Blood Sisters

Cricket followed her rooftop roadway back into the East Side until she overlooked Trixie's apartment building. Everything looked clear, until she spotted a white van in an alleyway across the street. Not a lot of people had cars on the East Side. The cars that were here were dirty, or had cracked windows, dented bodies or broken grilles. That van was clean and could have just been driven off the lot. Not to mention that it was just a plain, boring white van. No one on the East Side would drive a plain boring white van.

Cricket kept low on the rooftop, peeking over the concrete lip that rose a foot or so on the edge of the roof. She scanned around the surrounding buildings for agents. If there were some here, they were hiding well. Which did not account for much, Cricket had been shot plenty of times by them, she usually didn't see them.

The young girl backtracked a few blocks, jumping down to the street behind the pizza place she and Jake usually got their pizza from. The back alley had an overflowing dumpster, and the cement was so slick with grease she almost tripped. Cricket went in through the unlocked back door, smelling the pizza she realized she was ravenous. The Indestructible Girl ducked into the back office/storage room and used the old phone on the wall to dial Trixie's number. Trix answered on the fourth ring. “Hey” Trix said. Cricket tried her best to lower her voice “Hey this is Tony's Pizza, how ya doin, Trix?”. Trixie sounded a little nervous. “Um, okay. What do you want I didn't order a...” the line went dead as the phone on the other end was hung up. “Crap” Cricket said. She ducked back out into the kitchen of the pizza parlor, almost running into Tony himself. He put his fat arms on his fatter hips and said “Hey girlie, you gotta get out of here, people are askin about you, that you don't want askin about you, knowwhadahmean?” Cricket gave a quick nod “Can I grab a slice first?” Tony smiled “Wait here girlie, I'll get you one”. She whispered after him as he walked away “sausage!” Fat Tony came back with a to-go box. “Here's two slices, a cheese and a sausage, now get going ya street-rat” he said kindly.

Cricket left, jumping back up to the rooftops to wolf down her slices. They got to Trixie already, they moved faster then Jake thought they would. She got a nervous feeling in her gut. Cricket moved as stealthily as she could, rooftop to rooftop until she could get a glimpse of Jake's tattoo parlor. Again she laid low and peeked around for agents. Still none that she could see. Jake's shop was closed, the lights were off. She could see in the front window the reflection of a beat-up police car that was parked across the street from the shop. Cricket frowned, and the panic started to set in. She was supposed to wait at Trixie's until Jake got in touch about where they were going to hide... but she couldn't go there now.

Cricket jumped a few rooftops away to another apartment building. She hoped she could find a vacant apartment to hold up in while she though of what to do next. She started climbing down the rusty fire escape that was clinging for dear life onto the side of the building. Cricket peeked into window after window until she caught a glimpse of the news on an old ladies television. There was a picture of that golden girl that she fought with before, the caption read “Jenny Goldstar in stable condition after surgery, in good spirits.” There was a reporter standing in front of a hospital that Cricket recognized, it was in Midtown. Cricket caught a glimpse of her reflection in the old ladies window, and looked again at the picture of Jenny Goldstar on the television. The Indestructible Girl could not believe she did not notice it before when they were fighting. This Jenny looked just like her, only happy. And groomed. And clean. Cricket twisted her lip and tapped her fingers on the fire escape rail thinking about what to do. There was a loud snap, and she looked down to see that she had accidentally broke the railing where she was tapping it. The old woman heard that, and yelled at Cricket through the window “Get out of here street trash! I got no drugs or money, now git!”. Cricket glared at her, then jumped away. She was afraid of what she had decided to do, but at this point she had no better idea. Cricket found a place to lay up and got some sleep.

***

Jenny woke up feeling much better. 6” tall Paul was sleeping on her belly, and her chest felt tight from the bandages wrapped around it. There was a funny smell in the air, and on her. She sneezed, and winced as her broken ribs let her know what they thought of that. The sneeze woke Paul who sat up on her abdomen with a yawn. “Hey kid”. He said. Jenny smiled down at him... “ohh... its been so long since I played with dolls!” She did a mock maniacal laugh as she reached for Paul. He just smirked and crawled up into her hand. “They had to pump an anesthetic gas in here to knock you out for the surgery, since I couldn't get out, while you were out, I got some sleep too”. Paul grinned. Jenny nodded. “SPARKLE!” came her fathers voice from the door. Jenny looked over at her parents as they walked over to her. Mom was in uniform, and it looked like she had worn it a bit too long. Dad was in bell-bottoms and a tie-dye shirt. She grinned and gave them a wave. Then pouted and said “Do you MIIND? I am having some private time with Paul!”. D-Day got a bit red and stammered out something. “I don't approve”. Miss Liberty said flatly, though her eyes were bright.

The family reunited, and eventually Jenny let Paul out, wincing a bit at the pain from the teleport, she was still pretty sore. “Much as I would love to visit with you all for awhile, I have agents in the field and they have been on their own for...” he glanced up at the clock “...to long”. Paul accepted a hand from Goldstar up to the cockpit of his D-Day unit. “Just let us know if we can help” Allison said from Jenny's bedside. Paul nodded as he settled into his pilot's chair. “You bet”. As he closed the hatch, he thought there is no way in hell I am going to ask either of Jenny's parents to leave her side any time soon. The D-Day unit came to life, and the floor shook a bit as it walked from the room, barely fitting out the wide hospital door. “Paul”. Miss Liberty called over to him. The D-Day armor paused just outside the door and turned its head around 180 degrees , the hatch opened up again with a hiss. “Yeah?” Paul said from his small open cockpit. “You saved my daughters life. Thank you. We will not forget it”. Miss Liberty's eyes were wet with grateful tears. Paul choked back a few himself. “Make me some of that fantastic cornbread of yours Allison, and we'll be even”. The looked in each others eyes, big and small, and nodded. So much unsaid. No need to say it.

They all just visited for a while, talking about little things. Jenny complained that Marty had not brought her rocky-road ice cream. He claimed that Allison ate it all. There were some laughs and some stories. After nearly an hour Allison looked down at her little girl through her golden halo “Would you like to tell us what happened Jenny?” Jenny started to tell her all about it, and got up to the point where Cricket had come up through the floor and the fight started. She hesitated a few seconds. Then decided to leave out the part where Cricket was essentially her twin. Allison looked down at her daughter, somewhat suspicious. But decided not to press it just now. “Well, I am just glad your OK Jenny, very, very glad.” Ally teared up again. “Just remember, you can always change your mind about being a hero, and your still not allowed for two more years young lady!”. Jenny shook her head yes and gave a reassuring smile “I know mom. Try not to freak out because I got hurt. I am gonna be fine, and on the day after I have my 18th birthday party, I'm doin it, I am going to be a hero, just like you!” She winked.

Marty smiled “Your already my hero Sparkle”. There was a pause and they both looked over at Allison. Miss Liberty scowled at both of them “do either of you have any idea how corny that sounded? -I- thought that was corny, and I write country music”. Jenny giggled “yeah, but its -good- country music”. Jenny yawned, suddenly feeling really tired. Marty said “well, lets all get some sleep, even superheroes need to sleep, right my-darling-wife-who-has-been-up-for-two-days?”. Skinny Mr. 1970's looked up at his muscular tall partner. Allison grudgingly agreed. “Okay, okay” they both kissed Jenny's force-field and gave it a pat. Jenny was already asleep.

Jenny was not sure how much time passed. Her parents came to visit her a few times, sometimes just one, sometimes both. Sometimes in uniform, sometimes not. The police came around once, to get her statement about what happened, thanked her for trying to help and told her that they would keep her family posted. Through all of this, Jenny was surprised that no one had noticed how much she and Cricket looked alike. Paul's little robots kept doing their thing and she started feeling like herself again, which meant she also started to feel bored. The TV in her room had no good channels, she couldn't find anything she really wanted to watch. She ended up just flicking between the local and national news programs. She stopped to silently guess the lottery numbers just before the little balls dropped out of the tumbler. As usual, she guessed right every time.

***

The MSCC wing of Avalon Hospital was in this renovated old building that had lots of stone decorations and windowsills for Cricket to climb on. When she could not get proper footing, she dug her hands into the stone wall like clay, leaving cracked holes behind. It did not take her long to find the room that Jenny Goldstar was in. It was the middle of the night, and she seemed to be asleep, though it was hard to tell through all that golden light. Cricket waited for a while until she saw the night nurse check in Jenny's room on her rounds. Once she was gone, Cricket tapped on the window, it was obviously locked and she did not want to break it. Jenny did not seem to notice, so Cricket knocked harder, unintentionally cracking the glass. “Crap” she muttered.

Jenny woke up this time, and looked out the window. After a second it registered who was there and Jenny rolled out of bed taking a defensive stance, wincing at the sudden movement. Cricket waved both her hands, then caught herself quickly, she almost fell off the window sill from that. She looked back in and said just loud enough to be heard through the glass “its okay, I just want to talk”.

Jenny thought about it a few seconds, then stepped over and slid the window open. The two girls just looked at each other for a few moments, like each was gazing into a mirror, while not twins, the resemblance was uncanny. Cricket became aware of Jenny's humming radiance between them, and looked away from her face. The girl spoke quietly, still standing on the windowsill. She tried to talk, wet her throat and tried again. “I was just trying to get my friend, I am sorry I hurt you.” Jenny nodded “Except for the pain, the bleeding and the broken ribs, it was kinda fun actually” she smiled at the other girl “I am sooo sick of just training all the time.” Cricket smirked and glanced down at the ground several stories below “yeah well... my world isn't all that great either, sister.” She had meant it as a casual term, like it was used a hundred times a day on the street. But Cricket suddenly held her gut like something just hit her from the inside. She snapped her head up to see Jenny was looking at her, a look of surprise on her face as well. The word had deeply resonated with both of them. After an awkward pause Jenny stepped back from the window so Cricket could move into the room. She caught a glimpse of the damage she did to Crickets leather jacket. “I really like your coat, sorry I ruined it”. Cricket scowled “lets just skip that for now, but we -will- be talking about that later, when your fully healed”. Jenny smirked. She really liked this girl already. They looked at each other again for a few silent moments. The two were the same height, and looked practically the same age, Jenny perhaps slightly older.

Without fully understanding why, Jenny reached out and put her hands as best she could on Crickets shoulders, blue eyes gazing into blue eyes. At first, Cricket recoiled defensively from the unfamiliar gentleness, not trusting it. But Jenny kept her hands firmly on the other girl's small shoulders, and said quietly with a sad smile “Its okay, really.” Slowly, reluctantly, Cricket hugged Jenny's force-field, which buzzed quietly from the contact. Being here, meeting Jenny, felt like coming home to Cricket, she relaxed for the first time in days, taking a deep shaky breath. In a quivering voice Jenny whispered over the buzzing field that separated them “Its nice to meet you Cricket”. Cricket smiled and shut her moist eyes, resting her head on Jenny's softly humming golden halo. Jenny felt strangely fond and connected to Cricket, surprised at how strong the bond between them felt so suddenly. She held onto Cricket tightly, the force-field pressing up against her body, buzzing louder from the pressure as it was squeezed between the two girls. Jenny had always hated being an only child, there was a silent loneliness about it that she could never quite shake. But this... she really liked how this felt, it filled up that lonely place for the first time ever. Never before had she hated not being able to touch another person as much as she did right now. Taking a step back, the two girls smiled brightly at each other. Cricket had never felt happier.

Their quiet moment was suddenly interrupted as the door opened and the night nurse entered the room “Jenny, I have some ginger ale here, would you like to...” the nurse stopped in shock, dropping the cup of soda, carbon bubbles and ice cubes going everywhere. The woman looked dumfounded at the pair in mute surprise for several heartbeats “What... who...?” the nurse stammered. “Were about to get into a lot of trouble, aren't we?” Jenny asked with a grin. Cricket smirked back at her “You know it sister!” And just like that, it was decided. They were.