“So it was this thing that did everything they said my people did?”
“Yes. Your race was thought to be extinct and also had the technical capability to destroy the worlds in question. They made the perfect scapegoats.”
A scapegoat. That was what Starla had been for them. Her fists clenched at the thought she’d been torn away from her husband, her family, her friends, and her whole world because these “Elders” were afraid to fight the menace themselves.
“How long until we get there?”
***
An eerie silence had settled over most of Focal City. Elise had never seen the city so quiet before. Most of it appeared to be abandoned. That left plenty of places for Midnight Spectre to hide. But no matter where she went, Elise would hunt her down.
“This is a trap,” Killer Whale said beside her.
“Most likely.”
“And we’re going to walk into it?”
“Do you have a better alternative?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Then we press on. Keep your eyes peeled.” Elise had a hundred of her most loyal guards with her, but on land they were at a serious disadvantage. It had taken several minutes for most of them to acclimate to the surface after having spent most of their lives underwater. There was also no sea life around for Elise to reach out to for help in locating Midnight Spectre. She would be largely blind.
“General, have your men spread out. We need to cover as much ground as possible.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” General Kod began to relay orders to his subordinates.
Elise tried to think back to all the times she had visited Focal City. She usually had come to drop in on Alan/Allison and Sally. A few times there had been some Super Squad business, like when the place had come under attack by giant robots.
Right on cue the ground shook. The soldiers around her looked around nervously; they had never experienced a quake on the surface before. “What was that?” Killer Whale asked.
“I think it’s her,” Elise said. She tightened her grip on the royal trident.
A twenty-foot robot stomped into view. Elise saw the black form inside the head module. That could only be Midnight Spectre. To confirm this, she said over a loudspeaker, “Apex Girl destroyed most of these, but you know how Storm used to be. The double-dealer always had to keep something up his sleeve. In this case he kept one of these things hidden away in a secret depot, waiting to be unleashed on the Super Squad. I guess we might as well make his dream a reality.”
“Give this up, Robin,” Elise shouted. “My men might not be able to hurt that robot, but you know I can.”
“And I’m sure you will too.”
Killer Whale put a hand on Elise’s arm. “Don’t throw the trident.”
“Why not?”
“That’s what she wants. She’ll probably grab it or trap it somehow and then you’ll be defenseless.”
“Then what would you have me do?”
“Keep her occupied. And assign me a pair of men.”
Elise studied her sister’s face for a moment. So far Killer Whale had not betrayed her, but perhaps she was waiting for an opening—like going off on her own to join with Midnight Spectre. And yet Elise doubted Killer Whale was such a good actress that she could have faked everything with Ariel. “Remember, sister, this is the woman who nearly killed your niece.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
Elise turned to General Kod. “I need two of your best to accompany my sister.” The general looked about to say something, but Elise held up a finger. “Follow my orders.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Elise gave Killer Whale a brief hug. “Good luck.”
“And you.” Then Killer Whale trotted away, leaving Elise to face down the giant robot.
She brandished the trident. “I’m here! Why don’t you finish it already?”
“If that’s what you want.”
The robot stepped forward. Elise launched herself at its left leg. She stabbed at it with the trident, the prongs tearing through the metal. General Kod and his men hurled their spears and harpoons; the weapons only pinged harmlessly off the robot’s armor.
“Stand down!” Elise barked. “All you’re going to do is get yourselves killed.”
“But Your Majesty—”
“Fall back to the harbor. I’ll deal with this.”
Elise wasn’t sure how she would do that short of chopping the thing down a little at a time. Disposing of giant robots was work much better suited to Starla. She could punch through them or hurl them into the sun. Elise could only poke at the thing with her trident.
She couldn’t even do that as the robot shook its left leg. Elise went flying into a trashcan that was mostly full. She rolled off the can a second before she would have been vaporized by a missile.
Clearly she needed to change tactics. She wished she knew what her sister had in mind. For now she supposed all she needed to worry about was keeping the robot occupied. Though it was against everything she stood for as Queen Neptune, she ran.
A trail of destruction followed behind her as the robot tried to draw a bead on her. It was just as well most of Focal City was abandoned at this point. Elise turned right, onto a street that ran through a canyon created by skyscrapers on every side. The robot followed after her, though it was a tight squeeze.
Having spent most of the last three years in the water, Elise’s muscles soon tired of this chase. She turned around to face the advancing robot. Her fingers tightened around the trident. That was when she saw what her sister had in mind.
On a rooftop, the pair of guards hurled Killer Whale into the air. She soared from the roof, towards the head of the robot. Elise knew what her sister had in mind now. She hefted her trident as if she were going to throw it at the robot. At the last moment she pulled her arm back more to send the trident screaming towards the head of the robot.
She thought Midnight Spectre might bat the trident away or catch it, but apparently the royal scepter was too fast for her. It tore through the air until Killer Whale seized hold of it. Elise saw her sister’s body freeze with the trident raised over her head. That trident was the symbol of everything Killer Whale had worked to acquire. She could simply take it and run now, go back to Pacifica and declare herself the queen.
Those thoughts surely ran through Killer Whale’s mind. Then with a scream she brought the trident down on the robot’s head. Glass shattered; Elise hurried back to avoid getting sliced open by any of the pieces. The robot sagged, its systems going dead.
Elise waited a full ten minutes at the feet of the robot. She was sure by now Killer Whale had fled with the trident. Then she saw her sister dragging Midnight Spectre behind her. Killer Whale tossed the woman at Elise’s feet. To her surprise, Killer Whale got down on her knees and held up the trident. “I humbly return this to you, Queen Neptune.”
“You’re sure?”
“You are the true queen of Pacifica. You love it so much you would even trust me with the trident in order to protect our people.”
Elise nodded and then took the trident back. “Thank you, sister. What you’ve done here today will go down in history.”
Midnight Spectre laughed. “Are you two done jerking each other off yet?”
“Silence!” Elise shouted. She slapped Midnight Spectre across the face. “I haven’t even started with you yet.”
“And you’re not going to,” Midnight Spectre said. With a defiant smile, she pointed to the sky. It was filling with tiny black shapes Elise thought must be birds. As they grew larger, she knew they weren’t birds and that she and all of Earth were in big trouble.
Chapter 27
The whole team gathered in the Redoubt City Observatory. All of them—even Garlak—had the look of someone who hadn’t slept in a day. That was the truth. Ever since that thing had appeared in orbit, the Super Squad Auxiliary had worked tirelessly to evacuate the city’s population to shelters.
This process was made easier thanks
to the alien weapon. Now that the effects of the clown juice had worn off, Redoubt City’s people were back to being the easily-cowed women they had been since the disaster first struck. A few sharp words—or growls in Garlak’s case—and they would hurry down into the nearest shelter.
Melanie hadn’t taken part in most of this. She had been on the radio to Washington to inform them of the situation. In talking with the president and her staff, Melanie soon realized she was for all practical purposes the leader of the free world right now. The real leaders of the world acquiesced to everything she said with no argument. It was far more responsibility than she had ever wanted.
For now the plan was to get as many people as possible to safety. They had no idea what the object in the sky was, but Melanie had a feeling it wouldn’t turn out to be friendly. With some help from Robin and Tonya they had sent a welcome message, but they hadn’t received a response so far.
That was why they had come to the observatory. The telescope gave a better view of the object. It wasn’t quite a smooth sphere like the first Death Star in Star Wars. It was more like an orange after a few sections had been pulled out. From those sections came the red glow visible even from the ground. So far they hadn’t been able to figure out what that glow was.
It was too bad there weren’t any shuttles left in active service. It would have taken a while to prep one, but at least they would have had a viable option for going up there. As it was, the nearest humans to it were the astronauts on the International Space Station, the only non-Pacifican men left. Melanie and the others had tried to contact the station, but the disaster or the object had damaged the station’s communications array.
Tonya looked through the telescope and then shook her head. She turned to Robin. “I don’t suppose you have an X-wing with a couple of proton torpedoes handy?”
“I don’t have anything spaceworthy. I should have with all the trouble aliens have given us recently.”
Melanie looked through the lens again. When she saw a flutter of movement, she fiddled with the controls to try zooming in. The image steadied enough that she could see spaceships emerging from the object. They looked similar to the V-22 Osprey cargo planes the military used, only these had rocket engines. She tried to count how many she saw but soon lost track.
“We’re in trouble,” she said. She motioned for Robin to take a look.
“It’s an invasion,” Robin said.
“Are you serious?” Diane asked.
Tonya took a look through the lens and then nodded. “It sure as hell isn’t an Orson Welles radio prank. What do we do, boss?”
All eyes in the room turned to Melanie. Her cheeks burned with warmth. She was only twenty-one years old, an engineering student at MIT, and here she was supposed to have a strategy to repel an alien invasion. She forced herself to take a deep breath and not to panic. It was another crisis to solve, like all the others they had encountered so far.
“If they’re coming for a fight, we need to engage them in a place that can minimize civilian casualties.”
“You mean like the desert?” Tonya asked.
“A good idea, but it’d take too long to get there. No, I was thinking of Finger Island. Now that we pulled out all those girls Clownface took, the place is deserted. It should make as good of a place as any to make our stand.
“Diane and Garlak, I want you to get over to the island ASAP. Set up there to meet any invaders. Tonya can give you a lift over there. Then she can join the rest of us.”
“What are you going to be doing?” Tonya asked.
“Me, Robin, and Paul will go back to the bunker. Robin can take the jet and I’ll take the jetcopter. Paul, do you think you can handle a gunboat?”
“Shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Good. You get over to the island, as close to shore as you can. Rob, Tonya, and I will go up to meet the invaders. If we can, we’ll drive them your way on the island. Everyone got it?”
The others mumbled agreement. Melanie nodded to them. “I won’t lie to you: this plan will probably fall apart pretty quick. Things will get messy. We have to hold together as best we can. We’ve gotten this far by being a team and now’s not the time to change that. Right?”
“Let’s do it,” Tonya said.
“We crush invaders,” Garlak said.
“Sounds like suicide to me, but I suppose it’s the best we can do,” Diane said.
“Then let’s get to it,” Melanie said. She, Paul, and Robin went out to the jetcopter. Robin took the co-pilot’s seat. As Melanie headed for the bunker, she caught Robin glancing over at her. “What?”
“You’re so different now. The last time I saw you, you could hardly go up two floors in an elevator without getting nauseous.”
“I guess Allison did a good job with the medicine.”
“That’s not it. You’ve grown up. And I don’t mean because of that alien weapon you and Tonya modified either.”
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“No. I think it’s great.” Robin sighed as she looked out the window. “I’ve always been good at making plans, but I couldn’t have done what you did in there. You’re a natural leader. All of them—even Neanderthal—are willing to stand up to an alien horde for you.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for Earth.”
“Maybe a little, but they love you. In Tonya and Diane’s cases that might be literal.”
Melanie grinned at Robin. “Are you jealous?”
“Of those two? Please. I put them in jail a half-dozen times apiece.”
“That is pretty sexy.” Melanie would have liked to lean over to kiss Robin, but the Holloway estate was directly below them. Melanie cleared her throat and then said, “I suppose I should warn you about Jasper—”
***
There wasn’t time for much in the way of goodbyes. Jasper and Melanie’s mother had taken shelter in the bunker, probably on Jasper’s insistence once she heard of the object in orbit. Perhaps owing to her new female hormones, Jasper had actually crushed Robin in a hug. Melanie was more subdued with her mother.
“Are you all right, honey? You look different.”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“Where are you off to now?”
“There are alien ships on the way. We have to go to meet them.”
“Alien ships? Oh my goodness. Are they friendly?”
“We don’t know yet. That’s part of why we need to go up there.”
Mom ran a hand through Melanie’s hair. “You be careful, honey. This sounds very dangerous.”
“I know.” Melanie gave in to the urge to press her mother in a hug. “I’ll come back. I promise.”
“I know you will,” Mom said. “After all, you’re the Outlaw.”
“Outcast, Mom.”
“I don’t think either name is very appropriate. Why can’t you have something more patriotic, like Miss America?”
“Because I’m not a beauty queen. I’m supposed to be dark and mysterious, like Midnight Spectre.”
“You mean that sweet little girl over there? She doesn’t seem so dark and mysterious to me.”
Melanie shook her head. She shouldn’t be surprised that they were facing the end of the world and her mother was still picking at her for something so trivial. “It’s too late to change it now. But when this is over, maybe you could become Miss America.”
“I think I’ll leave this superhero business to you and your friends.” Mom kissed Melanie’s forehead, on the edge of her mask. “I love you, honey.”
“I love you, Mom.”
Jasper had finally let Robin go, though she still had tears in her eyes. It was a bizarre sight to see Melanie’s mother comforting the sobbing butler. “Are you all right?” Melanie asked Robin.
“I’ll be fine. She just mussed up the uniform a little.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s a little weird seeing Jasper like that. And your mom. You and her look like twins.”
“Don’t remind me.” She pulled Robin closer so they could share a kiss—a brief one with her mom watching. “I love you.”
“Come on, kid, don’t go to pieces on me,” Robin said. She kissed Melanie’s ear and then whispered, “I love you too.”
At last they parted to go over to their vehicles. Robin took off first in a roar of jet engines. Melanie waited until Robin was well clear before she started the rotor of the jetcopter. Before she lifted through the roof of the bunker, she glanced down at her mother and Jasper. She tossed them a salute and then accelerated away.
Tonya joined them over the city. “It’s all set, boss,” she said. “I hope Garlak doesn’t trash the place before the aliens can.”
“If they’re here to fight.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that armada they’ve got coming is here to flash lights and play music.”
“That would be a welcome change of pace.”
“Can the chatter,” Robin snapped. “How high can that tin can of yours go?”
“Tin can? How about I race you up there?”
“Settle down, you two,” Melanie said. “Tonya can stay here with me. Robin will go check it out.”
“She’s the one you want to make first contact with these aliens?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“No offense, boss, but your girl isn’t exactly Miss Congeniality.”
‘“Her girl’ has a lot more experience at talking with aliens than you do,” Robin said.
One of Melanie’s screens came to life. There wasn’t much to see on it, just a pair of glowing red eyes. An inhuman voice rumbled, “You have done well. This planet is ripe for the taking.”
“I did my best,” Robin said. Melanie realized Robin had routed the call to her so she could eavesdrop. But what did the alien mean?
It continued, “These pitiful creatures will be easily gathered. Per our arrangement, you can have all that remains.”
“Thanks, boss,” Robin said, borrowing from Tonya’s vocabulary. “What about anyone who tries to fight back?”
“They will be crushed. None can stand before me.”
“Since we’re going to be working together, what am I supposed to call you?”
Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction) Page 69