This story is a bit wordy and fairly long, so if you are looking for immediate gratification, you might want to look elsewhere.
The following story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between these character and events and any real person or events is strictly coincidental . . . and pretty darn impressive seeing as it is a science fiction story. Do not reproduce or copy this story without the consent of the author.
This story is based in an alternative universe, where history took a different course than the one depicted in my other stories. It also takes place at a fictional town in Colorado called Crystal Pass and a fictional school called Four Corners University.
The following story contains lesbian sexual activity.
Proofread by "hkf999"
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"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
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Heda was not exactly proud of herself for throwing up, but some things simply could not be helped. She had followed her brother to the scene where a mysterious kidnapper had "released" his second victim. By the time she had arrived, the young man was in an ambulance, but there were plenty of pictures. Edgar had been handed a digital camera and had gone through the whole card. Heda, looking over his shoulder, had gotten about twelve slides before she vacated the contents of her stomach into a trash can. It made her fell slightly better when she realized she was not the first one to do so.
The former captive, an arachnid shifter who's name was not yet being released, had been found naked with his arms handcuffed behind him around a lamppost. He had been on his knees, and his legs had looked impossibly cramped. His legs were coated with feces and he had smelled so bad that it still lingered. He was gaunt, looking as if he had been barely fed since his captivity began and he had only been given enough water to survive. From the neck down, he was otherwise unharmed, but it were the pictures above the neck . . . those were what made Heda ill. The man's tongue had been cut in half from the tip all the way to the base, giving it a savagely serpentine look. All his teeth had been torn out and the skin flayed from his cheeks.
And he had been found with a strange contraption attached to his neck area. It was a long metal rod with two-pointed prongs on each end and was about a foot long. One end had been shove up into the bottom of his chin while the other end pressed into his upper chest, and the entire device had been secured by a long leather strap that had wound around his neck, preventing anyone from opening his mouth to survey the damage until it was finally cut away.
"You okay?" Ed asked when his sister returned after composing herself.
"No, I don't think I am," she whispered. "What he did to Carla was bad enough, but this . . . this guy isn't just going to go away is he?"
"No, I don't think he is. They're going to start bringing in a lot bigger guns than me, considering the way this guy is escalating."
"Can I see them again?"
"I don't think . . oh hell, we're drawing a crowd. There's no way we're going to keep this from freaking out the human population now."
"Let me help. Please?"
Ed sighed. He knew that his sister did not like feeling helpless or weak, and she had displayed a little of both in recent moments. "You've got your role to play, and I've got mine." He looked around. "I'll talk to you about it later."
She looked angry about it, but was not going to argue. "Whoever it is, letting him go in front of the medical center? You think it means something?"
"That he's a sick son of a bitch? Listen, I gotta go talk to the guy who found him. I'll swing by the dorm later, okay?"
Heda watched as her big brother went to a young man sitting forlornly on the steps of the medical center. She recognized him as the same guy who was working the front when Madison was getting patched up. His job was not getting any easier. The ring of cops closed in and Heda was on the outside looking in. There were human police involved this time, so Heda was effectively just another student to them. She walked away from the gathering crowd, her heart thumping angrily in her chest. She needed to vent and let off some steam, but she apparently was not going to get a chance. Her Neighborhood Watch phone was going off. It was time for a meeting.
She got to the volleyball stadium quickly to find that this was not an all-hands meeting, but rather just the leadership. Reichert was there and looking tired, along with a few others.
"Miss Adler, you were at the crime scene?" the Reptile King asked quickly and sharply.
"Yes. Human cops got involved, but Edgar is still there. He'll fill us in when he can get away. It's bad your Majesty. Really bad."
"I heard you lost your lunch," came an incredibly annoying voice. Alvin Hannity stood in the doorway with a cocky grin. "Apparently the big bird bitch's daughter ain't as tough as she claims."
Heda could tolerate a lot of things, but she was still feeling angry at herself for her reaction at the scene, and this ass-hat had just insulted her mother.
"This is not the . . . oh hell," Reichert growled shortly after Heda launched herself across the room.
Alvin got into a fighting stance and the air around him began to shift. Heda noticed and began her own transformation.
"Stop!" Reichert said, forgetting for a moment that neither of them could hear him while shifting. It was a time of crisis, and he was about to have a shifter brawl on his hands.
Alvin was able to transform first. Wings erupted from his back, while his humanoid head grew bat-like ears and his mouth filled with teeth. Claws erupted from his hands and toes, in the latter case puncturing through his shoes. A layer of brown hair covered his body, and he let out a dreadful shriek.
Heda had remembered to kick her own shoes off first, but her shirt was still ruined when her great feathery wings erupted from her back. Her entire head was replaced by that of a great eagle, and her legs from the knee down tapered into the familiar legs and taloned feet of a bird of prey. Feathers covered every inch of skin, and she met the shriek of the bat with her own battle cry.
"Crap!" Peter said, having chosen that moment to arrive. "This is gonna get ugly."
Alvin leaped on his adversary, but Heda blocked his hands to the outside before laying a punch into his midsection. He growled a response, then lashed out at her leg with his own taloned foot, raking her across the thigh. Heda was to angry to even invoke her Gift, but was not so wounded as to go down easily. She leaped upward, kneeing Alvin in the face as she went, then aimed her deadly foot towards his head.
The fight ended almost as quickly as it started. While the two combatants were distracted, the Reptile King had also shifted forms, but had gone into full beast mode rather than the half-forms of the other two. Suddenly, there was a fifty-foot long extinct crocodile between Alvin and Heda. His might tail pinned the were-bat to the ground while that massive mouth turned and bellowed a warning at Heda. Otherwise, the gym had gone completely quiet.
Heda was so pissed that she was seeing red, but one did NOT challenge a monarch unless you were damn sure you could win or were no longer all that interested in breathing. Gifted or not, the head of the flesh emperor crocodile was as big as she was. Heda landed, but kept her angry glare focused on Alvin. A couple of Alvin's supporters had shown up and were trying to coax him into returning to human form. Peter stood between Reichert's jaws and Heda.
"He's not worth it," Peter replied. "Alvin is not worth getting kicked out of school, much less dying for. C'mon, shift back." He smiled. "This may be my one and only chance to see you naked. You wouldn't deny a man that, would you?"
Heda gave him as dirty a look as her eagle features could muster, then glanced back at Alvin. Slowly, the feathers and wings were absorbed back into her skin, and the rest of her body eased back into its human shape. Her sweatpants were still good, though her shirt and bra were pretty much ruined. Luckily she had her gym bag with her, so she could at least put on her uniform top.
"What the hell happened?" Madison asked meekly. She saw Alvin still pinned by giant crocodile tail and could not help but smile. She had been surprised to get the call to join the proceeding, but was more surprised by the proceedings themselves.
Billy, Madison's escort for the evening, looked around. "Shit happened."
Madison looked up at him, then rolled her eyes. "Is that your official, highly intellectualized deduction?"
He shrugged. "It's the best I could do on such short notice."
Confident that things were back under control, Reichert shifted back. His entire wardrobe was a lost cause, so he was quite nude when back in human form. Many of the students did not seem to mind, though he was offered a pair of sweats from the locker-room.
"Everyone but Miss Adler and Mister Hannity, go stand on the other side of the room," he said, his voice as forgiving as steel. "You two," he added, pointing at the floor in front of him. "Now. And if either of you even looks at the other, so help me I will make you both wish you had never been born." That ensured that there were four eyeballs were trained directly on him. "I have never seen such poor behavior from those with so much to offer." He started to pace. "Miss Adler, I am sure your mother raised you better than this. You are behaving like a seven-year old on a playground. Your mother waged war, not spoiled little fights, and I doubt she would throw honor to the proverbial wolves just because of the insults of a spoiled brat."
"Wait a sec --" Alvin started to say, then was actually lifted off the ground with one of Reichert's hands around his neck.
"You . . . don't speak. Out of respect for your father and what your family has meant to this institution, I have tolerated so very, very much from you. I have given every quarter in terms of both human and shifter law in downplaying your deplorable behavior. You have been given every opportunity to simply go your own way without punishment or repercussion. No more. You still have a Council appointment to discuss the matter of your alleged assault on Madison Sloan. Neither of you are to approach the other or the other's party between now and then. You are not to call, approach, touch, or even look for too long in one another's direction. Mister Hannity, that goes especially for Miss Sloan. Only the fact that I need both of you to help keep certain factions pointed in the right direction in this time of emergency prevents me from taking one or both of you across my knee. Got it?"
Heda nodded, flushing a little bit with shame and anger. Alvin just looked angry and defensive.
"I want to hear it from both of you," Reichert replied.
"Yes sir," Heda said with what voice she had left.
"Sir --" Alvin started, then stopped when Reichert's hand squeezed. "Yes sir."
Reichert put Alvin down. "No more. There are much bigger things at stake than your egos. Now go to opposite sides of the gym and listen up."
Heda walked over to one set of bleachers and sat down, with Peter on one side and Madison on the other.
"Hey, what happened?" Madison asked. "Which asshole started it?"
Heda snarled, "Lay off Reichert, okay? He was actually doing his job."
Madison was obviously startled. "I'm sorry. I just thought --"
"Don't think," Heda said. "Just . . . just leave me alone."
