Hey guys! So I enjoyed and missed writing my old story A Journey Soon Begins so much that I wanted to try out another one with a supernatural element…cos it's fun, (usually) less angsty and means I can write the craziest stuff and get away with it :p I have wanted to do something inspired by Ryder and Marley's alter-egos in the Dynamic Duets episode for a few months now, and here it finally is :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or the characters.

What Ryder wanted to know most of all right now, was how things could change so swiftly. Moreover, how could other people barge in so rudely to your life and change it in an instant. Women, he sighed to himself. So typical. One woman coming and wreaking havoc with his life would be bad enough, but two in the same week was outrageous.

{x}

It had all started in his daily working life last Tuesday. His ego-maniac boss Sue Sylvester had humiliated him when he had presented her with her morning meeting coffee. Apparently it was too sweet, despite Ryder having dedicated an extra five minutes specifically to measuring out the desired two teaspoons of sugar, so his boss had yelled at him to make him a new one in front half the company's senior staff, before shoving it into his chest, thus spilling it all down the brand new shirt his mom had gotten him for his 23rd birthday the week previous.

He had tried to ignore the burning sensation the hot coffee was causing on his chest, not to mention the other less senior employees of the company who watched and whispered as he stumbled out of the boardroom, and immediately made his way towards the staff kitchenette to get Sylvester another coffee. When he had gotten there he had found a slim female figure, face hidden by a cupboard door, frantically searching through its contents. When he had sighed and made his way to the other side of the room towards the coffee stuff, she had jumped and spun around, and the impact was instant. Ryder could almost pinpoint the exact moment Cupid's metaphorical arrow had pierced his heart and left him dumbstruck… (God, he cringed at how lame and cheesy he was,) that being, the exact moment he looked at her face. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, leaving him more room to ogle at her gentle features, and ogle he did, so much so that he only became aware that she was speaking to him after she had to say 'Hello?' the third time.

"Oh, he-hello," he mumbled when he finally realised, nervously adjusting his thick-rimmed glasses before running his hand down his overly-combed, overly-gelled hair. The young woman smiled shyly.

"I was asking if you knew where the teabags were?" She asked quietly. Ryder took a second to register what she was saying, before almost jumping forward and spinning around to fumble with the jars and tins on the counter behind him.

"Right here, um…" he trailed off, not knowing her name, handing her a tin with the word 'teabags' clearly marked on it. If he had had the safety armour of the costume he wore in his other, slightly less monotonous sphere of life, he might have made a cheeky comment about her not having looked very hard, but right now he was just awkward, bumbling Ryder Lynn, and no way would he dare say that to such a beautiful girl.

"Marley. Marley Rose," she answered for him. "Thank you, you're a life saver," she stuttered, clearly as shy and awkward a wallflower as he was, but without a doubt pulling it off better. Ryder gave a small, wry smile at the ironic truth of her statement…not that that was a conversation he could have with anyone other than people like him. "Sorry, it's my first day and I have no idea what I'm doing, I…" she continued, throwing together a pot of tea with almost super-human speed. Ryder simply smiled and nodded. He understood completely…he had been working here for two years and was only marginally better, after all. "What's your name?" She asked, once she was waiting for the tea to strengthen.

"Ryder Lynn," he stumbled. "I-I'm Sylvester's PA. Weird for a guy, I know, but…" he muttered. Marley Rose wore an impressed expression.

"The CEO's PA? Wow…I'm supposed to be an office clerk, but I guess getting the drinks for the meeting down in the environmental department is like my initiation for today or something," she sighed, frowning.

Ryder smiled and looked down. She made his position sound more glamorous than it was- sure, Sylvester may have been top dog in the biggest business in Lima, Ohio, but it wasn't on the multi-national scale or anything, and there was nothing glamorous about, as his loveably coarse best friend and co-worker Jake put it, being 'the biggest bitch in Lima's bitch for a living'. As for her own position, he didn't have the heart or the courage to tell this Marley Rose that employees on the lower end of the hierarchy of this company were treated like shit on a daily basis regardless of their official job title, so settled for a simple, "I guess so," and an awkward half-smile. He tried to figure out a way to keep the conversation going, but Jake burst into the cramped room before he could muster up something else to say.

"Dude, get Sylvester's coffee now or you'll be fired before lunch break…I can hear her huffing from down the corridor," he warned, before casting an eye over Marley Rose and raising an eyebrow.

"Shit!" Ryder muttered. He had forgotten all about Sylvester's coffee, and hadn't even started preparing it. Marley smiled slightly, amused at the sight of him scrambling around to make it, before politely telling him goodbye and taking her tea with her. Ryder stopped to breathe as he measured out the sugar, hearing Jake's voice.

"Dude," he sniggered, causing Ryder to turn. "You're still drooling," he finished with a smug look, making a rude gesture to make it absolutely evident to what –or who- he was referring to. Great, Ryder thought. His instant crush on this new colleague was that obvious.

"Shut up," he hissed as he carried the coffee out the room, ignoring his best friend's laughter as he went.

{x}

So that was the story of how the first woman had ruined his life this week, purely by being so perfect that she would probably never dream of even talking to a loser like him again. Ryder physically shook his head. It was pointless even thinking about her, because he would only get his hopes up only to have them crushed. No, Ryder thought. Better to rile himself up over the second woman to screw with his head, just two days later.

{x}

Ryder would never be so arrogant and unfeeling as to say that there was ever a 'good' time for things like these to happen, but if there was, it was times like these; times when he would sense an impending or unfolding disaster just as he was just finishing work and wouldn't have to come up with a damn good excuse to give to Sylvester to explain his sudden absence, times where he could rush to the men's room, rip off his tight office suit to reveal the blue and red superhero costume brandishing the letters 'MS' underneath, swap his glasses for his face mask and jump out the window and fly up into the darkening sky at super-speed as inconspicuously as possible.

Ryder had realised from a very young age that he was not like the other children he grew up with. They didn't have the ability to fly, move at lightning speed, pick up a truck with one hand, or senses that could pick up smells and sounds from miles away. When his own parents had realised, they had called him a freak, and his well to do PHD holding father didn't want a freak for a son. Luckily he had been taken in by people like him, who had hushed up his birth parents and taught him all about the 1 in a several million gene he possessed which gave him the abilities he had, and, when he had turned 21 two years ago, he had elected, like the majority of people like him (which was hardly any at all,) to use his powers for the greater good. Superheroes had revealed themselves (under pseudonyms, of course, as it was too risky to even know each other's real names,) and had started appearing in towns and cities throughout the world over the past twenty years or so. Ryder had decided to stay in the small town he had grown up in until he was a more experienced superhero, but had not had it much easier than the likes of Femme Fatale, Night Bird and co in the bigger cities, especially since the Firm, a mysterious criminal gang who had begun quietly taking control of Lima for the past few months, in whichever brutal and violent means necessary, had arrived.

And so, on this Thursday evening, he had heard the screams and the threatening words from a couple of miles away and soared out to the rescue. He had arrived at the scene within minutes, before assessing what was happening before acting. Two thuggish looking men, undoubtedly some of the Firm's workers, were holding a man with a young child at gun point, wanting information. Ryder had clicked his knuckles before soaring in and snatching the guns out of their hands in one fair swoop.

"Daddy look, it's Mega Stud!" He had heard the awed cry from the small boy, as he watched the biggest, most respected Lima celebrity dismantle the weapons at lightning speed. He had finished that, and was just about to reign in the two cowardly men who were now attempting futilely to escape on foot, when a flash of purple and gold had beat him to it. When the figure had skidded to a halt, he saw that it was indeed another superhero, and a female one at that, long brown locks flowing behind her as she gracefully tackled the two grown men, tying them up in a rope before handing them over to the police, who had just arrived. He probably would have stopped jaw-dropped to ogle the way the tight costume fitted her body, or to fantasize about what the face might look like behind the gold mask she wore, if he weren't so angry at her for hijacking his mission- something she was not about to get away with.

"Hey!" He yelled, once the scene had calmed down, trying to ignore the newspaper photographers scrambling to take pictures of this new arrival. The woman had ignored him, so he shouted again, and she span in the air, clearly rolling her eyes despite the face mask.

"Mega Stud. So good to finally meet you," she said sarcastically.

"Who the hell are you?" He retorted. "What does WF stand for?" He asked, reading the letters on her flower embroidered costume.

"Woman Fierce," she announced proudly, loud enough for all the reporters and the ground below to hear. "I'm here to do something concrete about the Firm, since all you can do is round up a couple of the thugs they get to do their dirty work."

"Lima is my turf," he hissed aggressively. "And I am doing something about the Firm. I was right this second until you butt in! Where did you come from anyway? I haven't seen you at any organisation meetings!"

"Newly registered, just turned twenty-one," Woman Fierce explained. "But apparently already just as good as you- at least," she had added snarkily, before flying away.

{x}

Ryder gave a large sigh, as he contemplated last week's events. Two women making life even more difficult for him than it already was, one unintentionally, one very intentionally…and he had a feeling it wasn't going to get any easier any time soon.

So, what do you think of chapter 1? Too weird? Or all the ryley weirdness you've been craving? :p Let me know! This is probably the most AU fanfic I will ever write, so any praise/advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, this is just an introduction into the situation, but I have planned out quite a dramatic plot, so yeah. :) Also if you're wondering, I have not abandoned the Ryder's Chance sequel in favour of this- it will also be coming out soon :D

Lauren xxx