They've changed the rules on review replies, so I better just get on with it.

4. Sonic

The stuff in brackets is not vital for the plot, so if you don't want to read it, you won't miss anything.

(It wasn't hard to find a parking space outside the SSR headquarters. This was partly because most of the employees didn't drive to work, but mostly because it was situated just of the highway forty miles away from any town, so had an unnecessarily large parking lot.)

(There were many reasons for why the building was here rather than in the middle of a city or space or anywhere other than the middle of nowhere. Firstly, putting it a city would immediately protect that city more than others, which would upset everyone outside it, yet would make the same city the center of any major attack, which would upset everyone in it. Putting it in space on the other hand just wasted lots of taxpayer's money on rocket fuel.)

(Blossom got out of the car and looked at the building, ridiculously out of place as it was (see if you can spot any skyscrapers in the middle of the countryside.) As she began the long walk to her desk, she inevitably reflected on the existence of such an unlikely organisation existing.)

(The idea of a government-funded superhuman organisation incorporating every superhero had first come to fruition just after Superman's death. It was inspired by the unity the hero's had shown by breaking up the League of Super Villains (temporally) immediately after the event. The government funding solved many problems, like superhero's not getting paid so needing second jobs and stopping the asking of awkward questions, like "where exactly did the Justice League get all that money from?" It also made them accountable to the public (not necessarily a good thing) and setting clear guide lines as to when it was the police's job and when it was the superhero's.)

(The name had proved a sticking point though. In the end it had to be a new one, a) to avoid public confusion b) because certain people refused to join an organisation called the X-men and c) because not all the members were overly interested in the government's interpretation of "justice" (e.g. Vergeta). The name 'Superhuman Situation Response' was decided on, mainly because it could be abbreviated to SSR, which put it in a neat box with FBI, CIA and RSPB.)

It was the SSR which had come up the many rules, including the uniform one. Blossom's job was partly to implement these rules. It was also to draw up the duty rotor, distribute pay, make the battle tactics, check accounts, arrange promotions, check incident reports, write reports to the government; in fact her job was basically to administer everything.

As she walked past the tens of hero's (out of a membership approaching about 400,) all of them busy – training, coming in or going out on patrols, goofing off etc – she reflected that there was an awful lot to administer. It kept her busy at least.

Finally she reached her desk. It was effectively in the corridor outside the door of Chief of the SSR's office, although the corridor became more of a huge office at this point. There were lots of cubicles in this area, all of them currently occupied by people processing the masses of paperwork required to keep such a large organisation running. (As far as Blossom was concerned, most of them only had one purpose, to make her more work.) However, Blossom's desk was different to the rest, as it didn't have a cubical. In fact, it was perfectly positioned to make it look like she was nothing more than the boss's secretary, despite the fact that she affectively ran the place.

Blossom knew this is was not a coincidence. Nor was it a coincidence that she did most of the non-fighting work, (often there was so much it needed to be finished at home,) or that she was paid less than everyone else except the cleaners (and their union was threatening to strike.) The reason for all this was simple; he knew. The SSR's head was one of only three (living) people who knew the truth about 15 years ago, (the other two were Eddy and of coarse Blossom herself) so he an awful lot of power over Blossom. He could do worse than sack her, he could ruin her.

Hence, no coon had Blossom sat down at the desk, the intercom rasped, "Blossom, in hear. Now."

She got up and proceeded into the office as calmly as she could. This was sometimes the worst part of the day. Still, she managed a smile… of sorts.

"Good morning," she said.

He was in there with his feet up on the desk, leaning back on the chair, fiddling with a desk toy. This meant that he was going to issue fairly brief instructions and not listen to a word she said. After a suitably long pause, he finally acknowledged her with an almost friendly smile.

"Good Morning Blossom," said Sonic the Hedgehog, "how's the family?"

Blossom could not think of anyone in the world who would have seriously suggested Sonic as a suitable leader of all superheroes before it happened. His only superpower (sonic speed,) was only useful in exceptional circumstances, he hated paperwork (hence Blossom's work load), he lacked presence (he only came up to Blossom's shoulder) and he wasn't even remotely human. But he had assumed defacto command after Superman's death, although few could now remember quite how. He'd turned out to be pretty good at it. Blossom had even heard Buttercup say that there was only one person who could match him for on the spot commanding, and she no longer did it. He was also a stickler for discipline, dealing with those who challenged his authority ruthlessly, but somehow never losing their trust. He'd even managed to get Buttercup to abide by the uniform rule she hated so much, although she never said how.

However, he'd also thought up the uniform rule, which Blossom was sure was just a heavily disguised excuse for him to where those smelly trainers he never washed continuously. She tried to ignore the smell, and answer the question.

"My family? They're…"

"Good," said Sonic immediately, "I here Bubbles is back in the country."

"Yes, I left a memo on…"

"I want to speed up response time for cases in Europe." As speed was his only real special ability, Sonic loved quick response times. Arriving 'just in time' was not expectable to him. "I think if she could learn to teleport herself there it w…"

"I'll get someone to teach her," Blossom was not to be out done in the interrupting sakes.

"Great." He wasn't the least bit annoyed about the interruption, which annoyed Blossom slightly. "Now" he continued "I want to rewrite the report on company procurers by the end of the day, okay."

"What was wrong with it?" Blossom sighed.

"It says that costs are going up because of efficiency going down. It should say that costs are going up despite efficiency going up."

"But I wrote the truth. That's what the statistics said."

"Lies, dammed lies and Statistics." Sonic put on a forced smile. "Your not afraid of lying, are you Blossom?"

That was the most annoying thing about Sonic. He never actually said that he knew, but Blossom knew he did. It was so underhand.

"It took me a month to right that report." She said, biting her lip to stop herself saying something she'd regret.

"Then you better get on with it. Chop chop."

"Yes Sonic." Blossom turned to leave.

"But you can get me a cup of coffee first." Blossom bit her lip hard.

"Yes… Sonic," she eventually managed.

As she made the coffee, she reflected on the same thing as she did every day.

"If he hates me as much as he seems to, why dose he cover up for me? Why hasn't he told the world what I really did?"

As normal, there was no answer forthcoming. So she just spat in the coffee, and took it back to him.

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