Chapter 2: Fallout

The day after Rio's revelation on live television, Jerrica decided to take the day off work. In fact, she just wanted to take the day off everyday life, so she lay there in bed for most of the morning. Yesterday she'd been dealt blow after blow.

"Jerrica, you won't believe the number of calls we've been getting!" Kimber exclaimed as she bounced into her sister's room, a slip of paper in her hand. Jerrica could see names and phone numbers written on it. "Lindsay Pierce wants to do an interview with you this evening if you can make it, she said call her back as soon as possible because she can fit us in-she's scheduled to interview the Misfits but she's willing to drop them faster than a hot potato." She then proceeded to rattle off the names of various entertainment magazines and media personalities.

"If you think I'm doing an interview with Cool Trash magazine, you can forget it," Jerrica snapped.

"I only said they wanted an interview, I didn't say you should do it. I for one sure wouldn't," Kimber sighed. "Jerrica, seriously, if I were you, I'd at least do the one for Lin-Z TV. Lindsay's a friend of ours. Besides, you're going to want to get everything straight-before magazines like Cool Trash make up stuff."

"Not that they don't already make up stuff out of whole cloth," Jerrica grumbled as she reluctantly got out of bed. "Give me Lindsay's number. I'll do an interview with her."

In a wealthy section of the Los Angeles area, a screech of indignation could be heard from one of its mansions-specifically, the Gabor mansion, where Harvey Gabor lived with his daughter Phyllis, who was better known as Pizzazz, the leader of the Misfits. The tastefulness of the mansion's décor clashed with the temperament of Phyllis Gabor, who at the moment was throwing a tantrum.

"I don't believe this!" shrieked the young woman, whose hair had been dyed an electric green, almost matching her catty green eyes. She was in the spacious den with her cohorts-the other Misfits. "Lindsay Pierce says she can't interview us tonight, she has Jem and the Has-beens on tonight!"

"Maybe she'll humiliate Jem," suggested Roxanne Pellegrini, a brown-eyed Philadelphia native whose hair was dyed snow-white. Roxy was more or less Pizzazz's right-hand woman and could be every bit as snide and mean-tempered as Pizzazz, if not more so.

Mary Phillips, a timid young woman with blue hair and eyes who went by the stage name Stormer, looked uncomfortable. She was friends with Kimber Benton and a true misfit among the Misfits, since she didn't really possess a nasty disposition. Her brother Craig was dating Aja, which seemed to complicate things just a tad more.

"Or maybe not," contradicted Sheila Burns, a British saxophone player with jet-black hair and gray eyes who called herself Jetta. She claimed to have connections with the United Kingdom's Royal Family and told stories about what she had done with this or that member (which no one believed). She and Roxy were forever getting into it; it was amazing the group ever got anything accomplished with all the in-fighting and temper tantrums that took place on a regular basis. The Misfits didn't seem to realize that smashing guitars and trashing hotel rooms wasn't exactly good for business, and their manager, Eric Raymond, had his hands full keeping a leash on them. Eric had set up a music company for them called Misfits Music; it was now Stingers Sound since Riot owned half of it. If not for the Stingers the company would likely have gone belly-up by now.

Eric, who was standing in the den hanging up the phone, had just broken the news to the Misfits. "We find out who Jem really is and she still manages to upstage you," he snarled.

"Jem being Jerrica is rather big news," Stormer commented. "At least we know Jem isn't some criminal."

"Too bad, that would've been even bigger news," Jetta said, looking daggers at Stormer.

"Well, girls, let's just wait and see how the interview goes tonight, and we'll go from there," Eric said smoothly.

"Maybe Riot won't be interested in Jem anymore," Roxy commented to Pizzazz. "He sure didn't seem to be interested in Jerrica. I mean, if Rio broke up with her…."

Pizzazz grinned. She had the biggest crush on Riot. Perhaps now she had a chance with the handsome blond singer after all!

"Just like you to suggest that rubbish," Jetta snapped. "Pizzazz turns to mush around that bloke!"

"I'd rather see Pizzazz go mushy than hear your stupid little stories about the royals!" Roxy shot back. "You're a royal all right-a royal pain!"

Eric sighed and shook his head. Why did he even bother?

"I can't get over this. Jem is Jerrica Benton?" asked Phoebe Ashe as she and Ingrid Krueger sat in Riot's living room that evening, getting ready to watch Lin-Z TV. Phoebe, known as Rapture, and Ingrid, known as Minx, were Riot's bandmates and best friends, and they almost looked like sisters with their light blond hair and blue eyes. The two women and Riot had never been lovers; when they'd first started out, they had known that they had to work together to survive on the streets of Europe. Romance would have interfered, and as a result Riot's feelings towards the two women were more protective and brotherly than anything. Minx might flirt with him from time to time but she was never serious, and he never took her seriously.

"Maybe I'll have a shot at Rio," Minx said as she tossed her long, straight hair over one shoulder. Rio had always resisted her flirtations, and Minx loved a challenge. So far he was the only man she hadn't been able to catch.

"I wouldn't recommend it," Riot commented.

The trio sat and watched the interview. Jem explained that her father had left her earrings that projected holograms, and why she had become Jem in the first place. "I had these girls to support…I felt like I should carry on my parents' work with the foster girls," she explained. "I didn't want to look like I was promoting myself, but that's what I wound up doing."

"So that's why she didn't want to give me half of Starlight Music in exchange for me signing on," Riot said softly when the interview was over, feeling that he understood her better.

"So how do you feel about her?" asked Minx curiously.

"It feels like Jem is just an illusion…but yet…it's like Jerrica saves certain traits for when she's Jerrica, and certain ones for when she's Jem," Riot said, trying to put into words what he thought was going on. "This whole thing has just been so sudden…I still want to think about this before I decide what to do."

Truth be told, he did care for her. She had just broken up with Rio, however-or more accurately, he had dumped her-and he wanted to be careful. He didn't want to just be someone on the rebound.

He also wondered if he'd just been humiliated somehow.

A few days later, Eric Raymond stood in an abandoned warehouse that had been turned into a workshop, and Minx was with him, since she had a crush on the owner of this place; she herself was something of an electronics whiz. The owner was a computer and electronics genius known only as Tech-Rat. Half of his head had been shaved bald, and the hair that grew from the right side of his head covered one of his intense blue eyes. He was perfectly at home with all his gadgets and gizmos and did not like to be touched, nor did he like anyone touching his gadgets.

Tech-Rat was studying a picture of an odd-looking computer. It had been taken a couple of years ago by a private detective Eric had hired to try to find out Jem's true identity. The detective had suggested that Jerrica was Jem, but Eric had dismissed it out of hand, telling him that he'd seen the "two" women together. Now it appeared that the detective had been right, and the machine in the picture had something to do with it.

"I'm not sure that the earrings themselves generate the holograms," Tech-Rat said. "It could be this computer through the earrings. You said Maloney destroyed the machine; yet you saw that same machine in Washington, D.C. over a year later. It must have been a hologram."

"I sure wouldn't mind getting my hands on it," Eric said.

"I wouldn't mind tinkering around with it myself. Apparently her father was a genius," Tech-Rat added, a touch of envy in his voice.

"I wouldn't have minded getting to know her father," Minx purred, likely in a bid to make Tech-Rat jealous.

"They likely have it at the mansion and they have security," Eric grumbled.

"Nothing I couldn't hack," Tech-Rat said, ignoring Minx, his tone slightly boastful.

"What're we going to do, haul it out in trucks?" Eric snapped. "That place is crawling with people constantly. Even if the Holograms were out of town they'd still have the girls and the housekeeper in that place." He sighed. "I guess we'll just have to bide our time until we can think of a way to get to that machine."

Jerrica, who had dyed her hair pink, sat in front of her mirror, applying make-up that would make her look just like Jem. It seemed totally pointless to have a "secret" identity when everyone knew it. Granted, using a hologram was quicker than applying make-up. Also, if she were in an accident or something as Jem, things would get extremely complicated.

Now that people knew who she really was, she had some choices to make. She could retire and run Starlight Music full-time. She could have a full-time music career and find someone else to run the company; she was leaning more towards the latter and she already had someone in mind. Her father had hired someone; why couldn't she?

Kimber came into the room and stood behind her. "You're serious. You're just going to go by Jem," she said.

"My legal name is Jerrica Benton. I'll simply be known as Jem," she replied as she worked a bit more on her make-up. She turned and faced her sister. "I've also been thinking…about Synergy."

"What about Synergy?"

"We gave out the story that my earrings project the holograms. The government knows about Synergy, and how long do you think it would take for someone to leak out the information, or for someone to put two and two together?" Jem asked. "I think the safest way is to dismantle Synergy, but keep the hard drive-that has Mom's master tapes on it."

"Dismantle Synergy?" Kimber squeaked. "After all the work Dad did?"

"Don't you see? All this time we've been risking having her fall into the wrong hands. You saw how it was when the Pentagon got hold of her. I hate to say it, but there's really no need for Synergy anymore."

"Aja put in a voice-recognition program," Kimber pointed out.

Jem sighed and rested her elbows on the vanity, and her chin in her hands. "This whole weekend has just been crazy," she said. "Maybe I am being a bit too hasty. I just need time to think."

"At least our group is still well-liked," Kimber said. "It's like no one cares you were singing and promoting. Speaking of that-who do you have in mind to help run things?"

"I was thinking about Sean Harrison. He's responsible and I know he's wanting something steady," Jem said as she sat up straight.

"You'll get no argument from me on that one, Sis."

The two sisters could hear the phone ringing and Raya answering it. "Jem, it's for you," Raya called after a few moments.

Jem picked up her extension. "Hello?"

"It's Riot," said the voice on the other end. "How have you been?"

"All right, given what's been going on," she said, relieved that Riot seemed to want to talk to her.

"You wouldn't happen to have a computer that projects holograms, would you?" he asked.

Her eyes widened. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Eric Raymond suspects you have such a computer, and from what I hear he'll stop at nothing to take it."