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Author's Note: Here's Chapter six, finally. Sometimes there's chapters in stories that when you're writing or in my case trying to write that just don't come to you right away. This was one of those chapters. I knew what I wanted but I just couldn't get it typed. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and DC Comics for their wonderful characters.

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Chapter Six:

I wanted to scream. I mean how often do floating gold things talk to you? Instead I kind of stood there, staring in shocked awe at the golden orb as it hovered in front of me. There was no way this was possible. I blinked but it didn’t go away. So I closed my eyes, counted to twenty inside my head and opened them again. But the damn orb thingy was still there. It didn’t speak again but it continued to hover in front of me, the little red light did get kind of bigger though. It moved, too, looking me up and down. I looked down too, trying to see what it saw that was so fascinating. I was a wearing a pair of skinny leg jeans---Rick bought them because a lot of girls around campus wore them--- and a white t-shirt with a picture of the NU Wildcat on it. Rick got that because he thought it would make me feel more natural.

I found my voice finally. When I spoke, it was soft and barely audible. “What the hell are you?”

At first, the orb said nothing. It continued to look me other with that red eye. “You don’t know who I am?”

I shook my head. It sighed. “I was afraid of this. It would appear that you resemble her a great deal but after scanning you, I have found some genetic differences. They are minor but they are there. It’s strange because you two are very similar, perhaps relatives. Tell me what is today’s date?”

I took a deep breath. What the hell was this thing? I answered in my soft voice again: “It’s April 15th.”

“And the year?”

This thing was joking right. “2011”

It sighed or at least it sounded like a sigh. The thing had a strange voice. It was kind of mechanical and British, almost like the brother in Frasier. I’d like to say almost C-3P0 but not nearly as stuffy and annoying but it did have the whole gold thing going for it.

I asked my first question again. This time it answered.

“I am a BX9 Security Drone, property of the Time Corps Police Force, designated number 0098765. My previous partner, Goldstar, called me Skeets.”

Most of that was crap to me except the last part. “Did you say Time Corps?”

“Yes. I am a representative of a police force that monitors temporal anomalies. My partner and I were tracking a dangerous criminal AI calling itself Brother Eye. It created an illegal time portal and disappeared into it before we could apprehend it.”

I nodded. Again, it was geek to me. The time travel part I got but the rest of it, I felt like I was talking to Rick when he got all nerd on me. “And your partner is this Goldstar?”

“Yes, she and I followed Brother Eye into the temporal portal but something happened. The portal was unstable and depolarized before we could calibrate to it. There was a massive disturbance of some kind and the two of us were separated.”

I nodded. I think I was slowly starting to follow this thing. Finally. But it still sounded crazy. But I suppose it wasn’t anymore crazy than a normal healthy nineteen year old male changing into a chick over night. So time travel and floating gold robot things, not so crazy after all. But the fact that it was talking to me, that’s what I was having a problem with. A couple of days ago this thing was nothing more than a motionless gold football and now, who knows what it was. I know what it said it was but that meant very little to me. For all I know I could of slipped and hit my head and this is all just some crazy illusion.

The thing, Skeets, floated over to the window. It hovered there for some time, looking I think. I slowly walked up behind it, trying to keep my distance. I’m not sure if I trusted this funky thing. It hovered and looked for some time then it turned to me.

“This city is Chicago, is it not?” I nodded. “In my time it is called New Gotham. Most of this area is still here but it’s considered a highly underdeveloped zone. Most of the buildings in the twenty fifth century are three times taller than your tallest one here. This is most strange indeed.”

“The 25th Century?”

It didn’t answer. Instead, it floated over to the desk in the corner where Rick’s laptop was sitting. “Do you still use the Internet in this century?” I nodded again. “How primitive. I need to use this console device to access the network. I am afraid that I have been in hibernation for far too long.”

It didn’t wait for my say so. Instead, a small hole opened in the side of it and a whip-like cord came out. It snapped through the air and stuck into the front of the laptop. Skeets started to glow and hum, vibrating slightly. It didn’t last for long. We had Wi-Fi but this was crazy. I’d never seen anything like it. When it was finished, it stopped humming and the cord snapped back into it. Then it floated over to me again, hovering close to my face like before. Didn’t It know anything about personal space? I took a step back, hoping it wouldn’t follow. It didn’t.

“I have finished updating my internal databases. I am now up to date on all the comings and goings of the past three or four centuries, where most of your relevant data is stored. Though my own historical databases were once extensive, they seemed to have been damaged some in the Jump. I can still recall some things but most of my database is corrupted. The accumulation of knowledge is quite important to me.”

I nodded and smiled. It was a fake smile and nod. I had no idea what the thing was talking about. It definitely picked the wrong guy…err…chick to talk too. “Are you telling me that you surfed the whole web in a matter of seconds?”

“Yes if you mean that I have thoroughly copied and downloaded every bit of relevant data I could find.”

“What are you looking for exactly?”

“Goldstar of course.”

“Did you find her?”

He made that sighing sound again. “I believe I have. It is most tragic indeed. Apparently, the time portal threw her into the Dark Ages and she was believed to be a witch. The primitives of the time captured her and burned her alive. If I had emotions or tear ducts I would mourn for her.”

Damn, tough break. I felt bad for the little dude but it was hardly my problem. “So what are you going to do now?”

“Continue our mission of course.”

I nodded, leaving it standing by the desk. “Good luck with that. You can open the door by yourself can’t you?”

I walked over to the couch, dropped down on it and snatched up the remote. I flicked on the TV, avoiding the news this time. There was no way I was going to make that mistake again. I found some cartoons. There wasn’t much on during the mid-afternoon. As much as I wanted to talk more to the gold dude, it was too freaky to worry about. After all, its partner was dead; she died a long time ago. That was hardly my problem. The only thing I cared about when I grabbed it was selling it. Now that it was apparently alive and floating about, I could hardly do that. As cool as it was, I couldn’t keep it either. There were too many problems with that plan.

It floated over to me, dropping down in front of the TV, blocking Sponge Bob.

“You do not wish to assist me?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. This thing was a crazy robot from the future. The faster it was out of my new luxurious hair the better. “Look, your name is Skeets, right? Look Skeets, I’d love to help you out but frankly, I’m not sure where this involves me. I found you gathering dust in a museum basement. I only took you because I needed cash and thought I could get a fortune from you. I’m sure you’re grateful that I liberated you but I’m not in the mood to get involved in your mission. I have my own problems to sort out.”

Skeets moved closer to me, too close. His red eye thingy started to glow and this strange red beam emitted from it, hitting me right in the eye. I tried to swat it away but it was no use. The beam stayed there for a few seconds. It kind of tingled a little and then went away. It pissed me off. I felt my anger rise a little bit but forced it back down. I’m not sure I wanted to get angry again, especially after what I did earlier.

I opened my mouth to tell it what I was thinking but never got a chance. I heard the key in the lock before the door opened. Skeets must have heard it too because I only looked at the door for a second and when I snapped back to tell it to scram, it was gone. How in the hell did it move that fast? I looked about a bit but it was really gone. I shrugged and shut off the TV as Rick walked into the room. He was carrying a pile of books, looking exhausted. I did my best not too care. He looked at me and smiled, setting the books on the little table near the door.

“You wouldn’t imagine the mob outside the building right now; I had to fight my way through. Tom actually had to help me.”

Tom is the front door man. I guess I never mentioned him because I didn’t think he was relevant.
I nodded and looked about, wondering where my little gold friend disappeared to. “Are they still trying to find a sound bite about the museum?”

Rick looked at me like I’d just grown a third boob. Hey, that would be kind of hot, like that chick from Total Recall. “You haven’t been watching the news?”

I shook my head. I was avoiding it ever since I went all Magnet Girl.

He abandoned the rest of his stuff, snatched the remote from my hand and clicked on the TV. He flipped to local news and what I saw made me groan. It was an exterior view of some bank, police cars and news vans swarming the building. There were a lot of people there too. I looked down at the words scrolled across the screen: CARTER STRIKES AGAIN. What the hell is this? I dropped onto the couch while Rose Levin stepped into frame. She was beginning to look less hot and more like a nuisance every time I saw her, especially when she dragged my good name through the mud.

“This is Rose Levin, outside the municipal bank on Lakeshore.” I groaned; that was down the street. I even had an account there. “At one o’clock this afternoon, college football phenom Michael Carter walked into the building behind me, armed with a small pistol and demanded a large amount of cash from one of the tellers. The young woman bravely faced down the troubled youth, pushed the silent alarm and waited patiently while police arrived. Mr. Carter, sensing the inevitable fled the scene in a rush. We will have video of the whole incident momentarily.”

“What the fuck is this?”

“You tell me,” said Rick, sighing, slumped in the chair. He glanced around the messy room and back at me. But something told me he wasn’t talking about the apartment.

“How the hell should I know? You and I were still on our way back from the visit with your aunt. Unless I can spontaneously change genders and be in two places at once, I don’t think it was me.”

Ok so I did spontaneously change genders but there was no way I could multiply myself. Rick stared at me for a few seconds, his eyes narrowing. Then he sighed, looking more relieved than ever. I think the stress was getting to him. It was getting to me, too. It’s not every day that you rob a bank and are not around for the actual robbery.

“I thought maybe you had some power that…”

“I don’t have any power you jackass.”

Ok so I decided at that second not to tell him about my new found gifts. I didn’t want to freak him out anymore than he already was. He looked like hell. I don’t think he slept much last night. His hair was disheveled and his clothes looked a little rumpled. Rick was a clean guy and well groomed too. He always took the time to take care of his personal appearance. Besides being a bit clingy and overprotective as of late---i.e. the last day or so---he was always a cut up kind of guy. The guy sitting in the chair across the room was anything but. I think both my situations were getting to him more than they were me.

“So if it wasn’t you, then who…”

I cut him off. “How in the hell should I know. It’s just like the museum. I’ll admit to wanting to steal the gem, hell I almost did but those dorks caught me in the act. I took off after that, ran through the basement to get out there. Whoever robbed the museum did it after I left but somehow pretended to be me. The same thing must have happened here, too.”

“But why you?”

I was thinking the same thing. Everyone loved me or so I thought. I wasn’t so sure about my fucking teammates and the Coach. At least Rick still thought of me as a bud, even if he thought I actually robbed that bank. But seriously, not all those who pretended to like me hated me enough to frame me like this. There was only one person who was really pissed at me and that was Ballard. But it still didn’t explain why Ballard would pull this shit. I figured he’d try something, but why go to all the trouble of telling me to swipe the gem and then send someone else to do it after I failed. Then pull a bank job a day or so afterwards. It didn’t make any sense. I know he was pissed, but he needed to get over it already. That gem he took---whichever one it was---was more than enough to pay off my debt to him. Unless he held a bigger grudge than I thought. I groaned, rubbing my temples. This guy has serious issues.
“It’s got to be Ballard,” I finally said.

Rick slowly got to his feet, walking over to the phone. “I’m calling my Dad.”

I watched as he picked up the handset and called his old man. The two of them started to talk; Rick wandered over to his bedroom to do so. Me I sat on the couch, pulling my legs up into my chest, wrapping my arms around them. It was kind of a girly thing to do I know but I wasn’t feeling particularly manly at the moment. I continued to stare at the TV, watching the scenes unfold. It was muted now; Rose was talking to people, apparently eyewitnesses. It didn’t make any sense. Why would Ballard want to besmirch my name like this? He got what he wanted, didn’t he? But the bigger question was how did he do it? How in the hell did he make someone look like me?

I wracked my brain but couldn’t come up with a thing.

Rick came walking back into the room. He looked like someone poisoned his drink. He moved kind of slow, setting the handset gently on the receiver as he did so. He looked at me and I could tell it was bad news.

“The old man doesn’t want you anywhere near me, does he?”

Rick sighed and nodded. “He thinks that my association with you might somehow reflect badly on him. I tried to talk him out of it but he threatened to cut me off and pull me from school.” Rick sighed, dropping into the chair. “I either play along or its bye bye Northwestern.”

That fucking sucked. I knew the old man hated me but this was ridiculous. Rick was a good friend, probably my best one. I’m sure you might have guessed it but I don’t have a lot. I have loads of fans and pretenders but when it comes down to it, Rick is the only guy who truly befriended me. He didn’t care that I was a football God. He liked me for me and though we were two different people, he treated me like a person.

“You went along with it?”

He sighed. “I don’t want to but he’s not giving me much of a choice. I have until tomorrow morning then he’s sending a car for me.”

I nodded, tears flowing down my cheeks. I sniffled. God damn female hormones. I wiped my face but it didn’t help. I struggled to my feet and stumbled over to him. He stood up slightly and wrapped his arms around me. My mind was a mess and my emotions, don’t even get me started. When he held me, it felt good and not at all the way I wanted. Usually when friends hugged, it was as friends.

Specifically we were two dudes and we used to hug like them. But him hugging me now felt so much different. The strange part, I kind of didn’t want it to stop. When it finally did and he pulled away, my nipples were kind of hard and my lips sort of moist.

I pushed away quickly. My heart was beating a bit. There was no way I was going to let that happened. I liked chicks, I liked chicks a whole lot. I closed my eyes and visualized a hot blonde in a string bikini. I sighed. A sight like that would have given me major wood. But my nipples tweaked a bit and I got a little wet down below. But something happened. The blonde started to transform into me and behind her a man appeared, wrapping strong arms around my waist. When his face came into view, I blanked it out and snapped my eyes open. NOT GOING THERE!

Rick was standing there, staring. I laughed. “What are you waiting around here for, go pack?”

He nodded sadly. “The apartment is paid up until the end of the month; I can front some cash if you want to stay longer…”

I shook my head. “Just go pack you dumb-ass.”

He nodded again and stumbled off to his room.

Me, the tears started flowing again and this time I couldn’t stop. Rick turned from his doorway but I couldn’t let him see me cry again. I snapped around and ran into my bedroom, throwing the door shut behind me. I dropped onto the bed and cried into the pillow.

“I hate to interrupt,” said a mechanical voice. “But you and I need to talk.”

I groaned, grabbed a pillow and threw it at the floating nuisance.

______________________________

“I do not think this is a good idea,” said Skeets, hovering near my head.

At least I think he was. He was hovering somewhere nearby but apparently he had a Stealth Tactical Cloak, sorta like in Star Trek. That’s how he disappeared so quickly when Rick came into the room. He explained it all to me after he dodged the pillow I threw at him. Then he listened to my wallowing sad story. Ok I didn’t really wallow but it was close to it. Not only did he have the Cloak but he had a bunch of other cool little gadgets hidden inside that football-sized body of his. One of them was a Voice Replication function, something that I was really interested in.

“You’re the one who wants my help, right?”

He sighed. “Yes, but how does your helping me have anything to do with you getting in there.”

The there that he was referring too was Wayne Enterprises. The two of us---me visible, him not---were across the street from the towering skyscraper, both staring in awe. It was the only thing I could think of when I came up with my plan. Oh that, right I haven’t explained it yet. Ok so here it is: We need to find Ballard and the only one who might know where his whereabouts is Wayne. I know it’s a long shot and I probably won’t get to see the man but I did have a connection.

I looked at the business card in my hand and smiled. You better be working today, Bea. I held the card in the air. “Can you see this?”

“Yes, I’m cloaked, not blind.”

I turned and looked at the building again. It was a gleaming beacon in a rather dismal looking area of town. Ok, not really dismal but not exactly the best place to be. Thomas Wayne built the building here back when the city was going through some hardships of its own. It was during a time when the economy was struggling and people needed something to look up too. So Wayne Spire---not to be confused with the other famous Chicago landmark---was erected. Now it was hardly the biggest building in the city but it was definitely an eye catcher. Especially with the large W sculpted on the top of it.

“Hurry up and make the call, don’t screw it up or I’m sticking you in the closet tonight.”

So he made the call. It was kind of weird, hearing my voice again. He copied it from the Voice Mail on my cell phone; luckily, I hadn’t changed it yet. That’s what his Voice Replicator thing did. Once he heard a bit of speech, he could copy it after only hearing a few lines. It was kind of freaky but when he demonstrated it earlier by copying my voice---my new one that is---I was hooked. That’s when my plan fell into play. I’d get him to imitate Mike and call Bea, asking her to look up the information for us. If anyone had info on Ballard, it was Wayne, his chief rival.

Skeets tapped into my Blue Tooth so I could hear both sides of the conversation.

“Hello?” I sighed; Bea’s voice was heavenly.

“Hey babe” Skeet’s imitation was uncanny. “Guess who this is?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“I don’t think so”

I smacked my forehead. He may have been a super advanced robot from the future but he definitely needed a crash course in modern human behavior.

“Look you shouldn’t be calling me. If your number appears on my phone, a Wayne Enterprises employee, then that could look bad for everyone involved.”

“I’ll make it brief. I just need you look up someone for me.”

“What am I, 411 now?”

Skeets sighed. Even the sigh sounded like me, the old me I mean. It was kind of creepy. “I just need you to look for someone. Your boss knows him, Henry Ballard.”

“That name is kind of blasphemy around here.”

“I’m not asking you to call the guy into the office. I’m looking for him, it’s kind of important.’

Bea groaned. “Ok but only if it gets you off the phone.”

I smiled, giving Skeets two thumbs up. At least I thought I was giving it to him, this whole invisible thing was driving me nuts. But I couldn’t exactly walk through the streets with him, people would definitely freak out.

The two of us waited for her to come back on the line. We waited ten minutes but she never did. Just when I was thinking she screwed us over, I saw her coming out of the building. I cursed; this wasn’t a part of the plan. She was expecting me---the Mike me---not the hot chick. I slipped further into the alley we were standing in, hoping Skeets would follow. Bea walked to the curb and looked around, holding a slip of paper in her hand. She looked good, real good. She wasn’t dressed as much like a school marm today, her hair actually down. I smiled. Did that mean she was trying to look good for me?
I bit my lip. “Call her back. Tell her to walk across the street and over here.”

I’m not sure if Skeets called her back, but a few seconds later, I saw Bea pull a cell out of her pocket. Skeets told her what I told him. Bea looked both ways and waited then crossed the street in a bit of a run. I slunk back further into the alley. I’m not sure how I was going to explain all of this to her. I suppose I could pretend to be my sister again. But what good would that do. It would be another lie to another person. I’m not sure I could do that again. Hey, listen to me, I actually sound like a real person. Who would have thought that was possible.

“Mike?” she asked, looking about. She groaned. “Carter, where the hell are you. I only get a twenty minute lunch break.”

“Back here, babe,” said my voice, coming out of Skeet’s mouth or whatever it is he had.

Bea shielded her eyes and peered into the alley. She groaned and marched inside. I took a deep breath and stepped forward. When she saw me, she rolled her eyes. She looked around me at first but when she didn’t see anything, she put her hands on her hips. She looked kind of pissed. I guess I couldn’t blame her.

“Don’t send your bimbo. I don’t have all day.”

“I’m not his bimbo, Bea,” I said, my voice small and insignificant. I sighed. “I’m Mike.”

She stared at me for a few seconds. She looked me up and down, her eyes lingering on my feminine bits for a second. Then she looked at my face. “Nice try” she finally said, scoffing. “I talked to Mike on the phone. Where the hell is he, I don’t have time for these games?”

“I’m serious,” I said, stepping forward. “I’m Mike Carter. You remember meeting in the diner, right. Well that night I went to practice, then work. Things happened at work. When I woke us the next morning I looked like this.” I waved my hands over my body.

“I don’t…” her voice trailed off. Then her eyes got big as saucers.

“Are you a Meta?”

I nodded. “I took some tests for it this morning.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” she said, shaking her head. “I just talked to you on the phone and there was no way you were a girl.”

“Skeets, you can come out now.”

He suddenly materialized beside my head. When he did, Bea let out a startled gasp. She took it a lot better than I thought she would. In fact, she took it a little too good. She didn’t even freak out when I told her I was a Meta. In fact, she looked too calm for it. What the heck was going on?

She looked at Skeets. “This thing mimicked your voice?”

“Yes” Skeets said, still speaking in my Mike voice.

“That is so freaky.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So what does this have to do with Ballard?”

I sighed and gave her the short version. She nodded and listened. When I was done, she shook her head.

“You’re a real idiot, you know that.”

I nodded. I’d been thinking that a lot lately. But something was different now, something I couldn’t quite place. I think I might have mentioned it before but I felt different. I still felt like me but I was a different me. Bea stared at me for the longest time, not saying a thing. She wrapped her arms around her body and toed the ground.

“That feeling you’re feeling right now will go away in a few days. It’s a little jarring at first but it passes and then you find inner peace or the closest thing to it.”

“How would you know?”

She smiled. She raised her hand, palm up and the most amazing thing happened. Her entire hand burst into green flame. “Because you’re not the only freak around here.”