My Super-powered Diary Chapter 45 Contract Killer By Amethyst When Maddock Ainsley gets involved in a rescue operation with his unit things go horribly wrong and his life is forever changed. Can the newly minted Merida cope with being a girl and a teenage super hero?

We were putting the pressure on Phantom and since she wasn’t able to escape the room we seemed to be wearing down her new, younger body. I just hoped that Mei had been able to learn what she needed to from Khestrid and Jordyn to do her part in this plan. The plan was crazy, we all knew that, and it hinged on Mei being able to learn what Khestrid had to teach in only a few hours. I had allowed Smith to take me into custody and put me on a plane to L.A simply because it would buy us the time for the Contractor Medium and her spirit to teach Mei what to do and hopefully give her, Shu, and Mom time to find the body’s original soul before coming to join us. I had faith in my little sister though; she had a natural feel for her powers, she was very smart for her age, and she was pretty damn determined to keep us all safe and together.

It was taking more and more effort for Phantom to teleport away with each attack, Safeguard had nearly gotten a hold on her a moment ago. When she reappeared she looked nearly ready to collapse. She was breathing heavily and looking around the room frantically for some means of escape. Suddenly her face lit up in a smile and she lunged for a nearby table, snatching up a steak knife and pressing it to her throat. This hadn’t been part of the plan. “Oi there, Phantom. I dinnae think tha’ ya wan’ tae be doin’ tha’. Yuir no’ goin’ tae kill me tha’ way,” I said calmly as we all stood very still.

“So? I found one Medium, I can find another, even if it takes me years,” she said with that psychotic smile of hers back in place. “And next time there will be no warning, you won’t see me coming, and I will kill you and destroy everything that you care about.”

“Stop! And drop the knife! I command you as a spirit arbitrator!” Mei’s voice rang out. Phantom’s eyes widened and she seemed frozen in place, the knife still in front of her throat, but not moving even a fraction of an inch until it fell from her hand to the floor. I turned to see Gadget-Girl, Packrat, and Genesis all stepping out from one of Packrat’s dimensional gates. Genesis’s eyes were locked on Phantom as she added, “I have sealed you for the moment, Phantom. You will not control that body or any other until this arbitration is complete, except to speak in your defense. These people will act as witnesses to this arbitration.”

“Good tae see ya Genesis, nice timin’ there,” I said with a grin. “Did ya ge’ wot ya needed?”

“Yup,” she said with a nod before turning her attention back to Phantom. ”I am here to represent the interests of the Contractor Medium, Jonas Lake. He claims that you have wrongfully stolen his body. How do you plead?”

Fury burned in Phantom’s eyes as she glared at Genesis. “We had a contract. If I stopped those kids from ever hurting him or anyone else again then he would give me whatever I wanted. I carried out my part of the bargain so I took what I was owed.”

“That’s a pretty loose interpretation of a contract, “Aquarius muttered behind me.

Genesis didn’t say anything to that, her gaze still on Phantom, probably to keep her from trying to flee the body. Instead she said, “And yet you gave Jonas no specifics, nor a chance to review your terms before taking possession of his body and altering it.”

“It’s not my problem that he didn’t ask to read the fine print,” Phantom retorted angrily.

“I’ve taken the time to read your contract, why don’t you read it for these witnesses? Genesis pressed.

The vengeful spirit glowered at Mei, but she couldn’t do anything more than that, will there was a certain smugness about her as she began to speak. “I Sadie Anne Hawkins, to be referred to hereafter as ‘Phantom’…” It was the laughter that stopped her from speaking. Her real name was Sadie Hawkins? No wonder she became a cold-blooded killer. If looks could kill we’d have all been dead five times over.

Apparently Genesis had been prepared for this since she had only smirked while the rest of us were outright giggling. Still she had to take a breath before saying, “Continue please.”

Phantom snorted and continued on as if we weren’t all still giggling at her unfortunate moniker. “…hereby form this contract with Jonas Lake, hereafter referred to as “the Contractor’. Phantom promises to stop the Contractor’s bullies from ever hurting anyone again. The means and particulars in resolving this issue will be left to the discretion of Phantom. The Contractor will allow Phantom to make their body more comfortable in order to gain access to the powers that Phantom had in life. Upon completion of Phantom’s promised actions the Contractor will give full control of their body to Phantom.” She sneered at Genesis and said, “See, we had a legally binding contract and I carried out my part.”

I could swear that Genesis was grinning from ear to ear under her bandana as she nodded. “Yes you did, though you did so in a way that traumatized Jonas.”

“The means were left up to me, so I did what I do best,” Phantom sneered. “I did what I was supposed to do, so it was only fair that I got what I wanted in return.”

“And so you did,” my little sister agreed. “You got control of Jonas’s body. I pronounce the contract valid.” I turned to gape at Genesis in shock and surprise and I wasn’t the only one either, even Phantom was, though there was that smugness there as well. Then Genesis lowered the boom as she added, “However, the contract does not state how long you would keep sole control of Jonas’s body. So I rule that the contract has been completed and you have been paid in full. Jonas will return to being the sole occupant of the body in question. This arbitration is over.”

“Fine, I’ll go find another Medium,” Phantom grumbled. There was this look in her eyes like she had still won though. She could escape in spirit form and come after me again later when I wasn’t expecting it.

“You’re not going anywhere Sadie,” Genesis said, reaching out toward Phantom. For a second Phantom’s body went limp and her eyes glazed over, then suddenly she was alert and upright again, though her body language was very different than it had been before. Now she seemed timid and uncertain as she looked around at us. “This is Jonas, everyone. Sorry, Jonas, but I can’t do anything about the changes that she made to your Archetype, but Contractor Archetypes are meant to be re-written, so maybe you can find another spirit that will treat you better and give you a form that you’re more comfortable with.”

“What about the bitch who was possessing her?” Safeguard asked in concern.

“I have her right here. She’s not going anywhere,” Genesis quickly assured us. “Jordyn and Khestrid said that I probably won’t be able to send her to the spirit realm. Her connection to the physical world is too strong while she remembers Merida and holds such anger toward her. If we let her go, she’ll just look for another Medium to take advantage of. Khestrid suggested that I bind her soul in a body that doesn’t have any long-term memory, that way her spirit won’t be able to hold onto the memories of her old life and her hatred for Merida. All of that would be gone within a few weeks. Mom had an idea, but we can discuss it once we get home. We kinda have other problems at the moment.”

“What problems? We defeated the bad guy right?” Safeguard asked.

I shook my head sadly. “Aye, bu’ phantom took the Gov’ner ‘ostage an’ killed a bunch o’ people on live TV, an’ Jonas is now wearin’ tha’ body. The HAA are goin’ tae wan’ either me or Jonas as a fall guy. An’ if’n we say Phantom go’ away they’ll be searchin fer her. E’en if’n we say she died, they’re goin’ tae wan’ a body an’ people are still goin’ tae recognize ‘er if’n she stays in the state, or e’en the country. Then they’ll be searchin’ fer 'er and we’ll be seen as liars.”

“Could Mei create a duplicate of her body without powers? We could just slap Phantom in that and have her serve time for her crimes,” Aquarius suggested.

“But then she’d still hold on to her memories and she’d suicide just to be able to possess another person and get to Merida. It doesn’t even have to be a Contractor, it could just be a normal person who’s asleep or in a weakened state,” Gadget-Girl pointed out.

*And even if we did give them a body, they’d probably just use it to say that Merida is dangerous and doesn’t care about who get’s killed. They’ll throw her to the wolves again, they want a living sacrificial lamb,* Psyche put in, showing that she was listening in along the psychic network.

“Okay then, what if we give them Phantom and she escapes while in their custody. You know, very publicly so it looks like it’s their fault,” Shu said with a grin while she looked at me, or rather my neck. “That is a standard issue HAA inhibitor collar Mom tweaked, isn’t it?”

For the next half hour we prepared our plan. It wasn’t long before Psyche and the Fairies joined us and the look on Phantom’s former face was priceless. It was even funnier when Fawn returned to Fairy size. Much to my relief she didn’t teleport away as soon as they had reported that the field was off and the gear packed back up for Shu to put in the dimension she was starting to refer to as her ‘Armory’, which would hold our various equipment and weapons that we didn’t want to carry on us at all times.

Jonas seemed like a good sort, she realized that she owed us a debt and she meant to pay it even if it meant a risk to herself. Not that I was going to let that risk happen. She’d suffered enough already and as soon as this was over I was going to start looking into places she could go to be safe and hopefully unrecognized. I had sent Tasha to Smith earlier to let him know that the plan was a success, give him back the modified collar, and to let him know what the plan was now that Phantom was taken care of and Jonas was back in her own body. He had just called me back and as I figured he wasn’t going to let an innocent person be punished when they were really the worst victim of all. That’s why I like Smith, he may be HAA but he’s a good guy and he’s doing the job for the right reasons.

I couldn’t help but grin as I hung up her phone and told the others, “Smith is on board. He called the ‘ead of the HAA tae tell ‘im tha’ we go’ her in custody an’ he an’ the Gov’ner both wan’ tae be there fer the ‘and-off an’ put a collar on ‘er. They wan’ tae make a big deal o’ it.”

Twenty minutes later I was carrying Jonas outside as she pretended to be unconscious with the other members of my team following close behind. The front of the hotel was a bloody media circus with the Governor smiling for the cameras and Smith standing beside another man in a suit with possibly the fakest smile I had ever seen. He didn’t like mutants one bit, I could see it in his eyes, and I imagined he liked it even less that we were going to be seen as the heroes after this.

The Governor looked like he wanted to make a big occasion of this as Smith handed over an inhibitor collar and the man with the fake smile put it around Jonas’s throat with an audible hiss and click. There was even cheering as the green light turned on to show that the collar was active. Then two agents came forward to half drag her to an armored truck, smiling as if they had been the ones who caught her. “I stand here today alive because of true heroism. Because young Hypers placed themselves in harm’s way to save me. So, I would like to thank G-Force for saving my life and for capturing the terrorist known as Phantom. It’s good to know that we have young Hypers out there fighting to keep us all safe from threats like this,” the Governor said. “Now, Director Peter Anders of the HAA will take her to the Pit, a maximum security facility where she won’t harm anyone again.”

He pushed the microphone to me, obviously expecting me as the leader to say a few words. “Thank ya gov’ner, We jus’ wan’ tae dae the right thing an’ see tha’ those wot deserve it, ge’ wot’s comin’ tae them.” I gave a big smile then as my eyes settled on Director Anders. “If’n we see those wot need our ‘elp or somebody steppin’ on the l’il guy we’ll be shoor tae fight fer wot’s right.”

Director Anders looked a little uncomfortable as the cheers started up and even more so as the Governor shook my hand and he was forced by all the cameras to do the same with that fake smile plastered all over his face. There was a sudden commotion over by the armored truck and someone shouted “She’s awake!” ‘Phantom’ was now struggling against the pair of guards and one of them shoved her to the ground where they both kicked her several times in the head, shoulders, and ribs before she tried covering herself with her arms. Cameras had turned toward the scene as soon as the struggle began and caught it all on film. That bastard Anders’ was actually smiling for real until he realized where the cameras were pointed. Then his smile suddenly disappeared, right along with ‘Phantom’.

Cameras swung back to where we were standing with the Governor and the Director of the HAA. Smith had taken the opportunity to slip away and was nowhere to be seen. I gave the Director my best look of disgust, it really wasn’t hard since I was pretty sure that he was the one who’d decided to throw me under the bus twice now. “Wot the fook was tha’? Police brutality?! I cannae believe ya jus’ did tha’ an’ le’ her ge’ away! We jus’ caught ‘er an’ now we’re goin’ tae ‘ave tae find ‘er an’ capture ‘er agin. Let’s go G-Force, she could be anywhere on the bloody planet by now.”

Packrat opened a dimensional gate and we all stepped through. Once it was closed she opened another to the ballroom where we had fought Phantom, where both Agent Smith and Jonas were waiting, though Jonas has some nasty bruises on her arms and face. They wouldn’t let anybody in until they could assess the damage and there was no surveillance since Phantom had destroyed every camera in the place after taking the Governor hostage, probably to limit the HAA’s response options. Once Jonas and Smith had joined us inside the pocket dimension, Packrat closed that gate and formed another to take us home.

It was well after midnight and Andy was sitting in front of the television, our guests already gone home for the evening. There was a new pair of guests sitting on the couch with Andy though, watching the screen and smiling. “Good work girls, Dr. Edwards said, turning her smile toward us as soon as we stepped out of the dimensional gate. “So I take it this is our young Contractor,” she added as her gaze fell on Jonas. “Are you okay child? I can cast a healing spell.”

“I… I’m okay, I’m just glad that’s over with,” Jonas replied uncertainly.

“It’s not over quite yet,” Dr. Edwards corrected. “We’ll need to hurry. I would imagine that this is the first place that Anders will look for her.”

“And me,” Smith said with a shrug. “I think my days as an HAA agent are effectively over. Anders is going to want my head for this.”

“It’s their loss, John” Andy said.

“Neither of you can stay here, Jonas is too recognizable nor can I use magick to alter her features, because as a Contractor her Archetype will resist any changes not made by a spirit she’s hosting. There are other more mundane ways to change your appearance though, for both of you, and I know someone who can help. I’ve already contacted Deep Blue at AMPS, she’s ready to provide a scholarship to Jonas, and she has her government contact ready to work up new identities for both of you. Her school can always use help with security too, John.”

“I think I might like working at a school like yours, I’ve always preferred to help mutants in trouble than hunt them down,” Smith said with a nod.

“I’ll gate you straight to her office, she’s expecting both of you,” Dr. Edwards said with a nod, quickly standing and then waving her hands in strange patterns while speaking some indiscernible language. A moment later the gate appeared and then the pair was gone. Dr. Edwards then set herself to magically disposing of any possible DNA evidence that either of them might have been in our home while the rest of us got out of costume and into normal clothes.

“How’s the news playin’ out?” Mom asked as we re-entered the living room from her lab.

“Everyone is seeing G-Force as heroes and the HAA as incompetent. There’s talk of inquiries after that footage of those two agents kicking Jonas while she was on the ground wearing an inhibitor collar. Even though the collar wasn’t working it’s not playing well. Some are even thinking that they damaged the collar themselves, they did get a few good shots in at the poor girls head and shoulders while she was down,” Andy commented with a sigh. “I’m ashamed that I ever worked for them in any capacity.”

“I guess all tha’s left is ta deal with Phantom’s phantom then, preferably before HAA agents show up on our doorstep.” Mom said with a nod. Then she turned to our other guest. “Are you sure that you want this Kendra?”

“I think so, if Mei can do it and you think it’s safe,” she replied with a nod. “I can finally touch people again, and now I want to be able to do some of the things that I always wanted to do. I always wanted to have a child, but I never thought that even adoption would be in the cards for me. I really want this.”

“I can do it, and I’ve thought of ways to make it safe,” Mei promised.

“You’re sure that she won’t remember her old life?” Shu asked a bit suspiciously.

Mom nodded. “Newborn infants have some limited short term memory, but memory doesn’t really start developing until a child is 6 months old.”

“Khestrid said that with no long-term memory her soul will lose its hold on the memories of her old life within a few weeks. There will be nothing left of them and she can start forming new memories, maybe better ones, as she grows. It’s the best way to make sure Phantom is gone for good and with the right mother it will give her a second chance at life,” Mei confirmed with a smile. “I’ll make her body a newborn, but an Activated Hyper.”

“Wot?! Yuir givin’ ‘er bloody powers?!” Suddenly I wasn’t so sure that this was a good idea.

“Nothing that will hurt anyone or give her any chance at remembering her old life,” Mei said, holding up her hands to stave off my anger. “A minor regeneration ability to help her stay healthy and an immunity to all forms of poison. Kendra’s blood is one of the deadliest substances on Earth, and this way, even if Kendra gets cut in an emergency or something, her blood won’t harm the baby. It would make sense for her natural child to have that kind of immunity, and I’m going to make it so she takes after Kendra in looks when she grows up too.”

That’s a wise precaution Mei,” Dr. Edwards agreed, smiling in approval. “That way she won’t question her origins, she’s better off not knowing. Well, we have a medical doctor to oversee and all these witnesses for the ‘birth’ so let’s get this done.”

Mei was enveloped in golden light and after a moment a tiny baby girl appeared in her arms. She even had a cute little bellybutton and everything. For a moment my little sister seemed to stare intently at the infant and then placed her hand on her head. Finally she nodded and smiled and handed the naked baby to Toxin. “There, it’s done.”

“Congratulations Kendra, it’s a girl,” Mom pronounced as all the fairies swooped in to get a better look at the baby and started giggling and cooing at her. “Have ya go’ a name picked out?”

Kendra didn’t seem to hear the question at first as she stared at the infant she was holding with awe in her teary eyes. Finally though she nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ll call her Dawn.”

“Dawn Wilson, it ‘as a nice ring tae it,” I agreed.