Ria laughed. “I bet. Just… focus, okay? Focus on the air around you and… concentrate it on the garbage can.”

  Barbie gave her a skeptical look, then did as she was told. After a moment, she said, “I don’t know what exactly I’m supposed to b…”

  Her words trailed off as a bubble of light formed. Several of them, actually, and one surrounded the garbage can.

  POP!

  The bubble had just exploded, the garbage can crushed, the size of a diaphragm.

  “Holy hell,” Barbie said, eyes wide. “What if that had been someone’s head?”

  “We’d have a mess to deal with,” Ria replied, clapping her hands together once as if we were done now.

  “Hold on.” Barbie held up a finger. “I don’t understand. You somehow gave me this weird power, but—what now? I drop everything and come with you all? Forget my life, just pick up and go?”

  “Yes.”

  When I saw that Ria’s curt reply wasn’t cutting it with Barbie, I reached out for her hand. She quickly pulled it away.

  “You went down on me, boss. That doesn’t make you my boyfriend.”

  I did my best to ignore the stifled laugh from Meher. “All I’m doing is trying to explain the dire situation we’re in.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. No mansplaining. Um,” she turned to Meher. “You do it.”

  Maybe I’d been wrong about this lady? But as Meher filled her in on the rest of the plan, Barbie nodding along and finally said she was on board, I pushed my doubt aside. Maybe she was a feminist stripper, I don’t know, but she had cajones (not literally, as I was now very certain of), and would be useful in the fight.

  “Let’s get out of here, then, and figure out where we can work on our powers a bit more,” Ria said when that was done. “Crushing garbage cans is hardly the limit of your power, Bubblegum, and… Ice Queen, let’s get you doing more than just squirting ice.”

  “We’re using nicknames now?” I asked.

  “Sure are, One Shot.” She winked. “From now on, only our super names, got it?”

  I shook my head. “Mine’s not going to work.”

  “And I’ll stick to Meher,” Meher said.

  “You don’t like my name for you?” Ria ignored her, folding her arms and staring me down. Test time. These ladies were all badass, but I wasn’t about to be trodden over.

  “Nope. I don’t.” I stared back, then said, “T-Bone. Wait, no… Star Punch. Dammit, that’s stupid, too.”

  “Those all suck,” Bubblegum said. “What’s your power exactly?”

  “I absorb damage to a degree, use it for one powerful counterstrike.”

  “Ah, then there you go.” She beamed, but seeing I wasn’t catching on, added, “Counterstrike.”

  “Huh.” I rubbed my chin, realized it was still a bit wet from her juices, and wiped it. “I like that, but… I think there was a character with that name somewhere. An old movie or book?”

  “Switch it up,” Meher suggested. “Contrastrike.”

  “Fuck yeah,” I said, immediately loving it.

  “Contra for short,” Bubblegum said, and nodded. “I like it.”

  “So what’s the move?” Meher asked.

  “They’re not going to want me leaving, and honestly, they can be a hassle.” Bubblegum went to the door, leaning against it in thought. “So we’ll have to sneak me out.”

  “Can you illusion her out of sight?” I asked Ria.

  “Of course,” she replied. “But it’ll take energy, so… stay at my sides in case I start having trouble.”

  “I’ll be invisible?” Bubblegum grinned, and it was a playful smile the likes of which I didn’t get to see on her often. It fit well. She went for the door, but I cleared my throat.

  “Er, if we’re going to be on the move, I need to…” I nodded to the stall.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You know.”

  They all stared, stone faced, until Ria was the first to crack. “Oh, go ahead.”

  “Piss already,” Bubblegum said.

  I turned to go about it, closing the stall and pulling out my dick, but then… nothing came out. “Dammit. Can you all… I don’t know, cover your ears?”

  “Seriously?” Bubblegum groaned. “You just ate my pussy, and you’re having performance anxiety about pissing?”

  “It’s not something I can control!”

  And the fact that she was talking about it along with the taste of her sweet pussy was making me hard, which meant even more trouble pissing. I tried angling it down, but that hurt, so, considering what to do, instead turned and kind of squatted over the seat with my boner pointed down.

  At that moment, Bubblegum peered under the stall. “Are you shitting?”

  “What? No.”

  The pee started flowing.

  “You sit down to pee.” It wasn’t a question.

  “No, it’s the only way I could,” I started to stand in protest, but I don’t know what I was thinking. Show her my boner so she’d get why I was angled like that? Either way, it wasn’t good as I nearly got piss all over my pants, and quickly sat back down.

  Shaking my head, I listened as she pulled back and told the others I was sitting down to pee.

  “Maybe he has a medical condition?” Ria offered.

  “His dick works fine,” Meher said. “I should know.”

  “Oh?” Bubblegum laughed. “You’ll have to fill me in on that. Come to think of it, though, I once dated a guy with a piercing in you, you know—down there—and he had to sit so the piss wouldn’t come out of the holes.”

  “God, why would you do that to yourself?” Meher replied.

  I had, thankfully, finished by now. And after flushing and going out to wash my hands, I glared, explained that I’d had an erection and had to sit to avoid getting piss everywhere. After a couple of examples of Bubblegum showing me how she thought angling the hips while standing would’ve worked equally as good, we were out of there.

  Meher and I took the lead with Ria kind of between us and slightly behind, with Bubblegum in the rear. We figured that would make for the easiest illusion without too much interference in the form of people possibly walking into either of them.

  “You,” a man said, and I turned to see the bouncer from earlier. “Seen Bubblegum?”

  I frowned, glanced around, and pointed to one of the stages. “Not since she was holding the shower head for that other lady there.”

  “Damn. You see her, tell her the boss ain’t happy.”

  In my mind, anyone other than me being ‘the boss’ when it came to her sounded wrong, but then again, after that night I doubted the boss dynamic would work anyway, so I tried to push the thought aside.

  With a quick nod and a promise that I’d keep an eye out, we made it for the exit and were soon moving down the street back toward the car.

  “If you hadn’t made me cum, I’d be pissed right now,” Bubblegum said when we were almost at the corner.

  “Why’s that?” I asked, more worried about keeping an eye on the nearby bums than whatever she was saying.

  “That job paid damn good. Better than the diner and a few over.”

  “Why’d you keep the diner job, then?” Meher asked.

  Bubblegum scrunched her nose, glanced at me, then away. The others noticed it and so did I, but none of us said anything. Based on her reaction, it seemed she had kept her job at the diner because of me.

  Suddenly, the fact that I’d gone down on her become more special. And for some reason, that combined with the sight of a taco cart nearby gave me an intense craving for tacos. When we approached to see the guy closing up, I was pissed. I was about to go off on him, when Meher pulled me back, reminding me we could find tacos later, if it was that important. I sighed and let it go.

  At the corner, Ria was starting to talk about finding somewhere to train and then finding the gladiator, when a flash of light went off and several of the homeless people let out shouts of confusion.

  We turned toward the light and saw what looked like a portal fading, leaving someone in its wake. The figure was clearly a she judging by the curves of her hips and breasts, but she wore black metal armor that jutted out in spikes at points. Where her head was supposed to be, there was a glowing face plate of gold.

  Only, that wasn’t right, as she approached, I could see that it was actually the skull under the glass that was glowing gold.

  Ria spread her wings, horns glowing, and the rest of us followed suit, ready for first real fight as a team.

  10

  To my surprise, Meher was the first to step forward, attempting her ice attack. The enemy side stepped as if it were nothing, not even turning her skull to look as the blue energy passed by. Next, Bubblegum said, “Give me a crack at this bitch,” and thrust out her hands, but as bubbles formed in the air around the spot where the enemy had been, our opponent rolled, then darted for us.

  I prepared to take her attack, my heart thudding and limbs feeling stiff and heavy.

  Only, she was there at my side, holding my arms in place, and as the skull moved, a voice said, “I’m on your side.”

  “Not today,” Ria said as she had her, flipping her over with claws tearing—but they scraped on metal and left the woman in a crouched, defensive position.

  Again the voice came, saying, “I’m not your enemy.”

  Over her shoulder, Bubblegum was about to try another attack, but I held up a hand to her and shook my head. “Wait.”

  “Wait?” Ria said, exasperated. “We’re going to stop them, Contra, not ‘wait.’ What the fuck?”

  “I don’t think she’s here to attack us,” I said, standing my ground.

  Judging by the way the gold-skull woman was relaxing her stance, looking less defensive now, this didn’t have to end in a fight. We needed to listen to her. Regardless, we didn’t seem to be holding our own so well, anyway.

  “I’ve been sent to help you, not hurt you,” the woman said.

  “Bullshit,” Ria said, glaring.

  “Who are you?” Meher asked.

  “Call me Death Girl.”

  “Seriously?” Bubblegum said.

  “Bubblegum, shut it,” Ria chided her, earning an mused look from the skull, if that was possible. Ria turned back to this new arrival. “I’ve… heard of you.”

  “Then you might know I’m with the supers of the Citadel, that I serve Xin himself. Or… did. You’re going to need my help.”

  Bubblegum looked pissed, like she still wanted to fight, but Ria held out a hand, nodding. “Convince us.”

  “You have a car?” Death Girl said. “We need to get out of here, before they track you. I’ll tell you on the way.”

  “The way to where?” Ria asked.

  “Your next teammate. The gladiator woman—she’s actually not super far off, at the shore for a special event.”

  “How…?” I asked.

  “Just, trust me.”

  We all shared a confused look, but agreed. No matter what happened next, we needed to be on the move. This lady looked so badass, having her on our side could be a huge plus. As long as she didn’t slit our throats in our sleep. We piled into the car, a bit of a snug fit now with so many of us in there, and as soon as we pulled out onto the road, she began.

  “It started like this,” she said, and then the story went on. She later wrote it down for me, because I found it so strange, so… here you go.

  DEATH GIRL I

  I was dying a slow death. A horrible, stupid fucking death, thanks to cancer. There’s no point going over the horror I felt at that news, the coming to grips with the fact that I’d likely die, or how that ultimately separated me from my friends, from everyone I loved. Not through any fault of theirs I might add, but because I pushed them away in my grief.

  Often I would beg to simply see an end to it, and the doctors—as hard as they tried to help me—seemed confident that the end wouldn’t be far off.

  Then, one day, I remember opening my eyes to see the silhouette of someone standing over my hospital bed, looking at me, and there was a strange light behind them.

  “I’d like to offer you an alternative to this path,” the person said in a voice coming through as dark, but comforting. “Instead of involving you lying here on your death bed, suffering, this route will take you beyond the stars. Give your spirit a second chance, in a sense, and allow you to be part of something great.”

  “What do you mean?” I meant to ask, but it came out as more of a groan. The person got it, though, and gestured to the light.

  “Don’t worry, I’m no angel. My name is Xin, and I’m about to leave my life behind… though not for good. I’ll be taking up a new body, and was led to you and several others like you to take up this challenge. You, from Earth, others from elsewhere in the universe. And before you ask ‘why me,’ I’ll save you the trouble. It’s because of who you are, who you’ve… been friendly with.”

  I wanted to frown, totally lost. Instead, I lay there like the vegetable I was certain to become, already feeling hopeless. This being, this Xin, knew much about me already. He apparently knew something about the doctors telling me my chances weren’t great, that as I was, I likely wouldn’t even survive a couple of months.

  So whatever this guy was selling, I was already interested.

  “What I’m offering you,” he said, leaning in, “is a chance to use what’s in you, a power that you don’t understand you have… to become a warrior for the salvation of our universe. A hero. You could even say, a superhero.”

  He let that sink in a moment, while I considered how insane this sounded. He was a whack job, I was certain. Then again, I was dying. The thought of my mother’s tears when she’d learned about my cancer ate at me. I’d never be able to push aside the image of my dad’s lip trembling, the way they held me close like they’d never let me go.

  If there was a way to beat this son of a bitch, the big C word in every sense of the word, you bet your ass I wanted to try.

  So when he told me that all I had to do was think ‘yes’ and he’d take care of the rest, my mind was flooded with yesses.

  “Good,” Xin said, and then with a wave of his hand, the light expanded to take over the room.

  In that instant, all my pain was gone, everything became so bright that I had to close my eyes. When it faded and I opened them again, I seemed to be floating in a room of metal wires and walls, that same man standing in front of me—translucent. Now I could see his gray hair combed back, his black and gold robes. He held his hands behind his back, staring at me in curiosity.

  “Listen up,” he said, his voice clearer now, as if I was one less level of separation closer to him now. “This is going to be the hard part. The part where you truly commit, or don’t. But we have to know now. And before I raise the question, let me explain.”

  He faded out, so that my eyes focused on the wall behind where he’d been. I could see a body reflected in the shiny metal. But not exactly, and definitely not mine. Not even full, that body, it was a black husk of metal, only a torso with arms and a head. The head, for that matter, wasn’t complete either, but just past the neck the metal gave way to glass, revealing a glowing, golden skull beneath.

  “What…” I started, but saw the mouth still synchronizing with my words and froze.

  “At first, you won’t be in your body,” Xin’s voice echoed from all around me. “This is a very special metal, the likes of which you’ll learn to harness, the likes of which you’ll become one with.”

  “You’d have me throw away my old life to… what… live life as a robot?”

  “No,” Xin replied. “Life as something great. Shall I explain?”

  Staring at the monster of what I was to become, I almost said no. I almost told him to put me back into that failing hunk of flesh back in the hospital bed. But I couldn’t. The will to fight, a desire to prove to the universe that it couldn’t end for me so easily took hold, and I nodded. Rather, the head with the golden skull nodded.

  Creepy.

  In that instant, metal surged up around me, shifting, moving about and sparkling as it caught the light. A moment later, I was whole, the cables that had been holding me in place, gone. It was just me, standing there in a black, metal body with ridged edges and spikes on my forearms.

  “This is a body of an ancient being, in a sense,” Xin explained. “Or rather, it is the form the ancient being has assigned to you based on your mental state and acceptance. There’s no life form combined with you, or not exactly, and you lose no free will. That said, there’s a sort of essence to it, like the being’s soul, and the armor—or body—will grow, adapt. Now, take a step.”

  I did, expecting to stumble or feel weak. Nothing could’ve been further from the truth. With that first step I had more energy and power than I’d felt in the previous few months, and I was sold. Another step, then raising my arms, looking at my hands, and I nodded.

  “What next?” I asked. “What’s the price?”

  “It’s as simple as this. Back home you might have died—”

  “Let’s be honest—I would.”

  “High chances,” he conceded, appearing now in the reflection, walking around me, considering my armor. “And here, you might as well. But there is a chance that, instead, you can fight to be who you once were, only you can never really be.”

  “Then what’s the point?”

  “You won’t be, because you’ll always be something greater after this.”

  I frowned, taking another step, testing the body by throwing a punch. “Go on.”

  “We’ll have you fight an alien force that means to threaten our side of the universe. As you do, you’ll learn to harness the energy gained, to turn it in on yourself and… when you have a certain amount, you should be able to morph into your human form—temporarily, however. And maybe you’ll prefer your new form.”

  I scoffed, turning to assess my new body in the mirror. It was true that, if this was simply a body under a layer of armor, I’d be looking hot. Thin waist, a perfect ass, firm breasts. Except that it was all fake, all made from this strange metal.