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.

Conventional Bueaty Standards

One day after waking up from a night of anxious dreams, Sarah awoke to find she had abs.  Not the kind of flat tummy that women suggest say "hey: abs!" - but the kind of highly indented, very deep, actual muscle in her abdominal wall. The kind of muscles that appeared after 1000s of hours in a gym, and on a woman suggested maybe she had overdone it. There wasn't actually anything flat about it. They kind of bubbled up from her stomach...like, well, like bubbles.

Sarah found this surprising.

The night before she recalled her stomach looked fairly normal for her - a kind of slight pudge that maybe was looking a tad less pudgy then general. Sarahs weight, in general, tended to fluctuate a lot - she gained and lost the same 15 pounds once or twice a year.

The night before she had helped out at a charity car-toss event. Which was a lot like it sounds. They had some old cars, and she spent the evening tossing them in the desert to see how far she could throw them (about 3 miles, as it turned out). Then there was an actual bank, robbery which was something she didn't deal with all that much in the overall scheme of things. It wasn't like a superhero movie. It was at night, no one had guns, and Sarah was no master detective. But it was pretty clear that the security guard was in on it - but somehow a silent alarm was tripped. The police called her when she was finishing up the tossing thing, and so Sarah got there in time to see the robbers leaving, which lead to a high speed chase over three three freeways, and an overpass.

Actually, it had been a taxing night. Maybe she had worked out enough to loose the pudge. It was weird for her. She knew abstractly tossing a single car burned more callories then she had pounds of fat on her - but, well...life. She wasn't going to deal with how her powers in no way made sense. Someone had written a physics paper about her when she was still in college (not her college - she went to art school - but a college) which posited that she had some kind of acess to some kind of energy source...and well, it happened.

Sarah sighed. She had the incredible urge to wear a half shirt. Except she didn't own a half shirt.

She ran a comb through her hair and looked in the mirror. She was in her own bed, something that... She had a bad case of bed head, and was in her slightly scuzzy bathroom. Even despite the bed head she wanted to show it off to someone, to say 'hey!'

Sarah got out her phone. She went to the bathroom mirror to take a selfie of her stomach to send to her friend - and maybe post on her Facebook page - then she realised she wasn't 17 and decided agianst it.

Instead she went to the kitchen.

What should she have for breakfast?

She looked down. She suspected with the way she ate, that her abs would disappear in maybe a month - if her metabilism went back to normal.

She was considering one of those microwave egg sandwich things, then maybe a donut at work...but really...

******

She had lunch with Lana...her girlfriend. This was a set day, and it wasn't that tricky. Sarah lifted up her shirt.

"Impressive," observed Lana.

"You like?" Sarah inquired. It was a concept that woman looked good, that they took cared of their body for the men in their life. Lana, the very small petite dress-wearing super, aka the Flame, was not a man. But she was in her life.

(Though she was, as usual, dressed kind of butch: a pair of slacks and a dress shirt)

But the point...was there wasn't. She shouldn't look special for her...ahh well, fuck it.

"Theres a lot of muscle on me" said Sarah. "People don't realize it. Quads, pecs all of that stuff. I'm a very big powerful woman. It's the biceps you most notice it..it's just...well, a lot of it is covered in flub."

Lana nodded. "I've read up on nutrition - most bodybuilders get really muscular and kind of fat - then before the competition loose the fat in a crash diet. It's silly. "

"So....let say I want to keep it...

"Don't eat fatty food; get lots of exercise."

"I get plenty of exercise. I mean, like 300 miles last night. I lifted lots of cars...I..."

"Just observing."

Sarah left an open question. Would Lana still love her if she was fat.

That was a silly question, as obviously she didn't love her.

****

But Sarah did eat a salad that day for lunch. For dinner too.

****

That night she watched Lana while she slept. She had abs in the way it's sometimes defined - she had a very flat stomach that, if she tensed or sat up, moved in a way that suggested maybe there was a muscle somewhere in there - but well not really. A kind of blank space between her non existent breasts and her hairy bush.

She stroked it a second, and her little belly button. It was cute. She was cute. Sarah knew in a 1000 years she could never look like her.

Lana was closer to the ideal of human bueaty, and if Lana went to say a plastic surgeon probably could get her there - but Lana never would. Sarah never would anyway, obviously...no way a damn surgeon could cut her open. They would have to use fucking power tools. But in a way she was closer, much closer, than before. If the diet thing worked again the rest of her pouchy area whould go. Making her closer to, say, wonder woman.

So Sarah was left to ponder.

****

And for lunch and dinner the next day she had salad.

******

The second night she went patroling through the city, and saw something.

She landed in front of a house. Now, the image you might think of - a house is something surbiban and pleasent and green - and green it was. But the house was a bit old and run down. It was in Inglewood, a suburb of LA that, well...was "urban" in the same way Aresenio Hall was "urban".

But in front of it was a little girl. 'Mazing Girl adjusted her spot and landed in front of her.

"Help help!" said the girl. "My cat is in the tree!"

That is a litteral quote there. Six years olds can be remarkably direct.

"What happened?" 'Mazing Girl asked. She liked kids about this age. They were good at taking a grown woman in cape, who could kinda fly, at face value.

"Well, I opened the door and I'm not supposed to let the cat out, but I did, and he climbed up, way up the tree."

'Mazing Girl nodded. There was a tree. And there was, about 30 feet up, a cat. A tabby cat. Not a kitten, but a cat.

"I'll help."

"He's scared and he'll bite, but I don't want him to stay up all night!"

"I'll help."

'Mazing girl leaned in, and landed lightly. Trees were tricky. Cats where tricky. She had a hard time gauging weight, but the branch seemed sturdy enough. The cat looked at her - but it couldn't move any further up the big linden tree.

'Mazing Girl looked at it. The cat looked at her. They were going to do this.

It hissed.

Still, 'Mazing Girl thought using her powers of looking at things: We are going to do this.

Claws.

Still doing this.

'Mazing Girl leaned in, and with two hands and steady motion grabbed for the cat, got bit on the arm to absolutely no effect, and held it.

She jumped down.

"Here you go. Hold on to it"

"Thanks 'Mazing Girl. When I grow up I want to look just like you!"

'Mazing Girl paused.

"I get that a lot. Just try to be nice...and help people...and you can. Wait a second...did you say look like me?"

"Sure. Your so beautiful and thin...and white."

"Wait a second," said 'Mazing Girl "No. That is not okay. Not at all okay. You are bueatiful just the way you are. You can't get any whiter, but you will always be beautiful. Black and beautiful."

"Okay."

"Listen to me, it's very important. That is in no way okay. "

"Then thin then."

"THAT is still not okay. You should be happy with your body image. There are whole books and shows and magazines that are going to want to change what you look like, make you feel like something else, and dumb and ugly. I have been fat my entire life, and you know what? I am healthy and *extremely* strong. It doesn't make me any less displined or special. I have saved the world, and I'm okay - and you will too in your own way."

"Okay then," said the little girl. "It's my bedtime."

"Remember what I said!" 'Mazing Girl insisted. "It's you I like. Every part of you. Your skin, your eyes, your feelings. Whether old or new. The way down deep inside you. Not the things that hide you, not your toys - there just beside you. I hope that you'll remember. Even when you're feeling blue That it's you I like, It's you yourself, It's you, it's you I like..."

The girl walked away.

'Mazing Girl sighed.

And that night Sarah went to Randy's Donuts.

Uncorn Sparkles

Mazing Girl could do some spectacular things - toss ships around a harbor, travel across the city in a blink, fight a hundred people in a minute (and win).

But there was plenty she could do, but didn't. Steal the US mint and give to poor people; Build peoples skyscrapers in days(she assumed); or sometimes...sometimes get cats from trees. There really wasn't much of a point in that last one, but she could do it - by the standard, you know, of just picking up the tree and tossing it into the stratesphere. That would get rid of the cat's trouble pretty quick.

But she never did stuff like that. That wouldn't be right.

This was different.

Sarah was sitting at a Warhammer 40k painting party - which was something that totally happened, and i am not just making up - when a guy across from her, Eric Shandler, a man she kind of knew and kind of liked as a friend - yes, yes he was a friend casually mentioned something.

"I have a fan script for the seventh District. I was wondering if you could pass it along to the producers."

This amazed 'Mazing Girl. Someone cared enough about Seventh District to make a fan script.

To her, it was that weird amazement. Yes her parents watched the show, some people she knew because who she was, but when she met people who actually watched the show...that kind of threw her at points.

"Why?"

"Because I think its got potential."

She looked at Eric. He was a nice enough guy. Mid 40's, the kind of nerd who maybe at one point had been attractive. He worked in healthcare management.

"Well, I can show it...maybe read it. But unless your part of the writers guild..."

"I am!" said Eric. "About 20 years ago one of my novels got optioned for a movie. They made me join because I wrote a draft. It never went anywhere. Thank you 20th Century Fox...but yeah, I am a member. But I don't have an agent."

Wow. He wrote a novel?

****

This was not something she normally did, despite what you may think.

Fighting someone in the air.

But here she was...trading blows with someone in the middle of the sky.

Glider lived in town, but she never actually fought him - they never had classic two heros meet and fight before becoming allies. Which was good, as no one should fight him. He was a city treasure.

Really

She in general to avoid fighting other superheros. Unless it was traiing. Or they were really jerky. And she would never do it in the air. That was gauche. So she really hoped the guy who was now 5000 feet up, throwing a ball of energy (fire/sonic, some combination) at her, was not a superhero. For his sake.

And hers.

Because when it connected with her lower leg causing her to fling around a bit in the air shaking, it hurt quite a bit.

****

Eric, she discovered checking online databases, wrote several novels. There was a genre popular in the 90s: Cyberpunk! But with elves. She sorta knew there was something called Shadowrun, and that the premise of it was cyberpunk with elves. This was not that. From what she could see from online descriptions, it was in fact a fairly different stories - the one that aparently had been optioned involved elves trying to build an elvish kingdom in the middle of america in the 21st century. He had written five of them.

15 years ago.

That must have been hard.

She ordered one of them through Amazon, and hoped that in some small way that the residuals for that would help. It was the weird thing about books. We think of them as these deep eternal stories of life, trapped on the page forever. But like all things most flitter on the page and disappear in the ether like some vaguely erotic fictional fantasy, figure books where not like the elves of Tolkien. They were not immortal. Also, books did not have pointy ears.

But today she had his fan script. She had agreed to read it and give it to the producer, if she felt it was good. She liked Eric, simultaneously too much, and yet not enough to pass on crap, so reading it was a necessary step.

And she entered in the world of Seventh District.

It was a world, weirdly enough, she was seldom in. She read all the scripts of course - and had been on the set when they filmed it all. But when she read a script she read it in terms of props. Plots were largely something she ignored. To actually think about the world where two Detectives in an unnamed American city investigated crimes while bickering with each other, was to enter a strange and different - a world she was always in, but never quite all the way. She remembered the star of the show telling her that the reason he took the roll was that in most cop shows the two partners pretend not to like each other, but secretly do. He took it becuse the two cops genuinely hated each other. (also he had just had a kid, and could use income)

This episode got that idea - as most of the plot revolved around the two detectives working at cross purposes through a murder. When the chief calls one of the detectives out at the third act break, it felt less like a normal cop show and more like "wow this cop is legitmeatly hurting the case for personal reasons, and in a normal envorment he whould maybe get fired." She liked that. Reading it, actually yes, this was goof. She didn't really watch cop shows, or even really like them, (which may have tainted her opinion of all of this for the least couple of years) but yeah, if this was on she would have been glad she sat through it.

She could bring this to a producers attention.

But it filled her with...fear was the wrong word, as she wasn't ever really scared. But she didn't want to. There were writing room politics involved somewhere, she heard in whispers, and she didn't want to get involved in that. The head writer, Carlos, was an asshole. She doubted he cared enough to get to mad or had the pull to fire her - unless he really got mad. But that was unlikely. And yet still...it was unpleasantness. Not fear.

*********

'Mazing Girl hit a rock. It was hard. Usually when you see super fights in comics the mighty boulder would smash from the forces that were placed agianst it. This one, on the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains over Pasadena just stood there. It would be just fine. Sarah made a real sickening thud as she hit, landing with an out of control smash, bouncing once then falling, maybe 40 feet down, then rolling 20 more.

It was the bad thing about not being able to actually fly. She didn't have a lot of control in the air, or in this case, ground control. Once she hit something, she was kind of at the mercy of gravity and inertia until it all went away.

She closed her eyes for a second and thought about what she had done.

She didn't, however, have any real clever insights.

She felt punched. Her left foot...hurt. She grabbed it. It hurt, in a non-specific way. Her costume looked very dirty and tangled, as did she. The rest of her body could use a bath for the warming ache curing qualities.

But she got up.

Only to see her foe land.

And, for the first time, Sarah got a look at...her.

It was a girl.

And by a girl, she meant a girl. 14-ish, 5'4 feet tall. Yet as she looked at her she compared her to her 'Friend' and fellow superhero, the Flame, and this girl was already a tad more devoloped. Yeah actually about 16. an akward 16. She was wearing a costume that one could only describe as Anime-influenced. Lots of strong colors, and lines that emphasised her big hair, hair that was a color that may not actually exist in nature. She looked kind of silly, but the kind of silly that in real life flying in the hills of southern california you could kind of respect.

"'Amazing Girl!"

She was liking her already.

******

Sarah talked on the phone. "So why Seventh district? "

"I like to write," said Eric. "I was a big fan of Firefly and I wanted to watch him agian. After a couple of seasons it started to grow on me. It's not great television, but there's something about it."

"It's kind of generic" Sarah noted.

"I like the props," said Eric. "It's not gritty, persay. The show isn't gritty or all that realistic. But there's a sense that realism and grittiness could break out any minute. The props work for that even when they're like in ren fair land. That's maybe, I guess the lighting, but it's there."

Sarah felt a bit embarassed. She had gotten praise for her stuff before - the first season when there was little bit of critical buzz for the show (the Onion Avclub listed the show as "promising" in an article) but when it did it made her feel a tad of almost shame. The show regularly got about 1.5 million viewers these days. Someone must see the props. This was buttering her up, but...

"I could give you the email of an agent if you just want to work in television."

"I never worked in TV" said Eric. "I Had several meetings at Fox, got day-passes, they even valeted my car. I liked it, but I know how that goes. I have no illusions. But it's...it's just that you want to see something on the screen. You want to feel that magic. I think can write pretty well. There was, for a bit, a publisher who thought the same. Now...I just want to feel that agian. Even if it is a basic cable show. I want to feel that magic. It's small and pathetic, but..."

Sarah nodded.

The phone conversation pettered out. She needed time to think. She put on her supersuit and went on patrol, and got away from the small problems of her life and went to the big world of the city. It had a way of making her troubles seem a million miles away, as if the little dramas of Sarah Jennings were an insignificant bug.

Then someone shot what felt like a laser at her head.

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

"'Amazing Girl! I will defeat you and take your place as the greatest hero in the land!" Sarah's new nemesis declared, standing on the side of the mountain.

"Why?" Sarah asked.

"Because I, Fantasy Star, deserve your place!"

Sarah shook her head.

Wait a second...Fantasy Star...that was a video game right? No it was spelled differently. Wait, how would she know it was spelled differently? In any case, that wasn't a good argument.

"Your just a kid!" Sarah pointed out.

"I'm..."

"Okay, you can fly. You can shoot those energy bolts. Do it again."

A mighty energy bolt flew out of Fantasy Stars hand - it looked really like something from a video game. Not 'Phantasy Star', more like Street-fighter - but the point stood.

And when it hit Sarah a second latter - absolutely nothing happened. She was ready for it, and while she did feel it, she had enough control not to express it. She doubted, doing an internal judgement, it could actually kill anyone. It felt a bit like a shock of electricity.

"Okay." said Sarah.

"What?" Fantasy was surprised.

"I remember what it was like to be a kid with superpowers. Wow...it was just mazing. The freedom! Do the kids pick on you at school?"

"That's patronizing!" Fantasy observed.

"Okay, you have a point. But the real point is, being a superhero is all about the responsibilty. With great powers come great responsibility - and I will admit my ankle's kind of hurting, so I don't have the energy to come up with a wittier, more original way of saying that."

Fantasy sighed. "I know."

"I have a very boring job," 'Mazing Girl told her. "For every minute we do this, there's probably...200 hours maybe of nothing. It's a lot patrolling on cold nights. This isn't about the glory, the shinny awards. It's about wanting to help people."

Fantasy nodded.

"Can I just try punching you?"

'Mazing Girl sighed. "Like a free shot?"

"Just to see if this works at all. No backies."

'Mazing Girl stood her ground. Fantasy Star walked over and hit her chin.

'Mazing Girl turned her cheek.

Then Fantasy hit agian.

And the cheek turned the other way.

"I said one," said 'Mazing Girl.

The punch was pretty strong maybe three times a normal adult's. Hard to say. Fantasy Star could be something. And while she had done enough to go to jail, 'Mazing Girl felt that might be a bad idea. It was one of the tricks about the trade you don't get always. Yes, she could take her to jail, and they would spend millions trying to lock her up - only to legally have to release her when she turned 18. And then she would probably turn from on-the-fence about things to hardened super criminal.

Maybe...

But at the same time, she was clearly a jerk.

It was one of the tricks of power. 'Mazing girl was, in someways, Superman (except her penis was very small and was in fact a clitoris. Unlike Brandon Routh's. That man had a snouzer on him. Which is one of the reasons she was a fan of Superman Returns. That and the airplane scene. That was cool. And the scene with the weird thug at the end. Yeah, mini-kid superman was kind of silly, but Kevin Spacey was a memorable Luthor. Unlike Kal Penn, who was in that movie for some reason). Okay the point of it was that 'Mazing Girl was in someways Superman - but the power of superman to be a functional adult, not obsessed with trivia and penis size, was sometimes lost to her. But she had to do it, even if she didn't want to.

"I want you to go to school, for at least two more years. Go to Red Cross, learn first aid. Go to karate lessons, learn that. I did. It pays for itself.," advised 'Mazing Girl.

"Or what?" Fantasy Star demanded "Take me to Juvie?"

"Don't use the word: juvie," said 'Mazing Girl. "You say it stupid. And another thing: Make a friend. A little cripple friend. Learn some humility, for fuck sake."

Fantasy Star sighed.

"Was that 'I am an asshole teenager who thinks I'm a crappy adult', or an 'I am an asshole teenager who knows I'm right?" asked 'Mazing Girl.

Wow, did she just say fuck a second ago? 'Mazing Girl generally made it a point not to do that. Ah well. It was moments like this that made her realise: She was the same person. 'Mazing Girl really was a kind of lacsidical nerd, with a steady job...who was rather cowardly, wasn't she? She didn't want to make waves. No one would think Sarah would jump up into the sky. Maybe spend some money on a poster or make a cool prop for fun. But really stick her neck out? Even just a little bit to forward an email? That wasn't Sarah.

And whoever Fantasy Star was, or is, she seemed that way. Even as she shook her head, there was energy.

Sarah slapped her.

"What?" said Fantasy Star.

"You have a passion about you. You feel. You care. You want. That is power. That is strength. My shit, that's just weird super-genetics. You got that too, but that first stuff: Use that. Maybe they beat you down. Maybe it's cold and it hurts, maybe, you say...no no no...maybe you save the world."

And 'Mazing Girl flew off into the night.

******

"Its a pretty good script" Sarah told Carlos. She probably could have emailed him, but she wanted to do this in person "I really like the third act."

Carlos nodded, in a manner that didn't indicate instant death. "Send it over."

And she did. And Carlos apparently liked it as well. It was a little to late for the third season, but he and Eric had a good meeting, and it was provisionally slotted for the fourth with a rewrite. It all went pretty smoothly, actually. And carlos wasn't an ashole. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. Which made Sarah feel a bit of an asshole for being hesitant.

But that was life.

It was one thing about her existence: 'Mazing Girl could do spectacular things - but somehow when plain little Sarah did the small ones...that felt just as good.

Dancing in Non-Euclidian Space

Sarah was rarely that scared.

There was very little of the everyday that could hurt her *physically*. Seeing no weak-spot her mentality had altered such that very little could *emotionally* hurt her either. It wasn't that she didn't feel pain - being a superhero hurt, sometimes an awful lot - and it wasn't that she didn't feel emotions - she did that too. But her coping mechanisms in both senses were very well developed, and even if she got shot at or dumped or knifed, or lost her job - well there was life.

And she was totally immune to fire.

So knowing this meant that fear had little purchase. Yes, when other people were in danger, or in particular circumstances, she could be afraid, but mostly not. She remembered reading that the definition of heroism wasn't that one wasn't scared, heroism was overcoming it - but yeah, for her to do this on a daily basis, she was mostly pretty much fear-proof.

But not now.

This was scary.

This was terrifying.

This was ballroom dancing...

*****

It had started only yesterday. 

She was having a group meeting with the rest of the art department, with a director talking about the episode they were shooting - three weeks from now.

"So I want darkness here...real darkness...that goes up and down the line."

The director was named Mary Whickman - which is important to shout out as there wasn't many female directors, especially in television, and they should be celebrated. She was also very good, though she could be very vague sometimes in the meetings. Film was a media where one was either very specific as a director and matched every detail, or vague and let the talented staff fill it out. Whickman went for the vague - and it worked. To the extent that Seventh District was a quality show - and it was a formulaic cop drama, was in the margins in the asides where kind of generic dialogue and situations where filled out. At these moments it could be legitimately funny, or tense, have a well constructed sot, or even occasionally dramatic.  

But Sarah heard her phone beep and saw that she had an email from Lana.

She should check it - she was learning a lot about lighting, when...

"Sarah,

Curious if your free tomorrow night. I have come into possession through means of two tickets to the Fifth Annual Tompkins Charity Ball. It’s at the Avalon Room in West Hollywood. It’s an event that benefits muscular dystrophy. It’s a formal event and very dressy but thought it might be enjoyable for us to attend.

Hope your day is proceeding well

-Lana.”

Sarah considered. She should do something for muscular dystrophy - a doctor once told her that a good way of describing her powers was that she kind of had the opposite of that.

Wait a second...a ball? Like when she got into a pumpkin or something?

How did that work?

Sarah had been to her high school prom, where she did not put out. She had been dancing as an adult at various music clubs in the south land. She thought perhaps that this was somewhere between A and B but where?

She suspected closer to A.

Okay...

She could live there.  That could be fun.

But did she have a good dress - something to wear - her shoes? Her prop master brain was going through the permutations of her closet Red - no . She (she had very, very little clothing that was red – because, come on, her costume was red) had a nice black dress with green trim that looked good and elegant, which she wore to industry events where it was nice to look good for. Nice pumps, no flats if she wanted to do any dancing...and...

Oh my god...she was going with a chick.

Sarah sighed.

She really needed to stop doing that. That wasn't useful at all.

"So third act we get to the scene in the distillery...I mean talking to location found a great place in the valley...but lighting-tight ceilings lots of shadows want more of them.”

Sarah realized she was in an important meeting.

Okay that may have been a stretch, to use the word important, but she was in a meeting and she owed it to them to give them her attention.

******

After the meeting, she and Lana talked on the phone. It was odd talking on the phone with her sometimes. Lana was never quite clear of what she was doing in any particular moment - and Sarah had the strong suspicion it wasn't good. Or safe. The flame was an extremely active hero. She had pieced together dozens of investigations at any one time, had claws into numerous law enforcement bodies on several levels, and well...just lots of shit. When she was at her house there were rooms she didn't want to go into. They frightened her – well, frightened was the wrong word, as Sarah didn't easily frighten, but wanted to avoid these places. Sarah didn't want to date the Flame. She didn't want to mix their magics.

But as she and Lana had a pleasant chat about it - the ball would start around 8. Lana would be happy to pick Sarah up and drive (which made sense as Sarah drank while Lana did not) around 6. They would have dinner first. Lana knew of a Thai Restaurant she had read good reviews about but never actually been to, and...it was an organized conversation. She asked about Sarah’s day, and listened to a few of her petty concerns, even offering some of her own. Lana didn't say what she had did. Sarah didn't ask. It was a pleasant conversation.

Too pleasant, perhaps.

Was she roasting someone alive on an open fire like chestnuts?

Performing tests on a sample of fibre to see if it had been near nitrous?

Standing in an alley watching a single child play with a teddy bear?

Listen to 1000 phone conversations at once of everyone in the city? And yawning?

(That last bit would have been difficult, as she was keeping up a convesation with Sarah.)

Sarah sighed. The banality of...well not evil perse, but something in relation to it.

But a ball?

Sarah had to load up a large calibre shotgun with blanks - which was tricky and messy. typically a couple of times a month she had to deal with them, and while the average person might think they were just normal bullets, except not, in reality they were temperamental little buggers with blackpowder that tended to get loose and jam the gun up, in ways that were often hard to clean. Shotguns with their pellets were theoretically easier and safer (despite the reputation if you shot someone with a gun loaded with blanks that’s it was really dangerous - but if you shot someone was a blank shotgun, yeah, you would probably be drummed out of the union...but yeah). However, they were a fucking pain to deal with.

And somehow a little of the powder caught on fire, and she was covered in soot –and...

A beautiful ball sounded divine.

******

Sarah smiled. She did look pretty. She always did when she wore something sleeveless. Her arms were her best feature. Large masses of muscle on large shoulders - but somehow graceful. Sarah could be described as a large woman - but the more flesh one saw of her the more one saw if her proportions were not some mathematic idea, they had power, and beauty. She smiled. She had a little opera coat to put over it - but no. She was just there.

And was going to a ball!!

Apparently you could do that in LA, if you paid, like, 75 dollars.

You learn things every day.

She put on black flat shoes, and got out that nice purse that matched her dress - and felt...happy.

She wasn't in love. She knew that, even though she never really had been in love. But she felt glad for this, this strange thing. She had been a real superhero for, like, 5 years. She’d fought monsters, and robots, and ninjas; and ninjas that looked like Klingons. But she had never gone to an elegant ball. This was a strange and tentative thing, but special and magical. Lana took her places that she never expected, to do things she never had done. And that wasn't a metaphor for lesbian sex.

Well. At least mostly that wasn't a metaphor for lesbian sex. 

There was a knock on the door.

And Sarah opened it to see Lana also wearing a dress. A long orange silk number that had puffed sleeves, and almost draped to the ground. It was beautiful. She was beautiful, with delicate makeup and her brown hair down in a renaissance ponytail.

And she had a corsage in her hand of a single rose.

This wasn't a friend who was picking her up, this wasn't someone who was there to look at her dress - this was...her date. Her companion, who intended to pin her, a term that she knew somehow.

And she felt terrified.

Lana smiled. Her smile.

"You look gorgeous. You really can dress up a prop master and make them look elegant. Better then a software engineer, anyway."

Sarah smiled. She had to, but the fear... "I didn't get you a flower."

"It’s just a silly tradition," said Lana. And then she kissed her gently.

Sarah was 50 percent sure this evening would end with sex. But that didn't frighten her. That was just sex. Girls have sex with other girls. But go to balls with them? Dance with them?

Oh God - they would have to dance together.

*****

But first they had dinner. Women did eat dinner together all the time. She could handle it.

Dinner was at a Thai Restaurant - a fairly good Thai Restaurant. Thai was one of those cuisines that Sarah was aware existed - but well, other then a boba milk shake once or twice, never dipped into. She remembered banana peels were important - her dish contained vegetables wrapped in them. It was good. She had a vegetarian dish so she could share with Lana, as often Lana would give her large portions of whatever she was ordering. So she wanted to return the favour.

Lana was so very thin, but her peanut sauce covered rice was quite tasty.

They got odd looks. Sarah had expected an elegant local something with fine china and attentive staff for a night at the ball. However, this was semi-divey. Formica and paper napkin holders – chopsticks, but it was well, a lot like an Asian food restraint in central LA. The patrons were a mix of Thai and non Thai - the sight of two women wearing ball gowns and obviously a couple - who occasionally fed each other - was curious.

It wasn't a hostile curiosity - but it was unwelcome. Even the waiter, an older man looked slightly tentative toward them, as if any moment something would happen: they would make out or call the fire department.

Instead they only talked. Sarah wasn't quite sure about what, but they talked. And it was pleasant, easy - it may have been about her early jobs in the industry, encounters with actors, Lana’s travels in the world...it may have been something else. But Sarah smiled, and she was happy and her fears were washed away. Lana’s hand held her and she felt firmly held.

Then she looked around the room, and felt so alone...and afraid.

And back again.

About five times over the course of the meal.

*****

They parked the car outside the Avalon, which was a dance club. Sarah had been there a couple of times - in various guises and at various stages. Trip hop night, a performance by Sleepy-time Gorilla Factory, just a night. But this was different.

But it was almost comforting that parking was a bitch. It made it real. LA was a city built around plentiful and free parking. Except in Hollywood. There it was outrageously expensive and horrible. And Sarah didn't have to deal with it!

She smiled and relaxed. Pointedly not into Lana, giving her space.

Not that Lana looked in the least bothered or alarmed, or taxed, by the experience. Her Vulcan-like expression rarely changed, as they saw a lot full and then a second...spaces. It wasn't really a story. She didn't regard it as such. Just parked the car and they got out, Leaving their carriage that looked suspiciously like a Lexus, a car that looked especially like a tarted up Toyota.

They walked together. Sarah looked down. She had to - Lana was shorter then her, though Sarah herself was reasonably short.  As she did this, she saw her own boobs. Damm. They were good. She realized that for Lana, her eyes were near there level - not quite but...

She wondered what Lana saw in her. Did she look at her boobs? She knew Lana liked her boobs. Was she like a guy, and all she saw was a pair of boobs and a cup holder? Lana thought about her.

That didn't quite make her scared, but it was there.

They reached the door. It was a plain, ordinary building - most night clubs were.  Actually, one could even describe it as ugly. Normally from outside you could hear music.

Tonight there were a couple of men in Tuxedos. And not those bouncer tuxedos you sometimes saw in LA, but actual tuxedos. And not much hair. Not from being black and bald, but from being, like, 60 and grey haired.

Men and women where gathering out in front - all well dressed. Some obviously better dressed then others.  Some of them where greeting each other, and it all looked very cheery.

And in walked two girls. Who were ‘together’. At some point Lana had put her arm in Sarah’s. It must be her damm magic. Lana reached into her purse and pulled out two tickets.

 No one outside seemed to recognize them.

And they entered.

The space was plain and boring - however it had been tarted up with too many flowers. Not steamers, but flowers, some rows of them azaleas, posies, and roses - so many roses. It looked like a Kevin Spacey movie.

The room had been setup with tables, like you might see at a wedding, in a couple of spots. The chairs looked nicer. The bar (which was of course paid) still looked divey.

There was a dance floor that was mostly empty, but the night was just beginning.

And on the stage was...a string quartet. With a piano. And...oh god...a flute

Someone had let in a flautist!

Sarah’s eyes glimmered. When she had expected a dance, she had expected - well dancing: do whatever you want dancing.

These. People. Were. Waltzing!!

My god

Waltzing!!!

*****

Sarah went into the bathroom. Closed up the stall. Fear.

It wasn't pretty.

She hated not being brave.

Hated it.

She heard a noise as someone entered. It was lana from the sound of her shoe.

"It’s not hard dancing," said Lana. "You’ve seen one of those television shows...what is it? I saw like five minutes of it once.”

"Dancing with the stars?"

"That sounds about right," said Lana. She was clearly leaning agianst the bathroom stall.

"Glider was on it."

"That sounds about right," said Lana. "It’s easy.”

Sarah paused and relaxed ever so slightly. She realized something. The Flame –Lana - she was the only one who had, recently, really scared her. Even the villains mostly just annoyed her, but The Flame - she could make her feel real fear. If one is poetic, make her feel.

And she realized something.

"How come you’re in this bathroom?" Asked Sarah.

"I'm...a girl."

Oh yeah. Funny that.

And Sarah went out to face her fear, taking Lana’s hand in hold.

And found that outside the bathroom the universe had been replaced with a non eclidian space.

***

"Huh?" said Sarah. "Are we dreaming"

"it’s not quite dreaming - it uses the same part of the brain, but that’s not the word," said Lana - who had instantly turned into The Flame. Not her dress, but how she spoke and acted. It wasn't as if they were night and day - but well, dusk and night, or something stupid like that. She was The Flame.

"Right, Jarmin, as always. You were always right...always so sure of yourself." The voice Sarah vaguely recalled from an unpleasant encounter at her gynaecologist. He was also the only one who used the term Jarmin. Sarah had meant to look it up but had forgotten - you know how it is- and she forgot his name. She hoped Lana would say it, as it could be awkward.

"shalk," said Flame. "aah."

She was a catch wasn't she?

"Did you think a western prison could hold me?"

Sarah realized that they were in an empty void with no left or right, no up or down - it could be said to be empty or completely full, endless void or 1 inch in front of her face. The only thing she had for a constant was that next to her was  the Flame. That was the constant. But she couldn't see Shalk, or be sure where or how his voice was coming. This didn't phase Flame in the slightest.

"well then, I won't use a western prison next time," observed Lana. "i was with her and used mercy. my mistake."

"I made several in our most recent encounter. I won't again. And I do see you are with her. Are you *with* her?"

"yes, no reason to deny it," said Flame.

"Revenge on both of you at once. How sweet."

"So how are we going to do this?" interjected Sarah. "’Cause we were kinda on a date. We’re going to do a little dancing, I just built up the courage, really, and I want to ride that."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Shalk. "That was my mistake the first time. I am just going to keep you trapped."

There was a dramatic pause.

"For all time."

Well, if it was going to be all time, no reason not to put in a dramatic pause.

Flame considered.

"I am not present on the psychic plane,” Shalk gloated, “So you can't destroy me. There is no space to do so either. You are trapped."

"No, we’re probably in a bathroom at a nightclub," said Sarah. "Knocked out or something. I mean even if you lock the door at closing time someone will let us out.”

"by forever" Flame said, "He is actually referring to maybe 5 seconds. a brain can process an awful lot...like dreaming we can spend forever in here.  it’s just an illusion, like time with my own private hell. Just a different type really."

"Well, that’s good. It’s then...”

"awareness of an illusion doesn't make it any less real. knowing a mirage doesn't exist doesn’t makes it any less tangible. it’s not like we can wait it out. it’s forever."

"So what do we do?"

Lana considered.

"And what happens after forever?" demanded Sarah.

"ask a priest" said Lana "i read a little thomas aquinas in college and he had some interesting ideas on the subject."

Sarah paused for a moment.

Again, she had time for it.

"So Shalk," she asked, "What’s the story?"

"I am not going to be baited by you," said Shalk.

"Well, if we’re living in a space of infinite time...if you’re putting it together...you must also exist in the same dimensional construct. You talked with us. So there’s an exit.”

"There is no escape."

"So your trapped here too," said Sarah. "Interesting.”

"Words can't help you," said Shalk.

"That’s a shame. I’ve watched a lot of Dr Who, and since I usually, well, just punch the villains, it’s a waste.”

"Ahh. You’re ‘Mazing Girl, right? I did read about you," Shalk said. “That explains how you so easily beat me. Again, then I was not prepared."

"And you’re not prepared now."

"How’s that?"

"Well, if you constructed two universes with no conceivable entrance between the two, one for us and one for you," said Sarah, "However you gave us an infinite amount of time to conceive it...this is a monkeys and Shakespeare method...there has to exist a method of breaching it, just we haven’t thought of it and ergo it must exists.”

"Well you can try."

"Sure Shalk, it may take a 1000 years but ... you know what. This is how dreams work. When you really spend forever in a dream you have a few minutes of something interesting then skip over the boring parts. Let’s do that.”

****

Sarah found herself next to Shalk.

She punched him into unconsciousness with one blow.

******

Sarah woke up, her head next to the bathroom stall.

She opened the door and saw Lana lying on the floor, still asleep.

She wondered...had she really spent forever?

And Sarah realized this could have been her chance to spend forever with her.

That would have been romantic...

Insane, in a Lovecraftian sense.

But romantic nonetheless.

Sarah leaned down to kiss her, to wake her up as a way to repay...

"you’re what happens after forever," declared Lana, looking up at Sarah tenderly. as her eyes flittered.

There were moments. There were moments after sex, now waking, when Sarah thought she saw a flicker of something through Lana, a flicker of emotion - maybe even.... - across her eyes. But it was only ever a moment. And then it past. And then she was Lana again.

Which was good. Because when she turned she saw Shalk’s dead body on the ground behind her. She also noticed that the door to the bathroom was locked.

Lana got up.

"they say you can't really die in a dream." Lana got up and walked towards the body. She smelled the remnants of his breath.

"laudanum. massive does. Its’ a drug that creates odd dreams, maybe gave him his power or worked with it. he probably intended to die. Not wanting to see after forever, as you put it."

"Who was he?" asked Sarah. "Come on.”

"my old teacher" said Lana. "one day I offended him and he could not stand it...so... a waste, but so i often i encounter it, i am numb to it."

"Like an evening, I guess."

"and it was a sealed room mystery. So many pieces...figure them out. i had worked out 23 solutions in my head, but wanted to see if you could find one first." Lana shrugged and unlocked the door. She walked out. "well, a dead body can put a damper on a ball."

Sarah followed her, stoped and grabbed her hand with hers and locked the door handle with another.

"What ae you doing?" demanded Flame.

"Well, the story is going to be an old man committed suicide in a girls bathroom at a nightclub. It’s a fucking horrible story," said Sarah. "But that story can wait. I was promised a waltz.”

Lana looked at her.

And it was Lana. Not The Flame but Lana. Sarah could tell the difference. Kinda. It wasn't the voice so much, but the eyes.

And Lana took Sarah’s hand...and they started to dance.

A beautiful dance.

An awkward dance, yes, but a wonderful one.

Sarah, being the taller one, lead Lana across the floor in a dance that, yeah, was pretty easy. If people noticed that it was two women, Sarah didn't see.

And it lasted forever.

Until they heard a very loud scream.

Well nothing lasts forever...

But Sarah had had her ball, and she was satisfied.

In Which Utter Glory is Achieved

Sarah read a lot of comics - tons really. And there was a stock scene: A master jewel thief breaks through a huge high ceiling, into a laser beam full museum, to steal a gigantic gem.

And Sarah in her 'Mazing girl outfit, who was at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum's gem exhibit realised they left out something. Education! Sarah could see tons and tons interesting things about rocks and gemstones - how they formed, where they were found, and what they where made of.

(Mini triva Quiz: The plot of the Movie Star Trek 4 involved inventing Transparent aluminium - but what stone really is transparent aluminium? The answer at the end of this story...)

The musuem was just opening a major new expansion, and she had been invited to take a tour of the place by the police, in case something happened.

However, Sarah was slightly disapointed.

For one thing - relatively small ceilings. Second -  the gems weren't that big. Abstractly yes - big, but more in the demonstrate this is what an opal was, or this is what gold looked like in its natural state kind of way. The only really big thing was jade, which Sarah learned actually got pretty gigantic in the real world-but wasn't that expensive. It was disappointing.

It was perhaps a flaw of being a nerd. There was a certain kind of girlishness that was foreign to her. If any of these stones were to be put on a ring she would have oohed, ahhed, and sworn feality to whatever billionaire gave it to her. As if she had any idea of what a big rock actually looked like. These were, ahh, pretty stones. Stones that were worth more probabbly more then her condminiou-building, sure...but just pretty stones.

Then she saw a spectacular gem in the case she checking out. It shimmered in the light.

"Wow," said Sarah.  "I like this one. It's so big!"

"Its quartz," the museum director informed her.

"Is it expensive?" asked Sarah. The stone was about the size of a...a breadbasket, actually. Yes, Sarah mused, she'd had a breadbasket when she was a kid, and that was exactly the proper dimension for it.

"One this big? A couple of hundred bucks."

Huh?

"Gems are all about rarity - quartz is something like 1/4 of the Earth's mass."

Sarah didn't know that. Again: Education.

And then they left and went to see the dinosaurs. Sarah saw a Plateosaurus for the first time ever. The 8 year old in her was pretty pysched.

******

That was about four months ago. Now sarah was back in the museum - as Sarah. On the big central palladium (was that the right word?). Normally, she recalled, was a giant tyrannosaurus menacing a stegosaurus. Now...now was....

A gem case.

She was there to film an episode of the seventh district, where there is a jewel robbery. The plot line veered somehow into something to do with white slavery . The plots of the seventh district could do that.

But now...they where in the museum, which she learned could be rented for film shoots pretty cheap.

And she had the obligation of finding a really big looking stone.

Sarah of course had the mental problem with gems of - she was a super strong woman. She thought she could have taken a lump of coal and squeeze it into a diamond. Well that was the theory. In reality (which she would have learned if she paid more attention to the graphics and helpful logos) it would take a much bigger a piece of coal in order to produce a diamond she could see with a microscope - and just squeezing it with her hands wouldn't have been even enough pressure. She would have to use the more traditional method of having someone spend 3 months salary.

So, remembering some good advice, she went to a jewellery store got a quartz and glazed it dark purple. She figured it would look better than glass as it had slight imperfection in it. It was clever.

"Sure! This looks good, Jennings!" Todd Nelson, the director for this episode, praised her.

"I think it will photograph well," Sarah told him.

"This light..."

"It;s got a mysterious quality," said Sarah.

Todd shook his head.

He often shook his head. Nelson was a very head shakey director as the things he had to deal with were just okay.

Sarah didn't like him much, but the bueaty of dramatic television was that she she had to work with him maybe three times a year for a week. The way he kept shaking his head, made it worse.

The next problem with the gem case was itself - it was easy to make brakeaway glass. It's a delicious desert of sugar, that Sarah being Sarah sometimes ate after they used it. Don't judge her. She went to a freak show when she was a kid. It fascinated her...it...well, don't judge her.

But sugar glass didn't cut well with normal tools, which meant they had to use real glass and a real glass cutter, and a real guy suspended above it in a harness, which was a tricky stunt...but well, she wasn't a stunt woman. Actually, that whould have been a good career option now that she thought about it. She remembered reading a superman book where he went into that, but she never really thought about it.

So as they lowered a very nice actor down on a wire, Sarah sat off camera working on the stunts. she thought about going into the next hall to look at the Plateosaurus agian - but technically speaking she was working.

Until she felt something on the back of her neck.

It was, by her standards, light. Very light. No one was in danger. That was okay. But something was wrong...

Wrong, of course, was a touchy feely word. Sarah's ability to predict stuff was something she had trouble categorising. For a woman who in someway perhaps overdid her humanity it was something alien. The gift of man, the bible said, is the ability to know good from evil. She did. But one couldn't quite put it into words. It was a feeling - to explain would be like trying to describe blue.To translate it into thought, something her conscious mind could process, was not something even she could do very well. Sarah's power to know when something bad was happening, she thought in her more abstract moments, was probably greater then all her other powers put together. At some level, if she really tried, in her darkest moments...it may have been something similar to omnipotence, to know all and see all - to have the power of God himself.

Or perhaps she was sensing someone stealing a buck from a tip jar. It was hard to say.

Because as she organised materials for the next scene, she couldn't quite say.

But like say a pebble in her shoe, she couldn't ignore it eith.

She closed her eyes and to walked off. Whatever it was, it was close...maybe 50 feet.

And then she realized something was happening in the jewelery room.

Sarah always kept her costume bag nearby - which, in a world where the police pretty much no longer cared about things like search and seizure laws, she realised was going to be a problem someday. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it. Perhaps by jumping very high in the air to clear the river entirely.

She ran into a bathroom - which was very nicely kept by the way. Good thing about being a superheroine: You got see a lot of quality bathrooms. This one looked, like most of the museum, to have been built in 50s, and they really didn't make 'em like they used to. This one was built in the 50s and had quality tiles, fixtures - class act.

However, 20 seconds later - which was very fast for her - she was out of her clothes and into her costume, even counting a brief little panty dance she did.

And then she raced down the hallway to the jewlery room.

She knew abstractly that there was a very sophisticated security system in there - the kind that didn't include those flashy lasers that you see in movies, but real motion detectors, video surveillance, pressure plates on the floor, and the whole shebang. All that and a very thick vault door. In short, it was as an impressive bit of security.

Of course, Sarah could have stolen everything in the place in like two or three minutes, going through the vault like it was tissue paper and the like. But she wouldn't ever do something like that...good and evil and all that jazz. Superhuman ethics - stealing money required an economic system, stuff with the federal reserve, continuing resolutions of congress. That sort of thing. She focused instead on the what.

And so she entered into a now dark hall. Huh? She remembered the lighting being good here. Which was something that the movies (And TV show such as the one she was in effect working on) left out. They turned off the lights in real life.

However they should be on.

No windows or anything either.

And Sarah, who was incredibly strong, unspeakably tough, and uncannily fast, was suprisingly bad in darkness. Her actual senses where no better then anyone else's - worse really, as she was nearsighted.  At night she could get around well enough by moonlight - and streetlight. Los Angeles was a well lit city. But in here...with literally no light source...

It was times like this when she wished she had a utility belt with a flashlight. But whenever she thought of a utility belt the couple of times she needed it a year, she always forgot about it - and it was just more stuff to traipse around in the bag and...

Sigh.

Long term planning was never 'Mazing Girl's strong suit. Or Sarah's, really. But that was a longer issue - to be agonised over when drunk.

She did know something. There was only doorway out of this room, with not even an emergency exit, and she was standing in it.

she wandered in as far as the opening would allow to see.

And then the large bank door closed behind her, and she was in total darkness.

Which, in truth, she found kind of freaky.

She shook her head for a second.

She resisted the urge to walk in one direction until she saw light. That would damage something, and probably more than the value of whatever jewellery was being stolen, which was insured. But the museum probably hadn't upped it to include the "Scared Supergirl" clause, though.

Fear was useful.

However, being punchy wasn't. If she punched, say, a glass display or something, something would be badly hurt.

She closed her eyes. No real reason, she just did.

She extended her senses. This was a techniques she sometimes used. Her hearing, her sense of smell...but mostly her hearing.

There was a light brushing of something....

And she was hit - a punch to mid chest.

No real pain, but...

She reached forward and connected with something.

She didn't actually grab it, but felt something.

she wasn't alone.

Okay, this was something...

Someone, or thing, was in this room with her. It processed available information. It viewed her as a threat. It viewed her as a threat it could reasonably deal with - which given the amount of force to her sternum, was incorrect. It had control over the security system in the room.

These were good thoughts to have in the dark with something she could hear breathing.

The she heard a shriek. The sound of a bird, a hawk, in the night.

Huh?

She recognised that sound.

iI punched her agian, connecting hard with her stomach, a flurry of blows that did knock her back  tossed down less so from her lack of strengh more so then her lack of balance. She screamed almost despite herself at the fear, and the terror at the sence...

Wait a fucking second she had super powers

She got up he hit her.

She didn't sell it

Agian.

Nope

he extended his arm she could tell and she grabed it and flipped around so hard  he flew across the room into a sighn explaining with sedimentary rock was he crashed with a loud singe.

"Whats going on, Knighthawk?"

And the lights came on.

There, standing in front of her, was knighthawk, who was, after Sarah - and maybe the Flame, the number 2 hero in the city. Really, 'Mazing Girl was number one and two...

"The musuem asked me to test the security system" Knighthawk explained. "To see if there are risks...any holes."

Sarah nodded. Wasn't that a plot of a movie she saw when she was a kid? With a famous actor?

(What movie is sarah thinking about: See the end of the story to find out. Also was it any good? Spoiler: No)

 Sarah reached in and grabbed the hand of Knighthawk

"HEY!!!"

Sarah looked, pulling off the glove, or gauntlet - or what ever you would call the kind of built armour thing he had. Gauntlet would be perhaps a little too comicbook-like.

"What are you doing?" Knighthawk demanded.

"I remember your hand," said Sarah, as she looked over the well manicured fingers of Knighthawk.

"Well, your good for something," said Knighthawk. "You ruined my little excersie. I managed to take over the front of their security system, but I wasn't able to see if I could successfully escape through the manned exit of the building"

"Well, I think we successfully proved you couldn't," Sarah observed. "Because 'Mazing Girl is here!"

Knighthawk put his glove back on.

"This is expensive, and ruined. Corundum, lots of delicate mechanisms...not that someone like you would know anything about craft."

"'Mazing girl!!"

Just then, the vault door opened and a dozen guards rushed in.

"What's going on?" demanded the guard as he raised his gun.

"Check with the museum director," said Knighthawk. "Protocol 34."

"No need officer. Mazing girl is here!"

This was the moment that all her blood and sweat and tears made worthwhile. The moment when she realized she could be a comicbook superhero, a creature of a Saturday morning cartoon. It was a surpisingly rare moment, but a glorious one. Utterly glorious.  She looked not quite straight ahead.

"Check with your procedure," Knighthawk instructed. "You know how I hate having to deal with rent-a-cops."

One of the officers protested with hurt sounding "Hey!"

"No offence,," said Knighthawk.

"While you sort this out," said Sarah, hands on her hips, "'Mazing girl has a city to protect!" She jumped up  a couple of feet then troted out of the room as superheroically as she could.

As she left, Knighthawk turned to the guards.

"I really hate her," confessed Knighthawk. "I really, really, do. It's just like this thing now. This thing that eats my soul and..."

"She makes you look like an idiot in a bird mask."

"I just really, really, hate her."

********

Sarah made her way back to the set - or in this case, the central plaza of the museum - quietl, though in fact they weren't recording sound so it didn't matter. Which was good, as despite whatever commotion had happened they were still filming.

Sarah watched an actor, carefully lowered down, use a glass tube on a case and pull out the gem -  another actor playing a security guard came at him with a gun.. and there followed a brief kind of wire-fu fight. It was a fun scene, though it took about three hours to shoot for maybe 45 seconds of screen time...but it was fun.

As she watched the guards push Knighthawk roughly out walk up the stairs to the office of the museum director, Sarah tried not to laugh - not as glorious as that.

She was a stinker wasn't she?

*

Answer to trivia question 1: Rubies!! Rubies are transparent aluminum. Also Saphires, and rare padparadscha, which are all forms of corundum.

Answer to trivia Question 2: Sneakers!!! with Robert Redford!! and Dan Akryoid

Answer to trivia Question 2 pt 2: While the kind of look at early 90s computer security has some fun elements, and it does create a cinematic view of hacker culture(though dated), the thriller plotline isn't very good and Redford kind of sleepwalks through his performance.

Answer to trivia question 3: Yes she was a stinker.