Starla's Crush (Patreon)

Starla’s Crush
Written by HarmonyMotion with Au Goose
Edited by Au Goose
Commissioned by TRM

Book 1

Chapter 1

Starla sat in the corner seat nearest the door to her math class. “No, no, no. Jane. I’m Jane when I’m blending in.” she chided herself. She was so pleased with her simple jeans and blouse getup. Her rich blonde tresses were tied up in a thick bun. And she even added a pair of black-rimmed glasses, perfect for disguising her identity! As the professor discussed parabolic vs exponential growth, her super hearing picked up the sounds of screaming and demands for money. Could it be? A crime!!

She peered straight forward through the blackboard, scanning the city within the cone of her vision. Seeing nothing, she began to swivel in her seat, looking for signs of trouble.

“Miss? Are you looking for something more interesting than this lecture?” The professor asked in irritation.

“Um, sorry! I have to go!” She grabbed her bag and scuttled out the door to the laughter of her classmates.

Jane made her way to an empty corridor, pocketed her glasses, undid her hair, and tore her blouse open, revealing her superhero costume underneath. She blurred, rattling all of the locker doors in her wake before climbing an empty five floor stairwell to the roof and soaring into the air.

“Money! Now! Give us everything in the drawers!”

The row of terrified tellers trembled as they stuffed wads of cash into large, brown sacks. A gunshot fired in the background, followed by screams of terror.

“Stop! Let him go!!” A female voice cried out.

“What the hell is going on back there!” One of the robbers at the register yelled.

“This fuckin’ kid kicked me in the leg!”

“He didn’t know what he was doing! Please let him go!” she wept.

“Shut up, lady!” The thug pointed his gun at her and the child.

“Mommy!!”

He squeezed the trigger. A few shots rang out. A group whisper of shock echoed, and all of the hostages held their breath in anticipation of the horror to come. The gang of armed robbers also turned their heads to see what their idiot colleague had done.

Then there was absolute silence.

In between the gunman and the hostages, there stood a tall, fit female blonde. Smoke floated off the barrel of the gun, which was now pointing at the bank robber’s surprise guest who had materialized in between the shooter and the mother and child.

Her legs were clad in a pair of red thigh-high boots with a slight heel, putting her nearly at six feet. The only other thing she was wearing was a solid blue leotard over her torso, so skintight that her pebbled abs were on clear display. Emblazoned across her chest was a red emblem with a yellow star in the middle.

Her powerful arms were left bare for the world to see, as well as her trim, toned thighs. Her wide, child-bearing hips and powerful, muscular, delectable derriere elicited an involuntary gasp from all of the hostages behind her.

Jane smirked at the gunman, as amused by his surprise as that of the good citizens around her. She had long suspected the uniform bordered on scandalous, but it was the only comfortable thing she could wear underneath her civilian clothes. And she wasn’t ashamed of her body, anyhow! She’d seen enough on Earthling social media to know that this didn’t even come close to the boundaries of what was decent.

“Uh… what the fuck?” The gunman was flabbergasted.

The mystery woman put her fists on her hips, excited to live the moment that she had fantasized about for months.

“Don’t worry, citizens! You’re safe now! Star Girl is here!” she announced proudly, triggering a drone of confused excitement.

“Who the fuck is she?!”

“Where did she come from?!”

“Mommy, did this beautiful lady save us?”

Star Girl extended her arm straight in front of her and opened her fist. A handful of metal pellets dribbled to the floor with a few loud clinks.

The gunman looked at her in terror. What the fuck was this? A comic book character come to life!? No, this was the real world! He pointed at her chest and fired again.

Star Girl let the bullet bounce right off her bust. Her sleek Xenonian outfit, designed by the computer at the heart of her fortress, had utterly failed to resist Starla’s power. But it was more than sturdy enough to shrug off some bullets.

Before the gunman could react and fire again, Star Girl’s arm whipped forward in the blink of an eye. Before anyone could register the movement, she had her fingers on the barrel of his gun. She pinched it shut with a loud, tortured squeal.

“I wouldn’t pull that trigger if I were you,” she warned him sternly.

“Holy fuck... Guys, help!!”

All guns were pointed at her now.

Star Girl kicked in her superspeed and watched as time ground to a halt. Should she let them fire? She knew with certainty that no harm would come to anyone, thanks to her incredible power and two whole years of training! And it would be a good way to send a message to criminals everywhere. On the other hand, it might frighten the innocent civilians too much…

She came to a decision. Floating to stop in front of each gunman, she gently pried their fingers off the trigger before stripping the gun out of their hands so as to minimize any injuries. Everyone remained frozen in place as Star Girl collected all of their weaponry.

She returned back to her original position, all five armed robbers now empty-handed. With a blink of her eyes, the world returned back to normal speed. To everyone else, it would appear as if she had just conjured all of their guns into her own hands.

“Shoot her!”

“Uh, what!?”

“What happened!?”

“Fuck!! My hands! Where’s my gun!?”

“Looking for these?” Star Girl smirked. She held all five barrels of the rifles in one hand and closed her fist around it. The sheaf of weapons screeched before the barrels turned molten and fused with each other. The five-headed bouquet of guns looked like some sort of strange, modern art masterpiece.

Star Girl blew her cold breath over the still-liquid metal, hardening it in an instant. It wouldn’t do her reputation any good if someone accidentally got burned.

All five of the masked men looked at each other before arriving at the same decision simultaneously.

They all bolted for the door.

Star Girl let them make a run for it until the very last moment. As one of them swung the door open, she zipped right in front of him atop the large steps to the bank and held her arm out. The perpetrator ran his forehead full speed into her immovable, invulnerable arm, clotheslining himself and knocking him out cold.

She turned and grabbed his airborne body to prevent him from tumbling down the regal steps, and put his comatose form down carefully.

Two more of the trailing criminals managed to see the mysterious superheroine in time, but could do nothing to stop their velocity. Star Girl merely held out a finger at each of them, directed at their foreheads, and they collided with her single extended digit at full speed, again knocking themselves out. Her slender arms didn’t even tremble at the impacts. Catching their falling bodies, she placed them on top of the first, forming a neat little pile.

The final two robbers screamed and retreated back into the bank, looking around desperately for anything they could use as leverage. One of them sprinted behind a hostage and prepared to choke him while using him as a shield.

“Stop! Or I’ll…”

Time froze for Star Girl once again as she strolled up to the hostage, easily pried the criminal’s arms apart, set the innocent aside, and swapped herself in his place before she ceased her super speed.

“Or you’ll what?” she asked mischievously from within his grasp.

“What? I… Aahhhhh!!” his heart skipped more than a few beats from shock of the sudden switcheroo.

Star Girl grabbed him by the arm, flipped him over her shoulder, then gave him a gentle shove that sent him sliding across the polished marble floor, outside to the rough concrete, crashing into her little human criminal roadblock.

The final one finally understood how powerless he was against her. He fell to his knees.

“Please, please don’t hurt me! I surrender!” he blubbered.

Star Girl’s eyes glowed as she meticulously scanned him for weapons with her piercing gaze. He merely trembled, not knowing what fate lay in store for him.

“Okay. Follow me,” she ordered as she strut toward the exit.

“You… you mean it?” he stammered in disbelief.

“Yes! Wait outside with your friends there until the police arrive. Don’t do anything bad.”

He staggered to his knees and meekly followed the strong, beautiful blonde. His heart raced as he admired her sleek, sculpted shoulders and her tight bubble butt. Maybe, just maybe, he could get away…

“And if you think about trying to run, I’ll knock you right out before you can even take a breath,” she cheerfully reminded him without even turning to look.

“I didn’t!- How…?”

“I can hear your heartbeat, silly!”

His heart pounded even harder. He accepted his fate and sat on the concrete steps outside, in front of a large crowd and gathering cops. Some reporters’ vans had made their way to the scene as well.

“Um… ma’am? Who are you?” they asked as they cuffed the culprits.

“You can call me Star Girl! I’m here to help!” she replied brightly.

And with that, she flew into the sky.

Chapter 2

“The drill rigs and deep core mining are destroying our planet!” Astra cried before the head council of scientists that ruled Xenon.

“Perhaps… but your evidence is unconvincing. The energy we are reaping will surely be enough to power us for centuries to come. We will find a solution if it comes to that.”

“How can you risk the entire planet on that gamble!?” Her protest fell on deaf ears.

“Your protests are the cries of someone who is far too conservative, someone who does not understand trade offs. Would you deny the rapid advancement of our civilization from this nearly limitless energy? And what if your forebodings do not come to fruition? We will have lost an era of prosperity for all of our peoples, all due to the naysayers of you and people like you.”

“I have… I have an alternative!” she pleaded.

“Your quantum theory is far too raw and untested. No, we will continue the drilling.”

Five years later, a prosperous, flourishing Planet Xenon was doomed. They drilled too far, too fast, too greedily. Most of the citizens considered their situation an age of paradise, living hedonistically and not putting effort into furthering their knowledge of the universe or advancing their science. People lived carefree, with no want for material wealth. Whatever they desired, their planetary drills provided enough energy to deliver.

Part of the energy they harvested was put back into powering the drills themselves, the exponential growth far outpacing what their models had predicted. The core of the planet became unstable as they dug beyond the point of no return.

Astra, however, had not wasted those five years. With that energy, she was able to make large advances of her own in her parallel quantum universe theory. However, she was just one woman, and while there was no shortage of resources to power her experiments, the real bottleneck was her ingenuity. She simply could not manage and run every single test that she needed to. There was not enough time in the day to configure, test, ruminate, re-configure, and re-test.

When she made her big breakthrough, she sent out multiple probes, looking for a good parallel universe to jump to. The probabilistic nature of reality-hopping meant that most of them would never find something habitable. She sent out probe after probe, fighting against insurmountable odds that she could find a target destination.

While probe after probe were flung into the infinite void, she focused her efforts on a ship capable of undertaking the arduous journey. Xenon had spaceships that could traverse their entire solar system, but this was something else entirely. The vessel had to withstand the different, potentially harsh and lethal vacuums of space from other realities. She soon realized that she could not engineer a ship that would be sturdy enough to save her entire family. After a day of mourning, she steeled her resolve. She would save Starla, their daughter. Her husband supported her one hundred percent as tears streamed down her face. They embraced each other. Starla was five years old—far too young to understand. But she cried with her mommy and daddy too.

Astra’s hope started to wane as the destruction of their planet neared. Even if she constructed the reality-traversing vessel, she would have no target to send Starla to. Would their daughter just drift across infinite realities, suspended in sleep eternally, as good as dead? No, was this a fate worse than death?

And finally, one of her probes responded. It had landed on a primitive planet, blue and green and beautiful. Two of their inhabitants had discovered the strange device in their isolated farm. The probe opened communications.

Astra’s husband, Alistar, explained their situation to the native inhabitants. He explained their plight, how their planet was doomed, and how Astra was desperate to save one, just one, of their inhabitants, along with all the knowledge and history of their culture. He introduced them to Starla, and they began to build a rapport as they talked daily.

Mark and Joanna had never been able to conceive, and their hearts wept for Astra’s family. Starla was bright, bubbly, and a bundle of joy. They would gladly do their part to raise her and preserve the last Xenonian and her culture.

And thus, near the eve of destruction, a ten year old Starla was placed in the small capsule that Astra had painstakingly constructed in a desperate bid to save just a single person.

They said their tearful farewells as Starla’s capsule reached escape velocity and shot out into the black emptiness beyond. She would need plenty of room in the void of space to begin her reality traversal.

“Do not forget us! You are the last hope of Xenon. All of us will live through you!”

“We love you, Starla! We love you forever!”

“I love you Mom, Dad! I’ll never forget you!!” she cried.

And as the planet’s surface began to fragment, leaking and radiating its lethal power, Starla’s vessel made its first jump and winked into the ether, just before the shockwave of the destruction of the planet washed over it.

Chapter 3

Starla fell deep into sedation as her mother’s vessel began its meandering journey through the manifold of reality-space. There was no guarantee when she would arrive on this parallel planet called Earth, or whether she would arrive anywhere at all.

Deep in space where the probability of materializing inside of a planet was low, the ship constantly blurred and glowed different colors as the stars and planets shifted around it. Sometimes the sun shone yellow, sometimes red, and sometimes, there was a black void left behind from when it had exploded in a violent supernova. The ship’s engine continued to consume its large reservoir of the last gift the planet had given them—its Xenonian energy—as it journeyed through ever more realities.

Starla herself was intubated, the ship monitoring her vitals and feeding her nutrients intravenously. Electric shocks stimulated her nerves, making sure to flex her muscles so as to stave off atrophy. She grew, albeit at a stunted rate, which was good considering there was barely any spare room in the vessel to begin with.

As she phased through realities, the vessel blipped upon a vicious space storm that nearly broke the ship apart. The tiniest, microscopic leak of Xenonian energy trickled into her support tubes as she continued to slumber. The vessel quickly blinked to the next reality, correcting its course away from the apocalyptic nightmare of that particular universe.

Still the planets disappeared and reappeared, stars light years away winked in and out, and the vessel looked for the absolute perfect configuration that would herald its destination.

After long, grueling years of machine-driven monotony, it succeeded. There it was, halfway in between Mars and Earth. A satellite orbiting the green and blue planet. Its yellow sun, burning bright, long to live.

Starla’s ship began its descent.

Chapter 4

Starla—no, Jane Gwent—descended into a back alley of Burghtown, traveling at speeds too fast for the naked eye. A downward column of air followed in her incredible wake, billowing out powerfully from the narrow alley, tilting nearby parked cars into the air before they came bouncing back down.

She was dressed in a pair of mini heels, painted on blue jeans, and a loose white blouse. She could barely contain her excitement! My name is Jane Gwent, my name is Jane Gwent, my name is Jane Gwent, she repeated to herself.

She went to the bank with her safe deposit key.

“My name is Jane Gwent.” It rolled off her tongue perfectly!

“Um, yes, Miss Gwent. Let me see your ID please… okay, come with us.”

She followed the teller to the deposit boxes in the back. Resisting the urge to peep with her x-ray vision, she delighted in the anticipation of not knowing what would be in there! Gingerly she inserted the key, feeling the locks tumble into place with her incredible sense of touch, and twisted lightly. It opened with a soft click.

In it was yet another metal key, a small roll of cash, and some official looking papers with a street address on it. There was also a jewelry case, with a handful of gold rings and a beautiful diamond necklace.

Starla—no, Jane Gwent—peered at the diamonds, wondering what significance they had. She had long since discovered that she could make her own, much larger ones, simply by pinching some carbon between her fingers. They had formed into small, brilliant sparkling gems before she pressed just a little bit more, and her fingers overcame that as well, crumbling it to little pieces.

But this was one of the few things that the Gwents left behind for her, and she would treasure it. She put on her necklace and did the clasp behind her neck.

Having looted everything, she exited the vault. She beckoned to one of the employees.

“Can you tell me where this is?” she tapped the certificate of ownership with the back of her fingers.

“That’s… in Midtown. Do you know where it is?”

“I don’t. Can you help me?”

“I’ll call you a cab, miss.”

“Thanks!” Jane Gwent’s first day out, and she was doing great!

She rode in the back of a dirty cab, marveling at the sights of the city. The large, 30 block park in the middle of the city, the ostentatious homes on the upper sides, some shady looking slums merely ten blocks down from that…

Jane committed the entire layout of the city to memory after just one drive through part of the town. Her x-ray vision and superspeed allowed her to scan every single street sign and street address as they passed it.

The car was insufferably slow compared to herself, but Jane didn’t even mind. She was loving being an Earthling so far! Finally, they arrived at her apartment. She took out her small roll of bills, handed some to the cabbie, and slammed the door shut just a little too hard. The yellow vehicle rattled and vibrated, but Jane was already at her doorstep, testing her key.

The studio apartment was warm and cozy, and it was all hers—a wonderful gift from her loving foster parents who she never had the chance to meet. It was fully furnished, with large tarps covering a small working desk with a wooden chair, a modest couch with a coffee table, and a knee-high bed in the back next to the sliding glass door. In the corner left of where she entered was a fridge and a two burner stove and oven.

She shuddered at the thought of figuring out how to cook. Joanna had left her a book of recipes, which Jane treasured dearly, but she absolutely had no gift for the fine art of cooking. It was a good thing she didn’t ever need to eat.

Jane blurred and reappeared at the far windows behind her bed, opened it, and zipped back to the front door of her apartment. She blew as gently as she could, not wanting to destroy her beloved apartment and flatten the rest of the city behind her. Her breath started off no more powerful than any Earthling’s, but she quickly ramped it up.

Suddenly, all the tarps fluttered violently as the dust swirled out of the open window. She cut the cyclone immediately by closing her lips, smiling at her finely controlled feat and a job well done.

She whisked away all the tarps in an instant, folding them neatly and piling them in a corner. After enrolling for classes at the local community college, she spent the day people gazing while sitting on her bed. She couldn’t wait to start saving the world and meeting a love interest to chase.

Chapter 5

She crash landed in the middle of Mark and Joanna Gwent’s field around noon, when the sun was brightest so that people would be least likely to see the alien entry. The entry hatch opened vertically, revealing a now-sixteen year old Starla to the alien planet. Dressed in some sparse cloth bindings around her waist and chest, her body absorbed the yellow sunlight of this parallel universe, filling her with power and rousing her from her long journey’s slumber.

Her luminescent azure eyes slowly fluttered open. This planet’s sky was so blue, its environment so green, the smell of nature so foreign to Starla. Immediately, it hit her that she would never see Xenon or her parents again. She began to weep bitterly into her hands.

A small, rectangular, handheld Xenonian device began to ring. Starla wiped her puffy red eyes and looked at the screen that was flashing at her. It was a message from her biological parents.

“Starla, if you are seeing this, your father and I are probably long gone. The fact that you are alive is a miracle. Do not forget us, but please do not be sad for us either. You have a lot to live for.

This planet’s radiation should have an enhancing effect on your physiology. Our models indicate that your body will become much denser, stronger, and extremely resilient. Your strength should increase too, to perhaps, the power of ten Xenonians or Earthlings, and you will slowly grow stronger over time. We do not know what other side effects there will be.

Despite your power, you can still be hurt. Learn to love your new home. Go and meet your new family.”

With the recording device containing the parting message of her dear parents in hand, she climbed out of the claustrophobic pod, eager to stretch her limbs. Immediately it began to sink into the earth, digging deeper and deeper into the crust.

“No!” she cried, thinking something had gone wrong.

Her little handheld display blinked back to life.

“Your father and I have programmed your ship to build you an underground refuge. This is where you can peruse our great history at your leisure whenever you feel homesick. We have also prepared devices to help you exercise and master your new power.”

With a sigh of relief, Starla turned and began to approach the idyllic ranch home. As she walked, her shimmering blonde locks reflecting the sunlight, swishing across her shoulders, her body felt light as a feather, supercharged with energy. The sun’s radiation more than made up for six years of inactivity traveling through parallel space. She felt supple and strong as she strode across the velvety grassy field. Her toned, elegant calves swelled with beautiful female muscle as she pushed off this alien planet with her bare feet.

Eager to meet Mark and Joanna with whom she had corresponded all those years ago, she picked up the pace, tearing up the soil with her dainty toes as she surged forward. It was exhilarating! The wind whipped her hair and massaged her mostly bare, smooth, actively tanning skin. Her muscles swelled as they became more well-defined, her shoulders and arms gaining a more than subtle hint of definition while sacrificing none of her femininity. Starla’s shoulders and biceps bulged with smooth, powerful muscle, yet still belying the superhuman strength they contained, far beyond what a mere Earthling could ever comprehend. Her triceps tightened up, slender yet strong, with no hint of loose skin or jiggle.

Her previously smooth torso, slightly malnourished from her long maiden journey, packed on healthy, solid muscle, each one looking as though they were carved out of marble. The muscles on her back expanded as well, growing into a protective, sexy sheath around her spine. Her skin was lightly bronzed, the entire backside of her torso showing off a beautiful arch that thrust her chest forward.

Starla’s thighs likewise gained in mass and density, growing thicker, with more defined quads. Still, her hips were so wide that they created a neat little box gap that would captivate any onlookers lucky enough to witness it. Her rear tightened and lifted, giving her a ripe, delectable bubble butt. No hint of sag, no extra trace of fat—just pure, dense, perfect feminine muscle.

Her already succulent breasts did not grow in size, but the improved musculature of her torso and the enhancement from the radiation of the yellow sun caused her bust to perk up. Never would she suffer the effects of gravity on the perfect spherical swells of her chest. Her nipples grew more harder, more sensitive in response to the sun’s rays, quickly poking through her improvised cloth covering.

By the time she had finished her one minute jog, Starla was a completely transformed person, radiant with new vitality. She could grace the cover of every fitness magazine, had she known what those were.

Standing on the doorstep of her new home, she took a deep breath, preparing to meet her foster parents. Swallowing the butterflies in her stomach and wiping her teary eyes, she let out a long exhale, which promptly ripped the door off its hinges and sent it flying inside! All of the furniture spun and scraped across the floor as smaller items were scattered by her brief breath.

Starla gasped in shock! What had happened?! Was this really how she would introduce herself to her new home?

She peeked inside shyly. It looked uninhabited, judging by the thick layer of dust that her simple exhalation had stirred up.

Where were Mark and Joanna?

Chapter 6

Jane floated above her modest, old-fashioned TV, adjusted the antenna, and swooshed to hover above the couch as she eagerly awaited the evening news.

“And now, in breaking news… are superheroes real? Well, at least one superhero. We have breaking eyewitness reports!”

“She had all five of the perpetrators outside. One of them wasn’t hurt… he was just blubbering. Um… we found this…” a gloved policeman held up the mangle remains of the five rifles she had confiscated and squashed in her palm. “And… um… well… I saw her fly away…”

“She saved me and my boy! I don’t know where she came from! One of those robbers was gonna kill us!! Thank you, Star Girl!” the mother shouted tearfully into the microphone.

“Oh my god, it was so cool!! I thought today was a nightmare, but it turned out to be a dream! She was so cool, so powerful, so in control, and so beautiful!” a green-eyed brunette beauty gushed.

“Well, there you have it, folks! We have a superhuman living among us, and apparently, she calls herself Star Girl! Well we see her again? Is she only active in Burghtown, or is she statewide? Nationwide? Maybe even global? Evildoers may have to beware from now on! This is Diana Mendez with Channel 7 News, signing out.”

Yes!!! Jane kicked her legs and flailed her arms in delight as she spun in midair. And who was that girl? She was so beautiful and so approving of Star Girl…

Eager to please again, Jane stacked her clothes neatly on the couch, switched to her blue and red leotard, and flew out the window, patrolling Burghtown from above as evening descended.

Jane walked into her classes glumly the next day, not having slept a wink. She’d stayed up all night, flying over the sprawling city, but absolutely nothing had happened!

8:00 AM, and she showed up for her math class. Many of her classmates were yawning, and she found herself following suit. Not that she was physically tired. But somehow, it seemed to be contagious, and she was definitely mentally tired from a night of hurry up and waiting. And it helped her to blend in.

Five minutes into e, 2.7182818 blah blah, another girl snuck her way into the classroom. It was… no way! It was the girl who was interviewed on the news last night!

Jane gawked at the beauty as she walked up the stairs by her flank. With her x-ray vision, she scanned all of this mystery girl’s belongings, finding her ID card. Ali Sidorova. Lives on 295 Chattle Street. Pale skin, short, curly brunette hair in a bob, green eyes… beautiful figure. A faint scar on her right arm. Jane almost sighed out loud… it was love at first sight!

She reviewed the grid of Burghtown in her mind. It wasn’t particularly close to where she lived in Midtown… but there was no such thing as a long journey for Jane Gwent.

The remaining hour of lecture was absolute torture. Ali was sitting high up in the back, and Jane couldn’t keep trying to steal glances at her. She’d have to pick a better seat next time…

For the rest of the day, Jane’s x-ray vision never turned off. She peered through objects, walls, people, always watching Ali. Sometimes Ali would turn her head in Jane’s direction and give a confused look, which startled the bejeezus out of Jane, until she remembered that there were multiple layers of mortar and wood separating them.

She was just so pretty! And bubbly! Jane loved the way she looked at people, the way she smiled, the way her cheeks dimpled when she laughed…

Ali patronized the same cafe, Healthy Earth, twice in one day. It was decided, then. Jane would try to get a job there. If there was anything she learned from romance novels and sitcoms, love always flourished there.

Chapter 7

“Diana Mendez reporting in! Star Girl appears again! Eyewitnesses report that she stopped a drunk driver from hitting some people on the sidewalk! ”

“It was amazing! I heard some tires screech, and then a huge crunch! She had stopped a huge SUV with just a finger!”

“No, that’s not what happened! She just stood there and let the car crash into her! It crumpled up against her body, but she was totally fine! She only pushed the car away from her with a finger!”

“I saw the whole thing from where I was standing! Well, I mean, I didn’t really see her appear… she just did!”

“Star Girl saved our lives! Thank you, Star Girl!”

The camera cut back to the reporter.

“And here's where the wrecked SUV is! You can see that the hood is totally crumpled, like it crashed into a lamp post. Just who is this mystery superwoman? And how powerful is she? You heard it here, folks! Star Girl is real, and she’s here to say!”

Jane, dressed in a clean white polo and a green apron with an image of Earth and a stylized HE printed on it, watched the news cover her latest exploits. She was nearly as hopeless as making coffee as she was as cooking, but for now, all she had to do was manage the cash register, dispense the regular coffee, and fetch pastries.

Most people couldn’t wait for their break or for their shift to be over. Jane couldn’t wait for approximately 9:30 AM.

And sure enough, there she was. Ali and her friend had walked in just on time. Jane’s heart began to pound rapidly. She waited in trepidation as Ali’s friend stared at the menu. But Ali always ordered the same thing. Jane knew it by heart.

She put on her best smile as Ali came to order.

“Hi, what can I large-house-coffee-blue-scone?” Jane said rapidly, all in one breath, doing her best to impress this beauty.

“Um… what?” Ali looked at her with puzzled eyes.

“Oh, um… what can I get for you?” Jane’s face turned a dark shade of red.

“I’ll have a large house coffee and a blueberry scone. And an iced mocha?” She looked at her friend. “Iced mocha.”

Jane’s fingers trembled as she poked in the order. “Okay, got it.”

“Don’t you need to get my name?” Ali reminded her gently.

“Oh, I know, Ali--uhyeah I’ll get your name?” She attempted to recover. Shit! She wasn’t supposed to know her name yet!

“It’s Ali. Hey, are you okay? First day here?”

Could this go any worse?! Jane looked downcast and nodded meekly.

“Don’t worry, I come here all the time. You’ll get the hang of it… Jane,” she read the nametag.

“Th-thanks.” Jane was so embarrassed! But this girl really was a dream come true! She was so nice!

She filled a large paper cup with hot coffee and plucked a blueberry scone with tongs and placed it in its paper wrapper. Her co-worker made the frozen mocha drink.

“Jane! Hey! Isn’t that hot?! Put the sleeve on it!” her co-worker chided.

“Oh, yeah! Thanks!”

“Crazy girl. How does she not burn herself?” her co-worker muttered under her breath.

Jane blushed even more furiously. She was so flustered!

Finally, she gathered up the order and went to the counter.

“Ali? Order for Ali!”

Ali and her friend came up and picked up their drinks.

“Hey, you spelled my name right! You’ll be fine here,” Ali gave her a reassuring smile.

Jane could die of giddiness right there. Five minutes, and she had been on the largest emotional rollercoaster of her life.

Ali and her friend left the cafe. “What a weird girl,” her friend stated as they stepped outside. Jane scowled.

Sitting in the back row of the lecture hall on Wednesday morning, Jane tried not to accidentally destroy the entire classroom with her heavy breathing as she anticipated sitting next to Ali. And Ali duly arrived.

They locked eyes as Ali climbed up the stairs. Jane saw a faint glimmer of recognition in her eyes, until it finally clicked. She set her things down and took a seat next to Jane. Yes!

“Hey,” Ali whispered. “I didn’t know you were a student here.”

“Hey!! Yeah, crazy huh?”

“Shhh!” hissed the students sitting around them.

Ali studiously listened and took notes while Jane shook her leg restlessly, taking care not to stamp her foot through the floor or cause an earthquake. But, she came to a realization. What about an incident smaller than an earthquake?

She focused her ice blue eyes at one of the sprinklers and gave it a light touch with her heat vision. Immediately, they went off, spraying the classroom with old, fetid water.

“Everyone out!” yelled the professor. The students all grabbed all their belongings and covered their heads as they evacuated.

A drenched Jane and Ali commiserated outside the classroom.

“Dammit! I like that class too! I wonder what happened?” Ali fumed as wiped her soggy bangs from her forehead.

“I don’t know! It was so weird!” Jane feigned innocence. “So… um… what do we do now?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go home and get a change of clothes.” Ali sighed.

“I have a four hour shift at the school cafe soon. Are you going to order your coffee and blueberry scone?”

“Ha! You remember, huh? I don’t know; if I’m going home to change, I may just stay there then.” Ali twisted her soaked top and wrung droplets of water out of that as well.

Shoot! Well maybe… “Maybe we should stand out in the sun? It’s warm today.”

“Might as well.”

They strolled outside, Jane trailing behind. Her eyes glowed, emitting a faint, almost invisible beam of light over her own body, drying out her clothes, leaving them a bit stiff and musty. She repeated the same across Ali’s backside from bottom to top, applying her x-ray vision into the mix to send her lasers harmlessly through her body.

“Uh, wow! I dried off really fast!” Ali traced her fingers through her hair. “That’s crazy!” They took an open seat underneath the bright midday sun.

Jane took the opportunity to gently comb her fingers through Ali’s hair as well. “Oh, hey, that’s great!”

“Um… yeah,” Ali leaned back, flinching slightly from the invasion of personal space. “So, what are you studying for?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Just learning about life, I guess. It’s my first time in a big city like this!”

“Oh, cool! I hope you like it!”

“I do!” Jane’s eyes twinkled, thinking over the burgeoning media coverage Star Girl was receiving. “How about you, what are you here for?”

“I’m trying to get into STEM! Maybe biology research, analyzing statistics. Actually, math is my favorite subject! Most people who come here take really remedial math… oh, hey, Yasmin’s here!”

“Yasmin?”

“Yeah, my girlfriend. I’ll introduce you!”

Jane’s heart felt as if it had been stabbed. This was the most physically gut-wrenching pain she’d ever experienced on Earth so far.

Ali got up to greet her with a hug, and they walked back, holding hands, to where Jane was seated in the middle of the courtyard.

“Hey Yasmin, this is Jane. Remember her? You’ve met before, sort of.”

“Um, no. Sorry!” she replied.

“She works at the cafe! Turns out we’re in math class together!”

“Oh, hey! Nice to meet you Jane.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Jane barely managed.

The rest of the conversation went on auto-pilot. Even Jane with her perfect recall had no idea what was happening. Finally, she uttered an excuse to get away.

“Hey, I have to get ready for my shift at the cafe—maybe I’ll see you there?”

“Okay, sure thing! I gotta get my coffee and blueberry scone!” Jane smirked.

“Alright, see you later, Jane,” Yasmin chimed in.

“Yeah. See ya,” she answered dejectedly as she lumbered toward her part time job.

Chapter 8

Xenonian technology rumbled and churned deep in the earth building a futuristic, high-tech fortress, while Starla explored her new home. The humble, rustic living room that she had so callously upended did not have a trace of the warmth of being lived in.

She began the arduous task of putting everything back into place, expecting the heavy-looking wooden cabinets and tables to be troublesome. She had only glimpsed the original positions of the furnishings for a moment as the broken door went sailing into the residence, but her memory of the undisturbed layout was clear in her mind’s eye. But when she wrapped her toned, tight arms around the heaviest piece of furniture and lifted, she way overshot! In a single heft, she lifted the whole thing completely above her head, arms outstretched. It was completely weightless!

Starla oscillated her arms up and down, confirming that the seemingly heavy table really did not cause her any strain at all. It was all too easy! She tried supporting the object with just a single arm. Still nothing! As she began to lower it with the table outstretched lengthwise, it began to creak under the strain of its own weight. So, it really was heavy. At least, to itself.

Was this really what it meant to be as strong as ten Earthlings or Xenonians? The local building materials must be very light and flimsy if that was true. Oh well, she could put an exact number to her expected “one magnitude” of enhancement later in her parents’ fortress.

The hardest part of putting everything back in place was how delicate she had to be. The well-maintained, expensive looking furnishings splintered under her fingers if she gripped with so much as a tiny bit of force. She grimaced every time she crushed yet another household object with her long, delicate fingers. She quickly realized it was crucial for her to find the center of mass of each of the various objects. But her endless energy and extreme flexibility was more than up to the task of balancing the squishy Earth furnishings. As she squirmed and bent her way gracefully under the next large yet feather-light cabinet tossed aside by her mere breath, she couldn’t believe how easy it was to contort her own body now!

Soon, everything was back in place, albeit mostly scarred by the imprints of her fingerprints, inches deep into whatever material it happened to be made of.

Starla quickly cleaned up all of the looseleaf paper she had sent scattering, placing it back on the coffee table. There was a single letter addressed to her.

Dearest Starla,

We wished we could be here to welcome you to our home. But I fear our time left on this Earth is limited...

Our planet has suffered a plague that afflicts the elderly. We have both contracted the disease, I am sorry to say.

We leave to you everything we have. When you turn 18, or if you already are by the time you get here, you can speak to our estate attorney. We leave you our modest fortune, which includes an apartment in the city. We needed to give you an Earth name, so we decided on Jane Gwent. We hope you will be happy with this.

We leave to you our entire library so that you can learn what our culture is like. Our books, our media, our entertainment… We hope you will find it enjoyable.

We so desperately wished to meet you and raise you as our own. You are beautiful, inside and out.

Everything we have is yours.

Love,
Joanna and Mark

Starla sat on the couch, stunned, her sapphire blue eyes large and trembling. Her quick shallow breaths sent all the rest of the papers she had just stacked swirling again. Just… just how much could she lose in one day?

Chapter 9

“Global News Network, reporting in with a new sighting of Star Girl! It seems Burghtown’s superheroine has her sights set on more than just this city! She was spotted in the Baltic today, holding up a broken train rail over a river! Here’s footage from one of the eyewitnesses on location!”

A grainy video played, showing Star Girl in her now iconic uniform floating in midair above a body of water, one arm extended holding a track up while allowing a speeding train to run over it. Her other hand was brushing her hair, her attention elsewhere. When the train had finally passed, a faint beam of light shot from her eyes four times, heating and softening the rails, welding them together. Then a frozen cone of her breath cooled and hardened it into place.

She disappeared from the frame, but a loud screech could be heard, even from this distance. The filmer frantically moved their phone to her sudden new location and zoomed in. She was a few dozen feet in front of the train, and she appeared to be blowing at the train, and it was halting!

By the time the locomotive reached Star Girl, it had lost most of its velocity. She merely extended a fingertip and held the powerful machine in place as she examined her nails. When the wheels finally stopped spinning with a final thud of surrender, she took off into the sky once more.

“Star Girl spotted in the crisis of the ship in a canal! There can’t be many more skeptics about this heroine anymore! We have way too many eyewitnesses and film for them to believe this is a hoax! She… she lifted 200,000 metric tons! With one hand! While flying! It’s hard to see her in all the videos considering how enormous the ship is… but there’s no doubt those are her colors! And who else could it be anyway?! She’s… she’s even waving to the cameras with her free hand and pressing the ship up and down!”

“Star Girl in a bit of trouble!? We have complaints from the victim of a potential mugging that Star Girl assaulted her! Ma’am, would you care to share your story?”

“Yes, yes I would!” the corpulent, unsightly woman snorted. “Star Girl. HURT! My arm! She has NO right to touch me!”

“Weren’t you being mugged, ma’am?”

“Yes, I mean, no, I mean, I HAD it under control! I have my mace right here,” she shrieked as she dug dozens of used tissues and odds and ends out of her purse, materializing nothing. “ANYWAY, I expect to see Star Girl in court! For bodily harm! It is my RIGHT! I want to speak to her manager!”

Ali and Yasmin were walking in the middle of the financial district of Burghtown when a sudden gust of wind, far above them, caused a high-rise platform to oscillate violently back and forth, sending two window cleaners plummeting 40 stories to their imminent doom.

As they fell, their screams became more and more audible to the pedestrians below. Ali and Yasmin finally looked upward and saw the shadow of two large, male human bodies heading right for them.

Before they could even react, a red and blue blur flashed through the air, plucking both of the falling men out of the air. Star Girl hovered there, carrying each man in an arm pressed against her side, eight feet above the ground, her lovely legs and beautiful backside on full display in her revealing leotard to Ali and Yasmin below.

The two girls gasped loudly as the sudden shock of realization hit them.

“Citizens, are you okay?” Star Girl asked.

Both men whimpered and trembled in her arms.

“Would you like me to put you back up there, or…?”

“N-no!” one cried. The other one whimpered, clutched her smooth, bare arm, and shook his head.

“Okay! Please be careful!”

Star Girl placed them both on the concrete pavement. Both mens’ legs failed them as they crumpled to the ground.

“Star Girl!” Ali yelled. She couldn’t believe she was seeing her in person!

Star Girl smiled at Ali, gave her a wink and a wave, and flew off.

“Star Girl is sooo cool!” Ali gushed in the cafe.

“She definitely is, though I wonder…” Yasmin ruminated.

“Wonder what?”

“She’s absurdly powerful, right? I mean, this is even crazier than fantasy! Every time I see her, I wonder if I’m dreaming.”

“Yeah, so? That’s what makes her cool! Whoosh!” Ali mimed Star Girl’s superbreath.

“But what if she, you know, does something bad? Who could stop her?”

“Oh come on, she’s clearly a hero!”

“I know, but what if!”

“Yasmin, I don’t know why I'm dating you sometimes. You’re such a downer!”

“I’m serious! Isn’t it scary?”

Suddenly, the floor seemed to be shaking. It stopped as a stomping Jane arrived at their table with the regular blueberry scone and coffee.

“Star Girl would never do something like that!” Jane huffed.

“Ah, so you’re naive and trusting like my silly girlfriend, I see.” Yasmin shook her head.

“Yeah!” Ali whooped. “Star Girl rules!” She stuck her hand out for a high five. Jane slapped her open hand, gently, with relish.

“You two are so hopeless. God forbid your angels become demons.” Yasmin sighed in resignation.

Jane scowled.

Star Girl rescued a cat from a tree, allowing it to scratch and claw her invulnerable skin harmlessly before handing it back to a little girl. All the while, she was watching Ali and Yasmin on their date.

“Thanks, Star Girl! You’re the best!” the child squeaked.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah! Take good care of your cat!” She gave the girl a little salute, and blasted back above the clouds.

It took only a few seconds to scan Burghtown and all of the surrounding states for any sign of trouble before she refocused her attention on Ali. They were strolling around Central Park having ice cream. Maybe, it just might be fun to…

Star Girl focused her eyes, concentrating to tap into just the tiniest fraction of her infinitesimal power. It really seemed like she had never stopped gaining in power—she suspected that a lack of concentration, and her eye lasers would blow the planet into smithereens.

Instead, she exercised her power to perfection, turning Ali’s scoop into a bubbling, drippy, sticky mess.

“Whoa! What the hell!” Ali cried, dropping her molten ice cream.

“Okay I know climate change is a thing, but that is weird,” Yasmin acknowledged. “You want some of mine?” She offered her cone to Ali.

Star Girl dove foot-first to the ground, too fast for people to see, hidden behind some large oaks. Peeking around the thick trunk, she pursed her lips, and again, using only the tiniest of her power, blew a stream of relentless air toward Yasmin’s hand. She drove the ice cream right into Ali’s face.

“Yasmin! Wha… mmmrff, mmrf!”

Star Girl continued to blow, smearing Yasmin’s ice cream all over her girlfriend, swiping it over her cheeks, her nose, her lips… the young supergirl’s unfathomably strong fingers crunched into the dense tree bark as she tried to contain her laughter.

“Ali! I… I don’t know what’s going on! I can’t stop!”

Star Girl finally relented and soared back into the sky, giggling.

“Yasmin, what the hell!” Ali yelled as she swabbed her face with a napkin.

“Als, I… I didn’t do it on purpose! I swear!”

“Is this your idea of a prank!? It isn’t funny!”

“No! I… it felt like my hand was being guided by an invisible force!”

“Ugh!”

They continued on their stroll in a much more dour mood. In the center of the park were ancient, tall trees with thick branches hanging overhead… which had been known to crack and fall before.

Star Girl blew across the branches gently, rattling them violently. As they began to bend and creak, she sliced a particularly large one clean off with her eye lasers, letting it drop on a collision course right onto Ali’s head. Then she swooped into action, catching the heavy wood in one palm raised above her head.

Ali and Yasmin didn’t even have a chance to react before they witnessed a flying Star Girl overhead.

“Citizens! Are you alright?!” Star Girl asked as she floated down gracefully.

“Oh… oh my god! That would have hit me!” Ali shuddered at the sudden realization.

“Oh fuck… it’s really you, Star Girl! Thank you!” Yasmin echoed.

“Okay, I’m glad to see everyone is safe.” Star Girl looked for an excuse to hang around. She usually took off after rescues.

“I… I can’t believe it’s really you!” Ali began to squeal like a fangirl. “I want to know so much about you! Where are you from? Why do you have these incredible powers? How strong are you?!”

Star Girl blushed furiously.

“Now, now Als, I’m sure Star Girl has really important things to do. But really, Star Girl, thank you so much! I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost Ali...”

Star Girl sighed inwardly. Yasmin was always in the way.

“That’s alright, citizens! They should really take care of some of these more rickety ones! I’ll grab them and then I’ll be on my way!”

She flew into the branches and began tearing them out by crunching them against her toned arms and tight flank. Ali stayed behind to watch, but Yasmin urged them to move on, and they did. Star Girl glared daggers at Yasmin’s back.

Chapter 10

Underneath the foundation of her farmhouse, a nude Starla trained in an immense Xenon-style arena and gymnasium. After two years of enjoying every comfort of her lost homeworld, save companionship, it was easy to see how her people had been seduced by the brute extraction of their planet’s core energy. She couldn’t believe the paradise that her father had created out of the tiny capsule that she’d been transported in!

The unfolding infrastructure it had created underground was sturdy and showed no signs of wear. Museums of replicated houses and rooms of Xenonian furniture, a physical library of their most treasured and critically acclaimed literature, replicas of wide fields where they enjoyed their sports and leisure… not that Starla cared to read it or delve into it much. She much preferred Earthen young romance novels and movies. This world seemed to still believe in happy endings.

But most of it was dedicated to the arena, a place for Starla to train and hone her powers. Her father had planned a regimen to bring out and maximize her potential, but… Starla had exceeded her projected maximum by day one. She was powerful far beyond Astra’s wildest imagination!

To her credit, the fortress continuously recalibrated to try and match Starla’s growth. But Starla smashed every single newly conceived challenge easily for months. The arena generated unnaturally dense materials, weaving exotic fibers and even regenerated matter into impossibly durable alloys. And then, she sent her pretty little fist right through its latest creation with a casual punch. The shattered chunks of newly constructed alloy would eventually get reabsorbed and recycled, and the process would start anew.

Months later, Starla realized that if her fortress really needed a chance to catch up, she would need to actually demonstrate her real power. It was now generating multiple pillars, denser, thicker, littered around the field for her to mow down. She began to go all out, and sure enough, her fortress adapted, building stronger, tougher, more resilient targets. And she continued to demolish them effortlessly. Today would probably be her final day playing destruction on this mock battlefield.

As soon as the starting whistle rang, Starla pushed off the ground with her toes and hovered into midair, never to touch the floor again for the duration of the session. “Standing” completely vertical, she merely hovered straight into the first pillar, her body far more invulnerable than her mother’s greatest technology could withstand. It shattered into a billion pieces upon impact with her gorgeous physique, the shards flying out with deadly force and chipping deep grooves into the other targets. Larger pieces drilled deep into the pillars before they were worn away into ineffective nubs, their projectile energy completely spent.

She blurred from her hovering position and appeared immediately at the next pillar. A quick jab obliterated the next pillar into atoms. And flattened all of the surrounding ones. The shockwave put a deep crack into the wall, which the fortress hustled to repair. She brushed her hair behind her ear while a single fingertip of her other hand traced the flawless curve from her broad hip, along the narrow track of her slender waist, over the clear definition of her ribs and finally paused at the soft crease where her breast rose from the dense wall of her pectoral muscles. It was such a contrast how much tougher her own body was. She would have gouged a deep line into her training ground’s new alloy with that little gesture.

Starla floated to the next ‘nigh indestructible’ pillar with a mischievous curl to her lips , cocking a finger, before she flicked it. An entire chunk blew out of it, faster than any bullet ever fired. She realized that she had probably overdone it, and it would probably permanently damage her fortress, so she shielded her wall from the chunk of alloy by flying in front of its supersonic flight and letting it smash into her invulnerable cleavage. She suppressed a slight moan as she cupped herself and massaged the metal between her breasts until it became molten and dripped down her body.

She turned horizontal and flew headfirst into all of the remaining pillars, sending them all crashing to the floor. To her fortress’s credit, it began conjuring more, having learned from prior experience how incredibly powerful Starla was. No longer could the pillars be strengthened. Instead, it simply supplied more quantity to try and exhaust her.

But she would not be exhausted. Every gentle brush of her leg, every caress of her fingers, triggered the sound of shrieking metal before she atomized or liquified the Xenonian alloy. Growing bored of demonstrating her physical strength, she hovered in the center of it all and drew upon the bottomless well of her energy. Her pupils glowed intensely cerulean as two thin beams of searing heat erupted into existence, melting every pillar into slag before her all-destructive eye lasers could touch them. She spun in midair, flying above the molten puddle, ignoring the distorted, hyper-heated air that should have been suffocating her. The Xenonian technology attempted to reincorporated the materials and generate new, but the temperatures she generated were so extreme that new pillars could not even take form before being reduced into bubbly lava.

She gazed at the floor, causing those lava flows to swell and erupt. They licked at her feet and legs, and she merely shook her limbs clean. The only way left she could gauge how powerful she was was to focus her power on her own body. Bringing her hand to her face, she focused in earnest, the beams doubling and redoubling in power as they widened and threatened to incinerate her entire fortress, despite the fact that she was absorbing the brunt of her own energy.

Finally, Starla winked the lasers out of existence when it became too dangerous and bathed in the scalding heat. Naturally, the dry, oppressive, stinging air didn’t bother her eyes in the slightest. She knew that she wasn’t close to her limit. Did she even have limits? Even emitting pure beams of energy did not seem to drain her reserves at all. How had her mother, the most brilliant scientist that Xenon had ever known, underestimated her abilities on this planet by incomprehensible magnitudes?

Around her, an inferno raged. The machinery struggled to recycle the molten ruins of her casual display. The walls to the fortress were beginning to melt, and the ground outside was visibly burning. Starla did it a favor, pursed her lips, and exhaled. Immediately, the white-hot mess below her bare feet ceased bubbling and iced over. Her fortress would be able to reintegrate it eventually. She directed her little frozen jet of breath upward as well. The grass on the surface of the planet immediately froze over as her icy blast continued straight up into the air, high into the sky, freezing and dissipating clouds in the atmosphere above, despite the fact that she had barely given it a split second puff. Anyway, she was done playing in the power room. There was no way it could keep up with her. It had never been a real contest... just a way of feeling slightly closer to her long-dead parents.

Starla spent most of her time now in what she called the fragile room. She had programmed every object in there to be as flimsy as possible so that she could practice interacting with them without breaking them with a pinch of her fingers. Her kinesthetic mastery had become such that even as her power seemed to grow daily over the last two years, she rarely had an incident anymore. She sat in delicate wicker chairs, brushed styrofoam with her perfectly manicured, indestructible nails, placed utensils in her mouth and closed her indestructibly luscious lips around it, massaged it with her inconceivably strong tongue… everything she touched retained their original shape, more or less.

And she was desperately interested in controlling her power. All her time alone, waiting for her bequeathment from her deceased Earthen foster parents, God bless their souls, was spent consuming either superhero or romance stories.

Starla wanted the adoration of the public. She wanted to help people. To uplift them, guide them, be their beacon of shining hope. And she knew that she could do great things. Impossible things. She spent her time browsing social media, following all trending issues, laughing at all of the funny videos and pictures. She felt that she understood this world she had come to call her home. It made the pain of losing the Xenon of her early childhood so much more bearable.

She also desperately wanted companionship. To know the intimate contact of another thinking mind, to embrace, to struggle with their relationship and overcome any and all odds, no matter the cost, no matter the distance, a transcendent love beyond time and space… it was so romantic! She spent her last day as a seventeen year old eating a bowl of popcorn (the only thing she was capable of cooking) and re-watching her favorite movies, sobbing into a pillow as she lay horizontal in midair.

Controlling her rapidly pounding heart and calming it to relative stillness, Starla closed her eyes and fell asleep, still floating in the second floor bedroom. She couldn’t wait for her first day integrating with Earth!

Chapter 11

“Yesterday was crazy! I can’t believe we met Star Girl! In person! She’s so beautiful and powerful!” Ali gushed.

“Yeah, it only nearly cost you your health. Or your life,” Yasmin soberly reminded her.

“Oh come on, I don’t think a branch was any trouble for her. You’ve seen all the crazy stuff she can do.”

“Of course it’s not trouble for her, Als! But what if she weren’t around! In fact, she always seems to be around…”

“Duh! Superspeed!”

“I mean, yeah, that. But she’s just… don’t you think it’s weird? She’s always in Burghtown.”

“Maybe it’s where she lives! Wouldn’t that be cool!?”

Yasmin was getting upset. “Come on, Als! You can’t tell me you don’t think it’s just a coincidence! And what about those people who complain about her accidentally injuring them, or the destruction of property?”

“What, like those Karens!? The woman was going to get mugged!”

“It’s not just that, Als. ...And lately, I keep getting the feeling that I’m being watched.”

“Yaz, I bet it’s just the stress. You and your big ol’ conspiracy theories. Come on, let’s go to the cafe and say hi to Jane. And then let’s go to our movie.”

“Okay. But we’re not done talking about this.”

Star Girl hovered in the shroud of night, watching Ali and Yasmin consummate their love from miles outside the border of Burghtown. How could someone as perfectly beautiful as Ali be with someone as dour as Yasmin? She watched in jealousy as the couple’s arms intertwined around each others’ backs as they kissed, tenderly at first, just pressing their lips together, before they began to nibble at each other’s lips and flick with their tongues. Star Girl could hear the gentle sound of their flesh pressing and nipping at each other.

She stripped off her boots and leotard, placing them at the very tippy top of a tall tree. Flying back to her midair perch, she focused in again with her x-ray vision, tracing the soft, smooth lines of Ali’s body. How she wanted to knead and massage those breasts, so much softer and fuller than her own athletic, Xenonian super-powered build.

Squeezing her own breasts with enough force to crush a planet, the world’s only superheroine turned voyeur moaned as she watched Ali and Yasmin begin to touch each other in earnest. She did everything in tandem with Yasmin, imagining herself in her place, embracing the wonderful Ali and receiving her crush’s intimate caresses.

Burning with an intense desire that she had never experienced before, Star Girl pinched her aching, budding nipples with her fingers as Ali touched Yasmin’s. The heroine’s hips bucked violently in midair as her pink, superhuman folds grew slick. Oh, she had never felt this good before when she did it by herself! Ali was pure joy and ecstasy tied up in a beautiful package, and Star Girl needed her! She knew how Ali felt about her, and she knew they were meant for each other!

Yasmin moaned as Ali trailed butterfly kisses down her neck. Star Girl traced the back of her own fingers, mirroring the tender act in her own way, pressing hard enough to dent her own skin—something that nothing on Earth had ever been able to do.

Ali made her way down to Yasmin’s flat chest—which Star Girl noted with glee. Ali’s fingers traced downward to Yasmin’s mound, flowing through her silky pubic hairs, and slowly parted her nether lips and inserted herself. Star Girl drooled as she continued to pinch her nipples harder than any force on earth and traced her own hand down her wonderfully built torso to her perfectly smooth pussy. She inserted her own fingers with a wet plunge, slamming into her own inner core with enough strength to shatter the walls of her Xenonian fortress.

As she churned two fingers inside of herself while swirling her thumb roughly against her clit, Star Girl lost herself in pleasure as she continued to peep at her life’s love. Her glowing eyes emitting their x-ray vision never lost sight of Ali as she let the pleasure build inside of her. It had been so long since she’d done this!

Ali had moved down to lick languidly at Yasmin’s clit, pushing her chin into her and flicking her tongue powerfully, swirling it over that throbbing bud while curling the fingers inside of her love canal. Yasmin was trembling, body rigid, a pin cushion of desire ready to burst. But it was nothing compared to the superhuman pressure building inside of Star Girl.

Star Girl fondled herself at superspeed, delivering heavenly ecstasy through her entire being. Her entire body clenched as she began to jerk spastically in midair, her endless, exponentially growing power finally unleashing itself upon the world around her. Her arm vibrated powerfully, her fingers blurred, she could feel the budding pressure behind her eyes… another rough squeeze of her invulnerable breast… her incomprehensibly strong hand and fingers grinding, pushing, teasing at her unbreakable sex…

Star Girl erupted in a blaze of passion she’d never known before. Her body seized up, and when she finally exhaled, the force was so powerful that century-old trees in the wake of her breath snapped off, breaking at the trunks. It had dissipated enough that when it struck Burghtown, it merely rattled the foundations.

But Star Girl wasn’t done. Fully enrapt in her pleasure, her eyes emitted her searing laser vision just as she arched her back and clenched, craning her neck toward the sky. Thick, wide beams of unstoppable energy blasted into the void of space, traveling far beyond the solar system with no end in sight. The ambient temperature rose a thousand degrees as all the clouds evaporated.

In her panicked ecstasy, Star Girl tried to stop the lasers, willing her eyes to stop emitting her all-destructive beams, but her pleasure looked for other outlets. Her entire body went rigid as she accelerated toward the ground at max speed, burrowing a deep, Star Girl shaped crater. Her fingers and toes carved deep grooves into the earth as she continued to buck in her unbroken minutes-long ecstasy. Her entire body quaked. Her hips bucked into the air as her nectar shot out of her as her pink folds quivered violently. When her perfect rear slammed into the ground, the entire city felt the devastation of her orgasm.

Eyes still closed, glowing with unfathomable energy, she finally gave voice to her pleasure, starting as a low, guttural moan turning into a powerful scream. Her body jackhammered against the earth, shattering the wide open fields around her before the tectonic waves ruptured the city’s sidewalks and infrastructure. Still, her wracked body still had much further to go, her heart pumping wildly as it powered her endless orgasms. She gave into her body’s desires and opened her eyes once more, her sky-blue eyes scorching the heavens above with her joy as her body shattered the world beneath her.

It would be known as the most devastating earthquake that the county of Burghtown had ever suffered. The incident happened at 11:03 PM, with its epicenter a few miles outside of town. Star Girl was quickly on the scene by 11:14 PM. But the devastation had already been done. Undocumented was that she had rescued a girl named Ali Sodorova first. Among the victims was Yasmin, who had not been able to evacuate the crumbling apartment in time.

10 Months Later

Jane sat in math class in the far back, watching Ali’s every move as she got out of her car, slammed the door, opened it again when she realized she forgot her backpack, slammed it again, then ran to class. She meekly climbed the stairs and took a seat next to Jane.

They smiled at each other as Ali placed her hand on Jane’s.

“I’m really glad I met you, Jane. Thanks for being here with me through all of this.”

“Of course! I’m really glad I met you too, Als. I’d do anything for you.”

Book 2

Chapter 1

“Janey, is it okay?”

“Ali! It’s sooooo good!” Jane moaned.

“You always say that!”

“Because you do it so well!”

“Honestly, girl, I can’t believe you grew up on a farm, and you have no idea how to cook!” Ali plated some over easy eggs and home fries onto Jane’s breadcrumb laden paper plate. She stabbed another potato cube with one of Ali’s plastic forks.

“Ali, we’ve been over this so many times!” Jane replied nervously.

“I mean, it’s just toast and butter and jam! I just push the button on the toaster! What on earth were you making!?”

Not this conversation again! How was Jane supposed to explain that she never had to eat, and that she never actually figured out how a damn toaster worked? Plus it turned out her eye lasers were not really calibrated to scorch bread properly, instead turning it into ash.

She poured a load of salt onto the perfectly fried egg. Ali grimaced.

“Mmmm! The yolk is so gooey!” Jane gushed.

“I have no idea how you can eat that,” Ali replied flatly.

Jane stabbed a crunchy yet soft square of potato, swirled it in ketchup, salt, yolk, and chewed it with relish.

“You know, if there’s something you want me to try and make, I can give it a shot,” Ali offered.

Jane paused, nearly choking on her overseasoned fried starch.

“Really Ali!? You’d do that for me!?” she asked, spittle flying out of her super mouth. The Gwent family recipe book, handed down for generations, had been one of Joanna’s most treasured possessions.

“God Jane, did you not learn manners!? Chew with your mouth closed!”

Jane covered her mouth with chagrin. “I’d love it if you would…” she mumbled through her closed hand.

“Sure babe. I’d love to try. Your place after school?”

Ali leafed the spiral ring-bound notebook until she found one she liked the sound of: pot roast. They bought all the ingredients after their humanities and current events courses and settled in at Ali’s apartment to prepare. Jane had no cookware or seasonings at her place, which Ali found appalling.

They left the news broadcast running as Ali prepped all the food. She’d long since learned that Jane was absolutely useless in the kitchen.

“In world news, the terrorist organization known as ESAI has taken over the capital of Alidbar in a matter of hours. The coup was brutal and efficient. We still do not have an accurate body count…”

Jane watched in horror at the footage unfolding before her. Ali let all of her contempt spill out as she diced vegetables.

“I cannot believe that nobody is doing anything about that!” Ali cried in outrage as she deftly chopped onions and carrots into hearty portions.

“Can you explain to me what’s going on?” Jane asked. “You know I’m not good at world events like you are, and you guys talk about it in your classes.” It was true. Starla was a more local hero.

“They finally put in a democracy for two years, and it just turns into this!” Ali’s knife slammed into the cutting board loudly. “The extremist religious nuts are back! Just when women were getting the right to vote, to get the right to work, when people could begin to exercise their voice…”

Jane focused on the horrors unfolding on the screen as Ali continued her tirade while searing vegetables in her cast iron. Perhaps Starla should go global…? She clenched her pretty little fist, feeling her neverending power flow through her veins with just a tiny squeeze.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud sizzle and a plume of smoke from the kitchen.

“Ali, are you okay?!”

Jane rushed over with her superspeed, making intimate contact with her girlfriend’s body, ready to whisk her away and cool off the fire with her superbreath.

“Whoa! Jane! I thought you were on the couch! Yeah, I’m fine! Doesn’t this smell good?”

Ali was holding the large cut of roast with a pair of metal tongs, letting it get nice and brown on each side.

“Oh shoot! I forgot to season it! Jane, hold these for a moment, will you? I don’t want you touching the salt! And for god’s sake, don’t burn it or something!”

Jane grabbed onto the metal bit of the tongs, cradling the roast if it were some sort of sensitive, deadly object.

Ali came back with the salt and pepper.

“Jane! Isn’t that hot?!?! Hold the rubber end! Away from the smoke!”

“Hmm? Oh!” She quickly shifted her grip.

“Geez! Are you okay? Let me see your hand!”

“Als, I’m fine! Promise!” Jane wiggled her pristine fingers for Ali’s examination.

“I can't believe it. What are your fingers made of, asbestos?!” She gently tapped the heated metal. “Yowch!!”

“Ha ha, farm hands, I guess…” Jane explained unconvincingly, considering her hands were so beautifully smooth and even.

“Okay girl… well… I’m going to salt and pepper it.”

She gave the roast a thorough dusting of salt and pepper on all sides as Jane turned it. When they had achieved a tasty outer sear and accrued some fond on the cast iron, Jane watched in fascination as Ali de-glazed it with a gurgling bottle of red wine. The dark liquid sizzled and hissed, emitting a fragrant plume of steam that lifted all of the flavors of previously seared root vegetables and charred meat off the bottom of the pan, combined elegantly as Ali whisked vigorously. Then she added all of the pre-prepped ingredients back in, tossed in some dried herbs, and set the whole hearty brew in the oven.

“Is that it?” Jane asked.

“Yup. Now we wait. Are you going to be hungry? It’s going to be… shit! 3 to 4 hours!”

“What about, you know, just increasing the temperature of the oven?” Jane asked innocently, her eyes glowing subconsciously. This was how she did everything, after all.

“Don’t tell me. Is this why all your food gets burnt! Jane, girl, sometimes, I think you are the dumbest person I know! You can’t rush this!”

“What!? Really? I thought it was just, y’know, math…”

“Oh my god! Please never cook again!”

Ali play-slapped Jane’s harder-than-steel arm, then winced and cradled her hand.

“Anyway, we can order something small to nibble on if you want,” Ali suggested.

“Nope! I’m okay!”

“Man, I wish I had your lack of appetite. I guess if I’d eaten like you growing up, I’d be really good at not eating too. It’d be like a trauma! Never mind, sounds miserable.”

Jane giggled.

“Let’s just watch the news on Alidbar, if that’s okay,” Ali suggested.

The two sat down on Ali’s cheap, tough sofa, Jane’s arm wrapping around her girlfriend’s shoulder. Ali grew more incensed as footage of the coup played. Jane merely observed and tried to soak in what Ali was saying.

Suddenly, her finely tuned senses picked up some police blotter on the other side of town.

“Hey Ali, I have to, um, go to… um... the bathroom!”

Ali raised an eyebrow. “Okay? Go ahead. You know where it is.”

“I mean, um, the bathroom at my place! I left something there! Medicine?”

“You want me to drive you?”

“No, it’s okay, I’ll get there myself!” She unwrapped her arm from Ali and headed for the door.

“Jane, what are you talking about? You live on the other side of the city! Come on, I’ll take you.”

“No no, you have to watch the pot roast!” Jane insisted, slipping on her puffy coat, one foot already out the door. “I’ll be back in time for dinner, I promise!”

Jane stepped out and clicked the door shut behind her.

“Jane!” Ali ran for the door and poked her head out into the apartment’s communal hallway, but Jane was already gone.

Chapter 2

Starla arrived on the scene at the housing projects in Burghtown around dusk. The police had gotten reports of a drive-by shooting, probably gang related, but couldn’t track down the car. Hovering miles above the ghetto, her eyes glowed bright white as she performed a quick sweep of the entire neighborhood. A few bodies lying in the streets. One woman, middle aged and at home, shot in the arm and crying while huddling over her children. The bullet had traveled through the wall and struck her.

Starla’s heart mourned for her. But at least she would live.

Within seconds, she had found the perpetrators. Two youths in a black SUV, hearts racing but faces betraying no outward emotion, sped along the streets. Starla could see with her x-ray vision two handguns in the backseat. The cartridges were not full.

The youth in the passenger seat pulled out his cell phone. Starla brushed her blonde hair behind her ear and eavesdropped with her super hearing, despite all the sirens wailing in the background.

“Hey,” the voice at the other end of the line answered.

“It’s done. Me and Surf are good.”

“Good. Lose the sim.”

“Yeah.”

Starla’s eyes glowed in rage as they hung up. She watched him fumble with the cell phone before pulling a little piece of circuitry out, and tossing it out the open window.

Starla turned into a blur, appearing right by the passenger side of the car with the delicate little computer chip in between her fingers. It was too dark for gang members to even see her. They drove onward with no ceremony.

With an angry stomp that tore up the already potholed tarmac further, Starla zipped in front of the car, directly in the path of their headlights. Her red cape billowed out behind her.

“Yo! Shit!”

“Fuck! It’s her!?”

“Floor it!!”

With one hand behind her back protecting the microchip they tried to dispose of, Starla reached out with her other hand, long fingers extended. The SUV’s engine roared as it surged forward, meeting Starla’s digits.

Instantly, the car stopped in its tracks.

The hood and front grill of the car would have been punctured by Starla’s casual pose had she not easily and instantly absorbed its momentum, pulling her arm back just enough to prevent it from plowing into her body. A precise application of force allowed her to jolt the car to a complete halt, crumpling only the hood but leaving it the vehicle still functional.

The driver, Surf, had the car’s airbag explode in his face as he lurched forward, still at the full 50 miles per hour. His head slammed into the inflating safety device, knocking him out cold.

The caller was saved by his seat belt, merely snapping his fragile body forward, giving his neck a good bout of whiplash. But he still moved swiftly from the rush of adrenaline coursing through his body.

Starla watched this disgusting mother-injuring excuse of a human grab the gun from the backseat and open fire through the windshield without a moment’s pause.

The car was still running. Starla simply placed her boot on its front bumper, holding it completely motionless with her shapely leg.

The sound of the gunshots rang out. The blonde Xenonian watched their slow, lazy path through the air, almost shocked that these little domed pellets could wound, let alone be fatal to the inhabitants of this planet. Starla took the time to check on Ali with her piercing eyes. She was still there in the living room… watching the police search live on TV! What a funny discussion that would be when she got back!

But no, the police were still nowhere close to finding them. Maybe one of the helicopters would be nearby soon.

Back to the task at hand, Starla allowed time to speed up as she plucked every single last bullet out of the air. She squashed it all into a misshapen lump, displaying it for the murderer to see in the glare of the headlights, before letting it drop to the asphault.

Letting a trickle of energy flow into her eyes, Starla fired a weak, blue laser that immediately melted the glass onto the dashboard and struck the shooter’s gun. He dropped it as soon as his brain could register the extreme temperatures, the superheated metal causing his hand to blister.

He cried out in pain, clutching himself with tear-filled eyes, desperately blowing on his scalding skin to try and soothe the burn.

“Kill the engine,” Starla commanded. “Or I will.”

He used his still intact left hand, put the car into park, and turned the key.

Starla pushed off the hood of the car with her boot and hovered around to the passenger side. She nearly yanked the door off the frame, reached in to grab her trembling shooter, and dropped him onto the uneven pavement.

Looking at the gun in disgust, she sucked it out of the car with her superbreath, letting it bounce off her invulnerable body where it came to rest at her feet. Giving the shooter a death glare, she focused her gaze on the gun and melted it into slag. Starla’s lasers carved a deep channel into the earth as well, where the molten remains of the gun pooled.

“You understand?” Starla asked ominously.

“Yes yes yes!!” he blubbered.

“Good.”

Starla vanished once again, reappearing at the driver's side door. Still angry, she thrust her toned arm through the window, shattering it into little beads, before opening the door from the inside. Grabbing a fistful of the unconscious driver’s shirt, she effortlessly hoisted him out of his seat as well and brought him next to Surf.

With both men waiting obediently (or unconscious) on the ground, Starla looked back at the sky. The helicopters were still sweeping the streets! Starla directed her gaze into empty space and fired a bright, wide beam into the heavens like a floodlight.

Finally, they directed their searchlights toward her.

“Down here!” she yelled, projecting her voice loudly enough to be heard over the sound of their rotating blades.

Still incensed, but mollified that the mother bystander was being treated by paramedics, she flew off as she heard Ali’s oven buzz. Within seconds, she was back in front of Ali’s doorstep.

She knocked.

“Jane? What took you so long?” She unlatched the door.

“Meep!” Starla squeaked, realizing she was still in her superhero fades! She darted back to her apartment to get a fresh pair of civvies, put it on over her costume, and returned back to precisely where she had been waiting.

Ali was none the wiser.

“Got your medicine?” she asked.

“Medicine? Oh, right, yeah! I took it already!”

“Janey, you were gone for hours! I was getting worried! And… you missed Starla on live TV!”

“Oh I did!? Darn!” Jane pretended to look disappointed.

“Well, I guess you have good timing. Come on, the pot roast is done. It smells really good. Your mom’s recipe is primo. We can see the news about Starla.”

As Ali turned back into the house, Jane couldn’t help but float through the doorway, excited to try her adoptive mother’s recipe and listen to her girlfriend’s adulation.

Jane took a bite of the heavenly, tender, melt-in-your-mouth pot roast and was overwhelmed with emotion. She began to openly weep.

“Jane!? Is it that bad!?”

“No… it’s so… good!”

She wished so desperately to have been able to meet her foster parents. Which conjured up memories of her biological parents. Ali wrapped her arms around Jane, crying in sympathy, as Starla’s heroics of the evening played in the background.

Jane spent the night in Ali’s bed. The guilt and jealousy of seeing Yasmin's sour yet amused face in a picture frame on the bedside table was becoming more tolerable day by day as she cradled Ali in her powerful arms.

Chapter 3

Jane, Ali and a group of her friends sat at a small cafe, reminiscing about their early twenties.

“Oh, we were so wild back then!” the tomboy brunette named Sheila exclaimed. “Can you believe we used to go out there, big picket signs in tow? It was just like, five of us, but we were out there for hours! We were so convinced something good would come of it!”

“What were you protesting?” Jane asked, a bit wary of Sheila. Aside from the skin color, her boyish appearance reminded Jane of Yasmin.

Jane clutched her arm around Ali tighter.

Ali yelped in slight pain and tried to wriggle free of Jane’s steely limb.

“It was about gentrification and homelessness,” Ali replied with a little giggle. “But we were so wound up!”

“Oh, I know! And we wouldn’t stop either!” Marcia added.

The crowd of girls all laughed as Jane watched on, feeling left out.

“And Jane, did you know? Our little Ali is a superhero!” Marcia continued.

“Oh really?!” Jane perked up. “How so?” Ali was even more of a perfect match for herself than she could ever have imagined!

“Well, we got tired of protesting all these small things, you know? And it was a little embarrassing being out there all by ourselves.

“So one day… there was a case of police brutality out there in the projects. You remember that incident four years ago?”

Jane shook her head.

“Girl, are you kidding?!” Marica asked in shock. “Do you live under a rock? It was all over the news!”

“Ali, you sure you’re dating the right person?” Sheila teased, nudging Ali with an elbow.

Jane didn’t find it particularly funny.

“You know how it is in the projects though, right? Tell me you’ve at least heard of Starla. She was out there just a week ago catching some murderers.”

“Yes! Of course I know Starla!” Jane answered, overeager to belong.

“Right. Yeah. So out there. It wasn’t that bad before, but it was getting there,” Marcia continued to relay the story. “Some cops pulled over an innocent guy, ordered him to get down on his knees, and then brutally beat him to death when he so much as twitched. Turns out, he had nothing to do with anything! The guy they were looking for, they already had in jail!”

“You’re kidding.” Jane’s voice was flat. What kind of a stupid mistake was this?

“No joke. Who could have even conjured such a ridiculous scenario?” Marcia said in disgust.

“So yeah. The city is up in arms about it. There were riots.”

“Naturally, we go to it. We’re fired up! A protest! And blocks of people with signs! People throwing flaming bottles…”

“You could’ve gotten hurt!” Jane cried out.

“Well duh. But we thought we were so young and invincible. Turns out we weren’t.”

“What happened?” Jane asked, heart pounding fiercely.

“Well, we’re pretty far up in the crowd. The police are there with their big plastic shields or whatever, everyone’s screaming, I can barely hear anything over the roar of the crowd…” Sheila’s voice lowered.

“And some people behind us started throwing big rocks or something. And then a molotov cocktail too. It landed not so far from us, right onto the police barricade,” Marcia completed the thought.

Ali rubbed her scar.

“So the police, they’re panicking right? They get out those big batons and start pushing the crowd back. There’s broken glass everywhere.”

“And us, well, there’s nowhere to go. We’re packed up like sardines! There’s no way to move! And they’re telling us to back off, back off, they keep pushing forward.”

“So they’re swinging through the front of the crowd, people are crying out and falling. And they’re getting close to us.” Marcia’s storytelling began to slow as her eyes became downcast. “And… I’m the next one in line. I see the baton coming down, right for my face, and Ali, she, she…”

“She stuck her arm up high to block the swing! It was… bad,” Sheila completed the sentence.

Jane’s eyes glowed. Her fingers snapped off a corner of their rectangular table as she gripped a little harder.

“At that point, I think the police realize that they’ve beaten, y’know, a white girl, and she’s on the ground crying, and everyone else is scattering. So they just, kind of slow down, round everyone up.”

“Ali too?” Jane asked, horrified of the answer that was coming.

Ali nodded.

“Yeah, Ali spent over a week in their holding cells. You know how it is with her family situation. Her mom doesn’t make much money. ...And doesn’t approve of her, y’know, ‘lifestyle’. We all scrimped and saved to get her out. But it was mostly Yasmin.”

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

“So yeah!” Ali finally broke the silence herself. “Tada! Me, a superhero! Broken arm, in prison for two weeks, a young kid with a crazy dream,” she chuckled. “Too bad Starla wasn’t around then. Maybe none of this would have happened.”

“Hey Als. I know I say this a lot, but thanks again. Really. You saved me,” Marcia’s voice was somber. She leaned over, caressed Ali’s face with the back of her hand, and gave her a peck on the cheek.

Jane, even with her superspeed, didn’t know how to react. She flaked off more chunks of table with some angry, nervous twiddling of her fingers.

Ali drove the pair back to Jane’s apartment, which was closer to the school than her own place. The car ride was icy silent. Ten minutes in, Ali finally broke the seal.

“Jane. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” she replied.

“It’s obviously not nothing,” Ali’s verbal response conveyed an obvious eyeroll.

Jane huffed. Her frustrated breath was colder and more powerful than the blast of the vehicle’s air conditioning.

“Are you and Marcia…” Jane started.

“NO!” Ali yelled back. “Jane, we’re just friends. It was me and Yasmin. You know that. And you helped me grieve, and you were there for me all the way. I’m with you now, okay?”

“Okay.”

Ali sighed. “It’s not okay, is it?”

“No, it’s not that. I mean, I’ll get over it. I’ll try. It’s something else.”

Ali was getting frustrated. She looked over at Jane’s face as she continued to manipulate the steering wheel.

“Then what the hell else is it?”

“I don’t… I don’t want you to get hurt like that again.” She reached over to touch Ali’s scar.

“Hey, I don’t either.”

“No, I mean it! You shouldn’t do anything dangerous like that ever again!” Her grip tightened unconsciously.

“What? Are you telling me you want to control my life?” Ali was growing indignant. She had no intentions of trying something like a live protest in a dangerous neighborhood, but it was the principle of the matter!

“No! Well, maybe, just not the dangerous stuff.”

“So what? You don’t want me to go to protests huh? What about walking at night alone? Is that allowed, mom? Are you gonna pick out my clothes too? Ow! You’re hurting me! Jane!!”

The car swerved at an intersection. Ali was about to drive up a sidewalk and into a stop sign pole.

“Ahhhhh!” she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, her entire body taut with fear.

Suddenly, the car was still, despite the wheels still spinning. Ali opened her eyes one at a time, dreading what she would see. Still, where was the boom of the crash?

“Oh my god! Star Girl?!!”

The heroine’s emblem was on full display on her proud chest of her blue uniform. She had a hand on the hood of the car. The front bumper seemed to be slightly molded to her leg. But something was wrong. Where was the rest of the uniform? What was with the white blouse sleeves… and jeans...?

“JANE!?” she cried out in shock.

“Shh!” Jane/Star Girl shushed her, her superbreath accidentally slamming Ali into the car seat.

“Oh shoot! Sorry!” Jane/Star Girl hissed. “We need to talk…” And then more loudly, “Um, be careful there, citizen of Burghtown! Have a nice day!”

“You’re… Star Girl…” Ali pinched herself.

Jane/Star Girl blurred from her position next to Ali to whisper into her ear.

“My place. Go. We need to talk. Please. Please come.”

And then she flew off, waiting nervously in her apartment and using her x-ray vision to watch Jane make the trip over.

Chapter 4

Ali flew down the hallway to Jane’s apartment. The door opened before she was even about to knock. Jane was standing there, shirt buttoned up now.

“Jane! You’re… you’re…!”

“Okay Ali, breathe, I know. Sorry, I wanted to tell you so badly!”

“Oh my god! I told you how big a fan I was of Star Girl! I’m so embarrassed!”

“I… I really appreciated it, Ali.” Jane shed a single tear of joy. “Every time you cheered for me, I wanted to rip off my shirt and show you who I really was!”

“I still can’t believe it…” Ali whispered breathlessly. “I’m dating Star Girl…”

Jane floated off the ground, pulling her legs up into a midair cross-legged seated position.

Ali gasped.

“I know, I know. It’s crazy, right? My parents, my biological parents, that is, said I would have some powers in this parallel universe. But I’ve way exceeded the numbers they predicted.”

“So your adoptive parents…?”

“I never met them. My parents sent me away from my doomed planet, and I watched the planet explode. And when I got here, the plague had already wiped out the adoptive parents I had spent so much time conversing with while I was back on Xenoi. I…” her voice turned into a barely audible squeak, “I don’t have anyone but you, Ali…”

“Oh, Jane!”

Ali ran up to her floating form and tried to hug her. But her face only came up to Jane’s floating knee.

“Thank you thank you thank you for understanding!” Jane extended her long legs straight, hovered down, and enveloped Ali in a tight super hug.

For the second time in as many days, both girls were crying in each others’ embrace. But this time, they were floating in midair. Ali was powerless to break Jane’s unbreakable hold over her body, nor did she want to.

Jane leaned down for a sloppy, tear-filled kiss. Ali obliged.

Their lips met, the taste of their salty tears mixing and dripping into their lips. The two of them broke the kiss and spat, and they began to giggle in tandem.

“Do you want to…” Ali asked as she wiped both cheeks with the back of her hand.

“Yes, please, let’s. I want to do this so badly,” Jane whispered. “I want to let go a little bit…”

“I want to see you let go, Jane. Or should I say, Star Girl?”

“My real name is Starla. My mother was a brilliant scientist, and my father was loving and caring. It means, ‘light of a star.’”

“Starla,” Ali whispered it almost reverently. “It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Starla whispered back, planting another kiss on Ali’s moist lips.

“Starla, if I can make a request…”

“Anything for a citizen of Burghtown,” Starla smiled encouragingly.

“Can you… can you wear the costume?”

Starla beamed. Wrapping her long legs below Ali’s butt, she supported her weight in midair with nothing but a gentle squeeze of her legs and hips. She leaned back, unbuttoning her blouse slowly, dragging it out, one at a time. It was a strip tease, only she wasn’t naked underneath. No, it was so much more tantalizing than that.

Ali gasped when Star Girl’s emblem came into full view.

Starla smiled, enjoying her girlfriend’s bald-faced adulation. She leaned back and slipped off her top, revealing the blue sleeves of her leotard.

“You like?” Starla inquired, slightly embarrassed. She flexed her arm, her beautifully toned, feminine bicep coming into view.

“Yes!!” Ali answered zealously.

“Shall we? You want me to fly you to the bedroom?”

“More than anything.”

Starla readjusted Ali’s body effortlessly, slipping one arm behind her back and the other below Ali’s knees. They looked into each others’ eyes lovingly as Starla floated toward the bedroom, ducking at the last second so as not to hit the top of the doorframe. They both giggled.

“This is so wild…” Ali whispered. “How is it you can do this?”

Starla shrugged, her firm, tight body grinding against Ali’s softer, luscious one.

“It’s just the nature of our universes, I guess. Even my parents didn’t predict I would be this unstoppably powerful.”

“Are… are you really that strong? You make everything look so easy. Oh, I was so obsessed with you! To think I’m in your arms now, flying with you…”

“Wanna know a secret? I’m trying to make it seem like I’m weaker than I am. But the fact is, all of the heroics you see on TV are just… easy,” Starla confessed. It wasn’t arrogance. It was truth.

Ali gasped at her brazen words.

Suddenly, they were both naked in the air. It felt like they hadn’t moved from their floating position at all, but Starla had stripped them down to their naked flesh. Ali wouldn’t have even processed it if she hadn’t seen all her clothes and Star Girl’s outfit folded neatly on her bedroom chair!

“Oh god! Jane! How did you do that?”

“I told you, it’s easy for me. And you can call me Starla. In private.”

“Oh Starla…”

Still floating horizontally in midair above the bed, Starla “climbed” down Ali’s feminine curves, trailing languidly down her torso to her legs, aligning her mouth with Ali’s ready and quivering womanhood.

Ali squeaked, clenching her core in expectation of losing Starla’s super strong support along her upper body, but a single, outstretched arm and open palm along Ali’s back supported her perfectly.

How was this possible!?

She didn’t have to think about it for long. Starla twisted in midair, circling around like a human-shaped wrench, and wrapped her long, long legs around Ali’s torso. Her heels dug into Alia’s back. She aligned her own Xenonian intimacy with Ali’s ready mouth, her raggedy breath already steaming.

Starla explored Ali’s petals gently, knowing that every time they made love, she could never apply a fraction of the strength contained in her incredible body. She glided the back of her fingers along Ali’s thighs, eliciting a throaty moan from her dream girl. She could smell the musky aroma wafting off Ali’s sex as her trembling folds began to glisten.

Her tongue snaked out of her mouth, giving Ali’s canal a forceful, but still infinitely gentle for her, lick. Ali’s entire body seized up even further, not that she could break Starla’s impossibly tight body-bind even if she wanted.

“Do me too,” Starla whispered against Ali’s pussy, blasting her lover’s tingling, sensitive clit and pink canal with her husky breath.

“Mmmm!” Ali cried out as she felt a powerful, erotic massage against her nether region just from Starla’s speech!

Starla pressed her svelte calf and strong thigh against Ali’s back, locking a heel behind Ali’s head and pushed her mouth toward Starla’s own needy, waiting sex.

Ali, her entire body still tense and electrified with arousal, did her best to lick Starla’s invulnerable, trembling core. The alien girl’s musky scent was tinged with an irresistible floral sweetness that Ali had never experienced before. Ali gripped the tight spheres of Starla’s ass as she tried to support her own weight, lapping at Starla’s lips.

“Harder,” Starla whispered. “I’ve wanted to tell you so many times. Do it harder.”

Ali began to lap in earnest, driving her chin and lower lip in as deeply as she could, grinding her soft flesh against Starla’s far-too-powerful bud.

“Go ahead. Use your teeth. As hard as you can,” Starla goaded further.

Ali grazed Starla’s protruding clit gently.

“Mm hmm! Like that! Harder!” Starla encouraged.

Ali bit and nipped on it with her pearly teeth, bringing a hand into play as well. She lubricated two fingers with her alien girlfriend’s nectar, gathering it as she inserted and caressed them as hard as she could against Starla’s coils. But she still couldn’t penetrate those perfect muscles unless Starla unclenched for her.

Suddenly, Ali felt an incredible pressure on her own clit as Starla sucked the girl’s hood and labia into her own mouth.

And then, Starla really turned it on.

Her powerful tongue began to vibrate against Ali’s everything, igniting torturous tingles of pleasure through the poor girl’s core. Starla seemed to be hitting all of Ali’s most sensitive, needy regions simultaneously as she inserted three fingers into the only-human girl’s sopping wet pussy. She churned her fingers inside of her lover rapidly, reacting to her lover’s response like a perfect, sentient toy. Meanwhile, Starla’s tongue curled around Ali’s protruding bud, tugging and vibrating against that overworked pleasure center.

Ali’s flushed and sweating body clenched, her teeth finally biting down hard on Starla’s invulnerable clit, just as she desired. The burning heat of Starla’s pleasure nearly suffocated Ali.

“Mmmmf!” Ali cried, still completely bound by her superhuman lover’s embrace. Her arms and legs seized and flexed, trying to contort and spasm in pleasure, but even in the throes of orgasm, she didn’t come close to breaking Starla’s hold. Her curled toes and rigid fingers were the only parts of her body she could move.

Ali’s body heated even further as her heart struggled to keep up with the pleasure that Starla was forcing into her. She whimpered, trying to pull away from Starla’s vibrating fingers, seeking relief from the burst of intense, otherworldly pleasure that she had just experienced.

But Starla kept going.

Ali squirmed as she bit down harder, trying to endure the soul-shattering bolts of electric arousal coursing through her body.

“Yes! Like that!” Starla moaned into Ali’s womanhood, her voice pushing through Ali’s entire body and triggering a third, even more powerful detonation.

Starla’s legs clamped around Ali’s torso as she enjoyed the new, more vigorous lovemaking with Ali now that her secret was out. She loved feeling Ali’s soft, larger breasts knead against her silky inner thighs. She loved Ali’s taste, the girl’s juices dripping down her chin and her arm. And she loved how roughly, relatively speaking, she was going at her clit.

Starla squeezed her eyes shut as Ali continued to spasm helplessly in her full body embrace. The Xenonian bombshell began to grind her entire body back and forth, rubbing her breasts and their erect peaks against Ali’s legs while humping Ali’s torso with her own aching pussy.

“Ali! Oh, fuck! You’re gonna make me come!!” Starla cried.

“Starla! A little lighter, please!” she managed to choke out.

Starla slammed them both down onto the bed, straining the springs to their limit as the whole room shuddered. She let go of her limp girlfriend’s form and flew back into the air, limbs fully splayed out as she trembled through her first worthwhile orgasm brought on by another person.

Finally, her body relaxed. Her heaving chest and heavy breaths rattled the room for a second before her endless stamina chased all of the weakness out of her pleasure-ridden body.

“Oh my god… Starla…” Ali began, still trying to recover. “I’ve never felt like that before! So helpless… and so horny! The things you did to me!”

Starla drifted back into bed and cuddled a post-coital Ali, luxuriating in each others’ embrace.

“Thanks Ali. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

“Is it… always like that for you? Have I not been good enough to, you know…” Ali asked genuinely.

“It’s always nice. But sometimes I just need more, you know?”

“Would you need even… more… more than what I can give you?”

“Oh Ali. Please, let’s not talk about that.”

“No, it’s not that, Starla. Can I… can I watch?”

Starla opened her eyes and met Ali’s earnest gaze. Her heart soared as she understood Ali’s acceptance, understanding, and even willing participation.

“Okay, Ali, let me show you what it’s like for me sometimes. You might want to get away from me...”

Starla groped her modest breast with one hand, squeezing and fondling roughly enough to actually compress those invulnerable orbs, moaning softly as her nipples tightened. Her other hand dipped in between her legs once more.

Ali gasped in amazement as Starla’s hand blurred. Is this what her universe-travelling lover had been doing to her? No... She realized there was no way she could have survived what Starla was doing to herself now. She wished she could, though! The two of them making out in a blur of superhuman pleasure...

The blonde woman’s pale skin began to flush, heating the room significantly while her invulnerable body showed absolutely no signs of it. Ali began to sweat, responding to the erotic scene she was witnessing in tandem with the rising ambient heat of Starla’s superpowered masturbation.

It didn’t take long before Starla was bucking her hips, slamming Ali’s bed. She was going to smash it into splinters!

“Starla! Starla! Wait!” Ali begged. “Not my furniture!”

“Fuuuuuck!” Starla cried, her nerves overstimulated with pleasure, her mind almost beyond reason.

She heard Ali’s plea and suddenly disappeared.

Then, a light earthquake vibrated through the city. Ali caught her balance and made her way to the window.

Miles away, she could see coherent lasers shooting into the sky at random intervals at various angles. They incinerated all of the trees and treetops instantly to ash. The city quaked violently under Starla’s presumed pleasure, again and again.

This shaking… It felt so familiar…? A hyperventilating Ali pressed against the oscillating walls, gripped by sudden panic.

Chapter 5

An uneasy Ali finally fell asleep with Jane… no, Starla, by her side. Their first night consummating their love together, truly raw, naked, and vulnerable with Jane’s civilian alter ego stripped away.

Ali’s eyelids closed, the little portrait of her and Yasmin the last thing she saw as she drifted off to sleep. She dreamt of having powers like Star Girl, defying gravity at will, never being stuck in traffic again, traveling the world and exploring exotic sights on a whim. It was so freeing!

In her dreams, she soared through the air, her dark brown hair fluttering in the wind. Her outfit a facsimile of Star Girl’s, red and blue with a painted yellow star. She saved kittens from trees, helped older citizens cross the street as she floated over the crosswalk, and knocked out muggers with a flick of her finger after they bent their knives on her invulnerable body.

The entire world heaped praise on her for her heroic deeds!

And at night, she would fly through the umpteenth story window where Yasmin awaited her. They would embrace sweetly before Ali stripped off her superheroine uniform and went to the bedroom.

She would use her powers to bring Yasmin to untold heights of pleasure. Her dark-skinned girlfriend writhing under her masterful ministrations, Ali’s stamina never flagging, her constantly ascending power and her invulnerable body never aching. She kissed her lover’s dark lips and explored every inch of her body with her powerful caress, squeezing Yasmin’s lovely assets almost painfully.

And then Yasmin would lick Ali’s folds as the fantasy superheroine floated in midair, presenting her perfect petals to be feasted upon. Yasmin’s hands wouldn’t even dent Ali’s body, but Ali could still feel and appreciate the sensual effort. Her girlfriend would lick and suck on her electrified clit. Ali’s legs would tremble furiously, Yasmin would redouble her efforts and plunge her face even deeper into Ali’s inviting, pulsing nether lips, oh, the swirling of Yasmins’ tongue, the rubbing of teeth…

Ali’s thighs would clench shut as she trembled in mild delight, brought upon by her loving and supportive girlfriend.

And when she came down off her erotic peak, there was nothing left of Yasmin’s head but a bloody, misshapen lump.

Ali screamed.

Her eyes shot open. She was covered in a cold sweat. There she was, in her bedroom. Not floating. Under the covers. She sucked in a deep breath, uncertain of how long she’d been holding it.

Starla was wide awake and fully fresh, looking at her.

“I woke up as soon as I felt you startle. Did you have a nightmare?” Starla asked as she traced her fingers over Ali’s clammy face.

“Um… you could say that…” Ali’s eyes darted around in horror, before meeting Starla’s.

Oh god. Would Starla accidentally do this to her? Had she… had she already done something like this before? Yasmin!?

“There, there, Ali. It’ll be okay. I’ll be here to protect you. Always and forever.”

Ali’s heart raced even faster.

Then faster still, when she realized that it was impossible for Starla not to have picked up on it.

Ali began to put a little distance between herself and Jane. Sex with a newly liberated Starla had been exciting exactly once before Ali suffered her nightmare and re-lived that fateful, horrifying earthquake. Now, she could think about nothing else whenever they made love. She didn’t think Starla had really done anything sinister, but the trauma and mere implications of the alien girl’s unlimited power were too terrifying for Ali to dwell on for more than a few minutes.

Ali had suggested that Star Girl should widen her sphere of influence too, to give other cities and eventually the world at large the kind of justice and hope that only a sweet superheroine could provide. Ali smiled genuinely as Starla ate it up. Soon, Star Girl began patrolling the neighboring cities of Gothburgh and Metroburgh as well.

It was a hidden relief whenever Starla had to answer the call to duty. The supergirl would kiss Ali on the cheek and then vanish in a powerful gust of air.

She still loved to watch Star Girl’s feats on the news, cheer for her, gush with her wonderful girlfriend about all the things she did and could do, but Ali’s mind simply couldn’t shake the feeling of Starla’s orgasmic earthquake and her own horrific nightmare about Yasmin. On certain days, it overwhelmed her so much that she made excuses to go out by herself or grab an extra shift at Healthy Earth cafe.

And today, Sheila visited near the end of Ali’s shift.

“Fancy meeting you here!” Sheila quipped.

“Sheila! What are you doing here?” Ali asked.

“Can’t a girl meet an old friend? Also, your manager is giving me the stink eye. How about a coffee?”

“Sure, what size do you want?”

“Just give me the cheapest thing.”

“Okay, tall house coffee. That’ll be $5.”

Sheila coughed. “You’re kidding.”

“Um, nope, sorry… do you still want it?” Ali replied sheepishly while casting a glance at her boss.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Sheila pulled out her wallet and tapped her card against the tablet.

She waited patiently to the side while Ali continued to serve other customers.

“Sheila!” Ali announced proudly.

“Hey, you spelled my name right,” Sheila snarked.

Ali tried to punch her in the arm across the counter, but was stymied.

“When do you get off?” Sheila asked.

“Not for another hour.”

“Can you get off earlier?”

Ali looked at her manager, who immediately got the hint. He sighed.

“Just go.”

“Thanks boss!”

Ali clocked out. Sheila dumped her completely untouched coffee, and the two stepped out into a sunny afternoon day in Burghtown.

“Have time to grab a drink?” Sheila asked.

Ali checked her watch. “Well, I’m officially off work at 5, so I have about an hour and a half before I need to get home.”

“What is this, 6PM curfew?”

“Oh, Jane and I are having dinner. I have to get back to her and cook. She’s totally hopeless.”

“You are so weird, Ali. I swear, I always thought you totally fit your societally typical female gender role. You know I always thought you were some kind of pretender in our group?”

“Hey!”

“Yeah, well, you took a beating for me. I feel bad for ever doubting you. You’re harder than all of us. I just wanted to get that off my chest.”

“Heh… thanks Sheila. I think.”

“Come on, let’s go get a drink.”

“Now!?”

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.”

It may have been 5:00 somewhere, but certainly not in Burghtown. The pair wound up driving to Sheila’s place.

“So how are you?” Sheila asked over a bottle of Deerhead IPA.

“I’m… good! Good!” Ali replied, not so convincingly.

“That bad, huh?”

“No, it’s not that! I just… find myself thinking about Yasmin a lot,” Ali told a little white lie.

“Sorry Ali,” Sheila replied with a deep belch. “Sorry about that too.”

“Heh, you haven’t changed at all, Sheila.”

They both took another deep swig.

“How are things with… Jane, was it?” Sheila probed.

“They’re… good. Good! They’re good.”

“Yeah Ali. Sounds good.” Sheila belched again.

“So how are you?” Ali tried to change the subject.

“Not gonna lie, Ali. I want us to get together,” Sheila stated boldly.

“Sheila! It’s been about a year since Yasmin, and I just got together with Jane.”

“But she’s not right for you. I can tell.”

“Sheila, I’m not leaving Jane. You’ve had too much to drink.” Ali attempted to put her foot down.

“No, I’m sober. I’ve just finally worked up the nerve to tell you. I can see all your hesitation with Jane. And she doesn’t have your edge. Yasmin and me, we both had that. You know it. We all knew it. It was always going to be either me or her.”

“Sheila. I’m not leaving Jane. I can’t leave Jane.”

In that moment, Ali seemed to catch a scowling Jane, hovering outside Sheila’s window. She gasped in shock, but Jane had already disappeared. Had she just imagined it? Oh god!

“I’m leaving, Sheila,” Ali announced, suddenly trembling.

Sheila sat on her couch, unresponsive, drinking the remnants of her own beer before starting on Ali’s.

Chapter 6

Ali unlocked the door to her apartment, half expecting to feel a rush of air from Starla flying to the door to greet her. But there was nothing. Maybe Star Girl was out patrolling.

No. There was Starla, sitting on the couch coldly.

“Jane? Starla?” Ali asked nervously.

“Hi Ali,” came her terse reply. She was floating cross-legged above the couch while eating a bowl of popcorn, the only thing she knew how to make.

“Umm… you okay?” She stepped in and dropped off her purse.

“Fine,” Starla answered. Followed by an irrepressible, “I don’t want you to see Sheila anymore.”

“You were there!” Ali gritted her teeth. “You freaked me out!”

“I only came because I heard her talking to you!”

“You… heard her? Like you followed me!?” Ali’s face flushed red.

“Oh please, Ali! As if I’d have to be anywhere near you to hear what you guys are talking about! I was patrolling Gothburgh at the time,” Starla said matter-of-factly.

Ali gasped. She began to tremble uncontrollably.

“Starla, you… you can’t do that… I need boundaries...”

“Boundaries? Nothing is a boundary to me! I can see through anything, hear as far as I want, smash through any obstacle!”

“Starla… this… this isn’t healthy…” Ali’s knees were wobbling now.

Starla zipped over faster than Ali’s eyes could follow. In a flash, she had Ali’s scarred arm gripped tightly, but not painfully, in her hand. She pulled back the sleeve and put it on display.

“No, Ali, this is what isn’t healthy! This is what happens when you do dangerous stuff without powers like me!”

“But Starla, it’s… it’s my life…”

“And it’s my job to protect your life! Yours and all others!”

Ali recoiled internally and began to slump. The trembling brunette went limp, but Starla held her arm up effortlessly.

“You’re… scaring me…” Ali whispered.

“Oh Ali! Ali Ali!” Starla’s eyes softened as she pulled Ali back to her feet and embraced her girlfriend. “I didn’t mean to! I’m really sorry. I just love you so much. I’ll do anything to protect you!”

Starla began to weep bitterly into Ali’s shoulder.

“I’m really sorry for scaring you. I just don’t want to lose you.”

“It’s okay… Starla… I’m here…” Ali tried to calm the terrifying superpowered girl who had just done an emotional 180.

“Just… please don’t see Sheila again. Please?”

Starla clutched Ali tighter this time. Ali wheezed in pain as Starla squashed the breath out of her.

Ali grew more distant over the next week while she lived in fear of Starla’s mandate. The terrified girl went to class, worked at Healthy Earth, shopped for groceries, and cooked. Sheila called once, which Ali swiped off and let go to voicemail. She could swear that Starla had been looking from her seated position on the couch when the call came in… but she had no vantage point to even see the screen! But as soon as Ali denied the call, Starla went back to… whatever she was doing. Surveying the city with her x-ray vision from Ali’s apartment.

Meanwhile, Starla was obliviously happy, living her dual lives. She had the praise of the public eye and a wonderful home life with wonderful home cooking.

Starla was completely back to her happy, chipper self, fawning affection all over Ali. It would have been perfect if not for the terrifying ultimatum and darkness that she’d displayed.

The two sat at their low coffee table, watching the report of the court trial of the gangland shooting that Star Girl had intervened in a month ago where she’d apprehended two of the shooters and recovered their phones.

“The state’s only eyewitness was found murdered only a week before the trial of Misters Russell Harris and Juwan Morgan. Since then, police have not been able to find any other people willing to come forward and testify.

Police also state that the lack of a murder weapon makes conviction difficult. Star Girl’s delivery of the suspected perpetrators was too circumstantial without hard evidence to connect the triple homicide to Mister Bell and Mister Morgan.

We can only grieve for Mrs. Monae and her children as they continue to seek justice.”

Starla blasted the TV with her heat vision, barely controlling it well enough without burning a hole through Ali’s bedroom.

“What!? I would have testified! The police told me I didn’t need to be involved!”

“That is bullshit!” Ali agreed. Her outrage overrode the alienation she felt the entire week. Scary or not, Star Girl was a true hero, and Ali was proud of her work.

“I overheard some… confusing talk coming from some of the police department and the lawyer for the murderers. I thought it was weird, but I didn’t understand their mumbo jumbo!” Starla uttered through gritted teeth. She was clenching her fist so hard, her veins were popping out of her arms from her limitless exertion.

“Fucking figures! There’s corruption everywhere! We always knew this city was sick,” Ali moaned futilely. “This is exactly the kind of shit we used to get up in arms about! Me, Yasmin, Shei…”

Ali stopped as soon as she realized the name she was about to utter. Starla flinched but did nothing.

“You mean you know about this? This is a normal occurrence?” Starla was aghast.

“You really have no clue. The governing bodies, the powers that be… all twisted up in special interests or straight out working for criminals!”

“Tell me which ones they are,” Starla declared coldly.

“Oh, uh… Starla… I don’t…”

“Tell me!”

“I don’t know! I really don’t!” Ali had never been confronted with actual, specific demands before. She only knew that the system was the enemy.

“Urgh!! I feel so helpless!” Starla despaired. “They killed a mother! I saw it happen! And now they get to go back out on the street!? What is my power good for if people all around the world get to do this to each other!?”

“I’m really sorry, Starla,” Ali wrapped her arm around Starla’s shoulders. “We’re just broken people. It’s just something you’ll have to live with. We’re… we’re trying.”

Starla peered through tens of miles of city buildings, aiming her vision on the two shooters. Eyes ablaze, she was close to vaporizing them along with a wide swath of the city right from Ali’s living room.

Chapter 7

Burghtown did not react favorably to the trial of Bell and Morgan. People took to the downtown streets and protested outside of the courthouse while police in riot gear tried to contain them. Meanwhile, the projects were filled with even more violence and disorder.

Star Girl had her hands full this week, patrolling the chaos from high above when she wasn’t busy stopping routine crimes in her tri-city jurisdiction.

By Ali’s fourth day alone, she decided she would move out. Emboldened by Starla’s absence, outraged by her girlfriend’s overly possessive and protective behavior, and incensed by Sheila’s accusations, Ali decided to rebel against the indomitable superheroine’s command and join the protest. She wanted to demonstrate to Starla that her life was hers to live, and that fighting the good fight was worth something. She wasn’t some princess to be kept under lock and key by her superheroine girlfriend.

So Ali drove to the projects mid-afternoon the next day.

The stench of urine and homelessness filled the air. The crunch of the broken glass of old, discarded vials under her the thick soles of her protest boots reminded her what a different world this part of the city was. Cross the train tracks, and these people lived in violence and poverty, forgotten by the city authorities.

The protesting voices grew louder and louder as she approached the cordoned off area.

“Justice for Monae!”

“No mercy to criminals!”

Ali slung her little backpack on and tightened the straps. She put her face mask on as well. Nervously, she glanced up in the sky for Star Girl. No sign of her.

Ali texted Sheila.

“Hey gurl!” came the reply. “I’m at Waller and Luther. Meet me there!” Followed by a selfie of Sheila in her own mask.

The two met up before long and made their way toward the crowd.

“Just like old days, huh?” Sheila smirked.

“Yeppers. Hopefully I don’t go to prison this time. Don’t get cracked on the arm.”

“Hey, just a quick protest in daylight. Live a little. Do some good. We’ll be fine.” Sheila punched Ali in the arm.

They joined the marching crowd chanting through the main streets, yelling and hissing at the police in riot gear along the fenced-off sidewalks.

“No justice no peace! No justice no peace!” Ali and Sheila chanted along. Sheila gave her a sign for Ali to wave around.

“Fuck you pigs!!” came a synchronized yell from somewhere deep in the crowd. Followed by flaming rags stuffed into bottles of brown fluid being thrown at the police.

The scene erupted into pure chaos. One of the policemen opened fire into the crowd first. And that was the start of what would become known as the Monae Riot Incitement.

A few groups of the police had been cut by the exploding glass shards. Others were trying to ward and put out the fire. The remaining officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd as they hid behind their plexiglass riot shields.

The protest crowd began to panic and scatter. Those nearest the police collapsed in pain as the rubber projectiles dug deep into their skin, leaving massive bruises and dropping them to the pavement. Everyone else choked and covered their stinging eyes from swirling clouds of mace, their throats and nostrils burning in pain.

Ali grabbed Sheila and began to backpedal, their makeshift masks providing no real protection against the tear gas. But it was enough that they were part of the few still standing among the original crowd of protestors. Hunched over in pain and tripping over other bodies, Sheila began to fall, but Ali wrapped her arm around her friend and dragged them both onward.

Unfortunately, they were the only two standing bodies left in the dissipating crowd. Some trigger-happy police decided to open fire.

Sheila ate one to the leg and collapsed to the floor. Ali fared much worse.

She was struck by two bullets. One dug into her ribs, cracking it. Another struck her on the forehead, knocking Ali out cold.

That last injury might have been a mercy: she didn’t have to witness the events that were about to unfold.

Chapter 8

“Ali! Ali!!!”

Star Girl rocketed toward the unconscious girl as soon as she arrived on the scene. She landed on the concrete with a thundering crack, sending deep gouges carving outward like a large spider web. Still crouching, she pursed her lips and sucked in all of the tear gas, her easy inhalation pulling the nearest unconscious protesters along the ground and causing the nearby police to lose their footing.

Star Girl wrapped an arm around Ali amidst all of the other injured, moaning protestors. She ran her fingers gently over the large, developing bruise on Ali’s head. Star Girl’s face was a mask of pain and fury, her chest heaving in short, sharp breaths.

“Star Girl… thank god you’re here…” Sheila moaned as Star Girl pulled an unconscious Ali away.

“YOU!” Star Girl snarled.

“Me? Do you know me?”

“YOU! Poisoned Ali with your evil thoughts! Dragged her out into this danger again!”

“What are you talking about… you know us? How do you know Ali’s name?”

“Star Girl!” One of the policemen approached her from behind. “As you can see, we’ve taken care of the situation here. You’re free to go patrol elsewhere.”

“Taken… care?” Star Girl scowled menacingly.

Sheila’s eyes widened in fear at the rage of the young superheroine’s face.

“Yeah. Why don’t you go somewhere else? Where you’re needed.”

A few of the policemen snickered.

Star Girl whipped her head around, sapphire eyes radiating with terrifying power. The policeman recoiled in fear, but only for a second.

Then, his head and upper torso turned to ash.

Star Girl barely tapped into the infinite depths of power contained in her athletic body as she instantly roasted an entire line of policemen, just by turning her head. The searing, white hot beams obliterated every single one of her targets from the waist up, leaving only legs with no body. She shielded Ali from the radiating heat with a single arm.

But she wanted to unleash so much more. More of the power that had never stopped growing inside of her.

Star Girl disabled her eye beams, turned around, and stepped on Sheila’s leg as she walked over her. The girl screamed as her bones shattered under Star Girl’s easy footstep. Then, placing Ali on the floor far enough away, Star Girl flew back toward her original targets.

She unleashed another deadly blast, even thicker beams of pure coherent energy radiating more powerfully than she’d emitted in her parents’ little training capsule.

It lasted for only a nanosecond, the buildings melting and everyone in them flashing to ash. The entire projects district of Burghtown was now a molten crater, akin to a volcano’s caldera.

Sheila screamed from behind her.

“This is your fault!” Star Girl accused her.

“No… no… what did I do?! I don’t know you!”

Star Girl took two strides at the retreating girl and gave her a kick. Sheila’s bones collapsed from the impact with Star Girl’s boot, and her twisted body was sent careening into another barricade, bowling over and crippling the police on that end too.

The ones still standing opened fire at the blonde alien. She scooped up Ali and caught all of the oncoming rubber bullets, not allowing any further harm to come to her precious girlfriend in her single arm. She flicked the “less lethal” bullets back from where they came.

They were nothing less than lethal.

Traveling hundreds of times faster on their return trip, the bullets tore through flesh and bone, killing the police force.

A few canisters of tear gas were sent her way as well. Star Girl turned her head, pursed her lips, and with a coldly calculated puff sent them right back.

With most of the immediate uniformed cowards who had attacked Ali dead or incapacitated by their own gas, Star Girl flew her beloved back to her apartment. That was one place she definitely wouldn’t raze to the bedrock.

Then she came back out, eyes gleaming with rage, and began her campaign in earnest.

“You two.” Star Girl addressed the two shooters she’d arrested as she hovered above them right outside their safe house where they were receiving police protection. These murderers, under protection! Of police!

“Ayyo, it’s this flying bitch!” Juwan laughed.

“Ain’t you know we innocent? Ain’t you seen the news? You finna arrest us again?” Harris taunted.

“No. No I am not. I’m here to execute you.”

“Wh… what? Exe- You can’t do that!” The two men suddenly lost all pretense of bravado.

“Can’t I?”

Star Girl was suddenly upon them, one dainty hand per creep, lifting them off the floor with her crushing grip on their necks. They struggled to breathe as they tried to comprehend their situation. Was this goody-goody superheroine really about to kill them!? Or was this some sort of intimidation ploy?

Harris’ eyes bugged out as he heard a sickening crunch from his left. He looked in fear. Morgan’s head was tilted at a completely unnatural angle. Star Girl tossed him over her shoulder, the body landing with a wet plop almost a block away.

“Tell me where your stashes are. Your corners. Your leaders.” She loosened her grip.

“I’ll tell you! Fuck! You’re psycho! I’ll tell you everything!”

As soon as he had given up the addresses, Star Girl recalled their location in her perfect eidetic mental map, then flung him over her shoulder as well.

Plop.

Taking care not to harm any innocent bystanders, she began her brutal, precision execution of every person and location named by Morgan, following the trail backwards to the crooked cops and corrupt politicians. And that path only led further.

But Star Girl was fast. Fast, brutal, and efficient. Gathering information from her victims right before killing them with her infinite superpowers was easy. She could clean up Burghtown in a day.

And then, it was onto the world. Alidbar, the country decried by Ali, was chief on her mind. And who knew how deep the rabbit hole went. She really had no clue, but she was going to find out.

Chapter 9

Ali lay reclined in a hospital bed, watching the news in shock. Entire countries destroyed, literally. Burghtown ripped apart. Death toll unknown and still rising.

She heard gasps and screams of fear from outside her hospital room. Then Starla came floating in, not dressed in her Star Girl uniform.

“Starla! What are you doing!? Why are you flying without your uniform?”

“Shh, Ali. It’s okay. Relax.”

“Sheila! Is Sheila okay?”

“She didn’t make it, Ali. Sorry. The police killed her, along with many others. I took care of it.”

“Starla? What… happened? What did you do!?”

“I took care of everything, Ali. The police, the crooked judges, the drug dealers… the rulers of Alidbar… it’ll all be okay. You’re safe with me. I told you to be careful and not put yourself in danger. But I understand. You have your own life to live too, like you said. But I will sterilize all the injustice and the crime and the evil for you. Tell me what else needs to be done.”

“I will save this world.”

Ali gulped.