Disguise

Jason

“Okay, I have given you guys enough time to feel sorry for yourselves. It’s time so take a breath and bury it back down. We need to be focused.” Although her words are cold her tone is compassionate. Astrid understands better than any of us what this feels like. She’s been through it so many times throughout the hundreds of years she has lived, she showed me it this afternoon. I forgot just how old she is, she doesn’t look or act it.

“Shawn turn here. Park it at the airport. Use the valet.” She continues as we approach the exit to the airport.

“Won’t there be guards at the airport?” I ask fear rising up in me again. I don’t want to be caught and made to endure torture for hours just ot see what my body can handle. I don’t want to spend years of my life locked in a cell.

“Yes, which is why we are gonna act like nothing's wrong. Like we are just fine to be at the airport. We are gonna get down and go inside, but we are not getting on a plane.” She states.

“Then why are we going to the airport?” Confusion settles in my voice and it is very noticeable.

“I’ve learned just not to ask too many questions. You’ll have all the answers in a few minutes. Trust me Astrid knows what she’s doing.” Shawn bellows from the driver seat. He pulls off the exit and within minutes we are at the toll. He drops the coins in and we pass through pulling into the airport shortly after.

Astrid wipes her hands down her body slowly as if by magic her appearance changes as her hands go down. Her black hair is now blonde, her bright blue eyes now hazel. Her skin went from a light tan to a pale white. I think she even grew a few inches. Her legs are now maybe 3 inches longer. Her outfit now changed to a leather jumpsuit that covers her legs and arms.

She waves her hands over me now. I feel my skin tingle. I go from pale white to caramel. My hair curls and pulls in short at the sides and puffed at the top. My fingers are longer and I feel myself grow in my chair. My feet feel so far away from me now my head is touching the roof of the car.

She does the same to Whisper. Her pale skin going dark chocolate. Her hair curling into tight curls around her growing to her mid back. Her eyes black as coal. She stays the same height.

I laugh at what she does to Shawn because it is so different. His skin now a dark chocolate as well and his eyes bright Hazel. His muscles are barely there now and a few inches shorter than before. His hair is now jet black and short.

Libby looks at her and says “Don’t you dare make me ugly.”

“Sorry” Astrid says as she changes Libby’s hard sharp features into soft round ones. Her cheeks now full and freckled. Her eyes are jade green and her hair strawberry blonde. Her skin is almost as white as snow. Her cheeks flushed pink. She shrinks a few inches now as well. I can’t recognize any of us.

“Memorize these faces. Don’t lose each other.” Astrid hands us each a passport with the face we currently have on the picture. She changed us to look like them.

Shawn gave the vallet the keys to the car and he handed him a ticket. We got into the airport. Past the automatic doors the place is flooded with guards. There’s at least 3 times more than usual. Astrid holds my hand and squeezes.

“Remember we are supposed to be here. There is no reason we shouldn’t be” She reminds me reading the panic on my face. I hold my breath and count to 4 exhaling after. I followed her to the lady behind the counter.

“Good morning!” Astrid’s voice is an octave higher and peppy. “We are here to pick up our 5 tickets to Cabo. We are all so ready to kick off our vacation. Especially now!” she continues. “Can you believe what is happening?”

The lady behind the counter looks at us all and smiles.

“I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard it on the news. These specials are out of hand.” She says still smiling. Her name tag read Vicky. Well isn’t Vicky just a fucking peach? I wonder what they were saying on the news. Of course the military invading a specials city would appear on the news. “Can I have your name for the reservation? Vicky asks.

“You know what? I am not sure what name my sister in law put them under.” Astrid signals Libby to come over. Libby gently touches the back of Vicky’s computer monitor with the tip of her index finger. You could barely tell she was touching it.

“I totally placed them under your name silly” Libby answers also not sounding like herself.

“Of course! Silly me.” Astrid turns to Vicky and I realize why Libby moved forward. She’s hacking the computer. “They should be under Jones. Jessica Jones.” Astrid tells Vicky.

Vicky wrinkles her face into some sort of smile. “Oh here you are. 5 tickets to Cabo. Your flight leaves in 30 minutes. Should give you just enough time to pass through security.” She continued, “Can I see your passport?” Astrid hands her all of our passports and Vicky takes them again smiling. “Thank you. Just one moment while I take care of this.”

Vicky is whacking away at her keyboard when two security guards come over our way. One stops behind Whisper and says “Excuse me miss” Of course Whisper doesn’t hear them so she doesn’t move out of their way. The officer says it again only with a harsher tone “ Ma’am I am gonna need you to step aside”.

I quickly go over to her and sign that she needs to move for the guards and she turns around embarrassed.

“Oh” the guard says, understanding why Whisper hadn’t moved out of his way. Whisper moves aside and they walk by. I let out a sigh of relief and the guard turned back around. “What happened to her?” The guards ask me.

“Some damn special attacked her when we went to New York. They are all running wild over there. There is no order. They don’t have officers like you guys there” Astrid answers from the counter where she is impatiently waiting for Vicky to finish.

Of course it was the exact opposite. It was an officer that took her hearing. Thought she was a dangerous special and beat her down to the ground because he felt ‘unsafe’. He beat her so badly it caused damage to the areas of her brain that control hearing.

“New York is out of control. They could use a few of our units there to help but they always refuse it. I am so sorry your friend got attacked there.” The guard replies. I think he’s flirting with her. Even though he is speaking about Whisper and supposedly feeling bad for her he doesn’t give her a second look.

“Thank you for your sympathy” Astrid replies, turning back to Vicky who had finally got everything ready for us. She handed Astrid our tickets and we started to walk away.

“Where are you guys headed?” The guard asks.

“We’re on our way to Cabo for the summer.” Libby responds

“Let us escort you” The guard offered. I tensed up. Astrid said we wouldn't get on a plane if they escort us, it would seem off if we didn’t get on our flight.

“Oh we couldn't possibly take you away from your very important job, especially right now.” Astrid said.

“Don’t worry about that we have extra patrol around here today” The guard retorted.

Shit.

Astrid smiled and walked over to the man. She leaned in, lowering her voice. “I really appreciate the offer, but I couldn’t live with myself if something like what happened to my friend were to happen again here and I took away a very capable officer from being able to help. How about you just escort us to the security check in?” Astrid touched his arm, stroking his ego in doing so. I knew what she was doing, very subtly controlling him through her touch.

“That’s a wonderful suggestion” He replied. We all headed towards security, once we got there the guard finally walked back over by where Vicky was. I felt my body relax some after they left. We handed our tickets and got past security.

Astrid led us down a hallway that seemed like it hadn’t been used in a while. She smiled back at me and asked “Are you ready for this?”

“Ready for what?” I asked. She smiled, backing up and walking through a wall. My mouth fell open as I saw Libby follow and then Shawn. Whisper grabbed my hand and walked me through the wall. As we walked through our appearances changed back to their normal selves.

“This is how we specials travel undetected I placed some of these areas in random airports. Not many know of them.” She said as she saw me walk past the wall. “No one who isn’t special can get through so no human will ever accidentally stumble upon it. I made sure the hallway I chose was out of view of cameras as well.” she explained. She began to look around, probably looking for the others I hadn’t met yet. She held still as she looked at a rather handsome man in the distance.