H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis

by Kevin Rau

Agent Carson asked, “So what is your plan at this point?”

  I said, “It would be useful to find out if a group of people have gone missing tonight. The hard thing here is that they may not have begun yet, so we’d hear nothing, or they may be done and no one has put in a missing persons report because it hasn’t been twenty four hours.”

  Agent Carson said, “Listen, it’s already late. Psystar looks beat. I’ll put out a request for information on kidnappings tonight to see if the police or F.B.I. hear of anything overnight. I’ll send an email to the phone you’ve got with what I find out in the morning.”

  I replied, “That’ll work. In the morning, Spartan can begin looking for the warehouse or fish market. I’ve got to work in the morning, and Psystar’s got school. Damn, I need to get my cell phone replaced as well.”

  “If you stay active, you shouldn’t need a day job, unless you want some kind of alter ego thing. You’re eyes may be a problem with that, Black Tiger. People tend to remember features like that when they see someone.”

  “Yeah. The mutant’s curse, I guess.”

  “Only a curse if you plan to be a hero and also live a secret life. Otherwise many people who, well, changed, live relatively normal lives.”

  “Hmph, I suppose. I plan to join H.E.R.O. though; that’s my priority right now.”

  I looked at Stephanie. She had that slightly glazed-over eye look of someone who is tired and not focusing well. She does look tired. The mind thing must be pretty wearing, since both times she’s done that tonight she’s gotten worn down afterward. She looked at me and I smiled at her. Yes, I know you can hear me think this.

  Agent Carson bid us good night, and walked off toward his vehicle.

  Lance said, “So we crash tonight, I go looking in the morning for the warehouse, right?”

  I replied, “Yeah. You jumping home?”

  “That’s the plan. A little more practice before people see me bounding around during the day tomorrow will be a good thing. Take care flying, guys.” He looked around at the nearby buildings, took a few steps, and bounded off. Gravity’s shackles fell away from him easily as he launched into the air.

  I looked at Stephanie. “Shall we, beautiful?” Speaking of that, her face is healed already. I stepped over to her and slid my left arm around her back. She seemed to like holding people with her right arm. I was glad my gloves were fingerless; it let me caress her skin as I did it.

  She looked up at my face. “Do you ever let up on thoughts like that?”

  “Sure I do. I, ah, think about training, and fighting. I think about the carpentry job I’m doing or have to do the next day. Ah, hell. I’m probably the one who drags down the average time between thoughts on sex.” I grinned.

  She laughed. “Why does that not surprise me. You kind of balance Lance out. His thoughts are almost always on what he’s doing, and he’s commonly surprised by the sex stuff. It’s part of why I enjoy flirting so much, he seems shocked every time.”

  She put her arms around me and hugged me tightly for a moment. “I hope I don’t have to dig too deeply into minds like those mutants have. Their memories of the horrible things they’ve done are not pleasant.” She shivered and clenched her eyelids shut in an attempt to shut out the images. From her expression, she failed.

  After a few moments she leaned back and said, “Shall we fly home?”

  I said, “Yeah, but swing by a Megamart first.” A tamping bar will work nicely as a weapon. I had the image of one of the five foot metal bars in my head.

  She said, “You want a digging tool?”

  “Yeah. They are solid metal and weigh something like twenty pounds. It should work like a staff for me with my new strength, and the bar will be strong enough to hopefully put a hurt on some of the mutants. It's not ideal to use a weapon I've not practiced much with, but I want some advantage at the start.” I’d borrow Jake’s, but his will be all dirty, and I don’t want to bend his out of shape in a fight.

  She appeared to accept my thoughts of how I'd use it, for she altered our direction and sped up to fly to the nearest Megamart. Most other stores would be closed this late at night.

  She landed us right at the front entrance. A couple near the entrance stared at us as we landed. “I'll stay out here, just above the building. You look normal enough that people won't stare at you in the store.”

  I replied, “Will do. Do you need anything while I’m in there?”

  “No thanks.”

  I quickly headed into the store and looked for the Home & Garden department. In a few minutes, I found one, bought it and went back outside. It was rated at seventeen pounds, but with my strength being dozens of times what it used to be, the bar felt lighter than my other wooden staves.

  I swung it around a few times to feel it out. It made a satisfying sound as the metal swished through the air. Yeah, this will work. I took the label off it. That wouldn't do to get on video carrying a gardening tool with a label. I can see it now, getting labeled as the Gardener or some crap.

  Stephanie floated down to me, and laughed at my thoughts. She hugged me again in preparation for flight. I turned her chin up to me and kissed her. She looked surprised, but didn't move away or resist. After her initial surprise, she closed her eyes and responded to the kiss. Her lips were so soft. I ran the fingers of one hand through her wavy hair. Her scent was incredible; I could even taste her scent on her lips. Hmm, I hope she’ll still believe the line that we should all stay together a few more nights in case more changes occur.

  I didn't really want to end the kiss, and she appeared caught up in it. The realization that we'd been standing in a parking lot outside a superstore brought me to my reluctant senses. The kiss ended, she stood there with her eyes closed and mouth open for some time. She gently sighed and opened her amethyst eyes. Her pheromones were even stronger now. I could tell that she really enjoyed being kissed.

  She slyly grinned at me, hugged me with her right arm and in a husky voice asked, “Wow…. Got your staff held firmly?” Her chest heaved as she tried to calm down.

  I grinned at her, “Yeah.” Wait a second….

  “Good.” She giggled as she stepped and immediately launched at high speed into the air.

  I studied the nighttime cityscape below us as Stephanie flew, avoiding any stray thoughts. It was easy to do when you traveled at several hundred miles per hour low over the buildings. If I hadn’t been around supers my entire life, I’m not so sure I’d have been as calm cruising through the air with my only support being a small woman.

  In a few minutes, we were back home.

  We landed at my front step with a gentle bump. She grabbed my shoulder and pulled herself up to quickly kiss me on the cheek. “Well, I’ll be off then, see you tomorrow after school, assuming we don’t get an emergency call before then?”

  I smiled, moved my arm to her waist and pulled her tight against me. “You know, my dad explicitly mentioned that changes keep happening for days. We should continue to stick together.” I did my best to keep my thoughts blank and just watched her. I dropped the digging tool onto the lawn.

  She looked into my eyes, then down. I thought I saw the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. “Well, I have school in the morning pretty early….”

  I snickered, “You fly now. It’ll take you a minute to get home.” I worked my key out of my tactical belt, lifted her off the ground and held her against me. Then, I opened the door. She hadn’t resisted yet.

  I backed up into the living room. She hadn’t looked up. “I … I don’t want to stop being best friends with both you and Lance.”

  She looked up at me, and my heart skipped a beat looking into her beautiful eyes.

  I stroked her cheek with my free hand and said, “I will make you this promise. You have been one of two of my best friends for a dozen years. That will never end. Ever. If you are worried about a competition between Lance and
me, well, you know his mind better than I do at this point. It’s not like he’s not interested in ex-marine chick Anne, or Tina. I think both of them are interested in him as well.”

  Her smile grew into a mischievous grin. “Both like him a lot. LOT. Although Tina might like me as much as she likes Lance.”

  “Whoa! She really swings that way? I thought it was your pheromone thing.”

  “I thought so at first too, but…. Well, let’s just say I have a little inside information.”

  “Nice. I’ll invite her over more often.” I grinned.

  “Gee, thanks, I think she enjoyed controlling me. She’ll probably try that crap again.”

  If she doesn't, I will.... “Good. Have her over tomorrow night, then?”

  “You’re bad.”

  “Indeed, I am. You know it’s all in good fun, though, right? I don’t think either of us would make you do something actually harmful.” I couldn’t stop grinning now.

  “Hmph. So … if I decided I really did want to go home, what would you do?”

  Scream? I could probably knock you out with a good thunk on the head, like Captain McCain did, you’d heal it fast. Or handcuff you to the bed, I like that idea. I’ve got stretchy workout cords in the other room; I could tie you up with those. Or best of all, just think really hard about you doing certain things. I knew she’d be reading my mind, so I made sure to visualize each of those events, while maintaining my firm grip around her waist.

  She said, “You know, I can see through some of those. You wouldn’t really lock me up without knowing I’d enjoy it, and I honestly don’t think you’d hit me hard enough to knock me out. That means you only have one option left if you want to push me into staying.”

  “I could beg….”

  “You, beg? Yeah, right. That’d a pitiful sight. You’d be so bad at it I might knock myself out by laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe….”

  “Ouch. Would you stay if I just asked? That and didn’t push anything?”

  She raised her eyebrow, studying me. “Okay.”

  I set her down and kissed her forehead. I said, “I’ll even go use the restroom so you can change in the bedroom.” I walked to the bedroom, grabbed a pair of sweats and went to the restroom to brush my teeth and such. Strange, I hadn’t sweated all day, so I didn’t need to wash up, and found that in more than a full day I hadn’t needed to relieve myself. Different, but very cool changes the body’s making. I quickly changed and opened the bathroom door.

  Stephanie stood there in her costume; she held a shirt and a pouch.

  I asked, “Everything okay?”

  “I need to wash the blood off before I change.”

  “You're hands appear full.” I slowly started unbuckling her belt. She didn't argue, so I slid it off her waist and dropped it onto the rug. When she continued to stand there with each hand full, I slid off her costume shorts. I heard her heart rate increase in speed, and her breathing quickened.

  I removed her boots while I was on my knees. As I stood back up I slid my hands up her legs and torso. Then I slid down her shirt, bunched it up and pulled it down her body. Her eyes were closed, though I knew she continued to see through mine.

  She didn't move as I wet a hand towel with warm water and washed the blood off her stomach, face and neck. My acute sense of smell was besieged by her wonderful scent. Steph's the one person I know of who can now go on a trek through a jungle and smell as good or better at the end of a hike than at the beginning.

  I stood again, pulled her against me and kissed her again, reveling in the skin to skin contact of our upper bodies. I heard the thump of the shirt and pouch, and her hands ran up my torso and around my neck. I felt conflicted. I wanted to be a good guy, but her being almost nude, and that fragrance made it very difficult to restrain my urges.

  The kiss ended after a long time. When she opened her eyes, my heart again tried to leap through my throat. My mind barely retained control of my body. I gruffly said, "You're making it difficult to keep my promise." I bumped her nose with mine, knelt to pick up our costumes and left the room to put them in the washer.

  She seems willing to go further, but I don't want to push things too fast and cause a problem here. Man, this is hard being a good guy. There’s no rush. I want a relationship, not a fling.

  I stopped back by the bathroom before I went to bed, “Hey, what time do you need to be up by?”

  “I have a class at 8:00 A.M. Wait ... oh no. If I fly to school it'll be obvious who I am.”

  “The campus is in the city. Fly either to a rooftop and go down through the rooftop door, or fly to an alleyway and walk a few blocks.” She looked thoughtful for a few seconds, nodded and closed the door.

  As she walked into the bedroom, it struck me. I’m not sure if her snug costume is more sexy, or just a t-shirt. Her face was beautiful, all of the damage fully healed. She slid in the far side of the bed and lay flat on her back. Her eyes were open, moving rapidly. I’m betting she’s debating sliding over here. I wished she would do it.

  Her lips curled ever so slightly into a smile, and she wiggled her way over to me, following what I’d pictured. I grinned as she spooned against me, and I put my arm around her. Without wind blowing her scent away like it did when flying, it was wonderful just smelling her hair and putting my arm around her waist. I listened to her breathing and heart beat.

  Some minutes later I heard Lance arrive home. His footsteps made the house reverberate slightly. I felt that Stephanie was tense lying against me. She seemed mixed on her emotions about ... this. Her body alternated between tensing up and relaxing until the fatigue caught up with her, and she finally succumbed to sleep.

  I woke up to a hard elbow jab to the stomach. I opened my eyes and listened to the area around me. I heard Stephanie’s heart beating rapidly, and her breathing was fast paced. Her eyes were open.

  I whispered, “Hey, are you alright?”

  Her voice was shaky. “No. I had a nightmare. I went through one of the mutant’s memory of attacking someone and killing them. It was horrible.”

  “Ouch. I’m sorry.”

  She settled back against me and shivered. “They’ve become monsters. They may have been human, but they think people are animals … food. They don't even think of themselves as human any more. Strange, I would have expected to wake up in a cold sweat from that one.”

  I said, “We don’t sweat any more. It’s like our bodies are retaining everything and changing it into energy.”

  I hugged her tightly until she fell asleep again.

  I woke up by 5:00 AM. I didn't need my alarm; I was used to waking at that time on weekdays. I'd rather not get up ... today, but until I know what H.E.R.O. pays, I need to go to work. I slid out of bed, hated myself for doing it, and then berated myself for considering shirking work.

  It took me less time than normal. My facial hair hadn't grown, so eliminating shaving and other activities certainly sped up the routine a notch. I walked out to the living room to do sit-ups, but it just wasn't the same. There wasn't the burn after a while. My body didn't feel the need to slow down at it, and I didn't sweat from the activity. Well, I'm not sure that's a needed activity any more. I suppose I can keep it up until I'm sure at least.

  Normally, I’d have been all over getting to the gym before work, but I thought that Stephanie was going through enough of a shock that she could use more sleep for now. Also, weight lifting was unlikely to be useful at this point.

  After an hour, I debated waking Stephanie up with an ice cube down her shorts, but thought it might be too much. I shook her gently, then not so gently. Man, her deep sleeping hasn't changed. Finally I tried something similar to what I did in the hospital. I touched my forehead to hers and mentally called out to her until she stirred. Obviously the mind reading continues working even while she's asleep.

  She yawned and finally opened her eyes. She mumble
d, “It's too early.”

  I replied, “Unfortunately, it isn't. I need to get to work and you need to get ready for school. I'll see you this afternoon.”

  I kissed her cheek and left the house, putting the makeshift staff into my car before I left.

  Chapter 35 – Campus Nightmares

  Stephanie's Viewpoint