Episode 7

[Opening Theme: “Violet Skies” by In This Moment] <https://youtu.be/WsS5yzkgui0>

“The Tsarina Appears! I’ll Do Anything To Save My Grade!”

Jennifer sat in her room, typing on her computer. The monsters had been particularly active these past couple weeks, and the timing couldn’t have been worse. There hadn’t been anything new attacking, it was all creatures of types they’d defeated before, but it still took time she couldn’t easily spare. She had two huge reports due nearly at the same time that were both major portions of her grade for their respective classes. She’d managed to get the first one done somehow, but now she was up against the wall on the second. It was due the next day. She wasn’t planning on getting any sleep that night.

Princess Sugarshine, on the other hand, was dozing peacefully on the bookshelf. Naturally the quiet didn’t last. She suddenly awoke with a start, and said apologetically, “Jennifer...”

“Fuck! Please, not tonight,” Jennifer whined.

“Maybe Matt would be able to handle this one on his own?” Sugarshine offered.

“No, I’m the Goddammed guardian, it’s my responsibility. Hopefully this won’t take long,” Jennifer said while opening her window.

She climbed outside and called out, “Gimme a V! I! C! T! O! R! Y! What’s that spell? Victory!” On the final word she thrust her fist into the air, and the charms flew off her bracelet and circled around her, turning into a swirling cloud of golden sparkles. She levitated off the ground, and all her clothes vanished, leaving her completely naked. The rush of sparkles tickled against her skin, especially her tits and pussy. A sports bra and thong formed around her body. The striped braid appeared, starting from her shoulders and meeting in the middle, then the shell formed moving downward over her breasts, stopping with the lower braid. Bloomers formed over her thong, and the skirt pleats appeared, spinning around her body, drawing closer to her until they attached at her waist. Ankle socks and boots formed around her feet. Her hair blew wildly behind her, then came together and wove itself into a single braid down her back, secured with a red hair tie. A yellow glow appeared over her nose, then split into two that moved up and back, creating the visor. From the top of the visor and around to the back of her head, the helmet formed. A final flurry of sparkles moved over her chest, leaving behind block letters that spelled out “Cheer”. Then the sparkles lowered her to the ground and dissipated.

She performed the round off back handspring full twist layout and found herself downtown. However, there was no monster. “Matt?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m just coming up on the portal site now. Everything seems quiet. Where are you?” he responded.

“Downtown. Nothing here either. Do you think it’s a false alarm?”

“From Panther and Sugarshine both? Doesn’t seem likely. Hold on, I’m not too far from you, I’m coming over.” Less than a minute later, Panther and the hoverwing decloaked and set down close by. “I’m still not getting anything, even on a wide scan. This is unnerving,” Matt said.

Jennifer gazed out over the nearly empty street. Only a few cars were still out and about at the late hour. She saw a shadow pass under the light of a streetlamp, and was just starting to make out the sound of footsteps from that direction. “What’s that?” she said, pointing.

“Panther, magnify that for me,” Matt ordered. “What the ... Is that a woman?” The figure walking towards them at a calm pace looked decidedly like a very beautiful human female with black skin. Not African black, but coal black. Hexadecimal color code #000000 black. She wore a purple garment that just barely qualified as a strapless dress. It amounted to two strips of fabric that reached down to her ankles, held together around her body by laces that criss-crossed the wide gaps on either side, ending high on her hips so that the dress flowed freely between her legs. Her large breasts were not covered very much by the arrangement, and it was clearly visible that she wore no underwear beneath it. Her stiletto heels, long hair flowing down her back, fingernails, lips, and even the irises in her otherwise totally black eyes were the same purple color.

“Well, if that’s our invader, she’s a lot different from the other ones. Pom-poms,” Jennifer said, readying her weapon. Matt did the same, pulling the axe from its place on Panther’s back. Jennifer waited until the strange woman got closer, then finally said, “Alright, that’s far enough.”

“And what the fuck are you supposed to be?” the woman demanded.

“I’m Cheer Raider, my friend there is piloting the SABRE Panther. We are the defenders of this town,” Jennifer replied with as much bravado as she could muster.

“This is what has been giving my minions such trouble? A girl playing dress-up and an oversized tin can? Ridiculous,” she sneered back.

“Shit, she said ‘my minions’. She’s the big bad, the one in charge! Be ready for anything. This is not going to be an easy fight,” Matt warned.

“Don’t underestimate us. We’ve defeated everything you’ve sent here. Now it’s time to be aggressive. B, E, aggressive,” Jennifer said defiantly.

The woman laughed mockingly, and said, “You insignificant fools. You’ll find me a bit more formidable than those idiot creatures with their penchant for mindless destruction. Now you face the Tsarina, and you will be the first to bow to me when my legions flood this world!” At that she thrust her arms forward, and a stream of electricity shot from her hands to Jennifer, who was thrown from her feet as her muscles spasmed from the shock.

“Jennifer! Shit, lightning powers,” Matt said, stepping forward and swinging his axe towards the self-proclaimed Tsarina. She turned her electricity on the approaching blade, and the plasma edge of the axe puffed out. She leapt back, out of the way, as the metal smashed into the pavement with a loud clang.

“Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst!” shouted Jennifer, shaky but on her feet, shooting a fireball at the dark woman. The Tsarina flicked her hands and sent a cloud of sparks at the oncoming conflagration, which quickly snuffed out as the two met.

“Shoulder cannons!” Matt commanded, causing them to emerge and open fire. The Tsarina raised her arms, palms forward, in a vaguely defensive posture. The energy bolts never reached her, merely deflecting away in opposite perpendicular directions, one blast hitting the bank, the other the auto repair garage, and dealing severe damage to both. When the barrage ended, she pulled her arms back and thrust them forward again, unleashing a large bolt of lightning that hit the core of the giant robot.

Electricity arced through the cockpit, and then all the screens went dark, leaving Matt in total blackness. “Panther!” he screamed, then paused as the data feed resumed in his brain. “Okay. How long? And skip weapons, just focus on getting us moving again.” As he waited for Panther’s systems to reinitialize, he tried to work through the problem. “Alright, lightning powers. Massive streams of electrons. Plasma is ionized gas, add electrons and it becomes just plain gas. Negative charge, same as the anti-alphas, stupid me, of course they are going to be repelled. And apparently the electric field can disrupt fire, too. Gotta improvise. So think, electrical safety: lightning rod, Faraday cage, insulators, plastic, rubber, that’s it!”

Outside, the Tsarina had turned her attention back towards Jennifer, who was doing her best to keep ahead of the lightning shots being thrown at her. “Matt, get your ass moving, this is not going well,” she said desperately, hoping he could hear. She ran back and forth past the front of the shops, hearing the crackle and seeing the bright flashes as the electricity struck just behind her several times. As she passed by the damaged bank wall, one of the bolts finally hit its mark, and she hit the wall, hard. The bricks crumbled and collapsed on top of her.

“Jennifer!” Matt screamed, running over in the once again ambulatory Panther, clutching a bundle of large pickup truck tires in each hand that he’d pulled from the auto garage after smashing through the broken wall there. He dropped to his knees behind the Tsarina and slammed one fist and then the other down over her, cocooning her upper body in a stack of tires.

“What?” shrieked the Tsarina in surprise, and then she growled in frustration as she struggled against her bonds. Matt picked her up, stood, and hung the tires on a utility pole. “Coward! You think you’ve won?” she snarled, and unleashed a burst of sparks that sputtered out from the top and bottom of the tire stack, was drawn to the wires on the pole, and streamed off along them in both directions. She screamed in anger, and then snapped, “This isn’t over! Retrieval!” She promptly vanished in a swirl of purple and blue energy. The tires around her dropped to the ground.

Matt turned back to the ruined bank building, knelt down beside it and started carefully picking through the rubble. “Jennifer? Can you hear me? Please be okay.” With the help of Panther’s scanners he uncovered her and picked her up. She was like a rag doll in the large robotic hands. He opened the cockpit door and placed her inside, then disconnected from the control armature to check on her. “Jennifer, wake up, please wake up,” he begged, shaking her gently.

His phone rang. “Shit, not now. Panther, check the Bluetooth, who is it? What? Home? Why would they be... ? Alright, answer it. Hello?”

“Son. You can bring her back here.”

“Dad. Uh, what?”

“She may need a doctor, but you probably don’t want to take her to the hospital dressed like that. You can bring her here and then we’ll figure it out,” his father said.

“But ... how did you... ?” Matt asked, unable to form the full question.

“Debbie Woods has you on live TV. We saw what happened.”

“Okay, but, how?” Matt repeated.

“Parents aren’t generally as ignorant of what their children are up to as it might seem. They just respect their privacy, until and unless it’s something where they have to intervene. And I read superhero comics when I was a kid, too.”

Matt processed this. Apparently he hadn’t been as subtle as he thought. Finally, he said, “Okay. I need to go park and then we’ll teleport in to my bedroom. Stay clear until I get there.”

“Understood,” replied his father.

Matt returned to the armature and got ready to lift off, summoning the hoverwing down. Looking around, he spotted the KHNT 34 Action News van. There was also a helicopter circling overhead, and with Panther’s enhanced vision he could see its weaponry. It was not a civilian chopper. “Wonderful,” he said.

A few minutes later, Matt dimensional folded into his room, holding Jennifer in his arms. “Holy shit, that’s Cheer Raider! You really are the robot pilot?” Neil asked excitedly from the hallway.

“Neil! Language!” scolded his mom.

“SABRE pilot, and yes, I really am,” Matt said, carrying Jennifer to his bed. He laid her in it and gently pulled her helmet off. “I had Panther scan her, there’s no broken bones or internal injuries, but she may have a concussion.”

“Your mother can change her clothes and we can take her to the hospital right now, or we can give her a few hours first to see if she wakes up on her own,” his father offered.

‘I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Matt admitted.

Jennifer groaned and opened her eyes. She saw science fiction posters and toys, that meant the bed she was in was Matt’s. In fact he was sitting next to it, slumped over asleep in his chair, with his hand reached out, holding hers. A woman sitting in another chair across the room set her book down. “Mrs. Peterson, I presume?” Jennifer said weakly.