Tobias took a step back, being understandably taken aback by Brenda's confession. Brenda winced at Tobias' reaction but didn't shy away. Instead, she stepped forward reaching out for Tobias' hand and grasping it in hers.

"I'm sorry, but I'd rather face this awkwardness then not let you know how I feel," she said looking into his eyes.

The two shared a moment of silence looking at one another until Tobias made a face before speaking up.

"I'm really sorry, but I'm still not used to this new body of mine and I really need to go before I pee myself," he admitted with a look of deep embarrassment and to a lesser extent, shame.

Brenda looked like she was about to get angry at first. But then she broke into a grin before letting out a stream giggles before laughing.. As she tried to bring herself back in check she waved him off to do his business vowing vengeance for ruining her moment and confession. Tobias promised that he'd make it up to her as he hurried out the door of her training room.

On reaching the closest bathroom, Tobias swore to himself, still ashamed of himself for leaving the way he did, swore again as he saw the limited room around the toilet. Tobias looked at his winks wishing they were a part of his armor as well. With the insistence from his crotch increasing he growled to himself as he twisted his wings so they pointed up as he turned around and dropped his pants and underwear. It was a very uncomfortable position for him to sit in and he still had to lean forward as he couldn't point his wings straight up. He considered having a custom bathroom built to accommodate his new anatomy. But that will have to wait as he pulled his hair around so not to accidentally sit on it and without further need, he released his hold on his bladder. He sighed with relief at the familiar start as the urine came out of him and immediately noticed the lack of the follow up sensation of his former penis would provide. This lack of sensation was what finally pushed him over the edge and he broke down crying.

First, he got shot in the back, and then he lost everything. He lost his body, his identity, and replaced it all with completely different things. He had wings, as much as he hated to admit it he now had a lush female body. Something that he was never supposed to have, at least not in this life time. One hand groped a breast while the other grasped the gemstone in his chest.

"Can I even consider myself a guy anymore?" he asked himself. He, or she as she had to admit now, looked down at her legs seeing her knees were together like most women would do when sitting down. This caused her to let out another sob as she continued to bawl. Tobias tried to fight back the tears by cursing at herself to remember her training and take it like a man. It didn't work and she fell deeper into her new found depression. She wasn't a man anymore and she began to think that she wasn't even Tobias anymore either. Was she really just a copy of the spirit of all dragonflies that thought she was Tobias? She didn't know anymore. She put her head in her hands and continued to sob.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door.

"Shit!" Tobias spat, she didn't want to talk to anyone right now.

There was a moment of silence followed by another knock, "Tobias? Is everything ok in there?" Brenda called out.

"Leave me alone!" Tobias called back a little bit more harshly than she meant but meant what she said still the same.

She heard the knob turn and swore to herself for forgetting to lock the door. Brenda slowly opened the door and poked her head in and saw Tobias sitting on the toilet leaning forward and hugging herself, red eyed from crying. Seeing this, she let herself in and walked over to her and knelt down in front while putting a reassuring hand on Tobias' knee.

"Are you sure Tobias?" she asked, worry was evident on her face.

"Don't call me that!" Tobias snapped, "I'm not Tobias, not anymore. He died, I know because I felt him die. I'm just a part of the spirit of dragonflies using what's left of his body and memories," she told Brenda bitterly.

Brenda suddenly slapped her hard enough to force Tobias' head to turn to the side.

As Tobias turned back, a hand on her now reddening cheek, she saw Brenda staring her down with the angriest look on her face softened only by a quivering lower lip.

"Don't you EVER say anything like that to me again," she told her in a low steady voice. She grabbed Tobias' shoulders to push her further upright but a sharp yelp of pain from Tobias from having her wings pushed further than they were able to and let go. She instead grabbed Tobias' head and forced her to look her in the face and eyes. "You are Tobias," she assured her, "Yes, you look different. Yes, you're a woman now and I can't imagine what that's like switching genders but I do know what it's like to lose one's identity. I've been stuck at age seventeen for the last eight years, you don't think that screws with someone's mind more than once?" Tobias tried to shake herself away but Brenda help firm, "You are ALIVE. You have been given a second chance, use it to do some more good in the world. Don't waste it on thinking about what was lost. Believe me, it's not worth it."

Brenda's words seemed to finally reach Tobias and bring him out of his self-pity and identity crisis as she looked into Brenda's eyes taking strength from the determination in them.

"I'm sorry," Tobias said finally in a shaky voice, "I guess it all just hit me when I went," she said sheepishly, "Either way, I don't think it'd be right to refer to me as a guy anymore with all things considered," she said as she gestured down at herself.

Brenda gave a short laugh as she stood up, "Yeah, I can't even call you butch with your figure," she said as she moved back to the door, "When you're done, why don't you come to my workshop and I'll do a scan on you so you can at least know everything about your new body. No surprises right?" she called over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.

Now that she was alone and long since relieved herself she began cleaning up, remembering vaguely from somewhere that you had to wipe from front to back to prevent infection. She wasn't sure if this was true or not, but she thought it was better safe than sorry.

"God has a terrible sense of humor, putting an asshole next to a vagina," she grumbled as she wiped. After she was finished and pulled her pants back up, she washed her hands and left for Brenda's workshop.

On entering, she saw that Brenda was back in her uniform standing by a table, a large glass screen stood behind her. On seeing Tobias walk in she smiled and patted a spot on the table, "Hop on," she said while waving a wand-like stick with her other hand. Tobias did so sitting on the table and Brenda waved the wand over her and looked over her shoulder as the glass screen started displaying data on Tobias' new body.

"Well," Brenda started, "From my scans so far, You are one hundred percent a woman," she declared. "With all the pros and cons that come with it," she added.

Tobias' slumped her shoulders at that, "Great," she said unenthusiastically, she was hoping Brenda would find something that would allow her to change back to her real self, or at least become a guy again.

"Yeah," Brenda continued still looking at the data, "Monthly periods, multiple orgasms if you can swing it, and sexual discrimination to some degree for decades to come."

"Okay, I get it," Tobias said with exasperation.

Brenda smiled at her in a way that told her she was only teasing, "I'm just pulling your leg Tobias. Aside from the periods, it's not that bad," she assured her as she moved around the table and began waving the wand over Tobias' wings, starting where they grew out of her back and out from there over each wing in turn.

"The muscles in your back, while oddly placed for the wings, are incredibly packed with muscle tissue. That probably explains why you can fly so fast," she explained. Tobias thought she heard her muttering about her being lucky and something else about back problems. "Your wings are really weird," she said as she reached a hand out to feel one of the lower wings that twitched when she touched it batting her hand away. Brenda swore as her wing hurt her hand when it batted it away. "Anyways, they're made of some kind of organic material that seems to make it as tough, if not tougher than frontline tank armor, yet they're so light and flexible. And if I may say so, they sting like a bitch with even a light love tap like the one you just gave me," she said as she shook her hand again. Tobias could only shrug with a half-hearted guilty smile, she didn't mean to twitch her wings to her touch at all. It was just a reflex that happened before she even knew it had.

"Still," Tobias mused, "I'm thankful that I don't have that damn tail all the time," she said remembering the annoyance it presented before she turned her armor off.

"I bet," Brenda agreed with a nod, "In any case, I'm going to have to rebuild the bathrooms for you so you don't have to sit down all painful and awkwardly."

Tobias agreed at that, remembering the brief moment of pain from when Brenda tried to sit her up straight.

Brenda just smiled as she waved the scanner wand over Tobias' "necklace" and "belt". After looking over the data she grimaced, "The material your new gear is made of the same stuff your original bracelet was. And unfortunately, magic being nowhere near my speciality, I have no idea what the stuff is made of," she gave a shrug, "But if it works, who am I to argue?" She then set the scanning wand down, "All that aside, there's one thing we still haven't addressed yet," she said in a matter of fact tone of voice.

Tobias gave a wry smile, "Yeah, we still need to find out why Drake and Princess are working together and who else is working with them."

Brenda looked on, "There is that," she agreed before turning back to Tobias like she was about to drop an obvious secret, "It's your name," she said finally.

Tobias quirked her head in confusion, "What, Dragonfly? It just kind of came to me and seems more appropriate now considering my new looks and powers."

Brenda gave her a deadpanned look, "It's not your codename, awesome choice by the way, It's your real name. Sorry to say it, but you don't look like a Tobias anymore," she told her apologetically.

"Hey! My mom gave me that name," she said defensively.

"And it's a really good name too," she said throwing her hands up in her own defense, "It's just not a name you'd normally see attached to a woman," she explained.

As much as she hated to admit it, Brenda was right. If not now, the subject would come up later and if she were to let everyone believe that her original self was indeed dead, than she'll need to come up with something other than Tobias. "Okay, what would you suggest?"

Brenda thought for a moment, "We could shorten you name to Tobi with an i. Like Bobbi or Toni," she offered.

Tobias grimaced, "That's a little too close. I don't think anyone will put two and two together but it still feels wrong to me. I'm a new person now and my name should reflect that." She thought about it for a minute momentarily distracted by the unconscious flutter of her wings. "I think I'll go by Lucy now. It's one of my mom's middle names. What do you think?" she asked Brenda.

Brenda looked like she was thinking it over in her head before speaking, "... Lucy Marshal. It has a certain ring to it," she said at last approvingly.

Tobias, now Lucy, breathed a sigh in relief still feeling her psyche being rather fragile still. "'Kay, from this point on, I'm Lucy," she said with a half-hearted smile. "At least until I find a way to become a guy again," she added in an equally half-hearted attempt to hold out hope to return back, at least someday in the future.

An awkward silence followed between the two until the newly named Lucy coughed, "Lets go and tell Halt about my new name."

Brenda agreed eagerly, "Yeah, it'd be good to spread some good news in as many days." And they both left the workshop together.

The two made their way to the gym expecting Halt to be working out there like he usually was but were surprised to see the gym empty. With nothing else to do, the two ladies decided to go to the control room to check on any sightings of Drake and Princess. When they got there, Halt was sitting at one of the computers working so diligently that he hadn't noticed the two enter.

Lucy coughed to get Halt's attention, "Hey halt, what are you working on?"

"I'm looking through local forums and other information that would tell us when and why Drake, or Dragon if we're accepting his self-proclaimed declaration, and Princess are working together. So far, I haven't found anything, let alone who else might be working with them," he said without looking away from the screen. A minute later he leaned back in his chair and wiped his tired eyes, he finally looked up at the two. "Also, we got several more calls from various news and gossip agencies asking to confirm the footage of Dragon's attack by Drake." he looked annoyed as he said the last part.

The two women were downtrodden at the news and reminder until Brenda perked up with a clap of her hands to distract the others, "Oh!," she started to tell Halt as she grabbed Lucy's arm, "We were talking and came up with a new name for our newly minted girl. Not only is she Dragonfly when she's hero-ing it up, when it's just us in private you can call her Lucy."

Lucy felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment when Halt looked at her for a minute after which he shrugged in acceptance and turned back to the computer. "So, if we can't find what's going on with these two then how are we going to find them and stop them?"

Lucy looked over Halt's shoulder at the data he compiled to see if there was anything he missed. He was thorough and had looked into everything she would have thought of except...

"It's a long shot but there may be one lead we can still follow up on," she said at last, turning to the two staring at her expectantly.

"What?" Brenda urged. Halt continued his stare waiting for her to explain herself.

Lucy grimaced, "The Fireman," she said at last, "He's been out of the game for eight years now, but he still hears things from the super villain community and since he's still one community probation it shouldn't be too hard to get anything out of him. He's been cooperative ever since he left jail," she told them.

The other two made their own comments about trusting information from a known super villain, let alone an ex-convict. But with the sparse trail already cold, they had no choice but to check with this lead.

With nothing further to discuss on the subject Halt got up from his chair while Brenda reached into her satchel for one of her teleport cubes. As she was pulling one out Lucy held her arm still to which Brenda gave her a perplexed look.

"We should only use those for emergencies when lives are at stake. And we risk leaving ourselves open to attack when ever we use them and right now, we need every advantage we can get. Even if it takes a little longer. Brenda was about to argue but stopped and paused before closing her mouth and pulling her hand out of her satchel empty.

"'Kay then, I guess we're driving then," Brenda said as she turned around and walked off towards their bases underground garage, Halt and Lucy following close behind.

On getting to the team's vehicle, a converted military APC, Lucy stopped short of getting in with the others remembering her new unusual anatomy as she glanced at her wings that twitched in annoyance. "I guess I'll have to fly," Lucy said as she stepped down from the hatch. Brenda gave her a worried look, obviously wanting to protest her decision but accepted. She grabbed something from a compartment and tossed it to Lucy. It was an earpiece to keep in contact with them. Brenda told her to stay safe before she closed the hatch. Lucy stepped back as the APC started up and drove to the ramp that would take it to ground level. Lucy, herself, willed her armor to grow over her body. A second later she was flying just above the ground up the same ramp and out into the open air.

Half-expecting to be attacked again she flew as fast as she could up into the air until she was well above the city. Having lost sight of her team's transport, lowered her altitude until she was close enough to see the vehicle but not so low as to distract other drivers on the road. Once she settled into the right height she found that flying in the real world was infinitely different than the static environment of Copy Cat's personal training room. Wind buffeted her about, which in itself, wasn't too difficult for her but it did toss her long hair about in her face whenever she slowed down to glide a short distance before she flapped her wings again for forward momentum and continued flight.

As the APC continued driving through traffic, Dragonfly had to fly in large circles over them to keep at their slow pace. While she flew in circles she switched on her ghost vision and the world around her bursts into such amazing colors that would put even Los Angeles to shame. Every light she could see seemed to be connected to people he could see on the ground or a random animal. It was beautiful. "Wow," she stated awestricken.

"What's that?" came Copy Cat's voice over her ear piece.

"Hmm? Oh, I was just using one of my new powers. It's a weird new vision that lets me sort of see after images that people and animals leave behind. Like a ghost vision or something," she told her.

"Sounds trippy," she replied, "Wish I was up there. Driving on the ground is BORING!"

Dragonfly grinned to herself as she looked down at the APC, "Don't worry, you guys are almost at the factory," she assured them.

About ten minutes later, Copy Cat and Halt finally arrived. Dragonfly, instead of landing normally, Dragonfly dive-bombed her way to the ground before pulling up at the last moment to land softly on her feet. While she walked over to her teammates Copy Cat came up to her and put her hand on her hips in a displeasure that only a teen of her apparent age could muster.

"You said we were close! A ten minute drive does not mean close to me," she then crossed her arms before braking into a grin, "That landing was pretty sweet though," she commentated. She then leaned in close to Dragonfly before whispering, "Don't think I've forgotten our discussion earlier. I still expect an answer from you."

"I didn't forget," Dragonfly said quickly while throwing her hands up in surrender.

"You better not," she said with a playful shove to Dragonfly's shoulder, "And this time, there won't be any interruptions like last time," she added with a smirk.

Halt quirked an eye, "What is she talking about?"

Dragonfly squirmed as she remembered the embarrassing memory, "Nothing," she told him flatly as she turned to the building before them, "Let's get in and talk to the Fireman already! We still have targets on our backs so we can't waste time right now," she said as she started to the building. Halt looked to Copy Cat for answers but she only gave him a knowing smile before following after Dragonfly.

Watching the two walk ahead of him, Halt shook his head before muttering, "Women," catching himself as he said it remembering that Dragonfly was originally the Dragon little more than a day ago. Deciding to leave it for now before he started getting a headache trying to figure out the technicalities. He quickly caught up with the two as they entered the building.

When they got inside, they were met by a secretary sitting behind a desk taking calls. After a minute of processing calls before she looked up and did a double-take at the team of heroes standing in front of her, "D-do you have an appointment?" she asked demurely, trying to remain professional, friendly smile and all.

Copy Cat walked up to the desk placing one hand on the desk, lightly tapping her fingers, "Yeah, we're here to see the Fireman. So please tell us where he is and we'll be on our way."

The secretary frowned, "I'm sorry, but we can't divulge the names of our employees let alone whether they work here or not," she said flatly, "Especially to little girls," she added before going back to her computer.

Copy Cat's fingers twitched as she turned her head to the secretary with a very fake, but very scary, smile on her face, "Excuse me?" she asked sweetly.

Before things could escalate any further, Dragonfly pulled her back, "Gerald Birtch is an ex-criminal who is still under probation. That means if any law enforcement officer, including a recognised developed super hero team, then he will have to dispose himself to said law enforcement. We are Team Valiant, a recognised developed super hero group, and we want to talk to Gerald Birtch. If it makes it any easier, he is not a suspect in the investigation we are conducting. We just want to talk to him," she assured the secretary. The secretary hesitated a few moments before acquiescing and giving them the directions to where he was working.

As they were walking down the hall Copy Cat lean close and whispered, "How'd you know to say all that?" she asked, clearly amazed.

Dragonfly smiled as she whispered back, "Several years on the force, even as a SWAT and you pick up a few things that can come in handy."

Her response seemed to answer her question, for now at least. As they walked past offices and lab rooms as well as a few chemical storage rooms, Dragonfly brought up everything in her mind that she could remember about the Fireman. According from what she saw of his rap sheet when she was still on the force, "And still a guy," she thought. The Fireman started life off as a serial arsonists, starting fires at various places and causing large property damage, fortunately for him, there were no deaths injuries from his acts of property damage. It was when he was setting fire to a chemical factory, the very one they were in ironically, that he got his powers. He had set a firebomb to one of the small storage tanks but accidentally set it off early before he could get safely away breaking open the tank and bathing him in the chemicals stored within, and thanks to the firebomb he had set himself on fire as well. It was after his release from his lengthy stay in hospital that he discovered his developed abilities to conjure and control fire. Even though he could control fire with almost impunity, he wasn't immune to the ill-effects of that being in close proximity to fire. Thusly, his original costume had him look like a fire fighter. It was a dark red in color with yellow flames patterned on his pants and the bottom of his coat with the addition of satanic symbols within the flame patterns to add to his villain look. Aside from the aesthetic look of his costume, he had also had kevlar and trauma plates inserted in his costume to give him protection against firearms and other physical abuse he was sure to come across. The total affect made him look bigger and also spooky appearance further enhanced by his ability to summon and control fire.

Despite all this, and his natural tendency to arson and destruction of property, it seemed he went out of his way to avoid hurting civilians. It was during a fight with a hero that he had accidentally set fire to a building that had people inside it while fighting said hero. According to his testimony after his arrest, he stopped to use his powers to put out the fire while moving it away from the trapped people. IT was during this time that the hero knocked him out. Fortunately the fires on the building were almost out and the hero was able to get the people out unharmed. Gerald's lawyer pointed out the fact that he never used his powers on people except for defense and was able to get a slightly smaller sentence. The Fire man became a model inmate while in jail and got out on parole with good behavior. Ironically enough, he was hired be the same company that owned the chemical factory he had tried to firebomb that gave him his powers. He now makes a living by using his powers to dispose of waste chemicals produce by the plant.

"There is something I've been wondering about," Copy Cat said curiously as the walked down the hallway.

"What's that?" Dragonfly asked.

"If the Fireman is no longer a super villain, then how would he know what would go on in the criminal underworld?" she asked, an accusatory note in her voice showed to suggest that she believed he was still involved somehow.

"He was one of the first super villains in the city," Halt answered, "There's been a few thugs and what not who view him like a grandfather. They'd come and tell him what they did or are going to do as if seeking approval, like measuring themselves up to a bar he set back in the day," he explained.

Copy Cat smirked as she gave a snort, "How can these guys be so stupid? Don't they know that he's an ex-villain who's in contact with the police regularly?"

Dragonfly smiled at this letting out her own chuckle, "They know, and the active super villain's don't tell him any of their plans obviously. But every now and again some mugger or vandal come to him and tells him what they did, then they get a selfie with him, and them he tells the police. Sometimes, if we're lucky, a henchman to a super villain will tell him what they're doing and then we get alerted and hit the bad guys before they get to set up their plans."

Copy Cat accepted the explanation but still muttered something under her breath about not believing someone being that stupid.

It was a minute after the discussion that the trio finally arrived at their destination and entered a room where the Fireman and another technician were working. the technician was sitting at a computer while the Fireman was standing in front of a window that looked into a sealed room where a vat of green viscos fluid sat in the middle.

Gerald, the Fireman, was holding his hands out towards the sealed room, "Please wait a moment. If I don't do this right, I could accidentally blow it up if I don't get the ignition temperature right," he told the three without turning to them. He was wearing his costume but it look starkly different. The most notable change was that the satanic symbols on his costume were gone now and his fire fighter suit looked slimmer now, possibly having removed the Kevlar and trauma plated armor. He had a look of concentration as he still held his hands out, then suddenly splayed his hands and the vat lite up like a roman candle with green smoke bellowing out the top and earie flames licking from the rim. After a minute, it died down and extinguished, the vat now empty but the room now had a green mist hanging about. The fireman gestured to the technician at the computer who type something in which caused a hissing sound in the mist-filled room as oxygen was pumped into it. When the hissing sound stopped the Fireman snapped his fingers and the entire room flashed as it was completely engulfed in flames. A few seconds later when the flames exhausted it's fuel of oxygen leaving the room now looking clear.

The Fireman put his hands on his hips as he gave a short grunt, satisfied on a job well done and then turned to the heroes, "Sorry for making you wait. I had a feeling that I'd be seeing you since that video of Dragon's death they showed the other day. My condolences by the way, he was a great hero," he said as he pulled his fireman's hat and mask off revealing his scared face and shaved bald head. The were patches of different colored skin. One ear looked like it was melted while the other was completely missing. Thanks his unfortunate accident that gave him his powers, he was truly a frightening sight, which may have contributed to his choice of costume.

"Holy shit, what happened to you?" Copy Cat blurted out before clapping her hands over her mouth, too late to hold her words in check.

Gerald only gave a faint chuckle and waved her off to assure he didn't take any offence, "Let's just say that the old saying: if you play with fire, you will get burned, fell on deaf ears for me on the night in question," he said with what looked like a smile but was hard to tell with one side of his lip curled already before becoming more serious, "Now, about what you're all here for. I've been wracking my brain trying to think of what I heard. Nothing recent came to mind but after that broadcast, I suddenly remember something a mugger mentioned while he was telling me about his score in the park," he started. "He told me that a man in a business suit was asking around about the local super villains."

Dragonfly shifted in her stance, "Why didn't you tell your parole officer about this?"

Gerald looked at her seeming to appraise her position on the team, not quite sure about her since she seemed to be new to team Valiant but continued regardless.

"Because all I had was circumstantial evidence about a guy asking around about super villains. I was waiting to see if any more news would come, expecting some new villain checking the waters to muscle his way in but I haven't heard anything further. I can give you the name of the mugger who talked to this person. He shouldn't be too hard as I told my parole officer about him and he's in jail now."

The team grimaced in their own way, the tip Gerald gave them wasn't much, but it was a step in the right direction and were thankful for it. As Dragonfly was getting the name of the mugger, Copy Cat received an alert. Putting her hand to her headband, the lenses of her goggles flashed as information scrolled over them. She stiffened.

"Guys, we gotta move," she told them urgently as she reached into her satchel and pulled out a teleportation cube.

"What's wrong?" Halt asked before Dragonfly could.

"There's a group of super villains attacking on main street," she told them, "Drake and Princess are there as well."

No further words were needed. They will stop the bad guys and get much needed answers from Drake. As they stepped into range around the cube Dragonfly briefly wondered what she would do to Drake once she forced him to surrender.

And then the cube transported them.