Greg stood with eyes agog, staring at the prone form of his best friend. A few stuttered nothing's trailed past his lips, while his arms desperately tried to convey meaning through frantic twitch gestures. He finally settled on simply pointing and letting a guttural 'UuuuuuuuUUUuuuUUUUu," droop out past his teeth.
"Doesn't sound like a question," his friend mischievously noted as he... she... they let out a languid stretch.
"Nyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeah!" Greg verbalized as he frantically switched which hand was prominently pointing in his friends direction. "What!? When? I... How!"
Sparky twitched in his seat, relaxing back as he drilled Greg with an even gaze. "Well, in that order, this," he started, gesturing to himself as he smoothed down his dress with a curt movement. "Not really sure how I can explain that one in any more detail. Next, happened almost two weeks ago. Mom told the Peckers we had family business, that's why I wasn't at work."
He let out an embarrassed sigh, shaking his head as he recounted the memory, "Woke up turned into this and couldn't figure out how to change back. Freaked out my mom something fierce-"
"She knows?" Greg cut in, finally able to form a more complex thought process than 'eh? Eh? EH!?'
"Of course she knows," Sparky rebutted, "What, you think I could hide something like this from her? Anyway, I was stuck with tits," he eyed Gregs chest with an amused chuckle, "so my mom took some time off and drove us down to the cabin."
"Does your dad know?" Greg cut in once more.
"Nah, no reason to worry him. He'll be back from business by the end of the month, so mom'll break it to him then," Sparky confessed. "Now stop interrupting. As to the last one, that of 'how'... Well I don't really know. I woke up with a gem in the small of my back, and now I can change into this. Judging by a similar protrusion from your own forehead," he pointed, glancing at Gregs gem as he continued. "I would guess that we both have had a rather odd variant of powers."
"What," Greg focused on singular words. This was big, this was huge! Not since the unveiling of Jury Rig as a reformed villain had something like this come up.
"Not case 53s, and not normal capes," Sparky waved off the unspoken question as he carried on. "Mom pulled a few favors, got me a cat-scan and an MRI. Piled on a crapton of makeup and wore baggy clothes," he answered Gregs next question before he could even start forming it, "Anyway, did you know that Capes have tumors in their heads?" He waited for a short shake of Gregs head, "well they do. Called the Corona Polentia and the Corona Gemma. Pollentia for 'potential', and Gemma for after you've triggered. If you don't have the Pollentia then you just... don't. Can't."
Greg let out a messy sigh, sitting in the chair facing his friend. He knew what triggering entailed, he had come across that potential land mine early on in his investigation. 'Why don't the capes tell us how to get powers?' The answer had shaken him once he had found out. There was no 'powers in a bottle', no secret training regimen that would unlock such feats. It was simply based on having the 'worst day of your life'. This was quickly reasoned down to an extreme build up of tension, to a lesser degree for second generation capes.
"And you?"
"The machines at least think I'm clean, the normal tech no tinker crap. Well, my normal human form anyway," Sparky explained. "Weird thing is, scanning equipment can't seem to 'see' me when I'm changed. I'm willing to bet the sames for you. The stupid things couldn't see my gem either, which considering I have a chunk of rock jutting out of me is a bit worrying."
Greg sat in silence for a few seconds, gathering his thoughts.
"So anyway," Sparky broke the silence, "Mom took me to the hospital, got my scans done, then took me back once I changed back. De nada. Nothing going. So now this is me, powers and all."
"So... Are you gonna be a hero?" Greg asked, sinking back into his chair.
"What?" Sparky snapped in a disbelieving tone. "Heck no man, you know me. Just cause I got powers now doesn't mean I have any weak handed responsibility or nothing."
Greg nodded, knowing full well his friends stance on the Spider-Man motto. He should have expected it, but Sparky very well might have changed his tune once getting said powers... Apparently nope. As he had exquisitely stated in the past, 'If you expect me to have the responsibility to fight crime if I can shoot acid out of my ass, then I can very well expect the same of anyone who can go out and buy a gun.'
"Plus I promised mom I wouldn't," Sparky elaborated.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, you know how she is, she didn't think I would anyway but she made sure to talk to me about it. Basically, if I want to go out heroing or anything I have to join the Wards-"
"What?"
"Nuh! Shush! I don't want to join the Wards, so I'll just keep my nose clear of any trouble."
"Huh," Greg let out, "So... Have you built anything yet?"
A curious expression crept over the blue maidens face, Sparkys head tilting slightly as he stared at his friend. "Build?" He nearly whispered out before a look of shock raced through his eyes. "Wait, wait wait! Can you do this?" He asked, reaching over to grab a water bottle off his desk. A quick turn of the cap exposed the contents, which swiftly swam out into the open air between them.
Greg stared, eyeing the trails of water as his friend formed them into an approximation of the LOZ triforce. He gathered his words, and let out a pitiful sounding "No." He swallowed to regain his voice, "I can not do... That. I can do this though," he stated sarcastically, levitating a small button pin off of his friends dresser. The text on the front proudly declared 'The truth is out there!' "Ferrokinesis."
"Sure it's not magnesis?" Sparky cut in.
"Fairly sure. Doesn't magnitize stuff, can't feel magnetic fields, and I can pick up ALL metals," Greg boasted, a slight swell in his chest, "even the ones that aren't affected by metals. Magnets, whatever."
"Damn," Sparky let out, siphoning the water back into the mouth of the bottle. "I could have sworn she was just hovering cameras around with water. So you were floating them around with metal bending? Awesome."
"Her..." Greg muttered in slight confusion. "Oh, so you saw the video-"
"Of course I saw the fucking video man!" Sparky belted out, a manic expression gracing his face. "That shits everywhere right now! People on PHO are throwing theories left and right, according to them you're anything from a case 53 to a ward that's still under wraps to a tink...er..." He trailed off, drilling Greg with a piercing gaze. "Are you really a fucking tinker too?"
Greg nodded, causing his friend to seemingly deflate as he let the recapped bottle fall to the floor with a hollow thud. "Maaaaaan, that shits unfair. You got tinker powers too? Fuck man, that just... Fuck. All I got is the rinky dink water floating and water wings... Well, as well as the," he paused, altering his voice to sound more 'trailer fuel epic', "Mythic and overwhelming force... Of the cloooothes beam," he drawled, dragging his hands down his front as his dress reformed into a onesie jumpsuit similar in design to Gregs own. Blue, but similar. "But seeing as you have changer powers too that's not really all that unique..." He trailed off, noticing Gregs dumbfounded expression.
"How!?" Greg choked out, waving his arms frantically as he tried to gather his thoughts. "How you do dis?"
"Uh..." Sparky paused.
"And if you even so much as say 'back tingles' I will do my best to cycle all my future burps through your room before releasing them unto the great wide world beyond," he threatened. Certain inane DBS bullshit didn't need to be perpetuated, even in jokes. That shit just had to die.
"I just willed it? Green lantern clothes powers, man. What, can't you?"
Greg was silent as he contemplated his friends words. 'Just will it'? He shut his eyes, concentrating. It wasn't like he had exactly tried in the first place, he just tried to change back and forth between forms. So... 'just will it'. He pictured the exact same clothes he was wearing, and subtly... Tweaked it. He felt something actively resist inside, something screeching in mock outrage. Like a puffed up old man 'strawman' in a movie spouting lines like 'most unorthodox!'
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He opened his eyes once the sensation settled, looking down at himself. The onesie was the same as it ever was (still covered by the judiciously applied 'clothing modifier'. Wear ones mistakes with pride, and all that noise.), save for a very specific change. The green accents were now blue, mirroring the design as well as the color.
"Huh," he let out along with a breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding. "Wait, why did I spend so much time with the limb enhancer if I could just magic them up out of nothing?" He snarled out in barely held frustration.
"No idea what that is, but if it's armor of any kind it doesn't really work all that well," Sparky calmly explained. "At least mine doesn't." He got up slowly, scooting his beanbag back a foot. The clothing surrounding him changed once more, a dim glow that slowly suffused into a suit of western looking plate armor. He raised a hand, pressing it into the shoulder pauldren. Said piece of sturdy looking metal bent inwards, folding like cloth. "Just ends up looking like its the real deal. Not exactly bullet proof."
Greg nodded as his friend returned his clothing to 'normal', sweeping the bell of his skirt out as he fell back bodily onto his beanbag. Greg idly tried forming a gauntlet of burnished metal around his left arm, looking on in stark confusion as a metallic green sheet of armor encapsulated said limb. It seemed like green and black was the default. Hmm. A poke confirmed that yes, it was still fabric and not actually metal.
"So," Greg started, "How about you just tell me what all powers you've found out, and then I'll tell you if any of those are what I've found. If we find anything different, then hey! Bonus." Quick information salvos were what Greg thrived on, especially if they could shore up each other's lack of knowledge from some vague nugget of information they might have found.
"Ok," Sparky agreed, leaning over slightly to pick up a shoebox from his bedside table. His 'happy' box. "First off, drugs don't work when I'm not normal. I can still breath it in, but it don't do shit. Sucks, too. Don't have to breathe so I could have just kept a cloud in for evar."
"You don't have to breathe?" Greg interrupted, in the process of trying to get letters to form words on the front of his uniform. So far he had managed to get out the phrases 'eat my shorts' and 'don't have a cow'. He followed up his question by blowing out a huge breath, and sealing his lips shut. A hand reached up to seal his nostrils, just in case.
"Uh, yeah. Not sure how anesthetics would work if at all, but yeah, drugs don't seem to do anything. Mom wouldn't let me test if the same went for booze... Moving on, changer powers, as previously discussed, water wings which let me hover above the ground- NO, I don't consider it flight. I can barely get myself a foot off, and carrying anything just puts that much more of a strain on it. No rides," he warned, fixing Greg with a careful glare. "Past that, just basic hydro power as well as hammer space..."
"Like this?" Greg asked, abandoning the attempt to test his lung capacity. It appeared moot at this point, not even a slight strain no matter how long he waited. An interesting power, but not an altogether useful one. He instead reached up and grabbed a copy of the proto gauntlet out of his gem. He then decided to have a bit of a gaff, pulling another copy out with his free hand. "It's not really a true hammer space though, is it? Just copies..."
Sparky leaned forward, both to get a better view as well as uncovering his back. He reached behind himself, pulling what looked like his wallet out in front of him in a fluid motion. "Nope, mines a straight bottomless pocket. How are you doing that?" He gestured his wallet at the leftmost copy, before Greg dispersed it in a wave of glowing motes.
"I shoved my finished prototype in, and now I can only pull out dupes," he sheepishly elaborated.
Sparky nodded, "Tinker tech, right? Did you try putting anything else in? Anything... Normal?"
"Didn't want to risk losing it," Greg admitted.
"No prob, just use something you wouldn't mind losing," Sparky prompted, fishing a penny up off the floor. He flicked it across to Greg, the unfortunate teen almost falling from his perch as he juggled the minuscule object.
Hand firmly around the pathetic denomination of currency, Greg reached up and tried to shove it into his gem. The metal clinked against the solid surface, prompting an exasperated look from the azure haired member of such a bizarre scene.
"Try imagining that you're putting it in a slot like in Minecraft, that's what I did. Just like a grid based slot system," Sparky chuckled.
Greg closed his eyes once more, the surface of the penny slick against his gem. "I dunno man, maybe this is just another difference like the water powers, I'm not feeling anything like with my-" Greg cut off, the tips of his fingers sticking a half inch within his gem. He let go and withdrew his hand, staring at the empty appendage. "Huh."
He could feel it now, a space of his memory insisting that it was where she should put stuff, of course it was! A peridot had to have an ordered, organized mind. Just imagine if everything was a mess, she'd never be able to find anything when she needed it! Like this... primitive excuse for a proper limb enhancer. And this near worthless form of 'money', it wasn't even really useful as the base components. At least she still had the dress she made for-
"Ugh," Greg grunted, holding his head in his hands as he gathered his thoughts.
"You okay?" Sparky asked.
The bedroom door opened.
Sparkys mom dragged her gaze from her son to Greg, stuck frozen as he tried to formulate an excuse. She disapprovingly eyed the 'happy box', before bringing a plate heaped with cookies into view.
"It's not contagious, is it?" She asked meekly. "I baked cookies... Thought you... boys might like something to snack on," she carried onwards, apparently desperate to regain a sense of normalcy.
"Doubt it," Sparky muttered, accepting the plate as he shifted back to normal. "Sorry Greg, should have locked the door. You don't mind if my mom knows, right?"
"Yeah, I mean no, nah, I don't mind? Can you not tell your husband though? Unless absolutely nessasary?" He pleaded, his own form quickly shifting back faster than even Sparkys had.
"I won't lie for you," she grunted, "but I won't out you either. No sense in all of that now, is there? So... Will you be staying for dinner?"
"Maybe?" Greg admittedly hadn't planned long term on his current visit, having intended to just drop the bombshell on his friend and seeing where it went from there. His mom probably wouldn't mind, he had sleepovers at his friends house all the time. She worked late anyways, this way she wouldn't have to cook him dinner around eight at night. "I'll give her a call, unless I come down and say otherwise just assume she said yeah, okay?" he wheedled.
"Mm," she nodded, fixing him with a terse gaze. "I'll be starting in the next half hour or so, so please be prompt." With that, she turned and left.
----------------------------------------
Greg woke slowly, a 'just right' mass of pillow clenched tightly under his hands. It exuded a comforting warmth, without being to oppressively hot. He slowly tore his eyes open, gunk clouding his sight as he let out a mighty yawn. What the hell happened last night? It didn't feel like his bed, too narrow. Plus, a thread of sunlight would be clawing its way through his blinds, torturously trying to burn through his eyelids.
Stupid sun, why couldn't it just bugger off and let him sleep more. Greg looked at his pillow trough a cracked eye, studying the blue expanse. Weird. He didn't have a blue pillowcase, his was black. It had stylized white dragons on it. Dragons were cool.
He had stayed for dinner, he remembered that much. Then Sparky dared him to try and find a limit to how much food he could eat. Sparkys mom told him off and said not to 'eat her out of house and home'... Greg had stayed later, watching two movies with his friend and ending the evening by lazily watching an old tv show on netflicks...
He peered closer at his pillow.
'That's no moon', his mind traitorously supplied. He jerked upright, staring at the still softly snoozing form of his best friend. 'What? How?' Were on the forefront of his mind, along with the traitorous though that maybe he could still go back to bed. She had been comfy, after all...
No! Bad end lies this way! Straight friends do not mack on their other straight friends! Even if they look like a totally hot blue skinned babe... Focus! How could he fall asleep like this, they were only chilling out and watching tv! How could 'netflicks and chill' ever have led him astray, such a pure pastime that had never let him down before...
His friend grunted, a body wide shiver as she reached for her errant heat source.
Nope.
Greg plastered himself against the other end of the couch, and pretended to still be asleep.
The morning continued relatively normally, at the very least Sparky seemed to not be aware of last nights ending. Once they were both fully awake, they began plans for the day. 'Wanna do anything' turned into 'wanna go see a movie?' Which quickly led to the biggest find of the day.
Camp Pining Hearts. A trashy, badly acted tv show that Greg was hopeless enthralled with. Thankfully, his friend had just as much appreciation for the trainwreck as he did, allowing himself someone to talk about it with. The movie had come out earlier that month, prompting a wave of disappointment from both of the boys. They couldn't very well go and see it in theatres, it was a romance riddled affair. Not quite a chick flick, but still. They couldn't very well go and see it with each other, if anyone saw them it'd ruin their reputation for months. Teenagers were vicious little bastards. Couldn't very well hang about and watch it on the job, either.
They had resigned themselves to waiting the half a year until they could download it illegally. Or order it from wallmart, or something.
Now, Greg realized they had a fool proof disguise! Two girls would be given a much less strict eye than two guys going and seeing such a movie together, even if they were as obviously cape as could be. When Sparky had leveled the point 'what about changing back?' With the express desire for no one to tie them back to his mom, Greg had dropped the bombshell.
Teleporter pads. He only had single use ones that he could carry with him, but they could port to his newly constructed public pad! It was only a block and a half from the movie theatre, and from there they could just change back at his place. Wasn't like anyone could follow them through...
Plans made, the two set out with fire in their hearts.
Faces sallow and drawn, they both exited the movie. Ignoring the pointed whispering regarding the 'two capes' within the crowds midst, they conversed amongst themselves.
"I can't believe they saddled Sarah with Brian," Greg whined, pawing at the hem of his shirt. He had managed to customize it how he had wanted, finishing the mustard yellow shirt off with the text 'If Lost Please Return To Lapis'. "She was obviously into Jake, but then whoosh! Cassie and Rachel right the heck out of nowhere!"
"I was rooting for Marco and Rachel, they were obviously a god couple," Sparky agreed, "But nope, they had to screw it up.
It was a slightly disappointing outcome, but hey. The transition from tv show format to full theatrical movie is almost never without consequences.
"Wanna get Fuglies?" Greg offered.
"Hell yes."
Authors Notes;
Adorable [https://78.media.tumblr.com/7fa2e0c88e3889ff5da246fdf374571f/tumblr_ochfvzMqT61ry51fdo1_500.png]
Come on, with a picture like this nugget of gold, how could I not?
*giggles maniacally*