Steel crouched down to one knee, gripping a nearby sink to keep himself steady. Marcus couldn't help but notice how, even now, the man was taller than him. Steel held onto his neck and closed his eyes, stroking it along the sides. With a deep breath, he began to twist his neck to the left, continually turning it as it twisted beyond its natural flexibility. The tendons audibly snapped as he rotated his head to face his back. He continued twisting until he made a full rotation and his head wobbled slightly within his hands. He lifted upwards, swiftly taking his entire head off his body and leaving behind a smoothed stump of a neck. He promptly proceeded to jam his head underneath his armpit, cradling it in his forearm.
Marcus stared at the disembodied head uneasily. Everybody took their heads of now and again, it was a perfectly natural procedure, but it still freaked him out a little. Heads are supposed to be on bodies for good reason! Steel's eyes snapped open and darted to Marcus, making him flinch in surprise. He rolled his eyes and growled "Well whaddya waitin' fer?"
Marcus shuffled his feet. "What about the Ace stuff? When do we use that?"
"Afta we've swapped heads, ya dumbass! Othawise it won't take effect. Quit bein' a pussy and gimme yer body."
Marcus sighed. It was now or never... He closed his own eyes and gritted his teeth as he twisted his head around. He hated the feeling of removing his head. It wasn't painful, but the snap of the tendons, the disorienting rotating, and that slightly off-kilter feeling as his head almost slipped off his neck was unnerving at best. He didn't understand how people could do this everyday... His heart jolted as he almost lost grip of his head, but he triumphantly pulled his arms upwards and opened his eyes. In the mirror, he could see himself clutching his head high above his neck. He slowly brought it down to his chest, not wanting to give himself vertigo.
"OK. So who goes first?" Marcus asked, before Steel flipped his head around in his hands and suddenly slapped it straight onto Marcus' empty body. He shivered as he felt himself lose control of his own body. It was like everything had gone numb. He couldn't feel anything from the neck down, quite appropriately. He looked up at Steel's headless body, which had noticeably slumped forwards now that it had no head to control it.
Steel clicked his head left and right, up and down, working out any kinks. "Ahhh, I hate dat new body feelin'..." he grumbled as he started to move his limbs about. Marcus yelled slightly as he was thrown about in his former body's hands. Steel looked down at him, startled. "Oh shit, sorry 'bout dat! I almost forgot y' were dere..." He twisted Marcus' head around in his hands and gave him a grimy grin before reaching up and shoving him onto his lifeless body.
Marcus sighed in relief as he felt that awful numbness disappear and he was able to feel his body again. And what a body it was! He stood back up and swayed, not yet adjusted to his new height. He swayed his limbs and shook his hips about, making sure everything was working properly. The first thing he noticed was, obviously, how tall he was. Forget about touching the ceiling with his hands, his head would probably graze it if he stood on his tiptoes. He also noticed how worn out he felt. His body was tired and desperate for sleep. There was something gnawing at his chest, a craving he couldn't quite place. Given how temperamental Steel was before getting the chance to smoke, Marcus assumed that craving was for nicotine. Steel mentioned having some nicotine patches on him. Hopefully they were good enough to last the entire day. He suspected that having a smoker's body wouldn't be a good enough excuse for his parents if they caught him with a cigarette...
Marcus felt a dull pain in his right knee, more so than the left one. He once swapped bodies with his grandpa back when he was in kindergarten and that feeling of joint pains and limited mobility had stuck with him, even then. It wasn't as bad as his grandpa's crippled body but it felt pretty similar. What wasn't familiar, however, was the strange pain he felt in his shoulder, the echo of a long since healed accident. This body had certainly been through some rough times. At least he wasn't fat, he thought as he rubbed his hands up and down his torso, pleased to feel some semblance of muscle tone underneath the trench coat.
While it seemed that everything was working as usual, there was one problem. The feeling still hadn't returned to his right leg. It felt numb below the knee, and not being able to feel his foot made him uncomfortable. As Steel got used to his smaller body, Marcus asked "Hey Mr. Steel? Is it normal to not feel all your limbs? I haven't swapped my head in a while so..."
Steel grunted and laughed. "Is it yer right leg?" Marcus nodded. "Then o' course it's normal, on account o' my metal leg."
Marcus froze. "Your what...?"
"Didn't I tell ya 'bout it?". Steel reached down and pulled up Marcus' pants leg to reveal he did, in fact, have a prosthetic leg. "I got in a bad accident a good twenty years ago that crushed it to a pulp. I broke mi hip, got a spike jammed in mi shoulder... Da point is, I had t'get it amputated in d' end. Ah, but ya shoulda seen d' otha' guy!" He paused for a moment. "Scratch dat, y'don't wanna hear 'bout him. Too grisly fer yer lil' mind right now..."
Marcus shuddered, he definitely didn't want to know what was worse than what Steel went through. He crouched down and felt his metal leg apprehensively. "That's going to take some getting used to..." He mumbled under his breath. It was vaguely leg shaped, but Marcus thought it looked rather like a high-end kitchen appliance. The aluminum and carbon fiber calf was as thick as his fleshy counterpart, and felt smooth to the touch. It was connected to a short, slim rod that sunk down into his shoe and, presumably, to a false foot. There were some electrical components inside the main bulk of the prosthetic, and Marcus was surprised that he was able to move his foot around if he thought about it. It was certainly top of the line. He pulled his pants leg up further to see how it continued to extend past the kneecap before it tapered off to hair-coated flesh. Curious, he ran his hands over the separation of flesh and metal until Steel grasped him tightly by the hand.
"Y'gotta be careful wit' dat fing." he growled. "It cost me a pretty penny to get so I don't want ya breakin' it. Othawise, you may find yer own body's lackin' a certain summin' when you get it back..."
Marcus stood back up with fear, allowing his pants leg to drop back down over his prosthetic. He didn't want to upset him, and he knew the man wouldn't back out of such a threat either... "OK, I'll be careful!" he said with a crack in his voice. "Uhm... Is there anything else I should know about for later?"
Steel rubbed his stubbly chin. "Eh... Nothin' life-alterin'. I do have'a shellfish allergy so don't be eatin' no shrimp or all hell'll break loose. What about yerself? Got any dodgy bits I oughta know about?"
Marcus obliged. "Well, I have a pollen allergy, but that's about it..."
"I s'pose dat's dat den! I'll catch ya t'morra!" Steel briskly walked passed a stunned Marcus, towards the restroom door.
"Woah, wait! You've just leaving me like this? You haven't explained anything! I don't even know what to do with this Ace stuff!"
Steel slapped a tiny hand to his grizzled face. "Right, right. The Ace, I always forget it's on my otha' body..."
Marcus patted his breast pocket and felt the vials Steel had shown him. He got them out and held one out to Steel, who snatched it from his hand. "So we just have to drink it, right?" Marcus asked while pulling on the cork that held in the purple liquid
Before he could remove the cork, however, Steel yelled "Wait a minute! Y'can't go rushin' inta dat jus' yet!"
Marcus slumped his shoulders and whined "What do you mean? We've swapped our heads already. You said it wouldn't work otherwise."
"I also said it's a potent fing. Fink about it. Dere's a, what, 35 year diff'rence 'tween us, and that stuff switches us in a week tops. Dat's 5 years a day at least. Y'take dat now, you'll look pretty diff'rent tonight, and a whole lot diff'rent t'morra' mornin'. We still gotta trick yer folks inta lettin' ya stay wit' me for the week without makin' 'em suspicious. If y' wake up t'morra lookin' like yer fresh outta college, den dey'll definitely start askin' questions, so y'gotta hold out 'til den!"
"Wait, you're 35 years older than me...?"
Steel sighed. "I just had ta choose da slow kid..."
"So if I can't drink this now, when do I drink it?"
"Tonight'd be best, before ya go t' bed."
"And what do I tell my parents? Where do we meet?"
"First test, kid. Yu'll figure it out. I believe in ya n' whateva..." As he approached the door, he stopped. "I almost forgot, take dis." Steel slipped off his fedora and slung it over to Marcus, who slapped it on his head with a grin. A grin which slipped off his face as he noticed the receding hairline and thinning hair that contrasted with the man's thick crop of salt n' pepper hair around the sides.
Marcus reached up to his own curly locks and said "That's not going to happen to me, is it?"
Steel guffawed and slapped his knee. "Ya seriously worried about losing your little locks?? Listen kid, dere's a lot worse out dere dan losin' yer hair. Such as losin' yer leg fer instance. Yu'll get ova it. S'long as ya got ya hat on, nobody can tell the difference anyhow! Tch, kids today..."
Marcus chuckled a little, slightly embarrassed. Thinning hair certainly wasn't the worst of Steel's eccentricities. He watched as the tiny man checked the hallway and slipped out of the restroom door, then sighed and knelt down to his knees, looking at himself in one of the mirrors with a frown. His teenaged head was on a middle aged man's body, a thin scar ran around his neck, highlighting the separation between the two.
Marcus brought a hand up to his face, observing the calloused, leathery skin. The black hairs that coated the top of his hand and fingers, interspersed with the occasional white hair. He reached up and touched his face, feeling his bumpy acne and greasy cheeks. He shuddered at how his rough fingertips contrasted with his baby skin. He traced a finger down his neck, lingering where the boundary of smooth, young skin transitioned into rough, aged skin. He wondered what it'd be like when that harsh distinction between young and old had vanished in a week's time. When he wouldn't see himself in the mirror any longer, but the craggy, dishevelled face of Logan Steel. He felt his stomach leap at the thought.
Marcus quickly focused his attention on the tuft of chest hairs that stuck out the top of his loose collar. He undid a few buttons and spread his shirt open, marvelling at the dense coating of salt n' pepper hairs that covered his lean pecs. He brushed a hand through the curly mass with a goofy grin. He'd never had a body with so much excess hair before, but always secretly wished he could. In his mind, he associated it with manliness, and that was the defining characteristic of Steel. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. Finally, Marcus gripped at his bulge, tempted to take a look, but decided that some secrets were best kept for later. Besides, he had some detective skills to work on. He had to fool his parents into allowing him to spend a week at stranger's house, and he had to figure out where he was meeting Steel the following morning. He had his work cut out for him.