On his way back home for Christmas, Larry Danvers is about to receive a really big surprise!

This a fanfic of Lilith Langtree's Retcon Universe. All the Characters within belongs to someone else such as DC or Marvel comics. With that in mind this story still belongs to me and I reserve all rights to repost. It is not for profit, simply for fun. Insert standard disclaimer! A big thanks goes to djkauf for looking this over for mistakes.

Larry Danvers-
Finally, I breathed out relieved. Normally I didn’t have a problem flying, but these were hardly the usual circumstances. Okay it wasn’t the end of the world, but it sure felt like it. Since this was the middle of the Christmas Holiday traveling crush that epitaph would do very nicely.

I’d been relatively lucky all considered. So far only five hours had been wasted fighting my way past all the screaming children, short tempered adults, and completely unsympathetic airline employees. Having the chance to upgrade to first class instead of waiting for only Gawd knows how long till the next flight, I’d leaped at the opportunity to get off the ground and into the air.

The weather was trying to turn nasty and my instincts told me it was now or never. No way did I want to spend Christmas snowed in at Logan International. The turbulence as we climbed to cruising attitude shook us up real good. It’s was a relief when the fasten seat belt sign blinked off and the Captain announced everyone could bring out their toys. Plugging in the power supply that first class had, I opened up my laptop, but then stared in dismay at the desktop background that came up. That was not supposed to be there. Damn him!
At least the thing was family friendly because even first class was packed with rug rats.
The first time he’d done this, it’d been funny. The second round was annoying. This one was downright agitating.
A little girl, in the seat behind mine, eyes grew large as she saw the picture, “Supergirl!”

I hung my head in misery. Alex was going to die very, very slowly.

Professor Otto Swan’s classes were very difficult to get into, and had a reputation for being very tough. However, I was looking forward to each and every minute. The old professor was teaching only one class a semester now, all that his health would allow. That made all the hard work I’d put in to make the cut here at MIT worthwhile since this one would be one of his last. Unlike many with his prestige, he’d never become famous because of contributing discoveries or inventions.

Instead he turned the adage of “Those who can, do and those who can’t teach,” on its head. Professor Swan did have his share of achievements, but what he had mostly were pictures. Books and books were filled with all the snapshots and pictures of those who were inspired by his unconventional off the wall teaching methods. He often said, the successes of his students were all he needed. While his own accomplishments were modest, the number of Nobel winners and other very successful scientists who credited him for their own accomplishments was legion.

To say I was happy to be here didn’t even come close. I’ve always been the proverbial science geek. Not your Star Trek or whatever other science-fiction fanboy, but real world science. In a lot of ways, I’ve always been too smart for my own good. My school years were pure hell since half the time I understood the subjects better than my teachers. Add in my being the runt of my class and you have the classic nerd syndrome. Let me tell you; being the peaceable sort, I worked very hard at blending in and being invisible in that high threat environment.

While most teenage boys were eying girls, mine were glued skyward. What was out there beyond the Earth had always fascinated me. It wasn’t that I lacked interest in girls, but rather that I was simply clueless on how to approach them. Somehow I always ended up being that ‘nice’ guy friend. Asking my parents for help with my dating dilemma was an exercise in futility with their advice, ‘Just be yourself.’

Sometimes I think both of them were bigger geeks than even I. Mom was one of those mothers who’d bombarded me with Mozart while I was still in the womb. Instead of a baseball mitt or a football, I got telescopes and science kits from Dad. On the other hand, my parents had me taking Aikido almost from the time I could walk. I think this was a hold over from their own bullied school days. Sure I could defend myself, but like I said, I’ve always been the peaceable sort. I’d rather avoid trouble if I can. Besides only an idiot, which I’m not, picks a fight with Neanderthal jocks double their size.

So being practical, I concentrated on the things I could do something about. I’d always had this thing about flying. First it was my Dad buying me these foam gliders, but soon I was making and designing my own. When I got that aforementioned telescope, my interest went further to beyond the atmosphere into space. Let me tell you that I’d launched more than my share of model rockets, many of them products of my creativity. Space might be my passion, but everything interested me. Sure, I dreamed of going out into space, but there was also this insatiable intellectual curiosity. Everything of science interested me. I was like the baseball trivia nut, but instead of sports statistics, I was a sponge for scientific facts from every conceivable field, which made deciding which college courses to take a problem.

I solved the problem by taking as many different science classes as was allowed. My major might be astrophysics, but I had at least a ground floor understanding of everything from biology to aeronautics.

Turns out that was exactly what Professor Swan was looking for this semester. The rest of my classmates were just as interdisciplinary, which was a good thing. Professor Swan, living up to his reputation, threw all of us a curve ball. Old, but still walking under his own power, he presented us with a challenge. “Get mankind off planet Earth.”

His voice, still strong, commanded our attention. “Current thinking puts warp drive and whatever other fictional Faster-Than-Light transportation you can name centuries away and perhaps even in the realm of the completely impossible. Although, what is impossible today might be an everyday occurrence tomorrow,” he added with a humorous smile.

“Currently, there’re many different proposals of how to get to orbit cheaper and more efficiently. Space elevators, improved rockets and a host of other ideas are in the works as we speak. Space tourism is literally just around the corner with Spaceship Two and Bigelow Aerospace’s orbital hotel modules that are in development.

“However, what about beyond Earth orbit? The moon is the closet chunk of rock to us, but even there, relatively close to Mother Earth, it’ll be difficult to support a colony. The light gravity and the extremely fine dust will make any long term settlement problematic. The long gestating manned mission to Mars suffers its own problems. Yes, gravity isn’t as much of a dilemma, but crews and prospective colonists will have months of travel to withstand. Additionally, environmental conditions will require considerable material support which will be very costly because again of the distance.

“Being able to terraform the Red Planet would solve many problems, but we’re far from that goal given the failure of the Biosphere project. We couldn’t maintain an already stable environment much less design one. Which incidentally doesn’t bode well for any of the projects for cleaning up our home world’s debatably damaged biosphere.”

He paused looking at us, his students. “And that’s simply Mars. We haven’t considered Venus or any of the moons of our system’s gas giants which are even further away and present even greater challenges.

“Without terraforming, that leaves modifying man to fit the environment. It’s not a new idea. The science fiction writer Fredrick Pohl wrote ‘Man Plus’ over forty years ago describing the use of cybernetics to enable a man to live on Mars. However today’s advances in genetics as well as the cybernetics Mr. Pohl envisioned suggests we might very well be capable of bringing his concepts to life.”

Professor Swan gave them all an intense examination. “We’re going to explore what kind of alterations are necessary not only for survival, but for colonists to thrive on various planetary bodies in our solar system.”

He gave a wryly smile, “And yes for the purposes of this class, Pluto will be considered a planet. Think of it as humoring your eccentric old professor who’s grading your efforts.”

That got a polite round of laughs since we’d all had teachers in the past who’d only wanted their own words regurgitated back at them, right or wrong.

Raising his hands, the Professor called for quiet. “There’re any number of factors and considerations that will have to be taken into account. Environment and biology are most certainly factors, but also how to sustain a long term settlement growth. Which means that unlike Fredrick Pohl’s cyborg, we will need to include reproduction.

“As I’m sure you see, our task is not going to be an easy one. Each week we will focus on one to two planets. Please check your syllabus for details. Each planetary investigation will begin with individual papers outlining what each you see as the greatest challenges and your solution. Then we’ll group those with similar methods together to polish it for a joint discussion of what is the best solution given our present circumstances and technology.

“Our first line of inquiry will be Mars since it’s our most likely destination for mankind’s first colony on another world,” he said smiling. “Be prepared ladies and gentlemen to work hard.”

From the very beginning of the class, Alex Thurol and I were thrown together. He was my opposite it seemed in every single way. While I’m your atypical skinny Caucasian nerd at five feet seven, African-American Alex towered over me by a half foot. My shaggy mane of brown hair always looked unkempt no matter what I did with it, in stark contrast to Alex’s shiny baldness. What we had in common were our ideas and creativity in responding to the Professor’s challenge.

Both of us had similar thoughts for dealing with the environmental hardships each planet presented. On Mars for instance, both of us came up with the idea of using organically boosted fuel cells since any number of bacteria produces hydrogen. I used as many of the same solutions that Earth’s evolution of biological diversity had come up with as I could. So did Alex, but he also didn’t hesitate to include cybernetics when necessary to overcome similar technical quandaries.

With us working together so much it take long for us to become friends despite our differences. Very quickly I learned my new friend was an incurable prankster. He just couldn’t turn down a dare of tweaking someone’s nose. I learned the hard way not even his friends were safe one morning around mid-terms.

Like many science geeks, I know my way around a computer. I guarded my laptop like my life depended on it. Much of my academic work was in its hard drive as well as my personal stuff. Sure I took all the usual precautions and more such as backing up everything regularly, but Alex got me anyways. Running late and booting up for the first time that morning I found a very different and embarrassing desktop background from my usual Soul Nebula courtesy of NASA/JPL.

The half-undressed Robert Pattinson and his brooding stare did absolutely nothing for me. Everyone else got a big laugh out of it at my expense. I did my best to take it in good humor. After all Alex hadn’t touched anything else. Just the same, the breach of privacy bothered the hell out of me.

I wasn’t the only one who fell victim to his pranks. Alana Langston was a cute red head who also spent a lot of time in our study group. Maybe I should say usually a red head since she changed her hair color so often. Like Alex and I, Alana studied the natural world for revelations. In her case it was the insect world, Entomology. Considering insects had been around for some 400 million years, under some very diverse conditions, there was a lot to learn from them, and our friend was an apt student.
She was also a casualty to Alex’s debatable sense of humor. However, unlike me who did their best to just blow it off, the fiery little red head did not. She retaliated with one of her own. She had the big guy squeaking like he was breathing helium for an entire class.

Strangely, Alex took it well enough although no one ever did figure out how Alana managed it. The three of us bonded together as friends although I kinda wished for more from her. My social skills were a lot better than they were in high school, but that wasn’t saying very much. I still ended up the ‘nice’ guy friend to my dismay.

I kept dropping clues I wanted more, but she never seemed to get it. Our relationship was confusing, because she kept at me to stand up for myself more. That was because I was usually content to let Alex speak for our group. What made her mad was that more than once our friend seemed to try to take credit for everyone in the work group’s ideas.

Then came The Event that changed everything, at least for us space science geeks. That was the day Jade of the Green Lantern Corps made her announcement to the world. Yeah, sure this Metagene would change the world, but for those of us in Professor Swan’s class it was much more.

First of all we weren’t alone in the Universe! That age old question had finally been answered. The second was just as important. FTL was real, possible and practical. Knowing that someone else had bypassed Einstein meant it could be done again. The rest was just details.

Some among my classmates wondered about the chances of their winning the galactic lottery and having the metagene, while others believed the whole thing was a hoax. I didn’t worry about the first. As matter of fact I considered it a little silly. We were all mathematicians. The odds of being so endowed were so slim, they were ridiculous. On the other hand, I wanted to believe her news for other reasons. Jade’s information made all of my dreams of traveling ‘out there’ so much closer to being reality.

All of us grew quiet as the Professor entered that morning after the news broke. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to describe the look on his face.

He stood there a moment looking out at all of us before speaking. “Ladies and gentlemen, you should know that other sources are confirming what that amazing young lady announced yesterday. As far we can determine, she’s telling the truth.”

Professor Swan paused still staring at all of us. “Quite frankly, I’m insanely jealous of each and every one of you. A new age has arisen and mankind is poised to take the greatest leap of all. I want each of you to remember this day and the opportunity your generation has been given. You are among our best and brightest. I fully expect all of you to be at the forefront for I will not.”

There was complete silence in the room. We heard how his voice shook with his emotions and his regrets. Not a one of us dared make a sound.

He lifted his bowed head. “However, that is not going to happen today or even tomorrow. This news doesn’t invalidate this class's investigations. Now, I do believe it is time to deliver your workgroups’ synopsis. Mister Thurol, your group will begin.”

By the time the semester was coming to an end, it seemed it was all anyone could talk about, the meta-gene. Terra manifested during Halloween and there were rumors of others popping up all over the place. A lot of people were still thinking it was all some kind of hoax, but I trusted the Professor. With the kind of contacts he had with his past students, if he said he believed it, then so did I.

Alex was also a believer, but Alana was harder to convince. Even with the footage of Jade and Terra dealing with that volcano in Japan, she still had her doubts. Giving us both a hard stare, she scoffed, "You really expect me to believe superheroes are real? I can buy that this Green Lantern bimbo might be of extra-solar origins, but that she can fly around in space without a spacesuit with a magic ring no less? Get real!"

Frankly, I let Alex and her argue it out. I was hard at work on my end of term project. The Professor had us working on individual projects picking sites we hadn’t a chance to cover in class. There were many planetary bodies still left out there for us to tackle. Several moons of the gas giants and even the outer planets were available. However, I wanted to really push myself.

Since we had to get approval from the Professor, he gave me this questioning stare over the top of his glasses, “Are you sure you want to attempt this one?”

Earnestly, I answered, “Well sir, it’s very possible we’ll have the capability to terraform Mars before we’ll have the tools necessary to do what I’m envisioning. But, there are those who have already considered mining the gas giants. Additionally, with the possibility of life on Titan and Europa we could very well have settlements there. I’m simply taking the next step.”

“Very well,” He said, looking out over the top of his glasses at me. “I look forward to your report, my boy.”

That’s right a gas giant. Maybe I should say the gas giant, Jupiter the largest planet in our solar system at 318 times the mass of Earth. First of all since it doesn’t have a surface, I had in mind cloud cities like in that movie ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ In the upper reaches the atmospheric pressures that crushed the Galileo and its probe would be much less.

In no way did that make my task any easier. The extremely hostile conditions would be very difficult to overcome. Jupiter actually produces more heat than it receives from the sun. As a matter of fact, the remains of the Galileo probably were vaporized by the heat long before it reached the area most considered the de facto surface.

Along with the gases in the cloud layer and the atmospheric pressures, living on Jupiter would be far more hazardous than traveling the long months there in the vacuum of space. Yeah, I know space isn’t really empty, but you know what I mean.

I decided to keep the outside form as close to human as I could. Given that my colonist would be, for all practical purposes, a self-contained life support system, really small spacecraft themselves, it didn’t matter what they looked like. Nevertheless, I believed keeping them human in form would help maintain links with humanity at large.

Next, the body itself would be very dense. Despite Jupiter’s huge mass, its standard gravity is only about 2.5 G given its rotation. That still meant even my skinny white bod would weigh 325 pounds there. Muscles would have to be made of materials able to function under such stresses.

The major organs would be separated into protective chambers much like that of a submarine. Each one could survive for a time on their own, but together they worked like individual symbiotes cooperating together for the common good. The circulatory system I saw being composed almost entirely of nano-machines. They would act as the blood of my Jovians, but would be much more versatile than organic blood cells. It would be like a superhighway trucking needed materials where they needed to go. They would also serve as damage control in case of injuries doing much more than clotting like normal blood. In such extreme conditions, any breach could be fatal so they would actually repair and rebuild. Further more the nanites would be factories tearing apart molecules for whatever materials and resources the colonist needed.

I could see the need for an active infrared vision system above and beyond possible thermographic sensors. In the cloud layer where our city would float, normal sight would be nearly useless. For that matter all the senses would need to be keen to survive the hostile conditions and help keep our colonist from stumbling around blind.

Additionally some kind of anti-gravity would be necessary if for no other reason than to give protection on the way to the colony from orbit as well as to help shield the human tissue from the effects of two and half times more gravity than they were designed by evolution to withstand. That’s not even considering that being able to at least float would be a very nice extra, since falling out of the cloud layer would mean death.

It would take one hell of an energy source to power all of this. At the very least a fusion plant or perhaps even more exotic, Zero Point energy. In any event, it would all have to be miniaturized to fit inside our colonist. They would no doubt be larger and I dare say heroic sized given all the things I needed to stuff inside them.

All science and engineering geek talk aside, my Jovians would be extremely tough, strong, and scarcely very human in anything, but appearance. In all except name, my colonists would be a Nano-Borg spaceship the general shape and size of a human being. I added more details in my report including the cloud city and even clothing for them.

I must say I was rather proud of what I came up with. That is until I presented it to my classmates. Most simply thought that by the time we had this level of technology the human race would have better things to do than colonize gas giants.

Alex simply smirked the whole time while I talked, but Alana was in those better-things to do camp. The only person who did like it was the Professor. He noted my use of engineering solutions and the total picture that included clothing and cultural adjustments.

After the class I had to know just why Alex had spent the entire class grinning at me.

His grin got even larger. “Let me give you a summary of your would be colonist shall we,” he said making fun of Professor Swan. “First they’re from a heavy gee world and so stronger than an organic home grown human. Next because of their density they would be all but bullet proof here. Now you also included active infrared vision which mean in a normal environment they could probably melt steel like a laser beam. You added antigravity that in a standard gee would allow them to fly. And to cap it all off you had to give them capes.”

Alex stared at me challengingly. “Do you get it now?”

I gave him a blank look. “They were cloaks and they've long been practical garments. For Jovians they would extremely useful not for warmth, but to keep them cool just like the robes of dessert dwellers here on Earth.”

He gave Alana a shy glance. Whatever he was getting at, she got his references. I honestly hadn’t a clue.

After he left for another class, I asked her, “What was he talking about?”

Then she looked at me like I was from Mars or somewhere much further away. “Didn’t you ever read comic books or see 'Smallville?'”

Still baffled, I shook my head. My parents disapproved of that media given all the inaccuracies they presented. When I watched TV at all it was usually the Discovery channel or one of its spin offs. Bewildered, I replied, “No.”

Alana rolled her eyes. “Go Google ‘Kryptonians.’ That’ll answer your questions.”

Then she took off too. I really can’t blame her since it gets so crazy around here during finals. For that matter I really meant to follow her advice, but I had other classes to study for.

I had to find out the hard way the next day. Opening up my desktop once again my colorful remains of a supernova provided by NASA/JPL was gone. In its place was a comic book style picture featuring seven blond women, six of them in different versions of the same costume. The odd one out was dressed in a white one piece swimsuit thing, but with a cutout revealing her considerable cleavage. Judging from the Superman figure standing in the back, they were supposed to be relatives.

A quick Google search of the artist, Ed Benes, his signature was at the bottom, yielded the title, ‘6.5 Supergirls.’

Then it hit me. This was what Alex was talking about. He’d thought my ideas for Jovian colonists were the same as these comic book characters. Reading a little for the description of these Kryptonians, I could see some similarities. On the other hand, I’d put in a lot of work into working out how to survive and thrive on Jupiter. This DC comics simply said Kryptonian blood cells absorb energy allowing them to do many of the same things my Jovians could do in theory. They completely left out for the most part why these aliens needed those abilities.

I didn’t have too much time to waste with this, but I couldn’t help myself from looking some more. I did find one version of the many stories about Krypton that stated that the fictional planet was a failed star with extreme environmental conditions although how a failed star ended up with glacial properties was beyond me. It could be like Uranus and Neptune, ice giants, but they lack the right chemical composition to have been failed stars. Anyways, at least part of that made more sense than trying to foster off our yellow sun as what gave these Kryptonians who were born under a red giant their superpowers. Then I was off running to class.

Catching up with my friends for lunch afterwards, I gave Alex a baleful glare, “Okay, I got it. My Jovians are somewhat similar to this Superman character. Now would you please tell me how you keep breaking into my computer? Violating my privacy is rude.”

He looked up from the deli sandwich he was munching on. “I can’t do that. How are you going to learn to protect your property if I do it for you?”

Then pausing to chew, he added, “Not Superman. Nope, you’re far too skinny to be him. You’re more like Super-girl. Her secret Identity was Linda Danvers, of course would make Alana, Lana Lang,” he said with a not so nice smile.

Alana sputtered spraying me with Diet-Pepsi.

Coughing and eyes-watering, she tried to keep from laughing. Alex didn’t. Shooting him an evil stare she replied, “So would that make you an evil genius like the Ultra-Humanite?”

Rubbing his bald head, he shot back laughing, “Could be.”

There I was covered in carbonated soda while my friends rolled on the floor.

Using a hand full of napkins, I did my best to limit the damage. I admit I didn’t take it well. How the hell was I suppose to know my work was similar to some damn comic book? Now, my masculinity was also being called into question. Worse it was by two of the only people on Planet Earth I considered friends.

Standing, I took my uneaten food to the waste receptacle, dumping it without a word. For some reason my appetite deserted me.

I’d gotten though high school without any friends. With yet more finals to take, I did not need this crap. With friends like these, well you know the rest of the quote.

What I did do was overhaul the hell out of my laptop’s security. I ran multiple anti-virus and malware scans just to be sure Alex hadn’t left any surprises. Then I changed all my passwords using a randomizer. Hell, I even physically locked up my laptop before calling it a night. Normally I don’t, but for all I knew he’d been sneaking into my dorm room to do his mischief.

“Ouch! Damn it!” Half asleep and failing to wake up I hopped on one foot trying to see what damage the corner of the dresser inflicted to my poor big toe. My dreams weren’t pleasant. No way would I be up at this ungodly time in the morning otherwise. I can honestly say I didn’t want to remember them.

The flashes of buxom comic-book characters with my face pasted on them were extremely disturbing. Even worse, my so-called friends were cast as the villains. I didn’t remember much of the details of the hows and whys we were fighting, but their taunts and jeers describing my dream’s overly feminine developed features hurt.

Despite my academic successes, the lack of romance in my life was a sore spot. Yeah, even a flaw and weakness affecting my self-confidence big time. I was not feminine or even androgynous, but I wasn't six-four bulging with muscles either. Yesterday’s catastrophe didn’t help at all. Alex, the bigger than life guy, who was everything a man was suppose to be, and Alana the one girl I had interest in, laughing at 98 pound weakling me, hurt.

Judging, me and my big toe was going to live, I checked my cell’s messages. Next week I was going to be on my way home after finals for winter break. Dad was supposed to let me know what the family’s plans were for the holidays. However, there was nothing from him, although Alana did send me an apology. Predictably there was nothing from Alex.

He might be my friend, but I was discovering a meanness to his humor. Opening my laptop, I moaned. There in front of me was once again Ed Benes’s art work, 6.5 Supergirls. Part of me wanted to throw it across the room, but reason prevailed. That would only hurt me, not Alex.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t my friend.

While part of me wanted to report him, I didn’t have any evidence. Besides that, the point was that after a careful examination, none of my files were touched. Once again, only my desktop background was altered. Just how he’d broken my security baffled the hell out of me. He had to have physical access to it since I’d turned the damn thing off before locking it up and going to bed. I finally decided there was nothing I could do except to tell him it wasn’t funny any more and ask him to stop.

What it did do was throw off my entire day. Not a good thing for taking end of term exams at MIT. Even still I think I did well. I was just out of sorts. That continued as I went to Professor Swan’s to get my grades for my Jovian report that served as the final for his class.

The good news was I got my A. The bad was the Professor had a visitor. I recognized her at once, the Green Lantern, Jade.

“My dear, I can assure you nothing my students have written poses any danger to anyone. It’s simply research into how technology and genetics might be able to adapt humans to colonize the planets in our Solar System. No actually technologies or actual techniques for developing such were mentioned. Many science fiction writers have done the same and more since many were at one time scientists themselves.” He said opening his hands frankly.

“I understand, Professor Swan,” Jade said. “As a matter of fact what data I’ve found confirms that. However, some technologies could be harmful as well as things that mankind isn’t quite ready for yet. I’m simply making sure.”

I stopped startled and turned to leave.

“Larry Danvers?” she asked.

“Huh, yes,” I replied surprised she knew me.

The Professor smiled gesturing for me to come in. “Yes, he’s one of my more promising students.”

Close up she was cute, but that paled beside what she could do and knew. Jade could fly to the other planets as easily as I could drive to Mickey Dees down the street.

“You’re the one who worked on the characteristics for Jovians?” Jade inquired.

I blushed red. When was I going to get over being so shy around women? “Yes, and yeah I know a lot I came up with is a lot like a comic book character. I didn’t know that at the time, but since the world he came from shares a lot of the same qualities of Jupiter it kind of a form and function equation.”

Smiling, she relied, “Indeed.”

Still trying to fight my red face, I added, “However, like a lot of my classmates pointed out for us to achieve this requires a very high level of technology. We’re a hundred years or further away from my Jovians. By that time we very might have our own methods of FTL. No need to risk such extreme conditions as those on gas giants like Jupiter.”

Jade inclined her head. “So why pick it as your thesis?”

“Well,” I said thinking about it. “First, I wanted a challenge. You have to go a long ways to find conditions more hostile than Jupiter. Second, because it is a gas giant it offers elements that are nothing more than theories such as metallic hydrogen and other perhaps even more exotic materials.

“At any rate I don’t see how my or anyone else’s work is any threat to you or this Green Lantern Corps of yours.” I told her.

Amused she responded, “How so?”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” I quoted. “Yours are eons above ours. What takes us the resources of entire nations such as sending a manned mission to the moon, you do with a ‘magic’ ring.”

“Besides you can’t stuff knowledge back into the bottle. Discoveries are usually made by building upon the work of others. One person might put all the pieces together first, but there are always others who were looking too. Except in the rare circumstances where some genius or idiot savant stumbles across something completely revolutionary it’s only a matter of time till it’s duplicated.

“Even then such breakthroughs are usually ridiculed and ignored,” I explained.

Jade raised an eyebrow marking my point, but replied, “If it was only myself that was threaten, perhaps. Don’t ever underestimate the ability of man to find ways of evening the odds. But in this case it’s not. There are those like Terra who are just coming into their powers. They are vulnerable to those will try take advantage of them.

“Additionally there is the concern of once seeing meta-humans using their powers others begin figuring out how it is done,” She said.

I nodded. “The Professor has said that before, too. Once you know something is possible, that’s half the research.”

He cut in. “Larry, I’ve told Jade, that being old fashioned, all of this class’s reports are in hardcopy. I know that you’ve probably have plans for the holiday, but how would you like to help me organize them into a single report? Not just for the Green Lantern Corps, but for future posterity as well?”

She shook her head, “I don’t really believe that’s going to be necessary Professor Swan. There’s nothing I’ve seen that makes me think your students are researching anything hazardous.”

Inclining her head at me, she said, “I’m more concerned about actual development rather than ideas. Moreover, if discoveries and inventions are hard to stuff back into that bottle, ideas are even harder.”

The Professor looked at her from over the top of his glasses. “Are sure my dear? Larry and I are as mad a pair of scientists as you’ll ever find. Further it’ll give me more time to try and pick your brain about what’s out there!”

She laughed, “I’m sure you would.”

He laughed along with her. “You can’t blame us for trying.”

Jade turned to leave. “I might be back to take a look at that report when it’s finished, Goodbye.”

Then she was enveloped in a green glow and was gone.

The Professor and I simply stood there in silence for a long moment.
“Well, that answers the question if she’s for real or not. Seeing is believing,” I said.

“That it is, my boy,” He said studying me. “However that doesn’t answer my question. Would you be willing to work with me pulling together all of this classes’ work into one report?”

Okay, there were the pros and cons to consider. On the positive side was the opportunity to work directly with Professor Swan. Additionally perhaps even more contact with Jade. Magic ring or not she was still a star traveler.

On the other hand, I would lose much of my free time over the holiday break. It could push me back into the ranks of the last minute Holiday travelers, not a good thing.

It really wasn’t much of a decision. I had nothing planned, and I wasn’t a fool. “Sure, Professor, I’ll be glad to help you.”

So while the rest of the campus emptied itself for Winter Break, I was left behind and wasn’t a bit sorry about it. I loved the work. Spending time with the Professor was a real experience. Jade did show back up which was cool, too. It was funny watching the Professor trying to get information from her about how her ship functioned and other information about life ‘out there.’

She took it in good humor, but of course didn’t say anything useful. I did get the feeling she was interested in me for some reason. And no, I didn’t fool myself into thinking it was my good looks either. After all, Alex and Alana did such a great job of humbling any thoughts I had in that direction.

The Professor also noticed it. He asked, “Have you had any strange, unusual, or unexplained experiences of some sort? Perhaps you have this Meta-gene everyone is talking about.”

“No sir,” I replied shaking my head. “The only unexplained thing I’ve had happen is Alex keeps pranking my desktop’s background. Nothing Meta about that at all except I wish he would stop.”

The Professor pulled off his glasses, “Alex Thorul is brilliant, and I’ve no doubt he’ll go far in the world. However, he has an ambitious streak that is perhaps more than a little worrying. He was entirely too willing to take credit for your work group’s efforts for my peace of mind. And now you tell me he is an able enough hacker to crack your system which I’m sure you provided with more than adequate protection.”

He gave me a very serious stare. “You should know by now that academics and the sciences are as vicious as any other field of endeavor. The theft of work and ideas are something you have to guard against. So while Mr. Thorul might not have done anything obvious other than alter the desktop, he very well might have looked at or copied your files.

“Don’t try and be modest my boy. You’re one of my best and most creative students. That was why I gave the okay to develop your Jovians. Others made fun of your efforts, but you came up with some novel ideas of how to deal with the hostile conditions. You called your colonists nanoborgs, but in truth they’re much more given the symbiotic relationship between your biological and mechanical components. In fact since they can in theory reproduce, they’re a whole new species!”

I stammered a replied, “It’s not that big a deal, Professor. Reproduction after all was part of the criteria necessary for growth of the colonies.”

Cleaning his glasses the Professor said, “That is so, my boy, but few of the others managed to integrate such diverse systems that your Jovians have in ways that aimed at keeping their humanity in the process. That is as much a part of science as the research. Taking responsibility for the changes your discoveries might have is very commendable. How many of your fellows do you think included that as part of their proposed colonists?”

I thought back to our thesis presentations. Many of the moons of the gas giants had been tackled as well as even Mercury. Form and function adaptations covered the entire spectrum. Wings and dragon-like features of the Mercury colonists for solar power and to radiate heat, to huge polar bear-like centaur cyborgs on Saturn’s moon of Rhea.

Shrugging I answered, “I don’t know Professor. I can’t think of any off hand, but I’m sure someone must have.”

Putting his glasses back on, he smiled. “Then you would be wrong. Not a single one, although your Jovians internally are much less human than most of theirs. Now there were a few that was implied, such as Ms. Langston’s Tritons, but not a one made that one of their primary design criteria except for you.

“That’s something that is very important to remember, the human element. Since before the day of Nobel, scientists have found their work and discoveries used for other purposes than the ones they intended. Consider your Jovians. You saw them as scientists, explorers and miners. However your friends could only remark over how powerful they would be in comparison with a normal earthling. Think about it, Lawrence,” he said leaving me alone with my thoughts.

And think about it I did, but perhaps not in the way he intended. I couldn’t help but look at those fictional Kryptonians again. Worse, I thought about ways to further simulate what they could do with technology. Okay, blue sky sci-fi tech, but still better than, ‘Hey, it works because I say it does.’

One of the biggest differences between my Jovians and Kryptonians were their flight and so-called super speed. With their anti-gravity Jovians could easily fly in Jupiter’s cloud layer which I saw as their home. However although they could survive in space for a number of hours, no way could they reach the gas giant’s escape velocity of 133,018 mph. That’s about Mach 173 give or take. Compare that to Earth’s of only being around Mach 25.

However, I had what I thought an elegant solution. Jupiter has an extremely powerful magnetic field. If my Jovian colonists had a skeleton made of materials able to interact with it they could use it for propulsion. What was neat, because in Earth’s lesser field it should also be enough to achieve orbit because of its lesser mass. Which opened up the problem of traveling where there wasn’t a magnetic field such as Mars. There was the fact the whole antigravity thing was pure speculation that no one knew how or if it would work. Perhaps it would only be effective near a planetary gravity well or could be it would work within the confines of the solar system pushing against the Sun. I’d wanted it for my Jovians to provide protection from Jupiter’s gravity more than as a flight system. That was also why I thought using the magnetic fields would work better. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

I finally decided to go for broke. My thesis had already been turned in so all of this was for my own amusement anyways. Rather than simply cancel out gravity and use a separate system for propulsion. Why not simply control it all by projecting gravity fields as necessary?

By placing a stronger one in front, a Jovian would be effectively ‘falling’ forward. Also this method would ignore all effects of inertial since the protector would be in a perceived state of free fall. Velocity would depend upon the strength of the gravity field being produced. Going really blue sky, if the field was strong enough it could possibly form Wormholes which was one of maybe-could-be methods of FTL.

All of this was well and good since all this stuff would have to be once again stuffed into a human being sized package somehow. I was back to the one person spacecraft where you were the spaceship.

Some problems were still beyond me like how to fit a power plant powerful enough for all of this or how do you protect yourself from the particles and heat generated from the friction of moving at such speeds. Those were just a few of the many I had no solution for.

Despite my time-wasting mental exercise with comic book characters, I got the Professor’s report finished on time. Both the Professor and Jade seemed happy with it, but she didn’t stay long before she zipped away. Since she started visiting us, if irregularly, I’d begun keeping track of her activities via the internet. For one woman she sure gets around. Did she ever sleep?

As for me, just like I thought, I was left traveling with the rest of the last minute holiday crowd. However, even that didn’t keep Alex from bedeviling me.

That was how I found myself at 30,000 feet with a little girl staring at the Supergirls 6.5 picture on my laptop.

It wasn’t her fault, but Alex’s. To her it was just a character from the comics. Sighing, I nodded, “Yes it is.”

Right then the plane jolted. Reflexively I grabbed the armrests. This high up at cruising attitude, we should be well above the bad weather. I was already refastening my seat belt as the sign came on. I’d just closed my laptop when the plane bumped again.

However, this time there was this long low moan like the sound of metal creaking.

That’s not good!

As the mother in front me got her daughter turned around and strapped in I tried to give the little girl a cheerful smile because of her fright.

Just then the whole plane kind of trembled. I was realizing that First Class was in the front of the plane and generally not the best place to be in case of trouble. That was my last thought before a tremendous roar of tearing metal ripped me, seat and all into the void.

I may have screamed, but the freezing cold froze everything. Refusing to panic, I tried to remember what the handful of people who’d survived falls like this did right. Most of it was number one, not panicking. Number two was going to be a hell of a lot harder. Pick out someplace to help break as much of your fall as possible.

I and most of the row of seats I’d been in were tumbling end over end in a whirling blizzard of ice in near complete blackness. I’d no idea of my orientation. It was amazing I was still conscious, but that couldn’t last long. Instead of the icy cold, I felt unbearably hot which wasn’t a good sign at all. That probably meant frost bite.

If I didn’t pass out, I had two minutes before a very sudden stop. Terminal velocity would be around 120 mph. I’d never sky dived, but I was going to get pardon the pun, a crash course.

First, I had to stabilize myself and that means leaving this pin wheeling roll of seats. My seatbelt snapped open, and I was free. Strangely I could see the wreckage of seats and their occupants fall away from me. Throwing out my arms, I tried to imitate the many sky divers I’d seen on TV and in the movies.

Finally I had some sense of up and down, and remarkably still hadn’t passed out. Had our plane somehow drifted below 15,000 where there was breathable air and incidentally bad weather? If so I’d only one minute instead of two and who knew how much of that had already passed.

I was still hot, and the possibility of frostbite continued to worry me. I didn’t want to lose any fingers, toes or worse. On the other hand, if I didn’t do this just right, nothing else mattered because I would be dead. If there was a thick accumulation of snow on the ground beneath me, I just might survive this. Not likely, but it had happened before.

What bothered me was I could still see my fellow travelers falling while I couldn’t see the ground yet. It’s night in an Arctic air mass, so how the hell was I able to see anything? Additionally, they were for some reason falling faster. True I was in that classic free fall pose to maximize air friction and minimize acceleration, but it shouldn’t make this much difference!

While I pondered acceleration rates and vainly looked for some sign of the approaching stop from hell, something else grabbed my attention. As if being torn from an airliner in flight in the middle of a winter storm trying not to think of a certain little girl falling below me, I felt the seat of my jeans rip.

It wasn’t just a little tear either, but the whole damn bottom splitting wide open. Resisting the urge to grope back there to find the cause, because that could send me spinning again, I tucked myself tighter so I could glance and see what was happening. Had a piece of wreckage hit me, and I hadn‘t felt it because of frostbite?

What I did not expect was, well, buns of steel? I didn’t know how else to describe it, them, me? Me? Hey wait a minute! What the hell is going on?

Mostly managing not to turn my fall into an out of control tumble again, my equipment and status check turned up some very critical components that were missing in action. There were even a few extras that I know I didn’t get on the plane with. The long blond hair streaming from my head most definitely was a recent addition. The other things, well, I was trying not to think about them for the sake of my sanity. That included the one piece I was really going to miss, as well the usual additions that go along with ‘buns of steel.’

I could only surmise the only way I could’ve changed so radically and quickly was the meta-gene. Extreme stress was said to be an activator. Certainly before I’d begun trying to reason my way to life, I’d been frightened out of my wits.

Still not thinking about the wider implications, I also had a good idea what I looked liked. Blond, very curvy, and a lot like a certain comic book character I’d just been looking at.

Now if I only had her abilities. That was easy enough to test. All this time my thoughts were centered on slowing my fall. Now I ordered, stop!

To my shock I did!

There I was hovering in midair.

A split second later, I was racing faster than ever before for the ground, before my brains could catch up with rest of me. Oh my gawd, that row of seats and that little girl.

I chided myself. That was how I was able to see all this time. The active infrared worked just fine in these conditions.

There they were!

In a bizarre surrealistic moment I saw the poor people trapped in their seats screaming as they rotated in slow motion. It sure as hell didn’t seem that slow as I tried to duck in and grab it. The situation was way too much like judging when to jump onto a moving merry go-round except let’s add another axis of rotation just for fun.

Finally I saw my chance, one of the support struts. Trying to stop the spin it nearly threw me off. Once again I was working with multiple axes. I don’t recommend trying to learn to fly and trying to rescue falling people at the same time, a sure recipe for disaster.

Getting the spin under control, I got another surprise. Oh look! So that’s where the ground is!

I put serious effort into stopping the fall, but I was fighting inertial momentum as well gravity. It was a losing battle. The strut was bending in my hands, and I feared losing it altogether.

“Hang on and brace yourselves! It’s going to be rough!” I shouted.

The ground was coming up fast, too fast. Desperate, I recalled my Jovian’s flight worked because of an antigravity field. As we got to the final few seconds of our fall I tried to will that AG field around my burden.

Either it worked or luck was with us as we impacted. My best guess we hit at about five mph because it shook everyone up pretty good, but no lasting harm.

While everyone else was moving about, I was bent over nauseous and heaving. That’d been too damn close. If I’d been a fraction slower these people would’ve died right in front of me.

Oh Gawd, I was a girl. My new additions hung from my chest. If my inflated ‘buns’ were made of steel what were these? The melons of titanium or were they the boobs of tungsten? I took a deep breath to try and calm my gibbering thoughts, but that didn’t work too well. It only showcased my new additions even more plainly showing that whatever the meta-gene had done to me, cold affected my nipples like it did any woman.

That curious little girl was crying, but I heard her gasp out between sobs, “Supergirl.”

Her near hysterical mother was trying to calm her daughter, but another shaken passenger was pointing at me accusingly. “You did this!”

My once loose fitting blue sweat shirt now snugly revealed a full figured woman’s breasts. My jeans were almost completely gone leaving only the waist band and belt resting loosely on my enlarged hips. Tattered remains of the legs hanging down did kinda look like a torn dress.

Crap, the plane! I looked up into the falling snow. There didn’t appear to be anymore falling wreckage. Was the plane still airworthy, but damaged?

I turned to those I’d saved who were looking at me like I was responsible. Oh isn’t this just great. “No, I didn’t. Do any of you still have your cell phones?” Crap was that soft high voice me?

Mr. Paranoid held up his. “Yeah I do, but you’re not going to get it!”

Still glancing up trying to see which way our original ride flew off to, I asked, “Do you have a signal?”

The nut trying to watch me and look at his phone at the same would’ve been comical if this wasn’t so serious.

Another guy answered, “I’ve got mine too, and I’ve got 911 on the line.”

I breathed out, “Great, get help out here. I’ve got to see what happened to the plane.”

Okay, that’s if I can figure out how to take off. In a whoosh of swirling snow in my contrail, cool, that wasn’t too hard. Pushing my new talent hard, I urged myself faster, and higher.

The sensation of being cold faded despite flying into the middle of blizzard. Even standing on the ground mostly naked from the waist down, I’d been only uncomfortably cold and not freezing. What did that all mean? I hadn’t a clue. Whatever doctor I got to examine me was going to have an interesting time. It was too damn bad that the Professor’s doctorate wasn’t in medicine.

In a flash of blue, I cleared the clouds into the night sky. Now where was that plane? Come on infrared and thermograph, I prayed.

Wait there!

A blurry trail of bluish pointed the way.

Winging over, I zoomed back into the clouds. Now this was where flying without instruments was going to get tricky. If the pilots kept control, they would try to get to 10,000 where there was breathable air and the cabin didn’t need to be pressurized. Unfortunately, I’d no damn idea of my altitude. Breasts and buns of steel, yes, but flight instruments would've been more useful.

However luck was with me again. There was enough of a heat trail to point me in the right direction, and they hadn’t deviated from their flight path. Coming into sight of the plane, the heat thundering from its engines nearly blinded me. Blinking, I had a weird kind of focusing thing going on until I could see clearly again.

Any doubts I had about if this was the right plane vanished as I saw the huge wound in the airliners forward third. Flying in closer, I checked for further damage. I found it on the starboard wing and engine. Carefully focusing my vision so I wasn’t blinded again, I saw it wasn’t producing heat and therefore was out.

Okay, this wasn’t good. Severe structural damage and flying on one engine were a bad thing. It looked like when me and the rest of first class went on our ride into the wild blue yonder, some of the debris hit the wing.

Pondering what to do next I saw frightened faces inside with their orange cap like air masks on, staring out at me.

In one of the porthole like windows that still had its shade shut I saw my reflection. My long blond hair flew behind me easily reaching below my shoulders almost to the center of my back. Somehow my blue sweat shirt stayed with me, but as I observed before was much tighter now. The same couldn’t be said for my poor jeans. The legs were completely missing, torn away as the wind finished what my buns of steel had begun. What remained did kind of, sort of did look like a skirt.
My face blushed as I saw my red holiday themed briefs. Forcing myself to look further down, both my shoes were gone too leaving only the matching red holiday socks which by some miracle had also stayed with me.

No wonder that kid called me Supergirl. All I lacked was the damn cape. Making myself concentrate, I knew I had to be in mild shock. The problem concentrating was proof of that, too much happening too soon. However, an entire plane load of people depended on me making the right decisions.

Carefully I maneuvered myself back into the plane I’d recently left the hard way. Inside it was if a giant hand had ripped the section out. The good news was whatever happened missed the control and avionics wiring. The cockpit door was still shut. The last thing I wanted to do was distract those guys right now as much as I needed to talk to them.

Cautiously, I floated into the main cabin. If the stares I’d gotten flying outside were un-nerving, these took it to an all new level. “Please remain calm. I’m trying to help.” I had to keep from wincing again at my softer higher tone voice.

Some were crying while others were near hysterical. I can’t say I was doing a whole lot better. Somehow being near them made me more emotional too. Forcing myself to be calm, I moved to the rear of the plane. Finally I saw what I was looking for, the stewardess section. Hoping none of them had been forward during whatever had occurred, I hovered near them.

One reminded me of Halle Berry while the other had sassy, short-cut blond hair. Both were giving me the same stares everyone else had, just freaking wonderful.

“I’m a recently transformed meta-human. I’m trying to help. Are you in communication with the Captain? I need to talk with him.”

Still in disbelief, the blond removed her headset, saying, “Captain, she wants to speak to you.”

Taking it, I got it over my wild mane of hair. “Captain, I’m a recent victim of that meta-gene thing that’s been in the news. I saved some of those who were in first class, but I don’t know if I got them all or not. I hope I did. They’re on the ground and in contact with 911.”

He replied, “Thank Gawd. This is Captain Henderson. Who, may I ask, are you?”

I sighed. It would be really nice to have more time to think about how I wanted to handle all this. Okay an interim solution. “Captain I really don’t want to expose myself and my family to a lot of publicity. Right now, call me Kara.”

“Okay Kara, we’re about a half hour out of Cleveland. They’ve got snow removal equipment working to clear us a hole, but conditions aren't good. What can you do for me?”

“Not much Captain. Just getting that section of seats down in one piece was a challenge. However, I did do a survey on my way in. You’ve got major structural damage in the front upper section and have additional damage to your starboard wing and engine. The control surfaces look good, but that’s just what I can see. If I can scrounge up a camera, I can go back out and film it for you, if we dare force open the cockpit door so I can give it to you.”

“As for what else I can do, I can fly and the cold doesn’t seem to bother me much. I’m pretty strong too, but not enough to carry the whole aircraft.” I apologized, “Sorry, still really new at this.”

“I think we’re going to have to risk it.” He replied. “I have to know how bad that structural damage is. It does us no good to get to Cleveland and then crack up on the runway. I also need to know if that starboard wing is icing up because of the damage. With that engine out we don’t have a lot of power to spare.” He said.

Handing the headset back to the cute blond, I asked, “Do either of you have a digital camera? The Captain wants me to get pictures of the damage.”

The blond smiled, “I’m Janice and this is Beatrice. You’re Kara, right? I have my camera in my bag.”

She looked doubtful at un-belting given the hole in the plane.

It was my turn to smile. “Don’t worry. If you fly out, I’ll catch you.”

Beatrice laughed, “If you were male, I might be tempted to test you on that one.

From the looks she gave me that didn’t matter as much as she said it did.

That did not make me feel better. On the other hand, neither one knew of my recent change of hmmm…. circumstances.

Janice carefully made her way forward. “I had my stuff in the closet of the forward galley. Usually mine would be in first class like the rest of the flight crew because it’s closer to the exit. However, I had an extra bag this trip,” she said having to shout because of the roar of wind and engine coming from the gaping hole further in front of us.

“It’s alright,” the stewardess assured the packed plane load of passengers as we made our way up. “We have somebody who can help us.”

Some looked at me with hope while others were very doubtful. I simply smiled trying to put on an air of confidence. Apollo 13’s infamous bland understatement, “Mission control, we have a problem” came to mind. Putting on a calm professional face would help keep everyone from panicking and causing problems we didn’t need.

Personally, my transformation and waltzing about mostly undressed while being stared at by what seemed like hundreds of people made me feel anything, but that. I forced my thoughts away from that. I could fall apart after we were all on the ground safely, but not now.

Reaching the galley, Janice found her bags. While she dug into them, I ducked into the first class area. The forward two rows were the ones that had been ripped out, but the last row of six still remained. By some act of Gawd they were still alive but frightened out of their wits by the huge hole just inches from sucking them out too.

I felt embarrassed that I’d somehow missed seeing them on my way back in. However I had to give myself some slack too. I was in just as much shock as they.

Going back to Janice I yelled over the howling noise. “There’re still six people in first class.”

She nodded and pushed a black bundle into my arms.

Expecting a camera, I held up the obviously women’s black coverall garment up confused. With the zippers and buttons, it reminded of something Scarlett Johansson had worn in that movie with Robert Downey.

Janice yelled, “Thought you would want something to wear. Yours are torn to ribbons! I was going skiing this weekend and we’re about the same size.”

Then grinning she added, “I’m going to want it back, girlfriend. That’s a Bogner. It cost me a pretty penny, but boy isn’t it sexy!”

Then she stood there obviously expecting me to change clothes right here. “We’re hidden here. Go ahead and put it on.”

Oh boy! Feeling more self-conscious than I ever had before in my life, I removed what was left of my jeans. My wallet had gone bye-bye, but I had to check my pockets anyways. Like I expected they were ripped and empty.

It didn’t help having Janice giggling at my holiday themed boxer briefs. Pulling up the ski suit, it quickly became apparent this was going to be tight, but it was better than being nearly nude.

Since it was bad enough having to deal with my ‘missing’ equipment as I pulled them to my waist, I was determined not to deal with my new additions. I wasn’t going to pull off my blue sweatshirt.

Despite that the top was snug and while the damn things might very well be like they were made of titanium, they were extremely sensitive.

Janice came to my rescue causing me to blush even redder. She boldly reached in and shifted my new ‘assets’ about until they fit a bit better. “Damn girl did you pick the wrong day not to wear a bra! Wanted to give your boyfriend a thrill too with you wearing his underwear huh!” She exclaimed, winking.

Me? Boyfriend? Twitch, twitch. Feeling like she broke something in my head, I dumbly nodded.

“Wow you really fill it out. I’m sooo, jealous! Remember you’re only borrowing!” Janice handed me the camera.

Taking it, I pushed though the fog clouding my poor overloaded brains. This I understood. Not just a camera, but Sony camcorder that had enough video memory to record hours of video.

While I examined the camera, she’d found another headset.

“Do you need me to get you back to your seat?” I asked.

“No, I’ll be fine here.” She waved at the people seated just the other side of the galley, “They need me here.”

I nodded and adjusted the screen so I could see what was being recorded. After doing a 360 of the inside of the tear, I carefully made my way out with my body shielding the screen. The rush of the air grabbed me, but I was prepared for it and was able to keep pace with the airliner.

I filmed the inside and the outside of the rip, and moved to the wing. Like the Captain feared ice was forming on the leading edge. As an experiment, I very lightly focused my eyes on the ice willing the infrared. Recalling being blinded by the heat exhaust I didn’t want to burn a hole in the already damaged wing. On the other hand, icing could bring us down just as surely as more damage could.

As the first chunks fell away I backed off a little and worked my way down to the engine. More of the ice fell away, but I was afraid to use my active infra vision close to what I knew might be leaking fuel.

Getting pictures of the engine, I headed back inside again. If not for the emergency I might’ve enjoyed this. The flying was a rush and aviation had been a stepping stone in my love of space.

Unfortunately, I kept being reminded that not only were hundreds of lives were at stake, but at what it’d cost me. The figure hugging black didn’t let me keep any illusions that the new me matched my old self-image. Once again I had to push all that away. Now was not the time!

Knocking on the cockpit door, I yelled, “It’s Kara. I have the camera.”

The door opened and I slipped inside handing the camera over. “I didn’t see any signs of more damage, but that wing is icing up like you thought. I experimented a little to see if I could de-ice it and it worked. What I don’t know is how long I can keep it up.”

The gray haired man in the dark blue airline uniform nodded as he fast forwarded the camera’s footage to the important parts. “If you can keep that wing clear that’ll certainly help. I don’t suppose you can do anything about shoring up the supports?” He asked pointing at the images of the hole.

“This has never happened to this model before. It shouldn’t have happen, but if the structural supports give during the stress of landing the entire front third of the plane will break off.” The Captain said with a calmness that wasn’t in his eyes.

Looking about, I saw the flight engineer glaring at me as if I’d caused this. I was starting to get the feeling no matter what happened I would be blamed for causing this by someone. It was a chicken and egg kind of question. Did my changing into a Meta damage the plane? In reality I was reasonably certain that it was the stress of being ripped out of the plane at 30,000 feet that’d done the trick, and I was innocent of any wrong doing.

Sighing, I tried, “I don’t know what caused this either. It’s a good thing I’m a quick learner, because as of a half-hour ago, I didn’t know I could fly. Falling at night in the middle of a blizzard isn’t the best conditions for your first parachute jump. I did get everyone who was still seated in that section down in more or less one piece. Let’s be real, I have no idea what I can really do. However, I’m here and want to help.”

The Captain shot his engineer a glare. “Shut up Tom. This is not the time. After we get this bird back on the ground then you can start pointing. Until then anything, but that doesn’t matter. You copy me, mister?”

The younger man nodded, but he didn’t take his eyes off of me.

“Miss, you say you can keep that wing de-iced, correct?” He asked.

I nodded, “That I can do, at least for a while. I am strong, but I’m afraid I could do more harm than good.”

He rolled his eyes. “For Gawd’s sake don’t get creative. We need that wing just where it is. Keep it ice free, and we’ll do the rest, understand?”

I replied, “Yes sir.”

About to go back outside, the Captain leaned next to me. “If you see things going south, and this bird starts to go down, you save who you can, got me?”

The torture of the responsibility in his eyes brought tears to my own. Not trusting my voice I could only nod. In a flash, I was out the cockpit helping pull the door shut.

Once again I flew out of the hole wondering if I would ever get a chance to exit this damn plane though the door. Bouncing in the turbulent airflow, I soared to the starboard wing. A thick rim of ice covered the leading edge.

Carefully, I focused my eyes like I had before. As the partially melted ice crystals were whipped away I played my vision all along the length of the wing. The last thing I wanted was to melt holes in this thing. Thankfully, my strategy seemed to be working. Staying in front of the wing, flying backwards, let me get most of the leading edge, where the ice was building, in my field of vision.

Just like when you’re driving and following a car in front of you, I lost track of exactly where I was except in relation to that wing I was concentrating on. I guessed we were descending because the visibility got even worse as the snow and sleet screamed by.

With my active infra-vision, I had no problem seeing the airliner clearly or even the crew in the cockpit. I very much doubted they could see me. Glancing to the front, I couldn’t make out a damn thing.

I could only guess we were getting close to touch down. The ice was building up even faster now, forcing me to gingerly up the ‘power’ I was using. I honestly hadn’t clue about what I was doing, but could only play it by ear.

It didn’t take me long to figure out the problem with having ‘eye-beams.’ Sure I could ‘target exactly what I was looking at, but what if I had to look at other things?

After what seemed like forever in the icy hurricane, finally one of my quick peeks let me see runway lights, yay! That was very short lived. Have you every ever been bowling and the ball starts to drift into the gutter? Okay I’ve never been bowling in my life, but I’ve seen the scene many times on TV where the bowler desperately leans over trying to will the rolling orb to correct its path.

I did the same thing as slowly the wing started dripping. No, no, no! I cut the cockpit a desperate glance, but the blurry images I got of the crew’s heat patterns showed they were trying their best to correct the aircraft’s list to starboard.

My thoughts racing, I knew I didn’t dare try to grab the wing. It would simply just tear in my hands. The engine mount! That area was designed for this kind of stress. Swooping over the wing, I ducked underneath forcing myself as close as I could to where the engine hanged.

Then using my whole body to distribute the weight, I pushed. Come on, move! The wing stopped its dip, but the bank caused us to lose altitude we couldn’t afford to lose. All too slowly we were wing level again.

The ground was coming up far too soon. I ignored the creaking and squeak of bending metal as I gave it my all. It was all too much. Too many forces were working against me. The plane’s momentum, mass, and gravity were an equation that spelled the death of those in this fragile metal shell. All I had to do was change the calculation.

Before, I’d somehow extended my anti-gravity field over that section of seats keeping it and those passengers from spattering into the ground. But a piece of wreckage the size of a SUV is a damn sight smaller than a Boeing airliner.

I might simply tear the plane apart or any number of other unwanted outcomes. It wasn’t fair, but I knew life rarely was. Newly transformed and yet I was these people’s only hope. Muttering a prayer, I tried to spread my field.

It’s like having a muscle you never used before, trying to make it move. Taking a deep breath disregarding the onrushing snow covered surface, I exhaled attempting to widen my awareness.

I couldn’t explain how it felt, but we didn’t hit where we would’ve. Like magic we floated so damn close over the top of the outer markers I could see the filaments burning in the lights.

The flashes of yellow chevons startled me as we barely made the runway’s overrun area. Like a juggler with too many balls in the air, whatever I’d managed to do went away.

Tumbling out of control onto the concrete, I saw my ride bounce once, twice and even a third time, but finally the wheels stayed on the ground. There was a long moment as the front gear slowly descended to join the others, because I feared the weaken front section might collapse, but to my relief it held.
“Thank you Gawd,” I whispered lowering my head exhausted. In the distance emergency vehicles raced for the stricken plane in a wave of flashing red and blue lights.

My long hair whipped about me in the winter storm. What in the world was I going to do? My ID was lost somewhere between Boston and Cleveland. No one would recognize me now. Hell, I couldn’t even claim my luggage.

My meta-human vision let me see the frightened, but relieved passengers as they slid down the inflatable emergency slides.

“Merry Christmas,” I said standing awkwardly in the snow. My new body wanted to go in every direction except the one I wanted. The snow fell even heavier and turned different colors by the runway lights, yellow, blue and green.

Hey wait a minute, green?

Looking up, green tinted everything as Jade gracefully set down beside me.

“I’m Jade. Nice job getting that plane down.” She introduced herself obviously not recognizing me.

Somehow, I nodded, too overwhelmed to even think.

Softer, she asked, “Are you all right?” Jade touched my arm concerned.

Out of nowhere I started crying. It wasn’t that I was all macho and didn’t cry. It was more I couldn’t stop. We stood there in the snow, as she held me.

Between sobs I told her about those passengers, I’d set down in that field. I was afraid some dumb-ass 911 operator wouldn’t believe their story. Looking at the airport, I was hit by more crying thinking about my parents waiting to hear about me. Oh yeah sorry, but your son was sucked out of the plane at 30,000 feet, oops!

Calming down a little, I asked, “You don’t recognize me do you?”

She was obviously a bit uncomfortable with my breakdown, but I saw her eyes get that distant look when her ring was talking to her.
“Larry,” she asked. “Larry Danvers?”

“Found the flight manifest, right,” I said trying to regain my sense of self.

Jade gave me a sideways smile, “Figure that out have you?”

I shrugged, “The Professor and I worked it out. For you to control the ring the way you do, there has to be the equivalent of a neural-interface. We already knew you have access to extremely advanced computers from the way you found out about his class. Must be very handy for a Galactic cop to have all that information at their fingertips.”

Done with my explanation, I sighed, “There is something you can help with though.”

I looked at the airport terminal. “Any time now my name is going to come up missing. It there someway you could let my parents know I’m alright? Perhaps a text message?”

Jade replied, “Under the circumstances I think we can do that. Can you tell me what happened?”

Taking a deep breath, I told her. Finally having a little post crisis melt down time, I added another request. “Would you mind another favor? I was a last minute add-on to the passenger manifest. Could you change that too? I don’t want attention right now.”

All the while we’d been walking towards the crippled plane. Emergency crews were working to get the runway clear. Looking at the hole, it was if some giant monster took a huge bite out of the upper fuselage. Boeing did build them tough because by all rights the entire forward section should’ve sheered off upon the stress of landing. Thank Gawd it didn’t.

Startled, I watched her face turn hard. “Yes, I can do that, Larry. In fact I think it’s a very good idea. This wasn’t an accident.”

Staring at her, I stuttered, “It wasn’t? But how?”

“It was meant to look like a combination of metal fatigue and the composites shattering. My ring however has identified traces of nano-scaled robots from their tracks in and about every primary stress point which failed. This was deliberate and planned. More importantly it was done using advanced alien technology unavailable on this planet.” She said as if it was a personal affront. Seeing how this was her ’beat’ it very well might be.

“Aliens sabotaged an airliner?” I asked in disbelief.

“Either that or a Meta-human. There are talents and abilities that would let one manufacture such devices.” She explained.

I guess I was still in shock after all. “But why?”

She stared at me questioningly.

Swallowing, I blinked. “Me? I’m just a student! My only claim to fame is working with the Professor organizing term papers.”

Then it hit me, he could be in danger, too!

My thoughts must‘ve been plain. “Don’t worry. I just pinged the campus police to go and check on him. I’m thinking this could be my fault. I’ve already made enemies. This could be a way of reaching me. I didn’t make a secret of my visits.

“It could also be something else. MIT does have a reputation of being on technology’s cutting edge. However, first I need to get you to my ship and get you checked out. How about I text your parents and tell them that you’re fine, but you’re not with the plane. Because of that you’re going to be checked out and will let them know when you’re on the way home. I’ll add on that you’re borrowing a phone to buy us some time.” She suggested.

I nodded wiggling my red socked toes on the icy tarmac. It was very uncomfortable. I felt the cold, but it didn’t hurt if you know what I mean. It was still unpleasant. “I don’t like misleading them, but I do need to know what the meta-gene did to me.”

Jade smiled, “We know you can fly, so I’ll lead. Considering who you look like, we’ll see how far you can go on your own. If you run into trouble, I’ll catch you.”

With that she lifted off like a green rocket! Whoa!

Really hoping not to embarrass myself, I jumped upwards to follow. In a rush, I found myself in the clouds and climbing fast! Can I explain how it felt? It was good! Twisting myself about in a series of climbing barrel rolls, I loved it.

I could see Jade in front of me still leading. Just to see if I could overtake her I willed myself to cut loose. Suddenly, I was past her and still accelerating, yee-hah!

Like a swimmer I turned onto my back to see behind me. There was that magic moment where my ‘down’ became irrelevant. I could see Mother Earth below me. Some part of me knew that, WTF, I was in orbit, but it was so beautiful for just a timeless instant I was lost in it.

I could see the lights of cities that weren't covered by the winter storm. Then the sun appeared over the terminator. I don’t know if I was breathing or not this high up, but it took my breath away just the same.

A hand touched my shoulder. Jade motioned me to come on.

Of course we couldn’t talk, but a thumb-up worked just fine. Giving that amazing sight one last look, I followed her as she arrowed towards the Moon.

This is where she out paced me. I guess I wasn’t doing too badly since she didn’t start pulling me along. Luna grew astonishingly quickly. Without having some way of telling exactly how long it took, I couldn’t estimate just how fast we were traveling. However even subjectively it wasn’t any more than a quarter hour or so. Scientifically speaking, we were blistering, hot fast!

Reaching her ship, I found myself gawking like a kid again. Entering my first spaceship, seemed a little anticlimactic seeing how I’d just flew to the Moon under my own power no less!

Inside, I took a deep breath, wondering just how long I could last ‘outside’.

“You want a Coke?” Jade asked. “The previous GL laid in a serious supply of the old stuff.”
Half expecting something like out of one of those bad Sci-Fi movies, I was wrong. She had me lie down on a bed like thing for a few minutes and that was it.

To condense a whole lot of information, I’m healthy and in great condition. That is for a Homo-sapiens-Jovian. I weigh 360 lbs and can bench 400 without a real problem. That kind of scared me. Jade’s AI informed me that my strange biology was kind of a combination of Nano-scale robots and organic cells. Call them cyber-bio-nanites.

That alone was very bizarre because according to its database, while the Meta-genes may do almost anything to you, turning one into a robot was beyond it. Quasi-robot maybe and you could even look like one, but still you would really be organic. However, it’d happened somehow it worked.

I was very tough, and healed up from injuries quickly. However, where it still mattered I was human. As for my flight, and strength, I can create gravity fields just like I thought. The short form was I was very much like the Jovians I designed, but there were differences too, that not even the Ring’s AI could puzzle out. Just what some of those organs inside me did or what it meant to me long term was anyone’s guess.

None of that reassured me. Modeling something this radical a modification as an intellectual exercise was one thing. Test piloting personally with my life at stake was another.

I’d never been one to cry, but I did so now again. Damn tears! Did that Meta-gene turn me into an unstoppable waterfall?

That’s when a miracle occurred. Her AI magic ring admitted it’d been wrong!

“Our initial survey of the data from your papers as well as those from Professor Swan’s Exobiology class did not indicate any items of immediate danger for emerging Meta-humans. However, upon your examination we conclude we were mistaken.

“Your entire biology could be described as an incredibly efficient series of interconnecting symbiotic relationships. It’s the biological equivalent of the architectural arch where the forces acting upon it strengthens the structure. It is the method you devised that is important not the details.

Your earlier papers as well as the group projects you were part of began the development of the idea. In your term paper you clearly defined them.”

“Using existing technology with that methodology could aid in the development of systems and equipment that could prove dangerous to emerging meta-humans.” The ring explained.

“Oops,” I whispered. Looking at the image the AI had provided, it was all too clear I was female. Even in a ski suit, my curves couldn’t be concealed. I remembered while researching the whole Kryptonian thing that one early version of Supergirl was patterned on Marilyn Monroe.

“You never did answer me if you were alright,” Jade reminded me with gentle smile.

Trying not to notice how my chest rose when I breathed, I replied, “It’s starting to hit me that not only am I a girl, but there’s no way to hide it either.”

“You know you’re not the first gender switch?” She smiled, “And I might be able to help with that disguise thing.”

“That stuff about Terra once being a teenage boy was right? I thought it was only the usual Inquirer trash.” I said shaking my head.

“No,” The woman in green shook her head. “They got that part right. It might do you good for the two of you to meet. By the way, I offered her the disguise too, but she stopped using it. Said it was better for her to get accustomed to being who she was going to spend the rest of her life as then to keep pretending to be someone she wasn't anymore.”

Jade shrugged, “I could see her point.”

Internally, I winced just thinking about what duplicating that maneuver would do to my new body. It wasn’t that I was freaking out. It was more wondering what in the world was I going to do now sort of thing. Starting to work it out, I pointed out trying to get off the current subject. “So I could’ve been the target of this all along or it still could be an attempt to attack you.”

Her eye brows rose signaling she knew exactly what I was doing. “That sums it up.”

“Okay, let’s try this for a plan. Let’s try your disguise. It’ll give me the chance to break this to my parents at a better time and hopefully throw off whoever tried this. If they try again, well I’m pretty hard to hurt now. Maybe, I can adopt another not only one of those secret identities like out the comic books, but a female one too. I kept mostly to myself at school anyways. It should be manageable for me to do both.

“I know you’re trying to put together a team to take care of the big threats, but I want and need to finish my education. This way I can go kind of undercover and find out just who has this technology. Not that I won’t help those I see in trouble, I’m just not going looking for it.

“Plus if you really need me, I’ll be there. How does that sound?” I asked her.

Jade held out her hand. In it was this ring ….

Ed Benes's Supergirls 6.5 is at this link!
http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=153281&gs...

Alex Thurol- Today I would have answers. Certain questions had bedeviled me during my entire holiday break. When you try and kill someone, and it fails, you naturally want to know why.

This is a fan fiction story in Lilith Langtree's Retcon Universe. I don't own or have the rights to any of these characters. This story was written simply for fun. With that said, this is still my story. No reposting it, without my say so! Thanks to the amazingly fast Djkauf for proofing and a second pair of eyes!

Alex Thurol-

Today I would have answers. Certain questions had bedeviled me during my entire holiday break. When you try and kill someone, and it fails, you naturally want to know why.

Don’t get me wrong. I hold nothing against Larry Danvers. For a little white guy, he was okay even if he was anal retentive. The problem was he was in my way. MIT was still rated the top technical school in the world. There was room for only one top student at that institution, me.

Truthfully, he wasn’t more intelligent than I. It was more an apples and oranges type of comparison. We both had our own strengths. My own intelligence surpassed his. I know because I hacked the administration files and have seen both of our records and test scores.

It also wasn’t that he was more intuitive although that was a factor. No, it was because he thought outside of the box, and had an attention to detail that would make any engineer proud.

Who in the world would ever think of colonizing Jupiter? It’s a gas giant! However that is exactly what Larry did. Not only was it imaginative, but potentially extremely lucrative as well. Each new advancement in human development was heralded by new materials and elements that needed only time before scientists and engineers could devise way of utilizing them. Jupiter could be the new mines of Solomon.

I had to keep from drooling at the very idea of large amounts of Metallic Hydrogen being easily available. Room temperature superconductors by the ton? How about the possibility of a highly energy packed fuel with only water as the byproduct? Metallic Hydrogen is 9 times more compact than normal H.

Sure some might say that all of this was pure speculation, but developing the means to reach it was well within my lifetime. One needed only to be bold.

My own finals project was Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn. I, of course, did well and got my expected A. However, I readily admit that it wasn’t nearly as visionary as Larry’s Jovians.

That did make it necessary to humble my rival, but that was easy. All I had to do was point out the comic-book like similarities between his colonists and the fictional Kryptonians from DC comics. The rest of the class picked up on it at once. Poor pop culture ignorant Larry didn’t even have a clue.

I swear, I wonder if that boy didn’t have Asperger's sometimes. He’s so socially inept it hurts. It was almost pathetic the way he keeps coming on to Alana, and she’s a lesbian. A lipstick one to be sure, but the signs are there if you bothered to look.

I don’t think he would take it well to know she saw him as more of a little brother than a romantic interest. Of course if my speculation was correct Alana could very well have the hots for Larry or perhaps I should say Linda now?

Or maybe not.

I kept my face carefully cheerful watching Larry lug his baggage across the airport lobby. That did not keep me from wondering if he didn’t change into that walking DC Comics copyright violation, then who did? Not to mention how he survived his little trip outside the plane at 30,000 feet. A journey I knew for a fact happened given the last telemetry I received from his laptop was right before it shattered impacting into a frozen Ohio farm field.

Perhaps Ms. Copyright Violation had saved him, but why didn’t Larry come forward then? Everyone else who’d walked away from their involuntary free fall experience couldn’t wait to let everyone know and collect a few bucks to get interviewed on national media.

Whoever she was, that had been who’d ultimately foiled my attempt at knocking off my competition. Besides that there another annoying mystery that a quick look at my sensors disguised as a watch informed me. He was clean.

Considering I’d infected him with so many nanites that he should’ve clanged when he walked, that was impossible. I’d actually been concerned the airport sensors would’ve gone off. Of course they wouldn’t have understood what they'd found and would have likely just chalked it up to a malfunction. A much more sophisticated device than anything Homeland Security had available to it would’ve been needed to identify my little helpers. Only a few labs in world had that capability.

That didn’t include a particular visitor dressed in green. All indicators suggested Jade would’ve found them immediately, which was the whole reason for this complicated charade in the first place. Not wanting to come to her attention after she started spending time with Larry and the Professor, I had to hide my involvement. Just having my little friends turn him into goo just may not have been good enough to escape the notice the resources Jade had at her command. Having the evidence crushed and mangled after falling from 30 thousand feet in the middle of a blizzard would’ve confused and hidden everything very nicely.

“Hey Larry! What’s up? Have a good Christmas?” I asked, him running over the possibilities in my mind.

“Oh hi, Alex.” He replied, startled to see me. “You’re back early, too?”

“Sure,” I lied with a smile. “My parents drive me crazy. My father still thinks I should be on a football scholarship instead of an academic.”

While my old man might’ve been thrilled to have me playing ball, he knew better than to cross Mother. He knew where his bread was buttered. Alright, he hadn’t done badly for himself, investing his exorbitant salary from his pro-ball years, but that was a pittance beside Mother’s payoff from my maternal grandparents. Understand that even the huge commercial farm corporation she ran as CEO was just pocket change to the Family. That meant my Uncle, since my grandparents kicked the bucket. You would think he would be more progressive then they, but he’d made it quite clear that as far as he was concerned she was still an embarrassment.

Well, until last year when he needed something from her. Something that had changed everything.

“What about you?” I asked. “What brings you back so early? I thought after having your break cut short helping Professor Swan you would’ve cut it a lot closer. Having problems with your parents too?”

“They aren’t like that. It would’ve been nice to spend more time at home, but I got talked into something else. My cousin Carol is moving to the area, and both of our families thought it best we stay together to watch over each other in the big bad city.” Larry rolled his eyes.

I fought to keep from losing it. The skinny geek being able to protect just himself was laughable. Him being able to help anyone else was beyond ridiculous. Certainly, I was familiar with his martial arts training since I had hacked his records after all, but he was simply so damn easygoing I could no more think of him as being a threat then I could a gnat.

“So you two are off apartment finding?” I asked, forcing my face to remain friendly. “Where is she? I would like to meet this cousin of yours.”

“Yes and no,” Larry answered. “Yeah, I’m looking for a place for us, but she is going to be flying in later.”

There was this strange sparkle in his eyes when he said that as if it was part of some kind of joke. However, it was so apt. This cousin of his was already walking all over him. I think I like her, and I haven’t even met her yet.

However, I couldn’t pump him for too much information. Even Larry would become suspicious of the circumstances. It was time for me to depart. Sadly, I had to resist the urge to re-infect him. It was a real possibility this cousin of his just might be Miss Copyright Violation. If so she might have access to Jade’s resources and could detect my little friends. That wouldn’t do at all.

“Good luck with that this time of the year,” I said. “However I’ve got to go. We can catch up on times after school starts.”

He picked his bags up after giving me a farewell wave.

Watching his reflection in the glass windows, dragging his bags towards the exit, I did indeed have a lot to do. It was time to find out just who this cousin of his was.

Larry Danvers:

I watched Alex until my enhanced senses lost him in the busy traffic of Logan International Airport. Dragging my bags outside, I grabbed a cab to my new apartment.

No matter how I looked at it, he was my number one suspect. Part of my stomach twisted up at the very idea. I knew he had that mean streak, but would he really try to murder not only me, but an entire plane load of people too?

However, his just happening to show here at Logan when I arrived was a little too much of a coincidence. It made me glad that I had wasted Dad’s money to fly the old fashioned way despite how much I loved going sub-orbital. Beside all the baggage I had with me this trip was the kind of stuff that didn’t travel all that well being hand carried at mach 5.

I’d thought long and hard about the consequences of telling Dad and Mom the truth. Certainly I got an unexpected preview of the possible consequences during the Family Christmas get-together.

These things were just so much fun, not! Wearing thick soled sneakers with a bit of heel, I made up my inch of lost height. Trust me, when you feel short anyways, losing any at all seems like a lot.

Of course with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends these events are bad enough. However, good did come from it. My preview took the form of my Cousin Chloe. No, she’s not meta, but once upon a time she was Cousin Nick. Being either brave or excessively masochistic, she came out to the family-at-large right in the middle of the gathering.

Most of us Cousins took it well, but fewer of the older adults did. I decided to step up when Cousin Tom, who wasn’t known for his lightning quick wit, showed how he got that reputation.

Calmly, I told him his opinion was noted, but of no consequence and would he please take himself elsewhere. The goon received a shock when others rallied behind me. Maybe his father had put him up to this, but enough of us far more numerous younger generation demonstrated our support for her.

Besides I’d always liked Nick. He was one of the more intelligent of my extended family. His inquisitive nature led him into journalism while mine took me into science. Oops, I have to watch that! ‘It’s she you dummy’ I silently reprimanded myself. That’s really ironic since I’m one now, too. This isn’t going to be easy is it?

Well, that’s why I wanted to pick her brains. My internet search of spontaneous sex changes had pulled up a lot of sites called by names like Fictionmania, Big Closet, and a slew of web comics. Hey that’s where I found out about the Squish, Squish Game. Okay maybe I shouldn’t go there, TMI.

Well anyways a lot of that stuff was eye opening, but not very useful if you know what I’m talking about. I needed practical information. Chloe actually looked pretty good. I could see where she had a long way to go yet, but there was a kind of peace about her now, that Nick never had. That’s with all the stupid homophobes that we were unfortunately related to, giving her and anyone near the evil eye.

For just a moment I thought she was going bolt from the party, but after me and the others gathered around, she relaxed. At first it was all small talk, but then she rather shocked me.

“You know I’ve wondered if you might be Tee too,” Chloe said, low just for my ears.

“Huh?” I asked, confused.

She smiled in a way Nick never did. “You know, LBGT; Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Tee for transgender.”

“Why would you say that?” I gaped at her, nearly dropping the punch I’d gotten for us.

“Well there is the obvious, both of us being outsiders and the whole socially inept thing. And there’s the secret we shared at the last of these family things that we were both still virgins. But mostly, I think it was the lack of testosterone fueled aggression other males seem to have in such abundance.

“Remember, you told me about all that martial arts stuff your family is into. I know you could’ve kicked Tom’s butt all over the room, but instead you calmly made him back down and walk away.” She finished, making her point.

Then Chloe leaned in close. “I’ve also seen how you’re walking. There’s this little wiggle. You do a great job of hiding it, but I know what to look for.”

Her sharp eyes gleamed. Chloe knew she had me. I thought about putting her off and denying the whole thing. However, I really did need her help.

“Okay, I do have a secret, but it’s something I need to show you rather than tell. You think we can find somewhere private in this madhouse?” I asked, indicating all our relatives half smashed on eggnog and punch.

“Sure, I’m a reporter. I know all the places where I’m not supposed to be,” she said, smiling, but I could see her excitement as well. I just had to tantalize her with a secret.

Weaving our way though the party, she took me to the roof. As cold as it was, no one was out and about.

“So what’s this secret of yours, Larry?” She asked, hugging her jacket tight to her.

“First you have to promise not to tell a soul. It’s very important no one else knows this, but I do need your advice.” I replied, emphasizing the seriousness of this.

Thus Chloe Sullivan became the first person other than Jade to know my secret. Well, part of it anyways. Oh, the look on her face as I stepped off the roof, hovering in mid-air.

“Oh my Gawd! You’re a Meta!” She exclaimed. “So why tell me at all?” she asked, not slow on the uptake.

“Because,” I sighed, “If you must know, I was the Meta that saved that plane in Cincinnati.” I dropped Jade’s disguise.

Poor Chloe’s mouth dropped open. Gathering her wits she asked, “This is the real you, now?”

“Yes, it is,” I nodded. “But no one can know that. One, what happened to that plane wasn’t an accident. It was deliberate, and might very well have been targeted at me. Why, Jade and I don’t know, but until we do, this has to stay between us.” I said, landing back beside her.

“Do you see now why I need your help? I’ll have to stay undercover at least for now until I can find out who attacked that plane. They killed two stewardesses and a passenger, as well as endangering everyone else.” I told her sighing at the senselessness of it all.

“I can’t tell you the odds I beat manifesting in the middle of it, and that’s not counting me also saving those six people who got sucked out of the plane with me.” My heart turned hard. “I want whoever did this and so does Jade. They have access to some serious technology, and who knows what they will try next.” I said, clenching my fists in frustration.

“At the same time, I’m like this now, and I can tell you that I don’t think there’s a way back. Somehow, I have to deal with this, but still stay Larry at least part of the time to find this terrorist.

“I have this junior version of Jade’s ring that gives me a disguise, and I was planning to have a female identity to help me get used to this. However, I don’t even know where to start! Hell, I don’t even know how to tell my parents about this!” I finished, with despair heavy within my chest.

“First of all girlfriend, you’re gorgeous,” She said, jealously “I wish I looked as good as you. Second, I know too damn well how being in the wrong skin can eat you up. There’s always conventional surgery. Maybe that Green Lantern you keep mentioning has some kind of high tech medical machines that can put everything right, because for females to males, I admit the Earthly medical options aren’t that great.

“However, you do need to talk your folks. Of all the oldsters, they accepted me the best. I can’t tell how it will go. I’ve heard stories of very tolerant parents up to the point it’s their little boy who wants to wear the dresses.” Chloe said, shrugging.

“It’s very weird trying to get used to theses changes,” I said, sighing. “Chloe, I’d lost an inch of height, but have nearly tripled my weight which is all muscle. I checked the internet. My new measurements are the same as Marilyn Monroe’s, which is really creepy, since Supergirl was modeled on her at one point.

“Jade’s Junior-Scout Green Lantern Ring has helped immeasurably with just the clothes issue alone. The very thought of going out and buying stuff like a bra gives me brain freeze. I’m not quite freaking out, but I don’t think I’m handling this very well. I am having problems even conceiving my circumstances have really, really changed,” I said, presenting my new body to her like Vanna White.

“To address your points, I’d spent more time than I want to admit in front of the mirror. I’m a 35-22-35 D-cup blond bombshell. The problem is that she’s me, Chloe.

“As for transitioning back to male using any method at all, is completely impossible. I don’t know how much you know about comic books, but imagine how tough it would be for a Kryptonian to attempt that. It’s even harder for me.

“This body seems to be based on a design I did for a cyborg meant to thrive on Jupiter. Imagine a human shaped spaceship, a Jovian, which has all of the organs necessary for a human in individual environmental life support units. Even with Jade’s medical technology there’s no way back. Like it or not, this is me, now.” I explained.

Her eyes grew wide as they took in the implications. “So you really are like Supergirl just as that little girl claimed?”

“Pretty much.” I replied, sighing. “Maybe not as strong, fast, or as near invulnerable, but I’m close. I’m expecting to get sued by DC comics any day now.” I said, feeling more than a little sorry for myself.

“Let me get this right,” she said, standing hipshot and staring hard at me. “Someone tries to kill you, but as you’re plummeting from 30,000 feet, in a one in an Oh My Gawd number of zeros chance, you change into a near invulnerable gorgeous woman who is right out of the comic books. You can fly all the way to the moon all on your lonesome. And please make sure I understand this,” she finished, glaring at me “You’re complaining!?!”

“What about not being dead?” Chloe reminded me. “And don’t you dare tell me, Ms. Science geek who had her pilot’s license at 14, that you don’t like being able to fly!”

“It was only a pilot’s certificate for gliders.” I blushed sheepishly correcting her, “I couldn’t get my license till last year when I turned 18, but haven’t had the time yet. Still,” I said, holding up my hands in surrender. “I get your point.”

“It’s just this all so overwhelming. I never even dreamed I could be having some of the problems I’m having now.” I tried to explain.

“You don’t have to tell, me.” She said hugging me. “Trust me, I know how hard it is dealing with gender screw-ups. Just figuring out there is a problem is a real, and I do mean a real gold plated bitch. Admitting you actually like what you’re feeling isn’t easy either. In the end, I decided I would rather be happy, then try living in a way which most definitely wasn’t working.”

“I don’t know.” I objected. “How much of that applies to me. Sure I’m feeling all messed up now, but it was pretty obvious how I got this way. I must also say that I do like some of this, although it’s mostly having these powers. Having a choice, I guess it’s better looking beautiful than being ugly, even if I would be much rather be dating a girl who looked like this than, staring at her in the mirror.”

“Hah, so you do admit that it’s not all bad, and don’t think I missed that ‘mostly’ qualifier either,” Chloe replied triumphantly. “You have found something you like about joining the other team even though I bet you’ve spent the entire time hiding behind that secret decoder ring of yours ‘disguise,’” She accused me, making ditto marks in the air.

I sighed wondering how to put this. “I haven’t been hiding. Since the aerial incident Mom has stuck to me like glue.” Hey pilot types never ever say crash. It’s bad karma! “I think she realized just how close I came to not walking away.”

Chloe remarked, “Not as close as it really was, I bet, but don’t change the subject.”

“Okay,” I shrugged. “On the rare occasions that I’ve had time alone to try and work this out, I can honestly say how I look isn’t exactly freaking me out. My trouble seems to be more me wondering what the hell do I do now, if you know what I mean.”

This was all so confusing maybe because I wasn’t freaking out. Terra and I had a few ring to ring conversations that helped. Just the warning about ring created shoes not having any real traction literally saved my neck although because of my density I always kept a little anti-grav on. We talked about just how strange it all was, and she gave me a head’s up on some other surprises I could expect.

I’d found a few of those walking around in my ‘Larry’ disguise. Sneaking into the airport and meeting back up with my parents after getting back from Jade’s star cruiser, I quickly discovered I, hmmm…, stuck out further in the front and back than I used to. While I couldn’t do much about the back, I had to do something about the front.

The Junior-Scout GL ring also helped with that, but damn was it uncomfortable. With as dense as I was, it’s like wearing bondage gear, but again I’d no choice. Mom insisted on frequent hugs to reassure herself I was still alive.

Even still, I saw her fleeting confusion. Her son Larry shouldn’t have 'bumps’ there. Thankfully, she was too happy at my survival to really process the information. That is so far.

Chloe gave me a sideways smile that really worried me. “So, what you’re really saying is you’re trying to cope with this but you don’t have a native guide to help you in the strange new land in which you’ve suddenly found yourself marooned.”

“First of all, girlfriend,” She said, “Let me say this again, you’ve got to tell at least your Mom. You need a woman’s help who’s grown up that way. She’s the one person you can trust not to give away your secret, and teach you what you need to know.”

She waggled a finger in front of me. “And trust me, sister, do you have a lot to learn if you’re going back to school in just a few weeks. I know you don’t have the slightest idea of how much you have to learn” Chloe broke out into a grin, “As for the rest, I can do what she can’t.”

“Like what?” I asked. It was tough keeping myself from grimacing knowing I wasn’t going to like the answer.

“Why take you on your first shopping trip of course!” She exclaimed. “Your Mom knows all the in and outs of how a girl is supposed to behave, but not so much about how college girls dress in the new millennium. I love your Mom, but she is sooo last century!”

What followed is one of the weirdest and strangest events of my life and that’s including my unexpected metamorphosis at Angels Thirty. We met back up the next morning, and I got a crash course in shopping, girl style.

I hated, but enjoyed it at the same time. For one this was the first time I spent much time without my ‘Larry’ disguise in public, and it felt so good to ‘unbind’ my chest.

Chloe took us straight into Victoria Secrets. What an oxymoron! With clothes like these nothing was a secret! Trust me, they weren’t hiding anything. After learning more about styles of bras and panties than I ever wanted to know, I think we hit every store in the Mall.

It felt a bit like being a voyeur, dressing up this absolute knockout of a woman, but since she was also me, I hated all the putting and taking off of the truckloads of stuff Chloe kept passing to me to try on. Plus, I don’t even want to think about all the stares I got from all the guys. Having been one only a few days before, I knew exactly why they were looking. Twice I headed to the restrooms fighting nausea from the very thought. At least being sick reassured me that men did absolutely nothing for me. Thank Gawd for small favors. Never mind that Terra said that could change over time.

The bad was I missed out on lunch while busy retching. I think it was that, the combination of hunger and brain overload that let me goof so badly. Of course, I figured out too late that my cousin set me up, but I must say it wasn’t an auspicious beginning for keeping my secrets, much less doing the Clark Kent thing.

The second I walked in carrying those shopping bags, I knew I was busted. There was Mom.

I could tell it would be a complete waste of time trying to explain why her son Larry was toting a double armload of shopping bags full of women’s things.

“Is there something you would like to tell me?” She asked, with one quirked eyebrow.

Chloe cut me a look. I knew what she wanted me to do. Besides, I’d never lied to my parents about any of this. I simply hadn’t volunteered the truth.

Sighing, I asked, “When is Dad due home? It would be easier to tell you both at once.”

Reluctantly Mom nodded her assent. She saw the logic of my request even though she really wanted to know right this very minute.

That’s when Chloe rescued me from the so very awkward moment.

“Aunt Lora, we’re going upstairs to put all this away.” She said, grabbing my arm.

Safely out of sight I turned to her, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Chloe said, but then surprised me with another hug. Apparently women were a lot more …tactile than guys. Not that it wasn’t nice, but it would take some getting used to. “I know how hard it is coming out of the closet. I’m not going anywhere.”

Setting the all the bags on my bed, she began pulling stuff out.

Staring at the remains of all of my Christmas money as well as a big chunk of my savings, I had to ask. “Okay why do I need all of this stuff when this can just make it for me?” I flashed my junior GL ring.

Chloe hopped up next to our shopping facing me.

“There’re a couple of reasons,” she replied counting them off on her fingers. “One, shopping is a social and bonding activity for women and one you need to become familiar with.

“Two,” she continued. “Even women who aren’t girly girls know all about bras, panties, and other things like that, if for no other reason, because they know the things they do and don’t like. You’re totally clueless about it all. I like really feminine things, but I’m still learning too.

“Three,” Chloe held up another finger. “You have a big challenge in front of you, and I’m hoping to find things that you’ll like about all of this that’ll make it a little easier.

She patted the bed urging me to sit next to her.

Sighing, I complied not sure I wanted to hear this.

“From what you’ve told me, you’re well and truly stuck like this.” Chloe took m hand. “Your choices are to try and adapt or appear to everyone like a really butch woman. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but you know the way people are. Going that route cuts you off from certain choices or at the very least makes them harder because of people's prejudices.

“You’re like me in a lot of way, but you’re also the exact opposite.” She sighed. “You don’t know anymore about how to pass as a woman then I did when I started. Oh, I had some ideas, but they were almost all wrong."

I saw the spark as she got an idea.

“Have you ever heard that saying about Great Britain and the United States; Two nations separated by a common language?” She asked.

Nodding, I replied, “Yeah. Although we both speak English, our cultures are different enough that it’s hard to really understand each other. Just watching BBC America can tell you that.”

“Exactly!” She laughed. “That’s how men and women are. We speak the same language, but each really does have their own culture.”

The she turned serious. “Forget all those TV shows and movies that seems to think the only things a man needs to pass as a woman is a dress, makeup and talking in a falsetto.

“Did you see a few women looking at you curiously at the mall? Although no one in million years would think that hard body of yours is anything, but female, you were still giving off the wrong signals.” Chloe explained.

“Like what for instance?” I didn’t think I’d been that bad. Yeah, I did see some curious expressions especially from the older shop keepers, but I didn’t think anything of it.

“Like everything!” Chloe exclaimed. “The way you talked. Your word choices and inflection were all guy. I’m not even going to go into how you walk or the way you flopped into that chair at the food court.

I winced.

“That bad?” I asked dreading the answer.

“That bad,” she confirmed and looked at me as if searching for something.

“I bet,” she began. “That you had some idea of doing the Superman thing. Here is mild mannered student Larry Danvers, but after a quick change in the phone booth here is Supergirl!”

I winced again. Thank you but I’d about all the Supergirl stuff that I could handle given Alex, Alana, and a certain five year old girl that’d told the whole world that Supergirl had saved the day.

However, Chloe was right. That had been my thought. Larry was a guy, and Supergirl was, well, a girl. The perfect disguise right?

I didn’t need to say anything, she just shook her head.

“Cousin, I love you to death, but boy are you dense sometimes. Have you ever been in a locker room and seen how guys zero in on anyone different? Having been the victim I can tell how. Without the clothes giving gender clues it’s all about body language. That’s how I outed you. That ring can make you look like the old Larry, but it can’t make you move that way.” Chloe glared at me.

“Your little charade might last for a while, but it would only be a matter of time before someone worked it out. MIT doesn’t exactly have a reputation for graduating idiots. And that’s another thing. Once your Supergirl pops up, you’re going to have the entire campus rubbing their hands together in glee at the challenge of figuring out who you are. If you’re going to make this work, you’re going to have to be way more sneakier, cousin of mine.

“Then you have the government,” Chloe rolled her eyes.

I choked, “The Government?”

“Already there are noises on Capitol Hill about regulating and controlling Metas. Talk is that there will be an agency to register and control any emerging Meta. Supposedly, it would be to help and support new Meta's, but I don't trust any bureaucracy as far as I could throw it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t already looking for you.” She folded her arms after making her point.

Oh boy, that wasn’t good. Mom and Dad might be the biggest liberals in town, but our family had a strong Jewish background even if we never practiced. We remembered all too well the lessons imparted by Nazi Germany. That registration thing just was not going to go over well.

Then it hit me, Meta-gene. If I had it then other members of my family might too. This could bring a lot of attention not just to me, but our entire family. Heck, our entire town, given how everyone here was related to each other. Who knows, maybe the Meta-gene doesn’t work that way given how rare its expression is, but no way was I going to be part of directing official attention at people I cared about. I firmly believed the government works best when it’s bothering someone else.

With a long sigh, I asked, “Okay you’ve made your point. Do you have any suggestions?

Chloe’s evil smile really made me regret asking.

“Do you have pen and paper?” She asked with unholy glee. “One of the things your plan was missing was you need to make time to come to terms with the girl thing.”

She held up a hand seeing my objection. “Yeah, I understand you want to complete your degree as Larry as well as having to lay low to catch that high tech terrorist of yours. However, you have to think of your mental health too, and making time to do that is also important.

“I’m not too sure about you trying to be the super spy, but you do have that Green Lantern watching your back as well as being near invulnerable.” She shrugged. “That’s between you and your parents.

“What I would suggest is take as much of the attention off of your Larry identity as you can. I think you can do both at the same time by setting up a civilian identity as a woman. That way you get to practice at being a woman as well as if you do have do your Supergirl thing everyone will think it’s her and not you. Even better if you make her so in-the-face and outrageous no one will even dare think of anyone, but her as that crazy blond flying around.”

“And how would I go about doing that?” I asked half-appalled at the thought. I barely had any free time at all during the school term. MIT wasn’t known for slacker course work either.

“It’s easy,” Chloe giggled really getting into it. “All you need is to come up with a false ID card like everyone does for getting into bars. Maybe add a fake school ID too. Even better find a nearby college with someone with the same name you’re posing as and fake their ID. We could even build you a legend like out of the spy thrillers. Come up with an entire background for you.”

“I don’t know, Chloe,” I told her shaking my head. “That sounds really complicated, and I spend most of my time studying anyways.”

“That’s why it’ll be perfect!” She exclaimed, excitedly. “If we get you an apartment in the area you could say you’re roommates. Hey, we could make her,” she made ditto marks with her hands, “Your cousin. That would explain why the two of you have the same accents and talk the same. With both of your ID’s in school, you can always say the other is off studying. It’s a great excuse!”

“An apartment!” My poor mind was boggled. “And who is going to pay for it? It’s only because of the scholarship that I’m at MIT at all. Do you have any idea what the cost of living expenses are like at Cambridge?”

“You’re going to need a place by yourself anyways. Maybe that ring can make you look male, but you’re still female. Unless your Jovians don't ovulate, you’re going to start having periods. No way are you going to be able to hide that in a dorm full of guys.” She folded her arms.

I must’ve made quite the face judging from her laughter. Periods? I hadn’t even thought about that. While I might be able to carry out my disguise in public, private was something else. While I could adjust my actual weight, that’s only when conscious. Sleeping, I made a 360 pound depression in the mattress, and while they might be designed for more, all that weight was in the compact form that resembled Marilyn Monroe. Mom had already almost discovered me once like that. Additionally, every bed for me it was like sleeping on a ridiculous soft marshmallow that kinda swallowed me up. So yes, she did have a point.

Unfortunately, so did I. Finances was a big issue.

“I don’t suppose you can squeeze coal into diamonds?” She asked hopefully.

The bad science of the mere thought hurt, but I kept my mouth shut shaking my head, no.

Mom and Dad made pretty good money at the Agri-corp lab where they worked, but the Boston area was very expensive compared to Kansas!

Maybe there was some other way of using my new abilities to help out with things. I had to say however, it wasn’t appealing. It was like it was cheating somehow. On the other hand, this was at least a little like being a real spy. If I wanted to catch that murder, I would have to do things I didn’t like.

“Larry!” My Mom called. “Your father is home.”

Near invulnerable or not my face paled.

Chloe gave me the look.

“Come on. It’s not that bad.” She encouraged. “Besides I’ll be right there with you.”

“Really,” I asked.

“Really, Silly,” Chloe replied hopelessly trying to pull me up.

Taking a deep breath, I reduced my weight so she could.

“Okay,” I replied feeling worse then when my dog and I had trampled Mrs. Kravitz’s flowers way back in the fourth grade. At least then it had really been my fault, not like now.

All the way down the stairs, Chloe was right behind me, as if I was going to make a break for it. I wasn’t, but this was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Not making it easy on me, Mom and Dad were simply sitting there waiting for me.

“Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you.” I said, feeling my mouth go dry. It was nice to know I was still human enough for that. Come on, I can do this.

Dad just raised an eyebrow during my retelling, but Mom made him sit next to her. Afterwards, she had a hold on me and just wasn’t going to let go. He however always was practical.

“I understand Larry, that you’re still using this Jade’s disguise. Can you show us what you really look like now?”

While I fumbled for an answer, Chloe interrupted.

“Uncle Joel, if I may. Having gone though something like this myself I would suggest you let Larry change out of sight this first time. I think his just changing right in front you would be a shock. This whole changing gender thing can really mess with your perceptions. Better to take this slow.” She explained, taking my hand.

I knew she was being a little pushy, but she had after all had some experience in all of this, sorta kinda. Mom really didn’t want to let go, but I smiled at her.

“It’s okay, Mom.” I reassured her. “I go around the corner and drop the magic ring thing.”

Reluctantly, looking over at Dad she let go.

The moment we were out of sight, it hit me. What in the world was I going to wear? The whole oh-my-Gawd girly-thing thought had me almost in hysterics.

Chloe, seeing my distress, calmed me.

“Easy Larry,” she whispered. “Just go ahead and change. We’ll work out the rest.”

Walking back out to meet my parents, I was dressed the same as before as Larry, but, thanks to Jade’s ring, it all had a feminine cut. In other words, everything fit. Okay, I did take the bondage gear off the ‘girls’ if you know what I mean. Having them restrained wasn’t comfortable at all!

“Here I am,” I announced uncertainly.

Dad just kinda stared dumbfounded, but Mom got up and walked to me. Then she hugged me.

“So that’s what I’ve been feeling,” she said looking down at my protrusions.

Blushing so red that Chloe, beside me, laughed, I nodded.

Carefully, I hugged her back. The acceptance made my worries disappear.

“Joel, come over here and meet our daughter,” Mom asked Dad, but I could hear the steel in her voice.

It scared me some the way Dad just looked at me, but then he smiled. I guess he was looking for some sign of me in this blond bombshell I was now.

“She has your eyes, Lora.” He said holding out his arms.

As Larry it’d been forever since I’d hugged my Dad. Somehow as a guy, I’d grown beyond that. All right, I admitted there was something good about this girl thing. I might be stronger than he was, but just letting myself be loved was nice.

The rest of the conversation however, wasn’t. They weren’t happy at all about me being the stalking horse for terrorists. That wasn’t all either.

Mom and Dad did get into it. If she had her way, I would be at home and not at MIT. He pointed out that I was an adult and that I’d worked hard for my achievements. However, he wasn’t any more pleased about me planning to spread myself really thin trying to keep up with my school work, and deal with my new life far from home and support network. Mom countered that was why I needed to be home so she could help me.

Somehow, I convinced them this was something I had to do. After all we had no idea of why I was apparently targeted. Whoever it was might decide to come after me no mater where I was. Additionally, as fast as I could fly, home as well as Chloe was only an hour or less away. That also brought up the fact that I had other Metas on ring-speed-dial. Not only in case of Mr. Terrorist trouble, but in case I needed girl help too.

So not happily, but they did agree with me. Of course they insisted on helping me refine my plans, which wasn’t totally a bad thing. I did need the help. It was them that suggested I run my plans by Jade.

Honestly, I don’t know how she has even time enough to sleep. If it’s not one emergency after another, she's off trying to help us Metas. “Oops, landslide in Chile, gotta run, and after that Thor-girl has got to go shopping. Have you seen her wardrobe?”

However, despite that Chloe had an idea of how Jade and I could help each other.

After my dear cousin’s thoughts about me squeezing coal into diamonds flopped, she got to thinking about things I could do that no one else could. She came up with Space Junk. I had to admit that she had something there. LEO is lousy with debris, but most of it is so small I couldn’t do anything about it. We’re talking about paint chips, dust from solid rocket boosters and tiny other bits and pieces less than one centimeter. Don’t think that because it’s small that it’s not dangerous. At orbital velocities that stuff is like bullets or the mother of all sandblasters. On the other hand, the bigger stuff I could do something about and at least some it of was valuable.

Chloe’s thought was I could clean up some of that junk, and let Jade broker the valuable pieces for me. Her ring would let her be nearly the perfect middle man keeping my identity safe.

Hearing the idea, Jade did it one better setting it up on an automatic Ebay account. I simply asked my ring to enter the new item, and let them handle the rest. Where to store the stuff until the bidding was done, was an issue. However, if there was one thing Kansas had plenty of, it was cornfields and barns.

As for delivery, I did it myself using an all black body suit patterned on that ski-suit I’d borrowed that stewardess. Yes, I did return it, but I kinda liked the all black thing, and when I added a mirrored full face shield, I felt easier now that my identity was safe. Hey, plus when I really moved, even on camera’s I wasn’t anything more than a blur.

My first job was recovering some tools and other odds and ends the friendly people at the International Space Station had managed to accidentally lose. I still had misgivings using my talents for profit, but like Chloe said, “A girl has to eat.” Flying was still a blast and fortunately most of the stuff was being tracked. The one piece I had trouble finding, Jade finally gave in and pointed it out to me.

Then it was simply a matter of warning the ISS I was coming so they didn’t freak out. Tethering the stuff onto one of their ELC, External Logistics Carriers, so they could use their robotic arm to bring it inside, my job was done.

The total value of all that was a couple hundred grand and that wasn’t counting the cost of lifting it to orbit. I’m not saying how much, but the recovery was enough to take care of my expenses for the next semester.

It should’ve gone even further, but this double life of mine was beginning to look expensive. Two sets of everything, one for Larry, and one for her. Clothes, bedroom stuff, and everything needed to make it look like two people were living in that apartment really added up.

Then I have to have yet a third for the super-me. The clothes made by Jade’s magic ring were nice, but it really didn’t seem like I was wearing anything at all. Thank you very much, but I needed something that felt like I had clothes on. Chloe had some ideas about that, but I had my doubts about letting a reporter pick out my wardrobe. Flashy really wasn’t my thing!

With all of that, my holiday was over before it’d felt like it’d begun. Chloe did help me do a little apartment looking in Cambridge although she swore she was never flying with me again. My gravity field thing is no where near as good a ride as Jade’s green bubble thing. Think sedan as compared to a motorcycle. I don’t think my cousin stopped screaming the whole all the way there. On the way back, I took it a lot easier; something for which she thanked me later.

I guess not everyone likes kicking it vertical at mach 5 to sub-orbital and then a straight drop right back down to mother Earth. Hey, my grav field protected both of us and had a trapped pocket of air for her.

All Chloe did was mutter something about that romantic scene in ’Superman; The Movie’ not being all it was cracked up to be.

However, it was time to stay on the ground. I hailed a cab to take me to my new home for the next few months. It’d taken Chloe and me a lot of looking to find the right place. My new digs were on the top floor of an old brick warehouse converted into apartments years ago. A major selling point was the windows opened wide enough for me to fly in and out, which wasn’t minor detail in this age of energy efficiency. Not only was there not a view, it opened out onto a dark alley, which assured me that there would be few witnesses of me coming and going though sky-port Danvers.

Okay, it wasn’t the Fortress of Solitude, but it would do. I had a ton of work and the term hadn't even started yet. Unpacking for two, as well as getting ready for classes. This was going to be a very busy year.

Alex Thorul- Imagine my surprise when I first met Larry’s cousin. She was so like Supergirl, all she needed was the costume.

This a fanfic of Lilith Langtree's Retcon Universe. All the Characters within belongs to someone else such as DC or Marvel comics. With that in mind this story still belongs to me and I reserve all rights to repost.

It is not for profit, simply for fun. Insert standard disclaimer! A big thanks goes to djkauf for looking this over for mistakes.

Alex Thorul-
Imagine my surprise when I first met Larry’s cousin. She was so like Supergirl, all she needed was the costume. Long blond hair, eyes so blue they were like sapphires, and last, but not least, a body built for sin.

“Hi, I’m Carol, Larry’s cousin.” She said with that same mid-western twang.

“I’m Alex and this is Alana.” This had to be the one who screwed up my plan, but I never expected her to be anything like this. There was this innocent nervousness that was utterly captivating, but at the same time she was dressed to show off that previously mentioned hot body of hers.

I never had a problem with attracting the attention of the opposite sex. All I had to do was pick and choose which one I wanted to sample. While other boys got the Birds and the Bees talk from their Fathers, I got the Connoisseurs’ version from mine. As an ex-pro ball player, he’d had to fight off groupies, and fans trying to get into his pants.

Since I took after my Dad in looks, he taught me how to use that to my advantage. Sure maybe women have that reputation of using their appearance to get ahead, but he showed me how men do it too. Tall, muscular men are imposing and make an impression on everyone. That’s why I followed his example and went with the shaved head. It made me stand out even more and that gave me an advantage.

It was the kind of advantage he used on the playing field, in college, in the bedroom and finally in the boardroom. It’d landed him Mom as his wife as well as a top position in one of the top 500 companies in the world.

The wise son took notice.

“Oh, he said something about some friends coming by to study.” She said grabbing her purse. “He’ll be out in a second, but I have to run. It was nice meeting you however, I have my own study group to get to. Catch you later.”

I watched her as she waved bye and headed for the door. As much as I wanted a piece of that, I couldn’t help but notice the competition. Alana was nearly drooling watching Larry’s cousin’s derriá¨re sway in those tight jeans. Yes, she was wearing heels, and not the universal cross trainers of most coeds. Yes, competition, because when this Carol had waved bye, she did it looking the lipstick lesbian in the eyes. And no, I wasn’t the one wearing lipstick.

After the door shut, I tested the waters.

“So that’s Larry’s cousin,” I remarked. “Not what I was expecting.” Wasn’t that an understatement. I’d searched the internet for information about her, after leaving Larry at Logan International. What I’d found was a whole lot of nothing. That was close to impossible in this age of social networking. For a young college girl not to have an account where she could work out her texting addiction bordered on the completely impossible.

There were several Carol’s in the Boston area including one going to school here in Cambridge. However, she wasn’t from Kansas, and Larry’s cousin spoke with the same twang he did.

“Uh uh.” Alana replied dazed, failing to hide her interest.
Was it possible that Larry and this girl could be the same person? There were some reports that Terra had some way of disguising herself, but there wasn’t any proof. Certainly, if Jade was involved she could provide some type of device considering the level of technology available to her.

“Hiya, guys!” Larry greeted coming out of his room. “Carol leave already?”
Okay, maybe not. She would have to go upstairs to the roof. Fly down to the outside window without being seen. And then change clothes as well back into Larry. All in the scant few seconds while Alana and I had been standing here. I think not.

Alana nodded trying to pull herself together.

However, I had to keep from laughing. How would the poor smuck react to his cousin having a better shot at Alana than he did?
“Hey, you two want anything to drink before we start?” He asked. The typically clueless Larry.

I found myself looking at the door. Who are you, Carol Danvers?

Larry/Carol Danvers

Not this again, I moaned to myself as I heard the screams.
Alana and I had just left Alex from our study group at MIT's Hayden library. She was in good spirits, but while we got a lot done, I was conflicted. The reason we left together was because we had a date, sort of, kind of. By that I meant she had plans to go out with Carol and not Larry. Sure it was only a shopping trip, and I was really thankful that Chloe had introduced me to how women preformed that activity.

But …, no matter how you wanted to say it, this girl I was crushing on so bad, was more interested in girl-me rather than boy-me. It was messing with my head regardless of the little fact that both me's were, well, me.
To put the crowning touch on it, the past few weeks had seen a series of really weird accidents that I'd suspected wasn't accidental at all.

Mysterious things like experiments gone crazy like the AI lab that had impossibly taken over the building's systems causing elevators to malfunction and the fire control systems to activate.

Or…like now more runaway robots. The dozen or so people were running at us being pursued by these sphere shaped, beach ball sized machines. I counted at least nine of the things and from the way they moved together I guessed they were part of some kind of corporative and possibly a distributed network.

A sharp crackle of electricity, followed by a yell of pain informed me that at least this time they weren't designed for the local robot wars crowd. Flamethrowers and chainsaws, you just had to love MIT sometimes.
Maybe given the cattle prods this group was intended for herding or perhaps crowd control. I would've been much happier if the designers here remembered Asimov when building these things.

Alana stared at the sight in front us.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She exclaimed staring at the scene right out of a really bad Sci-Fi channel movie.

I grabbed her hand.

"Run!" I shouted. Sure I told Jade I wouldn't go looking for trouble, but it seemed it had come looking for me. I'd helped out few people having problems because I simply couldn’t stand around and do nothing when I could help. The dilemma with that was because of my keen Jovian senses I was a lot more aware when there was something happening that needed a helping hand.

The other difficulty was that I was about 99% dead certain that someone was causing all these weird happenings on campus. It was still early days, but this could be my terrorist. However, if so they were being very cagey.

Jade had found traces of that alien tech on campus, but was unable to localize it. Even with her resources the damn things were hard to detect. The bad news was if the nanites were the cause, it was going to be very difficult bringing this to a stop.
First thing, however, I had to stop this incident, and to do that I needed to get Alana to safety as well as a little privacy for a half second.

Seeing a group of gawkers peering out a door, Alana needed no encouragement once I pointed it out to her. Both of us ran past them, but as she turned to look behind us at the spectacle, I deliberately let go of her hand, letting the crowd trying to see what was going on, separate us.

It was a simple matter to leave out the other entrance while everyone else rushed forward. Trust me, it really wasn't like lemmings hurrying to their doom. You have to remember that this was MIT and if there was one thing everyone here had in common, it was curiosity!

As for me, I triggered my change as I opened the door. My Junior GL secret decoder ring had me in my work uniform. Okay, it was only an illusion because I was really still in my usual sweater and jeans. My real work clothes were hidden back in my apartment.

They were something that Chloe had somehow gotten that were made by Queen industries. The all black one piece jumpsuit was very tough stuff and official available only to military, police and other law enforcement agencies, so just how she managed it was something I didn't want to think about too much.

On the other hand, real clothes were better than the ring's normal illusions. When I could I wore outfits made the old fashioned way since I enjoyed the comfortable sensation of actually being clothed. However, sometimes, like now, you just had to make do with what you had.

Glancing down at my chest, I still had reservations about the motif Chloe had added. Very vocally, she objected to the plain black I preferred. Personally, I thought it looked rather cool. You know that whole good guys wear black thing. She didn't see it that way saying that I needed something that would stand out.

My protests that I already was standing way too far out as it was pointing at my 'girls' fell on deaf ears. You would think I would've learned by now that arguing with her was a losing proposition. Finally I talked her down to simply adding a silver insignia.

It didn’t escape me just how much her simple 'lightning bolt' looked like a stylized 'S.' How many times do I need to say it?
"I'm not Supergirl!" I cursed louder than I intended, leaping upward into the sky.
Half looping and rolling, I Immelmann turned back over the building I'd just left. Then I dived, buzzing the 'bots letting my grav-field bounce them around. I figured their computers would need time to adjust to their new locations. That was good because I needed a chance to work out how to handle this.

Easy would be to use what cousin Chloe called the Death From Above maneuver. Fly up and using my own mass as well as my flight, and land on them smashing them flat.

Easy yes, but I couldn't help but wince at the thought. Each one of those beach balls were hand built by my fellow students. In some cases, even the circuit boards were hand soldered. A lot of work and labor went into each one, and that's counting the fact that their grades may depend on those things as well.

Zap!

"Ouch!" I flinched as one of the prods flicked out at me. It really startled me rather than hurt. They'd recovered faster than I'd believed. That was a problem because I still hadn't worked out a solution other than Crush-Kill-Destroy.

On the other hand, I needed to wrap this up quick. Those cattle prods weren't lethal, but several students had been hurt. Mostly I suspect from the panic, but these things were still the cause. The campus cops was sounding the look-down; an unpleasant reality of all colleges in the 21st century due to school shootings.

Buzzing them again to keep them off balance, I shaped a rough gravity field lens that let me get an up close and personal look at one of the killer beach balls. The clear material let the gyro-stabilized cameras inside see out as well as keeping the primary bus and control unit reasonably level and centered.

Down the center was a traction strip it rolled on, but that wasn't what I was looking for. Ah, there on the right side of that was a shiny silver border going all the way around too, the antenna.

Focusing my eyes, I shifted to active infrared. A puff of smoke and the unit rolling to a stop announced I'd been on target. Being a distributed network each one I took out reduced the operating capacity of the whole.
Now to take care of the other eight.

Alex Thorul-

Who are you, Carol Danvers?

That was still my question when The Blur began making their appearance. At first no one really believed it, but after a few people were saved, it became inescapable. Boston had a superhero. Or perhaps if I was correct a super-heroine?

Disappointingly it wasn’t a red and blue blur like out of the Smallville TV program, but a black and silver one. Even more discouragingly, despite nearly everyone carrying a camera phone these days, no one managed to get a good picture.

Now I’d seeded some more of my little friends about, because frankly, having access to nearly every memory storage device on campus was very useful. However, they began disappearing. No warning, just gone. Sure it was easy to replicate more, but it meant someone was on to me, and that wasn’t good.

Mother would be so disappointed in me if I broke the family motto. “Thou shall not get caught.”

I’d even tossed a few at Larry and Carol’s place, but with the same result. That made it so tempting to just cover the whole of Cambridge to see the where this nanite eater effect was centralized, but again the risk dissuaded me.

Getting caught was one thing, but I had to remember that while they were my little friends, these friends had their own agenda. Turning Greater Boston into Gray Goo wasn’t a part of my intentions, but who could be sure of theirs?

Sighing, I settled for setting photo traps. Oh, nothing really bad. Just a few arranged accidents with a lot of recording devices to catch all the action and details.

Damn it, but didn’t The Blur prove to be a very cagey adversary. So I planted a few rumors to get the campus looking at the mystery as a challenge. That was more successful yielding some better resolution images, but opening up more questions.

Instruments did register some bizarre changes in gravity during appearances of The Blur as well some other effects that couldn't be explained. Of course, I though immediately of Larry’s end of term project, the Jovians. However, I’d pretty much proven he couldn't be The Blur. Now Carol was still a prime candidate, but again I had problems confirming or denying that hypothesis.

The records I’d found of the only Carol Danvers in the area said she was a Boston native, but a casual inquiry explained her accent by her spending summers with family in Kansas. She was also in Air Force ROTC with the goal of becoming a pilot. However conversations confirmed that she was well versed in aeronautics. Then again, Larry might be coaching her which put me back to square one.

I considered simply asking her to date, but I, again, disliked putting myself in harm’s way just in case she really was The Blur. Preferring to work behind the scenes, I instead nudged Alana into spending time with Larry’s cousin. Planting listening devices on her was much more rewarding, and I got a chance to pump her about their dates.

That worked better than I anticipated. They both were smitten with each other, but never consummated their attraction. It did let me find out that during every appearance of The Blur, Carol went missing for a time. Not a 'smoking gun' since I couldn’t monitor her 24/7, but it was more than I had before.

That left me with engineering bigger and better bait. The first was just a runaway robot armed with an assortment of power tools. What was the fun in playing Robot Wars when you couldn’t attack the other team holding the remote?

Of course, The Blur arrived saving the day, but while more information was gathered, however, none was conclusive. Before I would try eliminating someone else I had to be absolutely certain of my information and the outcome. Considering the force I calculated necessary to remove someone like one of Larry's Jovians it would be spectacular to say the very least. That meant it would draw a lot of attention which also meant I would only get one opportunity.

That criteria demanded more experiments. Exploding labs, more runaway experiments, and any other sort of mayhem I could imagine.

Each and every time The Blur did her thing, yes, her. Finally I got a half-way decent image. It took a super high speed digital camera and more computer time than I want to admit cleaning up said image, but I got a picture. And it did me absolutely no good. How dare she wear a mask!

And not one of those flimsy things from the comic books either. This thing covered her entire head leaving only a mirrored shield. No facial recognition software was going to help me with that! When I had a brainstorm and used her body, it came up with Marilyn Monroe, for Gawd’s sake.

Based on the body alone, The Blur might be Carol Danvers, but again nothing solid. Merely on circumstantial evidence Carol was still looking like my best choice. However, I actually saw her get cut so which would seem to rule out her being the bulletproof Blur, but there are ways that could be faked. It all came down to the old 'she knows that I know, that she knows' if you understand my meaning.

I was considering ways of obtaining a DNA sample when the playing field changed. It seemed that all of my 'investigative' efforts had attracted the law enforcement attention. I wasn’t concerned about forensic evidence since my little friends served quite well as a cut out. But The Blur’s activities had also bought in the DMA as well as other three letter agencies.

The absolute strangest thing was my big break came not from one with three letters, but one with four, NASA. It seems one black suited woman with a silver face mask had been collecting and clearing space junk for them. Recently, she’d offered to bring back Vanguard One for them so they could study how being in orbit for 50 years had affected it. Of course they had leaped at the opportunity, and of more interest to me, she’d been paid for it.

Happily, I followed the money. Right up to the point I hit Jade-at-Green Lantern dot org. Information went in, but I couldn’t track what went out. Unsurprisingly, given the name, it was a data black hole, no doubt protected by alien computer technology. It did prove a connection between Jade and The Blur, something of which I helpfully passed on to all the interested three letter organizations.

It isn’t I’m the helpful citizen. In the last few months, they’d all become far less enthusiastic over the woman in green. Because of that they were more motivated to hunt down this so mysterious Meta. Maybe the DMA was formed to help developing Metas, but they certainly didn’t seem adverse to using them when it served their purposes either.

Besides, with them on campus I could cut back on my own efforts and concentrate on other things. It was so nice to see someone else's tax dollars at work.

A project that I'd been working on for some time was my own further development of Larry’s symbiotic concept. Setting up the lab was the hardest part of the whole undertaking. It didn’t need the full bio-hazard protections that working with nanites required. I after all had my little friends. The problem was before I would risk my one and only body with them, they had to be not only my friends, but utterly and completely my servants.

That meant overriding their existing programs which meant I needed computer power, and I do mean a lot of it. However, I also had need of facilities needed to grow the biological components. Can you say MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering? In this particular case, I needed skin.

The largest organ of the body, it protects the under lying tissues from the environment. In short anything that could harm yours truly had to get though that first. My symbiote would serve as an additional layer of protection between the world and me, but yet still let me have full use of all my senses. Actually, I went a step even further improving upon what nature gave us by giving me night vision, better hearing, and even a keener sense of smell.

And the best part was that it would live off of my secretions, and what it came into contact with on an everyday basis. I could live with it, but it couldn’t live without me, perfect!

But first I had to do some reprogramming. It’s amazing what you can find in Kansas farm fields. One of Mother’s agri-corp robotic harvesters found the alien artifact, but it was me who recognized just what it was. It must’ve been a spacecraft, but it come out the worse after that fender bender with planet Earth. It took me all of about a minute and half to say that it was not part of the Space Shuttle Columbia just now showing up.

My parents, never ones to miss an opportunity, immediately slapped it under so much security no one had a clue for what was really going on. My own involvement was rather short lived. Once I got a really good look at it, and told my Parental Units, they knew they simply didn’t have the resources to exploit this properly.

I knew it too, which was why I dug for all I was worth while I had the chance. The really remarkable thing was that it was alive in its own way. One big mass of nanites differentiated into specialized tasks. What grabbed me the most was the central mass which was nothing more than a huge very protected and extremely advanced memory storage unit.

Imagine an entire world digitized. Every life form, pebble, and drop of water preserved in a still active matrix, an electronic miniature world. Of course, I named it Kandor after the city Brainiac had captured in the Superman comics. What’s more there wasn’t just that one, but hundreds of captured worlds.

Then my Uncle came on the scene. My grandparents had cut us off from the massive corporation they controlled, but Mother now had something he wanted. She knew how to play hardball and kept the majority of control researching this fallen serendipity. However, once the paid brains descended upon us, I got patted on the head and told to run along and play.

Knowing better than to even try and cross Mother, I passed along to her everything I’d found. Most, but not all, because I did keep my samples. Building upon my earlier successes, I learned how to communicate and gained some measure of control. Ambitious yes, but I was unwilling to let Earth become yet another file in that alien ship.

A big question was why it hadn’t repaired itself yet. I had to wonder at the timing of it all. From the estimated time it’d dug out a crater in that cornfield, to the moment Jade revealed herself was only a few months. Were the two events were related? These Green Lanterns did present themselves as some kind of Intergalactic cops.

Did she or perhaps another Green Lantern shoot it down? If as I suspect that Kandor wasn’t simply recorded, but captured much like that bottled city then I can see Brainiac being a very real threat, Grand Theft Planet! I can understand why for after all, why collect something if it isn’t one of a kind. Then again, I wouldn’t want it happening to any world I was on, thank you very much.

That was why I had to be careful. That’s not talking about the other problems. For some reason the symbiote matrix didn’t want to accept my DNA. It kept differentiating back into the separate stands I’d inherited from Father or Mother. I highly regard both of my parents, but I have no desire to look like either one of them. The symbiote’s external appearance needed to be indistinguishable from my own unique self.

The latest was another failure. This one already had the beginnings of Mother’s auburn hair follicles. On the other hand, each generation allowed me to refine its other properties. I suppose any other research project would be proud to have created a new life form. However, I had higher standards.

I allowed it to continue to develop so I could evaluate if tweaks in other areas were needed. While it was cooking, so to speak, I went back to hacking alien computer code. There was the core kernels that I’d isolated. Preparing my assault, I launched the first wave designed to tie up resources while I carefully segregated each sector. It is far easier to divide and conqueror after all.

Everything was going well until I hit some kind of trip wire. The best I could describe it would be a computer code version of the dead-man switch. After losing touch with either a certain number of modules, or perhaps a specific one, it initialized a self-destruct.

Under the electron microscope, the nanite exploded. Not a problem since it was so small, but then the one next to it followed suit. There was thousands of nanites in that sample. There were millions, hundreds of millions, no billions in this lab helping me with one project or another. If they all went in a chain…

I threw myself to the floor just as the entire high voltage microscope blew. My little friends had suffered a temper tantrum, it appeared. Next, the desktop I used to scan all the pirated data I’d collected on campus went up like a bomb. It was a good thing I kept off site backups.
The fire sprinklers went off as I crawled towards the exit. My laptop went off next, my backpack not even close to containing the blast. Eying the burning fragments of what was left of my custom machine and school books, I decided the window was a better bet.

Then there she was. She stood for a fraction of a second evaluating the situation, The Blur. I knew she wasn’t that tall, only about 5’6”, however that black outfit of hers couldn’t disguise her figure silhouetted in front of the window she’d just entered. A large stylized Ess shaped lightning bolt was centered on her costume which explained the silver part of the Blur along with her mirrored face shield. If I’d only known that all I had to do was blow myself up to meet her!

I blinked and she was right beside me. Scooping me up as if my solid 245 lbs were nothing, she turned to leave when the ‘skin’ I had cooking went.
And I was right in front of it.

The last thing I remember is a muttered, “Oh shit” from her. Well, she sure had that part right.

The lights didn’t go out. They exploded into a sun consuming me.

Larry/Carol Danvers-

I sat on the edge of Massachusetts General worried about my friend. Hell, I didn’t know for sure he really was or not, a friend that is. Things kept going back and forth so much I didn’t know what to think. He’d encouraged Alana to date me, I mean Carol, but then he started this contest like let’s find out who The Blur really is. Then he’s all nice again, but watch out here are the Feds and it looks like he’s feeding them information all about yours truly.

Sighing, I had to admit, I made a very poor secret agent. I had no more of an idea of who killed those people on that plane, then when I first started. I wasn’t even sure who I was sometimes. Was I Larry, Carol or maybe it’s The Blur now?

Well, I guess, I could take Alex off the suspect list since I very much doubt he would blow his own self up. However, I wondered just what he’d been working on? According to the lab log it was an artificial skin project, but something in there was sure as hell was a lot more volatile than the chemicals noted on the room’s hazardous materials list.

It was also a sure thing my terrorist was involved given the mountains of nanite parts I’d detected. Over the past year, I’d learned a lot. One of those things was how to tell when my own internal nanites detected intruders. Like a biological immune system, mine went after them like they were a virus.

At first I wasn’t sure he, she or it was the cause of some of the strangest incidents on campus. Even considering this was MIT, they were weird. I mean, runaway robots, like for real? But then it became clear that someone was engineering accidents just for me.

Behind me I heard the footsteps. I knew who was of course. The DMA had been putting pressure on me to participate in their program for some time now. Given my advantages, I’d been able to avoid them. However, several weeks ago they piled on more by strong arming NASA not to avail itself of my services anymore.

That relationship always had that good/bad thing going. I was always careful to only do things they absolutely couldn’t, like recovering those tools. Normally all NASA could do was chalk them up as lost. Being able to help out with those kinds of things was a good thing. Both of us won. They were actually saving money, and I got to practice using my abilities as well as make some money on the side.

However, I didn’t want them to grow to depend on me either. That was why I was picky when dealing with them. The other salvage was different. There was a learning curve knowing how to best dispose of the stuff. Put it up for bid or scrap it myself for whatever valuable materials I could and make sure the remains burned up.

I wondered if the DMA was going to pressure Ebay as well. Short term, I had a nice cushion built up. Flying around up there was both profitable and helped me worked off my frustrations. Considering Jade was really on the outs with like it seems like everyone, they might cut her site off.
I couldn’t help myself, but glance up at the moon. If you looked just right you could see just a tinge of color. Personally, it made me smile. Mars wasn’t up yet, but I knew Jade was there. She was living what I’d dreamed about my whole life, going out there, To Boldly Go.

Oh well, back to business. “The answer is no, Agent Carmichael. I choose not to avail myself of your agency’s services.”

“This isn’t a choice.” He gloated. “You’re required by law to register your real identity and address to the proper authorities, me.”

“You’re actually mistaken, Agent Carmichael.” I replied not turning to look at him. “I’ve read your charter. Your mission is to support and assist emerging Metas. No where is there a registration requirement. Unless of course you’re now working for the DEO. Theirs is much more open ended and open to interpretation. In any case, I choose not to participate.”

Opening my senses, I could taste the radio traffic buzzing busily all around me. Specifically, I was aware of the hidden earphone and sub-vocal mike on the man behind me. It was encrypted of course, but when your entire body is one big commune of nanites, you have a lot of computing power.

A group of four guys dressed in SWAT gear waited behind the stairway access about 25 meters away.

'Blue Two is in position.'

Another four had crept up using the industrial sized air-conditioning units for cover.

'Red Three, ready and willing.'

Two men, directly in front me on the building across the street, were observing me. One had a scoped sniper rifle and the other a spotter scope.

'Green Four. We have the target sighted and laid in.'

Of course, Agent Carmichael had to crisis manage everything himself.

'This is Gold One. All units hold fast for my signal.'

Somehow I kept from giggling. How Star Wars of them!

“If you don't, I’ll arrest you as a terrorist suspect for tonight’s bombing at MIT.” He tensed up. “We know who you are, Chloe Sullivan.”

Okay, I lost it, snorting. “I’m sure Miss Sullivan, whoever she is, will be very surprised to hear that. No, but please try, Agent Carmichael.”

Not being able to help myself I sent,'This is Red Five, I’m going in!'

It’s really not my fault that Chloe decided it was her gawd given duty to educate me in popular culture. Really I should’ve never let her know I could visit home so effortlessly. Hmm… maybe they managed to track my flight path somehow. In any case, if I know Chloe she was prepared for just about anything including this.

While Carmichael was sub-vocally freaking out, I called her. One of the other nice things I’d learned was how to listen to radio waves. It was simple to work out the cell phone system. Blue tooth had nothing on me. Look Ma, no hands!

Ringing:

Chloe: Hey Carol what’s up?

Me: Nothing much. Just wanted to let you know the DMA finally managed to corner me. Our friendly neighborhood terrorist struck again and put my friend Alex in the hospital. They caught me on the roof waiting for news.

Chloe: Oh no! Is he going to be alright?

Me: I hope so. He was crawling with nanites despite my immune system eating them up. Oh and get this.

Chloe: Yes?

Me: They think you’re The Blur.

Chloe: *Laughing* I only wish!

Me: At least you know who you are. I have to keep a play book handy just to make sure I’m who I’m supposed to be.

Chloe: Okay, that part I don’t envy you.

Me: Well, I’ve got to go, just wanted to let you know just in case they try anything.

Chloe: Thanks for the heads up, Carol. Sounds like a plan 34!

Me: No problem. I knew you had to have something prepared. Bye!

Chloe: Bye, bye, be careful.

Meanwhile my Agent Smith wannabe was having trouble trying to keep sub-vocalizing.

'This is Gold One. Whoever you are Red Five identify yourself!'

I raised my hand. Just in case, I bought up my grav field keeping it very close to me so the shear factor would work as a defense. I was only mostly bullet proof and that was an awful big rifle sitting over there. Against bullets it worked pretty good, but not so much versus standing in front of laboratories blowing up like small nukes.

“Why, Agent Carmichael are you trying to vote me off the planet?” I said aloud.

Dumbfounded at the developments he replied, “Huh?”

“This is, after all just one small world. Didn’t you people learn anything from Jade? Like her I can just leave, however I have a job to do and you’re interfering.” I patiently explained.

“And what might that be,” He demanded, recovering some of his composure and arrogance.

“About the only thing you’ve got right is that there is a terrorist. I’ve been working undercover trying to catch whoever it is, because they are using advanced alien derived technology. That is what caused this latest explosion.” I said, carefully keeping myself calm.

“Sure you are. If so, who are you working for?” He requested sarcastically.

Thinking about Jade and the now Star Sapphire Corps, the answer was simple.

“You don’t have a need to know.” I said, with a smile.

“Now!” Agent Carmichael of the DMA ordered.

Before the word came all the way out of his mouth, I snapped upwards at high sub-sonic, mach 0.85. The displaced air blew him backwards, but my calculations were on the money. He stayed in the building.

I almost missed the aircraft that vectored in after me. Considering how often I did the Boston to orbit thing in this age of Homeland Security paranoia that was remarkable. Or maybe not, since I was a small target and could shape my nearly frictionless shield thing leaving a very tiny footprint.

Like I said, I’d learned a lot!

Even still seeing the bright thermo flare of a missile launch caused me to swallow hard. They were really shooting a missile at me?

It was a very good thing that within my field I didn’t feel any effects from acceleration. Even a Jovian would be goo from the kick in the pants of going from subsonic to Mach 5. The damn thing was bigger than I was, although we weighted about the same. According to the stats, the Stark AIM-120 AMRAAM missile was limited to Mach 4, but I wasn’t taking any chances. A second later, I pushed even harder coming near Mach 6. The missile limited by aerodynamics didn’t even come close.

Breaking atmosphere, I hung there for a moment watching the beautiful planet turn beneath me. Then I turned for the moon aiming for that small dot of sapphire. Right now, I really needed to feel the love.

Alex Thorul-

Awakening was not pleasant. The sounds of medical equipment and the astringent odor all hospitals have were the clues of damnation. I’d royally screwed the pooch, and worse, got caught.

Opening my eyes, I saw Mother and Father. My evaluation of my condition changed. I’d Royally Effed up beyond all possible redemption. All that was missing was The Blur and the Green Lanterns or whatever color they were this week, pink, blue, or polka dots for all I knew. There of course to arrest me.

However, while the private nurse rang for the doctor, I saw someone I didn’t know. He was silhouetted against the window. My eyes sight shimmered for an istant as his image became clearer.

I had to take a deep breath. This went beyond simple adapting to the light. I knew what it was. The flawed symbiote I’d been working on. The one that’d exploded in my face thanks to that damn meddling Blur! If I’d been left alone, I could’ve safely crawled to the window … probably.

I closed my eyes taking silent inventory: Faint tugging upon my head despite my keeping my head bald. There were strange shifting sensations upon my chest with every breath. My sense of smell seemed to be keener picking up on Mother’s perfume, as well as Father and that stranger’s aftershave.

There were three hypotheses. One of those was very inconvenient, while the second was very bad. The third I could discount since I was still alive, reasoning and had a sense of self.

“Alex,” Mother whispered. That more than anything told me how worried she was. Her, our, family had always stressed being decisive.

“Mom,” I mouthed back. No, I wasn’t ready to test that out yet, and I decided that right now neither of us wanted the usual formality.

Lifting a hand, so I could see, I dropped it back on the bed.

Father looked me in the eye and simply nodded.

Theory number two it was, much to my dismay.

The DNA in the growth solution along with fragments of millions of my little friends had hit me at the speed of sound. Some of them must’ve escaped destruction by the dead-man switch chain reaction/explosion, and they had continued on with their previous programming.

So instead of my being in a burn ward, the nanites had continued building the symbiote using me for the raw materials. Since I hadn’t been completely consumed, that was Hypothesis Three, at least part of the developing symbiote had protected me as designed. Instead of it serving a protective addition my flawed creation had alternatively replaced my own badly damaged ectodermal tissues.

“Speak to me, Alex,” Mom ordered. “I didn’t give birth to any cowards.”

Dad’s expression over her shoulder showed he supported her.

“No you didn’t,” I answered missing the baritone I’d inherited from him. Unsurprisingly, I sounded a lot like her.

“Of course not,” the stranger by the window added. “You are family after all, despite past disagreements. I doubt it’s even in our nature.”

As he turned, I knew that profile. Anyone familiar with the world of high finance knew his face as well as they did Steve Jobs, Tony Stark, or Bruce Wayne’s.

“Uncle Alexander,” I greeted the uncle I’d never met.

A glance at my parents had them silently giving me grace to continue.

“Please,” He said, before I could say anything else. “We’re family, just Lex.”

“Uncle Lex,” I replied refusing to drop that much formality. It was a shield against whatever had prompted him to leave his corporate offices. For more than 20 years he’d ignored family ties and even had continued the estrangement my grandfather had begun when he’d disowned Mother.
He wanted something and wanted it bad.

My Uncle nodded to the doctor who rushed in. Examining me, the physician had the usual plastic smile that went along with his paid bedside manner. It quickly became obvious he wasn’t going to tell me anything I didn’t already know. I had designed the original symbiot and was intimately familiar with the defective DNA.

Tuning him out, I turned my attention to what was truly important, the unspoken communication between my parents and Uncle. Clearly a deal had been struck, and it’d involved me and my altered circumstances. Just as obviously, it was for high stakes.

Another gesture from my dear Uncle had a pair of orderlies muscling in a full-length mirror. No, he had no need to throw his weight around. Like a singularity, everything else threw themselves at him. Extreme caution was needed or otherwise I would lose my own freedom fated to orbit around him until annihilation.

To succeed I would have to be daring, innovative, and focused. Taking the first step, I studied my reflection. Perhaps it was best to say what I didn’t see. My impressive six feet four, bald intimating African-American masculinity weighing in at 245 pounds wasn’t anywhere to be seen. No more dark eyes or stony brow where a simple stare could force others to do what I desired.

Although I’d expected it, seeing it was not …pleasant.

Mother’s fiery auburn hair and green eyes were there, but the flawless café-Au-lait they rested upon was astonishing. I realized that somehow my original DNA was also a part of the mixture that’d formed the new me.

That was reassuring. I loved and respected Mother, but there was no desire to be a copy of her. I would like to think that I was more than the sum of my parts. That me was singularly unique and a one of kind.

The more I saw, the more that became apparent. Yes, I was smaller in both height and breadth, but again not quite so much as Mother. Perhaps I could even be called slender given how my little friends and my creation had ravaged my entire body for resources. However, there was still the promise of strength even if it was more along a feminine design than the one I preferred.

Taking inventory of my assets it was plain I would have to revise how I interacted with society. Although Father had taught me well how to use my masculine advantages, I wasn’t fool enough not to be aware of how Mother trumped him at every turn. She was an expert plying her trade of getting what she wanted, a master, or rather a Mistress of the art.

I had new things to learn. Mother and Father both nodded in approval as they saw my realization. Remembering how ruthlessly efficiently she helped me with my calculus in my advanced placement school homework, this was going to be anything, but a breeze. She demanded perfection, and believed that if you truly wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself.

As the hired help cleared the room, I knew we were finally going to get down to the real business.

Uncle Lex cleared his throat.

“Alexander Thorul is dead. He died in a laboratory explosion.” He walked up and stood by my bed. “The Meta known as The Blur is wanted for questioning regarding the incident, but I fear there simply isn’t enough evidence to charge her for causing it, pity.”

I gave silent assent for him to continue. In any case that was my feelings as well, although pity doesn’t exactly describe how I felt. Someday there would be a settling of debts between her and I, but for now I had more immediate concerns.

“The tragedy of losing Alexander has pulled our fractured family together. The Thorul’s has bonded with you, my long lost niece.” He didn’t so much as explain as he commanded. He was my Uncle.

“Who knows,” He said, dryly. “Perhaps seeing you take such an active role by my side will convince my own daughter to return.”

“So,” I asked. “What is the real reason for all of this subterfuge?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t underestimate jealousy and envy, my dear,” my uncle remarked. “It is possible this will return her to the fold. However, the primary motivation for this is that you were a bad girl. You, hmmm… appropriated corporate property.”

His hand came up before I could protest.

“Yes, I know it was you that discovered the uniqueness of the artifact. That does not mitigate your taking it.” His eyes met mine in disapproval.
“What does,” Uncle Lex said, after letting me stew for a few moments, “Is that you’ve managed to get further than any of our other researchers working this project. While like any good corporation we’re looking into several different avenues regarding this new technology, all of them come with unpleasant strings attached. I would much prefer having full access to its fruits.”

I frowned disagreeing over my perceived success.

“All I did was blow up myself and my lab.” I held up my transformed hand to make my point.

“I can’t imagine how you feel right now, but I can tell you that there are worse fates. You did avoid nearly all the, let’s call it, copy protection, with the exception of that last. Additionally, your methods allowed you to gain at least partial control. Perhaps that interloper, The Blur, is responsible, but the very fact you’re alive and not very seriously injured in the burn ward, is proof you’re on the right track.” he countered.

“And let’s be frank. These aliens have all but invaded our world. Posters of them and their Meta quislings are sold in stores all over the world. Only a few months ago this Jade brutally attacked another group of aliens without any explanation. Then she flaunted the law by refusing responsibility for her crime. If we want to keep Earth from being sold like Long Island for nothing more than a few beads, we have to be bold.” Uncle Lex said passionately.

He did have some valid points. We knew from our own history what happens to a lesser advanced civilization when it runs into another further developed. And it was clear that these Green Lanterns weren’t universally loved either, given that incident my Uncle mentioned. They could be taking advantage of us and we would never know. We had only their word, and who knew how much that was worth?

“Okay, so I come clean and disclose my research.” I put his ‘offer’ into simple terms. “And in return my family gets back on your Christmas card list?”

“Oh much more than that, my dear!” He laughed. “For one you’ll be a part of the team studying, I believe you called it Brainiac. You’ll be on your own, but will be expected share your results as the other researchers will have to also disseminate their own findings. And since my dear sister Lena, your mother, is in charge of the project, you can be sure your contributions will receive all due consideration.”

“Additionally,” he continued, “You’ll be groomed for a position high within the company. While I may want my daughter, who is named after you, Sister, to inherit the company, it will not leave the family.”
Did he say what I thought he just did?

“Uncle, I’m more of the hands on type than a manager, although you and Tony Stark are examples that both can be done.” I replied, not trying to sound too eager. Hands on, maybe so, but the prestige and power of sitting at the head of the table of Luthor Corp? Hell yes!

His eyes hardened at the mention of Stark, one of his chief rivals, but he didn’t let that stop him. Everyone in this room knew working out the details of this ‘deal’ was going to be complex.

“So is it a deal?” My Uncle asked.

I held out my hand, that too small, too pale and far too damn feminine appendage, to shake his.

“I’m your girl.” The words leaving my mouth were pure bravado. There was no need for me to glance at Mother. She knew me, but I was certain that before she was finished with me, I would be just as effective as I was under Fathers tutelage. Perhaps I would be even more so given the advantages of my symbiote. Stronger, and faster were definitely possibilities, but I was already more perceptive. Little clues like odor, and changes in pupil dilation were much easier for me to detect. All were things that could be read and used to my advantage.

He smiled taking my hand in his like he would a woman’s.

“Welcome to the family, Alexandra Luthor.” My Uncle Lex kissed my hand. Time would tell just who had made a deal with the devil.

Carol Danvers-
I was feeling pretty damn low by the time I got home. Alex was dead? I’d done all I could, but it hadn’t been enough. That terrorist was still out there and worse now the DMA, the DEO and who knew who else was after me now.

It was only a matter of time before they had American Dream or Wonder on my trail. Despite how depressed I felt, I was real careful going back to my place. Where else could I go? Home was out. No way did I want to drag Mom and Dad into this mess. Chloe was already in trouble and probably being watched. That left only my apartment, I shared with me, and myself. Talk about being sad.

Surprisingly, I didn’t find anyone or even any surveillance devices watching my place. Oh come on! My disguise can’t possibly that good. Just how many women are built like I am? It boggled my mind that they honestly thought Chloe was me, The Blur.

Perhaps they saw her transitioning and jumped to the conclusion it was really just covering up a Meta transformation. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Additionally, there wasn’t any official documentation that listed a Carol Danvers living here.

I hope if they did pick up the real one, that she wasn’t too inconvenienced. Did that mean I wasn’t real? Besides, going to classes as Larry, I spent nearly all of my time as Carol.

The doorbell rang. A quick glance using my super-duper vision revealed a worried looking Alana.

Guilt flooded me again. She’d lost Alex too.

A very rushed costume change had me as Carol, opening the door.

Crying, she fell into my arms.

“Alex is dead!”

Somehow, I got both us inside before my own tears joined hers. Then my failure to save him overwhelmed me in great sobs shaking me down to my very soul.

It became her holding me. Sure, it was a part of our culture that men don’t cry, but I wasn’t a man any more. I hadn’t been for a year, and while I’d learned so much about been more than human, I was still learning about what it was to be a woman.

Blame it on hormones and the moon, I was much more emotional although I could set it aside if I had to. By that, I mean it wasn’t debilitating, and in a lot of ways it was good. It seemed as a boy, male, a man, that I’d never truly felt anything as intensely as I did now.

The most important of all of those things was the love I had for the woman holding me. At first, the jealousy I felt was ironic as all get out. From the very beginning, anyone with eyes could see Alana had the hots for me as Carol. However, me as Larry had this long time crush on her. Could you really be envious of yourself? I certainly tried.

Really, as Carol, I fell headlong for Alana. She was a different person than with Larry. Oh she was still the same pixie faced genius who changed her hair color and style as often as she did her clothes, but she also had this romantic streak, she normally covered up with this cynical shell.

So, yeah Larry dreamed of her, but Carol had the reality. That was the problem. I didn’t get it until the second or third time something bizarre happened near Alana. My Terrorist suspected that she had something to do with The Blur. In other words, my relationship with her was endangering this woman I cared so much for.

Very cautiously, I did the best I could not to involve The Blur near her. However, I couldn’t completely stop appearing when she was around either. You know that old statistics thing where a negative can prove a positive.

I also couldn’t push her away for the same reason. Okay, it’s true. I couldn’t do it, although I thought about it. I loved her too much. Yes, it would hurt me, but it would also hurt her. That I just couldn’t make myself do that no matter what the reason or rationalization.
So I was crying for a lot of reasons.

“It’s not your fault,” Alana whispered in my ear as she smoothed my hair.

Time froze. She knew?

“Everything’s all right.” She told me softly. “I’ve known for awhile now. Did you really expect me not to notice how you and Larry are never in the same room together or how when there’s trouble you just happen not to be found?

“And when you had you cousin Chloe standing in for you don’t count.” Alana said smiling red eyed from her own tears.

“I don’t know how she looked just like you, but, you two covered it all except for your scents.” She answered my unasked question. “Chloe prefers Victoria Secret Pink and Vera Wang’s Princess, but you’re a Moon Sparkle girl.”

Despite my weeping, I blushed. Chloe brought it for me as a joke, but I found I rather liked the fruity sweet smell.

“However, what gave your Larry identity away was Dolce and Cabbana’s “The One.”

“Huh?” I replied confused.

“That’s the scent I wear, silly!” She said punching me. “It was that night when we really made out. Then the next day I smelled the scent on Larry! I do have a very refined sniffer thank you very much.”

“Alana,” I began, but she put a finger to my lips.

“No you listen. I love you. For someone who was never in the Boy Scouts, you’re the biggest one I know. You don’t have a clue of how tough it is not knowing what’s happening when you pull one of your Superman phone-booth stunts.

“I bet you didn’t even know that someone was recording that whole business of you sitting on top of Mass. General.” She continued almost angrily. “It’s a good thing I color my hair because it would all be gray after seeing that jet shoot that missile at you.”

“You saw all of that?” I was astonished that someone manage to film it all.

“Yes, all of it.” Alana said scathingly. “There’s this school in town called MIT. It’s one of the top schools for technology in the country, so maybe you’ve heard of it?”

“It’s all over Youtube.” She said blandly. “The second you were seen hanging out on the roof, the nerd patrol scrambled like crazy to get their cutting edge cameras there in time. What else do you expect Miss I’m moving so fast I’m only a blur? The only person I hear is faster than you is the Flash in Phoenix.

“So yes, I saw every detail as the person I love is being shot at by the US freaking Air Force.”

Okay, Alana is a little upset. Wait! Did she say love?

“Could that missile catch you?” She asked. “No, don’t answer that! I don’t want to know.”

Love? She loves me?

And another thing,” She went on. “I saw that second movie. Don’t you even think about doing that super hypnosis thing on me.”

“Even If I could, I would never do such a thing.” Returning the favor, I placed my fingers on her lips. “Hurting you would hurt me. I love you too!” I replaced my fingers with my lips as I gently kissed her.

The two of us had made out before, but hadn’t gone any further. Perhaps it was my secrets that’d been between us. Maybe it was the grief of losing our friend that’d broken the barriers holding us back. Our passions carried us to new unexplored places which neither of us regretted.

As the morning sun shined her rays upon Alana’s face sleeping at my side, I felt more tears tickle down my cheeks. Of all the awe inspiring sights I’d seen this last year, this one moved me more than them all. The Earth rise over the Sea of Tranquility came so very close, but none more.
However like all moments it to passed lost in time, but never would I forget this.

Then Alana proved me a liar as she opened her eyes and smiled into mine.
The doorbell rang.

A thermographic glance revealed a Fed Ex guy with a package. With all the weirdness going on in my life, I couldn’t ignore it.

Giving my love an apologetic smile, I got up. Since Larry officially lived here, I did my magic ring thing back to him after passing briefly out of Alana’s line of sight. I’d learned from Chloe and my parents that seeing me spontaneously change could creep people out.

Signing for the registered letter, I wondered even with all my troubles who it was.

Alana must’ve seen my face fall as I began reading. Tenderly she took it from my slack hand, as I nodded my okay.

Her response wasn’t much different from mine.

“Are you going to do it?” She asked, as she held me.

“Yes.” Clearly I was over my head. It was time to ask for help.

One week later-

One of the great things about having this super-vision thing was being able to peek out from behind the curtains without anyone knowing. For that matter the wall, or just about anything else, I mused nervously as I tried to make light of the chaos waiting for me out there. Despite the cold, it was early December in Boston, there was a big crowd.

I really wasn’t sure about this, but I had to trust my advisors. Everyone thought this was the best way to handle this whole snowballing mess.
They weren’t the one who was going to have to be out in front of that pack of animals. What am I saying? That was an insult to the animal kingdom. It was far worse than that. We’re talking about the press!

“Blur, you’re on!” My ring buzzed with the signal from Chloe.
It was show time. I wish I could be as enthusiastic as Mr. Incredible about those words. Launching myself from the roof, I floated down gracefully. Falling snow flakes swirled around me, but it would take far more severe conditions to bother me.

“That’s it. Let them all know you’re the real thing.” My hidden supporters coached.

I wasn’t so sure about that given how many Metas could fly and was tough enough to brave this weather. I sure as hell was giving them an eyeful. There was nothing wrong with my full coverage black jumpsuits and face mask. I even let Chloe put that lightning bolt on it to liven it up.
But no! That wasn’t good enough for this … this …. Event.

About all it had in common with my normal, okay, it’s a costume, is it’s mostly black. That is along with making me feel also mostly undressed! Sure my arms and legs are covered, but it was everything else in-between I had a problem with.

At least Chloe had decency to blush when I asked what fetish site she ordered everything from. I mean really! I had on gleaming long, black, opera gloves, and these thigh boots which really put me outside my comfort zone. What made me even more uncomfortable was the one piece swimsuit-like thing I was wearing. With the gloves and boots, it left my shoulders and a lot, a whole lot, of my upper legs and hips bare.

If it hadn’t been Alana who’d approached me about the bikini waxing someone would’ve gotten hurt.

The lightning bolt was still there, but now it was a golden yellow going from my left shoulder zigzagging across my breasts to my right hip. No, we’re not trying to call attention to anywhere are we! Then the women, not content with that, decided I needed more color and added this silly red sash. The damn thing wouldn’t stay up, so it ended up pined to what little fabric I had on my right hip so it would hang just so.

You don’t want to know what happened when very innocently I asked if they wanted more color why I couldn’t have a cape. At least that would be practical and help cover me up.

No Capes!

And my so useful silvered full face mask? Gone too, replaced by this completely useless domino mask that didn’t conceal anything at all.
As soft as a feather, I landed in front of the podium Professor Swan’s lawyers had arranged. Next to it was a cloth covered stone.

“I’m going to make a short statement and then I will answer a few questions.” I announced, even more uncomfortable with how high my voice squeaked, despite my support team assuring me it was perfect. Finally, I’d found out just how Alana had spoofed Alex all those months ago. She’d bound helium atoms with a slow release compound into a piece of gum. We were using the same basic method to disguise my voice now to foil all those with high tech audio gear.

“This past week a student at MIT died. I attempted to save him and flew him to Mass. General. Despite my efforts and that of the trauma team he didn’t make it.”

“Okay great! Now look at everyone going from your left to right.”

I surveyed the crowd just as Chloe directed. All of this was just one big show. There was ton of makeup on my face as well as even some movie stuff to change the shape of my face. Jade had helped some too directing the ring to help the disguise like it had when I had pretended to get cut a few weeks ago.

“The DMA tried to arrest me, after I’d already given a statement to the local authorities when I’d carried Alex Thorul to the emergency room. In the past, I’d been pressured to cooperate with them, but I have no desire or need for their assistance.” I paused to take a breath. Everything I was wearing was designed to help throw off any observers. Hell, I was even wearing a wig with my own blond hair hidden. That was just for any sharp-eyed observers and a few of those artificial hairs would be left behind here at the podium for anyone else who was curious.

“Much has also been made of the work I’ve done for NASA. I’ve always thought of it as being like the kid who helps cleans up a neighbor’s backyard for some extra cash. All the items I’ve recovered or disposed were things the present technology wouldn’t let them touch. For a fraction of the cost, I could and did take care of the problems for them. Like I said, just the enterprising kid earning some extra bucks.”

After I received that letter from Professor Swan’s lawyers, Siegel and Shuster, I had a talk with them. They were happy to represent me. Things were still up in the air, but at least I hadn’t had to leave the planet. I would not have my freedom taken away, and certainly not for something I didn’t do.

“However, the real reason I called this conference is because of Professor Otto Swan. This last week was especially tragic for MIT because not only did a student lose his life, but they also lost a long time teacher who was much beloved by all who knew him.” I felt my eyes misting and hoped I could make it though this without breaking down.

“It wasn’t violence, but the infirmities of old age that bought him down. Despite those health issues, he insisted on teaching to the very end. His passion and teaching methods inspired generations of students here. Those same students have gone on to make a tidal wave of discoveries and inventions that have changed the world. He will be missed.” A ragged breath reminded me of just how little I wore, but my own passions were overwhelming me.

“But not even death could halt his enthusiasm and zeal. He left instructions that I or Jade be contacted upon his death. The Professor’s last request was that his ashes be taken to Mars and be placed upon the tallest mountain in the solar system, the Home of the Gods, Olympus Mons.”
I uncovered the plaque.

It was pretty much your standard looking headstone. According to his letter to me, it was made to withstand the conditions on that far summit. Another thing that was different was the blacked out area on the bottom.

“As you can see, the epitaph has been hidden. The Professor specifically requested that as well. The only way to know what it says will be to go to Mars and find out for yourself. Think of it as his challenge to all of us to reach beyond our limits not just as individuals, but as a species, for all of mankind.” Damn, a tear slowly ran down my cheek anyways. I just had to hope it wouldn’t dislodge any of this makeup.

“I’m ready for questions, now.” Not really, but this was all part of the show.

“Are you really going to take this to Mars?” One of them asked disbelievingly. I think her name was Lois Lane.

“That would be a yes,” I answered. “Jade currently has her own problems with the government and so is unavailable. I think of it as my own trial to test my limits. It’s well within my abilities, and if I do run into trouble, well, Jade is after all already on Mars. Think of it of being like swimming the English Channel.”

There was a lot questions I didn’t answer like how long would it take me. They got an “It's classified,” and a smile.

One good question was, “Would I be doing anything scientific while on Mars?”

“NASA has been prohibited from tasking me with anything,” I pointed out. “However, it is Christmas. We’ll just have to see.”

“Good job, but it’s time to wrap this up!” Chloe directed.

I was about to follow her directions when the red headed photographer standing next to Lois Lane yelled, “I thought you were suppose to be some kind of Supergirl, but you have a big lightning bolt like Captain Marvel out of Shazam. Which are you?”

That made me pause. I’d enough of Supergirl a long, long time ago. Glancing down at my scandalous costume, I had to admit he had a point.
“Well, so I do,” I said smiling. “Just call me, Ms. Marvel.”

Picking up the half-ton memorial, in one hand, I waved with my other as I rose into the air. Clearing to a safe distance, I went to Ludicrous Speed. This girl had places to be.

MIT campus 12 hours later-

Snow fell upon the burnt out ruins of the lab. Black ash and soot were all that remained of the high tech facility. The yellow warning tape waved in the chill breeze, but with the campus on holiday break there was no one to see.

First one very tiny speck of black soot turned reflective, and then another. Glittering in the gloom, as if looking around for danger, tentatively they grew larger to the size of marbles. Sensing no threats, a virtual constellation of shining specks appeared all over the charred building.

The two original scouts began moving, rolling like marbles over the other smaller latecomers. As they did, that mass was added to their own, growing larger. The rest of the sparkling hoard began moving as well. Faster they rolled inward making a weirdly beautiful spiral as all the shiny bits collected in the center in a pool that resembled obsidian glass. Shimmering, liquid like, it began flowing upward like a melting ice statue filmed in reverse. As the last traces joined the ebony form, it gained definition and detail further refining itself becoming human-like.

All motion ceased, but for the falling snow.

Bottomless, deep black eyes opened as the figure took first one breath and then another. Slowly it looked around the ruin laboratory. Spotting a clear path out it took an uncertain step, but the second one was better. By the time it’d cleared the devastated building its stride was sure and confident. Ignoring the yellow caution tape blocking its way out, the broken plastic ribbon twisted in the wind behind it.

Not looking back, the dark figure's footsteps were soon swept away by the snow leaving no sign of its passing.