We Could Be Heroes

by Harmon Cooper

  ***

  Sam awoke in Helena’s living room.

  He was laid out on one of the couches, everything around him a momentary blur. One big inhale in and he knew he was in a safe place, that he was rapidly starting to feel better.

  “Did we save Mia?” he whispered.

  Sam looked down at his right hand and saw Dinah sucking on his palm, the nicks and cuts disappearing. It was a startling thing to see, but he didn’t move his hand; he just tried to relax more as he looked past Dinah to see Ozella sitting on the couch with her knees to her chest, Zoe pacing back and forth, arguing with Helena.

  “It’s not going away,” Zoe said, pulling at her furry cheek. “Do you see this shit? It’s not going away!”

  “Please, relax,” Helena said. “You should get some rest. We don’t know what happened back there.”

  “Ummmm, let me see: there was an explosion in his laboratory, it blew up all his chemicals, and now look at me,” Zoe said, baring her teeth. “Look at this!” She showed Helena her hands, and the fact that her nails had grown into razor sharp claws.

  “I’m warning you,” Helena said, her stance widening as she prepared to take down Zoe if she tried anything.

  “I’m not going to attack you,” Zoe huffed. “I’m just so angry about this, look at me, look at my fucked-up tiger bitch face!”

  “Zoe…” Sam whipped his palm away from Dinah, who simply moved to his other hand, the nude woman bending over him as he sat up, her hair in her face.

  “And what the hell is that?” Zoe asked, pointing at Dinah. “Who the hell is the blue ghost woman trying to give Sam a BJ?”

  “Stop fighting,” said Ozella. “That’s Dinah, I already told you. She’s my friend. And she heals everyone… apparently.” Ozella had a blanket draped over her body, a glazed look in her eyes.

  “Zoe,” Sam said, louder this time, “please, come closer.”

  This wasn’t the first time Sam had talked Zoe down from one of her panic attacks.

  He knew it required a soothing voice and lots of attention. So he held his arms out to her, as he had a year ago when they dated, and even though she had mixed feelings about the relationship, she eventually sat down next to him, a confused, angry look on her face.

  “Later, Dinah,” Sam said, and with that, the ghostly woman stood and started to fade away.

  “Sam,” Zoe said, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, “look what’s happened to me.”

  Sam noticed that her claws had shrunk back, her fingers their normal size again.

  “It’s like you’re permanently halfway transformed,” Sam said, also seeing that she had to sit a different way now because of her tail, which was hiked off to the side, an appendage she clearly wasn’t used to.

  “It’s terrible,” she whimpered. “It’s not what I wanted.”

  Sam placed his hand on the side of her head, running his thumb along the feline side of her face. He used the thumb to move her lip a little, noticing that her canines were longer now, sharper.

  “Are you done probing me?” she asked in an irritated voice.

  “It’s just a fascinating transformation,” he finally said.

  “No, Sam, it isn’t. I haven’t morphed completely into the beast, I’m some kind of half-breed. A half-breed!”

  “I think you still look pretty,” Ozella said, a weird grin on her face.

  “I agree,” Helena chimed in.

  “Pretty tiger lady…” Ozella said, her eyelids flickering.

  “What the hell is wrong with her?” Zoe whispered. “She’s had this crazy look ever since we got back here.”

  “I can see everything,” Ozella whispered. “Everything…”

  “Zoe, I need you to just chill out for little while, and stay here at Helena’s until we know what’s going on,” Sam told her, running his hand along the tiger side of her face.

  “That tickles,” Zoe said, trying not to smile at him, trying not to let him know that she felt good so close to him.

  “And for what it’s worth, I don’t think you look bad at all. It’s a new look, but it’s interesting and unique; I don’t think you should worry.”

  “Interesting and unique? You aren’t the one that has to walk around looking like this,” she told him flatly. “Smell me.”

  “Sorry, I’ve been breathing out of my mouth.”

  “Sam, smell me.”

  “Um, sure.” Sam bent forward and took a whiff of Zoe.

  He saw a lot in that moment, including the fact that she wasn’t going to change back to a more human-looking non-exemplar anytime soon. But he knew better than to tell her this, so he decided to lie instead.

  “I don’t think it’s permanent, that’s for sure. But right now, you should just rest, as Helena said, and see what happens.”

  “Whatever.” Zoe rocked to her feet, her fingernails sharpening into claws again. Without a word, she turned to the back of the mansion, toward Helena’s gym.

  “Where are you going?” Sam called after her.

  “To blow off some steam,” came her reply.

  “Helena,” Sam said, also getting to his feet. He moved over to the lean combat dancer, who watched with apprehension as Zoe left the large room. While she was healed up, the heiress looked absolutely gruesome in her blood-drenched clothing.

  “I feel bad for her,” Helena finally said. “She’s not changing back anytime soon, is she?”

  “How did you know?” he asked.

  “Just a hunch.”

  “Also, how did you guys get me back here? Who came in after me? The last thing I remember was passing out. Did we get Mia?”

  “Dinah guided Ozella, and she dragged you out. No Mia either.”

  “She dragged me?” Sam looked down at what he wore and noticed that his clothing was torn, dirty.

  “We’ll get you new clothing,” Helena assured him. “I’ll have my assistant, Bryan, order some.”

  “It’s fine; if anyone needs clothing, it’s you. Also, is Ozella okay?” Sam asked, looking to the statkeeper, who was counting invisible numbers again. “Has she been like this since you guys got back to the mansion?”

  Helena dropped her hand into his, leading him away from Ozella, toward the dining room area. “Something is wrong with her head; she keeps talking about how she’s seeing things.”

  “Hmmm… Do you think it could be an exemplar power? Because that’s what’s happened to Zoe,” said Sam. “Although it doesn’t seem to have taken fully.”

  “It could be…” Helena fell into his arms, placing her head on his chest. “I can’t believe we’re still alive.”

  “Tell me about it,” he said, holding her close for a moment. Sam kept his hands on her shoulders as he took a step back, examining Helena for a moment, mouth-breathing now. “What about you? Have you noticed anything different in your powers?”

  “I don’t have any powers,” she shrugged. “At least from what I can tell, I think I’m the same old me.”

  “Well, don’t speak too soon yet. There’s no telling what happened. Hell, something may have happened to me as well, I was inhaling all that stuff.”

  Helena turned away from him. “We should probably wait a day or so, just to make sure there are no strange side effects.”

  “And what about Dr. Hamza? Did you just leave him there?”

  “We left him, but we did take this,” Helena said, nodding to one of the chairs. Sam saw Dr. Hamza’s wrist guard, the weapon he had used to fire on them. “We figured it would come in handy.”

  Chapter Thirty-One: Pantsed

  (A little mind control never hurt anyone.)

  Everything had gone to hell, and Sam Meeko needed a moment to process all of it, to put the pieces in their rightful places.

  At least two of them had experienced a transformation, and while it still didn’t seem like anything had changed with Helena, there had been that moment with the teleporter that Sam couldn’t forget, the moment that he changed his tune in an instant.
r />   No, there was likely more to her situation as well.

  Sam was in his bedroom now, changing into some clothes he’d brought, noticing that there were still a few nicks on his hands, but they were halfway healed up, the skin around them pink. Just to see if it would work, he called Dinah’s name aloud, and sure enough, the woman floated into existence before him, nude as always, her hair covering her nipples, her bush on full display.

  “I wish you could speak to us,” he said as he lifted his hand to her.

  Dinah bent her neck forward, her lips falling onto his skin, and energy radiating from the point. Reaching out to her, Sam saw that he could move his hand through her body, and if he moved his hand up, it simply pressed into her face, while moving it back down kept it back at her lip level.

  He stopped screwing around and let her finish. It wasn’t long before all the blemishes and cuts on his body were gone, at least the ones he could see. He felt rejuvenated as well, as if he had just had a cup of tea, woken up from a short nap, and had a full night’s rest the previous night.

  Sam knew of religions in the Western Province that focused on meditation, on balancing one’s self. He had dabbled in some of that before, and sure, maybe now would have been a good time to just take a moment to steady his breath, focus his thoughts, get his bliss on, but there was too much going on.

  And even though he should have been exhausted, he felt restless.

  After thanking Dinah, Sam left his bedroom and went straight to the gym, where he found Zoe standing in a sports bra and a pair of panties. She had chosen the panties because they were low rise, allowing room for her new tail.

  And as he entered and saw her standing there, looking at herself in one of the mirrors that Helena used to practice her unique fighting style, he felt bad for her, knowing how much her appearance meant to her career as a model.

  “It’s not going away,” she said as she turned again. Aside from her wrists and hands, which were enlarged now that her claws were out, the rest of her body looked as it normally did: lean, chiseled abs, muscled legs, everything about her the same as aside from the tiger additions.

  “What about your feet?” Sam asked as he traced her form with his eyes. She was wearing socks, and rather than take them off, she simply flexed her foot, claws coming through and tearing out of the fabric.

  “I am a fucking freak now…” she whispered.

  “There has to be something we can do about this,” Sam said.

  “You know,” Helena said, stepping into the gym, “you could just embrace it.”

  “Embrace it?” Zoe glared at her. “Are you kidding me here? Look at my face.”

  “Just try to embrace it for now,” Helena said, a wild look in her eyes.

  “I’m not going to…” Zoe started to nod, baring her teeth as she glanced between Sam and Helena. “Embrace it?”

  “Helena, what am I thinking right now?” Sam asked, doing his best to keep an image of a banana in his head.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What am I thinking?” he asked again.

  “I’m not a telepath,” she said, confusion stretching across her face. “I’m just me. I’m not…”

  “Maybe we should embrace it,” Zoe said again, turning back to herself in the mirror, tensing her fists so her claws came out. “We could be powerful,” she said, looking at her own reflection.

  “I’m not a telepath, I don’t have any powers. I’m a non-exemplar,” Helena said, her hands folding in front of her chest now.

  “Something’s off,” Sam said. “Be straight with me, can you actually tell what I’m thinking?” he asked, again focusing on a mental image of a banana.

  “No, Sam, I can’t tell you what you’re thinking about.”

  “Embrace it, let’s embrace it,” Zoe said as she stared at her reflection, psyching herself up. “It’s brilliant.”

  “You’re doing something,” Sam started to say.

  “I’m not doing anything!” Helena told him, seconds away from storming out of the gym. She didn’t normally lose her cool, in fact this was the first time Sam had ever seen her really raise her voice. Something was off, something that…

  “You aren’t doing anything,” Sam told her suddenly, feeling this urge to agree with her every word. “This isn’t about anything that you’ve done, you’re not an exemplar, you didn’t get a power,” he said, his voice slightly monotone now.

  “See? I told you…” Helena’s eyes widened. “Oh shit. Sam, forget what I said,” and as soon as she spoke, Sam’s thoughts were his own again.

  “What just happened?” he asked, running his hand through his hair. “Why do I feel different?”

  “You were right,” Helena said as she looked down at her ballet slippers, no longer poised on the balls of her feet. “Watch. Zoe, please sit down on the ground,” Helena said as she moved over to where Zoe could see her.

  “I think I’m going to sit on the ground now.” Zoe carefully crouched on her knees so she wouldn’t put weight on her tail.

  “Mind control?” Sam asked, his hand coming to his forehead. “Oh my… You’re not a telepath, you’re able to hypnotize people.”

  “We don’t know that yet,” said Helena.

  “Look at what just happened. Zoe doesn’t listen to anyone,” Sam said. “Anyone…”

  “I listen,” Zoe retorted, but she didn’t leave her position on the floor.

  Helena steadied her breath for a moment as she looked at Zoe. “Okay, fine, maybe it is true, maybe I have developed this power,” Helena finally said, her voice softer than it normally was. “We have all changed, haven’t we?”

  “All of you have become exemplars…”

  “I’m not an exemplar, I am a half-breed,” Zoe said, glaring at her own reflection again.

  “No, you are unique, and you will be an asset to us,” Helena told her, again making eye contact with the troubled feline woman.

  “Do you have to be making eye contact for it to work?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t know anything about this power,” Helena admitted.

  “Zoe, close your eyes for a moment,” Sam said. “Just for a moment, please.”

  “If you say so…”

  She did as instructed, and Sam nodded for Helena to give the woman another command.

  “Zoe, lay down on your stomach,” Helena said to Zoe, who now sat on the ground with her eyes shut.

  “Why would I do that?” Zoe asked.

  “Try something else,” Sam said under his breath to Helena.

  “Zoe, I want you to start crying.” Helena shrugged at Sam, indicating she had no idea what she should be trying to do in this moment. “I mean laughing, start laughing.”

  A disgusted look formed on Zoe’s face as she opened her eyes and glared at Helena. “You want me to laugh at myself?” she asked. “What are you two trying to prove?”

  “I’m calling it—you have to be making eye contact,” Sam said. “We should see what Ozella has to say; she probably has some ideas about how we can test this or whatever. Ozella!” Sam called out. “She’s in there, right?”

  Helena cleared her throat. “No, she went to work…”

  “You let her go to work?”

  “She said she was fine, and she decided to go,” Helena said, realizing she’d just done a bad thing. “It was right before I walked in here, I couldn’t stop her. I’m sorry, my mind is a bit frazzled at the moment.”

  “You have the power of mind control; you should have stopped her.”

  “I didn’t know I had the power at the time,” Helena said, her pleading eyes naturally starting to make Sam nod.

  “Helena has the power of mind control?” Zoe started to laugh. “Sure you do, sure…”

  “We’ve already tested it out on you,” Sam told her. “But if you don’t believe me, watch this. Helena, please test your power on me, and make it fast. We need to find Ozella.”

  “Ummm… ”

  “Just do it,” Sam said to Zoe’s am
usement.

  Helena took a few steps closer to Zoe, explaining to her what they had already discovered about her power, that she needed to be making eye contact, that it apparently had to be a verbal command.

  “I still call bullshit,” Zoe said. “I mean, no offense here, Helena, but your wealth already allows you to tell anyone you want what to do.”

  Helena sighed. “Give me something to tell Sam that you know he wouldn’t do if you told him to do it.”

  “I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” Sam said, really wishing they’d go after Ozella.

  “I don’t want you to think that we’re trying to trick you here,” Helena explained. “What can we tell Sam to do that he wouldn’t normally do, even if he were just playing around with us.”

  “I don’t know, a backflip?” Zoe looked at him skeptically. “I’m pretty sure he can’t do that.”

  “Sam, do a backflip,” Helena said.

  And as much as he tried to stop himself, Sam noticed his knees drop, his feet press off the ground, his legs coming over his body as he tried to get all the way around without cracking his chin on the ground.

  It was a bad backflip, but he managed to at least land on his knees, which hurt like a bitch even though the floor was padded.

  “Why would you do something like that?” Zoe asked, a grin forming on her face.

  “Because she made me,” Sam said, now clutching his knee. “Can we hurry this up? Ozella is out there alone…”

  “This is too good,” Zoe said, amusement in her voice. “But fine, fine, one more test. Helena, tell him to pull his pants down.”

  “I’m not pulling my pants down, dammit,” Sam told her, getting back to his feet.

  “Sam, I’m sorry, but pull your pants down.”

  As soon as the words left Helena’s lips, Sam yanked his pants down, revealing a pair of boxer briefs.

  “Boxers too,” Zoe said. “Anyone can just pull their pants down.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Boxers too,” said Helena, “and after this, no more. We have to go after Ozella.”