The girl wasn’t kidding, it felt really weird.

It felt as if someone else had taken over my body: I automatically stood straight – much straighter than I’d been before – and my arm extended towards the sky. The flash of red light became brighter and brighter, until I couldn’t see anything but white-red light, but bizarrely my eyes weren’t hurt by it. Then the light subsided, and I realised that my perspective had shifted upwards by several inches: apparently I’d become taller? Somehow? I’d always been fairly short, at about five foot seven, but I guessed I was probably now over six feet tall.

After a couple seconds the force that had been holding me in place disappeared suddenly, and I stumbled forward, taking a step to regain my balance. I took a deep breath, and looked around, and that’s when I noticed that everything seemed… Sharper, somehow. Sharper, brighter, more detailed; I could see things – I could hear things – better than I had in my entire life. It was like I had some sort of hyper-awareness that made me notice a lot more details than I usually would’ve been able to.

I looked at my hands and arms, then down at my body: it looked like I was wearing a skin-tight red suit with white and silver accents. But it wasn’t possible for it to be skin-tight, I realised, it was clearly much bigger than my actual body; even then, when I touched my limbs and chest, I could feel everything as if I was touching my own skin through very thin clothing.

I took a moment to take stock of everything. The suit was bulky and angular, with wide shoulders, and no waist to speak of. And when my hands went up to my chest, I couldn’t see or feel my admittedly modest breasts.

The suit had clearly been designed for a man.

I suddenly felt an extreme wave of dysphoria wash over me, much more intense that I’d ever experienced in my life. My stomach turned and my head spun, and I fell down on one knee. I started hyperventilating, and my vision began to go dark around the edges.

Don’t faint, don’t faint, don’t faint I mentally chanted. I took a few deep breaths. I couldn’t afford to pass out, if I did I would surely be killed – my aunts would surely be killed.

“Hey, you okay there?” I distantly heard the girl’s voice in my ears. “Your heart rate just spiked, is everything alright?”

I ignored her, but forced myself to take a few deep breaths, to calm myself down. I turned my head to look at Millie and Isabela, and saw they were still looking at me wide-eyed; just behind them, the first Repulsoid rounded the corner. I gulped, pushed all thought from my mind, I sprung into action.

My father had had my brother and I take martial arts courses when we were little: jiu jitsu, karate, krav maga, kendo. Even some fencing. I’d hated it, but applied myself religiously and studied and trained as much as I could, to try and make my father happy – and myself: I thought that if I could prove to be a real man, all the feelings I had in the back of my mind would go away, and I’d just be… Normal. Not so much, as it turned out.

Now, for the first time in forever, I was grateful for having learned how to fight properly.

I leaped forward, landing in a sideways stance, and elbowed the alien in the stomach. (Or, at least, where a human’s stomach would be.) They didn’t bend over in pain as I’d hoped, but instead recoiled backwards. No matter; I followed up with a swift kick upwards, which caught them under their chin, and they toppled over with a grunt.

The second Repulsoid had rounded the corner too by then, and they were hit square-on by the first one: they tumbled to the ground in a heap with a startled growl.

No time to lose; there were two more aliens nearby, maybe more. I needed to get rid of them as quick as possible, and take my aunts to safety.

I tapped the side of my helmet, as I’d often seen the Defenders do on the news – that was probably how they activated their communicators, and a short beep confirmed my suspicions. “Does this thing have any weapons on it?” I asked.

“Melee or ranged?” was the quick response.

“Melee,” I answered; there was no way I could get enough range to use a gun or anything like that, not at that moment.

“There’s a sort of cylinder, about four inches long, attached to your belt on your right,” the girl said. “Grab it and flick your wrist, it should extend into a blade.”

I complied with her instructions, and the small object grew into a bright white, two-foot shortsword; I briefly wondered what kind of technology it had been made from, it was probably as alien as the morpher and the suit.

“Wait here,” I told Isabela and Millie. Fucking hell, even my voice sounds like a man’s, I thought, and I had to fight down another wave of dysphoria – I didn’t have time to feel terrible about myself.

I strode around the corner, and found myself face-to-face with the final two Repulsoids; they’d been staring at the pair I’d sent to the ground, but looked up at me, and an expression I couldn’t decipher appeared on their faces. The farthest one said something in a language I couldn’t understand – but it had a clear sense of urgency – and turned around, starting to run away. The one nearest to me began to raise their rifle, but I brought my sword up and then down: the first swipe cut their weapon in half with a shower of sparks, and the second caught them across the chest. They fell backwards with a heavy thud, their eyes glazed over. Bizarrely, the deep wound I’d inflicted on them wasn’t bleeding at all, it was almost as if it had been cauterized by my blade as it passed through the flesh.

But there was no time to wonder about that. I leaped forward, clearing the distance between me and the other Repulsoid in a moment, and slashed them across the back, killing them.

I turned around: the alien I’d kicked was still out cold, but the other one was struggling to their feet: they took one look at me, then dropped their weapon, turned around, and ran away. I didn’t give chase, I had to take care of my family first.

I tapped my helmet again. “Hello?” I said.

“Yes, hello!” the girl’s voice sounded through my ears. “I see your heart is slowing down. Is the fight over? How did it go? Did you enjoy your first time?”

I ignored her questions, and instead asked, “Is there some place safe around here? I need to take care of two… Civilians. I’m at…”

I began to look around, searching for a landmark.

“Corner of Fifth and West,” she said. “Got your position on screen. Let’s see, if you go down the street, you should find a small restaurant; it’s one of the designated shelters in case of Repulsoid attack.”

“Thank you,” I said. I walked back to my aunts, and offered Millie my hand. “Come with me.”

She shrank back a bit and eyed me suspiciously. “…Stephanie?” she asked.

I nodded. “Please, we have to get to safety before more aliens arrive.”

She hesitantly took my hand, and I helped her to her feet; then I bent over, and scooped Isabela up in my arms. Lifting her was surprisingly easy, she felt like she weighed next to nothing – probably the effect of the suit, I realised. She gave a small wince of pain as I grabbed her.

“Sorry,” I apologised.

I carried Isabela down the street, my aunt following closely behind us; there was no one around. While I was walking I looked around, looking for… There, that was the restaurant. I walked in, and carefully set Isabela down on a chair; then moved to the back, to the inch-thick steel door that sealed off the kitchen area.

“Hoy, in there,” I called, banging on the door. A small slit in the door slid open, and a pair of eyes looked out.

“Defender Red?” said a startled voice. “But you’re…”

“I have an injured civilian out here,” I said. “Open up.”

There was a moment’s pause, then I heard the door being unlocked, and it swung open. A waiter and a chef walked out, and began to help Isabela into the shelter.

As they walked away, my aunt turned to me. “Steph, what about the general?” she asked.

“What about him?” I replied.

“There’s no way he and his men can hold the Repulsoids back with just a few guns,” she said. “You have to go help him.”

I looked at her for a few moments, and then sighed loudly. “I have to, don’t I? Alright,” I said, “stay here. Wait until it’s safe. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“I’m proud of you, girl,” she said with a smile.

I turned around and rushed out of the restaurant at a run, heading back to the café.

I reached the end of the block much faster than I expected, but then I stopped. I realised I had no idea which way the café was – I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was going while running away from the Repulsoids, for obvious reasons, so I was completely lost.

I tapped the side of my helmet again. “Hello?”

“Yes, hello!” said the voice on the other end. “What’s up?”

“Can you tell me where General Ryder is?” I asked.

“Sure thing,” she replied. “High-ranking officers always have a locator with them. Alright, go down the street, then take a left.”

I started to follow her instructions. “Since we seem to have time now,” she continued, “mind telling me who you are? What do I call you? I think you told me before, but you were so panicked I couldn’t make it out.”

“I’m Stephanie Kennedy,” I answered.

“Rank?”

“I don’t have a rank,” I replied. “I’m a civilian.”

There was a moment of silence, then the girl spoke up again. “Alright, Civilian Stephanie Kennedy, nice to meet you. I’m Corporal Maelyn Kim. I’m kinda-sorta mission control for the Defenders. Now go left here.”

“Speaking of which, where are the Defenders?” It had been something I’d been wondering, surely they would arrive to fight off the Repulsoid attack?

“En route,” Maelyn said. “ETA thirty-five minutes. Sorry, they were almost all the way back to base when the alarm sounded.”

“Don’t they usually show up very quickly when the aliens attack?” I asked.

“Usually, yes. But we weren’t expecting an attack this far back behind the front lines – straight, then left – so we hadn’t set up a teleport nexus nearby. They have to go the long way from the closest one.”

“…You have a teleport nexus?”

“We do, it’s another piece of tech we borrowed from the Repulsoids,” she replied. “But I wonder, should I be telling you all this? Who are you? And how did you manage to activate the morpher? It’s supposed to have a genetic lock on it.”

“I’m Marcus Bishop’s sister,” I said. “He was--”

“Defender Red, I know, I worked with him. Sorry about your loss. But that still doesn’t explain it: the lock requires an exact genetic match, you would need to have the same DNA as him, down to the single gene.”

“I’ll tell you when we meet in person,” I said. “I’m at the café, I’ll call you if I need something.”

“Okay, Stephanie. Just remember: sword’s on your right, gun’s on you left. Over and out.”

I slowed to a walk, and then stopped; Maelyn’s directions had brought me near the front entrance to the café, while previously I’d left via the back door. I was a ways down the street, hiding in an alley, and I could see three Repulsoids guarding the smashed-in door, guns in hand. I couldn’t hear any sound of fighting, so I hoped I wasn’t too late.

The aliens hadn’t seen me yet. Maybe if I could get the element of surprise on them…

My left hand hovered over my belt for a moment: that’s where my gun was, according to Maelyn. But in the end, I decided for my sword again – much stealthier, I wanted to see if I could silently take down the three guards and get into the café without the other aliens inside noticing me. And I was sure there were other aliens inside, because otherwise there would be no reason for them to be standing outside on lookout.

I flicked my wrist to extend my sword, took a deep breath, and leapt.

I still didn’t know how powerful the suit was, and I miscalculated the jump: I’d been meaning to land in the middle of the group, but overshot them by a bit. Still, I managed to slash one of them as I passed them mid-flight, and they went down without a noise.

The other two gave a grunt of surprise, but I was too quick for them: as they brought their guns to bear on me, I closed the distance and stabbed them both in quick succession.

I stopped, and strained my hyper-sensitive hearing to tell if someone had heard the noise and was coming outside to check; but it didn’t seem so. I could hear some voices from inside, however.

I walked to the door, and stopped to listen.

“I’m going to ask you one more time, General Ryder,” a female voice said; it was a bit stilted, as if the speaker wasn’t familiar with English – or any human language, for that matter. “Where is the morphing device?”

There was a crackle of electricity, and a pained grunt.

“I don’t know.” That was the general’s voice, and it sounded strained.

“Do not try to play games with me, I know you had it when you came here today,” the other voice said. “Where is it?”

Another buzzing, electrical sound.

“I don’t have it any more.”

I peeked my head inside; the bodies of the general’s men were strewn around the café, and he was lying on the floor. Towering over him were several figures: three Repulsoid soldiers, and someone shorter – but still about six feet tall. She was wearing a power suit, not unlike a Defender’s, only hers was dark green and shimmered under the light; she had a cape on her shoulders, and electricity crackled around her fists.

“I do not believe you,” she said. “Where did you put it? I can do this all day, mind you.”

She and the other Repulsoids still hadn’t seen me. I drew my gun and inspected it. It was white and black, with red accents, and similar in size and shape to a handgun, so hopefully it would also work like a normal handgun – only more so, since it had been made from alien technology. I crouched down in the entrance, took aim, and pulled the trigger. A white-hot beam of plasma, like the one from the Repulsoid soldiers’ rifles, shot out of the muzzle, and passed right through the left-most Repulsoid soldier, who was thrown off their feet and then fell to the ground, dead.

I didn’t wait for their reaction: I quickly shifted aim and shot a second time, and then a third, killing the two remaining soldiers.

“Who goes there?” the Repulsoid Leader asked, turning towards me.

I took aim at her and pulled the trigger.

Again the plasma beam lanced through the café, but her hand moved with incredible speed and smacked it out of the air: it crashed against a wall, blowing a fist-sized hole through it.

I was stunned: I’d never seen anyone move that fast. For that matter, I didn’t think parrying a beam of superheated, electrically-charged particles was even possible.

I shook myself and retreated back outside; no one had shot at me yet, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. Besides, it’s not like she was going to kill the general, she thought she still needed him. I took up position in the street, behind a trash can, my plasma gun trained on the café door, ready to fire at anything and anyone that came out of it.

“Are you waiting for someone?” said a voice close to my ear.

I almost jumped out of my skin, I was so startled; I whipped around and started backing away. The Repulsoid Leader was right there.

Of course. Of fucking course. The back door.

She didn’t attack me right away, though; instead, she took a step back, almost as if she were… Startled?

“No,” she said. “It is impossible. Defender Red?”

I stopped. She recognised me? Or, rather, she recognised Defender Red. But what did that mean?

“This is impossible,” she said again, shaking her head. She drew a long, black, nasty-looking sword from a scabbard hanging from her waist, and pointed it straight at me. “Who are you, who wear the face of a dead man?” she demanded.

I thought about shooting her, but she’d parried my shot before, why wouldn’t she be able to do the same now? Instead I put my gun away, drew my own sword, and took a stance, squaring off against her.

Her position shifted slightly; her helmet concealed her eyes, but I was sure that if I could have seen them, they would’ve been narrowing right at that moment. “The stance is similar,” she commented. “But it is imprecise. Sloppy. And you are clearly not keeping your guard up. Not enough.”

In an instant she was in front of me, her sword swinging for my neck. I just barely managed to bring my shortsword up, and deflect her blow; I tried to kick at her, but she took a step backwards, and my foot hit nothing but air.

“At least you did not die immediately,” she said.

I was still trying to regain my balance when she redoubled her attack; this time she swung once, then twice, then thrice, and again, and again. I barely kept up, swinging my blade to meet hers, but I was steadily losing ground, walking backwards, until I felt my back hit a wall. One more swing and my sword went flying through the air and embedded itself in the street, several metres away.

“Pathetic. The other Defender Red would be ashamed.”

She raised her sword again, and I braced myself; but the pain never came. Instead, she somersaulted backwards, and a beam of plasma shot through the space she’d occupied a moment before.

“We’re here, Red! Hold on!” shouted a voice.

I turned my head to look at the speaker: the four Defenders – Blue, Green, White, and Yellow – were running towards us, guns in hand. Better late than never.

The Repulsoid Leader looked at them, then back at me, tilting her head to the side. “We shall meet again, Fake Red,” she said. Then she wrapped her cape around herself, and she disappeared in a burst of light.

I collapsed to the ground, my back still against the wall; I hugged my knees to my chest and started shaking.

The Defenders crouched near me, and White put her hand on my shoulder. “Red! Are you injured? Where’s General Ryder?” she asked.

Wordlessly, I raised my hand and pointed towards the café. Blue nodded: “Green, with me. Yellow, White, you stay out here,” he said.

I was still rocking back and forth, trying to cope with everything that had happened to me.

“Breathe, dude,” Yellow said. “You’re just in shock, and I don’t blame you. Just take a deep breath, man.”

That was too much: I started crying. Yellow and White looked at each other, then back at me. “What’s wrong, dude? Come on,” he said.

“I…” I choked out. “I am not a man. Am not a dude.”

White cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

I moved my hand to my belt and groped around until I found the morpher; my fingers found the lever and flicked it.

“Power Down,” the computerised voice said. I felt my suit disappear, and the two Defenders gave a start, looking down at me, taking in my dress, my long hair, my tear-streaked face.

“You’re… You’re a girl?” White asked.