H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis

by Kevin Rau

Stephanie called junkyards while Rael cooked, and shortly found one that had vehicles junked so badly they wouldn't mind if they were damaged further. She had to explain what they wanted to do before the proprietor, Ray, would allow them to come. The only requirements were that the guy got to take pictures with them, and that they put any vehicles out of the way when done so his yard didn't get cluttered where he had to clean up after them.

  She punched up the address on her phone's GPS and had a route planned in moments. Before they left, Stephanie asked Rael to bring a few strong hunting knives with him to test their armor and healing.

  The guys dressed up in some workout gear, and they piled into Rael's car. Thirty minutes later, they stood outside Ray's Salvage. Ray was a wiry man with wrinkled, dirty clothing and the look of someone used to manual labor. They all shook hands with him, though he had a difficult time looking Stephanie in the eye with the shirt Rael had picked out for her yesterday.

  He pointed out the section with the vehicles already stripped of valuable parts and reiterated the cleanup requirement. He also made them promise to accept all responsibility for injuries they took onto themselves. They agreed.

  After they walked to the area Lance quickly lifted a car on its side slightly, and then picked it up by the frame. He said, “It's light. Stand back a ways, I'm going to throw it up above me and try to catch it.”

  He turned the vehicle on its side and threw it in the air. It flew up about fifty feet, and dropped back down. He shifted to where it fell in an attempt to catch it. His right hand grabbed the frame, but the left missed, and the vehicle slammed him in the head. He grabbed the frame with his left before the vehicle bounced off him. Lance felt his head for a moment before laughing. He said, “That didn’t hurt! Yeah, baby!”

  Rael called over to him, “Do it again, I didn’t get a picture of that! Damn it, that reminds me that my phone broke in the blast in the mall.”

  Lance complied, this time the car went up thirty feet before falling again. He successfully caught it with both hands on the frame and kept it in the air. “Yeah!”

  He jumped and flew into the air, still holding the car. His jump took him up over one hundred feet. The others watched as he climbed the distance equivalent to 10 stories and dropped back down toward them. They ran away on the chance that he didn't jump up straight. Lance felt the wind rushing through his hair as he fell. It exhilarated him, knowing that a fall wouldn't hurt.

  Lance kept the car steady above him when he landed, although he buried his feet a foot in the gravel. He pulled his foot out and stepped away from the hole.

  He tossed the car twenty feet off to the side onto another ruined vehicle. He yelled, “YEAH! I'm loving this!”

  He ran back over to the car, picked it up again, and threw it straight in the air. While it ascended, he leaped up at it. He banged into it, but failed to grab the car. He continued to rise in the air while it plummeted to the ground below. It smashed with an explosive sound of metal rending. He fell back shortly after, landing on a knee and hand.

  He was so excited, as he poised to jump again; his eyes glowed yellow and a yellow glow came from his skin from the head down to his feet. He tensed, then jumped and flew almost straight up out of sight.

  Rael said, “Holy shit. I think he's going up a few miles.”

  Lance watched the ground recede from him for a dozen seconds, and as he continued to increase in altitude, he looked up and enjoyed the rush. There were few clouds in the air. He looked around and saw the vast expanse of Metrocity stretching in all directions. He reached his apex two miles or more in the air, he thought. It felt like flying to him.

  He attempted to use his hands and feet to guide his fall back toward the graveyard. Lance felt nearly invincible. He was able to leap miles in a single jump. He had the strength of a comic book hero. Cars landing on him didn’t hurt him. He successfully guided himself to it, but smashed down on top of several piled vehicles. They crumpled to the side from the impact and he rolled off to the side.

  The others ran over to him, but he stood up laughing. “I love this!”

  Stephanie said, “Well, I'd like to be a little reserved my first time. I don't have tank armor for skin. Would you take my foot and throw me gently in the air? Something like twenty feet up or so?”

  “Sure.” He clasped his hands together, she stepped into them with one foot, and he lightly tossed her up as he would have done in a pool before they gained powers. She arced into the air about twenty five feet, and then dropped back down a short distance away. They all saw that she slowed down significantly before floating to the ground. Stephanie was not aware of doing anything to cause the slowdown. She jogged back over to Lance.

  “Again please.” He threw her again. He put more strength into it this time, and she shot up about fifty feet. As she fell she had a mild panic attack seeing the wide open space from five stories up. She stopped mid-air. Her heart beat wildly for a minute as she looked around. Her arms momentarily swung about in search of something to grab onto.

  She hovered in the air, and felt an odd energy around her. She noticed that for the first time since the hospital last night, that all of the voices were gone. She was alone in her own head. It felt quiet; closing her eyes for a moment gave her pleasant darkness rather than a continuous video stream from someone nearby.

  She put out her leg as though to step forward and her body glided in that direction. When she pulled her leg back, to stop from taking the phantom step, stopped her forward motion. She tried to move down, but her body didn't move. She tried to take a step down and glided down toward the ground.

  She lifted her knee up and she shot upward in a curving arc. Stephanie didn't know how to control her direction and twisted around, further worsening the arc. She screamed as she spun in a large backwards circle in the air, and then slammed into the ground a hundred feet away. She moved at one hundred miles per hour or faster on impact. Rael, Lance and Tina ran over to her, but she lay unmoving. Rael checked for a pulse, her heart beat was strong. Stephanie was unconscious but alive.

  Tina said, “Do we call for an ambulance?”

  Rael said, “Let’s give her a few minutes. She’s healed multiple broken bones quickly already.” Rael carefully checked her over for broken bones, the only obvious injury was a broken arm. He knew she’d heal that based on last night. The arm visibly bruised and returned to normal within about a minute.

  After several minutes Stephanie stirred and woke. “Ow,” she mumbled.

  Lance nodded, “Yeah ... ow. What did you fly into the ground for?”

  She rubbed her head. “Duh, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know jabbing my leg up would kick up my speed like that.” She sat up, and shifted to rubbing the back of her neck. "You know how they say it's the sudden stop at the end of a fall that hurts? I'm with that guy."

  Tina said, “You, ah, might want to avoid that next time. You going to wait until tomorrow to continue?”

  Stephanie squeezed along her limbs and ribs, searching for pain spots.

  Rael asked, "Are you looking for wounds, or groping? Cause I could help...."

  She gave him an evil eye and said, "Checking for broken bones. None broke, that's cool."

  "Uh, hate to burst your bubble, but I checked you after you crashed. Your left humerus was broken, near the lower part of the bicep. It healed while you were unconscious."

  “Really? I guess that's good. And heck no. I’m not giving up.” She climbed to her feet and stretched her neck a few times. Then she stepped up as though onto a stair, and floated up. “It’s actually pretty easy to do, I’m surprised. I think it’s physical in nature, not mental.”

  She played like this for several minutes, moving up, down and around until she got the hang of how her body caused movement in the air. She pushed off as though to jump, and shot up in the air at a high speed, which seemed to increase as she stayed in that position. Mov
ing her arms, she found that she could alter direction by changing their position slightly. It didn't seem to matter if they were near her sides; arms spread wide, or out in front of her.

  The temperature dropped, and the air became slightly harder to breathe as she continued miles up, so she shifted direction to fly back down. While she felt the cold, it didn't seem to hurt or actually bother her skin. Her hair blew gently back behind her as she flew. Stephanie jabbed her knee up and her speed shot up again. The ground flew by unbelievably fast; she was now outside of Metrocity. She flew over a highway, and vehicles barely moved on the ground far below.

  She flew around for a number of minutes while getting the hang of this fast flight. Screw taking it slow, this is the best thing in the world!

  Stephanie couldn’t believe how right this felt. She twisted, and did a slow roll in the air. She likened it to walking. Once she started, her body just moved and did its thing. She soon realized that the hand movements were unnecessary, aiming with her shoulders also changed her forward direction.

  Something moved off to her right, and she saw a small jet flying in the same direction. She angled over to close the distance to it until she was a few dozen feet away. The pilot stared at her. She smiled and waved at him. His mouth moved, and she heard his mental voice as he spoke.

  He thought, “Oh my god, a super! Hey, Christi, tell Mr. Desat about this!” Stephanie grinned, thinking that she’d probably have done the same thing in his place. She pushed her foot down a bit to try to slow down, but used too much force, and the plane shot ahead. She jabbed her left knee up and began catching up to the plane. She focused on her speed, wanting to catch up now, and she shot forward, quickly overtaking the plane and flying past it.

  She mumbled, “Darn it all!” She made a large curve to the left and looped around behind the plane again. She played with slowing and speeding up until she was able to pull up alongside the passenger windows. Several faces were in the windows. She smiled and waved at them.

  She closed inside the wingspan, and heard them thinking and talking.

  Mr. Desat said, “I want you to find out who this woman is. I’ve never seen her picture.”

  Christi, his assistant answered, “Yes, sir. She’s very pretty, isn’t she?”

  He answered, “Indeed. Find out if she’s a hero, criminal, or a hidden super as well.”

  Stephanie grinned at their conversation. She angled her shoulders back and looped up into the air away from the jet. On her way back to the junkyard she practiced speeding up and slowing down at low altitudes so she’d better be able to follow alongside moving vehicles. She practiced against some vehicles on a highway for a few minutes until everyone began matching speeds to watch the flying super near the highway.

  Rael watched her fly off and said, “She’s going to love that ability.”

  Lance nodded and replied, “Yeah. Jumping kicks butt, but freeform flight … wow. It'll come in handy for getting to crime scenes quickly.”

  Tina sighed and wished she could fly.

  Rael said, “Okay, Lance. Let’s play combat. I’m going to try to chuck a car at you; you catch it as if it had people in it.”

  Lance grinned. “Good test.” He walked forty feet or so away and waited.

  Rael walked over to a car and grabbed the frame. Picking up the car was fairly easy. It was like a large, unwieldy medicine ball. He braced and threw it at Lance, but the vehicle only flew about twenty feet. Rael sighed, “Well, at least I can pick up a car.”

  Lance said, “Um, you know it’s missing the engine and other parts? Plus, no weight from people.”

  “Jerk, shut up.” He walked over to the car and picked it up again, then moved to about twenty feet from Lance. He lobbed the car again, this time reaching Lance. Lance easily caught the underbody frame in his huge hands. His body barely shifted from the catch.

  “Should I throw it back at you?”

  “Hell no. Lightly toss it, but I have a feeling that if you can toss a car up a hundred feet, a real sideways throw wouldn’t be hard.”

  “Fine, ya big sissy.” Lance gently tossed the car to Rael. He marveled at the thought that this vehicle, probably a thousand pounds or more, felt more like a giant styrofoam object than heavy metal. It even bent in like squishy styrofoam if he squeezed much.

  The vehicle flew toward Rael. He watched it come at him slowly, easily shifted his position and grabbed a pair of strong points on the underbody. The force of stopping the car wasn’t easy, but he did it. He grunted as he absorbed the main force of the car.

  Tina clapped from off to the side and cheered. She said, “If you want to act like the car has an engine and people, grab some more metal and squish them on top of that car, Lance. I see you bending metal with your fingers.”

  Lance said, “That’s a good point.” He walked over to another vehicle and began ripping it apart. The sound of the metal tearing wasn’t enjoyable, but none of the metal parts withstood being torn apart.

  Rael said, “I told you that you’d make a good garbage dude.”

  Lance stepped over to another vehicle and double hand smashed down on the rooftop. It collapsed in as though made of aluminum foil. Even the reinforced frame bent easily to his strength. He said, “Guys, I don’t know how much I can really lift, but this stuff feels really, really light and flimsy to me.” He ripped off a piece of undercarriage and crushed it in his hands.

  Rael attempted to mimic him. He easily bent in a rooftop, though the crash resistant frame only bent, it didn’t crush completely inward. He tried pulling the frame apart, but it took a mighty effort to rip the bar in half. He growled and bared his fangs at the car, and his fingers grew out into claws as he pulled on it. He swiped at another part of the bar with his claws and easily ripped through the metal.

  In a surprised voice, he said, “Whoa, that’s easy.”

  He raked across the roof of the vehicle, easily tearing through the metal under each fingertip. He did this a few more times, then flipped the car on its side. Then he attacked the stronger underbody metals. His claws tore through them as well.

  Lance said, “Well, you’ve got your name now. Big Kitty. Or maybe Fluffy. You just need a steady supply of cars to use as scratching posts.”

  Tina snickered, and even Rael smiled at that. He said, “Hmm. I am a little like a big kitty now. Like hell if I’m using a dumb name like that though.”

  Tina said, “Yeah, but you could have this cute pink kitten face on your shirt.”

  Rael said, “Pink? Where did pink come into this?”

  “I like pink.”

  “Okay, Tina so doesn’t get to pick out my costume. Pink? Sheesh. Lance, I want to test some damage output on each other, you okay with that?”

  “Sure, I’ve already been stabbed completely through with a mutant blade.”

  Rael stepped over to him and said, “I’ll try punching you first. Where do you want it?”

  “Gut.” Lance patted his stomach.

  Rael pulled his arm back and slammed Lance in the stomach. Lance shifted a little, then shook his head and smiled. “You’ve got nothin’, my friend. Try again in the chest.”

  Rael jabbed him several times in the chest. The punches made loud thudding noises. Lance shrugged, “It really doesn’t hurt, man.”

  Rael nodded and said, “You’re body is unbelievably solid. Hold on.” He walked over to a car door and punched it in. The door dented severely inward. “Huh. I’ve got some decent force behind the punch. You must have some great armor.”

  “Dude, a moving car ran into me last night and it didn’t hurt.”

  “All right, let me try clawing a forearm.”

  Lance held out his arm. “Careful on the first try, I’d hate to lose an arm if you’re overzealous.”

  Rael nodded. He ran a single claw down Lance’s forearm, putting some pressure on it. The claw tore into the arm, drawing blood immediately.


  Lance grimaced. “Yeah, that smarts. It doesn’t surprise me though, this mutant at the bar scene had claws, he ripped into my arms and gut too.”

  Rael said, “My claws don’t look like bone, I wonder if whatever gives you your armor, gives the same strength to this material?”

  Tina said, “Give me one of those knives, Rael. Let me try to cut into one of your claws. I promise not to cut it off.”

  “Okay.” He handed her one of the hunting knives. She unsheathed it and took hold of his right ring finger. “Ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  She ran the blade across it, but barely even left a mark. A moment later the mark smoothed over. “Huh, that’s interesting. You see the mark smooth over?”

  “No, cut again.”

  She cut harder this time, putting much of her strength into the motion. She scored the claw slightly, but it was still unremarkable. The groove smoothed over within seconds. She said, “That’s pretty cool. Mind if I cut your arm?”

  “Go for it.”

  She ran the blade over his forearm, barely cutting him. Blood didn’t even well up before the thin slice sealed over. She looked up at his eyes. “Okay, deeper this time.” She put some strength into a serious cut on his forearm. It cut in, but far less than she expected it to. Blood appeared just in time for the cut to heal. “Wow. Should I try stabbing you?”

  Rael nodded.

  She shifted her grip on the knife and stabbed downward at his forearm. The knife went in an unremarkable amount and she immediately pulled it back out. Again, the wound sealed over in seconds. Rael said, “That barely even hurt.”

  Lance said, “Try that cut on my arm, Tina.” He held out his arm.

  She stabbed at his arm, and felt the impact as the blade hit the skin. It stopped there, not even penetrating the skin. She ran her free hand over his arm and looked up at his eyes. “Wow, that’s cool. Did it hurt?”

  “No, it felt sharp, but didn’t feel like I got stabbed.”

  Rael said, “Okay, let me try the knife, see if my strength makes much difference.”

  Tina handed him the blade, and he jabbed at Lance’s arm. The blade barely made a mark on his skin. “Wow, you’d think steel would do better.”

  Lance said, “I dunno, it couldn’t do too much more than a gunshot, I’d think. You want me to test punching you, in case you have to fight a brick?”

  Rael said, “Sure. Glad I heal fast.” He worked the kinks out of his neck and braced for a punch before handing the knife to Tina. Lance jabbed at Rael’s chest. He didn’t use his full power, but also didn’t hold a lot back. The impact made a loud thud and Rael flew back twenty feet or so. He hit the ground and rolled to his feet. He made a face and put his hand on his chest. “Ow. That hurt far worse than a gunshot.” He pulled his shirt off as he walked back over. They watched as the wound turned into a bruise over the next 15 seconds and cleared up. Rael took a deep breath.

  Rael said, “Okay, do it again, hard this time.”

  Lance nodded. He pulled back and roundhouse punched Rael in the chest. Rael braced for the punch, but didn’t expect the unbelievable force behind the punch. He flew back fifty feet or so and slammed into a vehicle. He fell to the ground and focused on breathing a moment. The others jogged over to him as he stood up.

  Tina yelled, “Like, oh my god, are you okay?” She grabbed his shoulders.

  Rael coughed and nodded. “Holy shit. That’s a hell of a punch you’ve got, Lance.” If we spar, I’m not going to just stand there and take it.

  Lance said, “Good. A criminal brick might do the same thing I just did, you can learn to really want to avoid it.”

  Stephanie took her time landing, slowing down hundreds of feet in the air for fear of smashing into the ground again. She stretched her neck from side to side, but felt no leftover effects from her prior crash.

  Tina spotted Stephanie floating down toward them, and pointed her out to Lance and Rael. When Stephanie landed she ran over and hugged her. “So? How was it? How fast did you go? Was it like, awesome?”

  Stephanie laughed and returned the hug. “It was awesome! I can pass a private jet, I know that much. I didn’t actually get a distance and time myself though.”

  Tina said, “You can use mile markers on a highway to test it. Just start your watch’s stopwatch at one and fly for a while.”

  “Wow, that’s a great idea. So what have you guys been up to?”

  Rael said, “Ripping apart cars and beating on each other. You know, we both know we can lift you if you’re out, you should see if you can lift us. It might be useful knowing if you can carry someone when flying.”

  Stephanie stepped in front of Rael, put her hands on the sides of his chest and lifted. She easily picked him up off the ground.

  “Oh, my god. I can lift you up!”

  Rael said, “It doesn't surprise me too much. I can lift and hold those beater cars over my head. I can't flip them around like Lance can, but I did throw a few about twenty feet.”

  She set him down. She stepped in front of Lance, and attempted the same with him. She was easily able to lift Lance as well, though neither of them felt light to her. Rael felt more like the weight of a large child prior to her change, but Lance pushed her limits.

  She said, “I'm not sure how flying is going to work though, I used my hands to help guide me around.”

  Rael said, “Do you think that's set, or it might be a crutch? Come on, try carrying me while flying.” He thought about holding Stephanie, running his hands over her back. Her head snapped up to look at him. His eyes were closed though.

  She wondered what he planned to try on her. “All right, I'll try. Try not to lock down my legs. I stepped up or down to control moving up and down slowly. Let me try to get into the air a little, then pick you up.”

  Stephanie closed her eyes and thought only about the flying. She stepped on an imaginary stair and pushed down. She felt energy around her, and sensed that she moved up.

  She opened her eyes; she was about three feet above the ground. She grinned and looked down at the three of them.

  Rael's hands were back to normal. Stephanie caught his thoughts that thinking about holding her helped return them to normal. It made her smile that he used holding her as his reasoning. Then she noticed through the mindviews of the others that she was looking at Rael rather dreamily. She shook her head and blushed. She practiced stepping up and down a few times to get a feel for controlling slow up and down movement. After she felt she could do it, she 'walked' toward Rael and floated to him, approximately a foot off the ground.

  Rael said, “How about I concentrate on holding on around your neck for the most part so you can focus on the flying?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  He faced her, and then slid his right arm around her neck, left around her torso. She 'heard' him think that he debated on kissing her. She looked into his catlike eyes, so close to her own. He grinned, gave her a quick kiss, and then put his chin on her shoulder. When he fully lifted his weight onto her, she felt it on her shoulders only lightly, and it didn't seem to move her in the air.

  Rael was thrilled about the prospect of flying, but just as much to be able to hold Stephanie this close and smell her new fragrance.

  She put her arms around his torso, smiled, stepped up and pushed off. They slowly flew up. Her heart rate increased as she planned her next move, due to residual fear of crashing again. She jabbed up the knee that wasn't directly in front of Rael and they shot into the air.

  She discovered that she could change direction, by moving her upper body in the direction she wanted to go. It worked well even while holding onto another person. Stephanie sighed in relief.

  Rael greatly enjoyed the flight. He easily held on around her neck, his arm and hand were locked in place with a grasp of iron.

  The rush of flying again made Stephanie giddy and filled with excitement
. Rael's mood heightened even more. She wasn't sure if she'd used that other new power, but Rael yelled out “Woohoo!”

  His mindview was huge, she saw as much through his eyes as her own. She felt her excitement mount from the additional emotion flowing through Rael's mindview. Adrenaline poured through her system, and they sped up even more. Rael yelled out in excitement again as the ground streaked past well below. The wind rushed against them loudly, there was a momentary boom, and noise went away.

  Within another minute, they crossed the outer edge of Metrocity. She shot around the outer edge of the massive city in a large circle. Her skin tingled with excitement, and Rael tried yelling in joy. She couldn’t hear him, but she heard his thoughts. She wasn’t certain, but she had the feeling that they continued to speed up as they raced around the city’s outskirts. In approximately ten minutes, they circled around the outskirts.

  Rael got a major rush off the flight. He thought that she might have been accelerating even more as they flew, and tried yelling, "Yeah, baby girl! Faster!" Stephanie felt her heart racing as it had after the shot of adrenaline, and swung around the city again. This time it took only about five minutes to circle the city.

  When they approached the rough area of the city where the junk yard lay, she put a foot forward to slow down. They felt and heard a boom sound around them, and rapidly slowed down. Within seconds they went from supersonic to a hundred miles per hour. She realized that she didn't feel jolted from the sudden slowdown.

  Rael said, “Wow! What a rush! You must have something that lets us breathe at such speeds; otherwise it’d be a pain in the ass.”

  “Yeah, I'm liking this flight thing! I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I didn't feel like you were being torn off me by wind shear, nor felt like I really had to do much to lift you to keep you with me.”

  She spotted the junkyard and flew them down toward it slowly.

  Rael leaned his head back so he was nearly nose to nose with her. She felt that he was getting excited not just from the flying any more. He gently kissed her as they flew. It was an interesting sensation to her. His hair blew past her head, tickling her neck. Some body areas were cool where the air rushed against her, yet her torso so hot where he pressed against her. The kiss lasted for some time.

  Rael's back slammed against a rusted bus in the junkyard. Stephanie was mostly spared from the impact but for her left knee and arm, and Rael's fang cutting her lip.

  They dropped to the ground the last few feet. Rael shook his head a few times before he could speak. Stephanie gently rubbed her knee. They heard footsteps running closer as Lance and Tina came around the end of the bus.

  Tina said, “Are you guys all right?”

  Stephanie blushed as she said, “I will be, it feels like I just kneed a wall ... hard.”

  Rael coughed and mumbled, “Give me a minute.”

  Tina watched them both. Within a dozen seconds, Stephanie stopped rubbing her knee and forearm, and it now looked like she merely had blood on her lip rather than a cut.

  Rael stood up and stretched. “I'd do it again.” He grinned. Stephanie grinned back at him.

  Tina said, “So ... I didn't realize you two were an item. That was quite a kiss....”

  Rael just grinned at Tina and winked.

  Stephanie looked at Rael and said, “I ... I'm not sure what we are.” Rael's mindview showed that he'd hoped she would declare herself to him right then and there. Sorry Rael, I just don't know if I want to take that big of a step....

  Tina said, “Wow, you two are over thinking things, the way you look at each other.”

  They both stared at her. She continued, “Like, you can't see the forest for the trees, anyone? Okay, ignore I said that. How did the flight go?”

  Stephanie laughed, “Okay, okay. The flight was awesome. Better than awesome. I'm pretty sure Rael and I just broke the sound barrier on the way back. I love this!”

  Rael said, “Hey, I've got an idea. You mentioned that it didn't seem hard to hold me, or me to hold you while you flew. Let's imagine that I'm a person stuck on a roof that is collapsing, and you grab my forearm while I grab yours, then you fly up.”

  Stephanie said, “So I'd be holding you only by your forearm?”

  “Both of us holding each others, but yeah. If we can do that, you could possibly do a flyby to grab one of us, or someone else. Could be useful in dangerous situations.”

  “Okay, I'll try it out.”

  Rael stretched again, moving his arms and shoulders a lot. “I don't feel injured anymore.”

  “Me either.”

  Stephanie stepped into the air and pushed down. She floated up into the air. She grinned. “This feels almost natural. I wonder what would happen if I got knocked out though. No, don't even think about it.”

  Too late, he thought that Lance could just duplicate what Captain McCain did last night to her. He thought it would be a good test too; who knew what would happen in a fight.

  Stephanie sighed and rolled her eyes. Great, he'll get Lance to do it, too. Yay, I can look forward to being thunked on the head soon.

  She stepped up again, to add a few more feet under her body, and then reached down for Rael's arm. They locked forearms, and then she pushed hard off an 'air step' to speed up. He should have been pulling hard down on her shoulder, even with his iron grip, yet her shoulder wasn't being stressed.

  She said, “It's working fine – and it doesn't feel like I'm lifting you with my arm.”

  He said, “I agree. We're only a few dozen feet up, you hold me, I'm letting go to see what it would be like with a normal person without my strength.”

  “Sounds good.” Rael released his grip on her forearm. She barely noticed a difference. She lifted him up and it felt strange, as though normal physics didn't apply to her and her ... passenger? She brought him up in front of her and put her left arm around his waist, then let go with the right arm on his forearm.

  Again there was no difference. He asked, “How tightly are you holding me to you?”

  “Not at all. More like if I wanted to just pull you close to me while standing, but this shouldn't be enough to actually hold you up.”

  “I like it. Well, that and the flying stuff.” He thought dirty thoughts again.

  She descended quickly before something could occur that might become a problem.

  After landing, Stephanie said, “Well, I'd call that a success.” She 'heard' Tina think that she'd like to try flying.

  Stephanie smiled at Tina, “Want to fly with me, Tina?”

  Rael squeezed Stephanie's backside as she turned toward Tina. He was definitely thinking some creative thoughts.

  Stephanie put her arms around Tina's waist, and Tina put hers around Stephanie's neck. Tina smiled, “I feel like we're about to slow dance.”

  Stephanie said, “Oh, I think you'll find this far more exciting.” She step pushed and floated up. A few more times and she headed upward at several dozen miles per hour. Tina clung closely to Stephanie, remarking a few times on seeing something below them. Stephanie found she could shift Tina slightly so they were cheek to cheek facing the same direction, using her right arm as the primary holding arm around Tina's waist. Tina clung tighter to her as they increased their altitude, she kept her nose buried in Stephanie's gold hair.

  Stephanie said, “Are you ready?”

  “For what?”

  “This.” Stephanie kneed her left leg up hard and they shot forward. She arced them so they flew horizontally over the city, now at perhaps one hundred miles an hour. Tina screeched at the acceleration, and then clenched her arms as tight as possible around Stephanie. She gulped and said, “Wow, Stephanie, this is like, way cool. But so scary! Aren’t you afraid not to have anything under you?”

  “Hmm, surprisingly, not too bad. After my initial shock of seeing the ground below me, I’m starting to feel at ease. I kind of feel like I’m walking. I step forw
ard, my body moves forward. If we’re at speed and I lean, we turn that way. It just kind of feels right.”

  Stephanie noticed a few people down in the city pointing up toward them as they flew around. She waved down at them.

  She flew them around several larger buildings and more interesting sites, such as the amusement park, prior to heading back to the junkyard.

  Tina said, “Oh my – look at that.” She pointed.

  Chapter 22 – Tempers Flare

  Stephanie's Perspective