H.E.R.O. - Horde (24 page)

Chapter 21 - Telepaths

Psystar's Viewpoint

I was a lot calmer when I woke up, and felt all warm and fuzzy.  Then I realized I'd slept while hugging the bunny Rayna gave me.  I didn't care whether they were my real emotions or fed to me, I seemed to ride on everyone else's around me anyway these days.

I was up earlier than I'd been in nearly two weeks.  I wondered if the bunny allowed me to sleep better and thus require less sleep.

I got up, put my hair back and dressed for a workout.  Then I gathered my schoolbooks and put them on the couch ready to be picked up, and flew to the gym with my gym bag.  I figured that if I wasn't wiped I really ought to try to get back into the workout pattern again.  I missed seeing my friends there. 
Hmm, I hope Rael's still working out, I need to see him more often so he doesn't decide to hook up with Diva....

I landed and walked in, Mia was doing some yoga on the mat near the entrance.  She hopped up and ran over when she saw me walk in.  She had the music cranked louder than normal.

"Oh my gosh!  I haven't seen you in a week and a half!  How've you been, Steph?"

"Busy as all get out.  It seems like the first day I haven't woken up wiped out and running late since the Saturday before last."

"Yeah.  I love the gold hair and ... are your eyes different?"

"Yep.  I'm surprised you recognized me."

"Nah, I already knew about your change from Lance.  He's been in fairly often to help with the expansion."  She waved her hand toward the weight lifting area.

"Bah, has he given away all my secrets?"

As Mia thought about the things Lance had told her, I got a quick review from her thoughts on the last week of their meetings.

"Hmm, no.  He mentioned that you changed, and that you're having some issues.  Not much else.  He's not really a gossiper, more of a listener.  Well, and a hard worker too - he's doing all the hard stuff for the expansion.  The crew has been sad every day he's left early."

"That's true, he's a good guy."

"Okay, the guys changed, can I touch you?"

I saw that she wanted to see how I'd changed, and if I had the hard muscles the boys had.

I smiled, "Go ahead."

She walked up and began grabbing my arms, wrists, stomach, back and then said, "Can I?  I have to know."

She had her hand hovering over my backside.  I laughed and nodded.  Then she felt up my buns.  She was an interesting character, one of those people who look at a person and don't see good looking or bad looking, or body shape.  She saw muscle shapes on individual body parts and appreciated the parts more than the whole.  While she groped me, it also helped that she was jealous of my muscle mass and tone.

I said, "I've had some others feel my arms and think I'm a lot denser in musculature than normal.  Hanging around some bricks made me forget that."

"Oh, you're packing it in.  God, you've got great buns."

I pouted at her, "After all the work I put in before I didn't?"

She grinned, "They had some wiggle.  Did you wear perfume to the gym?"

"Meanie, and no, it's natural now.  Don't close on me or you...."

It was too late, she'd leaned in.  She smiled dreamily and inhaled deeply as she moved right up against me.  I moved an arm up to push her away, but she was able to step back before I had to.

She said, "Woooww, what is
that
?"

"Pheromones.  They make people want to dig their noses into my hair."

"I bet.  It's wonderful.  Pheromones, huh?  Like ants?"

"Err, I guess.  I've not seem them affect anything but a human though."

"What happens when you sweat?"

"I don't sweat any more, none of the supers do that I'm aware of."

"Seriously?  You never sweat?  Ever?"

"No."

"What happens when you build up body heat?"

"I don't know - I haven't paid close attention to it.  I'll do that while working out today, okay?"

"Cool.  Well, if no supers sweat then at least the new super section will be easier to clean."

"Should be.  This will be an interesting experiment."

"The body heat thing?"

"No, the expansion.  I'm wondering if supers can really get stronger.  If so, is it easier or harder to gain strength with equipment that pushes us?"

"No idea, this was more Lance's idea.  He's joining me as a minority partner, did he mention that?"

"He didn't need to, I just heard it."

"Wow, word's out on the street already?"

"No, I meant....  Oh, never mind.  I got it from him."

"Well, I'll let you stow your gear and get to it - you need a spotter until Tina shows up?"

"Sure.  I need to warm up first though."

"You do?  Both of the guys tried that and found that it didn't help them any more.  Well, that and that the equipment couldn't push them on the cardio side."

"Oh, well, I'll try it just for the heck of it.  For routine if nothing else."

"Sounds good."

I put my duffle bag in a locker, came back out and hit a treadmill for a while.  I then understood what Mia meant about the boys.  Even cranking the machine up to its maximum wasn't enough to push me.  It felt like jogging to me at that rate.  That was enough to let me warm up, however.  I was halfway through my warm-up when Tina entered the gym.

She greeted Mia, scanned in and then saw me.  She squealed and ran over to me.  I hit the stop button and hopped off to hug her.  When I pressed up against her, she dug her nose in my hair and wrapped her arms tightly against me.  I hugged her until I heard her gasp in pain.  I shook my head and stepped back from her.  I blinked a few times and realized that I must have hugged her tight because she wanted to be.

I held her by the shoulders and said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine.  You're strong."

"Sorry.  You can't hug me and want me to hug you tight, okay?  You'll make me do it."

"Oh yeah.  I remember now."  Tina grinned slyly.

"No!  Don't try anything."

When I finished dancing to the rest of the song currently playing Tina clapped her hands excitedly.  She stepped up, gave me a quick hug and ran off to the locker room.

Mia said, "Well ... I didn't know you could dance like that."

She mentally pictured some of the moves I'd done.

I flushed red and said, "I'm hitting the weights.  Sorry about that, I didn't intend to dance."

"You're pretty good at it.  If I could get an entire class to dance like that for a half hour it'd be a good workout."

"Hmph, I could make them."

"What do you mean?"

"Uhh.  It's one of my powers; I can make people do things like that."

"Really?  Want to try it for a class?"

"Mia,
I
didn't even intend to dance like that.  That was completely Tina's fault."

"Okay.  I'll ask her then."

That made me smile and shake my head.

I said, "Weights.  Now."

Then I walked over to the free weights section.  Tina came tearing out of the women's locker room and hit an elliptical.  Obviously, I had her excited to work out.

I greeted the two early bird guys working out, I knew both of them from months and months of working out at the same time.  It wasn't unusual for them to watch Tina and I as we hit the weights - not many women worked out in the free weights section at all, and we pushed ourselves.  Lance was a good one for making you hit your limits and go beyond to gain strength.

I had to play with the weights to figure out what I could handle now.  I wasn't even sure how strong I was now.  I'd been able to bench press 150 pounds before my change on a set with fairly good form.

Today they watched me here and there until I added fifty pound weights per test on each side of the bar, tried it, and then got up and did it again and again.

Tina arrived just as I hit nine hundred pounds total and was finding it to be a challenging weight to do sets at.  Both of the guys stepped over and stood by me to spot.

Tina said, "Like, damnit Steph.  I can't spot you at this weight."

One of the guys said, "That's some crazy weight for a girl your size."

The other one said, "For her size?  It's impressive for anyone."

"True."

I grinned, "Thanks guys."

Tina and I began alternating sets - we used a second bar for her sets.  More people began coming in, and about fifteen minutes in Lance walked in.  He had his costume on.

He did a quick round of the big room, saying hello to each person in the cardio area and then working his way over to the weight lifting section and greeting everyone there.

When he saw me, he walked up and I gave him a tight hug.  It was always humorous hugging Lance - the top of my head only came up to mid-chest on him, he was so big.

He said, "Hi Steph, hey Tina.  Yo guys."

I said, "Hi Lance.  How are you?"

"Doing great.  I'm more concerned about you - I haven't seen you in days.  Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Monday wiped me out bad, it took all of Tuesday to recover, and yesterday was just busy."

"Oh, here I thought you might be mad at Rael and me about something."

"Well, I'm pissed at him, but not at you."

"Uh oh, what did he do this time?"

"One word:  Diva."

"Hmm."

His thoughts showed me how uncomfortable Rael was about the idea of seeing both Diva and I at the same time.

Tina said, "Oh, no.  He's not messing around on ... wait, are you guys going out?  I mean, it kind of looked like it the Sunday before last...."

I said, "Maybe I should make sure we are.  He kissed Diva yesterday."

She said, "What?!  You want me to kick his ass for you?"

I laughed, "I'd kind of like to see that, actually.  Well, I guess she actually kissed
him
, but he didn't exactly push her away."

"She's the new heroine that wears a violet mini-dress, right?"

"Yeah."

"She's pretty hot."

I pursed my lips and stared at Tina.

"Well, she is.  Isn't she a brick?"

"Yeah."

"Doesn't that mean she's a lot stronger than he is?  Is she as strong as you are, Lance?"

I replied, "Yeah, she's stronger than Rael."

Lance shook his head, "No, she's not as strong as I am.  Her body armor's not as good either for some reason."

Tina said, "Yeah, but she can
fly
.  That's awesome."

I said, "Ugh.  Enough!  He's just got me mad about it.  I mean, I like Diva, but Rael's got to make it clear that we're together."

Lance said, "Maybe you should make it clear to Rael that he's with you ... just saying."

"You're just on his side, Lance."

I regretted that statement almost immediately, as I felt the sting he felt from it through his mindview.

I put my hand on his chest and said, "I'm sorry, Lance.  I know you aren't like that."

"Okay then.  So, you helping Tina with her sets, or are you working out too?  First time I've seen you in your workout spandex in a while."

"I'm working out.  Go ahead on your next set, Tina, then I will."

I helped her and Lance moved in to spot me on mine.

He said, "I'm impressed, you're doing nine hundred pounds?"

"Yep."

We shifted about and continued our exercises.  It was useful having Lance there.  He had such focus and determination to have me push harder and harder that it came through his mindview and made me do it.

Most of the way through the workout Mia stopped over.

She said, "Are you screwing around?  You haven't even worked up a sweat!"  She grinned to make it obvious she was joking.

I said, "Pretty much.  At least now I know how much I can lift."

"What are you up to?"

"Nine hundred."

"Pounds?"

"Yeah, what, did you think I mean feathers?"

"No, that's just a lot of weight."

"Yeah.  Nothing like the brick behind me though."

"I can't wait to see what he can do."

Lance said, "Me either.  I see the construction crew pulled up.  I'll be out there helping them again as soon as we're done here."

"Great, now don't let the girls get cold."

I nodded and went back to my next set.

Tina and I finished after a while.  She was really wiped from trying to make a good impression.  She tried to hide it from me, but her thoughts gave her away.

We hit the showers while Lance went outside to begin helping the crew working on the addition to the building, and after I'd changed, I bid Tina goodbye and flew home.

I dropped off my gym gear, changed into my costume and 'street clothes' for school, and then flew to the University with my backpack.

I sent a text to Megan on the way letting her know I'd have her breakfast with me, stopped at the small place I'd started going to, and met her in a side corridor near Professor Bardoon's lab room.

Megan noted that I looked far more refreshed this morning than I had the last few days.  The rest of our study group showed up in a batch as usual, and I hugged each of the boys tightly.

Lab went fairly well, but I still suspected that Trevin forced me to do some things when I got lost in too many mindviews being nearby.  Lab was the one class I couldn't sit outside the classroom and simply look through Megan's eyes, and hear through her ears.  I had to be in the room, which meant that I was in range of nearly ten people at any one time to have their mindviews in my vision.

That meant I couldn't see out of my own eyes much at all, and the sensory overload was rough on me.  That class - and Trevin's help in getting me through it the two times a week - was the biggest pacifier to being mad at Trevin.  Without him helping, I didn't know if the class would have worked for me.

I made it through, however, and then our group went up to Professor Zilgard's Medical Biochemistry class.  This one I could sit outside and use Megan as my senses.

It was louder than normal with background noise from people thinking.  I wondered if a crowd had gathered above or below the current level to have added the extra voices, but none of them thought about crowds.  When I listened closely, the topics were of normal class time, along with the normal distractions and people walking through the halls.