Superhero Is A Copyrighted Term Pt. 1

Houston, Texas

“Need a hand, Barbara Ann?” Jan, the owner of the diner, asked from behind the counter. A new pair of customers had just sat down at a window-side table.

“Oh, it’s no worry,” Barbara said with her usual gumption, smiling as she waddled from her seat to the side of the counter down between the tables to the occupied booth. “Hiya folks. What can I­ do for ya?”

“Barbara, don’t you recognize me?” the woman at the table said, removing her sunglasses.

“Josephine! I couldn’t tell it was you with that new hairdo,” Barbara said with a loud laugh, her arms relaxing and resting on top of her rounded belly. “It looks so good with the curl.”

“Thank you. Your hair is looking great as always,” Josephine smiled back, admiring Barbara’s long, golden locks. “They say pregnancy helps that sort of thing. Maybe that’s why you have so many kids.”

“One of the reasons, for sure,” Barbara laughed, moving her locks from the top of her breasts and throwing them behind her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I should have introduced you. This is my brother-in-law, Carl,” Josephine said, motioning to the man sitting across from her. “Carl, this is Barbara Ann. She’s been here, my, it feels like forever.”

“Nice to meet you,” Carl nodded. “I’m surprised you’re working when you’re so…”

“Far along?” Barbara said, curling her big, pink lips into a grin as she traced her fingers around the creamy skin of her exposed belly. “I’ve worked later into my last few, so don’t worry, I won’t pop them out right on your lap.”

“Them?” Carl said, clearing his throat.

“Well it can’t look like I’m only having one,” Barbara said, her stomach and equally swollen breasts shaking as she laughed. “Or two, for that matter.”

“You never did tell me how many you’re having this time,” Josephine said. “I nearly fell over when I learned you had quadruplets last year.”

“Maybe I’ll drop the bomb soon,” Barbara said with a chuckle. “For now, can I get your orders?”

“Hon, you know I’ll get my usual patty melt,” Josephine said, handing her menu back to Barbara. “Carl?”

A series of quiet beeps started up, making Josephine and Carl look around confused. “What’s that?” Carl said, head turned to the ceiling. “A smoke alarm?”

“Maybe. I’ll check,” Barbara said, her playful tone now gone. She darted to the back of the diner and reached her hand down to her jeans. Her large Texas belt-buckle was flashing in rhythm with the beeps, but her large belly hid it from most people’s view. Barbara gave it a light tap and, with two beeps, it stopped.

Walking back to the counter, Barbara got Jan’s attention. “Jan, mind if you take those two? I’m startin’ to feel nauseous and the doctor says–“

“I understand,” Jan said with a smile. “Did you hear something a while ago?”

“It was a customer’s cellphone,” Barbara said, clocking out on a work computer and making her way for the door. As soon as she was outside, she started to run, picking up more and more speed with each bound.

Meanwhile! In Fresno, California

Clara’s eyes looked around her young students, most of them glued to the pages of “The Princess and The Pony,” when she saw one of her habitual wanderers moving away from the group. “Logan, come back please,” she said in her usual sweet voice. He obeyed, under the impression that Clara’s sizeable pregnancy would keep her from moving to bring him over herself.

“Miss Clara?” one other young boy said, jutting his hand in the air. “Can I be like Princess Pinecone when I grow up? I like horses.”

Clara gave a little smile and lowered the book. Often when she read stories to the children, it was a ploy to get them to start asking larger questions about life, though this was a tricky way to begin. “Well, Matthew, we don’t have princes or princesses anymore.” She saw the anticipation in his face start to leave. “But! If you work hard, you can be anything you want.”

Another arm went into the air, this one by one of her loudest young students, Ashley. “Miss Clara, I know what I want to be when I grow up!”

Clara’s smile grew, glad the kids were now thinking about their futures and what kinds of careers they’d like. “Yes, what’s that Ashley?”

“I want to be like a crimefighter like Miss Mercury!” she said in a high-pitched boom.

“Yeah, me too!” another girl said. “Miss Mercury is…is like…she’s…” Clearly reading hadn’t helped all the students with their vocabulary yet.

“It’s great that you all have a role model, but there are other things you can be besides Miss Mercury,” Clara said, her smile getting a little shakier. “If you want to help people, you can be a doctor or–”

“I wanna be like Lady Liberty!” a boy yelled, hopping up to his feet. “When she jumped off that big building and punched the alien like WHAM! And she don’t even fly like Miss Mercury or Blue Dawn. I wanna be cool like that!” He stopped and looked down at his feet. “But I don’t wanna be fat like they are.”

“Not fat, Arjun, remember,” Clara said, placing one hand on her belly. It was hard to find a top large enough to cover her considerable pregnant curves but she didn’t want to risk even a sliver of her dark belly skin showing and giving parents something to complain about. “They’re like me, with a baby inside them.” Not just a baby but she didn’t want to confuse the kids too much when she first revealed to them where babies come from. Her pregnancy had caused enough complications for parents who were still keeping their children in the dark on that subject.

“She is like you,” Ashley said slowly to herself as she stood up. Her voice dropped down to a whisper. “Miss Clara…are you–”

“Do you all really think your boring old teacher is Miss Mercury?” Clara said, smirking as she looked over her kids. “That I could fly and do all those amazing things?”

There was a silence, one of the few with kids this age, but it was ended by a slow, quiet beeping coming from Clara’s glasses. She bit her lip and stood up, pretending it was harder to get to her feet than it was. “Miss Clara?” Ashley asked.

“Don’t worry, it just means I have to go to the doctor to make sure the baby and I are healthy,” Clara said, her hands clutched against her roundness as she waddled for the door. “Stay here and one of your other teachers will be right in.” Clara went to the nearby administrator’s office and asked for a substitute to step into her classroom.

“Clara, are you sure you don’t want to start on maternity leave? You have these emergency trips to the hospital about once a week,” the secretary said.

“Oh no, it’s just little things,” Clara said with a smile as she left. “I feel like a million bucks.” Once out the doors of the school, she pulled a small plastic disc out of her pocket and placed it in her ear. “Where is it?”

“The big city. I can see it from the tower,” a voice on the other end said.

“On my way,” Clara said, looking around before she crouched down and took off into the sky.

But back in New York City!

Another tremor shook the laboratory and Eric crouched in fear, looking around to see if any debris would be hitting him any time soon. “Are you sure we’re safe in here, doctor?”

“We’re far from needing to worry, Mr. Munez,” Sandra said in a disinterested tone back into his headset. “And I designed the skyscraper myself. The only way it’ll collapse is if it gets hit directly and I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Thank y–”

“I have too many important devices stored there and I don’t want to see them destroyed.”

“–ou,” Eric finished with a sigh. His eyes and fingers moved over the computer screen in front of him before he felt a hard slap on his back and hopped to his feet, yelping.

“Easy there. You’re not the one risking his neck,” Barbara said with a smirk.

“Barbara, Clara,” Eric said, turning looking between both pregnant women. “Good, you got here. And you already changed.”

“Does that disappoint you?” Barbara said, rolling her eyes. “You wanted a chance to peek on us undressing?” She was now out of her tight white shirt from work and in her specially-designed costume. All of Barbara’s upper body, minus her belly, was covered in a red-and-white striped suit. She still had on jeans, but this was a different pair with silver stars covering the blue denim. Her shoes were now sturdy black boots and she had on a pair of blue gloves with the outline of an eagle on the back of both hands. And most notably, she had on a mask — red-and-white striped on her cheeks and solid blue around her eyes and nose — that still let her long blond hair move around unencumbered.

“I-I never–”

“We got here fine, Eric. Dr. Chun’s portals work as well as ever,” Clara said, her hands on her hips. Her uniform was less complex than Barbara’s, with her torso and abdomen covered in a black latex-like material, clinging to her large pregnant belly so tightly her popped-out navel was visible. Around the sleeves and the hem where it closed around her thighs, there was a light blue fringe hanging off. Between Clara’s breasts, there was a green triangle design inside a red circle. As she removed her glasses, she shook out her long, straight brown hair. It faded to a bright crimson color as her dark skin turned bright green.

“Great, let me brief you on what we’re dealing with,” Eric said, clicking and typing his way through his notes.

“I think we have an idea on our own,” Clara said, looking out the many windows of the tower as another tremor hit. Outside, a metal monster that reached halfway up the skyscrapers in the downtown area stomped around, pillows of smokes all around it. The robot was a tall grey rectangle with another square head on top with glowing red eyes, two long legs like pistons, and arms with terrifying pincers on the ends.

“Doctor Doodad again, huh?” Barbara said with a sigh. “Well, with a last name like that, I guess you don’t have a lot of job options but to build weird machines.”

“Before you go, I have some new inventions you might find useful,” Eric said, hurrying to a nearby work table. Clara sighed loudly and Barbara groaned as she adjusted her costume. “First, here are some new communicators,” he said, handing them two small metal discs. “They have a longer range and will keep their signal despite interference.”

“Did Dr. Chun make these?” Clara said, looking at Eric skeptically.

“They’re her designs,” Eric nodded before seeing their expectant looks. "But...I assembled them."

Clara looked at it before slipping it into a hip pocket. “Still, I’ll wait to hear it from her. The ones we already have will be fine for now. Nothing Doctor Doodad built will be that hard for us to stop.”

“But pick up the pace,” Barbara said as another rumble shook the building. “I don’t want us to lose out to some other group like the Super Squad.”

Eric was already feeling his cheeks start to burn as he started scrambling through his pile of new inventions. “O-okay, then let me just show you the best thing I’ve come up with.” He held up a metallic belt with a large, round buckle.

“You made this?” Clara said, pointing at it.

“Yep, not even Dr. Chun has seen it yet,” he said. “See, it’s specifically meant to enhance the physicality of women…you know…like you.”

“Of course,” Barbara cackled, shaking her head. “Another one of your preggo-fetish designs. Like that new suit for Clara that tore apart when she went over 50 mph.”

“That was an accident,” Eric said in a small voice, his ears burning now. He never stopped regretting having his attraction to pregnant women discovered by the three of them, but then again, it would be hard for anyone ordinary like Eric to keep a secret from the three crimefighters they worked with on a daily basis, especially when one of them was an unmistakable genius.

“Whatever, we don’t have time for this,” Clara said, securing her old communicator and darting over to the lab’s balcony. Once outside, she crouched and leapt into the air, extending her arms forward as she flew into the sky. She looked around for a few moments before spotting her partner hovering in the air and flying over. “We’re here.”

“Excellent,” Sandra said with a smile. She had one hand resting on her swelling pregnant belly, as large as Clara’s, with its golden skin exposed for all to see. Her top looked like little more than a bright blue sports bra, keeping her considerable chest secured for speedy rescues, though like most of Sandra’s costume, it hid its true technological ingenuity. She wore blue gloves that extended down to her elbow, with a multitude of buttons covering all sides, save for her fingers. Similarly, her blue shorts stopped halfway down her thighs and her boots, a darker blue color, extended to just short of her knee. Sandra’s black hair was tied in a tight chignon and goggles concealed her gleaming eyes. “Barbara, are you there?”

“Just left the tower,” Barbara said as she left the building’s garage on her red-white-and-blue motorcycle, a bald eagle’s face painted on the front. “Have you started attacking the robot yet?”

“No, I’m up here with Mercury."

“Fine, I’ll be there to give ground support,” Barbara said, revving her engine to alert people in front of her as she zipped through the traffic. Even as she cut off fleeing cars and sped down the sidewalk, people stopped to cheer her on.

“Get ‘em, Lady Liberty!” one man yelled just as her handlebar missed swiping his gut by inches. Barbara was heading for Times Square, where the menacing robot had now made its way. Below, the streets and buildings were largely deserted, save for one news van and its crew.

“You sure this is safe?” the camerawoman said as she aimed her lens at the metal monster.

“I hope so,” another cameraman said, getting an opposite angle. “Besides, we’re the only channel with a live shot that’s not from a helicopter.”

“We’re live?” the reporter said, quickly clearing his throat. “I-I mean, folks, this is Ron Tanner with WJLU. We have a look at the robot stomping through the city right now. You can see that its height has to be at least 20 feet, maybe even 30. So far, there are no reports of casualties but this is still a developing situation. Police have had no success in engaging the machine and are clearing the area and waiting for any crimefighters to stop its progress but so far in the half hour since the robot appeared we haven’t seen any…wait! Get a shot of the sky!”

Both of the stations’ cameras pointed up as Clara dove down and hit the top edge of the robot’s rectangular body with both fists. It made a loud grinding sound and staggered the robot back a few steps as Clara watched it from above.

“It’s Miss Mercury!” Ron Tanner cried out into his microphone. “Mysterious visitor from another planet, committed to protecting humans with her incredible powers!”

With pulses coming out of her heels, Sandra flew over next to Clara, already laughing. “Sounds like you’ve got a fan.”

“WJLU. They’re always covering crimefighting news. Though it’d be nice if they got their facts straight,” Clara said, patting her belly. “I’m not the visitor from another planet.”

“Why not go and correct him? I’m sure he’d love a one-on-one interview with the one and only Miss Mercury,” Sandra said with a grin.

“And joining her is Dr. Sandra Chun, the Blue Dawn!” Ron said, pointing up at the two of them. “Genius inventor and team leader for one of the country’s most popular crimefighter teams, the Fertile Furies!”

“Move, dude!” Barbara yelled as she tore past the WJLU news van with her motorcycle. She hit the break and skidded sideways for a few feet before stopping and stepping off. The robot stood less than 10 feet away as she stretched out her arms and heading toward it.

“Wait, Lady Liberty, a quick question!” Ron said, hurrying toward her. She turned and intercepted him with her belly, pushing him back and onto his rear.

“Call my agent,” she said, turning her attention back to the robot as the camerawoman dragged him back to the van.

“Are you crazy?” she said, yelling to be heard over the sound of the robot stomping toward Lady Liberty.

“I’ve never been that close to any member of the Fertile Furies,” Ron said in a weak voice. “I had to at least try.”

Barbara looked up at the towering machine as it got closer and closer. “Doesn’t look like Doctor Doodad has improved his designs much. So what have you got?”

One of the robot’s piston-like legs retreated all the way up into its body before slamming down on top of Barbara, blowing a massive cloud of debris and dust while rattling the surrounding windows. When the cloud cleared, the robot’s head swiveled back to Clara and Sandra but as it tried to move, there was a loud creaking sound.

Below its foot that stomped into the ground was Barbara, holding it in the air with both of her forearms, a strained grin on her face as her sweaty blond hair clung to her face and mask. “That may have worked a few weeks ago, pal, but I’m too far along for that. The bigger I am and the closer to my due date I get, the stronger my body gets in response. And I’m pretty big.” She removed one arm and punched it up into the joints of the robot’s foot, pulling out wires and other cogs. “Okay doc, it should stay still for you.”

“Just in time,” Sandra said, tapping the button on the back of her left hand. “My EMP is charged and ready to go. Give me a countdown.”

Barbara sprinted from underneath the robot, using her enhanced speed to make it out before the foot dropped. “Do it now!” she yelled into her communicator when she’d cleared several dozen feet.

“That’s not really a countdown,” Sandra said as her boots lit up and she zipped toward the robot. Its claws began to swing toward her but Clara was already on an intercept course, batting them away with her fists. Sandra pulled back her elbow and socked the robot in the head with her left hand, which let out a large blue electrical crackle as it hit. The robot’s glowing red eyes flickered for a moment before turning off.

“Looks like that’s it,” Clara said, arms crossed as she flew nearby Sandra.

“I don’t know why we didn’t just tear it apart,” Barbara sighed. “Would have gotten us some more strong press before the crimefighter rankings come in next month, not that we need it.”

“I want to study one of Doctor Doodad’s intact robots for once and hopefully get closer to ending him as a nuisance,” Sandra said, tapping a few buttons on her gloves.

“You stopped it! Great work!” Eric said into a microphone back in the lab as he watched the scene from helicopter news footage. As the cameras zoomed in on Clara and Sandra, he got one of his few undetected looks at their full, pregnant bodies and gulped nervously. “Very...um…impressive work. Is the news crew okay?” He waited for their response for a few seconds but only heard them talk amongst themselves. “Barbara Ann, you’re down there. Are they okay?” Another long pause. “Don’t tell me you muted my channel again…”

He sighed and rested his head in his hands. This was the third mission in a row the Fertile Furies had muted him, even after Sandra promised she wouldn’t the next time. Then again, he couldn’t be too surprised. His original inventions had proved, at best, to be unnecessary and at worst attempts to get lewd looks at the three gorgeous heroes. So far his best work had been to refit Barbara’s motorcycle to get better speed and work off of an all-electric engine but that was more a mix of existing technology than his own ability.

He’d started working for Dr. Chun little more than a year ago thanks to a recommendation from a professor acquaintance of Sandra’s but he had yet to get any real respect from anyone on the team. After all, he had no powers of his own nor did he have the skill to create his powers via inventions like Sandra did with her equipment. And his pregnancy fetish did not help things in their eyes.

But Eric was a quick worker, could keep Clara and Barbara’s identities a secret, and his low confidence paired with his embarrassment surrounding the Furies’ pregnancies meant he could be bossed around easily. All of which made him a good assistant in Sandra’s eyes.

Now that the mission was over and he clearly wasn’t expected to relay any more information, Eric settled into his seat and grabbed a can of soda from a mini-fridge he kept near his workstation. When they came back, he knew he’d have to answer the angry phone calls from lesser crimefighting teams who were mad about their opportunity at a spotlight being snatched away. For now at least he could relax until the Furies returned to the lab.

But try as he might, Eric felt uneasy. Something in the back of his mind kept tickling away at him, trying to grab his attention. When he figured he couldn’t quiet this feeling, Eric put down his can and took one more look at his workstation. Everything seemed to be in order until he saw the news coverage pan over the robot again. Its design looked just like previous automatons Doctor Doodad sent to the city but as the camera zoomed in, he could see that the main rectangular body was in fact made up of several systems put together. He sped through his notes and tried to research what this could mean and came up with a disturbing conclusion.

“Dr. Chun, get out of there!” he yelled into the microphone. “It’s got a second insulated power system! Clara, Barbara, move! Damn it, one of you, listen!”

But it was too late. The robot’s eyes glowed bright red again as it started to shift back up. Clara and Sandra stopped their conversation to look back at the metal monstrosity.

“Maybe this one’s not going back to the lab in one piece,” Clara said, her fists starting to glow bright green as she pointed them toward the machine. “Where do you want me to hit it?”

“Try just taking out the legs for now,” Sandra said, tapping her other glove. But before Clara could extend her fists, the red light from the robot intensified and spilled over the entire intersection. The three heroes groaned and contorted before going rigid.

“Can’t…move…” Barbara grunted through her teeth as she fell to her knees.

“Some sort of power dampener,” Eric said, his face in shock as he saw the robot start to power up its other systems. “They’re defenseless against this thing.” He hurried around the lab, looking for anything he could use to hurry over to the scene and stop the attack on his teammates. But Sandra kept most of her work in a secret lab Eric couldn’t access and he had yet to develop any functional flight apparatus. “Why couldn’t I be more useful?” Eric cursed at himself as he knocked his worktable clean in frustration. As he started to hyperventilate in panic, he saw one of his inventions stand out from the others: the belt he tried to give Barbara and Clara.

In the city, the gigantic machine was just starting to move its arms and open its pincers. It still couldn’t walk but the three pregnant crimefighters were close enough that the robot could clutch them all in its grip.

“Can’t…fight it…” Clara groaned, trying to push her arms against the metal claws as she felt them tighten.

“I’m…thinking…” Sandra strained. She started to move one finger toward her gloves but was moving at a millimeter-a-second pace and it did not look like nearly enough time. 

“It’s a harrowing scene here,” Ron Tanner said as he and his crew looked up in terror. “While we previously thought the Fertile Furies had stopped the rampaging monster, it seems to have revived itself and now has them on the verge of annihilation! And still no other teams have arrived to help! Could this be the end for the country’s top crimefighters?”

“Ron, I’m seeing something else,” his camerawoman said, moving her lens away from the robot and into the sky. “Someone’s flying over.”

“Folks, we’re seeing another superpowered individual headed here, hopefully someone coming to intervene. Could it be Danger Man? Or the Great Ghoul?” As the camera zoomed in, the hero came into focus. “I…I don’t know who that is. Whoever it is, that’s not much of a costume.”

Flying in was a woman wearing regular street clothes instead of any elaborate costume. She had on a plain green t-shirt and jeans, both incredibly tight. Though their tightness may not have been intentional as the woman in question was extremely pregnant and had breasts and hips to match. Her caramel skin covering her belly was on full display as it stuck out, unencumbered by her clothing, save for a metal belt that was strapped right around her round stomach with a circular buckle covering her navel. There was no mask to cover her face so she didn’t hide her eyes that sparkled like alexandrite and her large, soft lips.

As she flew above the robot, she hovered for a moment before diving down, her long brown hair fluttering behind her like a crimefighter’s cape. Once a few feet above the robot’s head, she threw her right hand down in a chop and left a deep dent as if the machine was made from wet cardboard.

Once the head was damaged, the red light faded. Barbara immediately ripped the two chela of the robot’s pincer apart and threw the sharp metal blades into the machine’s chest cavity. Sandra rocketed her way out of its clutches as Clara broke her way free and soared into the sky, letting her fists glow green again.

“Hey you!” Clara yelled at the newcomer. “Get out of the way!” The woman who saved them flew away as Clara shot two bursts of green energy from her fists at the robot’s legs, blowing them away in an emerald explosion. A loud metal grinding sound rang out down the streets as the robot slowly fell over, landing on the blades Barbara threw in and piercing itself all the way through.

“Guess I’m not getting as good a look at this one as I’d hoped,” Sandra sighed as she lowered herself down to the street, joined by Barbara.

"We did it!” Barbara said with a frenzied smile, hands on her hips.

“Barely,” Clara said, landing down beside them. “We may have been done for if it hadn’t been for…” The three of them turned around to see the mysterious woman land a few feet from them. “Weird coincidence that she’s pregnant too, huh?”

“All the best crimefighters are pregnant,” Barbara said with a chuckle. "But maybe she's an admirer." She waddled over and touched her belly against the woman's. "So what's your name, hon?"

"Barbara, Clara, Dr. Chun, it's me," she said in a meek voice, holding her hands against her belly. 

"Someone from our past? You don't look familiar," Sandra said, stroking her chin. "Wait...did you used to work for Majestique?"

"No, it's...it's Eric," she said, looking down at herself as her cheeks turned red. "Although I don't think that name fits anymore."

The Furies' eyes moved to the belt around the new woman's belly before all collectively gasping. Barbara took several steps back so quickly, the asphalt beneath her feet cracked. "Oh my god, I can't believe I let Eric touch my belly," Barbara hissed.

"Maybe just...Erica for now," she said, her voice getting smaller and smaller. "I knew I had to help you three and my belt invention seemed like the only way I could get enough power to save you. But I didn't realize this," she ran her hands around her belly for emphasis, "would be the result."

Sandra put her hands on her hips and thought it over. "We'll have to take a look at it. Cl-" As she was about to say one of her comrade's names, she saw the microphones of the news crew getting closer. "Miss Mercury, why don't you escort her back to headquarters. I'll deal with the press."

Clara and Barbara nodded as their leader turned around and headed for the WJLU van. Erica offered Barbara a hand but was briskly rebuffed. "You carry my motorcycle."

"Let's go, Double-L," Clara said, gripping Barbara's waist as she lifted off into the air, with Erica following behind carrying Barbara's bike. As they flew through the sky toward the tower, Sandra stood close to Ron as the cameras were on them. 

"We're here with Blue Dawn in Times Square where she and the Fertile Furies just stopped another threat against our city. But first, as we saw, your team was helped at the last second by a new crimefighter we haven't seen before. Is she also a member of the Furies?"

"Why, just because she's also pregnant?" Sandra said with a raised eyebrow. As the color drained from Ron's face, she laughed. "Just kidding. No, she was not already a member – we don't accept applications, as you know – but we are going to interview her and see what her role may be. I won't comment further."

"I see. Now back to the robot attack, is it true this was another one of Doctor Doodad's inventions?" 

"That appears to be the case but I will be studying the remains personally."

"This makes the third attack from a Doctor Doodad machine this year alone," Ron said, steeling his resolve as he tried to press the beloved crimefighter.

"True, but that is why I am trying to get a look at a more intact creation so that future attacks may be prevented. As you know, since the rise in crimefighters, both independent and team-affiliated, and pro-crimefighter legislation, super-villainy has gone down 40% in this country."

"Yes, but some have accused crimefighters of ignoring larger problems," Ron said. "While super-villainy has gone down, violent crime overall has been gradually increasing. Your response?"

Sandra took in a deep breath. "That is absolutely correct. We all try our best to confront disaster and tragedy, but the fact is, there is still a lot of hurt out there. And it all comes from the same place: people have no hope. There is so much suffering, so much pain, and most of all, so much sadness. And until something is done about that, crimefighting is useless." Sandra stopped, her usual dazzling eyes now staring vacantly as she stood still. "That's all, thank you."

"Wait, Dr. Chun, one more–" But Sandra's rocket boots had already flung her into the sky, where she was zooming toward headquarters. "Oh well. That's longer than we usually get with her. The Fertile Furies are so different from the other crimefighting teams, who are more interested in their press than saving the day. Especially Ultra-Puncher. What a prima-donna."

"Ron, we're still live."

Ron grimaced and a visible lump ran down his throat. "B-back to you in the news room."