Boxter wasn't as hungry as he'd thought. He'd bought the biggest breakfast on the menu, mostly because in the confusion of last night he hadn't eaten anything. He should've been ravenous. But so far he'd only picked his way through half of the eggs, even the bacon wasn't all that appealing. At least it wasn't Kelly's money that had been spent on it.

"Are you sure you're okay, Dad?"

Boxter put his cutlery down and put his head in his hands. "Not really." He straightened back up with a sigh. "So how long has this been going on for?"

Kelly pushed a piece of avocado around her plate. "A bit over six months. Pretty much right after we moved into the house, Guy found the ring. Well actually I did but he had to be Guy and started mucking about with it… and then suddenly he's SheZow. So, yeah…"

"And you didn't tell us?"

"Of course not!" Kelly burst out. And then flushed under his gaze. "I mean, oh, you know all the stuff SheZow does… I guess we knew you wouldn't like it. And I don't know if it's dangerous if you guys knew or not… I don't know… I wouldn't have chosen to tell you like last night at any rate. Everything just happened so fast."

Boxter sighed. He wasn't about to start telling off the one member of his family who was actually trying. "I'm not mad at you, Kelly. You're the only one who's actually thought about how this makes me feel." He didn't want to be by himself through this. Whatever they ended up having to go through. "How bad is it? I mean, I wanted to know who SheZow was, you know, before. But I get that the whole secret identity thing is important."

Kelly shrugged. "It's bad, Dad. But I suppose it depends on how Megadale reacts."

Boxter squeezed his eyes shut briefly. "I know how the cops will react. I know how I would react, at least if it was anyone else. Doesn't he realise there're consequences to what he does? Now everyone knows exactly who to pin those consequences on. And it's not just going to affect him. Whose pocket does he think the money for all that damage is going to come from? We don't have money to throw around. I can't even make enough for a damn house unless my wife's aunt gives us one and she ends up leaving some stupid super ring lying around…"

"Aw, Dad…"

Boxter drew in a breath. "Sorry." He shouldn't be talking about stuff like that in front of her. He should've been talking to Droosha. But at the moment he wasn't even sure his wife would let him talk to her.

"I don't think he was trying to be mean to you by breaking everything," said Kelly. "He's just Guy. He doesn't think about stuff like that."

"He knew how I felt about it." Boxter looked down at his plate. How could he not? He spent nearly every night at the dinner table complaining about SheZow. "And please tell me all that stuff about going to the moon was just some joke you were playing on me."

Kelly started fiddling with her food again. "It's not. I guess if some silly superhero reveals their identity and things get bad they've got something set up to take care them. On the moon. Sheila gave me a brochure. But I'm not really game to look at it yet." She looked up at him then and met his gaze. "I don't want to go the moon either."

Boxter felt his guts clench. What had Droosha been thinking? "I'm sorry, honey."

"I mean, do you think there's any actually good colleges on the moon? Or at all?" Kelly huffed. "And it's not your fault, Dad."

"Your mother didn't think this through at all," Boxter scowled. He could blame Guy for what had been going on behind has back. But not for how he'd found out. Sure, Guy'd been a part of that. But Droosha was the adult. She'd gone and got all excited, got caught up in her ideal of how everyone should react, without considering how everyone would actually react. But he would expect her to figure out she'd been wrong now. And at least talk to him. And apologise. Then maybe they could work out how to deal with this. Not that he should have to deal with it. He never would have told Megadale Guy's secret identity. Not if he'd been given the choice.

"I'll talk to Sheila. See if there's anything we can do," said Kelly. "There's got to be a way to fix this mess."

Boxter groaned. "Meanwhile the whole town knows my son's running around saving the world in a dress."

"I don't think he even likes the dress. I guess it's draughty or something."

Boxter snorted. "Serves him right." Then he frowned. 'The ring doesn't like make him… change… you know… not just powers…"

"What? Dad! No!"

"Just checking."

A crash sounded from outside. Both Boxter and Kelly stood to their feet. A reaction from being a cop so long. At least for him. Kelly was almost as quick to jump up and almost as tense. Boxter stared at her and scowled. "You've been helping Guy with the superhero stuff, haven't you, Kelly? Not just the fan base."

His daughter flushed. "Well, someone had to keep an eye on him. Come on, we'd better go see what that was."

"Oh no, you stay in here where it's safe."

"Dad," she growled.

"You gotta pay the bill, remember?" At least he'd keep one of his kids out of the line of fire. Even if it was just for a few extra minutes. Boxter winked at her, and then headed outside before she could argue with him.

"Please don't let it be…" Boxter hadn't even finished the sentence when he saw a blur of pink shoot across the sky. He gritted his teeth. "Oh, great. Just what I need right now."

Guy shot after SheZap. Tailing her between buildings. Gaining. "Hey!" he yelled, once he'd closed the distance enough to be heard. "What's wrong, fatso? You gained a few pounds or something?"

SheZap flipped over in the air so she faced him. "I'm carrying extra weight!" She held up what remained of the jewellery she'd taken. Mostly chains which had wrapped themselves around her arms. "Oh, darn it…" The flight had made the entanglement even worse. Now one had entangled both her arms at once. She looked on the verge of tumbling through the air. "Should've brought a hand bag."

Guy closed the last few feet at speed and tackled SheZap. They spun end over end and crashed into the road, tearing up a chunk of bitumen on impact.

SheZap struggled to a sitting position, but was still fighting with the grossly entangled jewellery.

Guy stood to his feet. "Ha, what's wrong? Don't want to break your pretties?"

"Are you kidding? These are worth thousands, girlfriend." They were in the shadow of a building and suddenly SheZap's outline was losing integrity.

"Hey!" Guy jumped forward and grabbed at her but all he managed to grasp was the remaining jewellery.

SheZap melted into the building's shadow, cackling.

"That's it, run away!" Guy held up the tangled wad of jewellery. He winced. "Now I wonder where Mom is cause I might actually need help with this one."

"Hey, you're that kid that was on the news last night?" Some teenaged boy, a bit older than him, had just stepped out from behind a mailbox. Must've hid there when SheZap came crashing in.

"Yeah…"

"You're a boy?" He looked him up and down in a way Guy really didn't like. "You're an embarrassment, man. And what's with the voice?"

"Would this make you more comfortable?" Guy snapped, dropping the high-pitched voice. Which he might as well do anyway. Megadale knew who he was. They could get used to it.

The kid winced. "That's just freaking weird."

"Boo!" SheZap materialised from the shadow of the mailbox, right next to the boy, and grabbed his shoulder.

"Ahh!" the boy let out a shriek at least as high-pitched as the voice Guy usually put on, tripped over his own feet and crashed to the ground.

"What's wrong? You're not scared of a girl are you, sugar plum?" SheZap pulled out her own laser lipstick. "Or is it cause I've got something sharp and pointy?"

"Come on," Guy rolled his yes, "leave him alone."

"Why? He's kinda smack-talking both of us, isn't he? And chaos is my job… hey!" The boy had scrambled to his feet, running away up the street. "Yeah, run to your mommy!"

Not that he wasn't pleased to be free of the nuisance but he wasn't going to let SheZap dice some kid up. Even if he was annoying. Probably just jealous he didn't have superpowers. It wouldn't be like he'd have to put up with too many people like that.

And he had other things to worry about right now. Guy dropped the jewellery and pulled out his own laser lipstick. "You're going down, SheZap."

SheZap returned her gaze to Guy and smirked. "Okay, toots, let's play."

The hum of the lasers filled the air, clashing against each other. Guy gritted his teeth. Every move he made SheZap blocked. That was the problem with having a clone. He almost seemed to know exactly what he was going to do. Time to mix things up.

Guy smacked the laser lipstick down hard on his opponent's weapon, pushing her to the ground. But instead of forcing his advantage, something SheZap would surely block, Guy leapt back off her, grounded himself with his boots firmly planted on the ground, and let out a supersonic shriek.

Somehow SheZap saw it coming. She rolled across the ground, into a pool of shadow, just before the sound waves hit. Instead of messing up his opponents hair or knocking her down, Guy only managed to send a blast right through where SheZap had been seconds before. The sound waves hit a semi-trailer rumbling along the adjoining street instead.

Hit it in the rear trailer, bounced that right off the ground while simultaneously punching a hole through its side. A piece of the fender flew off, straight up into the air. The rear trailer crashed to the ground, dragging the front of the vehicle with it. The whole thing slid across the street with a screech of tortured metal before grinding to a halt. And then the fender dropped down, right onto the roof of a police cruiser parked nearby.

"Oh… crap…" Guy winced. "So not what I was going for…"

"Nice," SheZap said. She rematerialised beside him. "Can we break some more things?"

"How about I break your face?"

"Guy Hamdon!" The boom of his father's voice sent a chill down Guy's spine. What the hell was he doing here? He'd emerged from a coffee shop about halfway between Guy and the totalled truck. And yeah, he most certainly had not missed the surrounding destruction.

"Sherrific," Guy groaned. "It wasn't me!" he shouted back. "It was little miss sunshine over here…"

"Seriously?!" Boxter stomped his way up the footpath towards him. "Who the hell were you fighting? Or did you think you'd just cause a traffic accident for fun?"

"No…" Guy glanced beside him. SheZap was gone. So was all the jewellery he'd taken. Guy looked up and down the street. No sign whatsoever. "That little… I was fighting SheZap! And now thanks to you she got away!"

"Does the concept of lying low have any meaning to you? You just revealed your secret identity to the whole town, and the next day you're already trashing things?!"

"Chill out, Dad. You're not even on duty."

"Yeah, well turns out SheZow's my son. And I'm a dad full time, mister. So you can just march yourself back home right now and…"

"Um, Dad…"

"Don't try and…"

Guy grabbed his father by the arm. "No seriously, you might want to get back on the footpath."

The Shehicle had just rounded the corner. It narrowly slipped around the damaged truck, screeched sideways, then went into a full three sixty spin. Right before skidding into a perfect park just inches from where they stood.

"Wooh!" said Droosha, throwing her hands in the air. "Perfect parallel park!"

Boxter briefly looked a little pale. But he quickly recovered. "Droosha, what are you doing in that thing? Never mind… do you have any idea what your son's been up to? Trashing vehicles! See, this is why I have a problem with SheZow. It's the last thing we need right now. He's completely destroyed a truck and…" He looked back down the road. And then he frowned. "Is that my police cruiser?"

Droosha glanced back over her shoulder at the damage. She winced. "Oh. Did you manage to get SheZap?"

Guy huffed. "No. She got away. Someone," he glared at his father, "distracted me."

"Well, never mind. I'm sure we'll be able to find some other villain for you to take down. You'll have Megadale back on your side in no time."

Boxter tensed. "Don't. Encourage him."

"Why not?" Droosha stepped out of the Shehicle. She folded her arms. "He's a superhero. And our son. If this is what he wants to do with his life, we should be encouraging him."

"I'm not going to let my son throw away his life."

"I'm not! It's my life, Dad," Guy growled. Seriously? "How is being a superhero throwing away my life? If I wanted to do that, I'd… I'd become a cop!"

Boxter drew in a breath and looked at him.

He'd scored a point, and he'd scored it good. But he didn't feel as good about it as he'd thought he would.

"Guy…" Droosha sighed. "Look, Boxter, sweetheart, I get you're upset. It wasn't fair to make it all about Guy when it was your birthday. I'm going to get you a present, make it up to you, I promise."

Boxter folded his arms tightly across his chest. "How about an apology?"

Droosha rolled her eyes. "I said I'm sorry about your birthday; I'm going to make it up to you! What I'd like you to do is to stop taking it out on Guy. It's not his fault."

"Not that! You…" he groaned and pressed his hand to the bridge of his nose. "You know what, you're not going to get it anyway. But you're right, it's not Guy's fault. You're the one who threw a party to tell the whole town…"

"Hey! Mom may have thrown it for me; I wanted to tell…" Guy started.

"Yeah? So how come you didn't until Mom knew about it?" Boxter snapped.

"Maybe because she actually likes the fact I'm SheZow! I was too worried about what you'd think!"

"See, Boxter?" Droosha folded her arms. "You're not helping…"

"Neither are you!" Boxter exploded. "Guy is a kid; you're right, it's not his fault! But you should know better. You want to make a decision like that by yourself? Fine! But when this all goes to the dogs it'll be on your head!"

"You're being childish, Boxter. The town will come around."

"Do you even have any idea how the justice system works, or are you just going to keep saying it'll 'be alright'? You realise Guy is going to have to deal with the law?"

"Yeah, well if that's the case, the law is wrong."

"Argh, don't give me that hippy crap!"

Droosha took a step forwards and Boxter stepped back. "You know what, Boxter? You want to behave like this, fine. But I don't have to put up with it and neither does Guy." She pulled out her wallet, pulled out a dollar, and slapped it into the middle of Boxter's chest. "And you can buy your own damn present."

As if he hadn't drawn enough attention to himself already. Now his parents had decided to have a domestic right in the middle of the street. There was already a small crowd gathering. At least it didn't look set to last. His father had snatched the wad of cash from Droosha's hand. He was seething, but he didn't even look capable of forming any more words.

"Come on," Droosha climbed back into the Shehicle. "You've got villains to vanquish, sweetheart. Don't let anyone pull you down."

Guy glanced at his father, but he wasn't looking at him. Instead he was crumpling the dollar bill up in his hands.

"Right," Guy jumped into the driver's side of the Shehicle, and they tore off up the street.

A/n: I feel like I'm being mean to Boxter. But he's nowhere near as good at standing up for himself as Droosha and Guy are. XD Don't worry, there'll be more angst for everyone to go around. If you've got the time and are enjoying this please give me a review; I love hearing what people think about how I'm handling characters they love. :)