The Many Faces of Tully
Four Against One

I’m in the middle of the practice room facing the window and I can see Jace staring at me. He’s wearing a blue Nike t-shirt and it makes his eyes look more blue than gray. He has one arm wrapped around himself and his elbow is resting on it. He’s holding his chin and has a finger over his lips. He looks nervous. He’s not the only one.

Gunther stands in front of me about ten feet away, with his back towards the window. He has a table of weapons in front of him which he’s looking over. His eyes keep flicking up to me. Edmund is by the door and he’s shuffling his feet nervously. He’s prepared to run in any direction to protect whoever I might attack.

Zazu is to my left and Hutsi is to my right. Their eyes are shifting around me too, trying to see what I’m going to do. Hutsi keeps taking deep breaths. Zazu looks relatively calm. He’s the only one. I peak over my shoulder and Elsu is there behind me. I can see the fear in his eyes.

I hear metal slide off the table and my head snaps forward. How sad is it that I need to go up against four men at once? What does that say about me? I’m too dangerous. My heart is pounding in my chest as I take in the sight of Gunther picking up a pistol and sliding the magazine into place.

I look up at Jace again. Toshi and Mirage are at his sides. They’re supposed to help him if things turn for the worst. We worked it out this morning. If I seem to be on the verge of losing all control and killing everyone, then Jace will run in here and make me stop.

I hear Gunther cock the gun and I look back at him. I’m staring into the barrel of the gun. My heart is pounding and I’m gasping for air. I hope I don’t explode. I hope Jace will help me. I know he will.

“Jace?” I ask him without looking away from the gun.

“It’s okay Tully,” Jace reassures me over the speaker. “We’ve all been shot before and I’ve healed every single one of them back to perfect health. We need to see what will happen if you are shot and if you can use your powers around your pain. And since your powers like to do whatever the hell they want a lot of the times, then I’d like to see what they do when you’re shot.” He’s smiling slightly. My powers are out of control.

I’m more worried about them, I think at him.

“It’ll be okay,” he says. “Go ahead Gunther. Be ready for anything everyone,” he warns them. I need a ‘Caution. Dangerous’ sign on my forehead.

Gunther squeezes the trigger and there is a sharp pain in my right side. I gasp and immediately place my hand over it. I look down and blood is oozing between my fingers. It burns. I groan in pain and blink back tears. I do not like getting shot at all. Then I feel something moving inside of me.

I take my hand away from my wound and watch as the bullet miraculously pulls itself out of my side. It floats a couple inches above my bloody hand. I lift up my hand and the bullet floats up with it. I stop when the bullet is at eye level and I stare at it, dripping with my blood. My eyes tighten and the bullet flattens to a disc with sharp edges.

I look up at Gunther who is staring at me with wide eyes. He shot me, I think to myself. I pinch the little disc between my pointer and middle finger. I bend back my wrist and whip my arm forward, flinging the disc at his throat.

He dives to the side so the disc misses his throat but I see that it cuts his shoulder. That isn’t good enough. He shot me! I look at all the guns on the table and I raise my hand. They all rise up with my hand and turn to face Gunther. Ammo flies up and loads up into the gun it belongs in. They all cock into place in unison.

Gunther is on the floor, holding his shoulder. He stares at me pleadingly. I don’t care. He shot me. I pull the triggers and the room is filled with gunshots. I see Edmund dive forward and throw up his hands, effectively protecting Gunther. Why is protecting him? He shot me!

All of a sudden I’m thrown backwards as a wall of wind slams into me. I hear the guns fall to the floor. The wind is knocked out of me and I gasp for air. It felt like I was just charged by a bull.

I start morphing as soon as I thought that. Oh no. The next thing I know my hands are hooves, I’m extremely muscular, and I have horns coming out of my head. The wind came from the right so I look in that direction. There is a man standing there with his arms held out in front of him. He’s frozen in shock like that. I charge him.

The earth breaks open in front of him and a wall of rock pulls itself up from the ground to shield him. I smash right through it. I search the floor for him but I can see him under the rubble. I’m stamping around, hoping to unearth him so I can shove my horns into him.

All of a sudden I feel someone on my neck, grabbing my horns, trying to bring me down. I start bucking around like crazy. Swinging my head around, trying to dislodge the offender from my head. I can feel him sliding around but he’s keeping a great grip.

I hop up and my hind leg rams into the wall. That gives me an idea. I tilt my head and slam it against the wall. I feel his body go limp and I fling my head so he goes flying off into the rubble. As he crashes to the floor, I finally see the first guy near him. Neither of them are moving.

I stomp my foot, getting ready to charge them. I feel a sharp pain on my left side then. I turn my head and I see a spear sticking out of my side. I snort in anger and look for the culprit. A large dark man is standing there with his arm outstretched.

I turn towards him and stomp my feet. I’m just about to attack him when I hear a voice. He’s shouting frantically. I don’t like the sound if it. He shouldn’t be frantic. I always want him to be happy. I look for the sound.

I see Jace running forward with Mirage and Toshi right behind him. I look at the mess at my feet. I see Elsu and Hutsi in the rocks. My heart squeezes painfully. I did this to them. I immediately start changing. The spear falls out of my side as I shrink, and a second later I’m human again, lying on the floor. I clutch my sides as they throb painfully.

“Help me carry them out of this mess. Carefully,” I hear Jace say.

I look towards him and he’s at Hutsi’s side. I look at the mess and blink my eyes. When I open them the rocks are gone. I’m hardly surprised.

“Thanks Tully,” Jace says distractedly. He drops to his knees next to Hutsi. “Carry him over here,” he says to no one in particular. Toshi and Mirage follow his orders immediately and carry Elsu carefully next to him.

Several of their limbs are bent at odd angles, and when Jace rips open Hutsi’s shirt I see a large purple bruise spreading across his ribs already. His nose is bleeding too. I look away.

“Help me set their bones real quick. I don’t want them to heal awkwardly.” Jace sounds like a doctor now. He’s on a one track mind. I haven’t seen him like this yet. I’m not sure if I like it or not.

Toshi immediately starts helping him. My shirt is soaking up with my blood and it’s starting to seep into my jeans. The spear had hit me right between two ribs, so nothing is broken. It is bleeding profusely though, and so is my bullet wound.

I watch as Jace rips open Elsu’s shirt too and I gag when I see one of his ribs sticking out. Jace has a lot of work ahead of him. Can he heal both of them? Are they bleeding internally? How bad are their wounds on the inside?

“Oh shit,” Edmund says when he walks up. Jace ignores him and puts a hand on each of their chests. They start glowing green immediately. I stare at his hands and realize how much I love them. His hands are so strong and sure, and they work miracles. I envy them.

“Tully, come here,” he says without looking at me. He has his head bent in concentration and his eyes closed. I just shake my head. I can’t go near them. I did this to them. They need to be healed.

Jace looks up at me. “Tully. I need for you to come here,” he says slowly. I shake my head again. “Will someone please bring her to me?” he says, irritated.

Zazu starts to walk towards me and I hold up my blood soaked hand. He seems to run into an invisible wall. He places his hands on it and pushes. I can feel it against my hand. Two tiny little pinpricks on my palm.

“Tully, Goddamn it. Please don’t make me stop healing them just so I can get you over here,” he nearly yells at me. I lower my hand and Zazu walks forwards and picks me up. He carries me over to Jace and sits me down between Hutsi and Elsu.

“Is anything broken?” he asks me. I shake my head. “Is anything punctured?”

“Just my skin I think. I don’t feel like any organs are damaged,” I say. My hands are hot and sticky with my blood. I’m losing a lot of it.

“Tully,” Jace says to me slowly and carefully. His hands are still glowing green on the two men’s chests. “The way my power works is that I have to be touching you for me to be able to heal you. You can’t touch me and be able to heal; I have to be the one touching you,” he tells me.

He’s using his teacher voice, and I’m his student. He doesn’t mean it in a condescending way at all. I know why he is using this voice. He’s trying to tell me that he is going to want me to do something that I might not want to do. I used this voice when I had him take my health. He’s saying that he doesn’t mean to hurt me, and doesn’t want to, but he has to. I’m suddenly nervous.

“They need me to keep healing them, or they might die. You need to be healed before you lose too much blood. You’ve lost too much already, so I need to heal you now. There is only one way I can think of healing you right now,” he says cautiously.

“Okay,” I say quietly. I don’t know what he plans on doing, but he thinks I’m not going to like it so it must be bad.

He sighs heavily and takes his hand off of Hutsi’s chest. He put his hand on the back of my neck and pulls me into him. I stiffen and he puts his hand back on Hutsi’s chest. His lips are warm and soft against mine and my body automatically responds. I close my eyes and start kissing him back.

His lips get really hot against mine and I can see the green glow from behind my eyelids. I want to reach forward and grab his face but I realized that my hands are still covered with my blood. I also realize that the blood is starting to stop seeping through my fingers. It’s starting to hurt less.

“Did you know he could do that?” I hear Edmund whisper. I almost forgot we were surrounded by people. Oh this is embarrassing.

“Nope,” I hear Gunther say. I can hear the smile on his lips.

“I’m glad he never had to do that to any of us,” I hear Zazu join in and they start laughing. My cheeks start to burn.

“Hey Jace, I think I can wait till you’re done with them before you heal my shoulder, alright?” Gunther teases and they start laughing harder. I can see why Jace thought I wouldn’t like this.

A few minutes later Jace breaks apart from me and tilts his head forward so his forehead is pressed up against mine. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

“You okay?” He peeks up at me through his eyelashes. I touch my sides and feel around. I can’t replace a hole and it’s not painful.

“I’m healed,” I say defensively. I don’t know if I’m okay or not. I pull back and stand up. “I’m going to get out of these clothes and clean up,” I say and walk out. I’m glad he has to heal them and can’t follow me.