H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis

by Kevin Rau

Stephanie slowly awakened, and felt a hand stroking her butt. Her head shot up with the realization, and then noticed she was draped across Rael's body.

  He smiled, “You know, if you wanted to get your paws all over me, all you had to do was ask….” He felt her heart rate double when she woke up.

  She blew out the air she'd indrawn and lay her head back down for a moment. Stephanie thought that she would have some respite from his thoughts and images, but the image quickly came into focus, his 'mindview' as she dubbed it. She wasn’t sure if it was the distance, or lack thereof that caused it to take up so much room in her visual space. His mental words sounded as clearly as if he said them. She waited for the perverted onslaught from him, but it didn't come.

  She noticed he was already excited, and thought that now would be a good time to get out of bed before he wanted to try something, even though she preferred to lay around in bed for a while most days. She remembered seeing him pull out the sweat pants from a drawer last night in his mindview and thought to get up and grab a pair.

  She felt the dual senses again from Rael, his hand and her own backside. She was getting excited, and needed to get up now, or it might not be him getting more serious. Stephanie rolled off him quickly, and said, “I'm getting up.”

  “Why the rush?”

  “Because I don't trust one of us to not do more, and I don't know which.”

  He laughed; a warm, understanding laugh rather than a mocking laugh. “Yeah, I can see that. Not even a good morning kiss?”

  She smiled, walked around the bed to his side and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. “I'm not entirely sure where I want this to go. I don't want to shut out Lance or make him feel like something’s changed.”

  She walked to his dresser and grabbed a pair of sweat bottoms. Rael was so distracted that he didn't think to wonder how she knew where to get them from.

  She slipped them on, rolling them a few times on the waist due to the long length. “I'm going to go steal one of Lance's shirts, hopefully that will help keep him from feeling distanced.”

  Rael lay there with his hands under his neck, creating a distracting sight for her with the covers half down. She grinned at him as she walked out of the room.

  She knocked lightly on Lance’s door, then opened it and peered in. She heard the whisper of his mental voice, and images that flitted incoherently on her mindview of him.

  Then she noticed the white shirt in his hamper with a great deal of blood, dust and cuts on it. That's not the shirt he wore to the mall, and he had on a hospital gown top when we came home.

  Lance wore only boxers, the covers were all on the floor off to the side of the bed. Stephanie quietly walked around to the side of his bed, and saw the angry red scar on his abdomen, along with another red scar on his left shoulder.

  She took one of his shortest t-shirts from his closet and slipped it on. It showed a lot of neck and collarbone, but covered the rest of her body like a tent. She was sure she could fit four of herself in the shirt.

  The images from him made no sense. Rather than stay near him and watch the equivalent of a nonsensical television show, she left the room. She noted that the rooms were close enough to still have Rael's mindview visible in her visual space as well.

  The mindview faded once she put some distance between them, but the words lasted throughout most of the house.

  She visited the facilities out of habit, yet found no need to relieve herself. She also thought it strange that no body hair had grown longer since yesterday. Someone mentioned regeneration – that should make the hair grow faster, not slower. Unless it is either in our control somehow, or I no longer have most of my body hair. Strange. Well, at least now I make my own test subject for my genetics coursework into the study of human regeneration of tissue. She was excited about sneaking into the lab to do tests in the next few weeks.

  She studied her hair in the mirror for a while. The metallic gold hair had grown as far down as the bottom of her shoulder blades in the back. It reflected light as though it were metal, but felt like normal hair.

  She walked out when Rael came out of the bedroom. He wore just the sweat bottoms. Sure enough, he hoped she'd like seeing him without a shirt. She smiled, but rolled her eyes. Stephanie walked up to him, and ran her hand across his cheek. His face was very slightly rough, like he'd have late in the day.

  She'd asked, “Is your beard normally longer than this the next day?”

  “Huh?” He ran his hand across his chin for a moment. “Yeah, this is short. Like my five o'clock shadow.”

  “Kind of like when we got hit by the bomber?”

  “Yeah … yeah! Wow, that's odd.”

  “Same thing with me,” she said.

  He raised an eyebrow. “You shave?”

  “Not my face, silly.”

  “Oh. Nice, that'll save time for us.”

  She let him have the facilities, and headed to the kitchen for some fruit and coffee. The nice thing about Sundays, I don't have to get up so early to get to class. Speaking of, do I continue to get my degree? I suppose I might as well, I'm paying for it, and deserting the scholarships doesn't sound fair. Plus I'd make for a better role model to finish my degree and be a H.E.R.O. Take my classes in the morning, be a super in the afternoon/evening? That could work.

  Hmm, I wonder how much information I can 'learn' from someone with the mindview in a short time? This could make for an interesting few days coming up.

  Rael joined her in the kitchen. He said, “My morning routine is different. Not to pry, but is yours?”

  She said, “Yeah, I just figured it was the odd eating schedule though.” She grabbed her purse for the cell phone the Captain had given them. It was missing.

  She said, “Lance went out last night with the phone. He's got a very bloody shirt in his room.”

  “His shirt got all bloody from the mall.”

  “That shirt was black; this one is white and gray … or was before the blood stains, and some kind of dust.”

  Rael stood in a flash, “Is Lance all right?” Stephanie stared at him a moment. He moved extremely fast.

  “He's okay on the surface. He's got some nasty red scar areas.”

  He sat back down. “Yeah, but if he heals like I seem to, he'll be healed in no time. Something like six bullets worked their own way out of my body only minutes after getting shot.”

  She said, “I wonder if the phone keeps a record of tasks accepted.” She got up and headed toward Lance's room. “I'll be right back.”

  She quietly entered his room, and found the cell phone quickly. She didn't notice his thoughts change slowly as he woke up when she left.

  “Sure enough, he responded to two calls. Only one is marked complete though. A super fight and collapse of a bar, and then an all points for aid to Iron Cross. He had pushed the button for 'accept' but never marked finished. The all points has a voice file on it.”

  She pushed the button to play the file, and Captain McCain's statement about the mass attack played for them. “Oh my god. Why didn't he call us?” Then she noticed Lance's mindview appear in her vision and grew in size. He must be coming toward her....

  “Because I figured you two would be, uhh, sleeping by then,” Lance answered from the entryway. “Then, I destroyed my mustang by accident, and then found how far I could leap, and never had time in all that to get a call off to you. It would have taken too long for you to get ready and drive there.”

  He'd thrown on sweat pants as well. What, do these two walk around the house half dressed when I'm not here? She said, “You got hurt.”

  “Yeah, small scrapes at one call, then it got nasty at the hospital.”

  “So what happened?”

  “A group of all mutants attacked. Good sized group. They kidnapped as many mutants as they could and killed everyone else possible. I saw the biggest, nastiest mutant I could imagine last night. It, well, he, had four arms and
daggers for hands on two of them. He had to be 7 feet tall. By the way, I let them know my code name is Spartan.”

  Stephanie said, “That's not good. There's got to be something up – you just don't get a random group of what, a dozen mutants to all attack a hospital together and just happen to kidnap others?”

  Rael said, “Possibly even more intriguing is the thought that there's such a large group of mutants out there. Almost nothing shows of them on the news, ever. What the hell’s up with that?”

  Stephanie said, “Makes you wonder if the government is doing something with the news agencies to keep things quiet. Either that or the mutant group is really laying low well. Perhaps those that look 'more' human are doing the shopping and such for the others.”

  Lance said, “Yeah, but how would they pay for the food, shelter, clothing, etc.? Unless ... are people going missing at times?”

  Rael said, “Give me a break. What are they, vampires? Lurk around in the dark and mug or kill people?” Stephanie could see that Rael identified with them in his mind.

  Lance said, “It does sound farfetched.”

  Stephanie said, “You guys are mental cases. They could be doing remote work over the web for people. Programmers, bloggers, manuscript editors, SEO, teaching, editing, etc.”

  Lance said, “Okay, so we can't work under the assumption that they are doing something outright illegal for work ... except for the fact that they just murdered a bunch of people and kidnapped others.”

  Stephanie said, “Yeah ... true. Did any of them survive? I might be able to pull some information out of them as to where they stay, or what they plan to do.”

  Lance said, “How? Rael would be more effective on threatening someone.”

  Rael said, “No. You didn't see the effect she had on people in the hospital corridor. The mutant was lying there cowering in fear of her. So were pretty much everyone else.”

  Lance looked at Stephanie. She certainly didn't look scary. She actually looked kind of cute in the massive shirt. Hey, that's my shirt! “Hey, isn't that my shirt?”

  She just grinned at him, winked, and then stuck her tongue out at him.

  Lance smiled, “So ... what if I wanted my shirt back, like right now?”

  His mindview told her that he only joked, so she decided to tease him. “I guess I'll have to take it off right now then and give it back.” She gave him a pouting look.

  “What? No, uh, I didn't mean.... I was just joking.”

  She laughed.

  Rael said, “So would you give the sweatpants back if I asked?” He grinned, and his eyes said he debated on it.

  She laughed at him next. “Sure I would. However, this shirt is so big it stretches to my knees, so it wouldn't help you any.”

  Damn her, and Lance for his monster shirts!

  Rael said, “Wait a second, that reminds me now – I have clothes for you guys in my trunk.”

  Lance asked, “In your trunk?”

  Stephanie narrowed her eyes for a moment. Now he brings it up. Not as clever as you think you are, Rael, not when I'm watching 'Rael TV' as we sit here. What would Kell say at school, something like 'All your thoughts are belong to us' type line? Oh great, if I hear what all my study buddies are thinking all the time, I'll end up picking up more geek speak than I ever wanted. She sighed.

  “So ... did you plan on bringing them in?” She smiled at him.

  “Sure, be right back.” He grabbed his keys and walked out to the car. The neighbor lady across the street stared at him from her lawn. He waved at her and smiled. She waved back. He retrieved the two sets of clothes from the trunk and brought them back inside.

  He plopped the clothing on the table for the two of them. Stephanie separated out her clothes, raising an eyebrow at the missing brassiere. His mindview showed her that he was quite pleased with himself. He didn't even bother to hide the immature grin on his face.

  She took the clothes into the bathroom and changed. While actually less comfy, it felt good to wear her own clothing.

  She reentered the dining room when the phone rang. Lance said, “Rael, you may want to make a habit of answering the phone. If I do something too quickly I seem to break it lately.”

  Rael grabbed the phone, “Rael here.”

  He handed the phone to Lance, “Some woman claims to know you….”

  Lance looked surprised. Oh my, did one of those girls look up my phone number? How'd they get my name? He took the phone and said, “Hello?”

  “Hi Lance, it's mom.”

  He pointed at Rael, put his fist into the other palm and ground it a little. “Hi mom. So what's up?”

  “Your face is in the paper and you are asking me what's up, kiddo?”

  “Uh, it is? There weren't any news photographers there....”

  “Thanks a lot for leaving your poor, old mom out in the cold on itsy bitsy changes like you've obviously had.”

  Rael heard her clearly even from the other side of the table, and laughed at the joke. He said, “Yeah, like she’s poor or old.”

  Lance ran to the door to get the Sunday paper while she continued. Rael noted how heavy his footsteps were on the floor, and Stephanie picked up on it from Rael's thoughts. Lance's mother said, “So, I'm up on the meteor shower. Not much debris fell over here, apparently Metrocity got hit hard. The paper is filled with articles on things related to it.”

  “I don't see me in it.”

  “Page 2. The meteor shower itself covered page one. First, are you all right? Second, I want to know what changed?”

  He glanced over the article while he spoke. “I'm fine, as are Rael and Stephanie. Both changed as well. I seem to be similar to you. Extremely strong, have body armor. I found out I can jump several miles last night. I heal severe injuries over six hours or less. Hmm. I think that's it so far. Hey, they're pretty kind to Psycom, Hellshock, Captain McCain and me in the article.” He sat back down and spread the paper out on the table.

  Stephanie put her arm around his neck and half laid over him to read it as well. She said into the phone, “Hi mom.” She'd been calling Ms. Casey 'mom' for as long as she could remember. Her own mother hadn't been in her life at all, to her knowledge, and since her father traveled so much, he'd sent her over to stay with Ms. Casey quite often.

  “Well hello, dear. You're there early.” Busted!

  Stephanie said, “Umm, we, ah, had a late movie night last night, so I crashed here.”

  “Dear, how did Lance have time to change last night, get involved in the attack on the hospital, and the issue on the bar, plus do an interview with a blogger and still fit in a movie?”

  Stephanie coughed. “Okay, okay. There were some ... issues with my new powers at the hospital. Rael threatened me if I tried to go home alone last night.”

  “That sounds more reasonable. Lance, hand her the phone please.”

  He said, “Would you accept no or something?”

  “No, give her the phone.” He handed Stephanie the phone and put his face in his hands. “Doh. Don't say anything incriminating, please!”

  Stephanie said, “Yes, ma'am?”

  “Are any of you injured?”

  “No, we really are all fine. Although Lance has two big, nasty scars on his shoulder and abdomen.” Lance gave her a pleading look.

  “So, is he hiding anything?”

  Stephanie looked at Lance, focusing on his mindview. It zoomed up in her mind's eye to cover her normal vision. He'd been thinking about the scenes last night, so she had a reasonable picture of some of the events from his point of view. Oh, this memory reading is too cool….

  Rael listened to both sides of the conversation; he found that Ms. Casey's voice sounded clear to him even without being right next to the phone. Hmm, this ought to be useful to sneak a little information out of people when they aren't aware of it....

  Stephanie's head jerked toward him at overhearing that thought and
laughed.

  “Is that laugh meant to show that he is hiding something?”

  “Oh, I'm sorry. I was laughing at Rael's expression. Wow, no, Lance isn't covering anything up. He just hasn't mentioned how much he can lift or how much damage he can take. Last night he broke both my shoulder and my left humerus bones.”

  Lance looked sick, “You're being cruel now….”

  “Did he? You said you were all right, though? Did he hit you?”

  “He did. I'm fine now, apparently I heal very fast. They were healed within hours for sure. But no, he didn't hit me. Both times were due to him just being a big, clumsy, but helpful brute.”

  Rael doubled over laughing at that comment. Lance burned red in embarrassment.

  “Have you discovered what you can do yet?”

  “I can ... cause fear in people. I can hover in the air, though I haven't had a chance to play with that yet. I can force them to run away from me, although that might be the fear thing. And I heal fast. That's, ah, about it so far. Oh, and my hair on my head all fell out and re-grew solid gold. None of the rest of my hair is growing though – is that normal?”

  “My hair didn't change, but Kiel, that's Rael's father, his hair did that. I've only seen a few pictures of it before the change though, not in person. The other hair growth or stoppage seems to be pretty common with us. I've found that when I really want my hair to grow to change styles it will, but only then. When I get a haircut and like it, it stays that length. The rest of my body hasn't grown hair in a long time. I don't sweat either, which is pretty handy on the construction sites I work on. Have you since last night?”

  Stephanie said, “Wow, that's going to be great with the hair! Hey, have either of you noticed if you sweat since last night's change?”

  Rael debated for a moment and said, “Not that I recall. I should have been sweaty after the fight when you first woke up, but don't recall it. I was beat up bad enough to be wet from the blood though.”

  Lance said, “You're right. If I had sweat, the concrete dust from my bar encounter would have stuck to me badly, but it didn't.”

  Stephanie spoke into the phone, “Nope, none of us recall sweating so far. Why is that?”

  Ms. Casey stated, “Something about our metabolism takes excess heat and converts it to the energy we need or use for our special powers. We also tend not to get cold, so that's a plus too.”

  “Oh, I thought your body armor kept you warm, so I never asked why you didn't wear a winter coat when you went to work.”

  “It would do that too, I suppose. Blasts of heat or fire can damage my clothing, but it takes a lot to actually burn me. If you all changed, I want a new picture of you all sent to me, or at least a high detail picture emailed so I can print it out. Would you put my son back on?”

  “Sure thing. Good speaking with you again, mom.” She smiled sweetly at Lance as she handed the phone back to him. She gave him a big smooch on the cheek and went back to hanging over his shoulder to read the paper.

  “Whatever she claims I did, I didn't do mom. I'm innocent.”

  “So are you planning to join the H.E.R.O. program? Did you enjoy your first two forays into superheroing?”

  “Yup, on Monday we've been told to go in and get setup. We met Captain McCain, the regional head of the H.E.R.O. program already, and it went well. I even saved his butt from a big mutant ready to carve him apart at the hospital late last night. And yeah, I did enjoy them. I got hurt both times, but even the bad stab wounds weren't so bad I couldn't handle them.”

  “Why did you give an interview to a blogger on your first night out?”

  “A ... what? No, I didn't give an interview.”

  “Sure you did, a blogger from Metro University says she spoke with you and discussed your powers with her. She even has some pictures of you with her and her girlfriends. Apparently the newspaper also got a story from her about it, and printed it on page D5.”

  He flipped to the page. Stephanie marveled at the muscle moving under his skin as he did it. Interesting, I could at least move his torso when I leaned up against him before, now he's like a statue until he moves, barring the soft skin. She ran her hands over his arms and torso while she read.

  Stephanie said, “You took pictures with some girls?”

  “Wow, well ... at least Debbie was good enough to be nice to me. A really good light in the article too. Very cool. I wonder if that's why she gave me her name and number?”

  Ms. Casey said, “You took pictures with the blogger and her friends, and then got her phone number?”

  “Well, she did ask a lot of questions, but I thought they were just interested in me. I don't recall her saying she was a blogger though. Great, so did she give me her number just because she wants me to be a 'source' for her? Man, I hate being used.”

  Ms. Casey asked, “So what, you finish breaking up a fight, rescue people from a building collapse, then go hang out with the crowd?”

  “It wasn't like that! She practically tackled me when I tried to go around the crowd and just wanted pictures with me. Then she seemed so excited about meeting a super that she started asking me questions.”

  Rael said, “So take her out for dinner or something and embarrass her.”

  Lance replied, “Not cool. I'm not about to do that to someone.”

  Stephanie chimed in, “Besides that, if he did that, she'd just blog about it and hurt his reputation. It wouldn't even be libel.”

  Ms. Casey said, “Do what to someone?”

  “Sorry mom, two conversations going on at once. Oh, Rael wants me to get revenge on her.”

  “You know better than to do that.”

  “I know, you just heard my response to him. Besides, maybe she could be a good news outlet for me, or us. Like a PR person.”

  “Good. I'll look up the costume maker I know and send you an email. If you go out in normal clothes you'll spend a ton of money on clothing, and I know how much you love shopping.”

  “Thanks, mom. Sorry I didn't call earlier, there hasn't exactly been much time to breathe since we changed last night. I did plan to call you today.”

  “I believe you, dear. Be careful out there, all right? That and always remember that protecting people takes top priority. You've done a good start in the paper at least. Love you.”

  “You too, mom. Bye.” He hung up the phone.

  “Thanks a lot, Steph. You enjoying your gropage?”

  She smiled, “Very much, thanks. I just noticed that I used to shift your torso when I leaned on you. Now you don't even move until you shift position or something. Your muscles are ... huge.” She didn’t mention that she also felt waves of enjoyment as she ran her hands over his torso as though it was being done to her. It was an interesting sensation coming through his mindview.

  “I like the change. I wonder if I'll have to work out to maintain my build now. Wait, how can I work out? The gym doesn't have weights for a few tons or something.”

  He used his cell phone to text his mom about if she had to work out to maintain her build. She was powerfully built as well, at least ever since the change before he was born. As with most other female bricks, though, her body had not become extremely wide and thick, simply heavily muscled.

  Chapter 20 - Friends

  Third Person Perspective