Charlene Maddox was standing at the window in the living room of her sister�s apartment watching the bustling crowds of people. She loved big cities and was happy to get away from Austin for a while. Turning away from the window she watched her twin come storming out of the bedroom. �The absent minded Professor did it again huh?� She asked. Charlene didn�t need to hear the phone conversation to know what had happened. Not only were they identical twins, but they had an unusual bond between them. They were always aware of each others mood even when separated by great distances and when they were near to each other it was tantamount to telepathy.
�Yes!� Shanna said disgustedly. �He said something about paper work. We�ll have to go without him.� Charlene was rather put out by that. After all she had flown in from Texas just to meet him. But she knew her sister would get more and more worked up if she wasn�t headed off, so she said �Well let�s go, I�m starved! Lunch was a long time ago and I wasn�t about to eat that foul stuff on the plane.�
Shanna�s mood had changed by the time they got to the sidewalk caf�. Her temper was like gasoline tossed on a fire, it flared quickly and as quickly died down. Charlene was a different story, her anger was like a log fire, slow to catch, but it burned long. As soon as they were seated they were laughing and chatting like they had never been apart.
�So I told Daddy �Well I found the only Texan here and I know how you feel about yankees, it�s not my fault he�s a professor.� � said Shanna, giggling. �And Daddy actually threatened to have him fired?� asked Charlene. �Yes, but he changed his tune quick enough when I said I�d quit school if he did. Besides, Pat only teaches advanced chemistry, and I�m in studying law, so I would never be in any of his classes.� Shanna replied.
The two girls had a wonderful dinner and were getting ready to leave when the clown came by. He was passing out flyers for the newly arrived circus when he tripped over his big floppy shoes and fell right at Charlene�s feet. While everybody else laughed, the twins helped him back to his feet. In gratitude he handed them a fistful of tickets to that night�s performance. They would never make it to the show, but they would see the clown again.
Tickets in hand, Charlene suggested that they grab Patrick and drag him to the circus, paperwork or no. Shanna was delighted by the idea so they jumped into the car and headed for the campus.
It was a only a few minutes later that they arrived at the University and parked across the street from the building where Patrick had his lab. While Shanna grabbed her purse and keys, Charlene climbed out of the car. Unaware of the alien device falling from above, she didn�t even have time to close the door before the car exploded in a blast of fire and purple thunder.
It felt as if a giant hand swatted her aside like a bug, and she was sent flying into the storefront window before her. Smashing through the glass she careened into a display of television sets which exploded in jagged arcs of electricity, shards of glass and splintered wood. Charlene was mercifully unconscious before she could even feel the thousand cuts on her body or the current raging through it.
People for yards around were tossed to the ground like rag dolls by the blast. A passing motorist swerved off the street and crashed into a fire hydrant sending water spraying high into the air. Screams suddenly echoed from above and a figure in white leaped from a third story window to plummet towards the street below, only to rise up again and fly away in a blazing purple haze.
Those on the ground who could, picked themselves up and looked around, trying to figure out what had happened. The burning wreck of the car was their answer. Being normal people even in this city, they began to form a crowd around the vehicle.
There was a blood curdling scream and the crowd jumped back as the burning woman appeared. She burst out of the shattered window of the drivers side and leaped up screaming and batting at her own body trying to put the fire out. Suddenly the flaming figure froze and began staring at her hands as if they belonged to someone else. Then she whirled towards the smashed storefront and the flames surrounding her went out all at once. Then the woman screamed again and charged into the store oblivious to the broken glass and the fact the she had absolutely no clothes on.
Shanna was completely stunned by the blast. Her ears were ringing, bright spots floated before her eyes and it was several seconds before she realized where she was. The roof of the car was caved in almost to her head, the windows were all blown out and the car was engulfed in flame. When her mind focused enough to comprehend that she was on fire, she shrieked in horror and dove out the window. Quickly she was up again and began to beat out the flames. It took long moments for the fact that she was not in pain to sink in through the panic.
Shanna stared in wonder at her burning hands. Everything around her was seen through a flickering red haze and her body glowed a deep coal red beneath the yellow-orange flames. But even in her amazement she felt that something was wrong, something beyond the obvious. There was something missing. And then it hit her, she couldn�t feel her sister. For the first time in her life, the strange bond they shared was quiet, cut off as if it never existed. She spun towards the car and, seeing the wreckage beyond, her blood ran cold.
Shanna raced past the smashed remains of her car and into the store. She pulled up at the broken display still sparking and popping as vacuum tubes in the smashed televisions exploded and gave up their charge. Quickly she began to dig, tossing aside the dead appliances like wads of used paper. Suddenly there was movement. A hand appeared out of the pile, followed by the head and shoulders of a strange figure. It had iridescent skin of a blue so dark it was almost black. Shanna was reminded of the barrel of her father�s shotgun, freshly cleaned and oiled after a mornings hunt.
The bizarre figure rose slowly, groggily to its feet and spoke in a familiar voice. It planted its hands on its hips and said: �Shanova Maddox! Why are you naked?!�
Shanna was shocked. That voice! It couldn�t be! This creature before her, with it�s unearthly skin and what appeared to be electricity dancing the length of it�s body, it couldn�t be her sister. But the woman, which it obviously was, had her sister�s long red hair, burnt and bedraggled as it was. And the ripped and bloody dress it wore looked an awful lot like the one Charlene was wearing, but still. Then she felt it. The bond with her sister had awakened when she did. So it was that Shanna found herself saying, in a very small voice. �Charlie?� A nickname she hadn�t used since they were both children.
�I asked you a question Shanna. What the hell happened and why are you naked?� It was Charlene�s turn to be confused. She had no recollection of how she had gotten here or even where �here� was. The last thing she remembered was dinner at the caf�. As for the reason for her sister�s nudity, well, she was completely baffled. Charlene began to notice the devastation and the crowds of people surrounding them when Shanna squeaked and burst into flames.
��why are you naked?� said her sister. Shanna looked down at herself and it dawned on her that her clothes had been burned away to ash. She was standing in the display window of a store on a busy street and she was stark naked. She made a little sound and turned beet red with embarrassment. Then she got mad. She had just miraculously survived a deadly explosion, her sister had been sent flying through plate glass and�changed, and she was embarrassed about being nude. It was ridiculous, it was ludicrous, it was infuriating! And she was on fire again.
The crowd of onlookers jerked back as one when the gorgeous red-head exploded into flame. They jerked again when the girl with the metallic skin stumbled back and then
jumped into the air and stayed there. When the burning woman then floated off the ground in a halo of fire, a man was heard to moan �I can�t take it anymore!� And the crowd found other places to be.
When Shanna burst into flames Charlene stumbled back and tripped over a piece of debris. She tried desperately not to fall back into the broken glass and splintered wood and she stopped. She straightened up and looked down at her sister. She looked down at Shanna, who was exactly her height and standing right in front of her, on fire. When Charlene looked down at her feet and saw that they were a good six inches off the ground she nearly fainted.
Somehow Shanna wasn�t surprised when she caught fire again, but she was startled to see her sister start to fall, then rise into the air. At this point she was so beyond shock that it only seemed logical that she do the same thing. And she did. So the two young women were floating in the air, looking at each other in bewilderment. They heard a man�s voice say �I can�t take it anymore!� and the crowd outside the store began to disperse.
Charlene said, in a very small voice, �Shanna, what�s going on and when will it stop?�
�I don�t know Charlie, but I�m with him. Let�s get out of here!� Sirens could be heard rapidly approaching, Patriot city�s finest was on the way. �Good idea sis, but how?� They were both floating above the ground with no idea how to get down or move anywhere. Suddenly Shanna moved towards her sister, surprising them both. As she approached Charlene, her sister said �Aah!� and flew back several feet. They looked at each other for a moment and said at the same time �How did you do that?�
�I was just wondering how to move .� said Shanna. �You scared the hell out of me and I jumped back...kind of.� replied Charlene at the same time. The girls giggled nervously. �I think I�m beginning to understand� Shanna said. �Just think about where you want to go, kind of will it, like moving a leg or something.� They did this and discovered that they could control their flight if they were careful. After barely a minute of experimentation Charlene said �I think we�d better go, those sirens are awfully close.� �Right, follow me.� her twin said and flew out of the store trailing a plume of fire.
�Wait a sec,� called Charlene, and looked around quickly. She spotted her purse sitting miraculously unharmed on top of the debris pile. Swooping low she snagged it one handed and zoomed after Shanna.
Even though she had never seen the city from this angle, Shanna found their way back to her apartment building without too much trouble. The trouble was, they couldn�t very well walk in the front door. Shanna would have to extinguish her flames, if she could figure out how, and then she would be in her birthday suit for all to see. Charlene would attract almost as much attention. They decided to land in the rooftop garden and hope the door to the inside wasn�t locked.
After they landed, they walked to the access door and were reaching for the knob when it opened from inside. Standing there was Shanna�s next door neighbor.
Mrs. McGreevy was a kindly old woman who always seemed to have fresh baked cookies and a smile for anyone who would accept them. She was a longtime widow and her only real companionship was her cat, Bub.
Most of her days were spent puttering about in the rooftop garden. Lately though, she seemed to forget her tools and things more and more often, like tonight. When she saw the twins standing there, one flaming and the other looking like something from another planet, she froze. The girls were afraid that she was having a heart attack. After a few moments Mrs. McGreevy extended her hand, pointing to her apron full of tools. Shanna and Charlene stepped back out of her way and the old woman hobbled by as quickly as she could. They darted inside.
The twins raced down the stairs to the third floor. They peeked out of the stairwell to see if anyone was in the hall and, seeing no one, they ran to her door. Then Shanna remembered something. �My keys!� she wailed. They were in the ruin of her car. That�s when Charlene pulled out the spare Shanna had given her. �Good thing I didn�t forget my purse.� They hurriedly unlocked the door and went inside.
As soon as the door was closed and locked behind them, Shanna started shaking like a leaf in winter. One more breeze would send her spinning into the cold night. Charlene headed for the kitchen where she had seen a bottle of wine earlier. She figured they could both use a drink. Patrick must have bought the stuff because Shanna wasn�t old enough to.
As she walked towards the door into the kitchen Charlene caught site of her reflection in a mirror hanging on the wall, and she froze. In the aftermath of the explosion she had seen her hands and legs but the changes had not registered. During the panicked flight here and the run down the stairs, she had refused to think about it. But looking in the mirror and not recognizing her own face, she couldn�t deny it anymore. She gave out a soft sighing �oh my� and fainted dead away.
In that strange way that women have, Shanna immediately calmed down when her sister fainted and went to her aid. She picked Charlene up off the floor and laid her on the couch, not even thinking about how easy it was to do. She then picked up the phone and called her father�s office in Washington. It was late in the evening, the sun had already gone down, and so her father was gone for the day. But being a senator there was somebody in the office working on schedules or briefs or something. Shanna had no trouble sounding hysterical for the secretary.
�I don�t care where he is! This is an emergency! Find him and tell him to call me at home now, or you�ll be checking groceries at the Piggly Wiggly for the rest of your life!!� Shanna slammed the phone down, oddly satisfied. She had never liked that woman. Shanna smelled smoke and looked around before she realized that it was the phone. Her fingers had melted the plastic into the shape of her hand.
After making the call to her father's office Shanna checked onCharlene then went to her room and started packing. She had an old duffel bag from the Army surplus that she used for laundry. She filled it halfway with her own clothes and then started on Charlene's. Regretfully she removed her engagement ring and placed it in her makeup kit along with the matching necklace. She didn't think the gold would melt, but it might get soft enough for the diamond to come loose. Once she had packed everything she thought they'd need, she headed back to the living room.
Charlene had awoken while Shanna packed and apparently had been crying. Shanna told her sister to change out of the ragged remains of her dress, then tossed the duffel by the window. Charlene wondered aloud if Shanna was going to get dressed. "Of course not Silly! We're going to have to fly out of here and I don't want to burn up all my clothes." "Fly? But why, where are we going?" asked Charlene.
"If I'm right, Freedom Force is going to show up here any minute and I am not letting them drag me away to be tested or arrested or whatever it is they do. Remember, a business was blown up, people were injured and WE flew away from the scene." "Oh!" said Charlene and ran into the bedroom.
While Charlene changed, Shanna headed for the phone to try calling her father again. Before she could pick it up it began to ring. "Hello?" she said. "Shanna what's wrong? What happened, are you all right? Where's your sister?" asked her father in a rush. It was the first time she ever heard anything like panic in his voice. "We're okay Daddy, Charlie's here. But something terrible has happened. I....I can't explain it over the phone, you wouldn't believe it anyway. Just....just meet us at Aunt Jesse's house as soon as you can."
"Shanna what is going on? You said it's an emergency, now you want me to just jump in my car and drive 300 miles in the middle of the night...."
"Daddy please!" shouted Shanna almost hysterically. "You have to come! Please, you've got to!"
Charlene came out of the bedroom and walked to the window. She looked down through the darkness and saw Freedom Force's flying car parked below. "Oh God! They're here Shanna!!"
Shanna had no doubt who her sister meant. "Daddy, We've got to go! Promise me you'll come?"
"All right, all right, I'll get there as soon as I can. Don't worry, whatever it is, we'll fix it together. I love you."
"We love you too Daddy, but we've got to go NOW." and she hung up the phone.
Shanna ran to the window and looked out. She didn't see any of Freedom Force so they must be in the building already. �Take this� she said handing the duffel bag to Charlene. She stepped to the window and tried to open it. The frame creaked but didn�t budge. It had been painted shut. Shanna�s temper flared and so did she with a loud FWOOSH!
�Dammit� Bringing her fist down on the window sash in frustration, it shattered in all directions. One jagged piece struck Charlene on the hand.
There came a loud pounding on the door. As Shanna flew out the broken window, Charlene absently stuck her cut thumb in her mouth just as the apartment door came crashing down.
There they stood for moment. Charlene sucking her thumb and Minute Man in the doorway looking sheepishly at he broken door.
Shanna was hovering outside the window, �Come on!� she said angrily. Shouldering the bag of clothes, Charlene dove out the window and together the twins flew away into the darkness.
END PART 1.