Mark Foster ambled up the boarding ramp, trying desperately not to appear nervous as he felt. He had originally planned to take the Chunnel to France, but all Eurostar services that day had been cancelled, following a bomb threat by an outfit calling themselves "Domesday". Nobody had heard of them beforehand, and they didn't appear to be pushing any kind of agenda. As far as he knew, they'd just appeared in news bulletins on Today threatening to blow up cross-channel traffic unless £25m was paid into a Swiss bank account by 10am that morning. As if.

So he was forced to take a ferry. For most people, this wouldn't be a problem, but he was absolutely terrified of water (which was why he'd planned the Chunnel in the first place) and even felt nauseous when crossing footbridges. So he just stared at the people ahead of him, muttering to himself "Don't look down. Don't look down."

Somehow, he made it on board, settled in a lounge in the middle of the boat, and let out a long sigh. This was supposed to be the start of a nice, relaxing break. He'd been employed as a software developer with a major bank before the recession hit and he was made redundant. That was six months ago, and since the economy wasn't picking up, he'd earned some extra money through home PC repairs, where he'd acquired the nickname "Doc" Foster, for his ability to repair PCs and retrieve accidentally deleted files. He'd now saved up several thousand pounds, and was planning on a camping tour of Europe before returning to the job hunt. However, he could think of better ways to spend ninety minutes than trying not to puke on a cross-channel ferry. Even if it was supposedly the fleet's flagship ("Since when did ferry fleets have flagships?", he thought) and had numerous shops, restaurants, bars and even a discotheque on board. Presumably it was used to longer trips than this 1½ hour jaunt.

After several minutes attempting unsuccessfully to take his mind off the rocking motion of the boat, he almost couldn't hold it down any more and raced up onto the deck to throw up over the side. He quickly regretted that decision after nearly bashing his head against an air intake vent with the force of the wind, but managed to make it to the railing in time. After emptying his stomach, he looked at his watch. 10:33am.

"Great. I've only been on this boat twenty minutes and I've already lost my breakfast. How the heck am I going to survive the next hour and a bit?" he thought. After dry retching a few times, he tentatively sat down on the deck. He still felt nauseous, he could taste the vomit in his mouth, and he could smell it on his lips. "Time to get cleaned up and hope I survive the rest of this trip."

Several minutes later, while attempting to stand up again, his attention was diverted by the sound and violent rumble of several large explosions, which knocked him back to the deck, but not before hitting his head, hard, on the bl**dy air intake. As he struggled to retain consciousness, various disjointed thoughts passed through his head.

"I'm gonna die."
"Typical - can't swim, hate water, end up kissing it."
"Well done, Barry, you finally got me."
"I'm gonna die."
"Thanks a bl**dy lot, Domesday."
"Trust me to find the one bl**dy ship they target."
"I'm gonna die!"
"Oh gawd, help me, please, someone!"
"I don't wanna die like this!"
"Please let it be quick."
"Barry 2, Mark nil."
"I'M GONNA DIE!"

If Mark had been able to reflect on his thoughts, he would have noticed that the stories he'd read when younger were wrong - your life does not flash before your eyes in times of crisis. In his case, it was two specific events that kept on replaying in his mind while the ferry capsized and everyone fled for the lifeboats (not noticing the body lying on the deck next to an air intake vent).

He had always been apprehensive around water - saying he had a phobia of drowning was probably more accurate. The first major incident to confirm this occurred at the age of five, when attending his first (and last) proper swimming lesson. He'd been in the pool every week for the past month, but he'd always had an inflatable ring around his waist to support him. This week, the instructor had deflated the ring once it was around his waist. "It's as flat as a pancake!", the instructor confidently declared, before inviting Mark to swim towards her. He lifted one leg up, but noticing the absence of buoyancy around his waist, stood rooted to the spot, terrified he'd drown as soon as he lifted his left leg. Nothing the instructors could do would change his attitude. One mum got into the pool and held his stomach up, but as soon as she released her arm, he panicked and swallowed several mouthfuls of pool water while trying to stand back up again. The jeers from his classmates didn't help, and he refused to cooperate through the remainder of the lesson. The following week, he just stood at the poolside and froze at the spot, before running back into the changing rooms in tears.

The second incident occurred much later, when he was eleven. His class had been on a school trip to Gloucester, and were walking alongside the canal during a rainstorm, when Barry Jones, the class bully, thought it would be a laugh to push Mark into the water. Although the water was only waist high, it was still a major shock to Mark. Worse still was that it provoked howls of laughter from Barry, which quickly set off half the class. Of course, when questioned on the incident, everyone was quick to corroborate Barry's story that Mark had slipped on some wet grass and ended up in the canal. Despite being obvious to the teachers that this wasn't the case (Mark was hugging the wall on the far side of the towpath), because nobody would back Mark up, Barry got away with the incident.

Back in the Channel, the ferry had been evacuated and was sinking fast, as water rushed into the car decks unimpeded. Nobody had noticed a solitary person lying on the port deck, half hidden by the air intake.

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Mark became aware of his surroundings again. He felt surrounded by water, cold water (yet strangely didn't feel cold himself), didn't appear to be breathing, but didn't seem under any physical stress. He passed out from the shock.

A few minutes later, he regained consciousness. He briefly considered flailing about and trying to get back to the surface, but then reconsidered, deciding instead to try and work out what had happened. The last he could remember was passing out on the deck of the ferry as it was about to sink.

"So I must have drowned - but why am I still alive?"

He briefly considered the possibility he'd somehow been reincarnated and was about to be reborn, but quickly dismissed that idea. He concentrated a few minutes and could feel something... different... about his neck. Tentatively putting a hand to his neck, he touched what appeared to be loose flaps of skin.

"Of course - gills. But hang on...humans don't have gills."

While pondering this, he gradually became aware of the rest of his body. His clothes felt different - the top half of his T shirt seemed to be pressing against his nipples...

"Nipples? But they should be flat against my chest!"

...he brought a hand to his chest, and it stopped further out than he expected, but seemed to slope away either side of his palm.

"OK, so I've got breasts... BREASTS! How the heck have I grown a pair of breasts?!"

He'd already noticed he had no feelings 'down below', and armed with this rather worrying new development, gently moved his hand downwards. His T-shirt now ended just above his belly button ("probably just hitched up with my new, err, 'growths'"), and while the waistband of his jeans was quite loose, they were pressed very tightly against his skin lower down. He couldn't reach inside his jeans, but pressing his hand against them en-route down to his crotch revealed (or rather, revealed the absence of) certain features he'd grown rather accustomed to during his 34 years of existence. In almost any other set of circumstances, he would have panicked, but given that he was on the bottom of the sea and (a) still alive, (b) had grown gills, and (c) grown breasts, losing his 'package' was just another item on the growing list of impossible things that had happened to him over the past...

"Actually, how long have I been down here? Do I dare open my eyes? What else has happened to me?"

He tentatively opened his eyes, decided to look straight ahead (he'd look down and assess the changes later), and was surprised by how well he could see. He'd expected the water to make his eyesight blurred and fuzzy, but he could see as clearly as on land ("One more impossible thing..."). He brought his watch to his face, used his other hand to rotate the face to where he could see it ("I'm sure that was tighter this morning...plastic straps don't normally expand in water...do they?") and surprised to see that not only was it still working ("Ooh... a pleasant surprise for once - this watch iswater resistant!") but registering a time of 10:57.

"OK, so only twenty minutes since I was on top. What next?"

He sat up and looked around. He was sitting on the sea bed ("Not much in the way of wildlife down here..."), about a hundred yards away from the ferry. For want of something better to do, he decided to walk over to it.

"Hmm, there must be a quicker way." He thought back to the occasional glimpses of swimming races he'd seen on the TV."OK then Marky boy, time for your first swimming lesson."

He crouched down, then jumped up, waving his legs up and down. After a few iterations, he eventually found a rhythm that worked and turned towards the ferry, wondering how he'd stop himself when he arrived.

The swim didn't take as long as he expected, and as he approached the deck he grabbed hold of the handrail to stop him. He pushed himself onto the deck, and was about to enter the ferry itself when he saw what appeared to be the contents of a litter bin floating in the hallway beyond the door.

"OK, maybe that's not the best way in. I wonder if everyone got out in time..."

He quickly swam to the bow of the ferry ("Hmm...I'm sure I shouldn't have been able to swim that fast...") , then turned around to examine the hole left by the explosives. It looked big enough to swim through, but the edges were rather jagged. Even so, with that hole alone the ferry would have taken some time to sink. He thought back to the moments before he passed out.

"Of course - there were multiple explosions! I wonder how many bombs they used to make it sink that fast?"

He swam to the other side of the bow, and sure enough, saw another similar-sized hole.

"They really wanted this ship to go down. I wonder if they also targeted the stern door?"

He set off towards the stern, while noticing that he was moving suspiciously quickly.

"I'm sure the swimmers I saw on TV didn't move this fast with so little effort. Something weird is definitely happening to me."

He soon reached the stern, tried to turn the corner, but soon found himself swimming back the way he'd come.

"Hmm...seems I don't need to try so hard to corner either. Let's try again."

He stopped swimming and learned slightly to the right, letting momentum change his direction more slowly. After swimming back to the stern, he angled himself to examine the stern door.

"Looks as though they used a bigger bomb here - but just the one. There's definitely room to get through there without trouble."

Using a minimum of leg movement, he slowly swam up to and through the hole in the stern and onto the primary car deck. He still wasn't entirely sure why he wanted to explore the sunken ferry, but hoped that at the least he could satisfy his own curiosity as to what exactly Domesday had done that day.

He was initially relieved to see no litter around the car deck, but then made the mistake of looking through a car window - to see a toddler still strapped into a car seat, but no other occupants. The car had filled with water, so there was no chance to rescue the poor tot.

Mark sat down in shock, the enormity of what had happened washing over him. People had actually died in this attack. Ordinary people, who had no chance of escaping in time or defending themselves - not that there's much you can do to defend yourself against people in speedboats with very powerful bombs. He felt he had to help somehow - but given there were no survivors on board, how?

He swam back outside the ferry, and looked around - perhaps there was a dropped doll he could retrieve for a surviving child? But with dozens of children on board, how could he ensure the right doll got to the right child? He started to look, then spied a pair of undeployed lifeboats on the top deck.

"Bingo. I may not be able to save anyone from the ferry itself, but I may be able to help those left 'up top'."

He swam over to the lifeboats, and examined the release mechanism. He decided the best approach would be to release the ropes from the lifeboats themselves. After unwinding the first boat a few inches to access the quick release mechanism, he released each end in turn, then pushed it away from the davits to float to the surface. He then repeated the process with the second lifeboat, before following them, hoping they'd help the surviving passengers.

On his way up, he briefly considered whether he'd be able to survive in the air now he had acquired gills, but quickly reasoned that as he'd retained his limbs, he was probably still capable of air breathing - somehow.

He swam directly towards the surface, and after breaking water immediately took a large breath as his lungs reinflated.

"OK, another impossible thing to check off - any water in my lungs spontaneously disappeared."

He took a good look around (noticing in the process that his previously short brown hair now appeared to be long and black), and was both confused and pleasantly surprised to notice a distinct absence of floating bodies - just lots of identical rubber dinghies containing the passengers, as well as the two lifeboats he'd released a few minutes beforehand.

"This is getting weirder by the minute - my hair's grown and changed colour, and I definitely didn't see any dinghies on the ferry when we set off, now I'm surrounded by lots of the things."

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He treaded water for a few minutes, then cast a glance skywards to see what appeared to be a green-haired teenager wearing a rather fetching green and black leotard flying through the sky in his direction. This was clearly yet another impossibility, but he had a niggling thought in the back of his mind that she seemed familiar for some reason.

She flew down and hovered a few feet away from him, and while ogling her, his mind suddenly clicked. Of course! She was the new Green Lantern that had been in the news a few times over the past few weeks (and spawned numerous fansites plus several thousand links on Google). Which made him think back to a few months before then, when the first Green Lantern had appeared on the news, saying something about "metahumans". He still wasn't sure of what all the metahuman business was about, but it could possibly explain all the impossible stuff that had been happening to him in the past...

He looked at his watch again - 11:18am - and smirked.

"What's so amusing?"

"Whoh! She spoke! To me!"

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Oh...errr...sorry."

At least, that's what he thought he said. Only it didn't appear to be his voice. It sounded rich, and sultry, and err...feminine!

"You wouldn't, by any chance, know anything about two lifeboats that suddenly surfaced a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah, that was me."

"How?"

"Err...I just swam over to them and released the catches."

"Nobody could survive that long underwater!"

"Err...I just did. It's a long story."

"But why?"

"I just wanted to do something to help."

She thought for a minute, as though listening to an inaudible voice.

"Does the name 'metahuman' mean anything to you?"

"Yeah - the other Green Lantern - Jade, is it?"

She nodded.

"She mentioned something about it on TV a few months ago..."

He saw her smile, and thought he had an idea what she was inferring.

"...and it could explain some of the impossible things that have happened to me today."

"So what do you want to do now?"

"Get back to shore, find a change of clothes, and work out what's happened to me."

Just then, his stomach rumbled loudly.

"Oh, and get a bite to eat."

"Didn't you eat before setting off?"

"I had breakfast, but I was seasick and lost most of it overboard."

"I think I can do better than just taking you back to shore - especially as you tried to help the others."

"Yes?"

"We - well, that's me and Jade, we've helped a few others that have changed - and who want to help others."

"Cool! You mean..."

"Hang on - not so fast. You'll have to leave the old 'you' behind completely. You can't go back to your home, your job, your partner..."

He snorted. "Chance'd be a fine thing. House - rented. No job, I was just about to spend three months backpacking around Europe. No girlfriend or wife."

She smiled again. This was becoming a habit. "So I assume you didn't always look like this?"

He looked around and saw his new hair and breasts. "Errr..."

"Don't worry. I'll explain later. Just trust me on this."

"OK." He didn't sound too convinced.

"Right. Are you sure you want to come with me. This is your last chance to back out."

"I'm sure. I've no life to go back to anyway, and I don't think anyone I knew would recognise me now. But hadn't you better finish sorting the others first. I'm quite happy treading water for another few minutes."

She sighed. "Everyone that could be saved has been saved. The coastguards are on their way, and Dover are sending another ferry to pick everyone up... under police escort."

"How many?"

"Died? According to the ring, forty three didn't get off the boat in time. Although we got permission to assist pretty quickly, it went down so quickly I couldn't get here in time to save them."

"Look - you can't always save everyone. Think of the regular emergency services. But how many did you save?"

"One hundred and forty eight."

"That's not so bad - think, if you hadn't come here, they'd probably be dead as well. One hundred and ninety three died on the Herald of Free Enterprise back in 1987. Anyway, no time to hover there and feel miserable. Are you going to pick me up?"

"Just hang on a minute while I make a call."

She looked down at her ring, whereupon it started glowing bright green.
"Jade, are you there?"

"How did it go?"

("Wow! How cool is that?! A ring that acts as a communicator with the original Green Lantern.")

"One hundred and forty eight saved, but forty three drowned."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Listen - can you meet me on Jordan in half an hour? I've picked up a new recruit."

"OK - on my way - see you soon!"

She reached down, and he found himself enclosed by a green bubble as she brought him up to her chest and took off into the sky.

Mark thought he'd experienced a lifetime's worth of impossible events in the past few minutes, but none of those compared with the next half hour. He couldn't find words to describe being hurtled up through the sky at top speed, punching through the earth's atmosphere, across the vast reaches of space, and around the backside of the moon to a real, honest to god, spaceship. Without dying, feeling a rush of wind, or losing breath in the process.

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About half an hour later, they arrived at the Starcruiser Jordan. His escort pushed her ring against a panel in the side of the ship, and they entered a small square room. The door closed, Mark heard a rush of air, then the green bubble surrounding him and his escort dissipated. Shortly after, an interior door opened up and Mark was escorted through a series of corridors, all the while staring around and touching the walls at every opportunity.

"Yes, it's a spaceship. Yes, it's got air and artificial gravity. Now stop gawping before your jaw hits the floor!"
"Sorry," Mark mumbled.

A few minutes later they entered a large room, several storeys high, featuring what appeared to be a full height glass window. Alena dug her elbow into his side as he'd started staring around him again.

"Alena! How are you?"

Mark turned to one side and noticed another girl with shorter, black hair and a black and green bodysuit.

"Hi Jade. It was terrible - the ferry had sunk before I arrived, and over forty died."

"Who would do a thing like that?"

Mark coughed. "Err...permission to speak?"

"Oh sorry, are you the new recruit Alena found?"

"Yes. It was a group calling themselves 'Domesday'. They came out of nowhere and demanded £25m from the government. A couple of hours later, and *BOOM!* - two holes in the bow and one in the stern."

Jade looked puzzled. Alena responded: "She was a passenger on the ferry. Her powers kicked in when it sank, enabling her to survive underwater."

"I only took that damn ferry because the Chunnel was closed."

Jade looked puzzled again. "Chunnel?"

Before he could respond, he heard a third female voice respond, leaving him confused.

The Chunnel. Colloquialism for The Channel Tunnel, an underwater train tunnel linking the ports...

"OK, that's enough, we get the message." She looked at Mark's confused expression, then explained "My ring contains an AI which feels the need to 'educate' me on anything it thinks I need to know. Normally only I can hear it, but it evidently felt the need to speak out loud in case Alena didn't understand. Anyway, continue."

"I am, or rather was, terrified of water, so the ferry wasn't exactly my first choice. Anyway, I'd just been seasick over the railings when the bombs hit. Next thing I know I'm waking up at the bottom of the sea, somehow able to breathe unaided. Anyway, first impossibility of the day dealt with, I decided to learn to swim - and see if I could do anything for the other passengers. Hence why I know about the damage."

"So how did you help?"

"I didn't know what to do at first - it's not every day you wake up at the bottom of the sea and discover you can both breathe and swim. I started to take a look around the ferry, but it was completely flooded, and - oh god..." Mark suddenly paused, burying his face in his hands.

"What?"

"Toddler...dead..." he shook his head, took a deep breath, then continued: "Swimming along the car deck, I looked into a car." He sniffed, fighting the tears which were starting to well up. "There was a toddler still strapped into her car seat."

Alena and Jade gasped, then reached over to hug and comfort Mark. Several minutes later, he'd recovered enough to finish.

"She was sitting there, so serene - she never stood a chance, all strapped in so she couldn't move." He took another deep breath, then raising his voice, started "If I ever catch..." before shaking his head and continuing, more quietly, "No, wrong attitude.At least it would've been quick, poor mite."

He paused a while, before concluding, "Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. I couldn't save her, but I was then determined to see if I could help those that had escaped and were floating around 'up top'. I swam around the ferry, looking for anything I could do to help, when I spotted the lifeboats."

Alena then spoke: "I'd been spending several minutes creating dinghies and liferafts for the passengers - the ferry sank before they'd managed to deploy their own - when suddenly two lifeboats bob to the surface from below. I knew they couldn't have come away unaided, so I flew down to take a look, and found our little mermaid here."

"Mermaid? But I'm a..." Mark suddenly noticed a stray lock of his new hair, "...oh," blushed, and tried to bury his face in his hands. "So, erm..."

"Yes, you're a girl now. Don't worry - we're not going to call you a freak or anything - you're not the only one it's happened to."

"Really?"

"Let's see... you've heard of Terra, then there was Doris..."

Jade corrected: "Giganta."

Mark thought: "You mean - the girl who stopped that volcano in Japan was a bloke? And that gorgeous redhead who grows..."

Jade and Alena both rolled their eyes and grinned.

"Hey, I'm a geek - I can't help it if I 'accidentally' stumble across the occasional fansite..."

Alena looked across sceptically.

"...or three. OK, OK, I've deliberately visited the sites - and taken a look at the photos. But I promise you I wasn't sad enough to join in the forums - or photoshop any of the pictures."

Jade and Alena nearly exploded: "WHAT?!"

"Err...just the standard stuff really. Take your head and put it on someone else's body..."

Jade suddenly furrowed her brow. "No, ring. I DON'T want to know. TMI! What do you mean, you don't understand 'TMI'? Go revise your pop culture. And don't tell me when you've done it. Anyway," looking back at Mark, "who are...or should I say, were you?"

He sighed. "Mark Foster...."

Age: 34. Occupation: Computer repairs, sole trader. Formerly software developer at Southern Stone PLC.

"...thank you, but I guess that's not so relevant now. Is there a mirror anywhere - I haven't really had a chance to look at the 'new' me yet - been preoccupied with other stuff."

Jade waved over to a door on the other side of the observation area. "There's a bathroom over there. Feel free to spend as long as you like and get freshened up while you're there. We're not going anywhere in a hurry!"

As Mark walked over to the bathroom, Jade looked over to Alena and quietly said,

"She seems to be taking it well, considering what happened."

"Yeah. I think she's still on an adrenaline high though. She'll probably need some TLC when she comes down though."

"And you?"

"Trying not to think about it. But at least I've got you, Ali and mum to help me through it. She's got no-one."

"We'll have to place her with someone. And if her powers are water-based, I can't imagine she'd be too happy in Vegas."

"Doris?"

"Maybe. But what would Lena think - especially as our mermaid was fawning over her?"

"Why don't you ask? Actually, what is the time now? It's hard to keep track when you're globetrotting."

"About 6am in Chicago. Probably best to get her settled, then call them in a few hours."

"Good point. I don't imagine Lena would appreciate an early morning wake-up call."

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Mark quickly found a mirror and examined himself. The first thing he noticed (apart from the hair, which seemed completely dry, even though his clothes were still very damp), was his complexion. Whereas before his skin had been pale, it now appeared to be more Mediterranean in origin and completely flawless. He stripped off his T-shirt and examined his breasts for the first time. His nipples were far larger than they had been before, and seemed a lot more sensitive. But no time for that now - he was a guest in someone else's home ("Could you call a spaceship - sorry, 'Star Cruiser', home? Well, I suppose as Jade's an international celebrity, this is the one place she'd be able to chill out without any danger from nosy paparazzi trying to boost sales of their red top.") and that sort of thing wouldn't be polite ("Oh yeah, what was the phrase now - 'No sex please, we're British!'").

Next to go were his shoes (which felt rather loose, as well as soggy) and socks. He looked closely at his feet. They were definitely smaller than before, but while free of callouses, the soles felt quite tough. He stepped into the shower tray, and was surprised to learn that while he could feel the non-slip surface, it didn't feel as course as they usually do. He put this to the back of his mind, putting it down to a high-tech alien polymer. Finally, he wriggled out of his jeans ("I'm sure there wasn't such a big difference between my waist and hips before...and I'm sure they didn't end up so far up my leg before!") and boxers, to reveal the most fundamental aspect of his transformation. The one he'd been steadfastly ignoring until now. He (or rather, she) slumped against the back of the shower cubicle, and entered a deep period of thought, trying to assimilate everything that had happened during the day.

Hearing the noise, Jade and Alena rushed over to the bathroom entrance, and simultaneously called out the obligatory "Are you OK?"

Quietly, they heard the reply: "I think so. I'll be just a minute - it's rather a lot to take in."

Jade and Alena nodded at each other, then returned to their previous position.

Several minutes later, Mark emerged, with a towel draped around her waist. Alena was the first to notice and mimed pulling it up further.

"Oh, right, sorry. I'm not used to having these."

"Don't worry - you'll get used to it in time!"

"Err...have you got any clothes? My old ones are rather damp and smelly - besides which, they don't fit very well any more."

"Jade?"

"Yes?"

"Ring?"

"Oh, right." She walked over to something that looked a bit like a drinks vending machine located inside a wall, touched her ring to one side, then returned a few minutes later with what appeared to be a copy of her ring, except the symbol was the same colour as the band rather than green. She walked over to Mark, saying "Trust me on this - put on the ring then imagine what you'd like to wear."

Mark took it, thought a bit, then said "Erm, I'm sorry, I haven't a clue. I'm a geek - I have no experience of women's clothing whatsoever. Help!"

Jade looked down at her ring for a few seconds, as though they were having an internal conversation about something. Then she briefly tapped her ring against Mark's

"OK, it's now been programmed with a variety of styles of clothing - underwear as well as outerwear. Just think of the look you want and it'll do the rest."

"OK then, here goes nothing..." Mark's body shimmered, and a few seconds later was covered in female-cut bootleg jeans plus a purple T-shirt, proclaiming in pink letters:

Hello boys!

Jade sighed and looked over at Alena, who replied "You know as well as I do that Alison doesn't have access to the AI. That's evidently what it's picked up from the 'net as a suitable T-shirt."

Meanwhile Mark returned to the bathroom, took a look at the T-shirt himself, then grinned. ("Hmm...I wonder...") A few seconds later, she emerged, still grinning. She appeared to have the same style of T-shirt on, only this time it's slogan was written in black ink on a white background, in a font reminiscent of OMR text:

There are 10 types
of people in the world:
those who understand binary
and those who don't.

Jade groaned. "Yes, for once it actually understands the joke. Now, what shall we call you? Mark doesn't seem very appropriate any more."

"I was thinking about that while in there," gesturing back to the bathroom. "I swotted up on my Spanish a bit before starting the trip, which probably helps explain my appearance, so I think a Spanish name would be the most appropriate. I think I'll go with 'Lorena Marquez'."

"Eh?"

"Well, the surname's fairly common in Spain - I did learn a bit about Spain before setting off on my doomed trip - it is the local form of 'Mark', and 'Lorena' because it's similar to Lorraine, which I quite like."

"And nothing to do with..."

"My, it's quick off the draw! Yes, OK, it is a bit of a joke but it is quite appropriate - after all, she removed his you-know-what, and in a way the 'new' me has removed my 'old' you-know-what. And I do like the name Lorraine, but it wouldn't fit my new looks. Call me 'Rena' for short."

"OK, so Rena it is. Once America wakes up, the ring will sort out making your new ID official. Now I know you've only just manifested, but have you given any thought to a codename yet?"

"Err...I know it's a bit lame, but let's go with the obvious. 'Aquagirl'. As far as I know, my powers are all water-based, and I am a girl now, so 'Aquagirl' seems the most appropriate." She paused for a while, then curiosity got the better of her and she asked "So what else can your ring do? Disarm opponents, open locks, override passwords?"

"Theoretically, almost anything I will - although courtesy of one of the Green Lantern Corps directives, it has to respect local laws. So for example, I can't use it to break-and-enter unless I own the place."

"OK then. And you'll brain me for asking this, but how's this ship powered? Fusion, Ions, Improbability, Antimatter, Temporal Rifts, or something even stranger?"

Jade stared at her ring a bit, then replied "Something called 'Green Energy'. It's also what powers the rings, and before you ask, I haven't the foggiest idea of what it is or how it works either - other than by willpower."

Rena stood a while, wondering what they were going to do next, when her stomach decided to voice its opinion on the matter. She looked at her watch - 12:37pm.

Jade smiled. "Lunchtime?"

"Nearly - I suppose you could say brunch, as I lost most of my breakfast on that damn boat."

"What do you fancy?"

"What have you got?"

"Anything you want - we've got a good selection of food in the galley and replicators for practically anything else."

"Hang on - did you just say..."

Jade sighed. "Yes, just like the ones on Star Trek. Although they're specifically wired for human food, so don't expect them to make Klingon Blood Wine or a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster."

"You tried?"

"No, but someone else did," looking over at Alena.

"And what happened?"

Alena briefly stared back at Jade, then looking back at Rena replied "It told me in no uncertain terms that the drinks requested were fictitious, and as the 'real world' derivatives contained alcohol, it wasn't going to produce those either."

Rena looked puzzled for a bit, then Jade explained: "Remember the 'uphold local laws' Directive? Oh, that reminds me - you may be chronologically 34, but as you've now got the body of a seventeen year old, that's going to be your legal age when your documentation's been sorted."

"Oh well, I can make do with grape juice for a year or so."

"Make that four - the legal age is twenty one over here. Besides which, as we're effectively 'on-call' 24/7, it wouldn't do for any of us to turn up drunk."

"Oh - good point."

By this time they had reached the galley, and Rena started pulling out ingredients from the fridge. "Righteo, anyone else for a fry-up?"

"You can cook?"

"Believe it or not, not every bachelor exists on a diet of microwave meals and Chinese take-aways. I'd never be on Masterchef, but a good old fry-up or a grilled steak combined with frozen veg and spuds nuked in the microwave - no problem!"

"So what are you planning?"

"Full English - two each of fried bacon rashers, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and bread."

"Cripes - I normally just have scrambled egg on toast."

Alena added, "And I normally have pancakes, but I'll have what you're having."

"Well, I must confess I normally only have a bowl of muesli, but after what I've been through today I could do with something more substantial. Anyway, I'm not used to cooking for three, so I'd appreciate some help."

Later on, when all had eaten their fill, Jade led them through to a cosily furnished room that appeared to be a lounge.

"It's still only 7 O'clock in Chicago and 5 O'clock in Vegas, so we'll stay here for a few hours."

Once everyone had settled, Jade then asked "So how are you coping with everything?"

Rena thought for a while, before responding, "I guess I've been trying to ignore it by keeping myself busy. It's a lot to think about, and I can't help but think of the phrase 'six impossible things before breakfast'. In my case: choosing to take a ferry despite my previous fear of water, being on the very one that happens to get targeted by 'Domesday', waking up at the bottom of the sea very much alive, discovering I had gills, swimming underwater without any prior experience or breathing apparatus, helping to save lives, meeting a flying girl..." she nodded at Alena "...who then launches me into orbit at breakneck speed...what?"

Rena looked confused as Jade and Alena grinned and pointed at each other. Alena explained: "If you think I'm fast, wait 'till you've been with her. I'm a slowcoach by comparison!"

"As I keep telling you, you just need more practice. You'll catch up - remember I have had several months more experience than you."

Rena slowly shook her head, then grinned. "What have I let myself in for! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, being hurtled into orbit, finding a spaceship parked behind the moon, artificial gravity, replicators, and meeting the girl who's got half the male population of the planet drooling after her."

"Don't remind me (!) And what do you think of your new body?"

"Well... it's different... and I'm kinda stuck with it now, so I'd better get used to it."

"Your past life?"

"I'm a geek, remember - no girlfriend - or, indeed, many 'real world' friends at all. Somehow I think that's going to change for the better - especially once I've met the rest of the gang."

"Gang?"

"The others you've recruited. Do you - we - have a team name yet?"

Alena replied, "We haven't really thought about it yet - someone once suggested 'The J Force', but Jade's not really keen on it."

"Just be grateful they didn't suggest 'The J Team'!"

"Considering the huge upheaval in your life, you don't seem to be very concerned."

"Well, I'm a hopeless optimist. I can't change anything about the past, so I try to always look on the bright side of life."

They continued chatting for a while, as the conversation drifted from talk of Rena's former life to sightseeing, to the weather, before eventually turning to the subject of the other metahumans Jade had located.

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As the conversation wound down, Jade announced that 'the others' should be awake by now, so it was time to introduce them to their newest member. At this, Alena nodded and walked off.

"Why's she leaving us?"

"One thing you're going to need if you're going to do any heroics in public is a costume - and Alena's sister happens to be a whiz at fashion design. So while I invite the others into a video conference session to introduce them to you - and you to them, Alena's going to fetch Alison, so you can work on your costume design together."

Over the next hour, Rena was introduced to the majority of the team, while scribbling down who was who ("I have a terrible memory, and while I may be new at this, I don't want to embarrass anyone by getting their names muddled up.") Doris and Lena were persuaded to stay on the line after the others had left, so Jade could approach them with her proposal to move Rena in with them.

Finally the calls were over, and while Rena's head was still spinning from the details of the various conversations, which ranged from the obligatory welcome to their varied 'origin' stories to people / organisations to watch out for (Rena contributing with the mysterious 'Domesday', about whom even Jade's ring drew a blank when asked for more details), Alena arrived back with Alison.

After initial pleasantries and recounting her story and powers for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day, Rena finally relaxed as she watched Alison draw up her designs. The first, a rather skimpy bikini, was instantly rejected:

"Could it cover even less skin?"

"I could certainly try!" Alison replied with a broad grin.

"I was being ironic."

"I know, but you're really fun to tease!"

"How does Alena put up with you?"

"!"

"That was a rhetorical question. One all!"

Eventually Alison came up with a design that Rena was quite pleased with. It consisted of a long sleeved top that ended just above her chest, in varying shades of blue and the illusion of scales on the arms, coupled with a matching pair of leggings. Rena initially wasn't too sure about leaving her stomach exposed, but decided that was one compromise she could live with. After 'trying on' the various designs with the aid of her ring, Rena could see why Alison was really enthusiastic about costume design. After all, she didn't need to buy the fabrics, carefully stitch them together and piece together the design on a mannequin, as the rings could instantly craft her designs and modify them 'on the fly', even changing the apparent texture of the materials.

Once both girls were happy with the design, Rena was persuaded to show it off in front of Alena and Jade, getting the thumbs up from both, before all three settled down to a light lunch. Alison seemed surprised at how little her sister was eating, until Alena described the morning's fry-up in great detail, much to the embarrassment of Rena. Once they'd finished, as Alison collected her sketchpad, Rena followed her and quietly asked,

"Did you hear about what happened earlier?"

"You mean the ferry? Yeah. Wasn't that where Alena found you?"

"Yes. Apart from rescuing me, Alena also saved one hundred and forty eight others."

"Wow!"

"But - and this is why I'm bringing the subject up, forty three died before she could reach them. There was nothing she could do, but I have a feeling she may try to blame herself for not getting there sooner. So if she seems down, offer her some TLC. She'll need it."

"Oh, OK. Thanks for telling me."

"No problem, you're her sister so you're best placed to help and support her. Anyway, we'd better get back before the others wonder what's taking you so long!"

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Once Jade had received confirmation that Alena and Alison had arrived home safely, she proceeded to give Rena the grand tour of the ship, stopping off at a small bedroom.

"These will be your quarters for the next couple of nights. It's very basic, but it's just temporary until your new room's ready down in Chicago. Oh, and your ring does has nightwear programmed into it."

"Erm, OK. Although it does feel as though I'm wearing real clothes, it it slightly disconcerting that it's all an illusion, and I'm naked underneath."

Jade smiled. "Doris was a bit like that, but strangely Lena was fascinated by the concept of being naked underneath the illusion..."

It was now Rena's turn to smile and chuckle a little. "I noticed on the video conference. They're really close, aren't they?"

"Practically inseparable - and I'm told Lena makes sure Doris knows she's been missed when she returns from a mission."

"OK, OK, I get the picture. Are you sure she won't mind having someone else around?"

"Not at all. She's genuinely excited about the possibility of having a new room-mate, and as she's been teaching herself programming skills..."

"...thinks I could be a great mentor. Is there anything in particular she's working on?"

"There is, as a matter of fact - and maybe it's something you can look into while you're up here."

"What's that, then?"

Jade sighed. "There have been several occasions when we've been in video conferencing sessions and the ring's contributed a comment. However, it's really snooty - only wanting to talk to me, and then only when it wants to. Lena's been trying to find a way to allow everyone else to interface with it."

"How?"

"I think she's hoping to use the ship's computer as a go-between. Since the ring works fairly closely with the ship's computer, and the computer itself doesn't have an AI, she's hoping that if we can get everyone's computer to talk to the ship's, then that's a useful first step."

Rena thought for a while. "If you can get me access to the ship's computer, I'll start looking at what information's on it, and see what the security issues are - and hopefully how to overcome them. If we can arrange security so the team, and only the team, can talk to the computer, the ring might be more willing to fulfil its share of the bargain."

"I hope so. First things first - let's head over to the main terminal and persuade the ring to set up your access to the computer."

Twenty minutes later, after intense negotiations which only concluded when Jade mentioned something about defending against a possible Sinestro attack, the ring finally backed down. Jade suggested she start off by researching something called the "Rules of the Book of Oa", then after asking if Rena would be OK for a few hours, disappeared - presumably to monitor the various international news networks for signs of assistance.

Rena was impressed that the input device appeared to be speech recognition, so first asked about the rules, raising an eyebrow when the computer described the modified rules. Naturally enough, she then enquired about the Sinestro Corps ("So essentially, they're superpowered terrorists that would make Domesday seem like babies by comparison. Not good.") and the ongoing war in Sector 666 ("Jade's going to need all the help she can get if the war spills over into our neck of the woods. No wonder her ring capitulated when she mentioned it.") before reading about the various people her teammates had encountered over the past few months.

After logging off the computer (and noticing that even high-tech alien hardware still asked if she was sure she wanted to do so), she sat back and reflected on what she'd learned. Apart from the crazy alien war, there were also apparently an increasing number of metahumans turning up. She was both saddened and angered by the revelation that LexCorp was kidnapping people and injecting them with some kind of metahuman converter, but pleased that Stephani seemed to be coping OK despite her rather extreme transformation.

She got up, and feeling thirsty, made her way through the labyrinth of corridors to the galley, while idly wondering if the ship came equipped with any robots. Then again, many of the ones she'd encountered in fiction (e.g. the Maschinenmensch and T-series cyborgs) were hardly friendly, and the functions of the more helpful ones (e.g. R2-D2, Robby) could be replicated by the ring.

"And talking of replicating things, how do I work the food replicators? I can't see anything resembling a manual to read..."

She thought for a while, then wondered "In films, they're usually voice-controlled. Oh well, here goes nothing..." She pressed a button, then said "Tea, white, no sugar."

She was slightly surprised when the machine replied "Please state the variety of tea required and the size of vessel."

"OK then... A mug of Tetley tea, prepared with semi-skimmed cow's milk and no sugar."

"Hope that's precise enough for the machine."

Shortly afterwards, a plain white mug of tea materialised on the tray beneath the machine, and it announced "Your preferences have been saved. Enjoy your drink. Have a nice day." She took the mug and leaned against the counter sipping it.

"Gah - does it have to say that greeting? Oh well, at least the doors around here are silent and I haven't encountered any robots or holograms of former crew members...yet!"

After finishing her drink, she took a saunter around the ship and eventually found a small gym. She'd never exercised much in her previous life, but decided that now she'd 'inherited' a well-toned female body, it was as good a time as any to start trying to keep it in shape. Not knowing how the multi-functional weight machine worked, she decided to mount the saddle of the cycle machine and (virtually) cycle a few miles. As she started cycling, she was surprised that she could increase the tension to 5/7 before feeling any strain on her muscles. She maintained a steady pace of 20mph, and kept going for about two hours before Jade poked her head around the door and suggested dinner.

The meal turned out to be a surprisingly tasty pork casserole that felt as though it had been lovingly cooked for several hours, even though she'd seen the replicator construct it in barely half a minute. "Yet another impossible thing for my list... not that I'm still counting of course." In fact, she couldn't remember when she'd stopped counting - so many impossible things had been happening to her today she decided to ignore her gut desire to find out how they worked and continue 'going with the flow'.

After dinner, Jade asked Rena if she'd given any thought to what she wanted to do with her life (apart from heroing).

"Well, I'd really like to continue working with computers - but as I'm now seventeen and may have to dash off at a moment's notice, it would be difficult to get a job." She thought for a while, then continued, "I can't really continue fixing people's computers at home, partially because I don't know my way around the city, but mainly because it wouldn't do business any good if I suddenly had to rush off in the middle of a job."

"So now you've told me what you'd like to do but couldn't, is there anything you'd like to do but could do?"

"I suppose I could build PCs - I'd have to find a shop willing to sell them on, but it's something I could do in my own time at home - and if I can take over a corner of the warehouse I could potentially have several projects on at the same time."

"Good idea. I have some contacts, so with their support we may be able to kick start your customer base."

"Really?" Jade nodded. "Thank you so much. Anyway, I don't know what time it is in either London or Chicago, but I'm tired - I think I'll head to bed."

Rena headed towards the door, but on impulse stopped by Jade and gave her a hug.

"Thank you so much for all you've done for me - I don't know what I would have done without you and Alena."

"That's what I'm here for. Jade Cross, A.K.A. The Green Lantern, at your service!" Jade said, while attempting a military salute. Which would have been a lot more effective if she wasn't displaying her trademark broad grin.

They said their good nights, and Rena returned to her temporary bedroom. It felt really odd to change for bed simply by looking at her ring and thinking "Pyjamas." The ring's first offering of pyjamas were pink satin. She thought back to ordering tea from the replicator and sighed, while looking at her ring - "Guess I'm going to have to be more precise with you as well as the replicators. Navy blue, cotton pyjamas." Her outfit changed, and she smiled. "Much better. I wonder if/when I'll be comfortable wearing something like that last choice. At least for now this is not too far away from what I used to wear."

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The following day was largely spent divided between exercise, more computer research, and on a whim, some introductory Spanish lessons ("Might as well learn a scattering of lingo to go with the new body"),
and by the end of it Rena was starting to get a little homesick (well, longing to be back on the earth) - the starcruiser was hardly Entertainment Central. So she was relieved when after breakfast on the third day, Jade announced that her new accommodation was ready for her to move in.

They entered the airlock, and Jade held Rena firmly as decompression started and the pair became surrounded by a green bubble.

As they prepared to leave the airlock, Jade said "Don't forget to breathe - the ring ensures we have enough air to survive the trip. Talking of which, prepare for the ride of your life!"

Rena grinned back at her, and as they stepped out, exclaimed: "To infinity...and beyond!"

Jade shook her head: "Remind me not to send you on a joint mission with Alena and Terra."

"Why not?"

"You'd be so busy trading pop culture references you'd never get any work done!"

After about ten minutes, they gently alighted on the ground outside a rather nondescript looking warehouse near one of Chicago's many watercourses.

"Enjoy the ride?"

"Wow! I now know what you and Alena were quipping about the other day. I thought half an hour was fast, but that...wow!" Rena gathered her thoughts, then said more solemnly, "Sorry if I sounded a little over-enthusiastic just then."

Jade laughed. "Don't worry - I've had the same reaction from almost everyone I've taken up there - and back down again! Anyway, ready to meet your new roommates?"

"Yes - but it's all a bit anonymous though. I mean, this is the industrial district."

"Precisely. Nobody would expect to find a superhero living in a warehouse, and the high windows mean you get plenty of light, but nobody looking in. If she lived in a normal house, the press would have found out within days and set up camp outside.

"Ugh. I suppose she would count as a celebrity, and therefore be seen as a viable target for the paparazzi and press pack. And talking of anonymity, I'm feeling a little conspicuous out here - can we go in?"

Jade entered first, opening the door, and Rena followed. Although a warehouse on the outside, someone had done an excellent job of converting part of it into a spacious flat (albeit one with suspiciously high ceilings). Surprisingly, although there were plenty of signs of life within the flat, there was no sign of either Doris or Lena. Rena spotted one wall where the plasterwork looked fresher than the rest, and guessed that it was likely to be the entrance to her room... and where the pair were probably hiding.

She looked over at Jade and winked, before announcing very theatrically "Oh dear, it looks like no-one's home. Now I wonder which is my room?"

She then deliberately made a great play over opening the bathroom door and loudly announcing

"No no no no. This is the bathroom room room."

Rena closed the door again, then as she walked over to the next door, noticed Jade grinning and slowly shaking her head. Jade quietly said "I can see you three are going to get along like the proverbial house on fire. Good job none of you are pyrokinetics..."

Rena stifled a chuckle, wondering how well Doris and Lena were doing at the same thing.

She opened the next door, and saw what must have been Doris and Lena's bedroom. It was fairly tidy, but the one of the wardrobe doors was open, the bed had definitely been slept in, and there was a copy of a C++ guide bookmarked with at least a dozen post-it notes on the dresser.

She wondered for a minute how to announce this room, then remembered an old TV show. Realising that Jade probably wouldn't be familiar with it, she whispered to Jade "Just play along" before attempting to mimic the presenter's thick Boston accent as she drawled "Now let's look at the evidence. A bed built for two. A single set of clothes. A computer programming manual. Who lives in a room like this? Back to you, Jade."

"This could be tricky. A very unusual set of clues. A room used by two people, but only one set of clothes - and a computer manual. Now, who do I know that fits those criteria. Hmmm. I've got it! Doris and Lena!"

"So, by a process of elimination..." Rena opened the third door, and nearly stepped back out as she was overcome by a huge shout of "Surprise!"

Doris and Lena were standing on opposite sides of a white double bed, above which they'd pinned a "Welcome Home!" banner.

Rena tried to look serious as she beckoned them to her. Playing along, they pretended to look solemn as they stepped up to her and were engulfed in a hug.

"Thanks guys. I couldn't have wished for a better welcome. Did you hear my tease?"

Lena spoke up, "It's so hard trying not to giggle."

Rena broke off the hug, then said "Now are you going to let me see my new room?"

Doris and Lena stepped aside, and Rena took a couple of steps forward. In addition to the bed, there was a pine wardrobe and dresser, a vanity table, and a couple of pot plants.

She took a double take at the plants, then walked over to them, looking closely at their arrangements and the pots.

"Am I seeing things?"

By this time Jade had entered the room as well. "It's amazing what you can do with the right contacts. As you've officially died - well, as Mark has officially died - nobody thought anything unusual about a house clearance company emptying your flat ready for the next tenant. As you're our first international member, didn't have any next of kin and your flat was still intact, we thought we'd go the extra mile. Most is in storage but we brought a few mementos over."

Rena turned to thank Jade, then noticed Mark's electric keyboard and stand resting against the wall behind the door, next to a thick lever arch file containing various scores downloaded from the 'net over the past year. She broke into a broad grin, and enveloped Jade in a huge.

"Thank you so much - you needn't have - it's so generous - Thank you!"

After releasing Jade, and noting she was starting to blush a little, she said "It's strange - I never needed to hug anyone in my old life, and would have felt strange doing so, but now I've hugged three people in as many days. You're all so kind and generous." She thought for a minute, then added "You don't think it's part of the package, do you?"

Jade replied non-committedly "Maybe. Oh, something I meant to tell you before. I've arranged for Lieutenant Caedus to pick you up at 7am for the next few days to test your abilities and find out what your new body is capable of."

Lena gasped "That's early!"

Rena smiled, thought for a moment, then replied "Not really - bear in mind that's the equivalent of 1pm in the UK, so it'll allow me to slowly adjust to Chicago time. When I do, you'll find you're not the only one in this household who doesn't like getting up in the mornings!"

As Rena and Lena started to compare notes on morning rituals, Jade called out "Sorry to interrupt, but as I hate to leave, I've got a ship to run and a planet to watch. Oh, and Rena?"

"Yes?"

"Catch!" Jade threw a matchbox-sized device with a micro USB port at one end to Rena. "It's a portable GPS tracker and altimeter - you might find it useful during training. Just turn it on, find somewhere to store it, then when you get back upload the data to a computer for analysis."

"Cool!"

"Anyway, must dash - see you soon!"

All three called back "Byeee!" as Jade closed the door behind her.

Doris then looked at Rena and said "Welcome to our humble abode. I would give you the Grand Tour, but something tells me you've already done that."

Rena grinned, "Well, with Jade announcing our arrival, I knew you'd be in here somewhere, so rather than spoil the surprise I thought I'd play with you..." then as Doris struggled to contain a giggle, "...not like that! Anyway, got some real tea? I could murder a drink now."

The three headed out to the kitchen area to get some drinks, and Doris asked "So, did you have anything planned for today? Is there anything you'd like to do?"

"Well, I'd like to try on some 'real' clothes - these ring-provided outfits are all well and good, but it's just..."

"I know what you mean, but the ring does produce well-fitting clothes, and I'm used to their 'unique' nature by now."

"Oh yes - 'Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman' meets unintentional fan service."

"Gah, that was so embarrassing! Anyway, back to topic - anything else you'd like to do apart from investigate 'real' clothes?"

"Err...take a tour of the city? I mean, all I've seen so far is the bit of road directly outside here."

"OK, no problem. Anything in particular you'd like to see?"

"Not really - I'm afraid I'm completely clueless when it comes to Chicago attractions."

"Well, we've got numerous shops, restaurants, parks and museums; plus plenty of mass transit to take us between them."

"How about we head to the city centre and have a look what's there, and branch out if we have time?"

"Sounds OK to me. We'll start at Navy Pier and work our way South."

Twenty minutes later, Rena had dressed (conventionally!) in a pair of jeans and plain white top. It exposed her stomach, but she figured she'd better get used to it since her costume left the same area exposed. Lena tried to persuade her to wear a skirt, but she wasn't ready to take that step yet.

"This is only my third day of being a girl - and the first time I've worn 'proper' clothes. Just wait until I'm used to my new body, then I'll start experimenting with skirts, dresses and (low) heels. Sorry, but you're not going to see me in a miniskirt and stilettos for a long time yet!"

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After nine hours of exploring a few of Chicago's attractions, pigging out on junk food, and buying souvenirs (Doris and Lena had allegedly been 'too busy' to explore the city beforehand), the three girls dropped their bags and flopped on the settee. Rena had persuaded the others to buy her a digital camera and MP3 player, since her previous ones had protested at their rather unorthodox test of water resistance.

Just as they were about to decide who to cook dinner, Doris and Rena's rings suddenly chirped and a stereoscopic voice sounding suspiciously like Jade piped up "Knock, knock!"

Doris walked over to the door and let Jade in, clutching a large brown envelope. Jade emptied the contents onto the table then called over Rena.

"Good news - you officially exist!"

"Err...thanks, I suppose."

"Righteo. Your full name is Lorena Marquez - you didn't specify a middle name so you haven't got one - you were born seventeen years ago in Ashford to Spanish parents who'd emigrated to the UK three years previously."

"Right - so who are my phantom parents?"

"Phantoms - last seen heading to Dover three days ago."

"You didn't?!"

"No, I didn't fabricate records to show them as a passenger. If anyone asks, they boarded a train to Dover and haven't been seen since. There are no records to show them as a passenger on the ferry, but that's what everyone will assume. " She paused a little and looked sympathetically at Rena.

"I know it's tough, but it was the easiest way to solve that problem. As for how you got here, officially you're being fostered by Captain Koon, who for reasons unknown was friends with your parents. In reality, you'll continue to live here and any post will be hand-forwarded here. For obvious reasons, the fewer people know about this place, the better."

"OK, that's plenty to think about. What else have I got?"

"You're planning on being self-employed, so you thankfully don't need a full school history - but we've converted your qualification certificates. Oh, and congratulations - you're such a genius you took all your exams a few years early. In reality, that was the only way we could get your GCSEs, A Levels and Degree to fit your new identity. If no-one asks to see them over the next few years, we'll update them again with a more plausible set of dates."

"OK, that sort of makes sense - it'll probably take a few minutes for me to fully digest it."

"And finally a personal bank account. It should be OK to use for your business until it earns enough to attract the attention of the IRS, then we'll sort out a business account."

"You really do think of everything!"

"Well, I did have a little help..." she said while flashing her ring. "Oh, and there's a metal security box in your wardrobe for you to file these away in. "

"Thank you - although it does seem strange to think that the past few days I've been officially non-existent."

"Anyway, must dash - see you!"

After Jade had gone, Rena asked "Is she always like this?"

"She'll probably settle down in time, but when there's so much going on and new metahumans turning up all the time, she's a very busy girl!"

After Rena had packed away her documentation, and grinned as she noticed the eclectic CD collection from her former life had made its way into her room, she helped the other two cook their first communal meal together. As they were eating, Doris and Lena sat apart and attempted to ignore each other. Rena quickly spotted this and said "I appreciate you're trying not to embarrass me, but you're so obviously pining for each other you're annoying all three of us. Go on, scoot up to each other - you know you want to."

Doris asked "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I've been hanging out with you all day. I know you're head over heels in love with each other, so don't be afraid to show it! Besides which, I'm living here now, so the more you do it the sooner I'll get used to it and you won't feel embarrassed at being watched."

Lena spoke up: "Thanks Rena. You're the best," then after a glare from Doris, "Well, nearly."

After dinner, they spent much of the evening comparing notes on their respective interests before Rena headed off to bed a little earlier than the lovebirds. She pulled on a set of cotton pyjamas, climbed into bed, and drifted off to sleep, wondering what the new day - the first proper day of her new life - would bring.

Chicago Water Torture 1

Author:

mittfh

Audience Rating:

Mature Subjects (pg15)

Publication:

7,500 < Novelette < 17,500 words

Genre:

Character Age:

TG Universes & Series:

Comics Retcon Universe by Lilith Langtree et al.

TG Themes:

Age Regression

Other Keywords:

Canon

Permission:

Posted by author(s)

Chicago Water Torture 1

(It would be torture for anyone else!) (AquaGirl 2)

by mittfh

Ever spent an entire morning swimming underwater, the afternoon having an intensive workout,
followed by an evening trying to reason with an alien AI with an obnoxious personality?
It's all in a day's work for Rena...

With thanks to Lilith, Lynceus and EnemyOfFun - you know your roles in producing this!

AquaGirl

Image credits:
Original: DC Comics
(found @ ComicVine)
Modified: mittfh

There was evening, and there was morning: the first day.

Rena slowly woke up after a blissful first night's sleep at Doris and Lena's warehouse apartment. She reflected on all that had happened in the past few days. Only four days ago, on Saturday, a thirty four year old former software developer boarded a cross channel ferry in Dover, planning on spending three months backpacking around Europe before returning to look for work. He had no close friends and rarely visited his parents up in Scunthorpe.

At the terrible cost of over forty lives, Lorena Martinez had been born as a proverbial phoenix from the ashes - although in her case, whatever the aquatic equivalent was. She still felt a mixture of anger, guilt and puzzlement over her 're-birth'. Of all the people on board the ferry, surely Mark was the least qualified to be metamorphosed into a potential hero - after all, he had no job, no social life, couldn't swim, and had been violently seasick before the boat sank. Yet by some quirk of fate he'd been reborn as a stunningly beautiful Spanish teenager who also happened to be a mermaid (apart from the lack of fishy tail).

But, she thought, what's done is done and can't be changed. And she could do worse in getting acquainted with her new life than being billeted with the gorgeous redhead known to the world as Giganta but to her as Doris. OK, so Doris was already madly in love with a genuine teenager, but when said teenager turns out to be the wayward, estranged daughter of Lex Luthor, life turns out to be just that little bit more interesting.

Rena paused in her idle musings to check the time on her new clock radio. 5:33am. Back in Blighty it would be mid morning coffee time, so Rena puzzled briefly over whether she'd woken up really late or really early, before deciding to find something more productive to do with her time. She knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so tossed off her duvet, sat up, and wondered if she'd ever get used to the weight of her newly acquired chest protuberances - just one of the many aspects of day to day life that had changed over the past few days. She ran her fingers through her hair, flinching as she hit a tangle, then padded her way to the bathroom.

On arrival in the bathroom, she pulled down the front of her pyjama bottoms before remembering she was now plumbed differently, so with a sigh pulled them completely down before sitting on the loo. She still wasn't fully accustomed to living without a built-in hosepipe, but figured it would soon become second nature. She got up and admired herself in the mirror - she was sure she looked very similar to Mark's mental image of the girls he'd meet on Spanish beaches on his backpacking tour of Europe. She couldn't remember what Mark was thinking before he passed out when the ship had been struck, but after hearing about the ironies involved with some metahuman transformations, she wouldn't be at all surprised if Spanish girls were on his mind during the metamorphosis.

Her next stop was the shower - the first water-based one she'd had since her transformation. Not quite ready to submit to the strange world of exotically scented shower gels, shampoos and conditioners (that seemed to promise everything from reducing wrinkles and smoothing skin to making hair shine with a "radiant glow" and even reversing the effects of aging), she'd bought herself bottles of unscented, uncoloured, hypoallergenic products. She quickly lathered herself up, and stood for a while relaxing as the lather rinsed off.

As she stood there, she pondered what she knew so far about her powers. Apart from the gills (the thought of which still freaked her slightly), she had great speed and agility underwater, so those were three top contenders for what she could do that ordinary people couldn't. She thought back to first waking up, and realised that although she felt the coldness of the water, she didn't feel cold or start shivering. That gave her the inspiration for a little experiment.

Remembering where the temperature knob was set, she first turned the shower down to full cold. She could feel the water getting colder, but even when it was hitting her with an icy blast, she didn't feel any discomfort. Returning the temperature to normal, she definitely felt more relaxed, so she figured she wouldn't be taking cold showers unless she was in a hurry or the water heater broke down. She then decided to see what would happen if she turned the temperature up, so gradually turned up the heat, one number at a time, pausing in between each adjustment to examine how she felt. Even when the water was on full heat, she could only feel a very mild discomfort. Her skin was starting to redden up though, so she returned the temperature control to normal and watched as the redness disappeared.

"OK, so I can survive extremes of water temperature, and the surface recovers from extreme heat far faster than it should. "

Turning off the shower, she pulled back the curtain and stepped out. After rubbing her body dry (she recalled about half way through she was supposed to pat rather than rub, as female skin was supposedly more sensitive, but her new skin didn't seem to mind, so she shrugged and continued rubbing), she grabbed a hand towel to make a start on her hair, but as soon as she touched it she felt something was wrong. Dropping the towel, she felt her hair, only to discover that it was already completely dry.

"Strange. My hair used to take several minutes to dry even when it was short. Another power?"

Feeling adventurous, she turned on the shower again, leaned over the tray, and thoroughly wet her hair. After replacing the shower head, she threw her head backwards and was suprised it didn't send a spray of water droplets flying everywhere, although it still felt damp. She was about to reach for the hand towel again, but decided to feel her hair - just in case - and was surprised to find it had dried again.

"That's going to come in handy - although I'd better not tell the others yet, it would make them dead jealous!"

Now completely dry, she wrapped a towel around her waist before realising her faux pas and raising it to cover her breasts.

"How do girls remember this? And can't the towel go any lower - I feel awfully exposed down below."

She tried adjusting the towel for several minutes before noticing her ring and formulating a plan.

"If at first you don't succeed, try again. If you still don't succed, cheat!"

She dropped the towel, stared at her ring, and thought "Pyjamas."

Instantly, her body was covered by the same virtual clothes she'd worn to bed aboard Jade's Star Cruiser. She grinned, hung the towels over the towel rail, and returned to her room, nearly bumping into Doris en-route.

"Been enjoying yourself in there?"

"Ooh sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Don't worry. The shower was pretty quiet - I'd woken up anyway needing the bathroom, and heard you in there."

"Sorry for keeping you."

"Nah, don't worry. I wasn't that desperate, and you're evidently still getting used to your new body."

"It's the first proper shower I've had since the change, so it was nice to just feel the warm water on my back."

"Your hair looks pretty dry - I take it you found the cap."

"N...Yes."

She looked at Rena slightly suspiciously, but shrugged her shoulders and continued, "So you're not going back to bed then? It's not even six yet(!)"

"I couldn't get back to sleep, besides which it would be nearly lunchtime back in the UK. Anyway, I'm being picked up in an hour's time so there'd really be no point."

"Oh, of course. We might not be up by then..."

"...I'm sure he'll take good care of me, and I'll let you know how I got on when I get back tonight. Now back to bed before Lena misses you!"

"Yessir!"

Both girls then returned to their respective bedrooms, Doris to catch a few more hours sleep while Rena sorted out her outfit for the day. As she was sure she'd be doing a lot of swimming, she pulled on a one-piece swimsuit before using the ring to cover it up with her trademark jeans and T-shirt. She pondered for a moment if she should wear it plain or adorn it with a logo. She eventually decided on a typically ironic Gilbert and Sullivan quote, before adding a little twist of her own, wondering if the navy chap picking her up would 'get' the reference:

I am never known to quail
At the fury of a gale,
And I'm never, never sick when coding C!

She suddenly remembered the tiny GPS unit Jade had given her the previous evening, and wondered where she could conceivably clip it. She temporarily dropped the illusive clothing and decided the most convenient place to clip it would be between her breasts. She initially clipped it facing outwards, but decided it could easily be knocked off from that position. She then tried clipping it facing inwards, and was pleased to discover that even when pressing it against her chest, it wasn't too uncomfortable. After replacing her illusory outer clothing, she walked out to the kitchenette to hunt for a loaf of bread, a pair of eggs, and a glass bowl. After opening almost every cupboard and drawer, she eventually found the ingredients, grabbed bottles of milk and tomato ketchup from the fridge, and prepared two rounds of scrambled egg on toast. After finishing and clearing up, she still had half an hour before her lift was due, so decided to take a peek in the unoccupied section of the warehouse. As she stepped through the door, she nearly did a double take at the contrast. Whereas the apartment was bright, clean and modern; the rest of the warehouse was a 19th century brick structure, two stories high at the walls, but with a large sloping roof covered with skylights, reaching about three stories high at the apex. There were two rows of brick pillars marching down the length of the warehouse, with a large metal shutter at the far end. She was surprised at how clean it seemed, and was delighted to spot that a workbench had been installed along the reverse side of one of her bedroom walls, with two plastic four drawer storage units underneath and a row of electrical sockets above, providing ample space to build, repair and maintain PCs, together with an eight port network switch, which she assumed was plugged into the apartment's broadband modem. Apart from that, the rest of the vast warehouse space was empty, with the only other noticeable feature being what appeared to be an eighty foot long ruler painted down the middle. Wondering what possible purpose that could serve, she turned to re-enter the apartment then grinned as she spotted a very familiar looking pile of boxes.

"Cool," she thought. "Jade managed to bring my computer over... but how will it work on the different voltage over here?"

She wandered over to the pile of boxes, then spotted two extra ones - a very large flat pack, which, judging by the picture, was a commercial style computer desk, big enough for two computers ("Aha... smart girl... I can set mine up to Lena's so we don't have to fight over access") and a smaller one with a post-it note attached explaining that Jade's ring had advised her that it was needed for compatibility. Rena opened it up and discovered a 110V 600W PSU for the base unit and what appeared to be half a dozen computer leads with US plugs on the end. Realising it would take more than twenty minutes to assemble the computer desk, move Lena's PC onto it, and set up hers next to it on the desk, she sighed and decided to wait outside for the navy chap to turn up.

Once outside the warehouse (after adding a pair of ring-provided trainers to her outfit), she decided to walk a few hundred yards down to the road's end and the river embankment. Just as she arrived, she spotted a green glow out of the corner of her eye, which she ignored until Jade's voice piped up,

"Don't do it!"

Rena turned around to look at Jade. "What do you mean?"

"Don't jump!"

Rena looked puzzled for a few seconds before 'getting' the joke. "Yes, very funny. What are you doing here?"

"Lieutenant Caedus doesn't know you by sight, so I thought it would be prudent to introduce the pair of you."

"Oh, right. Any ideas what he's driving?"

"That," Jade said, pointing to a black SUV with heavily tinted windows driving slowly down the street.

"Bit conspicuous, isn't it?"

"Not really - there are hundreds in town and you don't want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself."

"Eh?"

Jade sighed. "We don't want the public connecting you and AquaGirl. If people see a teen girl doing things that should be impossible, then a few days later see AquaGirl saving someone's life on TV, they'll make the connection and you'll be hounded by the media whenever you're in public."

"Oh. I hadn't thought I'd need to hide until after my public debut."

"Unfortunately it's necessary. Over the next few days you're going to be on Navy property, and even if they don't see you in action, the recruits might think there's something suspicious about a teenage girl wandering around on base. Especially one not in uniform or with the regulation haircut."

"Oh."

"Anyway, no time for hanging around - let's get you introduced. By the way, did you have to choose such a corny slogan for your T-shirt?"

"I wondered for a while whether to have a slogan or not, but in the end decided upon this in-joke."

Now it was Jade's turn to be confused.

Rena explained: "Remember the circumstances that got me here in the first place? As Mark, being violently sea sick on a ferry? Now here I am, with a new body, voluntarily going out on a boat and swimming around in the sea . OK, technically it's a big freshwater lake, but you get the picture."

The two walked over to the SUV, which had now pulled up on the side of the road, and a smartly dressed man wearing a US Navy uniform stepped out.

"Miss Jade?"

"Hello Lieutenant, this is your charge for the day," Jade replied, gesturing over to Rena, "Lorena, meet Lieutenant Caedus. Lieutenant Caedus, meet Lorena Marquez."

"Miss," he said, nodding at Rena, "if you would like to step into the car, please." He looked at Jade, "Will you be accompanying us?"

"No - I trust you to take care of her on your own, besides which, I'll draw too much attention."

"Very well, miss."

Jade stood back, and the characteristic green glow surrounded her. "I'll be off now - people to see, planets to save," and took off into the air.

Rena nearly stepped into the driver's side of the car, before remembering just in time that the driver's side was on the left in the US, so stepped around to the right hand side, climbed into the car, and buckled her seat belt.

As they set off into the morning traffic, Rena thought out loud, "This seems so strange."

"What does, miss?"

"Driving on the wrong side of the road."

"But this is the right side?"

"Yes, I know it's the right hand side, but it's the wrong side to me. Remember - I'm from the UK, where the driver sits on the right and drives on the left."

"OK miss."

By now, Rena was starting to get a little irritated at being constantly called 'Miss', but reasoned it was probably an appropriate naval formality and he might object to calling her by name. She decided that he probably didn't want to, or wasn't allowed to, engage in small talk so remained quiet through the rest of the journey, just staring out of the window and taking in the scenery.

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About an hour later, they pulled off the highway and were soon travelling through the campus of Naval Station Great Lakes. After a few minutes, they pulled up outside an imposing brick building and Rena was told to stay put while the Lieutenant officially announced their arrival. After what seemed like hours but in reality was probably no more than about a quarter of an hour, the Lieutenant reappeared, and drove the pair to the base's marina.

Rena was surprised to see that it looked like an ordinary commercial marina, with no sign of big, grey boats. The Lieutenant explained that although it was on Navy property, it was a recreational marina and as such was open to the public (although offering discounted rates to Navy personnel). They parked the car, then walked over to the quayside, the Lieutenant carrying a small briefcase. After walking along the quayside a bit, they climbed down into a 16' speedboat. As he cast off, the Lieutenant explained that they were going to travel to a relatively quiet portion of the lake, away from recreational and commercial traffic.

After several minutes speeding across the lake, during which time Rena was pleasantly surprised to discover she didn't feel nauseous in the slightest, the slowed to a stop in a place that looked like the middle of nowhere, but was apparently just five miles offshore. Looking in most directions, she could only see more lake, behind, the tops of the masts of yachts, and roughly South West of where they were, the tops of the Chicago skyscapers; but otherwise this stretch of lake was quite empty. The lieutenant dropped anchor, then directed Rena to remove her outer clothing. Rena grinned at his disappointment as she willed her ring-provided outer layer to disappear, to be replaced with an all-black version of Alison's costume design ("Bad luck matey - although I need to get used to the feel of my costume, I sure as hell aren't going to reveal all to you!"). After gaining permission to warm up before starting on his list, she gently lowered herself into the water, noting that it felt considerably warmer than the English Channel did a few days ago, held her breath, then dived beneath the surface, hoping her gills would work in freshwater as they did in the briny Channel. She pulled herself deeper, trying to counteract her inherent buoyancy, until she felt the air in her lungs expire.

"Darn it," she thought, "they don't work in freshwater." She started to turn around to head back to the surface, when suddenly the pain disappeared and she gained neutral buoyancy. "Oops, spoke too soon there - well, thought too soon - I can't exactly speak underwater!" She performed a few underwater somersaults before musing on whether to return to the boat to receive her first instruction or do something first. "Well, he probably doesn't know how deep I can go - let's give him a present!" She dived towards the bottom, and although the water temperature got colder and the light started to fade, she didn't experience any discomfort. Soon, she arrived at the bottom, and scooped up a handful of silt before returning to greet a very confused looking Lieutenant by dropping the silt in the bottom of the boat.

"Missing me already? Aw shame - look, I've even brought you a gift!" She watched him get flustered and scramble to open his briefcase, while she mused over what she'd done. "OK, so that was terribly cliched, but it was fun. Besides which, I know that if a pretty young girl had teased me only a few days ago, I would have been just as flustered as him. Actually, come to think of it, I'd probably have been dead embarrassed. Ack, the wonders of my new body - I'd better not get too used to this - it could become a habit to tease poor unfortunate souls like I was a few days ago. And that would not be a good thing."

After retrieving a clipboard and pen from his briefcase ("Hmmm, that looks like paper. Not exactly the most practical for recording out here... then again, a laptop wouldn't be very practical either - and I don't think rescuing a dropped laptop would do my street cred much good - let alone the Navy if it reached the papers"), he looked at his list and crossed off the first item.

"Well, " he said wryly, "Looks like you've given us a minimum value for the first test - depth - the lake's about 100 ft deep here. Now there are deeper parts of the lake - it goes down to about 500 ft deep opposite Kenoshe, which is about forty miles away from here, and we'll cover that depth tomorrow. There are deeper parts further North, reaching about 800 ft deep near Manistee, but as that part of the lake's over 150 miles away, we won't have time to try it. But today is all about endurance - how long you can comfortably spend down there, and speed. So for the rest of the morning, dive down there and try to stay on the bottom until you feel uncomfortable."

"Err...since I have gills when I'm down there and neutral buoyancy, I don't think I will get uncomfortable. I don't really want to sit down there twiddling my thumbs all day, so can you suggest a time for lunch?"

"OK then, make it 1pm - but you haven't got a watch on, so how will you know?"

"Let me try something..." Rena concentrated, and a moment later a watch appeared on her wrist, but it appeared to be static. "Darn it... seems as though this ring can't do electronics. But since it can do communications, I wonder..."

She pulled herself out of the water, and tapped her ring. "Jade, are you busy?"

"No, why?" she replied fairly breathlessly.

"Are you sure you're not busy - you sound out of breath!"

"I'm fine," she replied. "I was just doing a spot of exercise. Got to keep myself in shape. Anyway, how's it going?"

"I'm fine - sitting in a boat in the middle of the lake, confusing the hell of the poor lieutenant here. I think he was rather disappointed I didn't need to change into my swimming cozzie."

She giggled. "Well, that's the Navy for you. So, is this just a social call or do you need me?"

"I was hoping for a favour from your ring."

"Uh oh."

"Don't worry - it isn't anything major. It's just that as I'm doing endurance testing today, it would be handy to have a watch. But I'd rather not go and buy a bulky chronometer that can handle depths of 1,000 ft. Can your ring either give me an alarm call at 1pm or allow my ring to produce a functional digital watch?"

"I'll definitely be able to arrange the alarm call, but the watch sounds a good idea - I'll negotiate with my ring and see what we can do."

"It might be worthwhile patching through Lena - after all, she's good with technology and has successfully persuaded the ring to perform an, erm, unusual request."

"Good point - if we manage it we'll send a message to let you know."

"Thanks Jade. Now what brought on this sudden interest in exercise?"

"Oh, it's just something I saw Free Spirit doing when she visited. I'll explain later."

"OK then...erm, 'Over and Out?'"

Jade giggled, then a few seconds later, presumably after her ring had filled her in on the terminology, finished with a rather giggly "Roger that - Over and Out."

The lieutenant looked at Rena with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Look, this time last week I was fifteen years older, four inches shorter, slightly plumper, terrified of water and couldn't swim. Now look at me - no, not like that (!) - if you were in the same boat as me - oh, err, I meant metaphorically - you'd probably find it hard not to see the irony and may also look on the bright side of life. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with the lake bed."

Without waiting for a response, she dived off the side of the boat, this time not breathing in beforehand. As she expected, the gills sprouted quicker and with less lung discomfort than before, and soon she was sitting on the bottom of the lake, wondering how to occupy the next few hours.

After sitting for a few minutes, she decided to have a go at sculpting the silt, but after finding it was too fine to stay in place, and she could feel the graininess of it on her gills, she decided to give up before it interfered with her respiration. Thinking of nothing better to do, once the silt settled she slowly lay back on the lake floor to have another think about the events of the past few days. She started to think about the ferry incident - a small part of her mind still felt guilty for not doing more to help the survivors of the sinking, but she quickly quashed that by telling herself she was unconscious at the time, so couldn't have done anything - besides which, she almost certainly was still her old self until actually reaching the sea bed, so even if conscious couldn't have done anything to help. As for the gender change; that was still going to take some getting used to, especially as the previous day she was sure some of the wolf whistles and cat calls were directed as much to her as to Doris and Lena. She wasn't quite sure whether that was preferable to being completely ignored; but one thing was certain - whether it was because of her new gender or because of meeting so many people in the same boat (she cringed as she made a mental note to find a non water-related analogy; that one was already starting to feel old), she had talked and chatted to more people, more comfortably, in the past three days than at any time in the past three years. She'd felt a little anxious being in close proximity to the lieutenant, but she reasoned she'd probably feel a lot more anxious if she'd been born a girl. Still, she reasoned that she'd probably still clam up and feel out of place if in the company of strangers; and no doubt at some point in the future Doris and Lena would introduce her to Chicago's social scene. But at least it would be more entertaining than lying down at the bottom of a lake, twiddling her thumbs while she waited for the alarm call to return to the surface.

She then contemplated her potential abilities. Underwater survival at depths of up to 100 ft she already knew about, she knew she could swim fairly fast underwater, and that would be tested in the afternoon. She hadn't a clue how long she could comfortably maintain the underwater equivalent of a sprint, but reasoned that at a steady pace, she could probably keep going until she felt hungry. As for land-based abilities, she didn't have a clue. One thing she was fairly sure of - she wasn't a "flyer". She reasoned Jade and Alena could probably cope underwater with one of their protective bubble things, but the others probably couldn't. So overall the team had a mix of aerobatic and land-based abilities, with her providing water support. But what could she do apart from save people from sinking ships? She thought back to previous disasters - she could almost certainly lend a hand with oil spills, like that well that blew up the previous year; and if she happened to be in the right place at the right time, she could probably help out with tsunamis like the one in the Indian Ocean, or flooding like in Pakistan the previous year and New Orleans a few years beforehand. If she had enhanced strength as part of her package, that would be a significant bonus. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep as she imagined various scenarios that she could probably / probably not be able to assist in.

She was woken up by the strangely distorted sound of Jade's voice calling her name, and started to should back "OK, OK!" before realising that vocal communication was impossible underwater. "Damn, that's something else to think about - how the heck am I going to communicate with the team if I'm underwater?"

She quickly ascended to the surface, and climbed back into the boat before replying to Jade.

"Yes, I'm alive - I just realised I can't talk underwater, and sudden movements on the sea floor aren't very good on the gills."

"Sleeping on the job?"

"How..."

"The rings provide a basic biomedical status - you were still for several hours, your heart rate had slowed down - I think it's fairly obvious you were taking a nap down there!"

"Well, you try thinking of things to do on a lake bed for three hours - you can't exactly read a book, listen to mp3s or watch TV!"

"Got any ideas on the comms issue?"

"Leave it with me, I'm sure I'll come up with something by the end of the day. Oh, how's the clock idea coming on?"

"It took a while, but with Lena's help I've persuaded the AI to provide the functionality. I'll need to visit sometime to give you a new ring with it enabled."

"Can't it do 'over-the-air' upgrades? Surely others are going to need custom modifications, and you can't go giving them a new ring every time."

"'Over the air'?"

"OK, you know some computer programs update themselves over the 'net when a new version is released? See if it can add similar functionality to the rings, so if someone's ring needs a tweak, it can push the update out over the comms channel. I'm sure it'll be able to find precise descriptions of how earth computers do it on the 'net - if it can't, give me a call tonight and I'll do some research once I've set up my computer."

"Righteo. I'll ask Doris and Lena, but would 7 be OK with you?"

"Yeah, that should be fine."

"OK then, see you at 7. Byeee."

"Bye."

The Lieutenant looked at Rena boggle-eyed.

"Oh come on Lieutenant, you've already seen me change outfits using the ring and survive underwater for three hours without any breathing apparatus - surely using it as a communications device isn't unfeasible?"

"No, but you're only 17 - how come you know so much about computers?"

"Would it surprise you to learn I'm actually 34 and hold a Master's degree in Software Engineering?"

He stumbled over attempting a reply.

"Yes, it came as a bit of a shock to suddenly find myself a teenager again..." ("You'd be even more shocked if you found out I was a guy beforehand!") "...let alone looking completely different to beforehand..." ("Understatement of the century") "...and alive at the bottom of the English Channel. Now if you'll stop gawping, I think it's lunchtime. Have you brought any food or do we need to head back?"

He gathered his thoughts before opening his briefcase and pulling out a couple of baguettes. Whoever had put Lieutenant Caedus in charge of Rena's testing/training obviously had a sense of humour, as the filling was tuna and sweetcorn.

After finishing the baguette and rinsing it down with a can of cola (original full sugar version, of course!), the Lieutenant outlined the afternoon's activity.

"I was going to do speed and endurance testing this afternoon, but in the light of your watch problems, we'll postpone that until tomorrow. So we'll head back to base and I'll see if I can book a gym for us to see what you're capable of on land."

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Twenty minutes later, Rena was sitting in the SUV outside the administration block (again!), mentally preparing herself for whatever torture the Lieutenant was planning on inflicting on her during the afternoon, while he was inside negotiating exclusive use of a gymnasium. As he'd reminded her on the journey back to the harbour, there was (unfortunately) no chance of them not being able to use a gymnasium - as part of the agreement between the Navy, the government and Jade, any facilities required for her testing were to be made available as and when needed - no ifs, no buts.

The Lieutenant had been wise enough to take the car keys with him, so Rena couldn't either drive off or listen to the radio, so instead she contented herself with remembering an incident on the boat trip back to shore. She'd manifested the jeans and T-shirt combination she was wearing beforehand, but as they made small talk, she couldn't help but notice his eyes were rather keen on focusing on her chest rather than her face. She grudgingly admitted she did look attractive, but especially as she was now physically seventeen years old, the way his gaze never left her chest for five minutes seemed rather disturbing. Having been male herself only a few days ago, she realised that there was no way a verbal message would do the trick, and as she didn't know her own strength yet, wasn't willing to risk lifting his chin. Suddenly she had a brainwave. She looked up at his face and stared intently at it, then visualised a picture of his face on her T-shirt, which, unsurprisingly, had the desired effect of persuading him to look up at her face.

"Nice to see you've remembered where my face is. Yes, I do have bosoms. So does half the population of the world. Leching like that won't get you anywhere with this one, and I'd hate to test out my strength on you."

He gulped, muttered apologies, then spent the rest of the trip consciously staring at anything except her.

Back in the car outside the administration block, Rena examined her fingernails as she thought over the incident . "I guess that means I'm definitely all woman now - I'm even attracting attention from lecherous picks like him. That reminds me - I'll have to ask Doris and Lena tonight how they cope with unwanted attention - after all, born women somehow cope without needing to use alien rings or superhuman powers." Just as her thoughts drifted to the additional scary prospects of potentially having to wear skirts, dresses, heeled shoes and make-up in the future, she was interrupted by the Lieutenant unlocking the car (as if she'd run away!), climbing in, then driving around the campus until they stopped outside a large two storey building largely devoid of windows.

As they got out of the car, the Lieutenant explained that this was one of the campus' main indoor sports facilities, featuring not only a sports hall but squash courts, a swimming pool and a gym. He led her inside, up a flight of stairs and along several corridors before arriving at the gym itself. Rena looked in and saw a room about the size of a pair of school classrooms, containing half a dozen each of exercise bicycles, treadmills, padded benches and weight machines. She gulped loudly, and nervously exclaimed "Cripes. Err...I've got a confession to make - I've never been to a gym or health club before."

The lieutenant raised an eyebrow, but said "Don't worry, it's all very easy to use. You might like to change into something more appropriate first."

Rena sighed and changed her jeans to a pair of jogging bottoms, before sauntering over to an electric scale the Lieutenant had produced.

"OK then, step on the scales. How much did you weigh beforehand?"

"About twelve and a half stone - oh, you guys measure in pounds, don't you - let's see, twelve and a half times fourteen - one forty plus thirty five - one hundred and seventy five pounds. Yes, I was a bit of a slob!"

She stepped on the scales, then looked down in confusion. It was reading two hundred and ten pounds. The lieutenant also looked at the scales in confusion. They looked at each other, and said in unison "That can't be right!"

The lieutenant then muttered "Never trusted electronic scales." before unlocking a cupboard to one side of the room and pulling out a set of manual scales. "Weightwatchers have meetings here twice a month - their scales are bound to be more accurate than that pile of junk," he said while giving the electronic ones a gentle kick.

After he put the manual scales down, Rena stood on them and was even more puzzled when they showed the same result. The lieutenant muttered something about incorrect calibration, and was just about to head back to the cupboard to fetch another pair of scales when Rena had an idea.

"Where are the weights stored?"

"What do you mean?"

"I thought that if we tested the scales with some known weights, then we can see if it's really the scales that are playing up or if I'm unusually heavy."

"Oh right. Hang on." He walked over to another cupboard and opened it up, revealing the stack of free weights. He pulled out two smaller weights, while Rena opted for two slightly larger weights - and was pleasantly surprised at how light they felt to her. After placing them on the scales in various combinations, they agreed that the scales were calibrated correctly, and Rena did indeed weigh two hundred and ten pounds, although she had the body build and size of someone half that weight.

As they already had a selection of weights out, the lieutenant decided to start off with strength testing. After a gruelling hour with both free weights and the weight machine, the lieutenant concluded she could lift about twice the capacity of a 'baseline' girl of her age. He then guided her over to one of the treadmills and quickly keyed in a programme.

"OK, this first test is to find the maximum speed at which you feel comfortable running. The machine will start up at 5mph, then increase by 1mph every fifteen seconds. If at any point you find the speed uncomfortable, press this button and it will reduce by 1mph. Press it again to continue. If at any point you think you're in danger of falling over, press this second button and the machine will gradually slow to a stop."

Rena hesitantly stepped onto the treadmill, and soon picked up a brisk walking pace, which quickly turned into a jog followed by a flat out run. Eventually she found a speed that she was comfortable running at and kept the machine there for several minutes before she tried the higher speeds, which proved far more exhausting. She was therefore very grateful when she felt the machine slowing down to a stop, and only too readily glugged down the bottle of water handed her by the Lieutenant.

Once she'd got her breath back, Rena asked the Lieutenant,

"So, how did I do?"

"If I hadn't seen it for myself I wouldn't have believed it!"

"Go on, elaborate."

"Your comfortable running speed is an impressive twelve miles per hour. That's a speed only usually achieved by top athletes. It would be interesting seeing how long you can keep that up, but in the meantime, we've got the sprint test."

"What's that?" Rena said, already dreading the likely answer.

"This time, we quickly bring you up to twelve miles an hour, then we quickly accelerate to fifteen for a few seconds, before returning. The cycle's repeated with a higher maximum speed until you feel you can't cope, whereupon pressing the button will slow down to a stop. Admittedly it's not as realistic as doing it in the open, but since I can't let you use the running track and we haven't got any radar guns, it'll have to do."

"Ugh. Just give me a few minutes, then you can torture me again."

The Lieutenant winced, and nearly spoke up in indignation before seeing the slight smile on Rena's face and realising she'd only said it in jest. Several minutes later, she sat down again, glugging another bottle of water. This time, she only needed to look at the Lieutenant with a questioning expression for him to spill the beans.

"Your absolute upper limit seems to be around thirty miles per hour - but I think it's safe to say you'll only be doing that under extreme stress conditions, for a very limited amount of time. I don't think even your body could sustain that speed for any length of time."

"Figures. So what's next, torturer?"

"Endurance. We've seen you maintain a constant speed for half a minute at a time - but how long can you keep it up? We've got one and a half hours left here, so if you're still going after an hour, we'll stop and clear up. After all, unless you're planning to be a pacemaker in a marathon, you're unlikely to need to run for anywhere near an hour in real life."

"Lead on, Macduff."

Rena stood on the treadmill, took a deep breath, then nodded for the Lieutenant to start it. She quickly settled into a brisk run, and although she didn't dare talk for fear of running out of breath or losing concentration and face planting, she was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't all that tiring for the first half hour. After that, she gradually started acquiring mild aches in her joints and her throat was getting rather dry, but apart from those symptoms she didn't feel very exhausted and was starting to enjoy herself. All too soon, the hour was up, the treadmill slowed to a stop, and Rena warily left it, feeling slightly odd now her legs weren't moving ninety to the dozen beneath her.

After being assisted off the treadmill and downing another bottle of water, Rena felt slightly better, so was able to assist the Lieutenant in clearing up - otherwise known as he opened the cupboard doors and told her where everything was stored, while she packed away - his excuse being she was a lot stronger than him. Grrrr.

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The journey back involved another crawl through rush hour traffic, but Rena didn't notice as she took advantage of the expected hour's drive back to have a nap and mentally prepare herself to do battle with a certain AI in the evening. In fact, she had to be woken when they arrived in the street and it took her a while to get her bearings - initially wondering what she was doing in the driver's seat of a strange car without any controls in front of her, before realising she was in the passenger seat of a US-spec car, in Chicago, in the same street as her new home. After shaking the Lieutenant's hand and wishing him a safe journey back, she remembered to wait until he'd left before approaching the warehouse and letting herself in. Understandably, Doris and Lena were initially eager for her to spill the beans about what she'd been doing, but when they noticed she was still looking a little tired held off to allow Rena to explain in her own words.

"The morning was pleasant enough, if a little boring. You could say the Lieutenant allowed me to lie down on the job."

"Eh?"

"I spent a relaxing three hours lying down... on the bottom of the lake(!)"

"!"

"Apparently he wanted to test how long I could remain underwater. I think someone forgot to tell him about my gills, so I spent three hours counting rocks on the bottom of the lake bed, while he did goodness knows what above me. Oh, that reminds me - since it's likely I'm going to be spending a lot of time underwater, I've asked if Jade's AI can give me a ring-provided watch - I figured if it could do that, it would be less expensive, far less bulky, and far less noticeable when I'm out and about incognito than a proper chronometer. Apparently to do that I'll need a replacement ring - so I've also asked if it can make the rings upgradable 'over-the-air' - it doesn't make sense if every time one of us needs an enhancement, we have to wait for Jade to physically visit us and create a new ring. Since the rings already provide clothing and communications, I'm guessing they have some form of futuristic or intergalactic computer on them; so it makes sense that they should be able to be programmable to be updateable remotely."

As she spoke, Lena started nodding and smiling. "So that's why Jade called earlier to ask for clarification on what 'over the air' and 'firmware upgrades' meant."

"Oh, sorry about that - I just assumed she'd get her AI to do a 'net search. I guess that after so many years when all potential threats have come from extraterrestrial sources, it hasn't really needed to do much interfacing with what it would probably regard as primitive earth computers and networks. Oh, and I've been thinking..."

Doris piped up "Don't overdo it!"

"Yes, very funny. Since it feels the need to ask permission before touching any earth-based computer systems, and we haven't got easy access to the information it has on potential threats and all the intergalactic warfare stuff, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if we can access it somehow without Jade needing to be present."

"Err...I don't think that would work. It's pretty much duty bound to her."

"I know that - so I was thinking that rather than interfacing directly with it, it helped us build an interface between our computers and Jade's ship's computer. After all, it's copied details of all the extraterrestrial threats there, so if we could access that..."

"We'd be able to access the relevant information without needing to annoy Jade or her AI. Brilliant!"

"And even better, I've been toying with the idea of building a web spider that will collate information from news articles, social networks and blogs about possible metahuman activity, so ''we'' (well, any of 'Jade's Gang') can quickly find and support new metas. If that information was shared with the ship's computer, it would be easily accessible to all of us."

"That's great!"

"There's just one potential problem - persuading the AI to build such an interface. It wouldn't be violating any of its precious protocols, or (as far as I'm aware) any human laws, but I have a feeling selling the idea to an AI built with the intention of only being used by one person could be difficult."

Doris then piped up, "Give Mia a call - she'll probably be able to help you two out."

"Mia?"

"Yes, you know - California girl, incredible computer knowledge, hangs out with Olivia."

"You've lost me. Remember, I've only been here a couple of days. Who's Mia? Who's Olivia?"

"Oh, sorry - I forgot you're not up to speed yet. Who have you encountered so far?"

"Well, apart from you two and Jade; there's Alena, who brought me over here; her sister Alison, who designed my costume; I chatted with Stephani, Alyssa, Terra and Courtney when we did the video conference thingy; but I don't know anyone else. Unless you count that 'Gold' girl that apparently stopped Obama from being assassinated."

"Yeah, she did - unfortunately she seems to have let fame go to her head, and seems to be doing the celebrity circuit. Last I heard she'd jetted off to California for some promo work."

"So where's she from originally?"

"Around here, believe it or not. Apparently beforehand, Myka was was a football player and all-round jerk."

"I wonder how she'll cope when the media get bored and start digging for dirt?"

"I doubt there's much dirt left to dig. It's rumoured that as Mike, he'd bedded half the cheerleading squad. But now she's saved the President's life, the media are treating her with kid gloves. She'll probably keep going until the media are bored with her, then they'll just quietly drop her."

"Anyway, apart from her, who else should I know about?"

"Well, Olvia's about the most prominent. Although, more than anyone else, I'll need you to treat what I next say as highly confidential, and never reveal to anyone outside our community."

"Sounds intriguing. I used to work in the banking sector, so I know all about confidentiality. Besides which, as I'd very much like to keep myself separate from 'Aquagirl', I understand the need to keep silent about alter egos. So what's the deal with Olivia?"

"Have you heard of Queen Industries?"

"Multinational company, most famous for their cruise liners, although I suspect they probably invest in other industries as well. Why?"

"Who's their CEO?"

"Err...no, it can't be... you've got to be kidding, right?"

"Yup - Olivia Queen is one of us. So now you know the need for utmost secrecy."

"Yeah - but what's her alter ego? And skills?"

"She calls herself the 'Green Arrow' when out and about. Archery tends to be her main speciality, although Mia helps out behind the scenes."

"So what exactly does this Mia do?"

"She's a born girl, with phenomenal skills in computers and computer systems. She's pretty much Olivia's eyes and ears when out heroing - and it helps that as she's great friends with Olivia, she's got access to all the Queen Industries computer kit - plus their satellites and internet servers."

"Cripes! Anyone else?"

"Just one, really - Josie. She's styled herself the 'Blue Beetle' and can manifest some funky form-fitting blue armour which also grants her flight abilities. Apparently it's all controlled by some alien AI she's managed to bond with. Apparently, it was originally sent here about 6,000 years ago to act as a spy for an invasion force that never arrived, so understandably in that time it's learnt to live with us and help us, although apparently Josie's in charge of their relationship, as she claims she's held back from the AI's 'kill' instinct on several occasions. Oh, and she's also Spanish by descent, so if you ever meet her she'd probably be able to help you with the language."

"That would be a big help if I ever have to deal with the media as 'Aquagirl' - somehow a Latino girl speaking with an estuary accent might seem slightly odd to them. Anyway, it certainly seems as though this metahuman lark really does attract all sorts - teenagers going to a costume party, relatives of a multi-billionaire, geneticists, army types (I still can't believe Courtney volunteered!), and even aquaphobic computer geeks! But enough talking, I really need to write some notes on Olivia, Mia and Josie before I forget."

She then walked over to her bedroom, grabbed the notepad she'd made notes on the other members of the J-Team a few days previously, and scribbled down what she could remember on the three 'new' members, before walking back into the lounge with a ponderous expression on her face.

"How long until dinner?"

"It's about three quarters of an hour now. Why are you asking?"

"Ooh good - I was wondering if I'd have enough time to assemble the new computer desk that's still sitting out in the warehouse."

"The flat pack?"

"Yes - from the description on the box, it looks big enough to hold both Lena's computer and mine. Fancy lending a hand?"

Doris laughed. "No thanks - I'll concentrate on the dinner. The instructions in those flat packs make genetic engineering look child's play by comparison!"

Lena, however, looked confused. "I don't get it. What's so difficult about assembling a piece of furniture?"

Rena replied with a grin, "I guess you haven't encountered the delights of Ikea yet. Help me out and I'll indoctrinate you. Ve have vays of making you confused!"

"You're confusing me already!"

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Half an hour later, after holding various alphabetically named chipboard panels, counting twelve widgets, eight thingumijigs and four whatjacallits that served as the connectors, the desk was constructed and Lena was convinced that if she needed to buy any furniture in future, she'd buy it ready assembled. Doris was slightly sceptical that it would hold... at least until Rena sat on the back end.

"It's more conventional to sit on the front of a desk and wave your legs underneath it."

"Yes, but ordinary people don't weigh 210 lb."

"You're kidding!"

"Nope - verified by several different weighings and comparison to gym weights. I guess that beneath my relatively slender frame, I must be incredibly dense."

After shaking her head while the others tittered, "No, not like that. I do have an MSc in Computer Science you know! I'm guessing that the density of my body is significantly greater than 'baselines' - probably an adaptation to help me survive underwater. Not that sitting at the bottom of Lake Michigan for three hours is my idea of fun."

"?!?!"

"I'll tell you about my adventures today when Jade gets here - no point repeating the tale any more than is strictly necessary. Suffice it to say for the moment that I definitely do grow gills when underwater, and on land I'm quite speedy and strong. But thankfully not ridiculous - you won't find me haring down a motorway at 70mph, or lifting a fuel tanker with my pinky."

By the time dinner was ready to be served, Rena had also set up her computer on the left side of the desk, and transferred Lena's over to the right side. It was a convenient arrangement, as with Rena being left handed and Lena being right handed, they wouldn't get in each others way when manipulating the mice. Doris couldn't help but notice and joke; "Rena and Lena; Left and Right; how appropriate..."

"Don't worry - I'm not going to steal her away from you! I've seen you two together - you were made for each other - while we'll collaborate on projects I wouldn't dare come between you two."

Doris was momentarily taken aback by this sudden stream of conciousness, before replying "I was only joking you know. Although I've only known you a couple of days, I've a hunch you wouldn't go after either of us."

"Thanks for that. I'm still trying to get used to the new 'me' and the whole girl thing. I was a bit of a loner beforehand, so just having so many new friends and supporters within such a short space of time is a little overwhelming. Not to mention the whole metahuman business. Believe me, romance is the last thing on my mind!"

"We'll be here to support and guide you. Heck, if the concept wasn't so ridiculous, you could almost be a little sister."

Rena rolled her eyes. "Hmm...we are a mixed up bunch, aren't we? Lena's the youngest here, but has a lifetime's experience of girlhood. I'm officially and chronologically the oldest here, but I've been a girl for a couple of days. So, yeah, thinking of you as 'big sis' would seem a little strange, even if you occasionally become 'very big sis'."

Further discussions were interrupted by the sound of Jade's voice in stereo saying "Knock, knock!"

Doris smiled and said "Ooh good, she's arrived just in time."

"Were you expecting her?"

"Not before you arrived back, but when you said she'd be popping in at dinner time, I prepared an extra portion. After all, while replicator food may taste OK, it's bound to be no substitute for the real thing, or for eating in company."

"I guess that figures. Oh, hi Jade."

At that moment, Jade walked in, having been let in by Lena while Rena and Doris were still chatting.

"Oh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I? I can come back later if you're about to eat."

Doris replied, "No, you're staying - and eating with us!"

"Why do I get the impression there's an ulterior motive here?"

Rena mockingly raised her hands and said "I confess - we've got a tech proposal to put before your ring. But it's likely to take a while to convince it of the merits, so I hope you haven't anything planned for the rest of the evening."

Jade sighed, and concentrated on her ring for a few seconds. "OK, we'll hear you out - it's apparently shaping up to be a very quiet night. But you realise I'm going to be bored stiff if you're talking tech all evening with it."

Rena thought for a moment, then darted off to her bedroom and returned with her mp3 player. "Admittedly my taste in music is a little eccentric, but I've got about 16 hours worth of tracks on there, so you're bound to find something worth listening to for a couple of hours while we engage in negotiations."

"We?"

"Lena will be helping out, and we're hoping to get Mia involved as well via video conference."

"Sounds a pretty big deal, if you're getting Mia involved!"

"You're free to listen to the opening arguments - then you can put on the music when the arguments get too technical for you."

"Sounds reasonable enough."

Dinner was held in relative silence, although Doris and Lena seemed to edge closer to each other as the meal went on, and at one point looked on the verge of feeding each other before backing out - presumably aware of the company in the room. Rena offered to clear up, while Lena contacted Mia and outlined the proposal they were planning to put before the AI. She soon agreed to help out, so within a few minutes everyone was sitting down in the lounge, with Mia full-screen on Lena's computer while the two webcams provided a panoramic image of the group back to Mia.

Before the discussions started, Rena took the opportunity to take a good look at Mia. She looked rather cute, this was no doubt helped by her bright pink hair. But behind that cuteness, she was apparently a computer genius whose abilities apparently dwarfed those of hers and Lena's combined, not to mention Messieurs Gates and Jobs. She was definitely worth getting to know - and might even be able to help with some aspects of girlhood she felt uncomfortable asking her housemates. She realised she'd been staring at the pink-haired girl a little too long when Jade gave a polite cough and asked if everyone was ready to start.

Rena reluctantly tore her eyes away from the screen - "No girl, she's way out of your league, lives half way across the country, and almost certainly prefers boys. Besides which, you told yourself only a few minutes ago you weren't ready for romance. Just wait until your damn hormones have settled down before trying to find a soulmate." - and shook her head to refocus her thoughts before making the opening statement.

Ten minutes later, Jade started looking bored, so while Mia was putting forward the latest strand in their argument, Rena looked over at Jade and tapped her ears. Jade nodded and mouthed a "thanks" before putting in the earbuds, closing her eyes, and reclining slightly.

Nearly an hour later, the combined actions of Rena, Lena and Mia had finally convinced the AI that building an interface between their computers and the ship's computer wouldn't be violating any human, galactic or Lantern laws, would be potentially useful to both the J-Team (as Rena had started referring slightly tongue-in-cheek to Jade's team of heroes - a term that was starting to catch on, albeit informally and unofficially - no-one wanted the media to hear of the term, for fairly obvious reasons), Jade herself and the AI.

The next hour was spent discussing the finer details of the design of the interface and the security, before discussions turned in the third hour to exactly what information would be shared on each end. Rena's proposal to monitor news sites, blogs and forums for possible cases of metahuman activity was widely received - at least partially because it was reasoned that Lena's dad and others interested in recruiting metas for nefarious purposes would probably be doing likewise.

Finally, at just after ten pm, negotiations were concluded, with the AI promising to build the interface within the next week, with distribution by either Jade or Alena; depending on how busy they were. The security on the interface was enough to make any security expert jealous - gigabit encryption and multi-factor authentication, which included needing at least one ring in the vicinity of the interface to upload, download or view data. It also agreed that very limited extracts of its data could be provided to the relevant public authorities if they encountered an antagonist in its database.

Just as Jade was about to leave, her ring reminded her of the original purpose of her visit. For the sake of modesty, it agreed to maintain Doris and Rena's illusory clothes while they handed their rings back to Jade and she supplied them with the new, upgradable rings. Apart from a tiny transmitter symbol etched on the outer bottom of the rings, they looked identical to the previous ones. Jade explained that Rena's had been equipped with a variety of illusory watches - both feminine analogue watches for when she was incognito, and a variety of digital watches for use underwater. Both types could have all functions activated either manually or by willpower, and they could also provide verbal readouts of the time, stopwatch or countdown timer - both out loud or internally. Rena thanked Jade and made a mental note to test it out before she was collected the following day for that day's torture session.

Evidently, Jade's AI picked up on the thoughts, because although everyone was tired, when Jade asked how Rena's day had gone, everyone was eager for her description of the day's events. Mia also graciously hung on , perhaps out of idle curiosity about Rena's rather unusual power set. She was certainly amazed by Rena's description of acquiring gills, Lena was curious about the speed aspect, while Doris grew a few inches in response to Rena's comments about the Lieutenant's lechery. However, when Rena described her rather unusual counter-measure, Doris quickly returned to her default height while Lena and Mia giggled and Jade shook her head in disbelief. Jade offered to have a word with the Navy and possibly get the Lieutenant replaced, but Rena dismissed that idea, stating that he'd behaved like a perfect gentleman afterwards. When she got to describing her super density in more detail than earlier, Doris' ears picked up, and wondered out loud how invulnerable Rena was.

"Err...feel free to poke and prod me, but I don't fancy finding out if I'm bulletproof!"

"Don't worry - I don't think any of us would be stupid enough to try shooting you to see if you were!"

"I know, I'm just saying, that's all. I've been given a new lease of life and I don't plan on prematurely ending it through stupid experiments. I certainly don't want to be the first meta to win a Darwin Award!"

Jade sighed, then looked at her ring and said "Go research it yourself!"

Rena asked her, "Is it still confused about pop culture references? I thought it would have learned to spot potential ones and research them itself by now!"

"It's perfectly capable of researching stuff by itself, but whoever programmed it forgot to give it any kind of initiative. Perhaps they thought that if it actually did take the initiative and research things for itself, it could become a potential threat. After all, there could be a potential slippery slope from researching items to taking combat decisions for itself. Remember, it was only Josie's willpower that stopped Khaji from taking over her completely and killing assailants."

"Khaji?"

"Oh sorry, that's the name her AI calls itself. And before you ask, mine doesn't go in for personification. It prefers to remain nameless."

"Perhaps you could persuade it to ask permission before researching a concept or term - that way it's still being subservient, but it it's showing a little more awareness of human culture. Heck, why don't you ask it to archive Wikipedia?"

"It wouldn't be sure which were terms in current use or not in a particular part of the world without researching further, which it would feel the need to ask me about."

"Perhaps that's something else we can collate and upload to the ship's computer - it'll save you a bit of time and resentment."

"That's a good idea - but please, don't spend too long on it. I'd rather you concentrated on your original database idea."

"Don't worry - between the three of us," she said pointing to Lena and Mia, "it shouldn't take long to set up the basic algorithms. And unlike our primary database, we wouldn't need to monitor it."

"OK, but you don't need to..."

"No, we don't need to, but after all you're doing for us, it's the least we can do to give something back. No arguing!"

Finally, all discussions were concluded, Jade left, and Mia ended the video conference link from her end. Just before getting ready for bed, Rena pulled Doris and Lena into a group hug. "In case I haven't said it before, thanks for taking me in, looking after me, and putting up with all my eccentricities. Oh, and I'm sorry for taking up so much of your precious Lena's time tonight," she said while tousling Lena's hair. She broke off the hug and walked towards the bathroom, finishing off with "So now it's time for you two to get reacquainted. I fully expect to be the tallest in the household when I wake up in the morning."

"Wha?!"

"Yes, I know - and no, I won't tell anyone else. You two go off and have some fun."

Lena grinned, looked up at Doris, said "You heard her. Come on!" and practically dragged her towards their bedroom. Rena headed to the bathroom, shaking her head. "We're one weird household - but weird's good! Now for a good night's sleep... and to psyche myself up for tomorrow's torture session."

Chicago Water Torture 2

Author:

mittfh

Audience Rating:

Mature Subjects (pg15)

Publication:

7,500 < Novelette < 17,500 words

Genre:

Character Age:

Teenage or High School

TG Universes & Series:

Comics Retcon Universe by Lilith Langtree et al.

Other Keywords:

Canon

Permission:

Posted by author(s)

Chicago Water Torture 2

(The training / torture continues) (AquaGirl 3)

by mittfh

(Comments competition - devise a suitably witty teaser for this space...)

With thanks to Lilith, Lynceus and EnemyOfFun - you know your roles in producing this!
Just remembered! Thanks also to the BCTS Google+ users who beta'd this last night :)

AquaGirl

Image credits:
Original: DC Comics
(found @ ComicVine)
Modified: mittfh

Preliminary notes:
Yes, it's been a whopping seven months since the last episode. Sorry! The next one should be out sooner - I've already written part of one scene... it was originally intended for this episode but the characters ran out of time, so it's been moved to the next day. I've also created an outline plan to guide me. Fingers crossed...

The voice of the watch is represented in green text purely for the sake of convenience. It is not an AI - merely a limited function computer with advanced audio I/O.

There was evening, and there was morning: the second day.

Rena slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to the light.

"Morning's arrived. I wonder what the time is?"

She was just about to turn over and look at her clock radio, but suddenly remembered the ring upgrade.

She visualised the ring, and thought the command, "Time."

Almost immediately, a soft female voice that seemed to come from within her responded,

Five forty seven am.

"Ooh, thank you! And a quarter of an hour later than yesterday."

...

"Hmm...not very chatty. I guess it is just a watch with an auditory interface. OK, I wonder what else it can do. Stopwatch... Start!"

She heard a soft beep, waited a few seconds, then thought "Lap".

Lap time: twenty three seconds.

She waited a bit longer, then thought "Stop."

Total time elapsed: fifty six seconds.

"Lap time?"

Lap time: twenty three seconds.

"Start..." BEEP "...Stop!"

Total time elapsed: sixty three seconds.

"Clear. Start... Stop!"

Total time elapsed: nought point five seconds.

"Clear. So the stopwatch works fairly predictably. Did they pack a countdown timer? Let's try... Timer, one minute." BEEP. "So far, so good. Start."

She looked at her left wrist - empty. "That's worth knowing." She tried to visualise a watch, but only a static one appeared. "Hmmm. Display." Immediately, a digital watch shimmered into existence on her wrist, showing 39...38...37 seconds. "Hide?" The watch faded away.

Just over thirty seconds later, as she was wondering what form the alarm would take, she heard a soft BEEP...BEEP...BEEP...BEEP.

"Alarms?"

There are currently no alarms specified.

"Set Alarm: Six Fity Five AM, today only."

Confirm? Alarm set for Six Fifty Five AM today, non-repeating.

"Yes!"

Alarm confirmed.

Rena wondered if there was anything else about the watch function she could experiment with, when suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a voice - this time originating from the ring, but outside her head.

"Having fun?"

"Oh, Hi Jade. I'm just about to get up. Anyway, how did you know what I was doing? I haven't said a dicky bird this morning!"

"I have my ways and means. OK, my AI told me you were experimenting with the new functionality of your ring. Is it to your liking?"

"Not half! It's brilliant, and as it's powered by thought, and 'thinks' back, I can query it without getting any strange glances from the public. Thanks a lot!"

"No prob.... sorry, must dash, can't meet you this morning, earthquake in Sumatra."

Rena heard the feint but tell tale sound of boots on metal during the last part and figured Jade was already setting off. "OK - see you later."

"Time."

Five fifty seven am.

Rena sighed... she'd got about an hour to get ready. By 6:13 am she'd showered, 6:17 am dressed, and by 6:33 am she'd had breakfast and was starting to lose the novelty of interrogating her ring for the time whenever she thought about it. Today's outfit was a swimsuit (she didn't feel confident enough to go entirely naked), covering a slim money belt to hold her new debit card ("You never know when an emergency might pop up..."), the ensemble completed by illusory outerwear consisting of a pair of jeans and a T-shirt featuring a small 'Countdown' logo.

To fill the time until her alarm went off, she grabbed a notepad and started sketching out ideas for the news 'n' views aggregator she was planning to start building in the evening. All too soon though she was interrupted by the soft voice in her head...

BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 - BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 - BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 -

"Stop!"

BEEP BEEP BEEP - Alarm 1 -

"Stop Alarm!"

...

"Thank you!"

…

"That's going to get annoying very quickly. I wonder..."

"Allow Stop command to stop any other currently running command."

Input operator modified.

"Cool - it's programmable! That's worth knowing. Anyway, better get myself out of the door before that Lieutenant turns up and wonders where I've got to."

She opened the door to the warehouse and saw the Lieutenant's car already parked further down the street. Looking closely, she could make out something large and white between him and the steering wheel, so figured he was probably reading a newspaper.

"That's good - he's not looking in this direction - I can slip out unnoticed."

She quickly exited the warehouse, locking the door behind her, and walked quietly up to his car, before tapping on the window and startling him. With a smirk, she walked around to the passenger door as he quickly folded up his newspaper and let herself in.

"Waiting long?"

"No, I'd only just arrived."

She concentrated on her ring, and courtesy of Jade's AI found out he'd actually been sitting there for ten minutes. "Good job this is the last day of training - he could be a problem and compromise the secrecy of our pad if I had to rely on him for lifts too often."

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Just over an hour after crawling through rush hour traffic, they arrived back at the naval base, but instead of heading to the administration block or waterfront, the Lieutenant pulled up outside an indoor swimming pool.

"Ma'am, you're scheduled for lifesaving training this morning, then we'll head out on the water this afternoon. Look, I'm sorry about yesterday..."

"Let me guess - Jade found you and gave you an earful?" She could see by the fact he turned away and blushed she'd guessed correctly. "Look, there's no need to be embarrassed - she's OK when you get to know her, but she's fiercely protective of us. Just restrain your instincts and you'll probably be OK. Now, how does this lifesaving course work?"

"Oh, right, sorry, I haven't given you the details yet. It's a custom session specifically for you. They don't know you're a meta, just that you need some emergency training to cover the basics. If anyone asks why you need the training, just tell them 'it's classified' and they won't question you further."

He reached over to the back seat and retrieved a plain black document folder, then opened it to show a small pad of paper and several printed sheets.

"This is your schedule for today - you'll be having an hour's introductory theory lecture, followed by half an hour on CPR, after which you'll commence practical training in the pool. There'll be a half hour break for lunch at 1pm, then you'll resume pool training until 4. We would have preferred a less intensive course over a longer period of time, but Jade was keen to get you ready for action as soon as possible."

"I can understand that - after all the effort she and Al...Green Lantern Zwei put into rescuing me from the Channel, finding a home and new identity for me, as well as organising all this, it's the least I can do to help out when required. So when do we go out on the lake?"

"I was just getting to that. After a light snack, we'll head out after 4pm; that will give us a good four hours before we need to set back, and we'll miss all the rush hour traffic."

"Remind me - what will you be testing in the lake?"

"Mainly speed and agility. We were going to do endurance, but judging by yesterday we'd be wasting our time."

"OK, thanks for that. See you in a few hours."

"OK, see you then. Oh, and you might like to consider a plain top, since they don't know anything about you."

She looked puzzled for a bit, before seeing the reflection of her T-shirt in the door. "Oh, right. Yeah, I suppose this is a bit UK-centric."She concentrated for a while, and the design faded away to leave a plain white T-shirt. "Is this better?"

"Much,"he replied shaking his head. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that... could come in pretty handy. Oh, I nearly forgot,"he added, then reached over to the back seat and thrust a small black backpack at her. "Spare set of clothes. I know you don't need them, but the guys in there would think it very suspicious if you walked in without a backpack. And while the lockers should be secure, if anyone gets nosey while you're in the pool..."

"OK, I get the message. Better to be safe than sorry and leave nothing to chance. You've really redeemed yourself."

"Well..."

"Are you a man or a mouse? Jade may have given you a tongue lashing, but you navy types are supposed to be made of sterner stuff! Take some credit for yourself. Goodbye, and see you later!"

With that she grabbed the backpack and folder, shut the car door, and walked up to the building.

"Well, this is turning out to be a bit of an adventure. Lifesaving lessons, probably with a bunch of blokes who'll be fawning over me. But what was that about classified? I'm supposed to be 17, a bit young to be going on covert missions with the Navy. Upcoming Hollywood starlet? I suppose that's more credible, even though I haven't attempted acting since primary school - and this kind of role was certainly way beyond my comprehension. Oh well, here goes nothing..."

She opened the door and stepped in, wondering where to go. She looked around and saw a sheet of paper on the far wall with an arrow pointing down the left hand corridor, annotated with the text "L. Marquez". It took her a few seconds to remember that was her new adopted name - as the rest of the 'gang' called her by her preferred contraction of Rena, it wasn't often she encountered her new surname; even if it was a variant of her previous first name.

She started walking down the corridor and saw a smartly dressed woman in her mid thirties hovering outside an opened door about half way down. The woman was about average height, had long blonde hair, and seemed to have an air of authority, an undefinable 'presence' that felt as though she'd know if anything in the corridor was out of place. As Rena approached, she gave a polite nod and walked into the room.

Upon entering the room, Rena noticed a tall, lean man standing about half way along one wall in front of a notebook computer. The room looked as though it was normally a meeting room - it was about 10 foot long by 8 foot wide, and contained half a dozen tables pushed together, plus the notebook computer and a small data projector throwing a picture of what appeared to be the course's introductory slide ("Basic Lifesaving - Keith Hudson"). The man introduced himself as the Keith Hudson mentioned on the slide, and he was apparently the local lifesaving instructor. The woman, who didn't name herself, stood in the far corner, still maintaining a vast 'presence' although she was attempting to look inconspicuous. According to Keith, she was apparently there just to ensure Rena's safety, and ensure nothing untoward happened between her and him.

"Not that he could easily do anything to me, even if he wanted to. But at least she's helping keep my 'cover', whatever that may be."

After the introductions were over, Keith handed Rena a set of slide handouts, each page slightly fainter in the middle as though the printer was running out of toner, a small pad of paper, and a pen before immediately launching into his spiel.

He started off with a brief overview of water safety, covering such issues as differences between lake / river / ocean swimming, rip currents, knowing your depth and practices to avoid, e.g. drinking alcohol before a swim or 'tombstoning' - jumping into open water from a height. Rena initially wondered why he was covering this ground, as she thought she was already familiar with water safety, and she'd be rescuing people...

"Oh, of course! If I'm rescuing people who've got into difficulty for not following water safety advice, I'll need to tell them how to avoid getting into danger in future - so I'd better take notes just to ensure I'm giving the correct advice!"

She frantically started scribbling down notes, clarifications and explanations of the content of the early slides, then as she caught up to the point where she'd had her revelation, she discovered to her delight that although she'd only been paying partial attention to Keith, she could recall what he'd said, which enabled her to quickly catch up with where he was at.

The second phase of the lecture immediately grabbed Rena's attention, as it was much more likely to be relevant to her public career - situations that could cause, and problems associated with, people needing rescue in open water. She was surprised to hear that the most vital issue involved in an open water rescue is actually finding the victim - even in the case of 'man overboard' from a big ship, it can be very easy to lose the victim, as even in a glass smooth sea they're pretty much the proverbial needle in a haystack - a tiny speck in amongst a vast ocean. Compounding the difficulty of finding the victim in the first place is that even in relatively mild waters, hypothermia can quickly set in; so after finding them, the next most vital issue is raising their body temperature back to normal (once out of the water).

The final phase of the lecture was rescue principles - how to rescue a person with and without aids. This was the most diagrammatic portion of the lecture and in tracing over the feint images on the handout, she found the tracing a lot easier than she remembered from her previous life - maybe enhanced coordination was part of the 'package' alongside underwater swimming skills, increased visual acuity and strength / speed enhancements.

At last the lecture was over, and she was led down several corridors before being shown into a small gymnasium with a Resusci-Anne dolls already laid out and awaiting a dose of CPR. Rena was pretty sure she could remember the basics of ABC (Airway, Breathing, Circulation), CPR and putting patients into the recovery position, but welcomed the opportunity for some revision before she had to try it out for real. Even though she was pretending she was learning it for the first time, after having practiced CPR on a doll for about twenty minutes under the watchful eye of Keith, the last five of those without comment or correction, she couldn't resist a joke. She checked its 'pulse' and placed her cheek next to its mouth one last time, before looking at her watch, sighing, and saying "OK team, I think we've done all we can. Time of death: 9:20am"

At the bemused looks of Keith and Mystery Woman, she continued "Well, I've been trying to revive her for the past 20 minutes - I think I can say with some certainty that the poor girl's a gonner!"

As Keith looked on stony faced, and Mystery Woman stifled a giggle (Aha! She does have a personality!), Rena wandered over to the doll's case, brought it back, and, really hamming it up, said "How thoughtful - you've even bought her a coffin. But next time..."as she opened the case and fitted the doll's lower half into the case, "...measure your victim before buying it!"Then, turning to look at the doll's face, "I'm sorry to do this, love, but this is what happens if you put men in charge of your funeral arrangements,"before folding her in half and closing the case.

She then put on a feigned look of innocence and said "What?"while Keith shook his head in exasperation and Mystery Woman finally lost it and burst out laughing. It didn't take Rena long to lose her composure as well and join in while pushing the case towards Keith - she wasn't sure how heavy the case was, nor of the strength a girl of her apparent age and build would normally be expected to have, so thought it best to allow him to carry the case than risk giving away her enhanced strength.

Once Keith returned from putting away the case, he lead Rena and Mystery Woman down a maze of corridors before pointing out the entrance to the changing room. Thankfully, Mystery Woman didn't follow her in, so she could feign changing (in reality, just drop the illusory clothes to reveal her swimsuit) and put her bag in a locker. After securing the rubber bracelet containing the locker key to her left ankle, she walked out of the changing room and into the pool area. As she did so, she noticed Mystery Woman raise an eyebrow at her and realised she'd probably been too quick, so quickly composed what she hoped was a credible excuse. "I didn't know what changing facilities there'd be, so I wore my cozzie under my clothes." Well, it is kinda true...

Mystery Woman seemed to accept the excuse, as she gave Rena a slight smile and head nod. Rena returned the compliment, then looked out towards the pool. It was a standard 10m x 25m size, with an object floating in it resembling a bright orange human head and torso (minus arms, pelvis and legs). She then noticed Keith walking towards her, holding another of these strange contraptions. He explained that they were called Manikins and were used in lieu of humans for basic live saving training, before demonstrating various methods of holding them while still keeping an arm free for swimming.

For the next three hours Rena practiced retrieving the manikin from a variety of positions, both horizontally and, after it had been filled with varying degrees of water, vertically (i.e. from various depths), as well as simulating a short dose of CPR on it after it had been dragged out of the water.

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Finally, it was time for lunch and Rena headed back to the changing room. After having a refreshing shower, she realised she couldn't exactly put the wet cozzie back on and didn't have any 'real' underwear. Ack, I'm going to have to go completely starkers under the illusion - it had better not fail on me! Then again, Doris rarely wears 'real' clothes and gets away with it, and as I've got no other option, I'll have to bite the bullet and join her as another 'sister of nudity'...

Figuring that if she'd been putting on real clothes and towelling her hair dry, she'd probably be taking significantly longer than it did to change for the pool, she spent the next few minutes mentally reviewing the day's training so far before exiting. She wondered if the Lieutenant would collect her for lunch, so she could avoid answering any awkward questions about her history, but she wasn't in luck - apparently he'd been called away elsewhere, so she resigned herself to fielding any questions asked by the instructor and Mystery Woman, and hoping she could hedge and lie her way around them.

She followed Keith and Mystery Woman to a small dining room elsewhere in the building, where someone had conveniently provided a buffet for three. She helped herself to a selection of sandwiches, noting with interest that for some reason, the tuna and cucumber sandwiches didn't appeal to her, although they didn't look any different to any she'd had in her previous life. She grabbed one anyway, just to see if it tasted the same as usual or if there were any noticeable changes.

Once at the table, she braced herself for questioning, and sure enough, after she'd barely had time to sit down before Keith started asking various questions in a roundabout way, but boiling down to who she was, why she needed to learn the skills in a hurry, and why there was so much secrecy surrounding her. She sat there in silence, listening to his spiel and attempting to ignore him, but he wasn't put off. Eventually, she looked at Mystery Woman, sighed and rolled her eyes, before turning to Keith and saying "I don't know what you've been told about me, but details as to who I am and what I'm doing here are confidential and released on a 'need to know' basis. All you need to know is that I'm here for a day's intensive training. The rest you'll have to speculate on yourself, because I'm not giving you any answers. All I will say is that I'm almost certainly not who you think I am."

That earned a slight smile from Mystery Woman, but after Rena had finished her first sandwich, Keith attempted questioning again before shutting up to a withering stare from both his companions. Rena then concentrated on finishing her lunch - the tuna tasted the same as usual, but she still had a sense of 'wrong-ness' about it that she couldn't fathom. As she did so during the morning, Mystery Woman didn't say anything during lunch, and Rena began to suspect she was doing more than merely ensuring Keith didn't do anything untoward. Given her attire and attitude, she was almost certainly a professional, but where she was from or what her real mission was, Rena had no idea.

After lunch, Rena was escorted back to the pool. After taking a measured five minutes to 'change' (momentarily screwing her nose up at the prospect of reapplying the still damp cozzie - but resolved that after having the brainwave idea of rinsing it through in the showers again first), she exited the changing room and noticed two dummies floating in the pool, together with what appeared to be an upturned rowing boat. The activities proved more interesting than the morning, as instead of just retrieving a single 'victim', she was given information on the 'condition' of two or three, and had to prioritise the order in which she 'rescued' them based on their 'condition', as well as explaining her reasoning for why she'd prioritised in the way she had. Towards the end the number of 'victims' increased to half a dozen, which really stretched her memory. One the first few occasions with half a dozen 'victims', she fluffed up and rescued some in the wrong order, but after Keith took her aside for a few minutes and explained a couple of simple mnemonic techniques, she found after a couple of dozen seconds thinking that she could remember the names, conditions and priority for each and her performance increased rapidly. Just before the pool session ended, Keith set one final challenge: he threw a dozen objects of various sizes into the pool, and asked Rena to attempt recovery of them all. To everyone's surprise (including hers), Rena successfully recovered all twelve objects in the correct order. It was only when Keith remarked that she was the first student in over ten years of teaching lifesaving that had managed that test that Rena realised she may have come dangerously close to blowing her cover. "Oh well, what's done is done. I doubt Jade would have chosen him if he couldn't be relied on to keep his mouth shut once AquaGirl makes her début."

Rena walked back to the changing room, deep in thought, still a little worried about the prospect of her leaking her 'secret identity' before she'd even had her public début. For the second time that day, she emerged from the changing rooms without a stitch of 'real' clothing on her, although anyone watching would assume she was wearing a standard pair of jeans and a T shirt. She was directed back to the classroom from the morning, Keith announcing en-route that there was going to be an hour's written theory test, after which she'd be free to go.

"But won't I need to hang around for the test to be marked?"

"There really is no need - if you can answer the questions sensibly, then you'll have passed. The test is more about revision - a chance to recall and fix in your memory all that you've learned today."

"Oh... OK then."

She sat at the same table as before, while Keith and Mystery Woman resumed their prior positions. He handed her several sheets of paper stapled together face down, while Rena fished the pen she'd used earlier from her bag. She then sat still, looking at Keith, waiting for permission to turn the paper over. "Cripes, this feels just like a school exam - apart from the lack of others present." After a few seconds, Keith nodded at her and she turned the page over.

The first few questions were easy enough, covering the basics of water safety and the conditions in which people may get themselves into difficulty in water. The questions moved onto basic CPR, methods of rescue, and rescue aids, before moving onto a variety of scenarios. These in turn grew steadily more complex, from a simple child in difficulty in a quarry lake, through a group of people falling off a rubber dinghy near the shore, to a capsized tour boat with several dozen people on board. Rena shuddered when reading that scenario, as it reminded her of the ferry attack which launched her towards what would soon be her new stealth career. The final question really puzzled Rena though - the topic was natural disasters, but the scenario read like something from a comic book. As far as she could remember afterwards, it involved something like a tsunami hitting the city of San Diego and flooding all the low lying areas, including the zoo, which was where she was apparently supposed to be at the time. Rena thought, "Never mind I haven't the foggiest idea where in San Diego the zoo is, or what exhibits it has. Well, I suppose a lot depends on where in the zoo I would be when it happened, and what kind of enclosures they have. I certainly wouldn't like to be anywhere near any open-topped big cat exhibits at the time if I valued my life. So, what would I do if I was elsewhere? As far as this scenario's concerned, an ordinary person would probably look for higher ground then rescue the occasional person or two. In reality, with my new abilities? Probably get a few dozen of the weakest too higher ground until Jade or Alena turned up, then help get everyone into their green boats."

Eventually, she committed the 'public' version of what she'd do in that bizarre situation to paper, signed the bottom (remembering just in time to use her 'new' name rather than the name she'd had for the previous 30+ years of her life), turned the paper over, and stretched her arms out in front of her. Seeing no sign of a clock in the room, she consulted the new watch function on her ring.

"Time."

Four oh seven pm

"Cripes - the Lieutenant was supposed to be collecting me at four. I never thought I'd be saying this, but I think I prefer his company to this pair."

While she waited for Keith to notice she'd finished, she occupied herself with staring at the ceiling, counting the ceiling tiles, the spacing between the lights, and between the air conditioning vents / intakes. Several minutes later, while she was in the middle of trying to define a mathematical relationship between the three parameters, Keith evidently looked up from whatever had been occupying him, stood up, and walked over to Rena.

"About time, too."

After informing Rena he'd let her know the results in due course, he motioned towards the door, and Rena took up his offer, picked up her bag, and made a swift exit. Mercifully, neither Keith nor Mystery Woman followed her out, and she was glad to breathe the warm but fresh air outside the building. Once outside, she looked around and soon spotted the Lieutenant's SUV. She walked up, tapped on the window, then opened the passenger door and hopped in.

"How did the day go?"

"Don't ask."

"I just did."

"Cheeky. Actually, the swimming and first aid wasn't too bad..."

"But?"

"There was some mysterious government woman there, watching my every move, who played the silent card and wouldn't reveal her name. That really irritated me. Then..."

"How did you know she was government? I take it she wasn't wearing an ID badge?"

"No - but she was dressed in a very smart (and probably very expensive) business suit, and had this overall air of authority. Come to think of it, almost like a lawyer - but since I'm officially 17, haven't done anything illegal, and have been in this country less than a week, it's more likely to be some nosey parker official from government."

"You were also hinting at something else that annoyed you."

"Yes - there was a written test at the end, giving various lifesaving scenarios. So far, so good. But the one at the end really threw me - the sneaky git threw in one about a tsunami hitting San Diego. I know there was one last year that hit Japan, and one a few years ago that hit most of the Indian Ocean, but given he shouldn't know about my abilities, why the heck set me up with something like that?"

"I can't answer either of those for you, and I'm not in a position to research them for you, but it's probably worth asking your Jade - if there's anything untoward going on, she'd probably be the best person to ask."

"That's actually a good point. I'll make a note for later."

She reached around to her bag, fished out her notes from earlier, and scribbled 'Jade: MW + tsunami' before putting them back in her bag and stashing it behind the seat again.

"So, what's on the schedule for today's swim?"

"Speed and agility. I've also, erm, 'borrowed' a couple of the lifesaving dummies in case you want a practice on open water."

"Good idea.The swim'll probably work off some anger from back there."

She then sniggered, and shook her head.

"What?"

"Would you believe that a week ago I couldn't swim and was petrified of water?"

"Given your performance yesterday, under any other circumstances I'd say no, but given what you've already revealed about yourself - yes. So why the heck were you on a ferry that day?"

"I was going on a backpacking tour around France, but the Chunnel was closed due to a bomb scare by Domesday. I'd hoped that by staying in the middle of the ferry, I wouldn't get so nauseous, but it didn't work so I made a beeline for one of the sides to throw up then knocked myself out."

"Ouch. Have you found anything more about Domesday?"

"Not really - they seem to have come from nowhere, have suspiciously large resources, and no clear agenda. The original Domesday Survey was about land ownership, so they may try claiming it's about giving land back to the people, but given their finances I'd say it's more likely they've got high profile criminal backing. And no, this isn't confidential - it's my own opinion - I don't have access to resources that would tell me more.""Unless, of course, they banked with my old bank and my login's still active... but that would be rather unethical and probably illegal as well. Oh well, I'll leave someone else to investigate them. I'll no doubt have other fish to fry soon... ack, me and my bad analogies again."

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Rena's thoughts were interrupted by the SUV braking to a halt at the side of the small harbour. Just before they got out, the Lieutenant asked if she'd got her watch and her GPS unit. In return, she showed him the illusory watch and the small GPS unit Jade had given her the other day.

"Yes, I know it's very small and it has no UI, but apparently once activated it's good for several hundred metres underwater and the data can be downloaded from this micro USB port on the side. I'm no expert on these things and don't recall seeing anything this small, but when Jade can source stuff from any retailer, anywhere in the world, who knows?"

After getting out of the car, the Lieutenant pointed out the boat from the previous day against the dock wall, and Rena helped him carry the lifesaving dummies, three weighted buoys and a long coil of rope.

"What?!"Rena asked as she effortlessly draped the coil over one shoulder and noticed the Lieutenant staring at her open-mouthed.

"How...?!"he replied, just as fluently. Rena followed the direction of his pointing finger, and using her free hand touched the rope.

"This? It's not that heavy!"

"Not that heavy? I can barely lift that!"

Rena sighed. "Metahuman - enhanced strength - remember?!"

"Oh, sorry, forgot. It's just that..."

"Yes, appearances can be deceptive, and don't you forget that, mister. Or should I introduce you to Giganta? You know - one minute indistinguishable from any other teenager, but get her angry and you're facing Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman."

"Err...no thanks."

"Good. Now, what are these buoys and rope for?"

The lieutenant looked relieved to start talking business again. "Sprints. The rope's just over fifty metres long, so with the three buoys we can mark out distances of one hundred metres or more. It's a calm day, so I thought we'd measure your speed both underwater and on the surface - on your front, on your back, and holding one of the dummies. That way, we'll build up a picture of your short distance performance, before we move onto the endurance phase where you swim as far as you can within an hour, then swim back. Finally, we'll do a bit of open water lifesaving practice before heading back."

Once they'd loaded everything into the boat and locked the car, the trip to the middle of the lake was fairly uneventful and they barely conversed. Then again, courtesy of Rena casually asking how fast the boat could go, her opportunities to talk were severely limited by her struggling to maintain breath and hanging onto the side rails for dear life as the lieutenant gave her a practical demonstration. "On the bright side, I'm not feeling nauseous at all, so think I can definitely say I no longer suffer from seasickness! In fact, if I wasn't struggling to breathe and trying desperately to avoid becoming a man... oops, woman overboard, I could almost enjoy this ride..." It didn't take long for the boat to reach a point, several miles offshore, where only the top half of Chicago's skyscrapers were visible on the horizon. The lieutenant slowed the boat down and turned it parallel to the shore before bringing it to a gentle halt. He turned to Rena, who had dislodged her hands from the guard rail and was shaking them back into life and smirked before walking towards her at the back of the boat.

"Enjoy yourself?"

"It seems strange to say this, but, erm, yes?! OK, I was hanging onto the guard rails for dear life, but it was so exhilarating feeling the wind rushing past... and I didn't feel in the slightest bit nauseous! Which I suppose is just as well given what I'm letting myself in for with all this testing and training."

"Good - well, playtime's over. Give me a hand with this first buoy."

After throwing the first buoy overboard, then using the rope and other buoys to measure out a distance of a hundred metres, the lieutenant paused to explain to Rena what he wanted her to do, only to be met with a loud 'plop!' and a splash as Rena dive-bombed into the water. She then lay on her back, looked up at the still startled lieutenant (who was still trying to remind himself that the girl who'd been fully clothed only a few seconds beforehand could replace them with a deep blue swimsuit which he didn't recall seeing before with a mere thought), and explained.

"Yeah, hardly elegant, but hey, I'm enjoying myself here. And while I may not quite have an eidetic memory, I can remember your overview of this afternoon's activities. So, what's it to be - ten laps on the surface then ten underwater?"

"At least - enough laps for you to reach full speed and maintain it for at least a complete lap."

"OK then - see ya!"

Swimming on the surface of the water was a completely different prospect to the underwater swimming she'd favoured over the past few days, and it took her the best part of the first lap to completely master swimming the front crawl without getting a lungful of lake water in the process. As she passed the buoy nearest the boat for the second time, she thought "Righteo, I suppose I'd better start timing myself.Timer: Start."

She steadily built up speed until by the end of the sixth lap she was averaging a buoy-to-buoy time of forty five seconds. By the tenth lap she'd brought it down to forty two seconds. "It would have to be the ultimate answer. Now, what's that in miles per hour? Let's try..." After several failed attempts, by breaking the conversion down into steps, she finally managed to obtain a median lap speed of two and a half metres per second - about five and a half miles per hour or nearly five knots.

After relaxing for a few minutes, she then dived underwater and started swimming about six feet under the surface. She was then very surprised when her watch indicated that what she'd considered a gentle pace was actually covering the distance in under half a minute - nearly twice as fast as on the surface. She then gently accelerated to what she felt was a fast but comfortable pace, then timed herself again and found she was now traversing the distance in a mere fifteen seconds; equivalent to fifteen miles an hour. "How many more serendipitous numbers am I going to encounter today?!"

Feeling adventurous, she decided to finish off with a final sprint to see how fast she could go flat out. After resting a few minutes, she launched herself through the water, putting maximum effort and concentration into swimming as fast as she could, ignoring ever-growing pains in her muscles until she had passed the second buoy. Exhausted from the effort, she had to be helped into the boat, where the lieutenant thrust a sports drink into her hand.

Between puffs and sips, she managed to ask "Thanks... so, how did I do?"

"Are you sure you're OK? You look worn out."

"I think I'll be fine in a few minutes - it's just that final sprint took a lot out of me."

"If you're sure. Do you still want to do the long distance test?"

"Yes - when I'm not sprinting it's very relaxing - and I love testing out my manoeuvrability. It's so freeing."

"I can imagine - you were almost a blur at times down there. Do you know how fast you were going?"

"I half wondered what I'd appear like to others - I suppose it would look pretty impressive from up there. I seem comfortable with about fifteen miles per hour, or thirteen knots. And you can stop looking all boggle eyed - I know very well the top speed recorded for a human was about four and a half miles per hour; but in case you hadn't gathered, I'm not exactly a 'normal' human any more!"

"Oh... erm.... sorry. I should be immune to the crazy stuff you do but I can't help still being amazed at it all. So how fast did you get to during that sprint?"

"Apparently at the end I was doing about ten metres per second, which equates to about twenty two miles per hour. But I think I'd need to train hard to achieve that kind of pace sustainably."

He looked at her quizzically.

"Just because I've got a new body with super-duper abilities, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be static, or that I'll keep a hundred percent fit if I don't train. Having said that, while I'd like to keep my new bod trim, I don't think I'll be putting in the extremes of professional athletes. A three hour swim a couple of times a week - yes. Twice a day - no thanks."

By now she'd finished the sports drink, and handed the empty bottle back to the lieutenant.

"Now - this long distance swim. First of all, how long have I got, and have you a map of the area so I can plan a route?"

"Let's see - it's 5:23 now. You really need to be back here by 8:30 at the very latest. As for a map, I think I've got on in here somewhere..."

"Hmm... three hours continuous swimming... that could get a little boring. But since he'll be looking for the total distance travelled, maybe I could make a pit-stop. At 15-20mph, I'm probably looking for somewhere within that radius if I'm to do my little self-appointed errand and get back in time to revise lifesaving techniques in 'real' water."

The lieutenant soon returned with a plastic-backed map of the local stretch of coast. After laying it out on the deck of the boat and drawing a spot where the boat was with a marker pen, he stepped back to allow Rena to pore over it.

"There are several places within range. It would probably be best to avoid somewhere big like Waukegan, Kenosha or even the base - too much chance of awkward questions. But first, I'd better confirm exactly where we are. Not that I don't trust the lieutenant, but for peace of mind..."

"Since the GPS was Jade supplied, let's hope this works... Initiate data link with GPS Unit."

Data link established.

"Where am I?"

Unknown command.

"Current location."

Forty two point two eight seven degrees North, eighty seven pount six three five degrees West.

"Gee, that's helpful. Not. No, scrub that - in this case, the geographical coordinates are useful! Now, transfer that to the map... two eight seven North, six three five West... not bad, pretty much spot on."

She then selected an area within range, purely because it looked nice and shared the name of a UK town; and after looking up the coordinates saved them to the memory of the watch / GPS. Carefully folding up the map, she returned it to the lieutenant before sitting on the gunwale.

"I think I've got a route planned out - it should take me about two and a half hours to cover the distance. So if you've brought a good book, now's the time to get it out."

She tipped backwards into the water, and started swimming in a roughly south westerly direction, querying her GPS every now and again to check she was still on the correct course.

Nearly an hour later, she quietly emerged at the far end of a beach just to the north of her intended destination and walked to the path connecting it to the village. Once on the path, she looked all around to ensure no-one was looking, then used the ring to replace her illusory swimsuit with a plain T-shirt, smart jeans and trainers, so she wouldn't stand out as she walked through the village. "It still feels weird to be walking around without any 'real' clothes on, but if Doris can get away with it, so can I!"

As she walked at a brisk pace through the tree-lined streets, she found herself increasingly amazed by the size of the homes. "Well, I suppose this is America and they do have far more space to play with. A far cry from the pokey homes they build back home nowadays." Eventually, after passing a school and heading under a railway line, she found herself in the village centre. "Now, first things first - let's find a cashpoint then somewhere that sells postcards."

She walked down the main street, soon encountering a Land Rover dealership. "Here I am, nearly four thousand miles from home - well, home in my old life - not expecting to find a single car resembling something in the UK market, and the first car dealership I meet - a Landy. Now what's the betting one of the next buildings house a bank?"

Sure enough, once she'd passed the dealership, the next-but-one building was indeed a bank. However, upon reaching into her pockets, Rena remembered that her card was inside her money belt, which was too high to successfully reach while maintaining the pretence of fishing it out from her pockets. She retraced her steps back to the dealership, and after hiding behind a Freelander on display, temporarily 'disappeared' her jeans and loosened her money belt so it hung across her crotch. After 'reappearing' her jeans, she walked over to the bank, withdrew some money from a cash machine in the foyer, then continued down the street in search of a general store.

A few buildings down, she passed a real estate agent. Out of curiosity, she peered in the window at the display of selected properties for sale, and after glancing at the grid and noting the prices ranged from just under one million to over three million dollars, raised her eyebrows, then, shaking her head, turned back to the street. "No wonder all those homes look so nice - I must have expensive tastes!"

Eventually, she found a general store, purchased a couple of postcards of the area, stored them in her money belt, then strode out for the beach again, pausing only to 'change' clothes and tighten her money belt.

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Nearly an hour later, she was approaching the boat again, but was slightly puzzled by the fact it was, according to her GPS, about two hundred metres south west of where it was when she left it, and the boat appeared to have a slightly larger draft. "OK then, it looks as though he's found some spectators... I wonder who?"

As she neared the boat, she took a deep dive, swum under it, then quietly surfaced on the other side so as not to attract the attention of those on the boat. Looking at those on board, she immediately spotted a tall redheaded girl with one arm wrapped around the waist of a shorter brunette, both standing some distance away from the lieutenant. To her relief, there was no sign of Mystery Woman. "Cool - he's brought Doris and Lena along. Now to have some fun!"

She dove to within six feet of the surface and performed a slow lap of the boat, before gradually speeding up to something approaching her normal cruising speed. After a few more laps, including diversions to the nearest buoy so she could demonstrate her rapid turning speed, she paused momentarily at the buoy before racing at full speed directly to the small huddle of spectators on the boat. Just before reaching the boat, at the last possible minute, she dived downwards then executed a tight 270° vertical turn to emerge directly below her housemates.

"That was scary!"

"Freaky!"

"Amazing!"

"Wonderful!"

"Just like a mermaid!"

Rena cringed at the last comment, then even more so when Doris, tittering, added "Our very own 'little mermaid'!"

Rena countered with "In what respect, exactly, do I resemble that character? I don't exactly look like her, and I don't recall meeting any talking lobsters down there!"

"You're young, you can swim underwater, aren't too bad looking - right, Lieutenant?"

"Errr, errm, err..."

"Come on, out with it!"Doris didn't exactly help matters by growing a couple of inches, which only served to freak out the poor lieutenant even more.

"Don't say I didn't warn you earlier about her. She's only teasing - aren't you - but you may as well satisfy her curiosity. "

Sheepishly, he replied diplomatically, "Well, yes - but so are you two."

Rena responded, "OK, I think we all get the point. What next?"

The lieutenant responded, "A spot of lifesaving practice. There's a manikin in distress about thirty metres north east of here. Rescue it."

"No problem!"

By the time Rena arrived back at the boat and hauled the manikin aboard, she noticed Doris and Lena were absent, and a small pile of clothing had appeared in one corner.

"Let me guess - you've found a couple of volunteers for my first 'live' test."

"Yep,"he grinned, "But just wait a few minutes while they get into position."

It was probably technically cheating, but Rena hailed herself up so she could get a better view over the boat, and saw both girls swimming confidently to presumably pre-defined positions. Lena lay on her back and rested, while Doris started splashing the water wildly, putting on a very ham "drowning swimmer"act.

Without waiting to be told (after all, it was gone 9pm and Rena was starting to get both tired and hungry), she darted off after her housemates. After looking at both close-up, she decided to 'rescue' Lena first, then Doris. When they were nearly back at the boat, she heard the characteristic sound of a digital camera powering up, and quietly said, "OK Doris, drop the act now and smile sweetly - the lieutenant's picked up the camera and I'd guess he's aiming it at us."They glided the last few metres towards the boat while the lieutenant hastily snapped away. Just before reaching the boat, Rena tapped the ribs of her housemates and the three righted themselves, before clambering into the boat.

"Got any good pics?"

"A few. Can I ask a question?"

"You just have."

"Very funny. Why did you pick Lena up first, when Doris was 'struggling' the most."

"First, Doris is a meta and could probably get herself out of trouble without my assistance. Second, that was terrible ham acting..."

Doris beamed, "I did my best!"

Rena shook her head, "...and thirdly, although at first glance, Lena looked the more confident of the two, she was very stiff and I sensed she was a little nervous at just floating out in the middle of the lake. Am I right?"

Lena nodded. "I'm not that bad a swimmer, but just floating, alone, in the middle of the lake..."

"I understand. Even for a few minutes, it can be quite boring, and nerves can set in. But the important thing is that even though you weren't in any real danger out there, you're completely safe now. OK?"

Lena nodded. The three girls then huddled together, listening as, after prompting, Rena told them of the day's events and they responded with questions about how she did or how she felt. At some point, the lieutenant asked if he could have some help with retrieving the buoys, but Rena dismissed it with a slightly caustic "You've been sitting on your butt all day - you do it! I'm busy."

Doris and Lena both looked a little shocked by the outburst, but Rena responded, "Look, it's been a long day, I'm hungry and tired. Besides which, I haven't exactly been much company to you two in the last couple of days, what with all my training. It's nice just sitting back here with you two - I'm so glad you were roped into coming out to see me - out of all the people who could have come and spectated before my public debut (whenever that may be), I couldn't have wished for anyone better than you two. You've been so kind to me for the past few days, volunteering space in your home, allowing me to barge in, waking up at ungodly hours, hogging the bathroom, putting a giant computer desk into the lounge..."

Doris put a finger to Rena's lips. "Look, you needed help, and we both offered. You've been very generous, taking a full share in the cooking and cleaning, you certainly haven't hogged the bathroom - if anything, I'm a little jealous about how quick you are in there with your magic self-drying hair - you've been fully accepting of us and our relationship, and from what I gather may even be able to help Lena with her computer studies. You're more than welcome in our household."

They spent the rest of the journey back to the harbour, and subsequently back home, chatting about the day, the weather, and filling Rena in on the other heroes in the Chicago area - only briefly pausing to collect and eat a takeaway en-route.

Eventually, they arrived back at the warehouse apartment and flaked out on the sofa. Rena noticed her notepad from earlier in the day had been left on it, so picked it up to take a look. She smiled as she saw that her initial algorithm had been annotated and extended, so examined it closer, tracing the paths with a finger. She then looked across at Lena, and after replacing her notebook, gently spoke to her.

"I assume those additions to the algorithm that mysteriously appeared during the day were yours. Thanks a lot - at first glance it looks as though they'll be a really useful addition."

"Errr... thanks. I saw what you were trying to do and couldn't resist having a go myself."

"No problem - and given the steps you took to acquire your inheritance, we could probably team up for future computer projects."

She then noticed Doris was looking a little apprehensive, so looked at her and said "Don't worry, I'm not trying to steal her away from you. Yes, I know she's stunningly attractive, but then again, so are you - and,"she sighed, "I guess I am to. Anyway, although I've only been here three days, with all the help and support you've given me, this sounds really odd to say, but I'm kinda starting to regard you two more like sisters than mere housemates, friends or anything more romantic. Besides which, on that front, I'm still getting used to this body, and was a loner beforehand. So you needn't worry about me bringing any potential conquests back here - if you don't mind I think I'll wait until I've completely settled down and my life has approached something regarding 'normality' before I even attempt to look for love - not that I have the foggiest idea how to do so!"

Doris pondered for a few seconds, then replied "Sisters? You really think of us as sisters?"

"Err...yes. Well, the nearest thing to sisters I'm ever likely to have. Besides which, all three of us have different things in common, and I kinda enjoy the company - makes a change from living alone."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Besides which, you and Lena are so cute together - especially after you've had an enjoyable night..."she replied while crouching down slightly and looking up; which earned her a playful thump in response.

"Seriously, I don't mind. Err.. group hug?"

Lena grinned, then without any warning stood up, grabbed Rena with one arm and Doris in the other, bringing them together. Rena quickly cottoned on and hugged Doris and Lena, with Doris following suit a few seconds later.

"OK then, sister..." Lena said while looking at Rena, then turned to face Doris, "...lover. I could get used to this!"

The hug was interrupted when Rena let out a loud yawn. "Sorry folks, really long and tiring day. You don't mind if I disappear to bed?"

She then broke out of the hug and sauntered into her bedroom.

"Well, today's certainly been interesting. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?"