Something large had leapt from the rooftop, clearing the street entirely, and landing on another on the far side. Too big to be a bird, and too far a jump to be anything else. It had to have been a super. And this side of town, rooftop to rooftop? Jason's money was on Calico. He, himself did not have any superpowers, and likely never would. He did not have the divergent gene. Well, the three different tests he'd taken said that anyway. He focused back on the sidewalk and kept moving. It was late, and he was tired. This was his second twelve hour shift in as many days and if he was lucky, tomorrow would only be a ten. Those seemed to be his only special abilities. Making the rent and being responsible.
That's not to say he wasn't interested in superpowers. He was actually something of an expert really (most would say nerd). Not only on the supers themselves, but D-gene biology as well. He was going to school for D-councilling; Helping people adjust to the odd things that might happen when the gene activated. Not everyone got 'gifts'. Some changed appearance, grew extra limbs; there was a well documented case in Europe of a man, over several long and reportedly painful days, growing a centaur-like lower half. There was sometimes a psychological component; the centaur was an enthusiastic horseman, but other times your arms might turn into tentacles for no other reason than it was Tuesday, and that was a maybe.
He did count himself fortunate to be interning at a local assistance center. Well, interning sounded so official. Volunteering would be a more accurate word, though it was counting toward his education somewhat. And it would look good on his resume when it came to that. His ridiculous schedule on the weekend had the benefit of leaving him with copious free time during the week. Plenty of time for school and 'interning'.
And, of course, there was his hobby of tracking the powers and abilities of the public 'supers'. The government employed 'heroes' and the vigilantes like the local Calico. He was part of several online forums that speculated about power levels and biological quirks. All of it helped with his studies, but truth be told, he'd probably be doing it anyway.
A floor down from his apartment, Jason's cell rang, which didn't happen often. It only actually rang when a number he had saved as a contact called and there were few of those. And each of those had their own ringtones so he knew who it was immediately. Ashe. He pulled it from his pocket and stared at it for a moment, conflicted. Ashe had been his best friend for years; more than a best friend, really. And to his knowledge, still was. But he hadn't heard from her in a few weeks. They'd had... a disagreement that had become heated. And while he knew what they were talking about at the time, he had no idea why it had made Ashe so furious. So furious that she had stormed off and vanished for two weeks. But while he was still feeling the effect of that evening, he was not to proud to admit that he'd missed her and really wanted to hear her voice. He connected the call, only grumbling a little as he did. "Ashe."
"I know!" She practically gasped through the phone. And she sounded distant; like she had her phone on speaker from across the room. "I know and I'm sorry! I was a bitch and I need to get over my shit. I should have called... We should have talked... I should have handled it better. We will talk. I will handle it better. I just..."
"Hmn, yeah." Jason replied in a neutral tone. "What the hell was the problem anyway? It's all taken care of now but..."
"Not... now. Please." Despite the less than stellar quality of the call, the stress in Ashe's voice came through. "I need help. I've got... a problem."
Jason's first reaction was a twinge of anger. Of course, she called because she needed something. But... This was Ashe. His best friend. He spent so many holidays with her family while his mom was too drunk or busy to care what he did or where he was. And she did sound upset. It took a lot to rattle Ashe. So he tamped down his first response. "Where are you?" He said, starting up the stairs again and trying not to sound resigned. "What is it?"
"I'm at my place." Ashe replied, a touch of relief evident in her voice. "I think... We think Jessie's D-gene turned on."
Oh. Oh shit. That could be a 'problem'. Jason picked up his pace. "Ok. Tell me what's going on." He worked hard to keep his voice even. He'd been at the center long enough to see a few manifestations that... did not go well. Jessie, he knew, was Ashe's relatively new girlfriend. He'd met her a few times. She was a little old for a first manifestation but it was not unheard of.
"We were..." Ashe's voice quavered a bit, "Having a romantic encounter... and she just started... sticking to stuff! The floor, the wall, the bed, the nightstand... m-me..."
Jason reached his apartment, fumbling we his keys. Not as bad as it could have been... or was it? Shit. Outside the box. "What about herself?"
"What?"
"Is she sticking to herself?" Jason was going through worst case scenarios in his head. "Are her lips stuck together? Can she talk? Breathe?"
There was silence for a moment before a second voice answered, similarly distant. "I... can talk. And breathe. I'm... We're just stuck! I can't... stop touching... anything! And Ashe... Oh god, this is so embarrassing! I'm so sorry!" Jason didn't think her apology was directed at him.
"Hey." Jason said, as soothingly as he felt was appropriate. "Jessie. I've known Ashe for a long time, and if there's one place she'd want to be right now, it's helping you through this. Right Ashe?" Nothing appeared to be life threatening at this point, so the concern became keeping the patient... make that patients, calm.
"Yes!" Ashe agreed enthusiastically. "I'm not going anywhere. Well, I mean, even if I could, I wouldn't... And Jase is going to help us find a way out of this, right Jase?"
Touche'. Fuck. Keep them calm. "Of course. I'll do everything I can." He really should call for some help with this. Every manifestation was different, physically and psychologically. There was nothing definite that he could do "I'll get some stuff together here, and we should probably call..."
There was a faint whimper through the phone, before Ashe's voice overpowered it. "It would be... great if you could... not call anyone just yet. We are... not... We're naked, ok? We're both completely naked. And even if we could reach something to wear, Jess is in no condition to put anything on and would just stick to it before it covered anything anyway. So, if you could maybe try something without a mass of people, that would be... great."
Well, leave it to Ashe to make something difficult more difficult. "All right... but I'll probably have to go over there at least. To see what's going on..." In truth, he wasn't sure he'd be able to do much. D-genes did what they did. Some times with a pattern, but other times with no rhyme or reason to them. Well, not a discernible reason.
"Yeah, fine." replied Ashe with a sigh. "I figured. You got a key, so if we have to end up calling for... help," There was another weak whimper underneath her words, "then they won't have to break the door down and maybe you could, you know, cover us up some."
"Okay." Jason had gathered his first aid kit (for whatever help that might be) and was wracking his brain for anything else that might be of any use. He'd had a little E.M.S training, but much of his D-gene training was how none of that necessarily mattered and to think outside the box. "I'll head over shortly. Should be there in five-ten minutes. Just try to stay calm."
"Easy for you to say." mumbled Jessie. "Your forehead isn't stuck to a wall."
"And I bet he has pants on." added Ashe. "He'd better have pants on."
"Fine, but just this once." said Jason. "On my way." And he disconnected the call.
Heading out the door, Jason started down the stairs again, his mind racing with case files he'd read. He could really only think of two that were even similar. There was a woman that could produce spider like silk from glands on her hips. It didn't sound anything like what Jessie had going on. Besides, that particular silk stuck to everything but the woman in question. The other was a teenage girl who began to secrete a cement like resin from her skin. If she sat still too long she needed to be chipped free. Ashe didn't say anything about any liquids, but if the bio-adhesive was thin enough... Or maybe he was walking into something unprecedented. Great. Maybe they'll name it after him.
His beat up old truck started, and he maneuvered out of the lot. Traffic was light at this time of night and Ashe's apartment was not far. He made good time. He let himself into the building with the spare key Ashe had given him and made his way to the stairs. Ashe only lived on the second floor as opposed to his third, but her door was the furthest from the stairs. He walked up to it, key out but thought he should knock first.
"Jase?" came the reply from inside. "That you?"
"Unfortunately." he called back. "I keep hoping one day it will be someone else."
"Yeah, me too. Shut up and get in here." Ashe said. "Oh, and," she sighed, "please keep your head turned to the left. For, um, modesty's sake."
Ashe's apartment was more or less a large studio, and her bed was in the main room to the right. So that must be where they were trapped. Naked. And while Ashe shouldn't be shy around him, Jessie was probably going to be a whole different story. She was going to have to get over that given her circumstances, but he could at least be gentle about it.
Jason opened the door just enough to get through and stepped in sideways, facing Ashe's small kitchen. Keeping his back to where he assumed the happy couple was, he started sideways deeper into the apartment. "Just so we're all clear, I will need to look a little, to get an idea of what's going on."
"Yeah." Ashe sighed. "Just keep moving around that way. Then I can try to block your view of... certain things."
"Ashe, you're naked too!" Jessie's voice was a few degrees shy of panic. Having another person present was probably not helping that. "Who's going to block..."
"Nothing he hasn't seen before." said Ashe, somewhat resignedly. Fortunately, this revelation had the benefit of momentarily distracting her trapped partner.
'What-- you mean you two..." Jessie's voice shifted to be a touch more even. "You never mentioned that."
"We just messed around for a while. When we were younger." replied Ashe. "You know, checking stuff out."
"I think lab partners would be a good description." Jason added. "Experiments were run. Just practice, really. We never got around to actually putting tab A into slot B or anything. And then it turned out my tits weren't big enough anyway."
"And your dick, you should listen carefully, because odds are this is the only time anyone will ever say this, was too big." Ashe said, a frown evident in her voice. "Okay, that should be good. You can turn around now. And keep your eyes on me."
"Like you're an expert." Muttered Jason. "How many have you seen." He let out a breath and turned. As expected, he was met with Ashe's entirely bare back. She had an athletic build and short, light brown hair with vibrant red streaks in it. He was vaguely aware of Jesse's contorted body past her defender's, but he followed direction and dropped his eyes to Ashe's ass. "Hey Ashe," he quipped, "been working out?"
"Why, yes." His friend replied, her tone somewhat acidic. "Thought you'd never notice." She stood more or less straight, her feet a foot or two apart. Her left arm extended outward, presumably to obscure more of Jessie. Her right, however was gripping a left wrist, whose attached hand was resting on her right hip; the only two points she was contacting Jessie currently. She glanced at him, over her shoulder. "So what's your plan?"
Fortunately, there was was a procedure. Steps he knew to take; a few acronyms to fall back on, because this was distracting. Platonic or not, he'd always thought Ashe was attractive, and he could just make out the swell of her medium breasts at the edges of her slim body. "Well, first I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions, Jessie. Some are going to sound stupid and irrelevant, but there are reasons. While I'm doing that, I'll take a look--". Jesse gave a piteous whimper at the statement. "Ahem, fortunately your left hand is sticking out here which will be fine to start. Does that sound all right?"
"Ye-yes?"
