Chapter 4: Transphobe
SAMSARA
It was simple. I have seen what passed for a "sex change" in this world. And I was not amused. These people, they wanted sincerely to become men or women, contrary to the way they were born. Yet the science of the time gave them a false promise that they could change their sex. Later, this same science would declare that one day people would no longer die of old age. But seeing the results of the first, I wasn't convinced. They later coined the word "gender" and claimed they were instead adjusting their gender. I suppose this was not a total lie, compared with the one that they could change their sex. I knew this was a raw deal. They'd walk in, hoping to be a beautiful woman, and while they sometimes got the beautiful part right, the fact was, they had a dressed up castration. I had enough, and it was time to act.
They called me an evildoer. They branded me Transphobe. But my actual name was Samsara. For my power was the power of reincarnation. Although it looked like I was killing people, those I attacked would reincarnate in a form I chose. In other words, while on the surface, I was killing crossdressers or transgender people because of some kind of bigoted reason, I actually was trying to fix what I saw as a serious population and well-being issue. It just wasn't right to take away people's sex in the name of changing their gender identity. So all of these transgender girls, they got reborn as actual girls.
Needless to say, those in charge of such surgeries weren't pleased. Since increasingly, they were connected to the media, they spun this as news about increasing attacks against transgender people, and did no research on my powers. Well, it was to be expected. Later generations of these assholes would instead say "We're coming for your children." Not that I was much different. I admit I could be extreme. At times. Maybe some people would call me a fanatic. After all, I had already come for people's children. And their (former) husbands and wives.
Among them, there was one of these who said he had repented of wanting to be a woman. That he had been formerly transgender, but now wanted only to dress as a woman. He said that he had two children, and was content to be who he was now. But that was impossible. Every person in the transgender spectrum yearned to be female, and it wasn't right to deny their deepest desire.
"You don't understand!" he said, "I have no need to transition. I have a wife and child. I don't have to become a woman. My lady respects me as I am!" He was dressed as Maetel from Galaxy Express 999, wearing a black fur hat, blond wig, black dress, and long black stockings. Despite that this outfit made him quite slim, he had superhuman speed and strength, and gave me quite a fight. His punches and kicks would have sprawled me across the bedroom that I broke into through the window, but I too had powers.
I had an uncanny ability to guess at attacks. Unlike true prediction, I could be wrong. But it reduced attacks that connected to glancing blows and frequent misses. I shook my head, "Such delusion! I need to show you the truth." I had no super strength, but I had my own way of dispensing with heroes. The Death & Rebirth Touch. So long as I grabbed someone with both hands, I could drain their life force. He tried to kick at me, but I grabbed his legs. His black thigh-high stockings blocked my move, and he pushed me back with his legs. His wife tried to defend him with her fire abilities, but I grabbed her and touched her. Her body withered and she collapsed on the floor. Oh don't worry! My power isn't capable of killing any unintended targets. Nor was she even unconscious, just completely sapped of energy. When she woke the next day, she would be young and recovered, as though nothing had happened. But this accomplished my larger objective, to put her out of action and to throw him off guard. Enraged, he threw a right hook, followed by several jabs with his left hand. But he was careless. Unlike his kicks, which were hard to grab bare skin, when his arms fully extended, he was wide open. I clasped his his right arm midswing as he was going to deliver another strike with it. He fought back with his left hand and his feet, but as he was withering up, he no longer possessed super strength. Another hero with beauty-based powers. I pressed the advantage, grabbing this face, and he went down. As he lost consciousness, I sapped the last energy from his body, and he turned into energy. The soul of this man floated in a ball of light, finding its way to the first pregnant mother of a woman. At this time, abortions weren't all that regular, so I knew he would grow up to be a fine young woman. As for me, I opened the window, and climbed out of the house. I would be in the news again, as the long string of "murders" of transgender people continued.
GEMINI
"He's dead?!? What happened? I mean, yeah, I get that he was killed by some transphobe. But he's strong enough to fight back! How did...?!?" I objected, trailing off at the end. She explained, "This person had some sort of weird draining touch. I experienced it myself, but I guess I wasn't the one they wanted, because it didn't take. One minute, I was trying to defend him by using a burning hands attack, and the next moment, I wrinkled up and was weak as a kitten. It felt like they drained the life out of me." The concern in her face showed, "If you go out at night, be wary of people who might try to kill you." The irony that they actually broke into our home was not lost on me. "What did this person look like?" I asked.
She explained that she couldn't actually tell whether they were a boy or girl, as both their physique and their hairstyle was kinda neutral. They were dressed in a long orange and red sari dress with a metal wheel tying it together. They also wore sandals. I took out my notebook, and started sketching. I eventually had a loose depiction of like a Hindu priest or something. Next I asked various probing questions, "Did they instantly drain you, or was it a long process? Did you notice anything, like spells or special dance when they drained you?" I was searching for some sort of weakness to their powers. I asked several other questions. "I can't recall anything..." she said, only to suddenly pause, "Wait, there there was something. They had to have skin-to-skin contact! They grabbed him by the leg while it was covered in stockings and nothing happened. And it seemed like while I was paralyzed on the floor, all the times required both hands to clasp the arm or leg. If their arms can be knocked off before they both grab, there might be a chance to beat them!" I was impressed by her powers of observation. I scribbled some more details in, knowing that as things stood now, I had no power against even the weakest of superwrongdoers. Why, even Generic Man could beat me up!
Worried whether I was not simply a late bloomer but one of those untouched by superpowers, I did my best to distract myself by coping with the other elephant in the room. "Ummm, Mom? I think I might be transgender. The kids at school were all talking and it sounded like me. I might need hormones and surgery..." But my words trailed off with a withering glare from her, "We've talked about this! Look, that sort of procedure takes years of hormones, you won't be able to have children, and you could get stuck in a body you can't stand! And the procedure is basically impossible to reverse. Female Cosplay Man only managed it because his transition was reversed by powers." I frowned, but she smiled and continued, "Now, I understand if you want to live your life fully as a woman. But there are tools to do that. Now try this on!" She gave me a good quality pair of breast forms. Some of them were some sort of liquid in a bag, and it seemed like a pinprick could cause the whole thing to leak. But these were quality and seemed to be solid rather than liquid. For down below, she gave me these shorts that gave my body the prosthetic appearance of having a vagina.
She said, "Listen! I want you to have the best amount of choices in this life. If you want to commit yourself to a sex change, well we don't have that kind of money. And the irreversible nature of that takes away your choices. But for anything else, sure go right ahead. If you want to be only part-time at this, whether you like women or men, as long as you're safe and happy, I will do what I can to support you," she said. Now, change into those and let me see you!"
I went into the bathroom and pulled off my clothes. I had the school uniform still on, so that involved pulling down control top black wool pantyhose, removing my skirt, pulling off my blouse, bra, and panties and removing my shoes. My hair had grown to the point where I no longer needed a wig, and I had recently curled my hair into some soft waves with a slight part. But I frowned when I saw my naked body. I had kept myself lean so there was no body builder physique, nor was I fat. But the flat chest and that fellow between my legs was somewhat annoying. Thankfully, I didn't have an expensive surgery, but a series of small prosthetics to work with. I first fiddled with the breast forms. After considering using the adhesive, I thought about the implications of having a rash from sweat building up between the breast forms and my skin on a particularly hot day, and scrapped that entire plan, electing instead for the forms to simply hang loosely secured by the bra. I mean, unless one day I decided to go topless, I couldn't really see doing that. As for the bottom... "Mom! This fits kinda weird!"
She took a look at it, and I pointed out the problematic area. The design was similar to capri pants, until you got to the crotch area. There was a long tube that fit snugly and essentially blocked the penis from extending no matter how hard it was. It doubled as a sort of catheter. The problem, however was that the tube stretched all the way to the back, and I felt like I was getting anally penetrated. While I didn't know yet whether I was trans or not, and I didn't know the logistics of whether it made me gay to like women if I thought I was a woman, I very much understood that I didn't like taking it up the butt.
For a few seconds, my brain just couldn't even, thinking about that. Finally, Mom got some scissors and made some quick cuts. She shortened the front so the crotch area was still blocked from view, but now there was space to tuck. If I needed to pee, after all, it would dribble through. As for the back, she cut most of that off, and made sure there was a small hole so that I could poop normally. The pants were well-made, so I could move about freely without feeling like it was gonna rip like some products. I put my clothes on again, and was amazed at how well everything fit. I don't just mean the pant things fit well, but they also had built-in hip and butt enhancement that gave my waist and hips some nice curves and let my skirt fit in a way that it hadn't all the way through high school.
I hugged her, "Thanks, Mom! This is the nicest present I've ever gotten." But I was filled with concern about what sort of treatment I might get in the future. Would this creep try to find me and likewise try to kill me? Would my body develop in ways that I didn't like in the future, thanks to not halting hormones? What of careers? I mean, my identification still said I was Gemini Fisher, and marked me as male. Was there a way to make sure that I wouldn't be harassed by employers? Then I thought of my other father's words. "Alot of people walk around with the idea that they have to force others to accept their lifestyle and walk around mad when they don't. But do you know when people actually object to you? It's when you don't love yourself. When you feel insecure, that's when people bully you. Or when you're angry, that's when people bully you. When you're calm and kind, typically people leave you alone," and he also said, "You can do it! Calm confidence is the difference between heroes and wrongdoers. Most of them never learned to ask for what they want."
Mom said that whatever I wanted, short of surgery, it all was fine. "Mom, I know what else I want," I said, "I can't have a sex change, and I'm not sure that I want one, but if I can get my gender changed on my identification, that would help in a big way. I'd be able to get a job as a woman without people asking me so many questions. I'd also be able to go to college without anyone making too much of a fuss." Mom spent awhile looking this up. Then she went to the printer, and printed out about fifteen pages. "Okay, you just have to talk to a therapist, and they wants to know that you are overall emotionally healthy and will be able to cope with things. But since you are not doing any major surgery, this shouldn't be any major complications. I hope. If they give their approval, in some states you should be able to changer your gender without a surgery." This sounded pretty controversial as it basically meant that I could self-identify as female, and tell the government to go fuck itself. Understandably, this was met with some criticism, mainly that people could sneak into restrooms of the opposite sex. But if we're being real here, punishing molestation to the fullest extent of the law should resolve most of this. And the rest should be satisfied by the amount of nuisance I had to go to in order to make this a reality. This would bar anyone not actually committed, because if you're going to sneak into restrooms, one word should convince you that it is simply not worth the effort. What word? DMV. You see, after months of therapy, and the lady agreeing that I ought to be allowed to change my gender after hearing that my state was among those that allowed a transition without surgery (though like my mother, she did not sign off on any sort of sex change), I had to deal with the IRS, the DMV, and other fun organizations. Finally, I had a series of papers listing that my gender was female. Time to apply for college. I wonder what would await me there?
