H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis

by Kevin Rau

I started the day normal enough, though I added an extra egg to my breakfast. I had to treat everything as though it were very fragile. I could feel everything I touched, yet it all felt so … flimsy. I mentally thanked Rael for picking up plastic plates and glasses rather than glass or ceramic.

  As I ate, I squeezed my hands and arms. The muscle deformed as it always had for me. Why did Stephanie say I felt like rock or steel?

  I debated going to the gym, but knew that none of the weights would push me at this point. The thought made me sad. I very much enjoyed testing my limits in the gym. My body against the weights in a daily struggle. I’d have to find a new way to push myself, now that I’d changed.

  I costumed up, grabbed a pair of binoculars, and left the house in search of the fish market and warehouse district. While the city had numerous warehouse districts all around the city, the fish market could only be down by the river.

  Jumping was a real joy, so long as I avoided the extremely long jumps. I had a few close calls where I almost leaped directly into a building. I wasn’t afraid of getting hurt, but really didn’t want to damage anyone’s property. That shortened my average jump by quite a bit. I didn’t want to fly through some office window and have to explain that one. At least I got used to landing on my feet without thinking too much about it.

  While hopping toward the river section, I landed on a rooftop and spotted some women down at street level loading a moving van. They were having problems with a table. I jumped down off the roof and landed about fifty feet away, and then walked over to them.

  When I was close, I called out, “Hi, you ladies need some help with the heavy stuff? I can spare a few minutes.”

  They looked me up and down, looked at each other, and grinned. One of them gave an enthusiastic, “Heck yeah!”

  I made sure to watch my grip on items so as to not crush them. I began to fear that my nickname would become Smasher or some such if I kept destroying items. I discovered that moving large items when they all felt like big styrofoam items was easy.

  One of the girls asked, “So, what’s your name?”

  “I’m Spartan. I’m sorry; I should have introduced myself right away.”

  One said, “I’m Kirra, this is Trina. What do you do?”

  “I just joined the city’s H.E.R.O. program. It’s kind of a job, I guess. Not like a nine to five thing though. Anyway, I try to save people and stop criminals.”

  “And you just stop and help people move?”

  “I didn’t see any guys here to help you. I figured I’d help.”

  “They are supposed to show up later today. We were going to load all the smaller boxes first.”

  “Well, you can take it easy now, and have the guys help with the smaller stuff too.”

  I carried an armoire out the front door when something flashed from my left. I glanced that way, and saw a pair of women. One had a camera and snapped pictures. She had a large, professional looking camera. The other had a notepad.

  I placed the armoire in the moving van, and the woman with the notepad asked me, “Hi, I’m Jessica Angel with the Metro Times. Are you Spartan, and what are you doing here?”

  I stopped for a moment. “Yes I am, and I’m helping these ladies move their heavy items out of the house.”

  “Was there a crime here?”

  “No. They just looked like they could use the help.”

  “You aren’t being paid to be here?”

  “No. Why would I be?”

  “Do you know the women?”

  “We just met when I stopped to help them.”

  “Do you often do this?

  “I’ve never seen anyone in the middle of a move that lacked a crew of guys to help out. So I stopped. Is that unusual?”

  “Generally, yes.”

  “Oh, well, perhaps I can help make it normal then. I’m sorry, Ms. Angel, but I’d really like to help the ladies finish with the big items. I need to find some criminals I’m hunting for this morning.”

  “You need to find them? How do you plan to locate them?”

  “I know an old building that is next to their hideout. If I can find that, I find them.”

  “I’ll make you a deal, Spartan. If you give me an exclusive on the story, I’ll find that building for you.”

  “Really? That’d be great.”

  “Sure. What’s the building, and how can I get in touch with you for the location?”

  “The building is an old fish market. It’s down in a warehouse district near the river, but it’s been closed down for who knows how long.” I gave her my cell number to call me with the location and shook her hand.

  “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish helping the ladies….”

  “Thank you, Spartan. I’ll give you a call shortly. Are you planning on capturing them today?”

  “The sooner the better. We believe they are kidnapping people, so it’s a high priority for me.”

  “I’ll head back to the Times and hit the research room now. By the way, if you figure that people are in danger soon, does it make sense to take time out to help people move?”

  “Uhh. Good point, I hadn’t thought about that, just figured I could help someone. Awesome on the help, thank you for that.” I held out my hand to shake the photographer’s hand. She shook it after glancing at the reporter.

  The photographer asked, “Mind if I take a picture of our hands next to each other? I’ve never seen such large hands.”

  “Sure.” I held out my left hand, she put hers next to it and snapped some pictures. My thumb tip to pinky tip was at least double the width of hers.

  “Thank you.”

  The reporter said, “We’ll hopefully see you soon, Spartan.”

  “You too. Take care.”

  Wow, this is the best job ever. I have enough extra time in the day to help people with things like moving, and the news people are actually nice. This super thing rocks. Injuries even heal fast. Apart from breaking some things, like my formerly awesome mustang, it couldn’t go too much better. I’d best finish up here quickly though, Jessica’s right. I’m possibly endangering lives here.

  I returned to helping the girls move the last of the large items. It took very little time without the normal fight one put up with against large items. When finished, they asked to take some pictures with me. All right, fine, I can ham it up with the girls. Woot! We took a number of them, and I bid them goodbye before leaping to the rooftops again.

  It took me a minute or two to hop to the river district. The jumping had become almost natural to me, even after such a brief break-in period. A slight push-off of the calf, and I cleared a street to go from one building to the next. The thighs were only involved in the larger jumps. I wondered if a normal person standing on Mars, or perhaps the Moon would have the same effect. I knew I weighed more than I did before, and gravity still seemed to affect me the same, so I fell rapidly. Before the change, I’d have to cushion a shorter fall with both legs, or a longer fall with a tuck and roll to avoid directly absorbing the impact on my body. Now my body just seemed so strong that I could take the full brunt of the impact up my legs without any negative effects. Well, unless I was off balance or missed my footing, that is. Getting the distance correct, was my only challenge at this point.

  I wandered from building to building, looking for the buildings Stephanie described. So many of them looked the same, I couldn’t find any that stood out. I got frustrated. Why couldn’t the villains just come out and fight? That’d be more honorable. Too much to expect of people who busted into a hospital and murdered others who were unconscious and couldn’t defend themselves, I guessed.

  It struck me after about half an hour that a general all points bulletin would be out on the mutants from the hospital event, but I didn’t have a H.E.R.O. phone on me to respond if any were spotted.

  I stopped and called the H.E.R.O. headquarters. I asked for Captain McCain.
He picked up after a moment.

  “Captain McCain here.”

  I said, “Hi Captain, this is Spartan. I’m calling to see if I can get my own official H.E.R.O. phone and if there is anything left to finish up on paperwork. Agent Carson said he entered me into the system.”

  “Sure. I’m just catching up on all the paperwork from the meteor shower over the weekend, so head on over.”

  “Thank you, sir.” He hung up.

  Thanks to Mom’s pushing, I already knew where the headquarters was located, in the far northeast of Metrocity. I leaped there quickly, routing my path through the massive river district one last time to see if I could get lucky on spotting the market. Nothing stood out to me.

  The H.E.R.O. parking lot had few cars in it. The entrance to the building consisted of a huge arch, with dual pillars on each side. A massive bas-relief of a shield was attached to the building to the left of the entrance. Wide steps led up to the entrance, with smooth ramps on each side. Statues lines the way.

  The entrance chamber itself looked impressive, with a glossy stone checkerboard floor, pillars around the edges, and pictures of H.E.R.O.s I recognized from the news over the years hung on the walls.

  The receptionist greeted me and sent me to Captain McCain’s office. His door was open, so I knocked very gently on the frame.

  He looked up from paperwork in front of him and stood up. “Hello, Spartan. I’m glad to see you joining H.E.R.O.” He held out his hand to shake mine, and we had a firm handshake.

  “I’m glad to myself, sir.”

  “It’s nice to be able to really shake hands with someone. Most heroes stop shaking hands entirely.”

  “I hope to never see that day for me, Captain.”

  “I agree, keep it up. Just don’t crush any hands, please.”

  “Of course not. Speaking of, how is your hand doing?”

  “It’s fine now. You’ve got quite the strength boost. If you don’t mind the extra cost, I grabbed a Brick edition of the H.E.R.O. phone. It’s built with an alloy case to prevent you from crushing it if distracted.”

  I pulled out my old cell phone. “Wow, you rock. I’ve already cracked my personal cell.”

  He held the phone out to me. “Here you go. It’s already tied to your profile in the system. Agent Carson did set you up, in fact. I just need either banking information so you can be paid, or you can have it applied into a H.E.R.O. account. Your H.E.R.O. card will act as a debit card. Here is your official card, by the way.”

  He handed me an official looking card with my picture in costume, hero name, and official status.

  “Wow, this is awesome. Thank you. Hey, how did you get a picture of me in costume?”

  “When Dr. Turnquist contacted us to determine if you were in the H.E.R.O. program, we requested costumed pictures back from her.”

  “Nice. Is there any reason to keep money in a H.E.R.O. account?”

  “Yes. Do you really want to pull out a personal credit card when you are in costume and want to buy something?”

  “Well, no. And vice versa I suppose. Can I put seventy percent to my bank account and leave thirty percent in a H.E.R.O. account?”

  “Sure. Here are the forms for the bank information. It’ll be moved today, although the full amount is in your H.E.R.O. account right now.”

  “Can I ask how much I have so far?”

  “Of course. You can pull up the current balance by punching in your pin on a screen on the cell phone, just write one on this form and I’ll enter it now. You can change it online. You currently have fifteen thousand dollars from scenes you have been involved in. I already deducted the two thousand for the brick phone. By the way, it’s a secure phone, if the topic ever comes up. Also, it’s subsidized by the H.E.R.O. program. Please don’t crush it; it would cost several thousand above that to replace out of your own account.”

  “Holy cow!”

  He smiled. “I told you the commission is good. Stay busy helping the city and you’ll be rewarded. Now, you still need to fill in a few things on these forms, and sign the places I've put an X by. Then you're set.”

  I quickly filled out the information. I noted that his pen felt ... solid. I shook it, then gently squeezed. It had a squishy exterior, but didn’t feel like a normal pen.

  “What kind of pen is this?”

  He smiled. “Go to Big & Strong, down on Capital Street. It's more expensive than most stores, but they cater to the super community. I'd spoil it, but if you haven't been in there it's a pleasant surprise. Their office section sells heavy duty pens like this.”

  “Awesome. I'll check it out after this mutant problem is resolved.”

  “I've got an email from Agent Carson saying that your team is making good progress. Where are you at now?”

  “Psystar pulled out some information on where the mutants are hiding out. It's an old warehouse, but there isn't an address. I've got someone looking into the location now for me. The mutants plan, or planned, on kidnapping people to force the bloodthirst on the new mutants. As soon as I get the location, I'll go scout it from the rooftops. Then I'll call in Psystar and Black Tiger to take it down. I did promise that I'd call Agent Carson before we go in.”

  “You have someone working on it? What does that mean?”

  “Uhh, I met a reporter. She offered to hunt it down for me in return for a story.”

  “Hmm.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then shrugged. “I suppose if it gets the job done, lives saved, etc. Which reporter? I hope it’s not a rumor mag.”

  “Jessica Angel and her photographer.”

  “Ah, she’s reputable. She’s a go-getter, I’ve heard she does most of her reporting on the street.”

  “Ok, is that a good thing?”

  “I just mean that she’s not afraid to get herself in dangerous situations to get a story.” His eyes flicked to my utility belt, where I’d put the new H.E.R.O. phone, then to the pouch with my own cell phone. His eyes narrowed and he said, “How did she plan to contact you, you don’t have the phone I lent your team, and didn’t have your new one yet.”

  Ruh roh. “I, ah, gave her my personal cell number.”

  “Well, you’d best hope she’s reputable now. With that number, and her resources, I’m sure she can find your name and home address.”

  “I suppose.”

  He suddenly laughed. “You certainly can’t get out of giving a story now, can you? She’ll show up at your door until she gets it.”

  “Maybe that wasn’t my best idea….”

  “Don’t beat yourself up over it for now. Hopefully, she’ll find the mutant hideout and help us all.”

  “Yes, sir. I can’t wait to go and bash some criminal heads for murdering those people at the hospital.”

  “Spartan, you saw how many mutants they brought to the hospital. I'm hoping we caught a good number of them, but there's an unknown number out there. Don't go in brashly. Also, I’ve already got reports of missing persons. I believe these mutants working with Shrinker are behind it. Also, just a little while ago a call went out from a theater about mutants kidnapping people in a flower shop van. Hellshock answered the call. I’ve not heard the result yet.”

  “Peoples' lives are at stake, Captain. As soon as we can, we need to get in there and save them.”

  “I agree. What I mean is to call in extra support if it looks too big.”

  “Ah, okay.”

  “This is it for the paperwork. You're official now. You've got your phone. I'm satisfied with the courses I see on your record on Law Enforcement, and linked to them in your file. You mentioned you had a parent that is a super?”

  “Right, my mother, though she’s not in the H.E.R.O. program.”

  “She obviously had some good insight on your future. You should thank her. Hell, I’d like to thank her. Now, go do some good.” He waved toward the door.

  “Yes, sir. Thank you fo
r setting this up so quickly.”

  “Glad to have extra heroes in Metrocity. Make sure to stay a hero. Too many get it in their head that the city and people owe them, and become snobbish. I’d like to see that kind of attitude changed.”

  I nodded. “Will do. I'm off to search for the mutants again.” I reached his door before it struck me. “Captain, Hellshock just answered a call for something these mutants did?”

  “Yes. Perhaps 5 minutes ago. I take it one of the others had the H.E.R.O. phone I gave you?”

  “Yeah. Will old events and locations show up on my new phone?”

  “They will. Look under events in progress.”

  I pulled the phone out of my utility belt and played with the menus on the phone until I found the event and where it occurred. “I think I’ll jump there first. Maybe I’ll get lucky and capture a mutant.”

  Captain McCain smiled, “Excellent thinking. Take care, Spartan.”

  I stepped back over to him, shook his hand and left H.E.R.O. headquarters. I'm officially a H.E.R.O. now! Yeah, baby!

  Outside the building, I took a moment to determine where the event was in relation to my current location. Then, I leapt toward it. It took me a few minutes to arrive. From a nearby building top, it was easy to spot. Fire engines and police cars blocked off the area, their lights highlighted the trouble intersection.

  A crowd stood around the outer perimeter of the intersection, so I walked to the nearest building top, and then hopped down into an area clear of people and debris. A car lay on its side against a building to my left, a telephone and utility pole lay in the street not far from it. A few cars had odd burn marks in them, as did some of the blacktop.

  A group of people stood to the left side as well. One of the officers noticed me, and called out, “Hey you, hero!” It was obvious he spoke to me.

  I walked over to them, and then noticed Hellshock in the center of the group. I recognized the cycle lying on its side as his from various news clips. I said, “Greetings guys.”

  Hellshock looked toward me. Like me, he wore colored goggles, so I couldn’t see his eyes. His red and black costume, with white lightning bolts had a few tears in it. The hero favored his right arm, holding it against his side.

  He said, “Oh, sure. Now you arrive. I wish you’d been here ten minutes ago when that huge mutant was here.”

  I replied, “Sorry about that. I just picked up my H.E.R.O. phone. What happened?”

  He said, “Four mutants. A female, the huge four armed guy, one with tentacle arms, and the last looked pretty human. I’m assuming he’s a mutant and not a blaster or psychic.”

  I nodded. They seemed to be collecting mutants, not other types of supers. “There was a kidnapping?”

  “Yeah, people called it in from outside a theater. The power went out and a fire alarm went on. I didn’t see any people though. The mutants were driving that van over there.” He pointed with his left arm. The tears in the costume were more numerous on it.

  Several officers were in the midst of investigating the flower shop van already. It was obvious that no people had been found.

  Hellshock said, “I think the female is the one they call Shrinker. She did have a duffle bag. Perhaps she shrunk the people and put them into it. She was definitely more interested in getting away than fighting me. With the monster here, I couldn’t stop them all.”

  I said, “Dang. That bugs me. If I’d just gotten my phone earlier I could have helped.”

  “Don’t berate yourself over it. Do what you can to help. You won’t be able to get to every crime scene on time.”

  “I’m hoping to find their lair. My team will go after them.”

  “Call me if you need help. Here.” He took out his phone with his left hand and quickly navigated the screen. In a moment my phone beeped. I took it out and saw a friend request by Hellshock. I glanced at him and grinned, then clicked the accept button.

  He said, “That’ll make me a bit easier to find in the hero list and call for aid.”

  “Very cool. Thanks, dude.”

  “Lemme finish up here and I’m going to rest a few hours. Call me if you need to, Spartan.”

  I nodded. There was nothing left for me to do here, so I decided to continue my search.

  After jumping up to the nearest building top, I leaped to the river section of the city, and renewed my search for warehouses. Perching on one of the twenty-plus story buildings near the river, gave me a good overview of building types. I almost wished I’d gone for a cape with the costume. It would have looked much cooler, perching on a rooftop while the cape billowed in the wind.

  Unfortunately, Metrocity spanned about twenty miles along the river, which meant a huge amount of riverside cityscape to examine. I'm reasonably certain that only the inner ten miles or so will be for businesses like that though. That's still a huge number of buildings. I hope Jessica Angel has more luck.

  I searched, but couldn't locate a specific fish market or warehouse from the hundreds spread around the river. I wish I'd been able to see what Stephanie saw.

  Around 1 P.M. my phone rang. I answered it, “Hello?”

  “Spartan?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is Jessica Angel, Metro Times. I've got your location.”

  “Great!”

  “You want the corner of Commons and Stone street. The fish market is connected to Commons. Your warehouse ought to be in that block.”

  “Thank you. I'll head over and scout it out. You want me to call you after we're done for the story? It'll probably be a few hours before we try anything.”

  “I'd appreciate that. I'll wait for the call then. Spartan, don't forget about me. I’d really prefer knowing before you go in so we can get some pictures right after you are complete.”

  “I won't forget, and thanks again.” We said our goodbyes and hung up. Yes! Things are moving along. Now to go see what the bad guys are up to.

  I looked up the location on the new cell phone, and then leaped toward it.

  I found the address after some searching, and watched it with the binoculars from a building top some distance away. A gray van with darkened windows pulled up to the building shortly before long, the garage door to the warehouse opened and it drove in.

  My old phone rang. It was Rael, but I thought he’d lost his phone. “Hello?”

  “Lance? This is Rael. I just wanted you to know that I picked up a replacement cell phone.”

  “That's great news! By the way, with the five or so events I've been involved in; my rewards so far totaled fifteen thousand dollars. Dude, we so don't need a day job. Not that I'll leave Score!”

  “Kick ass. This carpenter gig's even easier than it was before now though. Everything is so light it's easy to move wood pieces. The only thing really rough is hiding the eyes. I'm getting a lot of shit from the guys about wearing sunglasses all morning.”

  “Well, now you have an option to do heroing full time.”

  “Yeah, even a grand a day would be pretty crazy. You were involved in extra events though, and they may count more for you for the train scene. I would have given you more credit than me, if I were Agent Carson.”

  “Hmph. You'll want to get down to H.E.R.O. HQ to finish your paperwork, get your phone and get paid. I’ve found the warehouse, by the way. I’ve been watching it for a while. A large gray van with darkened windows entered a little while ago. I’m guessing with more normal kidnap victims. I think we should hit the place now.”

  “I agree. Give me your location and I’ll head there. You want to call Steph?”

  “Sure.”

  I called Stephanie's cell phone and filled her in. She must have been with someone, for she acted strange during the call.

  Chapter 38 – Preparing for Assault

  Rael's Viewpoint