Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction)

by P. T. Dilloway

  “It’s…it’s my…it’s my brother’s…experiment.”

  “I see. And did he give you these chemicals?”

  “Yes.”

  Mrs. Tanner shakes her head. “I really wish you had told me this from the start.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Mrs. Tanner stares at Allison for a moment. She finally sighs and says, “I’ll talk to the principal about this. I think as long as I’m supervising you it’ll be all right.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Come on, let’s get back to class.”

  The rest of the day goes by without incident. The butterflies in Allison’s stomach flap harder the closer she gets to the final bell of the day. She tries to stay calm so she doesn’t need the inhaler again. It’s probably about out of charge by now; she’ll have to go see the nurse if she keeps using it so much.

  When the bell finally rings, Allison trudges along the hallways as if she’s going to her own execution. She doesn’t have to do this. She could stay like this, live like an ordinary thirteen-year-old with asthma. Mom would certainly be happy about that.

  No, she can’t do that. She can’t leave Sally and Jenny with that impostor. They’re her family, not his. With this thought in mind, the tightness in her chest eases and she’s able to walk faster.

  Mrs. Tanner is grading papers when Allison arrives. “So what are we doing?” she asks. Allison opens her backpack to take out the notebook she has been scribbling in. Besides the formula, she has diagrammed the layout of the equipment. She shows this to her teacher. “I’m not sure we have all this equipment here.”

  “We can…improvise.”

  Allison feels like a grown-up again as she directs Mrs. Tanner in how to set everything up. The end result of their labors is something that would make Rube Goldberg proud. She’s not sure how well it’ll work; maybe she should ask Robin to give her access to one of Holloway Corporation’s labs. But she doubts there’s any lab outside Alexander Hamilton Middle School that will let her work, not looking like this.

  They have to ask the school janitor for help with the barrels of chemicals. He uses a hand truck to bring them in one at a time. “What’s all this for?” he asks. “You girls ain’t making no drugs in here, are you?”

  “No. It’s an experiment,” Mrs. Tanner says. After the janitor has gone, Mrs. Tanner says, “Mr. Coleman wasn’t really sold on the idea. He was worried we might blow the place up. That’s not going to happen, is it?”

  “It shouldn’t.”

  “That’s not very reassuring.”

  “Science doesn’t always involve certainty.”

  “Your brother teach you that?”

  “Yes.”

  “You must really be relieved that he didn’t die in that explosion at T.U.R.B.O. Labs.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I went to his funeral. I don’t remember seeing you there.”

  “Mom didn’t think…it would be…good for me.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.” They begin to run the first chemicals through the equipment. Mrs. Tanner says, “Alan never mentioned he had a little sister.”

  “We aren’t close. We…we were born…far apart.”

  “That’s too bad. My brother and I were like peas in a pod until we were about your age. Then we started to drift apart.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “We still talk on the phone and send each other Christmas cards and such. It’s not really the same, is it?”

  “No.” Allison makes some adjustments to the equipment. Then she stands back. “We’re ready.”

  She and Mrs. Tanner watch as the chemicals mix. If everything goes as she diagrammed, the chemicals will create a drug that should not only strengthen her airways but give her superspeed as well. This side effect is why the drug never went into production. Allison had sabotaged the results she gave to her superiors back then to make sure they wouldn’t go forward with the drug. While it might have helped millions of people like her, it would be much too dangerous to have millions of speedsters running around.

  It occurs to her that if she’s successful now, she’ll have to find a way to keep Mrs. Tanner quiet about the results. It’s still much too dangerous to let something like this out into the general public. Terrorists would love to have someone like Allison to plant bombs anywhere in the world in a heartbeat.

  Her asthma acts up when she hears Mom’s voice shout, “What is going on in here?”

  “It’s…it’s an…experiment,” Allison mumbles.

  Mom turns her rage on Mrs. Tanner. “Do you know what time it is? I’ve been waiting in the car for an hour now. How dare you keep my daughter here like this!”

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Bass, but this was Allison’s idea.”

  “You should be more responsible than to let a little girl do this. First thing tomorrow I’m going to call Mr. Coleman.”

  “Mom, please—”

  “That’s enough out of you, young lady. Get your stuff and go out to the car.”

  Allison finally does what she should have done twenty years earlier, the first time she was a teenager. She stamps her foot and shouts, “No! This experiment is important to me. Mrs. Tanner is trying to help. Now why don’t you go back to the car and let us finish?”

  “Allison Elizabeth Bass, you do not talk to your mother like that.”

  “I’m not a little kid, Mom. Stop treating me like one!” Somehow her asthma hasn’t flared up during this outburst; if anything she feels better than she has since she first woke up as a teenager.

  Mom unleashes her ultimate weapon; she begins to cry. “I’m sorry, honey, but I worry about you.”

  Allison puts a hand on her mother’s shoulder. “I know, Mom, but you have to understand just because Dad died doesn’t mean I will. Not for a long time, anyway.”

  “Of course not, honey.” They hug there in the lab. Mom pats Allison’s back and then says, “I’ll go back out to the car. Don’t be too long.”

  “I won’t.”

  It’s not long before the first batch is finally ready. Mrs. Tanner asks, “Do you have a mouse or something to test this on?”

  “Just me.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I know.”

  Allison pours some of the compound into a beaker. She holds this up to examine it, though she knows there’s no way to tell with her naked eye whether it’s the same or not. “Allison—”

  “It’ll be fine,” she says. Then she swallows it. She waits for something to happen. Nothing does.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nods, fighting to keep her tears at bay. She tells herself it might need a few hours to work. Last time it happened while she was unconscious, passed out on the floor of her lab. She smiles at Mrs. Tanner. “Thanks for your help.”

  She makes it out to the car before she finally breaks down. Mom is all too willing to comfort her. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  “It didn’t work.”

  “That’s all right—”

  “No it’s not!” Allison has to grab her inhaler again. After she takes a shot from it, she holds it up to Mom. “I’m sick of this! I hate it!”

  “Oh, honey, lots of kids have asthma. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

  “You don’t understand.” She can’t force any more words through her sobs. Mom continues to hold her and rub her back while Allison cries. When she can finally speak, she says, “I was a hero, Mom. I helped people. Now look at me.”

  “You’re still my little hero.”

  “Thanks,” Allison says with a sniffle.

  “Now, remember what your father always said: sometimes you fail a thousand times before you get it right. So tomorrow you go back there and try again, all right?”

  Allison nods. “I will.”

  “That’s my girl. Now let’s go home. I’ve got some yummy lasagna in the oven.”

  “That sounds good,” Allison says. She forces herself to smile. Mom’s right that she h
as to keep trying. She only hopes it won’t take a thousand tries to get it right.

  ***

  That obnoxious Robin Holloway would be proud of how Elise and her mother got to Greece. At the San Francisco airport they picked out a couple of women close enough to their measurements and then followed them into the bathroom. To actually knock them out took some doing, but in the end Elise and her mother each had a passport and a boarding pass for the flight to Athens.

  There weren’t any delays with the takeoff, which kept them from being found out before the plane took off. It wasn’t until they were over international waters that Elise began to relax. It was unlikely the plane would turn back now, though it could still divert to another airport, where cops might be waiting for them.

  No one was waiting for them in Athens. They had gotten away with it. From there they took a cab all the way to the coast, some little town with a name Elise couldn’t remember. She let Paul handle the negotiations to rent them a boat.

  It came with a crew of disgusting, hairy men who keep shouting at each other in what she assumes is Greek. Is this really where all those old stories about the gods came from? Were these gross sailors actually her very distant cousins? She shivers at that thought.

  “What’s wrong, Elise?” her mother asks.

  “Nothing. Just a little nervous.”

  “You’re sure these numbers are the true location?”

  “I hope so. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “If it’s not, we’re going to be up shit creek,” Paul grumbles.

  “It has to be,” Elise says.

  “I can’t believe we flew halfway around the world based on a fairy tale.”

  “It’s not a fairy tale.” At least Elise hopes it isn’t. If it is only a story, then she’ll never be able to see Ariel again. Neptune won’t be so stupid as to bring Ariel up to the surface to visit her true mother; he’ll keep her down there to fill her head with lies. If Ariel does ever see her, she’ll think her real mother is a stranger or, worse yet, an enemy.

  “It’s going to be all right, my daughter,” Mother says. She pulls Elise close for a hug. Mother is still bruised from what Neptune’s goons did to her, but she seems out of the woods for now.

  “I know, Mother.”

  The sailors begin to shout more furiously. Some of them are gesturing at the water. Elise hurries over to the railing to see what has got them so whipped into a frenzy. Then she sees the spray of water from a whale’s spout.

  Elise isn’t a marine biologist, but she’s fairly certain blue whales are not natives of the Aegean Sea. She’s less sure about the sharks. Still, it’s a dead giveaway that Lord Neptune is on to them. Elise pats the seashell in her pocket. He’s probably following them through the trident. It’s probably like a damned homing beacon to him.

  “This looks bad,” Paul says.

  “No kidding.” But ahead of them she sees a glimmer of hope. There’s a spit of land about the size of the atoll where she and Paul had spent much of their time back when Elise was a man. “There it is. The temple must be there.”

  “Doesn’t look like much of a temple.”

  “I don’t care what it looks like so long as it can help us.” She scurries up a ladder to the bridge. The captain has twice the chest hair and body odor as his men, but he’s the only one who speaks English. She motions to the atoll. “That’s where we’re going.”

  “That?”

  “Yes. Is that going to be a problem?”

  Before the captain can answer, a giant squid—something definitely not native to the Aegean—rises from the water. Perched on its head like the grand marshal of a parade is Lord Neptune.

  Chapter 23

  The creature is like something from a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake. Each of its tentacles is probably four times longer than the boat Elise is on. The yellow eyes are twice as tall as Elise. She doesn’t need a special bond with sea life to know what its intentions are.

  She turns to the captain. “Tell your men to abandon ship.”

  He stares at the squid for a moment and then nods. “Good idea.” As he begins to bark orders at the crew, Elise goes up to the bow.

  “Where’s my daughter?” she shouts.

  “In the palace, where she belongs. No child of royal blood should be raised as a commoner.”

  “That’s not for you to decide. She’s my daughter!”

  “And I am the king! Everything beneath the waves belongs to me!”

  “You’re a goddamned psychopath.”

  “Give me the scepter or you’ll never see your child again.”

  “You try anything and you’ll never get your precious scepter back.” She reaches into her pocket for the shell. As a regular human there’s no way for her to unlock the trident, but that doesn’t mean she can’t destroy the damned thing.

  “You wouldn’t dare!”

  “You want to try me?”

  “He’s ordering his minions to attack,” Mother whispers in her ear.

  “Then we better get out of here.”

  “You can’t go into that water. They’ll kill you.”

  “We don’t have a choice, do we?”

  Mother nods to her. “I’ll do what I can to draw them from you and your friend.”

  “Thanks.” There’s no time for a hug, so Elise says, “I love you.”

  “I love you too, my daughter. Now go.”

  Elise hurries to the back of the boat, where Paul stares at the water. “What do we do now?” he asks.

  “We have to swim for it.”

  “That’s suicide!” He looks Elise in the eyes. “Let me talk to him. Maybe I can reason with him.”

  “It won’t work. He’s crazy, Paul. All he cares about is this damned trident.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “I wish there were another way, but there isn’t. Just dive in and then swim like crazy for the shore.” She takes a step back and then runs forward. Her dive won’t win her any Olympic medals, but she lands in the water.

  She flails around at the water, feeling like she’s wrestling with the giant squid. All of her natural ability at swimming has disappeared. She can’t imagine she has much chance of making it to the atoll, not like this. But what else can she do? Even if she gives him the shell, he won’t let Ariel go; he’s too far gone for that.

  She sees a fin in the water. It must be one of the sharks Neptune brought with him. In the past it would be easy enough for her to communicate with the shark, to command it not to eat her. That didn’t always work as sharks are the most stubborn of sea creatures when it comes to food.

  Something hits her in the hip. There’s a moment of dull pain, but not the searing pain to indicate its sunk its teeth into her. The creature breaks the water and she begins to laugh. It’s not a shark—it’s a dolphin! “Manny?”

  They can’t talk to each other, but from the way the dolphin bobs its snout, she figures he’s confirming her guess. He chatters something at her. She has a pretty good idea what he means.

  She chops through the water to bring herself along the dolphin’s back. A hand grabs hers. She turns to see Paul there. “This seems familiar,” he says. “But usually it’s just me riding him.”

  “I guess there’s a first for everything.”

  They cling to Manny’s dorsal fin as he begins to head towards the atoll. She wonders if Mother had somehow communicated with the dolphin or if it is operating on its own. Either way, they have a much better chance to reach the island now than swimming on their own.

  There’s a crash behind them. Elise turns her head enough to watch the giant squid dismantle the boat. Despite how gross they are, she hopes the sailors on board managed to get out of the area in time. The sharks and other creatures probably won’t focus on them since they don’t have what Neptune wants.

  The dolphin raises its head to chatter something. Elise sees a couple more fins in the water. These definitely do not belong to dolphins. “Hang on,” she tells Pa
ul.

  Outnumbered and encumbered with two passengers, Manny doesn’t have much of a chance against the sharks. The dolphin does what it can to zig-zag through the water to make himself less of a target. It’s only a matter of time before one of the sharks—a great white from the look of it—manages to tear off a chunk from Manny.

  “Leave him alone!” Elise screams. She futilely tries to kick at the shark. All that accomplishes is losing one of her boots in the Aegean.

  Manny keeps swimming even while his trail of blood draws the rest of the sharks to him. Tears sting Elise’s eyes as she thinks of what’s going to happen to the brave dolphin. She has never felt so helpless in all her life.

  As the sharks close in for the kill, something begins to rise from the water. Elise screams at the sight of a blue whale’s eye a couple of feet away from her. The situation is going from bad to worse now.

  That is until she sees Mother clinging to the whale. Elise leans down on the dolphin. “Get us out of here, Manny.”

  She’s not sure if the dolphin understands, but he swims faster. Behind them, the whale’s enormous tail emerges from the water. It slaps at the surface, creating waves taller than a house. “Hold on!” Elise screams to Paul.

  She clings to the dolphin with both hands as the waves reach them. Manny rides the waves like a surfer, letting the water carry him along towards the island. The sharks, not as bright as the dolphin, are scattered by the waves. This gives Manny a huge lead over his pursuers. They’re going to make it!

  Elise screams again as she looks behind her. The giant squid’s tentacles wrap around Mother’s whale. The two enormous creatures battle, the squid tugging at the whale, who slaps at the water with his tail.

  The fight is a draw until one of the tentacles whips through the air to send Mother flying off the whale. Even before Mother lands, Elise knows what’s going to happen. The sharks are waiting for her. Elise doesn’t want to watch, but she can’t look away as the sharks tear her mother apart. “No!” Elise screams. “You son of a bitch!”

  The squid and whale stop battling as Neptune takes control of both of them. They turn towards Elise, but they’re too late. Manny has reached the shallows around the island. Elise lets go of the dolphin. She pats him on his nose. “Thank you, my friend.”