H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis Page 11

I lay on the ground, feeling the pain. Guards were sprawled all over the place. Stephanie stood in a hospital gown, hands clenched, and her face was screwed up in anger and concentration. She focused intently on the mutant. I had trouble focusing on anything much right now. The one thing that stood out was her smell; it was very strong to me, and pleasant. Like a fan blowing on roses at times, very strange.

  Good, figure out your power, and give him hell.

  I shook my head in an attempt to collect myself enough to even crawl up to my knees. My body felt sore all over. Not massively painful, but nothing wanted to work well. Wonder if there is a limb that the damn guards failed to shoot. Wait, my ass doesn't hurt – anyone want to shoot a butt cheek?

  I heard her say to give up, and I felt this ... urge to give up. Holy crap, I ... I need to give myself up to a guard. I finally crawled to my hands and knees, but didn't have the energy to get to a guard. I caught sight of the mutant, and thought that I really needed to kick his ass and knock him out before I keeled over.

  The mutant stared at her, and the urge to get to a guard faded from me. His face was a mask of terror. He was really frightened. He curled up on the floor and continued to stare at her. I’d never seen someone truly in a moment of terror, but here this immensely tough guy looked like he was ready to die of fright.

  I looked at Stephanie. She's doing something all right. Her eyes were golden, backlit, and she had this pissed off look on her face. Huh, glad I didn't bring worn undies, I think that's the look I'd have gotten. I kept getting this feeling that I should fear her, but she was my best friend, it just didn't seem right.

  I smelled something in the air. The mutant actually wet himself. For that matter, every guard, and Kim all cowered against the walls and looked up at her. Wonder what she's doing?

  I heard heavy footsteps approaching behind me, and I barely had the energy to shift so I could see down the hall. I recognized the guy; he was the head of the regional H.E.R.O. program for the government. Captain something or other. He was a big guy. A brick super himself if I recall. Likely 6'3” tall or so and heavily muscled. His skin had a slightly rough look to it, like aged, thick leather. He wore a business style suit, tie and all, no jacket though. He had sandy brown hair and blue eyes.

  He noticed that everyone cowered from Stephanie, jogged up, and I could see the intent on his face. Crap, no....

  He slapped her on the side of the head ... hard. She didn't even move until she was hit, she was focusing so hard. She collapsed to the floor. If I weren't so beat down I would have appreciated the view I got from the back of the hospital gown more.

  I croaked out “She was the good guy here. He was tearing us all up.” I gestured toward the mutant.

  He sighed loudly. “Damn. I'm Captain McCain, who are you?”

  “Rael, but lock him down first. I think he's already killed some of the guards.” I painfully shifted so I was sitting down, back against the wall. I felt something heavy roll down my chest, fall onto the floor, and rolled around on the floor, making a small metallic ringing sound.

  It's a bullet. I looked at my chest, and one of the bullet wounds near my left collarbone sealed over. “Holy crap, a bullet came out.”

  Captain McCain looked over from restraining the mutant and narrowed his eyes. “Why were you shot if the mutant didn't have a gun?”

  “The guards sucked. I fought him in hand to hand, and they hit me some of the time. The bullets didn't have a lot of effect on him; he must have been shot twenty or thirty times.” That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, no need for him to mark me as a biter.

  Kim must have been used to seeing traumatic situations; she recovered enough to talk. She stared at me for a number of seconds, and then seemed to make up her mind on something. She said, “One of them mistook Rael for one of the dangerous mutants.” I smiled at her.

  A group of doctors and nurses finally made an appearance from down the hallway. Most pushed wheeled carts and carried emergency bags.

  The guards were recovering from their shock, those that were still alive or awake at least. There were still about ten down.

  The Captain finished restraining the mutant and quickly checked on the guards that were down. A small metallic ding and rolling sound came from next to me, and my right torso wound appeared to have expulsed the second bullet.

  Captain McCain looked at me and said, “Healer ... nice. Regeneration is a useful ability, especially if you don't have the body armor to stop a small caliber bullet. That or if you are clumsy with fingers like yours.”

  I was definitely felt better. Not really chipper by that point, but considering I thought I might have been on a river trip down the Styx, I was happy with the results.

  I gave an evil look at the nurse who attempted to check on Stephanie, and crawled over to her. Wow, these are some efficient people, once the shooting stops. They descended like a flock of vultures on the injured and dead. Well, except without the intent to eat them and all.

  I moved into the nurse's way, and she backed up a few feet. I carefully picked up Stephanie under the legs and back, and was extra cautious of the claws. I rested her head on my shoulder. Okay, times like this might just make me want to do the hero gig. The nurse said, “You might be injuring her by picking her up like that.”

  “Or I might be protecting her from people whose only interest so far has been to drug her, restrain her, and club her on the head.”

  McCain scowled at that line, and told me to hand the girl to one of the nurses and come with him.

  “No. I'll either bring her with you and me, or ... wait, I'm not leaving her with drug happy medical technicians again.”

  He looked at me, looked at Stephanie and asked, “What is your relation to her?”

  “She's my girlfriend.” Yeah, okay, she's not, but I think they'll understand being overprotective of a girlfriend faster than a best friend. “By the way, I'm guessing he ripped the bars off his bed that were restraining him, and obviously the drugs weren't working, because Kim here checked on his med drip just a few minutes before he broke free.” Three cheers for deflection!

  He narrowed his eyes again and said, “At least you weren't lying that time.”

  Doh, busted. He's good. “I'm not leaving her.”

  A metallic ringing came from the floor as another bullet fell to the floor. My strength returned quickly as my body healed.

  A doctor walked up to me, took out a small flashlight and checked her eyes and the side of her head. He said, “She’s got some nasty bruising on the side of the head, but clearing up a bed might be useful tonight. If she isn't awake within an hour, then check with a nurse. Supers heal most things quickly.” Ah, someone with some diplomacy skill, heading off a potential showdown between stubborn people.

  Hey, I just realized that I get to carry around a barely clad Stephanie. Wow, of all the places with much suckage to be able to do that.

  I stepped over to Kim and whispered, “Hey, I'm sorry about earlier. I wouldn't have done that if I'd known....”

  “I warned you, at least now you know with no harm done. Be careful around others. Also, watch how you hold her, you have sharp claws now ... perhaps you should use a gurney or a wheelchair....”

  I glared at her a second, and she said, “Or not...." She put her hands up. "Just don't hurt that which you protect.”

  Ouch. I grimaced at that line. “Does she have anything left in the room?”

  Kim stepped in the room entrance and glanced around the room. “No. Yes, she had a purse.”

  “Hook it over my head, if you would....” After she did that, I headed over to Captain McCain.

  He shook his head, “I'd be more upset if so many supers weren't such a pain in the ass. I need to get this one down to secure lockdown before we have our chat.”

  Chat? Ah, guessing he wants to question me about the combat. Speaking of.... An officer approached the captain, and McCai
n told him to interrogate the uninjured security guards to get the details of what had occurred.

  I lamented the fact that my hands were claws now. It'd be nice to hold her ... better.

  We made our way to the elevator, and by the time we stopped at the bottom he said “Listen, do that out of the public eye, and when she's awake.” He startled me, I hadn't realized I'd closed my eyes and leaned down to smell her neck and hair. So good. Odd that I have no desire to eat her … for dinner.

  “This is something like the third time tonight she'd been knocked out ... that I know of.”

  “Then why are you chancing hurting her by carrying her around?”

  “Because all of the so-called authorities in this hospital believe in treating people as if they are in an asylum prior to being committed, and I'm willing to bet that once being put away, the key is conveniently thrown away.”

  “You're a little paranoid, aren't you?”

  “Do you deny that's the way many new supers are being treated here tonight?”

  “I've been too busy to look, but it’s not the intent. We've been swamped with new supers running rampant or being injured. This whole thing was supposed to cut down on the damage to the city.”

  Another metallic ding sounded off. He said, “Almost out of bullets I think.”

  McCain leaned over and picked up the bullet with a tissue he had in his pocket to cover it.

  “You already know the guards shot me up there.”

  “It's always a good idea to collect additional evidence on the chance it may be needed. The time you don't is the one time you kick yourself later on.”

  Claws suck, I'm so tempted to let my hands wander under this hospital gown. Okay, so I was wrong about having claws all the time. I'd rather have normal hands most of the time. It struck me then that my touch was more sensitive than it had been upstairs. I touched my fingers to each other and realized that my fingers were normal again. Whoa! They can change back?

  “Yes!”

  McCain studied me for a moment. “Yes?”

  “My fingers have returned to their normal shape.”

  “And they haven't until this point?”

  Doh, he's gathering information. My eyes narrowed. Well, I've already blown this much. “No, since I changed, they've been claws.”

  “That's a great sign. Either you are gaining control, or you have another power that's helping you. Has anything else changed shape on your body?”

  Mr. Blunt now, are we, Captain? “Not really, though I gained muscle.”

  We continued to an underground area that appeared heavily built and reinforced, until we reached some rooms that were built more like heavy prison cells. He stopped and used heavy metal shackles to restrain the mutant, and pocketed the cuffs he had put on the mutant. The mutant still looked ... shell shocked.

  “Your ... girlfriend ... did quite a number on him, if he did all that damage upstairs and no one else took him down.”

  Oops, I just realized I forgot the paper bag with the used shirts and the metal cutters up in the room Stephanie was in. Ah well.

  “He did it, all right. If the damn guards hadn't shot me....” Oh, shit. Bad slip. “…during the fight I might have done better at taking him down.”

  “You know, you're a fairly good liar. Unfortunately for you I'm used to dealing with people who try to be sketchy quite often.”

  He entered a room and gestured for me to enter. It had a table with four metal chairs around it, two on either side. Hmm, it'd be damn rude to set Stephanie down on a cold metal chair with her ass hanging out of the hospital gown. Much more gentlemanly to rest her on my lap, I think. Yeah, that's the ticket.

  I sat down carefully in one of the metal chairs, and rested her butt on my lap. Again I got distracted for a moment by her scent, and found myself leaning my head across her face, smelling her hair and neck.

  Then she giggled and squirmed.

  Doh! BUSTED!

  I lifted my head back up abruptly. She looked into my eyes. I turned multiple shades of red. “Uh ... welcome back to the land of the living?”

  “And what were you just doing?”

  “Eh, uh....” Do I mention the smell thing? Is that a good point thing or a bad point thing doing that when she's out? Gaahh! Females!

  She got a crooked grin on her face “Oooh, I've got you now. Cough it up.”

  I sighed. God I'm a sucker. “My nose is more sensitive. That and you smell unbelievably good. I got distracted.”

  Chapter 12 – Of Heroes and Villains

  Third Person Perspective