Spent forever trying to come up with a decent title for this chapter. I hope you like it. With that said, 'The Loud House' and 'The Casagrandes' are owned by Nickelodeon and Spider-Man is owned jointly by Disney and Sony. So without any further ado, Enjoy.

Chapter 5: Metamorphosis

Despite a rough start and a rather vivid dream sequence, Nikki managed to sleep peacefully through most of the night. So peacefully in fact, that when she woke up the next morning the young blonde felt like she had more energy than she'd ever had before in her entire life. She was positively bubbling over with vim and vigor.

At any rate, after leaping out of her bed like a graceful gazelle and giving her favorite fuzz-buddy a kiss good morning, Nikki headed to the bathroom to take a shower and for the first time in over three months she didn't have to wait on either of her parents; a sure sign that this was going to be a great day.

"OOOOOOOOH~ Todays' gonna be a wonderful day~ Cuz I got in the shower first~ La-La-La~ La-La-La-La~ La-La-La-La~ La-La-La~" Nikki sang as she washed her hair, sounding horrendously offkey; thank heaven her dream wasn't to become a pop star.

Once she had finished rinsing the shampoo from her hair, the young blonde shut off the water and reached for her towel before stepping out of the shower. As she dried herself off, Nikki noticed the bathroom mirror, fogged up with steam of course, and for reasons she didn't quite understand she felt compelled to have a look at herself. So, after wiping away some of the condensation with her towel, she did just that and received a rather pleasant surprise.

"Oh my gosh! I'm… I'm… ripped!"

A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but otherwise a perfectly reasonable response to what she saw.

For as long as Nikki could remember, she had been a tall, scrawny, noodle of a girl, and for the most part she still was, only now, as she looked over herself in the mirror, she saw the unmistakable signs of muscle tone. Granted, she wasn't going to win any bodybuilding competitions anytime soon, but her arms, legs, stomach and chest were more developed than they'd ever been before.

"Wow, all those ballet lessons are really paying off." She said to herself, still a little amazed by this development. "I can't believe I never noticed before."

After she had gotten enough of looking at herself in the mirror, Nikki finished drying herself off and put on her clothes. By now she figured her parents were just sitting down for breakfast and she didn't want to miss out, so she planned to head straight to the kitchen as quickly as possible. Only when she tried to walk through the bathroom door her right arm wouldn't come with her. For some strange reason she couldn't let go of the doorknob.

"What the heck?" she said bemusedly as she tried to pry her hand from the knob, but it just wouldn't budge; almost like it was stuck with superglue. "Come on. Come on. Let go. Ugh! Stupid cheap doorknob. Come off!"

THUNK!

Nikki almost couldn't bare to look. She had accidently ripped the doorknob clean out of its socket, and the stupid thing was still stuck to her hand.

"Dang it."

"Is everything okay in there, Princess?" asked her dad from down the hall. "I thought I heard a noise."

"No, uh, everything's cool, Dad." Nikki lied nervously. "I just uh… tripped over my skateboard again."

"Oh, well try to be more careful next time. Okay, Pumpkin?"

"Yeah, sure thing, Dad." The young blonde replied before breathing a sigh of relief.

It took quite a bit of doing, but she eventually managed to get the knob off her hand and back onto the door. It probably wouldn't hold for very long, but at the very least whoever used the bathroom next might think it fell off on its own. Regardless, after that little misadventure, Nikki joined her parents for breakfast, which to her surprise turned out to be a bowl of muesli. Evidently, her mom was on one of her healthy eating kicks again. Not that this really bothered Nikki all that much, she liked muesli well enough and she knew her mother lacked the discipline needed to stick to the 'no junk food lifestyle' for more than a couple of weeks.

Once breakfast was finished, the young blonde headed back to her room to gather everything she needed for the big study and skate group she was having with her friends in the park.

"Not let's see. Science book. Check. Notebook. Check. Pens and Pencils. Check." Nikki said to herself as she packed each item into her backpack. "Granola bars. Check. Skateboard. Double Check. So I guess that's everything except… Oh, my study sheet."

The young blonde quickly looked over her desk for the piece of paper in question and after finally locating it she picked it up and tossed it into her bag.

Or at least, that was the plan.

In practice, however, this proved to be frustratingly difficult, for not matter how much she shook, the study sheet clung to the palm of her hand like it was glued on.

"Ugh! Stupid static electricity! Come off!" she shouted as she shook her hand with all her might, but to no avail; the sheet just stayed stuck. "Dang it!"

Exhausted both mentally and physically from the ordeal, Nikki sat down on her bed and let out a deep sigh to calm herself down; only then did the offensive study sheet finally fall to the floor.

"Seriously?" she asked aloud with irritation and disbelief.

Over on her nightstand, Bruce, who had been watching the whole spectacle from his terrarium, was chuckling to himself amusedly.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Nikki said annoyedly. "See if I give you any more kisses."

XXX

(A short time later, down on the street)

After finally getting all her stuff together, Nikki bid farewell to her parents and headed straight for the park. Since she was already running late and since the park was about four and a half blocks away from where she lived, the young blonde decided to skate the whole way there in order to make up the time. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, since Nikki was quite adept when it came to skateboarding on the sidewalk, but today was a different story. Today her mind was so preoccupied by the peculiar events of that morning that she wasn't looking where she was going.

'There's something weird going on here.' She thought to herself as she weaved around the various pedestrians in her way. 'Static electricity might explain what happened with the study sheet, but what about the doorknob? It felt like my hand was covered in super glue. Maybe it's a side effect of that medicine Dr. D gave me? But then why didn't he mention it last night? No, something just doesn't add up about…'

Suddenly, a strange feeling came over Nikki. Like a switch had been flipped inside her brain, causing it to vibrate. She couldn't quite explain it, but somehow she knew that if she didn't move in the next 0.5 seconds then something very big and very fast would slam into her from her left side. Acting purely on instinct, the young blonde pushed off her skateboard and, to the astonishment of everyone in the vicinity, leapt a full thirty feet into the air, did a double backflip and then made a perfect landing right back where she started.

Her heart was racing and her adrenaline was still pumping, so it took a few seconds for Nikki's brain to piece together exactly what had happened. Evidentially, she had skated into oncoming traffic and narrowly avoided getting hit by a car. And while that in itself was quite alarming, what really freaked her out was how she'd done it.

"What the? How did I? What?" the young blonde babbled as she struggled to make sense of what had just happened, only to catch sight of something that distressed her even more. "My skateboard!"

Yes, unfortunately while Nikki had made it through the ordeal unscathed, her beloved skateboard hadn't been so lucky. The tires from that speeding car had crushed it almost beyond recognition.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" she wailed mournfully she clutched the biggest piece she could find and held it close to her heart. "You were so young! Sniff. Sniff. I didn't even get to say goodbye!"

HONK!

HONK!

"Get outta the road, you stupid kid!" screamed an irate motorist.

She'd been so preoccupied with her grieving that she'd forgotten she was blocking traffic.

"Oops. Uh… sorry, everyone." Nikki said embarrassedly before dashing to the nearest sidewalk.

Once she was safely out of the way, the young blonde took a moment to catch her breath as she struggled to make sense of things, only to be interrupted by a familiar pair of voices.

"Whoa~ That was awesome!" said the first voice, clearly female.

"You jumped over a car and did a backflip thirty feet in the air!" said the second, obviously male.

Nikki turned her head and saw her classmate Becky, along with her twin brother Ricky; both of them staring at her with the wide-eyed excitement of children watching a circus for the first time.

"Where'd you learn how to do that?" Becky asked bluntly, as she often did.

Unfortunately, Nikki hadn't the slightest idea how she'd done all that, but knowing that the twins wouldn't leave her alone until they got an answer, she awkwardly replied,

"Uh… ballet class."

Becky and Ricky stared at Nikki for a couple of seconds and then turned to each other smiling before they took off like jackrabbits; presumably to go convince their parents to sign them up for lessons.

With that minor crisis averted, the young blonde shifted her focus onto more important matters; namely trying to figure out just what the heck was going on. Why were her hands sticking to things? How had she jumped so high into the air? What was that weird feeling in her brain that warned her about the car? Too many questions to process at once.

Needing to catch her breath, Nikki leaned up against a nearby wall as she struggled to make sense of everything. This proved to be a costly mistake, as that strange tingling sensation started to flare up again; alerting her to the fact that the 'wall' she'd leaned up against was in reality the side of a bus that was waiting for the light to change. Naturally, the young blonde tried to get away before it started moving again, but unfortunately she had accidentally let both of her hands touch the large public transit vehicle, leaving her totally stuck; and backwards no less.

That's when the light turned green.

"Whoa Momma!" she exclaimed as the bus started rolling; forcing her to run sideways with her back pressed against the side. "No! Wait! Stop! Hey Stop! I'm out here!"

But alas, nobody onboard seemed to hear her.

"Somebody's out here!" she screamed even louder, but to no avail. "Hey! Whoa! Baby on Board! Help! Knock-Knock! Help! MOMMY!"

XXX

(The park, forty-five minutes later)

"…Mitochondria, Vacuole and… Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum." Said Laird as he finished off his fifth attempt to list all the different parts of a cell from memory. "So, how'd I do that time?"

"Not bad." Replied Casey, holding a science book in his hands. "Only you forgot the Nucleus again."

"Dang it." The little nerd 'cursed' before turning to the rest of the study group. "How are you guys doing?"

"Ugh… I hate this." Sameer groaned miserably. "I hate science. I hate studying. I just wanna skate."

"Well, I love science and studying." Sid spoke up proudly. "But I'd also like to skate. What do you say, Ronnie Anne? Quick break?"

But Ronnie Anne gave no reply. The young Latina was on her phone and looking quite uneasy.

"Okay, well thanks anyway, Mrs. Coughlin. Bye." She said politely to the lady on the other end before hanging up. "Sigh."

"What's the matter, Ronnie Anne?" asked Casey concernedly. "Nikki's not that sick, is she?"

"No, it's not that. Her mom said she was fine and that she left their building awhile ago."

"So what's the problem?" asked Sameer. "She's not that late. She probably just stopped to get a hotdog or something."

"I know, and you're probably right. It's just… well, you guys remember my Abuelo's friend Vito right?"

The others all nodded in recognition.

"Well, yesterday, he got jumped by a bunch of thugs and now he's in the hospital."

"Oh no, is he okay?" asked Sid concernedly.

"I don't know. Abeulo said he was going to check on him this afternoon. But if it happened once in this neighborhood, it might happen again."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about Nikki. She's a lot smarter than she looks." Casey commented casually. "She's lived in the city her whole life. She knows how to stay out of trouble."

As if on cue, the air was suddenly shattered by an earsplitting, but oddly familiar, shriek of terror.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Is that who I think it is?" asked Sameer over all the racket.

"Well don't just stand there, guys. Come on!" shouted Ronnie Anne commandingly, signaling the others to follow her, which of course they did.

Within moments, the gang was standing at the main entrance to the park, where they all received quite the surprise. There, sitting in heavy traffic, was a large bus with one of those overly colorful toothpaste ads painted on the side; which in itself was nothing unusual. However, what stood out to everyone was not the bus or the ad, but rather it was the familiar looking blonde girl clinging to said ad for dear life with her bare hands and feet.

"Nikki?" they all asked in unison.

"Guys?" she replied, eyes wet with tears. "Oh thank goodness. You've gotta get me off this thing before the light changes."

"I have… several questions." Said Laird confusedly.

"Never mind that now! Just get me down!"

"Okay, everyone grab an arm or a leg and let's pull." Ronnie Anne said, once again taking the lead on things. Within seconds everyone was in position. "Alright, now on my mark. One. Two Three. Pull!"

So everyone did, but Nikki just wouldn't budge. And to make matters worse, the light had just changed to green; it wouldn't be long before the bus started rolling again.

"Come on, guys! Dig deep!" the young Latina called to her friends. "One. Two. Three. Pull!"

So everyone did again, only this time with much more favorable results. Nikki peeled off the side of the bus like a rubber octopus just as the vehicle started moving. The young blonde was saved, only the momentum from her friends' pulling caused her to crash into them with the force of a speeding dodgeball; leaving all six of them in a battered heap on the sidewalk. After that harrowing experience, it took a few moments before anyone was able to speak again. Naturally, Ronnie Anne was the first to regain her senses.

"Ugh. Nikki, are you okay?" she asked her taller friend concernedly.

"Am I okay?" Nikki repeated the question, her left eye twitching a bit. "Am I okay? Do I look okay? First my hand gets stuck to a doorknob until I broke it off! Then I had to jump thirty feet in the air to avoid getting runover by a car and my skateboard gets totaled! Then my hands get stuck to a bus and I lose my shoes trying to keep up with it! Then I had to jump over some broken glass and my feet got stuck! Then some bratty kids on the sidewalk thought it'd be funny to throw their used gum at my head! I have someone else's gum in my hair!"

"Okay, okay, calm down. Breathe." The young Latina said as she attempted to soothe her frazzled friend. "Wait, what do you mean you jumped thirty feet in the air?"

"Yeah, and did you break the doorknob or your hand?" asked Laird, earning a glare from both females. "What? The wording confused me?"

"Never mind him, Nikki. Please, just tell us what's going on." Ronnie Anne said in a calm and sympathetic tone.

"Sigh. I don't even know, Ronnie Anne. It's like my whole body is different now." Nikki replied despondently. "I think there's something wrong with me."

End Notes:

A bit shorter than my previous chapters, but otherwise I'm satisfied. I seemed to have attracted at least extra reviewer with my last chapter, so I hope that's sign of things to come. With that said, I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter and I'll see you in the next one.

Peace.