Becoming monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission

  This idea comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.

  —

  Chapter 18: Transformations

  Central Cascadia Hospital, one of the rgest and most comprehensive medical facilities in America, was in chaos. There were exactly two blessings stemming from the demonic attack that had occurred some thirty minutes prior. First was that it was immediately outside the Emergency Room entrance, and so getting victims and injured bystanders to care took minutes, not hours. The second was that a strike team of Surface Hunters had been in range to take down the threat, so it didn’t reach the hideously vulnerable hospital. There could have been hundreds of deaths. Instead, there were scores of injuries, some desperate, but none immediately fatal.

  This did not make what followed easy. Those who could walk themselves into the hospital did so. Others had to be dragged or carried. Doctors of nearly every discipline mobilized immediately. Broken bones and gunshot wounds. Burns and curses. Attack backsh, panicked fainting, and exhaustion. The injuries ran the gamut, and they were all critical until proven otherwise.

  A harried-looking nurse apologized profusely as she expined that Justin was past the point of needing to be monitored, and though they would have liked to keep him another day they had to discharge him in order to make room in the ICU. He didn’t mind, much to her relief, and the pharmacy wasn’t crowded as he quickly picked up an intimidating list of painkillers, antibiotics, and things he had no real idea the purpose of. Nor the ability to pronounce. The packet of physical therapy instructions was clear enough, though.

  The waiting room was eerily quiet and empty. Even the orderlies were not here. Abbey wrapped her arms around her boyfriend’s shoulders, feeling the tension there. “Are you alright, Justin? I mean, besides the obvious.”

  Despite himself, he smiled a bit. “You mean besides the cerations, painful magical healing, argument with my dad, college drama from a college I’ve never attended, and a demon attack outside my window?”

  “Yep. Besides that.”

  “Well, besides that I’m doing quite well, thanks for asking.” Justin and Abbey’s spasms of ughter were slightly hushed, slightly hysterical. “I think I could go for a week… or a decade, really… of uneventful life. That sounds like what the doctor ordered.”

  “You live in a mansion by the sea with your Genie girlfriend. There is a lower limit to how eventful your life is going to be from now on.”

  His face showed somewhat unwilling agreement with the statement. “You know, you might have a point. Thing is, as long as you’re with me, I think we can handle it. That sound good to you?”

  “I think it does, love.” Abbey’s smile was much more natural than five seconds before. “We can hope for something near the lower limit of eventfulness, anyway. Speaking of, though. Brittany had a point earlier.”

  “She had a lot of things to say, Abs. Which one are you talking about?”

  “About your st Wish. You know the time is coming soon, you won’t be able to avoid it.”

  “Yeah, I know. Honestly, what’s worrying me more is what comes afterwards. I don’t want to let you go. Ever. I don’t want you to disappear from my life after I say what I want.”

  “Justin, that’s not how it works.”

  He looked up at her. “It isn’t? But all the stories…”

  “You know as well as I do that the stories are only part of it. I don’t magically disappear when my third Wish is used, and I’m not compelled to move away. Heck, you aren’t even the first person to make those wishes in this city. You’re stuck with me for good, mister.”

  Justin’s own smile dawned on his face like he had been given a revetion from on high. “Wait, so the only risk is…”

  “... the Coin won’t be bound to you, that’s all. You won’t be able to wish on it again unless there’s a loophole in the rules somewhere that I don’t know about, and others will be able to if they get a hold of it. That’s it.”

  Justin exhaled sharply. “Okay. Okay, that definitely makes things easier. Feels like something I probably should have asked you at some point this month.”

  “Yes, Justin, it really does, doesn’t it?” The eyebrow Abbey raised in his direction would probably count as a weapon of mass destruction by most metrics. Thankfully, no government inspectors were present to ask to see if she was licensed on it.

  “It’s… I guess I don’t like thinking about it.” He looked around the waiting room, finding it still empty and devoid of excuses to change the subject. “I want to be with you for the rest of my life, Abbey. Thing is, whatever it is I ask for, after that it’s just me. I’m only human. How do I word what I ask for to support us going forward?”

  “Justin. I love you to death, but it’s really obvious that you haven’t given this one thought. And you need to.” Her arms weren’t around him anymore. They were crossed across her chest, reinforcing the message her eyebrow sent some three sentences ago.

  He hung his head. “I get it. Can we… get home? Hospital waiting rooms are not the best pce for this. I think that I’ll think better with some saltwater air in my lungs.”

  “As long as you don’t do any magic work until tomorrow and rest. I’m getting tired of saying it, but you are asking to be on the beach where you just blew yourself up recently so I felt the need.”

  “That’s not very… actually, wait. Yeah, I guess it is fair.” Justin’s shoulders sagged. “I promise, love. Unless it’s life and death, no Shaping until after school tomorrow.” He stood, and she joined him to walk to the front of the hospital. Then a bit further, since the normal bus stop was blocked off thanks to recovery efforts from the attack. It was a quiet wait for the bus back to school, interrupted only by small talk and Justin stretching his compining muscles. Whatever else was true about his discharge, he was not yet all the way healed.

  They eventually got back to campus. It was a slow walk up the stairs to get to his dorm room, then a jaunt through a door they had become remarkably accepting of to get home. And then Abbey none-too-gently pointed him towards their room and his school ptop when he tried to step out onto the beach. She figured the temptation would be a bit too much out there. To be fair, she was right. Justin sat down and opened up his computer, there to find the emails from his csses with what he needed to catch up on. Again. At least this time he only had a couple of days of backlog. And a better reason than self-destructive burnout.

  Yeah, like self-destructive motivation. I get the feeling there’s supposed to be a middle ground in there somewhere.

  He had to get reading on a book that he found absolutely inane and annoying. It might have been good, except for the first-person narration that insisted on calling everyone phonies. Still, he was supposed to be an artist. That meant he had to go look for the merit in things even if he didn’t personally like them. Like this one. It was a relief when he got to the end of the required chapters, set the book down, and hopped over to his drawing pad to do some sketches Art css assigned.

  A knock at the door startled Justin out of his focus. Abbey would not have needed to, the guests were probably being polite. “Come in!”

  The door opened, and it turned out to be Todd behind it. He walked in, the image of a scrawny nerd who had done some serious growing up. “Hey, Justin. You’ve been in here a while, can you do me a quick favor?”

  “Uh, sure thing.” Justin looked at his screen, made one st minor adjustment, and saved the image. “What do you need?”

  “I need you to stand up, stretch out, get a couple of your painkillers in, and go get some sun before dinner. Abbey and Song are putting together something that smells really good. You need to make sure you can enjoy it, okay?”

  The words brought Justin back to awareness of his present state. His back was aching from hunched-over focus. His wrist was right with it, between the recovery from his cerations and holding the pen it felt uncomfortably like it was resting on a bed of embers. He stood, and felt each individual vertebra of his spine protest the movement in the same way a glow stick protests being used. “You know, I think you have a point. If you don’t mind, though, can you expin what the deal is with that university you’re going to? At least why my girlfriend’s best friend reacted to you like that?”

  “Um, I’ll expin on the walk?”

  “Oh, this is gonna be good. Let’s go, then.” The two of them walked through the kitchen to get to the beach door, a fact of yout that still kind of threw Justin off. Progress was slowed by two main factors. The first being the fact that Justin’s body did not want to cooperate, which served to emphasize the importance of this walk to begin with. The other, of course, was when Abbey and Song absolutely insisted on stopping them for hugs, kisses, and making sure everyone was okay. Ghata and May, sitting in the kitchen with the other dies, joined in. Even little Alex got in on it by adding giggles to the proceedings. Eventually, the two got through the door, and the st bits of daytime warmth greeted them along with the salty sea air. Both took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, pulling in peace and letting go of stress. Justin looked over at Todd with a bit of a smirk. “First thing’s first so that it’s out of the way. I’m guessing you’re walking with me on Abbey’s instructions so that I can have some ‘guy time’ and to make sure I don’t try to use my Shaping, right?”

  “Eh, I guess it was pretty obvious. Shall we get walking, then?”

  “As long as you’re giving me the details while we do.” The two started walking along the shoreline, just outside of reach of the pping waves. The skies were clear and unthreatening, the breeze gentle. It was a good day for a walk, especially after being cooped up in the hospital bed. It really was amazing, the feel of the sand on their feet. Gentle and comforting, not at all like the harsh reality of flying gss it could become.

  “Alright, so, get this. Yellowstone U was built really quickly by the government to support Changed people who still wanted to study, and ones who wanted to teach as well. Literally faster than forcing existing campuses to retrofit.” Todd picked up a pebble and threw it out into the ocean. It didn’t go all that far, but the spsh was satisfying.

  “That makes sense. I’d say there are a million things to keep in mind, but I’m pretty sure it’s more than that.” Justin didn’t throw stones, instead doing some arm and wrist stretches as they walked.

  “You’d be correct.” Todd looked up at the sky, gathering his thoughts. “It was pretty obvious early on that the school was also researching Status things, and we were their b rats. Heck, it wasn’t even secret. The school’s public charter had it, and Dean Hightower made a point about how many different Races the school supported and learned about in a press release. Thing is, that environment gets… stressful. Brittany was an on-again, off-again lover of mine until she couldn’t take it anymore and got gone. Didn’t even know where she’d ended up until I ran into her here. She was a redhead back at school, being blonde changes the way she looks completely.”

  “And here I thought what I was going through was complicated. A Dragon from the IRS and holding a Genie’s Bound Object are downright child’s py compared to that. Do the others… know about Brittany?”

  “Oh, definitely. May and I were barely an item back then, and we’re pretty open now by necessity. Doesn’t even count everything else going on, either.”

  “Hang on, there was more? If you ever write it down, I want to read it, but I don’t think now’s the time.” The two walked in silence for a bit, enjoying the seaside until justin felt his breath beginning to come harder. “Mind if we turn around and head back? Hate to admit it, but this walk is taking it out of me.” Justin was being forcibly reminded of his state about a month ago. He found he didn’t like it much. They thankfully did not have all that far to go as the sun began to set on the horizon. By the time they got back, the shadows were starting to lengthen noticeably, but one light surprised them both.

  Todd recognized it first. “I probably should have guessed. May has wanted to have a bonfire for a while now. She grew up in Las Vegas, not exactly the best pce for it.”

  It was illuminating something else interesting to Justin. “Looks like they brought the table out to the sand, too. Laying out ptes… actually, that’s a lot of ptes. More than six.”

  “Ah, yep, Song was definitely involved. Have you ever eaten Korean food served in a traditional way?”

  “Nope. Closest I’ve gotten was Chinese take-out or some good sushi.”

  “Okay, first off, do not say that sentence in Song’s hearing. Secondly, though, they bring out the main dish and then a bunch of small sides to eat with it. Looks like we might be having Bulgogi on the Beach today. Guess they figured it wasn’t windy enough to get sand in the rice.” Now getting closer, the guys could see all four of the dies walking around. May was adjusting things on the table with one arm and her tail as Alex slept peacefully in her other. Ghata was chatting animatedly with Abbey about a topic they could not hear as Song took one st critical taste of the food on the table and nodded her approval. Abbey looked up and saw them returning, waving at them to come to the table. The others soon noticed her doing so, and excitedly added waves of their own. Justin noticed that there was a beach ball blown up and resting against the door to the house. Where the dies had gotten it, he had no idea. It seemed unlikely to be something they packed for their trip, and he knew neither he nor Abbey had one when they moved into the new pce.

  All attempts at serious thought ended as soon as they got in range for the gentle breeze to carry the smell of dinner to them. Two minutes ter they’d all gotten themselves seated and were digging in, the conversation slowing to the gaps between mouthfuls of delicious food. Justin resolved to find another Korean pce, if they were all like this. Except the kimchi, he suspected THAT would take a lot of getting used to before he would enjoy it like the others seemed to. The conversation ranged broadly, comparing the schools they’d all attended and the paths that brought them here. The sun set, the temperature dropped a few degrees, and the six adults found the remains of their meal to be evidence of a good night spent.

  Song, in particur, looked like the fox who got into the henhouse. “So, you two feeling better now that you’re back home and have a decent meal in you?”

  “Oh, you know it.” Justin was leaning back in his chair, having consumed significantly more of the rice, meat, and most of the side dishes than was probably advisable. “I’d call this an amazing evening. Awesome. I mean, Washington decided to not rain us out, bonfire’s warm, and the sunset over the ocean is amazing. Almost as beautiful as Abbey, and that’s a high bar.”

  Abbey blushed, though it was hard to see through the dimming sunlight and ruddy cast to the firelight. Todd chuckled at it all. “And this is why you marry someone creative. Those never stop.”

  Abbey, if anything, blushed harder. May, sitting between her and Todd, poked both in the ribs (one with an elbow, one with her tail). “Tooting your own horn there, honey? Last I checked, Bards counted as ‘creative’ types by most definitions.”

  “I haven’t heard you compin about it yet.” Todd’s own smile indicated this was a common conversation.

  “And I never will, but you get the point.”

  Ghata was looking up at the horizon. “No joke, is the sunset always like this around here?”

  Todd looked in the same direction as the sun finally dipped below the distant waters. “Only when Washington lets us see it. Usually a few too many clouds out, but tonight’s just perfect.”

  Song was looking in a different direction, up over the seaside manor. “The sunset’s not the only beautiful thing the skies are letting us see. Look at the moon, it’s so bright the beach is lit almost like day!”

  The six friends all looked there, away from the reds and purples of the sunset, to see the new source of light and shadow creeping up and over them. The full moon looked like a celebration of the skies and all that lived in them, the light blessing their meal and their companionship. A beam of moonlight came down to touch them, and a fussing sound interrupted their reverie. A sound coming from May’s arms, from the small child snuggled up to her bosom.

  Alex was no longer rexed, stirring fitfully in a way that Justin had never seen before. His fussing escated to crying despite all his mother could do, and his eyes suddenly opened. No longer the chocote brown Justin remembered, now they shone amber. The fussing and crying sounds changed, becoming coarser. More threatening. Something was very, very wrong.

  Todd stood, walking behind his wife and keeping his eyes on the child. He seemed ready, whether it was to run for supplies or rub her back. “May? What’s going on with Alex?”

  May’s arms were full as the baby began to kick and thrash aggressively, making it difficult for even the enormously capable woman to keep him in her arms. “I have no idea, love! He’s never done this. Guys, I’m going to set him down on softer sand, clear a spot. I’m afraid I might drop him otherwise.”

  Justin was out of his seat and sprinting for the nearest patch of open sand, digging his fingers through it to remove any rocks or shards there. He found one, too, a broken piece of cloudy gss from his ill-fated experiment a couple of days prior. Thankfully that was it, and May gently id down the thrashing baby. The screams and wails began to get louder, and as the moon shone on the child the answers to an awful lot of questions came at once. Just not the answers anyone present was anticipating. The onesie he was wearing left his arms and legs exposed, and suddenly they were no longer the pale and pudgy flesh of a newborn. They toughened and bulged with muscle, sprouting coarse brown fur as he doubled in size. His chubby cheeks lengthened into a snarling muzzle, his ears migrated to the top of his head, and within a minute the thrashing child was on all fours, sniffing and growling. Alexander Reed was not a Human, he was a Werebear.

  The fact that he was only around 20 pounds after transforming and hadn’t sprouted teeth yet was the only thing keeping the adults from more significant terror.

  With an adorably squeaky roar, Alex took off running on all fours down the beach. He was surprisingly quick about it, too, given that he wasn’t even able to roll over yet in Human form. Fast enough that the tired adults giving chase were having a problem keeping up. His paws were surprisingly good at supporting his weight on the sand, their feet kept sinking in. Todd saw the obvious solution. “Ghata, Song, need you in alternate forms! Wrangle him back towards us!”

  The two dies nodded, and between steps they changed. There was suddenly a tiger and a fox charging down the sand. Justin felt like he should have been more surprised by this, but given that the tiger had been posing for him as a seagull the other day he took it all in stride. May was running beside him and Abbey, and looked over sharply at Justin. “I know Todd isn’t, but are you Mutable?”

  “I don’t even know what that is!”

  “Okay, then you aren’t. I’ll expin more ter, but Werecreatures are infectious to certain Humans during the full moon. If you were one of them, we’d have to be a LOT more careful.” The fox and the tiger had managed to get ahead of the fleeing baby bear, who in turn had turned around and was now coming back at the chase team. The Greater Succubus unfurled her wings, shredding the back of her sweater, to give one mighty beat and leap forward, kneeling on the ground with arms spread to catch Alex… who saw what she was doing and cut sharply to the left towards the water. Nobody was remotely in position to stop him before he got there, and there was no telling if the bear cub form would have any particur instincts to deal with the waves.

  Abbey saw, and Abbey acted as only she could. In a burst of blue mist, she suddenly grew to triple her size and gave an enormous jump of her own. It was enough, one giant hand got barely far enough to interpose itself between the shocked bear cub and the pping waves. In the resulting split second of stillness, Abbey managed to scramble forward and grab him in both hands. Alex was safe, and apparently now that his initial surprise was over he felt quite comfy being held in those blue hands. By the time Abbey got herself back to standing and cradled him to her chest, the baby bear was slumbering peacefully.

  The others gathered up with her, and Abbey gradually shrunk herself down until she could hand the child off to his mother. Ghata and Song both shimmered back into their Human forms, panting with the exertion of running that quickly on sand. May carefully got Alex snuggled back on her chest, smiling gratefully at Abbey. “Nice save, and thank you. All the parenting csses in the world can’t really cover edge cases like this. They weren’t written by people who were thinking that your kid transforming into a bear and running away would be a problem.”

  “I’d say it’s nothing, but obviously it was something. Tomorrow night we need to make sure to keep him in the nursery with the door closed, and after that you’ve got three and a half weeks to figure out what you want to do next time around. Don’t worry about my meters, though, I’m good on mana and NONE of us are probably enjoying maximum Stamina right now.” Abbey looked back at the bonfire and the bits of food still left over from dinner.

  All of them followed her gaze. It was not a short distance, they were nearly halfway to the artisan vilge and had covered it at a dead run across wet sand. Thankfully, the return walk was at a significantly more sedate pace. Also thankfully, May’s sweater managed to hang on enough to preserve her decency despite its shredded back. She had her wings half-fred out for bance as she carried more than twice as much mass as she was used to, but they settled back in before the group was halfway there. Out of nowhere, May stopped. The others took perhaps a step or two before realizing it and stopped with her. “I think I know where my pregnancy complications came from.”

  Todd looked down at the bear tracks on the beach. “Let me guess. We managed to miss that your cramps and fatigue always spiked at the full moon? Seems obvious in retrospect.”

  May nodded. “And it only really affected me the st four months because… well, Alexander was small enough before then that even doubling in size wouldn’t do anything noticeable. Expins why this st one seemed like it was so much worse, he was getting bigger so when he transformed the problems were proportional.”

  “Chalk one up to the full moon that the doctors couldn’t figure out. Got one of the big magic distortions down, too.” The group was walking again, headed for bed. “Looks like we won’t be imposing on you two for very much longer. Been great, though.” Todd looked genuinely regretful.

  “Hey, don’t be down!” Justin reached out a hand to y on the other man’s shoulder. “You are no imposition on us, and you helped a ton today. If you have to go, I understand, but we aren’t kicking you out. After all, there’s no way to know what’s coming tomorrow, is there?”