Silent Heroes: Wildcat

Chapter 47: Reza

The following weeks were nothing but a whirl of constant, adrenaline-fueled activity.  We travelled west across the country, hitting major cities in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. 

Our nights were spent patrolling the city streets, tracking down violent criminals, defending their victims and breaking up fights.  But, it wasn't all blood and violence.  Once, Jewel escorted a lost kid back to her bewildered parents.  Another time, Shane found a guy unconscious in the street and brought him to the attention of some nearby cops.

Our days were spent in random hotel rooms, re-living our latest conquests and obsessively following the news.  The moment we hit a new city, the media would explode with stories about us.  Theories flew left and right.  Were we a new, super-intelligent species of wildcat?  Were we shape-shifters?  Were we aliens?  (I laughed at that one every time).  Were we nothing but a gigantic hoax? 

People from all walks of life were scrambling to have their say.  We were demonized and glorified.  We were scrutinized and analyzed and occasionally dismissed as pure nonsense.  Lately, people had been trying to snap pictures of us, but so far they were all dark and blurry, or taken from so far away that the image could just as easily be a housecat.

We rarely stayed in one place for more than a few days at a time.  The frenzied media coverage made such a thing impossible.  With all the attention we were getting and the committee most likely working day and night to track us down, we had to stay one step ahead of the rest of the world.

It was all terrifying, exhausting and exhilarating in turns.  During the day, while the news stories played and we planned our next move, I was plagued with conflicting emotions.  It was impossible not to image all the things that could go wrong, from the committee locking us up and essentially erasing all our progress, to the general populations turning violently against us.

But during the night, when we were out on the streets, I was without fear.  I loved the nights.  I lived for them.  The thrill.  The excitement.  The way I could work so flawlessly with the creature inside of me.  The sense of pride and purpose that chased all my doubts to a small, remote corner of my brain.

And, if all that wasn't enough to think about, I was still coming to grips with my constantly developing abilities.

So far, I had transformed twice into something besides my usual wildcat.  The first time, I had nearly killed someone.  The second time, I had managed to maintain control, but I still had no say in when or where is happened.  I didn't fully understand why it happened either.  Isaac said it came out of necessity, but what did that even mean?

"It means you only take on other forms when you need to," Isaac explained one evening.  We were driving along the coast on our way to Los Angeles, the window rolled down, letting in a warm ocean breeze.  "You can't consciously control it, but your animal brain can recognize a situation and react accordingly."

"So... say I ran out into the ocean right now and didn't know how to swim."

"There's a good chance you would transform into an underwater animal of some kind."

"And if I threw myself off a twenty-foot cliff?"

"You'd be crazy," Jewel said.

I laughed.  Too bad Reza wasn't around to hear that one. He was in the other rental car with Deanna, Shane and Danielle.

"I have to agree with Jewel on this one," Julian said.  "That would be crazy.  Secondary forms are unpredictable.  There's a good chance you would turn into a bird on the way down.  There's also a considerable chance that you wouldn't."