Volume 4: Beta-09, Chapter 4.18

There isn’t really a way I could ever describe the experience of the transformation. Even the word pain sounds too simple a concept for what I felt; it was my reality, it was my everything, and it felt like it lasted for an eternity. My perception fell away as the pain overtook me; I couldn’t see or hear anything else, couldn’t move my body at all during the transformation. Was I liquified on the inside? Were my muscles and bones unwound and restitched together? Was I reborn down to the cellular level? I honestly couldn’t say what happened, all I knew during that time was the pain.

Eventually the pain was so great I simply lost myself to it; Eve said she would be able to keep me alive no matter what happened—beat my heart manually if needed. I’m pretty sure I did die at some point, my mortality slipped away, and I simply left the universe while I was being recreated as something more than human.

It wasn’t much of a comfort though; even in death, the pain seemed to follow me.

When my perception finally returned, I felt like a lump of molten lead that’d rapidly cooled and was settling into itself. The pain was still there, but it slowly melted away as a surprising cold overtook me. But it wasn’t the cold of death I’d been expecting, it was a wonderful, soothing and revitalizing cool.

I was healing.

I fell asleep then I believe, or passed out from exhaustion maybe, and when I awoke, I could tell I was finally remade, a solid form once again.

The pain was finally gone, my reality returned to normal.

My body still felt heavy—actually

I

felt heavier, like there was more mass to me now.

I slowly opened my eyes for the first time in I don’t even know how long, looking at my surroundings with what felt like brand new eyes.

I was in our bedroom still, naked and curled up in new bed sheets (Eve must’ve changed them at some point; I probably soiled the old sheets amidst the pain). Eve was wrapped around me, naked as well; she looked surprisingly peaceful, probably once my screaming stopped and she knew I was okay she was finally able to relax herself.

I looked over my body and saw it didn’t really look different; I was always skinny with lean muscle, and that hadn’t really changed. My muscles looked a little more defined maybe, with some extra bulk, but I was still rather slender.

I lifted my hand, and it responded to me immediately, no delays or heaviness, no change I could feel now.

“Adam, Adam are you awake?” Eve asked, pulling my face to look at her.

I nodded once, “Yeah, I’m here.”

“Oh Adam.” She said, then hugged me desperately, pressing me into her breasts, “We’re

never

doing that again.”

“It was bad?”

Eve shook her head slowly, “It was almost unbearable, but once I started I couldn’t exactly stop.” She pulled me away from her, looking over me with a concerned expression, “How are you feeling?”

I got out of her embrace and stood up, flexing my arms and hands, “Honestly? I don’t fell any different, totally fine now.”

Eve stood up with me and started an inspection, looking over my face and head, my arms, my legs, my chest and back; she was clearly in a serious mood since she didn’t even play around with my exposed genitals like she normally would, treating this like a medical exam.

“The pain is totally gone, yes?” She asked.

I nodded, “Yeah, it was horrible at first, but now it feels like it was a far-off memory—like I’m already forgetting it.”

Eve nodded too, “Probably your mind trying to protect itself; we’ll need to watch you carefully to make sure you don’t suffer PTSD over the ordeal.”

I sighed and shook my head, then chuckled a little, “Not again…”

Eve turned my face to hers with a delicate finger, “I’m serious, that was a horrible ordeal you suffered, so we need to make sure you didn’t incur any psychological damage as well.”

I rolled my eyes, “Suddenly everyone’s so worried about my psychological wellbeing.”

Eve glared at me, “Adam, I’m

always

worried about your wellbeing.”

I held up a hand to stop her, “I know, Evie, sorry.” I took a few steps away from her, moving my body around to get over the stiffness, “How long was I out?”

Eve didn’t answer at first, so I turned back to her and raised an eyebrow, waiting for the response. Eve just sighed, “Just over three days.”

My eyes grew wide, “Three

full

days—Imperial days?”

Eve nodded, “Yes. You lost your voice surprisingly quickly, so we didn’t need to worry too much about people hearing the screaming. Other than that, I had to intercept some communications on your behalf, told your superiors you were feeling rather unwell and needed some personal time.”

I cocked my head to the side, “And they bought that?”

Eve shrugged, “Everyone’s been rather busy preparing for the next mission. We have our orders too, but I got us out of training and the debriefing for the time being—while you’re recovering. They want to make sure you return to active duty the moment you’re well enough of course, but for now, we’re fine.”

I was honestly surprised it worked out so well, “Did anyone come to check on me?”

Eve smirked, “Tillia actually, and she helped turn away a few other well-wishers wanting to see you; she ended up being a rather unlikely ally after all.”

I couldn’t believe the transformation lasted that long. Of course, I had no reason to believe otherwise—no frame of reference or anything. But I was glad to hear we’d been able to keep it all secret; I didn’t want the Empire or the Lord Generals to know about my new power at all yet.

I flexed my hands again, and honestly I didn’t really feel much different.

“You’re surprised you still feel so normal?” Eve asked.

I nodded, “Yeah, I feel pretty much the same as always.”

Eve nodded, “That’s exactly the point; I remade you to keep your body working the same so you’d still be totally human. The limits of your human abilities have simply increased a hundredfold.” She said, then strolled out of the room and into the kitchenette. When she returned she was carrying some fancy futuristic frying pan that was made of some reflective space alloy, “Here, try bending this.”

She handed me the frying pan, and I moved it around in my hands, inspecting it. It felt lighter than I remembered, like I was holding paper, and it felt thinner too—less substantial. I remember the alloy was stronger than anything on earth and would prevent grime or grease from sticking on it to the point Gram would’ve been wildly eager to get her hands on it. My muscles all seemed to flex with wildly deep definition when I rolled the frying pan up as though I was rolling paper, turning it into a thin tube with almost no effort.

“Holy shit, it worked!”

Eve smiled, “Of course, silly. Did you think I would subject you to that kind of torture just to fail?”

I took the tube and rolled it in on itself, pressing it together in my hands, turning it into a dense ball of metal, “Wow, it’s all so easy.”

Eve nodded, “That’s the easiest part of course.” She handed me a glass cup, “Now to make sure you can

avoid

breaking things.”

I held the glass in my fingers, being delicate with it. I moved it from hand to hand, made the gesture like I was drinking, waved it around me, then tossed it up and caught it a few times in a row. It was surprising how easy it was to be delicate, like my strength was still totally the same when I was being gentle.

“Yeah, no change there; when I’m not trying to put force into something, I’m basically at my normal level—or my

old

normal level.” I explained.

Eve smiled again, looking quite pleased with herself, “Perfect, that’s exactly what I was going for; I increased the upper-limit to your strength, but I didn’t change the bottom threshold of your power at all. Basically, if you aren’t exerting yourself, you won’t be any different to how you were, and that should prevent you from having any accidents, breaking things apart without thinking.”

I nodded along with her reasoning, “That’s a great way to keep these new powers secret too.”

“And a great way to keep you feeling totally human.” Eve added.

Considering how I didn’t feel different, I didn’t think that would be a problem at all now; even if I did have superhuman abilities, until I started using them a lot, I knew I wouldn’t see myself different—wouldn’t see myself as more than human yet. And of course, since I wanted to keep these powers mostly secret from the Empire, I wasn’t about to go out and flaunt them.

Even though I would

love

to flaunt the fact I had superpowers…

I decided to try out my superspeed next, so I jogged across the bedroom, but nothing was different at all there. I jogged back to Eve who just looked at me with an amused expression.

“What gives, were you unable to give me superspeed after all?” I asked.

Eve rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around my neck, giving me a quick kiss, “Silly boy, you have to

activate

your speed; we wouldn’t want you just crashing around into every wall in front of you, right?”

“Okay, so how do I activate it?”

Eve trailed a delicate nail around my chest and stomach, “Remember I told you I’d also help your perception by adding in an extra organelle—like another adrenal gland? You have to clench this new organelle to active the endorphins to accelerate and heighten your speed and perception.” She explained.

Considering my body didn’t feel different at all, I had no idea what I was supposed to clench, “I still don’t get it.” I admitted.

Eve nodded and pulled away, waving her hands in a gathering motion, “Go on and hype yourself up, try to get your endorphins flowing; we need to get your adrenaline working, then you’ll be able to feel it.”

I nodded along and started jumping up and down, dancing around like a boxer about to fight. Eve had a smile on her face all the while, but I ignored her obvious amusement at my expense as I continued to get hyped up.

“Take a few deep breaths too, in and out, keep going now.”

I was bouncing on the balls of my feet as I started along with deep breathing exercises, and I could feel my blood pumping hard through my body as I began to heat up. Suddenly, I felt something in the center of my chest, something foreign in my body—something I could hold onto. I clenched this strange new muscle, and it felt like I was holding my breath, and suddenly everything around me seemed to slow down; at first I seemed slow too, as though I was moving through molasses, but as I held onto that strange feeling, clenching this new muscle, my body seemed to speed up, and in a flash, I was on the other side of the apartment.

I actually did almost run into the wall, but I relaxed my muscles and slowed down just in time to brace myself and stop from crashing.

“Holy shit, I’m

fast

.”

Eve walked out into the front room with me, “Do you think you can activate your speed now that you’re relaxed, or do you need to practice hyping yourself up more?”

I tried to clench that strange new thing in my chest but couldn’t feel it in a relaxed state. I practiced hyping myself up a few times in a row, activating the power to speed up my perception as my body moved to match. After a dozen times practicing, I could finally feel the new muscle or organ at rest too.

“Alright, I think I got it.” I confirmed.

Eve smiled, “Excellent. Here, catch.” She said, then threw the glass cup straight at me.

I clenched the speed-muscle so my perception sped up, and suddenly the glass flying through the air slowed down significantly. It wasn’t to the point it looked frozen in the air, not crazy magical like it would be in the movies where time seems to stand still, but it still slowed down enough I could easily move around the glass, watching it slowly drift through the air before I grabbed it.

Eve clapped and trilled happily, “Perfect, darling! Very well done.”

I noticed I couldn’t clench the speed-muscle for very long, sort of like holding my breath now. I suppose it was the same as how you can’t go around clenching and flexing for long periods of time without straining yourself and getting exhausted.

“So is the speed just meant for quick bursts?” I asked.

Eve shook her head, “With practice you’ll be able to sustain it longer. Same with your superstrength, you’ll need to work to train these abilities, get used to them; I would say you won’t reach the upper-limits of your superstrength for a while without exercising those limits, and the superspeed will only work in bursts until you can get used to activating and sustaining it.”

Well, that was definitely a great way to keep me grounded, keep me human; Eve didn’t just activate a cheat-code to give me godly abilities, instead she increased my limits, but I would need to work hard to reach them now.

“And how about the durability and the regeneration? Anything I need to practice there?”

“No, those were more structural changes I made to your body; I made your muscles and skeleton several times denser to the point I had to actually increase your mass significantly, that’ll make you more durable by a rather significant margin. As you are now, you’d be able to survive a fatal car crash with little more than a headache—maybe a nosebleed. As for your regeneration, I kind of just reworked the immortality enzyme and infused it into your bloodstream to change the way you heal systemically; same as back when you only had the immortality enzyme, this won’t bring you back from the dead, so you won’t be healing from fatal injuries like Wolverine. However, thanks to your new durability, it’ll be much harder for you to suffer fatal injuries. Instead, you’ll recover from injuries several times faster than a normal human.” Eve waved her hand around in a vague gesture, “Let’s say it would take a human a hundred days to recover from a broken leg back on earth, for you it might only take a couple days.” She held up a hand in warning, “The downside of that, if you

did

receive a fatal injury, something that would kill a human near-instantly, your healing won’t really be able to help you there; you simply wouldn’t have the time to heal since you’d be killed before it would make any difference.”

I nodded along, “Like if I got my throat slit, I’d still bleed out in less than a minute same as any regular human.”

Eve nodded, “Right, that’s why the new durability is so important; every part of you is now damage and pain resistant as though you were wearing armor—your skin stronger than Kevlar even. I don’t want to test it out, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you were now bulletproof—bullet-resistant at least.”

“Oh shit, really?”

“Yes, but you still have plenty of vulnerabilities you’ll need to protect; I couldn’t really strengthen your eyes much, so be careful of any facial trauma. Also, don’t go around ingesting dangerous or damaging substances, your internal organs couldn’t be strengthened near as much as your skin, muscle and bones.” Eve warned me.

“Don’t go eating bombs, got it.”

Eve rolled her eyes, “I’m serious; you’re going to be more durable than any human—more durable than anyone aboard

The Radiance

even, but that doesn’t mean you’re invincible. And against a Predazoan—even a Gamma, you’d still be far weaker than them.”

I crossed my arms while thinking it all over, “How much weaker?”

Eve shrugged, “Gamma-12 might not have been able to rip through you as easily as she did Uinda, Densdor and Zyno, but it would’ve sent you to the other side of the hallway easily, likely breaking a couple bones in the process even.”

Despite Eve’s warning, I was actually surprised I would’ve held up so well against a Predazoan attack; the fact I could survive it was actually a huge deal, meant I really could stay out on the front lines with Eve, and with some more tactical training and using the right equipment like destabilizing acid rounds and repulser barriers, I might actually end up being a helpful distraction for her.

Eve could see my train of thought and held her hand up in warning once again, “Remember, that’s just a Gamma Predazoan, the weakest of our kind. Against a Beta Predazoan, you’d probably still be killed instantly, and even

I’m

not about to fight another Alpha contained as I am.” She admitted.

My eyebrows shot up, “Really, it’s that bad?”

Eve nodded once, a grave expression on her face, “Yes. Despite having reached perfection, the fact I can’t create any extra forms, can’t use my spores, and especially with my extra-sense dulled, I would likely be overwhelmed.”

“But, with the inhibitor field, wouldn’t that shield you from their attacks somewhat? If it contains you, doesn’t that mean it would prevent them from getting into your core?” I reasoned.

Eve shook her head, “Even if I was protected, they would probably eventually wear me down while I couldn’t do anything much to defend against them, and eventually they might be able to break through the permeable parts of the field—reach down through my mouth to get after my core.”

“Shit, would high-command know that? I’d hope they wouldn’t send us after Alpha Predazoans if they knew we couldn’t win against them.”

“Considering how valuable they find me to the point they went to all this trouble to contain and enslave me, I assume they wouldn’t risk losing their most important asset. I don’t know what they would do if an Alpha Predazoan started causing trouble for the Empire, but I’m sure they wouldn’t risk losing us with their response.” Eve explained.

It was a simple matter of protecting resources, not like they cared about us at all; they’d probably run their simulations and risk analysis and conclude we’d be too important to throw away. Not exactly a comforting thought, but at least we’d be secure for now.

“Why don’t you try out your new Codec communicator?” Eve offered.

“Oh right, how do I do that?”

Eve tapped her ear with a finger, “You know how you can clench your inner-ear muscles, make that thundering noise?” Eve asked, and I nodded, “Do that now, try to locate the new bone I’ve placed in there; you should be able to feel it.”

I clenched my ear to cause that strange inner-ear thundering, something I heard not everyone can do. When I did, it felt like there was something about to pop inside my ear, “Ow, that kind of hurts.” I said, rubbing my ear gently.

Eve leaned forward to rub my ears for me, “A couple more times, darling. Try to feel the bone by itself, should eventually feel like part of your jaw clicking.”

I followed along with her advice until I could feel the bone by itself, and just like she said it felt like a part of my jaw clicked, but something a little higher.

“Perfect, now click that bone and then hum some words to me.” Eve said.

“Hum words?”

Eve nodded, “It’ll take some practice to make the words clear, but eventually you’ll be able to vibrate that bone so your voice can be properly conveyed.”

I clicked and clenched the bone, then hummed the tune of ‘can you hear me’ to Eve.

Eve shook her head, “Just sounds like humming still, try again.”

I kept trying with Eve, not making much progress as it all just sounded like humming, but when I got frustrated and hummed the word ‘fuck’, Eve smiled.

“There, I heard that.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, “Really, that did it?”

“Yeah, maybe just try single words for now until you get used to it.” She said.

“How exactly does this work? Doesn’t really make much sense to me.”

Eve was clearly fighting a smirk now, “Oh really, and giving you superstrength made sense? Implanting a new organelle that helps speed up your perception to the point everything slows down around you, did that make sense?”

I rolled my eyes and pulled her in for a hug, “Okay okay, it’s all just nonsense Outsider magic, right?”

Eve trilled a cute little giggle, “I wouldn’t call it

nonsense

, but since biology is my plaything, I can do just about anything I can imagine; you’d be surprised how few limits apply to the Predazoans.”

“I mean you guys are kinda psychic, you can go through void space on your own, and then you can shapeshift in a way that absolutely breaks the laws of physics, I don’t know if I

should

be surprised at this point.” I admitted.

Eve smiled brilliantly, “Oh darling, I have yet to show you even a fraction of what I’m capable of.”

“Really?”

Eve shrugged, “To be honest, even

I’m

not sure what limits there are to my powers; I’m sure there’ll be things I might do that will even surprise myself.”

I wasn’t sure if she was being totally honest with me there, or if she was keeping some crazy powers hidden so I wouldn’t be freaked out by her Predazoan abilities—how inhuman she could be. I could tell sometimes Eve flirted that line of trying to show herself totally human for me, while keeping parts of her Predazoan nature secret—all for my comfort, I figured. Still, not worth digging all into it if either of us would be uncomfortable, so I decided to move past it.

"What kind of range do we have with these new bone things?” I asked.

“Nothing outrageous, a couple hundred feet at best; they’re incredibly sensitive and in-tune with each other, and since it’s directly in your inner-ear it should help drown out surrounding noise while we’re communicating. However, you’ll need to be careful if there’s concussive blasts around us, or soldiers using sonic ammunition; keep the bone closed while that’s going on, otherwise it could pop.” Eve explained.

“It can

pop

, really?”

Eve shook her head, “Not to worry, with your advanced regeneration it should heal in a matter of minutes.” She held up a hand, “Of course, if it pops, you’ll be greatly disoriented while it’s healing; a bad case of vertigo, might drop you on your ass for a few minutes while you wait for it to heal.”

So, it would be something I would need to be careful with too. It really seemed like my powers were all pretty well grounded, all with proper limits, needing to practice with them. Eve did a great job so I would still feel like a human, even if I was now superhuman.

It was then I suddenly realized we were both naked and I’d been hugging the most beautiful woman in the universe, and my body reacted according. Eve pulled away with an eager smile, looking down at my hard-on.

“So, wanna fool around before we check back in with whoever missed us over the last three days?” I asked.

Eve’s smile turned mischievous, “Actually, I have a thought about that.” She took a few steps away from me, then turned like she had the most outrageous idea, “Why don’t you use your new powers on me while we have sex?”

“What are you thinking?”

Eve’s smile grew eager, dangerous even, “I want you to try and hurt me Adam; I want you to use your new superstrength to rip into me, to dominate me, to try and break me.” She gestured to herself delicately, “I want you to abuse the fuck out of me.”