It was a natural reaction, but the cops took it as aggression. I ripped the hood off of my head just in time to see the boot crash into my face. My right eye went black in that instant and I panicked. How long had I had my powers back? Not long enough to deal with something like that in a rational manner. I fought back as best I could, trying not to hurt them, but tasers came out after I whipped one into a desk. I hadn't meant it.
But it's impossible to argue with an officer at the other end of a taser. I got hit with several nodes at once and the world was, blissfully, quiet.
Chapter 5
I returned home from work to find that the Alliance building was a little different than it usually was.
Whether it was the armed guards checking the identification of superheroes and superheroines outside the front door, or if it was the fact that they were turning away families, it was difficult to say. Maybe it was the fact that the PTB letters had been removed from the front and dropped to the ground, left to rot away in the upcoming storm.
Given that I wasn't about to be assaulted to enter my home, I walked past the guards and ignored them when they tried to apprehend me. A hand shot out, wrapped around my wrist, and fell away as the troublesome digits couldn't adjust to grip a wolf's leg fast enough. I shook them off and took off at a trot down the hallway to the elevator as the leg became human once more.
Perhaps it's the animal within me. I'm a little faster than most people, lighter on my feet and more agile. They shouted at me but I continued to ignore them, likely infuriating their tiny minds. The elevator came, clanged open, and I stepped inside and hammered the door close button. They swung shut a second before I heard their steps and I ran my hands the length of the keyboard. Every single one lit up. Good.
I slipped out of the elevator on the 3rd floor and popped into the second elevator there, hoping they would follow the first. I poked the button for Scribe's office and sighed when it didn't light up.
"Of course he doesn't want to be bothered," I muttered. "Too bad for him."
Snatching my key card out of my wallet, I ran it through the mechanism on the side of the keypad. There were only a few Yarborough superheroes who were issued cards like mine and the others? I assumed the others would never flinch at supporting whatever the hell was going on. Most of them were dying for bloodbaths. I just wanted life to quiet down. I'd had an amazing time with Cassie, but we hadn't really had time to consider where it would lead.
...If it led anywhere. I was still recovering from what had happened between Lexi and I. We'd spent a decade or so together and to just see it all fall apart so suddenly was rough.
I hit Scribe's elevator key again and gripped the silver handholds lining the interior as the elevator shuddered to life again. Had the guards been worth their salt, they would have gotten into the keyboard in the other and frozen the entire shaft with the emergency button. Instead-
My elevator ground to a halt. The emergency lights came on and a cheerful ping-ping-ping! noise came through the speakers, followed by a voice. "We apologize for this inconvenience. An emergency response team will be with you shortly. Please do not attempt to escape the elevator. It is safer within the interior of your vehicle."
"Well, at least he's paying for someone worth something," I sighed.
Then I did precisely what the elevator told me not to. I pulled myself up on the handrail, gripped the ceiling tiles with claws extended from my nails, and began to pry the emergency evacuation hatch open. The damned thing was rusted to beat all hell and I had to practically beat it open, but it eventually gave in. Out I went, sliding onto the filthy roof.
Surprisingly, it was only the fifth or sixth one I'd had to climb out of. I looked around me, familiarizing myself with the roof. There were plenty of places to step that would result in my hurting myself; plenty of hard bolts and areas to trip. The gaping abyss on the sides of the car were plenty to make me hold on to the wire and orient myself.
It would have been so much easier to fly to the top of the shaft, but then what would I do? As a bird, I couldn't force the doors open. I'd plummet and end up smashed against the car's roof, even if I managed to shapeshift in mid-air and slow my fall a little.
The door of the floor above me rattled. I narrowed my eyes at it and thought a little faster. I could fly up, land on the wire, and pull open Scribe's floor doors that way, but it left me completely exposed. Finally, I gave in and grabbed the wire, allowing my hands and feet to shift. My shoes clattered onto the roof as they changed into ape's paws.
People don't really recognize how different our extremities are from our closest cousins. Indeed, we can type on computers. They can climb faster than we give them credit
