Shapeshifter
Chapter 2

Copyright© 2014 by aubie56

There was nothing special about today's game. Billy played his usual sterling defense and got two hits, with one RBI (Run Batted In). However, they lost. This didn't bother Billy so much, since he was only playing for fun. On the other hand, his coach took the loss very seriously.

What did interest Billy was that the bully showed up wanting his clothes. The coach would not give them to him until Billy okayed it. The bully was very unpopular, and Billy was suddenly even more popular than ever when the word got around that Billy was the reason the bully was walking around in his underwear.

One day, Ann ran up as Billy was leaving the baseball diamond. She was crying and looked very disheveled—nothing like the normally happy Ann. "Billy, you've got to help us!"

"Sure Ann, I'll help you. What's the problem."

"A bunch of boys have surrounded a group of us girls who were headed home from the mall. They pulled us into that grove of trees over there and they are treating us something awful. I'm still not sure how I escaped, but I ran to find you as soon as I did.

"Please hurry! All of the girls have had their panties pulled off, and I ran away before I got mine back. Angela was treated real rough, one boy stuck two fingers up her vagina, and she is still bleeding."

"OK, Ann, I'll go see what I can do. You stay out of the way, because I am going to call on Genie for help." Genie, please boost me like you did for my fight with the bully, Jerry Edwards.

Very well, Master. I'll stay alert to help you in other ways as you might need me.

Billy began to run toward the trees. There was no way to know how fast he moved, but he was nearly to the trees before Ann could think of anything to say. He was running at a good 40 MPH (Miles per Hour), if not faster. He was there in time to see two boys holding a girl by her arms while another one lifted her dress over her head. As Ann had reported, the girl had already lost her panties, and she was bleeding from her crotch.

Billy went into overdrive when he saw that. There were four girls and seven boys among the trees. Billy drove into the boy lifting the dress off the bleeding girl and hit him in the waist with his shoulder. The pile-driver effect of the blow drove that boy into one of the boys holding the girl's arms. Both went down and neither one moved.

Billy turned his attention to the other boy holding the girl's arm. A sweeping kick into the side of the boy's knee broke the knee joint and put the boy down for good. The girl fell on top of him, furthering injuring the damaged knee.

Four boys were left. Billy never slowed down. He ran to them and used the side of his hand to hit a place under the ear. He did not want to kill the boys by shattering their windpipes, but he did want to put them out of action long enough for the police to arrive.

Ann had had the presence of mind to call 911. It took about 10 minutes for the first cop to arrive, but the seven boys were still out by the time they arrived. The only apparent damage to Billy was a lightly bruised hand when he had caught too much skull with one of his swings. The damage was only cosmetic, done by Genie to disguise Billy's invulnerability. At first, one of the cops were going to arrest Billy for fighting on city property, but he was mobbed by the girls who threatened to injure him seriously if he did something as stupid as that.

Once the full story was given, Billy was deemed the hero that he really was. All of the boys were arrested and guarded by cops as they were taken to the ER (Emergency Room) of the nearest hospital. There, it was determined that five of the boys had severe concussions, one boy had six broken ribs and a punctured spleen, and one boy had a knee so badly damaged that it would have to be replaced.

Billy was recognized as the one who had rescued the girls and was interviewed for TV. He insisted that he had simply used martial arts skills that he had learned at home, so he scraped by the interview. Not so when his parents saw the interview on the news that night.

They knew that Billy had no such training, so his parents cornered him and grilled him until Billy confessed. He told them of the incident in the little cave and did several shape shifting transformations for them. As predicted, his mother wanted to rush him to the ER to be thoroughly examined by every doctor in town to be sure that he was not somehow badly ill. For the first time in his life, Billy defied his mother, and his father, to Billy's surprise, backed him up—no ridiculously unnecessary trip to the ER. Elsie stomped out of the room in a huff, but was soon back with an agreement to go along, but without a real change of heart. Billy settled for what he could get.

At first, Billy had to live through an armed truce with his mother, but she came around by the end of the week, so things were pretty much back to normal. Nevertheless, Billy did continue to get some piercing looks from his mother when she thought that he wasn't looking. Elsie was just a natural worry-wart and it took a lot of convincing before she would drop a concern she had over her children.

The summer rolled along as most summers do, with the kids playing or working. Gradually, the inevitability of school returning reared its head. Some kids looked forward to the event, and other kids dreaded the event, but the first day of the school year arrived at the same time, no matter what an individual felt about it.

Ann looked forward to the 7th Grade with eager anticipation, while Billy was justifiably cautious about the 8th Grade. Ann, who'd had friends all over the Elementary School, was expecting the same thing from Middle School. Billy, on the other hand, had a few friends in his grade, but had the attention of bullies at every grade level. Just like Ann, Billy was expecting the usual experience from his new grade as he had been through previously.

However, much to Billy's surprise, the kids still remembered his rescue of the girls from the gang of older boys that day during the summer, so he was not quite the obvious target for bullies that he had been. Besides, he had shown enough skill in basketball and baseball that the respective coaches were hoping that he would join their teams. Billy's reception on the first day of school was much more pleasant than he had ever before experienced. Kids he hardly knew greeted Billy by name and seemed to want to be pleasant to him. Strangely, he never saw a bully on that day, a first for his school career.

As was the usual practice, the first day of school was only half a day long. The kids just went through the motions of getting from one class to another, and the teachers made sure that the right kids were in the right class rooms. Tomorrow would be a different matter, with the beginning of normal lectures, etc. Lockers were assigned to the new arrivals and the old hands were assigned their same locker from the previous year. This was normally one of Billy's biggest problems, since, and it was purely by chance, he always seemed to get a locker within striking distance of his worst tormentors.

As it happened, these kids seemed to avoid any contact with Billy, at least on this first day, so Billy was in a much better mood than usual when he left school that day. He met Ann where she was talking to new and old friends, and the two of them walked home that day. They both had bicycles that they normally rode to school, but the kids were asked to leave their bicycles home that first day if they weren't essential to cut down on the confusion around the school.

Ann and Billy decided to take a "shortcut" home, even though they knew that it was one of those places that they should avoid. It was what amounted to the corner of an abandoned industrial district, and it was a hothouse of drug use and prostitution. "Nice people" just did not go there!

The kids were about to exit the district when they met three young men in their 20s who had obviously been availing themselves of something illegal. The men stepped in front of the kids and one demanded, "OK, twerps, give us all of your money if you know what's good for you!"

Immediately, Billy heard from his genie. Master, how do you want to handle this? It is obvious that they mean to do you harm, whether or not you give them money.

Yeah, I can see that. Let's have some fun. Convert me into a full size Lizard Man, and let's see what happens.

With a puff of displaced air, the small child suddenly converted into the eight-foot-tall Lizard Man, with the associated bulk to go with such a large figure. Ann was as startled as the three thugs, but she backed off to watch the fun.

Lizard Man's fingers were capped with claws about two inches long, so they made a fearsome weapon on their own. Billy flexed his hands and said in his most dominating voice, "Ah, some tender meat for me to snack on for lunch. Which of you fools wants to be the first to sample my wrath?"

All three of the men shit in their pants at the sight of Lizard Man. His skin consisted of green scales on his back and arms and yellow ones on his chest. Lizard Man normally wore nothing but a sort of Speedo shorts in bright red over his crotch. This near nudity was intimidating as one could see the scales covering the superhero's body and the bulge between his thighs, suggesting a most impressive part of his anatomy.

Being careful not to break any skin, Billy grabbed the two outside men of the three in line and smacked them together against the middle one hard enough to bang their heads and to stun them. The men were not completely unconscious, but they were not able to do anything to protect themselves, either.

There was an unused water tower nearby, so Billy wrapped one of his arms around the three thugs and climbed the water tower to the inspection walkway at the top. There he left the three men to figure out how to get back down on their own. The trip down would be safe enough if the men were careful, but they would certainly have to sober up to make the descent.

Ann may well have been in worse shape than the thugs, because she was laughing so hard. Still in his guise as Lizard Man, Billy took Ann's hand and led her into an alley. There, he changed back into his normal form and they walked the rest of the way home. They didn't make very fast time because they kept laughing at the adventure with the three thugs. They wondered how the three men were going to explain to themselves and each other how their experience with the TV cartoon character had actually happened.

Elsie demanded to know why they were so late getting home, so Ann told her. Between laughs, the mother halfheartedly berated her children for walking where they knew they were not supposed to go. Later, upon reflection, Elsie realized that there was very little that she needed to worry about as long as Billy was there to look after Ann.

That night in bed, the two kids speculated on what it would be like if Billy ever really did permanently assume the role of a superhero. And, assuming that he did do it, what persona should Billy assume. They came to no conclusion, but they did enjoy the speculation.

However, during her study hall time the next day, Ann spent the period with reference books looking up everything that she could find on shape shifters. Surprisingly, there was a lot of information in the library, but most of it was devoted to the mythos of werewolves, vampires, and other such monsters. It was obvious that they were going to have to invent their own character and story if Billy was going to become "Shape Shifter."

Of course, by being a shape shifter, Billy would not have to assume a fixed form unless he specifically wanted to. He could change from body to body in the blink of an eye, so maybe that was the persona he should take. Under normal circumstances, Billy could just look like his normal self, but, in an emergency, he could assume the body most appropriate to the occasion. That way, he could stand out, or he could blend in to the crowd, as he might choose for the current situation.

Ann realized that, to push the idea to a ridiculous extreme, Billy could assume the form of an intelligent hot air balloon to rescue somebody trapped on the roof of a tall building. The more she thought about the possibilities, the more mind boggling the ideas became. Finally, Ann laughed at herself. She was going to be late for her next class if she didn't get her ass in gear.

That afternoon, Billy got a surprise. He was summoned to the office during his study hall period and told to go talk to Coach Hanson, the basketball coach, down in the gym. Billy knew Coach Hanson from his summer excursions onto the basketball court at the park. Coach Hanson used to drop by occasionally to look over the chances for new talent.

When Billy got to the office in the gym, Coach Hanson was leaning back in his chair and had his feet propped up on his desk. He was obviously "resting his eyes."

"Excuse me, Coach Hanson. You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, Billy, come on in and have a seat over there." The coach pointed out a reasonably comfortable seat across the desk from him, and Billy sat in it. "Billy, we don't have a lot of time, so I'll get right to the point. You showed a lot of promise on the basketball court this summer, and I wondered if you had given any thought to trying out for the school basketball team."

"No, Sir, I had not thought about it. I figured that I was too short to do much good on a basketball team."

"Height is not necessarily a problem for a guard, Billy. You have the speed to do the job, and it looked to me like you could shoot better than most of the kids you were playing with. The school team has a couple of openings that we desperately need to fill. One is for a point guard and the other is for a shooting guard. What do you say, Billy? Are you willing to give it a try?"

"Gee, Coach Hanson, I'm flattered that you would ask me to try out for the team. Sure, I'm interested, but my family travels a lot on weekends. How would that fit in with the basketball team's schedule?"

"This is a middle school, so we don't do much traveling for games. Suppose I give you a copy of the schedule, and you talk it over with the rest of your family. See if they can fit their travels in with the team requirements. This is Wednesday, so I need your answer by Friday, the day after tomorrow. Can you do that?"

"I'm sure that I can let you know by then. I may even know tomorrow. If I do, I'll let you know as soon as I can. I really appreciate the invitation, and I'll do my best."

"Fine, Billy. But, remember, all I've done so far is ask you to try out. Whether or not you make the team depends on you. OK, you can go on back to your regular schedule, and I'll be looking forward to hearing your answer as soon as you can let me know."

Billy practically skipped on his way back to study hall. He had finally been asked to take part in a school activity. He was so happy that he hardly touched the ground for the rest of the day. Ann had to strain to keep up with him when they rode their bicycles home after school.

Billy dropped his bike in the front yard and burst into the house. "MOM, DAD, YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME, TODAY!"

Jim said, "Probably not, but it looks like we won't have to wait long to hear the news. I'll bet it's good news, too."

"Ha, ha, very funny, Dad. But it is good news, and it is big news! Coach Hanson, the basketball coach, called me into his office, today, and asked me to try out for the team as either a point guard or a shooting guard. I'm not real sure of the difference, but I want to give it a try. This is the first time I've ever had a chance like this!"

Elsie said, "But won't that interfere with our camping trips? I'd hate to give them up."

"I've got the schedule, Mom. Here, look it over and see if we can work around the time that I will have to show up for games."

Elsie and Jim looked over the schedule and compared the dates with their proposed camping trips. Jim commented, "Look, Honey, there is only one conflict, and I, for one, don't want to do anything to keep Billy from joining the team. We can reschedule or we can cancel our trip for that weekend—it makes no difference to me."

"Certainly, if it means that much to Billy, I'm sure that we can change to work it in. Billy, I'm so proud of you. Your father and I will be at every game!"

"Thanks, Mom, Dad. I knew that I could depend on you!"

Later, when they were alone, Jim remarked, "Honey, this is exactly what we have been hoping for. Now, Billy has the chance to be a regular student, and not just a punching bag for the school bullies."

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