A Story With Much Violence, But No Sex

It was around 1:00am when Sarah's eyes opened. Something was happening.

She was sleeping with Lana, also known as the superhero the Flame. This itself wasn't unusual, they had done this quite a bit in the last two months.

No. What was important they hadn't had sex first.

It was Wednesday, and she had come over after working on the days shoot, with bluerays of the first three star war movies, the new ones...well, you know what i am talking about: Episodes 1-3. Lana had never seen them before. They watched the first two. She had, of course, seen the original movies...she wasn't that strange. But not the next three Lucas made in the nineties.

They ended up watching the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Both were actually a lot better then she had remembered they were supposed to be. Both had a couple of fun action  sequences, even if some of the performances were pretty stiff. Yoda with a lightsaber made her clap her hands. Lana had made them a light dinner (for someone who claimed to want to gain weight she didn't eat that much). It was fun. As they watched them with her she seemed to enjoy it to a degree, effecting in her weird semi-emotionless, hard-to-read kind of way that this was passable entertainment. Lana, whose taste tended more toward theatre, classical music, and the legitimate arts, didn't talk them down. She sat and watched...well, like a girlfriend who was sitting with their partner and trying to like what they like.

Girlfriend: After about three months, yeah...that was increasingly the word.

And so she slept over. They had kissed before going to bed a bit and she was snuggling into her a bit, but she was still wearing her work clothes at 12:35. Tommorow she had set her clock to wake her at 7am for a 8am shoot at the studio...and yeah, she was a girlfirend coming to her SO house tonight not to have sex.

Not having sex was an important step. Her first boyfriend and her did it a couple of times before actually having sex when she was a teenager - but after that..well. Here she was. Only with Jim (who stayed with her a couple of weeks between roommates on a trial basis that never lasted more than a trial) had she ever done this with before.

It wasn't bad. Lana had a nice big bed, in an impeccably kept house. Lana was a small thing and didn't take up much of the space or the covers. And while she had the personality of a cold fish, her body was actually quite warm, in a snuggable way.

Fuck. She would have to go to work tomorrow wearing the same clothes she came into after not fucking.

Maybe it was time to ask for a drawer.

Sarah sighed. It would be impossible to walk out of the room now. And should she?

That's when it went off in her mind. The feeling...the sense. Something was wrong.

Something was incredibly wrong.

And not with their relationship.

She shook her head. She would have to deal with this...

"Lana" she said to the woman next to her.She pressed agianst her slightly.

"What is it," she asked sleepily, not quite waking up.

"Trouble. It's...I don't know...but I can sense it. Something big."

Lana woke up opening her eyes with almost inhuman speed. Like her, of course, she was slightly inhuman. Just in a different way.  "Any more information?"

"Downtown."

Lana got out of bed and went to her closet, pushing aside garments as she did, until she found her gingham dress that was the costume of the Eternal Flame. Part of the performance aspect, she had told Sarah.

"I'm coming with you, of course."

Sarah sighed. She had never gone on patrol with the Eternal Flame before. She didn't like going "On patrol". Sarah and Lana here...well, something. But 'Mazing Girl and the Eternal Flame were not nothing.

Sarah shook her head. How could she stop her? She got out of bed. " Can you drive? It'd feel odd carrying you."

"Doesn't quite work well with my image in any method. Sure."

Sarah undressed in front of her, taking off her work polo shirt her work pants. Flame was doing the same. She had undressed for her lover before. Now she was undressing as if they were going to play soccor or something.

This was important. This was a step. And she didn't know what she was feeling. Lana's advantage, and her downside as a lover, as she could never quite get a read on what she was feeling, good or bad. For a telepath, she had no real idea what she was thinking.

*******

They were taking the Flame's black '48 Packard. Lana drove a Lexus, but you know, well...image. The car was not a stock Packard. It had a much more powerful and quick engine, the tires were modern, and there was surprisingly powerful equipment built into its dashboard but the idea was the same.

They drove down surface streets, Sarah slumped in the seats.

"Do you have any more information?" Lana asked.

"It's big, and it's downtown. Like, around City Hall, I want to say. That area," Sarah told her.

Sarah was never quite sure what it was that guided her. It should be perhaps explained that all of the heroes and villains who had actual power as far as was known were mutants of a kind. Most of them where psychic, some of them were more physical. One in a million or so was like this for genetic reasons no one fully understood. Now, through large portions of human history, one in a  million meant one or two in the whole world. They often fell into myth and superstition, or hid it as whatever. It wasn't until the late 19th century that anyone really suspected they existed - it wasn't until the 1920s when proof was gained. Comic book stories were developing and they became creatures of comicbooks. Which was just as well, as circus freak or all powerful tyrant was not a good thing either.

However, Sarah had been blessed underneath her nerdy charm to be have a fair amount of religion. Nerds often did. She had grown up in a fairly religious Tallahassee area family. She had been brought up baptist, and somewhere inside her still believed in God, and that God gave her these gifts, to either use to bless humanity or punish it.

Or, to put it another way: Her family knew about 'Mazing Girl. Her family supported 'Mazing Girl. She hadn't told them about Lana and wasn't sure how to. But if they were sleeping together and not having sex, she probably ought to.

Lana drove on. "Going to turn on the scanners?"

"No need," said Sarah as she looked up.

And there truly was no need, for floating above the downtown skyline was a giant blimp emblazened with metal decals. And huge artillery raining down fire.

*****

"Deca."

The police had setup a roadblock around the downtown area, but when Flame and 'Mazing Girl came they opened the road for them. "He's doing something really big. Shooting some of the buildings. Thankfully, at this time of night, the area is mostly empty. We're scrambling some jets from Mugu, but they'll take awhile. Really glad your here."

"She gave me a lift." 'Mazing Girl nodded to Flame and the 10 police in the command center. That was technically true.

Flame had a look that made it impossible to tell what she was thinking. "So: Deca. Hes finally made his move."

"No demands, or loudspeaker, thankfully," said the captain.

"He wants me," 'Mazing Girl informed them. "Well...that's always the case. It's time we end this."

"But not alone." For a second Sarah thought Flame said it, and would feel a bit of the heart string. But no. Behind her was.... Glider.

He wasn't actually (wearing? using?) his hang-glider. He wore a suit that looked a lot like a World War I pilot uniform. All leather, with dashing cavalry pants and a leather helmet with googles. In a steampunk nightclub worn by a girl who was 20 years younger then the 40-ish paunchy hero it would look dashing. Perhaps when he started out it would look dashing. now he looked a little silly.

"He knows you can get there easily with your jumping powers. But Flame, and the others, are powerless to help. But not me!! For you can run, but you can't glide."

Catchphrase. She needed one. His was catchy, she'll give it that.

"He can fly. You can jump. I'll figure something out," the Flame at last suggested.

"Your just going to let me go up there by myself?" demanded 'Mazing Girl, shocked by her lack of emotion at all of this.

"you're your own hero, 'bnazing. you have skills and talents that i don't. i am not going to smother you," said Flame.

"Smother me?"

"Oooh," said a police officer, shaking his head.

"Don't 'oooh' me!" said 'Mazing Girl. "The last thing I need, or anyone needs in this situation, is a giant 'oooh' going on. That doesn't help ithe sitution in the slightest most infimestimal"

"are you frightened?" asked Flame.

"Yeah, I'm frightened. This guy has a giant fucking blimp. A giant fucking blimp. I am not joking. Giant fuckin....g blimp.!!!1How do you build something like that?"

Flame put a hand on her shoulder. It was very calm and friendly. "I wish I could take your fear from you, but I can't. nothing to be said.nlimp and all. all I can say is what is obvious. you are the most powerful hero in the city. you're stronger then all the rest of us put together! i have tremendous faith in your powers, and your skills."

Glider nodded. "Give me a minute to get ready. We should try a co-ordinated attack."

Flame looked thoughtful a moment. "i think it's a helium balloon, which means its non-flamable, but i'll try to figure out something, well, useful."

Glider walked away.

"I could just carry you. I have done with Knife Girl a dozen times. "

"i'll find a way."

'Mazing Girl leaned in to whisper. "are you frightened?"

((would it help you for me to say i was?))

'Mazing Girl shook her head. No reading this woman.

*******

'Mazing girl walked away from the police cars. She looked up at the blimp. It was shooting a lot of things. She saw Glider go up.

"Ready to go when you are," he boldly declared, and lowered his goggles into place as she smiled at him slightly.

Then what looked like a rocket hit him, and he exploded.

'Mazing Girl freaked out for a second and screamed, but realised that would do her nor anybody else any good. Instead, she flew up into air with the scream still on her lips.

*****

It was dark inside the blimp. No one was present. She wondered if Deca had brought any thugs or things of that nature with him. For a second it occured to her that a viable strategy might be to wait 'til she got there then detonate it remotely. It would be a smart play if he wanted to kill her, but something about him suggested otherwise.

He wanted to face her.

Then an intercom went off. "WELL, IT TURNED OUT IN THE END THAT HE COULD NEITHER RUN OR GLIDE."

"Can you hear me?" asked Mazing Girl

"I WOULDN'T MISS THIS FOR THE WORLD."

'Mazing Girl shrugged. The logical place for the control would be at the front/underneath of the gondola  but realistically it could be anywhere. Even inside the balloon itself. She looked around.

"I HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO MAKE ROBOT GUARDS. DON'T WORRY...I DO THINK YOU CAN BEAT THEM. BUT THEY MAY...TIRE YOU...A BIT"

He wasn't making this easy. Nonetheless, the Airforce was going to come in at some point and deal with this, so perhaps a viable strategy was to distract him a bit by fighting guards and come for him then.

Nope.

She saw the guard robots. It would be nice to say they were large metal robots with hands and tin pots for head but they where short squat robots that walked on four legs. With a large gun on top of their body. There were about 20 of them and they all shot her at once.

That hurt a lot.

So she ran. Right through them, down the hall they came from, past them...

Ran down on down the hallway.

Right over a large opening into the sky.

She fell in an instant, down into the sky, falling and flailing her arms and probably looking a little stupid. Then she gained calm again, from somewhere. This was moments that needed calm.

Nope...falling.

She straightened herself.

And then got shot by a giant artlerly shell.

That hurt an awful lot.

She realised that the lower half of her costume was entirely gone, leaving her in hopefully clean panties. Her dignity was hurt. As was the rest of her.

And she needed to get this fucker down...

She hit the ground, and pushed down against it, destroying the concrete street as she did. Sarah shot right up, very nearly breaking the speed of sound.

And went through the blimp like a giant bullet.

She went through the  cabin  then the balloon. Blimps have a lot of steel girders in them, she hit a couple before breaking through the top, making a huge hole as she saw the night sky.

She landed on top of it.

The blimp was bleeding helium. Despite what you might think, it wasn't an incredibly fast process but it was a process underway. It was going down. No matter what happened this flight would be over at some point in the very near future. She saw 1000's of police officers (that may have been an exaggeration) on the ground. It looked like the national guard. This would be over. Deca couldn't escape. She had won. She had saved the city.

She flopped down on top of the balloon exhausted. Her body was covered in soot and scars. Every part of her hurt. Every part of her.

Yet she would still get to work tomorrow. She didn't want to get the reputation of someone who missed days.

But now she relaxed.

"What a waste," observed Nighthawk, who was somehow standing next to her. "Pathetic."

"The blimps going down. I saved us."

"The blimps not the problem. He is! And look at you: Slacking. You and all your terrific powers. What a waste on a pathetic slacker like yourself. I worked for this...a thousand hours in the gym, training my body to the peak of humanity. And you come in with your fancy tricks to make the people love you. But they never guess what a waste you are, Sarah. Yeah...I know: Ms. Jennings. All the power in the world and you will never live up to your potential."

Mazing giirl looked at him

"Well  you mani-pedi!"

That was a good comeback. That was amazing. Nighthawk...

Well...Nighthawk suddenly had a huge hole in his chest as Deca stuck his hand through it from behind. He fell over...dead.

"SARAH HUH?" said  Deca "JENNINGS? NICE TO MEET YOU."

Sarah stood up on the top of the falling blimp. Deca was there hovering, he had some type of jetpack thingy. It made his giant black cape swish a bit.

She adjusted a bit. "What do you possibly hope to accomplish?" she asked "" I am not trying to trick you, or anything, I just honestly, honestly, want to know the point of all of this."

"You," Deca told her, in a surpsingly normal voice. "You were always the goal. He was right, you know. Ms. Jennings, you are the most powerful super in the world. Your powers, your skills, are greater then anyone else on the planet."

"No...thats not true. Hiro, Defender, Maiden of..."

"Reputation. Goverments wanting there champions to seem mighty. Newspapers selling papers. But I didn't say reputation. You are stronger, faster, tougher...all of it. You are the ultimate expression of humanity. And if I destroy that, then thats what I will be."

"No," Sarah protested. Then she realised that this guy was crazy. She had beaten him before, and that probably inflated her a bit in his eyes. It had to be that.

Wasn't it?

Ah fuck.

As it went through her mind she thought about the big heroes of the past. The one that had saved cities from destruction. Strong; Brave. sometimes backed by society - but her powers was just amazing. While plenty of them had been strong, her strength was beyond theirs. She was.....

Well, time for the most powerful hero in the world to do her thing.

"This is for Brian"

She jumped forward off the blimp grabbing him and flying forward with him at 250 miles an hour, into the side of a bank two or three miles away.

She hoped she was smashing into something heavy, but it was really just the windows. They came to a stop inside an office.

Deca then punched her in the head. That hurt probably the most of anything so far.

"Since the last time we were together I've increase my hydraulic power tenfold. I hope that's enough. I doubt it a bit...but one can hope."

She punched him agian  "This is for Joe"

Deca turned." The first one i remember....the second one"

"And that is why you suck" said Sarah as she kicked him in the chest.

"Improved armour protection, too."

Sarah paused as he punched her again. This was hurting. The artillery earlier hadn't helped, but this was hurting. She punched at him, but he dodged it. He punched her, but she grabbed his arm and threw him out of the building and to the ground bellow.

She caught her breath for a second, but then he just flew back up out the window.

"Jetpack."

It was then that a rain of bullets hit her, pounding her as she ducked behind a support column.

"Coward!" She ran through the building - literally through the building, not bothering to stop for walls - until she hit the side of the last glass wall and jumped out.

"I am not the 90 pound weakling in a stupid suit!"

She jumped towards the police men in central city. that whoudl give her more protection.

She noted that the blimp had hit the side of one of the huge courthouses and was coming down with a bit of a crash. It didn't look that bad though.

She also noted that he was following her

"PATHETIC!"

A stream of bullets flew at her, spewing into the night.

She hit the side of the courthouse with her feet and like a swimmer and flew right back into him.

This smashed him, knocking him and his jetpack down. He crashed  in a park, skidding into a fountain.

She adjusted a bit and landed on the Time building before jumping down next to him.

With her, 100 policemen encircled him.

"Stand back! Let me handle it!" "Mazing Girl commanded, with more authority then she could usually muster. They listened to her.

She grabbed Deca's body as it faltered, and punched off his mask. There was his face. His real face...like a Scooby-Doo villain. He was a small man, really...small and pathetic.

She then felt an incredible sensation at the back of her neck, felt it smashing. Her trouble-detector, only at a 100 times the normal magnitude.

He  was still on the ground. "You forgot my power, 'Mazing Girl: Getting into your mind. It is amazing. I can get in there and trigger that little sense of yours...too much? Hmmm...let's see what it does..."

Sarah fell to the ground. The sense of horror his horror was too much for her. Too fucking much she felt incredible. All of the evils of the world entering her skull unfettered by rhyme or reason.

"90 pound weekling in a suit? Guilty. All that time and energy, robots meca and i had it all along"

Sarah felt the world's pain, it's suffering, all in her head. All of it at once.

When someone else walked over.

"hello brother," the Eternal Flame greeted Deca  as she walked onto the scene from out of nowhere.

"Hello sister" said Deca. "Oh, you didn't know this? Or did you? That Flame and I are twin brother and sister?"

"near identical power-sets," said Flame. " i didn't want to fight you, i admit. nut you give me no choice."

Sarah could barely look up at the scene in front of her.

"Oh." Deca smiled, standing up.  "I just peeked in her mind. Really? Her? That's where your getting your pleasures? This makes it all the sweeter! Dear sister, do you want to know if she loves you? You're too polite, or perhaps too scared to find out...but you want to know, don't you?"

Sarah could feel the power, as it grew stronger it grew more pronouced. She realized that 92 people had died tonight, 140 had some form of injury, 12,453 where in a massive traffic jam as the restult of closing downtown, and 12,234,234 where worried watching this on the news, worried for their loved ones, worried for the families. Sarah learned that it if she had captured him that night 6 months ago none of this would have happened. She learned of the massive property damage he had caused (she had caused), all the destruction and evil that had happened. A giant looming darkness. And perhaps, in her most fevered moments, she could sense something beyond it, something beyond words or meaning. Something.

And then a thought entered her head. He was *monarching* her. He was treating this as if it was a game they were playing. None of it mattered except winning. All of that was irelevant. What was the point of taking a city that wasn't worth two licks?  Sarah was many things, but she cared. She was fat lets face it, a nerd, a slacker, and someone who ocasionaly smoked pot, but she cared.

And man did she hate the show the Venture Brothers.

Sarah was wracked with more pain then she had ever felt before, splayed on the ground. but then she closed her hand and got to her feet. Evil was afoot, and she was the 'Mazing lady sent to stop it.

Deca continued to wraped up in his monologuing. "Does the pathetic little stage-tech really care? Why bother telling you though, because now she is..."

"Done," Sarah finished for him, and punched him in the face. He fell over in a slumpy pile.

The pain was just gone. It was like it was never there. She got up as police swarmed around her and Deca's twitching body on the ground. The Flame drifted away, and she didn't see where she went. Sarah wasn't sure how much the police had heard of the little exchange. No one talked about it much, which was all for the best. But maybe just wishful thinking.

She walked away to the fire of the blimp.

Knife Girl was there, looking over the body of Nighthawk. They had taken off the mask.

"Michael."

Sarah paused. She had never seen Knife Girl's boyfriend, and a sudden thought occured to her. What if it had been Nighthawk? What if his reluctance masked the fact that it was really him and that they were secretly enemies and lovers. It would be poetic. Terrible for her, but poetic.

"Do you know him?" she asked Knife Girl.

"No. He was a TV weather man."

Sarah shook her head and looked at him, thought of glider, thought of all that had happened. The ranks of the heroes had dropped today. There would be stories about how brave all of them had been today, and what sacrifices they had made for the city. It gave little comfort. She had been a hero. She brought down his blimp defeated him, but that gave her no joy. It was kind of an awful night. And there would be another night like it soon enough. If not Deca(probably not Deca as that final punch may have broken his spine) but someone to fill the darkness with dread. And there was less light in it.

"I'm going to miss the fucker," confessed Knife Girl, and that was the exact thing to say.

And Sarah realised she was still just wearing panties on her bottom. She really hoped there wasn't a lot of cameramen.

"Can you get me, like. a blanket or something?" she asked a paramedic.

He did so, and got her water too. She went to sit down under a tree in the park.

"what a waste  my brother was," observed the flame from "when he saw our parents die he thought of fortune and fame. when he got our powers he wanted money. I let him...why not? but that wasn't enough, it was never enough. he wanted power for its own sake. greedy eyes."

Flame, of course, came from nowhere to sit next to Sarah. She put her hand on Sarah's knee.

"You should have told me" said Sarah.

"we have the same last name," Flame told her. "I would assume you could have figured it out."

Sarah chuckled slightly, and then she looked at Lana.She wasn't sad in a traditional sense, or crying. But Sarah looked up at Lana and she saw something human in her eyes. It was just a glance really, perhaps a tad of fear, worry, and panic.

"i was scared that they would get you," theFlame said. "afraid I would loose you. Thats why I didn't want to go with you. Too scared to see. Blimps."

And with that sarah paused consider something. She meant something to someone. She was melting the ice queen.

And, oh fuck, she was falling in love with her too. Fuck.

"Lana would you like a roommate?"

Was she saying this? She had a condo. Lana owned a Five bedroom house Mid-Wiltshire. A roommate was kind of silly. What, would she contribute to utilities?

Lana's eyes were starting to get misty and she could tell this wasn't tears of sadness. She was defiently breaking. Flame was getting sappy on her, and she was defiently getting sappy back.

"It would be nice you know...to have someone to come home to..and I know we can team up and stuff and..."

She was saying this. She was asking to fucking live together. In her head she thought about making a rose garden, and having children together. 401K's, and marriage with two little brides on the cake. Fuck.

Lana leaned in and hugged her. She was crying, or looked like it. She nuzzled into her neck with the look, if not incredible warmth,  tenderness.

This was so so not her. And lana was so not her type. They could never get a beer together, watch action movies together, discuss the merits of Iron Man together,  eat smoked meats together. Yet the imense desire to spend the rest of her fucking life with this women filed her with sudden mania.

"Can I read your thoughts?" Lana asked as she looked up at her. Her own eyes were weak, scared, vulnerable. Then she paused.

Sarah filled the space. "Okay. I just don...."

"No need. Your face tells me everything. It's not bad. It's not good, it's...you feel exactly what I'm feeling right now."

Sarah paused. Damn.

Lana finished Sarah's thought. "And that may not be love, that may not be forever, but goddammit if its not beautiful."

There is no perfect ending to this story. No ending that would be happily ever afte. Sarah was a bit of a flake. Lana had emotional issues up the ying-yang. Whether they stayed together or seperated they would do so with the knowledge of this perfect moment, and the fact that its promise could never be entirely fulfilled. Also, Lana was entirely lesbian and Sarah was  kind of fooling around.

Heroes didn't exist. Humanity was no good. Love's potential was doomed to folly.

But the next day Sarah went to a condo real estate agent and, damned if she didn't get  85% of her asking price. She was never happier.

Becuse it didn't have to be perfect. It didn't have to be neat, or clean or simple.

It was life.

And it was amazing.

Three Cheers

‘Mazing Girl had made a mistake.

Well, other then getting the wrong calibre blank bullets the other day - that could be expensive but she could use them in a later episode.

And the fact that she had ordered a really bad sandwich at Pantera Bakery - but that could be educational, and the muffin she had ordered for desert was pretty good. Not great, but pretty good.


No, her big mistake had been stoping.

‘Mazing Girl had just rescued three people from a burning car, and one person on a cellphone from a non-burning car. In a real nasty accident.  No one was dead, but yeah. people were going to be spending time in the hospital. At least one broken leg a lot of burns - yeah.

The irony was abstractly that from a legal standpoint, as ‘Mazing Girl understood, the cellphone guy was not responsible (the non-cellphone car had hit him), despite the fact that driving with a cellphone was illegal. Ahh, she didn’t want to think too much about that.

But afterwards, as ambulances and police arrived at the busy Westwood intersection, well...people came.

They were cheering...screaming.

And she was covered in blood.

Groups of college students and their allies were coming at her.

Well, ‘Mazing wasn’t covered in blood, but she was quite bloody. Humans contain only so much blood, but its more then you think though less then in a Tarantino film. She suspected that if you were to go to a blood bank and gave this amount of blood, you would walk out pale...

She shook her head.

"’Mazing Girl," an awestruck man gawked.

She smiled.

"Great."

She could have been clear of the scene in, like. 2 seconds. But didn't. That would be rude. Instead, she gave a wave.

"Wow that was....well, not amazing...but fantastic!"

Waving was not her strong suit.

"You’re the greatest."

There was an ambulance there. "Can you get me a towel?" she said to the crowd.

"You’re the best!"

"Wonderful!”

"You save this town!"

Sarah eventually got a towel and started wiping herself off.

A fan came right up to her. "Hey! Can I have your towel?"

Sarah looked at the towel in her hand, there was now a fair amount of blood on it. "It belongs to the fire department," seemed a better more diplomatic response then "No, you ghoulish little fuck". Sarah knew what diplomacy was.

"Can I have your autograph?"

This woman at least had taken the time to get a pen and pad.

Sarah took it, though she slightly regretted it. She liked that people loved her. This was good. The girl was cute, in the way 20 year olds were cute who had reached the specific age when cute - not pretty, not sexy, not gorgeous - but cute was what they were looking for...this girl had found it. And she got ‘Mazing Girl’s autograph.

Then Sarah saw that there were more of them. Lots more.

A fire-fighter came over, hopefully...to...stop...it...but he dashed Sarah’s hopes with seven words: "Let’s form a single file line here."

Sarah sighed. That was very thoughtful and the crowd, to its credit, quickly complied. It was a good scene, abstractly. People in LA could be pushy and mean just like anywhere - but well, they could also be friendly and nice.

Just, well, her costume had blood on it. She moved away from the accident. Someone gave her a pen and let her keep it. Thoughtful...then pieces of paper, college notebooks, all came up as a line of about 50 formed in front of her...and kept growing as she went through.

"Your the greatest, I want to be like you when I grow up," a 12 year old told her. Sarah had been 12 when she first did her first official act, but thanked her for her work.

Sarah sighed. People loved her. She abstractly knew this. She was a paragon, the cities champion, it’s god. Well okay not a god...well maybe. It was, however, easy for her to ignore it. She was a prop designer on an anonymous show, that she knew personally few people watched. She had friends who liked her fine as Sarah, either as a nerd, as a prop master, or both. As ‘Mazing Girl she dealt with the police who treated her okay, sometimes criminals who didn't, but that was real, that was honest and she didn't begrudge the criminals for throwing their guns at her in frustration after shooting her. Yeah, occasionally reporters - but this...just this.

Just the people.

She posed for photographs. Great thing about iphones. Great for taking photos.

Sarah smiled.

"Hey! Can I take a photograph?"

Sarah turned. It was Jamey. Knife Girl. Except instead of a Zorro costume she wore a surprisingly small tank-top and jeans. And a hat. And abs...

Sarah smiled through clenched teeth. Jamey handed her phone to a guy who had taken the role of crowd photographer.

"So, what you doing here?" asked Janey.

"Stuff" said Sarah.

"Want to get dinner?" said Janey.

"Nope," said Sarah. "I hate you."

She smiled.

And then the guy with the iphones ran off. Sarah realized he had about three of them from a other people ib the line.

Sarah shook her head.

"Give me a minute."

Sarah watched his pattern down the Westwood Street...then she leaned down and jumped.

100, 150...175 feet. Time slowed.

She landed in front of him. And a Pinkberries. That was one of those chains she had always wanted to try out but..

"Give ‘em back to me," Sarah offered, "and I'll let you go."

The guy looked at her, foolishly turned and ran down an alley.

She ran after him - if this was a movie this would take a while, but he barely got 10 feet before she grabbed him. I mean, he was running at human speed. She wasn't.

"Same offer; last time."

The guy sighed...and handed the phones over.

She let him go and jumped back.

This created another shock, another wave in the crowd.

"Okay. Who had the iphone 4g?"

And a loud cheer went over the crowd.


***

Sarah sat in her apartment that evening. she was lucky to have a built in washer dryer-which was good as you want to wash a super suit individually and you didn't want to do in a pile in public laundry.

She sighed. She was feeling sulky. Just sulky.  She lay on bed in the mood of a snit.

However, she had no-one really to snit was the annoying people in Westwood going to see her in her crappy little two bedroom in El Segundo.

she looked out the window. She could see a small garden outside. She looked it over. She had never really been in it as it wasn't hers, but every couple of months she did look at it through the window. It was for some people with a rich house. It had a large pond with water lilies a large vegetable bed, and several gorgeous strands of trees. There was a beautiful stone bench next to the pond that looked as if it was from Europe. When Sarah first moved in she looked at with envy - she wanted that garden - but as she matured she realized things were fine the way they were - she was enjoying the garden as much as she would have if it was hers, and gardens were a bitch to maintain.

So she just watched.

And as she did, she saw the cute girl from earlier sitting there wearing a cute tee, cute jeans, cute ahir, and cute glasses. You may be picking up on a theme here...

She was just sitting there next to the pond, looking lost in thought.

Sarah watched her. Was the girl thinking about ‘Mazing Girl? Thinking of their encounter, their chance meeting where she gave her an autograph. Or was that egotistical? Maybe she was thinking of her boyfriend, or school, or any number of things. LA had a huge number of celebrities, it wasn't hard to find them, get your picture. Was she that special? That...amazing?

(Sarah had considered, but never installed. a swear jar where she would put money every time she used the word amazing)

The girl had told Sarah her name, but Sarah forgot it - which was a shame as she really wanted to know it right now. She didn't know anything about the owners of the garden, despite living right next to them. She looked. Yeah, a UCLA student in college, seemed about right for this place.

Sarah fantasized.

She got in her costume, jumped out her other window and landed in the garden. "Hey!" she would say. "I saw you earlier...and I was wondering...can I have you autograph?"

They would laugh and they would talk, and they would go to a semi-fancy Korean barbeque restaurant and become best friends. Sarah would be maid of honor at her wedding, and have children together playing, and go on long vacations together to the Poconos (Sarah had been to the Poconos - surprisingly nice place). It was a beautiful life together, full of adventure and excitement...and amazing (-25 cents) things.

Sarah smiled and looked out the window, and didn't do any of it.

But somehow felt better for all of it...as she looked down at her like a god - or from a second storey window of a shitty condo. Sometimes it was nice just to want things, to dream of things.

The girl looked up at the sky.

A Tale of a Particulary Cute Kitten

Sarah smiled. She didn't quite expect to think that smiling was a good thing. But this was important. This was a kitten.

"So yeah I work as a prop master and I just...” 

"So what kind of hours do you work?” the woman across the table inquired, with more force and sense of incrimination then Sarah had seen detectives employ. Considerably more.

"It’s not set hours - it varies, day to do."

"That’s what I was afraid of," the woman noted. "You do know that cats need to have someone present at least once every 24 hours or more."

"Oh, of course!" Sarah assured her. That was 90 percent of the time true. Occasionally ‘Mazing business cropped up, or boyfriends, or...well, she could make it a hundred. "It tends to be 10 to 12 hours, but the start times vary.”

"Are you *sure* you have enough time to devote to this animal?"

"Certainly," said Sarah, "She’s going to be super-loved."

Sarah went back and forth on using the ‘S’ word. She tended to either use it a lot in bursts, or just never say it as corny. It was, but, well... she had a bureaucrat to impress and needed a superlative. 

"The adoption is free, of course, but there’re fees totalling 125 dollars.”

Sarah paused. Okay, yeah...she could pay that.


"Plus mandatory sterilization fees of 120."

"Mandatory?" Sarah asked, concerned. "But what if I want her to have kittens of her own? They’re so ....."

"Its part of combating the plague of feral and stray animals in the city," said the woman who looked as you might expect an axe murderer would. "And it’s not like it’s a purebred, or anything."

Purebred. Huh.

***********

"So this will be 25 dollars for the cat, 15 for the litter box, 3 bucks for the litter," the clerk at the pet store informed her.

"Is this cat in anyway a purebred?" Sarah asked, holding up a little grey and brown kitten.

The clerk smiled at her, in the ‘I am uneducated but I want to help’ kind of ways of quality clerk" no ma’am, it looks just to be a randomy kind of tabby."

"And she is so adorable" said Sarah.

"Yeah. Super-cute," agreed the clerk.

Super? Really?


****

Sarah was delighted to bring her home. Sarah put her little kitten in the big apartment and showed her everything...the kitchen, the bedroom...the bathroom – yep, that pretty much it. Sarah hadn't had a real pet until she was about 10. And this completely excited her.

"Meow," said the little one.

She clapped her hands with joy.

It walked around the apartment curiously. Sarah smiled. As she watched it explore things.

For about five minutes.

"Awwwwww," She said as it got under the chair and batted at it.

Then she got a flash. There was going to be a rockslide in Reseda.

And ‘Mazing Girl left.

****

It was about three hours latter before she got back. There was a robbery at a produce factory that demanded her attention.


The little kitten (she hadn't decided the perfect geek name) was sleeping on her couch. Awwww...

She watched it for a few minutes and felt guilty. Kittens only have one real time to be in your house the first time. She would have to move if she wanted to do that, and she still hadn't paid off the mortgage on it. And now she tuckered out. She had missed it.

Ahh well...she setup the littler box, and went to the bedroom of her own she watched a little TV before going to bed.

When the cat started meowing around 2 AM

She ran out to see it at the water bowl she had put up but had spilled everywhere.

She refilled it.

The cat started to drink, so she pet it.

The cat looked up at her curiously. It meowed.

****

"It meows a lot," Sarah told her friend Janey, the fantastic Knife Girl, on the phone.

"Cats tend to," said Janey, "Actually that’s just hearsay, I never had a cat."

"Really?" asked Sarah.

"Never really had a childhood," said Janey. "I entered the army when I was 9, before that I was way too poor for pets. Even cats. Since then, I guess I would worry too much that I won't come back"

"What do you mean?"

"The life I lead - I mean one day I am going to die. There is so much damm risk involved in doing this. Live by the knife; die by the knife. I'm okay with that - but what about what I leave behind - when is someone going to come into my house next? It could be weeks. I feel guilty about my boyfriend, though I suppose theoretically he could go to the store himself - but well. He'll cry. a cat can't.”

Sarah paused. She hadn't thought of that.

"Plus, I am not big animal person" admitted Janey.

************

Sarah lived in a condo which meant she didn't have a superintendent as such. She also didn't really know her neighbours super well (again!). This wasn't New York where you could live years in an apartment and never meet the person 3 feet from you. But neither Mr. Wilkers, a computer something, and Mr and Ms Lister, a couple who she strongly suspected did stuff involving S&M a lot (‘which is the dom?/Which is the sub?’ was a game she played whenever she saw them - 84% of the time she suspected Mr. lister was the latter) she really trusted to come into her apartment. And what would she say? "If I don't come home after a couple of days, I am dead – or check local radio reports to see if ‘Mazing Girl is eaten or something like that"

Plus she wasn't absolutely sure if anyone she knew was worth giving unfettered access to her apartment, and its secrets. Namely, her ‘Mazing Girl costume: which actually wasn't that unusual given the world of cosplay she lived in. She could just say that it was something she wore to a con. Sure, it was a very good ‘Mazing Girl costume...but she had seen better.




But she did have a 3D printer, which was kind of pricey. And an Xbox, though they were coming out with a new one. But the TV was expensive.

She petted her kitten.

She still hadn't named it, but she was learning about it. It was a very alert cat. It wasn't scared but had a way of looking around as if it was taking in everything, and everything was a bit strange to it. It wasn't friendly or standoffish, just observant.

This was a personality.

It was a cute personality, in the way fear was cute.

Sarah petted it. It didn't meow at her. That was a minor victory.

But after a week she wasn't spending all that much time with it. Sarah knew abstractly that with work, superheroing, and the occasional geekish activity – well, there was only 24 hours a day. She didn't spend a whole lot of time at home, which suited her. She hadn't gone to any movies or games, but she still had work to do. As for Mazing Girl - it would be kind of negligent to cut down on patrolling and saving the city because she had a cat. It was, no matter how she loved it, a cat.

There was an old joke that most American cats are better treated then children in Uganda, and while this was abstractly a stereotype that either way you look at it was post colonialist nonsense, there was a vague truth to it, which could be abstracted to her, being the worlds strongest and most powerful person - kinda. To split hairs too much on that...

She also realized that cats don't necessarily need huge amount of human contact, but food and occasional litterboxing.

But...well...

She hugged it gently.

It purred.

She wondered what would happen when she got a man. Would that be the same? Just as long as she occasionally fed and litterboxed him.

No wait...she didn't need to do the last one.

The kitten snuggled into her leg a bit as she petted it and started to kneed Sarah with her claws. Designed to somehow give it milk. She looked down. Nope...not today.

The claws where sharp, especially on a young animal, it would have been quite painful.

However, Sarah’s invulnerable skin was immune!!

Yes: she was the perfect cat person.

Then the solution came to her. Well, to one of her problems.

*****

The woman was walking to her car that night when it happened. Quickly, surely, the man came behind her and pressed her head into the car and wanted, demanded, her money, the car, her...who could say?

‘Mazing girl knew abstractly that it would happen, but it was still a shock to watch just how fast it was. She wasn't telepathic, but she could see the fear in her eyes.

It was time for ‘Mazing Girl to move.

She decided to be impressive, to make him think twice about ever doing it again.

She moved from a shadow...and grabbed him.

Then Sarah tossed him up into the air.

50 feet, 100.

She jumped up after him, smiling as she did.

She waved to him. you would think he would scream, but there was something eerie in how silent he was.

She grabbed his body and turned him upside down.

And put his head between her legs. Forward. Like the Undertaker did it. she wanted to make him see the city. This was a classic move in wrestling called the piledriver - and what was being driven was his head.

And they started to fall. Down, down, down...

He still wasn't screaming. Breathing, but not screaming.

Wrestlers don't do pile drivers from 200 feet up. Interesting to see.

As they got about 20 feet to ground the screaming started. But it was almost too late to get his throat.

They hit the ground in a mighty smash. the hard concrete of the parking lot stunning even ‘Mazing Girl’s awesome thighs a bit.

And she let him go.

He was fine, because a wrestling piledriver doesn't really hurt at all. The thighs really absorb all the force.

Of course, he didn't know it, and he fainted somewhere along the way and collapsed on the ground.

The woman came up to her.

"God...thank you! Thank you! I don't know how I can ever repay you"

"I do," said ‘Mazing, dusting herself off. Her butt actually looked a little dirty. Ahh well. But she wasn't going to ask her to kiss her ass, that would serve no purpose.

Well not much of one, and besides she was a hero and didn't do that sort of thing. This wasn't really professional wrestling.

‘Mazing Girl reached to her back pocket and pulled out a small standard brown key

"This is a key" said ‘Mazing. "Wait a second. Do you have a phone?"

"Of course," said the woman.

"I should have asked that before. And a name?"

"Angie."

"Alright, Angie," said ‘Mazing Girl "Take this key. Someday - and this day may never come, you will get a phone call. It will tell you of a door to unlock. Behind it is something really very precious. You must guard it protect it with all costs. At all costs."

"Wow," breathed Angie.


"I’m going to need your number," said Sarah. She took out her phone. There were probably cooler ways of doing this, like getting it in blood, but it was convenient and let her save lists.

"Oh, of course," said the woman. "Is it the source of your power. Am i going to be the new ‘Mazing Girl...is it..."

"It is your destiny."

The girl took the key

"This is an awesome responsibility. You look young...well I did once too. And callow. This will teach you much about the world and how it works."

"Wow...I don't know what to say."

Mazing girl looked at her and jumped into the air.

for nothing more needed to be said.

*********

Sarah sat at home on the patio playing with her cat. She liked playing with it a lot, it’s amazing how much fun you can have with a cat and a piece of string..

She was starting to feel good about this.

She had five keys made - she only had the phone number, and people change numbers often in the digital age. Plus they, may loose the key, be an asshole - five was a good number, and she had given out two. Well three more to go. Her mom had agreed to call them if anything happened to her - which well, which may or may not happen.

But until that time, until that day, she had a friend.

And She would name her Super Skittles.

Wait...did something like that happen with the Fantastic Four?

I mean name your family member after the one you most despise?

And what the fuck was going on with Sue Storms breasts in the most recent costume? With the cut out four in her cleavage? She had, like, two children, not that that made any difference, but do you want to look like a slut to them? Yeah slut shaming, not a good thing, sex passivity, but some abstract standards.

Anyway: Super Skittles.

Frequently Seen Bolders

This was boring.

One of the easily forgotten truths of LA (the nebulous city) was that it was gigantic.  Between Santa Barbra at the northwest to say Carlsbad   in the southeast was about 200 miles. There was a lot of empty space between them but still. It was bigger and more populated then, say, Ireland. It was less green but had even more Indian restaurants (which was saying something as the Irish really loved Indian food). But of the ethnic cuisine styles available in LA, it was like 4th or 5th most popular. Which tells you something of the massiveness of LA.

It was big. Mind boggling big. As you drove, every second you find a new valley, a new suburb, a new series of small mountains - that when you drove past was still kind of in LA. Okay, maybe not quite every second, but still more frequently then you would think.

But that kind of got boring after a while.

Sarah was sitting in a car which didn't help. She sat in a car often in her job, as she was driven to various sets, but thanks to the magic of technology she could do a fair amount of work. Now she was in her other job as ‘Mazing Girl (which she didn't like to think of as a job...when she had occasional bouts of unemployment she didn't list it as such). ‘Mazing Girl could do less stuff with a laptop - well she supposedly could keep up on FBI reports and track criminal movements and such - but well she didn't.

So instead she sat. In a car. Bored. She was riding with Jamey, the fantastic Knife Girl who was driving, and because was driving got to pick out music. In this case Shakira’s latest CD. You think you know someone, but then you realize their taste in music.

"I just like how she combines American and South American pop influences."

Sarah nodded. She didn't tell her how she had worked on one of Shakira’s music videos. She had watched it when it was done to see her work, and that was about her exposure to Shakira. Listening to, she supposed, her newest album (wow had so much time past?) she wasn't overly impressed with it.

Jamey bopped along to the music.

However, they were not driving for the thrill of driving. They had a mission! Or something like it. Knife Girl had suggested a training exercise in the desert to hone the skills of the superheros of Los Angeles.

Sarah had agreed.

Knighthawk, when he heard it was knife girls idea, politely declined (it was polite for him...a very well worded email).
   
Glider had wanted to come but he had a thing.

Eagleman didn't come either, claiming that if he ever left Eaglerock. evil might come in.  He really did love that suburb, which Sarah made a point of avoiding. But God bless him.

No one could find The Flame. She came to them Indian style when she was needed. Or not needed. Or when people invoked Native American stereotypes that may or may not be offensive, it depends. (Note! The Flame wasn't actually Native American).

However, Lavender and Blizzard both had decided to come. Lavender, the ninja from north orange County, and Blizzard, who had the power to create giant jets of cold and for some reason dressed up as an orc. He once told her it made sense if you thought about it. Sarah tried not to.

They where all going to meet at Vasquez Rocks, a desert park in north LA county, which was taking forever to get to.

"Did you hear that that’s the influence of Tabio Niglas? He’s one of Venezuela’s leading musicians."

Sarah looked at Jamey. She considered her a very good friend, but she was not as versed of the subtleties of South American music. She wanted to say something but thought better of it.  She was a very good friend and all.

Thankfully they had only one more time over the horizon to go.

******

They parked outside the parking lot - partially because they both had to change into their costumes and partially because there was an entrance charge.

Thankfully, no one was around and Sarah was able to slip into her ‘Mazing Girl costume and made a point not to look at Jamey’s really amazing abs. It gave her odd thoughts.

Okay, she tried not to look at Jamey’s abs. Really tried.

There had been a point where they were in a bar like six months ago, and if things had gone differently when the guys egged them on to kiss and that night had developed differently - Sarah had thought more then once on it.

However, as she realized her life may have involved more Shakira music perhaps it was for the best. 

So shaking her head, and glad for her heterosexuality, they got ready.

The idea of the exercise was that Shakira - no wait a second - Lavender would hide in the rocks using her superior ninja skills and the other three of them would have to find her.

Sounded simple enough.

It was about half a mile to the entrance - Sarah picked up Jamey and ran to the entrance in a minute or so.

As they did Sarah looked up. The entire place was vaguely familiar.

Vasquez Rocks. Somehow or other, the name was familiar to her.

"Where have I seen this place before?"

"Ahem," said a voice behind her.

‘Mazing girl turned. To call him portly would be wrong. Wearing a 60s style star trek uniform would be correct. A very good uniform.

"This location was used in many TV Movies from the 50s to today. It’s primarily used in westerns but in many science fiction movies...including five episodes of Star Trek the original series, two episodes of Next Gen, and one episode of voyager. Also in the movie Star Trek 5. It has an alien quality to it which gives it a slightly otherworldly feel with the rock formations, but attaches it to a sense of the western and raw nature, which for shows such as star trek, was very important."

Sarah looked at the guy. For a half a second she was impressed that he knew it - sorry for his geekness - and then suddenly an over whelming shame. She should have known all that. Shame, and a tad of self loathing.

Shows like Star Trek were why she was in LA - she wouldn't do what she did except for it. The science fiction, yes, its universe - but the fact that they made a universe in part with a large pile of rocks and a lot smaller budget then she had to make a show that wasn't trying as hard.  She should respect him.

She bowed her head. "Sorry sir."

"Wow," said another voice. "’Mazing Girl!"

And Sarah realized that the most powerful superhero in the state was apologizing to a guy in a Star Trek uniform.

She looked to see a very thin Asian man wearing a blue uniform of Spock. With the ears.

And then 15 more people in 'uniform' made themselves apparent.

Followed by five Klingons, what looked to be a Romulan couple...and a Tribble? No, but it looked to be the guy from the Tirrlbe episode.

The first guy spoke up.

"I'm leading a tour."

Just then, Jamey came up over a rise.

"Talked to the ranger - they didn't see Blizzard or Lavender. Lavender’s probably hiding herself, and Blizzard...hey what’s going on?

"Greetings, Earthlings", said the guy. "My name is Captian Decker."

"The Captain from the Armageddon factor," said ‘Mazing Girl. "Or his son from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”

"Yes," said Decker. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, we’re supposed to have a group," said Jamey, "Doing a search and rescue training mission in the area, but one of our squad members isn't here yet."

"Oh oh," said a kid in just an adorable little uniform. "Can we help?"

Sarah expected his parents to say something but she beat em to the punch. "Sure can. You guys want to help?”

"We’re supposed to do this as a team" said Jamey.

"I've been doing this longer then you have," said Sarah. Actually, she was the only superhero in Los Angeles who she could say that to (if you didn't count Blizzard who was in OC, and thus kind of didn't count). "And in my experience, part of being a good superhero is knowing how to use the things and people around you. The rules said we were supposed to find lavender - there was nothing that said we couldn't use a team of Star Trek cos-players. Or a horse for a pitcher."

"Should we call the police?" one of the group sensibly asked. Obviously he had the worst costume of the bunch

"This is just a training exercise for fun, to get us at our super best."

Ouch, thought Sarah. Super best? And she was on a game. Ah well, recorder.

"We’ll set our phasers to stun," said fake Asian Spock.

"Or fun!" suggested a Klingon.

Everyone looked at him.

"It was a joke on SNL once," said the Klingon. "Shatner said it."

There was a pause.

"It was a quality show back then.”

Other pause.

"It still has its moments."

*********

Vasquez Rocks was, well...rocks. Lots of rocks. Really, it had a several huge piles of boulders and several square miles of smaller piles of rocks.  It was quite picturesque even for Sarah, who usually didn't care too much for desert.

However, she had business. She and knife girl stayed together scanning the rock piles for signs of a Lavender - the group stayed behind them keeping pace when they weren't distracted (this is where "Kirk fought Actor Dan Tauge playing a Klingon in Fridays Children. Fun fact: Dan Tauge later co-stared with William Shatner on the short-lived series Barbary Coast) or stoped to take tricorder reading. Okay maybe they distracted her a little. However, it turned out the Klingons were also in the Civil Air Patrol and were experts at search and rescue.

"We should establish a large radius pattern," said the male Klingon

"That’s what Kahlass the Uncounqered would do."

Sarah smiled. She was having more fun then she should as she looked around the paths. Knife girl was taking this more seriously and seemed to be ignoring the Trekkers - but that somehow made it more fun. She was all serious, and looked at times she was still in South America, fighting battles in the jungle.

"Stay sharp: lots of places to hide, lots of places for hostiles. Ambush; It can be quicker then you can imagine."

Yeah, somehow having a close friend not having fun was itself kind of fun. Sarah wasn't what one would call sadistic - but yeah, it was fun.

"I should have got some water in the car," said the guy in the poorer quality Star Trek uniform.

"Don't you mean your transporter beam?" asked Sarah.

"No, my car," said the guy. "And the fact that the city’s superhero is having this conversation with me is not improving my sense of reassurance in my civic government,"


"Got a point," said Knife Girl. "I once saw her throw a car over a building. I think there was a reason for it. Don't know..."

Okay, downside to having a group here. Sarah really wanted to say 'Said the professional actress', but no...she didn't.

Instead she turned and spoke. "Star Trek is fiction, but it’s the best kind, to show us a world where we can be, where our potentials are met, to explore the universe and learn from it."

"Yeah," said Thomas. "Like around here. See that rock pile? That’s where Kirk and Spock, along with Sarek...and a mental construct of George Washington...fought Kahless"

"It was an illusion of Kahless," said the Klingon man. "From your puny Earth perspective.”

Sarah paused. Huh?

"But you have a point about Star Trek. I mean you can see the freeway if you squint, but this really is the best of what we have," observed a Romulan.

"So what episode was that?" asked Sarah.

"Savage Curtain," Thomas answered.

"You do this kind of stuff a lot?" Sarah inquired. "Like, lead tours?"

"Occasionally. Vasquez Rocks is the big feature of Trek tourism.”

Sarah walked towards him. She put his hand on his shoulder.

"Very Clever."

"Yes" said lady Spock. "But you shouldn't have turned your head away from the main group.”

Sarah turned her head again.

All of the Star Trek personnel had drawn large Asian swords. Asian Spock had put her blade (and it was a girl) to knife girls throat.

She should have suspected. Star Trek cosplay ninjas.

***

It wasn't as if the Trekkers suddenly appeared in ninja outfits, but their expressions dramatically changed. They became hard – brutal; merciless. However, Sarah could see the fear which was her one ace she had left. Lavender was still wearing Spock ears as she put down her blade to walk towards her as two more ninjas replaced her on either side of her head. Knife Girl stood stock still, like a mannequin, afraid of movement.

"When facing an invulnerable foe, go for what’s vulnerable. Knife girl was wise to stay away from the group a bit, but she came in and...well. Her neck is vulnerable. And the art of infiltration is infiltration. Know your enemies weakness."

"She teaches a class at the YMCA on ninjitsu," said Tom. "It’s a lot of fun."

"I’m very active with the church," said Lavender. "And occasionally as a hero you need a small group who can pretend to be Trekies, if you ask them nicely."

"You did a good job. But it was Abraham Lincoln, not Washington who was the mental construct in Savage Curtain.

"Impressive," said the guy in the bad costume. "Yeah, I noticed that, and was worried that would give the game away."

"Well. I would give my men the simulated order to kill Knife Girl - that is unless you surrender and give victory to me. I forget how scoring works."

"I don't think we worked out scoring."

"Well, you know. Say ‘uncle’."

Sarah paused. She considered. She wondered for a second if those were real swords - if they were, then doing something stupid would be incredibly dangerous. But if they weren't... But then Sarah realized that she had to consider they were. If Knife Girl, or anyone else, was in this situation then giving up would be the sensible option. She couldn't endanger a life like this. She had lost. It was over. There was no more hope...

When a giant blast of cold flew over the rocks with a mighty "DRAW AGRO!!!!!!!"

The ninjas were startled by the blast and scattered - and Knife Girl took the opportunity to duck under the blade and swiftly kick the ninjas with swords down around her. Sarah, however, just turned and saw her savoir, her rescuer: Blizzard, standing in the sunlight with steam blowing from his wrist cannons. He was dressed as, and wearing a mask that made him look like, an orc from World of Warcraft (complete with horns), and a big damm hero.

"Lets DPS."

Okay, she swooned.

Sarah turned and punched a Trekie...or a thug...or a ninja. Well, she punched a Romulan and that was something ‘Mazing Girl hadn't done before. The ninjas were grouping up as Blizzard started to shoot the cold canisters out of his wrists guns, taking cover behind a rock as the ninjas pulled out their phasers - which she saw were clever containers for throwing stars. Knife Girl had found a rock for cover as well, and lavender was going after her - no doubt to engage in some epic martial arts fight. Which Sarah could watch, or she could be useful and deal with the ninja trekies. It was a shame when she had to miss the epic ninja battle, but well. two large very ferocious Klingons were coming at her with real batelah, God bless them, and she had to fight them Trekie style. In the middle of Vasquez rocks.

Okay, yeah: Sarah could have had a nerd-gasm

But Sarah turned to tom...he had a sword. He looked nervous though. Sarah usually didn't have compunctions about beating up thugs - but this was a training exercise and...

He slashed the sword across her shoulder.

It shattered.

It was weird with swords and her. Because of how her body was setup, cutting weapons were the least effect weapon imaginable against her. Ahh, well. Life.

Sarah picked up Tom and tossed him into the Klingon’s knees. They all fell over.

Blizzard, she abstractly knew, was an act. That underneath his weird lines was a fairly smart tactical mind. He did the weird-nerd-barbarian act to frighten people. In a serious world, the silly could be outright terrifying. Just ask the Joker...as played by Cesar Romero. Humans are so bottled up, so tied in that we become frightened if someone unleashes the color underneath the grey world. However, Sarah felt very secure with herself right now - and wanted to let her inner-geek flag. "So does anyone have a primitive gun made of metal and gunpowder?"

There was silence as the ninjas sought cover from Blizzards continued assault.

"Oh no, there’s a forcefield preventing me from directly effecting you," said Sarah.

"Will you fucking stop with the Star Trek jokes?" demanded Knife Girl.

"Yeah," agreed Lavender.

"Keep em up!!" said blizzard "There like buffs to me."

A ninja star hit blizzard’s cannon arm...it exploded.

"He’s a bull in a fucking china shop," said Lavender, going back to do a sword versus two knife battle against Knife Girl. "I have to deal with him on a daily basis.”

Lavender smiled, after a second, at Blizzard though. "Ahh, you’re a great guy."

As a ninja army ran out of their canyon and moved to attack him.

The mighty orc roared, and pulled out a battleaxe.

Sarah smiled - but turned to watch Lavender knock Knife Girl off the rock pile.

Sarah ran at super speed and caught her. She caught her in mid air. However, as she did, knife Girl looked up at Sarah and smiled. And she looked back. And they both laughed. They both laughed loudly. Star trek ninjas...

Sarah felt close to someone, a connection to someone, and realized that leaning in to kiss her would be phenomenally bad idea. Just incredibly terrible - on a number of levels. Knife Girl was almost married. Both of them were straight. But the sense of sharing something with someone did fill her with the desire. Less for any sex but the idea of love. But she shook her head and kept it platonic.

Thank you heterosexuality.

Sarah then turned her head to see Lavender fly at her screaming with a ninja blade aimed towards the back of Knife Girl’s head.

Sarah turned, put Knife Girl, down and set up a might drop kick at Lavenders head.

And missed by a couple of inches.

However, Lavender landed on the ground and sold it anyway.

"Oh! You got me!" said Lavender. "You win"

"What the hell is going on here?" a voice demanded.

Everyone stoped what they were doing and looked up.

It was a park ranger.

"We were doing a training exercise," said Knife Girl.

"Were you shooting a...”

"An experimental liquid nitrogen gun," said Blizzard.

"This is a national historic monument!" declared the ranger. "Show some respect!!!”

"We’re sorry," apologies Knife Girl.

"Sorry isn't going to make things better.”

"Hey! Look behind you!" said Thomas, "It’s a gorn!"

"What?" the park ranger turned to see.

Sarah grabbed knife girl and jumped away. The ninjas all somehow vanished into the rocks.

The ranger turned back. "What?"

Blizzard stood silently.

"Um...I think I’m going to log off from this instance.

And started to run away fast. 

Magruff the Crime Dog to the Rescue!!

Tales of an ‘Mazing Girl: Magruff the Crime Dog to the Rescue!!

"So...crime-awareness event," said Sarah.

"’Couple of hours, say a few words, go on local news. The Mayor’s there, lt. Governor, it’ll be good publicity. Plus, you

know, lots of kids and you can tell them about stuff," said the voice on the phone.

She was sitting by herself in an unused greenroom of the studio they were shooting in. The voice on the other end, belonged

to Gregory Larson, who was her attorney and spokesperson. She had saved him, very early on in her career, from a car fire,

since then he offered his services pro bono. He liaised with the Mayors office, and a little bit with the press. She called

him every couple of weeks.

He was a nice guy as most lawyers actually are, and he had her interests at heart - though he got good publicity out of this

as well. She needed someone like him, and he was smart, tough when had to be, and looked absolutely nothing like her at all.

She didn't want to hire Peter Parker to do this and get people confused.

"So...Saturday the 12th...10am...I guess I know the deal. Want me to make a big entrance?”

"You want to," said Larson.

Sarah nodded. She liked big entrances.

"Since this is how to spot crime, the office has a script they want you to follow. You know, ‘be cautious’, a 10 point plan

what to do if your in danger. This is aimed at the kiddies so they probably know what they’re doing. I'll email you what they

gave me, you can email me back any changes and I'll give it back. We can massage a speech."

Sarah didn't like giving prepared speeches. This was particularly true with politicians who liked to be seen next to her to

get their photo-ops. Politicians love photos. She had been in the Mayor’s office and there was a giant wall in his giant

office full of photos of him with presidents, senators...and yes...’Mazing Girl.

Well what can you do? She was in LA, endorsing a Democrat wasn't going to change anything anywhere, so why bother.

But you know it sounded like a good cause, and kids did look up to her.

"Ill do it," said Sarah.

****

"Don't hurt me," begged the thug in her hand, her right hand, suspended easily a foot above the ground

She was at the docks. It was one of those classic comicbook locations you don't really see much. Except it wasn't just any

dock. It was Marina Del Ray, one of the world’s largest small-berth marinas. Big boats shipped big things. Small boats, like

yachts and cruisers shipped small things...like heroin. This place was less giant tramp steamers and more sailboats to drink

boat-drinks in.

And she wasn't actually sure he could be classified as a thug. He looked more like a college kid in over his head. But she

tended to classify most people she fought as thugs.

"Where do you plan to take this crap?" inquired a voice behind her. Nighthawk. His dead eye mask unleashed a fearsome visage.

Sarah shook her head. She was not, as a general principal, a person who followed a drug trail from source to the street.

Nighthawk was. Still, she didn't want to step in on his turf. She instead turned the thugs body towards him.

"Tell us. You know how strong she is, and I bet you want to keep your limbs."

Sarah sighed. She was also not a ‘threaten deadly violence’ type of hero. Nighthawk, as well she knew, wasn't a killer. But

he liked to give the impression that he was.

"No, no!" cried the ‘thug’.

"‘Mazing, can you put a little pressure on his right arm?"

Sarah grabbed it. She pulled lightly on it. She don't want to actually hurt him. She didn't want to...

"Let’s just take him into the police. They got a ton of evidence here...I mean this boat is full of drugs," Sarah suggested.

Nighthawk sighed. He broke character, just a tad, in exasperation.

"She’s a good person. Doesn't want to hurt a thug like you.” Nighthawk turned to Sarah. "Can you leave us, good mask, crazy

mask."

Sarah paused. No she didn't want to leave him.

"See you at the harbourmaster."

And then she jumped, still holding her quarry, into the sky.

The cops at the harbormaster station took him in, with only a few questions (she didn't know the exact slip he was hanging

about, but gave good directions, and pointed out the color).

She didn't go back as she expected Nighthawk to be there. But as she landed at a small park, she saw him. How he got there -

how he got anywhere -  she didn't know.

"What kind of shit was that?" he demanded.

"I'm here to help people, not beat-up college kids."

"You have such potential up there - but you can't see it down here. To fight fear you need to be fear," he scoured.

"To create hope you need to be hope."

That was one of her better lines. She added it to give in her speech. Then it clicked.

"I am giving a speech next week on crime-awareness in the city. Maybe you should give it. You know so, so much about crime

and all that."

Nighthawk scowled "I don't face the public. I would loose my menace."

"And your not a lot without menace," observed ‘Mazing. She was feeling pretty good about herself.

"You’re a mix of ego and failure," he shot back.  When ‘Mazing girl turned to retort he wasn't there.

Well, he got the last word in, not that bad.

Which is why ‘Mazing was glad she hadn't told him that the thug had in fact told her his buyer’s location in mid air.

********

"I like that line," said Janey "Yo create hope you need to be hope."

Sarah was at dinner with Janey - Knife Girl. They were at an olive garden after work (Janey had gotten an office job

recently, for between gigs).

She was good at agreeing to things. This often involved consuming liquor, but since both where driving they didn't today. She

was missing dinner with her fiancé. Sarah and Janey’s fiancé, for various reasons (mainly to keep her secret identity), had

never met, which was a shame.

Janey was pawing at a salad. The dinner of people with abs. Sarah was eating pasta. The dinner of people who didn't worry.

"I wish you could do it," said Sarah "You’re good at talking.”

"What? Teach them about knife safety," said Janey.

Actually she had done a PSA about knife safety just a year ago. Knife Girl did do a little bit of public stuff, but there was

a kind of implied contractbetween her and society. they feared Knife Girl, they accepted Janey, and they loved Sarah. It was

unfair, but what could you do.

"I wouldn't want to be the opening act anyway," said Janey.

Sarah felt guilty now. She often felt guilty. She had won the superpower lottery, and the public opinion lottery, yet she

didn't really appreciate it as much as she should.

But she knew Janey, who before becoming an actress had been a former mercenary. For someone who played a teenager on TV, she

had spent a lot of her actual youth doing things in South America that American teenagers could never handle. She knew that

Janey had, as was observed in a really corny line in the Avengers movie, a large amount of blood on her hands and was trying

to pay it off. Janey would never use lines like that but there you go. No sane human being would use a line like that. But

Janey was living a clean life in Cerritos, had a house and a guy she loved, and a job she liked...and a passion for fighting

crime. No, she was okay, and she accepted that.

Still, they occasionally did irresponsible things.

But tonight they just ate pasta. Sarah ate maybe two bowls.

********

Sarah stood on top of a small apartment building and looked over the location of the warehouse. Actually it was a suburban

garage in Palms. It looked well...like most other suburban garages. That was the occasional problem with a lot of crime in

LA: it didn't look as you wanted it to.

She was trying to scout this one. She had thought about asking Knife Girl along to salt the wounds of the jerk Nighthawk, but

figured she should handle this her way. Do it ‘Mazing style, just to show them...after all, Knife Girl, despite their

friendship, did use the knives a lot.

What mazing style ment she was a little vauge on. But certainly less knives.

Sarah shook her head. She was above that. She would attack the operation in broad daylight and see what she could find.

Really, she should get a warrant. Yes actually, she would call Larson setup a sting and catch them in he act, the villains. 

That was the ‘Mazing thing to do. ‘Be hope’.

When she felt a presence on her shoulder.

"there isn't anything in there worth bothering about," said the voice.

She turned to see out of mist that came from nowhere walked the figure of The Flame. "i’ve checked this lead for the last five months. the cops have been here twice. whenever there’s a delivery he moves it within 20 minutes. worried about the cops, worried about his suppliers coming back, the man is clever i'll grant him."

Sarah sighed.

"it’s crime. it’s just catching him in the act. in all men’s souls there is a beast, a darkness. Most of the time they wear masks of virtue... but its just a mask. even the foulest creature can tip his hat to you in the street."

"Most people don't wear hats and don't tip them."

The flame shook her head. But maybe, just maybe, there was a laughing smile...no. "the darkness. our failing is we can only really strike in the split second they let it out let out, their monster."

"By becoming one," said Sarah.

Flame put a hand on her shoulder. It wasn't cold. It was surprisingly warm. And surprisingly tender.

"we can't all be monsters. we need hope. I heard you where giving a speech on crime-awareness."

Sarah nodded.

"i’ll bet if you do a fine job, and make kids just a little bit more wary of strangers and candy and drugs, that will do more good then you or I will do a year. yes there is hope, and sometimes we need a person who is hope."

Flame talked to the police on occasion, the press even. But she would never....

"i would like to come to this speech. It’s on saturday in griffith park?"

"I am not sure they would..."

"just to hear it" said Flame, "to see the children happy, and glad to see their hero, giggling."

Sarah looked up at Flame and smiled. She had misjudged her. She put her hand on Flames, and squeezed gently.

"Then I am glad."

Flame let go and walked away.

"I suspect there’s a shipment on Sunday at 3:00. I can let you have the glory of bringing the gentleman in. As for myself...I care not."

Gee...she was nice today. And she didn't even have a heart.

****

Sarah gave the speech on Saturday. It was  tremendously patronizing and stupid. But she gave it with all her heart,

outlining 10 ways people could be more aware, even the youngest. She was glad to do, even glad to pose for pictures with

the Mayor who she privately thought was kind of a dick. Also hundreds of kids to.

She looked in the crowd but couldn't find Flame. But that was okay.

She tried to be hope, to make hope. That’s all she could do.

As did she realized each of them in their own way did the same. Her agent, the Mayor, the heroes, all of them.

Even though Nighthawk was a pretty big jerk.  .

Despite herself though, when she got home she looked up Batman/Superman slash fiction. It was strangely arousing.


The End...

Dance of the Sugar Cleaning Fairies

It was a Good Idea.  It wasn't sarah's entirely but it was a good idea.

When she had first moved to LA three years ago, she had met Wendy, who introduced her to Grace and F (her name was Florence, but everyone called her F). All of them were low industry girls at the time, living in the Southbay. Wendy and F were roommates of the non-sexual variety. Three years latter Sarah had become prop master on her own show. Janice had moved from working at a rental shop to being a first assistant camerawoman. F was now manager at the rental house, and Wendy was still a secretary for a production company.

They still got together once a month or so and had cleaning parties. All of the girls where messy, so spending a couple of hours each month to clean off their apartments together did help. Each girl would get a chore that they could somewhat tolerate, they would spend about an hour at each place...and well, maybe drink (Janice was a featherweight so usually she drove). Mainly they chatted about boys, music, or whatever. Sarah was the biggest nerd of the group by far, so constant talk about pop music was something she could kind of zone out on, but she was pleasant and she had fun. And occasionally they wouldn't bother with the chores, and watch a DVD or something.

It was Thursday around 7. Sarah had spent about 7 hours in the studio which was pretty easy work in the business. She felt kind of awake to be honest. It was the kind of night she could have gone out and fought crime. But crime would have to wait.

Or maybe spent some time with her little magic wand (don't judge her). It was often said of superheroes that their powers made them super-horny. Not Sarah, not really.  Her libido  was normal, maybe a tad above average, but really, she could manage it.

But Sarah couldn't help rubbing her legs together a bit as she sat on her bed. She knew would have to get dressed after taking off her work clothes to put on some old sweats (that were rubbing her breasts just the right way) She had to get to Janice’s house by  7:30   . She did have 15 minutes. if she ran and jumped there, she could do it three times as fast as driving. And she was feeling worked up...

She sighed. No, that probably wouldn’t work.

Then her hand found its way into her sweats pants. Ahh, fuck.

****

It was around 7:40 when a slightly flushed and unshowered Sarah made her way to Janice’s house (and it was a house, even if like a lot of places in the Southbay it had no yard or anything). Janice at some point had invested in the kind of furniture one would get from an Italian store. It was brass bowls and strong colors.  Still, Janice was nice enough, if maybe a tad withdrawn, and they got along okay. Sarah was the last person there but no one commented.

"Tough day at the shoot"

"Good episode?" asked F. F was the type of person who worked in TV but never actually watched much of it. She was the kind of conventional attractive that one would see from across the street, until you realize that she kind of had a strange personality. How strange was hard to say.

"Ahhh, the directors not bad actually," Sarah commented "He’s done some Indie movies you never heard of, and he’s trying some interesting stuff with the camera"

The actual answer was, 'No, it was pretty terrible', but Sarah was not the type in Hollywood to bad-mouth the crap she worked on.

"Bought some margarita mixes. Three in the package, a forth I made my own," said Wendy. “Let’s have ourselves a night."

Wendy drank.  The imprecise amount of alcohol in her drink suggested that she may in fact have a 'dranking' problem.  owever, she was a pleasant enough person either sober or drunk, and she was good with a vacuum.

Wendy vacuumed. F could dust with the best of them. Janice could wash and clean a kitchen to spotlessness. Sarah had learned something about herself.  She actually could tolerate cleaning other people’s bathrooms, despite what people did in bathrooms. She was tolerant of shit and blood she found, well, she could handle it. It wasn't that hard.  This was despite the fact that they had by moving doubled the number of bathrooms she did in the night from 3 to 6. She found she was better at a really good once over.

Sarah spent about 30 minutes in the bathroom. It was kind of hard to hear Janice talking about her boyfriend, who was clearly coming over a lot. Pee stains on the side of the toilet confirm this, and the **** vague/vast **** amounts of it suggested it wasn't from one visit.

He was really into sports, and Janice’s voice suggested that she was in a particular stage of maybe caring about sports herself.

Sarah had seen sporting events of course, on occasion, but had never managed to care about it. With her great gifts at all athletic endeavours she had tried, basketball, softball and tennis had been trifles, not worth the bother to win, or watch the other players loose. She got peeved at them for their lack of ability. It was around Junior High when her abilities fully blossomed that her parents suggested she faked being bad, to go into the background and not become the worlds best tennis player or fastest  miler . She agreed, and never did much in the way of traditional athletics again...and never bother watching it either. Why didn't that basketball player do a slam dunk from half court like she could? Instead, she found a whole world of comicbooks and action figures to bide her time.

It should be noted, as said before, that Sarah Jennings was secretly ‘Mazing Girl, champion of Los Angeles. None of her friends here knew. The only friend who knew (except for Knife Girl, who was also a hero), was Jim...an ex-boyfriend who was now just a friend...but he knew her secret. The rest just assumed she was a plumpy, vaguely semi-put-together nerd. A nerd who was friendly enough, enjoyed a beer,  and was a good shoulder to talk to And willing, in Janice’s case, to clean her bathroom of a lot crud this week. Ahh well.

Yet they were her friends and she was glad for them. She knew other superheroes spent a lot of time mainly together forming cliques and circles. She wanted to you know actual humanity. She worked all day with actors, and had seen what happened to them...how they could grow isolated in their fame. Even the friendliest of stars, tended to have an aura of isolation...of distance. She shook her head. Not for her. Theoretically there were methods through advertising or some foundation she could be 'mazing full time, but she was glad for being her.

"Ooh! A quarter!" she said, as she found it behind the toilet. She paused Janet was a good friend.  And 25 cents had some value as money. But ahh, it was hers.

It took her about 30 minutes to clean bathroom one, 10 to clean bathroom two (the half bath off the main living room), and a glance at the small bathroom for Janice’s unused second and third bedrooms to confirm that, once again, no one had used them since last time. Hell, she probably should do some light dusting.  Meanwhile the other girls finished their chores, and some margaritas were consumed.  It wasn't a great evening, but the margaritas were starting to kick in when Janice agreed to drive them to Sarah’s condo to get going.

Sarah was a little embarrassed by her little two bedroom condo. One bedroom was obviously a bedroom with a giant bed, and the second was used as an office/workroom that in actual working periods didn't see much use, other then to paint models or the occasional action figure (her hobby). It was maybe a tad bigger then a two bedroom apartment, but only a tad. Some posters, some of them signed by the original artist, lined the wall...but they weren't framed or anything. She could have probably, theoretically, afforded more...but ehh, it was her little piece of El Segundo magic (though it didn't have a view of the ocean or anything).

She didn't have a Batcave. She had thought about getting, like, a bat-computer or something, but had no idea what she would actually do with it. She put some news apps on her phone and felt she was giving due diligence in that department. 

Still, secrecy made her keep her costume, and her backup costume in the trunk of her car. What if they came across her embarrassing secret!! The vibrator she kept in her room worried her, but less. She drove her car home, feeling sober enough to drive, hoping that a cop would agree...and not find her secret. This would be the most embarrassing way to loose your secret identity imaginable. Unless midgets or people wearing furry costumes were involved.

Well what can you do? She hadn't drank that much yet, and it would be a pain to get the car tomorrow.

It was on the drive home that she noticed it. Well...heard it. She turned on local news.

“A large apartment fire is raging in Torrance this evening...”

She could have driven there in, what? 2 minutes? She was good with fires. Her powers made these kinds of events trivial.

But she had guests coming home. And an apartment to clean...

"No causalities have been reported as yet, but fire-crews are on the scene, rescuing people...”

Friends. And she had promised snacks.

She got home and opened the door for everyone.

"Someone’s been messy" F teased.

Well screw you. But she had guests.

She worked on cleaning her own bathroom.  She hadn't been that bad really, but clearly at some point she had spilled some stuff.

The girls talked. She turned on the radio.

"What’s going on?" asked Wendy.

"Just listening."

"...artment fire in Torrance. It has spread to an adjoining building...and the super villain known as Deca is at the site.” They played Deca’s voice: "PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES, BUT MAINLY THE WRETDCHED CREATURE KNOWN AS ‘MAZING GIRL, COME TO ME!!! OR I WILL DESTROY YOUR PRECIOUS CITY, BUILDING BY BUILDING!!!”

Deca. He was her arch-nemeses. His real name was Arthur Macquire, and like her had a superpower: Telepathy. He had used it in a productive way. For insider trade so much that it hurt. But as he read peoples mines he learned dirty secrets (and clean ones) about earnings reports etc. It was never proven that he actually talked to anyone, which just meant he was very lucky at the stock market.

Still, Sarah had captured him about two years ago. But not on this. For Macquire wanted to be a real supervillain too. Despite making millions and millions and owning a very large mansion in  Bel Air (She had been there. It was pretty sweet), he had invested in thugs, private armies, and most notably power-armor. She remembered the truck incident about a month ago. That so could have been him. He liked armor and machines and things like that, and despite having no real technical skill had invested in tons. Plus he had a snazzy black cape.

But why? Even at his trial he had never really given a good answer as to what the end-game was. It wasn't money. He wasn't trying to take over the world or destroy it. What his end-game was, despite really being mad at her for capturing him, was never known. The government had taken his house, his cars, and his gay lovers (well the government didn't take that but that had been the result).

She hoped he wasn't monarching her from the Venture Bros, because she always found that show tiresomely up its own ass.

He had managed to escape jail using his a’Mazing powers to get past the guards (or possibly bribed them) and had spent a lot of time trying to enact some terrible vengeance on her.

This was pretty brazen.

But, well...she had bathrooms to clean.

"We have fresh reports that Nighthawk and The Glider are now on the scene. One unconfirmed sighting of Knife Girl...”

She finished early and helped Janice in the kitchen.

"You doing something interesting with cheese," Janice said.

"Made some pretty kicking fajitas the other night."

She wanted to be social but she only half paid attention.

"This is something to see, Jim. Glider is setting down anti-aircraft style fire from his laser at Deca, while Nighthawk is trying a more hands on strategy. However, Deca’s armor is extremely powerful, and it maybe to much for him to...”

"WHERE IS ‘MAZING GIRL!? DO NOT PESTER ME WITH THESE PATHETIC FOES!!”

Her apartment was pretty easy to clean. It was small, before they then moved on to F’s largish house. Sarah paused to consider. Should she call it a night? People’s lives could, you know, be at stake, and all...

"Hey, you know guys...um...I’m feeling a little...well I’m feeling a little...crampy.”

“Urgh,” uttered Wendy.

"We’re at my house already...I don't think the alcohol was helping..."

"Alcohol helps all problems," Wendy said.

"I don't want you have to drive me home early."

"That’s a good idea" said Janice. “We’ll finish up here."

And they did finish up, helpfully, as Sarah lay on her bed. And listened.

"WHERE IS ‘MAZING GIRL? WATCH ME RIP THE SKULL FROM THIS PRETENDER!"

"Oh my...Nighthawk...how to describe it...wait, wait. Knife Girl IS here. Knife Girl is here...She’s throwing knives at Deca, which seems to have distracted him from killing nighthawk. Deca’s coming over to attack...Glider just came down and kicked him. No wait! Deca has hit Glider’s hang-glider and he’s down. God! He’s down! Nighthawk is up and going at Deca from behind...and wait...Knife Girl has stuck a knife in Deca’s back...it looks...it looks like it hit something important. Sparks are flying...”

"DAMM YOU!! WHERE IS ‘MAZING GIRL!!!?”

“Deca has thrown down all three heroes with just a thrust of his hand. Like they’re dominos...bowling pins...now he’s running away...running...”

"PESTERING ANTS...NO I WILL NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM THE MEDIA...”

"I think we’re done in here.”

"Thanks, guys," Sarah said as she helped them out. “I really got to thank you all.”

"What are friends for? See in you a couple of weeks.”

"I'll buy some really kick-ass cleanser. And some better margaritas."


*******

It was about 30 minutes before she got to the scene. The fire was still blazing, but all the people had been evacuated. Not much she could do. Still she made an appearance, looking over the wreckage.

She looked over at the building from another side.

"Where were you?" demanded Nighthawk, coming from the shadows.

"Um, I had personal business to attend to...I came as fast as I could.”

"That clown of a friend of yours, Knife Girl, almost got me killed," said Nighthawk, "We almost got killed, and Glider...”

Glider was a telekinetic, which meant he could move things with his mind. Mainly himself. He couldn't fly, perse, as his powers tired his mind quickly, but he could manipulate a hang-glider to provide lift and float so he could kind of fly. He also had a laser from somewhere.

"I heard you, all of you did pretty well...you and Knife Girl made a pretty good team."

Nighthawk shrugged. "She’s a menace."

"Right," said ‘Mazing girl. "Sorry I couldn't help more."

"You are the most powerful among us ‘Mazing girl. Frankly you’re among the top five in the world. You have to be responsible with these gifts, use them well, or they might as well not be there."

"I came as soon as I could. You know super-battles. This was done in like 5 minutes. I can't be everywhere."

Nighthawk didn't answer,   he just slinked off into the shadows dropping into the night .

Sarah sat down on the buildings edge. She was feeling really guilty about letting down two sides of her life. Wendy’s bathroom would not be as fresh as it could be...and Deca had escaped to possibly threaten millions.

Life. Well...life.