Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction)

by P. T. Dilloway

  She lands in a snow bank at the base of the wall. She’s relieved not to hear the crack of any of her tiny bones as she lands. With a groan she manages to roll over. She unfastens the straps of the jetpack and then rolls again to escape from it.

  For a couple of minutes she sits in the snow to catch her breath. The snowsuit Melanie loaned her is warm enough to keep her little body from freezing out here despite that it must be a couple dozen degrees below zero. She loses feeling in those extremities she can’t cover, like her nose and lips. With this in mind, she forces herself up to her feet.

  She staggers through the snow until she reaches the identification panel. The next challenge for her is to be able to reach the panel. Even on her toes, she’s still too short to reach. Looking around, she doesn’t see any trees or rocks she can use to prop herself up. There’s only the jetpack lying in the snow.

  A sigh crystallizes in the air as she trudges back to fetch the jetpack. She drags it by a strap over to the identification panel. The jetpack’s engine melts the snow around her several inches; she shovels more in to make up the difference.

  By standing on her toes on the jetpack she can barely reach the panel. She holds her hand against it for several seconds, until a green light flashes. The door grinds open.

  Starla darts inside, nearly smacking into one of the service robots. The robot’s red eye lights up; it must be scanning her to determine if she’s an intruder. “Welcome, Gor-Bul,” the robot says, using her alien name as it always does. She knows better than to say anything back; it won’t recognize her voice right now.

  She begins to make her way carefully down the corridor. She doesn’t want to alert Apex Man if he’s here. Then again if he is here, he’ll have heard her entrance. She grimaces at that thought.

  As she gets closer to the main hall, she hears him shout, “I don’t care what your tests say! She is mine!”

  “My son, I am sorry. The human female is incompatible—”

  “Then make her love me!”

  “I’m afraid that is impossible.”

  “Make it possible!” There’s a crash of something hitting the ice floor. Starla doesn’t want to know what it was. Her stomach begins to churn and her breath comes faster. Apex Man sounds even crazier than at the carnival; if he catches her—

  She stops herself to take a deep breath. She has to go through with this. She has to put a stop to him before someone gets hurt. But how? She can’t run in there—

  The service drone lumbers towards her. An idea comes to Starla. She hurries back over to the drone. It can’t understand her voice, but she knows where the manual input panel is on its chest. A keyboard comes up on the screen, displaying the alien characters of the long-dead language of her people. She plays her hand across the keyboard to type in the drone’s new commands. Then she deactivates the panel and slips down an adjoining corridor to wait.

  She has to wait a few minutes for the drone to execute its program. Once she feels a rumble beneath her feet, she knows it has done it. She dispatched the service drone to go into the armory and grab a couple of thermal grenades. There’s a second rumble no doubt from another grenade.

  She hears what she has been waiting for: Apex Man shouts, “What’s the meaning of this?”

  Starla breaks into a run, into the throne room. She barely suppresses a gasp to see Kate slumped on the crystal chair that in actuality is an alien computer. From the look of it Kate is still breathing.

  Any other time Starla would try to wake Kate up, but right now her being unconscious is actually helpful. It’ll keep Starla from having to explain later why she was here. She gently sets Kate on the floor and then takes her place on the chair.

  Like the identification panel the chair recognizes her. But like the service drones, it won’t understand any vocal commands. She has to type in, “Father, I wish to undo the treatment. I need to be Apex Girl again.”

  Her father nods to her. “I thought as much, my daughter. The counteragent has already been manufactured for this purpose.

  “Where is it?”

  “In the laboratory. I will command one of the drones to ready it.”

  “Thank you,” she says, though her father won’t understand.

  The only problem for her is the laboratory is right across from the armory. She climbs up the ladder leading to the upper levels of the Crystal Lair. She’s winded by the time she reaches the second floor, but there’s no time to rest. She does make sure Apex Man isn’t in the hallway; then she scurries towards the lab.

  She can hear his voice shouting at the drone, “Who told you to do such a thing?”

  The jig is almost up, she thinks as she launches herself into the lab. As her father indicated, there’s another of the drones inside. It has a syringe filled with something orange on one arm. Its red eye scans her as the one downstairs did. “Your shot is ready, Gor-Bul.”

  She lowers her voice to say, “I am ready.”

  To her surprise the drone actually acknowledges her. She barely has time to hold out her arm before it stabs her right bicep. “Ouch,” she squeaks and rubs her arm.

  She waits for her body to begin to swell. Nothing happens. Thinking of when she took the treatment, she supposes it might require some time to work.

  Time isn’t something she has, though, as Apex Man stands in the doorway. His eyes glow red as he glares at her. “You! How did you get here?”

  “I flew.”

  “You will regret that, you puny wretch.” She looks for somewhere to run, but there is no escape.

  Chapter 26

  Starla takes a step back. She puts her hands up. “We don’t have to fight. Let me take Kate and get her some help.”

  “She doesn’t need help from you.” Apex Man sneers at her. “You can’t stand that she chose me, can you? That’s why you keep butting in.”

  “Kate is my friend. That’s all.”

  “Do you expect me to believe you love that pathetic photographer?”

  “Billy is a wonderful man.”

  “We’ll see how wonderful he is when I tear his head off. Then maybe you’ll learn not to stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

  “You leave Billy alone!” Starla rushes forward, her hands poised to claw out Apex Man’s eyes. She’s much too slow for him; he bats her aside before she has gotten four steps. Starla flies backwards, across a counter filled with crystal beakers and tubes. She smashes through a closet door to land inside.

  By all rights she should be dead now. At the very least she should be ready to pass out. But when she looks down at her tattered snowsuit, she doesn’t see any blood. Her fists clench. A smile comes to her face.

  Apex Man has his back turned to her. He must think she’s dead or nearly so. She tears the remains of the snowsuit away, followed by the clothes Greta gave to her. Underneath is her Apex Girl costume. As she sits up, she realizes that while her glasses are askew, she can see perfectly fine; she sets the glasses on top of the rest of her clothes.

  Then she launches herself from the closet. She tackles Apex Man before he can even turn around. She rains down a hail of punches. He only laughs at her. With a flick of his hand, she’s thrown backwards into another wall.

  Before she can move, he grabs her by the loose fabric at the front of her costume. He sneers again. “You pathetic child. Do you think you can hurt me?”

  He hurls her through the lab wall. She lands in the hallway. She struggles to her feet. Before he can grab her again, she runs. She hears his laughter in her ears. “Go ahead and run, coward! I’ll still find you!”

  Once she’s out the front door of the Lair, she pauses for a moment. He hasn’t followed her yet. He will eventually. She thinks of Kate inside, lying there unconscious, perhaps forever. Her fists clench again.

  She tries to launch herself into the air. Nothing happens. Her powers still aren’t back yet. She hurries over to the jetpack and then shrugs into it. She hopes it still works after her rough landing. The engine sputters a few tim
es but finally roars to life. With a whoosh of flame, she rises into the air.

  Starla climbs higher and higher into the air. She pushes through a layer of clouds, into the clear sky. Sunlight washes over her. She closes her eyes to bask in it. She can feel her body getting stronger as she absorbs the light.

  The joyful moment ends as something hits her in the stomach. She finds herself spinning out of control into the upper atmosphere. The jetpack wheezes a few times before its engine finally dies; she’s sure Robin’s friend hadn’t designed it to work this high up.

  She lets the jetpack drop back to the ground. For a moment she follows it, but then she levels out. With a sigh of relief, she launches herself higher up. Her flying is ragged against the forces of gravity, but with some effort she manages to reach escape velocity.

  There’s always that moment of wonder when she looks down on the Earth to see how tiny the continents are from way up here. If only everyone could come up here, there might be far fewer problems on Earth. She shakes her head, knowing she doesn’t have time for quiet contemplation. She points herself towards the sun and then takes off.

  There’s no sound in space, so it’s impossible for him to taunt her, but she can feel him on her heels. She flies faster once she’s farther away from Earth and its gravitational pull. As she approaches Venus, she notes how her costume is becoming tighter as her muscles return to their normal size. The front of the costume fills with her cleavage again as well; even out here her cheeks turn warm at this thought. Her feet tear through the boots Melanie had given to her; she couldn’t bring her normal boots with her since they were still much too big. Being barefoot won’t be a problem, not out here.

  She’s near the lifeless surface of Mercury when he finally catches her. They wrestle in zero-G. It’s clear he’s still stronger than her. He eventually gets the upper hand and drives her hard into the surface. She inhales a mouthful of Mercury’s crust and almost chokes on it. He presses her face harder into the ground.

  “It’s over now, impostor,” he whispers into her ear.

  She can’t argue with him there. She can feel her body weakening again. She still thrashes around, but it’s no good. He’s too strong. Kate was right that Starla was a poor substitute for Apex Man.

  Her mind turns to Billy. If there’s an afterlife, he’ll probably join her soon enough. Apex Man will carry through on his threat to kill Billy, out of spite now if for no other reason. No! her mind screams. She stops thrashing like a dying fish. She focuses instead on pushing her hands into the ground. With a silent scream, she levers herself up. She does a low gravity cartwheel to drive Apex Man into the ground.

  She rolls over to spew a wall of flame at him. It doesn’t do any harm, but it is a good distraction. She launches herself away from the surface, to continue her flight towards the sun.

  As she closes in on the sun, she reminds herself she’s only going to get one shot at this. If she messes it up, then she’ll die. The only consolation is if she can take him with her. Then at least the world would be safe.

  The sun becomes too bright for even her eyes. She can feel gravity returning, pulling at her. Almost there, she tells herself. Her calculations are interrupted when Apex Man slams into her again. They grapple, clawing at each other and occasionally shooting fire. It doesn’t do any good; they’re wasting energy.

  But all their wrestling brings them closer to the sun. The gravity is getting stronger, even stronger than Earth’s. This is it, Starla thinks. She has got to do it now.

  She curls up both legs and then straightens them to kick him back. Before he can recover, she charges at him. She picks up enough speed so that when her head slams into his chest, he’s thrown backwards thousands of feet.

  Starla retreats back to a safe distance. She hovers there, squinting against the sun while she waits to see if she did it or not. Apex Man grins at her for a moment. He tries to fly back towards her, but it’s like an invisible hand pulls him backwards. That would be the hand of gravity. He silently screams as he fights against the sun’s gravity, but not even Apex Man is that strong.

  His body catches fire before it disappears against the sun. Starla turns away. Earth is just a tiny blue dot out here, but she’ll be there soon enough.

  ***

  Robin pulls the trigger on the Taser. The impostor dives from the chair and rolls across the floor. Robin ditches the Taser. She’s reaching for the bolo when he slams into her. He lands a solid punch to her jaw that’s hard enough to knock out a couple of teeth. Her mouth fills with blood, some of which she spits at him.

  He grunts with annoyance. When he looks up, she realizes it’s not because of her. He removes a shuriken from his shoulder. “You little bitch,” he growls. He hurls the shuriken back at Melanie. Two months at college have dulled her reflexes enough that the shuriken grazes her right arm.

  Robin takes advantage of the distraction to reach into her belt for a can of mace. It’s a sissy weapon, but at times like this it can be effective. She sprays the mace into the impostor’s face. He cries out with rage. She’s able to finally roll him off.

  “You son of a bitch!” she shouts and then kicks him in the face. She does it again and again until blood covers most of his lower jaw.

  He sweeps her legs out from under her. She should have seen that coming. Sloppy. She can’t afford to make mistakes like that, not with his advantage in strength and his equal knowledge of martial arts.

  Melanie launches herself for a kick. He grabs her by one foot to spin her into a wall. Melanie lands with a startled cry on the floor. “There goes your girlfriend,” he says with a sneer.

  She tries not to let her emotions get out of control. That’s what he wants her to do. Instead, she strikes a defensive pose. She motions for him to come at her. He’s all too happy to oblige. They execute a series of kicks, punches, and blocks quicker than anything in a kung fu movie. Robin manages to keep pace with him, but he begins to overwhelm her with his strength and size.

  He finally lands a blow to the side of her head. She tumbles sideways onto the floor. Another kick to her midsection has her coughing up blood. “If you know what’s good for you, stay down,” he says. She tries to push herself up, but her muscles are too weak. She collapses onto the floor.

  Someone applauds mockingly. She’s surprised to hear Dalton’s voice say, “That was certainly entertaining. I’ll take it from here.”

  Dalton rolls Robin over onto her back. She grins down at Robin. “Bet you’re surprised to see me.”

  “I shouldn’t be. Storm couldn’t come up with this. Not his style.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Where is he?”

  “She is probably gulping down a box of chocolates in Greenland by now.” To explain this statement, Dalton holds up what looks like a pink hairdryer. “I was thinking I should let you kill you, but then I remembered what an adorable little girl you were. It’ll be so much fun watching you and your girlfriend playing Barbies together.”

  “Hurry up and do it already,” the impostor growls. “You’re giving her too much time.”

  “Oh, fine.” Dalton aims the weapon at Robin. But the impostor is right: Dalton gave Robin too much time. She already knows what to do: she whips the bolo around once and then hurls it at his feet. The impostor tumbles forward to land across Robin’s body as Dalton pulls the trigger.

  The pink beam of light strikes the impostor in the center of the chest. Robin watches as the impostor’s body shrinks, his uniform becoming loose on his body, except at the top of the chest, where his breasts swell against the fabric. While the hood sags forward, long copper tresses emerge to drape down to the floor.

  It’s easy enough for Robin to shove the scrawny teenage girl off. But Dalton still has the weapon aimed at her. “Clever, but pointless,” she says.

  Before she can pull the trigger again, her entire body begins to twitch. Dalton spins around in time for Melanie to punch her in the jaw. Melanie swats the gun from Dalton’s hand; the weapon j
umps into the air for a moment before Melanie grabs it. “Have a taste of your own medicine,” she says and then pulls the trigger.

  Dalton cries out as the pink light washes over her. Her body shrinks, getting shorter and scrawnier until her pants pool at her feet while her shirt hangs off her like a nightgown. Her breasts flatten out completely, much of the mass going into a childish potbelly. Her hair gets longer, until it’s to her waist.

  When it’s over, Dalton is only about eight years old. Like an eight-year-old she begins to cry. She tries to grab the weapon from Melanie’s hand, but she’s too short. “Give it back! It’s mine!”

  Robin seizes the little girl by the front of her shirt. “Can it, shrimp. Then start telling us who’s been helping you on this little project.”

  ***

  Sally does a turn in the mirror. She runs her hands along the sides of her costume. “I don’t know about this,” she says. “I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a superhero.”

  “Neither was I, but we don’t have much choice right now,” Allison says. With a pair of scissors she shortened Velocity Man’s costume enough to fit, except for the boots. For those she wears a spare pair of Velocity Gal’s high-heeled boots with socks stuffed into the toes to make them fit. She puts a hand on Sally’s shoulder. “You’re going to make a great Velocity Gal.”

  Sally raises an eyebrow. “If I’m Velocity Gal then who are you supposed to be?”

  “Your loyal sidekick, Velocity Kid.”

  “Sidekick? But—”

  “I’m the kid. That means I have to be the sidekick. It’s a rule or something.”

  “I can see this is going to take a lot of getting used to.”

  “You’ll get the hang of it. Just stay close to me and try to do what I do.”

  “All right.” Sally fits the blue domino mask to her face. She scrunches up her face once or twice, trying to adjust to it. Allison remembers she did that the first time she wore the costume. Sally runs a hand through her hair. “Aren’t people going to wonder why Velocity Gal is blond now?”