Switched Up! (DC Super Hero Girls)

by Tess Sharpe

  “Karen! That was an easy one,” Harleen complained.

  “Sorry,” Karen called behind her. “I think my hands are sweaty.” She wiped them on her gym shirt.

  She needed to hit the ball with more force—but how much? The scientist in her wanted to run all sorts of tests to see what she could and couldn’t do. Kara’s powers broke the laws of physics, which meant that Karen could break those laws. And with Kara’s feisty personality swirling inside her, the thought of breaking stuff seemed great.

  Karen was so distracted thinking about how cool it would be to travel faster than the speed of light that she didn’t realize that she had started bouncing the ball. The more she thought, the harder she bounced the ball. Super-speed! Heat vision! Super-breath! Super-streng—

  Pow! Slap! Crack!

  The entire gym class watched in shock as the volleyball smashed into the floor and broke it!

  Karen snatched her hands behind her back, trying to look innocent as Kara raced up to her and Diana looked at them both in concern.

  “Mrs. Lake, we can explain,” Kara said, trying to think of a plausible explanation to give their gym teacher. But when the teacher looked at her sternly, she found she had no words. Her cheeks just turned bright red, and she began to fall into a big bowl of word soup! “You see…the basketball team…they were playing in the gym yesterday. They must’ve weakened the floor. That’s why the volleyball broke it.”

  Mrs. Lake frowned and crossed her arms. She began to tap her foot. Kara was not selling the explanation. Probably because Karen was bad at lying. Like, the worst.

  But then, to Kara and Karen’s relief, Hal bounced over from the other side of the gym. “You know,” he said. “I think I do remember the floor making some funny sounds when we were practicing yesterday. I bet my dunking and dribbling broke the floor, just like Kara said.”

  “Hmm, I guess I’ll take your word for it,” Mrs. Lake said. Hal’s confidence was hard to resist. And he certainly seemed to believe it. “But I don’t want you playing on a cracked floor, so let’s go outside and run laps instead.”

  Everyone but Diana groaned.

  “Close call,” Karen whispered.

  “Zee can’t figure out how to switch us back fast enough,” Kara muttered. “She better do it before we accidentally break the entire school.”

  “You mean before I break the entire school,” Karen grumbled.

  “Hey, we’re in this together,” Kara promised, showing a glimmer of her usual self. “We’ll figure it out.”

  Karen wasn’t so sure. But she hoped Kara was right.

  After gym class, Diana caught up with Karen at their lockers. Diana wore a worried expression. “Karen, what happened in gym class today? It was almost as if you came to school this morning with the strength of the Amazons!”

  “More like the strength of Kara,” Karen said. She explained to Diana about the switcheroo and how Zee and Jessica were doing magic, science, and squash research to undo it.

  “I will aid Zee and Jessica in this noble quest!” Diana said, placing her hand over her heart in a solemn vow. “We will not rest until you have returned to your wonderful selves.”

  “I would love your help, Diana,” Zee said as she strolled up to their lockers with a dejected-looking Kara in tow. “I think this is an all-hands-on-deck situation. We should meet to do more research.”

  “I’m good at research,” Karen said. “Or…I was. But Kara’s great at studying, too.”

  “Not as great as you,” Kara pointed out. “I would love to make a plan, but the Kents are coming today. I promised I’d help them unload the hay they’re delivering to PawPaw’s Pumpkin Patch. He’s building a hay-bale maze for his goats.”

  “Not for his pumpkin-patch guests?” Zee asked, looking confused.

  “PawPaw loves everyone who comes to the pumpkin patch,” Kara said. “But he loves his goats more than anything. And they liked the maze we made them last year…well, until they ate it. But I think that’s part of the fun for them.”

  Karen snickered at the idea of goats solving a maze and then eating it. “Or maybe they solved the maze by eating it,” she thought. This she had to see!

  “You look concerned, Kara Danvers,” Diana said. “Tell me what troubles your spirit so I may share your burdens and help you defeat them.”

  Kara hated this blushing thing. She was concerned like Diana said. One of the reasons the Kents had asked for her help unloading the hay was because she was super-strong, but now she wasn’t anymore. Karen was.

  If the Kents noticed that she didn’t have her powers, they might think some nefarious villain had given her a Kryptonite smoothie or something. And if she told them the truth, that it had happened at Metropolis High, they might want her to come back to the farm. Or worse, call in the big guy: her cousin. As much as Kara loved the Kents and the farm, she also loved her friends and her classes at Metropolis High. She needed to be careful and watch what she did and said—which was going to be really hard, because she wanted to be honest all the time now. She also wanted to clean her locker as much as she’d cleaned her room. She couldn’t stand messiness all of a sudden!

  Kara explained to her friends how she needed to help the Kents and how she was worried that they might notice she didn’t have her powers.

  “This,” Diana declared boldly, “is truly a kerfuffle.”

  “Diana, where did you learn that word?” Zee giggled.

  “Harleen taught it to me! I like the word very much. She said I should name the shark in the science lab Kerfuffle.”

  “What does it mean?” Kara asked. It certainly sounded like the kind of word Harleen would like.

  “It means we are in a bit of a mess.”

  “I guess we are,” Zee said. “A kerfuffle indeed. I should’ve left that pumpkin in my locker. Then you two wouldn’t be sleep-flying or worrying about how to pretend to be super-strong when you aren’t.”

  “It’s okay, Zee,” Kara said. “Who could guess something like this would happen?”

  “Why doesn’t Karen go with you to make the hay maze?” Zee suggested. “The rest of us will continue to research how to switch you back.”

  “That sounds like a good plan,” Karen said. “What do you say, Kara?”

  Kara knew teamwork was important, but it was hard to admit that she was going to need help throwing something as light as a hay bale. But she put a determined smile on her face anyway. “Let’s go for a hayride.”

  PawPaw’s Pumpkin Patch was at the edge of Metropolis. The hay bales the Kents delivered was stacked high in their truck. At first, Kara were worried they’d notice that Karen was helping her lift the bales, but soon she realized she was in the clear. Everyone just thought she was trying to maintain her secret identity. Phew! She hated the idea of worrying the Kents—or anyone.

  Transporting the hay to the meadow where PawPaw was building his goat maze was sweaty and sneezy work. By the time Kara and Karen were done unloading the hay and building the entrance to the maze, they smelled like a barn. It made Kara think of the Kents’ farm and throwing secret rock concerts in the barn. It took a lot of skill to pull off a secret rock concert, but she’d managed before. More than once.

  “Are you sure you girls don’t want a ride into the city?” Mr. Kent asked as he prepared to head back to the farm.

  “We’re going to take the bus, Mr. Kent,” Karen explained. “Our friend Jess got us all passes. She’s big on being eco-friendly.”

  “If we don’t take care of the earth, she won’t take care of us,” Mrs. Kent said with a smile. “Don’t forget to call me next week about your visit to the farm, Kara.”

  Kara waved as they drove away in the hay truck.

  “That wasn’t as hard as I thought,” Karen commented.

  “You didn’t even throw a hay bale across the
meadow, except for that one time,” Kara agreed. The girls began walking to the bus stop, when Karen stopped in her tracks.

  “What is it?” Kara asked.

  Karen tapped her ear. “Don’t you hear that?”

  “What?” she replied, frustrated. She missed her super-hearing so much!

  “Someone’s screaming at the pumpkin patch. But not in a happy I found the perfect pumpkin kind of way.”

  Kara and Karen exchanged a nervous look. The super hero girls were needed, but could they pull off a mission with their powers switched? They had no choice: where villains were, the super hero girls would appear, to deal out justice and spread good wherever they could.

  Kara and Karen dashed into the cornfield to transform. They quickly sent a text to their special super hero girls–text chain to alert the others that they needed help. But PawPaw’s Pumpkin Patch was on the very outskirts of Metropolis. It would take the other super heroes a while to get there. Which meant that it was up to Kara and Karen to face whatever was interrupting the fun.

  “How is this going to work?” Kara asked. Her heart was hammering inside her chest like a woodpecker’s beak against an old oak tree.

  “Luckily, I couldn’t sleep much the other night because of my new super-hearing,” Karen explained. She pulled out her Bumblebee suit. “I made a few changes to my suit so that you can wear it. My suit specifically works for me, so I’m not totally sure how it’s going to react to your Kryptonian physiology.”

  “What are you going to wear?” Kara asked as she pulled the Bumblebee suit on. She could hear the mechanical buzz around her as she snapped the helmet on.

  “I made this for myself.” Karen pulled on the suit she’d made. It looked like Supergirl’s, but instead of the red and blue that Kara sported, Karen wore a yellow-and-black-bee version.

  “Let’s go!”

  The girls pushed away from the ground. Karen’s takeoff was a lot smoother than Kara’s. Kara expected to soar up and over the patch of trees in the distance like usual. But the Bumblebee suit buzzed as she rose shakily off the ground. As Supergirl, flying was as easy as walking, but the tech suit required more focused concentration and balance. Flying with wings was a lot harder than just being able to fly! Hovering ten feet in the air, she pushed forward with her arms like she would as Supergirl and flipped all the way over. She cried out.

  “Kara!” Karen circled around her slowly, looking worried.

  “Almost got it,” Kara promised as she tilted to one side, then the other, trying to get a feel for the wings as Karen hovered in front of her. She shot forward a little too fast, almost hitting Karen, who squeaked and darted up and out of the way. But as Kara flew toward Karen, the suit’s wings flapping so fast they were a blur, she began to understand: Karen and the suit were partners, and now Kara and the suit had to be partners, too. “I’m ready!”

  The girls flew to the pumpkin patch—the problem becoming clear instantly.

  “It’s Giganta!” Kara gasped as they watched the notorious villain stomp through PawPaw’s Pumpkin Patch without a care in the world for the squash she was squashing!

  “And Harley Quinn is with her!” Karen pointed down to where Harley was waltzing with one of PawPaw’s scarecrows, a slushie in one hand. More of the scarecrow’s stuffing was coming out with every dramatic twirl she made.

  Giganta loved to be large and in charge. But she didn’t feel very in charge when she had to spend an entire week in detention. Especially for something she hadn’t done. When Mr. Kincaid had said that those Goody Two-shoes Karen and Kara had made the biggest mess he had ever seen, Giganta knew she had something to prove. That mess had been one exploded pumpkin. One! She’d show everyone what a mess really was! She had her reputation to protect.

  So Giganta had asked Harley Quinn to give her a hand. She wanted only the biggest, wartiest pumpkins, and she’d need time to find them in the pumpkin patch. That meant she needed a partner. Luckily, Harley was up for anything, especially if it involved madcap villainy and PawPaw’s lovable goats.

  Giganta lifted one of the smaller pumpkins out of Harley’s wheelbarrow and threw it like a shot-putter. Tossing pumpkins was a great workout! She could feel the burn in her beautifully bulging biceps. She threw another, laughing as it crashed into the goat pen and the goats scrambled out to eat the squash. All around her, people ran for cover, knowing that any minute, they could be next: sticky, squashy, and nibbled by goats!

  Giganta took a deep breath. “Ahhhh…it feels so good to be so bad!” she said. Destruction! Chaos! Goats on the loose! This truly was the life. And the best part? No pesky super hero girls to stop her!

  Just then, something whizzed by the villain’s ear. Two somethings.

  “Put down the pumpkin, Giganta!”

  Two figures hovered in front of her, but Giganta didn’t recognize them. One of them was in a high-tech battle suit. There was something different about the bug-girl that Giganta couldn’t quite put her big finger on. The other Goody Two-shoes was dressed like Supergirl, but the colors were all wrong! Giganta was confused, but she didn’t want to show that kind of weakness in battle, so she sneered, “Yellow really isn’t a good color for either of you.”

  “Jeepers!” Harley squeaked below as she cartwheeled up to her partner. “Who are you two?”

  Kara and Karen exchanged a confused glance.

  “Err, we’re…um,” Kara could feel her face getting hot. She wobbled a little in the air. Oh no! Now was not the time to get nervous!

  “We’re Bumblegirl and Superbee!” Karen said, thinking quickly. “Stop this reign of terror immediately!”

  “Or what?” Harley asked, tilting her head curiously. She took a long drink of her slushie.

  “Or we’ll stop you!” Kara said.

  Giganta laughed as she hefted a pumpkin and threw it at the new super heroes.

  Karen dodged the pumpkin Giganta had just lobbed, spinning away in a tight circle. But she overestimated her speed. She spun all the way across the pumpkin patch and into a tree. A branch above her shook as she crashed into the trunk, and a bird’s nest fell on her head.

  Karen had to get back to Kara. She was all on her own dealing with two villains! Kara was probably having as much trouble adjusting to the Bumblebee suit as Karen was having adjusting to Kara’s superpowers! She made sure the eggs were safe and carefully put the bird’s nest back on the branch it had fallen from. Then she jumped into the air and flew back to the pumpkin patch as fast as she dared.

  Kara looked over her shoulder, wishing that Karen would return. She triggered the controls on the suit, shrinking into her tiny bee form. As she shrank and everything got bigger, Kara’s head spun. She took a deep breath and shook her head back and forth to clear it. Seeing the world so large was an amazing shift in perspective.

  Giganta squeaked in surprise as Kara dived for her head, tugging at one of her curls. The villain swatted. Kara dived away from Giganta’s hand, but she wasn’t fast enough. Bam! She hit the ground hard, and the unfamiliar battle suit fritzed and sparked, popping her back to her regular size. Kara scrambled away from Giganta’s stomping feet, but that brought her right into the path of Harley Quinn!

  Harley uncapped her slushie and held it over Kara’s head. She smiled as she tipped the cup.

  “I think the goats will love a little Superbee slushie treat! Their sandpaper tongues will tickle something awful! You’ll giggle yourself purple!” Harley laughed as the goats bleated behind her, eager for a taste of slushie.

  “How dare the goats betray me like this!” Kara thought. She had built them their hay-bale maze.

  Kara threw her hands up. It was going to take forever to clean the suit after it got slushie and goat spit all over it!

  “Watch it,” Giganta roared, whirling around and pointing at Harley. “The little bee’s mine!” She bent down, her h
and lowering to close around Kara.

  “Not on your life!” shouted a voice.

  Karen burst through the clouds. She shot through the air in a blur, hurtling toward the ground at a speed that made her eyes water. She had found out the hard way: Kara did get bugs in her teeth when flying really fast. So gross! Karen grabbed Kara around the waist and lifted off before the villain could catch either of them.

  “Come back here!” Giganta roared in anger.

  “No fair! I just wanted to give the goats a sugary, buggy treat!” Harley wailed.

  “You could have just given them the slushie,” Kara shouted as she and Karen flew through the air.

  Harley scampered off, patting one of the goats on the head as she left. Giganta was close on her heels, the wheelbarrow full of pumpkins tucked underneath her massive arm.

  Karen set Kara on the ground. Electricity crackled over the damaged Bumblebee suit. It would take some tinkering in the lab to get it back into working order.

  All around them, people peeked out from their hiding places.

  “Friends! Warrior sisters! We have arrived!” Diana came running across the meadow disguised as Wonder Woman. She was closely followed by Babs, who was in her purple Batgirl uniform, and Zee, whose magic wand was out and at the ready. Jessica was close behind, her Green Lantern power ring glowing on her finger.

  “Where are our foes?” Batgirl demanded. “Let me at ’em!”

  “It was Giganta and Harley Quinn,” Kara said. “But they took off after Karen saved me from Harley’s slushie.”

  “What was their purpose here?” Wonder Woman asked, staring across the now-squashed pumpkin field.