Mom, I'm Bulletproof

Chapter 3.2: Secret Identity

Marci exhaled as Future Girl flew out of the now-destroyed classroom. Campus security guards entered, decked out as always in their orange hazmat suits. With their containment and recovery devices at the ready, including stasis tanks of varying sizes, security gathered up the frozen chunks of Milfoil before they could thaw.

The guards then examined each student with scanners to make sure no Milfoil pieces were still on them. Marci wanted to get a hold of one of those scanners to see how it worked, but she knew better than to annoy the security guys.

Just when she walked outside the building and thought the ordeal was over, Marci saw the school's headmaster, Miss Gwendolyn Kahror, drove up on one of the electric golf carts the security guards drove around the campus.

"Marci Cobb," Kahror said. "Come with me."

"Yes, ma'am," Marci said, climbing into the cart.

* * * *

Marci explained everything once in Miss Kahror's office.

"I just wanted to run some tests on invasive plants," Marci said, "the kind that are choking the life out of all of the lakes in my hometown in Vermont. I thought that maybe if I injected the plant with enzymes taken directly from the pons of a human brain, then maybe the plant could learn on its own, and develop the ability to manage its own appetite and survive without, um, consuming everything it come across. Obviously, I had no idea it would do what it did."

Marci expected Kahror to be furious, but the woman merely smiled and nodded.

"An admirable project," she said. "Crossing the boundary between plant and animal – that's the type of radical thinking we try to foster here at Mirai."

"I almost got everyone killed," Marci said, staring down at her lap. "I created a monster."

"Look at me," Kahror said. Marci didn't. "Look at me."

Marci brought her eyes up and met Miss Kahror's face. In her early 40s, Kahror's skin was nice and smooth, and her muscular frame stood out against her long curly black hair. She stood more than six feet tall, and, as was often pointed out by Marci's male classmates, she had significant breasts.

"The only monsters in this world are the ones who do nothing," she said. "You? You're developing new ideas. You're enacting change. These are the types of things that will make you incredibly wealthy someday."

Marci wasn't sure how to respond. "Wealthy?"

"Of course," Kahror said. "You want to use your gifts to help people, right? To make the world a better place?"

Marci nodded.

Kahror shifted to the side in her chair. "Here's a sad truth. Before you can help anyone, you need money, and lots of it. Where's the money? In tech, in science, and in innovation. But not in altruism. For your next project, think less about what will help people and more about what will generate the largest amount of profit. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now, is there anything you haven't told me about today's incident? Anything about Future Girl, perhaps?"

"I don't know. She knows who I am."

"I'm sorry?"

"Or she knew my name at least. But I guess she knows everybody here, right?"

Miss Kahror smiled again. "Thank you, Marci. That will be all."

* * * *

"My experiment turned into a monster and Future Girl fought it," Marci said to her roommate Amber. "Can you believe it?"

"That's nice," Amber said, her voice barely a whisper. The petite brunette sat curled up on her bed, her nose buried in a book as usual.

Marci walked into their dorm room's tiny bathroom and shut the door. She gazed at herself in the mirror and tried to imagine what she'd look like in Future Girl's cheerleader-style costume.

* * * *

Marci met her friends Liz and Wendell for breakfast the next morning at Mirai's dining hall. Liz was Marci's best friend, while Wendell just happened to show up wherever Liz went.

"Miss Kahror was really interested in Future Girl," Marci said. "Shouldn't she already know Future Girl?"

Liz shrugged. "Not every high school has its own superhero. Just insane ones like this place."

"You're right, this school's insane," Wendell said.

"I just assumed the school had some sort of agreement with Future Girl," Marci said. "Like maybe she's working with campus security."

"She's not?" Liz said.

Marci leaned forward and lowered her voice. "You know what I think? I think Future Girl has a secret identity."

Liz laughed. "Yeah, right. Secret identities are stupid comic book crap."

"They sure are," Wendell said.

"Future Girl doesn't wear a mask," Liz said, ignoring Wendell. "Anyone at this school could recognize her. Like that U.S. Amy chick in Boston. She doesn't wear a mask or hide her real name."

"U.S. Amy's not a real superhero," Marci said. "If she was, why would she do those stupid burrito commercials?"

"Maybe she has bills to pay."

"Yeah, maybe she has bills to pay," Wendell said.

Marci shook her head. "All I know is that Miss Kahror was awfullyinterested in Future Girl. And Future Girl knows my name." 

# # # # 

Next: The grand tour.