by Erin Halfelven

3.6 Action!

I stepped out into the mall, a little more aware of how I looked after spending time in the dressing room and watching how guys reacted to me. I didn't really see it, myself – for gosh-sakes I looked like my sister –but apparently…. Well, apparently…. I decided I just didn't want to think about that.

I looked around the mall. I still had money left, but I had accomplished what I intended to do, new shoes, new pants. I could go meet the guys at Dave and Buster's…. Did I just think of Gumpy and Kevin as "the guys"?

Okay, anything but that, at least, not right away. I decided I could use a new shirt, too; something a little less pink than what I was wearing. I could buy three or four shirts, at least, and still have money left over. But how many shirts did I need? As long as I was stuck as Darla, I might need a few but….

At that point, I naturally glanced down at my right hand where the invisible ring had been. Only, now it was visible.

I almost dropped the bags I was carrying. I could…could I?…change back? My brain spun with the idea of me being me again.

I leaned against one of the pillars between shops to think. I stared at the ring, clearly visible but without the green stone. Instead, it had a small pattern, sort of like a Celtic knot, etched right into the golden metal. But, it was THE ring, my ring; I knew that the way I knew that the finger it was on was my finger.

My ring. Not anyone else's. I felt that, too. I clenched my fist; the ring had surrendered to me, put me in charge. I could be whoever I wanted to be.

I could go back to being Darryl.

I felt dizzy with the possibility. Why was I even stopping to think about it? Find a private spot, maybe the corridor leading to the bathrooms? Twist the ring and go back to being me!

I wanted to, but on another level, I had been enjoying myself, really, for the first time since this all began. If I could be Darryl anytime I wanted, I didn't have to stop being Darla just because I could…did I?

But before I could make any decisions I felt a tingle in my forehead, where my antenna would be if I were wearing them. A moment later, an alarm started to ring.

Without thinking about how I knew where to look, I saw that four shops down on the other side of the hallway, someone was robbing a jewelry store. My next reaction surprised me even more. I tucked my shopping bags under my arms and reached for the ring on my right hand, automatically, as if I had been doing this for years.

I hesitated only a moment, worried that someone would see me change, but no one was looking directly at me. Inside the shop, I could see a burly man wearing a sweatshirt on the customer side of the counter and two well-dressed shop people on the other side. Schoesten and Hodge, the sign read, Discount Jewelers.

I took a breath and twisted the ring. The change rippled through me; I felt taller, stronger, faster, more aware of my surroundings. My dealie-boppers sprouted on my forehead, quivering with information. The bags I had been carrying disappeared with my clothes into whatever dimension stored things I wasn't wearing.

The green, yellow and magenta Damselfly costume covered me from antenna to heels, and I hurried toward the jewelry store opening, not running exactly but moving fast. Other people in the mall were headed away from the alarm, some of them saw me and some reacted.

A small boy pointed. "Look, Mommy!" he said, "It's Grasshopper Girl!" I rolled my eyes; there was no such person as Grasshopper Girl, I hoped, and I sure didn't want to get tagged with that name.

"I'm Damselfly!" I said. "Call the police!"

An Hispanic teen-age boy boggled at me as I brushed past him. "Ay! Una trajulera hermosa!" he said, looking me up and down.

I blushed. My Spanish wasn't that good, but I knew 'trajulera' was slang for a girl in a tight costume. It sounded better than the English equivalent 'spandexette', at least.

Two girls about my age urged me on. "Go-go girl, go!" they cheered.

No one in the jewelry store seemed to be reacting to the alarm, but chaos filled the space, so no wonder. I paused at the doorway. Nearly every display case in the store had shattered – that had probably set off the alarm.

The burly man stood in the middle of the room, his legs wide apart, his hands open, his shoulders moving in a shrug. "I ain't doing nothing," he said, then turned because the clerks were looking past him at me. "Hey! Maybe she's doing it! She's the one wearing a costume!" He pointed at me, grinning.

Rings and bracelets, necklaces and brooches, and a few larger items flew around the room, swooping and diving at everyone's faces now and then. The older man behind the counter, Mr. Schoesten perhaps, looked at me narrowly and almost got kranged by a jewel decorated teapot. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm… Damselfly," I said, again, almost without hesitation. "My partners will be here in a moment." I could already feel Gumpy and Kevin through my antenna. They were moving toward me but were most of a block away at the end of the mall in the big arcade. "What's going on?"

"Perhaps we are being robbed?" said Mr. Schoesten. He pointed at the man in the sweatsuit.

"Not by me," said the burly man, still grinning like someone telling a lie he knows will not be believed. Up close, he looked more pudgy than burly, with lank dark hair receding from a round face. An almost familiar face, had I seen him somewhere? Maybe on a wanted poster?

Suddenly the jewelry in the store changed course, every bit of it headed right at me. Okay, I squealed in surprise; I did not scream. I had already knocked several pieces away from my face when a heavy tiara orbited around and struck me in the temple. That hurt and I tried to reach up to seize it before it could strike me again.

Ropes of pearls and semi-precious stones looped around my neck and chains of gold and silver twined around my wrists and ankles. This was not something I had expected to have to fight. I staggered backward, barely keeping my balance and feeling very foolish.

"She's getting away with the loot!" the pudgy guy exclaimed. He charged out of the store, heading for me, his expression one of greedy delight. I noticed that his sweatsuit had a college logo on it; CalState Long Beach 49ers Volleyball – as if his short pudginess ever played any sport.

But he didn't need to be a sportsman. I had little doubt that he was moving the jewelry with some metahuman power but when I started to say something to that effect, the flying jewels filled my mouth with earrings and smaller baubles. Almost choking, I lost my footing and fell flat on my ass in the middle of the mall.

Trying not to swallow any merchandise or do any damage I didn't have to do, I sort of scooted on my butt across the smooth tile, staying out of reach of the pudgy meta who kept reaching for me. I was too mad to feel embarrassed, but the asshat was laughing at me and that had to stop.

"Come back with my bling!" he said, grinning and finally admitting that he was trying to steal the stuff. I scooted away again, trying to get him into position. With my arms and legs restricted by jewelry chains I did not want to break, I had limited mobility but enough strength to move myself with neck, shoulders and heels against the floor.

When I felt I had maneuvered him near enough, and a bit off balance, I swung my legs sideways into his knees and down he went. Right on top of me, but I flexed my back and legs, arching up on shoulders and heels to throw him off, timing it to get maximum arc.

He should have landed face first on the tile beside me but instead he continued upward, stopping about six feet up and hovering like a sleazy balloonimal.

"Too swift for you, Ladybug!" he snarled.

The bastard could fly!

The necklaces tightened their grip on my throat. Pins tried to pierce my skin and clasps tried to pinch me while he turned in midair, gained more altitude and came straight down at me, heels aimed right at my middle.

"Know what I do with bugs? Stomp on them!" he said.

I tried to roll out of the way, but some invisible force held me where I was. The renegade tiara poked at my eyes as the fat little douche landed on me with more than his own weight driven by his telekinesis or whatever it was.

I oofed and spewed beads and baubles out of my mouth. I'm sure he expected to at least knock the wind out of me. But insect powers are worth something – I'd been breathing through my skin, storing up oxygen in my tissues since he'd first tried to block my air.

To heck with worrying about breaking a few pieces of jewelry, I needed to show this clown what I could really do. Silver and gold are flimsy; I flexed my skinny, girly, META, arms and snapped half a dozen chains wrapped around me. I lunged for his ankles as he flew up to try another piledriver.

About that time, both of our partners arrived.