It seems nowadays like every city in America has its own hometown hero. True, some are bigger than others, but nobody gets into this for the fame. Well, maybe a few, but not me.

If you’ve ever been to or heard of Milestone City you might have heard of my exploits. I’m kind of hard to miss a lot of the time: I’m the blond girl in the gold and orange costume with the miniskirt, the tall golden boots and the big capital ‘G’ on her chest stylized to look like a beam of light, burning brightly as I soar across the sky like a one woman laser light show. That kind of thing tends to stand out.

There are a lot of names given to me by fans, newspapers and media outlets such as the ‘Holographic Heroine’ or the ‘Lady of Light’ just to name a couple. Not a lot of people take me seriously but I still do my part kicking ass, taking names and saving the world one busted bad guy skull at a time. It’s what I do, and for the most part people are grateful.

This day was going to be no different. I’d received the call that a powerful metavillain named Leon Marco aka ‘the Carbon Man’ was making a large illicit withdrawal from the First City National Bank in Midtown, right in broad daylight! There was no way I was going to let that slip past my notice.

I streaked through the air faster than a speeding jet. The Bonnie Frank Bridge, Centenary Park, the InfiniTech Building all flew by in a blink. Gravity had no hold on me, I was completely free to move in the world, and with these powers I was unstoppable.

Lingering on high I could see the police barricade surrounding the building. All paths in and out were sealed until Marco decided otherwise. In other words it looked like I had a wait on my hands. A part of me wanted to crack the walls myself, but that would have been dangerous, more so for others than myself. This was serious, after all: there were hostages inside and probably lives on the line.

“Come on,” I groaned. “How long does it take to clean out a vault?”

With all the subtlety of a brick to the face the Carbon Man exploded from his refuge in a cloud of black smoke. A hail of bullets bounced off the near indestructible super-dense shell encasing his body. He strolled by and ignored the lead pellets as though they were nothing more than a gentle summer shower.

An enthusiastic grin crossed my lips of hard golden light. “I am going to kick this guy’s ass!”

My name is Glimmer Girl. I’m a superhero, and this is my story.

* * * *

Earlier that day:

It was 7:08 before Justin Cade managed to pry his eyes open, leaving less than an hour for him to jump out of bed, change and be at school.

He stopped, caught his reflection in the mirror and hated it before continuing his hurried morning routine. Rapidly he tied back his long hair, threw on some loose cargos and a t-shirt, filed his unfinished homework and textbooks into his backpack and ran down the stairs without greeting his parents.

Such was the life I lead out of costume wearing a daily disguise drastically different from my heroic persona. It almost felt like it belonged to someone else. Then again maybe it did.

Nobody would have ever guessed that Glimmer Girl and Justin Cade were two sides of the same coin. How could they? Where Glimmer Girl was bold and outgoing Justin was shy and reserved. Where one wanted to stand out and make a difference in the world the other wanted nothing more than to fade into the background. One was female, the other… he just wished he was.

At 7:35 I intercepted the dark green beetle pulled up to the curb of my house and climbed in the passenger seat. There on the driver’s side was Tanya sitting behind the wheel. She turned and grinned as she nodded along to some old band I’d never heard of playing from the back seat.

“You look like $#&%,” she laughed as I buckled my safety belt.

“And this sounds like $#&%,” I replied snarkily. “What the hell is this anyway?”

Tanya sneered mockingly and started the engine. “It’s the Specials. Just because you don’t have an ear for the classics…”

“It sounds like an elephant swallowed a tuba and is trying to play reggae.”

We stopped and considered each other a moment. She laughed, and so did I. We didn’t mean anything by it: we were just the kind of friends who liked ripping into each other. Some people thought our friendship was caustic, but neither of us would have had it any other way.

Cruising through the suburbs I took the opportunity to sit back and watch people as we passed them by, something which I probably did way too often. At a first glance they all seemed to be content in their daily lives. Every one of them had a personal identity they could afford to take for granted, unlike some people.

As we hit a stop light Tanya turned to brush a dark, wavy strand of hair from her sunglasses. She sighed. She knew my look: after all these years I couldn’t hide it.

“Stop that,” she said.

I knew what she was talking about. We’d gone through the same process nearly every day for the past three months since I’d come out to her, yet still I played along. “Stop what?”

“You know.”

“No,” I chuckled sarcastically.

“You’re… brooding, or whatever it is you do,” she explained. “That thing where you just kind of observe humanity and get really quiet and dark and… I don’t know, but everyone is just as @#$%ed up as you are, missy. So cut it out and enjoy the ride.”

She called me ‘missy’, I thought to myself with a faint giggle. It always brought a smile to my face, and not the fake kind I wore ninety-nine percent of the time either. With Tanya it was usually the real thing, and I think she knew that as well. Maybe that was why we’d been best friends since grade school when she wasn’t busy saving me from daily beatings.

“I’m not brooding,” I denied happily with what had to be the world’s worst poker face.

“Yeah you were,” she said as she scanned the intersection. “You always get into a dark-ish mood when you’re stuck being a boy for too long. What has it been, four days?”

“Six,” I told her, not that I was keeping count or anything.

“See? No wonder you’re going crazy. Maybe it’s time to take another trip to the Lovin’ Spoonful after school, see some familiar faces and let loose. What do you say?”

She may as well have offered me a one way ticket to Shangri La. That small little coffee house had become my refuge, the one place where I could be myself for any period of time. Given the choice I would never leave, but just in case Glimmer Girl had to stop the world from blowing up I had to say “we’ll see.”

At 7:52 we pulled into the student parking lot. Once more into the breach it was suddenly time to face the same beast that threatened to consume nearly every seventeen year old: high school.

Not that Andrew Jackson High School was all that terrifying compared to anywhere else, but from eight ‘til three it was the only obstacle between me and freedom. All I had to do then was endure just as I had nearly every other day for just over the last decade, hopefully without waking any dragons.

“Just one day,” Tanya said. “Not even that. More like half a day, then we’re out of here, sipping lattes, telling stupid jokes… that’s assuming your boyfriend doesn’t try and whisk you away before then.”

“Brandon’s not my boyfriend,” I told her seriously for like the hundredth time, though when she asked who he really was I couldn’t give an answer. It wasn’t as though I could lie, so I left her with assumptions.

“Half a day,” she repeated, dangling it in front of my nose like a carrot in front of a donkey.

“Half a day,” I echoed in turn while reducing every moment in my head to as minute a size as possible. It was only seven hours. I could survive that without any trouble, right?

* * * *

Now:

Their plan looked simple enough: take one stolen garbage truck and apply it to a major metropolitan bank with force, sending it crashing through the main entrance. In the midst of all the panic the Carbon Man stepped outside ready to take on any who would dare to challenge his might.

While he was on the lookout the thugs inside could afford to take their time, but the Carbon Man himself was there for different reasons. He didn’t need the money: he just wanted to show off his strength and cause some damage, and a bank heist seemed the perfect opportunity for him to do just that.

Under my breath I thanked my contact, even if he’d never hear it. Brandon was my eyes and ears while I was in school, listening to police scanners and scrolling through countless live feeds when I couldn’t patrol myself, and it was to him alone that I’d entrusted the number to ‘the Glimmer Girl hotline’. It was only a cheap pre-paid cell phone, but with it he’d become an invaluable resource.

On that day that resource coaxed me out of school right when I couldn’t stand it the most. Thank the gods for small favors, right?

The villain turned towards the barricade and stared beyond it to the open road. The cars and trucks in his path were as nothing to him as the ground trembled and shards of hard rock sent every cop and spectator for a mile running for shelter.

Their helplessness seemed to please him. Even under the thick veil of rock and dust I could see his smug grin. You know the kind: the one where you want to slap someone so hard that they spit out teeth. After all the damage he’d caused, both then and with his brothers and sisters in the Society of Sin, he deserved no less.

“Move out!” he barked. With a single gesture the wall encasing the bank evaporated, making way for the sluggish tank of a truck to roll out unimpeded.

The Carbon Man folded his arms and kicked his feet listlessly. “Damn. And I was really hoping for some kind of a fight.”

Don’t worry, smoky, I thought. I’m giving you one!

A mighty boom roared from the underside of the truck, the force of which knocked the heavy vehicle off its wheels and to its side. Metal against pavement, it screeched to a halt while the occupants inside lay stunned and disoriented. Those not smart enough to buckle themselves in fell and landed against the driver’s side window very, very hard.

I watched them cower as I stood atop the upturned barge victoriously. Desperation was thick in their eyes as they searched for a way to escape. The Carbon Man was supposed to be watching their back yet there they sat, taken out by a girl.

It felt good: it felt really good. Moments like those were when I felt the most alive.

Nearly a half block away I could see the Carbon Man’s eyes shooting into me from behind a thick layer of soot. What little distraction the police were had suddenly become irrelevant as I, the big, flashy hero made her grand entrance.

The villain cracked his neck. It seemed that I was the challenge he was waiting for. “Yeah,” he mused, “you’ll do.”

He was cocky, that was for sure. That urge I’d felt to knock every tooth from his head suddenly increased a thousand fold.

“You know I’ve read about you. Glimmer Girl, am I right? You’ve been around a long while. I’m surprised we’ve never run into each other before right now.”

“It might be the last,” I retorted. “You’re going to jail for a long time.”

Talk big, sound tough. That was the part I’d struggled with the most. Bravado covered up fear and unnerved the enemy: at least that was the theory. At any sign of weakness they were ready to exploit absolutely, so it was best that I showed him none.

Carbon Man chuckled. Funny, I don’t remember saying anything remotely amusing. “What are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be in school, little girl?”

“School’s out, sucker!”

As far as one-liners went… it wasn’t the worst. A hard beam of burning white energy erupted from my palm in the direction of his body before he had the chance to talk back. It was time for me to stand up and take charge of the situation.

Reeling from the blow the villain turned back slowly. An even darker black stain of chipped dirt sat indented on his chest. So much for drawing first blood, I thought. Even worse was that he seemed to see humor in the situation.

“That all you got!?”

No way. I had a whole can of whoop-ass opened for him, and he wouldn’t even see it coming.

* * * *

Lunch:

WHAM!

“How many times have I got to tell you to quit staring at me?” he roared, or at least that’s what I thought he’d said. It was hard to hear with the ringing in my ears.

Pressed against the locker I could feel the steamy breath of an angry jock hissing furiously into my skin. With one hand pressed against the cool metal it was then the role of the other to pull away the broad, muscular arm that stretched across my neck and hindered my breathing.

Daring to open one eye I saw the face of Adrian Dempsey, my lifetime tormentor and all around idiot grinding his teeth with unbridled, animalistic hatred. Why he hated me in the first place I didn’t really know, only that I’d become the scapegoat for every evil that had been inflicted upon him. In the living hell that high school could be he was my devil, and one so cruel that it was hard to feel any sympathy for him.

“You were staring first,” I choked out with a playful wink. I wasn’t scared of bullies like him; not anymore, and hadn’t been for years.

The small crowd that was gathering began to make Adrian nervous. He let me go and stepped away: it was his intention only to intimidate but not hurt me. There was no way he’d do anything that stupid while there were witnesses around. He had a future football career to think of after all.

I could still feel his disgust as he pulled away, dripping like a viscous liquid from the furious jowls of a rabid dog. Even though I was only teasing him before I could still see the cogs turning in his head as he wondered, does this faggot really want me? A thousand sick thoughts of what he imagined I wanted to do to him flashed behind his eyes, but never once did he seem to consider how much I hated him right back.

Stumbling away like a wildebeest he left me alone to collect my breath. Gods, what a jerk, I thought to myself.

It had been years since my first violent physical encounter with Adrian and it had only been exacerbated over time, yet still I wasn’t able to make sense in it. What did he see in me that inspired such fear and fury?

Down the hall he caught sight of Tanya and collected her with his shoulder. Whatever beef he had with me he had with her as well so long as she was sticking by my side.

“Watch it, #&$%face,” she hissed as she nursed her arm. Immediately she turned to me with a look demanding each and every detail, no matter how small.

“I didn’t start it,” I told her.

“I know. He’s the one with the problem.” Grabbing my arm Tanya led me through the stream of people and away from the shrinking congregation that were hoping for a fight. “What I don’t get is why you put up with it at all. You’ve been taking it since grade school. How come he isn’t constantly walking around with a broken jaw?”

“Firstly, it’s because I’m not violent like you are,” I joked bitterly. “And second, I get enough crap at home without adding suspension to the list.”

“Call it self-defense. With your history nobody would doubt it.”

The idea was tempting. It would have been so easy just to let loose and blast him through a brick wall or leave him with a third degree sunburn he wasn’t likely to forget, but I would never let myself lose control like that. There was far too much at stake not only in terms of my morality but also my very soul. So long as I was able I would be better than guys like him whether they be thug jocks or the Society of Sin.

Rage boiled in my fingertips, clenching my fists so tightly that they’d explode like grenades. Sometimes I really hated being married to the high ground.

Every few moments I looked to my wrist, praying that an hour would skip ahead. School was suddenly unbearable, restricting like a collar fit too tightly around my neck. Tanya and I made our way to the football field in the yard, and even though I could taste the smooth, springtime air I still yearned for my freedom.

“You can’t let him get to you like this or you’ll never finish high school,” Tanya said, “and unless one of you gets transferred, or expelled…”

“I know.”

We climbed the stands, taking bold steps over each row until we could see houses for the next few blocks outside the fence. A handful of senior athletes ran back and forth tossing an inflated pigskin at one another, while me and my best friend sat on the top row and picked bits of flaking blue paint off the wood impatiently.

“Something bad is going to happen to him one day,” she said. “It’s karma.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t even have to lift a finger. He’ll have brought it on himself. Whatever happens will have been a long time coming.”

She could see the anger in my eyes. Why did she always try to reason with it? Maybe it was because she knew that I was still in control even when my blood was boiling. Even then when I most wanted to satisfy that primal urge she could talk and expect me to do the right thing.

Still, it didn’t take away from the fact that I wanted to punch something.

Just then a small, rectangular object began to vibrate in my pocket. It was the Glimmer Girl hotline. The name ‘Brandon’ on the call screen stretched a wide grin across my lips, for with it came the prospect of taking out Adrian’s crap out on somebody who deserved it.

Tanya rolled her eyes. She knew the drill. “What excuse do you want me to give this time? Projectile vomiting? Explosive diarrhea? Your head twisting three-sixty degrees?”

“You’ll think of something,” I proclaimed joyfully as I leapt down the stairs. “You always do!”

I half ignored her as I landed on the grass and could only vaguely make out her call. “You gotta do some schoolwork sometime, KC! Hey! When do we get to meet this boyfriend of yours anyway?”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” I declared as I bolted for the outside. The truth was that he was more than that: he was half of what made Glimmer Girl the hero she was.

* * * *

Now:

The ground below shook violently as the Carbon Man manipulated its structure. I wasn’t going to let him rob me of my footing and took to the air to get a clearer shot. Of course he’d anticipated this, and let loose a barrage of pavement shards spitting violently upwards like piranha teeth from the earth that rejected them.

I couldn’t avoid them: I wasn’t fast enough. Funny, I could move across continents in minutes but couldn’t evade the deadly spike dead ahead. They tore into my body and ripped me to shreds, leaving a rain of bright golden pieces to float gently to the street.

“Huh,” the Carbon Man huffed. “Damn idiot kid walked right into that one. Maybe I should’ve gone a bit easier… I might’ve had a bit more fun.”

Keep talking, I thought while struggling to stifle laughter between multiple selves.

A thousand points of light exploded into his eyes in unison. Hopefully he wouldn’t have been blinded, but even if we were we wouldn’t have been bothered. The Carbon Man was distracted just long enough for the countless microscopic Glimmer Girls surrounding him to pull ourselves back into one piece again.

I mused to myself, gods, I love being a hologram! No matter who I was facing, no matter how hard they hit me, no matter how pieces they’d break away I’d still soon be my whole self and ready to fight back again.

“And there’s a lot more where that came from,” I cackled tauntingly. As much as I hated it the banter was sometimes my most useful tool. It made an enemy angry, and then they made mistakes. Not always guaranteed to work, but sometimes you just have to go with what you’ve got.

The Carbon Man crudely spat as he nursed his eye. Oh yeah, he was good and pissed. Maybe, I thought, this wasn’t going to be so difficult after all.

“Alright. Hardball then.”

Hardball? I braced myself: this was where it got serious. He might have been a chump, but he was still a member of the Society of Sin: that fact alone meant that he was more than able to hold his own. Still, at only seventeen years old I was already more experienced than a lot of other heroes out there. I was sure I could give him a proper fight.

Silence lingered between us. What was he waiting for? What was I waiting for!?

I charged forward, determined to bring the fight to him. Don’t wait, just move, I told myself. Be smart, be aggressive and take control of the situation. A sneer crossed my lips as I imagined the Carbon Man laid out across the sidewalk, unconscious with a broken jaw.

Suddenly a stiff breeze blew and the next I saw was a wall of darkness consuming my path. Something heavy and hard held me back and before I knew it I couldn’t move. What had he done to me!? He’d manipulated a tornado of particles to fly around and encase me where I stood.

“Before you try cracking my shell maybe you should try cracking your own,” he murmured through the thick layers covering me. I could imagine him outside still nursing that eye, cursing at himself for letting a kid get one good shot in. There were more yet to come, just as soon as I got out…

Changing his attitude immediately the Carbon Man laughed facetiously. “See you in the next life, kid.”

Whatever he was doing I had to get out of the way, and fast! Beams of light shot out from as many extremities as I could handle, but at the very best they only slightly wore away at the dense casing.

I had to keep fighting. Escape was my only goal lest a far worse fate befall me.

The earth trembled beneath my toes and the ground made way. I could feel myself falling, falling, falling down. Hitting the dirt I thanked whatever being that gave me these powers that I couldn’t feel pain, but that didn’t stop my dread as the rumbling walls began closing in.

I gasped breathlessly as I was overcome by panic. I wanted to scream: gods, he’s burying me alive!

* * * *

TO BE CONTINUED…