Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction)

by P. T. Dilloway

  “People don’t put that much thought into it. If anyone asks, say you dyed your hair.”

  “I guess.”

  “Don’t be so nervous. You’re going to do fine.” Allison gets on her toes to kiss Sally’s cheek. That’s about as far as she can go now with the age difference. “The first time I wore that outfit I’d only been a woman for two weeks. I hadn’t even worn heels before. Think how much easier it’ll be for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Now, follow me.” Allison takes off running from Focal City. She looks over her shoulder and is relieved to see Sally behind her. So far Sally seems to be keeping up with her, if not gaining on her. She’ll probably get even faster once she becomes more confident in her new abilities. Allison hopes they have that much time.

  She stops at the reflecting pool in Washington DC. They’d seen the news coverage on CNN about military forces battling another group of giant robots. So far none of the male Super Squad had shown up, except for Midnight Spectre. He had taken out about a half-dozen of the things before retreating. The remaining ones are still terrorizing the capital. With no one else on the scene, it would be up to the new Velocity Gals to help.

  Sally stumbles as she comes to a stop; Allison catches her before she can fall. “Thanks.” She looks around the plaza. “What do we do now?”

  “We have to find a way to stop those things.” Allison tells her what she has already tried without success. “Got any ideas?”

  “I think I do. Is there any cable around here we can use?”

  Allison smiles as she realizes what her former wife has in mind. “We can probably find something.”

  They have to run all the way into Virginia to find what they’re looking for. As they unroll the spool of metal cable, Allison thinks back to a year ago when she cobbled together a jumbo-size EMP device to disable Dr. Roboto’s metal monster. She hopes this time there’s not a trap waiting for her at the end of this.

  They finish unrolling the wire and then pull it tight. “What’s next, boss?” Allison asks.

  Sally’s cheeks flush beneath her mask; she’s not used to Allison taking orders from her. “You said we can accelerate molecules, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can we accelerate this wire?”

  “We should be able to.”

  “Good.” Sally outlines the rest of her plan. Allison thinks back to what happened in Focal City, all the damage she caused by sending a robot out of control.

  “There might be a lot of collateral damage from this.”

  “If you have a better idea—”

  “No. I’m saying we might not get a key to the city later.”

  “Better that than there not being a city, right?”

  “Right.”

  The nearest robot is three blocks away, near the Capitol. Sally and Allison tighten the cable so it’s straight. Then they begin to shake it, until the cable isn’t visible to normal eyes. “Go!” Sally calls out. They run forward, the cable between them.

  Since the cable is accelerated, it won’t affect the robot’s legs. They pass the cable halfway through and then come to a stop. A few seconds later the cable decelerates enough that it’s back in normal space, except now portions of the cable are buried inside the robot’s legs.

  Sally and Allison each accelerate their end of the cable and then jam it as far as they can into the sidewalk. Once the cable ends decelerate they’re buried deep in the concrete. The end result is a makeshift tether. The robot, oblivious to this at first, takes a step forward. Its legs pause as it struggles to shake the tether. The concrete cracks and then gives way, gouging out large chunks of the sidewalk.

  But it works. The robot is so tall and bulky that it doesn’t have the balance of a human. Even the momentary delay caused by the cable is enough to send it teetering and then crashing to the ground. The end of the robot smashes down short of the Capitol steps. Allison breathes a sigh of relief, not wanting to think of the fallout if they destroyed a national landmark.

  They’re working on a second one near the Potomac when something gold flashes through the air. Allison recognizes the trident of Pacifica. That must mean Lord Neptune is here. What about the rest of the male Super Squad? They can’t be too far behind.

  The trident buries itself into the head of the robot. Allison watches the trident spin around like a drill to tear through the robot’s head. “I think we better stand back,” Allison calls to Sally. They back off to watch the robot collapse into the river with a mighty splash.

  A woman climbs atop the robot. She’s clad in a silver gown that looks like it’s made of fish scales. A golden crown is buried in her dark red hair. The woman lets out a scream and then yanks the trident free to hold it aloft.

  Allison stares at the woman. It’s only as she gets closer that Allison recognizes Elise’s face among the unfamiliar hair and clothes. “Elise?” she asks to make sure.

  “It’s Queen Neptune now,” she says with all the haughtiness of a queen. Her eyes narrow. “Allison?”

  “Hi.”

  Elise’s voice returns to normal as she asks, “What happened? Why are you still so little?”

  “I recreated the drug that gave me my superspeed. What happened to you?”

  “I was reborn in the Temple of Poseidon.” A bare-chested man with a thick brown beard joins Elise. She puts a hand on his shoulder. “This is my friend Paul.”

  “Paul? Are you—?”

  “I’m a merman now,” he confirms. He runs a hand through his beard. “I can’t wait to get to a barber and cut this thing off. It itches something fierce.” He finally seems to notice her. “Is this your friend Allison? She’s so—”

  “I’m thirteen,” Allison says.

  “That’s a fun age.”

  “Not really.”

  Sally comes to a stop in front of them. She, Elise, and Paul all gape at each other. Allison makes the introductions. “Elise, Paul, this is Sally. We were married before all this craziness. Sally, these are my Pacifican friends Paul and Elise—Queen Neptune now.”

  They all shake hands. Elise asks, “Are you like Allison now?”

  “Yes. It’s been a bit of an adjustment.”

  “I can imagine.”

  There’s a crash behind them. Allison claps her hands. “I suppose we should get back to work. How about we go low and you go high?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Elise says.

  With she and Sally using the cable trick and Elise using the trident, they manage to take down the remaining robots. A cheer goes up from the military and civilians in the area. It’s a short-lived cheer as another dozen robots appear to take the places of the downed ones. Sally shakes her head. “We’re going to need more cable.”

  “Hang on,” Allison says. She points to a red-and-yellow spot in the sky. “Looks like the cavalry showed up.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Elise says. “That fascist helped deliver us to Storm and Hall, remember?”

  “We can deal with that later. Right now we should probably get out of the way.”

  They help evacuate the civilians to shelter while Apex Man begins to smash his way through the robots. Allison and Sally usher a group of civilians into a subway car. The power is off, but with some leftover cable and their speed they drag it along the tunnel, to where the people should be safe until the battle is over.

  By the time Allison and Sally return to the surface, Apex Man smashes through the chest of the last robot. He stands in the opening to lift the robot into the air. The robot becomes no more than a dot and then it’s gone completely.

  Allison braces for more of the robots to appear, but they don’t. Maybe whoever’s in charge of them has realized the game has changed with Apex Man here. Or maybe they’re done with their photo opportunity. Certainly the news networks will fawn all over the heroic Apex Man while condemning the clumsy efforts of the Velocity Gals and Queen Neptune.

  Apex Man descends through the clouds again. As he gets closer, Allison put
s a hand to her mouth. Elise does the same. They gasp in unison. It’s not Apex Man at all—it’s Apex Girl!

  She lands gently in front of Allison, Sally, Elise, and Paul. When Starla comes to a stop, Allison notes there’s something different about her. She’s only as tall as Elise now and actually a couple inches shorter than Sally. And are those freckles all over her cheeks? Those freckled cheeks turn red as she says, “Hi guys. I’m back.”

  The last thing Allison expects is for Elise to whack Starla across the face with the trident. It doesn’t make so much as a mark, but Starla stumbles backwards. “You bitch! Where the hell have you been?”

  Paul grabs his friend’s shoulder. “Elise—”

  “No, I want to know! Where have you been while everything’s been going to shit? You hiding up in space? Or under your bed in that hideout of yours?”

  “No. It’s difficult to explain.” Starla looks down at her feet in that earnest farmgirl way of hers that disguises the fact she’s an almost omnipotent being.

  Their communicators all buzz at the same time. “Hey guys,” Robin says. “If you’re finished with those robots, meet Outcast and I at Storm’s office. We got something to show you.”

  Allison turns to Sally and grins. “Race you there.”

  “You’re on, kid.”

  They take off at the same time. Allison comes to a stop in Storm’s office first, Sally a millisecond behind her. Storm isn’t in the office. Instead Allison sees Robin, Melanie, a little girl with black hair, and a redheaded teenager who looks almost exactly like Robin. Starla joins them a few seconds later. Elise will take a few more minutes.

  Robin grabs the little girl by her ear. “Carrie here has something important to tell us.”

  Chapter 27

  They leave little Carrie Dalton and the impostor Robin Holloway in the custody of the military police. The revived female Super Squad meets in a secluded corner of the parking lot, where Robin holds up a silver disc. “This is how those robots kept appearing from nowhere.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a teleporter.”

  “More alien technology?” Allison asks.

  “Maybe at the core, but most of it is human technology.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I’m not sure. Dalton didn’t know the man’s name. He called himself the Tinker.”

  “So now what?” Elise asks.

  “Now we go where this Tinker is hiding and put a stop to him.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Titan,” Melanie answers. “It’s a moon of Saturn.”

  “The one the impostors said they were held prisoner on for a year. Turns out they were exaggerating a bit. Titan is where this Tinker made some adjustments to clones Dalton had kept on ice for years.”

  “Clones of us?” Starla asks. “Why?”

  “As replacements or deterrents, whatever the case. But the clones aren’t mentally stable. I think you’ve all seen that for yourselves. They’re prone to paranoia and megalomania among other things. If we hadn’t stepped in when we did, they’d have probably taken over the world eventually. Then they’d have gone after each other.”

  “Good riddance,” Elise growls.

  Sally shyly raises her hand as if they’re in school. “Are we going to need spacesuits?”

  “No. This Tinker guy has a whole station set up there for himself. We’ll be beaming ourselves into the middle of it.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” Elise says. “The sooner we kill this asshole, the sooner I can get back to my people.”

  “Hold on,” Starla says. “We aren’t going to kill this man. Not if we can help it.”

  “That all depends on who gets to him first.”

  Before a fight can break out, Allison gets between Elise and Starla. “Starla’s right. We can’t kill him. We have to bring him back here to stand trial.”

  “Like Dalton? You see how well that worked out.”

  “Maybe we should vote,” Sally says.

  “This is idiotic,” Robin cuts in. “We’ll deal with this guy when we get to that point. First we have to get there. Everyone form a circle and hold hands.”

  “Hold hands? Are you serious?” Elise asks.

  Melanie answers, “The energy has to conduct through all of us. It’s the best way given the size of the thing.”

  Elise takes Allison’s hand on one side and then pointedly steers them away from Starla so she can take Paul’s hand. Allison isn’t sure why Elise is so angry with Starla, but she’s sure she’ll find out eventually. She hopes it doesn’t jeopardize their mission.

  Once everyone has formed a circle, Robin presses something on the device. There’s a flash of blue-white light; are they being disintegrated?

  When her vision clears, they’re standing in a hallway lined with white metal that reminds her of a spaceship. That’s appropriate since they’re surely in space now, on Titan. It’s the farthest any human has ever strayed from Earth and here they are to arrest the man responsible for so many of their recent troubles.

  “Here we are,” Robin says. They all let go of each other’s hands. “Allison, scout ahead and report back. Paul and Mel, stay here with the teleporter in case we need to make a quick getaway.”

  “I don’t want to stay here!” Melanie says.

  “Paul’s spear isn’t going to do much good against robots. Someone should stay here to back him up.”

  “Elise can stay—”

  “That trident of hers is too powerful to keep in reserve.” Robin uncharacteristically puts a hand on Melanie’s shoulder. “Please, just do this.”

  Melanie looks down and nods. “All right.”

  Allison doesn’t wait to see the rest of the scene. She races ahead, coming out of the corridor into a circular chamber that’s probably as tall as a twenty-story skyscraper. The reason for this is clear when she sees more of the robots ringing the chamber. From the sparks flying, this must be a factory floor.

  She relays this information back to the others. Robin says, “Then I guess our first job will be to bust that place up. Starla can take care of that. Velocity Gals, you sweep the area, look for any traps or where this Tinker guy might be.”

  “What about me?” Elise whines.

  “You’re going to watch my back as I try to hack into this guy’s system.”

  “Fun.”

  Allison and Sally race side-by-side into the factory. They locate two stairways that wind up along the factory. “I guess you take one and I’ll take the other,” Sally says.

  “Sounds good.” Allison takes Sally’s hand to give it a squeeze. “You’re doing great so far.”

  “You think so?”

  “You’re definitely superhero material.”

  “Thanks.” Sally gives her a kiss on the cheek and then she’s gone. Allison takes the opposite stairway. There’s not much to see. Apparently the factory is automated; she doesn’t see a single human worker in the place.

  She and Sally meet at the top, at the door of a control room. As the adult, Sally insists on going in first. It doesn’t matter as the control room is as deserted as everything else. The machines are all still operational, but there’s no one minding them.

  “This place gives me the creeps,” Sally says.

  “Me too.” Allison presses a few buttons to shut down the factory. The noises outside stop as everything grinds to a halt. She’s about to turn to Sally when she feels something prick her neck. She puts a hand to her neck in time to feel something sticking out of it. The world around Allison spins once as she collapses to the floor. Before she passes out, she sees a mummy standing over her, a tranquilizer gun in hand.

  “Sweet dreams,” he says.

  ***

  While they might be on Titan, the computers here aren’t any different than those on Earth. Robin hacks into the system easily enough. Finding anything of interest is another matter. Most of the files appear to be routine logs: production reports, defect reports, material requisitions.
From what Robin can tell these are all generated automatically, without any human input.

  “You almost done?” Elise whines.

  “Not yet.”

  “Ugh. Why don’t we wait until Allison or Sally finds this guy and then go kick his ass?”

  “It pays to be careful. Remember what happened last year?”

  “So maybe we should let your girlfriend handle this.”

  Robin rolls her eyes. Despite how different she might look on the outside, inside Elise is the same obnoxious bitch. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

  “Like you’re such the forgiving type.”

  “I’m trying.”

  Elise only snorts. After a minute of silence she runs a hand through her hair. “You know, everyone will probably think you’re my little sister now.”

  “There’s a frightening thought.”

  “It might be fun. We could go out shopping together.”

  “No thanks.”

  “That’s fine. I need to get back to Pacifica anyway.”

  “So you’ve said.”

  “I hope no one’s done anything to Ariel. If I lost her too—”

  “Too?”

  Elise breaks down as she admits her clone killed her husband and her mother. “That rotten bastard. I didn’t even want the stupid kingdom. I was happy the way things were.”

  Robin looks up from her computer. It’s a strange experience to try to comfort Elise considering how they’ve been at each other’s throats for the last decade. “I’m sure she’s fine. No one knows he’s dead yet. And even if Baron Triton or one of those councilors wants to take over, they’d need a royal heir to legitimize their rule. Your people aren’t conditioned to trust democracy.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Robin finally gets into something interesting: the controls for the teleporter network. Apparently this Tinker has a half-dozen teleporters scattered around the station. She looks through the logs, noting that the robots that struck New Zealand, Focal City, and Washington did indeed originate from here.