“It applied the matrix-bound unstable molecules to your existing attire, I think?” DiDi gave her a thumbs-up. “You’ll be able to wear anything without burning it off, nice! Cantrip your hair back to red. You can Biosculpt it permanent later, or just choose a weird color as a fashion choice.”

Frankie looked up, touched her hair, and the golden blonde locks flowed back to Frankie’s ginger... which were promptly replaced by her hair igniting and turning into active flaming locks. Despite the fact they were blazing against the back of her blouse, the cloth didn’t promptly char away like it should have.

“Firetop will be your callsign for now. Feel free to display some temper.” DiDi stepped around her desk, flicked up a short-range Door, and stepped through to the blue sky beyond.

Frankie followed without hesitation, and found herself floating there in midair with DiDi above the Empire State University campus.

“Nice to be able to fly without going full Flame On?” DiDi asked, surveying the area below, little sparks dancing over her.

“Well, um, yeah, actually...” Frankie looked around, only soft flames burning on her hands and shoes, then pointed down below. Her Fire Core still worked via gravimetrics, not plasma buoyancy or ignition/repulsion. “They were standing over there, Lyja saw them shoot...”

“Well, then, they are about to be followed, and likely terminated. Is that going to be an issue?”

Frankie paused only a moment. “They almost killed everyone here by doing that to me. No, they deserve whatever we do to them,” she finally said coldly.

DiDi nodded, and Cast two Divinations, one to lock onto the residue of energies unleashed here and those who had used them, and the second to start the tracking spell, which turned into a flickering of light in the vague after-image of the two Skrulls, moving rapidly north.

One sparking lightning, the other trailing flames, both grim-faced women took off after it as heads turned to watch the illusion and the two of them racing by above. “Just following some Skrull saboteurs!” DiDi Announced with Voice to everyone watching as the two of them zipped after the infiltrators with more than a little mayhem on their minds...

---

“You seem to be enjoying the super-strength,” DiDi noticed, holding out a hand as Frankie cursed, slagging the metal wall she had been slammed into as she attempted to get out. She eyed the sparking hand grasping her burning one, sighed, and flexed with DiDi, letting herself get drawn out of the red-hot, liquifying metal, her other hand clenching and molten metal oozing out between her bare fingers.

“Kl’rt himself again,” she swore, looking around the trashed Skrull base, now torn apart, melting, exploded, and run through by superstrong bodies being thrown about in their brawl with the Super Skrull. “Damn, I thought we cleared out the Skrulls, but they just keep popping up...”

“Skrulls specialize in infiltration, so their concealment tech is first-rate, even by Xandaran standards, and Dyna can’t suss them out without a focus,” DiDi mused, looking around, and Frankie could only agree with that twice-over. “Okay, he triggered the self-destruct.” She pointed up. “You lead.”

Frankie grinned, flaming white-hot in a second, and shot for the ceiling. Molten metal and dirt exploded out of her way, and DiDi was right on her heels as they erupted out of the vacant lot, just before there was a loud crash and crushing sound below them. The whole thing first bulged upwards, then split into a lot of pieces, and then began sagging below them into the empty space. A great super-heated wind plume jetted forth past them, and a sullen red glow below glared up at them floating there.

“Okay, yes, really liking the innate super-strength, without needing a boost from Ben,” Frankie flexed, looking at her arms. Fortified by unstable molecules, her blouse wasn’t even torn. “I’m... a lot stronger than she, I, was an hour ago?” she asked, wondering.

“You’re digesting who knows how much Nova-intensity flame directly, like being fueled directly by an atomic bomb.” DiDi held out her hand. “I saw you toss a ten-ton generator at the bastard before slagging it. Press.”

Frankie hesitated for only a split-second before grabbing DiDi’s hand and exerting herself, remembering that DiDi wouldn’t burn. DiDi’s hand didn’t move as Frankie grit her teeth and upped the pressure.

“Core Five, and you can probably still feel your Core powering up?” DiDi nodded, slowly pushing Frankie’s arm over and thus spinning her in the air. “Core Eight here, so don’t feel bad.”

“You’re Core Eight?! Wait, what? ” they blurted out in shock.

“You’ve absorbed all Johnny’s fire, right? Nova-intensity flame, as if his entire being was converted to it. That’s like a long-burning atomic explosion on your inside, completely bypassing your normal energy absorption rate. You’re just assimilating it now, much faster than externally absorbing. I imagine you won’t stop rising until you are at my level, at least.”

And since she has a Ten Core and is just filling it up, her assimilation rate is already topped out, DiDi thought, as Frankie righted herself.

“Uh, wow? I was helping her fill up at times, but this is ridiculous...” Frankie mused, staring at her burning hand in DiDi’s grip.

“It’s like you think Johnny isn’t a living plasma furnace, or something.”

Frankie flexed her flaming red hand, and slowly let go of DiDi’s. “You know, I never told you how nice it was that I never had to worry about being on fire around you...” she blurted out.

“Well, you’re not too conductive when you’re a plasma furnace, but I didn’t have the control issues you did, so there’s that,” DiDi smiled back with a wink, eyes sparking once, and pointed down at the red-hot mess below them. “You want to cool that down before it spreads?”

“Oh, sure!” A bit flustered, Frankie shot her another glance before dropping down into the super-heated space below, preparing to draw all the ambient heat in quickly... and feed the Nova Core that had trapped Johnny, which felt REALLY peculiar.

---

You are so hot for her, and have been for so long!, Lyja /pointed out with a laugh.

“She and Dyna are so sexy,” Johnny muttered back, unable to hide anything from Lyja, who was going through his memories, and dumping hers on him at the same time.

Some of those were all about sex between shapechangers. Lyja had no inhibitions at all on that side of things, and her completely blasé attitude meant Johnny couldn’t even be embarrassed about it.

Johnny reflected that seducing someone was even easier than expected... as was enjoying multiple genders. Skrulls could happily change into races with more than two, after all...

They started drawing in the heat, reaching out into the molten steel and concrete and burning things, drawing the fires out and into her Fire Core with the skill of lots of experience, Lyja watching the whole process closely.

That takes a lot more time and practice than I thought, she /admitted, feeling the hours and hours of work behind it all. You always made it look so easy.

“Dyna would totally hound me if I ever slacked off on my control practice,” Johnny sighed. “She didn’t give a damn if I could do all the fancy hot stuff, or how fast I could melt tungsten, or anything cool or powerful, but if I couldn’t snuff one candle out of a hundred, or light one match in a cluster of a thousand, she would go off on me...”

Oh Dancer, how many times did she whap your head?!, Lyja /exclaimed, remembering all those with a mental wince. You are totally incorrigible! How could you let her go? You should have married her years ago!, she stated with assurance.

“Well, then, I wouldn’t have met you,” Johnny sighed with a lopsided smile. “She’s totally hawt, sure, but she’s also incredibly intimidating, you know? Like a big sister watching me all the time.”

She is extremely mature for her age, Lyja /agreed with a mental sniff. And she can keep up with Reed mentally, meaning she is terrifyingly intelligent. Yes, I can see why she intimidated you. Then watching her and DiDi fight..., she trailed off thoughtfully. Kl’rt is probably the greatest warrior of the Skrull Empire, and he simply did not have an answer for either of them...

“Yeah, it’s kind of hilarious watching them own him repeatedly.” The image of her shoving a hard air bubble up Kl’rt’s nose, and expanding it, nearly making him pop his head before he could morph it and save himself, was particularly funny, and had really broken up one of his ambushes a few years ago. “I remember the first time he trounced us when Dyna was working below. She came up, popped his force field, and nearly blasted his head off with her Fist of God.” Yeah, that memory was pretty vivid, too. “He’s got all our powers but, man, she lives here. She sees us using our powers all the time. I think Dyna and DiDi think about how to take people out fast like Reed thinks about new math equations...” Johnny shook their head. “You see the doohickey he had? He was acting all confident and stuff, and the first thing DiDi did was snipe it and destroy it with a hard air lance. The expression on his face...”

I think it was some sort of electrical siphon. He was probably going to target her with it and completely depower her ability to fuel her bracelets...

“Like that would work. Reed’s tried that several times in sparring. Her control is too tight, and he told me the problem is that the electricity isn’t really there until she generates it... and then she just feeds it right into her gear, avoiding the drain or repelling it off her gear. The next second the draining effect is off-line, and then you’re in a world of hurt.

“And that’s if she doesn’t just TK it worthless or use some minor spell to induce feedback in it or whatever. I think the Mad Thinker tried that once on her, and she reversed the drain field to feed her more juice while sucking down his robots’ power by rewiring the emitter on the fly. His android stand-in fell right over, stiff as a board...”

I notice she is not involved in your affairs as much as before?, Lyja /inquired.

“Well, Dyna went up into space with the High Guard, and DiDi might be her Duplicate, but she doesn’t have the same interests in alchemy and stuff, so she doesn’t work with Reed as closely in the labs. She takes care of all the money stuff now, though, and she controls Ferrus Enterprises, and keeps her eyes on the Avengers, too...

“Huh. You know, it’s not so much that she’s not working with us, as a whole lot fewer people are bothering us at home now. I wonder if it’s the same with the Avengers?...”

Oh, I see. She has trained them well, Lyja /nodded in approval. If they come messing with your family, she goes, ah, totally apeshit on them. There was a mental wince as she reviewed a couple intrusions into the Baxter Building and the brutal response to them. My word! I see why the Living Laser hasn’t tried anything else.... I had no idea you could do that to a photonic being...

“Yeah, wow, I just never realized it. Whenever we were away, it was cool, but when we came back home, it was always safe because Dyna or DiDi or the Baxter Buddies were around.” There was a pause. “I never bothered to look. I wonder what kind of stuff she dealt with while we were off doing something? I’m sure Reed knows...”

If you don’t make a move on her, I promise I’m going to!, Lyja /smiled in his head, thinking some incredibly distracting thoughts as she did. Johnny couldn’t even protest, because she totally would.

“Wow, that’s a quick turnaround from getting ready to marry you,” Johnny managed to murmur, looking around and seeing everything around was getting cool and dim.

Do you think you’ll be cheating on me?, she /laughed again, and even in their situation, Johnny had to smile at that one...

How he was going to explain it to the others was going to be interesting. Then again, after that one body-swapping situation Diablo had arranged between the Four, it wasn’t like this was the first time...

===============

Siberia...

He felt her coming a long way off. Gods were like that, having a distinct pressure to them that spiritual forces had to acknowledge.

Oh, she wasn’t a major god, and certainly didn’t radiate anything like Perrun or Hercules, or even Marzanna. But she had her own determination and power, and if her godhead was small, it was because she simply didn’t have a lot of specific worshippers, or her own Domain of influence.

He was sitting atop a boulder out on the taiga, the cold wind blowing past him without him feeling it. His bristly white hair barely flinched against the wind, and not for the first time he wished he had some facial hair so he could grow a proper white beard and actually look something like his age...