The closest he had for company was the impostor Midnight Spectre. Bits of her were still inside him, her memories and fragmented thoughts bouncing around in his mind. Early on he thought he would go mad from it, but over time he’d gained control. Still, sometimes he wondered if he really was himself or if this were an illusion, if he were the dream inside her head.
These morbid thoughts helped him survive the long climb up. He wasn’t as winded as he thought he would be; it was hard to remember sometimes he wasn’t in his seventies anymore. He was a very spry thirtysomething man now.
Alan ran a hand over his suit and then hoisted the giant teddy bear he’d lugged all the way up here. With a deep breath, he knocked on the door. He hoped they were home; despite the long climb they did sometimes go to the park or out to the relief centers for supplies. Even a superhero had to wait in line sometimes.
Sally threw open the door and grinned. “Hi, honey,” she said. She had to get on her toes in order to kiss him. She self-consciously ran a hand through honey-toned hair. “You like the color? I couldn’t find my old shade.”
“It’s beautiful. Just like you.” He leaned down to kiss her. He wished he’d brought her some flowers or candy or something, but he had forgotten. There would be time to make up for it later.
“Mommy, who’s that?”
Alan’s heart nearly stopped as he saw her in the foyer. She was eight years old again, with her mother’s blond hair and blue eyes. They had used to joke that Alan must not be Jenny’s real father because of how different they looked. That had changed now, but it also meant she didn’t recognize him.
Sally put an arm around Jenny’s shoulder. “Sweetheart, this is your daddy. Don’t you remember him?”
“He doesn’t look like Daddy.”
“His hair is a little different color, like Mommy’s.”
“But you said Daddy was in Heaven.”
“I came back,” he said. He thrust the bear forward. “I brought you this.”
“Go on, take it,” Sally urged her. The little girl reluctantly took the bear.
This wasn’t going the way Alan had hoped; it was going the way he had feared. He supposed a lot of it was because of the impostor three years ago. Jenny had gotten her hopes up then only to have them shattered; she didn’t want it to happen again.
He knelt down so he was at eye level with her. “I’m very sorry for what happened before, sweetheart. I’m sorry I had to go away.” He swallowed hard before he added, “I was never very far away. Do you remember your babysitter, Allison?”
Jenny nodded slightly. She pressed the teddy bear tighter as if it could protect her. “Mommy said she had to go away.”
“No, she didn’t go away, not really. You see, she was me.”
“But you’re a boy.”
“I am, but for a little while I wasn’t. You know what happened to all those people on the news? It happened to me before anyone else.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Jenny, don’t talk like that to your father.”
“He’s not Daddy!” Jenny turned and ran. It would be easy enough for Alan to catch her, but he didn’t.
“She needs some time,” Sally said.
“I know.” He heaved a sigh. “Maybe I should have made myself into a sixteen-year-old again.”
“Don’t be silly. It’s better this way.” Sally kissed him on the lips again. “Jenny might need more time, but I don’t.”
“Are you sure? You seemed pretty happy when I was a woman.”
“I love you no matter what you look like. Even when you’re a dirty old man.”
“That’s something to look forward to.”
Despite Sally’s flirting, they couldn’t possibly go to the bedroom right now. Instead they sat on the couch. With no power there wasn’t much to do except to read. Alan picked up a copy of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. He smiled at Sally. “A little light reading?”
“It seemed appropriate, after what happened.”
He found the page she’d bookmarked and then began to read aloud. Sally’s body, now so much smaller, easily curled up against his. She rested her head on his chest while he continued to read and stroke her hair.
After what must have been hours, he looked up to see Jenny in the doorway. Her eyes were still red and nose moist from crying. He wasn’t sure what to say; he didn’t want to spook her. She stood there unsurely, like a deer on a dark road. He finally said, “Hi, sweetie.”
She didn’t say anything; she ran over to the couch and threw her arms around his neck. This prompted Sally to stir. She looked up at Alan and smiled.
They were a family again—at last.
***
The line went all the way through the stadium and for a good three miles beyond that. It would have snaked even longer through the city if the police hadn’t set up a barricade to limit the number of people. So far everyone seemed good-natured about this, owing mostly to what the alien weapon had done to them.
Starla clutched Billy’s hand as they waited. They were on the twenty yard line with the check-in tables at the center of the football field. “You’re sure about this?” she asked.
“Of course I’m sure,” Billy snapped. “You think I like being a woman?”
“I want to make sure you’re doing this for the right reason. I don’t want you to do it because of me.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “I’ll love you no matter who you are.”
“Is that why you won’t sleep in the same bed as me?”
Starla’s face warmed as some of the other women in line gave her a look. “I’m sorry, Billy. I need some time—”
“That’s why I have to do this. I don’t want to keep waiting. I want things the way they used to be.”
“I could always use the machine, become Stan again.”
“Is that what you really want to do?”
Starla considered this. She had thought about it ever since Alan had told them it was possible. There were some good reasons to become a man again: her adopted parents would get their son back, the world would have Apex Man back, and Kate could have Stan Shaw back—as a friend at least.
She shook her head. “Not really. I like being this way. I like being your geek girl.”
“And I like being your geek boy, so let’s stop arguing.”
“All right.” She gave Billy a kiss on the cheek. “For what it’s worth, you make a beautiful woman.”
“So do you.”
They were in the middle of a kiss when Kate said, “Hey, get a room, you two.”
Starla looked up and saw Kate to one side of the line, a pad of paper in hand. It wasn’t hard to miss her these days. A quirk of the machine that reversed the weapon’s effect on natural-born women was that it aged them based on their present state. As a chubby teenager, Kate had ended up becoming a rotund woman in the neighborhood of three hundred pounds. Starla was glad she’d missed seeing it when Kate first made the change.
Billy squeaked with pain as Kate smothered her in a hug. “God, I bet I could break every bone in your body if I sat on you,” Kate said.
“It’s all right,” Billy said.
Kate’s eyes narrowed behind her glasses. She said to Starla, “Looks like you didn’t end up too bad off.”
Despite the flab and unflattering muumuu, Kate was still the same tenacious reporter. “Just lucky I guess.”
“Would you mind if I ask your husband a few questions before and after? I want to do a story on how this is affecting people. I need some perspective from a former—and soon-to-be-again—man and Larry won’t bite.”
“That sounds all right,” Billy said. “You don’t mind, do you, honey?”
“Not at all,” Starla said. With her enhanced vision, she saw a familiar face over by the machines. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Kila stood well off to one side of the machines, probably so she wouldn’t intimidate the humans going through. Her purple lips curled in a very human smile as Starla approached. “G
reetings, Starla. I did not expect to see you here.”
“My husband is in line actually.”
“Oh, I see. I am sorry for what happened to him and your whole planet. There is much we need to make up for.”
“It’s not your fault. They lied to you.”
“But I accepted their lies without question for so long. We almost killed you and let your adopted world die because of it.”
“The important thing is Earth is still here and with your help we’ll rebuild.”
“You are very wise, Starla Leyton.”
“I don’t feel like that most of the time,” Starla said. She looked back towards the line. Billy still had plenty of time. “What’s going to happen with the Elders now?”
“I don’t know. This is an unprecedented situation. There will have to be a trial—a real trial. But most of my fellow Peacekeepers could not bring themselves to arrest the Elders, not even after what they’ve witnessed.”
“That kind of programming can be hard to overcome. Isn’t there a neutral party you could go to?”
“We are investigating that possibility. It will take some time.”
“And what’s going to happen to you in the meantime?”
“I have been assigned to stay here as a liaison to the humans.”
“For how long?”
“Indefinitely.” Kila shifted uncomfortably. Starla understood why: she was essentially being exiled to a backwater planet. Despite that she had done the right thing, her fellow Peacekeepers still didn’t trust her.
“I’m sorry,” Starla said.
“Thank you.”
“I’d have to talk it over with the others, but I’m sure the Super Squad would love to have someone like you, especially now. I know it wouldn’t be the same as policing the whole galaxy, but you could still help people.”
“I would like that very much.”
“And if you need someone to show you around Earth and its customs—”
“That would be very helpful.”
“The first thing you’ll have to do is get out of that uniform. My friend Greta has a clothes store. She can find you something pretty to wear. And we can do something with your hair to cover those ears, but I don’t think we can hide that purple skin.”
They continued to talk—or Starla talked and Kila listened—until it was Billy’s turn to be led into the tent that contained the machine to make her a man again. Starla hurried over to give her a final kiss. “You’re sure about this?”
“I can always change back later,” Billy said with a wink. Then she went inside the tent. Starla’s superhearing was a curse at that point as she could hear Billy’s cries of pain. She was relieved to hear them deepen in pitch. She hoped he didn’t end up three hundred pounds or with a harelip or clubfoot or hunchback or some other deformity.
After a few minutes, a technician allowed her to go inside. There, on a bed, she found her husband. He looked about the way he had on their wedding night, though perhaps slightly younger and his hair a little longer. His eyes fluttered open as she took his hand. “How did we do?” he asked.
“Perfect, Mr. Leyton.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Leyton.” Then they shared their first kiss as husband and wife since their interrupted wedding night.
***
Shakespeare wrote, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Elise’s head had never felt uneasier. Queen Neptune had never been popular in old-fashioned Pacifica. Now that sixty Pacificans had died in Focal City, she was even less popular.
It didn’t matter that those deaths had helped to prevent an invasion of Pacifica that would have killed thousands. All that mattered was perfectly loyal mermen had died on land, far away from their homes. For that, the whispers of dissent were growing louder.
No one had challenged her directly or indirectly yet. By utilizing her network of spies—the sea life around Pacifica—she got the sense that the rebellion was in its infancy. Baron Triton, whom she had stripped of power for conspiring against her, knew his opportunity was coming. All he’d needed was a tragedy to milk and Omega had served it up to him on a platter. If she didn’t do something about him soon, she would find an unruly mob at the gates, followed by a bloodbath. The royal trident was the most powerful weapon in Pacifica, but not even it could take on thousands of angry civilians.
A new worry began to gnaw at her as she paced the palace. It was convenient the former Killer Whale—now Kenda—had shown up just in time for all this. She hadn’t revealed her true identity yet, but a few secret messages passed to Baron Triton was all that was needed. Then the baron would have a rightful heir to occupy the throne while Killer Whale got what she always wanted: the crown of Pacifica.
The only hitch was that Kenda was still Kenda. If the baron and others didn’t like Queen Neptune, they would be loathe to put another queen on the throne. Of course that could be fixed soon enough now. A trip to Manila or Focal City and Kenda could become a man again.
Elise didn’t want to think such things about her sister, but they had been enemies for most of their lives while they had been allies for only weeks. It would take a while for Elise to trust Kenda.
That was when she heard Ariel’s scream. This high up in the palace there was no doubt who the shrill scream could belong to. Elise took the seashell off her belt; it transformed into the royal trident. Why had she allowed herself to become so careless as to leave Kenda with Ariel with only that fool Ursula to watch them?
Another scream ripped through the water as Elise ran her trident through the door. Kenda held Ariel around the waist, the little girl’s legs thrashing in her grasp. “What is the meaning of this?” she shouted.
Ariel giggled and then said, “We were playing torpedo, Mama. Do you want to play?”
“Torpedo?”
“I’ll show you,” Kenda said. “Get ready, child.”
Ariel folded her arms against her body. “I’m ready to launch.”
“Three…two…one…launch!” Kenda brought Ariel’s body back as far as she could and then hurled Ariel forward through the water. Elise’s daughter let out another scream as she cut through the water like a torpedo.
Elise put the trident away. She forced herself to smile. “You shouldn’t play so loud, baby. You’ll bother the whole palace.”
“I’m sorry, Mama.” As she usually did to apologize, Ariel swam into Elise’s arms to cuddle. She held up her thumb for a moment, but then folded it against her body.
“It’s all right, baby,” Elise said. She stroked her daughter’s red hair. She looked up at her sister, who was doing her best to keep a neutral expression. “I think it’s about your naptime.”
“I’m not sleepy.”
“Don’t test me,” Elise said.
She let Ariel go so the toddler could paddle over to her bed. Despite her plea to the contrary, she soon fell asleep with a doll clutched in her arms. Elise bent down to kiss her daughter’s forehead.
Kenda waited for her outside the bedroom. “I’m sorry, sister.”
“It’s all right. I’m a little jumpy lately.”
“You should have killed Baron Triton when you had the chance. Or at least locked him in the dungeons. Now he’s causing you trouble again.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Elise sighed and then said, “What would you have me do?”
“I wouldn’t presume to advise the queen.”
“Yeah, right. How would Killer Whale handle this?”
“I would put his head on a pike at the gates.”
“Then he’ll be a martyr.”
“Better a dead martyr than a live troublemaker.”
“There has to be another way.”
“Pacificans are simple people. Provincial people. You know that better than I do.”
“So what?”
“So, what if Baron Triton were caught in bed with a comely maiden who was not his wife?”
“Are you suggesting we have someone seduce that old walrus?”
“No
t just anyone.”
“You?”
“Who better?”
Elise frowned as she considered this. Putting Kenda with Baron Triton could very likely accelerate the rebellion. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You could be hurt.”
“I can take care of myself. Especially against that blowfish.”
“But when word got out, people would think you’re a whore. I couldn’t do that to you.”
“They won’t blame me. I’m just an innocent young girl who was taken in by the charms of a suave older man.”
“Are we still talking about Baron Triton?”
“Please, sister, let me do this. That slimy devil has been nothing but a pain for both of us. Remember how easily he turned on me after you first defeated me as a woman? And it will make the palace safer for Ariel. The child isn’t as soft as she once was, but she is still too trusting.”
Elise put a hand to her head, to the very heavy crown perched there. “All right. If you want to do it, then we can try. How long until you can get started?”
“I’ve already begun. I’ve arranged to meet Baron Triton tonight for dinner.”
“What if I’d said no?”
“Then I’d have done it anyway.”
“I’m sure you would have.” Elise gave her sister a hug. “Good luck.”
Kenda started to swim away. She turned back to say, “Apologize to Ariel for me. I promised to read her a bedtime story: The Happy Clownfish. It’s rubbish, but she enjoys it.”
“I’ll tell her.”
Kenda nodded and then swam away. Elise sighed as she thought of what they could have done if only they’d been sisters years ago.
***
Their options had been greatly reduced by the continued power outages and Melanie’s work schedule. In the end they ended up at a seedy-looking club called The Junkyard in Redoubt City that had its own generator. True to its name the club was still a junkyard during the day; at night the garages were cleaned out to make room for a dance floor, bar, and DJ station.
The tables were made of stacks of old tires, on which Melanie and Robin had their drinks perched. “How did you find this place?” Melanie asked over the loud music.
Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction) Page 75
