He watched the fracas lead ever on down the street, the sounds of chaotic and frenzied escape dying off the further the trio ran from his position. A man he recognized as a villain belonging to one of the more vile gangs littering the port bound city, Krieg. A low end strength and durability boost, as well as some sort of kinetic redirection manipulation. Nothing too overpowered in the grand scheme of things -heck, he was fairly certain that he could take the cape if need be with relatively little effort- but still not the type of individual that one of the newly awakened could be expected to take on their own.

He readied himself, letting loose a terse breath as he proceeded to do what no sane individual should do, especially if they happened to live in Brockton Bay. Run toward a cape fight in progress.

"Hey kid, you crazy?" A man he raced past called out as he sped by.

He dug a burner phone out of his pocket, flashing the crappy flip phone above his head for the nosey passerby. The cheap piece of plastic and metal could barely make phone calls, but the random passerby didn't have to know that. "No way I'm missing this!" He inanely called out over his shoulder.

There, the perfect disguise for a disillusioned populace. No longer was he a potential 'cape' racing towards a fight with the intention of participating. Now he was just another dumbass teenager in their eyes, risking his life for a couple minutes of fame. What else would he do with a phone, but try to capture video of a cape fight?

"You're gonna get yourself killed!" an old man called out from a storefront.

Predictable as clockwork.

It was surprising what continued to persist as normal, even throughout the years. If one saw naught but a teenager, then they would oft expect nothing more than the mindset of such.

"Shit," he muttered to himself, eyes scanning back and forth along the street and side alleys for a secluded area. Most everyone's eyes were glued to the ongoing struggle of the would be 'master race' to hit the mans fleeing targets. Despite that, it would be the utmost of foolishness to assume there wouldn't be some stragglers eyes following him as he tried to don a disguise. Cameras everywhere, at that.

Gaze tracking to the roof of a nearby building, he felt himself gasp in surprise as he skidded to a stop.

The pink lion carrying it's precious cargo spared him a single glance, as if to acknowledge his presence and the years that had passed since their previous contact. The women riding the lion were oblivious of Lions gaze, their own focused ever onwards on the prey they had selected.

"Hm."

He slowly walked back down the street, making for his house. The passerby jostled his shoulders as he passed, leaving him with mocking jibes regarding how he had apparently decided against risking his life for a couple seconds of blurry, shaky video depicting a zoomed in fight scene. He took them on the chin, laughing along with those he passed. It was harmless, and in the end it would serve no purpose to return their words with ire filled ones of his own.

He returned home, the carefree demeanor he held cast off as soon as he had secured the door behind him. The weight of the world fell once more upon him, the memory of ages gone by refusing him any solace. He made his way to the study, grasping a book contained on the bookshelf and tilting it towards himself. The levers connected to the underside of the facade creaked with their displeasure, but the mechanism within responded regardless.

The floor beneath him descended, the hidden elevator carrying him ever downwards. The floor above his head shifted back together, once more hiding the secret shaft. Concealed within the inner reaches of their base, he allowed himself a low sigh. He reached a hand inside the collar of his shirt, twisting a series of knobs and sliders on the amulet he wore within. The dusky tan of his skin receded, leaving behind stretches of untainted pink. Not the caucasian tint of a normal human, but the same shade adorning the lion he had seen only minutes before.

The doors at the bottom silently slid open, and he made his way onwards. At this time of day, she would be in...

He stopped at the third doorway, smiling once he saw who was inside. A short woman in her late twenties, with lines etched out from her eyes from a lifetime spent smiling. Her pink tinged hair spilled forth from her crown, falling just short of the start of her legs. Her skin held the same tint as his own, though he would always claim she wore it better.

"Sadie," he called out, startling her as her paintbrush dipped wildly, leaving a smear of green across the painted bowl of fruit she had been concentrating so hard upon.

"Lars!" she returned, unperturbed by the minor snafu. "You're back early, or did I lose track of time again?"

Lars smiled, watching the visage of his childhood friend mirror his own. "I'm back early, had better things to do than keep track of a couple crack heads."

"Oh?"

The two long time lovers embraced, their kiss lingering far shorter on their lips than either quite cared for.

"Yeah. It's the big times," Lars confirmed, his expression turning serious.

"Garnets predictions... It's happening. They've started to awaken."

----------------------------------------

"Hey man, the fuck is that?"

Josh stopped what he was doing, Turing to look fully at his long time friend, he cocked an eyebrow as he returned his friends abrupt tone. "Gravity diffuser field generator. We put these on the karts, and we'll be able to go zipping around at seventy miles without feeling a single g! Speaking of, did you decide which character you were going to be? If you're gonna be Donkey Koong then the suit will be able to fit more tech, but I really think it'd be funny if you went as Peach or Daisy..."

"You can crossdress if you want, I'm feeling a bit Bowser actually. And that's not what I was asking about. What the hell is that?" With this, he pointed directly at Josh.

"My face," Josh replied evenly, tapping his ear with the wrench he had been using to tweak the stabilizer. "I realize I'm unfathomable more handsome than you can ever hope to be, such to the point where you gaze upon my brilliance and are struck dumb..."

Trevor leaned forward, and before Josh could react poked him hard in the face. That normally would have been bad enough, but for where he had been poked...

"Ahhh! My friggin eye! What the fuck man!" He snarled, before he could even think about stopping himself. He swiftly wound down, pawing at his face as a stark realization hit him. His friend has poked him, directly in the eye. Despite that, he could quite plainly feel a blatant absence of pain from the ocular socket. "The fuck?" His pawing became more frenzied as his fingers came into contact with what his friend had seen. "The hell is this?"

"You have a friggin rock in your eye!" Trevor shouted, panic lacing his words as he stared at the finger that had touched said stone in disgust.

"There's a rock in my face!"

"Why the heck is there a rock in your face?!" Trevor continued his panicked assault on his friends ears. "What did you do? Am I going to start growing crystals out of my face? What the heck did you make?"

"Mirror, mirror, mirror," Josh huffed, digging through a utility chest. He found his prize moments later, an old compact mirror he had dug out of a dumpster a year past. It had been useful when applying the eyeshadow for their batman suits. Makeup was a crucial part to any costume that had portions of their faces visible. "I didn't make anything that would do anything like this. At least it shouldn't," he groused. "It's bad enough that half my shit blows up in my face, now it's started restructuring it, too? What the hell does a G defuser have to do with transitional transmutation of organic material into peridot?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

~=~

She sat among a litter of canines, each eagerly coming forth to sniff and play. They first were shocked by her sudden new appearance, but her smell was apparently similar enough as well as the half growled commands she had trained into their heads since the first night she had brought each one into her tight family.

The gem had been there on the back of her hand when she had woken up, the crimson sheen standing stark against her pale skin. She hadn't thought much of it, if it was dangerous then the one who talked too much would say something about it. She was always yapping on about the most unimportant of things, like a puppy that hadn't been trained not to.

After the change had overtaken her body, she had floundered for but a few seconds before she had rallied. So what if she was smaller and shorter? She was still just as strong, if not stronger. She could feel heat flowing through her limbs, giving her strength. The dogs could still see that she was herself, and so she would continue as if nothing was wrong.

The only thing amiss... Even amongst the pack she had formed, had protected, had saved... She felt lonely for some reason she couldn't properly ascertain.

~=~

Ethan sat with his back to the wall, stewing in the silence given by the room around him. Three hours he had been sequestered in a tidy M/S room, having checked himself in upon discovering his transformation -in the middle of walking through the common room- and prevented himself from devolving into hysterics.

"Ethan?" The intercom crackled to life near the door.

"... Hey Colin," he tiredly replied.

"Any changes?" Trust the stick in the mud to be all business. Truth be told, Ethan was thankful for any spare bit of normalcy he could get his hands on.

"Nope," Ethan groused. "Still... female. No changes."

"Any mental abnormalities so far?" Colin continued, as if he was reading the billeted points off of a list. Knowing him, he probably was.

"Nothing beyond the usual terror I would hopefully find upon learning my mini-Ethan decided to disappear..."

"Crass jokes aside," the voice on the other side of the intercom continued, nonplussed at Ethan's attempt to relieve some of his mounting stress, "Any further physical changes?"

"No. Purple body, chunk of amethyst in my shoulder. Nothing new. Pretty kickass rockstar hair, though..." He mused, running a hand through the large bush of hair that had sprouted from his head. The swathe of hair grew long, right down the length of his back.

"The hair was previously noted, Ethan. Any urges, odd sensations since last time?"

"Nothing new,"

Did the world just hate him, to land him with such a fate? Ethan groaned, resigning himself to the torturous future hours.

At least he was the only one showing symptoms so far. They thought at first that it might have been some sort of master power transmitted via Peridot due to the significance of the gemstone, but Ethan hadn't even met the cape yet. So that hypothesis was most likely inaccurate.

At least it was just him, for now.

~=~

The man looked down at his hand, knife resting on the soft tinted flesh beneath. The week had progressed as normal as previous weeks, an uninterrupted stint of carnal approval. There had been that family at the greasy spoon they had passed a few days ago, they had sated the Girl for a while. The Worm had taken a greater amount of effort to quell his whining, but passing nearby a nuclear power plant had worked wonders. A quick bath in a spilled mess of nuclear waste had made the disgusting thing act happy as a puppy.

The Nudist was unfatigueable, simple standing by with a placid smile forever stretched across her face as she lounged against the side of their stolen conveyance. It wasn't like that football team was going to use the bus anymore. The Girl had made sure of that. They all made such lovely floral arrangements, of that he was sure.

The Shatterer and the Burned were the easiest to placate by far, simply point them at a male with passing resemblance to their former flings and they would go to town for an hour or two. It truly was a blessing to be able to witness the twisted anguish that flitted across their faces when a lance of ground glass slowly tore it's way out of their insides, or when they slowly cooked within their own skins.

The Ugly was far less labor intensive. You could simply put any woman in front of the brute and he would go to town. He was slightly happier to receive a poor cape instead of a mundane, but he didn't truly care. Flesh was flesh.

The Lover was the hardest to satisfy, the dumb broad still thinking herself untouchable. She whined and cajoled, childishly instant on her particular selection of venue. Males, the richer the better. Sure, their billfolds were a boon to their ever onward path of 'holy' purpose, but the Lovers insistence on keeping her toys around for so long was taxing on his patience.

They had recently passed by into a small town, a rinky dink nowhere kind of affair. He had woken same as every day before, yet with a crucial difference. A pale dome of crystal alighted upon his brow. A polished oval of pearl, sunken down into the skin such as that when he had tried to cut it out, he found that the surface of said crystal extended far beyond just a simple dome.

"I can't understand it," the Girl complained, looking up at him with her told clutched tight in her little hands. "It's there, and yet it isn't. It extends beyond the depth of the skull, but it doesn't extend into the brain itself, nor does it disrupt the natural curvature of your skull. It doesn't make any sense."

"But it's not harming me?" He ventured, eager to make sure.

"Not that I can tell. If anything, your epidermis and skeletal structure is stronger? Again, I'm not sure how. There's no new tissue, nothing's denser, it's just... Tougher." the Girl crunched up her adorable little face, pale blonde ringlets bouncing with her consternation.

The day continued, nothing more of interest to note. Reaching a stopping point, they drove up and parked behind a motel. A quick bout of pest extermination, and the rooms were theirs for the night.

He stood silently in the motel bathroom, poking upward at the pearl that had encroached upon his personal space.

"What the hell are you?" he questioned, not truthfully expecting a response. The Girl hadn't felt the presence of another cape on the jewel, stating that it had felt like him, but more. Whatever more could possibly mean. "You show up out of nowhere, and you do nothing more than just sit there. What purpose do you have?"

A fit of childish whimsy struck him, focusing on the gem. He felt himself pushing at it from within, as if there was a a flimsy wall he could but shove aside. He felt his body shift, a rush similar to his power flow out to his extremities. He peered once more into the mirror before him, momentarily startled by the feminine features therein.

A wave of familiarity passed as he continued to gaze at a face he was positive he had never laid eyes on before. A memory, a hidden longing raced through his limbs.

"Her," he growled, the voice coming through what should have been his mouth a dangerous lilt. "I almost forgot her," he mused, dainty fingers tracing an equally dainty chin, "Her... I can't remember... Who?" Questioning the face in the mirror did no good. She didn't know, and refused to tell him anything.

He resolved there, that he would not rest. Not until he found her. Until her found her, he wouldn't feel complete.

"I'm coming, my dear."

----------------------------------------

She puttered around the room, twisting dials and flicking switches in an irritated manner. Grumbling under her breath, she kept her voice down despite knowing that there was no longer anyone else to disturb with her ire.

She was alone.

“This…” she started, struggling to be put into words the ever gnawing depth of her isolation. What was it the halfbreed had used to say? … “This sucks,” she admitted, hanging her head in frustration.

Her wandering feet found her once more in front of the main machine, the centerpiece of her lab. It's size dwarfed everything else in the already gargantuan sized bunker, even towering above the building sized mech-suits she had once touted as her greatest achievement.

“Trash,” she muttered, turning from that which she once claimed as pinnacles of her creative genius. “Pointless, worthless, meaningless…”

She stared down at the last. A small disk, the transient liquid inside a radiant blue that seemingly swirled with light from within. The light was no more bright than any of the other hundreds of thousands that had come before it, shuttled off to places unknown. Despite this, the light within this blue disk held that much more than any other.

It was special. She was special.

Peridot reached forward, freeing the disk from its socket and cradling it in her nerveless hands. So small, yet its potential so endlessly fathomless.

Peridot jerked in surprise, noting that her sight was becoming obscured. There was… ‘liquid’ staining the inside of her visor.

“What the,” she stuttered, her voice coming choppier than she ever believed possible. Reaching up she dispelled her visor, fat droplets falling free to crash upon the disk in her hands. “Darn it Lapis, I'm leaking,” she chortled mirthlessly, the smile she desperately was trying to force to her lips refusing to come.

Why? Why did she have to be so stubborn, so foolhardy?

“Why couldn’t you just… stay with me?” she let out in a near whisper, bowing her head under the weight of it all.

“Can… can you promise me something? Please?” she asked, knowing she would never receive the response she so desperately craved. “Whoever you are… after this… whoever I am…” she stopped, the ever coming watery dredges of her shame falling freely from her eyes. “Please… find me. Please… don’t leave me alone again.”

With a titanic burst of will, she jammed the disk forward, back into its socket. Without looking she slammed her clenched fist into the button beside what used to be the gem that was her everything.

It was anticlimactic, a slight whine of sound without even a flash of light to signal the departure of the gem that once was Lapis Lazuli.