Episode Four: Aftermath
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Bigotry and transphobia.

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“She’s a girl?” Yellow asked, disbelief evident in his voice. “What the hell? How did she activate the morpher?”

“Shut up, Clyde, this isn’t the time,” White rebutted. “Can’t you see she’s in distress?”

“I… I…” I said, sniffling a bit. “I’m sorry, I screwed up. General Ryder told me to run away, but… Then my aunt got injured, and I couldn’t just…”

I looked down at the pavement and started sobbing again.

“Oh, no, sweetie, no,” White said. “No, no no.”

She flicked the lever on her morpher; the electronic voice said “Power Down,” and her suit disappeared. She grabbed me by the shoulders.

No,” she repeated firmly. “You did your best. You stepped up to the occasion, and you protected those you care about.”

I looked up at her. She was an attractive black woman, a bit older than me, maybe twenty-five to thirty; she had deep, soulful brown eyes, and her smile was captivating.

“You hear me? You did very good,” she repeated. “Not everyone goes toe-to-toe with Emerald Scarab and lives to tell the tale.”

I sniffled again. “T… Thank you…”

She smiled at me. “What’s your name?”

I swallowed a few times to clear my throat. “Stephanie.”

“Nice to meet you, Stephanie, I’m Megan,” she said. “Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine.”

She hugged me tight, and I began to calm down a bit.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s fine and all, but the question stands,” Yellow said. “How did she activate the morpher?”

“Shut up, Clyde!” Megan hissed.

“I can explain that,” came General Ryder’s voice. He was hobbling towards us, supported by Blue and Green on each side; he looked much worse to wear than when I’d last seen him clearly, but it didn’t look like his life was in danger.

“Well, I’m all ears,” Yellow said, crossing his arms in front of his chest, while Megan released her hug.

“The lock on Red’s morpher was, of course, patterned after Captain Bishop’s genetic code,” the general said. Everyone nodded. “Well, it just so happens that miss Kennedy has the exact same genetic code as your former colleague; they are twins. Identical twins.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s just not possible,” Green said, shaking her head. “Identical twins can’t be of different genders.”

“As with many things, gender is also relative,” General Ryder said. “And it can be changed later in life if it doesn’t agree with what a person feels about themselves.”

“That’s true,” Blue said. “I have a cousin who…”

He trailed off, realising what the general meant. Suddenly I felt five pairs of eyes, staring directly at me.

I shrunk back as much as possible; I felt like melting into the pavement right then and there. A sob escaped me once more.

Megan hugged me again. “No, no, Stephanie, shhh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” she whispered, trying to soothe me.

“Ah, fucking hell,” Yellow muttered.

“Clyde!” Blue snapped.

“What-ever. I’ll see you back at base,” Yellow replied. He took a few steps away from the group and stood in the middle of the street, then he tapped the side of his helmet. “Yellow ready for transfer.”

There was a brief flash of yellow light, and he was gone.

Megan, Blue, and Green let out a collective sigh. “You’ll have to excuse him,” Green said. “He’s not a bad guy, he’s just… Well, you’ll get to know him.”

I was about to tell them that I hadn’t decided to stay with the team yet, but before I could say something, General Ryder spoke up.

“First things first,” he said, “we have to get miss Kennedy to the hospital, she might have been injured.”

“I’m fine,” I replied.

He shook his head firmly. “Lieutenant Miller and Captain Wilson told me you fought the Emerald Scarab. It’s best to check if she did something to you, she always has something up her sleeve. And besides, you cut yourself on the glass before I gave you the morpher, didn’t you? We don’t want the cuts to get infected.” He paused. “And I need to get a check-up, too, she did a number on me.”

And there was Isabela, too, I thought. I needed to see if she was alright.

I nodded. “Okay.”

The general nodded back. “Captain Wilson, will you please see to it?”

“Sir,” Blue said in acknowledgement, and tapped the side of his helmet. “Mae, you there? Alright, you don’t need to be so snippy. Could you send an ambulance to our location, please?”

 

 

Surprisingly, no civilians besides me and Isabela had been injured during the attack. The general had been right: a small team, performing a surgical strike to try and capture my brother’s morpher. Well, at least it had served as a successful test of the shelter system. Emergency bunkers had been set up all over the continental United States and Canada since the Repulsoids had landed in Michigan, to give civilians a place where they could be safe in case of attack; this was the first time it had been used so far from the front lines, however.

The doctors looked me over carefully at the general’s behest, but they found I was in perfect health besides a few cuts and scrapes on my knees and the palm of my hands. I was still quite shaken, however; even if I’d managed to calm myself down, I’d seen several people die, and I’d been forced to kill some Repulsoids: they were still clearly sentient beings. And the fact that I’d suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Repulsoid Leader (who they told me was called Emerald Scarab), and that I would’ve probably been killed had the Defenders not shown up at the very last moment, weighed heavily on my mind.

After my wounds had been bandaged up, I went to see Isabela. She was asleep in bed when I saw her, but Millie told me she’d suffered a bad burn on her leg: it would be a couple days before she could walk again. My aunt was grateful for the fact that I’d saved their lives, and she asked me how I’d managed to turn into Defender Red; she was stunned when I explained that my brother Mark had been one of the costumed heroes until the previous week, when he’d died in the line of duty.

We spent hours talking, first just Millie and I, and then also Isabela once she woke up; they told me not to let the fact that Isabela had been injured weigh on my mind, and that I shouldn’t feel forced to carry on being a Defender in my brother’s stead: I was a civilian after all, I lacked the training he had.

I was still thinking about it all when I left Isabela’s room, and found General Ryder had been waiting for me so that he could talk to me alone. He was supporting himself on a pair of crutches, and he hobbled over to an empty room with me in tow, leaving the three Defenders outside to make sure no one would interrupt or overhear us.

“So… How are you feeling, general?” I broke the ice.

He sat down in a chair, and waved his hand dismissively. “I’m fine. The doctors tell me there’s no permanent damage, though it will take me a couple weeks before I’m able to walk without problem again. I’m mostly mad that I got captured – which only happened because I ran out of ammo, mind; my men and I were keeping them at bay perfectly well before that happened.”

“About that… I’m sorry about your loss,” I said.

“Don’t be,” he replied, shaking his head. “They were soldiers. They knew the risk… Just like your brother.”

There was a hidden meaning behind his words, clearly, but I didn’t acknowledge it. I simply nodded and said, “Right.”

There were a few moments of silence, and then he spoke up again. “Have you given more thought to my proposal, miss Kennedy? Will you be joining the Defenders?”

I sighed. “I… I don’t know,” I said. “Today was just… I mean, I was almost killed!”

“But you weren’t. Killed, that is. Instead, you defeated several Repulsoid foot soldiers, and saved two lives.”

Yes, Isabela and Millie. Had I not been there, had I been unable to activate the morpher, they would have likely been killed by the Repulsoids. But then again, they had only been in danger because I’d asked them to come with me to the café when I spoke with the general; and the café had only been attacked because the general had been there with the morpher – which, again, was because of me. Because he wanted to try and recruit me.

I started to pace back and forth. If I accepted General Ryder’s proposal, I could do lots of good. I could save lots of lives. I only had to give up my own life – figuratively, but still – for a while. Until they managed to reverse-engineer the morphers, and remove the genetic lock. Whenever that would be. But they would surely start working on it right away, right? They clearly didn’t want to force anyone to enlist who didn’t want to, out of a feeling of obligation.

And… Truth to be told, I kinda felt like I owed it to Mark. He had given his life in the line of duty, and I was the only one who could carry on his work. There was no one else who could do it.

“The strong must protect the weak,” my father had always said, trying to push me to be the good older sister who took care of her brother. Even though Mark was younger than me by only about half an hour.

And now Mark was gone, and he’d left me with this great power. And a great responsibility.

That day I’d had a taste of how it felt when the life of someone you care about is in danger; and I didn’t want anyone to feel like that ever again. Not if I could help it.

I turned to look at the general. “What did you say the offer was?” I asked.

“Twenty-five hundred thirty-four dollars and thirty cents, weekly, plus bonuses and hazard pay. And a scholarship after you’re discharged,” he answered.

“I’ll do it for six thousand.”

His eyebrows rose. “Six thousand?”

“Half of which will go directly to a charity of my choosing,” I continued. “They’re an association which helps young queer people. I’ll give you the details later.” The association had helped me a lot when my parents had kicked me out of their home when I came out to them, so I wanted to pay it back. Or forward, as the case may be.

General Ryder nodded slowly.

“Plus the scholarship, of course. And you will pay for my aunt Isabela’s medical expenses. All of them.”

The general kept staring straight at me, but the hint of a smile was starting to creep at the corner of his mouth. “I will?”

“You will. And you’ll buy back aunt Millie’s old house from the bank and sign it over to her, no strings attached,” I finished.

“You do realise, of course, that’s a lot of money we’re talking about,” he said.

“Don’t you dare give me that,” I replied, pointing a finger at him. “We’re a country that spends literally hundreds of billions of dollars in the military, you can absolutely spare a few hundred thousand for this. Besides,” I continued, “it’s not like you have a choice. You can give me what I’m asking for, or I can give you the morpher back and walk away.”

The general stared at me for a few moments, then nodded. “Alright. And is that the last of your dema-- Requests?”

“Only one last thing,” I said. “My brother’s personal effects.”

“What about them?”

“They would normally go to my parents, right?” I asked. When he nodded, I continued: “Give them to me instead. I know it’s protocol, but it shouldn’t be hard for you to pull some strings.”

He nodded again. “Is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all.”

“Good.”

He stood up, though not without difficulty, and walked over to me. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Kennedy,” he said, extending his hand towards me. I shook it.

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

“You rest for a bit. Spend a few days in town,” he explained. “I need to prepare the paperwork and send it through. I’ll send someone to get you three days from now.”

I nodded. “I’ll be at my aunts’ house.”

“Oh, and keep the morpher. You never know, you might need it. And it’s not like anyone else can use it.”

“Alright,” I said. “See you in three days, general.” I saluted like my father had taught me (I’d never thought I would put that skill to use), turned around, and left the room.

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