Morpheus’s Legacy Universe – Part 8

Counterweight

by

Morpheus

It was a great day for a picnic. The sky was clear, the sun was warm and the birds were all chirping in the trees. The whole park was absolutely perfect, especially since it was nice and quiet due to the sparseness of other people in it. Yes, it was definitely the perfect way to take a break from the stress of college.

My name was Thornton Michaels...and no, my parents didn't hate me. At least I don't think that they did, though giving me a name like that I couldn't be completely certain. Most of my friends just called me Thorn for short...mostly because they said I was something of a thorn in their sides.

To describe myself, I would have to say that I was a fairly normal 20 year old college student, was 6 foot 1, had light brown hair and was a little athletic, though not actually any kind of an athlete. At least I didn't get into any team sports, though I enjoyed skateboarding, mountain biking and motocross...though that's a whole different thing.

Of course, I couldn't have a real picnic by myself and was currently in the park with my girlfriend Kelly. She was a very pretty girl with long brown hair, and a great sense of humor. After all, she was dating me...and had been for the last six months.

"Pretty good potato salad," I told Kelly, mostly being polite as I never really cared for the stuff.

"Thanks," she smiled at me, making my heart flutter a little. "It was my mom's recipe..."

I nodded, taking another bite, then washing it down with some soda and chips. Then letting out a contented sigh, I looked out over the large pond that was in front of us.

After we had been there for awhile, eating lunch and talking about a variety of things, Kelly looked at me with a somewhat nervous expression. She'd been doing that for most of the day, and that made me a little nervous.

"Thorn," Kelly started slowly, looking uncomfortable as she did so, "I have something that I think I should tell you..."

"Um...," I gulped, not sure that I liked how that was starting. "You didn't used to be a guy, did you?"

"No," Kelly laughed, "Nothing like that?"

"Are you sure?" I pressed her with a grin. "I don't want to end up on Jerry Springer or anything..."

Kelly grinned, then shook her head. However, her expression turned a little more serious again. She gulped, not looking at me. In fact, she was fiddling with her hair, swirling it around her finger. It was something that she sometimes did when she was nervous.

"I'm developed," she blurted out, then looked me in the eyes.

"You sure are," I responded, looking at her pleasant C cup breasts.

"No," Kelly shook her head, blushing with embarrassment, "I'm a developed. I used to be a super hero..."

"What?" I blinked, staring at her in surprise before grinning, "I was almost a developed...." I held my fingers an inch or so apart and added, "I was this close..."

"I'm serious," Kelly insisted.

I just stared at her in surprise. "You are?" Then I blinked, "How...? Why didn't you tell me...?"

"I'm telling you now," she snapped in vague annoyance, then quickly told me, "Sorry. It's just not something that I like telling people...especially not with what my powers are." She paused for a moment, "I just thought that you should know..."

"Okay," I said slowly, my curiosity more than a little aroused. I stared at Kelly for a moment more before cautiously asking, "What are your powers...? How did you become developed...?"

Kelly gave me a nervous smile, then said, "I'm not really sure how I developed powers... All I knew was that when I was in high school, I just accidentally discovered that I had them." She paused thoughtfully for a moment before proudly announcing, "My power is to turn other people into developed... All I have to do is touch someone and I can make them develop powers...but they wear off after an hour..."

"Really?" I asked in amazement.

I had been dating Kelly for six months and had never suspected that she was a developed, one of those rare individuals who had real super powers. It seemed unbelievable. And the fact was, I was a bit jealous.

"Yeah," Kelly nodded, "I made a costume and started calling myself Catalyst. Then some of my friends and I formed our own super hero group...calling ourselves the Crusaders. I'd give them their powers and then we'd go save the day..."

"Cool," I gasped, staring at her with even more surprise and envy. I'd always wanted to be a super hero.

"It was at first," Kelly replied with a shrug, though she didn't look all that excited about it. "Unfortunately, there were problems..."

I blinked at that, "Oh?" I couldn't help wondering what might have happened to make it so bad. Had they dealt with a horrible villain who killed her friends or something?

"The fact is," Kelly sighed, "my only power is to give powers to others. So whenever we got into a fight or did anything, I couldn't really do anything. The others got to be heroes, while I had to stand back and let them protect me. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to be the only one who's a real developed and end up being little more than the team mascot? If they didn't need me to have powers, they probably would have dumped me..."

"Oh," I grimaced. Kelly really looked unhappy about it.

"I guess I started to resent them a bit," Kelly admitted, looking ashamed as she did so. "I mean, I was the one who started the group but I was treated almost like I wasn't even a real member. They got to be heroes, while I got to be a mascot..." She let out a long sigh, "And I guess they resented me too because without me they wouldn't have any powers at all."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I told her honestly. "But you said they were your friends..."

Kelly shrugged, "Sometimes you can forget things like that." She shook her head, letting out another sad sigh. "I know that a couple of them were pretty mad at me for deciding to go away to college after graduating rather than sticking around so that they could still be heroes..."

We both went silent after this, and I frowned, understanding why she had been so reluctant to tell me about her powers. She had the ability to give powers to other people and feared that people would only want her for that ability...for what she could give them rather than for who she was. It sounded like she had lost several friends that way...which was pretty sad. I didn't blame her for keeping it from me, and felt kind of happy that she had finally decided to tell me.

"You know," I said slowly, thinking that if she could tell me something like that, then the least I could do was share my bit with her. "When I said that I was almost a developed....I was telling the truth."

"What...?" Kelly blinked. I smiled, feeling a bit smug about catching her by surprise like she had caught me.

"Some time back, I was part of an experiment," I started to tell Kelly, pausing as I hadn't told anyone about this before. "They gave a bunch of people shots that had Ms. Miracle's blood in them or something, thinking that it might make us develop powers too. It didn't work for most of us, but a couple guys got powers."

I let out a sigh at that, a sigh of regret. For my whole life, I had always wanted to be special...to be developed and to be a super hero. And then when I'd had my chance, I'd missed it. All that I'd been able to do was watch other people get powers instead.

"There was one guy," I frowned, "I was eating dinner across from him when he suddenly started growing crystals on his body..." I could remember it so clearly.

"The people who got powers," I frowned, "They became the Miracle Men." I shook my head at that, then looked at Kelly as I added, "I guess that Ms. Miracle was in a coma instead of being dead. I figure that their messing with her to get her blood must have woken her up or something..."

Kelly just stared at me for a moment with a look of surprise on her face. Then she gasped, "Wow... You were almost one of the Miracle Men..."

"Yeah," I shrugged, feeling a bit embarrassed, "But you know what they say. Almost only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades..."

"One of the Miracle Men," she muttered, shaking her head.

"Um," I decided to change the subject, "So how exactly do your powers work? I mean, can you choose what powers you give someone?

"No," Kelly shook her head. "The first time I use my powers on someone, I have no idea what power they're going to get. It seems kind of random. But every time I use my powers on them after that, they always get the same one..."

I just nodded at that, "Cool..."

"Actually, it's kind of overrated," Kelly told me with a grin. "I mean, my powers don't exactly make me a good super hero."

I laughed at that, "Yeah, what are you going to do...yell FREEZE OR I'LL GIVE YOU SUPER POWERS?"

"Exactly," Kelly grinned. Then she looked at me, her grin widening, "So...you want to try having powers?"

For a moment, I just stared at Kelly, hardly daring to speak. I'd been wanting to have super powers since long before I'd met her, so of course I'd been wanting to try out her abilities once she told me about them. But at the same time, it didn't feel right to ask...not after what she'd told me about her friends.

"Are you sure?" I asked her hopefully.

"Yeah," she responded with a nod, "I asked you, didn't I?"

I hesitated for a moment, caught between my eagerness to have actual super powers...even if only for an hour, and my fear of having Kelly think that I was only interested in her powers. However, her being the one to offer it was all that I needed.

"Hell yeah," I grinned at Kelly, "I want to try it..."

"Okay," Kelly warned me as she stood up, "I don't know what powers you're going to get so be careful... I don't want you to catch on fire and burn me or anything..."

With that, Kelly reached over and put a hand on my shoulder, then immediately stepped back, looking almost as eager as I felt. I felt a tingle the moment that she had touched me, a strange tingle that shot through my entire body.

"Whoa," I gasped in surprise.

But then, tingling suddenly seemed to explode inside of me, filling my entire body with something I couldn't describe, other than to say that it was incredibly intense. And in an instant, I felt my entire body begin to ripple and change... I gasped as my body rapidly reshaped itself, pulling in at one spot and pushing out at another. It was all happening too fast for me to make any sense of...

When the changes stopped, I collapsed to my knees, feeling completely fine and unhurt...just extremely disoriented. Disoriented and more than a little strange.

"Unbelievable," Kelly blurted out, "That's never happened before..."

I just took a deep breath as I tried to catch my bearings. Then I looked down at myself, gulping as I saw my chest pushing out into two very distinct looking bulges. My eyes quickly darted over my arms, my waist and the rest of my body. Everything was thinner and smoother. From just a single look...it almost looked as though I had turned into a girl.

"No way," I exclaimed as I stood back up. Even my voice sounded like a girl's.

I licked my lips, then stared at my arms...which were now completely hairless. They definitely looked like a girl's arms, especially with my girlish hands and longer nails. And taking a deep breath, I nervously poked the bumps on my chest.

"Weird," I muttered, "Very weird..."

"Yeah," Kelly giggled as she stared at me. "I've had some people change a bit when I used my powers on them... I mean, I've had one guy turn into a werewolf, a woman grown wings and one of my friends grew like a foot taller and a lot more muscular... But I've never had anyone have a sex change when I used my powers on them before..."

"Sex change...," I repeated, thinking that this had to make it official. Then I paused, reaching between my legs, which now felt sort of flat and empty. "Now it's official."

Then as I looked at Kelly, I realized something... I was shorter. I had to be. I was normally five inches taller than her 5 foot 8, but looking her in the eyes, there was no doubt that I wasn't that much taller than her anymore. As I tried to compare our heights, I figured that I had to be about 5 foot 9...maybe five foot 10.

"I'm shorter," I said in wonder, amazed at what Kelly had done to me with just one touch.

"And a girl," she pointed out unnecessarily. From the grin on her face, it was pretty obvious that she was enjoying this.

For a moment, I just stood there, not sure what to think. I felt so weird being a girl... It just wasn't right... But then again, I reminded myself, it was only until Kelly's power wore off. I could handle being a girl for an hour... In fact, it might even be kind of interesting.

"So what do I look like?" I asked Kelly, wishing that I had a mirror to check myself out in.

"Let's see," Kelly mused as she looked me over, "You're really pretty...and you have green hair..."

"Green hair?" I reached back and found that my hair was now down to about my shoulder blades. And as I held it in front of me, it was indeed green.

Then Kelly surprised me by grabbing my shirt and lifting it up, staring at my chest for a moment before saying, "I think you're about a C cup... Not bad either..."

"Um...thanks," I responded, not sure exactly how to handle her particular compliment. It was kind of embarrassing...

But after a minute of looking myself over, I gasped, "Hey, I thought I was supposed to get powers..."

"Didn't you know," Kelly grinned in amusement, "Being a woman is a super power..."

I let out a sigh of disappointment, having been looking forward to actually having super powers. But I knew that I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. It was just like the last time...get my hopes up only to have them snatched away.

"Hey," Kelly suddenly exclaimed, "You're glowing..."

"What?" I blinked and looked down at myself.

I was a little amazed to see that I was glowing... I had a sort of green aura around me. And I was even more amazed to realize that I could sort of feel it... I could feel some sort of light tug on it, pulling downwards.

"That's weird," I muttered, more to myself than to Kelly.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the aura and the faint tugging that I could feel against it. And out of curiosity, I sort of mentally pushed back until the tugging went away.

"All right," Kelly exclaimed.

"Huh?" I opened my eyes and looked at Kelly...looked DOWN at Kelly. Two feet down. My eyes immediately dropped to the ground below me, a ground which I was no longer even standing on but hovering above. "I'm...I'm flying," I gasped in delight.

"Levitating is more like it," Kelly pointed out, "But it's a good start. I wonder how much more you can do..."

"I don't know," I grinned down at Kelly, "but this is pretty cool..."

For a moment, I just remained where I was, trying to figure out exactly what it was that I'd done go start levitating. Of course it had been when I'd pushed back against that tugging... But what in the world was that tugging... Then it dawned on me.

"Gravity," I gasped.

"What?" Kelly asked.

"I think this is some sort of antigravity," I gestured down at myself, thinking of the green aura.

Then I took a deep breath and concentrated on the aura again, just as I had when I'd focused on pushing away from the tugging. I pushed again, rising higher from the ground in response. And when I pushed harder, I went up higher faster. Then I reversed the direction I was mentally pushing in and slowly began to go down.

"I think I'm figuring this out," I called to Kelly as I went back up.

Once I was high enough, about thirty feet above the ground, I shifted my concentration to a different direction and found that I could move forward as well. In fact, with a little experimenting, I discovered that I could move in just about any direction I wanted to.

"Way to go," Kelly called out to me, grinning as she did so.

I just waved back down to her and called back, "It's sort of like antigravity..."

After having played around with it for a few minutes, I was beginning to figure out my temporary powers. It seemed to me that the green glow sort of insulated me from normal gravity, and once I was cut off, I could control my own gravity inside of it. I could make myself completely weightless within, and even fly by making the gravity pull me in different directions.

When I settled back down beside Kelly, I was grinning like a cheshire cat. My heart was racing with excitement. "That's a blast," I exclaimed in delight.

Kelly laughed, "You look like you're having fun..."

"Oh yeah," I grinned, "It's better than riding a roller coaster..."

Then Kelly let out a sigh, "I wish I could fly..."

I just nodded at that, not sure what to say. There was no doubt that this had to be kind of hard for her. She was the one who had real super powers, but she could never do anything with them but watch other people do things.

Then I suddenly had an idea. I took Kelly's hand and concentrated, trying to spread my aura and share it with her. And to my delight, it worked. It spread and covered her. She was inside my aura where I could control the gravity.

"What?" Kelly blinked in surprise.

I pulled my hand away, but the aura immediately faded from around her. It looked like I couldn't keep sharing my aura without physical contact.

"Let's see," I put my hand on Kelly's arm, "I want to try something..."

With that, I spread my aura over Kelly again, then grinned at her as I willed her to rise into the air with me. It was so easy... I didn't even have to HOLD Kelly. All that I had to do was touch her to control how gravity was effecting her.

"This is great," Kelly gasped in delight, though we were only about five feet above the ground.

"Yeah," I grinned back, "Thanks for letting me try this out..."

Then Kelly giggled and poked one of my new breasts, "So you're not mad that I gave you these?"

"Not when it lets me do this," I stuck my tongue out at her as I lifted us both up even higher.

Kelly and I both had a lot of fun just flying around over the park for awhile, trying out my temporary powers while we could. We both laughed especially hard when some guy saw us up in the air and just at there staring with a funny expression on his face.

Eventually though, Kelly and I landed back where we'd left out stuff. As much as I liked being that close to Kelly, it was kind of difficult to keep ahold of her for so long.

"That was fantastic," Kelly grinned at me after we'd landed. "Now I know what it's like to fly..."

"Me to," I shook my head, "I've always wanted to fly..."

A moment later, I suddenly realized that the green aura had faded away. However, with a thought, it returned. I smiled, then willed it off and on, back and forth as if it were a light switch until Kelly shook her head as though I were doing something childish but amusing. Then again, perhaps I was.

While Kelly was gathering up our stuff, I looked down at myself, trying my best to ignore the changes to my body, which wasn't easy. I tugged at my clothes a little, noticing that they were definitely pretty loose on me. That wasn't any kind of surprise though as I had definitely gotten shorter and smaller. I was only surprised that I hadn't really noticed my clothes being so loose sooner, but then again, I had been distracted with both my changed body and my new powers.

"Hey Thorn," Kelly asked, "Are you going to give me a hand here or what?"

"What?" I grinned at her.

Then I willed myself to glow and asked, "So, do you think Thorn would make a good super hero name?"

Kelly rolled her eyes, and I felt just a little bad about asking that. After all, I didn't think that she'd intended me to become a super hero or anything when she'd shown me her powers. I didn't think that she wanted a repeat of what had happened with her high school friends.

"Naw," Kelly shook her head, not looking at all offended. "Thorn kind of goes with your green hair, but that's more a code name for someone with plant powers or who has spikes growing out of your body. Besides," she looked thoughtful, "I think there might already be someone using that name..."

"I guess," I sighed, feeling a little disappointed. I'd always kind of thought that my normal name would have worked pretty good as a super hero name, but I guess Kelly was right. It didn't exactly go with my powers.

"You do have antigravity powers," Kelly pointed out, still looking almost as though she were taking the conversation seriously. "Maybe something like...Counterweight."

"Counterweight," I mused, deciding that I liked it. And it did go with my antigravity powers. "Not like it really matters though," I shrugged, "It's not like I'm going to have the powers long enough to be a super hero..."

That was definitely a disappointment, especially after I'd gotten a taste of what it was like to be developed. I liked it...loved it even. But on the other hand, I certainly wouldn't mind getting back to normal. Being a girl was too weird.

Then I looked down at my watch, which was a bit loose on my wrist, startled to see that it had been about two hours since Kelly had given me those powers. I'd been having so much fun playing around with them that I had completely lost track of time. Then I blinked in surprise... Kelly had said that the powers would only last for an hour...

"Um Kelly," I started, feeling a bit worried as I gestured down at myself, "How come this hasn't worn off yet?"

Kelly and I were in the car, driving back to her place. But even though it was my car, she was the one behind the wheel. I was just sitting in the passenger side, staring down at my new breasts in disbelief.

"You said it would wear off after an hour," I told Kelly, not even looking up. It wasn't the first time that I'd made that statement.

"It should have," Kelly told me, sounding worried and confused at the same time. "It's always worn off after an hour..."

I just poked at my breasts and shook my head slightly. Kelly's powers were supposed to have worn off after only an hour, and it had been well over two hours and I was still a girl. Then again, I couldn't help smiling a little as I still had my powers too.

Thankfully, it didn't take us long to get to Kelly's place. It was a small house that she shared with her roommate Claire, and that was also fairly close to campus. And also thankfully, Claire was not there at the moment so we had the place to ourselves.

Almost as soon as Kelly and I were in the door, I rushed to her bathroom to check myself out. I'd been dying to see what I really looked like since I had first changed, or at least after I had gotten over trying out my new powers. I could have checked myself out in the car mirror, but I had purposely avoided that as I wanted to see myself with a much better view.

"Holy shit," I gasped at the very sight of my reflection.

Kelly hadn't been kidding...I was pretty. I was very pretty, though I had to admit that I wasn't drop dead gorgeous. I wasn't super glamorous or stripper material, but more of a girl next door type, with of course the exception of my green hair.

"Figures I have green eyes too," I commented, thinking that they went pretty good with the hair.

Then I stepped back and tried taking in my entire body. I definitely had a pretty decent figure as well. Very nice without going overboard.

And since I just couldn't resist, I willed my antigravity aura to turn on, then lifted myself several inches off of the ground. I couldn't help grinning at that. It was kind of impressive.

"I'm still a girl," I sighed and shook my head as I settled back to the ground. "Weird. Very weird."

"Are you okay?" Kelly asked me with a worried look as I stepped out of the bathroom a few seconds later.

"I don't know," I told her honestly. "I feel kind of weird...but not as weird as I would have thought..."

Kelly frowned, "What do you mean?"

I frowned at that myself. "Well, it feels just a little strange being a girl...but..." I shook my head. "I've got a bit more up here," I gestured to my chest, then down to my crotch, "and less here, but I don't really notice that as much as I would have guessed."

"Oh," Kelly responded, then gave me an apologetic look, "I don't know what went wrong... My powers ALWAYS wear off after an hour. I don't understand it..."

"Well," I shrugged, turning on my aura and hovering a few inches off the ground, "I don't mind keeping the powers...but these..." I grabbed my breasts and gave her an embarrassed grin as I settled back to the ground.

"Hey," Kelly gasped, "You said that you were in an experiment to get powers..."

"Yeah," I shrugged, "But it didn't work for me." I sighed, still a bit disgusted by that fact.

"Maybe that has something to do with it," Kelly said thoughtfully, looking hesitant. "Maybe it did work...sort of."

I stared at her for a moment in confusion, then whispered, "Oh," thinking that I understood where she was going with that. "You think that your powers sort of kick started what they'd tried to do?"

"Yeah. It's the only thing I can think of..." Kelly nodded. She looked thoughtful for a moment before carefully suggesting, "Maybe...maybe it worked only part way... Maybe it left you with latent powers that I triggered..."

"Oh shit," I gasped, shaking my head. "But if that's true, then I'll probably be stuck like this..." I looked down at myself and shook my head. "I can't be stuck as a girl..."

"I'm sorry," Kelly grimaced, "I just wanted to show you my powers..."

"It's not your fault," I told Kelly with a sigh. "I mean, if your powers only last an hour..."

We were both silent at this and I frowned slightly as I paced. Then on a whim, I turned on my gravity powers and started walking up the wall. Since I could control my own personal gravity, it pretty much just felt like I was walking across the normal floor. Even when I started walking on the ceiling, my own powers made it feel as though I was the one walking normally.

"That is so weird," Kelly finally exclaimed after watching me for a minute.

"I know," I grinned, sitting down on the ceiling, which felt absolutely no different to me than if I'd been sitting on the floor. Still, the scenery and point of view were quite a bit different, which was actually pretty cool.

"Aren't you mad about being stuck like that?" Kelly asked a minute later, looking both worried and confused.

"A little," I admitted as I looked up at her, or at least it was up from my perspective. "I'm a little freaked about being a girl, but I'm still kind of jazzed about actually having these powers at the same time..."

Just then, Kelly and I both froze and the sound of nice coming from the door. And a moment later, her roommate Claire came in, her hands full with a bunch of books. And the moment that she saw me, she let out a gasp and dropped all the books to the floor.

"What the hell?" Claire gasped, staring at me in surprise.

"Damn," I cringed in embarrassment.

With that, I used my gravity powers to lift off the ceiling, shift my position and slowly settle back to the ground. It was amazing just how quickly I was learning to use my new powers.

"Um...," I started, trying to come up with some explanation as to why a green haired girl, dressed in oversized boys clothes was in her living room and sitting on her ceiling. And at the moment, I couldn't come up with a damn thing.

"Relax," Kelly told her, putting a hand on my shoulder and cringing, "It's Thorn. I used my powers on him..."

"Oh," Claire blinked, giving a faint nod but staring at me more with curiosity than disbelief. "But that's a girl..."

"A weird side effect," Kelly sighed, looking embarrassed.

I stared at them for a moment, more than a little surprised myself. Then I turned to Kelly, "She knows about your powers?"

I felt a little offended by that. After all, Kelly and I had been dating for six months, and she had only just now told me about her powers. It was somewhat unhappy to discover that her roommate had already known about them.

"I got drunk a few months ago and told her," Kelly admitted, looking embarrassed at that.

All I could say to that was, "Oh." I figured that if I said anything else right then, I might end up sounding as though I were pouting or something. Then I took a deep breath. "Did you...well...you know...?"

"Use my powers on her?" Kelly asked.

"Sure," Claire responded for her, looking fairly disgusted. "She gave me some kind of mind control powers..."

"And you didn't like them?" I asked, confused by her expression and tone of voice.

Claire shook her head, frowning. "It's no good having super powers when you can't even use them."

"You couldn't control them?" I asked, still feeling a bit confused.

"No," Claire shook her head, then giving me a steady look. "You just can't go around messing in people's heads like that. It's just...wrong."

"Oh," I nodded at that. It was a moral thing.

I guess it would be kind of wrong to be going in and looking at people's thoughts and changing them around just because you could. But on the other hand, I couldn't resist thinking, it could definitely be a lot of fun too. With that kind of power, I could get any girl I wanted and convince my teachers to give me great grades. So after a moment, I figured that maybe it was a good thing that I didn't get that kind of power.

"You're really Thorn?" Claire asked, staring at me in amazement. "Shit... I bet that's got to be weird for you..." She grinned at that.

"You have no idea," I sighed.

"What are your powers?" Claire laughed. "Looking pretty?"

"See," Kelly grinned at me, "I told you that being a woman was a super power..."

"Of course it is," Claire nodded her agreement. "We have the power to bring men to their knees..."

"And don't forget our wisdom and sense of style," Kelly added.

"Not to mention modesty," I rolled my eyes, earning a bunch of giggles from Kelly and Claire.

Kelly put her hand on my arm and said, "Actually, Thorn does something with gravity..."

I nodded at that, then used my powers to lift myself up high enough to touch the ceiling, then I settled back down. "Antigravity.

"Interesting," Claire commented.

Then I smiled, deciding that I wanted to show off a little more and try something else. I put my hand on top of the coffee table and spread my aura over it until it was under my gravity influence. And with just a tiny bit of concentration, the coffee table lifted off the ground... I was still touching it, but only on the top.

"It's sort of like when I brought you up," I told Kelly, "But I'm keeping my gravity normal while messing with gravity on the table..." Then I admitted, "It's a bit harder this way though... I think it would be easier if I had gravity be the same for me and the table at the same time..."

"It's certainly better than mind control," Claire told me. "At least you can actually do something with these powers..."

"Unlike giving powers to others," Kelly sighed.

"Hey," I told her as I put the table back, "I think your powers are kind of cool..."

"Thanks," Kelly grinned at me.

"So," Claire asked, "How much longer before it wears off?"

Kelly and I both froze at that, staring at each other. Most of the excitement of showing off kind of went away with that little reminder.

"Actually," I sighed, "I'd like to know that too..."

"He's been like this for over three hours," Kelly said quietly.

Claire gasped in surprise. "What? I thought your powers wore off after an hour..."

"They do," Kelly responded almost tearfully, giving me a guilty look. "Or at least they should. They always have before..."

"But...," Claire stared at me with a look of horror appearing on her face as the situation began to dawn on her. "But what happened?"

"I...I think that Thorn was already a developed," Kelly tried explaining. "I mean, I think he was a latent developed... He was developed but his powers were latent... They just hadn't turned on..."

"And you turned them on," Claire whispered.

"Yeah," Kelly nodded, giving me another guilty look. "I think that I just turned his powers on, but since I'm not the one who actually GAVE him those powers... I think that's why he didn't change back..."

"Crap," Claire muttered.

"Tell me about it," I responded with a shrug.

Then Claire just stared at me for a moment before slowly saying, "You sure are taking this kind of easy... I mean, if I had a sex change and couldn't change back, I'd be screaming..."

"I guess it could be worse," I shrugged, still not sure exactly what I felt about being stuck like that.

Sure, I didn't like the idea of being a girl for the rest of my life, of losing my own face and identity. But it didn't hurt at all, and in fact, when I wasn't thinking about my body, it was pretty easy to forget that it had changed. And then of course, there were those wicked powers which I was really getting to like. I kind of hated the thought of losing those forever.

"I don't know," I shook my head, "The whole situation is kind of strange. It's a lot to think about..."

After this, we all sat down in the living room and danced around the subject of my possibly remaining stuck as a woman for the rest of my life, though the thought was there. That was especially clear when Kelly and Claire tentatively brought up the subject of all the good things about being a woman.

Then of course, there came the inevitable call of nature. I grimaced a little as I went to the bathroom, thinking that I might have heard a bit of a giggle or two coming from Claire and Kelly behind me.

"Just great," I grumbled, "I guess I might as well get this over with.

At first, I just stood over the toilet as though I could still take a leak the old fashioned way. Then again, the lack of my old equipment down there was a definite reminder that this was no longer a possibility. It was kind of strange, as standing there just drove in the fact that I'd changed gender more than anything else had.

"Oh shit," I whispered, realizing for the first time just what being like that would entail. It wouldn't be just how I looked that would change...but nearly everything about my life. Even all the little things that I took for granted...

However, standing there and being philosophical wasn't about to empty my bladder, so I sat down on the toilet and went about doing my business. Fortunately, that part was pretty much the same as always, though it did feel just a little different.

"The same but different," I sighed. That seemed to describe a lot of things about the changes in my body.

Once I was finished, I made sure to wipe up pretty good. I'd heard a few comments about how girls had to be even cleaner than guys down there or they could get yeast infection. I had grimaced in disgust when I'd girls talking about that, but now I was somewhat grateful that I had heard it.

"Weird," I muttered as I just remained sitting on the toilet for another minute, staring at my empty crotch. I even had a patch of green hair down there.

I let out a sigh, then went about pulling my too large pants back on and checking my reflection out in the bathroom mirror again. It was strange to think that I might be stuck with that face in the mirror for some time to come.

"And this was just supposed to be for an hour," I muttered to myself.

Of course, I had wanted to have super powers...to be a developed. I'd wanted that for my whole life, and had even gone out of my way to get those powers...though it hadn't done much good at the time. But now...now it seems to have become a matter of 'be careful what you wish for...'

"Because you just might get it," I finished aloud, "You just might get it..."

With that, I went back out with the others, where we talked for a bit more before eating dinner. There was a bit of tension in the air the whole time, with none of us really sure how to deal with the strange situation that we were in. Or at least that I was in.

When dinner was over, Kelly suggested, "I want to try something..."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Well," she said slowly, "If my powers turned yours on...maybe they can shut them off again..."

I hesitated for a moment, not sure that I liked the idea of losing my powers so quickly after getting them. After spending years dreaming about becoming a developed, of gaining super powers, a part of me screamed that I couldn't just give that all up.

"Okay," I nodded, knowing that I had to be realistic. The powers came with a high price and I wasn't about to just let my whole life go in order to keep them. "Do it."

Kelly took a deep breath, then reached out to touch me. I suddenly felt the tingle run through my body...the same tingle that I'd felt when she gave me my powers.

"I've never used my powers on another developed before," Kelly said as she watched me hopefully.

"I...I feel it," I gasped.

My body was changing again, reshaping itself. I could feel the bone and muscle all moving around under my skin again. It was the same thing that had happened to me earlier...except in reverse. I grabbed my chest, feeling my breasts pull back and fade away. I reached down between my legs, finding that my crotch was no longer empty.

"It worked," I whispered as I stared down at my familiar hands. At my hairy guy arms. I was back to normal. I was all guy again.

Unfortunately, being back to normal also meant that I'd just lost my powers. I tried activating the antigravity aura, but there was nothing. I truly was back to normal, and couldn't help but feeling a twinge of disappointment at that.

"All right," Claire grinned.

"Thank God," Kelly smiled.

"Hey," Claire pointed out a moment later, looking thoughtful, "Since now we know that Kelly can change you back to normal, you can always try this out again sometime..."

"I don't know about that," Kelly glanced at me, "That was kind of a close one."

All that I could do was nod at that. "Yeah," I felt my flat chest, "Very close..."

"Still, at least you got a cool power out of it," Claire pointed out.

I had to agree with her on that, though I wasn't about to admit it. "If you count being a girl as a super power..."

"I do," Kelly laughed, with Claire quickly joining in.

"Well," I glanced at my watch, "I should probably get going." I frowned, "I do have some homework that I've been procrastinating on..."

"Well, I'm just glad that you're back to normal," Kelly smiled at me, then came over and gave me a hug.

"I had a great day," I told her, then added, "Well, other than being stuck as a girl..."

Kelly just grinned at that, looking a little embarrassed. At least she didn't look like she was feeling all guilty anymore. We kissed at that while Claire just sat back and watched with a bit of a smirk. I just wished that she'd go away so that Kelly and I could have a moment of privacy.

It was just several minutes later that I'd left Kelly, gave a brief nod to Claire and then hurried on home. However, I couldn't help thinking how much faster...not to mention more fun it would be to fly there instead.

Home for me was the dorm that I shared with my roommate Phil. It was small and cramped, but on the plus side, we each had our own room...albeit each about the size of a closet. I'd been roommates with Phil for awhile now, but had never developed the kind of friendship with him that Kelly had with Claire. In fact, Phil and I had an understanding... He does his thing and I do mine.

"Thank God," I sighed as I got home and looked in the mirror, seeing my familiar old face instead of the pretty green haired one. So why didn't I feel as pleased about getting back to normal as I thought I should?

With a shrug, I turned on my computer and settled down to take care of my homework. It had been such an interesting day that it seemed almost anticlimactic to end it by doing something as normal and boring as homework.

I had been working on my homework for only a little while when I decided to take a break and get something to munch on. It hadn't really been all that long since dinner, but that didn't really matter. I wasn't really hungry... I just wanted something to munch on while doing my work.

"Let's see," I muttered as I grabbed myself a Pepsi from the fridge that Phil and I shared, then reached for the bag of Oreos that I kept in there as well. There's nothing quite like an Oreo that's been kept cool in the fridge. The cream filling was almost like ice cream. "That should about do it..."

Suddenly, I felt a tingle rush through my body. It was the very same tingle that I'd already felt twice that day. I couldn't help but letting out a loud gasp of surprise, then another one as I felt my body beginning to shift and reshape.

Even before the changes were finished, I stared down at my feminine hands, knowing exactly what was happening to me. I looked down at the two shapely breasts that were once again pressing out from my chest. And I could see a bit of long green hair hanging down in front of my eyes.

Then I looked at the clock and realized that it was about an hour since Kelly had used her powers to change me back to normal. An hour... "Oh crap..." I shook my head in disbelief, "You've got to be kidding me..."

However, there seemed to be little doubt that Kelly's power had just worn off. And the irony wasn't lost on me that her powering wearing off had only returned me to the condition I was in when her power hadn't worn off when it was supposed to. The whole situation was just too weird.

For several minutes, I just stared down at myself, half sure that this had to be some kind of weird joke. But then I shook my head and slowly reached for the phone. Once the other end picked up, I sighed, "Kelly...I have a problem..."

I talked to Kelly on the phone for several minutes, explaining that her power had worn off and that I had turned back into a girl. Unfortunately, there was nothing that she could do at the moment...if at all. Still, I would have to wait till the morning before finding out for sure.

"Oh joy," I muttered as I hung up the phone.

For a moment, I just stood there and shook my head. I wasn't sure whether to be horribly disappointed by the fact that I was a girl and would be at least until the morning...or relieved.

"At least I have my powers back," I smiled weakly.

But just then, I heard a key turning the lock on the door and froze, knowing that it could only be Phil coming back from wherever it was that he was at. I quickly looked down at myself, knowing that there was no way in the world that I could explain that to him.

"Damn," I muttered, already rushing out of our shared common room and into the relative safety of my own room. I barely managed to get the door shut in time. "Damn," I muttered again as I realized that I'd left my snack behind.

I waited a minute then cracked my door open and peaked into our shared room. Unfortunately, Phil had turned on the TV and settled down to watch something.

"Just great," I grumbled in annoyance. Now there was no way that I could go get my snack.

So with that, I just plopped down on my bed with a sigh. I remained there for a minute or so before I glanced over at my computer and remembered what I had been working on before I'd gotten up to get a snack.

"I might as well finish it up," I sighed. It wasn't like I really had a lot else that I could do at the moment.

It didn't take me very long to finish my homework up once I gave it my attention. However, giving it my full attention was the problem as I had a bit of a distraction just then with my body being changed and all. But somehow I managed to focus on the task at hand.

With my homework done and out of the way, I settled down on my bed and just sat there for a minute, looking down at my tits and hands. Then I slowly smiled, feeling kind of curious about my new body. I'd already explored my new powers quite a bit, so it only made sense to check out the body that had come along with them.

I wasted no time in stripping out of my clothes, which was sort of a relief as they were once again too large for me and somewhat uncomfortable because of that. My clothes all went to the floor, then I stood up, wishing that I had a mirror that I could really check myself out in. However, I didn't bother to keep any kind of a mirror in my bedroom. In fact, as far as I knew, unless Phil had one in his room, the only mirror in our dorm was the one above the bathroom sink.

At first, I just stood there and looked down at myself. I'd been able to tell that I had a pretty decent body with all of my clothes on, but seeing myself naked only verified this and made it more clear. It was even better than I'd thought.

"Man I wish I had a mirror," muttered as I slowly ran my hands over my legs. The skin was so soft and smooth...

Then felt my breasts. They were nice and shapely, and felt oh so nice to touch. I couldn't believe how sensitive the nipples were. It was incredible, just like it was incredible to think that these breasts actually belonged to ME.

And finally, I turned my attention to the new space between my legs. Of course, I'd already checked the new equipment down there out while going to the bathroom, so the sight was nothing new. This time though, I checked it out a little more carefully. It was even more sensitive than my new nipples.

"Very weird," I mused after I had finished looking over my changed body. It was definitely strange...just about all of it, but not really all that bad. The powers were definitely the best part of it though...

After I had finished checking myself out, I just sat back and played around with my new parts some since it felt so good. While I masturbated, the pleasure grew stronger and stronger until I finally exploded in an orgasm. It was stronger than any orgasm that I'd ever felt...and spread over my entire body.

"Very nice," I gasped to myself as I started up round two.

Eventually though, I was finished and ready for bed. However, I went to bed feeling better than I ever had before in my life. Even as I slipped off to sleep, I suspected that I was going to have some pretty nifty dreams.

When I awoke in the morning, I was somewhat startled to discover myself floating in midair, just a foot or so away from the ceiling. To my relief, my powers didn't suddenly cut out with my awakening and drop me back to the ground. That could have been painful.

"Jeez," I muttered as I slowly shifted the gravity and lowered myself to the ground, "What a way to sleep..."

Once I was back on the ground, I looked up and shook my head in disbelief. I couldn't believe that my new powers had kicked on in the middle of the night without my even activating them.

"I guess I'll have to be careful about camping like this," I gulped at the sudden thought of floating away in the middle of the night. That would definitely not be good.

With a sigh, I went to go get some breakfast, but as soon as my bedroom door was halfway open, I saw Phil sitting in our shared space eating a bowl of cereal. I quickly pulled the door shut again, gulping at the thought of what would happen if he caught me like that.

"Thorn?" Phil called after me, though I didn't answer.

"Damn," I whispered, knowing that I couldn't let Phil find out about what had happened to me. If he found out, then it wouldn't be long before half the campus knew that I'd had a sudden sex change.

I locked my door with a frown, ignoring Phil when he called out my name a second time. Fortunately he was silent after that, and I could just imagine him shrugging and going back to his breakfast.

Then I looked down at myself and let out a sigh. I was still a girl and a buck naked one at that. I sure as hell couldn't just walk out the front door with Phil sitting there...not looking like I did now. And certainly not without any clothes either.

"Let's see," I mused as I turned to look around my small room.

If I was going to go anywhere, the first thing that I would need would be some clothes to wear. All of my own were too large, and though I could put those on and go with it like I had yesterday, I would rather have something that fit just a little more comfortably.

It only took me a few minutes to find what I was looking for. I had a pair of shorts which I could tighten up to fit, and a T-shirt that had always been a little tight on me. Of course those weren't stylish fashions, but they would do for the moment.

Then I looked at my shoes for a moment. They were too big for me at the moment and had slipped around a bit the day before. I could easily get them to fit a little better by putting on several pairs of extra socks, though decided not to bother. I could do without for the moment.

"Who needs shoes when you can fly?" I grinned to myself as I came off the ground.

Of course, I still had to get out of the room which meant going past Phil. Except of course, I no longer had to. I glanced at the window and smiled. There's more than one way out of a dorm room when you can fly, even when you happen to live on the third floor.

It didn't take me very long to fly over to Kelly's place, though it took a little longer than I'd wanted as I tried avoiding attention. I felt a strange mixture of embarrassment and glee when several people looked up and actually saw me in the air.

"Knock knock," I called out as I landed by the back door. I figured that Kelly might not appreciate the attention that I'd get if I landed in front of the house where everyone could see me. As it was, I'd been pretty careful to avoid being seen by anyone close to her place.

After ringing the doorbell, I only had to wait a minute for Kelly get there. I was actually a little disappointed that she hadn't heard me calling out as I landed, but I still gave her a somewhat embarrassed smile as she opened up.

"Thorn," Kelly gulped at the sight of me.

"Yeah," I gestured down at myself, "I'm back to this again..."

Kelly wasn't surprised at that since I'd talked to her the night before just after changing back into a girl. But she still looked a little surprised anyway.

"Um...come in," Kelly gestured, then gave me an bit of a smirk, "You need a bra..." At my blank look, she pointed to my shirt where my nipples were pretty visible and said, "You're kind of showing."

All I could say to that was, "Oh..."

"You want something to eat?" Kelly asked me as she went for the kitchen.

"Sure," I nodded, "I had to skip breakfast to keep Phil from seeing me..." Then thinking of my roommate, I looked around, "Where's Claire?"

"Class," Kelly shrugged.

"Cool," I grinned, "It's just the two of us..." Then I bent over to give Kelly a kiss, but she pulled away.

"Sorry," Kelly grimaced, "But I'm not into girls..."

"But," I started to protest. "I'm not really a girl..."

"You sure look like one to me," Kelly pointed out, much to my disappointment.

Unfortunately, I had to admit that she did have a point. I looked every bit a girl. Then I let out a sigh, "At least these powers are pretty cool..."

"Well," Kelly sighed, "I can try getting rid of them again..."

"If you must," I rolled my eyes and held out my hand for her to touch, while at the same time looking forward to getting my normal body back.

As soon as Kelly touched me, I felt the changes in my body. I had to loosen my shorts as they were getting a little too tight. Even my shirt, which had been fitting fine, even a bit loose just moments before now felt a little tight.

"Well, it worked," I told Kelly, "Again..."

"Let's just see if it stays working this time," Kelly told me with a worried expression.

Kelly and I sat down and ate breakfast at that, with me telling her about what I'd been doing since changing back to a girl the night before. I even told her that I'd checked my body out, though I neglected to go into any details. Somehow, I wasn't sure that she'd appreciate the novelty of my little game of grab-ass with myself.

However, about an hour after Kelly had changed me back to normal, I felt the tingling and once again changed back into my green haired girl form. It had worn off AGAIN.

"Oh shit," I whispered, having had a bad feeling when I'd changed back the night before and having it even worse now. Something told me that this was NOT a good sign. "Change me back again..."

"I can't," Kelly shook her head. "Whenever I give someone powers and it wears off...I always have to wait half an hour to an hour before I can do it again. I think that this is probably the same way..."

"How can this be the same way?" I demanded in annoyance, "You're taking powers away...not giving them to me."

"I don't know," Kelly admitted with a sigh. "I've never used my powers on another developed before... And I've never taken anyone's powers away before." Then she frowned, "But I think... I think that I've just found a new part of my powers..."

"Oh?" I encouraged.

Kelly nodded thoughtfully, "I don't think I cured you...or that I even can. I think that I've just discovered how to temporarily take powers away from developed instead of just giving them to normals..."

"Well...that could be useful," I pointed out, not seeing how it really could be since she had retired from being a super hero.

"Maybe," Kelly frowned, looking at me with the same guilty expression from the day before. "But I think it means that I can only change you back to normal for an hour at a time..."

I just stared at Kelly for a moment, absorbing what she had just said. If this was true, and I had no real reason to doubt that it was, then I truly was a real developed. And...and that meant that I would remain a developed...and a woman for the rest of my life. Though the first part excited me, the last was a hard bit to swallow.

Still, I wasn't going to just accept the idea that I would remain a woman for the rest of my life without more proof. Once Kelly was able again, I had her transform me back to my old male self. But once again, an hour later I had reverted to my female body...my new body.

"It looks like I'm stuck like this," I finally admitted, looking down at myself. I slowly touched my breasts and sighed, "And it looks like these are here to stay..."

"I'm sorry," Kelly told me quietly.

For a moment, I just remained silent, trying to take it all in... Or at least trying to take in the fact that I was going to remain a woman for the rest of my life. Strangely, I wasn't as completely horrified at the prospect as I could have been. After all, it wasn't like I had turned into some hideous monster or anything. In fact, there was a part of me that was almost glad.

"At least I get to keep these powers," I grinned to Kelly, who could only stare at me in disbelief.

I suppose that it would be hard for Kelly to understand. In fact, it was a little hard for even me to understand. Sure, I was pretty shaken up about losing my manhood...about being trapped as a woman and even losing my own identity. I couldn't very well run around using my old drivers license or anything. But on the other hand, there were the powers that came with it...

I had dreamed of being a developed...one of those rare special people for my entire life. Where some people dreamed of being movie stars, rock stars or sports heroes, I had always fantasized about having super powers. Of being unique and having special abilities.

Now, thanks to that experiment and Kelly acting as a catalyst to the latent abilities that I had gained during it, I'd finally gained my dream. I had finally become a developed and gained super powers. That was literally a dream come true. And looking at it from that perspective, turning into a girl to gain my lifelong dream was actually kind of a small price to pay.

"I can't believe you're not freaking out," Kelly gasped.

"Well," I shrugged, not sure how to explain it.

"You're not gay, are you?" Kelly asked in disbelief.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked her. After all the time that we'd spent together, she should know very well that I wasn't gay. "Then again," I added thoughtfully as I looked down at myself, "I guess I qualify as a lesbian now..."

"Well I wouldn't think that most guys would take a sex change so well," Kelly grumbled.

"It's not that I like being a girl," I told Kelly, feeling a little embarrassed. "If I could change back into a guy, I'd do it in a moment. But..."

After hesitating for a moment, trying to decide how to explain what I was thinking, I decided to just be honest. I told Kelly about my lifelong dream of being a developed, and even of being a super hero. It had always seemed like a kind of embarrassing thing to admit to someone, but it was the truth and I wanted her to know.

"My God," Kelly gasped when I was finished, "You're actually enjoying this..."

"Well, the power part at least," I shrugged, giving an embarrassed grin. "And being a girl is pretty weird, but it's not the end of the world or anything."

"What about your family?" Kelly asked hesitantly, "What are you going to tell them...?"

I just sat there for a moment, frowning. Kelly and I had never really talked much about my family, but then again, there wasn't really much to talk about.

"What family?" I asked her. "I don't have much of a family. My mom's an alcoholic and I haven't seen her in nearly two years. And I haven't seen my dad since the divorce when I was seven..."

"I'm sorry," Kelly blushed, "I didn't know..."

"No problem," I shrugged. "In fact, not having a close family was one of the requirements for that experiment I told you about..."

Then as I sat there next to Kelly, thinking about my family, or lack of one, I couldn't help wondering if that might have had something to do with my lifelong wish to be developed. Maybe it was a way of compensating, of wanting to be special and unique rather than mostly ignored as I had been. It was something to think about, but at a later time.

"What are you going to do about school?" Kelly asked me after a few minutes of silence.

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"Well," she rolled her eyes, "I don't think you can go looking like that..." She pointed at my chest, then frowned, "Unless you go public with your changes and prove your identity I mean."

I looked down at myself and let out an, "Oh..."

Then I gulped, realizing that Kelly had a point. A very big point. Not being able to go to my classes or finish my degree was something that I hadn't even given the least consideration to. Even if Kelly helped me with her powers, there was no way that I could finish things up with only being myself for an hour at a time.

"I'm sorry," Kelly started to tell me again.

However, I put my hand on hers and gave her a weak smile. "It's not your fault. If anything, it's mine. Remember what they say about being careful what you wish for..."

Of course I was pretty bummed out with the realization that I wouldn't be able to finish my degree. Especially after I'd already put so much effort into it. But that was sort of like being turned into a girl, something that I didn't like but couldn't do anything about. It was one more part of the price that I was going to have to pay for finally gaining my wish. The price was more than I'd ever imagined and it just kept getting steeper.

"Well," I said slowly, more to myself than to Kelly. "I guess I just have to keep focusing on the positives..."

In spite of the downsides, there were definitely some serious upsides to my condition as well. Those were what I needed to remember.

"Kelly," I looked her hopefully, "If I'm going to be a super hero, I'm going to need a costume..."

She stared at me for a moment, as if trying to decide whether I was serious or not. Then she nodded thoughtfully, giving me a reassuring smile, "Then I'll help you... Back in the Crusaders, I used to make all our costumes..."

With that, Kelly grabbed some pens and paper and we began sketching some ideas for super hero costumes. Some of them were pretty bad, and then there were some that looked good on paper but Kelly insisted would look lousy in real life. I had to bow to her experience. Eventually though we came up with a design that I liked.

"I'll get to work on it right away," Kelly grinned at me, looking rather proud of herself. It looked as though she were really getting into this whole thing. That was something of a relief for me because I didn't know what I'd do if she'd insisted that it were a bad idea.

"Thanks," I told Kelly with sincere gratitude.

With that, I gave her a big hug, but when I tried to kiss her as well, she pushed me away with a firm, "I told you, I'm not into girls." She looked apologetic, "I'm sorry..."

"Yeah," I sighed, adding Kelly to the list of things that I was going to lose because of my changes. I had a feeling that it wouldn't be long before I heard that 'let's just be friends' speech from her. That was not something that I was looking forward to. Not at all.

"Well," I told Kelly, "I guess I should be going home..." I paused at that as I suddenly remembered my roommate. "Oh yeah...Phil..." It wasn't going to be easy sneaking in and out past him or keeping him from finding out.

I was just about to Kelly's door when she called out, "Wait..." As I turned back to her, she looked a little uncomfortable before giving me a weak smile, "You can't just keep living there... I mean, unless you go public with this..."

"I'll lose my identity and everything associated with it," I sighed, quietly stating the obvious. I was going to lose school...and the dorm since that went along with it. "But I can't go public," I said quietly. "It would be too embarrassing... And besides, I don't think that they'd accept me like this..." I gestured down at myself. "I'd be kicked out of school anyway, and even if I wasn't, there would be just way too much attention..."

"I'm sorry," Kelly repeated what was seeming to become her favorite statement.

"Don't be," I told her with a smile that was a little more forced than I would have liked. "It'll be all right. Besides, if I'm going to be a super hero, I won't have time for school..."

There was a minute of uncomfortable silence before Kelly said, "I was thinking... I was thinking that since you can't really stay at your dorm, you could move in here with me and Claire. We have room and I'm sure she won't mind..."

At first, I thought that Kelly was kidding, but she wasn't exactly the type to make that sort of offer lightly. And from the look on her face, I could tell that she was serious. My next thought was to turn her down, but she did have a point. I couldn't very well stay in the dorms and I was going to need a place to live.

"All right," I agreed with a nod. "But only until I get everything straightened out..."

"Great," Kelly grinned at me. "I can change you back for awhile so that you can pick everything up from your old place... But first..." She looked me over with a nod, "If you're going to be like this for good, you're REALLY going to need some new clothes."

"New clothes?" I frowned as I looked down at myself. Kelly did have a point about that too. My old clothes didn't exactly fit me all that well anymore.

"In other words," Kelly grinned even more broadly, "Shopping trip..."

From the look on Kelly's face, I was afraid that she was going to drag me out the door right then and there. However, she decided that I would have to be dressed a little more appropriately before going out in public to shop for more appropriate clothes. It seemed to me as a bit of a catch 22. And fortunately...or unfortunately, she had the answer to that too. Her own closet.

After Kelly had begun looking through her own closet, she gave me a careful look, "Actually, I think that you're a little closer to Claire's size... But between the two of us, I'm sure that we'll have what you need..."

"Oh joy," I responded, rolling my eyes.

"While we're at it," Kelly paused, "I really should measure you. For your costume..."

Kelly wasted no time in pulling out a tape measure and going over my measurements. It was a bit embarrassing, but I sat there and quietly cooperated as she did so and wrote down the results. But the moment that she was done with that, she was back to the closets.

By the time that we were finished, I was wearing a pair of Claire's slacks, one of her shirts and a pair of her shoes. The girl clothes were a little embarrassing, but I reminded myself that I was going to have to get used to them. And I had to admit, they certainly fit me better than anything that I owned.

"At least they aren't pink," I commented aloud, earning a bit of a giggle from Kelly.

Soon after this, Kelly and I left for the clothing store. I felt more than a little uncomfortable walking into the women's section, especially the lingerie section, but I was determined not to act all weird about it. Like it or not, I was a woman now and was going to remain as one... That was something that I was going to have to get used to, so I figured that I might as well start.

"I guess we should start with a bra," I suggested to Kelly, who seemed a little surprised by my being the one to suggest it. Knowing her, I figured that she was going to take me right to the bras and watch me squirm and argue as she suggested that I would need one. In fact, I had probably taken away most of her fun.

It didn't take long to discover my bra size thanks to Kelly's experience in the matter, and even less to grab a few of them as well as the panties. Then we were on to the next section...shoes. Fortunately that was much less embarrassing and I managed to get away with only the tennis shoes, in spite of Kelly's insistence that I'd need more.

"This is going to kill my bank account as it is," I reminded Kelly with a scowl. "But since I won't be paying for classes anymore..."

But as we continued with the search for a new wardrobe, Kelly told me, "This isn't a REAL shopping trip you know. This time we have too much that we have to buy so we won't have time to really try everything on..."

Kelly's statement didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me, but I wasn't about to argue it. Kelly was obviously getting into the whole shopping thing and I wasn't about to discourage her from helping me even more.

Eventually though Kelly and I left the store with quite a bit of new clothing and items which she insisted that I would need, though I wasn't even sure that I saw the purpose of. It hurt though, spending that much money on CLOTHES when I still had a dresser and closet full of them back home.

"Jeez," I muttered under my breath after leaving the store, "It would be so much easier hauling this stuff if I made it a little lighter..." Unfortunately, that would mean a very noticeable green glow, though I suppose that my green hair was nearly as noticeable.

Somehow, I managed to make it through the day, though pretty much the whole thing had been spent shopping. I'd never imagined how exhausting it could be just going out for new clothes, but then again, I'd never really done it with Kelly before either.

By the time we got back to Kelly's place, it was getting fairly late. There was of course no way for me to move my stuff over even if I still had the energy, so I just crashed there and planned to move later on.

When I woke up in the morning, I didn't know where I was at first. But as soon as I saw that I was floating a couple feet above the floor of Kelly's storage room, what was soon to become my bedroom, it all came rushing back to me.

"Oh yeah," I grumbled as I settled to the ground, sat up and poked at my breasts. "Two nights with these things down, a whole life left to go..."

I frowned a little as I made my way to the bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror for a few minutes and wondering if I'd ever get used to this. Of course, the fact that I had no choice certainly helped provide the motivation to do so.

"I guess I should take a shower too," I muttered, sniffing at my arm pit and scowling. I'd been in such a hurry the day before that I hadn't even thought about it.

"Definitely," Kelly said from behind me. I turned around and saw her standing there at the bathroom door, holding her nose with a look of mock horror. "You might want to make that a bath though..." Then she pointed to several bottles on the side of the tub and added, "Make sure you use conditioner when you do your hair..."

"Gee thanks," I rolled my eyes. She reminded me of my mom. Or at least she reminded me of what I had always thought a real mom should act like. Mine hadn't been much of a real mother since I was pretty young.

"You'll need it with that hair," Kelly grinned. "Have fun..." And with that, she closed the door and left, much to my relief. I normally enjoyed showering with her, but I wanted a little more privacy this time.

"Just me and you," I poked at one of my breasts, "and you," I pointed at that other.

When I settled into the bath a minute later, I let out a sigh of relief. It felt so nice... It was so easy to just slip into the water and soak there for awhile. I was enjoying where I was so much that I didn't even bother to start washing myself for at least ten or fifteen minutes.

While I was washing myself, I was completely amazed at just how soft and smooth my skin felt. Then I noticed something and stared at my arms a little closer. I didn't have a single hair on them, not even the very fine ones that most women had. I didn't have those on my legs either... In fact, other than what was on my head and between my legs, I didn't see a sign of any other hair on my body.

"I guess that will save me the trouble of having to shave my legs," I grinned. "Kelly will be so jealous..."

Then, I began playing around with my body a little, mostly just feeling it up. My new parts felt pretty damn good and they reacted so well... That was definitely the most memorable bath that I'd ever taken.

Eventually though, the bath ended and I climbed out, admiring my naked body in the mirror for several more minutes. It was a hot body and well worth admiring, though I would have much rather admired it on someone else rather than myself. Still, I had to admit to myself at least that if I was going to be stuck as a girl, at least I was a good looking one.

Once I had finished with that, I got all dried up and into my nice new clothes. They certainly felt more comfortable on me than my old clothes did. Then again, they were actually made for my new body where my old clothes weren't.

"I guess I really will have to get used to wearing girl clothes," I shrugged, deciding to just accept it and move on.

But then came the serious business of all that I had to take care of that day. There was no doubt that I could put it all off and take care of it later, but I decided to take care of it then as part of my effort to accept and move on. There was no doubt that I would remain a woman, so I didn't want to hold onto some false hope.

Kelly gave me a jolt of her power, changing me back to my old male body. I wouldn't be able to remain like that, so I made good use of my time in going to the campus office and officially dropping out of school. It hurt to have to do that, but I couldn't addend classes in my new body and Kelly couldn't keep me in my old one long enough to finish a a single class.

"Don't worry," Kelly comforted me, "Once you're all settled in, you can always finish your degree online..."

Finishing my degree online was great, and something to definitely think about for later, though it did have one major problem. How in the world would a degree in my real name do much good for me looking as I did now? But that was a problem for another time.

After that, I turned my attention to moving out of my dorm room. Fortunately Phil was in class rather than hanging around, which made it much easier since I didn't have to explain why I changed from the old me to the girl me right in the middle of packing. And also fortunately, most of the furniture belonged to the dorm so I didn't have to worry about that.

"Hey," I grinned to Kelly as I lifted my large TV with one hand and no effort, "With these antigravity powers I could make a killing as a mover..."

Kelly just grinned, "Show off..."

By late afternoon, everything that I had needed to take care of had been done. I had officially left the college and moved out of my old dorm. All that anyone knew was that Thornton Michaels was just another college dropout...like so many others before him.

The whole thing was a little depressing, though I tried not to think of it that way. It wasn't that my life was over... It had just changed. The day of Thornton Michaels was over, but the day of Counterweight had just begun.

It was several days since I had moved out of my old dorm and in with Kelly. Fortunately, Claire didn't have a problem with me being there and actually seemed to think that it was a good idea. Still, it was a little weird for me living with two girls...even if I was one now as well.

I hadn't really done much since I had moved in except for play around with my new powers and just try to get used to being a girl. That might not sound like much, but that last part alone kept me pretty busy.

Then of course, there was the problem with Kelly. She was great about helping me out and trying to help me get used to my new life. However, she had made it perfectly clear that she wasn't a lesbian, which made continuing our physical relationship out. I was becoming more her best friend than her boyfriend, which was somewhat uncomfortable for me to think about.

I had just finished with my morning bath, a new ritual which I was really beginning to enjoy. I had even sworn to myself that from then on, I was going to take a bath over a shower whenever possible. There were so many advantages to just soaking... And with a smile as I thought about how good what I had been doing in the bath had felt, I adjusted my new robe around me and went into the living room where Kelly was already waiting.

"What's up?" I asked, seeing the look on Kelly's face. There was no doubt that she was up to something, though I hoped it wasn't another makeup lesson like the day before. We'd spent nearly two hours with her just trying to teach me how to use the stuff.

"You look like you're in a good mood Thorn," Kelly grinned at me.

"I was," I paused suspiciously, "What are you up to?"

Kelly just gave me a look that seemed to scream, 'who me?' However, I knew her too well to fall for that. Then she just grinned, "I have a present for you..." And with that, she reaches over for a box and hands it to me.

For a moment I just stood there with the box in hand, then I slowly opened it, half suspecting that a bunch of those springy snakes would jump out at me. Nothing actually jumped out at me, but I still gasped, "Wow," when I saw what was inside.

Without a word, I carefully pulled the contents from the box and held it up for a better look. It was a costume...the very same costume that Kelly and I had designed together. She had finished making it...

"Wicked," I grinned as I turned it over.

The costume was mostly a single piece spandex bodysuit which covered everything from the neck down. It was about two thirds black, with white under the arms and arm pits, around my torso and on part of my chest. But there was more... The costume also had a pair of green metallic shoulder plates and bracers for the back of my forearms. It also had a pair of green leather belts which would sort of hang loose and cross over each other, with a single round belt buckle which worked for both of them.

"Totally wicked," I whispered as I looked it over again. "It looks even better than I'd imagined..."

"Try it on," Kelly urged, "I want to see how it looks on you..."

"You don't have to tell me twice," I responded with a grin, dropping my robe and climbing into the costume right there in front of Kelly.

The costume was a snug fit but comfortable. Kelly really had made it to my exact dimensions, which made me even more excited. She must have put a lot of effort into getting that costume just right.

"Well?" I asked as I slowly turned around, letting Kelly get a good look.

"You look great to me," she grinned, "But you're the one who has to wear it. What do you think?"

"I think I should have gone with blue and gold instead of black and white," I told Kelly with a straight face.

"WHAT?" she gasped, her expression making me burst out laughing.

"It's perfect," I assured her with a grin, "Absolutely perfect."

Still, I couldn't resist going to the mirror to check myself out. The costume definitely looked good on me, and I felt a nervous excitement to be wearing it. Now I not only had my super powers and a cool code name, but a great costume to go with them. It was literally a dream come true.

"So," I asked Kelly with a grin, "Does this mean that I'm a super hero now?"

"It takes more than a costume and powers to be a hero," Kelly told me, her expression going more serious. "It's pretty dangerous..."

"I know," I told Kelly with a nod, going more serious myself. "I'm not naive. I've given this a lot of thought..."

"I just want you to be careful," Kelly said as she gave me a hug. Then she stood back and gave me something of a forced grin, "So why don't you go try it out..."

"Just what I was thinking," I grinned.

After reassuring Kelly that I would be careful and wouldn't do anything stupid, though I had my fingers crossed at that last, I left the house, looked both ways and then flew up into the air. I rather hoped that no one had seen me take off, but was realistic enough to realize that it probably didn't really matter. After all, with my green hair and the fact that I didn't have a mask, it wasn't like I could have a real secret identity.

"Well," I muttered to myself, "My real identity is a secret..." Unfortunately, it wasn't like I could just change back into the old guy Thorn anytime I wanted.

However, as I went higher and higher into the sky, all other thoughts faded away. I was lost in the thrill of flying, of being able to do so under my own power. It was better than any roller coaster could ever be. And it was mine...all mine.

I had no idea how long I just flew around up there, shifting gravity this way and that to pull me along. Flying that way was becoming easier and easier, though after awhile, I took a break and just hovered in the air with zero gravity. I felt like an astronaut as I rolled around in midair.

But then, as I thought about how much I felt like an astronaut floating around in space, I came up with another idea. I grinned as I lowered myself back down to the ground. Then I shifted my gravity, letting it pull on me in the same direction as normal, but with much less force.

"One small step for man," I grinned as I took a jump, going a good ten feet in the air before I came back down. "One giant leap for mankind." Then I chuckled as I took another small jump in lowered gravity, "Just like hopping around on the moon..."

After jumping around in lower gravity for awhile, I decided to go back to flying. Jumping was fine, especially when I could jump both extremely high and extremely far, but shifting the gravity a little more and actually flying was even better. It was like jumping so high that I never came down.

It was just a short time later though that I noticed several cop cars racing down the street with their sirens blaring. At first, I just hovered in the air and watched them in curiosity. But then I gulped in realization.

"Damn," I muttered, my eyes following the cops and then glancing down at myself, or more specifically, the costume that I was wearing. "I'm supposed to be a super hero....so act like it."

With that, I started following the cop cars, keeping a good distance as I wasn't sure if I'd be needed or not. Still, if there was any chance that they could use me, I wanted to make sure that I was able to get there in time to help.

However, before the cops even got to their destination, I spotted it from the air. It was hard to miss with the other cop cars around there and the gunfire that I could hear. I moved in for a close look at let out a loud gasp.

"Holy shit," I exclaimed.

I could scarcely believe what I saw as it looked like a scene straight out of a movie. There were half a dozen guys dressed in black running out of the bank. The fact that they were all wearing ski masks and carry guns and duffel bags was a pretty good clue as to what had just gone down.

"A bank robbery," I scowled.

My heart raced with excitement. This was it...my first outing as a super hero. My baptism of fire as I guess they'd call it. This was my chance to become what I had always wanted to be...a super hero.

Since I wasn't sure of the exact procedure, I landed on top of a car a short distance in front of the robbers and stood there in a heroic pose as I announced, "I'm Counterweight and you're in trouble..." Jeez, that sounded cheesy even to me.

"What the fuck?" one of the bank robbers exclaimed in surprised.

"Shit," another of them blurted out, "It's a fucking developed..."

Then almost as one, four of them pointed their guns at me and, and only then did I remember that being bullet proof was NOT one of my powers. I let out a curse as I jumped backwards behind the car, just before they started opening fire.

"Not a good idea," I gulped, wondering for the moment what in the world I had been thinking of when I'd decided to become a super hero. Of course it had been my dream for years, but the reality wasn't quite as glamorous as I had imagined. Not that Kelly hadn't already warned me of that. "This is NOT going well..."

For a moment, I remained where I was, taking cover behind the car which seemed to be enough to keep the bullets from reaching me. Until that moment, I had been thinking how incredibly cool my powers were. But now, I couldn't help but wonder what the hell good antigravity powers were for being a super her.

"Why couldn't I get invulnerability and super strength instead," I muttered to myself.

However, once they stopped firing, I did suddenly come up with a use for my antigravity powers. I turned around and grabbed hold of the car, concentrating and spreading my antigravity aura around it. Then with a grin, I shifted the gravity just enough to cause the car to rise about six inches off of the ground.

"Super strength," I grinned.

I smirked a bit, knowing that to anyone watching it would almost appear as though I was super strong and actually lifting the car. Of course, even if I did have super strength, there was no way that I'd be able to actually lift a whole car just from the door like that. The weight and leverage just wouldn't allow for it. The door would come off first. But I wasn't using strength to lift the car, I was using gravity and that was a whole different situation.

And with that, I pushed the now weightless car which was easy to move in that state. It shoved it before me as I ran forward, using it as a battering ram. I heard a loud thud and figured that this might be enough.

"Gotcha," I grinned as I let the car drop and flew a dozen feet into the air.

To my delight, I'd caught two of the robbers with that move, and they were trying to get up from the ground. It looked as though one of them might even have a broken arm as a result. The cops were already in motion, having stood back while they were charging out of the bank but now going straight for the robbers now that they were on the ground and had dropped their guns.

While the cops were handcuffing the two downed robbers, I looked around for the others and noticed that they'd jumped into a car and were already driving off. I remained where I was for only a moment, wondering how the hell they could have driven off when there were at least a dozen or so cops scattered about.

"You'd almost think that these cops liked having super heroes come in and take care of everything," I muttered to myself.

But I didn't have time to take care of that. I'd made a decision to be a super hero and stop those criminals, so that was exactly what I was going to do. I wasn't about to stop now just because I'd taken down two of them and the rest had run away.

Though I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do just yet, I quickly flew after the car, realizing that with the way that they were driving, they were going to hit someone real soon. And I wasn't about to let that happen.

With that, I dove down and landed right on the car roof, immediately spreading my aura and reversing the gravity. Suddenly, the car was no longer drawn to the ground, but to the sky above. And in an instant, it began falling...upward.

I continued holding onto the car roof as we went up, something which was easy to do since I was within the same field as the car and more than capable of controlling which direction gravity pulled on me. I slowed down the rate of fall slowly reversed gravity until it all balanced out and we just stopped and hovered...a couple hundred feet in the air.

Then I grinned as I heard the men inside the car yelling and screaming. There was pretty clear panic in their voices, a fact which I just loved. Then one of the men shouted, "That fucking bitch is on the roof.... Shoot her..."

"I wouldn't do that," I called out to the men in the car. "If anything happens to me, the car falls. And if the car falls..." I let them think about that for a minute, then smiled as a bunch more cursing followed.

"Now this is what you're going to do," I yelled to them, "You're going to drop your weapons out the car window... And if you don't, I'll just go and drop them myself..." I put a bit of menace into that last and it obviously worked as the guns went falling out the window.

Since that was taken care of, I shifted gravity once again and slowly brought us back to the ground. I even settled us down right next to where a bunch of cops were waiting, staring at the descending car with looks of awe.

"Here you go," I let go of the car and dropped it the last couple of feet. I bet the guys inside were pretty shaken up from that.

And almost as soon as the car had hit the ground again, the cops rushed up to it and pulled the men inside out. The bank robbers almost seemed grateful for the cops hauling them away, and I smirked as I noticed that more than one of those four had pissed their pants.

"God I love being a super hero," I grinned as I waved at the cops and flew back into the sky.

I was unbelievably excited by what I had just done. It was the most thrilling thing that I had ever done in my life. And it was an adrenaline rush unlike any other. Not just because of the danger or the fact that I had actually had my first super hero experience. It was more than that. I had finally lived my lifelong dream...

When I finally returned to Kelly's place...now my place as well, I was as giddy as a schoolgirl and as high as a kite. I'd never been more jazzed in my entire life and wanted to share it with her.

"Guess what," I cried out as I ran into the living room, a huge grin plastered on my face.

"Let me guess," Kelly grinned back, "You stopped some bank robbers..."

I blinked at that, "How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," Kelly shrugged. Then she laughed, "Actually, I was just watching it on the news a few minutes ago..."

"On the news?" I gasped in surprise. "How'd they get that on the news so fast?"

"Well," Kelly grinned, "They were already starting to cover the bank robbery when you showed up..."

"I didn't see any cameras or TV people," I grumbled, feeling a bit upset at being caught by surprise like that.

Kelly just rolled her eyes. "They didn't have any, but someone had called the TV people and they were interviewing a couple cops immediately afterwards..."

All that I could say to that was, "Oh..."

"I was kind of worried," Kelly admitted, looking a little embarrassed. "I glad that you're all right. I guess I shouldn't worry, but I know what goes on out there..."

"It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be," I admitted to her, feeling a bit embarrassed at that. "My powers don't exactly make doing that stuff by myself as easy as they could be..."

"That's why a lot of developed work as teams," Kelly told me, having gone entirely serious. "Everyone has their own powers and they can work together and cover each other's weak spots..."

"I guess," I sighed, thinking back to just how close I had already come to being on a super hero team. "I wonder what it would have been like being one of the Miracle Men..." Not that I hadn't wondered that same thing a million times in the past.

"It's their loss," Kelly told me. "Now lets get you changed out of that. I'm kind of hungry and was thinking of going out to eat..."

I stared at my approaching enemies in horror, taking another step back but not being able to go any further. They had me pinned up against the wall and there was no way that I was going to be able to escape.

"Don't be such a baby," Kelly snapped in annoyance.

Claire just rolled her eyes and said, "It's for your own good..."

"No way," I shook my head, "You've got to be kidding. Forget it..."

Kelly just snorted and held up the box of tampons, "Look Thorn... I know that you haven't had your first period yet, but sooner or later you're bound to. You really need to learn about your new plumbing while you have time..."

"Jeez," Claire shook her head in disbelief. "For someone named Thorn, you sure are a wimp... Some big tough super heroine you are..."

"Hey," I tried defending myself, "That stuff's gross..." Even I knew that I sounded like a petulant child at that.

This time it was Kelly who rolled her eye, then announced in exasperation, "Fine then. If you'd rather wait to learn about hygiene until after you start having your period..."

"And don't forget yeast infections," Claire chimed in.

"All right," I growled in frustration as I surrendered to the inevitable. I gave an exaggerated bow to Kelly and said, "Please sensei, teach me your wisdom..."

"A bit melodramatic?" Claire glanced at Kelly who just shook her head.

A minute later, they started my lessons in feminine hygiene, trying to teach me everything that I would need to know about my new body. Some of what Kelly told me was just rehashing the stuff from health class, though this time I paid a little more attention now that it actually had a bit more to do with me personally. However, they also gave me advice on such things as the best way prepare for my 'monthly visitor' and why I should carry tampons and midol with me, even when it wasn't my time yet.

As much as I hated to admit it, their lessons were quite practical and I was sure that they would come in quite useful in the future. Of course, they were also extremely embarrassing and I was quite uncomfortable sitting there through them all. I rather would have been back doing some more makeup lessons.

Finally though, it was Kelly who brought the lessons to a stop. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "But I've got to get going to my aerobics class..."

"Finally," I muttered under my breath, more than glad for the little break.

"I should get going too," Claire added, "I've got a computer programming class to get to..."

"That reminds me," Kelly rolled her eyes, "I've got to get that paper for my history class written... It's due Tuesday..."

I just frowned at that, reminded of how I had to drop out of school. Of course, I reminded myself, I could just get around to doing an online class and getting my degree that way.

But then Kelly noticed my frown and came up, "Don't worry," she assured me, "Everything is going to be fine..." And with that, I felt the tingle of her powers rushing through my body.

"What?" I blinked in surprise as my body reverted to my old male form. "What's this for?" I asked.

"Just so that I can do this," Kelly grinned as she pressed up against me, getting my 'little buddy' all up and excited. It was nice having him back, even if it would only be for an hour.

After I gave Kelly a nice long kiss, I grinned, "Very nice..." Then I whispered in her ear, "Do we have time for more before you have to go?"

"Fraid not," she looked a bit disappointed at that, then grinned, "But we can always spend a little quality time together tonight..." Her hand went for my once again male crotch to let me know exactly what she meant.

"I'll definitely be looking forward to it," I told her enthusiastically.

"Puh-leeze," Claire rolled her eyes. I blushed in embarrassment, especially as she pointed out, "You're still wearing girl clothes..."

I looked down at myself and grimaced, "Damn..." I'd thought that they felt way too tight, though I had been too distracted by Kelly to give it much intention.

Kelly and Claire both had a good chuckle at that, which kind of ruined the whole mood. Fortunately, they were both out of the house in just a couple minutes, leaving me along to change out of those clothes and have a little time alone.

When I went back to my room and looked my male self over, it was hard to believe that this was only temporary. It was hard to believe that I had barely spent any time at all as a guy over the last few days. Kelly had changed me back once or twice, but we hadn't been able to take full advantage of that time. At least not as much as I would have liked.

After I spent a few minutes reacquainting myself with my old equipment, my little buddy began to respond. It took a few of my favorite fantasies to get him up to the job, but since he was up and awake and Kelly wasn't around, I decided to take care of him by hand...for old times sake.

"Too bad," I muttered after I'd finished jerking off, "It feels better as a chick..." Not that I'd ever admit that to Kelly or just about anyone else. "I guess there are advantages to that form besides super powers..."

But as I had expected, Kelly's power wore off after just a little while. I could feel the tingling rush through my body just moments before the changes began. Once again, I felt my body reshaping itself, the breasts growing and swelling from my chest even as my hair grew longer and green. And of course, there were the changes in my genital region...

Once the changes were complete, I took a moment to check myself out again. Damn, it was enough to get me turned on. Though I didn't like to admit it, there was something a bit erotic about actually being turned into such a hot chick. Again, that wasn't something that I was going to tell Kelly either.

While I was checking myself out again, I was getting rather excited and my body was really responding. Of course, that wasn't much of a surprise as I started getting turned on a little just about every time I looked at my new self in the mirror. This time, I let myself go with it and began fingering my equipment.

"Ooooh yeah," I purred to myself, "That feels good..."

I kept playing with myself for a bit, loving the incredible sensations that they produced. My whole body just tensed up and built up a powerful sexual pressure, a pressure which finally exploded into raw orgasmic bliss.

"Oh yeah," I gasped out with a grin, "That part is definitely better than for a guy..."

Of course, I grinned mischieviously to myself, I couldn't be absolutely certain with just that one try and would need a few more attempts to compare it with. Just like a scientific experiment... God I loved the scientific method...

I awoke with a smile, still delightfully dazed from the night before and mildly surprised to actually find myself still in bed rather than floating above it. That was something of a first since my powers seem to kick in automatically while I slept, leaving me to wake up a foot or so above the bed or even on the ceiling.

Then grinning to myself, I looked over at Kelly, who looked so beautiful sleeping beside me. She was like an angel, with her brown hair spread about her like a halo. It was all I could do not to bend over and give her a wake up kiss. Unfortunately, I was fully aware that she would probably not appreciate the sentiment all that much at the moment.

"Too bad," I whispered to myself.

After remaining where I was for another minute, I slowly started to climb out of bed, being careful not to wake Kelly up. Somehow, even after the fun that we'd had the night before, I didn't think that she'd be all that comfortable waking up next to me as I currently was. When we'd went to bed, I had been a guy, though that had obviously worn off again.

As soon as I was outside of the bedroom and had the door closed behind me, I looked down at myself and cupped my breasts, letting out a sigh. It was a pity that Kelly wasn't willing to experiment, because I was kind of curious about trying my new body out.

"I guess I'm a lesbian now," I muttered to myself, silently thankful that I hadn't suddenly started feeling attracted to guys. There were already more than a few strange things for me to get used to and I didn't need something like that added to it.

With a shrug, I went to the bathroom to take care of my morning business, and perhaps even get in a nice long bath before my new roommates were up and about. But as I began to pour the water, I noticed something sitting on the counter, something that had been left there from the day before.

I stared at the box of tampons with a look of thinly veiled disgust and wariness. So far I had been lucky enough not to have my first period, or even the early signs of one. But I was realistic enough to know that it was only a matter of time. That was a fact that I was still trying to accept.

"Sooner or later," I thought about Kelly and Claire's lessons from the day before, grinning slightly as I added, "Hopefully later..."

Then, almost as if to prove to myself that I wasn't intimidated by the box, or at least by what it represented, I picked it up and slowly read over the directions. I didn't need to as Kelly and Claire had already explained it all in embarrassing detail, but I read the back of the box nonetheless.

Once I was finished with that, I set the box back down, feeling a little more sure of myself. Sure, I would have to deal with periods now, but half the planet did without much problem. And if girls like some of the total ditzes I knew could deal with them, then so could I.

Since that was done and over with, I was able to give my full attention to my bath and just how nice it felt. And since I was in such an accepting mood of my new body, I even poured in a little of Kelly's bubble bath. It as a bit girlie, but then again, so was I now.

After my bath, I slipped on Kelly's cotton bath robe and went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. But on second thought, I decided to make it, thinking that if I couldn't wake Kelly up with a kiss, maybe I could wake her up with the smell of bacon instead.

The rest of the morning was quite pleasant. Kelly was pretty happy to wake up with breakfast already made, happy enough to change me back to a guy as a 'thank you' for a bit of a makeout session before she had to go off to class. I definitely could have handled doing that for a bit longer.

Eventually though, sometime later in the day, I decided to put on my costume and go out doing the super hero thing. I got ready to go out 'on patrol'. I was pretty new to the whole super hero thing and wasn't sure what else I could be doing. It wasn't like I had some sort of Counter Cave where I could hide out and watch porn until I heard reports of super villains over the police scanner.

"I wonder how other heroes do it," I muttered to myself.

Just flying around until you stumble across a crime seems sort of...frustrating. And it seemed like a pretty big waste of time too. Still, I didn't really have anything else to do, so that was exactly what I ended up doing.

"I've got to get me a police scanner or something," I sighed after I'd been flying around for nearly an hour. It was fun flying, but I hadn't done anything more heroic than helping some old guy get his cat off the roof.

But then I saw them...the police cars, racing down the street with their lights flashing. I smiled faintly at the sight, thinking that this had worked for me before so maybe it would work again.

"Take me to the crime," I grinned, hoping that it wasn't another bank robbery.

However, I followed them to where they were going, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't a bank robbery. In fact, after staring at the chaos below me for a minute, I actually wished that it was a bank robbery.

"Oh shit," I gasped out.

There were about a dozen or so people in uniform, and by uniform I meant that they were all wearing dark blue jackets with the same symbol, a golden crown plastered across the back. And all of these people, mostly men in their twenties, but also a few women, were running from store to store, hauling away bags full of stolen money and articles. But as three men ran out of a jewelry store, I suspected that these ones had more money than articles.

But even though the gang of looters were causing quite a bit of havoc, stealing nearly everything of value on the street and chasing the citizens away, they were obviously not the real threat. The true threat, or was that threats, were a pair of men who were quite obviously developed.

The two men were busy keeping the police busy, and were obviously providing protection for the looters as well as a large distraction so that they could go about their business. And it was also quite obvious that the two men were developed due to the fact that one of them was picking up a car and throwing it at the police, while the other one just stood there and laughed as the bullets bounced off of him.

Not only were these two men developed, but they almost looked as though they could be twins. Both of them were 7 feet tall, heavily muscled white men with completely bald heads. Even their costumes were almost identical, the only difference being in the color. One of them wore a costume that was green and gray while the other one had a costume that was red and gray.

"Oh shit," I whispered again, suddenly feeling more than a little nervous.

It had been hairy enough dealing with the bank robbers, and they didn't have any super powers. But these guys were developed... I'd never been in a fight with a developed before and this would be the first time. However, I'd always known that it would be a part of being a super hero and was determined to go ahead and do what I had to do.

"They look like bricks," I commented to myself, trying to think of how I could deal with them.

Since they were bricks, which meant that they were developed who possessed enhanced strength and toughness, then they would be pretty hard to take down. But on the plus side, that also meant that they had fairly simple and obvious abilities and that I wouldn't have to worry much about them pulling out any trickier powers. At least that was what I hoped that it meant.

After taking a deep breath, I lowered myself closer to the ground and loudly announced, "I'm Counterweight... Now why don't you boys step back and let the nice cops do their jobs..."

The two men looked up at me, one of them calmly but the other with a look of surprise. The calm one, the one in the green costume yelled back, "I'm Smash..."

Then the other, the surprised one in the red costume added, "I'm Bash..."

"Smash and Bash," I muttered. "How corny..."

"Now come down here so I's can smash ya," Bash yelled up at me.

"Shouldn't HE be the one who smashes me?" I gestured to Smash. "I figured you for more of the bashing type..."

"Just take care of that flying bitch," one of the looters yelled out to Smash and Bash. "If she stops us, you guys won't get your share of the take..."

"You heard the man," Smash grinned to Bash. "Let's get her..."

Without a moment of further hesitation, Smash tore a street lamp loose from the street, while Bash ran over to a fire hydrant and tore that loose. He didn't seem bothered by the burst of water that erupted from where the hydrant had been, and in fact barely seemed to notice that he was getting wet as he threw the hydrant at me.

I managed to avoid the fire hydrant, and then the street lamp which quickly followed. However, the street lamp had come pretty close. And it dawned on me that my powers weren't exactly suited for dealing with these guys. All they had to do was throw all that heavy stuff, and if they hit me just once... I shuddered at the thought. This was NOT going to be easy. Not in the least.

"Don't make me have to disintegrate you," I bluffed, hoping that they wouldn't realize that I was lying about the power to do that.

"If she coulda done that," the same looter who'd called out before told them, "she woulda done it already..."

"Damn," I grimaced, hating it when the bad guys used logic.

However, that didn't seem to matter much as Smash and Bash were already in motion. They couldn't touch me directly, but they had obviously realized that if they threw enough stuff at me then they were bound to hit me sooner or later. And that was something that I definitely wanted to avoid.

Since being on the defense wasn't going to do me much good and my powers weren't very good for offense, I had to find some way of dealing with them. And hopefully I could figure out how to stop them before they stopped me.

Then I remembered how I had dealt with the bank robbers and grinned to myself as I thought that it would be a good time for a repeat. With that, I landed on the street a short distance from them and grabbed a car. After stretching my antigravity field over it and raising it about a foot above the ground, I shifted gravity about 90 degrees so that from the car's perspective, the direction that Smash and Bash were in was down.

Though my antigravity field would only remain on the car a few seconds after I had ceased touching it, that was more than enough for it to do what I intended. The car went flying, straight into Smash, sending him back several feet back. Unfortunately though, he didn't go down like I'd hoped.

"I'm gonna smash you," Smash howled as he picked up the very car that I'd sent flying at him and threw it back at me.

I quickly reversed my own gravity and shot upwards, managing to avoid the thrown car. And at the same time, my changing position also let me dodge the mailbox that Bash had sent in my direction as well.

"Damn," I muttered in fear, not sure what I could do against those two other than to just keep smashing them with cars. I was terrified, but I grimaced and tried to focus on doing what I could do.

As soon as I settled back to the ground in order to grab another car, Bash came charging straight at me. I gulped in terror, but instead of running away, I decided to use that opportunity. I stepped to the side and touched him, shifting his own gravity and sending him flying straight into Smash. This time they both went tumbling over onto the ground, though unfortunately they both also got back up a few seconds later.

Just then, I felt something hit me in the back. It snapped around in time to see one of the looters throwing a rock at me. And the other looters looked like they were going to get in on the act...from a safe distance.

"Oh great," I complained bitterly, "As if I didn't have enough trouble with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum...."

And then, as if arriving right on time to make things even tougher for me, another costumed figure stepped around the corner. It was wearing a blue cloak which covered the head and obscured the body so that I couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman. However, the cloaked figure was holding some sort of gold metal staff...

"The mysterious mastermind of this whole mess," I grimaced.

Then the blue figure turned, revealing the figure beneath the cloak, which was definitely female. She was wearing some sort of blue and light blue costume with a gold metal belt. The briefest glimpse of her face revealed that she wore some sort of gold metal mask that covered the upper part of her face.

Suddenly the woman sprung into motion, surprising me as she lashed out with her staff and caught one of the looters in the arms, making him drop his bag of stolen goods. Then she swung her staff at another looter, this time getting him in the legs and sending him flying to the ground.

Though the woman turning out to be on my side was a surprise, I didn't have time to keep watching her as I had to deal with Smash and Bash, who were both ready to go at it again. I grimaced and prepared to deal with them, though was sidetracked once again as one of the looters jumped me.

"Let me go," I snapped, hitting him with my aura and doubling his own personal gravity.

I hadn't even realized that I could increase gravity until that very moment, but at the same time, I could sense that my powers in this regard were pretty limited. I could only double the current gravity, not increase it any further than that.

The man hit the ground under his new weight and I jumped back, giving him a swift kick in the ribs before I turned to deal with my two developed foes. Somehow, I didn't think that increasing their gravity was going to do much against people as strong as Smash and Bash.

Smash got to me first, but I was ready for him and managed to touch the side of his body and send him flying right into Bash again. Then as they were struggling to get up, I grabbed Bash's ankle and charged him up with my aura as much as I could. I grimaced and reversed his gravity, then let go as he went rocketing straight up into the sky.

I watched with a smile as Bash went up higher and higher, until my aura cut out and he was once again under the power of regular gravity. Suddenly, he began dropping, hitting the ground with enough force to put a small hole in the street.

"Damn," I gasped aloud.

To my surprise, Smash went running over to check on his partner. I was a little surprised at that as I hadn't expected any super villains to care at all about anyone else. But then again, I guess that under those weird powers and wild costumes, even super villains were still people. Or at least I assumed that most were.

Since the two bruisers were occupied, I was able to spare a glance at the woman in blue. She had taken out about a third of the looters. The rest of them were either in the process of running off or grabbing their weapons, which mostly consisted of knives, and attacking her. However, her bo staff gave her the edge in distance and she was able to take most of them out before they got too close to her.

As their fight got closer to me, I grabbed one of the men who as just about to attack her from behind and doubled his gravity. The sudden increase caused him to drop the golf club that he'd gotten somewhere and was about to hit her with. Then it was an easy matter of giving him a couple of good kicks while he was trying to recover.

"Not very sportsmanlike," I muttered to myself, "but it works."

"Thanks," the woman in blue exclaimed as she turned about.

As she turned, I saw that the cloak of her hood had fallen back while she had been fighting, giving me a good look of the brown hair which hung about her shoulders. I also got a good look at her face, even though it was largely covered with the gold metal mask. But from what I could see...from her voice...

I gasped in recognition, "Kelly?"

"It's Catalyst," she grinned at me. "I thought you could use a hand..."

"But," I blinked in surprise, "I thought that you'd retired..." And I glanced at the bo staff in her hand which she'd been handling with incredible skill, "You said you couldn't handle yourself in a fight..."

"Those aerobics classes I've been taking," Kelly admitted with a bit of an embarrassed smile, "They're actually martial arts classes. I've been taking them ever since I left the Crusaders..."

But before I could ask Kelly more about what was going on, about what else she might have been keeping up her sleeve to surprise me with later, there was a booming sound. It grew louder and then a wall in a nearby building exploded outward.

"Oh shit," I gasped as a figure began to emerge, "This can't be good..."

The man was large...in fact, he was nearly identical to Smash and Bash. He was a 7 foot tall, heavily muscular bald man. Even his costume was the same as theirs, though his color scheme was gray and blue.

"Hey Crash," Smash called out to him as he moved away from Bash who was beginning to get up, but very slowly. "This bitch hurt Bash..."

"Smash, Bash and Crash," I muttered, shaking my head. "I hope that there isn't a Dash or Lash showing up soon..."

I gulped at the sight of the latest bruiser, realizing that he must have been sitting back as some sort of backup in case something happened where he was needed. And unfortunately, at least for me, it looked like he had decided that this time was now.

"As if I hadn't been having enough trouble with just two of them," I sighed.

"Damn," Kelly muttered from beside me, "I'd almost forgotten why I didn't like doing this too much..." Then she shook her head, "How about you start with those two and I'll deal with these guys," she gestured to the looters, "and help you afterwards."

"Sounds good to me," I sighed.

With a single look, I saw that Bash was back to his feet, though he was staggering a bit and looking rather dazed. I'd hurt him. Not enough to take him out of the fight, but I had hurt him. And that was the best news that I'd had all day. Unfortunately though, he was still up and active, and there were still Smash and Crash to deal with.

"Come here little girl," Crash called out, "I'm going to teach you what happens when you mess with me and my brothers..."

With that, Kelly charged straight at the remaining looters, most of whom started to run away from her, apparently deciding that they should keep their distance. However, I didn't have time to focus on what Kelly was doing as I had my own set of problems to deal with.

Since I obviously couldn't go against those three head on, I had to come up with another new tactic. I took to the air to give me a moment to think, then smiled faintly as I remembered how I'd dealt with the bank robbers. It was perfect.

I took a deep breath as I landed on top of a nearby car and spread my aura. Crash and Smash were charging straight at me, but I shifted the gravity and lifted both the car and myself up into the air before they arrived. I remained atop the car as we ascended, going up higher and higher. I could hear the villains cries of frustration as I moved well out of their range.

"If a little fall can hurt Bash," I told himself, "a big impact is sure to hurt them as well..."

With that, I adjusted the gravity in order to aim myself a little, then suddenly cut loose from the car. Normal gravity immediately began pulling the car back down to the ground. It not only fell, but the pull of gravity caused it to fall faster and faster, accelerating at a rate of 9.91 meters per second.

A few seconds later, my aim proved to be accurate as the car smashed right into where Crash and Smash were standing. I laughed at the irony of them being taken out by a smash and a crash. Or maybe that was a big boom and a crunch.

"Gotcha," I called aloud, laughing as I did so. Then with a grin, I lowered myself back towards the ground.

But as I got closer, I saw that my aim hadn't been quite as perfect as I had hoped. I had hit Crash pretty much dead on, and he was in a big indentation on the ground with pieces of the car covering more than half his body. He was groaning and moving, but he didn't look as though he was going to get up.

Smash on the other hand had been hit, but not was as direct a hit or getting as much damage. He was groaning as he struggled to his feet. His arm hung a little limply, but there was a look of absolute fury on his face that let me know that he wasn't about to give up just yet.

And of course, Bash was still around as well, moving over to check on Crash and Smash. He looked at his two fallen partners, or perhaps brothers as Crash had referred to them as being. Then he glared at me as well. I just groaned. Sure, I had managed to take one of them out and hurt two, but I had also managed to make it personal.

"Gonna fuck you up," Bash snarled.

"We're gonna fuck you up good," Smash added.

With that, Smash tore another lamp post from the ground and swung it like a baseball bat. There was no way that I was going to get close enough to use my powers on him again as long as he had that thing, and I was pretty sure that he wasn't going to sit still long enough for me to drop another car on him.

Bash yelled a bunch of profanity and started throwing things at me. There was a tire from a car, a chunk of rock, and a piece of metal that I couldn't identify. All I could do was fly back and dodge the flying junk.

After a minute of just dodging junk and staying out of Smash's reach, I decided that I was going to have to get offensive again. It wasn't going to be easy, but there was still something I could do.

I flew back towards another car and charged it up, sending it flying straight at them. Smash jumped to the side in time, but Bash wasn't as fast. He got hit good, and I think that it did a bit of damage since he was already hurt, but I wasn't about to count on it. But before they could recover, sent another car flying at them, this time catching Smash.

"Gotcha," I muttered, "I just hope that these guys are insured..." I felt kind of bad about wrecking these people's cars, but I didn't see anything else nearby that I could use.

Then while Smash was distracted from the impact, not to mention unarmed as he had lost the lamp post, I ran up to him as fast as I could, touching him on the back and covering him with my aura. I reversed his gravity and launched him straight up into the air before turning my attention to Bash and doing the same thing to him.

"What goes up must come down," Kelly exclaimed with a bit of a laugh. That was all the reminder I needed to get out of the way before it started raining muscle heads.

I laughed as Smash and Bash came back down, almost landing right on top of each other. It looked like our fight was beginning to take a toll on them as they were both looking pretty bruised and battered. However, neither looked as though they were going down anytime soon and I knew that I couldn't keep that up for much longer.

This time, I didn't wait for Smash and Bash to get back to their feet before I went after them again. I charged them up and immediately sent them back into the air again for another round of dropsies. It might not be enough to stop them for good, but it was certainly going to slow them down a bit.

"You bitch," Smash snarled as he slapped me away to keep me from doing that to him yet again. "I'm gonna smear ya all over this street..."

"You've done a smash up job of it so far," I teased him, knowing that it would get him even more pissed off.

Then he made a lunge at me in order to grab me, but I saw it coming and grabbed his arm instead. In just a moment, I had covered him with my aura and changed gravity. However, this time I decided to do something just a little different. Instead of just sending him up into the air, I decided to go up with him.

Smash and I flew up into the air, even higher than when I'd sent him up alone. I took him up further, higher and then grinned as I let go.

"Bye bye..." I waved at him as he started to fall again.

I took my time in returning to the ground, and when I got there I found that Smash was STILL up. He was staggering, barely even managing to remain on his feet at all. But he wasn't down completely.

"Stubborn bastard," I muttered.

But while I was staring at Smash, Bash came at me. I heard Kelly call a warning, which gave me enough time to shift my gravity and yank myself to the side. Then I quickly reached around and grabbed Bash's ankle.

Instead if sending Bash up into the air, at least WAY up, I just neutralized his gravity and reversed it only just a hair. I still held onto his ankle while he floated above me, just like a helium balloon.

"Hey, lemme down," Bash demanded, while I just laughed.

"It looks like you have things well in hand," Kelly laughed as she came up.

Then Kelly walked up to Smash and hesitated just a moment before touching him. She took a step back and watched with a look of amusement as Smash began to shrink... He grew smaller...skinnier. His costume began to hang loosely on him. And in just a few more seconds, Smash had turned into a fairly ordinary looking guy.

"You took away his powers," I gasped in realization.

"Yeah," Kelly grinned, "I guess my powers actually can be useful in fighting developed after all..."

"Well," I licked my lips, "how about using them on Bash here..."

"Hey," Bash tried struggling, not doing to much as he was floating in zero gravity with no leverage.

A moment later, Kelly had touched Bash and he began to shrink down and lose his powers as well. I smiled and let him drop unceremoniously to the ground, knowing that he was no longer any threat. And he wouldn't be for about an hour.

"I guess that takes care of that," I told Kelly with a grin, and a sigh of relief that it was all over with.

"Now the cops will show up and take care of the mess," Kelly told me, gesturing to the distance were I could see several cops standing back and waiting. "They usually wait until things are over with since they can't do much against developed..."

I let out another sigh, then gave Kelly a weak smile, "Let's get out of here and get something to eat..." Then I chuckled, "And a bath. Definitely a bath..."

"Sounds good to me," Kelly grinned, then added, "So, what do you think of my costume?"

"Cool," I grinned, "Very cool."

Kelly looked rather pleased at that. "Thanks. I made it myself..."

Just then, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and snapped around, seeing a swirl of darkness just a short distance away. The darkness faded and there was a small group of people standing where it had been. A group of people that were all wearing bright colored costumes. And more than that, a group of people whom I immediately recognized.

"The Miracle Men," Kelly gasped from beside me.

All that I could do was stare at them, at the super hero team that I had once been so close to joining. And all that I could think to say was, "You're too late..."

The world was a strange place, filled with odd coincidences and irony. This was something that I had learned especially well during the past week since I had changed into a girl and become Counterweight. And at the moment, there was yet another odd coincidence...or five of them, standing right in front of me.

I scarcely noticed the three super villains or the dozen or so looters whom I had played a large part in taking down just a few minutes earlier. Even the cops who were rushing in to arrest the defeated criminals barely drew any attention. Instead, I was staring at a spot in the middle of the street which had been completely empty just a minute earlier, yet now contained five individuals who appeared out of nowhere...literally.

These were the Miracle Men, a super hero group that I knew well. It was a group that I had strong ties to and whose career I had followed very closely ever since.

Standing in front was Ms. Miracle, a tall statuesque blonde who was incredibly gorgeous and everything that a female super hero should be. She was even wearing her traditional red and gold costume. It was Ms. Miracle that had given the group their name, not to mention their powers. Our powers...as mine had come from her as well. And behind Ms. Miracle were other four group members.

There was Rumor, a girl with short black hair that had a single white lock in it, which matched her black and white costume. Her powers were like her name, to be insubstantial, though she could teleport as well, which was how the Miracle Men had suddenly appeared in front of me. The last time I'd seen her in person she had been a bit more goth than she was now.

Standing beside Rumor was a gorgeous redhead in a blue and dark blue costume with white trip. She was called Splash because of her ability to control water.

Surge was a tall skinny guy in blue and dark gray costume with gold metal trimmings. Like his name suggested, his powers were electrical. I didn't know the specifics, but from what I'd seen on news footage and the episode of that TV show Developments that focused on the Miracle Men, he could throw balls of electricity or something.

And the last member of the group was Quartz, a black guy wearing a black and green costume with white trim. It wasn't until that very moment that I realized the similarities between his costume and mine, though they were mostly in color scheme. However, his powers were completely different from mine, being the ability to create crystal.

"Stop where you are," Ms. Miracle demanded grandly, "We won't let you continue this destruction..."

I just rolled my eyes at that, "Um...excuse me," I started sarcastically, gesturing to all of the fallen villains and looters, "Those are the bad guys. WE are the good guys who stopped them. If you would have gotten here a few minutes earlier, you could have lent a hand. But now you're too late..."

"He...she's right you know," Kelly told them with a shrug, "You just wasted a trip..."

I was feeling a bit smug at the moment at having taken down the bad guys before the Miracle Men even had even arrived. It was a real boost to my ego, which had been a bit hurt by how I'd missed my chance to join the group while others had made it. And with that, I started walking up the wall of the building behind me, going up about ten feet and then sitting down and leaning back a bit. To me it felt as though I was sitting on the floor, but I knew that it had to look somewhat odd from their perspective.

"Hey Mike," I waved at Quartz, "How's it going?"

"What?" Quartz blinked in surprise at my having used his real name. After all, it wasn't public knowledge. "How'd you...?"

I just smiled at the look of surprise on his face, and nearly laughed as I saw the similar looks on the other's faces.

"Who are you?" Rumor demanded.

"Oh, introductions," I grinned. "I'm Counterweight. That's Catalyst..." I gestured to Kelly, who nodded her head. "Sorry, I'm not sure I remember your name," I looked at Rumor, "It's Betty...or Beth, isn't it?"

I didn't really know most of their real names and only knew that Quartz was Mike because we'd talked for a bit before his powers kicked in, and I couldn't help remembering it. As for Rumor, I'd asked about her briefly when I heard that the strange goth girl had developed powers as well, though I'd never actually spoken to her until that moment.

This time Rumor looked even more surprised, but it was Quartz who demanded, "Who are you? How do you know our real names?"

"You probably don't remember me," I grinned, feeling a bit smug, "But I was eating dinner right next to you when your powers kicked in for the first time."

"What?" Ms. Miracle gasped. God, I loved causing that reaction.

"Oh yeah," I tried being as casual about it as I could, though the truth was that I had sort of fantasized about meeting them again since I had gained my own powers, "I was part of Project Miracle too..." I paused a moment, then shrugged, "It's just that my powers took a little longer to kick in than yours did..."

"You're kidding," Quartz gasped, his eyes going wide.

"That is unusual," Surge commented thoughtfully. "I was under the impression that if our powers hadn't activated at that time then we never would have developed..."

Ms. Miracle just gave me a skeptical look.

"And I was under the impression that she was dead," I gestured to Ms. Miracle. "McKenzie sure seemed to think so when he gave that spiel..." I figured that more of this inside knowledge would help provide my bonafides and prove that I was genuine.

Kelly just shook her head as she watched me, though I couldn't miss the smile on her face. I couldn't quite tell whether she was embarrassed at my showing off or amused by it.

"Hey," Kelly suddenly turned and started towards the cops who were in the middle of hauling away Smash and Bash, "Be careful with them... Their powers will come back in less than an hour..."

While Kelly was busy talking to the cops, or at least warning them, I turned my attention back to the Miracle Men. Or at least to Ms. Miracle. It was hard to believe that I had a living legend standing right there in front of me, though of course I wasn't about to let her or anyone else see me looking nervous about that.

Just about every member of the Miracle Men was staring at me, except for Splash who seemed more interested with the contents in the window of a clothing store, which was by some miracle undamaged in the fighting. Then Surge went and whispered something to Rumor and Ms. Miracle, though I couldn't hear what it was.

"Since you were part of the project," Ms. Miracle started carefully, "I was wondering if you would be willing to come with us for an examination. I'm sure that McKenzie would like to know why your powers developed so much later than ours..."

"Maybe some of the other volunteers have delayed powers as well," Surge added.

I glanced at Kelly, feeling a little nervous. Then I nodded, "Sure..."

Maybe they could even figure out a way to get me back to being a guy, but let me keep my powers at the same time. As it was, if they did have a cure, a way to permanently change me back to a guy that included my losing the powers, I wasn't sure that I would have taken it.

"But there was a catalyst that finished turning mine on," I glanced at Kelly with a grin.

It was just a minute or so later when Kelly had finished up with the police and we were all ready to leave. As soon as Ms. Miracle nodded to Rumor, I braced myself for her teleportation, having no idea what it would feel like.

Rumor's powers caused a swirl of shadows over us all, and the world grew dark and faded out, but just for a moment. As quickly as the shadows around us had formed, they were gone, revealing that we were standing someplace else. It was a are that looked like looked much like a gymnasium, with exercise equipment and such scattered about.

"Welcome to our home," Rumor announced with a slight snort.

"McKenzie ain't gonna like this," Quartz muttered under his breath.

"Maybe not," Surge grinned back, "but I'm sure that Dr. Alvere will love it..."

"Then again," Ms. Miracle said thoughtfully, looking around, "If someone who supposedly failed to develop from the project can develop later on, I'm sure McKenzie will want to know immediately..."

"Who's this McKenzie you keep mentioning," Kelly asked.

"We'll introduce you," Splash grinned.

I had to fight back the urge to stare at Splash, or Ms. Miracle for that matter. But with Kelly standing right there, I had to be pretty careful about just how closely I looked at other women. Then again, I reminded myself, they couldn't possibly be interested in me unless they were lesbians, nor did they have anything that I didn't have myself. Of course, that didn't mean that I didn't still think that they were both pretty hot.

A moment later, a man in a gray suit came into the room. He was tall, with brown hair that was peppered with gray. His expression was serious and he had a pair of intense looking eyes that stared straight at me. There was no mistaking McKenzie, the same man who had seemed to be in charge of Project Miracle back when I was part of it.

"Who are these people?" McKenzie asked in a calm tone. He almost sounded as though he was asking what time it was.

"These are Counterweight and Catalyst," Ms. Miracle stated. She glanced at me before adding, "Counterweight says that she was part of the project..."

"She got the same shot we did," Quartz interrupted, "But her powers took longer to kick in..."

"That's why we brought her," Surge commented, "We thought you guys might want to check her out..."

With that, Ms. Miracle went over and talked to McKenzie for a minute. And though I couldn't hear what was said, they kept glancing over in my direction. I just glanced over at Kelly, who gave me a reassuring smile and shrugged.

Finally, McKenzie nodded and turned away while Ms. Miracle gave me a faint smile and told me, "Right this way..."

Ms. Miracle gestured for me to follow and then led me down a hallway and into some sort of doctors office. And the doctor who was already waiting inside was a woman in her 50's or so, with hair that had been brown but was now heavily streaked with gray.

"This is Dr. Alvere," Ms. Miracle introduced me to her. Then Ms. Miracle went on to explain exactly why I was there to the doctor, who suddenly grew more interested and gave me a look of intense speculation.

"I wonder," Dr. Alvere mused to herself. "If this is true, then we may have created several dozen potential developed without even realizing it..."

"Well," I shrugged, "My powers didn't just turn on by themselves. I had an external catalyst..."

"That would be me," Kelly raised her hand for attention. "Part of my power is to temporarily activate powers in non-developed. However, they kind of jump-started hi...her dormant powers."

"Fascinating," Dr. Alvere looked at Kelly, "I'd like to talk to you about your own powers once I'm done with this examination..."

However, Dr. Alvere didn't spend any more time with Kelly before pulling me into the back where she began the examination. The word examination might be a little much as it was less of a physical and more of something else. She asked me a few questions about the nature of my powers, took a blood sample from me and had me lay down and go through some sort of scanning machine, and that seemed to be about the end of it.

"Well," I shrugged once we were done, "That was easy..."

It was only about twenty minutes after we'd started that Dr. Alvere seemed to be through with everything. McKenzie had down back up again and stood there with Kelly and all of the Mystery Men. However, McKenzie was giving me a rather suspicious look.

"There are unmistakable traces of the Miracle serum in her body," Dr. Alvere finally announced, looking down at a sheet of paper. "All biological indications are that she did indeed receive her powers the same way as the others."

"So she's really one of us?" Quartz asked.

"There is one small problem with that though," McKenzie stated, glaring at me with even more suspicion. "Quartz says that you claimed to have been in the same group as him, yet all of the women in that group have already been accounted for."

I gulped, hating to suddenly be put on the spot like that. Just when I'd thought all of my bonafides had been checked out, he goes and pulls that. And from the looks that the Miracle Men were giving me, I figured that I'd better give them an answer.

After a moment of consideration, I took a deep breath and said, "That's because I wasn't a woman when I went through the project." I had a hard time keeping my voice steady as I continued, "Before my powers kicked in a week ago, I was a guy."

"WHAT?" Several of the Miracle Men gasped at once.

"I don't know why," I shrugged in embarrassment, "But when my powers kicked in I went through a sex change as some sort of side effect." I took a deep breath as I looked up at the various Miracle Men, daring them to make something of it. "I know, it's kind of weird..."

At that, McKenzie, Dr. Alvere and the Miracle Men all gave a quick glance at Ms. Miracle, though I didn't see why. Maybe they were looking to her for guidance or something, but she did look a little embarrassed. Maybe she blamed herself since the serum that gave me my powers was taken from her blood.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence that McKenzie broke by looking to Kelly, "Catalyst... Our files said that you were a member of a group called the Crusaders but that you all suddenly disappeared from the public scene a little over a year ago..."

Kelly nodded slowly, "I thought it was time to move on..."

She didn't offer any further explanation than that. But then again, I guess that it was none of their business. I guess my little sex change was none of their business either but that hadn't stopped me from mentioning it.

"I wouldn't mind running a few more tests on you," Dr. Alvere told me, looking at me with a thoughtful expression. I didn't particularly like that idea, but wasn't about to write it off entirely just yet.

"Do you have a way to reverse the serum?" I asked more out of curiosity than any urgent desire to return to normal. "A way to change me back?"

"No," Dr. Alvere shook her head, looking somewhat apologetic. "But have you attempted to transform yourself back? There is a good possibility that you might be a skitzomorph..." For some reason, her eyes quickly darted to Ms. Miracle and back.

I frowned and slowly shook my head at that. Actually, I had tried willing myself back to normal several times just to see if I could, though nothing had happened. Of course, that would have been too easy. So it looked like if I wanted to spend any time as a guy at all, it was going to be because of Kelly.

"No," I told her with a slight frown, "I'm not a skitzomorph..." However, I couldn't resist glancing at Kelly and we shared a faint smile.

A few minutes later we were all gathered in a commons room where we could sit down and talk. Dr. Alvere had remained behind in her office, apparently going over the scans that she'd taken of me, while McKenzie had gone off in a different direction.

While we sat around getting comfortable on the various couches and chairs, I noticed something that surprised me a bit. I was a bit amazed to notice that the members of the Mystery Men were joking around with Ms. Miracle, treating her as though she were one of them rather than one of the most famous heroes on the planet. And I was just as startled to see that she not only didn't seem to have the least problem with that, but was joking around with them too.

I glanced at Kelly who sat beside me, though I couldn't tell if she was thinking the same thing I was or not. It was a little difficult to read her face when she had that mask on.

"So...you're really a guy?" Rumor asked with a look of amusement.

"That's an...interesting side effect to your powers," Surge commented, his eyes quickly darting to Ms. Miracle and then back.

"Wow," Splash grinned, "That's kind of cool..."

"Yeah," I shrugged in embarrassment, "I'm still trying to get used to this myself..."

"So this is where you guys hang out," Kelly commented as she looked around, obviously impressed. "It's certainly a lot better than the garage we used back in the Crusaders..."

"You used a garage?" Splash giggled, "That is so cheap..."

"Well a bunch of highschool students can't exactly afford a high tech secret hideout," Kelly pointed out with a bit of a smile. "In fact, the most high tech piece of equipment that we had was probably our microwave..." There were a few chuckles at that.

"Well, I'm Sabrina," Splash grinned.

Rumor and Surge both looked at her as though she had just given away their greatest secret. However, Ms. Miracle laughed, "It's not like it will hurt to introduce ourselves..." Then she paused, "But I guess I can't really give out my name..." She gave me a strange look and let out a bit of a sigh.

"I'm Kelly," Kelly introduced herself.

"Mike," Quartz nodded, then glanced at me, "But you already knew that."

"Beth," Rumor sighed, giving me a bit of a glare as she did so. I wasn't sure if it was because I had already known her name when we met back at the fight, or because I wasn't completely sure what it was.

"And my name is Allan," Surge stood up and gave a slight bow which made me roll my eyes.

Since I was the only one who hadn't given their real name besides Ms. Miracle, I shrugged, "I'm Thorn."

Splash...Sabrina blinked at that. "I thought your name was Counterweight?"

"Um, Thorn is my real name," I told her, wondering if she really was as big of a ditz as she seemed. I was beginning to get the impression that she should have been a blonde rather than a red head.

"That's an unusual name," Ms. Miracle commented neutrally.

"Well I'm an unusual guy...er...person," I responded with a shrug, earning a couple chuckles and another strange look from Ms. Miracle.

"How about a game of cards while you're here?" Quartz...Mike suggested. "I can go get a deck..."

However, McKenzie stepped into the room and announced, "I'm afraid that there's no time for that now. We have another mission..."

"What is it?" Ms. Miracle demanded, already on her feet and ready to go.

McKenzie just stood there for a moment with a scowl on his face, glancing at me and Kelly and obviously considering whether or not he should say more with us there. But he apparently decided that we were okay and nodded just slightly.

"Some kind of invisible wall has appeared around Manhattan," McKenzie stated, "It's cut off all traffic to and from the island as well as most communication."

"Oh shit," Quartz exclaimed, "That sounds serious."

"Do you know what's causing it yet?" Surge asked.

"Not yet," McKenzie responded grimly. "But that is why you are going in to investigate."

"But if no one can go in or out...," Quartz started in confusion.

Ms. Miracle just smiled and glanced to Rumor, "Except by teleportation..."

"I'm guess we'll drop you two off on the way," Rumor told me and Kelly.

"I'm coming with," I announced, giving Ms. Miracle and the others a determined look.

It was my very first super hero team up and I wasn't about to be left out of it. I glanced at Kelly, who hesitated a moment and then nodded her own agreement.

McKenzie looked as though he were about to argue, but Ms. Miracle told him, "We don't know what's on the other side of that invisible wall so the extra power might be useful."

"Very well," McKenzie nodded his reluctant agreement.

"Then let's get going," Quartz exclaimed, "I've been wanting to bust some heads all day..."

With that, he looked at me as if it were my fault that he hadn't been able to do so earlier. Then again, I guess it was my fault. After all, I was the one to take out Smash, Bash and Crash, or at least Kelly and I had.

Rumor took a deep breath and then the darkness spread out from her. Just a moment later, everything vanished from around me, only to be replaced by something else. Gone was the little room that we'd been sitting in, and in it's place was a whole city of skyscrapers.

"Damn," I whispered as I looked around.

"So this is Manhattan," Kelly commented.

I was a little startled to notice that all of the people who were passing by on the street didn't seem at all concerned about the invisible wall around their city. Then again, I realized that they probably didn't even know about it yet. And I suspected that this might be a good thing.

"Be careful," Surge cautioned, sounding just a little nervous, "We don't know what's going on around here..."

"Keep an eye out," Ms. Miracle commented, then added, "I'm going to check things out from the air..."

"I'll go with you," I told her, lifting myself a foot or so into the air. "If we both look in different directions, we should be able to find anything strange twice as fast."

Ms. Miracle nodded and after I smiled at Kelly, the two of us went up into the air together. "We'll meet back here in fifteen minutes," she told me, then called out to the others, "Wait here, but be careful..."

With that, Ms. Miracle and I flew off into opposite directions. I frowned, looking around but not seeing anything that really looked out of the ordinary. There didn't seem to be anything around that could be causing that invisible wall around Manhattan. Or at least there didn't seem to be anything obvious.

However, it didn't take me much longer before I found something. The street below was empty, or at least nearly empty with only a few people running away. Whatever was going on was obviously happening in the direction that they were running away from.

But as soon as I went just a little further, just far enough to see on the other side of the building, I let out a, "Holy shit..."

There was a large section of street that was almost entirely gone. There was just a hole there, a crater filled with rubble and dust, with the buildings and cars near it not looking any better. There were at least a dozen cars that were smashed flat or torn to pieces, with the walls of the buildings shattered in and torn apart.

And then there were the cops... It took me a moment to even realize that they were there as there cop cars were just as shredded as the rest, and the cops themselves were scattered about on the ground, except for two of them who just seemed to hover a dozen feet above the air with looks of absolute terror on their faces. They were screaming and it looked like they were pounding against some sort of invisible wall and trying to get out. Suddenly, the cops dropped and fell to the ground, hitting with what looked to be a painful impact. But as the cops were still moving around, it was obvious that they were still alive.

I took the entire scene in with just a single glance, and only then noticed the figure that was hovering in the air above the damaged area. It was a man who was laughing loudly, obviously enjoying the destruction.

Then, I he shifted position just enough so that I could get a good look at him. The man was well muscled and blonde, with what some might call rugged good looks. He was wearing a spandex costume of blue and white, with the white on his chest framed by the blue to form the letter F. His costume also included a long flowing white cape, as well as chrome wrist bands and shoulder pads.

"Holy shit," I gasped out in shock at the sight of him.

For a moment, all that I could do was stare in silent disbelief at the man who had caused all of that destruction. I could hardly believe it... I recognized him... I knew that man, or at least knew of him. He was a hero...and had once been one of my personal heroes... I had seen the destroyer, and he was Force.

I hovered in the air, glancing down at Kelly and the Miracle Men who waited several hundred feet below me. I had returned to the meeting place a few minutes earlier but had decided to wait until Ms. Miracle returned as well so that I wouldn't have to explain what I had found twice.

Glancing down at my wrist, I muttered a brief profanity, wishing that I'd thought to wear a watch. I guess something that practical didn't exactly go with the spandex costume, though it was something that I was seriously thinking of adding once I got home. However, even though I didn't have a watch on me, I was pretty sure that it had been longer than the 15 minutes that Ms. Miracle and I had agreed to meet back there in.

But then I finally saw her coming. I nodded and slowly descended back to the ground, sighing at the eager looks of curiosity on the faces of those who had waited there patiently while Ms. Miracle and I had scouted around.

Before Ms. Miracle had even touched the ground, she was already announcing, "This isn't just an invisible wall around the city... It's a dome... A giant bubble..."

"So flying over the wall isn't an option," Surge muttered as if having been considering that option.

"But did you find what's causing it?" Rumor asked.

"I'm afraid not," Ms. Miracle shook her head, "I didn't find anything..."

"I did," I interrupted, immediately having every pair of eyes on me. "I found out who created the force field..."

"Well don't make us wait," Quartz demanded after I hesitated.

I took a deep breath, then blurted out, "It's Force."

There was a moment of silence while they all stared at me, but then Kelly blurted out, "What?"

"Force," I repeated quietly, then looking around, "You know...blue and white spandex. Used to hang with the Protectorate... He's the one behind this..."

They all stared at me with silent disbelief, even Kelly. I didn't blame them. Force was a hero, one of the greatest heroes in the world. While Ms. Miracle had always been famous as a solo hero, at least before her miraculous resurrection, Force was best known as one of the core members of the Protectorate, the greatest and most powerful group of heroes on the planet.

Of course, that was before Force had left the Protectorate for some reason and formed his own group called the Elite. Unfortunately for Force, the Elite had quickly fallen apart, then he had become embroiled in a scandal after recklessly injuring several people during a fight, and even attacking the police. After this, he had disappeared from the public view while more reports of his being extremely reckless in past fights began to surface. There were even several accidental deaths which he was now suspected of being responsible for.

But now Force was back, having emerged from hiding for some reason or other. I had no idea what his goal or reasoning was, only what he had done. And I made sure to explain this in great detail to the others.

"You must be wrong," Splash gasped, "Force would never do something like that..."

"Maybe he just finished chasing off the villain who was responsible," Surge pointed out, though his voice held a hint of uncertainty.

All that I could say to that was, "I know what I saw."

"Well, let's go check it out," Ms. Miracle said.

"It might be pretty difficult for me to teleport us there," Rumor pointed out, "I have a hard time going someplace that I can't picture..."

"I can take you all there," I suggested thoughtfully. As they all turned to look at me, I grinned, "Everyone hold hands..."

Once everyone was holding hands with someone else, all except for Ms. Miracle, I spread my aura around the group and lifted us all several feet above the ground. I heard several gasps at that, though couldn't place who they came from.

"Hold on tight," I told them all, "You don't want to get separated from the group and fall out of my aura..."

With that, I lifted us all higher into the air, while Ms. Miracle stayed close just in case anyone did slip loose. I didn't think that it was necessary, but it certainly didn't hurt to be careful.

"I feel like Wendy from Peter Pan," Rumor laughed.

"I know what you mean," Kelly grinned, "This is just like pixie dust.."

I grinned at that, feeling just a little self-conscious but even more proud. I always did like attention, which might be one of the reasons that I'd always wanted to be a hero.

We all arrived at the scene of the damage just minutes later. The crater was still there, as were all of the crushed cars and a bunch of new police and medics who were running about. But there was no sign of Force.

After I had set everyone down outside of the shattered street, they began to spread out and look at the damage. The police and medics seemed to have things handled as far as the injured went, though that didn't do anything for the source of the damage and injuries.

"I guess he moved on," I told them with a frown.

Splash gave me a look that said something like, "I told you so..."

"Or maybe not," Ms. Miracle said, pointing up.

I looked to where she was pointing and spotted him, a lone figure standing atop a building. He was hard to make out from that distance, but I had no doubt that it was Force. Then, perhaps realizing that we had noticed him, Force stepped off of the roof and just remained standing in midair before slowly descending.

As Force descended, there could be no doubt that this was indeed the famous hero. He radiated confidence and power, not to mention the fact that he was wearing his standard uniform, with the signature white cape flapping about.

"Force," Splash whispered.

"Did you come to help me?" Force asked of Ms. Miracle with a somewhat arrogant smile. He didn't even look at anyone else, as if Ms. Miracle were the only one even worth giving any attention to.

"Did you create that dome around the city?" she demanded, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Of course," Force responded with a tone that left no doubt that he was proud of that fact.

"But why?" Kelly demanded.

Force barely spared her a glance before telling Ms. Miracle, "To protect the city of course..."

"Protect it from what?" Ms. Miracle asked, quickly looking around for any sign of a threat.

"From everything," Force stated forcefully. "This city is under my protection and NOTHING is going to harm it."

There was something in Force's expression that I didn't like, something in his eyes. It was something wild...something dangerous.

"I am going to protect this city from any and all threats," Force announced with a somewhat wild look in his eyes, "I'm going to prove that I'm still the greatest hero in the world!"

We all went silent at that, and as I nervously glanced at the others, I could see that all of them looked just as uncomfortable with our current situation as I was. Even Ms. Miracle looked uncertain about what to do next.

"You're the one who attacked them," Ms. Miracle gasped out, "You're the one who did that to the police..."

Force snarled, "They attacked me... They attacked me as soon as I explained how I was going to protect them." Then he scowled, "It's obvious that these police were corrupt... And now I realize that it goes all the way to the top... I'm going to have to remove them and the rest of the corrupt police department and leaders..." Force was getting more excited with every moment, and looking more...scary.

"My God," Quartz gasped in shock.

"It appears that I will have to take complete responsibility for protecting this city by myself," Force announced, "They say that if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself..." Then he paused, a cold grin forming on his face as he looked around at all of us, "Unless... Unless you help me..."

"I don't think so," I spat out, "You're a fucking loon..."

"WHAT?" Force snapped to glare at me.

"You heard her," Quartz exclaimed, his whole body suddenly becoming covered with crystal, so much so that he looked as though he was actually made of the stuff. "You're crazy...!"

"You traitors," Force gasped out, "You're all against me too..."

Suddenly Force lashed out, sending a wave of raw force at us. Fortunately, Ms. Miracle and Quartz took the brunt of the blast, while the rest of us were just knocked back. I scrambled back to my feet, staring at Quartz, who's crystal shell had been badly cracked.

Ms. Miracle looked at Quartz, then back to Force, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "Get him."

Before I had even realized it, Force was under attack. Surge fired a ball of electricity at him while Ms. Miracle charged forward and punched him with thunderous force. However, all it did was knock Force back a little. He didn't even look the least bit injured.

Force didn't hesitate before striking back, punching Ms. Miracle. I wasn't even sure that his fist actually connected, though she did go flying back....through another building's wall as though it had.

The rest of the Miracle Men were immediately leaping into action. Quartz, even though his shell was cracked, was getting up and charging at Force, throwing crystal spikes at him as he did so. Surge was throwing several more electricity balls and Splash getting a bunch of water from a fire hydrant, and making it move around her, completely under her control.

"It's times like this that I wish I had a more offensive power," Rumor exclaimed.

Kelly just nodded at her, "Trust me...I know what you mean."

Splash seemed to have decided that she now had enough water to get in the fight, because she shot it at Force as though it was some sort of energy blast. In fact, it seemed to hit him as though she were spraying water from a fire house, with perhaps even more pressure. Unfortunately, that seemed no more effective than anyone else's attacks.

Since just about everyone else seemed to have gotten in on the act, I decided to give it a go as well. I ran for a nearby car and did my gravity trick on it, sending it flying at Force. Of course it didn't do much to him since he was either invulnerable or had some sort of personal force field, but it certainly made me feel better.

If nothing else, I think that my attack might have weakened Force a bit, because when Ms. Miracle suddenly flew at him and gave him a heavy punch, it actually sent him flying and looked like it looked like it actually hurt him. But she didn't let up with that and charged at him yet again.

Ms. Miracle and Force flew up into the air, throwing punch after punch at each other. First one would be thrown back, and then the other. They took turns, both of them smashing into the sides of the buildings as they went up, getting more and more ferocious with their attacks on each other. Ms. Miracle even fired some sort of energy blasts at him from her hands, though it didn't seem to do any more good than Splashes overblown squirt gun had.

"Damn," I whispered as I watched the fight above me.

I was about to start moving up to help Ms. Miracle when Kelly told me, "I think she's got this handled..."

Though I frowned at that, not liking the idea of just sitting back, I had to admit that Kelly had a point. If anyone could stop someone like Force, it would have to be Ms. Miracle.

After several minutes, the fight started coming back towards the ground again. I flew up a little higher for a better view, but still keeping far enough back so that I wasn't in the way.

Suddenly, Force started to laugh. He had a grin on his face, and as Ms. Miracle dove at him, he just gestured and she was thrown into the side of a building with immense force. He hadn't even laid a finger on her, and I realized that he must have been playing with her the entire time.

A large amount of rubble fell from the building where Ms. Miracle had hit... It would have landed right on top of Rumor, and in fact did. But she turned dark like a living shadow, and the rubble felt through her as though she weren't even there. She climbed out of it without even a scratch on her.

"I'd better get anyone away from here," Rumor stated, pointing to where several people had come out of the buildings for a better look at what was going on. Most people seemed to have been smart enough to stay hidden inside, or to have run off when the trouble had started. But there were a few stragglers and she wasted no more time in getting them to safety.

"I'll help," Kelly exclaimed.

I was about to offer my own help, but I looked up to where Ms. Miracle had vanished, having a bad feeling about it. She climbed out of the building, looking pretty battered and exhausted. But almost as soon as she'd started to fly out, she was suddenly flung to the ground, once again without Force having laid a finger on her.

"This doesn't look good," I muttered, having a bad feeling as Force lowered himself back to the ground, an arrogant expression on his face.

Ms. Miracle got to her feet, then as one, the Miracle Men charged at Force, all save Rumor who was busy trying to evacuate the nearby people. Ms. Miracle fired her golden energy blast, Surge fired some sort of electrical ball while Splash and Quartz both attacked in their own fashions.

"Get that bastard," I yelled out, well aware that my own powers were not well suited to that kind of offensive attack. That had to be something like how Kelly felt.

All of the attacks just smashed off of Force's invisible force field, knocking him back a bit but obviously not really hurting him. Then he suddenly exploded, releasing a blast of raw force and kinetic energy in all directions. It was enough to throw me and everyone else backwards, though Ms. Miracle and Quartz once again took the brunt of the blast as they were the closest.

"I tire of this game," Force snarled, "I will teach you traitorous villains a lesson about standing against a great hero such as myself. And once I am through with you, I will tighten my protection of this city..."

Somehow, I had a feeling that Force's idea of 'protection' wasn't exactly a good thing. Not anymore now that he had maybe only a few marbles left, and I wasn't even going to count on that. However he'd lost his marbles, it was pretty obvious that he'd lost them but good.

However, Force wasn't finished with the Miracle Men, and instead of letting them get back up for another attack, he acted first. Ms. Miracle, Surge, Splash and Quartz were all suddenly lifted up into the air, and from the way that they were pounding their fists against nothing, it looked like he'd trapped them in some sort of invisible force field bubbles.

"Just like he did with those cops," I muttered, thinking about my scouting where I'd first seen him. Then I gasped, "Oh shit..."

With most of the Miracle Men out of action, the only ones left to deal with Force were Rumor, Kelly and myself. And none of us were exactly well suited to taking down one of the most powerful heroes in the world. In fact, I had the most offensive powers of the three of us, but that didn't mean anything. I was well aware of the fact that tossing cars at him wouldn't do much good due to his force field, and with his ability to fly on his own, my little gravity tricks were pretty much useless as well.

"Damn," I whispered, my heart racing with fear.

As much as I knew that I had almost no chance against Force, I still had to try. I wasn't about to just let him get away with this...or do who knows what with the Miracle Men.

Since Force seemed distracted by his prisoners, I decided to use the opportunity while I could. I ran for the nearest car and hopped on top, immediately covering it with my aura and launching it and myself straight up into the air.

"Higher," I told myself, "I need to get higher..."

I had no idea exactly how high I could go before I'd run into the force field dome, but I hoped that I was high enough when I finally stopped and decided to drop the damn thing. After all, if I went too high I'd run into the damn field and squish myself, not to mention the fact that I wouldn't be able to aim my damn bomb, and at the moment that was VERY important.

"Well," I grinned weakly, "I always knew that Chevy's were bombs..."

And with that, I reversed gravity and released the car, remaining atop it and guiding it until I was sure that it was going to hit where I was aiming...namely, right on top of Force's head.

"Gotcha," I yelled out as the car impacted with immense force.

Unfortunately, I realized that using force against someone who was a master of it was not exactly the best idea. However it was the only idea that I had at the time.

Force had seen the car coming and must have strengthened his force field at the last minute. The car hit and exploded, shrapnel from it scattering everywhere. Force was driven to his knees from the impact, looking shaken and a little dazed, but otherwise unharmed.

"Oh shit," I whispered, knowing that I wasn't going to get another chance at an attack like that.

Still, I wasn't about to just roll over and die just because my little bomb hadn't worked out quite as well as I'd hoped. Instead, I decided that I had best keep at it while I was on a roll. And with that, I landed beside another car, raised it from the ground and charged straight at Force, using the car as a battering ram.

"You stupid girl," Force yelled as he slapped the car aside.

Just then, ANOTHER car suddenly dropped out of the sky and landed right on top of Force. That one seemed to have caught him by surprise where mine hadn't, but it didn't look like it had been dropped from as high up either and had little more effect than my own car had.

"What the hell?" I stared at the completely totaled car in surprise, wondering where it had come from.

"I dropped that one," a voice said from behind me. I snapped around to see Rumor standing there. "A little teleportation," she shrugged, looking exhausted, "But moving that much mass took a lot out of me. I don't think that I can do it again..."

"Too bad," I sighed, "We could have used another one..."

"More than you think," she pointed out, "When you dropped your car on him, his other force fields weakened.... He nearly dropped them..." She pointed at the Miracle Men who were floating in the air, prisoner in Force's invisible force fields.

I stared at her, and then Force, understanding what she was getting at. Holding that big dome around the city, the Miracle Men, his own force field as well as fighting at the same time was draining him. Even he couldn't keep it all up.

"So we just keep attacking him and hope that he gets tired?" I demanded of Rumor, "I hate to tell you this, but I don't think that either of us have enough power to make him use that much energy..."

"He's already had to drop the force field around the city," Rumor told me. At my skeptical look, she added, "I went and checked on it..."

"But we still need more," I told her, taking a deep breath as I prepared myself to throw everything I had at Force.

But suddenly, an 8 foot tall naked woman who seemed to be made entirely out of gold came running straight at Force. She charged him, punching at him with what had to be immense power because he went flying back and into the wall of the building behind him.

"What the hell?" Rumor and I both gasped at once.

However, it was obvious that Force was not out of the fight as he immediately fired a force blast at the giant gold woman, sending her flying back not only into the wall along the opposite side of the street, but straight through it.

Just then, a cop came running up towards Force. I screamed out, "Get away from here..." There was no way that a cops gun was going to do anything to someone like Force.

For a brief moment, the cop glanced at me and I let out a gasp of surprise. His eyes were glowing red. He quickly turned his attention back to Force and fired some sort of bright red laser beams from his eyes. They bounced off of Force, or at least his force field, though it obviously got his attention.

"What the hell?" I gasped, wondering where the gold woman and this developed cop had suddenly come from.

It was then that I looked down the street towards Kelly, who was touching some cop and then jumping back....just moments before his body became covered in a blue fire. It was Kelly... Kelly hadn't just brought in reinforcements...she was creating them.

The cop who was now covered with a blue fire started running towards Force, then seemed surprised when he found himself up in the air. Obviously flight was part of his powers and he was more than a little surprised at that, though to his credit, didn't let it distract him for more than a moment before he started throwing blue fireballs at Force.

After this came a paramedic woman who seemed to have gained the ability to make illusionary copies of herself. The only reason I knew that they were illusions was that when Force attacked them, the attack would go right through them as though they weren't there, and then they would promptly vanish.

More reinforcements came as Kelly grabbed several civilians who insisted that they could help out. This created a man with super speed and woman with the rather useless ability of making flowers grow from the ground around her. There was another man, though he didn't appear to have developed any powers at all, though I suspected that he had. I just figured that it was something like mind reading or enhanced senses. Some ability that just wasn't going to do much good.

I wasn't about to just stand back and watch all of these people attack Force though. I grimaced in determination, grabbed the nearest car....even though it was already halfway destroyed, and used my gravity powers to fling it at Force. I followed that up with another car.

All of us kept hitting Force, one after another, with whatever means of attack that we had at our disposal. Obviously some of the people's powers weren't going to do much good, but a bunch of rocks being chucked at him at super speed seemed to be rather effective.

Several minutes later, there was no doubt in my mind that it was beginning to work. The Miracle Men began to wobble in the air, as though their prisons were losing stability. Force was losing his energy or at least becoming far too distracted to keep it all up at once. And then...the Miracle Men all suddenly dropped to the ground, free of the force fields which had been holding them.

"YES," I shouted out in excitement.

Ms. Miracle was the first to react, immediately flying straight at Force again and punching him with enough strength to send him flying through a wall or two. He climbed out of the rubble with a furious expression, nothing even resembling sanity remaining on his face. He screamed and let out a massive force burst...shattering cars and ground, as well as everything else in front of him. Fortunately, the speedster had grabbed the woman with the flower power and yanked her to the side in time.

"You're under arrest," the laser eye cop shouted, firing another blast, while the gold skinned amazon went charging at him.

Force knocked those cops to the side, then fired several force blasts at those around him, creating massive destruction in the buildings nearby. However, his blasts looked a bit weaker than his earlier ones had been. He was definitely getting tired.

"ENOUGH!" Force howled out, firing a blast directly at Ms. Miracle and sending her flying back into the golden amazon. Then he growled, "I will destroy all you foul criminals!"

And with that, Force unleashed everything he had in a massive burst of raw kinetic energy and force which exploded in all directions at once. There was a wave of destruction, and the laser vision cop was caught in the front...and his body shattered.

Ms. Miracle, Quartz and the golden amazon were caught in the blast as well, though they were tough enough to survive it. The speedster managed to get himself and of the others who were close to Force out of the way as well, while I managed to reverse my gravity and shoot up into the air and out of range just in time.

"NO," I gasped as I saw the mangled cop, who had died fighting as a super hero. I grimaced in determination, turning my attention to Force. "Damn you..."

For a brief moment, I remained in the air, glaring at Force. Then...I thought I saw an opening. I saw a moment of weakness as he staggered there, and immediately dove straight at him.

"You bastard," I snarled as I punched Force as hard as I could in the face.

My hand was killing me from the force of that punch, but it was obvious that it had gotten through as Force staggered back and clutched his broken nose. Blood poured down his face, a clear sign that his force field had failed.

Knowing what Force was capable of, I wasn't about to give him a chance to catch his breath or regain control. I grabbed hold of him and shifted his gravity, sending HIM flying into the nearest wall. Then I rushed at him and shifted his gravity again, this time sending him up into the air...

However, when Force came back down, he obviously had enough in him to create a force field again and keep himself from feeling the impact of the fall. But that wasn't all as he quickly got back to his feet and readied himself to fire another force blast...this one obviously intended for me. I had no doubt about my ability...or inability to survive a direct hit.

"None of you vile filth can defeat a true hero," Force snarled.

But before Force could fire his force blast at me, a voice behind him exclaimed, "Tag...you're it."

"What?" Force gasped as he snapped around in surprise.

Kelly only stood there with a smug grin on her face. "I said tag...you're it," she told him, just before swinging her metal staff and hitting him in the ribs with it. And as soon as Force tried catching himself, she lashed out again, taking him out with a second swing to the side of his head.

"No fucking way," Quartz exclaimed as he staggered over, his crystal armor badly shattered and barley looking as though it could remain together for another minute. "She just took out Force..."

For a moment, I just stood there, feeling horribly disappointed that I hadn't been the one to finish him off. That I hadn't been able to strike the final blow. But then I reminded myself that you can't always be the big hero. And besides that, I think that it was definitely about time for Kelly.

"You're under arrest," one of the super powered cops exclaimed as he pulled out his cuffs. He paused nervously, "I don't think these can hold him... If he wakes up..." There was fear in his eyes.

"Don't worry about it," Kelly responded with a grin. "He won't be a threat to anyone for at least an hour. That's how long it will take before his powers turn back on..."

"Then we'd better get transport here immediately," the cop who was covered with blue fire exclaimed. "We'd better get him to a nice padded cell in Mt. Prometheus before then."

We were all silent at that. Everyone was fully aware of the reality of what had just happened. Force...had been one of the good guys. One of the most famous good guys, an idol to millions and a hero for kids to look up to. But we had all been forced to bring him down...and to send him to prison like a common super villain thug. It was kind of heart breaking.

Not sure what else to do, I gently put my arm around Kelly's shoulder and told her, "Congratulations." Then I asked, "How does it feel to be the big hero for once."

"It feels great," Kelly grinned at me.

"Now that you've defeated the most powerful hero in the world," I asked her, trying to lighten the mood, "What do you plan to do next."

"Bed sounds good about now," Kelly sighed tiredly, and I couldn't help but nodding agreement. "Yeah, bed sounds VERY good."

I let out a long sigh as I slowly settled back onto solid ground and returned to normal gravity. Then I stretched out a bit, being sore and tired, as well as more than just a little bit sweaty. But still, I was in a pretty good mood in spite of all that.

For the last hour or two, I had been working pretty hard, training to improve my control over my powers and my ability to deal with dangerous situations. It had been McKenzie who had suggested it, and it wasn't the first time. In fact, it was actually my third training session with the Miracle Men.

"I'm glad that's over with," Quartz commented as he shed his crystal armor. It all just shattered at once and crumbled to pieces around him.

"Very good Counterweight," McKenzie nodded at me as he walked towards me. "Though I do wish that Catalyst could have made it as well."

"Me too," I nodded.

Unfortunately, Kelly was busy with her classes at the moment. As for me, I had plenty of free time now that I was no longer in college. Strangely, I actually missed going to class, but that was part of the price I paid for becoming a real super hero.

It was hard to believe that it had been a whole week since the incident with Force. Almost right afterwards, they'd actually asked me to join them, and I eagerly accepted, though only on the conditions that I could do it part time...at least until I got a little more used to things, and that Kelly was part of the deal. They had happily accepted those conditions, making us both reserve members.

I couldn't help wondering though, if it made any real difference that I was a reserve member of the Miracle Men rather than a full fledged member. Over the past week, I had been hanging out with them quite a bit, doing several training sessions, such as the one that we had just finished up, and even socializing a bit.

The night before, Kelly and I had actually gone out to dinner with the Miracle Men, or at least all of them except for Ms. Miracle. I guess she was too big and famous to be able to ordinary things like that.

But on the plus side, Rumor...Beth had brought her boyfriend Dave, who seemed like a really nice guy. I somehow got the feeling though that I'd seen him somewhere before, even if I couldn't quite place where. I was also a little surprised when Beth introduced me to him since I had seen the way Beth looked at Ms. Miracle, and had figured that she was a lesbian.

Just then, McKenzie brought me out of my thoughts with the statement, "I have something for you..."

"Yeah?" I blinked, hoping that he hadn't noticed me daydreaming.

McKenzie nodded and handed me a large manilla envelope. I just stared at it for a moment before opening it up and looking inside. I was more than a little surprised by what I found.

"What...?" I gasped as I pulled out a drivers license. A drivers license with MY picture on it. My CURRENT picture.

"I thought that this might prove useful," McKenzie smiled at me. "I know the problems that your...changes created, so I arranged to have some new identification created..."

All that I could do was stare at the other contents of the envelope because the drivers license wasn't the only thing inside. There was also a birth certificate, social security card and high school diploma, as well as a few other pieces of paper. And all of them were in the name of Michelle Thorn.

"I had to take some liberties with the name," McKenzie explained, which was not a problem with me. In fact, I was kind of pleased that I could still use Thorn as my name, even if it was officially my last name rather than my first. "And I have also made arrangements for your old college credits to be transferred to your new identity..."

"Transferred...," I whispered, staring at him for a moment as what he said sank in.

I would be able to go back to college... I would be able to finish getting my degree... And it mean that I would be able to have a civilian life as well as a super hero one.

"Thank you," I grinned at him, meaning it quite sincerely. "You have no idea how much this means to me..."

Then I surprised both McKenzie and myself by giving him a quick hug. I was a bit embarrassed once I was through though, thinking that I might be picking up a little more of that girl stuff than I'd thought... I mean, there was no way in hell that I would have hugged another guy like that before... Then again, I wasn't a guy anymore...at least not most of the time.

After I was through with that, I hurried to the locker room to clean up and get changed. The Miracle Men all had their own rooms where they could do that in, but I didn't have that luxury. In fact, I didn't even have my own car there and had to rely on Rumor to take me home in awhile.

As soon as I was in the locker room, I stripped out of my costume and hurried to the shower stall. The water felt great, though nowhere near as good as a nice long bath. Mostly, I was glad to get clean again, though my nipples were beginning to respond to the way that the water was massaging them.

"Not bad," I sighed, pushing back the urge to rub at them myself a little. It wasn't exactly the right place to be playing with myself at. "Yeah, there are definitely some good things about being a chick..."

I let out a sigh at that though, thinking that with all the good things that came with my body, there were definitely some downsides as well. I wasn't quite sure whether to place the loss of my old identity as a plus or minus since I hadn't really been anyone special, and McKenzie's gift had just made it a little easier for my new one. Of course, there was one other downside which still bummed me out, though I tried not to think about it too much.

"Kelly," I whispered.

Ever since I had changed, Kelly and I just hadn't been able to be the way we used to be. Kelly just didn't like girl's and had no interest in trying it out, which left me more as a girlfriend than anything else most of the time. Of course there were the periods where I could be changed back to being a guy, but that only left us an hour at a time, which really limited how much we could do. It just wasn't the same.

Pushing those thoughts from my mind, I left the shower and dried myself off. Then I wrapped a towel around my middle, smirking slightly as I had to do it so as to cover my breasts, something that I never had to worry about as a guy. And as I used a smaller towel to start drying my hair, I looked at the mirror above one of the sinks.

"It's kind of strange what we can get used to," I sighed.

I had gotten quite a bit more comfortable in my body in the two weeks that I'd possessed it, no longer even being surprised by the face of a girl that looked back from the mirror. In fact, I wasn't even surprised, or really bothered by the lack of equipment down below whenever I unzipped to go to the bathroom. Of course I still had a little adjusting to do, though I wasn't worried much about that. You can adjust to anything when you don't have a choice.

"A small price to pay for these powers," I smiled to myself, briefly willing my glowing green aura to flicker on and then back off.

Then I glanced back to where I had left the envelope with the papers that McKenzie had given me, smiling as I thought about it. It was such a relief, knowing that one of my largest problems caused by my change had just been taken care of. I had a legal identity again.

"Of course this might be a problem," I muttered as I touched my hair.

There weren't exactly a whole lot of chicks with green hair running around. I wasn't a very famous hero, and not many people would recognize me, but since I didn't bother wearing a mask as Counterweight, it would only be a matter of time. I might just have to get me a wig or a scarf to cover my hair up if I wanted a secret identity, or at least to go back to school without getting hassled.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't even notice that I was no longer alone. It wasn't until I caught a glimpse of Ms. Miracle standing behind me in the mirror, dressed only in a white cotton robe, that I realized she was even there.

"Kind of strange getting used to, isn't it?" Ms. Miracle asked me gently. "The sex change I mean..."

"Yeah," I admitted, trying hard not to stare at her chest. It was the first time that I'd seen her out of her costume, and she was definitely as hot out of it as in. I just secretly wished that her robe would sort of 'pop open' and reveal the rest of her body, feeling just a bit guilty for thinking that at the same time.

"Don't worry," she assured me, "You'll get used to it soon enough..." Then she abruptly asked, "Have you had your first period yet?"

I nearly choked at that. That was a pretty damn personal question to ask someone. But I slowly shook my head and frowned, "Not yet..." And hopefully not EVER.

Ms. Miracle just smiled knowingly at that. "The first one is the worst... But once you get used to the idea, it's not quite as bad as all that. Trust me...you'll survive."

"Um...thanks," I told her, not exactly sure where she was going with this little talk. But I could see from her nervous expression, which in itself was pretty strange, that she was up to something.

"I've been thinking about it," Ms. Miracle told me with a nervous smile, "And I've decided that we should talk..."

"Oh," I responded, feeling a bit apprehensive myself. "About what?"

"Your...changes," she smiled weakly. "I know what you're going through... I understand..."

All that I could do was stare at her blankly for a moment, "What?"

Ms. Miracle let out a long sigh, then muttered, "McKenzie will probably kill me for this..."

After taking a deep breath, Ms. Miracle began to...change. Her features all began to shift... Her hair began to pull in, to become shorter, while her breasts began to deflate. Every feature of her body was altering at the same time, while I could only stare in complete shock and amazement. And when her changes had finished, there was a guy sitting in her place, wrapped in her cotton robe. I was so stunned from the changes that it took me a moment to realize that I even recognized him. It was Dave, Rumor's boyfriend whom she'd introduced me to the night before.

"Surprise," she...he smiled weakly.

"What the...?" I jumped back.

"I'm not the original Ms. Miracle," Dave told me with a frown, not even looking at me. "She never came back from the dead....though I wish to God she had." He looked up at me, his eyes looking a little teary, "She was my mom..."

"Your mom," I squeaked out, still staring at him.

Dave nodded sadly, "Yeah. But I didn't know it until after I went through Project Miracle and came out like this..."

At that, Dave began changing again, this time in reverse. His hair lightened to blonde and grew out while his features became more feminine. Even his...her breasts once again pushed out into the pair of magnificent mounds. The change was somewhat familiar as I had watched myself change back several times while standing in front of the mirror.

"It gave me a sex change too," he...she told me with an embarrassed smile. "It was only when I came out of the process looking like Ms. Miracle that I even learned that the original had actually been my mom. So of course, since I looked like her and had all of her powers, they started calling ME Ms. Miracle. That was just as hard to get used to as the sex change..."

"Wow," I whispered, hardly able to believe what she was telling me. She wasn't the real Ms. Miracle...and never had been. She was just another guy who'd been changed....like me. And now that she had pointed that out, I think that I vaguely remember seeing her...or at least seeing Dave back during the project.

"I got a sex change with my powers, just like you," Ms. Miracle told me, still looking just a little embarrassed, "Though it turns out that I'm a skitzomorph and can change back to being a guy when I need to."

For a minute, I just stood there, staring at her as I absorbed everything that she had just told me. It was unbelievable, but no more so than anything else that happens around developed. No more so than the original Ms. Miracle coming back from the dead, or at least not much more so.

"Thanks," I told her, "But why did you tell me?"

Ms. Miracle paused for a moment before answering, "I thought that it might help you to be able to talk to someone who's gone through the same thing you have..." Then she shrugged, "And to be honest, I thought it would be nice to talk to someone else who understands what it's like..."

"I appreciate your trusting me with this," I told her, feeling rather grateful. "I guess it is nice to know that I'm not the only one who's been through this..."

She just smiled at me before saying, "I've got to go... Beth is expecting me..."

After Ms. Miracle left the locker room, I just stood there and stared thoughtfully at the door, and then back to my reflection in the mirror above the sink. It was definitely nice to know that I wasn't alone, that there was someone else out there who understood what it was like for me.

Then with a shrug and a faint smile in the direction of the sink and mirror, I turned my attention back to getting dressed. The training exercise and my little talk with Ms. Miracle had been very interesting, but I was eager to get back home...and back to Kelly.

It was only half an hour or so later when Rumor dropped me off at my new home and immediately vanished. I smiled as I looked around, quite thankful for such quick and easy transportation.

"It must be great to be a teleporter," I thought aloud, "Get wherever you want to go in no time at all and I bet it saves a bundle in gas money..."

Of course, I smiled to myself, there were certain advantages to my powers as well. Being able to fly was a complete blast, and though it wasn't exactly super strength, I could still use my powers to lift and move heavy objects.

With a sigh, I dropped the duffel bag that held my costume onto the floor, absently thinking that I was really going to have to wash it. Of course, I realized, it might be a good idea to get a couple more costumes made as well so that I would still have something to wear if one of them was dirty or got torn up in a fight. I just hoped that Kelly would be willing to make me a couple more.

"But enough of that," I grinned as I held up the envelope with my new papers. I couldn't wait to show Kelly and let her know that I was going to be able to start taking classes again.

It was about then that Kelly's voice called out, "Is that you Thorn?"

"Yeah," I called back, just a little surprised since I had been expecting Kelly to still be in class.

"Good," Kelly exclaimed as she stepped around the corner, wearing a red silk robe.

"What is it with robes today?" I muttered, thinking that first it was Ms. Miracle standing in front of me in a bath robe and now Kelly.

Then Kelly just smiled and undid the sash at her waist, dropping the robe to the floor. She stood there wearing only a sexy red nightly. It was quite a number and was already getting me pretty excited. But as if that wasn't enough, after she stood there long enough for me to get a real good look, she came up and surprised the hell out of me by throwing her arms around me and giving me a passionate kiss.

"Oh wow," I gasped once I was able to breathe again.

For a moment, I just stood there, having to look down at myself to make sure that I was still a chick. Kelly had NEVER kissed me when I was a girl before, and had made it plenty clear that she had absolutely no interest in doing so. But I was indeed still a chick, which my erect nipples and warm and gooey underside definitely attested to.

"Wow," I repeated, a little shaken up by that unexpected kiss and the way that Kelly was pressing her oh so delicious body against my own. "I didn't think you liked girls..."

"I don't," Kelly responded with a suggestive smile, "I just like you..."

"Not that I'm complaining," I told her with a broad grin, "But what brought about this change of mind..."

Kelly burst out laughing at that as she stepped back. "Change of mind is right..." She paused for a moment, then asked me, "Do you remember what powers Claire gets when I use mine on her?"

"Yeah," I nodded slowly, "She has some kind of mind control..." Then I froze and stared at Kelly in disbelief. "But you said she won't mess with anyone's mind..."

"She won't mess with the mind of someone who's UNWILLING," Kelly corrected me with a smile, "But I asked her to mess with mine..."

"You've got to be kidding," I gasped, staring at Kelly in disbelief.

Kelly looked a little embarrassed but told me, "She didn't turn me into a lesbian or anything... I still don't like women... All she did was alter my perceptions and remove my inhibitions about this one thing..." Then Kelly took a deep breath, "She made it so that I can find you just as attractive like this as I do when you're a guy..."

"You did that?" I whispered, feeling sort of teary eyed that she would go through something like that so we could stay together. "To be with me?"

"For us," Kelly smiled, "I don't like only having an hour at a time..."

"Me neither," I admitted.

For several seconds, I just stood there, staring at Kelly and smiling at the way she was looking at me. I kind of missed that expression.

"It's definitely been one hell of an interesting day," I told Kelly, thinking about Ms. Miracle's revelations and now this. Then I grinned suggestively, running one hand over her breasts and smiling even more when she didn't pull back.

"Well it's about to get a lot more interesting," Kelly purred at me.

"Oh yeah," I grinned, my heart racing in excitement while the rest of my body responded in a somewhat more...pleasurable way. "You don't know how much I've been wanting to do this."

I'd been fantasizing about a little lesbian action with Kelly since I had changed. I'd been dying to know what it was like for a woman...and as a woman. This was literally a dream come true.

Then as Kelly and I started towards her bedroom, I couldn't help smiling as I thought about all that had happened to me in the previous two weeks. I'd been turned into a woman, become a developed super hero and member of the Miracle Men, as well as had discovered just how remarkable my sexy girlfriend was. And with all that, there was no doubt in my mind that I was the luckiest guy...girl on the planet.

The End