A school bell rang and a mass of teenagers hurriedly shoved books into school bags.
"Don't forget your projects are due tomorrow!" the teacher called out above the voiceless noise. "And Miss Kidman, please stay behind for five minutes. I'd like to discuss something with you!"
Charlotte gave a mild groan: she had been looking forward to eating her lunch and now recess was delayed an extra five minutes.
"What's up, Miss Mullins?" Charlotte asked when all of the noise had migrated to the outside and the classroom was notably quiet.
"It's about your classmate, Miss Burnet." The teacher began.
"Explosibeth?" Charlotte chimed automatically.
Elizabeth Burnet had earned the unfortunate nickname Explosibeth on account of her dangerous temper. The point-and-whisper type student would often remark how she could explode at what they considered nothing at all.
"It's a teacher's duty, primarily, to educate children. But we also have a duty to see to their emotional and psychological wellbeing. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how dangerous an unstable, lonely child can be. Thank the stars we have gun laws in this country." The teacher continued.
"So what's this got to do with me?" Charlotte asked.
"You're a pretty easygoing kid," Mullins explained. "Maybe you can extend a friendly hand toward her."
"Become her friend because a teacher told me to?" the request felt as weird and sad as it sounded.
"I know it's not how things usually work, but sometimes an unusual situation calls for an unusual course of action. if anyone can pull this off, you can."
"I'll give it a shot, Teach'." Charlotte answered and turned to leave.
"One more thing," Mullins added before Charlotte was outside the classroom, "Maybe not call her Explosibeth?"
"Mind if I sit?"
Elizabeth looked up from her lunch and noticed Charlotte standing beyond the table. "Go ahead." She said plainly and Charlotte made herself comfortable as she set down her plate.
"Pasta today," Charlotte said as she eagerly twisted her fork to load it with spaghetti. "I am officially glad I got out of bed this morning."
"Not to be rude, but where are your usual friends?" Elizabeth asked.
"I dunno," Charlotte answered. "Probably having an emergency gossip meeting. I felt like sitting with someone new today." She explained chirpily.
"Fair enough," Elizabeth said as she returned her attention to her lunch.
"So what are you doing after school?" Charlotte asked as she chewed on a mouthful of starch and cheese.
"I'm heading home. I've finished my project, so some of my non-existent friends are coming over so we can play some video games together." She answered nonchalantly.
"I say blow 'em off and come hang out with me instead." Charlotte said with a grin.
"What games do you have?"
"Do you really have superheroes for uncles?" Elizabeth asked as they were strolling home from school.
"I wouldn't call them superheroes, but kind of, yeah. Wanna meet 'em?" Charlotte asked, finally having found a way to appeal to her newly assigned friend.
"Would it be alright?" Elizabeth answered with a question of her own.
"Of course!" Charlotte answered. "They're not the coolest guys you'll ever meet, but they're nice enough."
Upon arriving at the Kidman residence, Charlotte noticed a strange vehicle in the driveway. "Looks like we've got visitors." She remarked.
The pair of youths walked into the kitchen to find Allan and Edward conversing with an unknown man.
"Hi, guys," Charlotte said casually as she strolled through the doorway. "This is Elizabeth, from school."
"I'd prefer if everyone called me Bessie" Elizabeth requested.
"Nice to meet you." Edward greeted. "Listen, kids. Would you mind going into the living room and waiting there? We're discussing something confidential."
"And don't stand around the corner and eavesdrop," Allan added as the girls walked out.
Charlotte and Bessie were in the middle of a race when Bessie suddenly paused the action.
"What is it?" Charlotte asked, mildly disappointed at being interrupted just as she was about to deploy a yellow shell into the race.
"I just can't help but wonder what that conversation in the kitchen is about."
"Oh, that," Charlotte said plainly. "A while ago my uncles fought a fire being and sealed it in its own weapon. The people looking after the weapon need my uncles to take over guarding it for a few days because the place where it's supposed to be kept is being renovated."
"You could hear all that from all the way over here?" Bessie asked sounding quite impressed.
"Nope." Charlotte answered. "I planned on eavesdropping on Edward later when he tells his girlfriend."
"You really can see the future? I thought it was just a rumour!" Bessie exclaimed.
"Yeah, kids have this way of believing all the wrong rumours." Charlotte remarked.
"So you're like a superhero too?" Bessie deduced.
"Insofar as my uncles are, you could say that." Charlotte conceded.
"Can I become a superhero?" Bessie asked hopefully.
"Sure. All you need is really good bad luck." Charlotte joked as Bessie resumed the game.
"So how much of that did you get?" Edward said as he entered the living room where his niece and her new friend were playing video games.
"All of it." Charlotte said without taking her eyes off the screen.
"Darn it." Edward swung a fist past his torso. "we won't have to kill…" he struggled with the name.
"Bessie." Charlotte assisted.
"Bessie, will we?" Edward finished.
"I won't say a word! Promise!" Bessie guaranteed.
"Wanna go see the creature's weapon?" Charlotte asked later when they had grown tired of the racing game for the day.
"Would that be all right?"
"As long as we don't touch it the thing can't get out, so it shouldn't be a problem."
After making their way to the safe, Charlotte entered the combination and the door swung open. Dark Allan's pitchfork was still encased in titanium which isolated it and made it safe for handling.
"Cooool." Bessie admired the gleaming shell. "There's really a demon in here?" she asked.
"A more accurate term would be 'alien'." Charlotte corrected. "Let's peek inside." She said, pulling at the wrist of one of her special fingerless gloves.
Like magic, and before Bessie could protest, a vial containing a powerful acid appeared in Charlotte's hand. She used it to eat away at the casing until a portion of the dark material became visible.
"Stop!" Flo's voice rang through the room. Turning shapeless, she blasted herself in between the two girls and engulfed the exposed pitchfork into her body.
"Flo, what are you doing?" Charlotte said desperately. "We're not supposed to touch that thing directly or the creature will form a body again!"
"It's all right." Flo defended. "I have full control over my molecules so none of them will stay behind on the substance. Also, my composition will notice any traces of it should it try to bond with me directly, and eliminate the threat before there is any danger." Her expression turned stern "The two of you are acting irresponsibly. Exposing the dark stone could throw this planet and many others back into jeopardy. You should feel shame."
There was a reason Bessie was known as "Explosibeth" at school, and this reason was now on the brink of being illustrated. Bessie figured since her friend was the one who opened the weapon and she had had no part in it, there was no reason for Flo to reprimand her. She was one stern look away from snapping. The next moment Flo provided this stern look.
Without her thinking about it, the fingers on Bessie's left hand met its palm and her fist whistled through the air before sinking into what passed for Flo's jaw. Flo barely moved.
"What are you?" Bessie asked as she pulled her hand out of Flo's face and it returned to its usual shape.
"I am not just one thing." Flo answered. "I fathom your indignance at being rebuked, but you must understand, my actions are geared toward keeping this world and others safe. I will take the weapon to Edward so he can restore the coating. Please return to your games."
Charlotte had just changed up the game in the console and sat down when Nate Beta-Unit sounded an alarm.
"What does that mean?" Bessie asked audibly suppressing her panic.
"Bad guys." Charlotte explained as she stood up and began to leave. "Stay put."
"What do we have today?" Charlotte asked Allan as they met in the hallway.
"Brains and brawn." Allan answered, charging his trident and levitating it above his head as they ran.
Sure enough, as they exited the front door they were met by Professor Tech and Mayhem. The former carried a rifle-like device and the latter carried his most dangerous weapon of all – a pair of fists.
"What do you want?" Allan asked the intruders as Edward came out of the house and joined him.
"We're on a retrieval mission. One of our scouts saw some people drop off a trinket that looked rather important. The boss decided he needs it."
"Go back to your boss and tell him he can't have it." Allan retorted as he stiffened his psychic grip on the trident gently bobbing above his head.
"That's not one of the options," Tech replied. "You give it to us, or we take it by force."
Tech fired an energy blast which Allan deflected by lowering his trident in front of him and spinning it. Charlotte threw a ball of acid hoping to damage Tech's weapon but it was intercepted by a second blast which spilled its contents on the driveway.
Edward lobbed a ball of red phosphorous which caught fire in mid-air. Mayhem swatted it aside with the back of his hand but some of it stuck and granted him a flaming punch along with a steady source of pain which, as Edward was now well aware, was useful in building both Mayhem's rage and strength.
As Mayhem motioned toward Edward Vicky arrived overhead and slowed him down with her beam. Zoe appeared from a nearby power line and launched a surge of lightning at Mayhem before he could regain movement. Mayhem dropped as a normal person would upon being tazed. His nails dug into the ground as he pushed himself back up to his feet.
Tech threw a switch on his weapon and it now fired a narrow blue tractor beam. The beam gripped Edward, who scrambled as it slowly dragged him toward the corrosive acid from Charlotte's earlier attack.
Noticing his brother's peril, Allan rushed toward Edward and grabbed his arm, trying to resist the pull of the beam, but its influence spread to Allan and now both of them were being dragged. Vicky realised this and used her beam to hold them in place for as long as she could. Her efforts paid off as the weapon overloaded and shut itself off. As Tech retreated to hurriedly repair the damage the five were left to face Mayhem together.
Meanwhile inside the house Bessie heard movement in the hallway. She peered around the corner and noticed a small drone flying through the house. As silently as she could she followed it to try and learn what it was looking for. Sure enough it happened upon Flo and, after a quick scan, located its target within her liquid structure. It extended a metal claw which attempted to grab the object just a few inches beneath her surface, but she realised this and hardened herself into a stone. The next moment the drone emitted a shrill sound which did little more to Bessie than hurt her ears, but it was pitched at Flo's resonant frequency and her shape began to wobble with the sound waves, before shaking loose from the object it guarded and oozing weakly into a purple puddle across the floor. The drone claimed its spoils – the casing of which Edward had already managed to repair – and returned along the path from which it had come.
Bessie's mind raced for an idea and found one. She dove onto the drone hoping to weigh it down. She had overestimated her own body weight and the drone flew on unhindered.
"Looks like we got what we came for." Tech said as he noticed the drone return with its metallic loot. "And a bonus hostage. It's not every day you get something for free."
Having repaired his weapon, he threw another switch and at the pull of the trigger it set off a blinding light. The heroes reeled as their sight was reduced to nothing for a few seconds. A few seconds was all the villains needed to seize their new captive and return to their craft which sped back to their base of operations.
"We need to go after them." Edward pointed out the obvious once everyone's sight had returned. "For one thing, Bessie's parents will be worried if they don't hear from her. For another, they took the Dark Stone and the thing inside it. We need to get it back as soon as we can or the planet could be at risk of getting cooked all over again.
The heroes gathered their wits and prepared their weapons before setting out for Hazard Inc. headquarters.
"Explain something to me, Professor." Leather Jack was impatiently tapping his foot as he held his hands buried in the pockets of the leather jacket that gave him his name. "When did Hazard Inc. become a babysitting service?"
Mayhem was gripping Bessie's hands tightly behind her back and as much as she squirmed and kicked his grip would not slack. Lucky for her he also covered her mouth because she was spouting muffled insults that would have caused even Leather Jack to raise an eyebrow.
"It's a hostage." Tech explained simply. "We can use her as leverage when- "
"We don't take hostages!" Leather Jack thundered. "We take test subjects, targets and victims!"
"Do you want me to… take care of her?" Tech asked.
"Not now." Jack answered. "I haven't prepared a cleanup team. Stuff her in a capsule. I'll deal with her later."
Zoe welded a vent grating back in place with an arc from two of her fingertips: if anyone in the evil organisation noticed anything out of place they would have known where to start searching. Like so many times before the group of seven made their way through the labyrinthine tunnels above the Hazard Inc. base. Charlotte led the way as she could use her gift to map out the route that allowed them to go into the deepest reaches of the base without detection.
Stasis capsules were meant to keep sedated subjects suspended in fluid. Since Bessie was neither sedated nor suspended in fluid it did not take her long to cause enough damage for the capsule to break open. She lowered herself back down to the floor, shook a large oblong panel loose from the damaged capsule and started – as she would put it – "wrecking stuff". The noise alerted a wave of Biotroops and they poured into the laboratory where Bessie was laying waste to everything she could see. When she noticed the artificial lifeforms she laid waste to them as well. Some were batted into exposed wires or pointy shards of broken equipment, some were slammed into others of their kind, and some had their heads knocked clean off. They outnumbered her before long, however, and she made a break for the exit after throwing her temporary weapon at the nearest few.
Running as fast as her legs would carry her, she set off multiple alarms and more and more Biotroops came from everywhere.
Meanwhile Leather Jack and professor Tech were discussing their newly acquired pickings.
"So why all the fuss about a solid hunk of steel?" Jack asked.
"It's neither steel nor solid." Tech explained. "The metal is a casing for something inside. I'll corrode the shell away and see what we have."
Sure enough, the casing was removed and the pair of villains looked at the now exposed weapon of Dark Allan.
"Is that a black pitchfork?" Jack asked.
"It certainly looks like one." Tech observed. "My guess is its real value lies in the material that composes it. I could put a sample of it into my Mass Spectrometer so I can analyse it, but seeing as it was cased in metal I can only assume it's harmful to the touch."
"Have a Biotroop do it." Jack suggested. Tech's claws rattled across a keyboard and the local Biotroop Producer created a fresh artificial life form which lifted the weapon and carried it to a workbench where it would break off a tiny sample for analysis.
The inhabitant of the Dark Stone stirred. It finally felt living tissue on its vessel again. Without a second thought it poured out and sampled the new form it would occupy. This genetic code was simple and replicating it was much quicker than was the case with its previous benefactor. In less than a minute what looked like a deep red Biotroop took shape, the back of its neck and arms ignited and a pair of glowing eyes appeared as if switched on by means of an unseen dial as the being came to its feet. A prime desire reawakened inside its mind, but this new mind was much simpler than the previous one and all it could comprehend was whatever command was transmitted to it from a Hazard Inc. computer or Jack's voice directly. The fire in the dim laboratory light reflected off Leather Jack's dark sunglasses.
"Most fascinating," Jack said as a smile fissured his lips, exposing the teeth that gripped his cigar. "I'm sure we'll have quite a bit of fun with this one…"
Charlotte suddenly stopped leading and stared ahead blankly.
"What is it?" Vicky asked. "Why did we stop?"
"For some reason we can go just about anywhere now." Charlotte answered. "It's like all the Biotroops are…" she paused as she played through the options in her mind one more time.
"Gone?" Edward completed her sentence.
"Y- Wait, no." She corrected. "They're all coming together. I think they're swarming Bessie!"
Bessie swung her arms violently as she tried to keep the Biotroops at bay. She was starting to grow fatigued from trying to run and fight at the same time while outnumbered. Eventually a few of the artificial lifeforms managed to restrain her. The next moment a thin, purple liquid slipped in between Bessie's arms and the hands of her captors. The mysterious liquid suddenly hardened and expanded all at once and forced Bessie out of the inescapable grip. She fell to the ground as the Biotroops were dragged away by the now solid purple film which contracted and revealed itself to be Flo. Her companions were assembled behind the space she now occupied and they then stormed the Biotroops that had attempted to capture Bessie moments earlier.
"Go! We'll take care of these guys!" Charlotte called out above the ruckus as she shattered a capsule of unknown chemicals on the head of an unlucky Biotroop, causing it to attack its allies.
"Before you go, take this!" Nate said in an amplified voice and launched a small circular object in Bessie's direction which she caught. "It's a tracking device. If you get lost we'll come find you. Just keep moving and find a place to hide if you can!"
Allan loaded his trident with energy and guided it prongs first through multiple Biotroops. Edward slashed a few, froze a few in place and blasted a few with plasma. Zoe electrocuted chains of them at once while Vicky hooked one at the end of her rope and swung it into others. Flo stretched herself into a wide, thin shape, wrapping herself around several troops at once and crushing them in an instant. Charlotte hurled bombs of poison and acid which had all manner of unpleasant effects and Nate used his arsenal of ranged weapons to shoot Biotroops down in scores. The massive, overwhelming hoard of artificial lifeforms that had attempted to overpower Bessie was now being cut down like a massive lawn getting mowed after standing unattended for a month.
No longer plagued by enemies on all sides, Bessie came upon her second wind and was now making her way through the Hazard Inc. corridors looking for an exit or a place to hide. She felt like wrecking more of the base – she certainly felt they deserved it given the way they had treated her – but she did not feel like drawing attention to herself again. Finally, she came upon something that could have allowed her the chance to escape or a place to hide, as well as an opportunity to damage some Hazard Inc. equipment: a door with an automatic lock mechanism. She doubled back and grabbed a chair from a desk she passed by earlier and returned to the door before letting loose. Holding the chair by the legs, she beat the door's lock mechanism with the back rest until something gave way and the door hung open. Bessie put the chair down and passed through the newly accessible doorway.
"Is there no end to your pestering?" Bessie jumped at the sound of Jack's voice. To her surprise she had stumbled upon the very control room she had been removed from earlier and the villains were still prodding at the Dark Stone.
"Looks like it can't be helped. I'll have to deal with her now. Mayhem!"
Mayhem secured Bessie in a grip and tied her hands and feet together so she was unable to go anywhere in a hurry. The evidence of a new idea contorted Jack's face into a smile.
"Who needs a cleanup team if a single biotroop with a broom can sweep away ashes?"
Bessie's heart was now pounding in her throat.
"You there! Firetroop! Torch this brat!"
Edward and the others arrived just in time to see the red Biotroop raise its palm up at Bessie and veil her in flames so hot they could feel the heat just by looking at them.
"Bessie!" Charlotte called out above the roar of the flames and fell weakly to her knees, staring ahead with her mouth open but unable to say anything. She prepared herself for the horrific sight of her new friend as a heap of ash.
The flames subsided and Charlotte's eyes adjusted to the dim light of the control room. She caught her breath and rubbed her eyes to make sure she saw what the thought she saw. There, right in front of her, was Bessie without so much as a blister.
Flo was the first to deduce what had happened and in an instant transmitted the message directly into Bessie's mind.
When I contained the exposed stone, some of the creature tried to bond with my cosmoplasm, but I was able to defeat it. Without me noticing, the defeated traces entered your blood stream when you tried to hit me and acted like a sort of vaccine, enabling you to resist and create severe heat
"What?!" A moment of disbelief passed through Bessie's mind, but there were more pressing matters at hand. Bessie quickly gained control of her heating ability and dashed about the control room with her hands extended. Everything she touched melted or burst into flames, so she made a point of touching everything that looked expensive. Eventually she came upon the Dark Stone which began to burn with a heat that overwhelmed everyone except Bessie. The villains turned tail and fled while the heroes noticed in horror that the Dark Stone was finally starting to burn as it was intended to do. Nate was first to act and strained his resources to create a force field around the burning rock and its immediate surroundings.
"What's going on?" Bessie asked, noticing the horror on everyone's faces.
"The heat of this burning stone could incinerate the planet. We have to put it out immediately!" Nate explained.
"Let me in! Maybe I can do something!" Bessie suggested.
"No!" Edward protested. "You came into our house, and that means we're responsible for your safety. I can't allow it."
"I'll be fine!" Bessie urged. "You saw how that blast didn't harm me earlier. Flo says I'm immune to fire!"
"Is she really?" Edward asked, and Flo nodded.
"Okay." Edward conceded. "Get in there and do your thing. But hurry up. I'm not sure Nate can take much more of this."
A momentary wave of unimaginable heat washed over the company as Bessie slipped through a temporary gap in the force field.
"Watch out!" Allan blasted a trident beam at a surge of fire aimed at Nate: The Firetroop had not yet been beaten and it now realised, for some reason, that it needed to remove the entity that was preventing the heat of the Dark Stone from spreading.
"Keep at it, Nate." Allan encouraged. "We'll deal with this guy."
Around them the Hazard Inc. base was ablaze. Allan, Edward, Vicky, Zoe and Charlotte sized up the fire-powered Biotroop. The next moment Charlotte dove at Allan just as a rush of flames decimated the area where he had stood. The creature aimed another blast but Charlotte shattered a capsule at her feet, cloaking herself and Allan in white smoke.
Zoe sent a blast of lightning at the foe, but due to the massive heat of the air surrounding the Firetroop the current was greatly diminished. Vicky shifted into her healing form and used her wings to climb into the air. She distracted the creature who wasted a few of its shots trying to hit her – Vicky's aerial agility had greatly improved since her meeting with the source of her powers – and the distraction gave her teammates a few valuable moments to compose themselves.
Bessie felt lightheaded. The burning dark stone was drawing all the breathable air inside the force field toward itself. The idea dawned on her that they could just wait it out until the oxygen was depleted, but the real question was whether the force field would last long enough. Whatever Bessie was going to do, she had precious little time in which to do it. The smoke, heat haze and orange light from the fire made the area feel almost otherworldly. She strained her eyes to see the burning stone and lifted it. She instinctively tried to blow it out, even though she knew it wouldn't work. An idea dawned on her: if it was just a matter of what gave out first, maybe she could force it to burn more quickly. Taking the stone into both arms, she hugged it against her torso and willed herself to the highest temperature she could manage. It began to glow orange, then yellow, then white and the next moment it began to melt. But as it did, instead of dripping to the floor and scorching it, it permeated Bessie's skin and absorbed into her bloodstream. Understandably Bessie panicked for a moment but then she realised all the remaining heat was coming from her. She cooled herself down again and so did the temperature inside the force field.
The Firetroop felt a chill down its side as Edward sprayed it with liquid nitrogen. It turned to face him and blasted him aside with an explosion. Edward twisted on the floor where he fell, trying to get up again. Eventually the smoke surrounding Allan and Charlotte dissipated. The creature's glowing eyes locked onto Allan's, which widened: as he reached for his strap he realised that his trident had gone missing in the smoke and confusion. The creature realised this was his chance. It charged up an unfathomably hot blast and focused it into its hands which were outstretched toward Allan. The creature grew so hot that even the ground around its feet melted. One blast was all it would take to rid the world of its biggest threat. Allan's alarmed façade dropped and he cracked a smile.
"The problem with going for an opponent when you think they've been weakened is that it becomes your priority." He said slowly. "But you've already lost. You've been so focused on me in my compromised state that you failed to notice the blue glow hovering right above your head."
The next moment the orange light from the fire was drowned out by an even brighter cyan light as a roar like a giant wave and violent steam deafened everyone present. When the noise finally died down and only the sound of the flames from the burning enemy base was left, Nate finally ran out of power and the force field dissipated as the lifeless robot fell to the ground. To everyone's relief the burning Dark Stone was gone and only Bessie stood where it once was burning.
"What happened?" Edward asked as he hoisted Nate's depleted bodywork onto his back.
"I accidentally melted the stone." Bessie explained. "I think it drew into my skin."
Flo gave Bessie a quick once-over and confirmed her theory. "The fragment of the dark stone that was the creature's weapon exists within your blood now." She explained.
"What does that mean?" Zoe asked.
"I think we should leave the questions for later." Vicky interjected. "We are still inside a burning building. We should get out of here."
"You're not going anywhere!" Leather Jack had returned and he was now livid. "Look at what you've done to the place! Mayhem!"The hulking brute appeared and readied himself to administer a beating. "Pummel them. Snap their necks. Break them into bits. Slaughter them!"
The heroes were horribly fatigued but readied themselves for a battle nonetheless. Just then Bessie stepped out ahead of them.
"I'll handle this," she said calmly. She stuck out a hand at the advancing Mayhem and discharged a massive flare, bowling him over and pounding him and his master into the wall behind them. Now that the Dark Stone had been absorbed into her being she could launch actual flames rather than merely increase her body temperature to immensely high levels.
Back home, Nate had been recharged and was back to life, and Bessie was getting ready to head back to her own dwelling. Her mother had left fifteen voice messages and sent countless texts, so she had more than a little explaining to do.
"So I'll see you at school tomorrow, OK?" she said to Charlotte.
"Wait," Charlotte said just as Bessie was leaving. "There's something I'd rather you hear it from me. This morning when I talked to you… I only did it because Mullins asked me to."
"Oh… I…" Bessie looked for a good way to deal with Charlotte's honesty. "I'm glad she did." She eventually said with a smile.
"Yeah. Me too," came Charlotte's reply.
"So, I've had my really good bad luck. Do I get to be on the team?" Bessie asked.
"You already are." Charlotte answered. "See ya, Bessie."
"You can call me Explosibeth."
THE END
"Look at what those morons did to my beautiful control room! Hazard Inc. will not stand for this!" Jack ranted. "Next time I see that twerp I'll put out her fire for good! How soon can you get the Biotroop producer back up and running so they can fix this place up?"
"I'll need to replace most of the fuses and the circuit boards have been melted," Tech answered.
"What's that in time?" Jack urged.
"Five days."
"Make it three."
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the villains, stuck in a portion of the floor that had cooled again after being melted, the gaseous bulk of the creature from the Dark Stone wondered when next it would encounter living tissue.