A groaning, metallic rending filled the air, his hand closing on the
doorknob out of his room and slowly squeezing it into a tiny, tight
ball of cheap metal. Adam back-pedaled as he felt his height
and muscles rip his clothing to shreds across his rippling back.
His head shook in dumbfounded amazement and his mind
started to cloud...
The world looked smaller to him, now, and he began to wish
Mario was here so he could do to his slovenly roommate what
he had just done to the door.
Darkness seemed to creep in around the edges of his vision as
he pain of the metamorphosis began to fade. Mario had
explained his experiments with the hypothetical essense of
heroism before, but he'd always said that heroes have tragic
ends...
"Gods, I'm going to kill him..." Adam muttered as he passed out.
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A voice woke him.
Someone, somewhere, Adam could hear a woman's voice
saying, "And that was the scene here, today, at the Afton Ski
Resort, where a seemingly superhuman individual, referring to
himself only as 'Dust', caught and saved the lives of everyone on
board the malfunctioning cable-car... Back to you, Walter..."
"Thank you, Denise..."
Adam blinked to remove the sleep from his eyes. What was
going on? His eyes focussed across the mess of his roomate's
half of the room to gaze at the TV. It hadn't been on, before, but
now it was tuned to the local news.
"Simply amazing," one co-host was saying to the other, shaking
her head. The older man on the panel could only nod and then
glance to the camera.
"It was, indeed... In fact, this character, Dust, didn't leave any
sign of who he was. All that News 9 managed to get was this
rather blurry picture. While we at this network respect this man's
wish for privacy, we do -nonetheless- wish to congratulate him
on a job well-done!"
The scene changed before Adam's eyes as he stood up and
stared. There he was. That was him! Oh, the features were
different, but that was clearly his face ... just ... different!
The image of the buff, powerful man on the screen before him
was something out of a Greek legend; like a Titan having
descended to the Earth! Dust, as the media was calling him,
had to be at least eight feet tall, with biceps that would have
looked large on a Clydesdale.
His face had been smoothed out, and had subtle differences,
but Adam had no doubt that everyone who knew him would soon
realize that he had somehow gained those inhuman abilities...
Finally standing, he looked around the room. It was all a mess,
now. The doorknob was still torn off and laying on the floor, but
the curtains had been torn down, the couch knocked aside and
the window...
The window was broken outwards.
Adam groaned as he realized the toga-like "costume" that Dust
had been wearing was nothing more than his own draperies.
"Gods, I can't believe this..." he muttered.
A pause settled on the room as Adam looked around, yet again.
He blinked and stared down at his body. He was himself again,
more or less... A chill ran down his spine as he realized that in
the aftermath of his experiences as Dust, he'd gotten smaller!
Adam was now about 4 or 5 inches shorter than he had been...!