Irregulars

Alpha and Omega... What the Hell Am I? Part II

        Heiro went to his boss, Jeffery Smith, entering his office with a relaxed yet usually confident demeanor. Jeffery was a wiry tall redhead with sharp handsome features. he wasn't exactly good looking but he was well off and he knew it. "Jeffery I know you know I wanted to work the bar at the diner for the eclipse this evening. I requested to be there with josh so I know the only reason I would be stationed at the concession is if you asked him to. I know we haven't gotten off on the right foot but I'm not gonna take s**t from you man, not now or ever so let's shake hands and makeup so I can go work at the bar." Heiro may have been hesitant to tell off a superior but Jeffery wasn't exactly superior, he was a glorified supervisor, for a dollar and fifty cents extra per hour he gained the authority to tell staff what to do in minor emergencies and if they didn't know what to do, as well as help make the schedule. It was the transition phase his job came up with to appease the seasoned employees and fill the needed management spot without nearly doubling their pay. 

        "I had nothing to do with your position switch and if you talk to me like that-" he began telling Heiro off but he wouldn't have it.

        Heiro cut him off, "Cut the s**t, I know they give you an extra say in the schedule because you're new in the position and they want your shifts to run smooth. It's why they always schedule us together because I know how to do my s**t and everyone else's. This place couldn't run with you in charge without me and Pyo so let me do my job in the diner and get Cam to do Concessions like he was supposed to when he comes in. You're older than me but we've worked here the same amount of time and you may be in a higher position but they would take my word over yours if it came to it. I'm not one to be trifled with so lightly." The room was silent as we glared at each other as he tried to think of a rebuttal... Heiro didn't give him the chance as he walked out and may his way to the connected diner.

        He ran in and saw Pyo already hard at work making milkshakes and rushing in and out the back to hand out dishes, "Yo! Heiro you're late... get changed into the uniform dude." 

        "Um, Pyo please tell Jeffery that I'm gonna be working in the diner today," Heiro said, sass dripping off his tongue.

        "Ok... but you know he's not gonna be happy right?" 

        "Don't really care man, I was joking anyway."

        "Then why are you here?" 

        Heiro smirked as he finished putting on his black apron, "Cause I already told him myself."

        A few hours of cleaning and taking orders later, the diner was finally calming down with only a few customers inside at the bar. The doorbells chimed as a man in black jeans and a tee-shirt framed by a padded leather jacket walked in. Although he wasn't too bad looking and had a warming gaze, dressed in all black with red stains on his hands and sleeves hardly painted a picture of an honest man... but who was now a days. "Where's the bathroom?" he asked deadpan. 

        "To your left," Heiro answered almost immediately. Not my place to judge, he thought. He felt a strange sense of familiarity towards the strange man though he was certain it was the first time he'd seen the man. "Who exactly are you... I've never seen you before but I feel like I know you from somewhere." 

        The man stopped but didn't turn to face Heiro. "No, not exactly you don't really know me. I just moved into the old haunted house in the forest." Although he couldn't see the front of the man he could just feel the eye roll and air quotes.

        "Oh, you're the one who bought the mansion. You look younger in person..." 

        "I look younger every day, sometimes I feel like I'm never going to grow old." he left to the bathroom. When he returned he walked right up to Heiro.

        "I would like a whiskey, get your buddy to serve it to me your not old enough."

            "How do you know?" he crossed his arms with a playful grin to hide my confusion and... pain? Did it really hurt to be seen as a child so easily when I was only a few days from my birthday? "What about me screams under eighteen?"

        "Well you look like you're thirteen, your hair looks like that of a teenager and I don't hear or see keys on you meaning no car... but really it's because you don't look like you went to college."

     Pyo looked at him annoyingly. "We don't have enough whiskey for a full glass sorry." Pyo chimed in, his voice even although he was so over his job it was dangerously close to coming out monotone.

      "Then I want a Sazerac without the one sugar cube, two dashes of Peychaud's bitters, one dash of Angostura Bitters, absinthe, and the lemon peel."

        By this point, even Heiro was close to phoning in the rest of his shift as his social battery was slowly being drained on this man's antics but he had to give it to him, you're quite the character, "So a whiskey?" He rolled his eyes before getting the strange man what he wanted. 

The man drank till Heiro assumed he was seeing stars. Heiro offered to call the man an uber but he just smiled and laughed, "See ya later Heiro." the phrase would have meant nothing for any other customer but Heiro felt as if he really would see the man again soon.  

           Soon after the man left, about an hour later,  Luna walked in, her mood so sour it suffocated Heiro, he was frozen in her sorrow as he was notoriously known for being the shoulder to cry on but he never liked it, he just said what he needed to stop the crying because he hated seeing people cry, he never had so he couldn't understand what could be so sad to cause the involuntary response. 

        She sat down and didn't even lookup. "Your strongest liquor please." She shrugged and looked down. 

        He chuckled, "Miss I think you're a little too young for that and it doesn't help when your bartender is underage. I can't get away with the, "She looked old enough and I've been doing it long enough to normally be able to tell these things."

        "Hey, Heiro do you ever think you shouldn't trust people or do good things for good people?"

        "Yo Pyro! Can you cover me something has come up?" He yelled as he stared at Luna, whatever this was she must be really hurting to ponder such a question.

        "You can't just leave your postman."

        "I'm helping a customer it's fine," Heiro smirked as his voice filled with the false compassion and joy he learned to project while working.

        "Whatever, yeah, I got your back," Pyo responded absentmindedly as he lost his ability to debate with Heiro.

        "See how I trust Pyo to cover me? What's up?" Heiro's voice lowers as he softens its usual edge. 

        "Just like you, I trusted someone called James to cover me and he didn't, this was the 2nd time he's done this to me and the third time it's happened. The other guy I usually get to cover me has been flaking on me recently so he's been my only choice and he failed me.

        He thought to himself. Your boss is really nice or doesn't like paperwork which no one does, and 3 times by that loser well I would have stopped trusting him the 1st time. "Oh really, I see how that can be hard."

        She scoffed, "Well I was doing it to surprise you guys but I got fired."

        "Oh, more okay with paperwork than I thought." Heiro accidentally said out loud.

        "What!?!" she was taken off guard. 

        "Nothing, I know it's not my fault but I'm sorry that this happened and ill make it up to you one day this week, you could use a good cheer up." 

        She smiled and her mood seemed to lighten before adopting a tired face. "Anyway, I'm gonna go home and sleep it off."

        "Oh... ok. I get it, mental fatigue from the built-up anxiety... rest but don't stay in bed too long. And if you really need a job I could get you one here."

        "Really?" she paused in thought, "I'll think about it... thanks Heiro, you've always been so good to me."

        "No problem and you don't have to say thank you, it's something I want to do, it's for me not you, completely selfish, I need someone to keep me in check for my eighteenth." She laughed and punched his shoulder playfully as she walked out, "Thank you again... really."

         At that moment a cute, petite, brunette, caramel-skinned girl walked in. It was Jayna she saw me and smiled. "Hello, bartender I want one hero with a side of the fire."

        She strangely felt a migraine and stumbled but he could understand surprised he hadn't after such a bad joke. "This is what happens when you say cringy jokes. But good try, I give you an A for effort Jay but I gotta say... that was a really cringe-worthy pun, are you okay?" he said hopping over the counter and catching her with his near-superhuman reflexes, as he caught her. Did I get even faster since this morning?

        "Good enough. Yeah, I'm fine I just saw a vision of a man in all black kill...Never mind... where's Pyo."

        "Okay, just shift the subject on me I guess," he said with sarcasm and suspicion filling his words. "He's getting changed in the back right now while clean up, Kait and Cam should be taking over but I wanna get out early to see the eclipse, I'm sure the place won't burn down in our absence.

        Heiro ran in the back and got Pyo. Heiro got changed into ripped blue jeans, a tee-shirt, and a flannel. When he emerged and left the diner he saw the beautiful moon already a quarter the way covered in shadows. suddenly his vision darkened, his head began to pound with waves of pain and so did his chest, eyes, ears, nose, and even legs. Everything felt like it was breaking and tearing ever so slowly. "Argh!" he cried out, Jayna looked worried.

        "Heiro you ok?" she said with worry.

        "Yeah I'm totally fine I just feel like dying, you?"

        Pyro looked a little pissed. "Come on Heiro are you ok seriously."

        "Yeah I think I twisted my ankle, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom and wash up, I'll be back soon," but even then he knew that was a lie, the pain he felt wasn't beyond anything he felt but it was all over and in parts of his body he rarely even stretched. It was nearly unbearable but Heiro was used to putting on a mask even in extreme situations. He went into the bathroom and yelled. "God damn it!" More frustrated at the pain for arriving so suddenly during the eclipse rather than for existing in the first place.

        Then He started to hear Jayna from outside the bathroom, "I'm calling the ambulance."

       As his bones began to break he was filled with intoxicating power and blood lust. Flexing this strength he knocked down one of the bathroom walls, "What the hell?" he thought out loud. In his haze he only had one thing on his mind, escape. He ran full speed towards the local forest, the road and trees blurring as if he were a car speeding on the highway. As he arrived somewhere deep in the forest, he fell on all fours and his bones started breaking more rapidly, as he let out a final cry that resembled more a howl than a scream, "ARRGH!"

        Finally, his bones stopped and he howled more and more in as the lingering pain began to fade immediately. He crawled over to the lake though it felt more comfortable than even walking. He leaned over the lake and saw in the water a reflection of a blood-red wolf with bright orange highlights in its fur. "Holy s**t I have two tails this is so weird and cool. I'm also a blazing red wolf. Let's test these suckers out." He swung his massive tail at five trees and disseminated them. "Whoa!" but then suddenly he began to freak out, "What if I'm stuck like this... wait, the moon, if this is tied to the moon I might just be a werewolf." he began to calm, "I have to tell Luna."

        He could smell the nearby animals and people, but as soon as he did he froze, it was all he could do to not think about tearing them limb from limb as well as searching for a pack and mate. His animal instincts threatened to take over. "No, I need to focus on getting to Luna's." Using his years of practice clearing his mind of thoughts and living in the moment he erased thoughts of murder from his mind and focused on thoughts of running around his city a shape-shifting superhero, and if there was anyone he could share that with it would be his parents and Luna.

        He dashed to her house covering miles in only a minute give or take.  He was like a massive bullet with legs. Unfortunately for him, he ended up changing back upon arrival and crashed into the house. It had started to rain just before he arrived blocking the moon. He tossed rocks at her window to get her attention before giving up. he was completely naked now that his clothes had completely torn off so going through the front wouldn't be an option. He climbed in through her window as he used to when he was a child, but she started to wake up."Who's there?" she asked groggily but still wearily.

        "I don't know who do you think. Oh don't turn on the lights I'm not wearing anything." Heiro answered but he immediately realized his mistake.

        "WHAT THE f**k!" She screamed as she realized she really wasn't alone in the large room and rushed to the lights." when she flicked them on she froze and then glared.

        "Okay I know this looks bad-" she cut him off before he could continue.

        "You think, sneaking around my room naked while I'm asleep?" she said with a strange venom in her voice but it was shakey as if she were afraid. 

        It nearly broke him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." 

        "Should have thought about that before coming into my room naked like some sort of creep."

        "I wasn't naked when I arrived, well not like this, but my clothes fell off after I changed back." 

        "Changed back? Why are you here, why are you naked. Did...were you go-"

        "Don't finish that. I came to show you something awesome not be a creep but my mind was just jumbled so I couldn't think clearly."

        "This is the third time you've gotta stop doing this, we aren't kids anymore and my parents will think I've got some boy in my room."

        "Don't you though?" he winked as he started off towards her dresser pulling out the drawers searching for something. Where did you put my spare boxers the last time I came over?"

        "Heiro it's 10:30, they're in the closet bottom left."

        "Thanks. You're not going to believe this... I'm a werewolf."

        "Yeah? And I guess everyone in school has a crush on you too huh."

        "Guess you have a crush on me then, you'll see as soon as the rain stops."

         As soon as the rain stopped the screaming began again and Luna took several steps back as her eyes widened" Heiro what's happening?" she said with worry drenching her form, even her body language could cause anyone who looked at her to join in her fear. 

        "The change... hurts... a lot!" he said between hushed screams and labored breaths. 

        After around eight minutes it was nearly over and his joints started to dislocate and relocate to when they had moved when he transformed the last time. two minutes of screaming and adjusting later and he was complete. "Holy crap you're seriously not lying. Whoa, Heiro."

        Seeing her now he noticed that somehow he was bigger as a wolf than he was as a person, she comparatively looked two-thirds her original size to him which means he had gotten much bigger. He saved these details to ponder later, for now... He smiled the best a wolf can. he slowly began to feel lightheaded when Luna pet him and rubbed his soft fur. "You're so comfy." But he couldn't focus on her words. s**t probably shouldn't have gone here and gone to bed instead. Damn the transformation is too straining and painful. "Heiro you ok." He smiled as he fell to the ground. She was shocked, her face went from confused to worried. "Heiro, Heiro, Heiro!" She cried out but he had already drifted away into a deep sleep.