I really like Gar.


Chapter 11- Gar

I didn't mean to turn into a cat in the middle of the night and curl up on Richard's chest. It was kind of like sleepwalking. I thought, in the moment, that I was dreaming about being a cat. The dream was a lot less weird than yesterday. Until I woke up. Then I kind of freaked out. It didn't take long, though, to get a small grasp over my powers. It didn't take long for those powers to make sense. To anyone else though, it wouldn't make sense for me to suddenly be able to shapeshift but I'd been thinking all night about the explosion. I thought everything was over, that my final breath would be spent holding Rachel Roth's hand. I've had worse feelings. And I was dying anyway. My lungs were failing, my immune system was failing, I was failing. I thought the explosion was just going to speed up my death. But it reversed it. The radiation activated the years of medicine keeping me alive and eradicated the disease that it attacked. Instead of killing me faster, it gave me a chance to survive.

That wasn't what I was going to say though. If the Gar who ran away had been pretending to be dead, the Gar who went through the explosion is definitely dead. I don't look the same, I don't feel the same. I'm not Gar anymore. Or maybe I'm still Gar, just not the Gar who I'd been the past five years, under my Uncle's regime. After clicking through a few new forms, I return to my new green form and tell Richard my theory about being cured. It's a big leap but I know what that disease feels like. And I know it's gone. Surprisingly, Richard believes me. But I guess that's not the most amazing thing that has happened in the past 24 hours. Before we could discuss more, the others begin to wake up. I doubt anyone had a restful night. Not after everything that happened.

Victor wakes up first. He's never going to see out of his left eye again. Well, not naturally anyway. Kori wakes up next and seems relatively cheerful. I suppose she's always that way. And then Rachel arises, still gorgeous as always, but not too happy to face the day. Awkward silence blankets us. Apparently awkward was a trigger for my not yet completely controllable powers. I transformed into a pterodactyl. It feels a little cramped. I'm being stared at. I can't believe Richard got me thinking about dinosaurs. It was my panic mode. Not really panic just… Wow, I guess I'm the guy who does weird stuff to feel the void. Beats being what I was before though. At least the weird stuff feels like me. Not fake me.

"That was awesome," Richard tells me when I change back.

"Right?" I want to do it again in a space I could actually fly in.

"Uh, ignoring that, we should talk about yesterday," Victor said. He's a pretty big guy, so the cramped current living space affects him the most right now. Forget talking, we need to get further away.

"About what part? About the radioactive explosion or my cultist father who turned you into Nick Fury?" He looked interested, suddenly.

"Hey, do I really look like Nick Fury?" He kind of lifted his head. He was more into comics and I was more into video games, comic book based video games being our best compromise on what we have regrettably been calling bro night. What a stupid name.

"No." Rachel shut that one down quickly. Victor seemed to pout. Victor's cool and everything, with his robot parts and his potential to appear as Nick Fury, but I'm sure Rachel just saw me turn into a pterodactyl and so I really really hope I don't have to battle him over Rachel's heart. I mean she's acting all cool to him but who knows. There might be something between them and-

And I undersell my cool pterodactyl moment by then changing into the close relative, a chicken. Kori laughs.

"Well, we could talk about the crazy new powers you three have," Richard says, giving me a look. He wants me to put out my theory for everyone. I don't know. I said it to him because he was pushing me to understand and control my powers and he knew prior of my illness. I don't want to admit that to Victor and Kori who I don't think would have ever supported me in running away had they known the health risks. But I do. I do because from what I understand I'm the only one of our little dynamite trio (that's what I'm calling. Like bro night, I will probably come to regret this) who understands anything.

So I put all the cards on the table, about being sick and running away from the only thing keeping me alive to how I think the radiation reacted with both the medicine and the disease to form what Kori is calling "Chicken Man." Did no one see me turn into a pterodactyl because that is something I can do and yet I'm Chicken Man? Victor looks like he's planning on talking to me later, and he isn't happy. But our topic shifts to where we're going next. Richard is convinced that a lot of people will be after us.

"I don't think I should go with you," I tell them, because out of all of us, I'm the one who's going to draw the most attention. Plus, Gar is dead. I explain that. That I'm trying to drop off the face of the planet for a while and that it would be easier for them to run if I wasn't around.

"Well, yes, a little green goblin might be a little conspicuous-" Richard starts.

"Is there going to be a but? Because you sound like you're arguing for my perspective." Richard gives me that tried and tested hush I'm older than you glare, which can only be responded to with an eye roll.

"No, I'm not. What I'm trying to say is that with your powers we can travel with you inconspicuously. Rachel has a hoodie, you can transform into a mouse or another small animal and travel easily in her hoodie pocket."

"No." Rachel said.

"You heard her," I say, feeling my face redden at the mention of Rachel. Richard gave her a look.

"Rachel, please. We will do everything we can to get answers and bring justice to your father. Like a mini Justice League," Mini Justice League is not great, but it might be better than Dynamite Trio... Nah.

"But we need your cooperation. Gar will cause no trouble." Apparently, he feels comfortable promising that but my powers are very obviously triggered by nervousness and awkwardness, both things that abound when I am near her angelic being. I can only imagine turning into a mouse and becoming suddenly a larger animal while in her hoodie pocket. Plus, transforming tires me out. And, I realize now, makes me really hungry. It could deteriorate my energy and health. But if she's game with it, then so am I, risks or not. Anything I've charged into recently has come with plenty of risks.

"Fine." She relents.

"But you cannot poop in my hoodie pocket."

"Never. Speaking of… Can we get food?"