Warriors way chapter 3...Wheel of fortune

So what will happen now, the story goes on!

New story in the growing Hekawi universe!
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Meagan's Tail

Nuuan's
“Necessity is the Mother of Invention” and “Déjà vu”

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The next day.....

Mark was fresh off of getting out of school and had an hour or two to kill before his mother headed home from work. So he headed into the huge mall anchored on the north end of the Las Vegas strip and skateboarded his way down its long balconies overlooking the rest of the mall below. Most of the time, the cops or the mall cop donut eaters jumped on him for doing this, but today they were nowhere in sight!

As Mark rounded the corner into the mall's enormous food court, where he was headed to get a few cheap chilidogs for a snack and then maybe head home to play a few games, or maybe the new ones he was given yesterday by his mom! Suddenly when his fav spot came into view, a leg flew out from behind the nearby column and slammed into his chest with blinding speed and he flew back from the fierce blow. Mark knew instantly it could only be one person and that was Cathy or Mongo's girl he had fight with at school just the other day!

Mark's back bounced off the titled floor and he tried to roll back up to his feet, but that hit was painful as his lungs labored for each breath, "Cathy...you bitch, why?" he yelled out knowing the real 'why' all the time, but he had to demand an answer nonetheless!

"Because you got me expelled and now I have to go to a SHIT North LV high school and not our good one! Then add dead meat....I lost my spot on the volleyball team and my chance at nationals!" she howled as Mark finally stood up.

"So where is Mongo?" he had to laugh.

"He left me and I don't need him to bust you up, little shit stain!" she barked and paced out the last few feet towards him.

Cathy never made it because one of the LVPD showed up on their bike's and skidded to a stop between us. The cop hopped off his bike to make a grab for her, but Cathy ran from the cop's shortened reach and was instantly headed into the back hallways of the huge mall. The cop dropped his bike on the spot and was right behind her for a short sprint, but the far faster girl quickly out paced the cop weighed down by all his gear.

While the cop was gone chasing after Cathy and Mark thought genuinely that he was not coming back to talk to him because most cops blew off mall rat kids like him for the most part. Mark chased down his skateboard that had rolled off during the short fight, then headed over to his hotdog spot to place an order to go and this time he doubled it because he was fed up with life right now and chowing down was one of his ways to relax while gaming!

When the cop finally showed back up after loosing Cathy with his bike in tow, he spotted Mark waiting for his meal and making more room in his backpack for it. "Hey kid do you know that girl that jumped ya and do you need or want a report made?" he had to ask since the boy had taken a pretty serious blow from the obviously bigger and maybe older girl.

"I know her, she just got into hot water at my school for stealing my frame and they expelled her for it!" he barked glancing down at this ticket number for his food when a person called one out and it was not his...'five more to go' he thought.

"Name...." the cop asked flipping out a comp pad, one that was far less advanced than Marks by a decade!

"She is Cathy Elwen, I think she is thirteen or about the same age as me and used go to my high school...Ralph Lamb high." he said.

"So the charge was felony theft from your encounter at school and they expelled her for that?" the cop asked as his partner rolled up on his bike shaking his head to his partner, "Nope did not find her, she must have run off into the casino complex across the street or lucked out and grabbed a tram on the strip."

"Shoot we'll get her later...But kid she was expelled you said?" the first cop asked again.

"AHhh ya that is what she said, I did not know till just now she had got the AXE from our school and she indeed earned all of it!" he growled out and winced a bit in pain from breathing to fast.

"Hey do we need to call in medics for you, are those ribs of yours okay?' the cop had to ask.

"They are fine, I have had a few busted from skating and this does not feel even that bad?" Mark said just now hearing his food order number and paused the officer's questions politely as he was going to grab his bag of food, then placed it all in his pack.

"Well give me your ID kid and I'll fill out a full report for you and that can be added in to the girl's charges if they choose to do so. At sometime in the next few days a detective might call you for more info and to tell your parents, so please tell them tonight and here is my card, plus the temp report number for today. Just add today's date to the end to reference the permanent one when its made please. AND take it easy?" he offered taking the kid's ID, then giving it back after the card reader was done scanning it.

"Got it all officers," Mark said finally slipping the card into his wallet with his ID.

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Back at the family condo

When Sophia opened the condo's door, then placed her bag and keys on the kitchen island. She knew instantly something was wrong by all the bags of food and snacks in the kitchen, some empty, others half finished and then one bag left alone with what Mark surly left for her dinner. The poor boy did this every time, he literally ate his anger then would go out and skate for hours or hold up in his room playing games all night!

She listened to the home for a second to hear that Mark was in his room, she could just make up his game banging away as he must be 'blasting' something or someone to bits in one of the games she bought him. Sophia sighed at first then tried to use her more cheery voice to call her son in, "Mark I am back, plus I have that last part of the armor and it's a way cool shield you should come see!" she asked while pulling the large box from her even larger leather messenger bag.

When Mark heard his mom's voice he was a bit apprehensive to come out and see her, then have to explain what Cathy did at the mall this afternoon. But he did really want to see this shield for the armor set his mom had craved for so long to complete and it being complete might mean that she will lay off chasing after old things for awhile!

Mark ran into the kitchen, then hopped up onto one of the free stools lined up on the center island and smiled to Sophia, "Well let's see this thing and then maybe the whole set together?" he asked as she was busy cutting open the box and breaking the last plastic customs seals.

As his mom worked on the box to open it safely and not to damage to contents! She sighed out a question, "So what happened to get you so upset or mad?"

"Mom it was Cathy the girl that stole my frame at school, well she jumped me at the mall with a roundhouse kick and then the cops chased her off." he admitted.

"You hurt bad?" she worried out for her son.

"Naaaww, she just knocked the wind out of me and sat me on my pampers for a sec!" he growled out.

"The LV cops saw all of this happen and they did not catch her?" Sophia asked her rage to whack the kid barely incheck!

"Nooope," he shook his head back, "she lost them in the access halls behind the shops, she worked there last summer and knows the place too well....Besides she is real fast and I wonder at times, is she a mutant or a Fae?" he had to say.

"Well if she is either, I will see her get charged as such. I hate doing it to a kid, but you have to stop this early or you get the next Dr Evil and one more hairless cat to jail!" she laughed out hoping to mellow the mood and the boys laughing back told her the plan had worked!

Sophia checked the shield as it came free of the box and its cushioning quilted cotton bag. One did not use plastics on things this old, cloth was best for shipping and it was easy to work with. "here we go have a look while I get my tools and we clean it together." she said starting to walk off.

"Hey let's just clean it all in your office, work room and besides the light is better there. Then add we might need even more stuff to get this even close to being clean?" he said flipping the shield over to see the deep engraved front and then over to the back or inside to see more fine engraving there too resting under a thin layer of grime!

Mom's office and workroom was the condo's third bedroom and just about as big as Mark's, it held her cheap S-mart brand desk that was a bit cheaper but a little more better built than a IKEA brand one, her weight gym setup and then the biggest piece of furniture the family had. Her work table, that was four foot, by six long and four tall and made much like a drafting table with an edged that ringed to top to keep things from falling or sliding off. The table had, all four sides filled with drawers for tools and locking cabinets, then two very nice work lights above it, then add one more hanging from the ceiling on a swing arm to brighten up your closer work if need be and the last was a built in air system for tools and blasting off dust!

Sophia placed out a fresh clean cotton work mat for the shield to lay on while they worked on it and Mark placed it on top, then slid open a drawer to get the tools out he knew his mom would need or use. He had helped her clean many an artifact and knew the process well.

With most of the tools needed laid out, Sophia went right to work by first taking a few pictures of the shield as it had arrived and after a few sets of both sides, then she checked them all on her frame to be sure they were what she needed to track this item's cleaning process.

The first step was blasting off as much of the loose dirt as she could in a sealed air box for dust, breathing and keeping her office clean! Then she moved on to a 'wet' but gentle cleaning that Mark knew well and could help her with, they found that process quickly removed most of the caked on mess of the ages. Under all of that grime, the shield started to actually shine up very well just like the rest of the set did and the metal colors matched the silver and gold of the rest. She tested the metal content and her frame paired analyzing wand came back with the same conundrum as the armor's....no match found in metallurgy currently known and that included Mithril, plus Orichalcum the magic metals that the Fae used and made!

"Well Mark the analyzer says this is the same stuff the armor is made out of and I would bet this shield could take a small cannon round and not have a dent in it!" she smiled as she printed out the results and filed all in a folder for the armor.

"Yaa take the hit AND send the holder flying back a mile I bet!" he laughed.

Long into the night both of them cleaned up the shield to match the cleaning job Sophia had done over the years to the rest of the set, Mark interrupted his mothers work for a second as he refilled a cleaning bottle with more solution, "Mom I should head to bed for school tomorrow." he stated

"You stay right here, you are not going to school tomorrow because two days going this week and two fights on both days...you deserve a break. Besides we need a set of photos with the set and lets get that all done tonight, then tomorrow we go over to the MGM park and have fun!" she suggested and Mark quickly grinned as he nodded back, "Sure!" he yelped in happiness at the thoughts of riding all the coasters the huge place had.

A few hours later, Mark had pulled on the thinnest set of sweats he owned and was placing the last part of the armor in place on his thigh when his mother came into the living room with the shield, "Here we go that last part and now the set is all together again after who knows how many thousands of years!" she beamed with pride as Mark took the shield from her hands.

Sophia smiled to him, then went to grab the camera off the kitchen island, "One set of good photos hon, then we are done for good with this set and maybe I can display it somewhere at the museum till we move or find it someplace inside our new house on display?" she asked.

"This set would make a fine hallway display if we find a place with one or one that is big enough?" he said sliding his left hand gauntlet on a little tighter on his wrist and hand then grabbing the set of braces and handles on the shield's inner side.

As his left arm slid into, then through the brace that ringed his arm and he grabbed for the last handle to hold the shield. He heard and felt a very distinct 'click' that felt like the shield locking into place on the gauntlet!

There was a steady glow from the etchings on the shield's inner side that he instantly saw, then Mark felt very funny like he was up on something high and getting dizzy. the next strange feeling was that he felt his pants get tight on his butt and legs....then he had trouble breathing, when he looked down at his chest he knew why...his CHEST HAD GROWN OUTWARD!

"MOM!" he cried out in a voice now alien to his ears.

His mom spun instantly around from the frame that she was making ready for holding her coming photos and saw her boy...or the larger woman or very tall teen girl that stood there where Mark WAS only a few seconds ago!

"Mark is that you?" she had to question the strange person!

"Ahh I think so..." and he grabbed at his or she pants front, "IT'S GONE mom and I have BOOBS!" he shrieked out.

"What's gone?" she panicked!

"IT, IT you know IT!" he or now she cried!

"Quick take all of that armor off as fast as you can, don't worry about damaging any of it!" she yelled and Don't panic!" she tried to suggest, as she herself...panicked!

"Panic mom, I am WELL PAST PANIC!" mark shouted and started to peel off the armor as fast as he could, pieces flew off all over the room. His mom jumped in to help and pulled at parts or their temporary straps.

Mark yanked off the last part, it fell to the floor across the room with a clatter and he stood there in his slightly torn sweats, "Mom if that was how I was going to change back into ME! It did not work and why?" he asked clutching at his or her rather large chest.

"Shit, shit let me think!" Sophia asked as Mark started to look sick, like toss up cookies sick!

"I, I...." that is when Mark 'threw up' into a trash can next to the living room couch that was lucky to be there after his large meal after school!

"I know, let me call Lee! That darn girl knows everything and will help us or you?" the frantic mother said grabbing her frame and whipping through a list of contacts to settle on one that she tapped.

"Hi Sophia...wh..." was all the other person got out before she laid this mess all out to them.

Mark went into his room to check out what he looked like in his door mounted mirror while his mother was making the call and his appearance had drastically changed! He or now she was taller, like nearly six foot tall or right at it and she was fit looking girl with black hair replacing his normal lighter brown. The new face stared back at him with utterly blue eyes, over his old green ones and he pulled at his top, "Ohhh shit...big boobs! I knew this girl was stacked, but this!" he shouted out.

Yes they were big, big or huge to him never ever having had any! But not that big and nowhere porn star BIG or anything close. Poor Mark was panicked when he walked back into the living room to hear the person on the frame tell his mom what might be up with him.

"Well if could be a full blown curse and he is now this new form for good. Or maybe it's only day or night time one or maybe temporary?" the person sang out her growing list.

"Permanent...MOM!" he cried or really started to sob

"It's not permm....honey you are shrinking!" Sophia gasped at the sight of her boy slowly returning to normal!

"Well there ya go Sophia, it was temporary. But you can try the armor on yourself and see if it works for you or maybe have Mark try it out and see what happens!" the frame person smiled innocently to her.

"Lee I know you love finding out new things, but please do so without using my kid as a guinea pig...please!" she sassed the person.

"Well he might of had powers, strong or armored or fast or fly or even laser beam eyes!" she bubbled on and on to the mother.

"Laser beam eyes....lady I had boobs!" he barked at the frame.

"You might like them if you try them out?" she laughed, "you do know half the world has them?"

"What!" he barked again, but thought of the list she just gave, strong and flying! That did sound cool and fun, but as a girl? Mark pondered the only drawback to being a comic superhuman if that new form did indeed have any powers?

"Well Sophia girl, at least try on the set for yourself? What harm can it do, you get bigger and you are already a girl!" she offered.

"I'll get back to ya on that!" and she hung up.

"Who was that mom, I don't think I have meet that one from your work and she is real strange?" he had to ask.

"That was Lee, I worked with her on that project in France three years back and she is strange. Like mutant or really a goddess I think?" Sophia thought back to their introduction and how the boss described the tall blond woman.

"Goddess, mom a goddess you worked with one?" he asked, shaking his head to the strange thoughts.

"Well goddess or really old, like tens of thousands of years old!" she admitted to the boy.

"So what now, call the DEHA or the magic cops in on this?" he worried to himself, was this armor magic or some hidden tech of ages past? One never knew until it was tested out fully by experts!

"Well I am game, I am trying it all on and let's both see what happens?" she boldly said.

"Mom are you going nuts?" he barked at his mother.

"If we test it out and find its secrets, then its all ours and not the museums or some guy with a 'name' in my business!" she shouted at the room and now the worried teen.

"Okay, you always dared me at times to make me be bold and this is freaking BOLD even for you!" he huffed out.

As he leaned down to pick up a piece of armor, his mom slapped his hand away instantly, "AHhh no! We will not let you touch this or any part for now on young man!" she ordered and grabbed the part for herself.

She noted standing up with a part of thigh armor in her hand, "Well no POOF?" she shrugged to the teen, "So we move on and test out the rest."

Not much later Mark was admiring his mother housed inside the full set of armor and only the last part...the shield was to be added in last just like he did. "You don't fill it all out as I did, you are a few inches short mom and other measurements."

"Well, at least I have a chest to fill the breastplate!" she sassed jokingly back to him with a huge evil grin.

"Okay mom, when I put that on. It slid in then 'clicked' when it did, it must have hit home and activated the rest maybe? I also think the gauntlet is molded to the shield backing, like a puzzle piece?" he suggested.

"It might be that way for all the parts, in the heavier suit the left gauntlet is missing and they all might fit or should fit?" she thought back on to her notes over the years on the armor.

Sophia wiggled her hand as she slid the shield onto her arm, it 'clicked' and nothing happened. "Maybe it only had the one charge or needs something else?" Mark suggested.

"I'll give it one more minute, then I put this away...no I will lock it away and then have Lee maybe look at it all later, she should be able to figure it out in a month or maybe a decade?" she reasoned out.

A few minutes had passed by and Sophia had to finally give up on this puzzle and giving up on puzzles is not exactly what she liked to do! It was her mutation doing the talking, it always helped her out with any puzzle or riddle and leaving something undone was one of the great "NO-NO's" of how her mutation worked with the world in general, solving puzzles or locks was what drove her on most days!

"Well I am at a loss on how this worked on ya and I don't want to experiment on my only kid...now if I had like three of you?" she jested to the boy and he glared back at her, then started to giggle about it, "If you had three of me mom, you would never get any work done and this armor would have never been finished...So its a good thing you did not have three of us!"

Sophia started taking off the armor and laying it out on her work room table for later study when the mood to do so struck her again. She dropped a few pieces on the way from the living room to the work room and Mark bent over to pick one up and nothing happened? So he felt the need to tempt fate and place the one right arm bracer on his lower arm and tighten the strap a little.

As he did the sound of clothes being stretched to their limits filled the room and his surprised gasp changed in pitch higher...."Mom, I think I figured it out!" the renewed 'she' cried out.

"TAKE that off now before you get hurt!" Sophia barked and ripped the bracer off his arm instantly.

It took what seemed to Mark forever, but to the rest of the world or to his mom it was about one minute to ninety seconds and the tall teen girl shrank back down to a thin teen boy that was the normal Mark.

"Are you okay now?" the upset mother asked her son.

"Holly shit that actually feels kind of good, like I am filled with power and strength!" he buzzed out quickly.

Sophia paused as her brain thought over the several ideas now forming inside her head, then grabbed her frame to call Lee back! "Lee, Sophia again...Mark changed again and it seems that only one part of the armor is needed for him to change fully and it does not work on me...then add the change seems to last a proportion of time that the item and change are left alone and running?" she blurted out insanely quick to the blond woman who surprisingly kept up with ease to the whole stream of questions.

"Okay, that makes sense and this armor is magic I'd bet and now attuned to Mark for good. So you not being changed by it means its 'locked' to him for good or till he dies maybe? Then the time proportion, if you kept records of the first change and how long he was in contact with the armor during that first change and how long it lasted after removing it all...then you can work the math from there...as long as the magic has the same idea...because magic can do and will do strange things...I once dealt with...." Lee kept going on till Sophia had to cut her off, "thanks Lee call you back soon, maybe a few days to talk this over?"

As Sophia hung up, Lee barked out an unheard warning that never finished, "Don't let Mark use it too much....." she got cut off from there, but on her end said "he might get addicted to the feelings it gives..."...'I tried?' Lee thought.

Mark squealed as he picked up the bracer and nothing happened, "See mom I have to be actually wearing it and not just touching it...neat! I want to try something?" he blurted out and ran all the way into the office and over to his mom's extensive weight set.

He quickly strapped on the armor, then waited as he grew and he sighed out slowly at the feeling it gave him 'Such power!' he thought innerly. Next he grabbed his mom's fifty pound curling weights that she used to keep her 'exceptional level three' strength in shape and to know when she was getting soft. This weight was at the far upper end of her best and sometimes she could not lift it and had to regain some of what she lost by being lazy...but most of the time this was her daily workout weight.

Mark grabbed both, curling them with ease and then tossed them about like nothing! "See mom I just blasted past your limits and lets try this!" he said as one of his or her hands made a grab for Sophia's largest barbell at over two hundred pounds and he lifted it one handed with ease straight over his head in one long stroke.

"Take the armor off now Mark, who knows if it might be permanent with three uses!" she worried for her boy.

"Ohh shit!" he nearly giggled with the power he felt now, then dropped the barbell to the floor with a small clang and quickly started taking off the bracer.

Sophia counted off the seconds, then several minutes as her boy stood there... or now a large girl stood there. Mark started looking mighty worried for himself when he finally felt the slow change back to 'normal' wash over him and his body shrank down to his old normal size!

"WOOF mom for a few seconds there I thought I was stuck, but that was great...the feeling of being that powerful and I bet I could take gun shots and not feel a thing!" he wondered out loud.

"Let not test that idea just yet and let me lock this all up because you seem to be out of control there?" she wondered out and though Mark might want the change, the power the armor offered more than he worried about being a girl? Then add what else does this armor have inside it, a ghost that might take him over or corrupt him in bad ways or eat his soul as fuel to come back to our world! the list was endless in Sophia's mind, as she had studied most of just that over the years.

Sophia pulled the trunk lid open where she stored the full set, plus the other armor bits 'n' parts and started laying it back to rest. Once most of it was back in the box. She stopped at her large whiteboard covering most of one wall and wrote down numbers, One set labeled 'one' must have been Mark's first change with times that she made a good guess at and the last 'three' was this last one with him lifting weights.

When she was done, she stared at the numbers, then made a quick formula of all of them, "Mark it looks like the change last a certain amount of time, but that line is on a curve and who knows how bad it gets....One minute of change might be an hour waiting to change back to normal soon enough or even worse? AND a few more of these changes might take months or years to change back from...unless you like being a girl, please stay away from this armor or...you get the idea?" she warned and underlined the number that gave the answer she sought in a flowing line to reinforce her words of warning to the boy.

"Yes mom," he sighed as he secretly pocketed that bracer in his sweats!

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Shadowsblade here.

But I have to thank, Both Branek and Nuuan for their vast input and the ability they both have to 'bounce' off ideas and improve them!

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