章 25: Earls Scrap Yard and Auto Repair
Once I get back to my room I sit down and begin to think of what I want to do. Increasing my density will also increase my weight, that won't be much of a problem right away but eventually it will be. I wonder how J'onn handles that, with his density he should be leaving footprints in the floor like he is walking on the beach in sand.
Now Monkey said I would only have one shape per species I became but J'onn can shift into whatever he wants, be it man or woman in human shape. Let's try this, I get up and walk to the bathroom mirror and think of the first shape that comes to mind, my old body. Suddenly I'm looking at a white middle-aged guy with a military high and tight haircut.
I raise my hands and see that I have fully taken on the skin color; I am no longer green. It does take some effort to hold this shape, so I return to my natural form. After a moment I just envision myself as having suntanned skin and my whole body takes the tone, this doesn't take much effort at all.
Yes, I do look below my waistline and its color matches, then a thought hits me, and I think to myself (It's good to be a shape shifter!!!). Not that I'm lacking in that department, but now I never will be either. Putting those thoughts away until I find someone to rekindle them with, I move on.
Continuing to experiment I turn my skin an albino white color and then picture a white Ape near The Red in my mind. I feel my body shift and when I look in the mirror, I see a gorilla, but I am back to the green color. Looking in the mirror I imagine my green fur turning black and grey and it slowly happens, but it takes a lot of effort. I feel somewhat like I'm pushing something upstream of a raging river when the change was taking place and now, I feel like I'm holding it against the flow. I will continue to work on this, I tell myself.
Walking back to my living room I resumed my seat and thought to myself, power borrowed can be taken away as Monkey warned me from the beginning. So, I think I should concentrate on my Martian abilities but not neglect The Red, after all it would be a waste to ignore any ability that I can use. Besides, the shape changing abilities from the red are instantaneous.
The rest of the week was spent working out and training my new abilities, so I was comfortable with them. J'onn and I would work my telepathy and all I can say is that man is a monster. Nothing I could do would budge his mental walls and he could get through mine with what seemed like no effort at all.
Morph would come out sometimes and watch me as I worked out. He had a very curious nature and it felt like he was a magnet for every woman that stopped by the tower. M'egan brought Artemis by to meet me, but she wasn't too impressed with Morph and I would have to say he didn't care much for her either the way he would change into the Cheshire Cat and taunt her from my shoulder. I found her to be an ok acquaintance, but she had the feeling of a high maintenance girl, and I never trusted them too much. That's probably the same reason I can't see M'egan as more than a sister.
Morph's favorite person was by far and away Vixen, probably because of her connection to The Red through her Totem necklace. Her and J'onn where the only ones that could get Morph to leave my side and even then, I had to be within sight, or he went full Chihuahua mode until I could calm him down.
As for Vixen and me, well she watches me like a lioness looking at a fawn sometimes, but I know she is in a romantic relationship with Soldier Girl. I don't even want to get into how that happened as it truly isn't any of my business, but I did have a particularly nice dream about a threesome that I'm fairly sure was a product of my teen hormones.
Surprisingly J'onn finally got his two lives merged and even more surprisingly he decided to take the look from the 52 J'onn J'onzz as his Martian human mix form. I never asked why, just assumed he wanted something to represent the culmination of both his lives. We discussed his time as John Jones the police detective and some of his adventures when we trained together.
His many misunderstandings with a fellow detective who was a woman named Frances Poncherello and how his lack of knowledge in the human mating rituals (As he called it) caused him many many problems. But it proved very entertaining to me, especially with his deadpan tone of voice narrating.
Apparently, she had to step over his lack of understanding and be more direct in her pursuit. They had a short relationship that ended when she was offered a job as a motorcycle officer with the California Highway Patrol. They separated on a good note but J'onn made sure to stay away from such entanglements from then on. He avoided any questions I had about the physical side of the relationship; I took it to mean it was very physical.
I also took the time to talk to J'onn about the weight issue with increasing the denseness of our body and he confirmed that he used telekinesis to keep his weight at about 250 pounds. But when he isn't using his powers, he weighs closer to 2,500 pounds.
I will have to figure something out for that, but with three more doors in my mind I was hopeful Telekinesis would show up eventually.
Today would be the day I head for Gotham to get my feet wet in the hero gig; I have been told that my main point of contact will be Robin but from my understanding I will not be micromanaged. (Like I believe that.)
Not having much to carry I walk with John Jones through the zeta tube to Earl's Scrap Yard and Auto Repair in Gotham that will be my temporary home. Apparently J'onn bought it years ago with the League funds to make an easy Zeta Tube platform and rally point if needed. I like the idea of not being in a crap apartment with no outside area as I was still working out as much as I could. My main focus was still stamina and learning to live with a ¼ body density increase.
Through rigorous training I managed to get to 200 pounds on a 10-step ladder for my bench press before increasing my density by ¼. I knew that early improvement would be easy but once I reached my body maximum, I would be fighting for every pound increase without my Martian cheat.
Dr. Nelson explained to me that a normal person working out would see a quick increase at the beginning but later it was harder to improve. So, it is best to get the big gain through hard work first.
When I materialized through the Zeta tube the first thing that hit me was the noise. Not the physical noise but the mental. I could hear hundreds of students at a nearby school, some from a Library I think and even some from a Tavern nearby, hearing the different thoughts hurt. Trying to separate out just one thought pattern to follow was a titanic effort.
The only way I can describe it is if you are in a room and everyone is shouting, and you are trying to make sense of what they are saying by focusing on just one but then occasionally you hear shouting at double or even triple the volume.
I pulled my mind back as much as I could, and you wouldn't believe how uncomfortable it was to do. I look at J'onn, "Why is it suddenly like this? It wasn't this bad in the Watchtower. I thought I was doing good by not listening to everyone's thought there."
J'onn looks at me, "Sorry, I forgot to warn you. The Watchtower has a dampening field to help its members keep their thoughts safe from those of us with Telepathy. I recommend slowly letting your mind relax and learn the trick of ignoring everyone. It will make it tricky when someone is trying to get your attention, but it is just something we have to learn. Much like not using too much strength. Let's go look at your room and then we can hit a few secondhand stores in the area to make it more comfortable and get you some clothes to help you fit in. You still have a ways to go with your control to be able to create your own cloths with shape changing."
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