After three of the most embarrassing minutes of her life, seven really illuminating ones and twenty kinda funny ones, Alyssa was entirely up to speed on the events that had led Maxine to becoming the superhero known as Penumbra.
Alyssa sat up in her bed. She could still feel her body being stitched together, but it was hard not to be invested. “So it’s just, like, Penny’s name?” Amaranth would be a mouthful for a superhero. I think we made a good call going with Redshift.
“Pretty much,” Max said. “We thought we’d call ourselves something snappier at first, like Spite or Toxin, but that didn’t feel right. In the end, we settled on having Penumbra be our ‘face’ as it were, since V and I call my symbiote Penny, anyway. We came a long way.”
“I actually had another question,” Alyssa said. “Or like, we did.”
“What’s up?”
“Why can I fly, and you can’t? Why are you so much denser than we are?” Amy asked. “I’ve been going over it and it doesn’t make sense. I’m supposed to be made from the same stuff you are, so why are we so different?”
Max cocked her head for a second. Alyssa could tell she and Penumbra were having a conversation. There was a slight flickering in her eyes. Did Alyssa look that way when she was talking to Amy? I bet it looks freaky.
“We don’t know,” Max said. “There’s a couple of possible answers but it would all be conjecture, you know? I’m not supposed to say too much about this, but Victoria – my girlfriend – is researching us. Well, me and Penny. But the thing is that we barely know what you are. You being Amaranth and Penumbra. You’re multicellular and you operate like an independent nervous system that can essentially hijack a host and all of that sort of makes sense but then there’s the fact that you’re extraterrestrial and that you also seem to feed off emotions, somehow, which brings up the concept of some kind of noospheric waves you can feed on, which is frankly ridiculous.” She took a breath. “Current working theory is that you’re just different but you adapt to what your host needs.”
“So what you needed was to be stronger and tougher?”
“I needed someone who could be tough for me, and the ability to heal. Someone who could help me pick myself up because I was never going to ask for it,” Max said. “Why that means you can fly, you have to figure out for yourself, Alyssa. Great name, by the way. Very cute. Fits you a lot better than the old one.”
“Other question,” Alyssa said. “Why us? Why are you and me, and I mean you, Max, and me, me, the ones they bonded with? Like, don’t tell me these aliens are looking specifically for trans people.”
“Actually,” Amaranth said, “I think I have a theory there.”
“Oh?” Maxine said. “Let’s hear it.”
“You’re both messy as hell!” Amaranth said cheerfully. Max was stunned, and Alyssa was stunned that Amy had just said that straight to Max’s face. The silence was deafening.
“E-laborate, for me?” Maxine said, making an expression like she was trying to hide a frog in her mouth and keep it from escaping.
“Well,” Amy said, “you were suffering from depression while trans and had loads of people to talk to but not the ability to do that, so emotions must have been coming off of you in waves, and even now, I’m pretty sure you still question everything all the time. And Alyssa is even easier because she’s had the gender thing while being in love with both of her b–”
“Okay!” Alyssa said, interrupting. Amaranth was chuckling like a cartoon villain inside of her, twirling an imaginary mustache. Alyssa had never felt her face go so red before. “I get it. She’s probably right. Not,” she said, pointing at Maxine, “a word. To anyone.” Max zipped her mouth closed, locked it, and tossed the imaginary key out the window, then relaxed when she saw Alyssa was fidgeting over it.
“Hey,” Max said, “don’t worry. You’ll figure it out. You have the world’s best wingman living in your head.” She stood up and her eyes flickered for a moment. “If anyone can help, it’s Amy.”
“Hey, you synchronized,” Alysssa said. “Neat. You sound like you’re in a cave when you do that.”
“Thanks. We feel pretty strongly about this,” Max said. “Penny is a proud parent and I have first hand experience. Together there’s nothing you can’t handle. Speaking of which, how are you feeling?”
“I’m getting there. Putting ourselves together bit by bit. Going to take me a minute before I’m fully recovered though,” Alyssa said, feeling the skin on her stomach. It was still raw from where it had been burned, but at least it was there.
“You know, I don’t think you two heal as fast as we do. That’s worth keeping in mind. Still, you’ll be on your feet in no time. And when that happens,” Max said as she walked back over to the window, “what will you do?” Slowly, Penny enveloped her. “Your nemesis is in jail.”
“I know,” Alyssa said, “but I have a lot to think about. A lot about this doesn’t feel right. First of all, I think I wanna talk to my mom.”
“Oh, right, speaking of which, you can still come to Iceland,” Maxine said. “I think you should, actually. Getting away from Lockridge Bay will do you good, I think. You and your mom.”
“Wait, how do you–” Alyssa said, gears turning. Amaranth helpfully connected the dots for her. “Ah. Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, I got a plane to catch,” Penumbra said, then flung themself out of the window, which would have been a lot cooler if they’d remembered to open it first. “Sorry!” Alyssa heard them yell as they presumably shielded people down below from falling glass.
It’s like I said, Amy giggled, messy! Alyssa laughed and laid back into the stiff hospital pillows.
A few more hours of rest and she could go home, she figured. By the time the afternoon sun was starting to set, she was on her feet. Awkwardly she stepped out of the room, where two police officers were standing guard.
“Uh,” she said, “can I… leave?” She realized only after she said it that one of the men, clearly about to doze off on the chair in the hall, was her father’s old partner, Mike Hayman. She had to keep herself from acknowledging the fact that she’d recognized him.
“Oh, shit,” the man mumbled to himself as he got up. “Redshift, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Yes. Yes, sir,” she said. “I’m not under arrest or anything, right?” She sheepishly looked around. It would get very awkward if that happened. Can you imagine? Haha. Amy’s laugh was the most forced Alyssa had ever heard it.
The man laughed. “Of course not. In fact, I’d like to shake your hand.” He held it out. Surprised, Alyssa shook it. It was slightly damp. “You’re a hero to the department, miss Redshift. You’re setting an example. You single-handedly made it clear we need more people like you on the streets.” He shook his head. “But you’re not interested in hearing about us. You’re doing good out there, making a difference. It’s a good thing one of you supers isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty out there.”
“Um, thanks,” Redshift said. “I just want to do the right thing.”
“Well, just so you know, me and the boys are on your side,” he said with a lopsided smirk that smelled vaguely like a flask-based on-the-job pick-me-up. “And don’t worry about the hospital bills, either. City hall made the hospital waive them. You saved a lot of people.”
“Oh, cool. That’s, wow, uh, thanks,” Redshift. “Uh, how long have you been out here?”
“Just a few hours,” he said. “We’ve been taking shifts.”
“So,um, there was a woman in here a few hours ago…”
“Yes,” Mike said, “as well as two young people. They wore masks going in and out. As far as we’re concerned, you and the people you care about are basically in witsec. What’s the point of the mask otherwise, huh?” His wink was so greasy it made Alyssa want to wash her hands. “We’ve been talking about the boys wearing them too.” That could only end well.
“Oh,” Redshift said. “I hope that, uh, works out for you.”
“Yeah, you can get a lot more done if people don’t know who you are,” Detective Hayman said with a knowing nod. “Less red tape. No red tape, for you. You know, we’re thinking of figuring out a way to let you know if we need you. The boys at the downtown precinct want to put a big light on the roof to signal you. What do you think?”
“I think, uh, I think I need a while to recover still, because I fell from like, pretty high and my spine looks like a half-finished game of Jenga right now,” she said with a forced laugh. He seemed to take her forced smile as a sign of pain.
“You sure you’re ready to head out?” He said with a frown and put a hand in his pocket. There was a moment where he touched his face, took something out of his pocket, and then put it back in. “Sorry, keep forgetting you’re not supposed to smoke in here.”
“Uh, yeah,” she said. “At this point it’s just waiting for a bit. I’m pretty sturdy.”
“Alright. I’ll let them know. Good to know you’re out there keeping the streets safe, Redshift. And if you ever need help, we’ve got your back.” He held out his fist, which would have been extremely awkward even if he wasn’t like, twenty, thirty years older than she was. She bumped it. I hate this, Amy said with a slight shudder. Alyssa couldn’t exactly disagree.
She walked over to the end of the hall, looked around for the stairs, then decided to remember she was a superhero and opened a window. “Ready?” she said quietly.
Ready, Amaranth replied. It’s going to be slightly painful, but we can land in an alley, get out of the suit and then take the bus home to Mom. It was good thinking. If they just left the regular way, someone with a camera might try to follow them.
“Hold on,” Alyssa said with a smirk. “You called her Mom.”
Shut up. Lauren is just a very good mom to you and I respect her for that.
“Uh-huh. Sure.” A few seconds later and they were out of the hospital, soaring through the air. The pain was remarkably bearable. She would have thought it would be worse, considering the damage she’d sustained. Just this morning she had felt like she had been punched in her everything, and now it felt mostly like a muscle cramp after a hard workout. Sure, it was a bad cramp, but it felt like healing.
“You know,” she said, enjoying the feeling of her hair in the wind, “the sun is down, and I’m feeling good enough to just go home like this. What do you think?”
I could go home like this. Saves us the bus fare, too. The flight was calm. Relaxing. They took their time, but they’d still be home faster than waiting for a bus or a cab. It was also remarkably easy to navigate to her house in the middle of suburban hell like this.
In the dark, Alyssa was glad that Amaranth was increasing her ability to see in the dark. She was glad because it allowed her to see the hooded figure that was currently breaking off the sign in her own front lawn. It had only been replaced a few days ago. She landed quietly behind them and did her best to strike a heroic pose.
“Alright. You’ve been breaking this sign off for months now. You’re going to have to knock that off.”
The person turned around, holding the sign. “I can explain, sweetie,” Lauren said.
Elamimax Lauren might be the best mom I've ever written.
After three of the most embarrassing minutes of her life, seven really illuminating ones and twenty kinda funny ones, Alyssa was entirely up to speed on the events that had led Maxine to becoming the superhero known as Penumbra.
Alyssa sat up in her bed. She could still feel her body being stitched together, but it was hard not to be invested. “So it’s just, like, Penny’s name?” Amaranth would be a mouthful for a superhero. I think we made a good call going with Redshift.
“Pretty much,” Max said. “We thought we’d call ourselves something snappier at first, like Spite or Toxin, but that didn’t feel right. In the end, we settled on having Penumbra be our ‘face’ as it were, since V and I call my symbiote Penny, anyway. We came a long way.”
“I actually had another question,” Alyssa said. “Or like, we did.”
“What’s up?”
“Why can I fly, and you can’t? Why are you so much denser than we are?” Amy asked. “I’ve been going over it and it doesn’t make sense. I’m supposed to be made from the same stuff you are, so why are we so different?”
Max cocked her head for a second. Alyssa could tell she and Penumbra were having a conversation. There was a slight flickering in her eyes. Did Alyssa look that way when she was talking to Amy? I bet it looks freaky.
“We don’t know,” Max said. “There’s a couple of possible answers but it would all be conjecture, you know? I’m not supposed to say too much about this, but Victoria – my girlfriend – is researching us. Well, me and Penny. But the thing is that we barely know what you are. You being Amaranth and Penumbra. You’re multicellular and you operate like an independent nervous system that can essentially hijack a host and all of that sort of makes sense but then there’s the fact that you’re extraterrestrial and that you also seem to feed off emotions, somehow, which brings up the concept of some kind of noospheric waves you can feed on, which is frankly ridiculous.” She took a breath. “Current working theory is that you’re just different but you adapt to what your host needs.”
“So what you needed was to be stronger and tougher?”
“I needed someone who could be tough for me, and the ability to heal. Someone who could help me pick myself up because I was never going to ask for it,” Max said. “Why that means you can fly, you have to figure out for yourself, Alyssa. Great name, by the way. Very cute. Fits you a lot better than the old one.”
“Other question,” Alyssa said. “Why us? Why are you and me, and I mean you, Max, and me, me, the ones they bonded with? Like, don’t tell me these aliens are looking specifically for trans people.”
“Actually,” Amaranth said, “I think I have a theory there.”
“Oh?” Maxine said. “Let’s hear it.”
“You’re both messy as hell!” Amaranth said cheerfully. Max was stunned, and Alyssa was stunned that Amy had just said that straight to Max’s face. The silence was deafening.
“E-laborate, for me?” Maxine said, making an expression like she was trying to hide a frog in her mouth and keep it from escaping.
“Well,” Amy said, “you were suffering from depression while trans and had loads of people to talk to but not the ability to do that, so emotions must have been coming off of you in waves, and even now, I’m pretty sure you still question everything all the time. And Alyssa is even easier because she’s had the gender thing while being in love with both of her b–”
“Okay!” Alyssa said, interrupting. Amaranth was chuckling like a cartoon villain inside of her, twirling an imaginary mustache. Alyssa had never felt her face go so red before. “I get it. She’s probably right. Not,” she said, pointing at Maxine, “a word. To anyone.” Max zipped her mouth closed, locked it, and tossed the imaginary key out the window, then relaxed when she saw Alyssa was fidgeting over it.
“Hey,” Max said, “don’t worry. You’ll figure it out. You have the world’s best wingman living in your head.” She stood up and her eyes flickered for a moment. “If anyone can help, it’s Amy.”
“Hey, you synchronized,” Alysssa said. “Neat. You sound like you’re in a cave when you do that.”
“Thanks. We feel pretty strongly about this,” Max said. “Penny is a proud parent and I have first hand experience. Together there’s nothing you can’t handle. Speaking of which, how are you feeling?”
“I’m getting there. Putting ourselves together bit by bit. Going to take me a minute before I’m fully recovered though,” Alyssa said, feeling the skin on her stomach. It was still raw from where it had been burned, but at least it was there.
“You know, I don’t think you two heal as fast as we do. That’s worth keeping in mind. Still, you’ll be on your feet in no time. And when that happens,” Max said as she walked back over to the window, “what will you do?” Slowly, Penny enveloped her. “Your nemesis is in jail.”
“I know,” Alyssa said, “but I have a lot to think about. A lot about this doesn’t feel right. First of all, I think I wanna talk to my mom.”
“Oh, right, speaking of which, you can still come to Iceland,” Maxine said. “I think you should, actually. Getting away from Lockridge Bay will do you good, I think. You and your mom.”
“Wait, how do you–” Alyssa said, gears turning. Amaranth helpfully connected the dots for her. “Ah. Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, I got a plane to catch,” Penumbra said, then flung themself out of the window, which would have been a lot cooler if they’d remembered to open it first. “Sorry!” Alyssa heard them yell as they presumably shielded people down below from falling glass.
It’s like I said, Amy giggled, messy! Alyssa laughed and laid back into the stiff hospital pillows.
A few more hours of rest and she could go home, she figured. By the time the afternoon sun was starting to set, she was on her feet. Awkwardly she stepped out of the room, where two police officers were standing guard.
“Uh,” she said, “can I… leave?” She realized only after she said it that one of the men, clearly about to doze off on the chair in the hall, was her father’s old partner, Mike Hayman. She had to keep herself from acknowledging the fact that she’d recognized him.
“Oh, shit,” the man mumbled to himself as he got up. “Redshift, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Yes. Yes, sir,” she said. “I’m not under arrest or anything, right?” She sheepishly looked around. It would get very awkward if that happened. Can you imagine? Haha. Amy’s laugh was the most forced Alyssa had ever heard it.
The man laughed. “Of course not. In fact, I’d like to shake your hand.” He held it out. Surprised, Alyssa shook it. It was slightly damp. “You’re a hero to the department, miss Redshift. You’re setting an example. You single-handedly made it clear we need more people like you on the streets.” He shook his head. “But you’re not interested in hearing about us. You’re doing good out there, making a difference. It’s a good thing one of you supers isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty out there.”
“Um, thanks,” Redshift said. “I just want to do the right thing.”
“Well, just so you know, me and the boys are on your side,” he said with a lopsided smirk that smelled vaguely like a flask-based on-the-job pick-me-up. “And don’t worry about the hospital bills, either. City hall made the hospital waive them. You saved a lot of people.”
“Oh, cool. That’s, wow, uh, thanks,” Redshift. “Uh, how long have you been out here?”
“Just a few hours,” he said. “We’ve been taking shifts.”
“So,um, there was a woman in here a few hours ago…”
“Yes,” Mike said, “as well as two young people. They wore masks going in and out. As far as we’re concerned, you and the people you care about are basically in witsec. What’s the point of the mask otherwise, huh?” His wink was so greasy it made Alyssa want to wash her hands. “We’ve been talking about the boys wearing them too.” That could only end well.
“Oh,” Redshift said. “I hope that, uh, works out for you.”
“Yeah, you can get a lot more done if people don’t know who you are,” Detective Hayman said with a knowing nod. “Less red tape. No red tape, for you. You know, we’re thinking of figuring out a way to let you know if we need you. The boys at the downtown precinct want to put a big light on the roof to signal you. What do you think?”
“I think, uh, I think I need a while to recover still, because I fell from like, pretty high and my spine looks like a half-finished game of Jenga right now,” she said with a forced laugh. He seemed to take her forced smile as a sign of pain.
“You sure you’re ready to head out?” He said with a frown and put a hand in his pocket. There was a moment where he touched his face, took something out of his pocket, and then put it back in. “Sorry, keep forgetting you’re not supposed to smoke in here.”
“Uh, yeah,” she said. “At this point it’s just waiting for a bit. I’m pretty sturdy.”
“Alright. I’ll let them know. Good to know you’re out there keeping the streets safe, Redshift. And if you ever need help, we’ve got your back.” He held out his fist, which would have been extremely awkward even if he wasn’t like, twenty, thirty years older than she was. She bumped it. I hate this, Amy said with a slight shudder. Alyssa couldn’t exactly disagree.
She walked over to the end of the hall, looked around for the stairs, then decided to remember she was a superhero and opened a window. “Ready?” she said quietly.
Ready, Amaranth replied. It’s going to be slightly painful, but we can land in an alley, get out of the suit and then take the bus home to Mom. It was good thinking. If they just left the regular way, someone with a camera might try to follow them.
“Hold on,” Alyssa said with a smirk. “You called her Mom.”
Shut up. Lauren is just a very good mom to you and I respect her for that.
“Uh-huh. Sure.” A few seconds later and they were out of the hospital, soaring through the air. The pain was remarkably bearable. She would have thought it would be worse, considering the damage she’d sustained. Just this morning she had felt like she had been punched in her everything, and now it felt mostly like a muscle cramp after a hard workout. Sure, it was a bad cramp, but it felt like healing.
“You know,” she said, enjoying the feeling of her hair in the wind, “the sun is down, and I’m feeling good enough to just go home like this. What do you think?”
I could go home like this. Saves us the bus fare, too. The flight was calm. Relaxing. They took their time, but they’d still be home faster than waiting for a bus or a cab. It was also remarkably easy to navigate to her house in the middle of suburban hell like this.
In the dark, Alyssa was glad that Amaranth was increasing her ability to see in the dark. She was glad because it allowed her to see the hooded figure that was currently breaking off the sign in her own front lawn. It had only been replaced a few days ago. She landed quietly behind them and did her best to strike a heroic pose.
“Alright. You’ve been breaking this sign off for months now. You’re going to have to knock that off.”
The person turned around, holding the sign. “I can explain, sweetie,” Lauren said.
Elamimax Lauren might be the best mom I've ever written.
