Radiant and the Rookie

A Young Omega Girl story by Czarzhan and JDarksong

Chapter 2 In which Lacie floors it.

“Take out those meteors on the left,” Radiant called. “You have two minutes until rocks start hitting the town”

“I know! There’s too many of them!” Lacie screamed as she futilely punched bits of space debris, deflecting them to the unoccupied area north of the impact zone.

“Omega Girl! Breathe! Focus on your speed and concentrate on a strategy.”

“Speed…” Lacie mused, then began racing.

Val watched Omega Girl’s form become a blur as she whirled through the falling cloud of stone, desperate to redirect each individual chuck out of the endangered area. She shook her head as her protege lost track of her altitude and plowed into the ground ahead of the rocks. Still, Lacie had managed to stop over 90% of the shower from hitting their target. Unfortunately, it was not enough and the town was devastated.

Or rather, the 400 acre field with chalk outlines for where the building were supposed to be was devastated. Radiant had raised several thousand tons of dirt and stone more than twenty miles into the air before shattering it and allowing it to fall, directing Lacie to “save the town.”

Val flew down to where Lacie was picking herself up out of the furrow she had plowed into the earth and helped her to her feet. As she brushed the dirt off her clothes and shook it out of her hair, Lacie grumbled, “Damn it.”

“Language,” Radiant chided. “Now, do you know where you went wrong?”

“No,” Lacie frowned. “I tried using my speed like you said, but I still wasn’t fast enough.”

“Lacie, I didn’t tell you to use your speed to act, I wanted you to use your speed to think.” On Lacie’s puzzled look she continued, “I wanted you to take a moment while the world slowed down around you and think about other ways you could deal with the problem. Honestly, I thought if you took a moment, you would have used your Omega beams to vaporize or pulverize the rocks to dust.”

“I thought about that, but I didn’t think I could charge up fast enough for it to do any good.”

Val nodded. “I hadn’t considered that. Come on. Let’s get you home and cleaned up. Your dad is making your birthday dinner.” Lacie grinned and followed her into the air.

On the way, Val said, “I want you to consider something before our next patrol. I want you to think about summoning the Omega power within you and bringing it to the fore. Think about energizing your whole body at once.”

“Okay,” Lacie replied. “Why?”

“I’ve noticed you always look a bit more muscular whenever you used your strength, as if your powers were optimizing you for that function. If you were to power up your whole body, not only would it express itself as a transformation to an idealized form of yourself, it should also allow you to access all your powers immediately without having to charge them up.”

“Okay! I’ll give it a try.” Lacie sounded excited. She closed her eyes and began thinking about summoning the power…

...Only to give a startled ‘Eep!’ as Radiant swatted her on the rump. “Not mid-flight! Wait at least until we’re on the ground.”

They made their way back to the house in what had become standard the past few weeks: Superfast flying to the parking structure attached to a rural hospital near the Gilbertson household, from there driving the Val’s Ford Mustang to Lacie’s home. As the entered, Lacie called, “We’re back.”

James had a smile on his face as he entered the room, but it quickly turned to shock. “What happened to you?” he asked Lacie, who was wearing a long coat over the makeshift super outfit she’d constructed. Her face and hair were still covered with the sand and dirt from the “meteor” exercise.

Deadpan, the teen glanced at herself and replied, “I fell down,” which immediately cracked Val up.

After a beat, he asked, “How many times??” which got Lacie giggling as well.

“Just the once,” Val answered, “but she had to make it count.” She held up a roll of clothes. “I have her civvies here, but she wanted to wash up before she changed.” She handed it to Lacie.

“Dinner should be ready when you come back down,” James told her as she headed for the shower. As soon as he heard the door shut, he queried Val, “Do you have it?”

“It’s in the trunk of my car,” she replied. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“If you say she’s ready, I’ll trust your judgment.”

Later, as they ate, Val asked, “So, are you excited about prom?”

Lacie grinned, thinking about the dance the following Saturday. “So excited! Thank you for the prom dress, by the way.”

Val swallowed a bite of food and replied, “Thank your father. He paid for the dress, I just took you for the fitting.”

Lacie touched James’s hand. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said in the voice young women have used since the beginning of time to wrap the fathers around their little fingers.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” he replied.

After clearing the table and getting the dishes squared away, the trio adjourned to the family room. Val sat next to James on the couch. “You know, there’s another reason I wanted to take you for that dress fitting.”

“There was?” Lacie replied.

“Oh, yeah,” Val answered. “To make sure this will fit.” She reached behind the couch and pulled the package she stashed there earlier. She gave it to Lacie. “Happy birthday, kiddo.”

She quickly ripped the paper away, opened the box, and gasped. She pulled the new super uniform from the box: a black sleeveless number with a gold Omega emblazoned across the front. “Oh my god! It’s beautiful! I—” she suddenly stopped, glancing at James. “Does this mean…?”

“I’m not saying I don’t have reservations,” James answered. “I’ll always have reservations. And if your grades start to suffer, I’m hiding that uniform! But, yes, you have my permission to be a full-fledged superhero.”

Lacie squealed and hugged the two adults. “ThankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!!” She grabbed the box. “I’m gonna try it on!” And she fled upstairs.

James sat again, rubbing his forehead. Val sat beside him, taking his free hand. “You okay?” she asked gently. In the past month, she had seen him experience episodes of weakness due to his illness, and she wanted to lend whatever support he could.

“I really just told her she could be a superhero,” he murmurred.

Val chuckled, relieved that this was just a case of parental nerves rather than a medical flare-up. “They grow up so fast,” she replied, rubbing his back. “Seriously, though, she’s an amazing young woman. I think she’ll even surpass me in the heroic community. She can handle it.”

“You’re right, I know,” he smiled weakly, then turned serious. “Do you think she can handle learning about us?” They had been carrying on a covert relationship for the past month. There had been numerous trysts, covered by excuses like conferring about Lacie’s training or simply sneaking through windows.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Val replied. “The real question is are you ready for her to know?”

“All I know is I’m tired of waking up without you by my side. I—”

“OH MY GOD!!” Lacie screamed from upstairs.

Val leapt to her feet. “Lacie!?” she called out, ready to rush to her side if need be. “You okay??”

They heard her hurried footsteps on the floor above. “You guys gotta see this!” She rushed into the room. She wore the swimsuit-like outfit, along with the long black gloves and thigh-high boots that were also in the box. A red sash adorned her waist. She struck a heroic pose.

“You look beautiful,” James smiled at his daughter.

Val grinned. “You look amazing.”

Lacie beamed at the other two. “If you think Lacie Gilbertson looks amazing, wait ‘til you get a load of…” and she held her arms wide and threw her head back. Val could tell she was summoning the Omega Force as Radiant had instructed earlier. Lacie’s pale skin took on a healthy tan. Muscles could be seen gaining definition. The teen’s dark mane took on a bright, golden hue. Perhaps most startling of all was that she appeared to grow several inches. The uniform, which had been snug, was now skin-tight. Her fists returned to her hips, and this taller, curvier, bustier woman regarded the others with strikingly clear blue eyes.“...Omega Girl,” she finished. Even her voice had a richer timbre.

James was glad he was still seated.

Omega Girl’s aura of presence and sophistication lasted approximately three seconds before Lacie, still powered up, broke into giggles and grabbed Val’s hands, dancing around the room. They let her celebrate for several minutes more before Val asked her to sit down and listen for a few. “There’s something your father and I want to tell you.”

Lacie took a seat, smiling. “Sure! What’s up?”

Val sat beside James, facing her. “Ah. Um.” She was suddenly at a loss. She took a deep breath. “Okay, your father and I…”

“That is,” James cut in, trying to help, “Me and Val…”

“Yes?” Lacie nodded, listening intently. This birthday had been so amazing, she was certain they were about to reveal some bonus aspect of her becoming a superhero, although she couldn’t imagine what it would be.

“Okay,” Val stated, “there’s no easy way to say this: Your father and I are… involved.”

Lacie’s eager smile gave way to confusion. “… What?”

“Involved,” Val supplied. “Romantically.”

“...What?” Lacie looked back and forth between the two, still having trouble processing the news.

James added, “We’ve been seeing each other for the last month. Since she’s been training you.”

“Oh,” she deflated, literally, as she powered down.

“We just didn’t want you to be surprised,” Val added gently, “if, some morning, you see me coming down for breakfast…”

Suddenly, what they were saying clicked. “Oh!” Her shocked look lasted only a second as the implications of Val last comment connected in her head, and she immediately wished she could scrub her brain with acid. “Oh, God!”

“Sweetheart, it’s okay,” James began. “We just—”

“I don’t need to know any more!” she yelled quickly as she leapt to her feet. “I’m going to my room,” she fled, only to return a moment later. She unplugged the console television and hoist it effortlessly. “To watch TV.” And quickly fled the room again.

Several seconds pass between the adults. Finally, Val stated, “Honestly, that could have gone worse.”

* * *

Sunday Afternoon

James Gilbertson had thought he was going to have a quiet night last night. Lacie had been picked up by her boyfriend Doug for the prom. His own lady friend, Val, had been called away as Radiant to help with a power plant fire two states away. He planned to kick back, maybe watch a movie on TV or read, essentially bide his time until Doug brought Lacie home before her 11pm curfew Lacie may be a senior in high school, but that was only because she skipped a couple grades. She was still only sixteen years old.

But Lacie didn’t come home last night. And when the news came on the top story was about Dr. Atoms attacking the town with a giant robot and unleashing a radioactive monster that was still on the rampage. A pink-clad heroine fought Atoms’ robot and disabled it, losing track of the monster in the process.

James went to Lacie’s room to check if the new costume Val had given her was still there. The homemade one she had been using before she got it must have been someplace she could easily get it when Atoms attacked.

James decided to forego church to wait for his daughter at home. He could pray for her just as easily there. That decision saved his life. The creature, who was apparently humanoid in shape, had entered the chapel in the middle of the service. As parishioners tried to escape, the creature unleashed a devastating blast, destroying the building and killing most of the congregation.

Various emergency services as well as some Army units had surrounded the ruin as Radiant and the pink heroine were seen going in to subdue it. All this, while being reported live, was being told second-hand, as none of the news crews were allowed to get close enough to view the carnage firsthand.

He heard the back door open and rushed to the kitchen. There stood Val in her uniform as Radiant, a comforting arm around his daughter’s shoulders. “Lacie?” he called gently.

The teen’s tear-streaked face snapped up as her gaze locked on him. “Dad?!” In an instant, she was across the room, desperately hugging him as if afraid he would suddenly disappear. As he returned the embrace, he heard her crying into his shoulder. “I thought you were at the church,” she mumbled

“I didn’t want to leave here until you got home,” replied James.

“I thought-- I thought--,” she couldn’t complete the sentence, her sobs becoming more and more ragged.

“It’s okay, Pumpkin,” he soothed. “I’m okay.” He held her for several minutes until she was able to get hold of herself.

Val had stayed back to let James comfort his daughter. After a bit, she quietly suggested, “Lacie, why don’t you go get cleaned up. I need to talk to your father. Don’t worry,” she added as the teen tightened her embrace, “I won’t let him go anywhere.” Lacie nodded and released her father, then plodded with heavy footsteps out of the kitchen.

After she was out of sight, James began, “What happ--” but was interrupted as Val’s lips met his. He returned the kiss, but quickly realized the passion in it was strongly laced with desperation and relief. As she pulled back, he saw the tears she’d been holding back had begun to flow.

“She was sure you were there,” she whispered as he held her. “When we didn’t find you among the survivors, we thought you were still inside when the blast went off. We looked, but the dead were all unidentifiable. Just bones and ash.” She had a haunted look as she described the scene.

“What happened to the creature?” James asked.

“Creature?” Val was confused.

“The monster Dr. Atoms created? That destroyed the church?” James supplied.

Realization dawned on Val face and she began to cry again. “Oh, James. That wasn’t a monster. That was Doug Williams!”

“Wha-- Lacie’s boyfriend?!”

Val nodded miserably. “And Dr. Atoms didn’t turn him into that. At least, not by himself.” She and James sat at the table. “When Lacie went after Atoms, Doug had seen her change, and followed her. When Atoms’ robot grabbed her, Doug threw rocks at him to try to distract him. So Atoms tried to kill him with the robot’s atomic cannon, and Lacie tried to shield him. But she knew she couldn’t move fast enough to interpose herself, so she tried to protect him… with her Omega beams.”

“My God,” James muttered. As the world’s leading expert on Omega rays and how they interact with living tissue, he realized what the effect would be if a person were bathed in a high concentration of radioactive particles and Omega rays simultaneously. “And he survived long enough,” he worked out, “to try to get help. But he would have been driven mad with pain, so he wondered all night and found the church…”

Val nodded again. “The survivors said all he kept screaming was ‘Help me!’ Then he couldn’t hold it anymore and released it all.”

“Like a small nuclear bomb,” James finished. “Was there anything left of him after?”

“He’s still alive.”

“What!?”

“He didn’t explode, he just discharged the energy all at once.

“Poor kid.”

“But it became apparent that the energy started building back up again. So I convinced Lacie to allow some scientists I know, who are currently working for the Army, to take him into custody. They assured me, and I assured her, that they should be able to reverse the effect on Dougie’s body, and he should be back to his old self within a few days, weeks at the outside.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, but it was really the only option. I told them I knew an expert on Omega rays, and that’s I’d get them the contact information for him. So expect them to contact you in the next couple days. You can monitor Dougie’s recovery when they do.”

James nodded, then glanced in the direction Lacie went. “How’s she taking it?”

“Not well,” Val hesitated, then continued, “although finding you here, alive, makes her a lot better than she was before we walked through that door. She’s still in shock about Dougie, though. Didn’t want to talk about it. I suggest not bringing him up until she does.”

They talked for a bit more, then Val said she wanted to do a patrol of the area to make sure there weren’t other problems that occurred by Dougie’s radioactive walkabout last night. As she took to the air, Radiant reflected on the last several hours.

She had lied to James, and hated herself for it, as well as the reason for the lie.

Lacie’s confidence had been shattered by what happened. She was seriously thinking of giving up being Omega Girl. She told Val as much as they stood in the church ruin over Doug’s unconscious body. When Val mentioned an Army containment unit was on its way to take the radioactive teen into custody, Lacie was adamantly opposed to letting them take him away. Tempers were flaring and the situation threatened to spin completely out of control.

Exhausted and, in hindsight she recognized, acting rashly, she shone the light of her Guardian Gear on Lacie, sending her into a trance. It was under this influence that caused Lacie to hand Doug over to the military. She also made Lacie put Dougie out of her mind, not to give him another thought until she saw him again, which let her put aside the idea of giving up Omega Girl.

Val justified her actions by letting herself believe the Army’s assurances that Doug would be cured in just a few weeks, at most. She didn’t want Lacie to give up her dream of being a superhero, not just for selfish purposes, but because she truly believed Lacie had an important role to play in the world. A destiny, one that would be fulfilled as Omega Girl.

End Chapter 2