Inspired by The Incredibles - Mother & Daughter Relations With Mezmerella (NSFW) commissioned by solddate with art by Oo_Sebastian_oO.
A buzzer sounded. Four pairs of eyes moved marginally and reluctantly towards the intercom beside the steel door. The poker-hand was almost over and the pot was looking tempting. No-one trusted the others enough not to look at cards or perhaps even use a bit of sleight-of-hand to improve their own.
The four thugs were sitting on wooden-packing crates labeled 'machine parts'. The game was being played on top of a table made of maybe another dozen crates stacked. More crates were stacked around the big room. One was open and an assortment of cogs and pistons had been tossed out to reveal some very advanced, very big and very complete guns.
The buzzer sounded again, twice, urgently.
"Pair of sevens," a goon with a scar across an eye and down one cheek announced with disgust as he presented his cards and stood. "Let's see what's eating Sam. Scaredy-cat probably found a mouse while he was doin' the rounds."
The others had already forgotten about him as they eyed each other trying to determine who was bluffing.
"Hey, guys, intercom's out." The little video screen showed Sam's mouth moving but no sound came out of its tinny speaker. "Sam looks pissed about something."
A blurry face, maybe a woman's, suddenly appeared on the black-and-white screen, jerked into position by the hair. Then the head was pulled back far enough to be distinct. Definitely a young dark-haired woman with a domino mask and she'd been hit hard around it a few times. Seemed to be crying.
"Holy shit, ain't that one of them super-broads? Infinigirl or somethin'?"
That got the other goons attention. Suddenly the game wasn't as important as the smuggled arms shipment and their threatened payoff. They threw cards aside as they stood to huddle round the video intercom. There was still no sound coming from the speaker, despite Sam's urgent speaking and the broad's blubbing.
"Damn, it is Invisigirl. Open the door and get her inside before any other do-gooders come lookin'."
* * *
Ghostess shifted her foot a little to reveal the headline of the discarded newspaper under it.
"I still can't believe our state actually elected--"
"Such a young woman? Someone the rumors say is pretty queer, if you catch my drift?"
Ghostess sighed. Miss Guise was bored and her normal mischievious streak was turning a little sharp.
"Someone called Candice Cane."
The newspaper headline proudly proclaimed that 'Candy keeps science funding sweet'.
"How many votes did she win just because the newspapers love her name?" wondered Miss Guise, "And the puns."
Ghostess snorted.
"Hell no, sister. The way the old senator acted he was trying to hand the election to her. I would have voted for S. Atan to keep out that-- Heads up, our friend's finally back!"
Tyra Soules, also known as Ghostess, shrank back against the side of the dumpster. She was tall, naturally thin and African-American with an oval face that tapered to her chin, narrow plump lips and sharp cheekbones. Her hair was naturally curly, exaggerated by her Bantu knot-out style. Thin arms and legs led to a broader torso and surprisingly high full breasts, though she sometimes regretted that there wasn't much booty in her trunk.
"Slow, but regular as clockwork," Miss Guise acknowledged. "Time for the old one-two."
Miss Guise was a few feet away, round the corner of the alley. Miss Guise looked like, well Tyra didn't know what Miss Guise really looked like. Tyra had seen her knocked-out on a mission, dragged her ass to safety, and by the end of that she'd looked like a mannequin. Guise hadn't wanted to talk about it afterwards. But another time, she'd explained that quickie disguises and long-term disguises were different. One took concentration or at least attention like putting on a fake accent and the other became as easy as putting on clothes and required about as much attention as clothes to maintain.
The heavy-built man in the gray turtleneck sweater and black wooly hat with the bulges at the small of his back and in his black pants that suggested neither woman would be pleased to meet him passed the end of the dumpster behind which Ghostess was crouching. Scanning attentively he'd spot her any second now. Or at least he would have if a long sheer-stockinged leg in heels hadn't emerged from round the corner to catch his attention.
Right now Guise was in one of those quickie disguises. She was young, white and red-headed and she looked like she was made mostly of long legs and big breasts. A regular Jessica Rabbit. The man managed another pace on auto-pilot before the rest of Miss Guise's stacked body emerged. Ghostess could actually see the movement of his head as his eyes travelled up Miss Guise's oversexed disguise in disbelief.
"Can you help me, sir?" Miss Guise vamped in a breathy sexy voice. "I just know I should have turned left at Albuquerque."
Ghostess stood and moved silently behind the distracted man. Ghostess's costume had been designed by Edna Mode herself. Violet had made the recommendation, and given Tyra a few second-hand warnings. Even so Ghostess had still been surprised at how very short the fashion designer was when they'd met. Tyra had brought along her sketches of Incredibles inspired outfits, none with capes. Violet had been very firm that 'no capes' should be mentioned round Edna. Nevertheless Mode had tossed them all aside with a roll of her eyes.
"Dahling, you are not a superhero who shouts 'here I am'. Nor are you invisible. No! At least not always. These are too much. Too much! 'Can't find me.' That is you, dahling."
Ghostess's costume was black, with dark blue gloves and boots and a hooded mask of blue. The only light color was over her heart, which was set with the small white ghost logo she'd been using since she started her superheroing career. But as she engaged her powers and turned ghostly the colors of her uniform reversed as well. For a moment, hard to see as she and her clothes were in her ghostly form, she wore a white costume with bright yellow accessories and a black logo.
"Lady, this is a bad place to be. I'll show you how to get out--"
Ghostess stepped into the goon's body. He shuddered and his eyes twitched briefly. By the time his eyes focussed again Miss Guise had taken a new form.
"Really, sister?" The guy's voice was so deep and gravelly he must have been chewing rocks all his life. "Wouldn't a police woman be more plausible?"
"Hey, Violet stood us up," the perfect facsimile of Invisigirl told the man possessed by her friend Ghostess. "Only fair she gets to be tonight's damsel."
Both their powers had their limitations. Miss Guise could only do women. Ghostess hurt like hell when she didn't have a physical body, whether her own or someone else's. Hence the trick to get up nice and close.
"Well, if you think... Sam... here could get the drop on our Invisi-Absent-Girl..."
Ghostess shrugged his shoulders as she put the goon's wallet and ID back in his pocket. Another limitation, she didn't have access to her host's memories and a few determined types could push her right out of their bodies. Goons like this Sam schmuck generally weren't an issue, but their bosses could be trouble.
Ghostess pulled the gun from the goon's pocket and emptied it of bullets. Miss Guise added a split lip and a bit of blood to Invisigirl's face and did a few actor's facial exercises before finally adopting an expression she was satisfied with.
"Scared and frightened hostage #4?"
"Stick with the classics."
Then Ghostess pushed her empty gun into Miss Guise's back and they began to march.
* * *
Two of the goons threw heavy bolts back and wrenched the door open. They grunted with the effort as the rusty hinges groaned in protest. The damn door was heavy. The other pair had their guns out, ready to greet their unexpected and unwelcome guest.
Sam gave Invisigirl a push and she came stumbling in through the open door and bounced off the chest of one of the guy's with guns before falling to her knees. By the time the four goons realised that Sam and Invisigirl were mocking them by miming speaking and crying without a sound Sam had drawn his other gun and both were leveled at the armed goons. Invisigirl had revealed she'd palmed a holstered gun from the goon she'd bumped into and was taking another from one of the unarmed guy's that had opened the door.
"Give it up, four guns to two and we got a bulletproof girl," Ghostess had Sam's voice announce the mixture of truth and bluff with menace.
Guns began to clatter to the ground as the goons reached for the sky.
* * *
"We should have a team name. 'Guise's girls.'"
"Uh huh, sister, you should write for the newspapers with a sense of humor like that."
The comeback sounded really impressive in this guy's deep gravelly voice. Ghostess was going to miss that a litte.
Miss Guise walked round the chair she'd just finished tying Ghostess to and bowed with a flourish. Ghostess rolled her goon's eyes and stepped out of his body. By the time he'd stopped shuddered Ghostess was free and corporeal. Thank the heavens for Edna Mode's costume. Before it she'd finished these capers naked and had to hope the clothes she'd been wearing were still where she'd possessed the first target.
Miss Guise pushed the gag into Sam's mouth and secured it as his eyes went comicly wide with surprise. Then she blindfolded him like his friends. The last thing he'd recall was walking the alley. He'd remember nothing from when Ghostess was in his body or the thirty seconds immediately before. He wasn't even going to have the consolation of remembering Miss Guise's sexy Jessica Rabbit disguise while he was in the bighouse.
"Nice and quick. Good thing too, I need to study."
Combining life as a senior at Metroville U with crime-fighting was still tough even after three full years of practice. Sometimes Ghostess wished she was like Miss Guise who was happy to just coast academically.
"Yeah, and I'm on the guestlist at that new club. Party time!"
Ghostess shook her head in something like sorrow as Miss Guise checked the coast was clear. The cops were called and they were clear of the building, about to reach her car park a few blocks away. Miss Guise gave the all clear and Tyra pulled up the mask and hood and as she climbed into the driver's seat of her battered old sedan tossed her gloves on to the passenger seat for Miss Guise to put in the glove compartment. Miss Guise put on her school face too.
Miss Guise had spent the last few years on-campus looking like a young Marilyn Monroe. When Guise had hinted they were both doing History 101 Tyra had spent weeks puzzling out who she was. Eventually she'd figured Miss Guise was the quiet ordinary guy with the glasses and the perfectly average GPA. When Miss Guise trusted her enough to reveal she was actually the loud, pretty, and annoyingly-familiar looking party blonde Ghostess's draw had dropped. But she'd made her point, Tyra hadn't expected a shape-shifter to be in her face.
"Don't you ever work?"
"Not if I can help it."
It was true. While Ghostess was the type to go out on patrol in hopes of finding crime to fight, Miss Guise was much more the heroine-by-appointment type. And to demonstrate the injustice of the world her 'laziness' didn't appear to negatively affect her life one bit.
Miss Guise didn't have an Edna Mode costume, had even made a point of shape-shifting a cape or two till one had gotten caught in the doors of an elevator and she'd lost some of the real hair she'd make look like it. Her powers meant she did her superheroing naked even though it never looked like it.
What she did have was money and a huge wardrobe. She pretended to a rich kid spiting daddy by ignoring the Ivy League, but really she made her income as a series of up-and-coming models who quit to have families just before they hit the big time. Her baby bump was almost as good as her scared hostage. When Ghostess had asked why the clothes when she could look she was wearing anything she wanted, Miss Guise had pointed out "hygiene, duh, how many times have you sat where I've sat?" and that she got cold too.
"Damn! Melon farmer!"
Ghostess added a few more swear words as the car behind blared its horn and the driver added a few rude gestures in her direction as he roared past. She'd hit the breaks reflexively as the centre of the windshield had turned blue and Mirage's face had appeared without warning.
"Ghostess, Miss Guise, you're needed at Metroville U physics department. You'll be briefed on arrival."
"Sister, looks like neither of us are going to spend the night the way we planned," Ghostess pretended to mourn. She wouldn't mind a bit more adrenaline tonight.
"Hmm," Miss Guise sounded thoughtful. "She didn't react to your cursing her."
"Mirage? Mirage wouldn't react to a bomb going off if she didn't want to."
"I know faces. I know micro-gestures. She's hard to read, sometimes impossible. But she doesn't like outbursts. Control freak like her, they make her think less of people. But tonight she didn't care."
"Ok, we play it cautious."
Ghostess's actions gave the lie to her words as she pushed at the accelerator a bit harder. As they passed the car that had given her the horn Miss Guise took the form of the president and gave the other driver the finger.
Next Chapters
Or add your own