Unchosen Read online

  The short, pleasantly plump redhead at the door looked shy and awkward as she looked down at her hands. This was the form my sister morphed into to hide the tall blonde with the cute pixie cut who flew around the city with a cape. Nobody would mistake the girl for the Chosen One, and I envied her that since I didn't have the same blessing.

  I moved up to her, she looked scared even as she looked at me and she said in a voice that mirrored mine, “Hi... Emily. Can I... can I stay with you? I have no place else to go.”

  I blinked at her. Nobody had seen her since that night at Big Burger when we all learned the truth. She had panicked and flew away when Mrs. Yamamoto... I mean Doctor Aki, mom, whatever, showed up. My sister is super at everything, including panic attacks it seems.

  She, wanted to stay here? What was going on? I rushed forward and reached out to grab her hands. “Of course, come on...”

  The moment we had skin to skin contact, that's when I was being thrown across the room as an explosion of power tore through me at our contact. Heather was suddenly behind me, about to catch me as her clothes crumpled to the floor. An instant before I hit her like a runaway freight train I stopped, hovering in the air an inch from her, panicking at the thought I could have hurt her if we impacted.

  I looked at her then at my hands as I hovered, feeling more powerful than I have ever felt in my life. I looked up to see Wendy, in her true form, staring at me in complete and utter shock. She looked at herself and almost panicked as she became Wendy again... but... her eyes were brown instead of blue. She can't change her eye color. That was the only ability I had that she didn't. That and changing the color of my nails.

  Heather gasped out at her, “Wendy. Your eyes. They're brown!”

  In a burst of super speed, Wendy was inside closing the door behind her and leaning back against it as she whispered in awe, “I feel... stronger.”

  Stronger? But she was at the top of the scale. Well almost, she was a 49.9. How could she be stronger, and how the hell was I flying? I went to go to her and felt like I almost got whiplash as I moved in the blink of an eye in front of her, looking at my hands afraid to touch her again.

  Was it... was it because we touched? Is this how she felt all the time? The power was immense and... She was just staring at me, and I felt a little lethargic as my feet touched the floor, and all my senses I hadn't realized had been working overtime as I heard the sound of all of our heartbeats fade back into the background again while Wendy's eyes returned to the crystal blue we shared.

  I felt... less than I was a moment before. Aww, maaaaan, whatever happened wasn't permanent. I could have gotten used to that. I asked, “Fut - the - actual - wuck was that?” Looking around at the dumbfounded faces around me. I looked at my sister then backpedaled, holding my hands up. “Umm... I think that maybe, umm, we shouldn't touch.”

  I just about jumped out of my skin when Vi rasped out from beside me, “Ya, think?”

  I looked at her, in her cute kitten pajamas, holding a mallet the size of a sofa. I chided her with a smirk. “Chatterbox,” as the giant clown mallet reconfigured to a little Hello Kitty watch on her wrist.

  Heather got dressed in the blink of an eye, and then her glow faded, leaving her looking just as shocked and dumbfounded as I felt. I had... I had powers like the Chosen One for a few seconds. Just from touching my sister we had somehow shared our powers for a few seconds. But... that's not possible.

  Even the Leech didn't really steal powers, his abilities let him mimic powers temporarily while dampening the power he was mimicking in his victim. After he was captured... by Wendy, the authorities studied his powers extensively to determine how they worked. I'm sure they were hoping they could use them to somehow give their own agents powers to make heroes unnecessary.

  I scrambled back when Wendy cocked her head, a thoughtful look on her face as she reached out toward me. Crap on a bagel!

  She shook her head and said in a voice that wasn't as confident as I would have liked it to be, “No, I think it is ok so long as we don't make skin contact. I saw some power arcing between our hands when it happened.”

  Sure, she could be brave, she was indestructible. I... I think I had been indestructible for a few seconds there myself. I closed my eyes tight waiting for that huge shocking influx of power, and she laid a hand on my shoulder. The fabric of the nightshirt preventing our skin from touching... and nothing happened.

  I opened one eye and sighed in relief then was gleeping as she pulled me into a hug. I gasped out from the steel coils of her arms, hearing my bones creaking, “Can't... breath.”

  Instantly she was five feet away looking panicked, terrified, and concerned. I held a hand out as I took a breath of sweet air. “I'm fine. You just gotta remember your strength...” I hesitated then smiled and added, “Sis.”

  She was shy and bashful again, looking like she didn't know what to do or say. I didn't like her being so awkward around me. I went into motion. “Umm... come on in. Of course, you can stay with us.” I looked a question to Vi who smirked and rolled her eyes at me. She was so cool. I loved that she just went with the flow no matter what weirdness life threw at us.

  I think that's when Wendy first realized I hadn't opened the door and there were others in the apartment. She sounded more Chosen-y and sure of herself as she straightened and inclined her head toward each woman, “Photon, Blue.”

  I had a mini panic attack, Vi had just outed herself in front of the Chosen One, and Violet was wanted for violating the vigilante laws... a few hundred times. But then relaxed, remembering she had already done that the night Big Burger was virtually destroyed by the group of villains who decided to attack me that night.

  If Wendy was going to turn her in, she could have done it then, or on the dozens of times the Blue Canary swooped in to help deal with powered villain incidents with the other heroes of the city. Heather, Wendy, Liberty Lady, and the Rocket Speedster always conveniently say that Blue Canary got away after taking down the bad guys.

  It is odd, but I think it is the heroes' way of rebelling in some little way. They all work for the city in essence since they have to be registered with both the city and containment and be authorized to engage other powered individuals and deliver them to the authorities. Whether that is Containment or the BCPD.

  Another little rebellion is that more often than not, they will either leave the bad guys restrained on the streets for whichever agency got there first, or they would drop them off in front of a Big City police station. Only the villains who ranked 25 or more on the Peltier Scale do they deliver directly to Containment, who has the proper means to detain someone of that power level. All of their power dampening equipment is supplied by Genesis Labs, the same people who made Wendy and me.

  That equipment worked on supers of up to about 40-45 on the scale, and only weakened those above. Not even that on a Prime, which my sis would be if not for... well for me, ruining the experiment.

  I had to know. “Why are you here, Wendy?”

  She looked like she didn't know what to do and Heather told her as she led her to the couch, “Come on, sit.”

  Vi moved over to a chair and perched on it like a gargoyle as she studied my sister. “Expending energy?”

  Huh? I went to the kitchen to get some water for... heh... for the Chosen One. What? I had no clue what to do and felt awkward, and you'd be just as awkward if a famous person you recently learned was related to you showed up on your doorstep in the middle of the night. Well fine, it is morning, but for those of us on the night shift, it is the middle of the night.

  I came back with the glass of water and went to hand it to her, but instead, put it on the coffee table in front of her to avoid any accidental skin contact. As much as I didn't want to do that again, part of me wanted to, amazed at how real powered people felt. Did they always feel so... powerful? Like they could do anything? I was close enough to a Norm to not know.

  Heather, who speaks the language of brevity my roommate is a mast
er of, playfully pushed me onto the couch then prompted as she sat on the couch between Wendy and me as a physical buffer so we couldn't touch. “Violet is right, you don't need to wear your disguise around us, Wendy. You're among friends.”

  The redhead nodded and bled into her tall, thin form with the adorable blonde pixie cut. “Sorry. Mom... Mrs. Anderson, tells me to stay disguised at all times, even at home.” She looked at her hands, “I usually always know what to do, and what to say, but I don't know anything anymore.”

  I opened my mouth and shut it when she continued, “My mom isn't my mom, I was created in a lab... I have a sister. Nothing was ever real.”

  She looked between the three of us. “I... I quit. Then mom threw me out when I refused to do what she said and I told her that I didn't want to be the Chosen One anymore, some God damned science experiment. A freak.”

  “She told me that if I thought I could live on my own without her, then she was stripping me of my credentials, that I couldn't use my powers to stop villains anymore or I would be branded a vigilante. If I wanted to be normal, then I'd have to live like other normal powered people did, no more Chosen One. She even fired 'Wendy' as her assistant. Something about tough love.”

  I blinked. Holy platypus stars and donut holes, they fired the Chosen One! My heart went out to the woman I had hated most of my adult life as she shrugged and looked between Vi and me. “I didn't know where else to go.”

  I was just nodding, looking to Violet for her approval as I said, “You always have a place here, Wendy. With... family.” Oh god, her big blues which looked so much like mine were watering. Don't cry Chosen One or I'd be bawling like a baby!

  Then my sis looked past Heather to me. “How does one go about getting a job?”

  I snorted, forgetting the gilded cage she had lived in. The only normalcy she ever had in her life is when they allowed her to attend public high school for her senior year so she could get some socialization skills with people who weren't scientists or keepers like the Mayor who had pretended to be her mother her entire life.

  I yawned so hugely I was afraid the apartment might accidentally fall in. Then looked sheepishly at her. “We can figure everything out after I get a few hours of sleep. I had a long night, stopping Lightning Bug from destroying the restaurant and all. I can bring out some blankets and pillows, the couch folds out into a bed.”

  My sis looked more like the Chosen One when she straightened up at the mention of Lightning Bug. Fierce and confident. But there was also... worry? For me? Then again, I did feel particularly protective of her at the moment too. My sister needed help, and I was going to help her. It was as simple as that, no matter how foreign the concept of actually having a sister was to me.

  She shook her head and stood when I did. “I don't sleep. Well not much. Only after I expend a lot of energy in a fight. I'm fine. You get some sleep.”

  She... didn't sleep?

  Heather stood up and grasped her hand in solidarity, then turned to me and gave me a heated look. Besides our hair, Wendy and I looked identical at that time, but Heather saw us as different as night and day, the way she gave me a hungry look. She leaned in and gave me a steamy kiss that left me wanting. Then she winked at Vi and announced to us, “Well I have to get to work. Don't do anything until we can get figure out the lay of the land, ladies. I'll get back as soon as I can.”

  Then with that, she was a being of light. My core heated as I added, a naked being of light, and she phased through the door at light speed, leaving her clothing behind on the floor.

  Wendy was blushing. “She loves you.”

  It was my turn to blush as I nodded. I loved her too. We both froze then turned to look at Violet who was just looking back and forth between us, shaking her head. She shrugged then said, “Uncanny.” Then she shuffled past me, kissing my cheek and heading into her room, yawning and saying, “Love you.”

  I called out, “Love you too, brat.”

  Then I was alone... with my sis.

  She Captain Obvioused. “She isn't saying much.”

  I had to smile. “Doesn't really need to.”

  Then we stood there in an awkward silence. I looked between her and my bedroom door, feeling weird that Wendy would be wide awake out here alone, dwelling on what has happened. I looked at her and said awkwardly, “Well... good night.”

  She looked at me and scrunched her head to her shoulders. It was like looking in a freaky mirror, seeing yourself do things you would never do. I don't do cute. She slid up to me, pulling her sleeves over her hands and she hugged me, gently this time. “Thank you, Emily. I promise I won't take advantage of your generosity. I just need a job. Mom... Mrs. Anderson froze all my assets, saying they were City funds.”

  I almost growled. That is the thanks she gets for being the champion of Big City the past few years. The woman who raised her throwing her to the curb and punishing her for being upset that her whole life was a lie.

  I said to her as I scurried off to bed, looking back, “Don't stress over it. This is what family is for. Violet has been my only family my whole life, and she carries my ass here. It's what family does.”

  What was I a freakin' Hallmark card? Did I mention how awkward I felt?

  Then I said again, “Good night,” as I slipped into my room.

  I snorted at her tongue in cheek reply. “Good morning.” Ok, we obviously shared the same sarcastic gene, being twins and all. I hoped I saw more of that confidence from her, this self-doubt that was humbling her was all kinds of nope.

  I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow, I was out like a light as soon as I laid down. It had been an eventful and exhausting day.

  Chapter 3

  Mega Girl

  I awoke in a panic, the smell of smoke hanging in the air. I glanced at my alarm clock, it was almost 10:00 in the morning when I usually got up. Vi would already be at work at the comic book studio unless she had to beg off again if a villain attacked in the city somewhere. I went dashing into the main room, I had to warn Wendy if she wasn't already up.

  I skidded to a stop at a realization, and a revelation, one, fire couldn't hurt the Chosen One if it wanted to, and two, Wendy was in the kitchen patting out a fire in a pan with her bare hand. With a tiny puff of her freeze breath, it extinguished, and she turned around looking very embarrassed, and very ummm... messy.

  She shrugged at me in apology, as what looked to have been hash browns which looked more like charcoal briquettes just then, slipped out of the pan and onto the floor. They actually bounced.

  I just blinked at her in shock, she had flour all over herself, smeared on her cheek, orange stains on the apron she wore that had to be orange juice. The smashed husks of what had to have been oranges laying on the counter a tell-tale indicator.

  There was a plate with over cooked pancakes, runny eggs I could see bits of shell sticking up from, burnt toast, and a glass of extraordinarily pulpy orange juice. She smiled and said in a meek voice, “Umm... I wanted to surprise you with breakfast.”

  Dear lord in heaven, I snorted as I dumbly nodded. “Well, I'd say you succeeded... this is... umm, quite a surprise.”

  Her hand still had some burning grease on it, and the flames licked up her shirt, and my favorite dish towel that was over her shoulder burst into flame. Aww, maaaan! It was the one that had the words, “Get out of my kitchen!” embroidered on it.

  She patted her arm and the towel, smothering the flame as she squinted one eye. I was still a little unnerved at watching my mirror image doing alien things like that. She offered, “Sorry,” then pointed at the book as she smooshed duck lips to one side while she pointed at the food-ish stuff and the cookbook beside it covered with flour. “It didn't turn out like they show, I followed all the instructions.”

  I narrowed an eye at her as I crossed the room to the windows and slid them up to let the hazy blueish smoke to dissipate and get some fresh air inside. “You've never cooked before?”

  Her expressive face scrun
ched a little as she said with an apologetic tone. “I'm only allowed the high protein and electrolyte shakes the family nutritionist makes me to ingest on a strict schedule. They help replenish the energy I expend. It comes back naturally, and I don't need to eat, but mom... umm, Mrs. Anderson says I need to be in peak fighting condition at all times.”

  What the gerbil jousting, ferret wrangling heck? They didn't even let her eat normal food? What kind of life did she live? My analogy of a gilded cage was looking more and more apt by the moment. They only exposed her to the positive input, dictated what she ate and when, and made her work as the Mayor's assistant I'm sure to keep tabs on her when she wasn't fighting crime, and maybe to get a little social interaction.

  I moved closer to her but resisted reaching out in case we accidentally touched. “You're not allowed normal food?”

  She smirked and shared with a whisper, “The year they let me attend public school, I never drank my protein shakes at lunch, I sort of dumped them then ate the school lunches instead.” She quickly justified it like I'd take exception, “To fit in.” Then she smiled and said with enthusiasm, “It all tasted so much better than the bland slurry I was supposed to be consuming. The flavors were amazing.”

  I blinked at her. “You actually liked the cardboard and paste tasting school lunches?”

  She nodded, dubious of my description. I snorted again, for the most powerful being in the city, she seemed innocent and naive about life. That was a direct result of the bubble they had her living in, and I found boiling anger rising inside at the Mayor, Genesis Labs, and the City Council for treating her like a tool instead of a human being.

  I looked at the plate of food she had tried to make for me and winced. There looked to be two strips of charcoal beside the eggs that I had an inkling had started their lives as bacon strips.