We stood in silence outside the medical room, while Megan and Amelia were getting checked out by Doctor Winters: they’d been injured during their fight against Defender Black, and the doctor wanted to be sure their wounds weren’t life-threatening. Also, she wanted to give Amet a full physical too – she didn’t trust the medics at Defender Base to properly treat a Repulsoid Leader.

I looked up at the two of them, focusing my attention on Emmy. My sister. My sister. I had a sister.

I honestly didn’t know how to feel. I’d never had a sister before, this was new to me. And I was so used to her being my brother, too. It was almost ironic: the two of us had both turned out to be trans women.

I felt my lips draw back into an amused smile.

“What’s so funny?” Emmy asked.

I shook my head. “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking…” I paused and looked at her. “Dad is going to go absolutely ballistic.”

“Oh, that,” Emmy commented, smiling back. “I wasn’t planning on telling him, to be honest. I just don’t see the purpose, he threw you out and disowned you, so why would it be any different for me?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but we should at least tell Aunt Millie. Did you know she’s bi? And married to a woman?”

Emmy’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “She is?”

“She is,” I confirmed. “I found out when I went back for… Your funeral.”

Emmy chuckled. “Yeah, sorry about that. All things considered, me and Chris decided it was the best option.”

“Chris?”

“Christina. Dr. Winters,” she explained.

“Oh, okay.” I paused. “So how did you figure it out?”

Emmy smiled and jerked her thumb towards Lorem. “It was her, actually. After we’d made friends and we’d started meeting up to talk every now and then, she outright asked me if I was a man or a woman.”

“Oh?” I asked.

“Not in those words, but I did ask her what gender are you,” Lorem interjected.

“Which got me thinking,” Emmy continued. “I’d never actually given my gender any real thought, and--”

“No, sorry, hold on,” I cut her off.

“Yes?” she said, looking at me.

“You’d never questioned your gender. Not even once,” I said.

She nodded.

“Despite…” I gestured at myself.

“Yeah, despite you,” she said with a laugh. “As it turns out, Steph, your sister can be quite thick at times.”

“But I like her this way,” Lorem said, leaning over and giving Emmy a peck on the lips.

I smiled. “Cute. So, you meet the in-laws yet?”

“In-laws?” Lorem asked with a frown.

“They’re the relatives of your significant other,” Emmy explained. “Or the significant other of your relatives. Like for example, you and Stephanie are sisters-in-law, through me.”

“Huh. Fine,” Lorem said. “Yes, I did meet you, Stephanie. Many times.”

I laughed. “No, I was asking Emmy if she’d met your parents.”

“Which is a subtle way of telling me she approves of our relationship,” Emmy said, to which I nodded.

Lorem looked at me. “I do not need your approval to have a relationship with your sister.” Then she smiled. “But thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Regarding my parents… I do not have them. None of us Repulsoids do,” she continued.

I thought back; I seemed to recall her mentioning that once before, but I hadn’t paid it any mind at the time. “You don’t? Then, how do you reproduce?”

“Spawning pools.”

I turned my head and looked at Doctor Winters, who’d walked out of the room with Megan, Amelia and Amet.

“Spawning pools?” I asked.

“Yes,” the doctor nodded. “Pools filled with water and organic material. Many Repulsoids drop their seed and ova in there, genetic material gets crossed over, mixed, and exchanged, and eventually everything coalesces into several eggs. After a while the eggs hatch: the children are superprecocial, they’re the equivalent of teenagers in humans, and then they’re raised by the whole community until they become adults. It’s fascinating.” She looked around, and saw that everyone was looking at her. “What?” she asked.

“Sounds gross, not fascinating,” Amelia commented.

Doctor Winters put a hand to her chin. “Maybe. The eye of the beholder, and all that. I can show you pictures if you want.”

Amelia made a face. “Hard pass.”

“I’m sorry, what kind of doctor are you?” I asked, and started counting off my fingers. “You built the morphers, which takes technical skill; you gave Meg and Amelia and Amet a check-up just now, so you have medical knowledge; and apparently you also know your stuff when it comes to alien biology.”

“And biotech,” the doctor replied.

“Of course, let’s not forget the biotech,” I commented.

She shrugged. “I do a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Once you put your mind to something, there’s really nothing you cannot do.”

“So it was you who built the morphing devices?” Amet asked, looking at Doctor Winters.

She turned to him and nodded. “Yes, correct,” she said. “I took inspiration from some old TV shows. Human media. I’ll show you later, I think you’ll like it. But it wouldn’t have been possible without the Elerium cores you folks made.” She paused. “I would love to see the production process for those, maybe you can show me after the war?”

Amet didn’t seem convinced, but didn’t say anything else.

“By the way, this is yours,” Emmy said. “Almost forgot.”

She pulled my morpher out from her pocket and gave it to me, and I blinked in surprise. “Wait, what? Why do you have this?”

“I got it from the general’s office,” she said. “Why do you think it took me so long to join up with you?”

Thinking back, I remembered Clyde mentioning something like that. That someone else was taking care of my morpher.

“Thank you,” I said.

Suddenly we heard approaching footsteps: a Repulsoid soldier rounded the corner at a run, and then skidded to a halt in front of us. They looked at Doctor Winters, then at Emmy, and grunted questioningly.

“No, don’t worry, Britney, you’re not interrupting anything,” my sister said.

“Britney?” I asked.

“Picked her name herself,” Emmy said, turning to me. “We can’t pronounce their real names, so they get to choose what we call them, and she chose that.” She turned back to Britney. “What is it?”

Britney grunted and growled and barked, and my sister frowned.

“What? Okay, we’ll be right there.”

“No, wait, you can understand them?” Meg said, frowning.

Emmy shrugged. “Of course I can. It’s a language, like any other. After a while you get the hang of it. Though we had to rely on the translator for the first few weeks.”

“Translator?”

“It’s a built-in function in the morphers,” I explained. “Instant translator, it takes the Repulsoids’ language and turns it into English.”

Meg’s frown deepened. “Really?”

“Really,” Doctor Winters nodded. “Thought I might come in handy, so I just put it in there.” She paused. “Don’t tell me you never used it.”

“We didn’t, we had no idea it even existed. I don’t think it’s in the manual,” Amelia said, frowning too. Then she turned to me. “How do you even know about it?”

I shrugged. “I studied. I took Doctor Winters’ research notes from the library and went through them, the translator was mentioned there.” I suddenly thought of something. “Wait, we’ll have to go pick up someone. I’d captured a Repulsoid soldier so I could get information, and left him in a warehouse at Champaign. Rogelio.”

Lorem smiled. “Picked his name himself?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we can’t just leave him there.”

“We’ll go pick him up later, for now Britney was saying something’s come up that we need to look at.” Emmy said. “Follow me.”

She strode off, with us in tow.

 

 

“My fellow Americans,” said an old white man on the screen. “It is my great honour to announce that finally, after ten long years of sweat and toil, our war with the Repulsoids is about to come to an end.”

“What?” Amelia said, but Emmy shushed her.

“Thanks to the hard work of our negotiators, we have managed to reach a first, tentative agreement for a peace treaty,” the president continued. “There are still several details to be defined, but I will be travelling personally to the frontline base at Indianapolis the day after tomorrow, to talk to the Repulsoid Emperor himself and finalise the treaty, and hopefully bring this long dark period of our history at an end.” He paused. “At this moment, I would like to thank Brigadier General Alexander Ryder for his tireless work in protecting American civilians from the ravages of war, and in carrying on critical, secret talks with the Repulsoid leadership. He too will be present at the final negotiations.” He paused again. “I will now take some questions.”

As several hands rose in the press briefing room, Emmy paused the recording and turned to us. “What do you think?” she asked.

“A trick of some sort. Obviously,” Lorem said. “To announce a breakthrough in negotiations just after all the Defenders have defected? General Ryder sure is cunning.”

Meg nodded in agreement. “There’s nothing else it can be. The timing is suspect, to say the least, and to have the president go there in person? Something’s fishy.”

“What could it be, though? What’s the purpose?” Amelia asked.

Emmy and Doctor Winters exchanged a look. “We think we have an idea,” the doctor said. “Before we left, I’d been keeping track of the general’s communications.” She paused. “Yes, that’s illegal, but pay it no mind. He was in contact with several other high-ranking members of the military, who are stationed in locations all over the country. I don’t know what they talked about, of course, but to have several… Several co-conspirators in key positions? While at the same time you have easy access to the Commander in Chief himself? Well…”

I frowned. “Wait, what are you saying?”

Emmy stared at me. “What we mean, Stephanie, is that we think General Ryder is planning a coup. He will kidnap or, worse, kill the president, and while everything is in disarray, he and his accomplices will seize power.”

There was a prolonged moment of silence, as everyone digested what Emmy had said.

“But he can’t do that,” Amelia said. “Can he?”

“He will try, at least,” Meg answered. “I doubt he’ll succeed in the end, but meanwhile, lots of people will suffer.”

“What I do not understand is what the Emperor hopes to get out of this,” Lorem said. “I mean, him maintaining his power hinges on continuing to fight against the humans. On convincing the Repulsoids that it is the only choice. That’s why he has been working with the general and keeping up the charade.”

“So you, too, think the Emperor has been lying to us, Lorem?” Amet asked.

Lorem turned to him. “I do not think so, Amet. I know it. I have seen proof. He has been playing us for fools the whole time.”

“…I still don’t believe it,” Amet said.

“Believe what you will,” Lorem answered, shrugging. “It is of no consequence. What is important now is for us to stop him. To stop them.”

Amelia nodded, and gripped her fist, a look of determination on her face. “Then, we’ll show up at Defender Base in two days, and smash General Ryder’s face in in front of the president!”

“You are not going anywhere,” Doctor Winters interjected. “While your wounds aren’t life-threatening, you were injured during your fight with Black. You’ll be nowhere near top form in two days, you’d only be a liability. Same goes for you, Meg, and you Amet,” she continued, looking at each of them in turn.

“And besides, I don’t think that would convince the president we’re telling the truth, would it?” I said. “We need to present some definitive proof, something that can’t be dismissed.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

“But do we have that proof?” Megan asked.

“I think this might help,” my sister said, holding up a thumb drive.

“What’s on that?” Meg asked.

“Oh, nothing much,” Emmy said casually. “Just the whole contents of the digital recorder from General Ryder’s office. Including all the conversations he had with the Emperor.” She paused and looked around, and saw that we were all looking at her, identical stunned expressions on our faces. “What, did you really think I would only grab Stephanie’s morpher, and not seize the chance to take everything I could while I was there?”

My mouth had fallen open in surprise, but I closed it and nodded. “Yeah, makes sense. So we get in there, present our proof, and then… What?”

She shrugged. “Hopefully the general will realise the gig is up and surrender, otherwise we fight him and get the president out, so he can publicly denounce General Ryder and tell everyone what he did.”

“Hang on,” Meg interjected. “You’re gonna fight… That thing? I mean have you seen him?”

“Yeah. Defender Dragon is real scary,” Amelia said.

Meg’s head whipped around to look at her. “Defender Dragon?!” she exclaimed. “I…” She paused, then shook her head. “You know what? I’m not even going to try to argue with you, Amy. How do you plan to fight Defender Dragon? I mean, Clyde seemed unable to even scratch the paint on his suit.”

“That’s to be expected,” Doctor Winters said. “He has a double-core morpher, after all, it’s way above your single-core ones.”

Meg blinked in surprise. “Excuse me? A double-core morpher? Did you make it?”

“Yes, I did,” the doctor nodded.

“…Why?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” was the answer. “General Ryder asked me to, and at the time I had no idea what he was up to, so I just complied. If I could go back and not build it I would, but it’s a bit too late for that, isn’t it?”

Meg sighed. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Besides, Emmy’s morpher is double-core, too. A new design, made specifically for her. And I upgraded Lorem’s too.”

“Great,” Amelia said. “So Emmy and Lorem are the only ones who can fight the general on equal terms.”

“And the Emperor,” Lorem said. “I know for sure he has a morpher of his own, and it would not surprise me if it was a double-core one.”

“Well, maybe not,” Doctor Winters said. She turned to me, and put out her hand, looking at me expectantly.

I stared at her for a couple moments, then said, “What?”

“Your morpher. Can I take a look at it for a moment?” she asked. I looked at her in puzzlement, but I gave her the device.

“Thank you,” she said. She pulled up a chair next to a table and sat down cross-legged on it, produced a screwdriver seemingly from nowhere, and in seconds she’d cracked open my morpher, exposing the internal circuitry.

“Hey, what--” I protested, but she held up a finger to shush me, and started tinkering with the device.

“Let’s see now… This we don’t need,” she said, pulling out a chip and tossing it to the side; it made a tinkling, metallic sound as it bounced on the floor. “Tracking device,” she explained, not looking up. “This way the folks at Defender Base won’t be able to locate you, even when the morpher’s active. And now…”

She fumbled around in her pocket for a couple seconds and pulled out a small sphere, about half an inch in diameter, which glowed with a yellow light.

“That’s a core,” Amet whispered, awe in his voice.

“Correct,” the doctor nodded, without looking up from my morpher as she fit the Elerium core inside it. “This came from your morpher, Amet.”

“It what?” Amet hissed. “You were able to disassemble my morphing device and extract the core?”

“Of course. While it was modified, it was originally based on my design, so I knew what to do with it.” She set down her screwdriver, picked up what looked like a soldering iron, and continued rooting around inside my morpher. “Emmy’s cores I brought with me from Defender Base when we faked our deaths, and Lorem’s second one came from Ruby Scorpion’s morpher.”

Amet’s stare had gone deadly.

“The Emperor has been lying to us,” he said. “Everything he told us about designing the morphers, everything regarding the war, has been a lie from the start.”

Lorem put a hand on his shoulder. “I am sorry, Amet.”

Amet looked at her. “The Emperor is the one who will be sorry. When I get my hands on him, there will be hell to pay.”

“Glad to see you are with us on this one,” Lorem said. “I think having someone who truly believed his lies explain them properly to everyone after the war is over will be very useful. It will help everyone to see that us Repulsoids were deceived, and only kept fighting because the Emperor forced us.”

Amet nodded, but didn’t say anything else.

“Alright, I think we’re done here,” Doctor Winters said, snapping my morpher’s casing closed and handing it to me. “Here, try this out.”

I took a few steps towards the middle of the room, away from my friends, and put the device to my belt; then I pushed the buttons and flicked the lever.

“Welcome. Standby. Power Up!”

After the familiar electronic shout-out came the usual weird sensation I always felt when morphing. Only this time, it was more powerful than ever.

When the flash of light had subsided, I tried moving around, shifting my limbs: even though I wasn’t really putting any strength in it, I could feel the power, the energy, in my every movement. I felt… Strong.

“This feels great,” I said, turning towards the doctor. Then I hesitated: my voice… The voice that had come out from my suit, rather. It had sounded…

“Is this my voice?”

It sounded really feminine.

And then I noticed everyone was looking at me wide-eyed.

“What?” I asked.

Meg blinked. “Steph, your suit…”

“What about my suit?”

“It’s a woman’s suit,” Amelia said.

What?

I looked down at myself: gone was the bulky, muscular body I was used to seeing whenever I morphed, and in its place was a thin, athletic woman’s body, with curves in all the right places. It looked very similar to Meg and Amelia’s suits, with a few really subtle differences.

I felt tears well up in my eyes. The dysphoria I’d always felt whenever I put on my Defender suit was gone, and in its place was an exhilarating euphoria.

“How do you feel, Defender Red?” Doctor Winters asked.

I didn’t answer, I was at a loss for words; I kept inspecting every part of my body.

“I think Defender Crimson likes it, Doc,” Amelia said.

Meg smacked her in the shoulder. “Will you stop?”

“Why should I?” Amelia shrugged. “New suit, new name. It fits.”

Meg just gave an exasperated sigh.

“How do you feel, Defender Crimson?” the doctor repeated.

“I feel… Amazing,” I said. I looked up at her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, smiling. “Now, let’s all put our brains together and think of a plan. We do not have much time.”