She, Robin, and Tonya had briefly gone out there to engage the robots, until Kila told them Starla had made it into orbit. By then they were again running low on ammunition. Robin had been forced to ditch her plane in the harbor, where Paul picked her up. The jetcopter had been riddled with holes when Melanie made her own hard landing at the amusement park’s gates. By contrast Tonya’s armor was still in good shape, but completely out of power now.
So now they cowered in the funhouse while they waited for news. Melanie snuggled against Robin, not caring if this looked leaderly enough for the rest of her team. If these were her final moments, she would spend them with the woman she loved.
Besides Starla, the only ones not here were the Velocity Gals. They had decided to go back to Focal City to find their daughter. Melanie had tried not to stare too hard at them. She didn’t know the full story, but Allison had said during their time in the future they had undergone some changes. She promised she had some big news for them, provided they survived this.
Across from them, Garlak snored, having finally passed out from her many wounds. They’d done what they could to patch her up, but her injuries didn’t appear too severe. At least not for her; they would have easily killed any normal homo sapien. Tonya and Diane were curled up on either end of Garlak. Tonya was subdued, practically catatonic for her.
Diane looked at her watch. “How long was it supposed to take?”
Almost as if the universe were responding to her, Melanie saw a burst of white light in the sky. She closed her eyes and then flattened herself on the floor. It took a couple of minutes before there was a tremor as the sheer force of the explosion gave the whole planet a good rattle.
“She did it,” Paul said matter-of-factly. None of them were in a celebratory mood at the moment. There was still a swarm of robots out there intent on wiping everything off Earth.
Robin nudged Melanie and then pressed a pair of binoculars into her hands. “I think you’ve earned the first peek,” she said.
Melanie nodded. She went over to the window with the binoculars pressed to her eyes. She zoomed in as much as she could to see the rest of the city. Silent tears came to her eyes. Everywhere she looked, robots were lying in the streets. To her dismay, the ships were falling like rocks, doing more damage to an already devastated city. How many more lives would be lost because of this?
“It’s over,” she said. At least the battle was over. Now would start the lengthy process of cleaning up. They would have to find some way to get the world going again after all the damage wreaked by first the alien sex changing weapon and then Omega’s minions.
A few minutes passed by with no one saying anything. Melanie was sure they were thinking the same things she was. For Tonya and Diane there was the added worry of what would happen to them now that the real Super Squad was back. How long before they were tempted to get up to their old ways?
She wished she could sleep like Garlak, but there was far too much to worry about now. Melanie checked her watch. It had been a half hour since the explosion. Where was Starla? She should have come back by now. Maybe she was already starting to clean up. Or maybe she’d gone to find her husband.
“She’s not coming back,” Robin said.
“What?”
“Starla. She’s not coming back.” Despite that Robin’s voice was neutral, her eyes were red and watery. She had known Starla longer than any of them in this room.
“You don’t know that. She could have gone somewhere else—”
“She wouldn’t leave us hanging. She knows we’re waiting for her.”
Melanie wanted to slap her girlfriend, but she knew Robin was right. Starla was far too responsible to disappear at a time like this. She would have come back or at least sent a message through someone. That she hadn’t come back or sent a message yet meant the worst had happened.
Then Melanie saw a flash of yellow-and-red plunging towards the ground. The funhouse shook again as something slammed into the ground near the carousel. Melanie wasted no time getting to her feet. Robin followed suit, as did the others—except for Garlak, who continued to sleep.
When they closed in on the carousel, Melanie saw a crater that had swallowed the carousel, turning most of it to scrap. As Melanie skidded to a stop at the lip of the crater she let out a sob. She pressed her head to Robin’s shoulder so she wouldn’t have to look.
Starla was in the center of the crater, Kila lying on top of her. They were both unconscious and unmoving. “Oh God, no,” Melanie said.
She was still crying when she heard a sharp gasp. She thought it was from Tonya or Diane, but then she heard a groan. Melanie looked down at the crater to watch as Starla rolled over, gently setting Kila down on the ground. She shook the alien’s shoulder. “Kila? Kila!”
Melanie and Robin skidded down into the crater to kneel down beside Starla. The alien’s face looked a paler shade of purple than before. Her lips that had been dark purple were now more of an indigo. Her chest didn’t move.
“Oh, Kila,” Starla whispered. She rested her head on the alien’s stomach as she sobbed.
As Melanie watched this scene, she noted something odd: a speck of light flitting through the air. It looked almost like a firefly, except it was purple. The purple firefly hovered over where Starla cried for a moment before it expanded. Melanie gaped at what looked like a fairy from a storybook, except it wore a black bodysuit and carried a metal staff.
“Back away, Kor-Gan,” the fairy squeaked. “Your tears cannot save Lieutenant Kila.”
The fairy set her staff against Kila’s chest. The end of the staff lit up with purple light that was so bright Melanie had to squint. “Oh my God,” Starla whispered.
Kila’s chest began to rise and fall. Her eyes flashed open. She looked around her in obvious confusion. When she spoke, it was in a singsong alien language. The fairy said, “You are safe, Lieutenant Kila. The Kor-Gan protected you from the fall.”
Kila lunged up to wrap Starla in a hug. There was no translation needed for that.
Epilogue
It took Starla three days to find her husband. Starla’s search had been hampered by the fact she couldn’t talk to Kate King or anyone else from the newspaper directly. If she showed up as Starla Leyton, they would ask why nothing had happened to her during the disaster. She couldn’t very well tell them she was off-planet when it happened. If she showed up as Apex Girl, Kate would get suspicious about why she wanted to see Billy so badly.
As with many things one was looking for, she found him in an obvious place—at the Crystal Lair. The only problem was that Billy was no longer her husband.
She had gone to the Crystal Lair to get a fresh costume to replace the ridiculous Halloween costume she had scrounged in Focal City. If she hadn’t been looking for Billy, she would have gone to the Lair much earlier.
She had gone up to the Lair and opened the door like usual. The strange part was no robot came out to greet her as they usually did. She hadn’t deactivated them before she was kidnapped, had she? She pushed this thought aside and then floated upstairs to her bedroom.
Just like The Three Bears, she found Billy sleeping in her bed. She saw Billy with her infrared vision first after her acute hearing detected soft breathing coming from inside. The only way to see who was in the bed was to turn on the light and then yank the covers off the bed. This revealed a pale, scrawny young woman with long honey-colored hair. The woman rolled over, blinking a few times. She fumbled to scoop up a pair of glasses. Her eyes widened behind them. “Starla?”
Starla put a hand to her mouth. Why hadn’t she realized this earlier? If the weapon had covered the whole world, it would have reached the poles as well. “Billy?”
“Hi,” Billy squeaked. They stared at each other for a moment before Billy finally got off the bed to throw herself at Starla. She had to get on her toes in order to kiss Starla on the mouth. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again!”
“I didn’t think I’d see you either.” As m
uch as Starla wanted to, she was still too in shock to kiss Billy back. Billy finally got the hint and sagged onto the bed.
“I look a little different now,” Billy said.
“That’s an understatement.”
“You don’t like it. I understand. It’s weird. I mean I’m supposed to be your husband and now I’m…I’m like this.” She jiggled her breasts for emphasis. “Could you at least take me back to Atomic City? They don’t exactly have cabs up here.”
Starla sat down next to Billy on the bed. She put an arm around the girl’s shoulders. This only made her feel worse, as if they were sisters instead of a couple. “Billy, I still love you. You know I do. It’s just such a shock, you know?”
“I get it,” Billy said, but there were tears in her eyes. She latched onto Starla as she started to sob. “I’ve been so scared. You were gone and then I woke up like this and the robots tried to kill me and I didn’t think I’d ever get out of here. I thought for sure I’d die here alone.”
“You’re not going to die, Billy.”
“Thanks.”
Starla didn’t like to think of herself as close-minded or bigoted and yet as she looked at Billy, a nervous flutter ran through her stomach. What would Ma and Pa say if she brought home Billy like this? Only then did it occur to Starla that if she went home Ma and Ma would be there. She didn’t want to think of how hard that must be on her adopted parents. This was going to take a big adjustment. She supposed Allison and Sally had been able to adapt—
Right on cue her communicator beeped. Sally’s face came onto the screen. “You think you can meet us at Ally’s old lab in Focal City in about five hours? There’s something we need to show you.”
“I’ll be there,” Starla said, grateful for something to take her mind off this awkwardness. She turned to Billy and smiled. “I think we have time to drop you at Atomic City. Melanie says Kate’s really changed.”
“That should be interesting.” Billy got up to go over to Starla’s closet. She pulled out a light green blouse and black pants. “What do you think?”
“I think the khaki pants would go better with it,” Starla said. She was adapting already.
***
Melanie hadn’t slept in three days. Really she hadn’t slept since Garlak had beaten the shit out of her as a little kid. Right now she would let Garlak do it again so she could finally rest.
Being the de facto leader of Earth was tough work, especially when the planet was in such a state of chaos. Omega was gone, but there was massive damage everywhere and most of the population was unequipped to handle it. Every time she thought she might sneak off for forty winks—or a quickie with Robin—there was another call with an urgent issue she had to resolve.
Even on the flight to Focal City she couldn’t close her eyes before some new problem nagged at her. The good thing about this meeting was she had a valid excuse to turn off her phone and communicator. That wasn’t as good as a nap, but it would help give her a little peace.
The rest of both Super Squad teams were already in the lab, even Queen Neptune. The queen had her arm in a sling, but otherwise had survived unscathed. Melanie sat down beside Robin, who studied her for a moment and then said, “You look like hell.”
“I feel like it.” She did feel a little better with Robin at her side. Maybe they could sneak into one of the closets before she had to get back to Washington.
Sally came out first, a lab coat over her Velocity Kid uniform. It was still hard for Melanie to think of Sally as the sidekick after three years of it being the other way around. She hadn’t heard what had gone on in the future; she hadn’t had time to find out.
Sally cleared her throat and then said, “When we went to the future, Allison saved my life by triggering another time jump. This sent her centuries into the future, where she set to work to find a way back. In the process she made a discovery that had eluded us for the last four years, one that is going to be crucial right now.
“Without further adieu, let me introduce the most important adult in my life, my husband—Dr. Alan Bass.”
A blond man in a lab coat stepped into the room. He hurried over to hug Sally and plant a passionate kiss on her lips. Melanie turned to Robin and asked, “Is that really him?”
Robin shrugged. Melanie couldn’t blame her after the situation with the impostors three years ago. This could easily be some kind of trick, though Melanie had no idea why Sally would do something like that—unless she wasn’t the real Sally either. Melanie shook her head; she needed more sleep.
“I know it sounds farfetched, but you have to think of it this way: it took me decades to come up with this in the future. It was a lot easier in the present now that I knew what I was doing.”
Starla was the first to crush Alan in a hug. “I’m so happy for you,” she said. “I’m sure Jenny is thrilled to have her daddy back.”
Alan and Sally turned red at the same time. “We haven’t told her yet. It’s going to be a big shock. We thought it’d be best to take it slow.”
Diane cleared her throat. “That’s all well and good, but can you do that to any of us?”
“Yes. It’ll take a little time to get enough units out there to make a large-scale operation feasible. At first we’ll probably want to use it on important people: dignitaries, soldiers, police, firefighters, and so forth. In talking with Tonya, she said you already have a way to reverse the weapon’s effect on those who were born women. We were thinking we could combine both into one package.”
“Two packages might work better,” Melanie said, already thinking of the logistical nightmare that would guarantee her many more sleepless nights. “That way we can have two lines.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Alan said. “Though for more rural areas one unit might be more convenient.”
“How many people have you mentioned this to yet?” Robin asked.
“No one,” Sally said.
“Good. As soon as anyone finds out you have this, there’ll be a stampede.”
“I doubt that,” Melanie said. “Most people right now don’t have that in them without a dose of clown juice.”
“Still, the fewer who know about this, the better.”
“How long do you think it’ll take to mass produce this?” Melanie asked.
Tonya answered, “There are a lot of tricky little parts for both machines. Without a lot of skilled labor available right now, it could take months.”
“Maybe we could talk to the Peacekeepers,” Starla said. “They should be able to find someone who can help build these.”
“Not a chance,” Diane said before Robin could. “I wouldn’t trust those blokes farther than I could kick one of their bubbles.”
Melanie considered this and then nodded. “I’m sorry, Starla, but I’m sure the president will see it that way too. For now we need to do this on our own.”
Alan cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “I think the solution to our problem is obvious. We need to locate skilled workers on Earth.”
“If you want skilled labor, my old stomping grounds in Detroit is the place to look,” Tonya said. “Maybe the prez could convince GM to loan us a factory or two to help make up for that bailout.”
“Me want to be man,” Garlak growled. “Me want to be man now!”
“You’ll have to wait your turn, big stuff,” Tonya said. “Just like all the rest of us. At least those who want it.”
“I think Garlak’s got a point,” Diane said. “We stuck our necks out for the world. Seems like we should get first dibs on this.”
Robin squeezed Melanie’s shoulder and then flashed her a look. Even without words Melanie knew what she was saying: it was time for Melanie to rein in her team. She got to her feet and then shuffled over to where Alan stood. “Let’s not do anything rash. This is a major decision. We should all sleep on it. In the meantime I’ll brief Washington.”
“We want now!” Garlak shouted. Starla took a discreet step in that direction. Of all of the
m she was the one who could stop the cavewoman even at full rage.
Melanie didn’t want it to get that far. She risked putting a hand on Garlak’s arm. “I know you want it, but we need some time. For all we know, this machine could kill you.”
“Me no care. Hate being girl.”
“She’s got you there, boss.”
“Look, we need to be discreet. What are people going to think when they see Neanderthal and Ion Man and Hitter running around again as men? There’ll be panic. So, please, let’s wait.” Melanie took a couple of Garlak’s meaty fingers to squeeze them. “I promise when the time is right you can be a man again. For now I need you to trust me. Please?”
Garlak snuffled and snorted for a moment, but in the end she nodded. “Me trust you.”
The meeting broke up shortly after that. Melanie let Robin lead her upstairs to find somewhere quiet so they could release some tension. “Unbelievable. You talked Neanderthal down. Those girls love you—almost as much as I do.”
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Melanie said.
“It’s still damned impressive.”
Robin tried the door to a supply closet. The door didn’t open, but it was easy enough for Midnight Spectre to deal with. They stepped inside, Melanie closing the door behind them so they wouldn’t be disturbed.
***
It was like a scene out of a World War II newsreel with an assembly line of women working feverishly inside a converted automotive plant. As Tonya had said, the workers hadn’t been difficult to locate. Training them didn’t take long either as the process wasn’t so different from building a car. The only difference was this car could change the women on the line back into men.
Melanie watched for a few minutes, a lump rising in her throat. They already had a half-dozen of each model out there to be delivered around the world. This had created the first real friction between Melanie and the now-male president. He had wanted to play politics with the machines, only giving them to America’s allies or with huge concessions. “Imagine if we kept Iran or North Korea the way they are now? We’d never have to worry about them again.”
Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction) Page 73
