H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis

by Kevin Rau

Coffee duty. Just call me the damn butler already. Babe asks me to get some Gloria Jean's coffee for the group, and sucker that I am, I go do it. Truthfully, I could not help but feel pretty good about doing what Stephanie asked, though. Sure, she's one of my best friends, but she's smokin' hot. Brunette, shoulder-blade length hair, buns that made you want to just grab them every time you see 'em. When she bent over I think I had a habit of stopping and drooling, slack-jawed. I try not to, but I'm not sure I succeed. Sometimes I didn’t bother trying. I grinned to myself. Well, she's also my best friend, so I guess I'd do it for that reason too. I wish she’d get the hint and go out on an official date with me though.

  My bud Lance stayed at the table. Probably a good idea. If I saw some jerk hitting on her I'd probably start a fight. Hey, she's not my girlfriend ... yet, but Lance is built like a brick shithouse. No one will come close with him sitting there in his under armor body fitting shirt. People probably think he's a pro wrestler or something. For that matter, he could do it, he's athletic enough. In better shape than most of those guys, anyway. Hell, if he ever does go super and wear tights, women will swoon over him. Screw that, men will swoon over him out of jealousy. He and I rented a house together, and I had learned that he would probably have heart failure if that actually happened. Straight as an arrow.

  He definitely got his build from his mom. She was a super – a brick to be precise. She did reconstruction of damaged buildings and new hi-rise construction work. Big woman, she was about 6' tall and for a woman had bulging muscles, although her build isn’t really broad or unusual other than the height. Really good looking, you’d think she were at most twenty five. Lance inherited those looks, the muscles and the unusual height, but no super abilities yet.

  That warm and fuzzy feeling I had didn't stop me from the desire to smack the punks in front of me at the store, but that sort of activity doesn't go over too well with the AUTH-OR-I-TAY. Sure would make me feel better though.

  I thought the day over for a moment, while I stood in line. I found it kind of odd that Steph’s dad, Caleb, actually called me up, and mentioned that she really wanted to do some clothes shopping at the mall. She was not the least bit shy, if anything, she knew that she was hot and flirted due to it. I was not stupid though, I told him that of course we would go with her. I didn’t even know her dad that well. He had always sent her over to play with Lance and I over the last ten years, and was always out of town for his job. Whatever, it got her out with us tonight.

  The wait in line for the coffee annoyed me more than normal. Something had put me in a bad mood, and my blood pounded so much I had to focus on a mental kata to calm myself down. After picking up the coffee, I walked back toward the table Lance chose, when I saw some dude stand up and scream. I figured he was a druggie of some sort. For a moment, I kind of hoped for a chance to help mall security beat down some punk. That'd be fun.

  Anyway, he arched his back, arms out, hands forming the shape of claws. Man, I wish I had claws, just not the freaky huge bug claws some mutants have. I had cool dragon claw tattoos on my forearms - dragon claws would be awesome. A nimbus of light glowed around him, and the tables and stuff nearby slid toward him. Oh, a super of some sort! I lost it at this point. I wanted so bad to beat on somebody that I didn't think. No idea where the drinks ended up, because I hauled ass at him.

  I had trained extensively in martial arts and gotten very good at street acrobatics, so getting past the people and tables to the dude took a few seconds at best. I leapt completely over one table, ran past a few others, plus plenty of people who all just stood or sat still watching my target. Everyone had stopped. Act people! Get off your butts and quit watching me and him! I used a hand for leverage as I leapt over another, larger table, and closed the distance between us. I went for a simple, yet powerful roundhouse to the face in an attempt to put him down fast. I figured security would not mind me helping, what with him glowing at all.

  It was a beautiful roundhouse. Of course, he barely moved, and he had not reacted to my swing at all. My fist connected, his head snapped to the side ... then I thought he exploded. Hard to explain, he had this glowing effect around him. Then, when I hit, a concussive wave blew out from his skin. It felt like I got hit with a hundred punches all over my body. A sensation of fire tore through my entire system, and I flew through the air.

  All that training sure was worth it. I instinctively rolled when I hit the ground. My body stopped in a crouched position, I tried to shake off the feeling of the blast, but didn't succeed overly well. The fire ripped through me, but felt ... good. Yeah, it was painful, but it was a good pain. Though, kind of like being on some good drugs, perhaps. Wait, not drugs ... Red Bull, an entire four pack of them at once.

  I couldn't concentrate, due to all the energy coursing through me. An almost bestial rage tore through my mind. Sure, sure, that was almost normal for my rather hostile-oriented mind, but this was ... exceptional. Pain tore through my body as well, but I was into that on a normal basis. Friends think I'm twisted, but hey, I'm okay with that. That, and I liked to train my martial arts against multiple opponents; a person got hit more often doing that.

  The pain was focused more in my hands than most of the body, and the last digit on every finger split and lengthened. They mutated into ... claws? For real? You've got to be kidding. Something was up with my mouth as well. My jaw popped painfully. I tasted blood. The liquid ran out of my mouth, I wiped my hand across my chin, only to add a lot more blood to my already bloody hand. Aw crap, I better not change into some kind of werewolf.

  The skin on my forearms and hands split, new muscle grew, and the skin reformed over it. It hurt like hell. This is amazing.

  I tried to focus on something other than my hands and jaw, and realized there were people screaming and whining all over the food court. People lay about everywhere, as if a bomb went off in the center. A woman was twisted into what had to be a horribly uncomfortable position next to me. I reached over and straightened her out.

  I was pretty sure that dude was the bomb. If the popping, fire, and wracking pain weren't going through my body I'd so have been all over the bastard. If not for the pain, this rush would be great. Must be all the Red Bull. Wait, I didn't drink any Red Bull. Adrenaline must be pumping through my system. Hmph.

  I looked for Stephanie and Lance when it suddenly felt like someone stabbed me in both of my eyes, and I could barely see. I felt blood ... or something ... run down my face, and couldn't help but let out a howl of pain and anger. Okay, now I'm worried. I've never heard of a blind super though, so I'm really, really hoping this is a temporary thing. Better not turn into a freakin' bat either, that'd piss me off.

  I smelled something, amongst all the blood. The pain faded away in a wave. Very strange, I couldn't understand what would cause that to happen. The Red Bull and fire were still in the veins though. The screaming and whining stopped around me. Well, not all of the whining. Stupid people.

  I blew a lot of blood out of my nose. I think it got broken in the blast, or when my mouth changed. Afterward, I could smell more clearly. That odd flowery smell was gone. I smelled blood, which wasn't a first for me, but I could tell there were different blood types in the room. Holy crap, I can smell the difference in different people's blood, I think. Aw, man, I am becoming a werewolf.

  I still had problems seeing, and my eyes didn't feel right. I blinked furiously in an attempt to clear out whatever was in my eyes. Like my jaw, I could tell my body was reworking something there, just not with the bone structure. I touched my face … there was a lot of blood on my cheeks. That really does rock, growing claws, but won't if I can't friggin' see. My skin split under my finger where I touched my face with the claw. Sharp. I growled out of annoyance at the pain in my eyes. I certainly was not about to dig my fingers into them.

  Sirens blared in the distance, plenty of them coming. It struck me tha
t my fingers were now claws, and I was drenched in blood. Great, I’m the hero of the day, and I'm probably a poster child for some kind of murderous supervillain. A bloody chin and wolf fangs would probably fit right in to make them just gun my ass down.

  I decided I would rather not be arrested, or brought to a hospital. Dumbasses would probably try to cut off my new claws in an attempt to “help” me, anyway. The blood mixed with a lot of saliva in my mouth. It suddenly struck me that all this blood smelled good. It made me run my tongue over my lips, only to discover that I had fangs. What the hell is happening to me? Yeah, Rael, you know you’re going super, but this feels more like a horror flick.

  Fine, figure it out later, Rael. For now, get the hell out of the initial zone. Can’t even see well enough to try to get with Lance and Steph. The fire in my blood had mostly cooled by now. I still had a lot of energy though. I blinked until I got the rough visual of one of the fast food joints in the food court. I crawled over to it, and climbed over the counter. Nothing like the sound of hard claws as they scraped across a metal counter to raise the hair on the back of your neck. No bitching, so I'm guessing the counter workers were knocked out from the blast ... or were hiding.

  I crawled toward what I hoped was the back of the shop, and felt a body ... female. Damn it, I couldn’t see well enough to see if she were awake. Chest was moving up and down, so she was breathing at least, and I felt a heartbeat. She lay mostly flat, and didn't move at my touch, so she had to be unconscious. I figured her chances would be better if the police saw her soon rather than wait for them to look behind counters. I picked her up carefully, being mindful of the claws. I moved backward to the counter until I bumped it, and carefully laid her on it. At least they would see her now. Hey, I'm a bastard at times, but my old main raised me to want to be a good guy too. Actually, since he was a H.E.R.O. back in the old days, it might just run in the family after today.

  I quickly scrambled in the other direction, again noting the disturbing sound of my own clawed fingers on the tile flooring. I found a swinging door. Some crawling took me toward the back, and I successfully found a back room. I hoped they would have a door back there. I rubbed my palms against my eyes, they burned, and I hoped the dimness would fade soon. I bet that the police wouldn’t look there, what with the carnage in the main food court. I knocked over a few boxes of supplies while I fumbled around. A little additional searching and I found an external door for incoming supplies. The claws made opening the handle a real pain until I grabbed the handle with the upper segments of my fingers. The fingertips, or claws in my case now, just didn't grab overly well.

  I decided to try something radical. There has to be a rooftop over the hall or room I just came from, if I can get onto the roof I can hide and hopefully heal or finish changing. I couldn’t see for shit, even outside. Just outside the door, I tried leaping up at the mall roof. Pretty hopeful, being as I couldn't see much, but no good alternatives came to mind. Running out into a parking lot while nearly blind seemed pretty stupid to me.

  I jumped up at the wall, but there was some kind of overhang on the roof. I smashed my head against the overhang and flopped back down, landing on my back. I rubbed my head with my palm. No one better have a cell phone camera on me right now, I'll be pissed off. When I put my hand down hard to get back up, I heard a crunching noise and felt my claws enter the concrete of the sidewalk. I stretched my neck to get the kinks out after that blooper. I ran my palm against the sidewalk, it was definitely made of concrete. What the hell? I ran my new claws along the concrete, and scored a series of grooves in it easily. Enough playing, Rael, get out of sight.

  After backing up about five steps, I easily made the roof in one jump. Wow, this will rock ... if my eyesight comes back. I want to lie down and just rest for now. At least the damn cops have turned off their sirens now that they are here....

  My eyes tingled, and then felt itchy. Yeah, I'm wise enough to know not to try to touch my eyes with these new pokers, but damn, this is annoying. It made me clench my fists, hard, and I realized that I was stabbing my own palms. It must have been adrenaline that stopped the pain in the food court, because I began to hurt all over again. Since when does adrenaline completely wipe out pain for a while? Something else is at work here.

  A dim light appeared in my vision, and it brightened as I waited. Hot damn! After a few dozen seconds I was able to crack my eyelids open a notch. I could see again. It seemed damn bright out, but I was positive it should be dark by now. The parking lot lights were all on, but it just did not seem that dark. I whispered thanks to multiple religions and deities at that point.

  Sweet, if I decide to be some kind of mole man, I might be able to see in the dark. Wait, can’t werewolves see in the dark? Damn it all.

  I examined my hands. The claw damage was almost healed on the palms. Thinking about injuries reminded me of Stephanie and Lance. I need to find out what happened to them. I can't very well just walk down there all bloody. They'll want to question me. Can't just go into a store and buy clothes, someone might rat me out. I was frustrated as hell, and just wanted to beat the crap out of someone. I accidentally made a tight fist, and my claws again stabbed into my palms. I grit my teeth and watched as the palms healed. My claws were wicked sharp, and made my fingers about an inch longer than normal. For that matter, I no longer had fingertips - the entire last segment had been replaced by this hard black claw on every finger.

  A pair of police cars tore off out of the parking lot, and actually saw the lights stop perhaps half a mile away. Hmm, maybe Mr. Bad Guy is trying to get away. Good, there's someone to vent some anger on. I hopped down off the roof, and jogged that way, staying out of the bright lights so the blood didn't show so much. The pain was mostly gone across my body, and the activity felt good ... really good. I traversed the half mile in record time for me, perhaps a minute at most.

  I found the police cars easily enough. When I arrived, a small crowd of locals stood about watching some officers heft my friends into the back of the two cars. What the hell is this? How did they get over here? From the looks of it, they were unconscious. Wouldn't they call in an ambulance? Damn you Lance, I don't care that you didn't find my ass, but to go and get both of you arrested.… I growled deep in my chest.

  Wait, I bet every ambulance in the city is dealing with situations like the food court mess. They can't be that badly injured to be manhandled like this. They even cuffed my friends. Bastards. And that's not my friends I'm talking about. Hmm, they had to have changed too. Dad was right. No wonder he never gave me crap about getting into such rough, umm, extracurricular activities. I said a silent thanks to the old man for helping me prepare for this day. If anyone can prepare for replacing their fingers for claws, that is. For a moment, I wondered if New York was having a big scene like this as well.

  The squad cars both drove off, after the officers obtained statements from a few people. I very carefully watched the guy they spoke to the most, and which house he went home to. My plan formed in my mind....

  I snuck around to the guy's house, and knocked on the front door. I stood off to the side enough so the eye hole wouldn’t allow a good look at me. No need to have bothered though, the guy must have thought that with the cops around so recently, he could just open the door immediately. Or perhaps this is just that safe of a neighborhood. Hah, not tonight, buddy.

  I figured that I looked reasonably scary at this point, so as soon as the door started opening, I pushed it open all the way and walked in at him. He was a large guy, overweight and middle aged. Glasses, clothes look like the casual business type. Don't people making decent money get laser eye surgery to get rid of glasses?

  The color drained from his face, and a shocked look crossed his face. I smiled wickedly and held up a clawed hand. Damn, I enjoyed intimidating jerks like this. My skin tingled; I felt a rush as I glared at him. “Repeat what you tol
d the police, now,” I growled.

  “Oh, my god, don't hurt me!” he said.

  I snarled slightly and continued to glare. He spoke rapidly, “I didn't see that much. I was watching Wheel, and what I thought was a bird, caught my attention. I looked outside in time to see this huge guy and a brunette girl crash onto Jim’s patio. The guy landed on his back, the girl on top of him. She kind of bounced like her head smacked his, and they both just lay there.”

  “They looked unconscious, and I could see from here that they were covered in blood. I called 911, and went out to check on them. I checked their pulses; both were strong, so I just waited. I think the guy is a super – hero or villain I don't know, but he was wearing one of those tight form fitting shirts, and has muscles bulging to here.” He made a shape with his hand over his arm as if he had a gigantic bicep.

  “She's probably one too, not many women have figures like that around here. So then the police arrived, I told them about it, and they picked them up and piled them into a pair of squad cars. One of them called in on his radio that they had another pair of supers near the mall, and that they had lots of blood on them, but didn't appear badly injured and that they'd bring them to the hospital in the squad cars.”

  I don't recall hearing the glass shattering in the ceiling of the food court, so I'm not sure how the hell they flew here, but he says they both had strong heartbeats in their necks, so falling dozens (hundreds?) of feet didn't do them much damage. Nice. I hope I'm an armored jumping frog too. Wait a second, that's just not right, if pretty little Stephanie gets armored up and I don't. Hmm. And not the frog part either. Cricket maybe? Bah, what jumps that isn't lame? If they were flying why did they crash like this?

  I told the guy, “Thanks for your cooperation, and have a great life,” then headed out. I need to find out which hospital they'd bring potential supers to. That might be why they shoved them in the back of the squad car as well, they want to restrain them or test them. Oh, hell.

  I checked my cell phone; it must have broken when I got blown back. Good thing I have insurance on the damn thing. I decided to get my car and head back to our place to change.

  The pain in my body had gone. I actually felt extremely good. It didn't take as long to get back to the mall parking lot. Wow, I’m a lot faster. The police appeared focused on the food court, so it was easy enough to get to the car from the outside of the lot. Glad I got out while I did though; it looks like they are questioning every damn person leaving the mall building. I almost wish I had criminal inclinations; the city is relatively unprotected right now.

  My eyes narrowed as I thought about that. I need to get them out of wherever they are being held as soon as possible. Once the police aren't so focused on the mall, they can put more security on the hospital, unless there is some kind of dedicated security force there.

  Speaking of which, what if they are sedated? I'm a strong guy, but Lance is BIG. The dude is about 6'6” and weighs a good 300 pounds. If I have to get rough, I might have to save Stephanie first and have the two of us come back for him. Do comic book heroes ever get drugged? Damn, I should have read that crap more often. Lance was always the one so goo goo eyed over superheroes.

  Chapter 4 – I’m Not Going Down

  Lance's Viewpoint