A few days later, I followed Nell’s emotions to a large gymnasium within the H.E.S.P. compound. It was an impressive space, large enough to host sporting events with a running track that ran around the outer ring of the gym that encircled an elaborate multi-leveled obstacle course. There were all sorts of rooms, climbing ropes, ladders, stairs, walls, and free-standing platforms all jumbled together as if designed by an imaginative child.
Nell came into view from the far side of the running track. She was panting and dragging her feet with every labored step. Another woman jogged lightly beside her, talking to her.
I smiled at Nell’s exhausted annoyance at the trainer’s words mixed with her dogged stubbornness to keep going.
A blur of something bright red caught my eye from the top of the obstacle course. It was a person moving with incredible agility, navigating effortlessly through windows and leaping across large gaps, their hair like a crimson flag trailing behind them as they got closer. Using their momentum, they swung around a pillar and hurtled straight towards me. I took a step back as they landed and immediately raised themselves to look at me.
The woman towered over me, which meant she was quite a bit taller than six feet. She thrust her face uncomfortably close to mine. Her hair must have been dyed as it was not a natural red but a startling bright crimson.
“Um,” I said, taken aback.
“We were wondering when you would show up,” she said with a huge grin. Then she sniffed, “You smell nice. Floral. I would have expected it to be the other way around. She smells more earthy.” She gestured to Nell who was still stumbling along the track towards us.
I took a step back and she matched it with a forward one, in a way that felt instinctive, like a predator animal. She was wearing a tank top and her muscles were toned. Suddenly I was getting Goblin vibes.
“Who are you?” I asked.
Whatever her goal had been, she seemed to have satisfied herself and now took a step away, giving me back my personal space.
“Daria,” she said.
“A Wolf, I’m guessing? Judging by that display of athleticism.”
“Oh I’m a Wolf all right,” she said smugly. “Eat you right up.” She glanced over to the two approaching women. “What? I’m behaving,” she said at a volume I doubted the runners could hear. Yet the woman next to Nell shook her head disapprovingly.
“Ah. A Wolf and a Witch,” I surmised. “You’re the ones the Director said that wanted to join the special team.”
Daria shrugged. “I couldn’t care less about the team, I just wanted to finally meet people that were like us.” She noticed that I was looking at her hair. “Do you like it?” she teased in a fake breathy voice. “An alteration by my dear Neve.”
“Lay off him, Daria,” the woman I took to be Neve panted, coming to a stop. She had gained some distance on Nell, who was flagging more than she already had, shuffling along like a grandma.
Daria arched her back and transitioned into a handstand to look at Neve. “Feeling jealous, dear?”
“I asked you to behave yourself,” Neve said. Compared to her partner, Neve was more normal looking. Round glasses hung around her neck on a thin strap. She had her black hair in a ponytail. When she bent down to stretch, I saw small thin scars scattered across her lower back.
Nell collapsed onto her stomach a few meters away. She lay with her face against the track, breathing heavily.
“Um, you did good!” Neve called out to her. “I’ve been running for a while, so I’ve built up the stamina.”
Nell didn’t respond, laying where she was like a corpse.
“Plus I have longer legs,” Neve said sheepishly.
“I’m impressed, Nell!” I shouted at her. “I knew you were serious about wanting to start running, but you really committed!”
“Fuck you, Nick!” Nell shouted into the ground. “I could be a cruel goddess and take away your Shaped body with a snap of my fingers!”
I grinned. “Thank you for your mercy, O Sweet One.”
Daria walked on her hands so she could look at me. “I watched some videos of the Sillwood Incident. Your face looks a little different somehow.”
“Well, I was probably wearing a mask.”
“No, even unmasked… Huh.”
I coughed and looked awkwardly at Nell who just pulsed amusement. Was our experimentation that noticeable?
“Well whatever.” Daria said, springing back to her feet. “Okay, pretty boy. How about we take that body for a spin?”
“Daria!” Neve admonished.
“What? I meant on the obstacle course. Let’s have a little spar,” Daria said eagerly. “I’ve never gotten to play with a Wolf before.”
I eyed her warily. “Uh, I’m not so keen. Seems like it could be easy to hurt or get hurt. I wouldn’t want to start our partnership off with any hard feelings.”
“C’mon, we’re Wolves! We can get a little rough, I certainly don’t mind. But how about we make it a game? Queen of the hill. Whoever touches the ground first loses.”
I thought it through. Obviously I wouldn’t be using assimilation or… giving. But my Locust Legs could give me an advantage.
While I had appreciated the quiet moments of relaxation that Nell and I had shared in the last few days, I couldn’t deny that I was itching to stretch my legs.
“It could be fun,” I admitted.
“There we go!” Daria said loudly. “It’s like meeting a new friend at the playground. Will they play nice? Shove you down? Throw rocks?”
“Jump twenty feet into the air?” I asked and released my Locust Legs.
I shot into the air, twisting around so I could see Daria approach. She laughed and started after me, scaling up the many levels with ease, demonstrating perfect control over her body.
I landed on the square roof of the tallest tower on the obstacle course. Daria climbed up a rope to get to the level below mine and stopped for a second to look up at me.
“So how did you fall down the rabbit hole?” she asked.
I cocked my head. “Are you a fan of Alice in Wonderland?”
“Nah, that’d be Neve. She reads to me sometimes.”
“I’m assuming you mean how I learned about Shaping. It’s a long story.”
Daria disappeared into the room beneath me. “They all are,” her voice sounded out. I searched for where she could emerge. “Give me the Cliffs Notes.”
“Did some monster hunting with a crazy guy who I ended up in a car crash with. Woke up in the farm home of a religious nut who was involved in an operation with Organ. I never did find out if the first guy was bringing me there on purpose. Nell was there, working for Organ. She made me her Wolf and we got away together.”
“Organ, huh?” Daria murmured from behind me.
I whirled around only for her to plant a foot on my chest, kicking me off of the tower. I took it in stride, spotting my landing and twisting in the air to land on a suspension bridge with large gaps between the slats.
Daria laughed. “You’re like a cat!”
She dropped down to land on the far side of the bridge, making me crouch to stabilize from the shaking. Her face turned sour for a moment as she looked at her partner below. “Organ kidnapped Neve, forced her to compete for survival in some sick game at this old abandoned mental hospital, Kirkbride Asylum.”
Kirkbride? Where had I heard that name before? Daria didn’t give me a chance to search my memories. She grabbed the handrail ropes and her muscles rippled as she hauled to the side, twisting the bridge, turning it entirely upside-down. I clung to the bridge platform as it flipped and became a handhold, like we were on monkey bars.
Daria swung across quickly, aiming a two legged stomp at me.
I simply let go and grabbed hold of her legs instead.
She tried to shake me off, before switching tactics and letting go.
We fell and I spotted a smaller tower below as our landing spot. I let Daria land on top of me and when my back hit the surface, I tucked my feet to my chest and Shaped Locust Legs again.
“What about you?” I grunted as Daria tried to wrestle me into submission.
“We met after,” Daria panted. “She fell in love with me and dragged me into the rabbit hold. Turns out that living life like normal after that was hard.”
“Agreed,” I said and used my Shape to catapult Daria into the sky. She flew over the highest point of the obstacle course and I followed after her with another Shaped leap.
I crested the tower and saw that she had caught herself on a flag pole. I plummeted towards her, intent on knocking her off.
To my surprise she didn’t try to dodge. She kicked out and caught me, wrapping her legs around me and sending us both tumbling down towards the ground. I struggled but Daria out-muscled me, keeping her position on top, using her own legs to hold my legs away from her.
We crashed down to the padded flooring and I found my face pressed against the cushions, stuck in a headlock.
“Looks like it’s my win. I like your fire, Nick,” she whispered in my ear.
Annoyance flared between Nell and I and thorny vines burst from the flower on my shoulder, forcing her to release me.
She hopped backwards and threw herself into Neve’s arms who barely caught her in time.
“That attitude of yours is cute too,” Daria said to Nell.
I sighed and pushed myself to a sitting position. “I’m getting real tired of getting overpowered,” I mumbled, feeling embarrassed.
“Play to your strengths.” Daria said, sagging lower in Neve’s arms who made an annoyed sound as she struggled to hold her upright. “Trying to play someone else’s game better than them is never gonna work, not in the Shaping world.”
“You’re a brute in every sense of the word,” Neve said. “It wasn’t exactly fair, all you do is clamber around on this course like a monkey. You know it like the back of your hand.”
“Her advice is sound though,” Nell said, now recovered from her run. “Frontal attacks aren’t your forte, Nick. You’ve been getting stronger, but Wolves that have been Shaping for longer are always gonna have the edge in the physical strength department.”
“Shaping gets stronger the more you use it. Right,” I mused, remembering Alek’s training. “Just like a muscle.”
I rolled my shoulders as the vines receded. “Well, that was fun.”
“Right?” Daria asked smugly. “I loved how you moved. Your Shape, is it bone?”
“Yeah, I have pretty good control over it.”
“Then the plants were from Nell.”
“Yep,” Nell said confidently, matching Daria’s bluntness with an upturned chin.
“My Shape is based on enhancing the senses,” Neve offered. “Sight, smell, pain.”
“Pleasure,” Daria whispered loudly.
Neve’s face flushed. “Oh my god. I regret ever meeting you.”
“My Shape is a little harder to describe,” Daria continued without remark. “I can create exclusions. Things my body will avoid.”
“I’m sure that we’ll get a thorough rundown once the team is assembled,” I said. “Speaking of that. Nell, I was thinking I would head back to Sillwood for a bit.”
She nodded. “Have some people in mind?”
“I do. Are you wanting to come with?” I asked.
“No, I’ll keep training here. You’ll be alright,” she said.
“I wish I could have your confidence after my poor display just now.”
“That’s what you’re best at though. Falling and still somehow ending up on top,” she said with an easy smile.
I grinned. “Any requests.”
“Sullivan.”
My face froze.
“I’m joking.”