Nyte's Point of View
Having a boyfriend was better than she could've ever imagined! Somebody like her, well, she had every reason to fear a gold-digger looking to use his pretty face to prey on her inexperience. Rich wasn't anything like that, so genuine, so real. She never had to try to decode his statements or guess his intentions. It was all there, in plain English.
Rules. An athlete all her life, Nyte liked it when expectations were clear-cut, boundaries well-defined. Her boyfriend had done all that. Kissing was okay. Touching was okay. Anything further had to wait until his eighteenth birthday. It wasn't like she hadn't fantasized. Goddess, she had! The way he felt when they were kissing, when she could feel that he was excited too! Yeah, Nyte thought all about it during her "private time," and no, she wasn't ashamed. Sue her, she was a teenage girl! She was supposed to be horny!
Nyte took a deep breath to calm herself. I can wait. We have a lifetime to look forward to.
They'd planned to have a little pool party to blow off some steam before football camp began next week. Rich and Rebecca were invited, of course, plus her closest friends on the team and whatever boys they could convince to come with them. While the Spider Queen waited for Jellyfish Hitler to begin the meeting, she amused herself by picturing Rich in his swimsuit. Yeah, it was basically a short-sleeve shirt, but the fact that it was a swimsuit just made it hit different.
"Oho, my cute little spider girl is so obvious," Kleia teased.
Crap, she hadn't heard the blue girl sneak up on her! "What do you want, Kleia?"
"Oh, this and that. Shame about what happened to Mayor Strickland, huh?" she asked innocently.
Nyte snorted. "That was sloppily done. Why the hell are we wasting a highly-placed asset like that, anyway?" Getting Kleia to talk shop was the best way to keep her from prying into her personal life. Being teased at work about a boy was mortifying.
Kleia raised an eyebrow. "Who says we wasted anything? Mayor Strickland played her part well. Did you ever consider the possibility that her elimination by Future Hero was what I planned all along?"
That stopped her cold. Nyte had never even considered using Future Hero to tie up loose ends. Kleia was dangerous, no mistake about it. "What does that have to do with me?"
The Tick Queen's smile was so sharp it could cut glass. "Well, funny you should mention that. You see, now that the mayor's office is vacant, there will be a special election..." she trailed off, implying the rest with her eyes.
Her mind's blankness must've shown on her face. She couldn't run for mayor. Nyte was still in school.
"Not you, dummy! Your mom! We want her to run for mayor! Her legal expertise will make our operations run so much more smoothly."
Fury boiled up in her gut and caught in her throat. "I'm already here because of her! What more do you want from us?" This was too much, far too much!
"Our money's worth," Kleia said simply. "You've done good work for the organization, Nyte, but it doesn't even come close to paying off your mother's debt. Talk it over with her, would you? The late Mayor Strickland did a good job setting everything up, but lacked a certain finesse. We have every confidence your mother will be able to implement our agenda with minimal friction."
Yeah, this was just what she needed right now, more Stinger bullshit. At least they hadn't made her fight Future Hero for a while. It seemed the higher-ups wanted to get more mileage out of him. What a terrifying thought. Stinger's tentacles were everywhere, even manipulating their enemies.
"Fufufu, my faithful Demonic Queens!" Jellyfish Hitler was in a good mood at least.
"My lady." Nyte and Kleia bowed while the assembled soldiers kneeled.
"Fufufu, I am pleased with your progress, Tick Queen Kleia!"
Pleased? Not a single one of their mutants had succeeded. Was Jellyfish Hitler just as manipulative as her blue friend? She didn't seem like the type.
"I'm honored, my lady. Might I present this week's mutant?"
"By all means!"
Kleia bowed theatrically and held up a hand. "Gentlewomen, meet our newest agent: Shark Mutant Sameko!"
"Same! Same!"
In walked a blue girl, not just blue hair, but blue everything, with sharp teeth, fins, and a tail. She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit that looked oddly similar to the one their high school swim team wore. Probably best not to think too deeply about that, Nyte decided.
"I personally guarantee her success, my lady. Sameko will get the sample we need for sure!"
Huh. A shark mutant the week they were having a pool party. What an odd coincidence.
***
Sometimes, reverse worlds sucked. Today was not one of those days.
There was his girlfriend Julie, walking around in a tiny purple bikini, showing all that skin without even a hint of embarrassment. All the other girls were the same, not thinking about modesty any more than a boy might in his first life. Taking your shirt off at a pool party was just common sense, right?
Not here. In a reverse world, the male upper body was highly taboo, especially the chest, shoulders, and midriff. Bathing suits for boys consisted of swimming trunks and a rash guard up top. The rash guard could be tight, show a lot of upper arm if you were slutty, but that was the limit.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Becca hanging out with the other girls of the offensive line and chatting with a group of boys, tiny things. If they were one hundred pounds soaking wet, he'd be surprised. Once more, Rich was hit with the fact that he wasn't normal here. Other boys rarely came up to his chin.
Julie presided over it all like the queen she was. Her family's house, really a mansion, had a giant swimming pool in the backyard, complete with a hot tub. Honestly, if he didn't know her, Rich would be a little intimidated.
The boys were intimidated. Rich got the sense they were afraid to talk to him, and the other girls averted their eyes. In Texas, high school football was the apex of the social ladder, practically a religion. If Julie was the queen, then that made him the king.
It was a little sad. Making friends with another boy just for research purposes might be fun. What were they like? The same as the girls from the other world? The anthropologist in him was just fascinated by it all.
"Hey, babe, can I get you something to drink?" Julie was hugging him from behind, pawing at Rich in front of everyone.
Suddenly conscious of all eyes on him, Rich turned his head. "How about a Dr. Pepper?" Let them look, so long as they fear.
"Mid, but anything for you, darling." There was laughter in Julie's voice when she used a word he taught her. They kissed briefly, and his girlfriend went inside to get him a can of soda from the fridge.
Audible gossip began as soon as Julie entered the house. "What does she see in him? Look at those muscles, he's practically a girl," one boy said nastily.
"And so tall," another added. "There are only so many tall girls for the rest of us. It's practically unfair." The girls they were talking to frantically shushed them when Rich walked by.
Heh. Haters gonna hate. Rich paid them no mind. He tried not to let it go to his head, but Rich could easily socially destroy those two if he bothered.
"Your drink, babe." Julie came back and was hanging off of him again. He sipped on his soda while they rocked together. Awful rap music from what he could only assume was genderbent Eminem was playing from some speakers. So far, nobody was swimming, just milling around and talking.
He'd offered to cook for the party. The Cohen household had a very nice grill. Hamburgers and hot dogs would be no problem for him. Julie would hear none of it.
"You work too much, baby," she'd said the other day. They planned to order pizza later. Just chilling with Julie like this was nice.
"You want to help Becca 'shoot her shot'?" Julie whispered into his ear.
Rich scanned the crowd. His twin looked okay, so far. She was at least tall. Boys in this world absolutely had a height preference. "Not unless it looks like she's in trouble," he replied.
"Mmm, suit yourself." Her hands wrapped around his waist in the classic "prom pose," and she started nibbling his ear. It made him giggle; he was so surprised.
Julie froze. "I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I?"
Rich put his hands on hers. "Not at all. Let's just not actually make out with an audience, okay?"
She relaxed and their fingers intertwined. He noticed she was wearing black nail polish, very similar to Nyte. It was probably nothing.
"How about we swim for a bit?" Rich suggested. "The others might be waiting for us to start, actually."
"Great idea!"
Out of nowhere, Julie picked him up, carried him to the side of the pool, and tossed Rich in the deep end. Being so dense, Rich sank like a stone. It took a little bit to right himself underwater. He kicked off the bottom and surfaced, shaking the water out of his hair like a dog.
Everyone went silent, and Rich didn't know why. "Is there something on my face?" he asked the crowd.
Julie's face was ashen, her voice contrite. "Sorry, baby. For a second there, it looked like you didn't know how to swim."
"Well, I can." He was treading water without a problem. "Don't worry so much, sweetie. Come on in, the water's fine!"
His girlfriend's expression completely reversed. "Best boyfriend ever!" She jumped in after him, and pretty soon the others joined them.
They had a good time swimming around, Julie hovering nearby to make sure none of the other girls tried to cop a feel under the water. Only she was allowed to do that.
"How about some games?" Becca suggested after swimming over to them. She was the only girl Julie let get within arm's reach of him.
"Like what?" Julie asked.
"I don't know, how about Marco Polo?" Becca offered.
Julie vetoed that one right away. It could be used as an excuse to touch Rich. Her possessiveness might bother others, but he just took it as a compliment. They settled for passing a beach ball around.
It was a pretty intense game once everyone got into it. All the girls here were serious athletes, and most of the boys fled the pool once the action picked up. Pretty soon, things degenerated into some kind of hybrid of volleyball and water polo with two sides of the pool facing each other. Rich stayed, with Julie and Becca forming a defensive perimeter around him.
They were working up a decent appetite, and Rich suggested they order the pizza already.
"Is my baby hungry?" Julie asked sweetly. "Then your wish is my command! What do you people want?" she yelled to the crowd.
"Pepperoni!"
Some people cheered.
"Sausauge!"
More people cheered.
"Pineapple!"
Everyone went silent and stared down the pineapple person until they lowered their head in shame.
Julie got out of the pool and got her phone off the table to order for everyone. "What do you want to do after we eat?" she asked Rich. "We've got a ton of DVDs in the house, and I have like every game. Most of them are leaving after we eat, so it'll just be us."
Rich looked up and saw the sun lowering in the sky. "How about going in the hot tub, just you and me?"
His girlfriend clutched her chest as if she'd just been shot, her eyes darkening with desire. "Hot tub...with my boyfriend..." Words failed her after that.
Geez, Julie is so down bad, he thought in amusement. It was surreal, being treated like he was the hot one in the relationship. Rich was about to get out of the pool to dry off when-
"OW!" Something bit him!
"Same! Same!"
A blue shark girl had somehow snuck in and sunk her teeth into his shoulder. Stinger! It was obvious. Rich knew corrupt energy anywhere.
Everyone started freaking out. Julie looked the angriest of all. "You made my boyfriend bleed!" There was something dark in her voice, deadly and cruel, that Rich hardly recognized.
His blood was dripping from the teeth of the shark girl, but the creature didn't stick around. She turned and fled, her tail splashing in the water, which allowed her to pick up speed.
He couldn't in good conscience let the mutant get away to victimize other people. This looked like a hit-and-run, so Rich had to pursue. He held up his ring:
"From a future dark
To a post not set,
Stinger hasn't won just yet,
With Pureheart Power, a noble mission,
Come forth! Future Hero! Henshin!"
With the party crowd "flashbanged," Future Hero jumped the fence and went after the shark girl. The chase went on across several people's backyards. Any yard with a pool let the shark mutant get further away, while Future Hero gained on her in the yards without one. He chased her until they ended up in a quarry.
"Same! Same!"
This one didn't seem too smart, more like an animal, lashing out wildly. Why else would a creature that was fast on water and slow on land run to a dry quarry to get cornered?
She was breathing heavily, or whatever the equivalent was. Gills on the side of the shark mutant's neck were weeping. Future Hero punched her once, and the shark mutant crumpled. Cringing away, gasping, eyes wild with terror, the creature looked pathetic.
Channeling Pureheart power into his boot, Future Hero ran forward and kicked the shark mutant's head like he was trying to hit a field goal. "Future Kick!"
Bloody teeth flew everywhere, raining down in the empty quarry like razor-sharp hail. The monster started sweating profusely while her limp body vibrated. Eventually, the sweat was replaced with clouds of steam that dissipated into the Texas evening. Nothing remained.
"Shit. Figures my easiest fight would be the one that drew blood, just my luck." Rich headed back to Julie's house, hoping he didn't miss the pizza.
***
Kleia's Point of View
The woman they called the Tick Queen picked up a bloody tooth once Future Hero left the quarry.
"Still fresh," she remarked. Perfect.