Author’s note: This chapter is dedicated to mombab, and I’ve also
tried to stay true to the same theme I had with my wrestler post. Let
me know what you think!
I guess I'll be a high school soccer player," Andy said, "Might as
well be creative." The amulet on his chest glowed brightly for several
seconds, then subsided.
*****************
Across town, Mitch had just settled down at his desk when an uneasy
feeling swept through him. He felt completely out of place…like he
needed to be out running in a field. His body was pulsing with energy,
and he couldn’t keep his mind focused on his work. Instead of his
presentation, he thought about how stuffy it felt in the office, and
how he longed to be outside making a few goals for his team. What?
Mitch thought, a bit uncertain. I don’t have a team…But he couldn’t
shake the uneasy feeling that he was out of place in the office…That
this wasn’t where he belonged. He got up to head toward the
conference room, but found his body moving in a different direction,
toward the elevator that led to the main lobby and outside. He was
able to get control of himself before he reached the elevator, and ran
into the bathroom nearby.
He looked at himself in the mirror. He was young! Not ridiculously
young, but definitely not his face. He looked like a teenager!
What’s going on? He thought. He splashed some water in his face,
thinking that he must be in some sort of dream, but looking up in the
mirror again, the young teenage face stared back at him. His hair
grew longer and darker, turning from a light brown to a dark black.
His skin began to tan, from the hours that he had spent playing in the
hot sun. He looked strange: a young teenage guy in a business suit.
His hair stopped growing in the front right above his eyebrows, and
grew shaggy in the back covering the top of his collar. His formerly
straight hair was now wavy and a bit messy, as if he had purposely not
combed it when he had awakened that morning.
He started to back up, trying to think of some excuse that he could
pass off for his total change of body. Before he could continue out
the door, however, he was shocked to see his suit jacket and tie
completely disappear. His dress shirt was changing…the collar
shrinking into the neck of the shirt while the sleeves pulled
themselves up his arms, stopping about halfway up his upper arm. He
could see that his arms matched his face in the dark tan, but they had
lost quite a bit of their hairiness. The shirt started to change
color from white to a lime green color, except for a brilliant blue
streak that started at the bottom of the sleeves and worked its way
down on both sides of his stomach. The fabric changed to a polyester
blend, perfect for wicking the sweat away during an intense game. The
buttons on the shirt merged as the lime green color finished in the
center of his chest, with the Adidas name and logo appearing where his
top button had been. The word “Knights” appeared on the fabric across
his chest, and the number “6” appeared underneath it. On the back, a
larger number “6” had appeared, with “Zanden” written across the back
between his shoulders. His nice white button down shirt was now a
green and blue soccer jersey.
A soccer player?! Mitch though to himself. I have no idea how to play
soccer! But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed
perfectly natural. Of course he was a great soccer player. He had
been playing for years, since he was a little kid. He was the star
forward for his high school soccer team! Wait, that wasn’t right. He
was a businessman, wasn’t he? He couldn’t get a hold of his thoughts…
they kept running back and forth between his old and new
personalities.
While Mitch struggled to get a hold on himself, his pants started to
change. The slacks worked their way up his legs, revealing tanned
legs to match the rest of his body. His leg hair had lessened a bit,
but there was still quite a bit, much darker than it had been before.
The legs of his pants stopped about a quarter of the way up his
calves, where the fabric loosened slightly, changing to the matching
polyester blend as his shirt. The button and zipper disappeared
completely, as the waist changed to an elastic drawstring. The color
changed from black to the same lime green as his jersey, except for
the blue stripe, which continued down the side of the shorts. The
Adidas name logo appeared halfway down the stripe on his right calf.
He felt a heat expanding from his boxers, and pulled back elastic
waistband to see that his boxers where changing into black compression
shorts. The fabric tightened around his groin, and continued down his
legs stopping above his knees. The compression shorts showed off his
fairly hung package pretty well, which hadn’t seemed to shrink at all
in the change. The Adidas name and logo once again appeared in the
compression shorts, halfway up his left thigh. Damn, he thought to
himself. Our school must have gotten a pretty good deal from Adidas!
But then, as he thought about it, he realized that he had always been
a huge Adidas fan. After all, no one knew soccer better than Adidas.
They were the ones who provided all the stuff for the major leagues…
Mitch let go of the waistband of his shorts and stared at himself in
the mirror. The old Mitch was almost completely gone, but he was
fighting as hard as he could to stay in control. He was, however,
fighting a losing battle. The last bit of the transformation began,
as his socks started to change to cotton, turning a blue color and
making their way up his legs, stopping just below the knee. As the
socks changed fabric, they also changed color, much to the old Mitch’s
dismay, into a green color similar to the same color as his jersey.
Three white stripes appeared across the top, and of course, the Adidas
name and logo appeared halfway up the leg of the sock, pushed outward
by the newly formed shin guards underneath his sock. He could feel
the strap around the back of his calf, keeping the shin guards in
place. The final transformation began as his leather shoes began to
change to microfiber. The color changed to match the same color as
the blue on his jersey, except for a black flap which grew across the
laces and had the Adidas name and logo on it. Pairs of white ovals
began to appear on the front of the shoe, and made their way to the
outer sides. One pair changed to a red color about halfway down the
side of his shoe. The back of his shoe had three white lines across
the top half, where the new sole appeared see-through on the bottom
half. Four black studs grew out of the back bottom of each of his
shoes, whereas six more studs pushed their way out of the front bottom
of each shoe, three on each side. Three stripes appeared on the
opposite side of the ovals, with the words “F50” appearing in black
above them. The words “Sprint Skin” appeared in tiny letters in the
front of the shoes, and the word “Tunit” appeared on the tongues of
both shoes. Mitch’s expensive leather dress shoes were now a blue
pair of Adidas F50i Tunit cleats.
Mitch looked around the bathroom. Where was he? This definitely
wasn’t East High…He had some vague memory of a presentation or
something…Maybe it was for a big soccer match later? That seemed to
be right. After all, Mitch Zanden was the star soccer player of East
High School.