Dashing Devil Omnibus 1: Books 1-3, page 11
He was still in containment pending a full investigation when the effects started to fade, and the withdrawals started. They wouldn’t let her see him when she’d done everything she could to get back to him, but that final piece was enough for them to figure out what had happened. It was then determined that Boyd met all the requirements to be the fourth recorded Enhancer ever.
Boyd saw Mind Witch one last time before she’d transferred to another Powered Adolescent Center. He still remembered the accusation in her eyes when she’d expressed how violated the experience left her feeling—even if she knew it wasn’t intentional. Boyd had been fully restrained and muzzled at the time and couldn’t even apologize.
Boyd didn’t want to inflict that upon anyone else ever again and vowed from that day on to remain celibate. But then, not quite three years later, the testing had started. When he’d protested the testing, they’d drugged him—something Silvie was not made aware of. The drug they’d used turned off the rational part of his brain and amplified his libido. Then, they just put him in a room with a woman.
They’d told all the volunteers that they might have to initiate sex because he was a little shy, but from what little Silvie would tell him about it, he gathered he’d been anything but shy and nature had run its course. Boyd could remember almost nothing about the sixteen months of testing they’d done on his Enhancement power. Given how he felt about using his Enhancement power, one of the few things he did remember is that he’d outright refused to participate.
He recalled asking Victory Seeker to kill him rather than do what he’d evidently been forced to do. Instead, he’d basically been imprisoned, and they’d tried to convince him that what he was being asked to do was okay. Then, after the doctor who’d been psychoanalyzing him and who’d argued for weeks that Boyd Enhancing these women was justified suddenly left the program, Boyd’s memories got… fuzzy.
He only remembered flashes of the encounters he’d had with the five women who’d volunteered to be Enhanced. He couldn’t remember how it had been when he’d taken Silver’s freely offered v-card. He now knew what she’d told him about that time, though he could remember almost nothing about it.
They’d even attempted to see if he would Enhance males, using two gay male volunteers in the testing. Neither attempt resulted in his Enhancement Power activating as even with whatever they had done to him, he hadn’t taken a sexual interest in the men. Silvie told him that he’d even attacked the second man, ripping off the fool’s arm when he wouldn’t take no for an answer after—reportedly—Boyd told him he was straight. They’d determined that one of Boyd’s rules was ‘women only.’
Because he didn’t even have the benefit of clear recall of who his partners had been—just flashes of memories—he’d done his best to block that part of his life out. He’d stuffed it in a box like he often used his Mind Domination power for with pain, and then had buried the box in the darkest recesses of his mind.
It had been determined through that testing that he could best serve in a Base Support role. They wanted to build an entire team around him—a team of women that he was to sleep with and Enhance. They’d promised that they would only find volunteers and that they would be fully aware of the costs involved.
The Authority had raised him, trained him, and made him into the man he was. He’d agreed to play along, but only with Silvie. She had been the only one who had been with him more than four times in a month. The other volunteers were not comfortable with continuing in the program, when it became clear that the effects on her were likely permanent. Since Silvie was the first, and only, woman in the testing group to be permanently altered by his Power into loving him, he’d become her base support.
Oddly—in Boyd’s opinion at least—it was Silvie who had talked him into at least meeting potential candidates. She insisted that she would be okay if he was with another woman, but it was only the promise of a potential threesome if she liked the candidate that made him agree. He was a red-blooded young man, after all, and that offer carried a lot of weight.
So, after fifteen years in one of The Authority's Powered Adolescent Centers, from ages three to eighteen, then nearly a year and a half of ‘lab testing’ and a year of following Silvie around the country as they tested out her Enhanced Powers, they’d been assigned to Glorith City. This was where they planned to build the team, although there had been little mention of it since they’d settled in.
A city of Glorith’s size would normally maintain a team of three S-ranked Heroes, often called a Triad. In addition to the Triad, they would have several A-ranked and B-ranked Utility and Combat Support Heroes. Together, they would form the city’s primary Powered Threat Response Team—otherwise known as a PTRT. Silvie had been A-ranked before Boyd had Enhanced her, whereupon she’d jumped up to S-ranked. It made her incredibly powerful, but she should have had at least two others just as strong to watch her back, with several others to support them.
Currently, Silvie was out there doing the work of six to eight Heroes. Boyd understood why his Enhancement Power was valuable, potentially much more powerful than his other Power set, but he was an A-ranked himself, and could help to take some of the load off of Silvie. He could do so much more than act like some sort of stud horse.
The Authority had used public opinion testing on his demonic appearance as an excuse, but he knew they wanted to keep his existence a secret for as long as possible. Although there was a stigma that had to be overcome, there were other Changed Heroes. Sure, none of them looked like a demon, but Minotaur did all right in the public eye, and he was only B-ranked.
Boyd would like to think that he looked closer to a human than the dude with the legs of a man and the torso and head of a bull. Once he saved a few lives and stopped a few bad guys, people would be happy to have a demon protecting them, wouldn’t they? Part of him was too scared to find out—okay, if he was being honest, all of him was a little worried that the answer would still be ‘no’.
Changed were typically met with apprehension by most people. This was because most Changed ended up with personality traits that matched their inhuman appearance, along with a matching power set. What the Change brought varied, but a good amount of Changed took on the features of creatures from the old world’s myths and legends.
Nobody knew why or how that happened. This world certainly had no such myths. Hell, it didn’t have any intelligent species to propagate myths before humans had landed here a thousand years ago.
They were the descendants of survivors of a dying world who’d been sent across the galaxy on one of the seed ships—the last hope for humanity. Nobody could have predicted that a small percentage of the first generation born here would gain Powers. Or that a few generations into colonizing this new world, the Changed would appear.
Initially, the Changed had been welcomed, as all Changed were Powered. The flora and fauna of the planet all had Powers and the early settlers had a tough time surviving this hostile new world. After establishing a firm base and then spreading across the continent, Changed became something to be tolerated, at best, and feared, at worst.
Chapter 10
That was a matter of history, though, so Boyd directed his thoughts back to his current problems. Most Changed eventually found their place in society. If you looked like a dryad, you went to work on a farm. Chances were you would be happy there, too. Minotaur was known for being a blockhead who charged at all of his problems and had a fondness for mazes. He was a moderately popular Hero, despite all this, and performed his duties well.
Because of that, Boyd knew that it wasn’t wholly the image issue that kept him out of the field. After all, roughly twenty percent of Powered went through the Change after entering puberty. With a one in five chance, Boyd had still been horrified when it had started happening to him.
The dread only worsened as his change solidified. He had been something of The Guy before his Change. He’d always been big for his age. He was strong, tough, and courageous, with powerful mental and physical abilities. Boyd had been a natural leader that his peers had flocked to, and never a bully. He’d had it all worked out.
Silvie had been adorable, funny, and adventurous as they’d grown up together in a center The Authority ran for Powered children whose parents were not equipped or willing to raise them. He would be the brawler and Silvie would be the agility fighter and air support who complimented him. They would join a team in a smaller city that used A-ranked Heroes as their primaries. Together they would fight the bad guys, save the civilians, but most importantly they would be together.
His Change trashed those dreams and took away everything Boyd had built himself up to be. His peers didn’t want to flock to a demon. A team in a small town wouldn’t want to take on a Hero who looked like him; it would be a PR nightmare. Minotaur was okay because he was only B-ranked, and there were plenty of other heroes in his city who could take him down if he caused problems or turned on those he was supposed to protect. An A-ranked Changed could cause a lot more damage, and do so a lot more quickly.
Silvie tried, and had done a frankly excellent job of not treating him any differently. Her eyes were still drawn to his growing wings, tail, horns, or the changing of his skin tone and eyes. Each time they were together, it had felt like she would realize she was a fool to be his friend. Convinced she too would leave him, he’d pushed her away as they entered their mid-teens. It was stupid, but self-preservation rarely looked wise from the outside.
Apparently, he hadn’t done a very good job, because she still came back. Looking back on that time, Boyd felt like an idiot for pushing her away in the first place. It may have been for the best, though. He’d thrown himself into his training and worked harder than anyone, studying the policies and laws Heroes had to follow. He was always the first to start training every morning and the last to stop at night.
Boyd rarely lost a fight to anyone his rank or lower, and won against his S-Ranked peers more often than not in training matches. While he couldn’t regain his peers' love, he earned their respect—which was a lot better than fear. This determination to succeed despite his Change turned Silvie’s childhood crush into something of an obsession that drove her to volunteer when offered the chance.
He couldn’t complain about the results in that category, at least. He loved her as much as she loved him. Maybe that was enough for him to justify the fact that loving him might not be natural, at least for her.
Boyd realized he’d been standing in front of the mirror staring into his own amber eyes, brooding. He shook himself out of it, unfurling and adjusting his wings. Checking the time, he judged that he had a couple hours until Silvie passed the watch off to The Bionics, Glorith City’s secondary team of Heroes. Made up of three A-rankers, two B-rankers, and three C-rankers, they could handle most threats and allowed her to take some time off.
Boyd grabbed a quick shower in the gym's stall and grabbed a spare pair of shorts he kept in a locker down there. These ones were a dark gray. Then, it was off to the kitchen to see what he had to work with for dinner.
The kitchen was large and modern, with eight burners, two ovens—all black marble, stainless steel, and cherry wood cabinets. Countertops formed a ‘U’ with an island that separated the cooking area from the dining area and an eight-person table. There were another four benches pulled up to the counter of the island that Silvie sometimes sat at while Boyd was cooking.
After a quick review, Boyd decided on making chicken marsala over a bed of linguine and set to work. He wouldn’t call cooking a passion, but it made a decent distraction from not being able to join Silvie in the field. After some initial disasters, he’d gotten pretty good at it. And that was before he’d become Silvie’s base support. Some days it had been easier to cook in his dorm's kitchenette than face the other kids in the mess hall.
“Notification…'' a feminine but clearly synthetic voice announced over speakers hidden all over the suite. “News report featuring Silver on News2. Would you like it displayed on the Kitchen Viewscreen?”
“Go for it,” Boyd replied. Having just finished his prep, he had some downtime when it came to his cooking. He leaned against a black marble counter as the screen on one wall came to life. It showed a middle-aged woman of Asian descent in a blue power suit holding a microphone. She stood next to Silver in front of one of the city's dinner theaters, one that catered to the rich and famous. It was something of a known hot spot for attempted robberies and hostage situations.
“Silver, do you have any idea how many injuries there were inside tonight?” the reporter asked.
“Luckily, I was able to respond quickly. As far as I know, there were only some light abrasions caused by debris from the initial explosion. The Critic is a fan of his ‘splodies’, I think he calls them,” Silver said with a big smile.
“That’s great to hear! I understand The Critic is now in custody, is that correct?”
Silver nodded. “Yes. He will be spending some time in one of the Rehabilitation Centers. Hopefully, this time, the treatment will stick.”
“Some argue that criminals like The Critic don’t deserve to be released back into the general population. This is the fourth time he’s done something like this, after all. How do you feel about that?” the reporter asked.
It was a common question and Boyd understood and agreed with the sentiment. In his opinion, someone like The Critic should not be allowed to endanger the populace—and he knew that Silvie felt the same way. Of course, that made it a shitty question to have to deal with, because that was not at all The Authority’s approved statement.
“Well, as you know, the law states that every criminal has the right to rehabilitation until they take a life, which the Critic hasn’t done. We know that the treatment works… just not every time. It’d my hope that this time it works, and The Critic will come out of it as a fully functioning member of society,” Silver replied.
“Well said.” The reporter had heard responses like that a few hundred times and was as sick of hearing it as any Hero was of giving it.
Just then, a fairly good-looking man with messy blonde hair and a well-tailored suit approached from the side. Looking closer, Boyd could tell that this man’s ‘messy’ hair was carefully arranged and had likely taken him at least half-an-hour in front of a mirror. He gave the camera a winning smile before turning to Silver, clearly intent on interrupting the report. Boyd felt like he recognizes him from somewhere.
“Hello, Silver? I’m Randy Drake, you might recognize me from the starring role in Jolly Jackal - Redemption.” He was charismatic and well-spoken, with a look and voice fit for the vids.
Silver smiled sweetly, but it didn’t touch her eyes. “Oh no, sorry, I haven't seen it. I don’t get a lot of time to watch movies,” she lied.
Well, she might not know that she was lying. They’d put it on one night, but each got too distracted by the other no more than fifteen minutes in. Boyd had watched it the next day, having plenty of time to watch movies. It was an action flick about a C-ranked Hero who went dirty. When details leaked and he’d been disgraced, he left a note for his wife to find about seeking redemption. He was found dead along with thirty mostly unpowered members of the criminal group he’d previously been taking bribes from. It wasn’t very good, and neither was the actor.
“Oh, well…. Okay.”
Boyd could almost see the wind let out from this guy's sails, but he pressed on. “That’s okay, maybe I can show it to you sometime. I was hoping to take you to dinner to express my gratitude for saving us back there.”
How Silvie should have responded was something along the lines of not having the time to date, or being too focused on protecting the city—some generic pre-approved letdown. Instead, she giggled and said, “That’s very sweet, but I don’t think my boyfriend would appreciate it. He can get a little protective and you don’t want to get on his bad side.”
The reaction on the screen was comical and shared by Boyd in the kitchen at home. Stunned silence. A moment later, the action ‘star’ stuttered ‘B-boyfriend… but…”
The reporter collected herself and Boyd could see the excitement in her eyes. “Silver! What’s this about a boyfriend? Do we know him? Is it Steel Sentinel?” The questions came rapid fire.
Steel Sentinel was one of The Bionics A-ranked Heroes, a handsome young man a couple years older than Silvie. The gossip news sources all speculated that he and Silvie would become a couple, despite The Authority frowning on Heroes forming relationships—unless there was an Enhancer involved, it would seem.
Silvie had the good grace to look embarrassed, covering her mouth with her fingers and widening her eyes dramatically. “Oops, I wasn’t supposed to say anything about him. No, you don’t know him, and it’s certainly not Steel Sentinel. He’s a nice enough guy, but not my type,” she said quickly, at least appearing to be flustered.
Boyd could tell when she was acting though. Silvie pretended to be a bit of an airhead for the cameras but that couldn’t be further from the truth. She could be a scarily cunning woman. This must be part of the plan she’d mentioned.
“Well, who’s the lucky guy, then? Is he a Hero? Maybe some up-and-comer we haven't heard about yet?” the reporter continued firing off questions in a rapid manner.
“Umm…” Silvie giggled nervously, another staged reaction. “I’m really not supposed to say.” The band on her wrist beeped and a blue light flashed rapidly. “Oops, that means I’m off duty and I’m not allowed to talk to reporters while off duty. I’ve gotta go but would really appreciate it if you didn’t air this.” She waved cutely before rapidly flying away.
“Well, you heard it here on News2 first, viewers.” The reporter turned to the camera. “Silver has a boyfriend. We don’t know who the mystery man is, but we sure would like to, and I’m sure our viewers would, too. We have to wonder why The Authority doesn’t want us to know about him, since she isn’t supposed to talk about it. Could it be a higher-up? Maybe someone with authority over our sweet little Hero? Just what are they trying to hide? I think we ha…”
