Waking up to the usual sight of steel grey walls, Karen Margaret Hunt blearily opened her eyes to the sight of the metal container she slept in every eighteen hours. She sat up in her bed and looked at the clock on the wall, noticing that she had slept in for an extra two hours. That was strange, usually her trainer woke her up after a perfect eight hours of sleep. Karen reached into the darkness and poked the side wall that sorrounded her, then the shell of her bed was removed to reveal a large barracks room with various women wandering around. Stretching out the kinks from her sleep, Karen groggily got out of her pod and started towards the showers.

After showering with fifteen other women, Karen dressed in the same skin-tight suit that everyone wore on the station. It was color coded according to rank and status, with stripes on the side owing to the power level of the person wearing it. Karen had a blue suit with a three prong cross on the side of her suit, which meant she was one of the most powerful people on the station. Power levels didn't mean much, especially since Combat had none and could still take down most everyone on the station.

Before exiting the barracks, Karen looked in one of the mirrors and carefully focused on her appearance. Her golden blonde hair that hung loosely around her shoulders changed from the roots down into a baby blue color. Her skin changed quickly as though her pigments were resurfacing from below her body, changing her skin from the lightest tan to a regal blue color. Her body stayed the same shape, but her face changed slightly to make the jawline thinner and her cheekbones a bit more pronounced. Her lips went from a luscious pout to a thin line that was a much lighter blue than her skin.

Walking out of the women's barracks, Karen went down a few halls then emerged in an enormous room with a massive skylight nearly five hundred feet off the ground. People in various colored suits flew across the room carrying trays of food, while a large cafeteria of tables and chairs were occupied by almost two hundred people at any one time. One side wall had a line where food was distributed, which Karen joined just waiting in line.

"Hey, Blueno," said a voice filled with pompous arrogance, "I thought you only ate fruits and vegetables." Karen turned around to face her bully, seeing the usual group of Powerboy, Harrow, and Greenback. They had admittedly good superpowers, but they were the biggest jerks on the entire station. "What's wrong, I thought you spoke english? Or maybe you want us to speak your alien language during the invasion?"

"The only invader here is your ego," Karen shot back.

"Hey, be cool Bluey," said Powerboy with his hands up, "I'm just making conversation." The arc of Karen's eyebrow was doubtful, she knew exactly why these super-jerks were picking on her.

"The name's Queen, and I'm getting tired of your short memory," said Queen in annoyance. "Unless you want to get back into it with my dad, you can just leave me to my food."

"Just because your daddy's the big boss around here doesn't mean you can do whatever you want," said Harrow from behind Powerboy.

"Just because you want to take my dad on again, doesn't mean you can come and pick on me," retorted queen angrily.

"How about we do a three-v-three," came a voice from a little ways away. Lighthouse, a girl able to project light into physical matter, sauntered up wearing her own suit. Behind her was Warpath, an Amazon warrior on loan from the Amazon homeplace. Both of them had incredible power, on par with the original Hero Squad members. "The three of us versus the three of you," said Lighthouse, putting a hand on Queen's shoulder. Powerboy stepped back, sneering at the three girls as though they weren't worth his time.

"Funny, I thought boys were supposed to have balls," said Warpath with a sneer, and both Lighthouse and Queen laughed at that. Powerboy paused, clenched his fists, then kept walking away from the trio of girls.

"Thanks," said Queen, smiling brightly at her friends.

"Hey, it wasn't free," said Lighthouse. "I heard down the grapevine that you have a new boyfriend?" Queen's eyes went wide, which told Lighthouse everything she needed to know. "You need to tell me everything, I HAVE to know the guy who could snag the Queen!" Lighthouse was a willowy blond with a reasonable chest and two glorious globes for her behind. She had thin hips and alluring lips, and her golden eyes got all of the guys' attentions. She could attract guys like a telepath, but none of them lasted longer than a few weeks against her. If there was one problem with Lighthouse, it would be that she's a notorious gossip.

"I am interested as well," said Warpath, intrigued by the premise more than the act of dating. Warpath had long black hair that was tied in a ponytail so it descended down her back in a single flowing stream. Unlike most women, Warpath was very strong and muscular, with proficiency in weapons of all kinds, including guns. The Amazon regimen had grown with the times, meaning every weaponry available from tanks to pistols to krav maga. She had a very masculine body over her feminine physique, with bulging muscles and protruding veins.

"Well, I've been going to this coffee shop for a few weeks, and there was this guy who kept checking me out," admitted Queen nervously. "So, his friend gets up and he introduces us, and it was so cute how shy he was. I felt like he was worth a shot, so I gave him my number and we went on a date."

"Eeek!" cried Lighthouse ecstatically. "Tell me tell me tell me! What's he look like?"

"He's really tall, kinda thick," said Queen, thinking back to how she was checking him out. "He's got huge hands, a really clear cut jawline, and he always wears the nicest clothes. He's got brown hair in a short crew cut, and these electric blue eyes that look like coiled lightning in his eyes."

"What about under his clothes," Lighthouse asked curiously.

"We haven't gone that far yet," said Queen nervously.

"Oh, come on girl, you can't leave a guy hanging forever," said Lighthouse insistently. "Especially with how stressful our jobs are, we have to enjoy these guys when they come our way."

"Trust me, he's not ready for that," said Queen with a slight smile. The three got their food and sat down at a table to continue their talk. "When we were on our first date, I went through the tests, and he passed all of them. He didn't think anything I did was wierd or out of the ordinary, and he even covered for me when I did something embarrassing. Then, we go back to my place, and he says that this was his first date ever!"

"Seriously," said Lighthouse, a little confused, "how old is he?"

"He's twenty one," said Queen, trying to remember back to their conversations.

"First date ever at twenty-one," said Lighthouse suspiciously. "Is there something wrong with him?"

"Not that he's told me," said Queen. "On our second date, he saved this girl from her abusive boyfriend, and sent her back to his apartment, which is amazing, by the way. So we're going back and I'm thinking he has some girl on the side besides me. We get to his apartment and this girl is just standing there, no clothes on, with bruises all over her body." The two girls listening were silent, equally intrigued and appalled at the sudden turn.

"So, Samson just walks up without even caring that she was naked, and he just asked her where it hurt. Then she started crying and leaning in on him, and he looked at me with these big sad eyes. So, we helped this girl get an apartment downtown, when Samson says he'll hire her as a member of the staff. So, I ask him, and he tells me he own the entire apartment building and lives on the top floor."

"He must be swimming in money," said Warpath thoughtfully.

"Yeah, his grandparents were rich, so they left a trust in his name," said Queen. "He's actually using it to make money, and he's invested wisely as far as I know."

"How rich is he exactly," Lighthouse prodded.

"Rich enough to save a girl at the lowest point of her life," said Queen dramatically. "I saw the bruises, he definitely saved her life."

"So why not invite him up," asked Warpath. "If his determination is strong, he would make a valuable member of the Squad." Queen was silent, putting some food into her mouth to avoid the question.

"I think that takes too much time," said Lighthouse. "I hear the amount of red tape on joining is practically unbearable. So what do you think about this guy, Queen? Can he keep up with your standards?"

"I don't know," admitted Queen, looking at her two friends seriously. "I really want him to be able to be the one, but I don't want to get my hopes up."

"I keep telling you," said Lighthouse thickly, "there aren't a lot of guys who are as good as you want them to be."

"Then I'll find the ones that are," said Queen confidently.