it on over my head. Then I scrabbled around too, looking for my skirt. As soon as I found it and pulled it on, I heard the wood of the front door crack. I snapped around and looked at Rose. She was in the corner of the room, opening her guitar case. I snapped back and looked at the door just as two burly men pushed their way inside. I immediately knew these guys weren’t with the DEO. They were huge---built like linemen–but much scarier. They weren’t dressed like DEO agents either. They scanned the room, looking at both of us---in our condition of undress---and smirked.

“Hope we’re not interrupting something ladies” said the uglier of the two, a bald guy with a little scar on his chin.

“I’m not going back,” said Rose as she stepped forward holding a pair of swords.

I did a double take when I saw them. At first, I couldn’t figure it out until I saw the empty guitar case. Then it hit me. She told me she didn’t play guitar…the case was to hide her swords. I’m not sure what I thought about that. I mean who the hell carries a pair of katanas around with them. I mean I’m not sure if I thought it was the coolest thing in the world or the freakiest. I want to say cool, just because I just finished making out with her.

The bald guy smirked. “You’re kidding right?”

“Put those away, little girl before you get hurt” said the other guy, a big black guy with a goatee.

Rose ignored them. Instead, she spoke to me. “Ellie, get out of here before this gets ugly.”

I shook my head. “I think I’ll stay for a while.”

“This isn’t up for debate,” snapped Rose angrily, keeping the two guys at bay with her blades.

“Then stop talking,” I said, clenching fists at my side.

The bald guy laughed. “Raul, you take the red head. I’ll shut up the smart mouth.”

The black guy came at me, trying to use sheer bulk to overpower me. He grabbed my shoulder, trying to force me to the ground. I struggled to get away but he had a vice like grip. So he backhanded me. As soon as his hand hit my cheek, snapping my head to the side, I felt the anger. When I recovered and turned back toward him, I felt the fire burning inside of me. I’m not sure if he noticed it at first but he did as soon as my hands turned red. As soon as that happened he stumbled backwards, taken by surprise. The other guy---the bald one---was shocked too. His momentary shock was the opening Rose needed. She went at him fast, driving her foot up the side of his head. He flew to the side, crashing into one of the dressers.

The black guy fell to his back in front of me. I felt taller as I approached him, stronger too. I came on him, all anger and fire. When I was almost on top of him, I saw my reflection in the mirror. What I saw shocked the hell out of me. It was me, well the demon me. The male demon me. I looked just like I did before, the old Eddie Bloomberg. Well, the newer me, but not quite the new me. I think you get what I’m saying. I wanted to smile and scream “hell yeah” but then I remembered what was going on. I shook my head, turning my attention back to the guy groveling in front of me.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” I said, my voice rumbling in that weird demonic way.

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry” he stammered, the seat of his pants damp where he had wet himself.

I had to smile, remembering my demonic form had that effect on people.

Rose’s voice cut through the room: “He’s got a gun and is about to us it.”

The fear disappeared from the guy’s eyes in that second. True to Rose’s warning, he pulled a gun from behind his back. He pointed it at me and fired. The bullet hit me square in the chest but thankfully, I was my old self again. As soon as the projectile hit my flesh, it melted instantly. I’m not sure if he realized what happened because he squeezed off two more shots. Both of which disintegrated as soon they got to me. After that he tried to shoot me again but I grabbed his wrist, causing him to scream out in pain as my fingers burned through his shirt sleeve. I let go quickly but not before taking his gun. I held in my hand and forced heat into it. The gun got red hot and I dropped it on the floor, showing him I was not to be fucked with.

After that, he passed out. Then I heard a scream. I snapped around and saw Rose with her assailant up against the wall, the blade of her sword in his shoulder. He was screaming and struggling but she was holding him steady. I rushed over. I reached for her to stop but as soon as I did so I realized what would happen.

“Rose, you’re going to kill him,” I said, trying to make myself sound less threatening.

She didn’t turn to face me. “Better him than us” she said angrily, I could hear the pain in her voice.

“This isn’t you” I said, “you’re not a killer.”

She turned to me, tears in her eyes. If she was stunned by my appearance, she didn’t show it. Instead, she looked me up and down. She was a little surprised I could tell, but her pain overwhelmed all that. “They were going to kill us” she said, “I saw it.”

I nodded. “But we stopped it.”

She turned back to him, anger replacing pain. “Where is he?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t know lady. “We’re hired hands. This guy called us, told us where to find you and to get you no matter what. He promised us a fortune.”

“You’re lying” she said, twisted the blade a bit, the guy screamed out in pain.

I reached forward and grabbed her shoulder before I knew what I was doing. As soon as my hand touched her, she yelped. She let go of her sword, I quickly let go her. I had only been touching her for a few seconds so I don’t think I burned her too badly. She pulled away when I tried to reach for her again. My anger disappeared and I felt the fire dwindle. I’m not sure but I felt myself shrink too and the hair dangling in my face turned back into the fiery red of Ellie. Rose didn’t pull away as I wrapped my arms around her, apologizing for hurting her. She nodded and cried a bit. I looked at her shoulder, seeing the hand shaped burn on her shirt. It burned most of it away and got some of her skin but it wasn’t too bad. I sighed in relief, happy that I didn’t hurt someone else I loved. We stayed like that for a few minutes, with me holding her. I’m not sure when we finally pulled away but as soon as we did; we realized we were alone in the room. Rose cursed. I let go of her and ran for the open door. Whoever they were they were gone and we’d learned nothing from them. They clearly weren’t DEO but they did work for her father.

I came back into the room; Rose was sitting on the bed. I walked over and sat next to her, pulling her into another hug.

“They’re gone,” I said and she nodded. “Your father?”

“He keeps finding me. I’m not sure how he does it. It’s like I’m bugged or something. If I stay in one place for too long his goons show up and it’s always the same.”

I pulled her into a tight hug and she cried on my shoulder. She cried for a long time. We stayed like that for a while. I reassured her that everything was going to be ok. I promised I wasn’t going to let anyone take her, not as long as I was around. I think she liked that. We hugged for a little while longer which led to another make out session. I know it wasn’t really the time but I think it helped both of us. After that, we finished getting dressed and cleaned up as best as we could. We both decided it might be a good idea to bail again. Even though we had paid for the room for a night, it wasn’t a good idea to stay around.

It was a good thing too. As we were leaving---after a quick look around---we heard sirens. It was bound to be the cops coming our way. The motel was backed by some woods and a fence. We hopped the fence and disappeared into the foliage. I’m not sure how long we were running through the forest but eventually we came out on the other side, finding ourselves on a road. We made up our minds that we were going to walk as far as we could until we couldn’t anymore. Neither one of us wanted to stay in more than one spot for very long, which was a good thing.

I’m not sure how long we walked but eventually we came upon a little rest stop. We thought about looking for another motel but didn’t really like the idea. So instead, we found a gas station. Rose picked the lock on the bathroom and we slipped inside. We made ourselves nice and comfortable. I took first watch, letting her sleep in my arms. Thankfully, no one came in or else they would have been in a whole lot of hurt.

When I fell asleep, I dreamed of fire again and a whole lot of sinister laughter.

-----

Author's Note: Here's Ch. 7, I'm a little slow in writing these ones, I had lots to do this week. There are only a few more chapters of this left and then I move onto something that I think a lot of people will really enjoy :) I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilishly good editing and DC Comics for the characters.

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Chapter Seven:

When I woke up, Rose was sleeping across my chest. I was a little confused at first when I looked around, not really remembering. It’s the second time in the last few days that I’ve awakened in some place where I don’t know where I am. It took a few seconds for me to comprehend that the two of us were in a gas station bathroom. I suppose it was the smell that finally reminded me. I’m not saying it was a horrible smell but I definitely didn’t notice it last night. I tried to ignore the smell as I took in the rest of our surroundings. The light was off in the room but there was a little square window toward the back that allowed morning light to stream through. The bathroom was small with only one stall and a urinal. Rose and I were resting against the wall opposite the urinal, right next to the sink.

I looked down at her, brushing a strand of hair from her face. As soon as I did so she stirred, opening her eyes slowly. She raised her head and looked around, still a little groggy.

“Where are we?” she asked, just as confused as I had been a few seconds ago.

“Bathroom” I said.

She groaned, pinching her nose. “So that’s where that smell is coming from.”

She slowly got off me, getting to her feet. I pushed off the floor and stretched. My limbs were a little stiff from sleeping against the wall all night but other than that, I slept fairly well. We both went to the bathroom---it was strange not to use the urinal when it was right there---then the two of us gathered our things and left. I’m not sure what time it was but when we slipped out of the bathroom there was only one car in the gas station parking lot. We figured it probably belonged to whoever ran the place. We didn’t stick around to see who that was.

We took off down the road again, trying our hardest to bum a ride. But it’s not easy in a place where no cars seem to want to come. The topography of the whole area changed in an instant too. One minute we were in a place that might look like civilization and next everything turned to flat arid desert. I cursed our stupidity for not getting anything at the gas station, especially water. We walked for about another hour or so through the heat when we got lucky. We caught a couple on their way to the border. I was able to use some of my dwindling cash supply to get us a ride---it sucked because I lost another hundred bucks. People can be some greedy these days.

Luckily, we were only with them for a few hours. When we got to the border between Nevada and California, I thought there might be some problems but we were able to get through without too much hassle. It helped that my disguise was still working. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw a state trooper on the side of the road. He was stopping vehicles and talking to drivers. When he talked to us though he didn’t even look twice at the nutty Goth girl in the back seat. Once we got into California, our ride dropped us off the first chance they could get. Good riddance as far as I was concerned. We ended up in the city of Barstow, in San Bernardino County. We didn’t stay long enough to do much sightseeing. We found a cab real quick.

“Where you ladies going?” asked the driver as we climbed inside.

“How far to Hollywood?” I asked.

The driver laughed. “About a hundred miles.”

I could see why he laughed. I definitely wasn’t going to pay for that cab fare. So I told him to take us to the nearest restaurant, after all Rose and I were starving. We didn’t have to go very far. Barstow was a nice place but I’m not sure I would want to live here. We got dropped off at a diner, I paid the man and we went inside. While Rose ordered the food, I used the pay phone. I called Aunt Marla, she answered on the second ring.

“Marla, it’s me,” I said softly.

She let out a loud sigh. “Where are you?”

I looked around to make sure no one heard me. “Barstow.”

She laughed. “You’re making good time then. What happened to the bus?”

“Long story.”

“I can’t wait to hear it,” she laughed; it felt good to hear her voice again.

I took a deep breath and looked around. Rose was chatting with the waitress, a girl not much older than us. I sighed, she looked real happy. On the ride over here, I had some time to think. That’s all I’d been doing, thinking. I liked Rose a lot and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. She’d already been through so much and she was in enough of her own trouble. I thought about leaving her but knew she’d probably see that coming. But I knew I couldn’t drag her into anymore of this. I couldn’t drag myself into it either. To tell you the truth, I was tired of it. If not for Rose, they would have caught me a while ago. It was cool that she was trying to help and I loved her for it but this was enough. I was tired of all this running.

I took a deep breath. “The DEO are there aren’t they?”

I could tell as soon as Marla spoke. “Of course not sweetie, why would I do that to you?”

I laughed. “You’re a lousy liar Marla but it’s ok. I figured they’d try something like this, after all you’re my only other relative.”

“I don’t know what you’re talki…”

I laughed. “Don’t insult my intelligence. Put the agent in charge on the phone.”

There was a long silence, followed by the woman asking for more money. I inserted a few more coins. Then a familiar voice came on the line: “Hello Eddie.”

I sighed. “Hello Agent Faraday.”

“Why don’t you stop these games and turn yourself in?”

“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, it was an accident.”

“I know that Eddie” he said with a sigh. “I’m going to help you in every way that I can. But I can’t help you if you keep running. You have to turn yourself in, it’s the only way.”

I bit my lip. “I’ll think about it.”

I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else. I hung up the phone and turned back around. I half expected to see Rose still laughing with the waitress but she was gone. I panicked and ran to the booth, my stuff was there, her’s wasn’t. I looked around, wondering if she went to the bathroom. I grabbed my bag and ran to it, pushing the door open. There was no one inside. I ran back out and found the waitress she’d been talking to. The woman was serving drinks to another table. I grabbed her arm and spun her around, causing her to spill them.

“Where’s my friend?” I asked angrily.

“She left sweetheart” said the woman in an annoyed tone then she reached into her pocket, handing me a napkin. “She gave me this for you.”

I took it and walked numbly toward the door. I read it as I walked, frowning. Elle, I’m sorry but I knew what you were going to do before you did. It sucks to be a precog I guess. I know there was no way I could talk you out of it so I bailed. Listen I’m sorry but I can’t go anywhere near those government guys, they’re too close to my Dad. I don’t want you to look for me either, I’m sorry but this is it for you and me. We had fun while it lasted. Love Rose. PS: Sorry about the wallet, I’ll pay you back sometime. I cursed, rifling through my bag. All I found were a couple of twenties, the rest of it---including my wallet---were gone.

She was gone, just like that. I wanted to cry but I couldn’t force the tears to come. Instead, I stood there for the longest time, holding the napkin in my numb fingers. After I fully recovered, I started off in the direction toward the train station. I knew I couldn’t afford a ticket to Hollywood---I only had about sixty bucks now---but maybe I could sneak aboard without anyone noticing. Of course, I didn’t plan it very well. As soon as I got there, I realized that that wasn’t an option. I sat and sulked on a bench inside the station for a while, trying to figure out my next course of action. It pissed me off that Rose could bail like this but I guess it was in her nature. I was a fool to get involved with her. If I ever saw her, again I think I might kick her in the face. Ok not really but I was definitely going to scold the hell out of her. Not very threatening but I liked her a lot.

The tears finally came. I suppose it was inevitable. I cried for a long time and it surprised me a bit that no one stopped to see if I was all right. People are real jackasses, I suppose. After I finished crying, I felt like shouting and telling everyone to fuck off but I didn’t. Instead, I left the station as quick as I could. As soon as I got to the front entrance, I stopped at the sight of the police car there. I cursed, wondering if they were looking for me. I was pretty certain that Faraday had traced our phone call. I mean if I was him, the train station would be the first place to look for me, too.

I forgot about my disguise though. The two officers walked right past me. I let out a loud sigh as soon as I was out the door. I looked around, trying to find a cab. I definitely didn’t have enough money to get to Hollywood but I suppose I could bluff it. Instead of a cab, I found the next best thing. There was a little red car sitting at the curb. I walked up it slowly, the college age guy behind the wheel. I pushed up my boobs a little bit, hoping it would help then I put a little sway in my step. I walked over and leaned into the open passenger window, smiling.

The guy behind the wheel did a double take. “Do I know you?”

“No” I said, putting on the sexy. “But I’d like to know you.”

He groaned. “I don’t solicit minors, especially freaky ones like you.”

I groaned. “I’m not a prostitute you jackass” I said, pulling open his door. “I’m a girl who needs a ride, are you going to help me or not.”

“Ummm hello, get out of my car.”

“I’ll give you sixty bucks to take me to Hollywood.”

He laughed. “It’s going to take a lot more than that.”

I looked him up and down. He was twenty tops, with long brown hair and dark sunglasses. I smiled when I looked at his shirt, a Blue Devil t-shirt. He was a kindred spirit. “I can get you a BD autograph.”

He laughed. “I have one of those.”

I bit my lip. “How about a set visit?”

He raised an eyebrow. “And how are you going to do that?”

I smiled. “My aunt’s the producer.”

He bit his lip. “Ok, kid, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

I squealed in happiness. I could have kissed him but I didn’t. Instead, I pulled on my seatbelt as he started his engine. “I’m Ellie by the way,” I said as we pulled away from the curb.

He smiled. “Chris Freeman”

_______________________________

“So she took all your cash and took off?” I nodded. “Man that blows.”

I nodded. “Not much I can do about it right now,” I said truthfully.

Chris laughed at that, he was a pretty cool guy. He wasn’t just a fan of Blue Devil, apparently, he was a fanatic. In fact, he was actually the president of his university’s fan club chapter. He was actually at the train station to pick up one of his fellow members. I felt kinda bad about that but he didn’t. He texted his friend, telling him a better offer came his way, he took a pic of me to send with the text. I smiled and posed for it. Yeah, I know but I was feeling particularly flirty. Hey who says being a girl can’t be fun some of the time. Maybe a little bit of Rose was rubbing off, who knows.

Chris and I talked about Blue Devil almost the whole way, it helped pass the time. According to him, a ride from Barstow to Hollywood should have taken about an hour and a half---without traffic. We were making good time until about noon or so and then we hit some kind of rush hour. I’m not sure how long we were stuck in it but it was a lot longer than an ninety minutes. We passed the time swapping war stories as he called it. He thought it was the coolest thing in the world that my aunt was the producer of all the films. He got really jealous when I told him I spent summers playing assistant for her.

About an hour into the road trip, he started asking questions again. “So you and this Rose chick, were you an item?”

I shrugged. “Might have been.”

It was the truth. We weren’t really together long enough to say we were anything but two strangers passing in the night. I thought there was something there---possibly more---but apparently, she didn’t. If she really liked me, she would have stuck around.

“Dude” he said with a big intake of breath. “That is so hot.”

I rolled my eyes. Typical guy. That thought gave me pause and scared the hell out of me. I was a typical guy. At least I used to be. Boy did that scare me. Was I that far gone now not to think of myself as a member of the male species. After all, I was part guy still, even if that part was a towering red demon dude. But for some reason this part---the Ellie part---felt more like me now than the red Eddie part. How messed up is that?

I tried not to think about it for the rest of the drive. Neither of us really spoke much after that, he concentrating on the road and me to my thoughts. When the familiar landmarks started to show up, I wasn’t the least bit excited. After all this wasn’t my first time here. He seemed to be a little more giddy than usual, probably because I promised what I did. I think he thought he was getting his backstage tour now. Boy did I hate to disappoint. It was no surprise that he brought me right to Blue Devil Studios---yeah the franchise was that big now. He stopped the car in front of the gate, giving the guard there some pause.

I sighed. “I didn’t want to come here” I said, annoyed.

He frowned. “I can’t have you renege on promises babe.”

I groaned. This guy was going to be a thorn.

“Ok here’s the deal, you take me to my aunt’s place and then I’ll have her give you some backstage passes or whatever, put your name on the list?”

He thought it over and then smiled. He might be pretty to look at but he was kinda thick. I think it was the sunglasses though it might have been the hair too. There was just something about him that made him look like he wasn’t playing with a full deck. He was a cool guy but he wasn’t someone I’d want to hang out with. Need an example, well on the ride over he kept talking to himself. It was kinda freaky; he kept looking in my direction when he did it too. I suppose it can’t be helped, the guy is a Blue Devil fan after all. They’re called Blue D’s on the Internet and some of them are a little less than sane. Chris was sorta on the border I guess.

He drove me away from the studio and took me to my aunt’s. She lived in Palmdale, in a house that was very Spanish in design and flavor. I didn’t really like it; it was too big and gaudy for me. When we pulled up to the front gate, I saw the stars in Chris’s eyes. I think he probably thought he hit it big, about to rub elbows with a big Hollywood producer. I rolled down the window, allowing the little camera by the gate to get a good look at my face. I wonder if the DEO showed her a picture of the new me. I know what you’re thinking and you’re probably right, this was way too risky. They were definitely waiting for me in there but to tell you the truth, I’m tired of all this shit. Do I trust Faraday, not one bit but I think I can convince him that everything that has happened isn’t all my fault.

I waved my hand in front of the lens. “Ellie Jackson, front and center. Come and get me boys.”

I think that might get their attention.

A few seconds later, the gate buzzed. Chris gave me a strange look but drove on anyway. My aunt’s driveway wasn’t all that long but it was kinda eerie, what with the pine trees lining either side of it. They were so close together they looked almost sinister. Chris definitely looked freaked. I smiled at him as we drove on. He didn’t drive much further, shutting the car off halfway there. He turned to me and frowned but he wasn’t looking at me.

“I did what you asked,” he asked, definitely not talking to me.

“Chris?” I asked, looking around. “Who are you talking to?”

He didn’t answer me. Instead, he started talking to someone else again. “She insisted on coming here. I tried to take her to the studio but she wanted to come here.”

He was freaking me out. I couldn’t sit here in the car with a guy who was clearly out of his mind. It was a good thing the car was stopped because it made what I did a whole hell of a lot easier. I reached behind me and opened the door, tumbling into my aunt’s driveway. Chris didn’t seem to notice at first. But when I got to my feet and started running toward the house, I heard him shout for me. I didn’t look back. Why is it that I always seem to associate with the weird people? First it was Wendy and her brother then Rose and now crazy Chris. It was like I was a giant magnet for these kinds of things. But I suppose something like this wasn’t really my fault. After all Wendy and Marvin weren’t all that bad, except she was a genius already in college and he stared at my boobs more than my face. Rose didn’t look at my boobs but I wouldn’t have minded if she did. She did suck on them yesterday though, that was real nice. As far as Chris was concerned, I’d be happy if I never saw the nut job again.

I ran as hard and as fast as I could for the house. Marla had a big yard but I got there without too much trouble. When I got to the front door, I regretted ringing the bell. It was kinda stupid but stupid was my middle name lately. As much as I didn’t want to run anymore, walking right into the DEO wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do either. I should run, I need to run. Unfortunately, for me I came to that decision about ten seconds too late. As soon as the door opened, I saw Agent Faraday. He smiled at me. I turned to book but four agents appeared from all around me, guns drawn. I suppose I could have “demoned up” on them and burnt them to hell but what would that have solved.

Instead, I raised my hands in the air, turning back toward Faraday.

“Good girl” he said, holding up a pair of cuffs.

____________________________

I explained my side of the story as best as I could. Aunt Marla was there the whole time to hold my hand, acting as moral support. The investigating agent---I didn’t know his name---never said a word but wrote everything I said down on a little notepad. He wrote fast, it kinda surprised me. These guys were pretty efficient I guess. After they arrested me in front of Marla’s house---I never actually got to go inside---they took me to the nearest police station for processing. There was already a crowd of media there waiting for us---an eager someone tipped them off I think. I wonder if it was a long haired nut who likes to talk to himself?

After I got to the station, several different people interrogated me. There was even a detective from both Chicago and Iowa---the Iowa one questioned me about the diner incident with the bikers. Both men wanted extraditing rights to me; they even had orders from local judges. But apparently, DEO trumped all that which pissed them off. Faraday did promise that if there were a trial then their charges would definitely be brought up. It scared me when he said if there was a trial, like maybe they were just going to lock me up somewhere or worse. I imagined a lethal injection might be only fitting; after all, I killed innocent people, my mother included.

I’m not sure how many times I was interviewed, maybe a dozen. I’d been in this room for several hours; the guy sitting across from me was the last---so far. It creeped me out that he wasn’t saying anything though. He just took my statement---for the umpteenth time. I tried to be as precise as I could, leaving out a few choice things of course. For instance, I didn’t mention the strange dreams with the demon. They’d probably think I was nuts. I also left out Rose, there was no way I was going to put her on the DEO’s radar. Hopefully she was long gone by now. I know she had that crazy idea to join that group from the Internet but she’d be stupid to stick in one place for too long, it was very apparent that her father had a lot of resources. I just hoped that where ever she was, she was in a lot better situation than I was in.

“Thank you Miss Jackson” said the man with the notepad, speaking for the very first time.

“It’s Bloomberg” said my aunt angrily, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “No more of this hiding crap.”

The man didn’t react. He was probably paid to be as stiff as possible. Instead, he gathered his things and left us alone. Neither Marla nor I said anything for a while. I stared at the wall, sighing. It had been stupid to think that this was the right thing to do. I should have run with her, I should have headed south into Mexico. I might not have gotten over the border but at least I wouldn’t have been in this mess. I’m not sure why I thought going to Marla’s was the right thing to do. Momentary lapse of judgment I guess. They were going to put me in a hole somewhere and I was never going to see the light of day again.

“I’m so sorry sweetie,” said Marla, tearing up.

I shook my head. “It’s not your fault, M,” I said, using the childhood name I gave her. “I shouldn’t have gotten you involved in this.”

“I should have never let those men use me like that.”

I leaned over and wrapped her in a hug. I had no idea how good that would feel until I actually did it. Marla was my father’s sister and though I barely saw her, she was like a second Mom to me. Now that Mom was gone, I suppose she was the only mother I had left. I held her for a long time, tears forcing their way out of my body. It never felt so good to hold someone in my entire life. But as they say all good things must come to an end and they did as soon as the door to the interrogation room opened up. I turned and gave an evil look as Faraday walked into the room.

“Hello ladies” he said, giving me the once over. “You can take the ring off now Eddie if you like.”

I bit my lip. “I can’t” I said softly “the ring is gone.”

“Then that means?” asked my aunt, bewildered.

I nodded. “This is all me.”

“I don’t understand,” said Marla just as confused as I was.

Faraday was all business. If my revelation shocked him, he didn’t show it. “You mind telling me how that happened?”

I shrugged. “After the fire, I woke up in the woods. The ring was gone, I was naked and this was me.”

“And the other form?”

“Still there” I said, not wanting to show him. “I checked.”

He nodded. “Clearly we have much to discuss then.”

“So what happens to her now?” asked Marla, still holding my hand.

Faraday rubbed his temples. “It’s a mess. I have two states who want her and a superior who wants to bury her so deep underground that she won’t see the light of day until she’s thirty. Right now the only thing I can do is hold her here until the bureaucrats figure this all out.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “So I go to jail?”

“For the time being. My superiors are making arrangements to move you to a more secure location. The government has a place in New Mexico that might fit for now. To tell you the truth we’re at a loss, you’re one of our firsts actually.”

“Should I be flattered?”

Faraday smiled. “I’ll try my best to sort things out. In the meantime I’m here to escort you to your temporary accommodations.”

And just like that, I was now a guest of the Los Angeles County Jail. Lucky me.

Two officers came into the room, I didn’t fight. Marla cried a lot and it took her some time to let me go. After that, I was handcuffed and escorted to my cell. They gave me a change of clothes. I was put in a secure wing of the women’s prison, they said to protect the other inmates from me. I guess that makes sense. After I was in my cell, Faraday stayed for a few minutes, trying to see if he could get more info out of me. I guess I can’t blame a guy for trying. I think he was interested in my ability to destroy the ring---that’s how he saw it anyway. I’m not sure but I was pretty convinced the government were afraid of Jade. I guess that makes sense, after all rumor has it she had a spaceship in orbit over the planet right now.

Faraday left after an hour of his own questioning. He got nowhere because I didn’t have answers for his questions. I changed my clothes for an orange jumpsuit and then spent the rest of the night lying on my little bunk. I stayed up at the ceiling, counting the tiles. I’m not sure how far I got before I fell asleep. I dreamt again that night, the same one with the fire and the laughing. Wendy and Marvin were in it again. Neron was there too. Wendy was dressed like a French maid, feeding the bastard grapes from a silver plate. Marvin was at his feet, like a dog. In fact, he was crouched before a silver bowl with his name on it. Both of them were wearing collars---Wendy’s had a chain attaching her’s to Neron’s chair.

I woke in a sweat in the morning. Someone brought me my breakfast. Then after a few hours, I was allowed some exercise time. The yard was vacant. They were still afraid I might harm the other inmates. I was fine with that, I didn’t want company anyway. After an hour or so of exercising, my guard brought me back to my cell. He got me magazines to read. The magazines were girly teen ones---a few months old---but they were better than nothing.

Anything to pass the time. About noon or so, the guard brought me lunch then I was allowed some visitation. Aunt Marla came, crying the whole time. I think she still blamed herself for all of this. After Marla came that jerk from the DEO---Damon Matthews---the one who came by my house before.

“Miss Bloomberg is it?” he asked with a smirk.

Apparently, besides being a Grade-A ass he was the DEO’s legal counsel. Lucky me. He went over my defense with me, explaining how things might go down if I had to go to court in Illinois and Iowa. I half paid attention, it didn’t matter. I knew I was guilty. If I were brought before a jury, I wouldn’t try to deny it. Matthews stayed for a bit and then left. I went back to my cell, read some more and then spent the rest of the night counting the tiles.

This went on for a few days---three or four I think. On the fourth day, Faraday was my only visitor.

“They’re going to move you today,” he said as we sat in a private room.

“To New Mexico?”

“You won’t know the location until you get there,” he said, shuffling papers. “First an armed escort will take you from here to the airport. You’ll board a plane and fly to a private airstrip. We’ll transfer you to one of our private jets. You’ll switch planes a total of three times so that no one knows where you’re going, including you.”

“I assume I’ll be blindfolded?”

He laughed. “We’re not spooks, Ellie.”

Oh, by the way I was officially Ellie Bloomberg now. Matthews brought me the papers yesterday. I had an ID with pictures and everything. According to my papers, I was now the daughter of Marla Bloomberg, having been adopted by her several weeks ago. I guess that made me happy. She said I didn’t have to call her “Mom” but she expected I treat her that way. I had no problem with that. I suppose when the government is involved they can do pretty much anything they want.

“When are they moving me?”

“Now.”

Things went pretty fast after that. Faraday got up and two guards came in. Fite and Maad followed them. I felt a bit of happiness at seeing them again. They smiled at me. I let the guards cuff me then my two DEO handlers followed them to awaiting vehicles. Mine turned out to be a converted armor car; it felt like déjá  vu all over again. Fite and Maad would follow behind in an SUV. There would be two police car escorts and two motorcycles. I felt like a VIP. After I got loaded in the back of the truck and secured, my two guards got inside. I don’t think they were taking any chances. Not that I would try to escape and even if I did, they wouldn’t be able to stop me. It didn’t take long to get going. The cop cars went first then my armored truck. I could hear the sirens blaring all around me. It was kinda cool and would have been cooler if I wasn’t the cause of all of this.

About fifteen minutes from the police station things went bad. I heard it over the radio first. One of the guards grabbed the mike on his shoulder, talking to the driver. There was some kind of commotion up ahead. I turned and tried to see through the little slot into the front of the truck. I didn’t see much. Then it happened. One of the police cars in front flew into the air. It came flying right toward the truck. The driver screamed and swerved out of the way just in time. There was a loud wrenching smash as the police car tumbled down the street. My two guards pulled tazers, probably preparing for the worst.

“What the fuck is that?” I heard a voice over the radio.

I looked out the slot again. Up ahead on the road was a big linebacker size guy standing there, holding the biggest axe I’d ever seen. The damn thing was glowing. He raised his axe and swung it at the truck. The driver didn’t have time to avoid it. The blade slammed into the front end, bringing our vehicle to a dead stop. My two guards---who weren’t secure like me---went stumbling forward, slamming themselves unconscious. I tried to turn and see what was going on. I heard some gunfire and more screaming. Then everything was silent.

A few seconds later, someone was walking along the side of the truck. I could hear a heavy footfall. Then the back doors were torn open, ripped clear off. The guy with the axe was standing there. He smirked at me and stepped aside, allowing someone else to step forward. I almost didn’t recognize her what with the flowing white hair and the eye patch---what was up with that.

“Hey babe” said Rose as she climbed into the truck. “Did you miss me?”

-----

Author's Note: Here's Ch. 8, things are starting to get very interesting for our hero/heroine. Kudos to anyone who can tell me who the guy is that appears at the end of this chapter. I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilish good editing and DC Comics for their characters.

-----

Chapter Eight:

I waited until I was freed from my handcuffs to react. After all, I needed my hands free.

I slapped her in the face; the sound was like a firecracker in the quiet of the van. She looked like I’d just punched her. There was a moment when the two of us just stared at each other. I wanted to punch her actually, but I thought that might be too harsh. I think slapping her had the effect I wanted to get across quite nicely. I suppose doing it twice might have worked better but beggars can’t be choosers.

After the initial shock was over---and rubbing her cheek---Rose smiled. ‘I suppose I deserved that.”

“You think,” I said angrily.

“I’m sorry,” she said, still rubbing the red welt my hand left. “I saw what was going to happen and I knew the only way to help you was to leave.”

I was pissed, almost on the verge of spitting fire---which would not have been a good thing for her or the two unconscious guards. “You’re the reason I went there in the first place. If you’d have stayed I wouldn’t have done something so stupid.”

Rose frowned. “I’ll make it up to you I promise.”

“We don’t have time for this,” said the axe wielder.

By the way, my bad. It turns out the big burly guy from the middle of the road---the one I thought was a linebacker---was actually a girl. All her bulk it seemed came from the fact that she was actually wearing football padding. Hey, it’s hard to tell what you’re seeing from a tiny slit in the back of a moving vehicle. But in my defense, she was very mannish looking. She had a square jaw and rough features. There wasn’t a single thing feminine about her, especially the giant glowing axe she was holding. It was resting on her shoulder as she leaned into the back of the van, glaring at the two of us. I think our little squabble was trying her patience.

“Shove it Elise,” said Rose as she walked further into the van, nudging one of the guards with her foot. “Help me take care of them.”

The axe girl bit her lip. “It’s only a matter of time before more come. We should go.”

Rose snapped around. She looked like she was about to yell but stopped. She closed her only visible eye and let out a sigh a few seconds later. When she opened it again, she nodded. “You’re right for once. These guys should be out for a while. Let’s get the hell out of here before the cavalry arrives.”

Rose walked over and grabbed my wrist, dragging me out of the van. I didn’t put up much of a fight. As soon as I got out of it, I saw the carnage. Ok, so there was no blood or anything like that. Nothing that serious but it was pretty bad. The police car that went flying by the truck was lying several feet down the road, smashed up pretty bad. The other one was wrapped around a telephone pole, a huge gash across the top of it, the siren sliced in two. The two motorcycles were lying abandoned nearby, trashed as well. All the occupants of said vehicles were lying in a heap together---unharmed---but unconscious. After hearing all the gunfire before I was certain there was going to be a bloodbath out here.

“C’mon” said Rose, dragging me away.

She led me down the road a way; the girl with the axe---Elise---followed. We didn’t go very far. There was a black SUV waiting. At first, I thought it was one that they brought until I recognized the government plates. It was the one that was tailing our little convoy, the one that Fite and Maad were supposed to be driving in. I saw the driver laying in the street, alive but out cold. I looked into the back, half expecting to see my two former handlers but they were gone. I looked at Rose but she shook her head. I hope that didn’t mean they were dead.

“Terry got them out of here,” she said with a smile.

“Who’s Terry?”

As if in answer, a tall blonde haired boy materialized out of thin air right in front of me. I nearly peed my pants. “I’m Terry, sweet cakes,” he said with a big smile.

“Stop doing that” snapped Elise as she opened the driver’s side door.

“Where did you put them?” asked Rose, an edge to her voice.

He smiled. “Can’t you tell me?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” said Rose as she opened the back door for the two of us.

I climbed in, wondering what the hell I was doing. I should have stayed put, tried to cool things over with the authorities. But looking at the scene---seeing all the damage---there was no way that they’d believe I wasn’t involved. I was happy that Rose came to get me but really pissed off that she did it this way. It was reckless and stupid. I planned to tell her as soon as we got wherever it was the four of us were going.

“You didn’t answer my question,” said Rose as she got in next to me.

Terry got into the front with Elise. “I don’t answer to you newbie.”

Then he turned to Elise. “Why did we bring the new girl anyway?”

Elise shrugged. “Fugate said bring her so I brought her. This girl of hers is supposed to be something else; the boss wants to offer her a new life.”

“Big mess for one lonely chick” said Terry as Elise started the engine and turned the vehicle, heading in the opposite direction.

I turned to Rose, frowning. “What the hell is going on here?”

She smiled, pulling the stupid eye patch from her face. She ran her fingers through her hair. I was going to miss the blonde, the white made her look frightful. I wonder why she did it. I made a mental note to ask about it later. She didn’t say anything for a few minutes. I think she was waiting until we got a little further down the road before she started talking. About ten minutes into the journey, she started with the explanation.

“Like I said before, I left because I had a vision. I knew what you were going to do and I couldn’t get involved with that. Your government spooks could easily be connected to my father. So I ran and I’m not proud of it. I hitchhiked the rest of the way into the city, going to the address on the flyer. When I got there Elise tried to take my head off, thought I was some kind of narc. Fugate and Terry had to practically pull the two of us apart.”

Elise snorted from the front seat. “I had you.”

“In your dreams” said Rose. Elise grumbled and swore. Rose continued. “I spent the first day or so convincing these miscreants I was legit. When they finally started to believe me, we saw you on the news. I realized then I made a horrible mistake and pleaded with Fugate to let me rescue you. He was a little reluctant at first until I told him of your potential. I’m sorry I betrayed your trust like that but it worked. It took a few days but we got our shit together. I talked Elise and Terry into helping…” Another snort from our driver. “And you know the rest.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, just under my new assets. Boy was I never going to get used to that. “Just like that” I said angrily. “I’m supposed to forgive you because you played Knight in shining armor?”

Rose sighed, lowering her head. “Look it’s not easy for me to get close like that.” She raised her head and her eyes were glistening with tears. “I got a little scared. I didn’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

I leaned forward, putting my forehead gently against her’s. It felt right. I reached up and placed both of my hands alongside her face. “Listen to me” I said softly. “You don’t have to protect me I’m more than capable of protecting myself.”

Terry ruined the moment. “Says the girl in the orange prison jumpsuit.”

My anger flared. I let go of Rose quickly, allowing my hand to transform. With one finger, I gently touched the back of his neck. I gave him the equivalent of being burned by a car lighter. He yelped in pain, the hairs on the back of his neck singed. He snapped around, a small knife appearing out of his sleeve. He was ready for a fight and I was ready to give him one. But as soon as he saw me, ---red hand, glowing yellow eyes---, he backed off. The color drained from his face and he slid the knife back where it came.

“We’re cool” he said softly, his voice barely above a squeak.

Elise roared with laughter. “Her we can keep.”

I smiled then joined Rose and Elise in the laughing at Terry’s expense.

____________________________

I’m not sure how long we were driving, I didn’t really pay attention. The rest of the ride Rose tried to talk to me but I didn’t really want to hear it. Yes, I sorta forgave her but I was still pretty pissed. She could have gone about doing things a little differently, hell she could have told me what she saw. Instead, she decided to run away. In the end, what does that say about a person? I think she knew I was still kinda steamed too. I understood her need to protect me but she had to understand the need to honest with people, no matter the consequence. What I think the two of us needed more than anything was some true alone time to talk about our feelings. Yeah, yeah, I sound like a chick now, laugh all you want. Big Bad Eddie Bloomberg groaning about his feelings. I think Connor and the other guys would be having a laugh riot if they could see me now.

The SUV finally stopped. I’m not sure where we were but everything around us looked sorta rundown. I didn’t even know a place like this existed in California but I suppose there were places like this all over the place. There were a lot in Chicago. The building we stopped at was huge; it looked sorta like a factory but one that someone had abandoned a long time ago. The windows were all boarded up and it looked like was about to fall down. One time it might have been painted red and white but most of that was long since faded. The biggest feature on it was the large wooden sign above the double doors; it was a giant clock with a faded name.

“This used to be the Tockman Clock Factory,” said Rose when she noticed I was staring.

Terry added quickly. “The boss man inherited it from his father. The city’s been trying to knock it down for years but they’re tied up in red tape. So in the meantime it’s home away from home.”

I frowned. “You guys live here?”

“It’s better than a three by ten,” added Elise as she led the way.

I guess I couldn’t argue with that.

Elise didn’t lead us to the front of the building as I expected. Instead, she led us down a narrow alley between it and the building next door. It got so narrow at one point that the four of us actually had to turn sideways to squeeze through. It was a tight fit for me---with my new boobs--- so I couldn’t imagine how Terry managed. After squeezing our way through the alley, Elise led us around the back of the building. We stopped in front of a door that was clear of boards. She took a key from her pocket, unlocked the padlock and opened it. She went in first, followed by Terry and Rose. I went in last, taking a deep breath as I did so. Hey, I didn’t know what to expect.

I was a little surprised when I crossed the threshold into the place. It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. For one thing, it was relatively clean and for another, the outside was very misleading. The inside wasn’t rundown at all. It wasn’t exactly anything you’d want to write home to Mom about but it was livable. There appeared to be two main rooms, separated in the center by a wall of wooden crates. On this side of the separation---the only side I could see at the moment---was a living area of sorts. There were several mismatched pieces of furniture including five or six couches and a few armchairs. There were even a few lawn chairs and a picnic table bench. In front of the furniture were several televisions, most of them out of date and it looked like only two were working all that well.

Terry waltzed into the room and jumped over the back of one of the couches, landing with a thump and a cloud of dust. Clearly, no one cleaned. He grabbed a nearby remote and clicked one of the TV’s on.

“It’s not the Ritz but it’s home,” said Rose with dissatisfied sigh.

Elise left us after that, too. She went off toward the other section of the place. Rose was left to show me around. The wooden boxes seemed to act as dividers. It was clear this room might have once been some kind of assembly line room. I could see places on the floor where machinery was once bolted. Rose gave me the quick tour. There were three more sections made by the crate walls. I was surprised when she actually showed me a kitchen and a reasonably sized sleeping area. There were no real beds of course, just mattresses. I counted four, which meant either one was for me or there was someone else I’d still have to meet. I’m thinking the latter.

She then led me to the other section of the main room. This place was some kind of meeting area in looked like. They didn’t have a real table---it was a pool table---and most the chairs around it were mismatched. The most striking part of the room was all the clocks on the wall. At first, I thought someone had a perverse habit of putting them at the wrong times until I noticed names scrawled in black marker under each one. They were marked with different cities, showing different time zones from around the world. I’m not sure why that was important, but oh well.

At the back of this section, main section there was a metal staircase. I looked up, seeing a room up there. I’m guessing it was once the manager’s office. Rose followed my gaze. She didn’t say anything; instead, she took my hand and led me up the steps. I was a little reluctant to follow, afraid that we might intrude on whoever was up there. At the top of the stairs, Rose knocked on the office door. The glass all around this was painted black so clearly whoever was in there didn’t want anyone looking in. There was a shuffle from inside and then a few seconds later the door opened. First, we were met by a blonde girl dressed in pink---crop top and hot pants. She sneered at Rose and gave me a once over.

“You missed a spot, Angie,” said Rose, indicating her makeup.

It was smudged.

The girl glared at her and then looked at me. “You must be the new freak. I’m Angelica; if you stay out of my way then we won’t have a problem.”

To demonstrate she raised one of her hands which erupted in a pink glow. It was kinda impressive. I smirked but I wouldn’t stoop to her level so I merely nodded. She smirked again and brushed past us, deliberately slamming me with her shoulder as she passed.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind her, she thinks she’s hot shit because Fugate let’s her blow him every chance he gets.”

I cringed at that. I guess that explained her smeared makeup.

“Rose” said a voice from inside. “Did you get her?”

Rose took me by the hand and led me into the room. The first thing I noticed was the noise. There were so many clocks in the room it was hard to tell where they ended and everything else began. It was too loud for me; I’m not sure how the person who lived here could stand it. He lived here too, besides the desk there was an actual bed in the corner. I looked around the rest of the room, noticing a filing cabinet and a flat screen. I followed the clocks around the room until I got to the desk and the man sitting behind it. He wasn’t much to look at actually. He was a normal looking guy in a tweed suit with a mop of reddish hair. There was some gray in there too. He had circular glasses and pencil thin mustache. His most distinguishing feature was his tie actually and only because he had clocks on it.

Yep a real clock nut.

“Ellie” said Rose beginning the intros. “This is Temple Fugate or as we like to call him, The Clock King.”

The thing man stood up and held out his hand, which I reluctantly shook. “Ellie it is truly a pleasure to meet you. Your friend Rose has been telling me all about the special things you can do.”

I nodded. He sounded too excited for me. “Dangerous things” I said quickly.

He nodded. “Yes indeed” He had a big toothy grin. “But you need not worry about hurting any of us here; we are more than capable of taking care of your special needs.”

“My special needs?”

I didn’t like the sound of that. Rose seemed to sense my apprehension because she reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. I didn’t look at her, instead keeping my eyes fully focused on Fugate. He was the kind of guy you didn’t want to take your eyes off for fear he might do something to you when you looked away. I think it was the mustache. Guys with mustaches like his were always the bad guys in every movie I’ve ever seen. I know I was jumping to conclusions but something about this guy just screamed bad guy.

“Rose dear” said Fugate with a smile “why don’t you take Ellie and get her a bunk.”

“She doesn’t need her own bed,” said Rose, giving my hand another squeeze.

I looked from her to him. “I can’t stay here.”

“Of course you can” said Fugate with a laugh. “Where else would you go?”

“But the police will be looking for me.”

He laughed. “Not here, they won’t. I assure you my dear; you are quite safe from them.”

I shook my head. “I need to get out of the country, flee south.”

Fugate frowned. “If that’s what you think is best then we won’t stop you. But I assure you they will have the border on high alert. You’re a very dangerous person and it doesn’t take them very long to catch dangerous people like you.”

Rose stepped in front of me. “This is a good place, Ellie. Here we can be who we want and no one can stop us. Fugate created this place for our kind, free from prosecution and the law.”

“You’re going to stay here?” I asked and she nodded.

“Just give it a chance; you might like it here, too.”

Fugate smiled. Then rolled up his sleeve, revealing four watches on his wrist. This guy was really obsessed wasn’t he? “Oh God, look at the time. You girls run along, I have a phone call I must make.”

We turned and he practically pushed us out the door. We were barely on the other side of the threshold before he slammed it behind us. Talk about rude. Rose tried not to look offended but I could tell she was. The two of us stood there for a few seconds before she took my hand and led me down the metal stairs. The others were in the main room watching TV. Elise and Angelica were sitting on one of the couches together while Terry was sitting in one of the armchairs. Clearly, the girls ruled this roost. I felt kinda bad for him---being the only guy and all.

I almost wanted to go over and sit with him just to show that I wasn’t like the others. Hell I was technically half guy right? But Rose had other plans.

“C’mon” said Rose, whispering gently in my ear. “I’ll show you where my bunk is.”

How could a girl say no to that?

_____________________________

The next few days were a blur. Things seemed to mold into one another. At first, I found it hard fitting in with this group of misfits but that didn’t last long. We made the news the first night I was there---Terry and Elise were pretty excited about that. They plastered my picture all over the Top Story for two days in a row. I eventually got pushed back with the arrival of a new superhero in San Francisco---the Blue something. She was kinda cool though so I wasn’t too upset.

Adjusting to life with my new “friends” wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. We had our differences of course---for instance, Angelica was a total bitch---but in the end, we were all the same. It turns out Rose was the only unique one in the group. She had that title for two reasons: number one she wasn’t a genetic Meta and number two she was the only one of us who didn’t change sex. I’m half-and-half so I don’t really count. Elise and Terry were boyfriend and girlfriend before the change; I find that hard to believe though. The two of them seemed to hate each other now. Though I think Angelica had something to do with that. I’m not sure what her story was other than she’s a major slut now. I’m not sure what she saw in Fugate but she sure spent a lot of time in his office.

Fugate was the only enigma in our little group. Not only did he sleep in his office, he practically lived there, too. I’m not sure what he did all day but apparently, it was more important than hanging out with a bunch of teenagers. Not that I could blame him. On the second day here, I asked Rose what we were supposed to do. She told me that she never really thought about it. This place was supposed to be a place for us to live without the outside world calling us “freaks”. But as far as doing anything went, the five of us just sat around and vegetated. It was cool the first day or so but after the third day of doing nothing it got kinda dull.

After those first few initial days, things didn’t get any better. After a week, I was practically climbing the walls. I wasn’t the only one either. Elsie and Terry had been here the longest---three months---the two of them looked ready to break through the walls. Angelica was indifferent but I could tell Rose was itching for some action.

“We have to do something,” said Rose, sitting with me on one of the couches. “Anything to get us out of here.”

The others launched into a series of suggestions. Terry always wanted to play some kind of indoor sport---bowling or something like that. Angelica wanted to go to the mall and for Elise it was always the gym. It never really got around to what either Rose or I would like to do because as soon as one of them made a suggestion, the other two argued about it. Then it was back and forth, sometimes for hours. It was like the three of them were the brattiest children imaginable.

It didn’t take long for them to start arguing now.

“C’mon” said Rose, taking my hand and pulling me up. “Let’s go find our own thing to do.”

Her idea of “our own thing” usually led to the two of us fooling around under the sheets. I’ve long since forgiven her for abandoning me; it felt like water under the bridge now. Not that it was easy, of course. I made her work for her forgiveness. I got a lot of treats and back rubs out of the deal. Now we were as good as before, even better. My advice to couples---have a big fight because making up is wonderful. It really helps to revitalize your relationship. Rose and I haven’t known each other for very long but the two of us were far from the ideal couple. I guess I considered her my girlfriend but I’m not sure what she thought of me. I was technically her girlfriend too, save for the part of me that was a guy. Not that anyone other than her knew about that part.

The Real Eddie was only known to her and her alone.

In the bedroom area, the two of us fooled around for a bit. Not that it got any further than the usual petting. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to try more; it’s just that we’re only sixteen. I’m not ready to take a relationship that far yet and she’s afraid that as soon as we do something like that, one of us might regret it. Like I could ever regret doing anything with her. Even though I’d only known her for a short while I was pretty convinced that, I was in love with her.

Yeah, I know, the big L word, but it was true. I just hoped she felt the same way. She was a fickle person when it came to her emotions, especially the love one. After all, look at her track record. Her only family member was her father and he did horrible experiments on her. That’s no way to love someone.

I sat up in bed, allowing the sheet to fall around my naked form. She was lying on her side, her naked form glistening with sweat. She looked so damn good right now. I took a deep breath and bit the bullet: “I’m in love with you”.

For a second or two she didn’t say anything. Then she frowned. “You can’t be.”

I nodded. “That maybe so but I am.”

She sat up, still frowning. “I’m not a good person to be in love with.”

“Why because of your father?” I said, a little hurt.

She turned her head away. I reached forward and grabbed her face gently, moving her head back to face me. There were tears in her eyes. “I don’t care about him,” I said, crying a bit myself. “You’re afraid that he’s going to catch up with you and do horrible things. But I’m not going to let him hurt you, I’ll kill the son of a bitch if he ever touches another hair on your head.”

She smiled weakly and nodded. Then added. “It’s not just that…it’s…damn it. You can’t love me, no one can.”

Now I was annoyed. “Why not?”

“I’m damaged goods.”

“You look all right to me” I joked, even though it wasn’t really the time.

“Son of a bitch, Ellie. I’m trying to be sincere here. You and I…what we have…its fun but…”

“But” I said angrily. “How can you say but?”

My temper flared. I could feel the fire inside. The look on Rose’s face said it all. She could see it too. I looked down and my skin was slightly glowing. With someone like me, anger was bad. When I got angry, people got hurt. I pushed myself off the mattress and found my clothes. Rose tried to stop me but I was angry with her right now I needed to walk it off. I pulled on my pants---I was already wearing panties. Then I grabbed a nearby shirt---didn’t matter whose it was---and stomped out of there. Rose didn’t follow, I was glad for that. I needed some alone time to think. I charged out of the room section and found myself heading toward the back entrance. I did a lot of my thinking in an alley two buildings over. It was a perfect place to pace and think about things.

When I got outside, I was greeted by a cool March night. It amazed the hell out of me that I’d been like this for almost two months now. Who would have thought that only a couple of months ago---January---that Eddie Bloomberg, football player, would be here. First, it was the Meta change into that red freak which was enough to drive a guy insane but then it was this. I’m still not sure how to handle this. I look in the mirror, I see this girl, this pretty red headed girl, and all I can think about is asking her on a date. It’s crazy but it’s hard to fathom that she and I are one in the same. I know she’s me, I know that I’m Ellie. But at the same time, I know that it’s wrong. Ok, wrong is the bad choice of words. What I mean to say is that I’m scared.

I groaned. I was terrified. Yesterday I actually complimented Elise on the top she was wearing. Yes, complimented. Like one girl does to another, telling her how much I loved it. That totally freaked me out. Two mornings ago, I found myself wondering if my butt looked good in my jeans and the day before that, I found myself asking Angelica for makeup tips---not that she gave me any. It was scaring the hell out of me. I was losing myself to Ellie. I was still me but this monster was slowly consuming the part of me that was a guy. I’m not talking about the red one I turn into either.

I cursed and stomped off toward the alley. My head was still in the clouds so I didn’t notice I wasn’t alone until I got about five feet down it. I stopped dead in my tracks, hearing voices. At first, I thought it was Terry---he sometimes liked to come out here to talk to himself. But I realized there were two voices and I was being stupid. I crouched behind the dumpster---this alley was a lot less narrow than the one between the Clock factory and the building next to it. In the darkness, I could barely see who it was but there were definitely two of them, men by the looks of them.

Then I recognized one of the voices: it was Fugate. “I told you not to come here, Prince.”

Prince? Why did that name sound familiar.

“Where else was I supposed to go?” said the second man, he had a strangely familiar voice too. “After your kid teleported me out of my cell, I was pretty much screwed.”

Teleported? Did Terry break someone out of jail?

“But here.” said Fugate “Are you out of your damn mind? What if she sees you? What if you walk into the building and she’s standing there, then this whole thing is blown. He’ll be so pissed off with us he’ll roast you alive.”

“Not my problem” said the one called Prince. “You’re the one who screwed this up, not me.”

“Who’s the one who panicked during the job?”

“The kid was a fricken demon, you’d be scared too.”

That voice. Oh God, I knew where I’d heard it from. It was that guy, the bank robber. The nut in the snake suit. What the hell was he doing here? My head started to hurt when I tried to process everything they were saying. Fugate was working with the snake guy? I tried to think it through. It didn’t make any sense. Who was the guy that was going to roast them alive? What plan did they screw up? It didn’t make any sense. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but instead I slowly crept backwards. The first thing I had to do was get Rose. We had to get the hell out of here. Something bad was going on here, something that apparently involved me.

I turned quickly, jumping to my feet. My plan was to run back to the factory, grab Rose and our stuff and get the hell out of here. That was the plan anyway. It didn’t work out so well though. When I turned and made a run for it, I ran smack into someone. I was knocked off my feet, falling backwards onto my butt. Whoever it was, they were huge, like made of muscle and nothing more. I couldn’t see the face but they had these eyes that shone in the dark. I tried to crawl away but he was able to reach out and grab me, lifting me off the ground.

“Desmond” said Fugate as he came up behind us. “Don’t hurt her too much.”

The big man had a hold of my throat now; I was finding it hard to breath.

“She heard everything,” said the man mountain.

“Unfortunate to say the least” said Fugate with a sigh. “But it can’t be helped.” He pulled a pocket watch from his coat. “This will affect the time table a bit but I am sure things can be rescheduled. Take her and put her with the others.”

The Man Mountain called Desmond smiled. Then he slammed me gently against the wall. My vision swarmed around me and blackness took me.

-----

Author's Note: Ch. 9, very fun chapter in my opinion. One more chapter to go and I must say I like my little surprise at the end, I hope everyone else does too.I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilishly good editing and DC Comics for the characters.

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Chapter Nine:

“Hey KD, wake up”

The voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t quite place. My brain was addled and my head hurt. It felt like a train had hit me. When I sat up and gave my forehead a good rub, things started to come back to me. Fugate was in the alley talking to that snake guy and when I tried to run someone grabbed me. It was a huge guy, he nearly choked me too death and then slammed my head against the wall. I groaned, blinking back the residual stars that still seemed to flutter around me. Then I blinked again, realizing they weren’t stars but tiny moths bouncing off the light above me. I looked about, shuddering at the cold. Concrete and metal bars, that’s all I could see. That and a cell very similar to the one I was in directly across from me.

This one wasn’t vacant either. There were two occupants, two very familiar occupants. I groaned. I guess it made sense when you thought about it. Of course, Terry would make them prisoners instead of putting them someplace else. It just pissed me off that I actually thought the others were my friends.

“Fite? “ I asked, crawling to the bars of my cell.

The DEO agent sighed heavily. “I thought you were dead for a minute there.”

I rubbed my neck, it was sore too. “I think a part of me wishes I was.”

“Your buddies not looking like buddies any more, huh?”

I shook my head. “They were never my friends.”

I quickly gave him a rundown of events, starting with meeting Rose way back when and leading up to before I was slammed against the wall. He nodded and kept silent through the whole story. Unlike the other DEO goons, Fite was one of the good guys. Once upon a time, I thought of him as a friend and hoped I still could now. It was a long shot but as far as I could tell the three of us were the only ones here. Not that Maad would be doing much. I looked over at him, he was slumped over in the back of their cell and he didn’t look really good.

“Is he going to be all right?” I asked.

Fite shrugged. “We’ve been here about as long as you have. Your teleporting friend brought us here after they hit the convoy. Maad tried to call for help right before but we’re not sure if he got through or not.”

I nodded. “We were on the news for a while but it didn’t last long. If they’re still looking for me, they’re not using the media to do it.”

Fite nodded and sighed. “Some shit you stepped into, KD.”

I smiled, happy that Fite always told it like it was. That’s why I needed him to be honest with me now. “You have any idea what’s going on here?”

He shook his head. “We haven’t seen or heard much, except that big dude that dragged you in here. He’s apparently our jailor.”

“Fugate called him Desmond.”

Fite nodded. “What are we dealing with, Kid?”

I bit my lip. I could trust him, I think. “At least three hostile Metas. You know about the teleporter and the girl with the axe. The one you didn’t see was Angelica, she does something freaky with her hands, they glow pink. Then there’s the big guy, he’s definitely not normal.”

Fite nodded. “What about your girl?”

I shook my head. “Rose has nothing to do with this,” I said angrily.

He held up his hands, showing he surrendered. “All the same, what’s her power?”

I sighed. “She’s a Precog but she can only see a few minutes at a time into the future.”

Fite groaned. “A few minutes is still bad. Precogs are hard to predict because they know what’s going to happen before you do. It’s easy for them to manipulate the situation.”

I shook my head and got angry. “Not Rose!”

Fite sighed and lowered his voice a bit. “You might be right but you need to look out for her all the same.”

I turned my back on him. I didn’t want to listen to his crap anymore. If I had to be stuck here with the “enemy” then I was going to do it in silence. It gave me some time to think about my situation anyway. It was clear that these cells weren’t in the clock factory or I would have seen them. My best guess was the building next door or one of the many others like it. They were just as rundown but completely boarded up and all their windows were blacked out. Besides poking around in the alley ---the place where they caught me---made some sense. It was clear that whatever Fugate and his henchmen were up to, they needed cells. I couldn’t imagine what for, though.

I sat in silence for the next few hours, torturing myself with horrible scenarios. What were they all about you might ask? Well, I’m sad to say that Fite’s words got to me. As much as I didn’t want to think about it, there was a very big possibility that Rose had in fact set me up. It was horrible to even fathom but it was hard not to when all the facts were in her favor. What made it worse was the fact that when I met her I hadn’t known her for very long and it was just too easy for the two of us to form a relationship.

I finally turned around, looking over at Fite’s cell again. He was sitting with his back to me, probably contemplating some things of his own.

“You don’t really think she set me up, do you?”

It took him about a minute to turn around. He frowned. “I just find it very convenient that you’re trying to run from us and one of the first people you meet to help you happens to be a Meta.”

I groaned. Now that I thought about it, it was too much of a coincidence. God I was such a stupid idiot. Still, there was a chance.

“She was on the run too,” I said, more for my benefit than trying to convince him.

He nodded. “In our line of work it’s hard to trust people.”

“I’m not like you.”

“You’re more like us than you think.”

That pissed me off. I was feeling particularly cranky these days, especially in my stomach. I think I knew what that meant but I’m not willing to admit it. Instead, I crossed my arms underneath my breasts, huffed and turned around again. Fite chuckled. I fell into self pity again, grumbling a while about how much I wasn’t like them. I wasn’t, no matter how much he thought I was. They were a crazy government organization that thought they were protecting the world and locking up people they thought were too dangerous to be roaming free. I wasn’t anything like that. Albeit I wanted to see some of these dangerous people behind bars as much as the rest of them but that didn’t make me as heartless as them. It just made me practical.

Another hour passed and I turned around again but this time it wasn’t to talk to Fite. It was to see who was coming. It was the scraping of metal on cement that drew my attention. It was coming from the end of the hall; at least I think it was a hall. It echoed down toward us, followed a few seconds later by footsteps. I tried not to look so anxious as I scurried to the bars of my cell to see who was coming. Maybe it was someone to get me, to explain that I’d learned my lesson. But I’m not that lucky, they put me in here for a reason.

When the footfall got close to me, I frowned. It was Fugate, looking as smug as ever. That giant from the alley was with him, much bigger than I remembered. This was the first time I got a good look at him and let me tell you, there was no way he was a normal human being. For one thing, he had to be almost eight feet tall and for another his body was huge. I’m not talking body builder huge either. This guy’s neck had to be as big around as a tree trunk and don’t even get me started on those arms. I’ve seen my fair share of bizarre things---this coming from the guy who fought a living bronze Minotaur---but looking at this monster before me, I was speechless.

Fugate seemed to notice too. He smiled. “Mr. Desmond has that way about him, isn’t that right, Block?”

The guy grunted, crossing his arms in front of him. I could see why they called him Block.

“Is this the part where you---as the villain---come to tell me your diabolical plan?”

Fugate laughed. “I’m afraid I’ve seen too many bad movies to know how that works” He sighed, running his fingers through his thinning hair, then he smiled. His smile creeped me out. “No, this is where I ask you what you think you know and you’re going to answer me.”

“And how is this not like one of those bad movies?”

Fugate didn’t look amused. But Fite did because he laughed. The big guy slammed his foot into the bars of Fite’s cell, causing him to flinch but nothing more. I think I might have mentioned that Fite was pretty intimidating and it was going to take a lot to scare him.

“So I’m to understand that you won’t be answering any of my questions then?”

“How can I answer questions when I don’t know the answers?”

Fugate pursed his lips. “Very well, Mr. Desmond, take our pretty little friend here to the arena and let’s see if we can’t beat the answers out of her.”

“Fugate” shouted Fite “she’s just a kid. Take me; I’ll answer any question you want.”

Fugate turned to him. “But you’ve already answered the questions I wanted to ask you.”

What the hell was going on here? What is the Arena? I looked over at Fite but he wouldn’t look directly at me. This was bad, real bad. When he finally did look---only for a split second---he frowned. Then I knew it was bad. Fugate didn’t wait around after that. He just looked at one of his many watches and shook his head, walking slowly away. Desmond stayed behind, staring at me through the bars. As soon as the metal door into the area clanged, the big guy pulled a key out of his shirt and unlocked my door. I took a chance and charged him. Hey, I had to try. He swatted me into the corner of the cell with the back of his hand. Man did it hurt like a bitch.

I stumbled to my feet, wobbled and tried again. But this time I tried to make a break for it, running to the left, hoping to get around his bulk. He caught me easily and lifted me off the ground, once again by my throat. He started to squeeze down on my neck, cutting off airflow. I kicked and squirmed but it was no use.

Then I blacked out.

_______________________________

When I came to, the first thing I noticed were the bright lights. I had to shield my eyes as soon as I opened them. Why the hell was it so bright? After keeping one hand protecting my precious peepers, I used the other to push myself up. The second thing I noticed was the noise. At first it sounded like I was in a baseball stadium, there was shouting and stomping. I blinked a few times and looked around. What I saw was a so much worse. It was a giant cage. Ok, so maybe that’s not an accurate description. Have you ever seen those caged matches in wrestling, it was like that but not nearly on as grand a scale. It also looked ten times as deadly; the walls of this cage were metal but appeared to be wrapped in barbed wire. I looked around, trying to see if there was an easy way out of this. I saw one door, it too was barb wired. I noticed something else too, there was a video camera mounted in the corner. What the hell was this place?

I stood in the center of the cage, looking around, feeling overly exposed. Did I forget to mention that they ripped my shirt off? I was now standing there in my jeans and a sports bra. My hair was pulled back into a ponytail too and I was wearing a pair of fingerless gloves. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on here. This was the Arena that Fugate wanted me taken to, which meant he probably expected me to fight. Well he had another thought coming if he thought I was going to entertain the masses for him.

The lights were so bright that I couldn’t see any of the faces in the crowd but there were a lot of them. It was some kind of raised platform all around the sides of this building. There was no doubt in my mind now that I was in one of the other warehouses near the factory. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a completely different building than the one my cell was in. There had to be at least three or four buildings all close to one another, each one belonging to the clock factory. But we weren’t allowed to explore the others and now I knew why. I’m not sure if the other s knew about this place but seeing as there was a huge crowd, it was hard not to know.

It amazed me that all of this had been kept from me for almost a week. I had to wonder if Rose knew. I squinted, trying to see if I could see her amongst the many faces. But the lights were too bright and everyone looked the same. I frowned and moved closer to one of the walls. I made the mistake of getting to close, my finger brushing against one of the barbs. I jumped back as it sparked and shocked me. Jesus, not only was it barbed wire but apparently, it was electrified barbed wire. What kind of sadist was Fugate anyway?

I got my answer pretty quickly. There was some commotion directly in front of me. Then two large doors opened, leading to the outside, I think. More light streamed in, hitting me in the face. I shielded myself and when I lowered my hand, I saw Fugate walk in. He wasn’t alone; my former friends were with him. They were decked out in funky costumes; Elise even went so far as wearing a metal mask over her face. Fugate looked even more ridiculous, like a Circus Ringleader with his coat and top hat. In his hand was a megaphone and following him was a skinny guy with a video camera. I groaned, this was even more ridiculous than I thought.

Then Fugate spoke, no shouted into the megaphone. “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, SETTLE DOWN PLEASE!” It took a few minutes for the screaming, stomping crowd to shout up. When it finally did, he shouted into the thing again. “WE HAVE A RARE TREAT FOR YOU TONIGHT. SO FAR THE DARK SIDE CLUB HAS BEEN ALL ABOUT PITTING MAN VS META IN THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE OF KILL OR BE KILLED” The crowd roared with excitement. “BUT TONIGHT, FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, I GIVE YOU META VS META”

The crowd went crazy. I scanned the group; the others were all lined up now. I sighed in relief when I noticed that Rose wasn’t among them. But I grimaced when I saw Desmond amongst the group, bare shirted and looking sinister. Did that mean what I thought it meant---God I hope not. I looked from each of the others in turn, they looked like they’d done this before, there wasn’t a worried or scared look to any of them. That didn’t bode well for me. After all I wasn’t’ a fighter, in fact the last time I’d been in a real fight was when I was younger. Yeah I know all about the whole spa thing but that wasn’t really against a real person and besides, Amy was there to help me some. This was pitting me against one of them, people I thought I was starting to become friends with. Which scared me just a little bit. But I suppose the alternative could have been worse, I could have been one of them and I could be forced to pound the snot out of some poor bastard.

I didn’t like the idea of that one bit.

Fugate continued to fire up the crowd a few seconds before passing the megaphone over to Angelica. She continued to shout into it as he walked over and stood about two feet from the cage. He smirked at me. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this you know.”

“So you recruit innocent kids like us and force us into this stupid Gladiator thing of yours?”

He laughed. “There’s nothing stupid about it. The Dark Side Club is one of the biggest underground Internet sensations; we get nearly three million hits a broadcast.”

I smirked. “How come I’ve never heard of it?”

“You’re not exactly our target audience.”

“I’m proud not to be part of the brain dead masses.”

Fugate stepped a little closer. He got close enough so no one else could hear him but me. “You don’t honestly think any of them really know what’s going on here. When I recruited all those freaks I saw dollar signs and why not. All you freaks are really good for is creating destruction. Your talents are wasted on playing pretend heroes and trying to save the day. If I didn’t try to turn a profit out of it, someone else would have.”

“Tell me that’s not the speech you used to trick them into this?”

“Trick? I didn’t trick them they volunteered for this” He turned and waved his hand at them. “All of them were shunned and kicked out of their homes, treated like dirt for what they were. I brought them in, gave them food and shelter. When I told them about my plan, they couldn’t sign up fast enough.”

“I see Rose turned you down” I shot back, confident that I finally had him.

He laughed really loud at that one. “Turned me down, are you out of your mind. She’s the best little fighter I’ve got.”

I shook my head. “You’re lying.”

He smirked. “I take it she failed to mention her nighttime activities in-between fingering you in the sheets.”

My anger flared and I charged the cage wall, stopping inches from frying myself. He laughed and pointed. I followed his finger into the stands. It took me a few seconds but I could just make out two figures. One of them was sitting down, his hands behind his back. It was Fite, he looked pretty battered but the shocking thing was the sword at his throat. I followed that up to its holder and was shocked to see Rose. She was dressed in a tight blue shirt, wearing that stupid eye patch again. She wore a blank expression but it was clear that no one was forcing her to be there. I was such an idiot to think that she was on my side. She was just like them.

“Ravager is one of our greatest pulls; if you’re lucky and survive long enough you might get a chance to test your might against her.”

I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. “I’m not fighting her or anyone else for that matter.”

Fugate laughed. “If you refuse, she’ll cut your friend’s throat. Then I’ll send Terry to that sweet little aunt of yours and he’ll bring her back here so your girlfriend can cut her throat too.”

This time I did slam into the wall of cage. Instead of feel the pain of electricity coursing through my body, I felt nothing. I gripped the barbed wire, it cut into my hands. Then it started to sizzle and spark, melting under my rage. Fugate looked scared but only for a second. He wagged his finger at me, regaining his composure quickly.

“Save it for the fight, my dear.”

‘When I’m done with them, I’m coming for your head.”

He smirked. “Just like he wants. He’ll be so pleased to see you finally embracing your true nature.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

He shrugged. “You’ll see soon enough.”

He didn’t stay around for me to ask any more questions. Instead, he turned and walked back over to the group. He took the megaphone from Angelica---who had the crowd ready to tear the walls down in excitement. “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN; ARE YOU READY FOR A FIGHT!”

The crowd screamed. He then went and put his hand over the head of each person in turn, trying to get the crowd to choose who would have first go at me. The idea being the one with the most shouts would ultimately be my first opponent. I didn’t really care which one it was, all I wanted was Fugate's head. The bastard needed to be stopped, this all needed to be stopped. I’m not sure what his ultimate end game really was but I couldn’t let this go on. He was exploiting Metas and turning a profit from it. It appalled me that the others would even think about being involved in this kind of crap.

A few minutes passed and the crowd shouted real louder. I looked at who his hand was hovering over and sighed, it was Angelica. Though I didn’t really know, what her power was I didn’t want to get hit by those glowing hands or hers. “WE HAVE OUR GLADIATOR” shouted Fugate, grabbing Angelica’s arm and raising it over her head.

He walked her over to me, the crowd shouted. Then he stopped and turned toward the crowd. “ROUND ONE IS BETWEEN DISRUPTOR AND THE RED DEVIL.”

Red Devil, seriously. Now that name was no longer cool.

Angelica walked up to the cage, smirking at me. She didn’t look very threatening, what with her being decked out in pink. “I can’t get your little Lesbo lover into the Ring but you’ll do for now.”

“This is ridiculous, we don’t have to fight.”

She smirked. “Sounds like you’re scared of me.”

I scoffed. “You’re going to get hurt, Angelica.”

She didn’t listen. Instead, she turned and raised her hands over her head, her fists glowing pink. Then she walked over to the door to the cage, Fugate followed her. He unlocked the door and smacked her playfully on the ass as she entered. She turned to him and blew a kiss. Then she turned to me and gave me the finger. She laughed and I rolled my eyes. It scared me that she was enjoying herself way too much. This was serious and she thought it was a game.

“Ladies” said Fugate, not into the megaphone this time. “The rules are simple: fight until one of you is either unconscious or dead.”

Nice rules.

There was no bell. One minute I was looking at Fugate and the next Angelica came at me. She was fast, faster than I would have expecting. She swung her fists like a maniac, me I did my best to keep away from her. I had no intention of fighting her. I think the crowd caught onto my tactic after a minute or two of me dodging. They started to boo and hiss. Angelica started to get really annoyed too. She stepped up her game, coming at me faster and with fury. Still she didn’t land a single blow. I don’t know any martial arts or self-defense. But it was common sense that when someone was trying to hit you, you stayed away from that person. Angelica was acting like this was the most important thing in the world to her and it might have been. But me, I didn’t want to hurt her.

She started getting tired. After all, she was doing all the work. It was kinda sad really. Then she got sloppy. She swung too low and I finally reacted. It wasn’t a very hard punch but it connected a little better than I thought. My fist drove into the side of her head, just above her right ear. Angelica screamed and stumbled back, tripping over her own feet. She fell into the far wall and screamed like she was being murdered. I ran forward quickly, grabbing her wrist and pulling her from the wall. She unconsciously slumped into my arms, the back of her pink outfit torn up by the barbed wire and her flesh burned by the electricity. It was clear that there was far too much flowing through those bars than was safe. I checked her pulse, it was shallow but she was alive.

Fugate walked over to the cage and glared inside. “What are you waiting for” he sneered.

“She needs medical attention, right now.”

Fugate didn’t look too pleased. “You know the rules.”

I shook my head. “Are you out of your damn mind?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he walked over to the cage and opened the door. I wanted to charge him but with Angelica in my arms, I couldn’t move fast enough. He walked to move, shaking his head. At first, I thought he was here for her so I passed her over. It was the worst mistake I could have ever made. Instead of being there to help her, he brandished a knife and shoved it into her rib cage. It was so quick I didn’t have time to react. When he pulled the knife out, he threw Angelica to the floor then turned to the screaming crowd, showing them the bloody knife. Rage filled me, I wanted to rip his heart out but instead I dropped to the ground to check on Angelica. Blood was already pooling underneath her. I checked her pulse but found none.

“You fucking son of a bitch” I said, jumping to my feet.

I charge him but he kept me at bay with the knife. “Kill or be killed” Then he raised the megaphone and shouted. “ROUND ONE GOES TO THE RED DEVIL.”

Terry appeared in the ring between the two of us, bent down to scoop up Angelica’s body then disappeared. I stared at the pool of blood then at Fugate. He moved quicker than me, making a fast break to the door. I almost got to him before he shut it in my face.

“Your just murdered her in cold blood.”

He shrugged. “She was good for a fuck but I was getting tired of her anyway.”

“You’re a bastard.”

He laughed. “Why do you think he picked me?”

“Who’s He?”

He smiled. “I think you already know.”

I looked at him confused for a second and then he turned away from the cage, walking back to address the crowd. “ONE GLADIATOR HAS MET HER FATE AT THE HANDS OF THE DEVIL” he shouted “WHO WILL BE THE NEXT BRAVE SOUL WORTHY TO STEP INTO THE RING OF DEATH.”

It didn’t take long for the crowd to pick Elise.

Fugate shouted. “ROUND TWO, THE PERSUADER VS. THE RED DEVIL.”

Elise stepped into the ring shortly after her name was called, looking a lot like Jason Voorhees bigger and scarier sister. Her glowing blue axe and metal face mask made her look like a force to be reckoned with. I knew there was no way I was going to get away with dancing around, avoiding her. Her axe had to have at least a ten-foot range and I already knew what she could do with it. Visions of those police cars came into my head and I shuddered. I suppose trying to talk to her was out of the question too. But that didn’t stop me from trying.

“Elise” I said, backing up a bit. “Think about this.”

“There’s nothing to think about, you betrayed us.”

I was surprised. “What did Fugate tell you?”

“Like you don’t know, you NARC.”

“He said I was a NARC?” She didn’t respond either way. “I caught him in an alley talking to some criminal I busted back in Illinois. They overheard me so that monster bastard slammed me into a wall.”

She wasn’t listening though. I’m not sure, if she really cared or if she was ignoring me. Whatever the reason she was pretty pissed. It didn’t take her long to start. She came at me just as fast as Angelica but unlike her, Elise didn’t need to get close to me. Her axe did all the work. I managed to dodge it---just barely---but the wind from it sent me stumbling backwards. It scared the hell out of me. Something like that shouldn’t be able to have that much power. I got my bearings and realized that in order to survive this I needed to keep that thing away from me.
She swung again, missing me by inches.

“This is crazy; you’re going to kill me with that thing.”

“That’s the idea”

“I’m not the enemy,” I said, barely getting away from another swing. “Fugate is using you and the others. Look what he did to Angelica; he killed her because she failed to stop me. Does that look like someone who’s playing with a full deck?”

“She knew the rules.”

I scoffed. “C’mon Elise, you’re smarter than that. You know this is wrong.”

She hesitated before swinging again. I thought I might have gotten to her but she shook her head. “Stop talking and fight.”

Her next swing got close enough that it cut some of my hair. The force of the swing through me back and I hit the barbed wire. The sharp metal cut into my back and the electricity tore through my body. I screamed in pain. I tried to push myself off but the barbs dug into my flesh and held firm. Every time I struggled, it just hurt even more. Elise stomped toward me and raised the axe, ready to bring it down on me---executioner style. The crowd cheered. I’m not sure what happened to me. My body got hot just like I was used to and the next minute the pain was gone. I roared in rage and anger, knowing that the masquerade was over. Gone was Ellie the sweet demure girl trying not to fight and in her place was my true self, the real Red Devil. The crowd fell silent, even Fugate was at a loss for words. Elise hesitated again. My anger took over. I screamed as I pulled myself off the barbs and charged at her full force. She recovered quickly enough, throwing up the axe across her chest to protect her.

I slammed my shoulder into it, knocking her back. She was a lot heavier than I expected so she managed to stop herself from hitting the wall and getting stuck there. But she wasn’t quite strong enough to force me away. I pushed with all my strength, which sadly for her wasn’t enough for her to hold. She screamed as she lost some ground, giving it one final push. She was aided by stomping on my foot, taking me off guard. I let go of the axe handle, she punched me in the face and I stumbled back.

“What in God’s name are you?”

“This is really me,” I said, my voice rumbling. “Ellie is a disguise, nothing more. This is what I really look like, the Red Devil incarnate.”

“You’re a demon?”

I shook my head. “I’m a human being just like you. And seeing as both of us are humans, we can stop this before it gets any further.” I held out my hand toward her, hoping she’d drop her axe and help me. “Are you a human or something else?”

She didn’t say anything for the longest time. She did lower the axe, which was something. She turned and looked out of the cage, looking at the crowd. Then she scanned the faces of Fugate and Desmond, her eyes finally locking with Terry’s. There was something there still, a spark maybe. They stared at each for the longest time and then nodded.

Elsie turned toward me and tore off her mask, smiling. “I’m a human but I can’t be involved with this anymore.” She tossed her axe on the ground at my feet. “For what it’s worth, Rose was never involved. He threatened to call her father and hand her over if she didn’t help him. Go easy on her, she really does love you.”

Terry appeared in the ring, wrapping his arms around her. He looked at me. “Thanks for trying to help Angie and for not killing my girlfriend.”

I nodded and smiled. He nodded and the two of them disappeared.

As soon as it was clear they weren’t going to reappear somewhere else in the ring, the crowd rioted. They started to boo and hiss and tossed things at Fugate. He put his hands over his head to block the projectiles. Me, I transformed back into Ellie, letting out a big sigh of relief. Hopefully this was enough to ruin the son of a bitch. I watched as several people started getting up, storming toward the exits. Fugate looked frantic; he raised his megaphone, trying to call them back. But no matter how he shouted, they wouldn’t listen. He looked desperate until he looked up into the stands and saw Rose. Now the people were filing out, she looked directly at me.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HOW ABOUT A VERY SPECIAL TREAT. ONE TIME ONLY, RAVAGER VS THE RED DEVIL.”

The shock on Rose’s face mirrored my own. I shook my head and shouted at him but he ignored me. There was no way I was going to fight Rose in the ring. She seemed to shout something too. I looked over at her; she pushed Fite to the ground and jumped out of stands. Then she stalked over, putting one of her blades underneath Fugate’s chin. Desmond stepped forward to stop her but she snapped the other one around, keeping him at bay too.

“That was not a part of the plan.”

Fugate smirked. “Plans change.”

“I’m not getting into the ring to kill my girlfriend.”

Fugate turned and looked at me then at Desmond. He smirked. “Either get into the ring with her now or else I’ll have Desmond break her in two while you stand here and watch.”

Rose looked at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. I shook my head, tears running down mine. She lowered her swords and walked slowly over. I shook my head again. “You can’t do this, run and get the police. I’ll be all right, I can handle Desmond.”

“No you can’t,” she sobbed, closing her eyes and opening them a second later. “He’s going to kill you. I’ve already seen it.”

“The future can be changed.”

She shook her head. “Not the kind I see.”

She tossed her swords on the ground, probably hoping to make things fair. But there was nothing fair about her fighting me. She’d be able to tell everything I was going to do before I did it. That’s why she was such a good fighter after all. It would be no contest and I think she knew that. She lowered her head as she walked over to the door. Fugate looked like he was on Cloud Nine. He walked with a skip in his step as he unlocked the door for her.

“If you kill her, I’ll give your father fake coordinates, send him on a wild goose chase somewhere.”

Rose nodded. “It doesn’t matter,” she said softly.

“Have a good match ladies” he said and then eyed us both. “Remember the rules and don’t forget, the world is watching.”

He stepped away from the cage then addressed the crowd, firing them up. Only small portions of them were gone. The rest were back in their seats, ready to watch our fight. Rose and I were both crying, pacing around the ring in a circle. Neither one of us wanted to make the first move. She already knew when I was going to go so as long as I stalled things maybe the two of us could tire the crowd into boredom and get them to leave. It was a long shot but Fugate was nothing without his precious crowd.

“I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work.”

I bit my lip. “We have to try something.”

“There’s nothing,” she said, sobbing. “So quick, change into the demon and strike me down. I won’t budge an inch.”

She stopped moving.

“I’m not going to kill you.”

“You should, I’m a horrible person,” She was openly crying now. “I didn’t just meet you by chance in that boutique; I knew who you were before I went in there.”

I was confused but didn’t care. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does. I’ve been with Fugate for about two months. Terry picked me up two days after I ran away from home, he brought me here. Then about a day before we met, Fugate told me he had a mission for me. I was suppose to go to Iowa and get you. He said if I did that then he’d let me go. So I agreed and Terry teleported me to the shop. I didn’t know who you were; you were the means to an end. All I had to do is get you to come to LA and his boss would be happy.”

“His boss, who is he?”

She shrugged. “Fugate said the guy’s name was Mr. Darksyde but I overheard him talking to someone once, he called him Neroc or something.”

I groaned. It hit me like a weight to the chest. “Neron?"

She nodded. “That’s it.”

I groaned. It made some sense now. That’s why he hadn’t gone after me; he was having Fugate do it for him. He was a slimy bastard but a smart one too. I should have seen it from the beginning but I was too stupid. I bit my lip. “It doesn’t matter; you’re the only thing that matters to me now.” I turned and looked at Fugate and Desmond. “We can take them, then the two of us can get out of here.”

Rose shook her head. “You don’t understand. If we flee, Desmond will kill us.”

I shook my head, reaching out and taking her hand. “I won’t let anyone harm you.”

“LADIES WHY ARE YOU HOLDING HANDS” Fugate sounded pretty pissed off when he shouted into the megaphone. “YOU SHOULD BE TEARING EACH OTHER APART, NOT GETTING ALL TOUCHY FEELY IN THERE.”

“Go fuck yourself, Clock King,” snapped Rose, giving my hand a good squeeze. “We’re tired of playing your stupid game.”

Fugate smirked. “VERY TOUCHING BUT VERY STUPID” he turned to Desmond and shouted. “RIP THEM TO PIECES.”

Desmond stomped over to the cell. He took a hold of the side of the cage, the electricity and barbed wire had no effect on him either apparently. He gave it a good yank and tore the wall clean off, tossing it behind him. There was several screams as it hurled into the stands, narrowly missing several patrons. The spectators started to flee after that, I think they knew when things were over. Fugate tried to call them back but there was nothing stopping them from running. He looked a bit hysterical in his shouting but it was clear he was finished this time for good.
We were finished too.

“I’ve been waiting months to smash your smug little face into the ground, Wilson.”

Desmond stepped into the cage and cracked his knuckles, grinning at the two of us. I let go of Rose’s hand, pushing her behind me then transformed back into my demonic self. Desmond laughed, clearly not intimidated. He took one thunderous step toward me, raised his hand and prepared to bring it down on my head. I flinched and saw a streak of green. It came out of nowhere. It stunned all three of us. I looked down at our feet, at the foreign object sticking in the mat separating him from us then I smiled.

It was a green arrow.

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Author's Note: Contrary to how this chapter ends, this is the last chapter for this story. Ellie's story will pick up later but for right now this is the end.I'd like to thank djkauf for the devilishly good editing and DC Comics for the characters. I'd also like to thank those of you who took the time to comment...we lowly CRU writers thrive on them :)

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Chapter Ten:

“What the fuck?” grumbled a stunned Desmond, looking at the arrow.

It had just barely missed his left foot. I looked at the arrow too, if only in shock and awe. I stared at it in excitement until my eyes snapped quickly in the direction of where it came from. At first, I didn’t see anything due to the bright lights but then I saw her: a shadowy figure crouched high in the rafters of the warehouse. I couldn’t really make out much of her but I could see the billow of her hooded cape and the outline of the bow she held in her hand. It was the Green Arrow, fabled protector of San Francisco. What the hell was she doing here?

Desmond recovered from his shock quickly. He snapped around and glared up at the ceiling too, but the lights didn’t seem to bother him. “I’d like to see you try that again you little bitch.”

The Green Arrow quickly notched another arrow and fired. It went straight for Desmond’s face. I’m not sure how he did it, but the big monster caught it in midair. He looked pretty damn smug about it. I looked at his face and then at the arrow. It looked different, the head was bigger. He didn’t seem to notice but Rose did. When it started to flash green and beam, she grabbed my arm and pulled me away. The two of us jumped into the corner of the cage just in time. The arrow exploded in a flash of light, causing Desmond to scream out in pain. Rose and I hit the mat face first; she covered a good portion of me with her body.

The light was blinding, forcing me to close my eyes. I’m not sure how long it lasted but Rose nudged me, telling me it was done. So I reluctantly opened my eyes and lifted my head.

“What the hell?” I asked as I pushed myself to my feet.

“Flash bang” said Rose getting up as well. “I wouldn’t have thought to put it on an arrow though.”

I smiled then remembered the situation the two of us were in. I quickly looked over at Desmond. He was dazed and stumbling and looked pretty mangled. When I say he looked mangled I might want to change that to his hand looked mangled, at least what he had left of one. It might have been a non-lethal explosive but it didn’t help to be holding it when it went off. His hand was a charred mess, three of his fingers were gone, the other two were bent at horrible angles. You’d think that something like that would cause huge amounts of pain. Surely, I’d be on the floor writhing in agony but not this guy.
It was like he didn’t even feel it.

Desmond recovered. But he completely ignored us; his new target was the Emerald Archer. I snapped my head around, wondering if she was gone. But no, she was still in the rafters, notching another arrow. Desmond roared like an enraged gorilla. Then he stumbled over, scooping up Elise’s axe in his good hand. He jumped out of the cage, forgetting us completely. He shouted something unintelligible at the Green Arrow and then lobbed the axe. It spun in a deadly circle, barreling right toward her. I watched in awe, wondering when she was going to move. She didn’t until it was almost on top of her. She was so quick. I saw a flap of green and then she wasn’t there anymore. The axe slammed into the spot where she was and stuck there. Ten seconds later, two arrows whizzed through the air from a different direction. They hit Desmond, lodging in his left shoulder. He bellowed in pain but it didn’t seem to faze him in the least. I’m not sure what this guy was made of but it was insane.

I turned to Rose, about to tell her to stay put. I needed to knock this guy down a peg but she was already running. I cursed. Rose wasn’t as fast as the Arrow but she was pretty quick. Desmond ignored her as she flipped by him, going for her swords. As soon as she recovered them, she went at him, spinning like a damn top. When the blades touched his skin, I thought for sure that was going to dice the hell out of him. I think she thought she had a good shot at it, too. It surprised both of us as they harmlessly glanced off his flesh.

A stunned Rose took a moment to rethink things. Desmond swung a hand around and swatted her, sending her crashing into a stack of chairs. I snapped. Anger took over and felt the changed come on. I was running on pure rage as I jumped out of the cage and charged him. I don’t even think he saw it coming. The Green Arrow was still keeping him busy, shooting her arrows into his skin. They were like bee stings to him but enough of a distraction for me. He didn’t see me coming until it was too late. He turned his head just in enough for me to slap into his side, sending him sprawling. The two of us skidded across the ground, tearing up concrete in our wake.

We finally stopped with a crashing thud into the side of one of the makeshift stands. There were several cracks of rickety wood and the whole thing came down on us. Such a calamity probably would have killed two normal people but it seemed neither of us were normal. Desmond recovered first. He grabbed me by the head and tossed me off of him, tearing through the rumble. I flew about twenty feet into the air, almost hitting the ceiling. For a moment, I actually thought I might be killed. As I was making my way toward the ground, my wings unfurled and I sailed down to it safely.

“YOU FUCKING FREAK” roared the Man Mountain.

I turned and he charged like a bull. He was several yards away and moving fast. An arrow hit the ground directly in front of him. He didn’t seem to care one bit, not even when it blinked like the last one. But unlike the last one, there wasn’t a flash bang explosion. This one was a real one, blasted a huge crater in the ground. Desmond was nearly on top of it when it went off. I couldn’t see what happened through the blast but there was a loud crash so it was clear that he was thrown backwards. When some of the smoke cleared, I finally caught sight of him. He was wedged in the far wall, his body bent over. I let out a sigh of relief because it was clear he wasn’t getting back up from that.

I transformed back into my Ellie self---no, make that my normal self. Who, when did I start thinking that? I took one last glance at the defeated Desmond then ran over to where Rose was lying. I grabbed a few chairs, tossing them away. Rose was on her back, panting and groaning. At first, I thought it was serious until she sat up but doing so caused her to wince.

“Some precog I turned out to be” she said, using one of her swords like a crutch as she pushed up to her feet. She coughed; I was at her side in a second.

“Are you out of your mind?” I asked as I slipped myself under her arm and helped her the rest of the way to her feet. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. Her eyes snapped shut and then she gripped my hand tightly. When she opened them again, she groaned. “Forget about me, you need to get Fugate before it’s too late.”

Fugate? I looked around the room. I was so preoccupied with Desmond that I’d completely forgotten about him. Sure enough he was nowhere in sight. He must have taken off running when the real fighting started. I looked around the room, trying to find his possible exit. But there was only one real way out of this place and I’m sure he took it. I reached down and kissed Rose on the forehead, she smiled and blushed. I couldn’t figure out why she was so bashful until I realized we weren’t alone. I snapped my head around and the Green Arrow was standing behind us. Hey, was that a new costume? I thought she wore all green, where the hell did the black jumpsuit come from? I shook my head, now wasn’t the time to think about it.

“I…uhhh….” I said, at a loss for words.

She smiled. “Go, get the bad guy. I’ll clean up here.”

I nodded and took off toward the only exit. I ran as fast and as hard as I could. It didn’t take a genius to figure out where Fugate was going. First he’d run back to his Clock Factory and then he’d high tail it out of here. Why the factory you ask, well because he had a giant safe in his room. I was pretty certain it was full of all the money he’d gotten off his patrons over the last few matches or whatever. There was no way that a weasel like Fugate would ever cut and run without the cash.

When I got outside the building, I half expected to see him running away from the factory with huge bags of money. Of course, that only happened in cartoons. I took off, glad that it was night; I’m not sure how much more bright light I could take, actually. I ran as hard as I could but didn’t break a sweat; I guess it’s one of my superpowers. I hadn’t really thought about what had happened to me since becoming Ellie. I guess there wasn’t really much time before and even now with it on my mind there wasn’t much time for it either. Later, later I can sit down and write a list. I’m not sure how happy that made me feel but at least it something.

I made it to the factory. I ran around the side to the back door. I wasn’t really suspecting anyone to ambush me when I walked in the door so it was kinda a surprise when the wooden plank went at my face. Luckily, I saw it a split second before it impacted---throwing up my arm---or else it would have hurt like a bitch. There was a snicker and a curse. The plank clattered to the floor and a shadow moved on me, faster than I knew Fugate could move. It could only be one other person.

“Not so tough now, are we little girl” said a familiar voice from the darkness.

I groaned. “Prince, this doesn’t involve you. Get the hell out of my way.”

“Prince?” said the sneering voice of the nutty bank robber. “I’m not Nathan Prince, I’m Copperhead.”

I rolled my eyes. This guy truly was off his rocker and I didn’t have time for it. I saw a flash of copper color in the dark---illuminated by a wisp of moonlight coming in through the door. I launched on it, trying to see if I could grab him. I missed the first time, getting a kick in the chin for my efforts. It brought me to my knees and I cursed, tasting blood in my mouth. I got to my feet quickly and caught a shape coming at me out of the corner of my eye. I smirked and transformed. When Prince’s foot connected with my side, he was kicking the fiery red flesh of my demon form and not the soft flesh of a normal teenage girl. You can imagine how that must have felt. The rubber sole of his snake costume melted on contact, searing the ridiculous to his flesh. He screamed out in pain, hopping with a real case of “hot foot.”

He stumbled backwards, trying to hide in the dark. I lit one of my hands on fire, using it like a torch in the dark. Not that I needed it, Prince was whimpering like a wounded dog. I found him a few feet away from where he kicked me, lying against a wooden crate. When he saw me, he tried to get up but the immense pain in his foot drove him back to the ground. I smirked. I walked over to him and reached for him, he tried to fight me off but it was no use---especially now that he knew touching me was very bad. Instead of hitting him like I wanted, I pushed him onto his stomach. Then I ran a red hot finger along the back of the suit, searing the seam shut, melting the zipper.

“You like being Copperhead so much then so be it,” I said and stepped over him, leaving him crying like a baby.

I wove my way through the factory, using my “torch” to guide my way. That is until I got close to Fugate’s office. I doused my hand. Besides I didn’t need it, there was a light on in his office. I smirked; I figured he wouldn’t be running away so fast. I took deep breath and started up the stairs. I thought about transforming back into me but then I might be vulnerable. No, I needed to do this as the demon, that way in case he tried anything I could easily counteract it.

When I got about half up the stairs, Fugate screamed. It wasn’t the good kind either, it was one of those girlish, sacred shitless screams. Then I heard his voice.

“Who are you? Get away from me!”

Was there someone else in the room? I charged up the steps, taking them two at a time. I didn’t care what was happening, Fugate was mine. I threw open the door, not sure what to expect. What I saw blew my mind. There was a figure standing before him, shrouded in a green cloak. From the size and shape, it was clearly a woman. Fugate looked scared out of his mind. He dropped his bag and quivered and then she spoke. I won’t lie, I quivered too.

“Temple Fugate, I am Vengeance” said an icy cold voice that sent shivers up my spine and then there was a muzzle flash.

It happened so quick, one shot right to the head. Fugate crumpled to the ground.

“Holy shit” I gasped and regretted it as soon as I said it.

The figure in the green cloak slowly turned around. What I saw surprised me a bit. It was a woman but she wasn’t scary like I thought she might be. Yeah she had chalk white skin and red eyes but she was actually very beautiful. But surprisingly more than that, she couldn’t have been much older than me. I gulped, feeling stupid that I spoke to this spectral thing---the thing that just killed a man without even batting an eyelash.

“Ellie Bloomberg” she said, the scariness leaving her voice somewhat. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

I sighed. “How did you know my name?”

She looked a little confused. “I’m not really sure; I’m kinda new at this.”

That kinda floored me. “Who the hell are you?”

She smiled, it looked kinda freaky. “I’m the Spectre.”

She said it like it was the most common thing in the world and then she was gone. It wasn’t like one of those blink and you miss her things either. It was like her entire body dissolved into nothingness and vanished into thin air. For the longest time, I just stood there, staring at the spot where she’d been. I’m not sure how long it was but I heard the faint sounds of sirens in the background and felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped, not even realized I transformed back into my human self. When I turned around, Rose was standing there. She was panting.

“Ellie, we have to go” she said, then looked over my shoulder at Fugate. “Did you do that?”

I numbly shook my head. “Someone else” I said in a hollow voice.

She nodded, grabbing my arm. “Good riddance.”

She yanked me from the room. The two of us ran down the stairs and bolted from the factory in the nick of time. As we ran off into the darkness, I could see the headlights and hear the wailing sirens as several police cars pulled up around the place. I let out a big sigh after I knew the two of us were safe, several blocks away. We slumped in an alley, panting and exhausted. Then I collapsed into Rose’s lap and cried. She stroked my hair, holding my head to my breast.

“What is it, baby?”

I didn’t answer for several minutes. “I think I’ve just seen a ghost.”
_____________________________

We doubled back to the factory about two hours later, hoping some of the fuss there might have calmed down. There was only one police car now and the place was surrounded by yellow tape. I waited outside---beyond the yellow perimeter---as Rose slipped inside. It helped that she was precog and knew what was going to happen before anyone else. Why were we here, you ask? Well Rose wasn’t going anywhere without her stuff, I’m not sure why she was so obsessed with it, but oh well. It didn’t take her long, Thank God. When she came back, she was carrying our two bags plus her guitar case. To tell you the truth, I think it was all about the case. She seemed utterly attached to it. Her swords were back inside because she wasn’t carrying them anymore.

“You didn’t do anything stupid, did you?” I asked as she tossed me my back.

She shrugged. I groaned and the two of us got out of there pretty quick. It was several hours before we stopped moving. After leaving the factory we hit a little coffee shop, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. While I bought the food, Rose rifled through her bag. When I came back with some cappuccinos and Danish, she smiled. But there was something about it that seemed to bother me. It wasn’t a happy smile, more like a frown. I knew that frown, it was the “I’ve got something to tell you but I’m afraid to” frown.

“You’re not telling me things again?” I said, sitting across from her in the booth.

She sighed. “I don’t want to but I think I gotta run again.”

I nodded. “Where are we going this time?”

She shook her head. “The thing is Ellie, I work….”

I cut her off before she finished. “You’re not leaving me again and if you do so help me I’ll hunt you down and break both of your legs.”

She smiled. “I think you would, too.”

I reached over and took her hand. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I said this before but I’ll say it again, you’re not protecting me from anything. You and I will work things out, no matter what comes.”

She nodded. We ate in relative silence after that. There was only one other person in the shop and that was the waitress. She was behind the counter, glued to the flatscreen on the wall. It was the news and guess what they were talking about. I tried to tune it out but it was hard to when it was about me again. Ok, not specifically about me but pretty close. The footage wasn’t live---we probably missed that---but they were replaying some of the live stuff they shot earlier. I did watch a little bit of it, I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. I saw the police take Prince out of the factory in handcuffs, he was raving like a lunatic about “demons” and the “end of the world”. Go figure, huh. I also saw them loading a body into the back of a coroner’s van, good guess who that was. What I didn’t see was them escorting a large body bag out of there nor a pissed off looking Desmond in handcuffs. That kinda scared me a bit, meaning that that bastard slipped away sometime after us.

“She said she’d look for him,” said Rose after a minute or two.

“Huh?” I asked, not realizing she was watching too.

“The Green Arrow” said Rose as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

In all that had happened, I’d completely forgotten about her. I’d also forgotten to ask Rose about what went down after I went after Fugate. She quickly filled me on the few details there were. The Green Arrow made sure she was all right and then when the two of them went to get Desmond, they found him gone. He must have slipped out after I ran but neither of them saw him go. That’s when the Green Arrow said she’d go looking for him. Apparently, she had a lot of “resources”, her words not mine. I’m not sure how she knew we there in the first place but I was eternally grateful that she showed when she did. If it hadn’t been for her it might have been a lot more difficult to take down Desmond.

“Authorities are looking for these two in connection to the factory” said the newscaster.

Rose cursed. My back was to the television now but it was clear what pictures were on the screen. I threw a twenty down on the table, grabbed the rest of the Danish and the two of us bolted. We didn’t give the girl at the counter time enough to call the police. We didn’t stop running until we were several blocks away. Rose---having been in the city longer than I---knew a few places to hide out. One of them surprisingly, was a church. She wasn’t a very religious person but apparently the priest there---Father Mike---helped her a few months ago when she first arrived here. When he saw her this second time he frowned but he gave us a place to stay anyways.

“Always trouble with you, isn’t it?”He asked as he took us to a back room.

“I’m really grateful, Father,” she said, giving him a gentle hug.

He smiled and left the two us alone nut not before handing over a sleeping bag. There was only one of them, meaning one of us would have to sleep on the couch. It was clear that we weren’t the first to be crashing in this back room. Neither of us had much to say after that. It was well into the early morning hours and let’s face it; I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. I think I was asleep before I slipped into the sleeping bag. Hey, a gentleman---even if I’m not so much one anymore---always lets the lady have the better sleeping accommodations.

I’m not sure how long I had been sleeping or why I woke up but it didn’t take me long to realize we weren’t the only ones in the room. I wasn’t the only one who realized it either. Rose was already on her feet, one of her two katanas drawn. The figure was sitting on the corner of the desk, a thin curved weapon in their hand. My first instinct was to “demon up” but I stopped myself when the desk lamp clicked on. I let out a sigh, recognizing the green and black that was the Green Arrow. She smiled, dropped her hood to reveal the braided blonde hair underneath. I’m not sure but I think Rose and I were the first two people in existence who’d ever seen her without that hood. Not that it mattered much; she was wearing one of those black domino masks like Zorro, except way cooler.

“You two are hard to find” she said with a laugh.

Rose lowered her Katana. “How did you then?”

“I tapped into the micro transceiver under your skin,” she said causing Rose to look down at herself.

Then Rose cursed. “So that’s how he’s been able to find me.”

The Green Arrow nodded. “Don’t worry, I killed the transmitter and rerouted the signal, your father now believes a bald eagle is in fact his daughter.”
Rose smiled, I was confused. But there were more pressing matters at hand. I was worried about what she might be doing here.

“Did Faraday send you after me?”

“I don’t even know who that is.”

I wasn’t convinced. “Then what were you doing in the factory?”

She smiled. “Cute but not very bright” Rose nodded at that; I stuck my tongue out at her. The Green Arrow continued. “They were broadcasting that stupid thing all over the Internet you know. It started a few weeks ago; my friend has been trying to track it down ever since. We finally traced it to the factory. We thought it might have something to do with several missing Metas in San Francisco but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“Missing Metas?”

She shook her head. “They weren’t here. But don’t worry, I have another lead on that.”

I nodded, not sure what the hell she was talking about. But I still was kinda weary of her. Yes, she saved my life but I still wasn’t ready to trust her. “So you were just in the neighborhood?”

She nodded. “Yep.”

Rose took over the questioning from there. “How did you know about my father?”

“Anyone with a computer and a good hacker can find out about Slade Wilson. Not a very nice guy mind you, I have half a mind to pay him a visit. But I’ll leave that to the professionals, besides he’s a little out of my league.”

Rose nodded. “And Desmond?”

She sighed. “I tracked him for a few blocks but lost him. I’m afraid he knows this city a little better than I do. I’ve put some feelers out for him though. I have a few friends in interesting places. If he pops up again I’ll make sure he’s taken care of.”

Rose asked a few more questions and the Green Arrow answered them to the best of her ability. I only half paid attention. I used this time to think about my own situation. I’d been involved in two crazy over the top incidents, both of which didn’t seem to turn out so right for me. The first time I was incarcerated by the government and now I was a fugitive from the law. I might have Rose now, but I wondered how long that would last. She didn’t seem the type to stick around for long periods of time. I’d make sure she’d stay out of trouble but I was certain I’d slip up somewhere and she’d disappear one night. It was a given. As far as Green Arrow went, I wasn’t so sure about her. She helped us out but I was sure she knew what I did. She didn’t say it in some many words but it was the way she kept looking at me. She knew I was guilty and a criminal. The question was, what was she going to do about it.

She finally spoke to me again. It was like she could read my mind. “I’m not here to bust you.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

She laughed and held up her hand, showing a shining green ring on her finger. “We’re on the same side, Ellie. In fact, I think if the two of us sat down and swapped war stories you might find we have some things in common.”

I stared at the ring. So she was visited by Jade, too. I guess it made sense. I wondered if Cassie had one of those rings now, too. But having one of them and saying you were my friend was one thing but there was no way to prove it. I think she still saw the distrust in my eyes. She let out a sigh and did something that I didn’t expect her to do; she took off the little black mask. For a moment, I had no idea who she was until she leaned forward a little bit further. Rose gasped first. It took me a few seconds to connect the face in front of me to a very familiar and popular face.

“Holy shit” I said, seeing Olivia Queen.

“No way” said Rose a few seconds later.

Olivia aka the Green Arrow smiled. “If I was truly dishonest do you think I’d show you my real face?”

She smiled then reached into the pouch on her belt, taking something out. It a sleek cell phone. “I’m not all fancy like Jade with rings and all but if you need any help, call me on this. It’s preprogrammed with some interesting goodies as well.”

She tossed the phone to me; Rose reached out and caught it before I could. I stuck my tongue out at her. I turned to thank Olivia but she was gone. Both of us looked a little surprised. But the window as open and the wind was whipping the curtains. I shook my head. Who the hell did she think she was, that “Bat” guy in Chicago? I didn’t bother to rush to the window to see her off, she was probably long gone by now. Instead, I crawled back into the sleeping bag. I suppose it didn’t matter but it was cool that Olivia trusted the two of us enough to reveal something that big.

I feel asleep with a smile on my face.

________________________________

After our night in the church–and our meeting with Green Arrow---the two of us tried to stay one step ahead of things. Over the next two weeks, the two of us never stayed in one place very long, moving as soon as we got too comfortable. But we didn’t leave California. Rose figured it was a big enough state that we could easily get lost in it, and if necessary the two of us could hightail it to the border. It helped that we made contact with Elise and Terry again. The two of them were now up in Canada, Terry having been from there. After teleporting Angelica to the hospital---she’s alive, big sigh of relief---he realized something was up. That’s when he decided to get Elise out of there. Now the two of them were living comfortably near the border of Alaska, far away from civilization.

But he promised that if we needed him to just give him a call and he’d teleport us anywhere we wanted to go---as long as he saw it beforehand of course. That was the limit of his power, I guess. Rose quickly put his number into the speed dial of our phone. Speaking of the phone, it was an awesome brand new Q-Phone---Queen Industries' latest model. It could do everything except tie your shoes. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit but it was pretty cool. We alternated who got to hold it, just in case we got caught by someone we didn’t want too, either her father’s goons or the DEO.

Not that we seemed to be having a problem with either.

I’m not sure what Olivia did to Rose’s transmitter---but whatever it was, it seemed to work. So far, we hadn’t seen a single one of her father’s thugs, not that they weren’t out there. Plus we were far from danger. They were still plastering our faces all over the news---it was a shame that Agents Fite and Maad got a good look at Rose. The two of us were alternating disguises now, trying on different wigs and different looks. So far no one’s seemed to make any connections but I’m not sure how long that’s going to last. You’d think that all this running would make a girl unhappy but strangely, I couldn’t be happier. At least for once in my life---well in the last few months---I felt like this is where I truly belonged. Ok so the girl thing was still a bit bothersome but as long as I had Rose, everything felt all right.

But there were always problems of course. Rose snapped her fingers in front of my face. The two of us were scoping out a new motel; the last one was getting a little hot. Someone must have recognized us because there was a police officer there asking questions this morning. So we had to move again. Now we were looking at a new place---from the security of the alley across the street. It was in a seedier part of the neighborhood but it would suit our needs nicely. It better because we were down to our last hundred---having spent nearly all of the cash my aunt wired me nearly three months ago.

“You were daydreaming again,” said Rose, taking her hand out of my face.

“I was thinking,” I said with a frown.

“Think later, we need to see if this place has any vacancies.”

I nodded and the two of us cut across the street quickly. We rushed into the office and Rose did all the talking. She was good at it, call it a gift. She was able to secure us one room for three nights with only forty bucks. I guess it helps that she was wearing a tight, low cut top. The manager agreed to pretty much anything she said, he probably would have handed over the keys to the place if she asked. I’m actually surprised she didn’t.

“You were daydreaming again,” said Rose, taking her hand out of my face.

“I was thinking,” I said with a frown.

She got our key and we went to our room. It was a small dingy thing, but it would do. We dropped our bags near the door and nearly collapsed together on the bed. We didn’t even both to pull off our wigs---I was blonde today, she was a brunette. I did manage to roll over and take her hand, hoping to get a little passion. But whatever I wanted was not going to happen because she was already asleep. I frowned and rolled over, grumbling. It didn’t take me long to sleep either but as soon as I did I wished I hadn’t. There was fire again, lots of it and that horrible laughter. I hadn’t had this dream in a long time, I was hoping they were gone but apparently, I wasn’t so lucky.

He was there too, sitting in that damn chair of his. But he was alone in this dream, Wendy and Marvin nowhere to be found.

“You think you’re safe from me just because you squashed my little operation?”

“Neron” I said with a sneer. “Or is it Mr. Darksyde?”

He smirked. “That fool Fugate had no idea what he was fumbling into. He thought he was creating a network of underground Meta Brawls but if he knew the truth…”

The truth dawned on me at that second. “You were recruiting for your army?”

He smirked again. “I knew I liked you, Princess,” he said, a goblet appearing in his hand. “Did I ever tell you that you were my favorite?”

I frowned. “Sounds like desperation to me.”

He grumbled. “I won’t lie to you, things are not good here. There’s a war coming in this Realm, the other are already trying to gather their followers…Dormammu, Trigon, Mephisto…all of them vying for the top spot.”

“And you’ve got…?”

He smiled. “You, of course.”

I shook my head. “I told you I’m not interested.”

He laughed; his voice did that creepy rumbling thing. “You see, that’s what I like about you. You think that just because I let you go, that you can decide whether or not to defy me.”

He might have been scary but for some reason he didn’t scare me in the least. I’m not sure what it was but I knew that he had no real power. At least not in my Realm. If he had power---true power---he would have used it by now. Instead, he used Fugate and his henchmen, sending them out to do his bidding. Which meant that he couldn’t come and get me himself. Yes, he might be able to torture me in my dreams but that’s the only real power he had over me. But even dreams were mine as long as I found the control.

I smiled. Control. The look in his eyes went from smug to scared. This great Demon Lord was scared. Scared because I think he figured out that I wasn’t a puppet.

“You don’t control me, you’ve never controlled me.”

He laughed. “I made you burn your house down and kill your poor mother.”

“That was before I understood my power.”

He laughed. “You have no grasp of who or what you really are. You don’t even know why you are what you are.”

I shook my head. “I don’t care, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does.”

I shook my head. I had enough of this, enough of his torment and lies. I took a deep breath and transformed in my dream. As soon as I did so I felt the power, felt the anger and the rage. The look on Neron’s face was genuine. I scared the hell out of him and I was glad. He dropped his goblet, reeling back in his chair. I leaned in, my face inches from his. Then I blew fire over him and he screamed. It only lasted for a few seconds as his body burnt to a crisp.

“YOU THINK YOU’VE WON” said his disembodied voice. “THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. YOU CAN’T ESCAPE ME, I AM YOUR MASTER AND TO SERVE ME IS YOUR DESTINY.”

“NOT ANYMORE” I shouted and snapped awake.

I shot up in bed, drenched in sweat. My heart was pounding in my chest and I was breathing like a racehorse. Rose woke up quickly too, looking around. She saw me and frowned, not really comprehending what was going on. Instead of asking, she just leaned over and took my hand, squeezing it gently. I closed my eyes, it felt kinda nice. But just as quickly, her grip got tighter. I forced my eyes open. Rose jumped off the bed---clad only in her panties---and rushed over to her guitar case. She flipped it open but didn’t get a chance as a dozen red dots hit her in the chest. She dropped her hands, holding them up at her sides. I was as confused as hell until the door of the motel room was battered in, then it all made sense.

Several men in black tactical gear poured into the room. Red dots hit me too and I cursed. I held up my hands and waited for what was to come next. It didn’t take long as King Faraday walked into the room, shaking his head.

“You girls had us on the run for a while you know.”

Rose cursed. I sighed. “Can’t run forever,” I said and he nodded.

I held up out my hands, welcoming him to cuff but he didn’t move to do so, instead he reared into his coat and took out an envelope, tossing it onto the bed.

“I think you and I need to talk.”