Terry fired his lasers at Gal and she flipped over the top of them. Well, that was a good enough distraction. Guy launched himself at Terry, and caught the man around the shoulders, dragging him across the street and slamming him into a wall.

Terry blinked, momentarily startled, then broke into a crooked grin. "Whoa. Feisty girlfriend you got here, DudePow. You gonna let her fight your battles now?"

"The name's SheZow," Guy growled. He slammed Terry into the wall again and wiped the grin from his face. "And you just shut down my way back home!"

"Little…" Terry growled. "You gonna get emotional now?"

"You're the one who's going to be crying in a minute… Tara."

"It's Terry! I'll show you… I feel a sneeze coming on…"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me."

Terry snorted up a great big wad of snot and blew it into SheZow's face. Guy slammed back into the sidewalk and stuck fast. Sherrific. So this world's washed up loser had snot powers too.

"Hey, leave her alone!" said Gal. She zipped in and punched Terry in the side of the head. They both started grappling.

"Ow. Sissy!"

"Pansy!"

Guy hauled himself out of the snot with a sick sucking noise. "Ew." He shook the remaining snot from his fingers . One good thing about being a superheroine, he could fully express how utterly disgusting Tara… Terry's powers were. "Yuck!" he added for full effect and stuck out his tongue.

Terry and DudePow were throwing punches at each other now. They were kind of just standing there and letting the other hit them, then throwing a punch back, and trying their hardest not to wince as the hits got harder and harder.

Guy put his hands on his hips. "Seriously?"

"I can handle him, SheZow," said Gal. She punched Terry again. "Go check on the gate."

Guy scowled. Did SheZow and Tara look this stupid when they fought each other? He should she-slap them both, just to get them to hurry up with the fight, but the gate was his biggest concern. Guy flew over to it, and peered over its edge. It was definitely shut down so what the hell was he supposed to do? He swallowed hard at the lump in his throat, but this time it didn't quite dislodge. He'd nearly been home, and now… what if Terry blasting the gate had stuffed it up for good? Surely Sheila would redial as soon as she could if it was still working?

Guy blinked a few times, then slammed a fist down on the edge of the gate. "Damn it!" The metal rung, and a jolt of pain shot through his wrist. Guy shuddered and winced. Whatever the gate was made of, even SheZow's strength couldn't dent it.

The wail of sirens cut through the air. Guy groaned. Were the cops in this dimension just that little bit quicker to respond, or was that his imagination? He turned and shouted over his shoulder: "DudePow!"

"I said it's okay; I can take him!" Gal grinned, and hit Terry again. Terry staggered back a few feet, held his shoulder and swore under his breath. "Hah, you big wuss!"

"Will you listen to me, the cops…"

A cruiser slewed around the corner and braked to a halt. The driver's side door flung open, and this world's Officer Hamdon stomped out. "Damn it, JerkPow! How the hell did you get that ring again?" Beatrix's gaze fell on SheZow. "Oh, you're still here. You going to be trashing Megadale with your boyfriend now too?"

"Actually," said Guy, "I'm just trying to get home. That's why I need that gate, so excuse me if I don't feel too bad about pinching it from your impound."

Beatrix scowled and then her shoulders slumped. "I guess I'm not going to be able to stop you taking it, am I?"

"No. And DudePow is making a mess, and he's not even listening to me about stopping fighting so we can get the gate and I can get home…"

Beatrix snorted. "Yeah, I can smell the testosterone from here. So, what, you just going to let him ignore you?"

Guy's eyes narrowed. "Huh? You just want him to stop breaking things… I'm not doing your job for you!"

"Of course I want them to stop tearing up the place!" Beatrix threw her arms wide. "But I can't do anything about it. They'd flatten me. You've got superpowers, don't you? Or is that pink skirt just to make you look pretty?"

"My powers don't work without pink!"

"Well, good for you. I'm going to have to work overtime to get this mess cleaned up, I just know it…" She was watching the fight, scowling a little. Terry picked up DudePow and flung him clean through a window. Beatrix winced, squeezing her eyes shut a little.

Guy watched her for a moment, chewing his lip. What was DudePow doing anyway? He could beat Terry quicker if he wanted to, instead they were basically just playing super-powered punchies. "Hey, DudePow!" he shouted. "Hurry up and beat Terry, the cops are here, and we're going to get in trouble!"

Gal had Terry by the collar. "What do you think I'm doing?"

Terry broke into a grin. "Oh, hey there, Officer Hamdon. Fancy seeing you here."

Beatrix groaned. "This day is just getting better and better."

"You ready to ditch that sorry excuse for a husband and let a real man into your life?"

Gal's eyes narrowed. Then she drew back her arm and punched Terry right in the nose. Hard. She wasn't mucking around.

Terry staggered back, clutching at his face. "Ow!"

"Serves you right," said Gal.

Terry pulled down his hands and blew out a big glob of snot. It slammed DudePow into a nearby bus and she stuck fast to its side. Terry grinned, then stomped over to Beatrix.

Beatrix put her hand to her belt. "I should arrest you…"

"What, handcuffs? That could be fun," Terry grinned.

Beatrix huffed and rolled her eyes. "Good lord, Drew was right. You realise I only invited you over for dinner, you know, with my family and my husband, because I looked up to you as a hero when I was a kid?"

"You sure that's all?"

"I'm not even sure what I saw in you as a hero. There's a reason DudePow is still famous, and you're all washed up, and that's even with all the mess he makes."

Terry scowled, eyes narrowing. He balled his hands into fists at his side and took a step towards Beatrix. "I am not washed up!"

Beatrix drew in a sharp breath and stepped back.

Guy stepped between them. "Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Terry looked SheZow up and down and snorted. "What, you?"

Guy shrugged. "Yeah, I'll do. I mean, there's no one around here with a beer gut, is there?"

"Why you little…"

"Super heavy handed she-slap!" Guy powered up the attack and smashed Terry clear across the street.

Terry sprawled on the ground, then lifted himself up on one elbow. "You hit… like a girl…" he slurred, and then slumped to the ground and passed out.

Guy raised an eyebrow. "Why, thank you."

Gal finally managed to extricate herself from the snot and fell off the side of the bus, landing on her feet. She shook off the snot, her lip twisting up into a disgusted grimace.

"Are you okay?" Guy asked.

"I'm fine. And I had him, what'd you go interfering for?"

"Seriously?!" Guy baulked. "What about your… Officer Hamdon? I just stopped Terry from beating her up."

"I don't think he would've beaten me up," Beatrix scowled, then her gaze softened. "But thanks."

"If you'd just let us finish, he wouldn't even have seen her!"

"You said you wanted us to fight villains together!"

"All right, give it a rest, both of you." Beatrix snapped. She walked over to Terry, and poked his shoulder with her shoe. Then she scowled, and gave him a good hard kick. He was definitely out cold. "If back up gets here in good time, we might actually be able to arrest him."

"Well, good for you," said Gal. "But you're not getting that gate back."

Beatrix glared at her. "You know, I'm not sure what anyone sees in you as a hero either."

Gal gritted her teeth and balled her hands into fists, but said nothing.

Beatrix glanced at SheZow. "Just take the damn thing; you know I can't stop you. If you really need it to get home," she shrugged. "Fine. I hope you get home. But at least have the decency to give it back when you finish. And try not to break it, if it doesn't kill you."


Guy and Gal brought the gate all the way back to DudePow's lair before they spoke to each other. They'd had enough trouble carting it around before, that both knew it wasn't going to be a good idea to argue whilst carrying it.

Guy made sure the gate was settled in place, then flung out his fist. "She-yeah." He turned to Gal and then put his hands on his hips. "Okay, what is your problem?"

Gal flung out her fist. "He-yeah. My problem? What's your problem? You totally messed up DudePow's fight with Terry!"

"You said you wanted my help. You said that if I got stuck here we should fight villains together, as a team. So I helped."

"But not with Terry! He's like, DudePow's arch-nemesis. DudePow's got to go up against him one on one, mano-a-mano…"

"Is that supposed to be some stupid DudePow macho thing? Real guys don't do that. And Terry nearly hurt your Mom because you were toying with him."

"Hey, I would never let anyone hurt my Mom, or the rest of my family. It's just Terry, he's not going to hurt her."

"How do you know?"

"Well, he didn't beat up Dad when he tried to throw a punch at him across the dinner table for hitting on Mom. So I seriously doubt he'd do anything to Mom. He's just a sleaze-bag. But he doesn't pick fights with people without powers."

Guy rolled his eyes. "Ugh. You know, if you don't want my help, I may as well just go home… but I can't unless we get that gate working."

"So lets get it working, and I can get rid of you!"

The two glared at each other across the lair, chests heaving, hands balled at their sides.

"If I could interject," said Dudley. "I believe I could set up a dialling system to activate the gate. I would just need the right address."

Guy glared at Gal for a moment more, then sighed and turned to Dudley. "Sheila would have it. She did manage to dial the gate. But she didn't tell me what it was."

"What happened when she dialled it; why didn't you go through?" asked Dudley.

"Terry blasted it," said Gal, folding her arms. "And it shut down. Guy's computer didn't dial back, so we don't know what happened."

"If there was an error," said Dudley, "I assume it might take some time for Sheila to sort it out. It can take me up to twenty-four hours to calculate the solution to a problem… although… er… sometimes I run in issues with my storage because I have a tendency to keep…"

Gal held up a hand. "Dudley, no. No one wants to hear about your photos."

"Yes, well," said Dudley tersely, "if Sheila didn't have this… issue. She might be able to sort out a problem quicker."

"Yeah… Sheila keeps love letters or something," Guy winced.

"Really? Is she a bit of a romantic then?"

"Dudley!" Gal growled.

"Right, sorry. My point was that if she's fixing a problem with the gate, it could take up to twenty-fours for her to work it out. So, we shouldn't worry if the gate doesn't activate again right away. It could simply be a matter of waiting."

"Can you do anything?" Gal asked.

"I can work on the dialling device. There's not much point trying to guess the address. Judging by the number of symbols on the gate, the combinations are countless. It could take me up to four years to randomly guess the right one. And that's not taking into account my… storage issues."

Guy's jaw dropped. "Four years?" he said hoarsely. He rubbed at his arm and looked at the floor.

"I think we can count on Sheila," said Dudley. "Don't worry. Not for twenty-four hours anyway. Get some sleep. And we'll see how it looks in the morning."

Guy nodded. He looked back at Gal.

Gal swallowed and looked away. "Look, thanks for looking out for my Mom anyway," she muttered.

Guy chewed his lip. What if something like that happened to his father? SheZow wasn't there to help. What if some villain, whether it was SheZap, or someone else, started getting out of hand in SheZow's absence? How would the cops, his father, deal with them? There was no one in his world to protect him."I just… you know I do like fighting with you. But if I can get home, maybe it might be a good idea."

"Yeah," Gal said, smiling faintly. "I mean, we do kind of clash. Just… if the gate does activate, make sure you say goodbye before you go."

"I will."


Guy woke to the whoosh of the gate activating. He sat straight up in bed, or rather, his beanbags. He slipped off the dislodged cushion of beans once again and tumbled to the floor. "Ow!" He rubbed at his head.

Propped against the wall, the gate now held the glimmering sea of blue across its centre. Guy hauled himself to his feet. "Um, Dudley?"

Dudley's computer screen flickered to life. "Yes, I'm here. It seems, oh, well, hello there." Dudley minimised himself to half of his screen.

On the other side of the screen, Sheila appeared. "Why hello yourself. I hope you don't mind, but I figured this was the easiest way to communicate."

"Why I don't mind at all."

Guy cleared his throat loudly. "Sheila?"

"Hey there, sweetheart. Are you all right?"

Guy blinked a few times. "I'm fine, Sheila." That four years stuff had him really worried, it'd actually taken him awhile to fall asleep. But now everything was going to be okay. "What about you? When the gate shut down, I… I thought…"

"I had a power surge. But, I've fixed the issue."

"Would you like me to get Gal and Kelli down here?" Dudley asked. "You did say you wanted to say goodbye."

"The connection is stable," said Sheila. "The wormhole should hold for at least another twenty minutes. You'll be able to say goodbye… and… your sister is harassing me to speak with you…" Sheila disappeared from the screen.

Kelly's face appeared next to Dudley's, leaning right into Sheila's camera. "Guy!"

"Yeah, I'm here, what's wrong?"

Kelly's jaw dropped. "What's wrong? You've been stuck in another dimension for like three days. Mom and Dad are worried sick!"

Guy swallowed. "Don't you think if I could've come home, I would've?"

Kelly sighed, and her shoulders slumped. "Aw, Guy. I know. But they've been really upset. And Dad got hurt…"

Guy felt his gut drop. "Wait, what happened to Dad?"

"It's not bad. It was just SheZap."

"Just SheZap!? What'd he do to him?"

"He's okay, but he did get hurt. He's scared too…"

"What, no, Dad doesn't get scared…"

"Yeah, well that's what he said! And I don't want SheZap to get out of hand and do it to him again. So get your butt back here now!"

Guy swallowed and looked at his feet, feeling that lump work up in his throat again. He'd been right to be worried. SheZow hadn't been there to protect Megadale, or to protect Dad. "I'm sorry, all right?"

"Guy…" Kelly sighed. "It's okay. Just come home. Mom and Dad really need you. So does Megadale and… me."

"Yeah, okay, sis. I'm just going to say goodbye to DudePow, then I'm going straight through that gate, I promise."

Kelly smiled at him. "I am glad you're okay too."

"Yeah, I'll give you a great big hug when I get through."

Kelly snorted. "You can try."

"Guy…" Gal and Kelli came down into the lair, both in their pyjamas, Kelli rubbing at his eyes. Gal looked up at the gate. "It's working…"

Guy smiled faintly. "Yeah. And I need to go home. Stuff's happening. I need to protect my family; they haven't been doing so well without SheZow."

Gal smiled back. "Hey, I understand. With what you did for Mom, I'm sure you'll do fine. And hey," she reached out and grasped his arm. "Sorry for getting mad at you before."

"It's fine."

"Hey…" Kelli spotted Kelly on the screen and waved at her.

Kelly grinned back.

"You'd better get through this gate, Guy," said Sheila, popping up over half of Kelly's image, much to Kelli's chagrin. "I may only be able to keep it open for another few minutes. And Kelly isn't very good at inputting the address."

"Hey!"

"Bye," Guy waved at Kelli and Gal. Then he held out his fist. "You go, girl." He may as well make a dramatic exit. He flew into the air, fist held out, and punched through the watery surface of the gate.

The world disappeared for a moment, and then Guy found himself shooting out of the gate at double the velocity he'd gone in. He shot into the lair and slid across the floor, crashing into the wall behind him. "Ow… okay. Not going to do that so fast again." Guy looked up, rubbing at his head. Kelli and Gal stared back at him. "Wait, what?" Guy shot to his feet and looked around him every which way. He was back in DudePow's lair. "What happened?"

"You flew in the gate, then you shot straight back out again," said Gal. She was staring at him, jaw hanging open.

"What? But why?"

"Maybe it only operates one-way," said Dudley. "Theoretically, it could be possible that matter can only travel one way through a wormhole."

"But Sheila and Kelly can hear us," said Kelli. "We're communicating two ways."

"That's an energy signal, not matter," said Dudley.

Kelly put a hand to her forehead. "SheZap said the gate only worked one way. This is what he meant."

"You mean… I can't…" Guy felt his stomach drop, that lump rise in his throat again.

"Damn it," Kelly snapped, and pounding a fist on Sheila's console. She looked away, blinking rapidly, hanging her head.

"Maybe I just did it wrong," said Guy, his voice wavering. He bunched up his fists. "If I fly through it harder…"

"That won't work," said Dudley, "what this means is we'll have to dial your world from our side. Then you'll be able to travel through."

"So dial it already!"

"I don't have a dialling device. Or an address."

"I'll send you ours Dudley, but it won't be the same to reach our dimension. Might help you make a start though," said Sheila.

No. Guy's head was spinning. Dad had been hurt. He was supposed to protect him. But he'd let SheZap toss SheZow through the gate. If something happened to him like what had happened to Beatrix, no one would be there to stop it. And that was his fault. And he'd been over here, having the time of his life with DudePow! What the hell was wrong with him? "I have to fix this…"

"Sock it to me, broseph," said Gal, powering up DudePow. She was Guy's alternate, she knew exactly what he was going to do.

"Get out of my way!" Guy growled.

"Flying at it again won't work. You'll just hurt yourself, or put a hole in DudePow's wall. That won't help anybody."

Guy flew forward, and DudePow caught him. Grabbed him by his wrists and pushed back. They ground to a halt in midair, halfway to the gate.

"Get out of my way, Gal!" said Guy, and his voice caught in his throat. "My Dad… I have to…"

Gal looked into his eyes. "It won't work. I'm sorry, we'll figure out something else…"

Behind her, the gate shut down with a whoosh.

He couldn't go back. Guy's shoulders slumped, and he slipped out of the air. Gal grabbed him under the arms, and steadied his descent to the ground. Guy sunk to his knees. His shoulders started shaking, and hot tears squeezed from his eyes. He hung his head. "I just… I want to go home."

Gal put her arms around him and rubbed his back. "I know, Guy. I'm sorry."


"You feeling any better?" Gal smiled at him tentatively across the table.

"A little," Guy sniffed. "I mean, your world's got an ice-cream parlour that opens for breakfast. What's not to love about that?" He forced a smile then hung his head and sighed. "Thanks for taking me for ice-cream." He poked a big ball of chocolate around his bowl. His throat hurt from crying, and at least the ice-cream helped with that. He didn't feel like bursting into tears anymore, but there was still a knot that had settled deep down in his guts. It hurt, and Guy didn't think it was going to just go away.

They'd left Kelli and Dudley in DudePow's lair, trying to figure out both the address for Guy's dimension, and how to get a dialling device working. There was no way Guy could've hung around there, waiting. He'd still been shaking when Gal took him by the arm and told him she was going to buy him some ice-cream.

"We'll figure it out, Guy."

"What if we don't? You heard how hard Dudley said it was."

"Kelli's smart. You know that. Even if Dudley gets all confused with however much he's messed up his hard drives, Kelli will work it out."

"Gal, don't. I know you're just trying to make me feel better. I'm going to be stuck here, at least for awhile."

"I'm not. He can do it. Don't tell him I said that, but he can. You'll be home soon."

Guy pushed his half finished ice-cream away, and leaned his head heavily against one hand. "I'm worried about Dad. SheZap hurt him. I've always just thought of him like he's been getting in SheZow's way, but now that she's not there, there's no one to stop someone hurting him. And if I'm stuck here because I was an idiot and let SheZap toss me here, and something really bad happens to Dad…" He squeezed his eyes shut tight. No. He didn't want to fall apart again, not out here in public.

Gal squeezed his arm. "He won't get hurt. It's like, you know, my Mom. She just makes a lot of noise, and rants about everything like DudePow's out to make her life hell. But she knows what she's doing. She can look out for herself; so can your Dad. You'll be back, and he'll be blaming SheZow for everything again."

"If he knew I was SheZow, he wouldn't be worried. Maybe I should've told him. Maybe I should get Kelly to tell him where I am." And then, maybe, he'd be able to talk to Dad, and Mom, through the gate. There would be that at least.

"You know how he'd react, just like my Mom," Gal poked her own chocolate ice-cream, and scowled. "He'd resent you for it."

She was right. Dad would be mad. But, if it meant he could talk to his father, maybe it'd be worth it. He would have to explain things. But if Dad'd been worried sick about where his son had been for the past three days, he might just listen. Guy swallowed. "You know Gal, you shouldn't be so mean to your Mom. You'd miss her if anything happened to her."

Gal glared up at him, and her eyes narrowed. Then her shoulders slumped and she looked away. "I know."


A/n: No, I'm not dead. I finally got some time to work on this a bit more. Alternate Terry is sleazy… but then so's Tara… XD And I don't like making things easy for Guy to get home, what will they do? Leave me a review! :)