Nyte's Point of View
The woman they called the Spider Queen dragged her body through the door to headquarters. She hadn't gotten home until after midnight. Away games sucked like that.
Random soldiers snapped to attention and saluted as Nyte walked past. She had to fight the impulse to throttle them. Everything felt slow. Everything felt pointless. Still, goddess damned Stinger expected her bright and early, and for what? So she could watch Nethys brag about her latest failure robot and how it would definitely defeat Future Hero this time? Please.
"You look like shit, Nyte," Nethys told her bluntly.
Well, fuck you too, bitch. "Good morning, Nethys." Some people had poise, professionalism. She had no need to rise to Nethys' bait. Those TV reporters just wouldn't let her leave after last night's game. Yes, she knew she was on track to set a Texas record for passing yardage, and no, she didn't care. Excellence was expected at this point. At least Rich seemed to enjoy the game.
His sister's performance wasn't a fluke. If anything, she was getting better with every game, stronger and faster too. Becca might set some team records in the weight room by the end of the season. Her baby had to be loving that. Rich was a family guy above all, so she'd have to play nice with his cousin, no matter how cranky and sleep-deprived she was.
"Long night?" Nethys taunted with a shit-eating grin on her face.
"Not long enough," Nyte said back. Why couldn't she just sleep in? Why did she have to sacrifice her weekends for this bullshit? "Got a new robot?" she said to change the subject. The sooner the latest disaster was fawned over by Jellyfish Hitler, the sooner she could go home and get some damn rest. Nyte wondered if Rich would be okay with sleeping together, justsleeping. Was that crossing a line? Pushing his boundaries was the last thing she wanted to do.
Whatever good mood Nethys was in evaporated in an instant. She was trying to keep a straight face, but her robotic scorpion tail always told the truth. It drooped like a wet noodle. If it had a face, it'd be frowning. "Eh...not as such." She looked away. "Some data is beyond my ability to account for at present. Future Hero isn't who we thought he was."
That perked Nyte right up. "You've found his secret identity?"
"No," Nethys replied, but the tail reacted. She has! Or, at least, she knows something!
"Tell me," Nyte demanded. Maybe if Future Hero was removed from the board, Stinger would stop riding their asses so much.
"He is not someone we can act against," the Scorpion Queen replied, keeping her tone carefully neutral, but her tail swished nervously. Those cybernetic limbs of hers creaked as if they needed to be oiled while she paced back and forth. "I'd thank you for not bringing this up with the leadership."
Nyte shrugged. If Nethys didn't want to talk, so be it. Let Jellyfish Hitler do her own dirty work. "Fine. What about this week's robot?"
"Recalibration is needed in our whole strategy. Nothing this week."
"Slacking off in your duties, eh?" Hamburger Satan, nominal second in command, chose that moment to interject herself. "If you ask me, Stinger has no need of your robots at all! Our fine soldiers are more than enough!" She patted one on the back, a little too hard. The girl in the Nazi biker uniform was knocked off balance and nearly started a chain reaction, bringing down the whole formation like a cluster of bowling pins.
"Fufufu, my dear Hamburger Satan is ambitious!" Jellyfish Hitler emerged from behind a pillar, no doubt attracted by the sound of a brewing argument. "So spirited! What would you have us do? What strategem might you employ?"
Hamburger Satan smoothed the fabric of her hamburger suit and preened at the attention. She was always such a suckup. "Future Hero is a strong individual combatant, I grant you, but he can't be everywhere at once! Why not...make full use of our personnel? There are objectives we can complete without confronting that bothersome meddler at all."
"Fufufu, make it so, Hamburger Satan! May your enterprises thrive! My Four Demonic Queens are not the only resource at our disposal, after all. Go with my blessing. Stinger Sieg!"
"Stinger Sieg!" They all replied immediately. Publicly, she wished Hamburger Satan good luck. Inwardly, she was looking forward to her colossal failure. She was definitely the "Starscream" of this outfit. Hopefully, whatever was bothering Nethys would turn out to be nothing.
***
"Pass me the wrench," Jessie said. Rich did so without a word.
They were partners in "Introduction to Automotive Systems", a one-year course where they would learn about every system that made up modern automobiles, from suspension to electrical. This month's project was taking apart and reassembling a motorcycle engine. Rich had everything laid out and labeled. It was surprisingly intuitive once you got into it. Engines were just air pumps! Rich had never been a "car guy" in his last life, and thought it would be interesting to learn more. So far, he was having a pretty good time, despite being the only boy in the class.
Jessie handed him another part, the timing chain this time, and Rich added it to their collection. "That should do it," his partner said, rubbing her greasy hands on an already-soiled tank top. "I have no idea why a boy would want to take this class. Wouldn't you rather bake cookies in home ec or something?"
"I already know how to bake cookies," he retorted.
Her face twitched. "Fair enough, but you know damn well Julie is not going to ask you to change a tire. Rich girl would call Triple A."
Yeah, probably, but it didn't hurt to learn.
Jessie Duval was a muscular black girl, slightly shorter than Rich, much to her chagrin, and the starting running back for the PLUH Pirates. She was here "on assignment" as it were. He remembered their first awkward conversation in this class.
"Yeah, Julie literally said to me, 'Rich needs to be watched at all times. This class doesn't fit into my schedule, so I need you to protect him during this period.' Can you believe that shit? Got me pulling guard duty for the QB's boyfriend, as if I don't have better things to do," she had said.
Rich could believe it. He knew he was being watched. Every class of his had at least one football player, or at least cousin Yesenia, making sure nobody bothered him.
"When am I gonna get a boyfriend?" Jessie complained while they worked on putting the engine back together. Some of the steps needed two pairs of hands.
He checked the handout to make sure they were on track. "What? You too? Julie told me I was her first boyfriend ever. I thought football players were, you know, players."
Jessie snorted. "Not here. Football is serious business at PLUH, Rich. We've got a lot of serious college prospects. Girls like that don't really have social lives. I had kind of a thing with a boy last year, but he was always complaining that I didn't spend enough time with him. Most guys aren't cool like you, Rich. They hate dating somebody who is always at football practice."
"What do you mean? I see Julie all the time. Hell, I work more than she does." Rich held two components together while Jessie tightened a bolt.
"Maybe that's it, a guy with a job would have no right to complain. What kind of jobs do boys do, anyway?"
Rich had to rack his brain for a minute. Reverse world boy jobs...
"I'm a waiter, so that's one. Maybe sales? Working at the mall?"
Jessie snapped her fingers, almost making them drop what they were doing. "Sorry, sorry. But yeah, that's an idea. Maybe I could find a boy who sells tank tops at Victor's Secret."
You heard that right, men's tank tops were considered lingerie in a reverse world. "Maybe," Rich grunted.
"Nah," Jessie said after thinking for a minute. "I'd feel creepy even walking in there."
They worked in silence for a minute. "How's Becca doing?" Rich changed the subject.
His partner brightened up immediately. "Awesome! I love running behind her. She's a goddess damned bulldozer, a Beccadozer!"
"You think so?"
"I know so. She's our best on the o-line, even got her playing fullback on two-point conversions or third and short. It seems obvious now, but she was this chubby nerd last year. But look at you. Figures a giant boy would have an even more giant sister."
That was great to hear. "As long as she's fitting it."
Jessie looked at him flatly. "Rich. If anybody gave Becca shit, Julie would destroy them. It's like you don't know how things work sometimes."
Right, Julie was the queen, which made him the king, and Becca would be a duchess or something. High school politics were weird.
Their teacher, Mrs. Makenzie, helped them hook up their engine to a machine that made sure it could still run.
It rumbled to life, and Mrs. Makenzie checked some kind of sensor. "Everything is solid. You two get an A. Leave early if you want, I don't care." She moved on to the next pair whose engine wasn't complete yet.
"Oh yeah," Jessie told him on the way out. "I think Beni Reyes was flirting with Becca the other day. He's super hot. Lucky bitch..."
Becca and Beni? Well, maybe there were signs, but Rich hadn't really been paying attention.
***
That evening, Rich was cooking dinner when the power went out. "Crap!" He hoped the residual heat in the oven would be enough to cook that lasagna. There was still enough daylight for him to find his way around the house, but not for much longer.
"...multiple attacks...Stinger...city on lockdown..." he heard over static on their emergency radio.
"And Becca still has the truck!" She'd dropped him off at home, then went out to meet some people. It was nice that his sister had a social life independent of him, but Rich really needed some wheels right now! Stinger just pulled something big, plunging the city into darkness. This looked like a job for Future Hero. He raised 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!"
The radio said Stinger soldiers had been spotted near the high school, so Rich decided to go there on foot. Enhanced as he was in the Endram armor, five-minute miles were possible. He could be there inside fifteen minutes if he pushed himself.
In fact, he made better time than that, being able to maintain almost a full sprint without tiring. Future Hero spotted a group of Stinger soldiers headed for the outbuildings where the specialized equipment for their elective classes was stored.
"They're robbing the autoshop classroom!" he exclaimed. They hadn't reacted to his presence, so Rich decided to approach quietly.
"Hehe, we'll be well-rewarded for this," one of the Nazi biker chicks crowed.
Peaking through the window, Rich could clearly see the Stinger girls assembling a motorcycle. They took one of the engines, maybe the exact one he and Jessie were working on earlier, and hooked it up to a motorcycle chassis. It was sickly green and positively bleeding corrupt energy.
Quickly and efficiently, like the pit crew in some hellish race, the Stinger soldiers put together the demon motorcycle. Rich couldn't look away. Some force froze him in place, preventing him from intervening.
Not yet, it said.
Once the infernal machine was complete, Future Hero could take no more. "Stop, fiends!" he cried, dashing into the classroom.
"Shit, it's Future Hero! Get to da choppah!"
THUD! He put one woman down, one punch, one knockout. Ippon!
Rather than running as he expected, they took out their knives and rushed him. Rich dodged a stab and answered with a roundhouse kick to the head. Undeterred, the other two, for Stinger usually worked in teams of four, split apart and tried to hit him from two different angles. Future Hero jumped in the air and hit them with a simultaneous split kick, sending them sprawling.
When they all went down, Rich approached the green motorcycle. Its headlight flashed, and it growled at him like a wild animal, making him leap back in surprise.
"What are you?" he asked warily, but the engine only revved louder.
The same force that held him fast a moment ago urged him forward. Approaching furtively, Future Hero held up his right hand. The Pureheart Ring was glowing.
Purple Pureheart Power fought with sickly green. Rich felt a drain, but held firm. Slowly, gradually, the purple won out, stripping away the Stinger taint, leaving a purple motorcycle leaning against the classroom wall. Its headlight blinked tiredly but not aggressively.
"Hey, uh, are you okay?"
The headlight blinked again.
Omaigoddess! Was he about to become a real Rider?
"What do you say, boy? How about we take the fight to Stinger?"
The purple motorcycle revved its engine, and its headlight blinked happily.
Rich laughed out loud and was about to get on, only to remember he didn't know how to ride a motorcycle.
Sensing his indecision, the bike came to him like it had a mind of its own. Honk! Honk! "Get on," it seemed to say.
"Okay," Rich agreed. Once he was in the seat, the purple motorcycle blew through the doors of the classroom and into the night. The City of Plano was still in darkness.
"What did they call you, chopper, right?"
The motorcycle seemed to agree.
"Then I'll call you Future Chopper!" Rich declared in exaltation. "There are a lot of fires to put out tonight, Future Chopper. Think you can take me to the nearest concentration of Stinger soldiers?"
The bike changed direction immediately. It was more like riding a horse than a machine. All Future Hero could really do was hold on.
They pulled up on a Stinger squad robbing a Wendy's. Rich jumped off and proceeded to put boot to ass. It was pretty easy. These girls were just girls, not monster mutants or robots. They were no match for him as he was now: fully trained and clad in the Endram Armor.
It was a long night as Rich rode his new motorcycle from battle to battle, defeating Stinger wherever he found them.
"How'd you get here so fast?" They sounded almost offended at his speedy response.
Good! Future Chopper would be his ally from now on! Stinger would not escape! After a few more encounters, Stinger took the better part of valor and slinked back to their holes. He made it back home in time for a late dinner. Dad and Becca didn't complain about the cold lasagna at all.