Switched

Seven

Batcoon

I've never been this confused in my life. I stare at the woman down the hallway; our mother. I don't remember anything about her. How did Mini find her?

"Why are you just standing there sweetie?"

"Delirious go give her a hug." Wildcat whispers, but his voice echoes down the hallway.

"If she was our real mother she'd see the difference in Vanoss and me."

"You right." Vanoss agrees. He turns around and looks at Moo, "Aren't you a hugger?" But before he can answer Lui steps in, "I'll do it! I'm the cutest!" We all sigh in relief, oblivious to the fact Lui was not the cutest.

He squeezes past us and runs down the hallway to her; arms wide open.

"Lui!" Her face lit up with happiness. I wondered what Lui's looked like. We inch slowly down the hallway while Lui squeezes the hell out of our "mother".

"Ah, Jonathan, Evan, you too look a little different." Her voice sucks my breath away. My heart stops as she stares at me. She used our real names. I grab Vanoss's wrist. He stops walking along with me. "How do you-?" I can barely speak. I squeeze Vanoss's wrist. A sorta heartwarming smile goes across the lady's face, "Well darling, I did take care of you guys as babies. Everyone except for the tall dark haired one in the back, and the short one with the suit on."

We stand there, stunned.

"If you guys don't believe me, I can prove it." She pushes another door open, we all follow in silence. Her little "home" underground reminds me of a small science lab. She has a little living room area with a small wood bookshelf. There's also a huge computer setup, then a small kitchen and dining set. Two mysterious doors are beside her small bedroom area. It's like a medium sized college dorm room.

She sits on the tiny loveseat and pats beside her. Vanoss has enough lady balls to go sit beside her. I go and sit on the floor beside him. The rest of the guys fill in like preschoolers getting ready for a story. Mom, I guess that's what I'll call her, puts a book on her lap. It looks like a photo album. On it is "Memories" written in a beautiful cursive handwriting. She lifts it open and smiles. "You each have your own section, youngest to oldest." She smiled. She opened it and there stood a little boy with light brown hair and the brightest of blue eyes. He was getting very angry at a toy he was playing with. "Tyler." She smiled and looked down at Wildcat. Wildcat absolutely hated the use of his real name, but this time he stayed timid. She flipped through at least four pages of the pig aging. There were pictures of him as a little boy and a little piglet. Mom laughs, "I remember when Tyler first turned into a pig. Scared the hell out of me." All of us heartwarmingly laugh with her. She turns to another page with a spacer in between; a smile goes across my face when I see the little Asian boy creating something with Legos. "Ah, Evan. You were a very creative little boy. Now you're-"

"Speaking of that; can you fix Delirious and me?"

"Aw, I forgot about your nicknames."

An irritated look appears on Vanoss's face, "Please, you know something."

"How do you know?"

"You gave a cop your address after an accident we were in." Vanoss gestures towards him and I. Mom only laughs, "That's because I knew you were there", she pauses and places a hand over the photo album, "I wanted to see my little boys again, and apparently little girls." This triggered something in Vanoss. I stood up and grabbed his hand before he could do anything he'd regret. I squeeze his fingers; Mom notices.

"Oh, so turning you into women helped you finally figure out your love for each other?" Her gray eyes meet my blue ones. I blink and swallow sharply. I can feel Vanoss heating up. I look and see his face a darker color. I can feel mine change too. Vanoss doesn't make eye contact with me. He pushes my hand away.

"He was merely trying to comfort me." His voice sounds different. That's not Vanoss; that's BatOwl. He looks around and spots something. His eyes go wide and he slowly turns to Mom. I forget the fact that he pushed me away. I nudge him and he jerks his head towards a certain direction. I follow that direction and spot a raggedy lab jacket. I get Moo's attention since he's closest. He notices and looks at the jacket. Mom looks over and notices him looking. "What are you looking for dear?"

Moo ignores her question, "You work at Humane Labs and Research?"

"I used to." Her voice cracks. She's lying.

"Why do you still have the coat then?" I ask. She turns and glares at me.

"Fine, do you want the truth?"

"Well yeah."

"This is a trap." She states as she whips around behind the couch to grab something.

"RUN!" I yell and pull Vanoss off the couch. The 5 other guys barely make it out of the doorway and into the hallway. The door shuts right onto my face. I try freezing time before "Mom" can get to us. "Fuck, Delirious, what are you doing?" I hold out my hand and ignore Vanoss's question. I hear her footsteps; it's not working. I'm not worked up enough.

"Vanoss kiss me."

"Delirious this is kinda-"

I pull on the top of his suit and smash his face into mine. His soft girly lips... do absolutely nothing.

"Vanoss we have to fuck."

"Delirious! What the hell?" I hear more footsteps. It's worrying me. Wait, that's what I need! I hold out my hand and this time the footsteps are in slower beats.

"Oh, I get it now." Vanoss nods to himself.

"C'mon, we need to get this door open."

"There's no way Delirious. It's a heavy duty door she trapped us with."

Vanoss runs down the hallway and starts hitting at the people in lab coats coming after us. I watch him hit them like they are dolls. Unexpectedly, he pulls down the pants on one of them. I laugh and feel a small pain in my neck and head. "Oh no," I say and feel my nose. Blood appears on my finger, but it's only a light dripping. The people start to get a little faster. A look of surprise goes across Vanoss's face. I try freezing time, but it's no use.

"Blow up the door!" A muffled voice yells on the other side of the door.

"No! Wildcat they're coming in!"

So none of the other guys were slowing down. I don't know how long I could hold this up.

"There are thousands of them Delirious!" Vanoss shouts while coming back to me. He touches my face and a new emotion is on his face; horror. "You're paler than usual." Purple spots appear in my vision. The footsteps are now regular speed, "No!" I yell and try one last time to stop time. Another explosion of pain goes through my head... and the rest of my body.

I stay conscious enough to watch the scientist wrangle Vanoss. I watch him fight, reach for me, and shout my name. Another group of lab-coated bastards show up. I can't move. I can't even feel them lift me up and take me away.

***