His large round face was twisted in a frankly terrifying grimace that I think was supposed to be a smile, directed at Birgit. It was a leering look, and I wanted nothing more than to take my gloves off and make it disappear.
Whoa, where did that thought come from? I clenched my fists as I observed the situation, and the hulking brute in front of me began to talk, speaking in English.
“Paulsen’s daughter, ain’t ya?” he said in what I could only describe as a typical American accent. “You ain’t an easy chick to find ya know, but the job has its privileges.”
“I have some privileges as well, you know,” she said in a bored tone of voice. “Like minimum contact with losers like you. Now do me a favour and bugger off, for fanden da også ”
I could faintly see the muscle outline on his arms become ever so slightly more defined, and the bulges big ever so slightly bigger. I glanced at Birgit, but she seemed more bored than anything else.
“Oh come on dear. Am I really that much of a bother? And here I’d thought we’d gotten off to a good start,” said the man as he leaned in closer to her. “I really do think that we could see eye to eye on things. How about we get off at the next stop and discuss things a bit more…privately.”
“How about you go bug someone else, μαλάκα?” said Maria as she got up herself, facing down the man who was at about eye level with her, meaning he wasn’t that tall. At least he had one thing that wasn’t intimidating about him.
“How about you don’t get in between two people with personal business to settle, scarface?” said the man as he grabbed her shoulder, shoving her away roughly. “Now we need to go and have a little chat about your dear old daddy. He cost some people a lot of money, and they ain’t too happy about that.”
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Hearing that, Birgit visibly tensed up, and the temperature of the room dropped to numbers that sometimes winter doesn’t reach in Greece. I clenched my hands once more.
The urge to just rip off one of my gloves came back, but I suppressed it as deep as I could. I glanced back at Maria, who had gotten back up, clutching the scarred side of her face, and I was transported back to that day in that one instant.
The day I became a monster momentarily.
The man punched the space between me and Birgit, his fist going through the seats, before the flesh rippled and grew out, blue muscle tedons ripping out of his flesh, wrapping around it up to his shoulders.
The bus stopped suddenly, a high pitched alarm ringing throughout it, soon joined by the sounds of the cars behind us honking.
“I’m begging you to fight back against me. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a good brawl.”
I clenched my fists.
People started running out of the bus, eventually leaving us all alone.
I looked down at my hands. I had set myself to following those words, determined to live up to Alpha Surge’s ideals. And yet, there I was unable to do anything other than sit and watch this go down.
“Everyone has good in them. A hero is someone that uses every talent in their arsenal, be it brains or brawn, to save, inspire and reassure others!”
Next thing I knew, my hand was bare and touching the man’s exposed muscles with all but my pinky finger, and he was looking at me with what I thought was a small bit of anticipation in his eyes. What had happened? When did I move to grab him?
I glanced at Birgit and Maria, who were looking both shocked and somewhat scared respectively, before I turned my attention back to the man.
“Please,” I said to him in English, trying and failing to keep my voice from trembling. “Leave.”
His face morphed into an arrogant smirk, one that looked much more at home on his face than the smile he tried to put on earlier. He raised his other arm, the muscles across it bulging, before the blue tendons broke out and wrapped themselves around it.
I put my last finger down.
A gut-wrenching scream overtook any other sounds in the area.
And the smell of blood filled the air.