This one alludes to some adult activities but V won’t let me get too far in detail (prude!)

I was sitting with Maria and Veronica while Mauricio and Annabella packed things up for a trip to visit his family’s ranch further north and inland. I was sad to send them there but his family had been waiting to meet Maria and welcome her into the fold, so at least that aspect of the trip was good.

“I still don’t see why I have to go, Gwen,” Maria said with a roll of her eyes. “I am strong, we’ve been training.”

“A- you’re 14. B-remember when I threw you up onto the second floor by accident,” I asked her. “They’ll do that with intent to kill and follow you up to accomplish it. They killed three guards one day just to see if they could, Maria. I cannot fight if you’re there to distract me.”

“Veronica is staying.”

“She’s an adult and won’t listen to me,” I cut in before she could pick up steam. Again. “No, Maria. Even if you could handle it, which I don’t think you can, I don’t want you to see me that way.”

Even Veronica started at that one. “What way?”

“I have to kill two beings that I grew up with,” I said, voice empty. “To keep all of you safe, I have to be #42 again. Gwen won’t be able to kill her blooded sisters. #42 can.”

“I didn’t realize it was such a split for you,” Veronica said, looking at me like she hasn’t seen me in months or I grew another set of tendrils on my forehead. “What do you mean ‘Gwen’ won’t be able to?”

I laid my face in my hands, tendrils stirring the air behind me in agitation. “I… V, I won’t be me when I do this. I can’t be. How can your lover take a sentient life? How can Maria’s sister kill her own sister? No, love, I cannot be Gwen and win. I HAVE to win, V, you know it. They are a risk as long as they’re out there and if I don’t kill them in such a way that the company gives up on recapturing me, they’ll keep sending my sisters after me. I… I can’t kill some of them. I can’t kill #49, so I cannot even leave the idea that I can be recaptured.”

There was a paused before Veronica asked, “Is she here in Mexico? Or will she be with the twins when they attack?”

“Who?”

“Your mother.”

I had to laugh at that. “I don’t have a mother. I have a doctor who donated their womb. And either which way, Dr MacLeod isn’t female. They are gender neutral. Use they/them pronouns.”

“Okay,” Maria said, drawing the word out into multiple syllables in the way of teenagers around the world. “I don’t get it but if you say so. But why would they be here?”

“To take me back,” I said with a shudder. “To lock me away in a cage and test me again and again and again until I die. Or force me to breed a new series.”

“Yeah, fuck them with a puffer fish,” Veronica snarled. “We’re not letting you go back. That’s why you had me order more spears, isn’t it?”

“Basically,” I confirmed, tone coming back into my voice. “I know you won’t leave me, smart idea or not. So, you must be able to defend yourself. If you have to kill someone that’s attacking us, you have to do it. I’m not sure on the legal repercussions but none of them should be here given how much the country hates the company.”

“Can’t I help with disposal?” Maria’s voice was pleading. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Not the first time?!? Still didn’t work. “No, Maria, you cannot, though we’re gonna talk about that later. You need to go with Mauricio and Annabella. You’re not safe until we’ve eliminated this threat and you shouldn’t be handling the dead. You need to focus on living your life.”

Wash, rinse, repeat for about an hour before Maria accepted that I would not budge on this nor would any other adult in the household. Her safety wasn’t something any of us could risk because despite the hell she’d been through, she was a child. Our family’s child. Her safety was top priority.

My other top priority was gearing up later that evening after we’ve seen the others on their way north. I paused in the doorway of our room at the mansion and watched her wiggling into a set of thermal dive leggings. They would shed water, keep her warm and the thick material would move with her while hopefully providing some protection if we were attacked. And, I admit, watching her wiggle into them made me smile. I gave a low wolf whistle as I watched her. “Oh baby!”

She shot me smirk over her shoulder, that positive attitude she faced the world with warming me. Her voice was warm as she responded. “You know it, cutie. You ready to pick up your new friend?”

“Not really,” I said honestly. “There’s something about him that… I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. Like he’s supposed to be in my life. #40 said as much last night, kinda. She talks in circles sometimes, like one of those mystical Oracles. I’m honestly kind of scared, V.”

“We’ll get through this,” she said, wrapping arms around me. “It may be messy, but we’ll do this. And if Peter can help keep you free and all of us alive, I’ll accept whatever he is to you.”

A few hours and a soaking in the sea later, we were pulling the zodiac boat we used for small jobs onto shore, sand whispering beneath our feet as the waves danced around us. The night sky above was unpolluted by the light of humanity. This left the heavens themselves to paint the sky with stars, something I’d never imagined possible before escaping.

“So, are we going to pick up Peter and announce an epic throw down?” Veronica had let me be quiet on the trip out but her curiosity couldn’t keep quiet forever. “Can you set off an elder beacon or something?”

I snorted in laughter, her obvious intent. “We’re genetic abominations, not Batman and the Justice League.”

“No bat people yet, far as I know,” came a masculine voice from the rocks further up the beach. Carrying a large duffle bag, he came down toward our zodiac in an easy lope. He nodded to me and held out his hand to Veronica. “I’m Peter Zuule. You look familiar.”

“I heard you speak at UCSD a couple years ago,” Veronica said, falling into the easy conversation style I’d witnessed her use with other biologists. “You were giving a lecture on interconnection between predator and prey species in the Sea.”

“And you’re the ichthyologist,” he said, obviously remembering her better now. The moonlight overhead let me see he was clean shaven, hair held back in a tight braid down his back. I hadn’t noticed the long hair last time, but then I’d been preoccupied. He turned to me and his eyes flashed silver, a spark of power flaring in them as he breathed in deeply. “And you’re one of the 40 series, Gwen is your chosen name. Like the comic book?”

“Just as legit as Ghost Busters and less dated,” I teased back. He didn’t offer me a handshake and I didn’t start one either. “Thank you for coming.”

“As long as there’s bacon and we can stop the idiots from endangering the public, I’m happy to help,” he deflected with another laugh. Had to be to cover his thoughts. He tossed his bag in the boat. “We staying on the water?”

I shared a look with Veronica. “Figured we’d pow-wow and brainstorm back at our research base tonight, figure out how to call the twin’s attention to ourselves.”

“Sounds good,” he said and started to offer Veronica a hand to help her onto the boat.

She gave a laugh of her own and easily hopped in on her own accord. I shoved the boat and she fired the engine up in reverse and soon we were hopping along the waves back toward the marina. We’d dock the zodiac in the slip our day boat used, since it was still out of the water for repairs. Research boats are expensive.

Over the sound of the engine and the chop, Peter caught my attention. “So, how long you been out?”

“About a year now,” I guessed, calculating the months at sea and those spent with Veronica, my pups, my new family. “You?”

“Sixteen years,” he said, eyes shifting to the cascade of stars above us. “Sometimes I thought I’d go mad in there and the idea of returning….”

“Shoot me first,” I finished with a dire resolution. I couldn’t return. “I’ve known freedom. Give me liberty…”

“Or give me death. Very American for someone living in Mexico.”

“I’m a citizen of Mexico,” I acknowledged. “But freedom, love, some things are universal, Estelle said so. So, cards out here, why help me? The only way out of this is killing my sisters. And you’re not involved with us, they’re not after you.”

“Sisters- plural? How many?”

“Semi-identical twins,” I informed him, gaze on the sea but not seeing it. “They came from the same egg but their physical variances manifested differently. #44Alpha is blind but has a kind of echolocation and a scathing tongue. Her twin, #44Bravo can see but has the maw of our sire, so can only speak in his language. It drives mortals mad to hear her speak.”

I shuddered, remembering the screams of the guards they’d trapped in their room and drove to madness. Then they’d ripped them apart, all to see if they could. It was part of why Veronica would be using the spear guns- hopefully she’d be able to stay out of contact range.

“I can silence the air around Bravo, I think,” I added on. “I’ve been practicing with electronics and people around the house. But I haven’t field tested that ability yet.”

“Do they know you can mute her?”

“Doubt it,” I answered truthfully. “I left before discovering most of my abilities. I would have blown the power and muted myself out if I’d known I could.”

He fell quiet for a bit, gazing at the stars above us as the lights of shore grew closer. “I think I have an idea, Gwen. Can you call lightning?”

Plans fell into place for the upcoming battle with the twins. We left Peter at our apartment in the city and retired to the empty mansion. Annabella still kept our room there and since it was furnished, we had a bed, spare clothing and everything. I was mentally exhausted from all the planning, worrying about Veronica, coordinating with a being who’s powers I had never really seen before. Peter had shifted into a variety of canine forms in our apartment’s living room, from a small mongrel to a dire something so big it broke our couch. Peter said he’d buy us a new one. We left him there to avoid damage to the main house. Seem smarter that way. Apparently, Veronica had other thoughts when she suggested it though.

I flopped onto the queen size bed ungracefully, tendrils splaying out around me, hair obscuring my vision as I focused on my breathing. I was wearing a pair of shorts, a scoop necked-backless shirt and Gwenpool socks. What- I like superheroes named Gwen, even if their effectiveness is… debatable.

The lights on the second floor went out suddenly as the sound system in the house kicked on full blast. Forget superheroes, I have a Siren to tame apparently.

“The demon queen of high school has decreed it:

She says Monday, 8 AM, I’ll be deleted…”

I rolled over and darted out to the balustrade to look down to the first floor and main staircase to the second floor. Standing there lit by the large chandelier was my beloved but hot damn, had she worked a radical change in just fifteen minutes.

Her hair was teased like Winona’s in the movie the musical and song came from. A screaming red lipstick graced those full lips, smoky eyes and those adorable ladybug flats. I don’t know why, heels weren’t my thing. But oh, that pleated skirt was right up my alley.

“Wait- here’s one option that I like:

Spend these thirty hours getting Freaky!

YEAH!”

She danced and sashayed her up the stairs, her voice lifting the canned lyrics to something stronger. Veronica finished climbing up the stairs, eyes sparkling as she gave me a pixie grin. That grin turned dark as she pushed me up against the wall outside our room with a scorching kiss.

I surfaced long enough to match the song’s lyrics. “Veronica? What are you doing in my room?”

She laid her fingertip against my lips then dragged me into our bedroom. We lost track of the song after that, the door slamming with a slap of a tendril. Time to act on that getting “freaky” lyric.

Hands tore clothing from bodes, tendrils caressing, lips demanding, fabric flying as we took and gave. She tasted of sea breezes over a garden of flowers, skin smooth as I tasted her. Her voice was breathy, as she sang to me.

“Love this dead girl walkin’!”

And so, I did. V said she’d kill me if I went into more detail…

We woke up the next morning, and only the pales of my skin and darkness of my tendrils showed where one of us ended and the other began. I ran over her bare skin, golden in the light pouring in the windows. She slept deeply, in trust and faith.

I couldn’t let myself dwell over the possibility of losing her. It couldn’t be tolerated and I… I would raise my father himself to save her, even if it cost me my life. There were plans, we would survive. Be free. Be together.