It was a couple of days since I first became Hyperwoman. I stood in front of the mirror contemplating what I was about to do. I looked at myself. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and some nice heels that H had lent me. My hair in a pony tail. I took off my glasses and set them down. Then I ripped the shirt.

I felt the now familiar surge flow through me and I looked as I transformed into my Hyperwoman costume. It was all so surreal. It was a simple motion that changed everything about me.

I looked at myself in my Hyperwoman outfit. My hair was out and full of volume. I was now wearing a red and blue suit, red gloves, boots and cape. I had never had anything fit like this in my life. It was perfect and the most comfortable ensemble I had ever worn. I ran my hands over the suit. It felt so luxurious and the cape felt amazing. I couldn’t even feel the weight of my boots and my gloves were like a second skin.

“Yeah I did the same thing when I first became Hyperwoman” H said walking in busting me admiring myself. “You do look good in it.”

She was wearing a blouse, an A line skirt and pumps. Her hair was in a loose bun with her glasses on. She had just come back from the police station following her abduction and her subsequent rescue by me.

“Arrgh” I squeaked as I jumped back, hitting my head on the roof. Regaining my composure I replied “Gees H, you scared me. How did the cops go?”

“I answered all their questions, they offered me counselling but I’m ok. After all Hyperwoman saved me. Do you want a coffee?” H asked.

I spun and changed back into the shirt and jeans I was wearing, my hair back in its pony tail. “Sounds good. Thanks for the clothes” I joked while putting on my glasses.

Referring to each other as Hannah was getting confusing, so I beat her to the punch and started calling her H. It was that or Trixie which I found out was a common nickname for both of us, however she wasn’t too fond of that Idea. Brought up some bad memories she said.

We sat down with our coffee and started chatting

“First things first.” I started. “You’re Hyperwoman but you only wear glasses as a disguise. How the hell can people not recognise it’s you, or us?”

“I don’t know how it works all I know is it does. When I’m wearing my glasses I’m just normal Hannah, but transform into Hyperwoman and no one knows it’s me. I’ve even saved my best friend and she didn’t have a clue. Also think about it. You didn’t even realise until you changed into Hyperwoman yourself that I was Hyperwoman did you?”

I thought back, she had me there.  “I guess not. But in my defence though I had only seen you once like that before I transformed” I said scrambling to sound like I hadn’t been fooled.

“How are we able to do this? Aliens, I’m betting it was aliens”

H had a knowing pause, then I realised.

“But that doesn’t explain me does it” I said with a face palm.

“Nope” she grinned “No it wasn’t aliens, or other interdimensional beings, or scientific experiments, or space rocks.  I’m not 100 percent sure to be honest. The best I can work out is, well actually I have no idea. It’s a part of the reason I continue to work as a geneticist. I want to find why I’m special. You know about the qwerk about my, I mean our genetics.”

“That we have an extra X chromosome.”

“Yeah that one, maybe that has something to do with it”

“We’re super females who are super females” I grinned

“What are you on about?”

“Super females, that’s the scientific term for it” I said

“No it isn’t” H replied

“It is back home.  What is it called here?”

“An anomaly, I’m the only one I know of.”

“Really! I mean it’s not common at home but it’s not a totally rare anomaly either. I just never had superpowers because of it previously”

“Super female hey. Interesting, I might work on that theory” pondered H while stroking her chin

“So that’s why you’re a geneticist, to study your superpowers. Cool.” I said

“No I already was one before all this. Now it’s just convenient” she quipped

“Well they say that everything happens for a reason, including getting stuck in a parallel dimension apparently. How did you find out you’re a superhero and can transform?”

“That was a funny story looking back.” H giggled “I was rushing home because I had a date. I got home from work and rushed to change into my date outfit. I grabbed my dress and put on my bracelet and went to take off my shirt. As I pulled my shirt I felt a power surge through my body. I looked down and I was in my uniform. I felt incredible but I was also freaking out. I mean like what the fuck had just happened and where did this suit come from? Where were my clothes? I ended up putting the dress over my costume and tucking the cape in then heading out on the date”

“You went on a date with your Hyperwoman costume underneath!” I asked gobsmacked

“Well what else was I going to do and the guy was kind of cute. I figured if it got that far I would say it’s a kind of sponx. It didn’t. He was a complete douchebag. And my mind was else ware at the time”

“Funny that. And finding out about the change back?”

“When I got home and took off the dress. I stood in the mirror and looked at myself. I did a twirl to spin the cape and next thing I was in my work gear again. I got changed and went to bed. After one of the worse nights sleep in my life I woke up. I looked in the mirror and repeated the shirt rip and again I changed into costume. Then I spun and I was back in my pyjamas. After confirming I can change clothes I needed to know if this was just a party trick or if there was something more to this. Fortunately work was begging me to take leave, so I took some time off and went out of town to a secluded spot with about 35 comic books. There I experimented in peace to see what I could do and get some semblance of understanding what was going on.”

“Do you like being a hero?” I asked her

“I do get a bit of a rush from helping people I will admit.”

 “So why and how did you get the people to accept you as a superheroine?”

“The why was simple. Once I figured I could do this amazing stuff I thought I may as well try and help people with it. The how; be clandestine at first. My first save was a fire where I flew people out. You have to be really careful so you don’t hurt other people when you’re saving them as humans really are quite brittle. I practised with potato sacks and pressure gauges to see how hard I could go. Let’s just say going in green would have killed about 200 people. Catching my first person was nerve racking but I pulled it off and they didn’t have a scratch. I tried to fly off before people got wind of me. I was happy for this to be an unexplained mystery.

It didn’t work. The press got some pics of me and asked the question of who is this person? They dubbed me Hyperwoman and that’s how I got the name. Eventually I went public after I rescued a TV crew from a van that crashed into the water. They did say it wasn’t deliberate and I really hope they were telling the truth. I just happened to walk past when they crashed.”

Suddenly I got this feeling, Hannah looked up

“You felt that as well” I said

“Gees you’re developing this faster than I did. I call it a sixth sense if you will. Hyperwoman is needed. The Sixth sense helps guide me where I need to go”

“Are you right to cover it” I asked

“No problem” Hannah said as she stood up and took off her glasses. “This is a job for Hyperwoman” she said mockingly, then she transformed. She opened the balcony door and flew off.

In a while she came back in still in uniform

“All good?” I asked

“Yep, what are you doing now?”

“Laying on the couch watching the Sorny” I said smugly stretching my arms and laying down

“Good. Get up and transform, we’re going training”

“What!”

“You heard me, Training. If you can be Hyperwoman you need to know what you can do. And hostage situations aren’t the best for learning in, Come on. I’ll teach you”

“I don’t know” I said, “I mean I need some time”

“You can do this Hannah” she said. If anyone knows that I do, let’s go”

“Look H. You’ve been Hyperwoman for a while. I’ve done this literally once to save you. I’m happy to leave this to you”

Hannah shut the door and changed back, grabbed her glasses and sat down.

“Don’t you think you can do it?” she asked

“It’s not that” I said “I just don’t want to start something I can’t finish. I could leave tomorrow.”

“But that’s why I’m here” Hannah said “and what if you keep these powers?”

“Let me have a think about it.” I said

“Ok then” she said “Have you seen Revenge of the Jedi”……

Two days later I was at the Newsagents. H was out for the day and I threw on some jeans and a T-shirt was walking around acquainting myself with the changes of this new world. The owner was a guy called Enrico and the newsagent was the family business for two generations now. I said hi and started heading to the rear of the store. Hannah had given me some cash to get the papers or whatever I wanted. At the back of the store there was an L shape to a door that headed to an alley beside the shop where the deliveries were made.

I picked up two papers and paid and walked out passed two guys. Just as I sat on the bench out front I heard “This is a hold up”. I saw one of the men was brandishing an 11 inch blade at Enrico and the other pulled out a bag. Right then I felt a pull. The same pull H and I felt eariler. Hyperwoman was needed

“Crap! Why is H out of town” I said to myself, but I knew I needed to do something and help Enrico, even if I didn’t want to do it.

I got up off the bench around ran into the alley. There were some bins and boxes there obscuring the view through the alley

I crouched behind the bin and took off my glasses, “This is a job for Hyperwoman” I said quietly and ripped my shirt.

Nothing happened

“Shit.” I thought, and then I remembered “Standing, Right.”

I put the boxes on top of the bin to give enough height to block unsuspecting eyes.

I stood behind the boxes out of sight. “here goes nothing” I said, then I ripped my shirt.

I felt the power surge through me as I transformed. My shirt and jeans changed into Hyperwoman’s red and blue suit. My heels were boots and I now wore red gloves and a cape

I dashed back around the corner and into the newsagent, passed the men and straight into a magazine carousel. One almighty crash later I got up on my feet with two shocked men staring at me.

Magazines were strewn everywhere and the carousel was on the ground.

“Mind if I crash the party” I said

 “HYPERWOMAN!!” They all exclaimed, Enrico, who held more enthusiasm in his voice then the others, then hid behind the counter in the confusion.

“Who were you were expecting? Superman!” I quipped

“Superwho?” one guy asked

“Superman; the guy I kind of feel like I’m ripping off here? It doesn’t matter.” I said putting up my fists.

Right then the guy with the knife turned and he started swinging at me. The first two swipes fell short but the third cracked me right in the forearm on the glove.

And cracked his knife clean in two.

“I guess your knife will not cut” I said, and was greeted by death stares “Nothing! Really?”

So there I was with 2 bad guys who really don’t appreciate good humour so I figured I may as well wrap this up. I stepped into the man with half a knife and elbowed him in the head. The other retaliated by throwing a plastic bottle at me that cracked on impact. The 30 cent perfume in the bottle smelt just as good, and half a second later I sneezed at the second man.

He promptly flew out the window and into a car next to the bench I was sitting on earlier setting off the car alarm.

“I have superbreath!” I screamed with delight; I inhaled and looked at the first man, blew my lungs out at him, and nothing happened.

I mean nothing, the loose papers didn’t even move. 

“Oh crap” I said as he charged me and cracked me with a left hook.

I stumbled back then decided if I couldn’t blow him over I’d knock him over. I jumped and crash tacked him through the door and into the car where the other assailant was out cold.

Thankfully the cops showed up just then and arrested the men.

I walked into the disaster zone that was the newsagent. I spoke with Enrico “Do you need a hand tidying up” I said grabbing the papers

“Thank you” he said “But I think they want to take some pictures first” He pointed at two officers looking sternly at me

Taking my cue I left and dashed back around the corner, straight into a pile of bins and boxes

“Bloody hell” I said, ears still ringing as I changed back into my clothes. I grabbed my glasses I had put on a ledge and walked out the other end of the alley.

I walked back to the newsagent and the men had stopped taking their photos and were loading the assailants into their cars. Enrcico started to look at his newsagent.

“What happened here, are you ok Enrico?” I asked

“I’m fine Hannah. I was getting robbed but Hyperwoman saved the day. Unfortunately there was some collateral damage.” He said pointing

“Ahh is that normal? I mean who’s responsible for paying for that” I asked somewhat sheepishly.

“Fortunately as the police caught the men the city will pay for it and charge them for me, I just have to fill out on paperwork and I’ll get the money back. Hyperwoman saved the day, Did you see her?”

“No I didn’t” I said thinking fast “Let me help you” I said bending down and picking up some papers beside him

“You’ve always been so kind Hannah.” He said. “If I can help you let me know”

“Thanks” then a brainwave hit me “Hey I kind of need a second job, do you know of anyone”

“Come here and start tomorrow” he said

“Really” I squealed

“I’d be happy to” He replied

I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up my misendevours with Enrico and then I headed home.

H was on the couch

“Nice work today” she said pointing to the news. I had made my first bulletin.

“Yeah, about that. I got the job done but there were some ahh, issues.”

“Oh I saw.”

“You did?”

“Yeah I felt I was needed and flew over the newsagent. When I arrived I saw you in with the men. I couldn’t really go in with you so I hung back on the opposite roof and watched. You did well.”

“Thanks, but you’re right” If I’m going to do this, I’ll need help.”

I put down my glasses.

“You mean?” she asked.

I grabbed my shirt and transformed.

“Train me Hyperwoman”

H got up and transformed as well.

“No problem”, we each raised our right hand and grabbed it and brought ourselves into an embrace. Then she spun back into her clothes.

“That was really cheesy wasn’t it” H said.

“But you have to admit, It was pretty gouda” I replied with a sly grin.

“What’s gouda?” she asked quizzically.

“Oh for fucks sake” I sighed; “No one here appreciates good humour”

“Oh, Ha” H said sarcastically as I rolled my eyes. She went back on topic. “Let’s start tomorrow. I’m stuffed” she said lying back down on the couch.

“Does the day after work?” I said as I changed back. “I got a job with Enrico and I start tomorrow”

“You WHAT!” H replied stunned

“Yeah, I’ll tell you about it later. I’m off for a shower”

How do you train to be a superheroine? What other powers does Hyperwoman have? Should this have been put in a poll with potential options?

Those answers and more next time on Hyperwoman Chapter 5: It’s a montage baby!!