Strong & Silent
Chapter 3
"Revelations"
"S…s…someone seems m…m…motivated today," said Baron as he spotted Steven with his bench press.
Steven had to still concentrate sometimes to understand what Baron was saying, but it was worth the effort. It wasn't his friend's fault that he had the speech impediment (the nice way of saying he stuttered), and besides it was the least he could do for his friend.
Right now though Steven was seriously straining with the fifteen tons that the special bench press machine was set to. He was maxing out on his abilities at the moment, but he wanted to finish the set without Baron's help. With a final bellow he forced the weights up and slammed them into place with a metallic clang that rang through the entire wing of the school the gym was in.
Steven then sat up, soaked with sweat. He had gotten seriously pumped from the workout, and his skin felt like it was going to split off his blood-swollen muscles like his shirt already was. He easily ripped the rest of the tight fitting rag off, then looked at himself in the mirror that covered one wall.
"Yeah," he finally responded to Baron's statement, "I'm motivated all right."
He looked at the muscle-bound young giant in the mirror with arms bigger than a normal grown man's thighs which now displayed veins like garden hoses criss-crossing them. His pectorals were bigger than his head, and there was no way his arms could rest comfortably against his sides because of his door-wide lats and even broader shoulders. He had been hitting the weights like a maniac for a week now, and it was finally Friday, the day he had targeted as THE day.
He hadn't been lifting to get stronger. He had been lifting like that with heavy weights at low reps to seriously bulk up, to look even bigger and more intimidating. That was because he had decided that Friday was the day it was going to end.
He was going to make that little creep leave Rebecca alone once and for all.
He wanted to look big and powerful to scare the little freak, hoping that would be enough. He mostly didn't want to beat him up, but a small part of him did, a part Steven didn't like very much that had come to the surface ever since he had first seen what had been happening to Rebecca.
Today it was going to end, and if the little freak ended up on the receiving end of a beating, that would be his own fault.
"H…hey," said Baron, "a…a…are you even l…l…listening?"
"Huh?" said Steven, coming back to earth mentally.
"I s…s…said it's almost l…l…lunch time. You b…b…better get sh…sh…showered up if you w…w…want to s…s…see your g…g…girlfriend." Baron replied.
"Dang," said Steven, noticing the time, "you're right pal. Let's get moving."
Steven was in and out of the shower in a couple of minutes and didn't take time to dry off very thoroughly. His hair was still dripping wet and his new t-shirt was sticking to him as he dashed through the halls towards the cafeteria, drawing the admiring glances of more than a few of the female students. As he arrived at the cafeteria, Steven looked around desperately, hoping he was in time to do what he had set out to do. He then spotted Rebecca, sitting alone at her usual table again reading. His heart almost stopped when he also spotted the little freak with the beady black eyes approaching her from behind. Steven then pushed his way through the crowd easily, trying to get to Rebecca before…
Rebecca was now standing over the little creep, who was kneeling on the floor and cowering before her. From the look on his face something horrible had happened to him, and Rebecca stood tall and strong.
What had just happened? Steven could have sworn that they hadn't been in those positions an instant ago…how had they both moved like that? What had happened?
Super speed. They must both possess super speed and whatever Rebecca had done to him had only taken a fraction of an instant. But that didn't make any sense; the little creep had been placed in sidekick class, while Rebecca's power had never been spoken of and there were a few other kids with that power that no one was afraid of.
So what had happened?
Rebecca turned away from her victim, who was getting to his feet and stumbling over to one of the other tables. But as far as Steven was concerned, he might as well have dropped off the face of the earth. Rebecca had said she would deal with him herself, and she obviously had in a spectacular manner.
Steven was a little disappointed as he had wanted to be the one to end the tormenting; it was a part of his nature to be protective and he admitted he was looking forward to ANY excuse to have Rebecca in his arms again. But he was more curious than ever about what had happened, and he approached her. The moment she saw him she realized that he must have seen what happened and she seemed embarrassed.
"You…you saw?" she whispered.
"Yeah," said Steven, "I guess I did. I'm not sure. You were both in different spots one second then…bang…he was about to wet himself and you looked…"
"Terrifying?"
"Absolutely gorgeous."
His words obviously caught her by surprise. The look of dread in her eyes was replaced by one of confusion, and then when she saw that he was truly not afraid of her, she seemed to physically relax. Neither of them noticed nor cared about the crowd of kids around them, who were wondering why the two of them were just standing there looking at each other.
After school Steven approached Rebecca before she boarded her bus.
"I…there was something I wanted to ask you but…"
"Yes?"
"I was thinking…if you'd like…would you…"
"Steven, what is it?"
"Would you like to go to homecoming with me?"
Rebecca was stunned again. The most popular boy in school had just asked her to one of the biggest social events of the entire school year. This was even after what she had just done that was already the buzz of the school.
"Yes." She whispered.
"Great," said Steven, his grin lighting up his face and bringing out the dimples she loved.
"Just one thing," she said with a faint smile.
"What's that?" asked a puzzled Steven.
"You're not going to get any…bigger, are you?" She couldn't help but notice that Steven's muscles had maintained the monstrous pump all that day, and it would be several more hours before they would "deflate" back to normal.
"I…" Steven blushed. Was she ashamed of him? Did he look like a freak to her now? "No."
"I was just thinking," she whispered to him in his ear as she drew close, "it would just be VERY hard to find a tuxedo your size on such short notice, but you could NEVER get too big for me." She then kissed him gently on his ear, sending a shiver up his spine.
She then turned and boarded her bus, with everyone on board as stunned as they were last Friday with the strange couple.
Steven finally started breathing again as the bus rolled away and started to taxi down the runway. He could only stand and watch as it took off, then disappeared into the distance.
She had no problem with his physique. All this time as he had watched and felt his body changing and growing after he had first powered up, he had been secretly afraid that he wouldn't stop. He was already bigger than his dad, who was not a small man to begin with, but Steven was only fourteen with at least four more years of growth to go. He quit getting onto scales weeks ago, as he didn't want to know how much he weighed.
But she accepted him.
Steven continued to stand there, totally oblivious to the fact that he had missed not only his, but all the other busses as well. It wasn't until he felt something tapping him on his oversized shoulder that he came out of his trance.
"Is something wrong, Mr. Stronghold?" It was Dr. Zeus, the principal of Sky High. He had been an old rival of Steven's dad back during the war, and the two had been trying to one-up each other for years until lately when they settled down into "routine life". Nicolas Zeus was as tall and broadly built as Samuel Stronghold, but his features had an almost bear-like look to them with dark hair and a short-cropped beard with storm cloud gray eyes beneath shaggy black eyebrows. He was wearing the dark gray suit and crimson tie he always did during school hours.
"Uh…no sir," said Steven, embarrassed that he had had a major brain fart out there in the open for everyone to see…except there wasn't anyone there except the somewhat intimidating principal.
"I noticed that you were talking with Miss Crane," said Dr. Zeus, who was still one of the few people able to look Steven straight in the eye, "is there something…I should know about her?"
"Huh? Rebecca?" said Steven, confused why such a question was asked, "no, there's nothing wrong with her. Why do you ask?"
"It concerns the…incident in the cafeteria today. I am simply enquiring if you may know anything about it."
"All I know is that the little creep had been tormenting her for weeks…tearing up her books and laughing about it. I wanted to help her, but she wouldn't let me. She didn't do anything about it…"
"Until today," said Dr. Zeus, his gray eyes never blinking as he looked into Steven's, "when she rendered him powerless."
"What do you mean?"
"Rebecca Crane is a power binder," said Dr. Zeus, "she has the power to neutralize the powers of others for as long as she wishes; a day…a week…forever. That is what happened today in the cafeteria. She took away Harlan Quince's power of stopping time…apparently for the rest of his life."
Steven was stunned. That explained why the two of them had been in totally different places in the blink of an eye and why "Harlan" had crawled away like a beaten dog. He must have actually attacked her while stopping time, and she had been able to fight him off and destroy his power. Steven didn't feel the least bit sorry for the little creep.
"She was defending herself," said Steven, "he's been tormenting her like I said."
"I'm not disagreeing with that," said Dr. Zeus, "it's just that she may have gone too far. This is the second such incident with her…and I'm afraid harsh measures may be taken."
"What do you mean?"
"I'll have to take it up with the school board first, but there may be…expulsion from Sky High."
"For defending herself? Where were you and the school board when he was starting all of this? I was ready to beat him up to make him stop…if I had would you have thrown me out?"
"Calm down Steven," said Dr. Zeus, "I personally have no intention of doing so. It's just that she is considered dangerous by a lot of people and…"
"Dangerous? All she does is read and study! I've gone out with her on a date, been to her home and met her mom! She's about as dangerous as the Easter Bunny!"
"I know all this Steven," said Dr. Zeus, putting his hand on Steven's shoulder, "and that's why I'm glad I caught you. I want you to…well, take a closer look at Rebecca while you're with her. Maybe look around at her home and see if there's anything that may…help us with our decision."
"You want me to SPY on my girlfriend!" Steven was so outraged by the thought, he didn't realize that he had referred to Rebecca as his girlfriend for the first time to anyone.
"I want you to help me help her. If you can find something that will help me persuade the school board in case they might try to expel her, maybe we can prevent something worse from happening."
"Like what?"
"Power binders are…very rare, Steven. They are looked upon with more than a little fear by both sides, and they must be treated with kids gloves in case they might decide to…go rogue."
"You mean become a villain, don't you?"
"It's happened in the past. I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again, for everyone's sake."
Steven sat in his room, his mind barely able to wrap around what had happened in the past few hours. He had gone from total ecstasy of having Rebecca as his date to homecoming to the abyss of being appointed by the head of the school to spy on the girl he loved.
How had this happened? Just because she got back at that little freak for all the torment he had caused her? So she had taken his power away…big deal. If the creep used it for doing what he did, he didn't deserve to have it anyway. He was abusing it, and besides he was just a freaking sidekick. He'd probably end up being the toady for some villain in a few years anyway.
Steven hadn't talked to his parents since he had gotten home, and both of them knew something was wrong, especially his mother. Since he had been with Rebecca he had come out of his self-imposed solitude away from people that had begun with the death of his brother Theodore, but now it was like he had taken a huge step backward. Something had happened at school today, and she was going to get to the bottom of it. If that idiot Zeus had said or done something to her boy, there would be hell to pay.
She tapped lightly on his door, knowing he could hear her.
"Steven," she said, "can I come in?"
"Sure, " said Steven, sitting on his reinforced bed. He had not changed his clothes since he had come home, only kicking off his tennis shoes. His room was the jumbled mess of clothes, comics and other odds and ends that made up the average teenage boy's room.
"You haven't said a word since you got home," said his mother as she came and sat on the bed next to him. Though he was huge, to her he was still her baby boy. "What's wrong?"
"I…" Steven didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell someone so much about what had happened, but did he dare? What if she agreed with what Zeus wanted? He didn't want to do it, and refusing his mother would have only made it more painful for him. Maybe it was better to take his chances.
He told her everything that had happened. How he had first seen Rebecca when she was being tormented up to the point of what Dr. Zeus wanted him to do. When he was finished, he went silent, waiting for his mother to respond.
"That pompous jerk," said Sylvia Stronghold, her anger very evident on her face, "how DARE he try to make you do such a thing? That poor girl…I've a good mind to tell him what I think of him, not that it will be the first time."
Steven didn't know what to think. He knew from experience that his mother had a bad temper, but she only unleashed it on those who deserved it. He was relieved she felt the same way he did, but was a lot more verbal about it.
She got up off the bed, paused to pat her son on his head of tousled brown hair, and threw open the door to his room.
"SAMUEL!" she yelled downstairs to her husband, "Get up here and find out what that jackass Zeus wants your boy to do!"
It only took a moment for Samuel Stronghold to bound up the stairs, fueled by his wife's anger and the mentioning of his old rival doing something to his son. He stood in the doorway, his eyes already set in a glare.
"Tell me everything, son," said Major Victory, "and don't spare the details."
If his mother had been an explosion, Steven's father was an earthquake, starting out low and quiet, but building into intensity until it seemed the very walls were shaking with his anger once Steven had finished his tale.
"You go see your little lady," Samuel told his son, fishing a couple of twenty dollar bills out of his wallet and handing them to Steven, "go take her out to a nice dinner and DON'T tell her a thing about this. I'll take care of this nonsense…my way."
Steven didn't have to ask any questions, he just grabbed his shoes, took the money his father offered and started running down the stairs until he noticed how they creaked and shuddered under his weight. He stopped, and then carefully walked down the rest of the way until he got to the floor, where he pulled on his shoes and ran out the door, remembering this time to be careful not to pull the knob off the door.
Rebecca was totally surprised when Steven showed up at her door, asking her out to dinner. He suggested a new place called the Paper Lantern that had just opened up, and they went and had a delicious Chinese dinner. Afterwards they opened up their fortune cookies and read them to each other. They both laughed at how silly they were, but when they left Steven asked if she would walk with him to the nearby park to talk. Once there they found a place to sit and watch the shadows of evening creep across the land. There was a slight chill in the air, and Rebecca cuddled close to Steven, who gave off enough body heat for four people.
"I know what your power is," he whispered to her, "but I'm not scared."
She stiffened at the first part, but was curious about the second. No one who knew of her power had ever acted like they weren't a little afraid of her. It seemed to be a natural response, but Steven wasn't afraid at all.
"I know you took that little creep's power away, and he deserved it. He should be glad I didn't get my hands on him…he'd be in a lot worse shape than not having any powers…"
"Shhh," she said, "let's not talk about that anymore. It's over and done with. Besides, I didn't totally take them away. He'll get them back…in time."
That was good enough for Steven, but there was something else he still wanted to talk to her about, something that had been eating at his mind ever since Dr. Zeus had told him about Rebecca's power.
"Can you really…can you set a time limit on how long someone's power is…off?"
"Yes," she said, not liking the conversation, "why do you want to know?"
"I…" he hesitated, then decided to just blurt it out and hope for the best. "I want you to take mine away…for a little while."
"Steven," said Rebecca, pulling away from him and shocked about what he had asked, "why would you want that? Your dad is the greatest hero around…and you've got so much going for you. You're popular and already going to win "most likely to lead his own team" in the yearbook…and that's still months away."
"It's BECAUSE of all that I want to be normal again…just for a little while," said Steven, letting the floodgates open to release all the feelings that had been building in him ever since he had first powered up. "Look at me…I'm a muscle-bound freak. I'm only fourteen and I could pass for an adult bodybuilder without trying already…what will I look like in six more months…or by the time I graduate? And I have to be so careful all the time…treat everything like it will break because it will if I'm not careful.
"I…I want to be able to hold you without worrying about accidentally hurting you. I want to kiss you and…other things. I want to be just flesh and blood again…my muscles are so hard and my skin so thick I'm scared I'm starting to loose the feelings. I can already go out in the cold without a shirt and not feel it…I can only feel fire if it's really hot, and then it still doesn't burn me. I pick up a book or something else light and it just doesn't register to my fingers…I only know I'm holding it because I can see it."
Rebecca could see that Steven was on the verge of tears. For all his muscles he was still just a kid confused about what was happening to his body. It was hard enough for a normal teen going through puberty, but what was it like for someone whose body went through such radical changes because of their super power? Maybe that was why so many of the other super strong kids acted the way they did; they were trying to over compensate or cover up their own fears about what was happening to them.
She then drew close to him again, placing her hands on his broad chest. She looked him in his teary eyes as she released her own dampening energies into him. There was always such a strange intimacy when she took someone's power away; the two times she had done it before had been unwanted contacts that she had put out of her mind, but this time she welcomed it as she and Steven touched in a way that possibly no two other people on the planet could.
Steven gasped as the chill of her touch went through him. It felt like his body was deflating somehow…like it had been an overblown tire on the verge of bursting but was now being relieved of the pressure. He was relaxing in a way he could never imagine as he suddenly felt the chill of the night air on his skin and the grass he was sitting on. He opened his eyes and saw that, though he was still huge, his muscles looked relaxed and like actual flesh instead of chiseled stone. He touched his chest and could feel the pectoral muscle give slightly beneath his fingers. He could feel.
Rebecca looked at Steven, enjoying his elation. He looked relieved, like the weight of the world was off of his shoulders. Tears began to roll down his face, and he looked at his hands like he was seeing them for the first time.
"Oh God," he whispered, "I…I'm normal again."
He then turned his eyes upon her, love and near-worship glowing in them. He reached out to her and took her small hands in his.
"Thank you," he said, nearly choking on emotion, "thank you, Rebecca."
He then pulled her to him, actually feeling the slight resistance she gave. It was wonderful. He then kissed her with all the passion he had been holding within him. Though he was still naturally strong as befitting someone his size, there was nothing life endangering about it. What surprised him was that she began returning the kiss with equal fervor as she poured all of her young lifetime of loneliness into her efforts. It was a few minutes before they parted, coming up gasping for air. They looked at each other as they tried to catch their breaths, noticing the slight sweat on their foreheads despite the creeping chill of the night.
"Rebecca," said Steven once he could speak again, "how long…do I have?"
"Until sunrise," she whispered back, "then your power will return."
"Then I better make the most of it," he said and pulled her to him again. They kissed once more, but while it was still as passionate as the first time, there was none of the raw desperation and earnestness behind it. They knew they had this precious time together, and nothing in the world was going to ruin it for them.
To be continued