Sebastian stood in his garden, his grandchildren Sevvie and Jiro sitting on a bench across from him. “Alright, this is going to be your first lesson in shapeshifting. Sevvie, you can shapeshift a little, right? Jiro, have you ever shapeshifted before?”
Jiro shook his head. “No, not unless regeneration counts.”
“Well, actually, most Tef heal themselves through shapeshifting,” replied Sebastian. “So your body must be doing so automatically.”
“So all Tef are totally resistant to physical harm like me?” asked Jiro.
Sebastian shook his head. “Oh, goodness, no. Not at all. Okay, so for the first part of this, we will be absorbing a DNA sample. I have brought over Callistus and Kevin for this. Please pick up one of them.” Sebastian picked up his own peacock to demonstrate, Louis. “Hold your peacock gently, being sure to support his bottom. Oh, Sevvie, no.” Sevvie had grabbed Callistus too tightly for Sebastian’s comfort. “A little looser with Callistus.”
Jiro looked down at Kevin, a little afraid to pick up such a large and magnificent bird. Plus, Kevin was so rowdy… Well, he supposed he had to try. Lifting up Kevin, being sure to support his bottom like his grandfather said, the peacock made a sound that Jiro hoped was approving. After a moment of hesitation, Jiro pet the peacock, gently stroking the bird’s neck, and Kevin did not bite Jiro. Not this time.
“There, there!” said Sebastian. He smiled at Jiro, and Jiro did his best to smile back. “Alright, everyone, now what you want to do is focus on absorbing your peacock’s DNA. You need to focus on absorbing it in order for it to enter your body. Imagine it. Visualize it.”
Jiro attempted to imagine the peacock’s DNA, a double helix like he’d seen his textbook. He imagined this double helix somehow entering his body, and suddenly his body felt… weird. He almost dropped Kevin, but managed to hold onto the peacock. Sebastian’s eyes widened. “You felt it, didn’t you, Jiro? “
Jiro nodded. “I felt something, at least.”
“Alright, that’s good!” said Sebastian, putting Louis down. Jiro did the same, releasing Kevin. Sevvie was still stroking Callistus, who began to squawk loudly, a familiar sound around Sebastian’s home. “Now, I want you to focus on the peacock. I want you to think about how your body is made up of the DNA you have from your fathers right now, and how your body can be made up of any of the DNA you’ve absorbed, anything at all. Now, when you’ve partially shapeshifted, your clothes will absorb into your bodies. When you return back to any human form, they’ll come back.”
Jiro tried to imagine himself shapeshifting, becoming a peacock. He imagined Kevin as himself, himself as Kevin. Two Kevins.
But after several minutes of concentration, Jiro was still himself, and not a peacock, like Sevvie was. She was gleefully flying around the garden, doing magnificent jumps, occasionally fanning out her massive tail. The other peacocks stared at her, not sure what she was doing.
Jiro finally let out a sigh. “I can’t do it.”
Sebastian reached over and patted Jiro. “It can take a while to master this skill, dear.”
Sevvie flew over and turned into her human form once more. “Why don’t you try something easier, Jiro? Like changing your hair color?”
“Actually, partial transformation is a lot harder than full transformation, Sevvie.” said Sebastian.
Sevvie shrugged. “I’ve always found it a lot easier. But whatever.”
Jiro tried that as well, but it didn’t work either. Sebastian shrugged. “It will take a while to practice, Jiro, so you need to just keep trying. Why don’t you try a little longer, and I’ll get dinner ready?”
Jiro was sitting in his room later that night, thinking about everything that had happened in his life in the past few weeks. A new school, a new home, meeting all his relatives. He had never been happier in his entire life.
And yet, he didn’t feel completely happy. Sometimes Jiro felt like he had stolen someone else’s life, someone else’s happiness. Jiro Ashbur-Nesline felt like someone else than Jiro Sargeant, someone whose life he’d stepped into. It was so strange to have people who cared about him, people who were nice to him, that it almost felt wrong. He felt worried that one moment he would wake up from this dream, or they’d find the real Jiro, and abandon him back to his old life.
“Jiro! Seeeeeva!” called out Sebastian. “Dinner’s ready!”
Jiro came down the stairs to the dining room where his grandfathers were waiting. “Chicken, jasmine rice, and fruit salad!” announced Sebastian proudly.
“It smells delicious.” said Jiro, and Sebastian smiled as he sat down at the table, putting food on a plate for his husband. Sebbie and Jiro started putting their food on their plates.
Once they were all seated, Sebastian asked, “So, Jiro did you have any luck trying to transform?”
“No.” replied Jiro sadly. “I really wish I could do it, but I can’t transform at all.”
“Just keep trying and I’m sure you’ll get it.” said Sebastian, attempting his best to be encouraging.
Georg sighed and shrugged his shoulders as he speared an apple on his fork. “Honestly, Jiro, you’re a little young to even have powers, let alone as many as you have. I don’t understand Tef, but you’re already doing great.”
Jiro felt like his grandfather was trying to be supportive by this, but honestly it didn’t make him feel any better. He was a Tef, and should be able to do the basic things that Tef usually did. Even if he could shapeshift slightly, he would be happy with himself. Feel less like a horrible mistake had been made.
Jiro just ate an orange and nodded.
It was silent for several long moments, then finally, Sevvie said, “I have something I wanted to ask you about.” said Sevvie. “Grandpa, the next time you visit our dads, can you bring us to see them?”
“What?” asked Sebastian. “Oh, um, Seva, I don’t think you understand. If I could visit your fathers, I would bring you both, but I’m not allowed to visit them.”
“What?” asked Sevvie. “That can’t be true. They don’t let you visit them?”
“They’re not allowed visitors at all.” said Sebastian. “I haven’t seen them at all since their imprisonment. I don’t even really know where they’re being kept.”
Sevvie scatched her nails on the table. “That can’t be true. I don’t believe it. You have to have some idea.”
“Ideas, yes,” replied Sebastian. “But concrete facts? Definitely, no.”
“So what, we’ll probably never be able to visit them, as long as we live?”
Sebastian nodded in reply, looking down at his rice. “Yes. And I know that’s horrible to hear, but the sooner you accept it, the sooner you’ll… well, not be able to get over it, but…”
And then he didn’t say anything. Georg lightly put an arm over his husband’s shoulders, and he didn’t say anything.
And there was yet another long, awkward silence, as Sevvie stared at her grandfathers, who looked like they were about to cry any moment, and Jiro attempted to eat his salad.
Sevvie looked like she had a thought, and then stifled it. Opening and closing her mouth. she finally seemed like she’d formed a reply when Sebastian’s phone rang.
And Sebastian suddenly sprung to attention, grabbing the phone before the ringtone had even completed one cycle. It was a sound that reminded Jiro of crystal bells. “Dmitri. I’m having dinner right now?” Jiro had never heard precisely who Dmitri was before, but he’d heard his name before in conversation. He had been sort of wondering who he was.
Jiro couldn’t hear Dmitri’s reply, but it made Sebastian stand up. “I’m going to change right now. Georg, you change too.”
“Can we come too?” asked Sevvie.
Sebastian stared at Sevvie. “Sevvie, we’re not even sure yet what’s happening.”
“Whatever it is, let them come!” said Georg. “It’s valuable training experience. Finding out shit. Reacting to strange situations.”
Sebastian sighed. “Alright. Sevvie, Jiro, please, as fast as you can, change into your temporary costumes.” Jiro and Sevvie hadn’t had permanent costumes designed for them yet, but they had been given basic bodysuits and masks for training purposes. “And get ready to fly.”
Glamour hadn’t summoned his usual chariot, instead creating what was easily the flashiest plane that Sevvie or Jiro had ever seen. “We need speed right now.” he explained. “And it’s easier to believe that a plane is going at supersonic speeds than a chariot pulled by peacocks.”
“Is this plane safe?” asked Sevvie.
“Well, if it isn’t, you’ll have to transform into a peacock very quickly.” replied Glamour. “Jiro, I’ll try to catch you.”
“I’ll just superharden my skin or some shit.” said the Optimizer.
“No, I’ll survive.” said Jiro.
“We’re not sure about that, and I don’t want to take any chances.”
Jiro nodded slightly and entered the plane, sitting in one of the back seats. Sevvie sat next to him, and buckled her seatbelt. Glamour sat in the pilot’s seat, beginning to flick switches and the like to start the plane. “Alright, everyone, you will want to close your eyes for this part.”
Jiro did, and by the time he opened them again, the plane was up in the air, soaring through the skies.
Glamour was in the descent when he got another call from Starmaster. He grew two additional arms and took the call with them. “Listen, I’m almost there.”
“Just wanted to tell you the aliens are now leaving the spaceship. Once they’re fully out Druid’s gonna try to communicate with them. But I want to see if you recognize them.”
“I doubt I will.” replied Glamour. “Everyone, your parachutes are deployed right now. I’m going to suspend this construct in…. 3…. 2….”
“I just thought we were going to land!” yelled Jiro, panicked, as his grandfather shouted-
“1!”
Jiro nearly panicked mid-air as the plane vanished and he was gliding down towards a large city landscape, almost 300 feet up in the air. The parachute instantly opened, and as Jiro stopped screaming he could clearly see the strings that attached his parachute to Glamour’s hands, and that all of the parachutes, save for the one Glamour wore himself, were somehow attached to him.
They were landing in a large intersection where a spaceship had crashed. The spaceship had an odd scaly quality to it, Jiro could see even from this height. And he could almost… he could almost read it. Like he read people.
The four landed on the ground about 20 feet from the spaceship, and before Jiro could catch his breath, he noticed that Starmaster was hovering towards them. Jiro had met some very famous superheroes, but Starmaster? He was supposed to be one of the most powerful! He was a tall black man with short hair and a nearly all black costume- a classic bodysuit and domino mask, stars decorating the whole costume. Now that Jiro could see him in person, he noticed something about his arms. They seemed… weird, in comparison to the rest of him. Like he was wearing body armor beneath his costume. Beams of glistening white energy from his hands propelled him steadily off the ground.
The text over his head was wierd for Jiro. It was in a strange white glistening font. It almost hurt to look at. But Jiro could read them, and they said, “So these are Sebbie’s grandkids? Emperor and Nightvision Jrs.”
So was their grandfather’s friend Dmitri Starmaster? That seemed like the most likely case…
Starmaster smiled at the four of them. “So, Glamour, you brought the grandkids on a mission?”
“Yes.” said Glamour. “This is Heiress, and, um, my grandson, who’s going to be Rainbow Vision’s sidekick very soon.”
“I’ve been thinking about White Vision?” offered Jiro, and Starmaster momentarily lost control of his hovering as he doubled over in laughter. Glamour pressed a hand to his forehead.
“J- Darling, I would strongly not recommend that name. What about Light Vision?”
“Prismo, Seer, Visionary?” offered Starmaster after he regained control.
“What about just Prism?” asked Jiro. “Er, not sure if I’ll stay with it, or-”
“For now it’s good.” said Starmaster. “Okay, Glamour, Optimizer, Prism, Heiress. Hi. The current situation is that we’ve got a downed spaceship. Doesn’t match any known X`lanthian or Vaey design.” He then, softer, added: “Or Tef.”
Glamour now looked at the ship. “I don’t recognize it, either. Not that I know much about species in this area of space besides the ones you just mentioned.”
“Um.” said Jiro. “I think the spaceship is alive.”
Starmaster looked at Jiro curiously. “Why do you think that?”
“I have the power to read things.” replied Jiro. “Mostly people. Sometimes text- like the intentions the author had, the psychic imprint- but mostly people. And it seems more like people words than word words.”
Starmaster nodded, looking at the ship. “It does look pretty organic. I suspect you could be right. How does your power work? Can you do us a reading on the aliens when they come out?”
“I can try.” replied Jiro. “It, um, doesn’t work on other Tef. Sometimes it works on X`lanthians, though it’s… weird when I try them. I’ve never met a Vaey, so I’ve never tried it on them.”
Starmaster smiled, perfect white teeth shining. “Trying’s good enough for me. Just curious, does it work on me?”
“Yes, but you’re wierd.” replied Jiro. “It’s like… sparkling? Like someone threw glitter over your thoughts.”
“Holy fuck does he read minds” changed the words over Starmaster’s head and Jiro shrunk back a little. “Uh, do you read thoughts, kid?” asked Starmaster, this time in real life.
“It’s a little like that. Mostly I read surface things, intentions, it’s most useful on lies, honestly. I can tell why people have reactions. And I can sometimes get a general grasp of personality. Um, I’ve never seen glitter before, so I don’t know what that means.”
Starmaster relaxed slightly, but his words changed to: “I bet he did hear me panic. I bet he’s reading this now. Hi, kid.” Jiro smiled slightly at that. Starmaster opened his mouth to reply, and suddenly, Celeste, his wife, landed next to him, patting him gently on the shoulder and pointing towards the spaceship with one gloved hand. “Look! They’re finally emerging!”
Druid was there too. It was like the whole family was there. Jiro hoped he’d get to see Nebula next. He was the one responsible for saving his uncle’s life and all. Extending a hand to the aliens and speaking in a voice that permeated all languages, he said: “Visitors, you’ve arrived on the planet Earth. Though your spaceship has crashed, we wish to use this opportunity to introduce ourselves and hopefully create long-lasting and mutual peace between our peoples.”
And then, high-pitched, excited burbling from one of the emerging creatures. Jiro had never seen anything like it before. It was a soft purple, with many tentacles, and distinctly non-humanoid. In fact, it was somewhat slug-like, somewhat octopus-like in shape, nearly 8 feet tall, had large membranous wings and a large dome of a head, multiple faces with multiple mouths on it. The mouths all made sounds at once, and after a moment, a tentacle extended and wrapped around Druid’s hand.
“That’s wonderful. It’s very nice to meet you. I am known as Druid, and I am one of the many humans who have abilities not shared by all humans and who use them for the betterment of society, known as superheroes. We hope that Earth and Kenisal can have a long-lasting, healthy relationship.”
More burbling. Other creatures emerged. Many had that sort of sluggish, sort of cephalopoden body shape, but they all looked quite different. Some of them approached Starmaster and the others, attempting to speak to them in their language.
Starmaster shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, folks, I don’t speak alien. You’ll want to talk to my son if you want to speak to… well, anyone.”
Jiro was overwhelmed trying to read these strange aliens. He could read them, sort of? But when he tried to understand what he was seeing, instead of words he got bright flashes of unexplainable imagery, snippets of far-off song, tastes from nowhere. He blinked, trying his very best to understand, but he simply couldn’t. The imagery was simply overwhelming.
And then suddenly one of them spoke in a language and Glamour’s eyes went wide. And he replied in that language, much to the surprise of everyone.
“I guess someone speaks alien.” said Starmaster in a low voice.
“He is an alien, after all.” replied the Optimizer. Glamour elbowed his husband while not stopping the conversation, even in the slightest.
Starmaster smiled at this scene. “Well, um, peace on Earth and all that. There isn’t going to be a Human-um, what did my husband say? Kenisalian? war. Bless.”
“You might want to hesitate before you make such sudden statements.” It was Nebula! Somehow he was being projected from a patch on Starmaster’s costume that looked identical to the rest before it started projecting a hologram of Nebula, sitting at a chair. “Satellites just picked up a second spaceship that just passed the moon. Badly damaged, doesn’t look like the pilots have control. Based on current trajectory, it’ll crash in the middle of downtown Vancouver. Similar construction but vastly different design to the first.”
“How far’s Vancouver from here?” asked Starmaster hurriedly.
“About a hundred miles.” replied Nebula.
“Fuck.” swore Starmaster. He touched Glamour on the shoulder. “Glamour, did you hear that? We need to move!”
Glamour blinked. “Oh? What?”
“Spaceship about to crash in Vancouver!”
Glamour thought quickly. He asked the aliens a quick question, then turned to Starmaster. “Not them. Their enemies. Their ship crashed because of a fight that spread into this solar system.”
“Can you make us a jet to get to Vancouver in… how long do we have, Nebula?”
“Not very long.” replied Nebula. “Less than ten minutes.”
Glamour waved a hand furtively. “Who’s all coming?”
“I’ll stay here.” said The Optimizer. “Heiress, you and I should hang out. Take Prism and Starmaster of course.”
Starmaster nodded. “Neb, tell Celeste to meet us there, okay?”
Nebula sighed. “Alright, if you insist. I’m sending out Nova to your current location, too.”
“Fine.”
The jet reappeared, somehow sleeker, less ridiculous. Glamour hopped in the pilot’s seat, and Starmaster sat next to him, Jiro in the back once more.
He waved goodbye to Sevvie- no, Heiress, he had to think of her as Heiress in these costumes-, who looked like she wanted to poke an alien. She smiled back at him, and then suddenly the jet took off, fucking over the laws of how Jiro thought that jets were supposed to work as it took off into the air at an angle that was seemingly impossible. Jiro was deeply glad he hadn’t eaten much dinner.
Nearly eight minutes, and they were booking it, over Vancouver airspace now, looking for the spaceship that was in the sky. “Alright, once we’re in position, I’m going to transform the jet.” replied Glamour. “Ask Nebula for visuals on where the spaceship is now.”
“Nebula can hear you just fine, Glamour.” replied Nebula. “Two minutes from impact. Slowing down significantly. Will enter the atmosphere in about a minute.”
“It’s not even past the atmosphere yet?” asked Jiro. “I thought it was just past the moon eight minutes ago.”
“Who is this?” asked Nebula. “And the moon and the earth are significantly far away. It took Apollo 11 about 4 days to get the moon, and that was only two centuries ago.”
Starmaster sighed. “But these are aliens, Nebula. And this is Rainbow Vision’s new sidekick. Uh, still working on a name, but for now, he’s Prism.”
Nebula let out a breath of recognition. “Oh! You mean Jir-”
“We’re in the capes, we don’t use civilian names!” exclaimed Starmaster.
“You don’t even wear a cape!” protested Nebula. “And I’m in the command center, I’m not wearing mine!”
“You know what I mean!”
“Can we have this conversation when there’s not an alien spaceship about to land on a city?” asked Glamour. “I’m switching to Platform Mode.”
And suddenly they were standing on top of a giant levitating battle platform. “Starmaster, can you make a clump of energy that will put the spaceship into its gravitational pull but also slow it down?” asked Glamour. “I think once we’ve slowed it down enough I’m going to try to create a big net or hand or something and grab it.”
“I wish I’d told Nova to come here.” complained Starmaster. “And I think I can, but it will take two clumps.”
“Then do it.” said Glamour.
Starmaster concentrated, and two large clumps of energy appeared in the sky. Glamour floated the platform up, then extended his hand out as far as it could go, then created a large net from it, the edges of the battle platform supporting it.
“I’m also going to try and make some tractor beams to grab it once it’s in sight.” replied Starmaster. “I think I can do all three.”
“Okay, but concentrate on the two clumps the most.” said Glamour.
Jiro felt like all he could do was watch and wait.
Suddenly, he heard a loud thump behind him, and turned around to see Celeste, the wife of Starmaster, landing behind them, neatly folding up her high-tech wings. “I’m here, sweetie. What’s the game plan?”
“It involves a giant net, gravity, and tractor beams.” replied Starmaster.
Celeste took a deep breath. “Good luck.” She then suddenly noticed Jiro. “Oh, who’s this?”
“Um, I’m Prism, but that may not be my official name.” said Jiro. “I’m Rainbow Vision’s-”
“Oh, Glamour, your grandson!” said Celeste. She rubbed Jiro’s head. “You’re so cute. You look just like Rainbow Vision, you know that?”
“Giant spaceship.” said Glamour.
And before Jiro could blink it slowed down so quickly and was nearly flung towards one of the orbs and then suddenly went so much slower and started falling and the giant net captured it, and the battle platform expanded, Glamour visibly sweating, creating a chair construct and sitting down to accommodate the massive strain. The spaceship was safe, now put down on the battle platform and Glamour, trying to concentrate the best he could, flew it down to the ground and onto a large, open park.
To Jiro, these moments of freefall felt like minutes. His grandfather, visibly sweating and straining, Starmaster trying his best to concentrate, and him, unable to do anything helpful. Finally, the spaceship was safe, and all of Glamour’s constructs dissolved. Even his elaborate outfit vanished, leaving only a small mask and a sequined leotard. Celeste rushed to his side and propped him up, and Jiro, figuring this was at least something he could do, ran to help as well.
Starmaster carefully picked up a park bench and moved it to near where Glamour was with small gravity clumps, and Celeste and Jiro helped Glamour onto it.
Now they stared at the spaceship, wondering what would come from it.
They didn’t speak as they watched the starship.
After several agonizing moments, the door opened, and a large figure came out of it.
The figure had to be nearly seven feet tall, vaguely humanoid, with green skin, shocking pink hair, and fins on both the side of (her? their?) face and their arms. The figure had four arms, fin-like wings, and clawed feet, as well as horns and a tail. The figure was wearing something that reminded Jiro of a military uniform, with a large headband with a single amber gem.
And the words-!
Oh, there were so many words, all put together and jumbled, like a chorus splattered together in pink and green and colors Jiro didn’t even know he could see, let alone describe.
The amber gem lit up as the figure approached. It said words in a language that Jiro didn’t understand, then after that- “Local Language Acquired. Sentient Organic Life Scan. 4 Targets Detected. Target 1- Tef. Non-Native Species. Target 2- Partial Energy Based Lifeform. Unacquirable. Target 3- Unscanned Species. DNA Analysis… Native to current planet. Target 4- Tef Hybrid. Non-Native Species. Single Target Found. Familiarity Transformation Initiating.”
And then in a sudden blast of pink light, the alien standing before them, looked like a regular human, a young woman- but still with shocking pink hair and green eyes, and still wearing the strange military uniform. After a moment of hesitation, she offered a hand.
“Hi! I’m Captain Mesembria of the Vexan Empire. Thank you for rescuing my ship. This planet is called Earth?”
Author's Note: yet another first chapter for what could have become a great and beautiful series here at snipsandsnoops dot blogspot dot com. But never continued. because of course not
One day I will finish all the series there and on that day I will cry a single tear of joy.
