How to Date a Superhero Ch. 03

Apollo turned a dangerous look over his shoulder, "She tricked me."

Hermes didn't argue, "Was she the one who spelled you?"

Apollo's face twisted, "What!?"

"After you fell to the mortal girl, I brought you here. Don't worry - I was moving quite quickly. I am sure to her eyes it seemed you simply vanished. But I sensed a taint around your mind, a dark influence if you will - no doubt it was sorcerous."

Apollo appeared mildly alarmed, as though wary of magic.

"Do not fear; I brewed you a tonic which seems to have cleared the foulness away."

Apollo scowled as he realized the probable source, "Lauren Smith."

Hermes lifted an eyebrow, "Been lying with witches, brother?"

"It would seem so. A powerful one at that to manipulate mine actions so completely."

"So this witch was the reason for your battle with the costumed mortal?"

Apollo placed a fist in his other palm, cracking all his knuckles at once, "It must have been some manner of hex. She wanted me to kill Mega-Girl."

"Mega-Girl," Hermes repeated to see how the name tasted on his own tongue; he didn't like it. "Despite the regretful name she appeared to be quite a specimen - for a mortal. To stand equal against mighty Apollo in hand-to-hand combat is no easy feat!"

"My mind was clouded," Apollo grew defensive at the prospect of a mortal being compared as his equal.

"Still," Hermes argued, "You were not going easy on her and she survived your onslaught. In fact, she gave back - and then some! A woman like that would be fit for a god, be she mortal or not."

"As a mate?" Apollo sounded curious.

"Why not, brother? It's hard not to respect a woman of such power. Think of the demigods she would yield - they would rival Hercules himself."

Apollo's beardless expression grew contemplative.

Hermes laughed at his sibling, "Come, Apollo. We'll need to be far more drunk if we are to start contemplating mortal mates."

=======

Jordan appeared completely helpless as she stood beside her roommate, holding a needle tied with fine thread, "You realize I'm a computer-science major, right? Not pre-med."

Penny was seated within their apartment on a dining table chair, still in her Mega-Girl costume though she had taken her mask off. Dried blood caked her left shoulder and arm around the wound she had suffered in her fight with Apollo. Jordan had been able to cut away the sleeve of Penny's costume but was hesitant to begin stitching.

"I can't go to a hospital," Penny complained. "Not without revealing my secret identity. You're all I've got. Please? I'm scared I've lost my invulnerability."

On the table nearby Jordan had arranged a plastic basin of warm water along with some small towels. She reached for one and began to dab it around Penny's wound in an attempt to clean some of the blood away, "Okay, okay. But how could Apollo have done that?"

"I have no idea," Penny winced when the cloth touched a nerve. "I don't even know why he attacked me in the first place. I never got the chance to ask before he just vanished into thin air."

"Okay, here goes..." Biting her lip, Jordan sucked in a breath and held it. Trying to keep her hand steady, she poked the needle into Penny's shoulder...

"Is it working?" Penny glanced, not feeling the expected pain.

Jordan shook her head, "It won't go through your skin."

"Push harder," Penny suggested.

"I don't want to hurt you," Jordan winced as she applied more pressure, but the only result was that the needle bent into a ninety-degree angle. "Crap, this is pointless! I'm never going to be able to push a needle through your skin."

"I'm actually kind of relieved," Penny exhaled. "I was worried Apollo had somehow found a way to negate my powers, but maybe it was the arrow that was special, or something. You know, like some godly magic?"

"Maybe," Jordan abandoned the needle on the table. "But I'm definitely not going to be able to stich you up." She pressed the damp cloth over Penny's shoulder, "Hold this over the wound, I'll see if we have any bandages in the linin closet. We'll just have to hope you're a fast healer."

Penny pressed the cloth against her shoulder, "I have no idea how fast I heal; I've never been hurt before."

"Never?" Jordan wondered as she moved towards the hallway closet. "Not even when you were a kid?"

"I've never had so much as a scratch. My mom told me that when I was really little she took me in to get my immunity shots, but the nurse couldn't pierce my skin with a needle."

Jordan laughed as she rummaged through their closet, "You never told me that. I remember you telling me your powers developed naturally, but I assumed it was when you were in high school."

Penny shook her head, "I was only five years old when I realized I was different. A ball I was playing with had rolled under my mom's car in the driveway and I lifted the front end of the car up over my head so I could reach it. It didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time, but my mom totally freaked out."

Jordan returned with a dusty first-aid kit, "So do you think you were born with your powers?"

Penny shrugged bonelessly, "I guess so."

"There are some tape-like stitches in here," Jordan discovered once she opened the plastic kit. "Let's try these, and then I'll cover it up with a bandage. Hopefully you have super-healing to go along with your super-strength."

"Okay," Penny agreed, lifting the cloth and glancing at her arm.

"Have you figured out what you're going to say to Travis?" Jordan asked as she set to work on Penny's shoulder. "He seemed pretty pissed when he left about you lying to him."

"I didn't lie to him," Penny sounded like she was trying to convince herself. "I just didn't tell him I was Mega-Girl."

"I'm not sure he sees it that way," Jordan remarked. "You better think of something good to say, because he seems like a really great guy. He's irresistibly cute, and totally sweet - in a naïve kind of way."

"I know," Penny sighed. "I have no idea what I'm going to tell him."

=======

"What do you mean it's over already?" Travis' sister sounded disappointed. "I didn't even get a chance to meet her."

"She lied to me," Travis said, putting his cell phone on speaker mode so he could type and talk at the same time. Travis had a history paper due and was busy writing when his older sister Janice had called.

"What did she lie to you about?" Janice's distorted voice asked. "Was it about how many boyfriends she's had in the past? Because girls always lie about that stuff."

"No," Travis sighed, not wanting to talk about Penny. He wanted to bury himself in school work and not think about girls or superheroes. But Janice wanted to know about his new girlfriend and Travis knew how persistent his sister could be, "It wasn't anything like that. Look, Jan, I can't really talk about it, okay?"

"What do you mean you can't talk about it? What the big secret?"

Thankfully a knock sounded on Travis' dorm room door saving him from trying to explain that the girl he had been dating was secretly a superhero, "Someone's here, I'll have to call you back."

"Travis! Don't you dare hang up on -"

Swiping his finger across the phone, Travis ended the call and rose to answer the door.

"Hi," Penny attempted a hopeful smile, standing in the hallway.

"Hello Penny," Travis greeted dryly. "Or should I say Meg-"

Penny quickly covered his mouth with a palm and prodded Travis backwards into his room, "Shush!"

Travis pushed her wrist away, "What? It's true, isn't it? You're Mega-Girl?"

Penny quickly closed the door to prevent anyone walking through the dorm hallway from overhearing, "Please, Travis. My secret identity is really important to me! It protects me and the people I care about."

"I don't even know which is which!" Travis exclaimed, clearly upset. "I mean, which one is the real you? Are you Penny? Are you Mega-Girl? Or are they both masks?"

"Both," she admitted, having decided that she needed to be completely honest with Travis.

"What does that even mean?" Travis lifted both of his palms, gesturing in exasperation. "You know what? I don't even care. I think you should go."

"I'll explain everything," Penny assured him. "Just... why don't you sit down, okay?"

Travis eyed her dubiously.

"Please, Travis. Let me explain. I'll be completely honest with you and I swear I'll never lie to you again. Afterwards, if you want me to leave I will."

Travis exhaled a heavy breath and glanced at his loveseat. Curiosity got the best of his anger and he moved to sit.

"My name is Penelope Swann, that's who I am. It's the name my mother gave me when I was born. Mega-Girl is the identity I created after graduating from high school so that I could use my powers without anyone knowing it was me. I didn't want my friends and family hounded by the press, or targeted by super-powered criminals. But I have two masks, Travis, just like you said, because even when I'm Penny I have to pretend I'm someone I'm not. I can't talk like I do when I'm Mega-Girl. I can't wear my hair the same way. I can't show my body. Do you understand?"

Lifting her right hand, Penny removed a platinum-colored ring from her middle finger. Travis grew wide-eyed when the air suddenly began to shimmer and distort around her form. Penny's hair color changed from dark to blonde; her skin tone was no longer pale, transforming instead into a golden tan; her eyes shifted from a green hue to an icy blue.

"This ring is an image-transducer," Penny set the ring down on Travis' dresser. "It surrounds my body with a very thin spectrographic ionization field."

"Huh?" Travis didn't understand a word.

"It changes the way light reflects off my body," she explained more simply. "It makes my skin look paler and my hair darker, so people can't see any similarities between me and Mega-Girl." Penny removed her glasses and set them beside the ring.

Travis watched as Penny unzipped her hoody and then proceeded to unbutton her jeans, "What are you doing?"

Struggling to take her tee-shirt off because of her wounded shoulder, Penny proceeded to discard all of her clothes and stand naked before Travis. Only her bandaged shoulder remained covered. "This is me," she told him. "This is what I really look like. No image inducers. No costumes. No masks. This is as honest as I can be, Travis."

Travis saw that she still looked like Penny, but with blonde hair, blue eyes, and perfectly tanned skin. Her naked form was petite, toned, and unbelievably sexy. But as good as she looked, it was strange for Travis to see.

"Why did you lie to me?" he asked. "Why did you make me think you were two different girls when we first met? I felt like I had to choose between Mega-Girl and Penny when really I was choosing between the same girl!"

"After saving you from that car accident I recognized you from our Chemistry class. You were kind of shy and totally sweet the way you asked me out for coffee. I wanted to go out with you, but I was scared you were only attracted to the costume. I wanted you to like me, to actually like me, so I decided to approach you that day in the Quad. I thought if you choose me as Penny over me as Mega-Girl, I'd know you actually liked me instead of just being enamored with the fame and glitz associated with Mega-Girl."

"But the truth is: Penny is just as much of a mask as mega-Girl," Travis frowned. "And I don't like being manipulated. I want you to leave."

Penny looked shattered, "But Travis, wait -"

"No," he shook his head. "I chose Penny because I don't want to date a superhero. I want a normal life! Your life is too crazy for me. You get into fist-fights with gods and giant robots. I don't want to be a part of that, I can't."

Penny had expected Travis to forgive her. She had assumed he would still want to be with her and that they would kiss and make love and live happily ever after. His rejection stung her deeply. Penny was suddenly very self-conscious of her nudity and began to quickly gather her clothes, "I-I'm sorry, Travis. I'll go. But please don't tell anyone - please keep my secret?"

Travis rose from the couch and turned his back as Penny hastily dressed herself, "I won't tell anyone. In fact, I'm going to do my best to forget all about you."

"Don't say that," Penny said with a quiver to her voice. "I thought we had something, Travis. I care about you, a lot, and I thought you felt the same."

"I did," Travis said, unable to turn and face her. He was afraid if he looked at her he'd give in to those feelings, "I do... but I can't anymore. I can't date a superhero, Penny. I don't even want to know how. Maybe if you weren't Mega-Girl anymore..."

Slipping her ring back on the air shimmered briefly around Penny's form once again. Her hair grew dark and her skin grew pale. She slipped her clunky glasses on and moved towards the door, "I can't stop being Mega-Girl, Travis. I was born with these powers. In a way, I've been Mega-Girl my whole life. Sometimes I think I'm more myself with the mask and costume than when I'm just trying to be Penny."

"That's kind of sad," Travis glanced at her as she walked towards the door.

Penny shrugged, trying to keep herself from crying, "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I do need a guy who wants the costume. I-I'm sorry, Travis. I guess I'll see you around."

=======

A bright flash of light heralded Apollo's return to his Gateway City condominium, his brother beside him. Both men were clad in modern clothing, expensive and casual, though Apollo held his armor and weapons in a large sack beside him.

Hermes disappeared but reappeared a moment later, moving too fast for Apollo's eye to follow. "No one is here," he reported, having searched the apartment in approximately a tenth of a second.

Apollo nodded as though accustomed to, if not entirely comfortable with, his brother's speed, "I suspected as much. No reason for the sorceress to linger."

"She'll be difficult to find," Hermes commented, strolling toward the open kitchen area at a normal speed. "The mortals number in the billions, and your sorceress could be anywhere."

"Aye," Apollo conceded, depositing his satchel near the empty armor mannequin. "Likely she has learned Mega-Girl yet lives and rightly assumes the spell over me has been broken. No doubt she had fled to some dark corner to avoid my wrath."

Hermes opened the refrigerator door, bending at the waste to examine its contents. "I am only a humble messenger," he announced, finding a bottle of wine to his liking. "Tracking and hunting is your twin's arena."

"You know our sister has sworn never to return to this plane," Apollo said as Hermes located a pair of wine glasses. "Artemis despises the fact that I have chosen Earth and the mortals over Olympus and our kin. She would never aid me."

"She would if you offered her the bow," Hermes suggested. "Artemis has always been jealous that Minerva gave it to you rather than her."

Apollo shook his head as he joined his brother in the kitchen, "The joy I would feel killing Lauren Smith pales in value to a bow that can pierce any armor."

"I'm sure you're right," Hermes poured the wine. "Still, it is not her death I would be seeking if I wore your skin. I would want to know how, and why, she manipulated me into becoming her assassin. Mortals, after all, are not known for their sorcerous talents."

"Thy words carry wisdom," Apollo looked contemplative.

"What is the bow to you?" Hermes asked. "After all, you've not held it for centuries. Obviously you've survived well enough without it."

"True enough," Apollo conceded.

"Artemis can track a mote of dust across the cosmos," Hermes commented, testing the wine with a sip. "Your mysterious Lauren Smith should be easy for her to find. I could carry a message to her for you, offering the trade?"

Apollo took the other glass and swallowed much of its contents, "Perhaps. But I have business with another mortal as well, which must take priority."

"The titan?" Hermes guessed.

"Aye, Mega-Girl. And she should be much easier to find."

=======

Jordan sat on the far side of her and Penny's L-shaped couch trying to watch her favorite soap opera. She had been addicted to the show since high school and had even scheduled her classes around it. But it was hard to pay attention when her roommate, who was sitting on the other end of the couch, kept sniffling. She finally clicked the mute button on their television remote, "Are you crying again?"

Penny was trying to read a textbook, but she was having trouble focusing and hadn't turned a page in over ten minutes. "No," she murmured, wiping a lone tear off her cheek.

"For Pete's sake," Jordan rolled her eyes. "It's been over a week since Travis dumped you. I get that it sucks, but you should be past the water-works. He's just a guy, there will be others."

Penny sighed and snapped her book shut, "It's more than that, it's what Travis made me realize. I'm a girl with two identities, and both of them have masks. I'm so worried all the time that someone is going to discover my secret that I feel like I have to constantly hide."

"Well," Jordan considered. "Which identity are you more comfortable in? Which is more 'you'?"

"The costume," Penny replied meekly, ashamed of her own answer.

"So go put it on," Jordan suggested. "You haven't been on patrol since your fight with Apollo. It'd probably do you some good to get out and fly. Besides, your shoulder has healed perfectly."

The idea made some sense to Penny. Jordan was right about her shoulder; her body had healed within a couple of days, so thoroughly that not even a scar remained to mark where Apollo's arrow had pierced her flesh. Perhaps it was time to get back into the routine of her life prior to Travis, Penny thought.

Only minutes later Mega-Girl was garbed in her red one-piece costume and soaring over the skyscrapers of Gateway City. It felt good to get out of her apartment and fly again, to feel the warm late-summer sun on her back. Thoughts of Travis slowly drifted away as she flew over the city. There was little she could do to change Travis' mind regardless, she understood. Travis didn't want a superhero for a girlfriend and Penny couldn't change who or what she was. If she was being honest with herself Penny felt more alive, more like 'herself', when in costume. As Penny she felt forced to be reserved and closeted, but as Mega-Girl she felt free.

Curling her flight around the Keppler skyscraper, a flash of movement distracted Mega-Girl from her thoughts. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Apollo! He was flying after her, coming from the direction of a balcony in the Keppler Building. Once again dressed in his gleaming ancient armor, Mega-Girl feared the god was seeking another fight. She spun in the air to face him, her hands balling into fists, and hovered in the face of Apollo's approach.

But he too stopped short, hovering a short distance away. "Mega-Girl," he spoke, his deep baritone voice carrying no sign of animosity, "I would have words with thee."

Mega-Girl's eyes narrowed cautiously through her mask, "Just words? No fists this time?"

"I apologize for our previous encounter. I was not myself; my mind was addled by a foul sorceress. I mean thee no harm. Quite the opposite, in truth."

Mega-Girl remained wary, but she was also curious, "All right, where do you want to talk?"

"This way," he gestured, returning his flight towards his condominium within the Keppler building.

Mega-Girl briefly wondered if Apollo could possibly be setting a trap for her but followed him towards the balcony regardless; she suspected Apollo wasn't the crafty type. He seemed more like a man who confronted his problems head-on rather than deal in traps or trickery.