More Than Heroic

One week. That was the time which Dressler had been granted. So far he had one week with Bella and already he had begun to see the changes. Subtle as they were she was making her way inch by inch to him. But now, now it was time for drastic improvement. Bella mentally still saw herself as human. She was a wolf still living amongst and acting as one of the sheep. He needed now to teach her to where that sheep skin as a disguise not as her true form.

This was why he had her on the roof of a building overlooking Chicago. Tell me Bellabhe would begin as he looked out over the bustling nightlife what is it that you see when you look on these people? What are they to you?

Bella sat at the edge of the building, her feet rhythmically hitting the wall as she swung them and looked down at the lights that was Chicago city, the people walked under them, none the wiser that two people sat above them all. Bella didn't really know why Dressler had her come all the way out here, knowing him it would be a lesson but for the past week she had been taking these lessons with a mild interest. She was still all so confused when it came to the decision she had made and continued to followed.

When she heard Alex call out her name, Bella looked up at him and heard his question which caused her to scrunch up her lips as she looked back to the ground. "I see people. People who are simply walking from point A to B, that or driving." Bella said, not quite sure that was the answer that he wanted but she guessed no matter what answer she gave he would say something that would criticize the answer, unless of course she gave him the answer she thought he wanted to hear. That they were like worker ants, and we were bigger then them. This was their home, their hill. And we could easily smash it.

Dressler laughed as he looked on his protege. Her age was showing in the somewhat smartass answer that was given to his question. A clever and obvious answer Bella he would chuckle out, crouching to rest his elbows on his knees. Once on her level he would look more closely at her eyes as he spoke. However it doesn't answer my question. Of course they are moving from point a to b. Any imbecile could tell me that. He would lean in now, his face getting closer to hers. As an individual, what do these people mean to you? Anything? Do you feel some bond to them? Are they to be protected or perhaps hated? He was, to say the least slightly frustrated. What he was asking was not a trick question, nor was there a correct answer. Simply he was seeking her opinion, to pick her brain a little to gauge her feelings towards the human race. Of course he had his own thoughts on the matter, but he wanted to know what Bella's were.

Bella smirked a little at Alex's Answer but dropped it when she turned to face him, he himself lowered till he was eye level with her and asked her a more, detailed question, one she'd have to answer more on a personal level. "I don't know. There are people down their that would deserve to have their head knocked into a wall while others are undeserving of their head into a wall." Bella said as she thought about it more.

"I don't feel like I need to protect them, But I don't hate all of them ether. Just the ones that deserve it." Bella said more to the point of his question. Her first answer was really just.. Well she didn't really know. It related to this answer but she guessed she just felt the need to answer it more correctly.

Admittedly her response was intelligent. These people were enigmas, complete and utter blank slates upon which any number of emotions could be projected. But specifically which to see in them was anyone's guess. Yes, each and every one of them was a nobody a non-entity, that is until they decided to enter in to one's life. Until that point there was little that could be determined from them. Would you like to know what I see youngling? When I gaze upon a group of people that is?

Once more he would stand to his feet, crossing his arms behind his back. His eyes would scan out across the people below, his abilities taking in each and every one of their genes. It was an amalgamation of wasted potential. Such wanton waste lay within each of their genetic codes. Inhaling, he would give Bella a response he was not sure she would expect to hear. When I see the teeming masses of this world, I see a species that needs saving. Every single man woman in child, trapped in a desperate and dying world with no ability to escape it of their own volition. Turning his gaze once more to Bella he would continue. But you and I, we're their salvation. It is those like you and I that will raise this species out of the darkness and in to the light. Do you understand what I mean youngling?

Bella looked back down into the city, a small hum came in question to his words, this would be interesting, what he thought of people, a man who didn't seem to have much humanity in him but even his answer was a little unexpected and it caused her to look at him once more. And with his word's she would turn back and look at the ground once more.

She didn't really have a deep understanding, she wasn't as quite smart as Dressler was. "I'm afraid I do not. Nor do I know how I. Would be any help to these people. I'm just good at punching them." Bella said honestly, her thoughts on some of the buildings she had destroyed earlier in her life, the meta's and normal's she might have hospitalized or sent to jail. At least, she hoped they were one of them, both if she had to be optimistic.

Dressler could only laugh. His young protege was so naive as to her place in the world and with him. "Punching them" she felt was her only gift to the human race, the only gift that she had to offer. When really nothing could have been farther from the truth.

You really thing that your physical prowess is all that you have to offer this world? he'd ask with a gentle smile. He'd offer a hand to her to help her up to her feet. Even as his hand grasped her's he could feel her unique genetics, pulling apart every strand of DNA in his mind. He delighted in their plasticity, not quite like his own but close. Should he ever get to giving his race a scientific name, as it would soon need, young Bella would be considered a sub-species. After all she had the same ability to morph and mold herself in to creatures of the earth but lacked the wide array of lifeforms at her disposal that Dressler did as well as the ability to seamlessly blend their forms. But nonetheless her genes were important to him and as he would explain, to the entire human race.

Are you aware of the Neanderthal? he would ask, posing the question without really expecting an answer. They were a species of hominid that evolved around the same time as primitive Homo erectus. They coexisted for a time, even interbred. Unfortunately for the Neanderthal, they and Homo erectus competed for the same land and resources, meaning that eventually only one would survive. The Neanderthal were eventually wiped out, starved out and made extinct by the superior Homo erectus, modern humans. He'd then pause for a moment, reflecting on what he hoped would be a similar cycle of change soon to come. Then he'd outstretch a hand, pointing to the humans scurrying about their business below themThe humans you see beneath you are as Neanderthals to us. Yes they may be highly adapted and suited for their needs but the evolutionary wind has changed. Genetic mutations are popping up all over the world resulting in all sorts of strange abilities never possessed by those of our species. The human world is in a time of great turmoil and change. It is you, I and others like us that will rise above and claim our genetic superiority. Does that clear things up? He was hoping that his explanation would ring true to Bella. A plan was in the works that would need her understanding, if he could only get through to her.

Bella would remain silent as Alex laughed, seemed like something he would do to her response and when he spoke, it took a half surprise. She'd turn to him, to see a hand offering to help her up which she'd take, standing with the help of Dressler before hearing his question. "I know little." Bella said quickly in response to it before he continued, her basic knowledge on the Homo sapiens and Neanderthals but quickly caught up on the past though Dressler's history lesson.

And then he went to his own lesson, about how the humans were indeed the new Neanderthals while we were the new homo-sapiens, how those with ability's are coming out the woodwork's. The world was changing and they would come atop. She felt something familiar about that, something Lucius seemed to think as well. This tempted her to take his point of view for even if Lucius was a villain before, he had such changed, showed that.. Bella stopped their, not wanting to to think much more on it. "You and another man kinda have the same idea. He's named Lucius or more better known as Red... I don't know. Your.. Speech was a eye opener but... I don't know. I don't even have a word I can say to try and protect them." Bella said as she looked back at the city, before she might have said something about humans being strange but needed creatures but were they? Lucius, Dressler, they could solve so many more things then one hundred of the smartest people alive. Because of their ability's. But what could she do, she didn't know. She probably didn't want to yet she yearned deep inside, wanting to know, Instinct betraying her decision.

Ah so the youngling knew of Lucius did she? That was an interesting turn of events. But one he would need to take care to tread around. Lucius could be one of a hundred things to the girl, a mentor, a friend, a tormentor, he had no idea which. However the context gave him some idea. Yes it was true that he and Lucius saw the world in similar ways, it was why he was a part of Rise. If she had spoken with him on the subject then perhaps she already knew of the organization as well? It was too much of a risk to bring up Rise now though. The chance that she didn't know and he would reveal it to her was to great. Some day he'd bring her into the organization under his wing. But today would not be that day.

Yes I know Lucius he would confirm, deciding to be honest with the girl. He is a friend. And in these times of change only a simpleton would see the world in any other way. He'd then look closely at Bella. You need lift not a single word to them, simply by existing you are helping them. It is your genetics that will be passed on to future generations. Natural selection will select genes like yours and mine in the coming years. All you have to do for now is to exist and to follow my lead. With that Dressler would throw himself from the roof taking the form of a large pretosaur. He would dive hard towards the ground before unfurling his long wings and soaring high into the air. Bella would know what she needed to do.

Bella was a little stunned when Alex said that he knew of Lucius, went as far as to call him a friend. She guessed that they might have met, their views were similar  but their was one ever changing factor in them. Lucius wished for the betterment of all Metas but Alex. He seemed to go a level past Meta's when he spoke about the whole thing. on a another note, she didn't know whether to feel reassured by his words or not of natural selection and such, that just sounded far to weird for her ears.

But it was when He said to follow his lead that Bella felt the most estranged with him, watching as he threw himself off the building without care and shifting into a prehistoric bird of prey and she knew he expected her to follow him and as much as she disliked this form, she would. "Just remember. Wind fly's, not flapping... He better have a reason besides a fly around." Bella would remind herself as she took a few steps back and began to think about the pterosaur. She'd then break into a sprint and nose dive off the building, initial shock overridden as her bones began to rumble and in a flash she would become the ancient reptile, her wings folded in before opening and momentum would do the rest, her eyes on the form of Dressler who flew ahead of her.

Youre adapting well to your new forms Dressler would squeak back at Bella over the rushing wind currents. What you just did is my first in many lessons on your shifting. Briefly he would shift his wings to adjust to the changing wind currents as he continued speaking. Your forms should feel as natural to you as breathing and should be ever changing to suit your needs. Pulling up, he'd stall himself for a moment so that he and Bella were now gliding side by side.

There is a hospital below us, do you see it? Nodding with his long beak, he'd indicate the spot. A tall white building with the words Sacred Heart on its face clung to the earth about half a mile below Dressler and Bella. In that building I have something to show you, but it is up to you to determine how to descend. From this height, the fall could easily kill you. And again without so much as a warning Dressler would change. The long membranous skin of his wings becoming thick white and brown feathers as he shrunk to about half his size. In the form of a Peregrine Falcon he would tuck his wings to his sides and make a terrifyingly fast descent towards the ground. Within seconds he would be screaming over 200 miles per hour, at this point well out of sight from Bella. Then once more his body would shift, taking on the shape of a rat, while two pairs of large pterosaur wings would unfurl like parachutes from his back. Without harm he'd touch down on the roof of the building as a large black rat. Then taking on the eyes of an eagle he'd look to the sky and observe Bella aloft in the sky.

Not much Bella could do, she'd listen to Alex as he pulled up beside her complementing on something she already knew, and while she wasn't at the level of natural as air. She felt like she was getting there with her forms. When Alex made mention of the hospital, Bella craned her neck to look at it and when he said he had something to show her, she'd lifted her head towards him with intrigue till she heard his last words.

With those words burnt into her head, Dressler would basically vanish downwards. And somehow she knew he would watch how she decided to do this, to reach the safety of land or in this case, the hospitals roof. With that in mind, Bella would began the shift back to her human form, lifting her body upwards to stall before shifting back into her normal self, and she would begin to plummet towards the land. With her back to the ground and her eyes to the sky, she'd take a second to think about all this, how Alex was trying to teach her to be more, the politics of Humans and meta's. She still couldn't come to the conclusion but that was enough of a thought to remind her she was falling to her death and with a push, she would twist her body before once more thinking about the dinosaurs form, her bones rumbled with the sound of passing wind before she'd finally shift but rather then nose dive like before, she'd began to open her wings, allowing a sort of wind break with her large wing span.

Once slowed down and close to the building, she'd begin her shift back into a human and once she felt the familiarity of skin, she'd immediately shift into a large flying fox bat. Once again slowing her decent before finally landing on the hospitals roof, her form shifting back to her normal self, Bella would take a few deep breaths of relief, glad to have made it down safely. "Well. Not dead." Bella would say before sitting down, her heart felt like it would pop and her brain hated her right now but she felt.. Proud.

Choosing to free fall as a human, he had to admit it was not the most graceful or the most practical of ways to get down. Watching her plumit h ethiught in what he might do if she were to approach the ground unchanged. But the thought passed quickly. If she were to fall and not shift to save herself then clearly something in her was defective, unworthy of surviving to sure another generation. Really it was a simple matter.

Luckily though his confidence in her had not been misguided. Watching her shift multiple times to finally reach her goal was exactly as he had hoped. Knowing that she did not posses any avian forms he had wondered what she'd do as a means of controlled flight as opposed to gliding. The fox-bat was a good choice.

Scurrying over to Bella Dressler would remain as a large black rat, looking up on her human form. Well done youngling. You continue to perform as expected. However I'm not done with you today. Rapidly one of his back legs would reach up to his head and scratch furiously for a moment before once more falling still. If you'll join me in a similar form as this, we'll be heading inside. As always Bella was expected to follow as Dressler scrambled on his rodent feet towards an air vent on the roof of the hotel. As the large rodent his ribs compressed easily to accommodate the slim entrance and he squeezed through withou incident. Bella no doubt was in tow behind him as he wound his way through the maze of a shaft eventually arriving over a grate in the vent. His eyes would extend out from his head, becoming those of snails as he peered into the room. Seeing that it was clear he would squeeze through the vent and immediately take the shape of a gecko as to better stick to the wall of the room. Hurriedly he'd make his way to the floor and once more assume his human form. He'd wave a hand to Bella, indicating that she should hold tight in the vent. Leaving the room momentarily he'd return in the full dress of a doctor, a patient file in his right hand. Now back in the room he'd wave for Bella to join him in the room.

Lying on the bed next to Dressler was a young man, hooked up to all manner of tubes and wires. Beeps and buzzes filled the room from the machinery next to the man. His name is Alan Walker. Dressler would say to Bella with a tone like that if a doctor speaking among colleagues about a patient. He was found beaten in an ally with burns on from temperatures akin to those inside a blast furnace. Pausing for a moment Dresslerbwould let that information sink in before he revealed what he was getting at. This human decided to pit himself against change, against the evolution happening all around us. Like the Neanderthal he is one of many casualties to come as our race rises to its rightful place as aires to this earth. Dressler put his hand on the man's wrist, taking in his pulse and genetic info. This man is weak, unfit to live in this world. And yet do to the "miracle" of modern medicine he will live. Moving now Dressler's hands would fall on Bella's shoulders, like a parent communicating some life lesson to their child. We are here to make sure that doesn't happen. YOU are going to kill him.

Upon hearing the compliment, Bella would half bow at best as sitting down didn't help too much, and sat up right when she was told he wasn't done. Something she had already guessed. But as to what would be a surprise. She turned into a large Rat much like Dressler when asked too and followed him though the vent till they came to a stop, Alex, making his rat like eyes extend from his skull was a reminder that he could do some disgusting things and was glad her powers did not act like his. When Dressler went down, Bell went to follow till she saw him, a hand telling her to stay. As Dressler went to do whatever he was doing, Bella would pace about the vent, thinking what kind of test would come from a hospital, stopping at the grate to see the good doctor return as a... Doctor? She wanted to give a sly laugh but only managed a squeak. Squeezing though the vent, she'd hold on to it once inside the room before letting go and shifting into a cat, landing on all four paws before shifting back into her normal self. "Yes Doctor?" Bella said before she could stop herself but managed to stifle a rising giggle.

When Dressler went on about the man, Bella's calm demur was degraded as Dressler went on about the patient in the bed next to them, her breathing felt rugged and she took a step back, almost anticipating what his words would be next and she didn't like it, nor did she like hearing it. "I No.. I can't kill him. He's not dangerous, He has done nothing to me. I can't just kill him." Bella would cross her arms, it wasn't just that this man wasn't a threat. To kill without a proper reason, her own reason. It was what made a monster, she didn't want to venture there, not again.

Bella would back up directly in to Dressler, his hands still firmly planted on her shoulders from behind her. She was nervous, frightened, apprehensive. All of this was expected. Dressler knew that the young girl had an aversion to killing, even to causing harm. Though that hadn't seemed to apply to them in the ally when she decided an Anklyosaur's tail to the face was what he needed. And here werewolf form, it seemed odd to eve think that was a plausible thing, was fine with killing indiscriminately. Because to this, Dressler knew the killer instinct was inside of her. It simply needed to be nudged in the right direction. They'd start off slow, with this man, a killing for all the right reasons.

Does this man need to have done something to you to be worthy of death. Is that where you draw the line? Dressler was pressing her, his hands now gripped more firmly on her shoulders. What if a friend was struggling, in excruciating pain, the kind that only death can alleviate. Would you deny them that relief? Is killing in that kind of situation wrong as well? The question was pointed, sounding more like an accusation than an actual question. This man is going to live his life in eternal pain I can guarantee you that. He wasn't lying, one look over the man and you could see that a good portion of his skin was covered in third degree burns. And that was only the visible damage, underneath he had a slew of internal injuries both from the extreme heat and the beating he received. This man has no life Bella, nothing but to bounce from hospital bed to hospital bed as a burden on an already taxed populace. Killing him now would be doing him a service, a kindness really. Moving now, Dressler would remove his hands and glide calmly over to the bedside. Gently he'd put his left hand on the man's, just adjacent to the call button. He'd then turn and look at Bella. But ultimately the choice is yours. Do you condemn him to a life of misery or release him in death?