Chương 105: Scarabee

The sun's rays kept Jairo at rest — though as they pushed along through the window and left him, that sudden loss of heat was what awoke him. He pushed out of his bed covers and landed on his feet, stumbling out of the door and immediately into the bathroom to start washing his face. There in the mirror he saw himself. Unmarked skin. Normal, squared teeth. Bright blue, perfectly human eyes. No stupid mohawk to make it look like he looks ridiculous on purpose. Everything was far better than it had been before.

He finished washing up before getting dressed, as he heard his mother's voice calling for him.

"Jairo! Get your butt down here already!"

"Coming!" He called out with a smooth, human voice, as he finished slipping his shirt on, rushing down the steps of the stairs and towards the kitchen. A full table of food, so fresh their heat radiated off the table and warmed him up again. His mother stood by the table, wiping her hands off with a towel. She smiled proudly at her bounty.

"Your dad left for work before he could even have the Bolo de Fubá I spent an hour working on! And he's the one who asked for it!" She said with a laugh.

"So you better eat his portion while you can." Jairo laughed in return, taking a seat and a slice of the cake and starting to pick at it.

"Thanks! Definitely a good breakfast to start the day with!" He blurted out.

"Of course, hon. You need the energy anyway with your superhero training. That Miss BD's got you running ragged most of the time, doesn't she?" Jairo nodded, swallowing his food.

"Well yeah, but she's been doing a great job at making me better. I couldn't have made it this far without her. You've seen how many people I've saved!"

"That is true," his mother acknowledged with a laugh.

"But that's still why you need a big meal. Come on, eat up!" The boy didn't take even a second to wait before practically pouncing upon his food, stuffing himself full, and then some more on top of it. Every bite was satisfying, but none felt truly filling until he pushed himself past the brink of a full stomach. Belching out to make room for air afterwards, he slapped his chest and stomach.

"Great breakfast, mom! I'm gonna head out to train now!" Without even waiting for a parting word from his mother, he rushed out the door. It was second nature for him to completely shift just his legs into their empowered form, allowing him to sprint across town at speeds that'd leave even a sportscar in the dust, random people identifying the blur going past them as "Jairo the Hero" and cheering him on as he moved.

Every cheer and greeting as he passed felt like another drop of gas in his tank, encouraging him to push further and further before skidding to a halt at his destination. A small office building with a single sign listed on the door. Mother Belladonna's Super Human Advancement Methods Pushing the door open, the room was rich with incense and perfumes. Sitting at the end was a desk, attended to by a woman whose beauty could not be contained by words. A glaring radiance that could practically blind a man.

Some struggled to even remember her face after the fact, resulting in many describing her appearance as this pulchritudinous haze. Jairo's powers allowed him to look past that, of course, and focus on her via the electromagnetic frequency of her heart. With his ability to see her very heartbeat, her soul, he knew that he could trust her with everything.

"Hey Miss BD!" Jairo stated, waving to her as he made his way into the office. She scoffed, standing from her desk, revealing the vivid green floral dress draping her body, extending into sleeves and even leafy gloves.

"You don't need to call me Miss BD, Jairo, Mother Belladonna is the title I go by, after all. How are you faring so far now that you're a month into your humanization treatment?" Jairo instinctively reached to his arms, feeling along the limb. The lack of scales and chitin or raised veins smattering his skin. The lack of tension or rasp in his voice when he spoke. Not feeling that little tendon in his body that he had to keep flexed at all times to avoid turning into a monster.

No accidentally biting his own tongue with his obnoxiously sharp teeth. No more intrusive thoughts about killing everyone who upset him. How when he looked in the mirror, he saw a human face. Human eyes. A human smile.

"It- it's great," he admitted, looking back up at her, trying to look past the fog the intensity of her beauty produced, to give her the fair return of eye contact. Eye contact with the human eyes she gave back to him.

"S-sometimes I miss my friends, but-""Bup-bup," she noted, reaching out and planting a finger on his lips. He didn't even notice her crossing the room in just that moment. She truly was a greater expert than he could comprehend, and it was in moments like those where he was truly glad she was on his side and helping him.

"Your friends were holding you back, Jairo. Don't you remember?" She asked, a smile being almost recognizable through the haze. The obscuring of her appearance felt even more intense when she was close. As though every pore and microcosm of her face was too beautiful to completely take in.

"I mean, Chris-""Christian?" She asked, cocking her head.

"The one who lorded his completely mundane human appearance over you? Reduced you to childish fantasies of being 'Dojo Stormers' and the lackey to everyone else? He was just trying to make himself look better by pitying you, Jairo, you know that. Without him around, you can take the lead on your own choices. And now that you get to look completely human, there's nothing he can humiliate you over." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"But May-" he began to stammer out, holding onto his arm. She chuckled at that one.

"The one who made you feel foolish all the time? Whenever you burnt a meal and she decided to fill in for you? You think that was some sort of magnanimity? She was trying to make herself look better than you. And of course she kept leading you on in private, letting you get vulnerable around her so she could stock up on ammunition to use against you in the event you decided to protest your treatment. I got you out of there before she could fire any of it off." Looking off to the side, his face contorted in concern.

"I mean, I guess. Sam was also trying to help me though-" The chuckle became a laugh.

"Dr. Way? The maniac quack who has her own horrible experiments as puppeteered children? She saw you as yet another puzzle to solve for her own benefit. Women as smart as her don't see people like you as anything other than a way to heighten their own self-esteem by 'solving' you. Like you're a tumor to excise. And she humiliated your lack of intelligence constantly as well, with just one little security issue over phones. You deserve so much better than being prodded at."

"Tancred wouldn't let her prod at me-" His gaze continued to fix on a nearby wall, features souring.

"Tancred? That sociopath?" She asked as her hand rested on his shoulder.

"I wouldn't even trust him to carry a bucket of water during a fire. He'd just drink it for himself and leave everyone to burn. He just saw you as a threat and knew keeping you content in your little cage would keep you from being the danger he thought you would be." Her hand reached up, holding onto his chin to turn Jairo's head to face her properly.

"Meanwhile, you're out of the cage with me. And look where you are now. A hero."

"I-I..."

"You don't even need to say his name," Mother Belladonna added.

"You thought Leo might be one worth missing. We both know you hated him more than any other." She tapped a digit against his nose.

"Tried lording how much stronger he was over you. How much smarter he was than you. And everyone gives him so much attention, even though all he does is hit things and brood. Even though you're just as strong, and faster, and just as capable of out-thinking him." The woman rustled his hair.

"Well, with me, you don't have to worry about that. All the attention is on you now. You get to be the star of the show." Her finger moved from his nose to his chest.

"Because you deserve it, Jairo. You're the only real hero in that group."

"Just think about it. Within just a month you already stopped the ADU completely." Images (No, no. Memories.) flashed through his mind of him breaking into multiple ADU encampments, tearing through them by himself. Tree-men breaking under his fists. Getting in Brother Gleditsia's face and sending him to the floor with one clean punch. Dragging Master Sequoia out by the collar to a police station. All of the random trees growing in Charlottesville withering away.

"By yourself." He forced down a deep breath, nodding.

"You found Technofiend and got him arrested." Another set of memories. His scaled hands tearing open the door of a vault, finding a repairing Technofiend and pulling his head off of some technologically advanced podium, carrying it out to a cheering crowd. Holding it up like a trophy as the robotic villain let out a synthesized groan in defeat." By yourself." He blinked. He wasn't sure how taking Technofiend's head worked that time. Leo had to take out a part in his shoulder.

"You uncovered the conspiracy Tancred and his wife were engaging in to embezzle government funds for the superhero team." Dragging out Agent Tancred and Chief Tancred in handcuffs to a set of police officers while journalists took pictures of him. He smiled and waved to them, uncertain as to how they knew to come out to report on the arrest." By yourself." He simply nodded this time, not knowing how to refute his own memories. Not wanting to refute them.

"And you know why you were able to do all of those things by yourself, Jairo?" His eyes finally fixed on where he thought hers were. Even with her radiance making it so hard to take her features in, he could tell her eyes were dark. Focused. Rich with an unbreaking integrity.

"Because you helped me. Because you made me into a real superhero." The smile on her became more apparent.

"Exactly, honey. And so long as you keep training with me, you can take higher, and higher, and higher heights. Ones that your team couldn't bring you to. Ones that the government failed to bring you to. And you know the best part of it all?" Jairo's eyebrow raised, genuinely curious.

"What?"

"You're not living in some concrete basement, dressing like a clown whenever you go outside. You're in your home, with your mom, and your dad. They're not separated anymore. Your dad doesn't see you as some kind of demon. Your mom doesn't regret all those years spent training you to become a pro fighter, because you are one now. But your ring is your whole hometown, and you're putting down the worst of the worst with just your two fists." She stood straight again, resting her hands on her hips.

"Do you think anyone back in Charlottesville could've gotten that done for you?" Jairo took a deep breath, before looking out the window of the door. At the city he got to protect now. That cheered for him on his way here.

"I... no. I guess not. You really did save me," he stated, looking up towards her with a smile.

"I really do appreciate that. That I get to live like a normal person while saving people. I don't have to be Teiú. I can be Jairo. And Jairo can be a hero." That smile-like sensation radiated through her haze again.

"Well-" KRSSHH The sound accompanied the ground and walls shaking. Like for a split second the earth quaked under an unknown force. That was no mere natural disaster. That kind of raw power echoing throughout the city could only come from something that sought to destroy it.

"... Well. I suppose that might be Jairo the Hero's cue to go help save the day." She waved him off as he rushed off the door towards the source of the shaking and rumbling. There were people running away and screaming, some calling Jairo's name. Following that sound was all he needed to get to the scene of the crime, and the threat causing it all. Standing in front of a building with a massive hole broken in it, clearly from being busted through, stood a monster.

It was a hulking humanoid, maybe a foot taller than Jairo. Its wide, lean form was composed of rich blues and oranges, leading up towards a head bearing sharp orange horns and deep black eyes. There was no comprehensible face behind that. In its massive hands it carried a silvery spear, clearly to impale and kill any civilians it could reach. Just by looking at it, Jairo could see this monster's body was thundering with unparalleled might.

Every inch of its limbs echoed raw force that could topple the city itself if needed. The monster let out a ground-shaking bellow that almost sounded familiar. Almost like human speech, calling his name. Even the monsters knew that when there was a challenge, they knew to call for Jairo the Hero. And this would be his greatest challenge yet. As Jairo is a hero, he would not hesitate against any challenges. The hero raised his fists.