by Kevin Rau
Normally, I'm not a big fan of going to the mall. However, when one of my best friends wanted Rael and I to join her to do some clothes shopping, I wasn’t about to resist. Yeah, yeah, normally I'd avoid shopping with most women like most other sane men, but Stephanie was beautiful and fun to be with, and I knew that she knew that shopping was boring for guys. So she flirted a lot with us when picking out clothes. She was a tiny gal, about 5'3”, brunette with shoulder blade length hair, hazel eyes, slim but not skinny, and busty. Yeah, shopping with her was downright fun. Literally. No joke there. Gotta say, I wonder if she uses me as a giant bag carrier at times, though.... Rael mentioned to me in the past that it's better than watching porn, but I left that assessment to him.
We decided to eat at the food court first, and met at a table near the center, where we could watch a television. Big news was up about a new meteor shower happening today. Not like they figured it would drop basketball sized lumps on us or something, but the exciting thing was the radiation from these things. Apparently saving the world back in the 80's with experimental nukes against a big asteroid headed toward earth made strange things happen. Something about the nuke energized the matter in the asteroid, and a cloud of small asteroids floated around the planet now. When meteor showers occurred on occasion, irradiated particulates in the air caused some rather spontaneous mutation in humans. Interesting stuff.
My mom was a super, as were Stephanie and Rael's fathers. They guessed that we had a high likelihood of becoming 'gene activated' at some point. I knew for a fact that my mom hoped for it. To that end, she got me into classes and training most of my life for that possibility. Nothing special had worked out so far for me, but I wouldn't be surprised if her genetics hadn’t given me an edge up on my physique – that and a lot of weight lifting, exercise, martial arts, and sports. I worked as a bouncer, a pretty easy gig for a big guy who was well built and towered over normal sized people.
One segment of the news was very cool. A lightning-blasting super named Hellshock was interviewed about tonight. He mentioned that all supers and authorities were on alert and ready to handle any problems that occurred. I couldn’t get enough of comic books, news on supers and the Homeland Extraordinary Response Organization, or H.E.R.O., and even the tabloids that specialized in supers. I’d been a huge fan of heroic type supers for as long as I could remember.
So we watched the news, and Stephanie asked Rael to go get us all some flavored coffee. Yeah, she gave him that sweet face, too. I chuckled as he stood up. I think it made him unhappy, he glared at me a moment and stalked off toward the coffee shop. Sucker! Not like I'm immune to that look. She just somehow makes you feel so damn good about helping her with something. We’d all been friends for over ten years, and she knew the buttons to push.
I watched him head off. It was like watching a cat that's always ready to pounce. He was only about 6' tall, black hair that was a few inches below the shoulder, and weighed perhaps 190 or so, but he had plenty of muscle on that frame – lithe muscle. His skin was decorated with a tattoo of a dragon's claw on each forearm, and little demons on each biceps. It was funny watching her eyes follow his backside until he got out of obvious sight. He tended to do the same thing to her. Wait, I’m pretty sure that’s always, not tended, hah! Man, I hope I'm not that obvious. I find it interesting that people tend to part the way for me because I'm darn big. They part the way for him I think because he projects an aura of danger. Or is that hostility? Rael loved to fight; he was the only one in the dojo that commonly fought multiple opponents at a time.
A little boy and his mom sat next to us. He stared at me, and finally poked me in the arm as I’d been watching Rael. I smiled at him. He looked at my arm, so I flexed for him. Having 22” biceps attracted attention, I guess. I said, “Hey buddy, drink lots of milk and stay active, you can get as big as me.” Well, maybe not, but hey, gotta have something in life to shoot for.
We watched the news until a meteor exploded overhead, causing a boom and mild shaking in the area. The lights actually dimmed from it. Very cool. This is going to be a killer night for news on supers! My shoulder suddenly hurt - I must have strained myself when I worked out in the morning; I massaged my biceps as I watched Stephanie. My friend appeared to have a headache. I was about to ask her if she would like me to go get her some aspirin or something when I noticed a guy stand up a few tables behind Stephanie. His eyes glowed, and his head twitched. He did an odd pose with his arms out, almost like you'd see a wrestler do after winning a match. Then he screamed, arched his back and made fists with his hands. I blinked, a bit surprised at the raw agony of his scream. Then his entire body began to glow. Tables and chairs began sliding slowly toward him.
Wow, this guy is a super, or he's about to be due to the meteor shower! That screaming and the glowing didn't look like a good start though. I tried to think of a way to help someone change, but couldn't recall mom ever mentioning what the experience was like in any detail.
Practically everyone turned toward him at this point, and no one moved. Wait, one person did. Rael sprinted toward the guy. It only took him a few seconds, and he leapt at the guy. I figured he’d tackle the man. Instead, he threw a haymaker at him. Good punch, he landed a solid score on the side of the guy’s face.
The guy blew up. I didn’t have enough time to think. I moved in front of the boy right next to me and shielded him, and tried to grab for Stephanie’s arm to pull her to me. I was far too slow for the distance, for she had twisted in her seat to watch the guy as well. A fat guy flew through the air toward us, and the blast, table, and what seemed like everything else impacted me. It felt sort of like a really aggressive fullback plowing into me at top speed. The energy of the explosion went right through my body.
I lay there thinking about the damage I might have sustained, and heard people screaming and crying all over the place. The little boy sat up next to me, nothing had hit him. I said, “Good kid, find your mom.” Hmm, this is going to be ugly. Hey, most of the lights are out again. I leaned up to check on Stephanie, and felt a burning sensation. It grew until my entire body felt like I was thrown into a fire pit. I couldn't help but thrash on the floor. Then on top of the burning sensation, I felt muscles and skin tearing.
I slammed one arm against the floor from the agony, and dimly heard tile shattering. Hope that wasn't expensive.... I realized that we'd been gene activated. Made into supers. Mutated. I would have cheered if this hadn't hurt so darn much. Through pain-filled eyes, I saw how bloody my arms became, as the muscles bunched up, grew, and split the skin. It seemed to be healing over, but wow, I had never felt pain like this.
I saw Stephanie reach out toward me, or at least try to. I wanted to reach out, but my arms kept flexing of their own accord. They weren't in my control due to the pain … and the growth.
Her expression changed as though she was in deep thought, and the pain rapidly faded. I smelled something pleasant, like a flower. The scent faded, and the screaming and moaning stopped from the people in perhaps a thirty foot radius of us. Everyone except her. A quick glance around showed everyone else changing from pained expressions to confusion or relief. Her face was still contorted in pain though.
I sat up, reached out to her, and grabbed her shoulder. I felt something give when my hand closed, like bones crunching under my fingers. She screamed and passed out. Damn. I think I'm gaining some kind of super strength, but I feel bad.
I wanted to help the people here, but already heard sirens, and if they found new supers of any type here they might think we caused all this damage, not to mention all the injuries. Oh man, battery on a crowd scale. They might even call that terrorism or something. For that matter, they might lock us down to study us, dump us in some government test program, or heck, just put us away all drugged up. I'd rather things be in my control than someone else's. I need to get stabilized, and then head to H.E.R.O. headquarters to sign up as a new
hero.
So the temporary important thing was to get out of there before people could remember our faces. Dang, I hate feeling guilty when I didn't do anything wrong. Well, except smashing the floor. I’ll have to find a way to pay the mall back for that.
Stephanie had lost a lot of blood from the head and arm wounds, not to mention she had to have some broken bones. I feel so bad about the shoulder damage – nothing like piling crap on the dung heap. I'm glad she's unconscious right now. I saw her wounds closing even as I watched. She got regeneration at the least, pretty decent too, from what I've read about supers.
I looked around, but people were now sitting up, and panic started to set in on some of them. I can't worry about Rael. He's a fighter, he'll get out. That and he'd be pissed if I didn't take care of Stephanie while worrying about him. Man, I can’t believe I just crushed her shoulder. That had to hurt like heck! God, I suck.
I rolled the big guy off her, and picked her up carefully, snagging her purse with my pinkie on the way. Wow, she feels extremely light. Damn, she weighs, what – 110 pounds? She feels like she weighs almost nothing. I felt the fire going through my body again. My muscles bunched up, and before my eyes my forearm tightened, the skin tore open, grew, and healed over. It created a bloody mess on my clothing and the floor. Holy crap. I was glad I didn't feel pain any more, but I kept my main concentration on holding Stephanie safely. If my muscles exploded again, I'd rather not crush my best friend. For that matter, I noticed her skin moving, and could tell she was gaining a little muscle as well. Not enough to break the skin, or bulge her arms or anything, but extra toning. Her bod’s tightening up even more. She’d probably be hoping for an even higher I.Q. to do even better at college. Nerdy sometimes, but she’s still my pal.
I almost slipped and fell as I moved. I had bled through all of my clothing and made a mess on the floor. Many people had obvious cuts and some broken limbs from objects crashing into them, but none had blood absolutely coating them. Man, people were lying around everywhere.
I would really rather have stayed and helped. I had first aid training, but if I could break Stephanie’s shoulder just by grabbing it, I was more of a danger than a help to these people. Plus, I believed most people would be more frightened of Mr. Blood Covered Horror Film Dude at that point anyway. My shirt and pants felt soaked. Steph was not so blood soaked, though she would probably have looked good even like that.
I glanced around the food court area. Hmm, I think the authorities will focus on the food court entrances. I jogged down a side tunnel, looking for one of those emergency exits set between stores. People stared at me as I ran with her. Must be the blood on us both. Man, people are mental; they should have cleared the darn area when the explosion went off.
I pushed the door open with my back to prevent damaging it, or leaving fingerprints, and jogged down the hallway. I tried to keep her steady in my arms. Yeah, that’d look good; bang her head on the door frame as I run through or something. So Mr. Casey, how did your friend sustain these injuries? Uhh. I clubbed her on the door because I’m an oaf? Yeah, not good. I got us through the outer door as squad cars pulled up to the food court entrance off to our right.
I felt the painful fire go through my veins again, and it was all I could do to prevent myself from crushing Steph to my chest as my arms spasmed. It was like being clawed all over for some reason. What happened to that pain resistance? Darn it, this hurts again. I fell to my knees, and did my best to keep Stephanie off the ground. I watched the skin on my fingers rip open, and muscle and tissue grew as I watched. My body began glowing yellow from the inside. I could see some kind of fumes coming out of my mouth and nose. My hands … actually grew. I think I just gained an inch or more of hand span on each hand right there. I couldn’t move for the thirty seconds or so it took for my hands to rebuild.
The pain hurt so much I pounded on the concrete sidewalk with my right fist. It shattered as though hit by a piece of construction machinery. Fresh blood trickled down my body in a dozen spots, ensuring my clothing stayed drenched in blood. Talk about major hurt. What, did I ask to super size the pain? I believed only my fear for attracting the attention of the police kept me from screaming during that process. I knelt there panting, Stephanie held in one arm, the other hand on the ground to keep from falling. I saw the last of the skin seal over and the pain from that round of transformation stopped.
The changes continued as something new occurred. I felt heat, or energy, something I could not understand coming from deep in my core in a new round of … change. Rather than pain this time, a rush of power flowed out into my limbs. It was like I had the biggest weight lifting rush in my life. My body felt energized … powerful. Shadows danced around us as my own body lit the area, and people stared our way from the odd light. Some people in the parking lot walked toward us and the flashing lights on my right. Great. Now I glow? I had become a beacon in the darkness, attracting the attention of everyone within sight due to the oddity. My body finally felt right, more than right, it felt powerful. Come on, Lance. We have to get out of here now.
I leapt to my feet, only to go airborne. Holy crap, can I fly? I reflexively clutched tighter to Steph, and felt her upper left arm snap. Darn it, I'm a freaking brute now. We went up into the air a hundred yards or so as we flew across the parking lot and continued over the buildings across the street. The experience thrilled and terrified me, all in one.
Our upward flight slowed, and our angle changed for the worse. We were headed back down. No flight. I started to panic as we rapidly descended. The light from inside faded. This landing couldn’t go well. I twisted my body so I would land on my back. We're goners here. I hope I can cushion our fall.
We came down a few streets from the mall, in a residential area. I could only pray that all this muscle gain also meant I was becoming armored, like most brick supers seemed to be. If so, perhaps we could land safely and get the heck out of there.
We crashed into the ground behind a house. The hard concrete patio we landed on shattered as my back smashed into it. Her head cracked against mine, and the lights went out.
Chapter 3 – Pain is Good
Rael's Viewpoint
