"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday, dear Becky. Happy Birthday to you!"
A loud eruption of cheers encased Becky as she bent down to blow out the fourteen candles adorning her cake. She made a mundane wish, still scarred from her prior experience with enchanted birthday cake, but nothing seemed to change as she pulled back up to meet her family's and classmates' smiling faces.
Her dad patted her on the back while spinning a yarn of his own fourteenth birthday party as her mom swooped in to cut the cake. TJ spirited over with Wordgirl plates (which he picked out himself, of course) for the cake to be served on. On his way, he almost bumped Scoops into the punch bowl, the latter having been preoccupied with angling himself to get the perfect shot of the birthday girl for the school newspaper. Violet grabbed the reporter's arm pulling him upright as Tobey, who had been standing nearby, scoffed at the tomfoolery.
Becky giggled. For once, it seemed like she was going to have the perfect party. There had been no cries for Wordgirl the entire day, allowing her to maintain her civilian persona uninterrupted. The silence of no supervillains or monsters almost made her feel perturbed though. Even the only giant robot had just been the one Tobey brought to give party guests a ride on. He claimed his mother forced him, but his blushing face made Becky think otherwise. Ever since the Katie birthday incident, Tobey had seemed to endeavor to make any party he was invited to the best it could be. No matter the reason though she was glad she didn't have to fight his temper tantrums as Wordgirl on her birthday.
Becky felt a jab at her side. She snapped her head to its source where she was met with TJ.
"Becky, come on! Grab the first piece, so the rest of us can have some cake!" he pointed towards their mother who was holding a plate to her daughter. Becky had zoned out thinking about her secret life as Wordgirl, an activity she had found herself doing a lot recently as she approached her fourteenth birthday. In school, her class had been assigned a project of planning out a career path for their dream job. When she had a similar project at 10, the answer seemed so easy: I want to be Wordgirl. However, now Becky questioned if all she would ever be is Wordgirl, an alien amongst mere mortals destined to protect but never fully live as a real human being with a human job. She shook the thought away.
"Thanks, mom," Becky smiled before taking the cake. Her mother returned a warm smile of her own as Bob ran up to her begging for the next piece. Becky rolled her eyes with a chuckle. Some things never change.
Holding her plate close to her chest, Becky weaved in and out of the crowd looking for a quiet place to sit for a minute. When she was around loud noises for too long, her superhearing would go into overdrive and cause her head to ring. She passed by Violet, Scoops, and Tobey sitting at one of the folding tables set-up in her backyard. Violet had one hand on top of Scoops' and the other waving her latest art piece around. Scoops stared on with gleaming eyes and a soft grin etched into his face, a stark contrast to the furrowed brows and uptilted head of Tobey. Even so though, Becky noticed how Tobey still had his body turned towards the two with a slight smirk. He might feign disinterest, but ever since she had invited him to join their friend group, the boy genius had been making progress in connecting with them, and it looked like today might be one of his better days.
She released the breath she had been holding before beginning the trek over to her friends' table. Today might truly be the perfect day.
"HELP, WORDGIRL!"
Becky's shoulders slumped. It was the distant voice of that ponytailed guy who could never seem to find the police station. She trained her ear on the cry for help to hear it more distinctly.
"CHUCK THE EVIL SANDWICH MAKING GUY IS ROBBING THE SANDWICH STORE! WHY WOULD HE EVEN DO THAT, DOESN'T HE ALREADY HAVE SANDWICHES? AAH, WORDGIRL HELP!"
Are you serious? Not again on another birthday! Becky groaned to herself, tempted to tune out the call and go back to her party. Unfortunately for her, even if she truly wanted to, once she focused her superhearing on something, there was little she could do to break the connection. She knew she would have to go anyway though. The city needed Wordgirl, and she couldn't let crime win, even on her birthday.
She set her untouched piece of cake down on a nearby vacant table before rushing over to Bob who was currently gorging himself on sweets.
"Bob, Chuck is robbing the sandwich store!" Her partner hummed indiscriminately, too absorbed in his food to take note of what she was saying. Becky pulled her cheeks before continuing.
"I'll go take care of it. You can stay here and create a diversion if anyone asks where I went." Bob hummed again, throwing her a thumbs up before returning to his cake.
Making sure no one was watching her, Becky bolted to the front of her house before snapping a quick, "Word up!" and flying away. She traveled at breakneck speeds, keen on getting the encounter over with as soon as possible so she could return to her party.
As she touched down in front of the sandwich shop, a sharp burn wracked her temple which she forced back before throwing the doors open. She was greeted with Chuck holding his condiment gun up at the unconcerned shop owner behind the bar.
"Ah, Wordgirl! You travel fast. I feel like I just started this robbery." Chuck swung his free hand around for dramatic effect.
"Well, I'm a little impatient today, so let's get straight to business," Wordgirl folded her arms, rising above the sandwich villain. "Why are you robbing the store?"
"Jeez, you really are no fun today," he scratched his head. "Well, this store started selling this new chipotle mayo with their turkey club, but they barely give you any with the sandwich. I asked for more and this guy-" Chuck jabbed his condiment gun at the owner who didn't even blink, "Said it would cost a dollar fifty extra! A dollar fifty extra for some mayo that should have already been on my sandwich?! They were actually robbing me, I tell you. They know my ma hates dry sandwiches."
Wordgirl brought two fingers to the bridge of her nose as an electric silence sizzled within the shop. Chuck seemed to fold as the normal bantering superheroine just floated before him.
"Uh, Wordgirl, are you alrig-"
"You robbed this store just for more MAYO?"
"I, uh, mean, you can't have a good turkey club without it."
Wordgirl slammed her feet to the ground, startling even the unbothered shop owner. The burning in her temples grew as she stomped over to Chuck. She balled her shaking fists to try to contain her rage.
"I don't know what is with you villains! It was cute theatrics at first, our little play of good and evil, but you guys never know when to quit! I just want to be a normal girl for once without the threat of the city lingering over my head, but no, not only that, but I have to waste my time on frivolous crimes like this!" Wordgirl was now right at Chuck, causing the supervillain to push back into the counter to try to evade her fury.
"Why can't you guys just… just halt crime for one day!"
Her voiced echoed through the shop, the ricocheting noise pulling her away from her rage. Wordgirl found herself almost ten feet in the air, towering over everyone. She quickly pulled herself to the floor and glanced up towards the supervillain.
"Chuck, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I don't know what came over me."
Chuck stood still like a gargoyle with wide blank eyes trained straight ahead.
"Chuck, I know you're sensitive, but I promise I didn't mean all of that."
He didn't even flinch or seem to remotely acknowledge her presence.
Wordgirl rolled back on her heels, biting her lip. This behavior was odd, even for an emotionally wounded Chuck. She waved her hand in front of his visor, but his eyes never left their mile long gaze.
"Well, I guess I'll take you to jail then? If you have no objections." She grabbed the mute sandwich man and flew out of the store.
For the entire flight, Chuck hung limp in her arms. She could hear his heartbeat, so she knew he was alive, but she still had no clue what could have caused such a catatonic state.
At the prison, she placed him gently in a jail cell and waved to the warden before shooting off back to her house. From overhead, she saw the backyard had been emptied out with most of the guests having already left. Wordgirl was almost glad at this point. The urge to be alone crept inside her along with the muffled pain clouding her head. She touched down at her front door and transformed into Becky before quickly running inside and up to her room.
She failed to reach her haven though, as a rough hand caught her arm before she could shut the door. Once again, it was her younger brother, TJ.
"Becky, where did you go? You got a lot of nerve ditching your own party!"
She forced her arm out of his grip. "I'm not in the mood, TJ."
"Hey, don't just walk away!" He jumped in front of her, blocking the door to her bedroom. "Bob's fancy food magic tricks can only distract people for so long, so spill the beans, where did you go? We were all worrie- Hey! Wow! Did you get Wordgirl contacts or something? Is that where you went?"
TJ bounced up and down, startling Becky with the sudden change, but her surprise quickly subsided back into annoyance. She shielded her eyes from him, that familiar burning tugging at her temple. "TJ, what are you even talking about? Can you just move out of my way?"
"No way, Becky! You gotta tell me. I want some too!" He grabbed her hand, struggling to force her face back into view, and Becky snapped.
"TJ, can you just advert your eyes! I don't want to be messed with right now!"
TJ's body went rigid, and his head swiveled away from her. Becky's blood ran cold. This couldn't be happening again, could it?
"TJ, I'm sorry. Are you ok?"
He didn't say a word, instead turning to walk away from her, his eyes never once meeting her again.
The sharp click of his bedroom door forced Becky out of her stupor as panic coursed through her. She bolted to her bathroom, clumsy flicking the light on as she stopped right in front of the mirror and released a taut gasp.
Becky's eyes were a bright yellow with bright red irises and glowing golden star pupils. She held her hands up to her face. TJ had been telling the truth. The emblem of Wordgirl had overtaken her eyes.
Her breath tightened as she slid her hands through her hair. A sharp pang caught the attention of her left hand, and she quickly pulled her hair back to meet another unwanted transformation.
Her tips of her ears were now pointed with speckles of red and gold aligning them. Her mouth slammed open in response causing her to finally notice her teeth. She had always had sharper K-9s than most humans, but now they were almost angled to the point that they were fangs. She released her hair and stepped away from the mirror to take in the full view.
Becky's throat tightened, and she bolted downstairs.
"Huggy! Huggy, where are you?" she called, not even caring if anyone heard her use the wrong name for her partner.
She heard a quick squeak from the kitchen and dashed over to him eating the leftover cake. Piles of frosting fell from his mouth as he took in Becky's new appearance.
"Huggy, what's happening to me?" she choked.
He squealed in confusion and urgency, waving his hands and pointing to the door.
Becky wiped her eyes. "You're – you're right. Let's go to the hideout. No one can see me like this."
She scooped him up in her arms before flying out the door. They reached the inside of her hideout in less than a minute. She immediately took them over to her Lexiconian library, dropping Huggy off in a nearby chair as she scoured the endless pile of books.
"Huggy, do you know what's going on, or do you have a book or something that can tell me?"
He shook his head. Becky felt her hopes deflating at each book she turned over. Of course, Huggy didn't know exactly what was happening to her body. They might both be Lexiconians, but like with normal chimpanzees and humans on Earth, the two were different species. Huggy had never lived through this metamorphism.
"But how can't you have a single book on Lexicon biology? You had that one about their battle techniques!"
He squeaked defiantly causing Becky to cease her search and float down to the ground.
"I guess that's true. You were an exploratory pilot and had no idea you were going to get trapped on a new planet with a baby Lexiconian. There wasn't a real motive for you to have one."
Becky's knees buckled and she fell to the floor, endeavoring to hide her glossy glowing eyes in her hands.
"There has to be something, Huggy," she croaked, pushing her face farther into her palms. "Can you contact Lexicon?" She already knew his response without even looking up. Because of its precarious position in its solar system, Lexicon was always on the move and extremely hard to track without the necessary technology. Technology of which had been irreversibly destroyed when the two crash-landed onto Earth. It would be like trying to find a single clownfish in the entire ocean.
"I don't know what to do. I'm – I'm scared." She felt two arms wrap around her, so she moved to embrace their warmth. "I did something to Chuck and TJ, and now my body has transformed into this! If only there was someone that might know-"
Becky shot up, throwing Huggy off her in the process. She quickly picked him up and snapped over to the ship's command center.
"Huggy, can you start the transmitter? I thought of someone we can call."
He did as asked but squeaked in confusion.
"There's one other alien we've met that knew what a Lexiconian is. She might be able to elucidate some things." She turned to face her partner. "We need to call Miss Power."
Protests immediately erupted from Huggy, but Becky pushed past him to the control panel. She took a deep breath before tapping her chest and changing into her superheroine outfit.
"I know it could be dangerous, but if I can't figure out what's going on, I might not be able to stop it. It's a risk I'm willing to take. I can't hurt anyone else."
She pounded the dial button forcing the static transmission to come alive. Huggy squealed and hid underneath the main panel. Wordgirl kept her eyes trained on the screen as she felt her heart tearing a hole in her chest. Her world seemed to stand still with no signs of life but that sickly static until suddenly it cut to white revealing the jaded villainess.
"Who's calling me at this hour? Don't you know what time it is in Nebula 12- Wordgirl? Is that you?" Wordgirl felt sweat trickling down her helmet as Miss Power brushed her bangs aside to see the screen better. "My oh my, I didn't think I'd ever hear from you again. Finally decided you want to conquer that tiny rock you inhabit?"
Wordgirl grimaced, tightening and loosening her fists. "No, I'm still the protector of this planet, but I need your assistance."
Miss Power raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. She then gave a slow nod.
"Something is happening to me, and I need to know what's going on. You knew I was a Lexiconian, so I thought you might be able to enlighten me."
Wordgirl clasped her hands together as Miss Power stared her down. She could feel Huggy trembling at her feet, obviously still sore from their last encounter with the alien.
Miss Power closed her eyes and rolled the hand she had on screen. "Well then, go ahead and tell me what's changed with you, but hurry up, I don't have the rest of my life to hear you whine."
Wordgirl almost broke into a smile of relief before beginning her tale. "Today, when I was fighting crime, I told Chuck to halt and he just went catatonic, and then later, I told my bro- BROKE acquaintance," she quickly corrected, "to advert his gaze, and then he wouldn't look at me again at all! I then went to the mirror and saw my eyes had changed to red with golden stars, my ears became pointed, and my teeth became fangs. I just have no clue what's happening to me."
A loaded silence wafted in the air between them. Wordgirl squirmed hoping that Miss Power would break it. She focused on the villainess' eyes, and even though they were obscured by her visor, Wordgirl could see a pang of pity flash through them.
"Do you really not know, kid?"
Wordgirl stayed silent, focusing on Miss Power as she shifted upright in her chair.
"A Lexiconian's true power is not defining words," Miss Power edged closer to the screen and Wordgirl instinctively moved back, "But controlling them."
Wordgirl's eyes shot open, and pain seared through her head. "What- what do you mean?"
"Come on, kid, you know what I mean. At a certain age, you Lexiconians undergo this transformation and gain your true ability to dictate others through words. Why do you think I wanted you as a partner so bad? You're powerful, kid. Deadly even. If those idiots you protect knew even a fraction of what you were truly capable of, they'd never have accepted you as the savior of their city, and soon, I guess they'll see why."
Miss Power gave a sharp smirk. "Well, good luck, Wordgirl. Welcome to your first step as a true Lexiconian."
The transmitter snapped to black leaving Wordgirl to only peer at her reflection in the darkened screen.
