Sitting outside the principal’s office I waited for the final word. It should have never come to this, but there we were with me kicking my heels impatiently for my fate to be sealed. While I wished it could have ended some other way I also knew it was inevitable. This was a long time coming.

From behind the door I could hear my Mom’s raised voice. None of this was happening on a very good day for her, and I guessed I was partly to blame for that. She already didn’t like the idea of me as Kaira and refused to believe what I told her outright: this was probably making it worse.

The vision of Adrian sprawled out across the linoleum still played in my mind. I couldn’t say I was proud of what I’d done, but at the same time I didn’t feel too bad about it. The only guilt I had came with the smug satisfaction of seeing him wheeled out on a gurney.

Jerk got what he deserved, I told myself. Damn right.

My mom stormed out of the office like a hurricane and into the hall. She snapped me into her gaze and ordered me to my feet. “You. With me.”

I did as I was told and struggled to meet her pace. The shoes I wore were not designed for fast movement: probably a stupid idea in retrospect, especially with all the attention I knew would be coming in my direction.

“So,” I began nervously.

“Do not, I repeat, do not talk to me right now,” she seethed. Her fury gave her a new burst of speed leaving me to trail even further behind.

Nobody could blame her for being pissed. She’d been saying for years that Adrian was a thug and should have been expelled. That I should ever be punished for daring to fight back was a sore point with her and I could only guess that the administration had pressed it even harder.

“What happened?” I asked. From the look she gave you’d have thought I called the Virgin Mary the whore of Babylon.

“Do not talk to me, Justin,” she barked as we reached the exit. “You are in so much trouble that… argh! Say goodbye to TV and the internet for the next year!”

I paused on the steps completely baffled. Was I missing something here? Because it was so easy to plead self defense, yet I was the one being spoken to like what happened was my fault. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t… just… “You’re blaming me for this!?” I exclaimed. Was there no justice in the world? For the love of the gods!

Slopped in the run-off of my Mom’s stewing rage I stared at her in disbelief. Was I hearing things? She knew my history with Adrian. She even on occasion spoke about how much she’d love to pop him in the kneecaps and how I would be fully within my rights to do the same. I could only conclude that somewhere in the last few hours I’d stepped into Bizarro World.

“Stop staring at me while I’m driving,” she said. “It’s distracting.”

“I just can’t believe the way you’re acting right now,” I told her.

“Really?”

“Yeah! I mean, it’s like you’re not even my Mom right now! It’s like you’re under some kind of mind control that makes you think and say the opposite of what you would normally!”

Her teeth began to grind impatiently. “Sorry, I didn’t realize that assaulting another student and jeopardizing your future career was something that I ever encouraged as a mother.”

“It was self defense,” I pleaded with her. “Come on! It was Adrian freakin’ Dempsey! Jackson High’s own personal answer to Attila the Hun! You know it’s not the first time he’s come after me. It’s about time I showed him a thing or two.”

“You probably broke his jaw,” she growled. “You’re lucky you weren’t expelled.”

“Mom, he was coming at me! I was defending myself!”

“You were provoking him!” she roared, the force of which drove me far back into the seat. I didn’t know what stunned me more: the sudden flash of boiling rage or what she’d just said. It was going to take a while to process.

Suddenly calm my Mom continued. “Two week’s suspension until they can work something out. That’s nothing to laugh at, Justin. This is serious. I don’t care what he was doing, the school says, and I agree, that you went too far. You’re going to have a real time making up for this, young man.”

I could hardly hear what she’d said. My nerves had finally settled enough to let my brain make sense of things. I went over the words again and again trying to make sure I understood correctly. Gods, I wished I didn’t.

Through the shock and silent tears I could only hoarsely croak a weak response. “What do you mean I ‘provoked him’?”

“I mean,” she said distractedly. Her eyes were fixed so firmly on the road she lost her point. “What I mean is… look what you’re wearing, Justin! You know what he’s like! Of course he’s going to come after you when you’re dressed like a… a weirdo pervert!”

“Weirdo pervert!? In this!? Gods forbid I should ever wear fishnets and leather! What would the neighbors think then!?”

“Don’t try and pass this off as a normal thing,” she snapped. “Whatever it is you’re doing it’s gone far enough!”

Okay, she was dealing badly. I come out, she felt hurt, and I became responsible for that somehow. Either way all the arguing seemed pointless. It wasn’t like she was in the kind of headspace where she could stop and listen. To save any more drama I decided to just shut up. Not that she was going to make it easy or anything.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to us,” she railed. “What’s gotten into you? I don’t understand. One minute you’re getting better, the next you’re getting into fights and flattening quarterbacks. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

“He would have come at me anyway,” I reasoned.

“You don’t know that,” she scoffed, “but I guess going to school while pretending to be a girl removed all doubt.”

I’m not pretending, I wanted to say. Gods, I wanted to scream it at her, but she wouldn’t have listened. She was just too far gone for me to waste words, so I just cried carrying the knowledge that she was a lost cause.

“You know I don’t regret what I did,” I sobbed furiously. “And given the chance I’d do it again. You’re right. This isn’t a game. This is who I am and I’m telling you in the only way I know how. Please, for once just try and understand where I’m coming from.”

She thought about it for a moment then shook her head. “I don’t even know you anymore,” she said.

Finally the car stopped in front of our house. It seemed so barren and uninviting now that it was to be my prison. Reaching across my torso my Mom opened the passenger door and pointed for me to go inside.

“They need me back at the office,” she declared. “Enjoy TV and the internet while they last because the second your father comes home they’re going off.”

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Didn’t I deserve at least a little sympathy? Suddenly I felt very alone and couldn’t stand the idea that she was angry at me. Gods, I was just trying to do the right thing.

“Mom…”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“But…”

“Go,” she ordered. She was locked in position, not wavering for a moment. No way in hell I could argue with her when she was like this. Best to just forget about it and move on.

Dragging myself like an old dog caught in the rain I made my way to the front door. I couldn’t even bring myself to turn the key until I caught my Mom’s rigid glare pushing me in. Gods, what was her problem?

When she drove off I decided to sit in the darkened living room with the lights out. With the shades drawn it was relaxed enough to maybe close my eyes and sleep for a while. Screw my problems. They could wait until later, right?

But alas, it was not meant to be. From my backpack I could hear the familiar buzz. What a time for the Glimmer Girl hotline to be in action.

* * * *

The gathering was impossible to miss from the sky, but then the Milestone Meta-Crimes Division really were anything but subtle. It looked as though the entire force was out and had the building utterly surrounded. Nothing was getting in or out of there, except maybe me.

Searching out Captain Ramirez in the crowd I brought myself down beside him. He sneered as if to tell me I was late, meaning we were to skip the usual pleasantries and get right to business.

“How many?” I asked.

“Twenty six,” he murmured, “or at least that’s what the work roster says. Our choppers spotted them all rounded up the middle of the building under the main skylight. Looks like they’re waiting for you.”

Betty Bruiser usually wasn’t so stupid as to walk into a fight she couldn’t win despite her power, and here she was waiting for the inevitable confrontation. She may as well have rolled out the red carpet. Trap anyone?

“Bad guys?” I queried.

Ramirez shook his head and huffed. “All four. Betty Bruiser, Brainwave, Bad Penny and Beast Grrrl ready and waiting.”

“Great, a family reunion.”

“I just hope we can wrap this up quickly,” Lieutenant Danvers chorused from the sideline. “My kid’s got a thing tonight and I’m supposed to be there. The way these villains keep popping up might cost me another husband.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll see what I can do,” I told her and wasted no further time before blazing into the sky.

Gods, Betty Bruiser and her three daughters: taking them out wasn’t going to be easy. I was definitely going to be taking a few knocks along the way. Betty, the group matriarch, was a walking powerhouse: an old school gangster who was doused with radioactive sludge. Somehow she managed to live through it and became the living tank we know and love today.

Her eldest, Brainwave, was probably the most dangerous of them all. Having a powerful telepath that can dominate wills and multitask is never a good thing unless you’re on their side. Unfortunately for us she was the enemy.

Bad Penny was a huge bowl of messed up and teenage angst rolled into one cute little package. She also had the power to affect probabilities awarded to her by some cruel and ancient trickster god: in other words living proof that fate has a strange sense of humor.

And finally there was Beast Grrrl whose story was the saddest of the lot. Abandoned by her family she was raised by wild dogs, never developed the ability to speak or function in human society, and was ultimately discovered by the wrong people. Rather than try and do something positive they fitted her body with cybernetic parts and placed her in underground arena death matches: that was until Betty and her crew liberated her. Countless people had tried to help, myself included, but it would always result in a claw to the face.

Individually they were tough, but together they were almost unstoppable…

Almost.

I made my way inside using the usual method: stealthing in and refracting through the glass on an unseen spectrum. It was real science-y sort of stuff that had taken me years to get my head around, but being able to move like a ghost was probably my greatest advantage.

First thing first I checked on the hostages. They were uncomfortable but safe, tied with their hands bound behind their backs and their mouths gagged with duct tape. Their feet were bound as well meaning that Betty and her crew were either planning to hold their ground or leave them behind. Good to know.

There was no immediate sign of the four crooks. They were probably hiding in the cracks waiting to ambush any idiot that dared to step inside. With any luck I wouldn’t give myself away and spring their trap.

I found myself suddenly afraid for the hostages and turned back to check on them. Among the group there were only three women, one of whom was a secretary that reminded me painfully of my Mom.

My fists clenched. I can’t believe she said that to me, I thought. She knows what Adrian’s done. Where the hell does she get off blaming me for…?

I caught myself. It was neither to time or the place for my family gripes but for some reason it kept nagging at me. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I focus?

“It’s Brainwave,” I confirmed aloud needing the words themselves to keep me sharp. She was trying to cloud my mind with an aura of confusion: just one of her many tricks.

In a flurry of black and orange Beast Grrrl whipped from obscurity and pounced with razor sharp claws that could rip through a tank. With one swipe she’d have me rain golden pellets down across the floor but I wasn’t going to let her get close enough for that.

Blasts erupted from my fingertips, striking around her feet and leaving smoking concrete pebbles to scatter. None of my shots were connecting even at such close range. That could only mean…

Perched atop of a stack of crates Brainwave and Bad Penny waved at the two of us and grinned smugly. Combined the two of them had enough power to stack the odds firmly in Beast Grrrl’s favor, first by lowering the probability of my landing a hit and then distracting me with mind games.

“Don’t forget to leave us a piece,” Penny called to the feral child.

My thoughts were getting foggy. All I could think about was my Mom and Dad, especially my Mom and the look on her face when she ordered me out of the car. She didn’t mean it the way she said it: she could care less what happened to Adrian Dempsey. No, what she really cared about was people finding out about her having a transexual kid! Any excuse to punish me for not keeping my big mouth shut was…

FWOOSH!

Beast Grrrl’s meta-enhanced claws scraped the air not an inch away from my face. Things were getting way too close for comfort. I had to finish this, and fast.

Like lightning I turned, bolting upward to the crate supporting the eldest two. There was no way I would hit them, not with Bad Penny putting a spin on my trajectory with her reality bending: better if I just pulled the rug from under their feet instead.

The crate collapsed leaving Bad Penny and Brainwave to fumble for solid ground. Without her sisters to give her back-up Beast Grrrl was an easy target and was winded when I blasted her against the wall.

Team Glimmer Girl: three, Team Bruiser: nil.

Their star player had yet to make any sort of appearance meaning I was probably going to have to sniff her out. “Where’s Betty?” I asked Brainwave while sifting through the debris to grab her.

“You keep your hands off my girls!” she snarled. From nowhere a semi-trailer came and knocked me across the room. That or it was Betty’s fist: take your pick.

I recovered quickly and pulled myself upright. “Shouldn’t have done that,” I told her and readied another blast from my airborne vantage.

When she opened her hand my whole body jerked out of control. Where did she get obsidianite from!? The glowing black stone made the pri-matter inside me scream. I had no other choice: when confronted with that piece of a long dead universe my powers were useless, meaning that I was in for a long fall.

With all the grace of a dirt rock my body struck the ground and I saw stars. I instantly ached all over and could barely comprehend the terrible danger I was in. My will wanted me to run while the rest of me wanted to collapse flat, not caring at all if Betty Bruiser were able to just walk over and press me like a steamroller.

“You talk a big game but have nothin’ to back it up,” she huffed. The next thing I knew there was a light tap of her foot that sent me rolling across the floor.

Every muscle, every bone in my body was… ow. I could feel myself slipping away from consciousness and struggled to hold on. There was no way I could run: as it was staying awake would have been a feat.

Through blurry eyes I could see Beast Grrrl approaching cautiously and baring her teeth. Behind her was Bad Penny clasping tightly to the lead fastened to her collar.

“So what do we do now?” Penny asked her mommy.

Betty considered this for a moment and turned to Brainwave. “Do you think we’ve softened her up enough?”

“Oh, she’s plenty soft, Mama,” the psychic lamented. “All we have to do is wait for her to close… her… eyes…”

* * * *

I woke with a start. What the hell was that!?

For the first minute or so I didn’t trust my bedroom. Something seemed off about it, but what I couldn’t say. It wasn’t the desk, the mirror or even the color of my sheets. Everything was just as I remembered it the night before except for one thing: my Glimmer Girl costume had been sprawled carelessly across the rug.

“Ugh, gods,” I groaned in frustration. I’d better not have been sleep-crimefighting again. It’d been years since I’d last done it. Wasn’t it out of my system already?

Folding the costume away my mind wandered to the night before. I almost couldn’t believe that I told my parents I was trans. It had all been so sudden. Sure, I’d practiced telling them over and over in my head for years, but the reality seemed like it should have been a long time away, like after college or sometime around then: not in the last couple of months of my junior year of high school!

Their reactions had been equally as startling. “Well, we kind of figured that you might be gay,” my Dad had said, “just not… you know…”

“Super gay,” my Mom finished for him. When I tried to explain to her that I wasn’t she headed me off with “you’re right. It’s gay times a million because you’re going to have a hard time hiding something like this. What do you think your nana is going to say? If she ever saw you in a dress she’d probably have another heart attack.”

There were a lot of words exchanged: not many of them good. All I wanted was to be honest and they had me run a marathon, and even then they wouldn’t take what I was saying seriously. That’s when I decided to resort to extreme measures.

I stared in the mirror and prepared my psyche. No way on earth was I being mistaken for male this day. My Mom was going to freak, I knew it, but I had little other choice. It was this or go back into hiding.

“Come on, you can do this,” I told myself. “You once kicked an alien god in the teeth, remember? This is nothing.” I could hear my voice tremble: it wanted to turn back but it was far, far too late.

Suddenly there was a flash before my eyes: something unreal and… not me. I had to shake myself back to reason. Unless I’d suddenly developed the ability to turn into a bald black woman with freaky eyes I was hallucinating from lack of sleep.

7:02. There was still half an hour at least before Tanya arrived: plenty of time to go downstairs, say hi to the parentals and maybe have breakfast for once.

“What ishf vat?” my Mom coughed with a mouth full of toast.

My Dad lowered his magazine for a moment and looked to see what the commotion was about. He too was absolutely stunned by what, apparently was to him and my Mom, an embarrassing display.

“A pop tart,” I told her meekly. “Strawberry. I don’t like them when they’re toasted.”

Not satisfied with my answer she ran up and studied me closely. “Is that eye shadow? Is that mascara!? My Lord, Justin! Just what do you think you’re doing? Where…? How are you doing this? Where’s all this coming from?”

“Surprise,” I laughed weakly.

“No way are you going to school dressed like that.”

“No?”

“You’ll be laughed out,” she argued. “They’ll… I don’t know, but it has to be against the dress code. Do you really think any of the teachers will just let you sit there dressed like that?”

“Uh, Mom, you do know that there are other transgender teens out there that go to school and are able to dress like this every day… right?”

It was the word that set her off: transgender. Somehow it had failed to connect as a concept until that point, and even then it only invited flashes of awkward, trashy cross-dressers with too much make-up and episodes of the Jerry Springer show to swim about the collective consciousness.

“I’m just saying that this is a bad idea,” she tried to reason. “Nobody’s going to understand this.”

“Mom, please, this is who I am.”

Growing ever more impatient she turned to my Dad who just shrugged in reply. He was at a loss as well.

“Justin, I don’t understand what’s brought this on,” she explained. “I can’t… it’s hard seeing you like this. Why do you have to do this now? You’re making things so hard.”

I sighed. What was I supposed to say? No matter how much I tried to tell her she’d still turn it around and lay on the guilt with her flawless verbal mom-fu. Maybe there was nothing to be said: I just had to live my life and prove that things were going to be alright.

“Tanya’ll be here soon,” I said before starting for the door with my half eaten pop tart.

Just then I could hear her audible frustration. “Justin, you’re not going out there like that.” There came no response. “Why are you doing this, Justin? What did we do to deserve this? You know what? Fine. Go out there like that. Call yourself a transgender-sexual or whatever. People aren’t going to understand. It’s your funeral.”

Her words cut deep, but I had to make a stand. I had no other choice. It was either that or resign myself to misery and falsehoods for gods know how long. Which would you pick in my shoes?

As I reached the front door something outside made me stop. Through the frosted glass I could make out several shadows bobbing back and forth. Whatever they were I knew they were up to no good.

“Mom!?” I called back to the kitchen. It was the only warning I could hope to give my parents.

The next thing I knew there were soldiers bursting into the hallway with tech rifles trained in my direction. Immediately I recognized the green uniforms as being those of TASK personnel, leaving me to wonder what in the world I could have done to tick them off this badly.

“Don’t move! Don’t move!” the first one barked. “Hands behind your head! Now!”

I did as I was instructed and waited for them to cuff me and whisk me away or whatever it was they were planning to do. The fact that I was so compliant seemed to confuse at least two of them who badgered me again and again to stand up and fight. I was confused, but whatever game they were playing I had no intention of buying into.

“Is somebody going to tell me what this is about?” I whispered. That act of defiance bought a sharp blow to the back of my shoulder that forced me to my knees. These guys were playing rough and they weren’t taking any crap from me.

That was when Artemis stepped in, smug and regal as usual, his blue eyes glinting like an airbrushed cover boy.

“Well, look who we have here,” he lamented crudely. “Fancy seeing you on your knees, and while you’re all tarted up to boot. Color me intrigued.”

“Artemis! What the hell, man!?” There was another blow to my shoulder. This was getting painful.

The spy shrugged and drew a pair of cuffs from his belt. “I suppose we should get this over and done with. Justin Cade aka Kaira Cade aka Glimmer Girl, you are under arrest for violating the terms of the meta-human non-proliferation act. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a military court to be judged by a panel of generals, senators and other officials.”

I didn’t even try to resist as the metal clamps wrapped around my wrist. “Meta-human… what!?”

From the kitchen I could hear my Mom scream. I wanted to race in and help, but that would mean stepping out of line. Besides, these were TASK guys: they wouldn’t hurt any civilians even if they did put the scare of a lifetime into them. That was when I heard the sharp slap and my Dad cry my Mom’s name.

That was it: no more talking, not if they were going to get physical with my family! Bursting into hard light form it was a cinch to slip out of my shackles and clear the room in one wide blast.

The first dozen soldiers lay sprawled out on the lawn while the second dozen charged right in over the top of them. Who did they think they were? When I willed it their bullets passed right through me, and even if they connected my body would reform. Meanwhile each of them would feel the full force of my concussive rays and be nursing headaches for weeks.

I kept a special eye on Artemis who was especially quick back to his feet. Not if I could help it. Every inch he crawled I made sure to hit him again. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Suddenly there was a skip, like time jumping a step same just as it did in my room. For that one split second Artemis wasn’t Artemis but the woman controlling the entire unreality surrounding us: Brainwave.

“What are you doing to me!?” I roared much to the villain’s indifference.

“I’m just having a bit of a play around,” she said easily, allowing the visage of the gay James Bond to finally fade away. “What good is a head full of thoughts if a girl can’t take a peek every once in a while?”

Again I heard my Mom scream. What was Brainwave doing to her? The TASK soldiers were entirely under her command and they were brutalizing my family.

“Let her go!” I demanded, blasting a wide hole in the dirt to let her know that her skull would follow.

“Your buttons are so easy to press,” the villain lamented.

No more talk. No more games. I had to make sure my family was okay, and if it meant blasting her to smithereens then so be it.

A force the likes of which I’d never known before erupted from my fists, and then…

* * * *

Reality snapped back to. The dream world I was trapped in had faded to reveal the MMCD standing around me with rifles trained just as the TASK soldiers had. Several of their officers were laid out across the concrete, my work no doubt, making it abundantly clear what had just happened.

Bullets erupted in my direction, cutting through my shimmering body like tissue paper. I dashed for cover and waited for the hail of fire to die down. They must have thought I was still an enemy. Somehow I had to let them know that I’d broken free of Brainwave’s influence.

“Guys! Stop!” I screamed. “Stop! I’m not going to attack you!”

They didn’t get the picture until I dashed across the room and appeared behind them with my hands raised, and even then I had every trigger set to fire the second I did anything even slightly suspicious. The lieutenant’s order of “hold your fire” had me relax a bit while she dared to approach from the crowd.

“Geez, finally,” I gasped. “Now which way did Betty go? No way am I forgiving her for pulling that on me.”

“Glimmer Girl, power down and spread out on the ground,” the lieutenant growled. Something wasn’t right.

“Guys, it’s fine. I’m not being mind controlled anymore. One of you, remember?”

“You’ll excuse me for not believing you,” she said, “after you just killed Captain Ramirez!”

“What!?”

No, it couldn’t be true. I could never kill anyone, not even while mesmerized. It just wasn’t in me… was it?

The lieutenant signaled the crowd to part and revealed the evidence of my work: a smoking crater in the ground with Captain Ramirez’ helmet teetering to one side. It didn’t seem possible, but how else could I explain it? I had just killed a man and there was no way of taking it back.

“Glimmer Girl, power down,” the lieutenant ordered again. I followed her order and soon had my hands cuffed behind my back. The officer continued, “you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law…”

Good gods, what had I done?

* * * *

TO BE CONTINUED…