Ozella gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth as Mia’s eyes turned orange, wings bulging and ripping free of her spine, extending, the woman soon hovering in the air.
Zoe had her fists up, as did Helena. Ozella stood behind Sam now, one of her hands clutching his elbow.
“Shit,” Sam said, the first to finally voice how he was feeling.
“Don’t worry, she won’t bite,” Dr. Hamza assured them as he admired Mia’s transformation.
“You did that with a serum?” Zoe asked, her legs spreading into a fighter’s stance.
“Mia, please come down,” Dr. Hamza said, his pupils twitching as he watched the beast woman begin to descend.
A deep whiff in the doctor’s general direction and Sam realized that the man was also frightened, that he didn’t know how well Mia could be contained in this form. It was all coming to him in that moment: Dr. Hamza was definitely second-guessing his request for Mia to transform.
“I don’t need to listen to you,” Mia the monstress said, her voice pricking the hairs on Sam’s neck.
Helena loosened up her wrists, exchanged glances with Zoe, both of them ready for anything.
“Now, Mia, that’s no way to act in front of our guests,” Dr. Hamza said, his hand in the pocket of his lab coat.
“You can’t control me!” Mia hissed, rising a bit higher into the air.
Before Dr. Hamza could whip out whatever it was he was palming, Mia the beast tackled him, both of them tumbling into the wall and breaking through it into his laboratory.
“We’ve got to get out of here...” Helena started to say, but Mia had other plans, the swift monstress flying back into the open room, grabbing Helena by her shirt and spiraling up to the ceiling, where she dropped her, Helena hitting the ground with a loud smack! before Sam could reach her.
“Fuck you!” Zoe shouted to Mia, trying to distract the winged beast before she could do any more damage to Helena.
Mia swooped down on Zoe, who prepared for impact, only for Ozella to leap in front of Zoe just in time, taking the brunt of Mia’s attack.
And some brunt it was.
“Ozella!” Zoe cried as Mia held the cosplayer by her neck, lifted her into the air and drove her into the ground with a chokeslam that created a small crater, Ozella letting out a pained whimper.
“I’m not finished!” Mia screamed as she zipped back through the hole she’d made in the wall and straight into the laboratory, the sound of glass shattering and metal creaking as she tore through the place in search of Dr. Hamza.
“I’ve got Helena, you get Ozella!” Sam said, rushing to Helena’s side.
He’d already tried to call a teleporter, but he was informed that this was a private residence, that he would have to meet the teleporter outside.
Once he helped a shaky Helena to her feet, surprised that she could even stand, Sam met with Zoe, who had Ozella thrown over her shoulder.
“A teleporter is waiting outside!” Sam said, adrenaline making his teeth chatter.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!”
Sam had never seen anything like Mia, at least not up close and in person.
Nothing so close, so real.
Mia’s screech met his ears, a bloodcurdling scream that caused them to pause.
“He’s hurting her?” Zoe asked, breathing heavy, her hood down, her black hair in tangles on her forehead.
“I don’t know,” said Sam, “but it’s none of our business.”
“It is our business,” Zoe said, and Sam looked to Helena to see what she thought about the matter.
“We can’t just leave her here,” the heiress said, her voice wobbly, “not like that.”
“You’re right. He enslaved her,” Sam said suddenly, the truth spilling out of his mouth. “Dr. Hamza used some type of mind control substance on her. I think her transformation broke it.”
“Dammit,” Zoe said, shaking her head, Ozella still flung over her shoulder. “Well, if we’re going to live up to this hype that we’ve created for ourselves, about being some sort of superhero team…”
“…You’re right,” Sam said. “We’d better do something.”
“I agree,” said Ozella. “And please, set me down.”
***
A light flickered at the far end of the laboratory, the rest of the space completely dark. The four would-be heroes heard a whimpering grunt as they stepped through the hole that Mia had created, and even though Sam had no real defense against the beast, or Dr. Hamza for that matter, he was at the front of the group, Zoe to his left, Helena behind him, and Ozella on her feet again, at the very back, limping.
It really was as if she was goddamn indestructible, but Sam didn’t like seeing her get hurt.
“Mia?” Sam asked aloud, his nostrils flaring.
They heard some rustling at the far end of the darkened lab and turned in that direction.
A metal table blew to the side, a blast of energy cutting through the darkness and nearly singeing the hair on Sam’s arm.
“You shouldn’t be in here!” they heard a man bellow.
It was Dr. Hamza, although now he sounded angrier, fiercer than he’d ever sounded before. Gone was his normal voice, which was low and relaxed, replaced now by pure animosity, as if he too had morphed into a killer beast.
“Okay, you creepy bastard,” Zoe said, “whatever you’ve done with Mia, let her go. That’s what we’re here for; we’re not leaving without Mia.”
The flickering light grew in intensity for a moment. Sam saw Dr. Hamza in the corner of the room, hovering over Mia’s body, aiming a wrist guard at them.
Sam jumped just in time to avoid the blast, taking Helena and Ozella down with him.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he scrambled to get back to his feet, ducking now, realizing that if he got hit by the wrist guard, he would likely be incapacitated.
Usually, these types of weapons featured various types of concentrated energy blasts designed to stun.
But there was no telling what Dr. Hamza had.
“I think I can get over there,” Helena whispered, just loud enough that Zoe could hear her.
“I’m warning you!” Dr. Hamza screamed.
Zoe went right and Helena went left, both of them trying to clear the distance between Dr. Hamza and them.
It would have worked too, but the minor explosion in the ceiling caused sparks to fly everywhere, some kind of generator giving way, having been partially ripped to shreds by one of Mia’s wings.
Helena and Zoe got out of the way just in time, disappearing into the shadows. Sam was still trying to protect Ozella, not sure of how he should go about doing so aside from standing directly in front of her.
“I’ve got to do something too,” Ozella said, pushing past him.
“Ozella…!”
A fire ignited in the far corner of the room, adding flashes of red to the dark laboratory.
“No, no!” Dr. Hamza screamed.
!!!BOOOOMMMMMSSHHHhhhhhh!!!
Sam was blown out of the room, straight through the hole caused by an immense green explosion that immediately fizzled out.
He crash-landed in Dr. Hamza’s small backyard and rolled to a stop, dust settling all around him.
“Shit,” Sam gasped, getting back to his feet, the yard spinning as he limped back to the hole.
There was no way that the others had survived that explosion, he knew it, and if it hadn’t been for Ozella pushing him aside and stepping forward…
It’s all my fault, Sam thought as he stepped through, a smoky haze hanging over everything, another hole blown out the other side of the room, letting in light from outside.
“Zoe? Ozella? Helena!” he cried out. “Zoe!”
Taking in a breath through his nostrils was just about the worst thing he could do, he could sense that now, a strange chemical in the air that was making Sam’s limbs twitch.
His hand over his mouth, he moved to the right, where his foot touched a body.
Sam b
ent forward and placed his hand out, touching a head of hair, something telling him this was Zoe.
He moved his hand to cradle the person’s head. Something was off. As he continued to touch her hair his fingers naturally found their way onto a pair of soft, furry ears.
Animal ears.
Sam lifted Zoe in his arms, ignoring the fact that the toxins in the room were getting to him, his head spinning, veins pulsing at his temples. As quickly as Sam could, he moved to the hole that had been blasted in the exterior wall.
The light cutting through showed him that…
“No way,” Sam whispered as he took in Zoe’s face, which was unlike any he’d ever seen before.
The left side of her face was completely Zoe, her dark eyes, her tight, angular features.
The right side of her face though…
Sam gulped, realizing she wasn’t going to like this.
It was then that he felt something touching his shoulder, his eyes falling on an orange, white and black tail.
Zoe’s tail.
“Holy…”
And that was not the only thing Sam saw, Sam saw a nude woman standing behind him, her long hair flowing all the way down to the top of her ass, her body pale blue, slightly translucent.
He recognized her immediately as Dinah, the nearly invisible woman that had been following Ozella around for her entire life.
“I’ll be back,” Sam told Zoe, still not sure of what to make of his ex’s half-human, half-tiger facial features, let alone her fucking tail. The change cut right down her face, one side normal and the other side all tigress.
“Sam?” Zoe whispered, her eyes flickering open.
He felt tears coming, but he knew he had to go back for the others. “I’ll be right back,” he managed to say, turning back to the hole in the wall.
“Okay…”
“Dinah,” Sam called to the ghostly woman. The nude ghost turned to the hole, nodding for him to follow her.
Sam followed close behind her as she weaved through some of the wreckage, eventually coming to a collapsed metal table in the middle of the space. It was there that Sam saw Ozella’s legs.
Calling all his strength, he managed to push the heavy metal table off her, the darkness around them infiltrated by small arcs of light.
“Ozella,” Sam whispered as he moved to the exit. As he grew closer, he looked to see if there were any changes in her form.
Her top had been torn open, and one of her breasts was out and scratched the hell up. Her other breast was barely contained by her bra, but other than her partial nudity, there was nothing he could see that was different about her.
As Sam set Ozella down, Dinah dropped to her knees, bringing her mouth to Ozella’s body and sucking, Ozella’s bruises, welts, and cuts starting to heal almost instantly.
“Heal her too, after,” Sam told Dinah, pointing wearily at Zoe.
With a deep breath in, trying to get as much fresh air as he could before he returned to the lab, Sam made his way toward the left this time, calling Helena’s name as he searched.
Sam assumed that Dr. Hamza was knocked out. The man must have been—that or dead.
He was no longer calling out for Mia, nor was he trying to fire on anyone. And Sam had no idea where Mia was, but he made a guess that she was in the far right corner, likely covered in rubble.
There just wasn’t enough light, and the stench was getting to him; Sam could only hold his breath for so long.
Sam returned to the exit, his hands on his waist, taking in another breath of clean oxygen. “I need your help finding her,” he told Dinah, who was just finishing up with Ozella.
Ozella’s eyes were open now, a curious look on her face as she glanced around.
“It’ll be okay,” Sam told her. “Stay here with Zoe; Dinah is going to help me find Helena.”
“Dinah?” she whispered.
“Yes, she’s here helping.”
The blonde-haired woman nodded, looking down at her breasts and realizing that she was partially exposed. She pulled her bra up, only to realize that it’d been completely torn to shreds on that side.
“Don’t worry about that for now,” Sam told her, “just stay with Zoe.”
Steeling himself, Sam made his way back into the shadowy laboratory, following Dinah’s bright form. The ghost woman went straight to the left side of the room and stopped, reaching through some of the rubble, her hand completely disappearing, but her brightness still shining all around.
She looked up at Sam and nodded.
Sam moved forward, clearing some of the rubble away and coming to a foot, which he recognized as Helena’s, her ballet-like slippers, her high-rise pants, it was definitely her.
Digging feverishly now, Sam continued to uncover her body, his fingers quickly filling with nicks and scrapes as he worked to free her.
Once he was able to, he carefully lifted her into his arms, Helena’s eyes opening ever so slightly, light from outside reflecting against her gray irises.
He carried her out and set her on the ground, noticing that there was no discernible change to Helena aside from the fact that her clothing was ripped, and she was bloody as hell.
Still with shock in her eyes, Ozella cradled Zoe in her arms, lightly touching the furry side of her face.
“What happened to you?” she kept whispering, staring down at the woman.
“What?” Zoe asked, still dazed. “What… do you… mean?”
Dinah moved over to Zoe, and bent forward, kissing her on the forehead. She kept sucking at the woman, moving from her face, to her neck, to her shoulder, and as she did so, Zoe started to wake up.
“Explosion,” Zoe said, her eyes different than Sam remembered.
“I’ll get a teleporter,” Sam started to say.
“Sam!” Ozella whispered, reaching out for him.
“Nobody move!” Dr. Hamza cried as he stepped out of the hole, his lab coat crimson with blood. He aimed his wrist guard at the back of Sam’s head. “You caused this… my life’s work… my life’s work!”
Without a word, Dinah stood, and casually walked over to Dr. Hamza, where she latched on to him, both hands pressing through him as she sucked his energy out. Dr. Hamza fell, completely passed out.
“Can everyone see her?” Sam asked.
Ozella and Zoe nodded; Helena was squinting, still barely alive, but Sam had a feeling she would be able to see her once she was healed up.
“Dinah, please help Helena,” Sam said.
Dinah walked over to Helena and dropped to one knee, starting her sucking routine again.
Chapter Thirty: The Smoke Clears and It Ain’t Pretty
(Life’s a bitch and then you die. Or you turn into an exemplar? That’s not how that quote is supposed to go...)
“I’ll alert the authorities,” an older male teleporter said, stepping out of a square portal he had created. It was the same teleporter Sam had called earlier, and once they were outside, he came directly to their location.
“Not necessary,” said Helena. She was sitting now, Dinah still next to her, sucking at one of her wounds.
“Can you see her?” Sam asked.
“See who?”
“Blue woman? Looks like a ghost…”
The teleporter scoffed at him. “I’m calling the cops.”
The expression on the teleporter’s face suddenly started to change. The portly fellow went from shocked and confusion to overly enthused, nodding rapidly as he grinned at Helena, eventually disappearing without a word.
“Why did he go?” Sam asked.
“What’s wrong with my face?” Zoe asked, her hand brushing against the tiger side of her jawline. She still had the look of delirium in her eyes, and had yet to discover her tail.
“She’s right,” Ozella said, nodding to Helena. “We need to finish what we started.”
“You mean rescuing Mia?” Sam asked. “Are you okay? Zoe didn’t say anything about rescuing Mia…”
“We’ve got to d
o what’s right,” Ozella mumbled.
He wasn’t too keen on going back into the smoking laboratory, and he was starting to feel jittery, likely from all the chemicals in the air.
Still, this was the reason they had stayed through the fight, so something needed to be done, and he was the only one in the position to do anything.
“Dinah,” he said to the ghostlike apparition. “Will you help me find the other woman?”
Dinah shook her head and returned to sucking on Helena’s body.
“Ozella, will you tell her to help me?” Sam asked, not sure of how this was supposed to work.
“Busy,” Ozella said, a strange twinkle still in her eyes as she counted something in the air. She was covering her chest with her other arm, looking batshit insane, as if she were seeing things moving in front of her, things that no one else could see.
“Fine, I’ll take a quick look around, and if I can’t find anything, I guess we’ll go.”
“My face,” Sam heard Zoe say as he stepped over Dr. Hamza’s body.
The man was barely alive; whatever Dinah had done to the three women, she had done the reverse to Dr. Hamza. He looked sickly now, paler than before, curled up in a fetal position, his hands bent, wrists slightly shaking.
Reluctant as ever, Sam stepped back into the laboratory, looking through the haze, carefully moving over the collapsed equipment and trying his best to avoid sharp objects as he made his way over to where Mia and Dr. Hamza had been.
“Mia!” he called aloud.
He coughed, moving deeper into the mess, listening for any sounds of life.
Sam couldn’t use his nose, and alternating between holding his breath and breathing out of his mouth was starting to bring all the fumes to his head anyway, fumes that eventually entered his nose again, turning his brain to putty.
But Sam tried, he tried his damnedest to locate her, pushing tables aside, moving chairs, stepping through broken glass, discarded hunks of metal and torched particleboard, his light limited.
The toxic smog was getting to him.
Stumbling forward, he moved some of the rubble aside, slices appearing in the palms of his hands, everything going black, the world around him starting to give way.
We Could Be Heroes Page 16