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Image Credit: Modified from Quizilla.Teennick.com - Eden. ~Landing

Author's Note: There is no connection between the novel by Harlan Ellison and my story except perhaps that we both just chose something simple that describes the story. :)

This is a fan fiction, the Whateleyverse and all canon characters are the property of their respective writers. If you find your life being depicted in this story you it is purely accidental and you have a hell of a lot more to worry about than suing me. No canon characters have been hurt in the writing of this story...yet.

Many thanks to GinnCaster5 for the editing help, without Ginn this story would probably be unreadable. And to Pmanpman and Rozarius for their read through.

This is a Whateley Academy fan fiction story, you can find the Whateley stories at http://www.crystalhall.org/ I highly recommend them. ~Landing

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Chapter 5
 

“I’m looking for a boy named Adam, any of you bastards seen him?” said the man in what could only be described as a menacing voice that had as much music as threat behind it.

BD voice cracked like a wipe in the still air after the man’s voice had faded. “Kill the intruder! Kill him!”

The guys closest to the door moved to grab the man with the guitar but before they had taken even a step the guitar was screaming again and the man was in motion. He slammed his fist into the face of the man closest to him and sent him flying back a good ten feet. Then he backhanded the next cultist knocking him to the floor. After that it was hard to see what happened since there were so many people trying to get hold of him. I saw a few more people go flying but then the knot of people seemed to contract around the man and I thought for sure he was done for.

The music had kept on going even with the fact that I hadn’t seen his hands actually playing the guitar after he started punching, and with him seemingly down it didn’t stop, it only got more intense. Suddenly there were words sung along with the playing and with the words the mass of cultists on top of the man were literally flung away from him as if a bomb had gone off.

Standing alone where there had been a pile of bodies before was the man with the curly gold hair singing with such power that it took you breath away. I vaguely recognized the song as ‘The Mutants Anthem’ though I couldn’t remember whose it was, Metallica or Michael Jackson or someone like that. I was never really into music all that much, I take after my mother in that respect. Cultist were groaning and rolling around on the floor where they had landed and the man kept on singing.

BD gave a snarl of frustration at seeing his cultists defeated so easily and used his cords of black energy to pull the whimpering old man to him. He then drew out a sharp obsidian ceremonial knife and viciously cut the man from groin to sternum. He let the old man fall to the floor where he was feebly trying to get his insides put back from where they had spilled. BD then pulled a black object shaped like a common chicken egg and shoved it into the dying man’s body.

He convulsed and screamed in apparent agony. The screams slowly wound down tell there was nothing but a gurgle then that too stopped. What happened next was like something out of an Aliens movie, ripping its way out of the dead body was a creature from nightmares. It was a glistening black insectoid monster with eight crab like legs and a large elongated head that rose above the body .On its back were four long writhing tentacles two on each side. As it exited the body it started to grow until it was the size of small car.

The cultists that were still able ran from the room as fast as their legs would carry them and the monster shot towards the man singing, its legs moving it in terrifyingly fast gait which made a staccato clicking on the stone floor. I thought for sure that the guy that had charged in here looking for me was going to be toast when that thing got through with him, and at first my guess seemed to be proving right. The man had to dive out of the way as one of the eight legs slammed down where he had been standing shattering the flag stone. He had to scramble away again as a second leg slammed down nearly pinning one of his legs to the floor.

The song the guitar had been playing morphed into a different much more savage tune as the guy sung another song.

I had never heard this song before but it probably wasn’t one I would forget any time soon as the force of it seemed to hit the monster and slam it against a wall causing the room to shake. Unfortunately this didn’t stop the monster, it got back on to his legs and launched another attack at the singer, this time using one of its tentacles to grab him around the middle.

The man grabbed the guitar from where it was handing over his shoulder and gripped it on the end like it was some kind of huge club; all the while the guitar kept on playing its strident notes of challenge. A bright blue nimbus formed around the body of the guitar, seeming to sizzle in the air. He brought it down on the tentacle, hacking half way through it. This caused the Insect-o-fiend to give a shriek of pain and drop him.

The singer landed lightly on his feet and went on the offensive. He swung his blazing guitar at the Insect-o-fiend’s chitinous head and he hit it three times in quick succession spraying black stinking fluid with every blow. The oversized insect quickly backed out of reach, shaking its head and clicking its mandibles.

Then it seemed to rear back on its legs and spewed out a red semi liquid that splashed down around the golden haired man. He was lucky that it mostly missed him since what little did spatter onto his cloths started to burn holes through them. The singer franticly stripped out of his cloths all the while holding on to his guitar. Proving that even in a situation like this humor can be found, or at least embarrassment, the singer was left wearing only a pair of yellow ducky boxers, and his collection of quite nice tattoos.

What happened next was strait out of some Hollywood action movie and had no right actually happening in real life. The monster darted forward while the singer was distracted and tried to tear his face off. Quicker than I could follow the now almost naked singer had his guitar slung onto his back and had somehow avoided the attack and at the same time managed to climb onto the insects back. From there he got a grip around its neck, his long muscular arms reaching to encircle it. He kept up with his singing despite having his face pressed up against the monster.

The giant bug started to thrash, its tentacles trying desperately to get a hold on the man, but he clung too tightly for them to get a good grip. It skittered around on the floor desperately trying to get the man off. There was a ‘pop’ and its head suddenly sagged to one side. Its tentacles still waved, about and it continued stumbling around, but it was clear that it was dead, its body just not having gotten the message yet.

The singer jumped off its back and the guitar that still hung from his shoulders wound down its playing until it stopped. I had gotten used to the guitar playing so it cessation was as startling in some ways as a thunderclap. I looked around and saw that everyone that was conscious, including BD, was gone and it was just me, the man, and the poster child for Raid.

I must have made some sound because the singer looked over at me. He smiled in a reassuring way and hurried over to me saying “It’s all right girl, I’m not going to hurt you. Let me get you untied.”

Girl? I guess that was when the horrible feeling of wrongness really hit me. I looked down at myself. At the gentle swell of breasts and thin waist, at the pale smooth skin and the shapely legs. I started to cry. My god, what had those whack jobs done to me, I looked like a girl!

The singer saw me crying and made soothing noises as he untied my bonds. “Don’t worry girl, those people are gone and that bug thing is dead. I’m going to get you out of here.”

I started crying even harder when he called me girl again. He finished untying me and patted my hand in what he must have thought was a reassuring way. “I just need to find a boy named Adam in here and we can leave. He is about your height with brown hair and blue eyes, have you seen him?”

At first I was too chocked up to get any words out and but finally I was able to say something. “I-I am Adam!”

His look of confusion slowly gave way to one of dismay. “What did they do to you?”

I just cried harder.

“Hey, it’s okay Adam.” he said, “I’m going to get you out of this; I’ll take care of everything.”

He reached down to pick me up and my eyes widened in panic. “What is i-augh!”

“Oh I don’t think you will be able to take care of anything,” Rising behind the singer was BD with one of his black cords wrapped around the singer’s neck where the flesh scorched and smoked.

After the singer passed out and it was quiet, a few of the cultist peeked back around doors and hallways to see what had happened. BD snapped orders to them and the singer and I were hustled down to the dungeon sans guitar which got left in the great hall.

They were nice enough to put us both in the same cell I had been in before. They manacled me to the wall but since Stinky the decomposing corpus was already using the other set they decided to put the singer in kind of full body handcuffs you see on some TV shows. Except while those have a chain that reaches from the handcuff to the legcuffs that is long enough for the person to stand, the one that the singer was forced into was only a couple of feet long, so he was kept doubled over where he lay on the floor.

I hate to admit it but I didn’t do very well for the next twenty minutes or so. Maybe it was the fact that I was facing imminent death, maybe it was …was whatever had happened in the great hall to my body. Hell maybe it was the fact that I was as naked as the day I was born. Being starkers generally makes you feel more vulnerable and I was feeling pretty vulnerable at that point. So I sat there with my arms handing above my head by the chains and sobbed. I was a total wreak. I pretty much stayed that way until the singer began to move.

At first he groaned and moaned until he finally was fully conscious “Adam?” he blinked up at me from where he was laying on this side on the floor. “Hey Kiddo don’t cry, we are going to get through this. I have been in tougher jams than this before,” his words were a bit muzzy but were growing in cohesion.

“That’s what my dad calls me,” I got out though my sobs in a little voice.

“What?” said the singer nonplused.

“Kiddo, that’s what my dad always calls me.” I wasn’t sure why that inane thought had come up; maybe it was because I didn’t think I would ever see him again.

“I’m sorry, I won’t call you that then,” said the singer.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. It was just you saying it that reminded me of him,” I said.

“You’re going to see your father again, I promise you,” he said struggling to get up from the floor into a sitting position.

What was he a mind reader? Come to that maybe he was a mind reader. He must be some kind of mutant with the way he handled those cult people and that monster.

“Did you read my mind?”

“Read your mind? No I’m just good at reading people,” he explained. “At least most people,” he said that last almost sadly.

We were quite for a moment, probably both not knowing what to say, finally I asked. “Who are you?” that had been bugging me; it wasn’t often that a mysterious rock and roll mutant showed up to save your bacon. Well, try to save your bacon at least.

The singer hesitated for a moment before saying. “You can call me Kent, I’m an old friend of your mother, she called me up when you manifested your mutant powers,” Something about him was tickling at the back of my mind, something about him sounded familiar, but other thoughts overwhelmed it. My mother had old mutant friends? Holy hell, why hadn’t I ever heard about this before? Mom definitely went up a few coolness points for that.

“Do you know if my Mom is okay?” I asked hoping he would know.

“She’s fine. She was in the hospital when I left to come find you. She had been injected with a tranquilizer of some kind and should fully recover.”

I sighed with relief, some of the panic I had been feeling sliding way. My Mom was alive. They hadn’t killed her. “How did you find me? It’s not like they have signs on the highway reading next exit McDonald’s, Exxon and evil hidden cult do they?”

Kent grimaced slightly. “I must have gotten to your place just a little after they took off with you. I called 911 and got Veronica to the hospital. She came out of it long enough to tell me and your father, who the hospital had contacted when they brought her in, that some men had jumped her and we figured they had probably taken you. I convinced your dad not to tell the cops.”

“Why?” I asked surprised.

“Because you being a newly manifested mutant the police would probably have brought in the MCO, if that had happened your chances of actually being rescued even if you were found would be nil. So I went to the H-Town Watchmen and asked for their help in finding you.”

Color me impressed. I had the Watchers out looking for me, the premier superhero team in Houston.

I must have looked astonished because Kent grimaced again. “Yeah well that didn’t go as well as I could have wished. Most of the Watchers were out fighting the Vicar and his men when I came in. I don’t have that good of a rep so they weren’t inclined to give all that much help. Their magic girl, Cardshark, at least gave me a charm that would lead me to you and they said they would come help once things cooled down.”

“Charm?” I asked

“I have it righ…uh, I had it in my pants, which I no longer have.” he said looking down at his yellow ducky boxers.

This reminded me of my own nudity and the chains clinked as I reflexively tried to cover myself. I looked down at what I had been hiding from since I was tied to the stone upstairs. A pair of pale mounds on my chest tipped with rosy pink nipples that were bigger than they were supposed to be. I had breasts, they were pretty small but there was no denying it, and there was no denying the other changes in me from the longer hair that seemed to be the same vibrant copper color as my eyes to the soft rounded skin of my arms. I leaned forward slightly to look down at myself. I saw something that a day ago would have made my eyes bug out like a cartoon wolf at a show. Now it just made me want to hurl. Below the breasts was a slim waist and flat stomach that flared out into slim but noticeable hips with long elegant legs. All of this without an ounce of spare fat on it. I braced myself and looked there. Yep, little Adam and his two friends were gone, all I could see was a sparse patch of copper hair.

“Can you tell me what happened?” said Kent in a gentle, kindly tone. The kind of tone you would use with a small and frightened child.

“I don’t know,” I said, a tear running down my cheek. “They tied me to that rock and were having some kind of ceremony, the Ceremony of Transformation BD called it.”

“BD?”

“It’s what I call the guy that was screaming orders when you came in, the guy that snuck up behind you and choked you out. It stands for Bathrobe Dude, since, you know, he is like, wearing a bathrobe,” I explained. Kent gave a small snort of amusement.

“Anyway they tied me down and did a lot of chanting and other weird things, and BD took some of my blood and did more weird things and suddenly I was feeling this intense pain in my stomach. Then I felt myself changing and just… it was weird, all kinds of weird sensations, mostly unpleasant. BD had said something about changing my body earlier so I would be fit for his son to take over, but I think something went wrong because right before you showed up he was yelling and really angry at one guy. He was saying that this guy ruined this ceremony, and then you came in.”

“And I made a right pig’s ear of the whole rescue thing. It sounds like these guys cast some kind of magic on you but what one magic can do another can undo some times.”

I looked at him, willing to be reassured. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, with all the different people with different powers out in the world there has to be a way to fix this. It’s not like there is a law about it or anything.”

“Maybe but we have to get out of here first. Can’t you use your power to break these chains or something?”

“No, I need some time to clear my head I’m still kind of groggy. Give me a few minutes and then I’ll give it a try,” he said with a wince.

“You’re a mutant right?”

“Yes.”

“So what is your super power? Is it some kind of musical magic?” I asked.

Kent looked at the door and lowered his voice before answering. “That’s as good an explanation as any. No one is really sure what my power is. I’ve been classified as a Warper 4r or wiz 3 or TK 4 even an energizer 3,” he said.

“What does all that mean?” I asked confused by all the codes and numbers.

“Sorry, I forgot your new to all this. A warper is someone who warpes or changes physical reality. Wiz is pretty obvious; it’s a wizard, someone who does magic. TK is telekinesis, which is basically moving things with your mind. Energizer is who does something with energy, like shooting lightning bolts. The numbers are how powerful it is. It goes from one to seven, seven being the most powerful.”

“So what do you do exactly?” I asked.

He gave a kind of shrug. “I make things happen when I sing and play music together.”

“What kind of things?”

“Well things like when I came in to rescue you I made it so I could hit hard and take hits I normally wouldn’t be able too. Then I made a burst of force hit that bug thing and finally I made myself ten times stronger to choke it.”

“Why didn’t you just make everyone fall asleep or something?”

“I’m not powerful enough to do something like that. There are limits to what I can do. I could put people to sleep but they would all have to be tired for it to work. With those cult guys high on adrenaline from doing their ritual there wasn’t a chance of that working,” Kent explained.

“What about your powers, that’s the original reason I came down to Texas. Your mother called and said you started manifesting. Can you do anything that might help us get out of here?” he asked.

In all the excitement I had almost forgotten about my incipient mutanthood until Kent reminded me. Geez, was it only yesterday that weird stuff started happening? It felt like it had been longer. “I’m not sure what I can do with my powers. At least I haven’t been able to do anything on purpose.” I said biting my lip.

“Why don’t you tell me what has been happening and maybe we can figure it out together,” said Kent.

“I guess it started last night, that’s when my eyes started glowing. Is that common for mutants? I mean your eyes look almost exactly like mine, just less copper colored and more golden.”

My question seemed to panic him for some reason though he hid it well and played it casual. “It’s not all that common but it does happen. I’ve meet a few other people with glowing eyes. Have you noticed anything else strange happening?”

“I was chased around by a giant mud man before I got kidnapped,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows at that “Really? How did that happen? Do you think you did it or could it have been something these cult people did?”

“I think it might have been something I did,” I said a bit sheepishly. I then explained about drawing in the mud and the mud man forming with that on its forehead. “Harvard saved me from it, he jumped up and bite it where the little picture was and it collapsed back into mud. H-He tried to save me when we got home to,” I felt a tear roll down my cheek. Damn crying it was really getting old. “I think they killed him. Was he there when you showed up?” I asked daring to hope.

“I didn’t see any dog when I was there,” he hesitated “But there was a lot of blood on the floor. I’m sorry I don’t know what happened to him.”

For about two seconds I told myself I had done enough crying for today, then I said fuck that, he deserves some tears.

Kent let my cry in silence but it wasn’t long before we heard steps coming again down the hallway.

“Can’t give us any peace can they.” Muttered Kent.

The door was slammed open and BD strode in like he owned the place leaving a couple cult members at the door. Okay he did own the place but that’s no reason for acting like a dick. He was calmer than he had been in the grand hall. I guess whatever mental imbalance had affected him had settled back down; at least until something set him off again.

He turned his haughty gaze on the two of us, me with my eyes red ringed from crying and Kent sitting up in the uncomfortable position the chains held him to. He stepped forward and kicked Kent back onto his side.

“Getting along well are we? Of course you are, who doesn’t like spending time with a pretty naked girl? And my aren’t you the pretty one.”

I felt myself blushing as his leering gaze lingered on me. “Despite the mistake that led to your current condition I have to admit that the old man did a good job of focusing on an image, even if it was the wrong one. I would take a turn at you myself if we weren’t in a hurry. Alas I have no time for pleasure.”

“Go shove a pole up your ass, how’s that for pleasure?” I said pissed at him talking about me like that.

“I’m pretty sure he already has one up there Adam, how else could a worm be standing upright?” chipped in Kent.

“Quiet,” said BD, casually kicking Kent in the small of his back so he grunted in pain. “I have more important things to do than to listen to you. Now hold still girl this will only hurt a little bit.”

BD reached over and grabbed me around the head with both hands and a jolt of pure agony shot through me. It was like my brain was on fire and freezing at the same time. It seemed to go one for ages tell he finally removed his hands. I hung limply in the chains feeling nauseous. Damn liar.

“It is just as I suspected the transformation spell has contracted and formed a shell matrix inside the body. It will take me months to find a way to undo this. Well there is no hope for it; I must go on with the ceremony of embodiment as she is, the changes that make her body capable of surviving the ceremony seemed to have worked at least.” BD said to himself.

BD signaled peremptorily to the two cultists to unchain me and to follow him.

“What about the man?” asked one of them.

“Take him as well, I will be hungry after the ceremony and he will do nicely for a snack,” said BD seeming pleased with the idea.

So it was back up to the great hall. The second time wasn’t any more fun than the first one. In the great hall most of the cultists had been reassembled, though they seemed a bit jittery. Having super powered people break in and pound on you can probably upset the tranquility of any gathering. Most were milling about talking to each other but some of them were working at chopping up the bug monster off to one side. I guess it wouldn’t fit through the door, BD must have never thought about that when he made it or summoned it or whatever.

They started pushing and shoving me back towards the altar stone but I wasn’t having any of that. I pretended to stumble and then elbowed the cultist to my left in the side. I tried to make a run for it but there were other cultists that started gathering around to stop me. As I was looking for a way to escape someone got behind me and grabbed my arms. I struggled in his grip but couldn’t break it. What the hell? I felt like a child in the guy’s grip. No I realized, I felt like a 15 year old girl being held by an older man. And not one of those athletic 15 year old girls either. This really pissed me off but there was nothing I could do besides curse as the tied me back down on the altar.

Kent surprisingly didn’t put of much of a fight. He let himself be led a few yards from the altar and be chained again. Just before they made him get on the ground so they could have his hands close to his feet he winked at me. I felt some hope. Maybe Kent had a plan for getting out of this mess? I sure hoped so because I was completely out of them.

BD clapped his hands together over his head calling for those in the hall to quiet down and listen to him.

“My dear fellow followers of Cochul’relk’thultul it is the time we have all be waiting for. It is the time for the raising of our god! He will take on flesh and walk among us, and his power shall lead us to great things! Those who have laughed at you will learn the true cost of their actions!” BD shouted to the gathers believers.

This speech was greeted with yells of “Yes!” and “Now is our time!” and somewhere in the back “Down with all evil vegetable shop owners!”

“Despite the unfortunate accident of brother Cunningham we will go on with our work. And we must not forget that even with his miserable failure in the ceremony brother Cunningham still died to protect as all from an assault by those who would thwart us. In the end he died a hero and we should remember him for that.”

“You have got to be kidding me? Is this guy for real? I mean we had to have all see how he …aurgh.” I started before one of the cultists who were clustered around me shoved what had to be someone’s dirty sock into my mouth. “Uah goaw! Ehis uis duscusing. Whem I ged oud of here I’n gowing ou shouve ehis soawk down yuer droght!” I mumbled incoherently.

“While our god might not have the fearsome visage it is supposed to, do not let that trouble you, in due time will it take on its proper shape and form,” The gathered cultists seemed to be okay with this. If you couldn’t have a cool monster of the night for you dark god having a hot chick in its place wasn’t that bad.

“Now brothers let us commence with the ceremony that will bring our god into the flesh! The world shall be ours!” this was met with a round of cheers.

The cultists hurried to their positions and after a little discussion of who was supposed to stand where they got the ceremony under way. Just like last time it started with a rhythmic chant. It started low as if everyone was whispering at first but swelled until it filled the huge room. Rites were performed that were unspeakable. And when I say unspeakable I mean I sure as hell won’t be talking about them. I don’t even want to think about them.

BD raised his hands and started to intone in some strange and horrible language that had the same effect to the mind that nail on a chalk board had on the ears and in my mind ran a constant litany of oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die! Above me the air seemed to swim as unseen forces put pressure on the very fabric of reality. Space didn’t rip open as much as it seemed to be eaten away leaving a hole into some other reality, and out of that hole squeezed the abomination that I had only glimpsed earlier, the thing BD called his son. It was worse the second time I saw it. The tentacles seemed more tentacley, the many eyes seemed more mad and blood shot, the teeth seemed bigger and much more keen to rip into flesh. I closed my eyes hoping to God that there was a God and that he would save me from something that by all rights ought not to exist.

“Finally, finally I can enter the physical plane!” the deep madness inducing voice throbbed through my skull like someone had hit it with a hammer.

Then I heard a new sound, a blessedly sane sound that for a moment I thought was God answering my prayers but…God didn’t play the guitar did he? I opened my eyes and turned my head away from the abomination to see Kent still lying on the floor next to me and beyond him, left against the wall of the grand hall his guitar was playing by itself. Then Kent opened his mouth and began to sing.

There was a rumble like thunder in the distance and Kent flexed his hands snapping the restraints. He started to rush towards BD and my heart filled with hope but BD made a gesture with one hand and a section of the gathered cultists pulled out guns and began filling Kent’s body with holes.

Kent fell to his knees, looked down in astonishment at the blood running from his abdomen, then toppled to the side. I couldn’t believe it, one minute he was full of life, the next he is nothing but a pile of meat that had once been human. It shouldn’t work like that I thought to myself, the hero is supposed to save the day, not get gunned down.

This was the end, all hope of rescue was gone and some kind of demon was going to possess my body and force out my soul. I closed my eyes. I had to wonder what I had done to deserve something like this happening to me. I had never been a trouble maker. I got good grades. Yes, I teased my sister but that was really a game we were playing with each other. I had never gotten drunk or smoked anything. Why me? Why did something like this have to happen to me? Wasn’t there any fairness in the world? What about all the things I had yet to do? I had never gotten a chance to tell Brook how much I liked her. Had I told my parents that I loved them last night?

I didn’t think I would ever get the answers to my questions but then wasn’t that pretty much what life was like? Supposedly you got all the answers after you died. Which I felt was about as useful as someone telling you the lotto numbers after the game was already over. I sighed. God if you really do exist can you do me a favor, I know I am going to die but could you at least not let BD get my soul, I don’t think I would like it if my everlasting spirit was consumed by that sociopath.

-NO!-

My eyes opened in shock as I heard a voice in my head. Had God just spoken to me? Holy shi- Uh, sorry God, holy shoot, he sounded pissed. I briefly wondered what I had done to make him so angry but that thought was driven out of my head as my eyes locked back on the Thing above me. It grew larger in my vision and much to my horror I started feeling a strange connection forming with it. It felt like sewage was being run through my mind and out over my body. I was shaking with the feeling. I would give anything for it to stop and I knew that this was only the beginning and much worse was to come.

Suddenly my view of the abomination was cut off by a mass of brown fur. There was a howl of pain or anger, I couldn’t tell which, and a blinding flash of light. I felt a weight fall on top of me and suddenly knew no more.

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To Be Continued...