Unmasked

A Marvel Crossover

Disclaimer

All recognisable characters and locations in this story are the sole copyright and trademark property of Marvel Comics Incorporated. No breach of either copyright or trademark is intended. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the worldwide web.

Censor: T - Just to be safe

Chapter 2 – Growing Up Is Hard To Do

It was very unusual for Franklin Richards to be delivered to school in his mother's sedan. Not only was Pier 4, in the Lower East Side of New York City, on the school bus route, but Sue's place of work was a junior high school in a different district. Franklin's school was thus not conveniently placed for the superhero mother and school teacher to simply drop her son off on the way to work. However, today she could afford the time, partly because she had a meeting with Franklin's principal and partly because she wanted to test a hypothesis.

"Okay, Frank, what did I tell you?" she asked her son.

Franklin rolled his eyes but managed to keep his tone respectful, not wanting to extend his two-week grounding any longer. "I'm to eat lunch in the cafeteria every day for the next week and I'm to wait for you, Dad or Uncle Johnny to come and collect me rather than take the bus home," he repeated back to her.

Sue nodded. "That's right," she said. She paused before continuing. "One other thing, Franklin. Please do not get involved in any… trouble."

"Mom!"

"I know that you think that spending all that time out with Lightspeed has prepared you for anything, Franklin, but it hasn't. Promise me that you will only get involved if you are being directly targeted or if the other kids are in immediate danger."

Franklin sighed and lowered his eyes. "I promise," he said at last.

Sue nodded. "Thank you. I'll see you tonight," she said. The two got out of the car and, just before Franklin headed off to the schoolyard, Sue caught him by the shoulder and pulled him back for a quick peck on the cheek, making him cringe slightly. Having exercised the inherit motherly privilege of humiliating her son in front of his peers, Sue watched him jog off to his friends.

There was a cluster of three people waiting for Franklin at the gate, all of whom looked worried. Sue did not recognise the slightly oriental-looking girl standing beside a tall, gangly blond boy that Sue immediately identified as Alex Power, the oldest of James and Margaret's children. The third individual was easy to identify and Sue was glad to see that her wits had not deserted her. The young lady with long red hair trailing down her back to waist-height was so obviously both Julie Power and Lightspeed. Any remaining doubt was blown away by the way she touched Franklin's chest in exactly the same way Lightspeed had last night and smiled in greeting, the same grin that she had given Franklin when they had landed on the pier.

Sue's eyebrows shot up when she noted that Julie had clearly started wearing increasingly daring clothes since the last time she had seen her. The magenta tee shirt with the belly cut-out under an open jacket was something new as were the tight jeans… and did the girl have a navel piercing? Oh, she would definitely be talking to Margaret today, if only to offer her condolences at her acquisition of a teenage daughter. Sue had enough experience with the time-travelling future teenage version of her daughter, Valeria, to know that this could be a difficult experience indeed.

With a rueful laugh, Sue went off to her meeting.


Julie stood, watching as Franklin pulled the books he would need for the day from his locker. "So, is your mom okay with all this?" she asked her… what? Best friend…? Best boy friend…? Boyfriend? She didn't know and uncertainty sat uneasily with the normally-organised girl. She would have to settle what exactly was happening between them, especially in light of the almost-kiss last night. Frankly, the emotions and the incredible sense of rightness inspired by that moment terrified her.

"No," Franklin replied with a sigh and a scowl before slamming his locker shut. "No, she isn't. I'm grounded Julie! Grounded for two whole freaking weeks! I'm not going to be allowed to talk to any of my friends outside of school for the first week either!"

"Two weeks?" gasped Julie in sympathy. "Two? Just for sneaking out to help people? Frank that's so… so… darn unfair!"

"I know!" Franklin's reply was a wail familiar to all too many teenagers.

"Well, well, if it isn't the freak and bookworm!"

Frank sighed and turned to face Max Dyle and his small posse of sycophants. The resident bully of Sophomore Year at Clayton P. Sturgeon High School was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to target him. Didn't he know whose kid Franklin was? Didn't it occur to him that Frank might have inherited some of that mojo? Frank could only assume that the bully was relying on the existence of some obscure 'superhero code' that would prevent Franklin from reformatting his reality so that he was born a chimp… not that doing so would change him very much. "What do you want, Dyle?" Frank asked in a bored tone of voice.

"I just wanted to know why Mommy had to take her little boy to school today, Mommy's boy!"

There was a mocking chorus of 'Mommy's boy! Mommy's boy!' from the assembled pack of idiots that made Frank roll his eyes.

"Well, it turns out that I've been a naughty mommy's boy," Frank said with a smirk. He leaned forwards and got into the bully's face. "Mom just had to be sure that I didn't get into more trouble! Of course…" Frank paused and visibly sized up the gorilla-like bully as if he was considering whether he was worth the trouble. "Of course, she isn't here right now, is she?"

Max visibly swallowed and decided to turn to easier meat. "I noticed your new look, Bookworm!" he sneered at Julie. "Why bother? No guy except this freak would ever look at you twice! Dressing like a ho won't convince anyone that you're really a girl!" With that, he turned and stomped away.

Franklin turned to look at Julie and was surprised to see the girl was trembling, her face flushed and her right arm half-raised. Frank swore that he could see the rainbow light of Julie's powers sparkling around her fingertips. He grabbed her wrist and forced her to lower her arm. "It isn't worth it, Julie," he murmured, squeezing her wrist in warning. "He isn't worth it."

"He… He's right, though!" Julie gritted out between her clenched teeth. "I've grown out my hair long and started dressing more grown up and still they don't even look at me twice! I'm nothing but an ugly bookworm!" Franklin was shocked to see tears in the girl's eyes. He knew that Julie was sensitive but he hadn't realised that this was this important to her!

"Hey, now that isn't true!" Frank replied, a little louder than he had intended, transferring his hand to her shoulder so he could squeeze it comfortingly. "If you ask me, I think you look be…" Frank cut himself off. What was the right word to use? 'Beautiful' carried an emotional content that he didn't really want to have to deal with right now, ditto for 'pretty'. 'Hot' would be inappropriate – this was his best friend Julie, after all, not some girl in the street to drool over! "Your new look is great! Really! I like it! And don't worry about Max's bull! I think that the piercing makes you look sophisticated and grown up!"

"Really?" Julie's face brightened in an instant with a sunny smile, a mood swing as violent as only a teenage girl could manage. "You mean that? You're not just saying that because you're my friend?"

"I mean it!" Frank assured her with a smile that was just as broad as Julie's. "Look, if any guy can't see you are automatic girlfriend material, then he is a dumb-cluck and you don't have to worry about him!"

"Thanks Frank!" Julie flung her arms around Franklin's neck and hugged her best boy friend in a completely spontaneous display of friendship and love, completely unaware of how having her body pressed against him affected him.

Frank was in something of a trance as he watched Julie pull her books out of her locker. This was getting ridiculous! He had to talk to Julie and figure out what all these mixed signals were supposed to mean! First this new mode of dress, which had got him all hot and bothered even before the piercing (and how had she got that without him knowing?)! Now she gets all free and easy with physical contact and… and there was the almost-kiss last night. For the first time in his memory, Franklin resented his mother. If she hadn't interrupted when she had…

Franklin blushed as he imagined what kissing Julie would be like and decided that he was going to have to talk to her, privately, as soon as this grounding was over. He was the son of heroes, damn it! He had been trained by Captain America himself from when he was still a child! Why should he be afraid of telling his very best friend that he was falling for her?

Franklin looked down and realised that, sometime whilst he was thinking about the situation, that they had left the lockers and were going towards Julie's first class of the day – History. Come to think of it, why did he know Julie's schedule as well as his own, even when they weren't in the same class? He was currently carrying several heavy books for Julie, as well as his own, whilst Julie wasn't carrying anything, not even her shoulder-bag, which she had evidently dropped off in her locker. What was worse, he realised that he had been doing this for her practically all semester and it hadn't really registered with him before!

This was ridiculous! Julie was using him like a pack mule and he wasn't even offering a bleat of protest! This was just as bad as the way Dad let Mom win all their arguments and did all the heavy stuff for her, even though she could lift heavy weights or trap bathtub-occupying spiders easily with her invisible force-fields! It reminded him how Uncle Johnny got ordered around by Aunt Lyja and seemed to enjoy it! How was it Uncle Ben described it? Oh yeah: 'Whipped!'

Franklin was trying to formulate something to say to Julie that wouldn't sound mean or would upset her when they reached the History classroom. "Thanks for carrying my books for me, Frank," she said sweetly as she plucked said books from his arms. "You're a lifesaver!" With a sudden spontaneity that neither teen wanted to think about, Julie leaned forward to drop a gentle kiss onto Franklin's cheek. "My knight in scarlet armour," she murmured into his ear before retreating with a blush.

Franklin was blushing too, just standing there like an idiot and touching the spot where she kissed him with a stupid grin on his face. The five minute warning bell sounded and Franklin had to run to get to the Domestic Science class on time. Yeah, I'm whipped all right, he realised with a rueful grin. What's worse… I think I might like it!


"So… should I know the reason for this request, Mrs. Richards?"

Sue looked at the officious little troll that masqueraded as her son's principal and decided that she knew why the school had a slight but persistent bullying problem. The man was a bureaucrat, not a disciplinarian. "Nothing that you need to know about, Mr. Devere," she responded. "There simply has been a… disciplinary incident at home and Franklin is on restriction for two weeks."

Devere nodded and fiddled with his desk furniture, clearly intimidated by Sue's presence. Sue wondered whether the man was intimidated by her powers, her reputation for having a fierce temper or whether the man was simply put off by her appearance. Despite being nearly forty years old, Sue was proud of her beauty and knew that a lot of men were unnerved and disarmed by it. Irrelevantly, she also wondered whether Julie Power was learning the same lesson and that was the reason for her daring new look.

"Um… There isn't any… er… special reason for concern about Franklin's conduct?"

Sue smiled reassuringly. "No, Mr. Devere, there is no reason to believe that any super-villains are involved. Franklin merely has been abusing some of his privileges and so has had them withdrawn, that's all."

"Well, there is nothing particularly difficult about any of these requests, Mrs. Richards. I'm sure that we will be able to keep them without any trouble."

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Devere," Sue replied, unfolding her legs and standing up, smiling slightly at the man's poleaxed reaction to her movements. Men! This is so easy sometimes! "Please feel free to contact my brother, Jonathan, if there are any problems. He will be in the area all week."

Sue swept out of the office and away from the nervous little man. She found herself mentally preparing for today's lessons, three years of teaching having firmly set the habit in her mind. She also found herself rehearsing what she would have to say to Franklin that evening and also wondering what she was going to do about Julie Power.


"So, are you feeling okay?" Julie shot Franklin an odd look as the blond boy sat down. "I mean, you were pretty badly shaken up by Max this morning," he continued. "I thought you were going to blow him through a wall or something!"

Julie smiled slightly. "It's a lot harder holding back than I thought," she admitted. "Especially when creeps like that talk you down, it is tempting and would be oh-so easy!" She smirked at Franklin. "Don't worry, Frank. I'm not going over to the dark side! You were right – he isn't worth it." Julie looked at the… the… whatever on Franklin's plate and swallowed an instinctive nausea. "What is that?"

"This, my dear Ms. Power, is today's 'Mystery Meatloaf Special'," Franklin explained. "It's 2 percent beef, 2 percent chicken, 2 percent lamb and 96 percent 'miscellaneous'."

Julie grimaced. "I cannot believe that you are going to eat it."

"I can't either," Franklin admitted. "I've got half a mind to appeal the 'eating in the cafeteria' part of my grounding on the basis of 'cruel and unusual punishment'."

Julie had to giggle at the expression on Franklin's face. "Maybe you should go vegetarian," she suggested, poking at her Soya-fortified salad for emphasis.

"Can't. I'm a growing boy – Got to have plenty of protein to build my strength!" Franklin thumped a fist against his chest and was more than a little pleased that there was a nicely solid-sounding resonant 'thud'.

Julie hid her desire to giggle at Franklin showing off and looked down to hide her blush. The real reason Julie had been so worried this morning (and Franklin would never know this ever, if she had her way) was because she had been fretting about his response to her 'new look', which she had been slowly working towards for several weeks. Was his surprise because he liked it or was it because it was too slutty? She had been worried that listening to the suggestions from Alex's girlfriend, Allison about 'how to make them look' had been a big mistake. Her relief when she realised that his response was 'good' shock was quite overwhelming.

Julie really didn't know where this thing with Franklin was going. She didn't know if she wanted to have more than a close friendship with him. Heck, she wasn't even sure what more they could have; none of the sources she had consulted seemed too clear on that. One thing was certain: She hadn't wanted boys, plural, to notice that she was a girl. No, just one boy in particular to notice her womanhood rather than just see her as a good friend, a sister-in-arms and partner in the fight against crime. That had worked and it had her walking on air when she realised it had worked in the best possible way.

Of course, what Julie didn't know was that Franklin knew she was a girl, all right, with or without a 'new look'. He knew without any hint of doubt from the moment he saw her in her skin-tight costume for the first time after the Power family's return from its two-year sojourn in Seattle.


The teachers of Rosewood Junior High were gathered in the sanctuary of the staff room during the lunch break. "So, Margaret, how is Julie doing these days?"

Margaret Power looked up from her coffee to her good friend Susan Richards. It never ceased to amaze her how a woman who could (and, on occasion, had) flattened entire city blocks with an exercise of will could look so incredibly normal in a blouse-and-skirt set. "She's fine, Sue. However, I strongly suspect that James will need to invest in a baseball bat to keep the boys away sometime soon. I rather think that, she has decided that it was time to come out of her 'tomboy bookworm' shell."

"Yes," Sue agreed. "I saw her at school today when I was dropping Franklin off."

Margaret sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing exactly to what her colleague was referring. "I blame Alex's girlfriend for that. Allison has a good heart but she is such an extrovert. I think that she basically convinced Julie that more… provocative dress might help her 'make her point'." Margaret shook her head. "I think she's basically showing off and I decided to let her get away with it. I suspect that if you forbid a teen to do something, they will just do it, and more so, to prove their independence. This way, I'll bet she'll get bored with being provocative and tone it down after a few days, especially if she gets a negative reception."

Sue thought that, based on Franklin's reaction, Julie didn't have any reason to worry about a 'negative' reception. If anything, she suspected that James would need a water cannon rather than a bat to keep interested boys from flocking to the Power family's apartment. "I suppose that is just a consequence of being a teenager," Sue mused. "I remember that Johnny used to get more outrageous the more that dad tried to rein him in." The blonde woman shook her head. "So… is there anyone in particular to whom Julie is showing off?"

Margaret sighed and smiled ruefully. "I'm her mother, Sue," she reminded her friend. "I'm just about the last person that would know that. I would suspect that Katie probably knows more than me from watching over Julie's shoulder as she writes in that locked diary of hers!"

"A locked diary?" Sue couldn't believe it.

"Yes, a locked diary. A cliché, I know but it's the sort of cliché that Julie likes thanks to her love-affair with books." Margaret sighed. "I think that there is a boy, though. I'm not sure how serious it is but I do know that Julie has been fretting about something for quite a while now. She's started going onto the apartment's roof late at night 'to be on her own for a while', according to her."

"She does that often?"

"Pretty much every night for the past few months," Margaret said with a slight smile. "She tends to spend the whole evening up there between dinner and bedtime. I think she even does her homework up there! Ah! The pains of the first serious crush!"

Sue smiled in agreement whilst silently thinking that she doubted that Julie was actually on the roof for longer than it took to change into her costume and fly off to meet with Franklin. Come to think of it… "Margaret, whilst we're on the subject of emotional teens, I should let you know that Franklin is on restriction for the next two weeks. I have told him that he won't be able to talk to his friends outside of school for the first week, so it means Alex and the other kids won't be able to talk to him over the 'phone or on the internet for that time." Sue sighed and once again regretted that she had worked out Julie's secret identity. "I'd watch Julie's reaction to that, if I were you."

"You think that Franklin was the one Julie was looking to impress?" Margaret asked. "It's possible, I suppose, although they haven't really spent any time together without all the others since we set up that 'double date' so they could keep an eye on Alex and Allison when they went out together a couple of months back."

Actually, they have been seeing each other every night, but I can't tell you that, Sue thought. The two were obviously dancing around their feelings for each other – the 'almost-kiss' last night looked spontaneous rather than planned. However, Julie's 'new look' suggested that she was trying to push the boundaries of their relationship.

"I'll keep an eye on her, Sue," Margaret promised. "If she gets extra-sulky from today on, we know that you are on the right track." The red-headed math teacher cocked her head at her friend. "If you are, are we going to encourage this?"

"I think it would be better to allow it but only under close supervision. Frank has inherited the spontaneity and impulsiveness from my side of the family and his father's tendency to obsess and focus too closely on a perceived problem. The combination could be explosive if he is interested in Julie."

Margaret nodded in worry. "Julie might be quiet, but there is a lot of passion tied up in there as Jack has occasionally learnt to his cost and she has the intellect to plan to get what she wants. We would definitely have to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't start making wild schemes together!" Margaret shook her head and chuckled hollowly. "Raising a child! Why do we do it, Sue?"

Sue laughed. "The joys outweigh the trials, Maggie." Margaret looked at her friend sceptically. Sue shrugged. "Well, that's what Mom always told me!"


"So, you've got to wait to be picked up? That sucks!" Franklin grinned in agreement at his closest non-superhuman friend, Joe Lawrence, the vice-captain of the school's Computer and Technology Club. "What did you do anyway?"

"Let's just say that my Mom caught me violating curfew," Franklin replied.

Joe raised an eyebrow. "Doing what?" he asked. The African-American boy noticed that Franklin was distracted and followed his friend's gaze to the approaching form of the lovely super-hot vixen that Julie Power had abruptly metamorphosed into over the past two weeks. "Or… maybe… doing whom?"

Franklin rolled his eyes and mock-punched his friend on the shoulder. "That's plain disgusting, man," Franklin replied with a game grin. "We're just good friends!"

"Maybe," Joe agreed. "But if you want to be more, then I'd move fast because now she's come out as the hottest babe in the Classic Books Club, every straight guy in the school will be homing in on her! Word is that even the Cheer Team is sniffing around to see if she is interested in trying out!" Joe looked up at the sound of a bus's horn. "GTG, man. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya," Frank said and watched as his friend jogged off to the bus that would take him home. He then looked up as Julie walked over. "Hey, Julie."

"Hey, Frank," Julie replied. "Sometimes having to take the last bus to leave the campus to get home bites!" The girl smiled and continued in a nearly-inaudible murmur. "It bites almost as much as having a secret identity! I could fly home in maybe… five seconds? If I didn't mind blowing out all the neighbourhood windows with a sonic boom!"

Franklin shook his head but couldn't help grin in agreement. Sometimes he thought that his parents had made the right choice to 'go public' from the start. For all the problems it caused, it also made some things easier. "No one ever said the game was easy," he said.

Julie nodded and sat down on the wall next to Frank. For a long time the two sat in companionable silence as they watched the buses load up and depart. Without any conscious direction, Franklin found his fingers drifting up, up, up under Julie's zip-up canvas jacket and suddenly they brushed against the bare skin at the small of Julie's back. The girl shivered in reaction and Franklin yanked his hand back as if he had been burnt. "S… Sorry, Julie, that was way out of line of me," he said, looking away in shame.

Julie was thankful he was looking away because her face felt like it was on fire. "No, it's okay, Frank, I know you didn't mean anything by it." Though I wish you did, she added silently

Oh yes I did! You're driving me crazy, girl! Frank sighed and looked back. "No, you're worth more than that," Franklin's tone was angry. "I don't have the right to treat you like a piece of meat the way all those creeps have been all day, leering at you like that!" Franklin was clenching and unclenching his fists and clearly didn't know where to look, especially as Julie had turned towards him, putting the belly cut-out of her shirt on display.

"Frank," Julie sighed. "Frank, seriously, was this a good idea?" she gestured to the source of Frank's torment in a distracted way. "I wanted people to realise there was more to me than the smart kid who can quote classics on demand but I'm getting worried that I'm letting myself get out of character!"

Frank laughed hollowly. "Julie, those who really care about you have always know that there is more to you than a smart kid!"

Julie sighed and looked down. "Yeah, but I want people to realise…" I want you to realise… "that I'm a girl too! It might be shallow, but it would be nice to have someone acknowledge that I have a physical as well as an intellectual side!"

"Julie, if you want the truth," Frank said, "that cut-out shirt is really distracting. Believe me that there isn't a guy in school who doesn't know that you have a physical side after today!" Julie looked up into Franklin's eyes and couldn't help but giggle a little at his expression. "It is a little too much though, Julie, and it gets all the worst attention for all the wrong reasons."

Julie pouted slightly. "It never seems to make sense!" she sighed, throwing her hands up into the air in annoyance. "Either too much or too little! Concealing or revealing! Now I've gone too far and now people think I'm some kind of…"

Franklin cut her off. "I would never think that," he snapped. "Look, the way I see it, looking good doesn't mean you have to practically be dangling out of your clothes like the worst girls in the school do sometimes. I'll never doubt that you can look good!"

Julie grinned brightly. "You're right, I guess," she said. "I hate this shirt anyway!" she continued, brushing it self-consciously and sending Franklin's mind reeling again. "It's too tight and the hem itches!"

I'll say it's too tight, Franklin whimpered silently.

"Mom once said that 'concealing can display more than revealing'," Julie recalled. "Maybe I should talk to her." Julie gave Franklin a spontaneous one-armed hug before hopping off the wall and running off to her bus. "You're a good friend, Frank! See ya tomorrow! Remember! Only six days of purgatory to go!"

Franklin watched Julie run off and realised that her day's clothing choices would haunt his dreams for many a night.

"Wow! She's a fox!" a warm, jocular voice said from behind him.

Franklin looked at his uncle, Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, and raised a mocking eyebrow. "Uncle Johnny, you're married… to an alien commando who would do things to you if you ever cheated on her."

Johnny laughed. "Just because I've chosen the tastiest dish in the galaxy, doesn't mean that I can't wonder about the other stuff on the menu!" he reminded his nephew. He looked up to watch the bus pull out and noted the redheaded girl waving at Franklin. "There goes the hottest girl in school, if I'm not mistaken! I'm glad to see you took my lessons to heart, Frankie! You're a chip off the ol' Storm block!"

Of all the people with whom Franklin would want to discuss the issue of Julie Power, probably only Victor von Doom ranked below his Uncle Johnny who, even though he was deliriously happily married, still affected the behaviour of a playboy superhero and treated everything lightly. "She's more than hot," was all he could think of to say before following his uncle to his sports coupe, parked nearby.