Chapter Three

Alan's Bedroom

Next Morning

When Alan Tracy awoke the next morning it was to a big surprise. He could feel himself pressed against Gordon the two of them curled up together against each other in a sleeping posture. But when he opened his eyes he couldn't see Gordon, all he could see was the depression in the bedclothes where Gordon was lying.

He yelped in surprise and rolled back falling off the edge of the bed to land on the floor with a thump.

The sound of the impact startled Gordon awake. As he opened his eyes Gordon felt some really odd sensations. The first was he could somehow feel a large reservoir of power deep inside him somewhere deep within the very fibres of his being. Wonder if this is what Alan means when he says he feels the energy inside, Gordon thought to himself. The second was a constant feeling that some of that energy was flowing through his body somehow yet he didn't feel anything like the tingling sensation in his hands that he'd felt last night. Cautiously sitting up he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and was startled to see that his hands and forearms were surrounded by a shimmering rainbow coloured glow that hugged the contours of his body. A look down showed his whole body surrounded by the glow. What on earth, he thought.

Alan stood up from where he had rolled onto the floor and stared at the bed in surprise. He couldn't see Gordon at all only the depression that Gordon made in the bed sheets. Gordon himself was completely invisible. Whoa cool power, he thought.

Gordon looked up to see Alan looking at him in surprise. And then he noticed Alan's hair. It had changed colour Alan's hair was now pure white like snow instead of his normal blond. But he was willing to bet Alan didn't know that yet.

"Alan. What's wrong why are you looking at me like that" he asked wondering if Alan could see the shimmering rainbow glow around him as well. Though why would a glow surprise Alan? Alan glowed or rather his hands and eyes did when he used his powers over water, ice and snow though only his hands glowed when it was snow. The only time when Alan could use his powers without an energy glow was when he phased. And even then he sort of shimmered for a second before turning transparent. Why would seeing him surrounded by an energy glow surprise Alan.

"Gordon I can't see you. You're invisible. I only know you're there from the depression you sitting on the bed makes" Alan answered. Gordon stared at Alan.

"I'm not invisible am I" Gordon asked wondering if Alan was joking.

"Yes you are stay there I'll get something to prove it to you" Alan replied heading into the en suite bathroom to get a portable mirror.

Gordon waited patiently as Alan disappeared into the bathroom. Any second now he'll notice his hair, he thought grinning as he imagined what was coming he counted off the seconds in his head. Three…two…one.

"Arrgh what's happened to my hair" Alan's voice shouted from the bathroom. Gordon chuckled for a few moments and then a really devilish idea occurred to him and he grinned evilly. If he really was invisible then this should be easy to pull off.

Getting up off the bed he walked into the bathroom to see Alan staring at himself in the mirror on the wall idly fingering his hair as if to reassure himself that it was still hair. Looking at the mirror Gordon was shocked when he saw no reflection of himself even though he was coming up behind Alan. Guess I really am invisible, he thought, this will be really cool for pranks. But wait what if I'm stuck this way?

Shaking off the thought for a moment he reached out and put his hand on his little brother's shoulder. Alan yelped in surprise and jumped before spinning round the two of them crashing into each other and ending up with Gordon flat on his back on the floor with Alan on top of him.

"Gordon that was not funny" Alan growled at the invisible form underneath him.

"Oh yes it was" Gordon answered ruffling Alan's hair. But then he turned serious realising that because he was invisible Alan couldn't actually get off him because he wouldn't know where Gordon stopped and the floor started.

"Now look at the fix you've got us into Gordon" Alan said. "I can't get off you until you make yourself visible again."

"I have kind of figured that out" Gordon replied. "But how do I make myself visible again? Any ideas" Alan shrugged the edge of his shoulder catching Gordon under the chin. "Ow"

"Sorry" Alan replied. "Just try making yourself visible again."

Gordon sighed and concentrated trying to make the energy stop flowing through his body. But nothing happened the energy was still being emitted from his body producing the rainbow coloured glow around his body that he guessed was what was causing him to be invisible to others. He guessed that the glow was actually an energy field of some sort that was bending light around him.

"It's not working" he said to Alan. "Alan what if I'm stuck this way" Alan heard a note of despair and fear in Gordon's voice as he said that.

"I doubt that you're stuck" Alan told him reassuringly wishing he knew where Gordon's shoulder was so he could put a reassuring hand on it. "What are you trying to do to make yourself visible again"

"I can feel the energy flowing through me I'm trying to stop it" Gordon answered.

"Maybe that's the wrong approach. Frequently when I use my own powers I don't envision the action itself but the result. Try doing the same."

Gordon followed Alan's instructions imagining himself suddenly able to be seen by other people again. And this time something did happen. He felt the energy that was flowing through him weaken and then stop the glow around his body rippled and then stopped.

Alan smiled when he saw the air underneath him ripple with rainbow colour and then Gordon appeared completely visible again.

"Can you see me now" Gordon asked.

"Yeah I can see you."

"Thank goodness for that. Now can you get off me please."

Carefully Alan climbed off Gordon and stood back up; moving equally carefully Gordon stood up himself.

"That's a cool third ability Gordon" Alan told him.

"Third ability"

"Yeah. Don't you remember making a jet of water last night."

"No" Gordon replied. "You mean I've got similar abilities to you."

"Two of your abilities are the same as mine. Gear scanned you last night after you lost consciousness and determined that you've got a weaker version of my water generation and manipulation abilities and you've got the same phasing abilities as me. He couldn't identify what your third ability was but as we've just seen that's invisibility."

"Cool" Gordon replied. "Though I haven't the foggiest idea how to control all this."

"Some you'll do instinctively" Alan told him. "The rest you'll have to learn. Though where your water and phasing abilities are concerned I can help." Gordon looked thoughtful.

"I wonder if the others have ended up with powers like yours. Or should I say ours" Alan shrugged.

"I dunno" he said. "We'll find out soon enough. Now how about we both get changed into fresh clothes and go downstairs. Onaha is probably already doing breakfast."

"Now that sounds like a wonderful idea" Gordon agreed. Then he looked thoughtful. "Alan do you think I could make myself invisible the same way I made myself visible"

"I would think so" Alan replied. "Why"

"I got a great idea" Gordon said and leaned in conspiratorially and whispered in Alan's ear. A grin appeared on Alan's face and as Gordon pulled back and the two youngest Tracy's exchanged an identical look of mischief. This was going to be fun.

John's Bedroom

John Tracy opened his eyes and was surprised when he couldn't feel the bed under him. In fact he couldn't feel anything under him at all. Looking straight at the ceiling he noticed that it seemed closer than it should have been.

Frowning in confusion John tried to sit up but found that there was indeed nothing under him that he could purchase on so it was a lot harder than it would otherwise have been. As he sat up he promptly banged his head on the ceiling and yelped in surprise and pain. What on earth is going on here, he thought, how did I get to bump my head on the ceiling?

Having been knocked fully awake by the impact John became aware of a sensation on some kind of energy flowing through the whole of his body welling up from some source deep within him. So that's what Alan means by energy inside, he thought thinking about the source of power that their was somewhere deep inside him. Cautiously he raised his head and looked down his body to see that he was literally glowing giving off a soft ghostly purplish-white light that formed a kind of aura around his whole body. He also noticed that the tips of his toes were level with the top of the wardrobe doors. I'm flying, he thought in shock, or rather floating. Great how do I get down?

For a couple of moments he just floated there trying to come up with a way of getting down. He tried consciously stopping the flow of energy within him. But nothing happened the power continued to flow through his body unchecked. Come on John think, he thought, there has to be a way of getting down.

He thought about the conversations he'd had with Alan over the last month when he'd either found Alan practising the use of his powers or it had just come up in idle conversation. Fortunately things had been quiet on the rescue front the last month so they'd had plenty of time. They'd only had to go out three times. Perhaps there was something in the conversations with Alan that could help. Though as far as John knew Alan couldn't fly or float in the air.

Mentally replaying the conversations in his head he focused on what Alan had said to him in the past about how he tended not to think about the action itself when he used his powers but the result. Is it that simple, John wondered, is it that I am just going about this wrong trying to hard. With nothing else to loose and not wanting to stay floating in the air all day John tried it imagining himself back down on his bed.

And to his surprise felt something happen inside. The energy flow which had been steady changed slightly becoming more energetic and he felt himself moving getting lower and lower in the air until he stopped moving. The energy stopped flowing through him and the ghostly purple/white aura disappeared but as the energy faded away John became aware of a different kind of energy travelling through him, it welled up from that same source inside him but he hadn't noticed it before.

He also noticed that he still wasn't quiet down but he could feel himself pressing against something. Something that felt solid but wasn't the bed or the floor. Now what, he thought struggling to sit up before looking down. To see that he was sitting on some kind of energy field that pressed against the bed. A field that gave off a soft purple shimmer and a rippling effect where it touched the bed and where he rested on it. He knew instantly what it was. A force field, he thought, I can generate my own force fields. Wonder if I can make it disappear the same way I ah landed.

Concentrating John wished the force field gone. And immediately he felt the energy flowing through him fade away to nothing. The whole of the force field that surrounded John like an invisible cocoon rippled and shimmered purple before vanishing. Depositing John on the bed. Well what do you know it worked, he thought. Though he was no longer emitting any energy he could still sort of feel the energy that had made him float/fly and which had created the force field deep inside him quietly sitting there deep in the very fibres of his being ready to be called upon. Wonder if Alan feels that all the time, he thought, he has said before that he constantly feels the energy inside.

His stomach grumbled and John blushed slightly embarrassed even through no one was in the room to hear it. Getting up he sighed and peeled off the clothes he was still wearing from last night. Before he went downstairs to see if Onaha was doing breakfast – assuming it was that time of day and not a bit later – he would have a shower and get some clean clothes on.

As he headed to the on suite bathroom and the shower he thought about his brothers. He wondered what powers Scott and Virgil had gotten or were going to get would they still even look like themselves or become something else. He wondered about Gordon what was his third ability the power that Gear hadn't been able to identify was. And was Alan going to get any new abilities as a result of being exposed to a form of metagas for the second time in his life, or would he just get a power boost the way some metahumans including Static had seemed to get after the second big bang. And he also thought about Fermat, Brains and Tin-Tin wondering if they would get any powers. Or new powers in Tin-Tin's case considering she was telekinetic to start with like her evil uncle and their archenemy the Hood.

He sighed again and dismissed those thoughts from his mind. He would find out soon enough. Right now all he wanted was to have a shower.

Virgil's Bedroom

Virgil Tracy opened his eyes and groaned softly as the light of the sun shone directly on his face. He'd obviously forgot to pull the curtains over the balcony access closed last night. As he began to become more aware of the world he felt really uncomfortable as though something was pulled incredibly tight around his body almost everywhere from the neck down. Almost because his arms felt fine and there didn't seem to be that much pressure around the edges of his shoulders, and none on his legs from midway down his thighs but everywhere else it felt as though something was incredibly tight.

Frowning in confusion Virgil sat up and felt the pressure increase as he shifted his posture and then there came the distinctive sound of tearing cloth and all of a sudden the pressure on his back and chest eased a bit. What in the world, he thought. He started to go to rub the sleep from his eyes and paused when he saw his arms. He stared at them in shock and disbelief.

They were still normal human arms but they'd grown or rather the muscles in his arms had grown considerably larger. So much that they had torn the shirt he had been wearing when he'd gone to bed. Cautiously Virgil threw off his bedclothes only for the bedclothes to go flying across the room to land against the glass balcony access doors. Virgil stared in disbelief he hadn't yanked that hard had he. Cautiously he swung his legs over the side of the bed and noticed that below his mid thighs his jeans didn't exist anymore the remains of the rest of the legs of the jeans hung around his ankles. He noticed that his legs were just like his arms considerably more muscular than they had been last night. Cautiously he stood up and felt the remains of his shirt fall off to lay broken and torn on the floor. Virgil looked down at the shirt and sighed that had been one of his favourite shirts. The battered and torn remains of his jeans were not that comfortable either.

Sighing Virgil stripped off what was left of his clothes and then went to have his normal morning shower he might as well before he found himself some clothes that he could wear. Assuming any of his clothes fit him now. He hoped that some of them still did because he didn't want to have to get a whole new wardrobe of clothes. And they would have to replace all his uniforms, which would be too small as well. That wouldn't be that difficult as the uniforms were made here on Tracy Island by a machine hidden underground though it was only programmed to make uniforms not normal clothes.

A couple of minutes later Virgil towelling his damp hair came back out of the bathroom and opened the door on his walk in wardrobe and paused when he actually saw himself in the large mirror directly behind the door. For a few moments he stood there staring at the reflection in the mirror barely believing that it was him. He'd been fit and athletic for years you had to be fit and strong in their line of work but nothing like this.

The Virgil that stared back at him in the mirror was broad shouldered and very muscular yet it wasn't the ugly excessive musculature of a bodybuilder instead he was built more like a professional male gymnast, sleek and agile but extremely muscular. And now that he thought about it Virgil felt strong, really strong, stronger than he'd ever felt in his life before. And in away that was frightening. He'd never felt anything like the strength that he felt now inside him. I wonder how strong I am now, he thought, how strong has the gas made me. And has it done anything else to me?

After a few moments thinking about it he sighed and shrugged if the gas had done anything else to him he would deal with it when those abilities showed themselves, until then though there was no point in getting all worked up and worrying about it. He was a metahuman now just like Alan and like his baby brother he was just going to have to learn to live with it. Who knew he might even come to like it just like Alan had come to like having superpowers. He already liked his new body even if suddenly being bigger meant he would have to get a load of new clothes.

Sighing again he began going through the wardrobe looking for something to wear. There had to be something here that he could put on that wouldn't be uncomfortably tight or tear when he moved.

Scott's Bedroom

Scott Tracy opened his eyes and stretched to loosen up from the slightly awkward position that he had slept in. As he became fully aware of the world he felt a difference within himself. He no longer felt as though something was happening inside of him but that something actually had changed. I must have changed while I was asleep, he thought, but what has happened. Something inside me has changed but what. Do I still even look like me?

Cautiously Scott checked himself over and was relieved that as far as he could see he was still completely human in appearance. He didn't suddenly have fur, scales or anything. Whatever had happened to him the change was internal not visible. But aside from a feeling that something inside had changed he wasn't aware of any powers. Certainly he felt nothing like the 'energy inside' that Alan had told them about in the past.

For a few moments Scott sat there thinking about what the gas could have done to him. What powers did he have? And then he thought about his brothers wondering what powers they'd be waking up with. And would Alan wake up with new powers on top of the ones he already had. He even thought about Fermat and Tin-Tin and wondered what the gas could have done to them.

After a moment he sighed and shrugged putting it out of his mind for now. Whatever powers he and the others now had they would have to learn how to control them, whatever their powers were. Depending on what abilities they had maybe Gear, Static and Alan would be able to provide some pointers on power control.

Throwing his bedclothes off Scott got up and debated if he should go and have a shower before he went downstairs. Or if he should just grab his dressing gown, go downstairs in his pyjamas and have breakfast and then come back up here for a shower.

He was about to go for a shower when a second blinding pain abruptly blasted through his head and he gasped from the sheer suddenness of it. Holding the edge of the bed with one hand and his bedside cabinet with the other to steady himself Scott closed his eyes against a pain that was far worse than any headache he had ever known. And then as though a switch had been thrown the pain was gone. Scott sighed in relief and opened his eyes before frowning. What was that, he thought. He didn't feel any different so what the hell had the sudden viscous headache been.

After a moment he shrugged and went to have a shower.