Chapter 14C

We had just pulled off the highway onto Highland Boulevard when we saw the wreck. It looked like a bad one. A green minivan had gone off the road, flipped and rolled down an embankment. The roof was crushed in and there was smoke or steam coming from the squashed engine compartment. We couldn't see anyone but a State Trooper on the scene. He was on his knees trying to look into the mashed up vehicle. The EMS unit hadn't arrived yet.

Neeka pulled over onto the shoulder in response to my urgent unspoken thought. She stopped a few feet behind the trooper's car and got out. I climbed out behind her. Sue got out as well.

"Sue, you wait here, OK. We'll be right back."

She nodded obediently and watched Neeka and I walk down the bank. I thought about suggesting to Neeka that she wait, too, but the mental picture I got for even considering that was a foot stuck halfway up my ass.

As we approached, the officer stood up and waved us off.

"You two get back up the bank, now. You don't belong here."

I flipped open my badge and he looked at it with the usual surprised expression.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"EMS is on the way, but the rescue truck is tied up at a house-fire a few miles away. They say they might be another 30 minutes getting here."

"Who's in the van?"

"A woman and her two kids. She's hurt pretty bad. I think her legs are broken. The kids are banged up a little and screaming their heads off, but they don't seem to be seriously injured."

"We've got to get them out of there."

"No shit. How? The roof supports have buckled and the whole top is closed up like a clamshell. You can barely get an arm in there."

"I'll do it. Do you have a blanket or something that we can use to keep the glass off of them."

"There's a blanket under the seat of my unit."

Neeka ran for it without me even thinking of it.

"But unless you have a hydraulic jack handy, there's no way we can pry that car apart."

I ignored him. There would be time for explanations later. Right now there were people who needed help and they were going to get it. I tranced and started dumping adrenalin into my system as fast as I could. This was going to be hard and I wanted it to be as quick as possible. I wanted them to be ready to go when the ambulance arrived.

I walked to the car and looked for a place to grab and a direction to pull. The windshield was in little pieces all over. Almost nothing remained on the minivan. The hole where it had been was a three-inch wide gap between the roof and the dashboard. The crumpled supports had twisted themselves into knots. It looked like the only way to get them out was to peel the roof off.

Neeka came up carrying the coarse gray blanket. I handed it to the patrolman.

"Cover them as best you can and hold them still. I'll make this quick."

He looked like he wanted to ask questions, but he knew that time was critical and he must have figured if I thought I could do something, he would go along. He crawled as close as he could to the victims and pushed the blanket inside the wreck as far as possible. I faintly heard him offering the woman assurances that we were doing everything we could to get her out and to hold on.

I took a couple of deep breaths and hopped up on the mangled hood. I stuck my toes into the gap and bent down and took a vicious grip on the edge of the roof. I focused everything I had into one big yank and I heaved up as hard as I could.

The roof of the minivan peeled off easily with a shriek of tearing metal that sounded like an elephant screaming. I should have known it was flimsy from the way it caved in when the van rolled over. I had over-committed my strength and ripped it clean off. When I looked down, I saw the trooper looking up at me from the exposed passenger compartment. He had managed to get everyone else's head under the blanket, so they were protected from the bits of glass that were dropping from the roof that I held up at arm's length.

I tossed the roof away and hopped down to the ground. I detranced, but I was still stoked with adrenalin and I screwed-up my face while I fought to keep from screaming and jumping around to burn the stuff off. The trooper mistook my situation for injury and jumped up to come to the aid of a brother officer.

"No, no! Get them out. I'm OK. I'm OK! Damn crappy cars! I thought it would take more than it did. Neeka, help him. I hear the ambulance coming."

They got the kids out without a problem. I was so twitchy that I didn't dare help for fear of accidentally hurting someone. The trooper was right about the woman's legs. They were pretty messed up. He and Neeka reclined her seat but left her in it until the EMTs could lift her onto a stretcher. As soon as she was free, they bundled all of them into the ambulance and took off for the hospital with the siren and lights going full on.

As the siren faded into the distance the deputy looked at me with a big question in his eyes. I looked up at the nameplate above the pocket of his broad chest. It said Trammel.

"Trammel, you are officially allowed one question and one question only. Anything after that and you have to talk to Sheriff Foster. Shoot."

Trooper Trammel mulled it over and decided that there wasn't really anything he needed to know that he didn't know already. He pulled himself up to his full height of 6'6" and saluted me before climbing into his unit to start the paperwork. I walked over and looked in the window at him. The car sat high on its shocks, so I didn't even have to bend down.

"One, just for the record," he said. "How do you want the report? 'Assisted by Deputy Kramer'? Or just leave you out altogether?"

"Leave me out. The people who read these things who need to know — already do. So just leave me out if you please."

"So you don't exist," Trammel said. "Fine by me." He nodded and went back to his paperwork. He was a man who had a firm grip on his version of reality and was quite happy to ignore anything that was so completely at odds with what he thought belonged in it. I could respect that. Such people keep the rest of us from flying off the planet by their firm belief in the force of gravity.

I walked back to the car where Sue and Neeka waited. This time, Sue got in the back and pulled the front seat upright behind her, so I could sit in the front. I started to argue with her, but it seemed trivial, so I let it be. I was still jazzed with unburned adrenalin and muscles all over my body were jerking in spasms. I felt like I needed to wrestle a grizzly bear or run a marathon or something.

We had only gone a block when Sue leaned over the seat and asked, "Are you OK? You're twitching like a Mexican jumping bean."

"Adrenalin overdose," I told her, "I thought that would be tougher than it was and I got too worked up for it. It's making me nuts."

"Yeah, I've done that before a workout and then been called away to a phone call. Just relax. It will ease off in a minute or so. I've never worked up to where I could tear a car apart, though. That was very impressive. I thought I was in shape, but you make me look like a wuss."

"It wasn't what it looked like. The roof was just a sheet of aluminum and it peeled off easier than I thought it would. By the way, remember when I told you earlier that having sex with people to solve their problems was my hobby? Well, this is my real job. Sometimes it's even more fun. Sometimes I get to save lives."

"Sam?" Neeka said, "I think you need to know that you did a bit more than that. You didn't just grab the roof; you grabbed the frame where the roof was welded on. That wasn't just the roof you peeled off; you ripped the frame apart too. I saw the piece you tore off. It had dents in it from your fingers. You're a lot stronger than we thought."

"Oh, wonderful. Now I'm gonna have to be even more careful than before." I sighed. "I guess I suspected from the way stuff was getting easier to do."

Neeka tried to reassure me. She said, "I'm sure there is a physical limit to this. Flesh and bone can only be so strong."

"I wouldn't have thought I could be strong enough to open a car like a sardine can," I said. "There must be some changes going on at the cellular level. Either that, or I'm using my mental control like an exoskeleton, to reinforce my muscles, you know?"

"That sounds plausible, given what else we know you can do..." Neeka trailed off. We hadn't decided how much to tell Sue yet. She didn't want to blurt out everything all at once.

"OK," Sue said. "I'm coming in on the middle of this and you're not sure if you want me to know this stuff. That's OK. Sam, I knew you were special from the things I saw you do in class and then try to hide. I never said anything about it. If you don't want me to know this, I won't pry."

I thought about it. I hated hiding things. I hated lying by omission. Sue seemed trustworthy and she wasn't pressing me to take her into my confidence. I thought of something that would tell me if she was ready to hear this or not.

"Sue, did you ever read comic books when you were a kid? I mean the superhero, sci-fi stuff, not the kiddy stories or the romance books."

"Yes. My cousin Stan used to read those. He gave them to me when he finished with them. My favorite was Wonder Girl. She was strong and beautiful and I wanted to be her in the worst way."

"I never heard of Wonder Girl. But I can tell you that superheroes like her are not completely fictional characters. There are some real ones. I'm one of them."

"I guess so! I wouldn't have believed it, but I saw it with my own two eyes."

"The strength is just part of it." I turned around to face her over the car seat. "I want you to get a good grip on yourself because I'm going to show you something that freaks some people out, OK?"

"Um, OK." She sounded less than completely sure. She looked apprehensive. I didn't blame her one bit.

"All right then. Here we go." I leaned back a little, so my face would be in the light more and not be too close to hers. Then I put on my moving Dragon show. I let it run for five seconds and then I restored my regular face with the schoolgirl makeup.

Sue watched the show and kept staring even after I turned it off. She was obviously trying to figure out how I did it.

"That was amazing!" she said. "Do that again!"

"So much for being freaked out," I thought. I ran it again with every effect I had ever tried, flame, teeth and all. Then I tried something I hadn't practiced much. I let the Dragon expand past my face and neck and down my chest and my shoulders. I kept adding more skin, extending it across my breasts and down my arms. On my hands I drew claws dripping blood.

Since more than half my body was involved, I went all the way, painting my whole body with gray-green scales that shifted and moved. I even did claws on my feet, but nobody but me knew that. This was the most I had ever done, and as soon as I had it all going I filed it away as a new selection that I could repeat any time I wanted.

Neeka pulled the car over and coasted to a stop so she could watch, too. She had seen my trick many times before, but this was new to her.

"Wow!" Sue said. "That is so neat! It looks so real! I can't see a square inch of you at all, just your hair."

"She's right," Neeka agreed. "The full-body version is really effective. But it's spoiled a little by seeing the dragon wearing your clothes."

"Easily fixed," I said, pulling my top off. I unzipped my skirt and pulled it off, along with my shoes. My g-string didn't hide enough to make a difference, so I left it on.

"Now that is really amazing," Sue said, looking over every part of me she could. "If I look real close, I can see that it's just an image on your skin, but it looks so darn real! You look just like a two-legged, fire-breathing lizard!"

"Flatterer!"

"She's right," Neeka said, "It's much more effective when it's all over you. You're making me nervous just sitting here next to you."

It must have been scary if it was getting to Neeka. I switched back to my regular all-over tan.

"Oooo, naked girl," Neeka said. "Now this one I like much better."

"Can you do anything else?" Sue asked.

I decided not to be insulted. Technically, my nudity was just an effect too, since my all-over tan was also a product of my ability to control the pigments in my skin.

I hadn't practiced much other than the Dragon and a few small tattoos. There didn't seem to be much need for having a variety of scary faces, so once I had the Dragon down, I'd quit trying anything else as elaborate.

Perhaps elaboration wasn't even necessary. I tried to picture in my head some other types of effects that I could do that would be simpler. Large colored areas were easy, so were repeating patterns. 3D effects were hard, especially if they moved. That was why I was so proud of the Dragon.

To not look fake; a flat effect would have to be something that would normally follow the curves of my body. The only thing I could think of that I had seen lately that did that was my new swimsuit, so I tried to reproduce its outline, its texture and its color.

The strings gave me a problem at first. They would look very fake if the ties were just flat against my skin. I solved that by simply leaving the bows out and having the strings follow the convex curves on my chest, back and hips. Now it would look like a perfectly-fitted suit.

The color just would not work at all. Try as I might, I couldn't reproduce the brilliant electric-blue color of the original. I settled for a shade that was close, but not as vibrant as the real suit. Some things just don't look the same if you use organic, rather than synthetic material.

The only problem I couldn't solve was the nipple rings and the bells dangling from them. I could make my nipples an even shade of blue, but the shiny silver rings, chains, and bells stood out against my skin. I decided to add stitched buttonhole openings around the places where the rings penetrated my skin. It would look like the suit had been designed to fit around the rings, if you didn't try to figure out how I could have got the suit on or off.

Like a lot of my tricks, painting the suit on my skin took less time to do than to explain. It was less than a minute before I had it finished.

"How's that?" I asked. To make the effect complete, I slipped off my g-string ad just wore the fake bikini.

"If I hadn't watched you do it, I would think it was a real suit," Sue said emphatically.

Neeka waited until we came to an intersection before she turned to admire the result of my efforts.

"Wow!" she said, when the car had come to a stop. "That looks perfectly real. You even did the stitches and the texture of the fabric. I don't think anyone could tell it wasn't a real suit without touching it or looking really closely."

"Really? Let's see. Who can we fool?"

"It will have to be someone who already knows you. Preferably someone who has seen your jewelry." Neeka giggled.

"Hunh? Why not some stranger on the street? I was thinking of just getting out and walking a block to see if anyone noticed."

"Sam, you're forgetting one important point. Even if you were wearing the real suit, the sight of you prancing down the street in it would probably be enough to stop traffic. No one would stop to wonder if the suit was real. They'd all be too busy looking at the rest of you."

"Oh! Right." I had become so used to the head-turning that went on that I had started to ignore it. I had only been aware of the attention in the mall because I was trying to see if anyone was looking at Sue's new clothes.

"OK, I guess we'll see if anyone notices when we get home."

"At least we have a good excuse for being late."

"The best excuse there is. I got to save people today."

"Must be quite a bit of job-satisfaction in your line of work?" Sue asked.

"Darn right! The pay sucks, but the perqs are un-freaking-believable!"

Because we were running so far behind schedule, Neeka pulled her car into our driveway so we wouldn't have to walk the few hundred feet to get to my house. We went to the side door and Neeka had her key in her hand to unlock it when Mrs. Reynolds opened it and stepped out to meet us.

When I say, "Mrs. Reynolds" rather than "Bambi" or just "Mom", I mean she had dressed and made herself up to impress our company. The dress she wore was a deep-maroon, shimmering gown that was slit up to her waist on one side and draped open clear down to her navel in front. It moved freely over her high, rounded breasts as she walked and looked like it was light enough to blow off altogether in the slightest breeze. Her makeup and her hair were elegantly done. Her face looked positively regal. It looked like she was on her way to a celebrity soiree and wanted to show off for the paparazzi.

Neeka and I were both blown away by how fantastic she looked. Sue stood there with her mouth open, trying to think of something coherent to say as the Queen of Fashion swept across the driveway toward us.

"Well, I'd ask if you were all in one piece, but I can see all of them are still attached," she said as she glided to a stop on the most beautiful pair of shoes I'd ever seen. They looked like strings of jewels draped over her feet. Cinderella would have scrubbed floors for months to be able to wear those to the ball.

When she realized that we were too stunned by her appearance to explain our tardiness, she stood and posed for us with one hand on her clothed hip and the opposite foot slid forward to show off the exposed leg against the dark fabric.

When we had a chance to catch our breath, I decided that introductions were in order.

"Mom, I'd like you to meet Sue Simpson. Sue, this is my mother, Mrs. Reynolds."

Sue shuffled forward and took the offered hand. I counted three rings with more than ten carats of diamonds. Even in the dimmer rays of the late-afternoon sun, the flashing light from her hand was almost blinding.

"How do you do. I'm very pleased to meet you. Sam has spoken of you in the highest terms. Thank you for joining us for dinner."

I thought Sue was about to curtsey, but she squared her shoulders, stood ramrod straight and said, "I'm very pleased to meet you too. You have a remarkable daughter here. I know you must be very proud of her."

"Oh I am! Believe me. You have no idea how proud."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that. I was in the car a little while ago when she stopped to help a policeman free a family from a wrecked minivan. You see that's why we were late. Sam saw an opportunity to save someone and nothing on earth could have stopped her from doing just that."