"I can't believe it, our boy off to college." Jack leant against his wife's shoulder, his voice was wavery and uneven.
The desk chair in his new college dorm had wheels, it felt new and fancy, not like his old chair back home. The wheels span and Alex rotated round, the view out the window was picturesque, tall trees and a small pond with a family of ducks.
"I'm coming back to visit next month, it's not goodbye forever you know." Alex said.
Jack groaned and sank weakly onto his son's bed. He buried his face in the duvet. The university of Michigan logo was stitched onto both the duvet and pillows. Alex's parents had proudly insisted that their smart son needed university brand sheets. They'd presented it to him as a suprise gift last night. It was cheesy and he had no doubt any girls who came back to his room would tease him for it, but somehow it was exactly what he wanted
It had been three days since that night at the restaurant. He'd worked his final shift the next day. Everything since then had been a blur of packing and trying to stop either parent bursting into tears.
"Such a handsome boy, it was only the other day-" Amanda sniffled and her voice cracked, "-it was only the other day we picked you up from kindergarten when you'd pooped on the table."
The duvet did a poor job of muffling Jack's sobs. Outwardly Alex teased his parent's sorrow at saying goodbye, but on the inside he was beyond grateful that he had parents who cherished him so much.
Amanda pulled a tissue out from her pocket and wiped her eyes. She placed a hand on each of Alex's cheeks and squidged, "Look how clear his skin is and his eyes are so bright, he's becoming a man."
Since he'd found a hair on his chest at his twelfth birthday party, Alex had dealt with pimples like every other teenager. In the last couple days, the angry red spots had cleared up entirely. The change had been gradual, neither parent had any reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary whatsoever. A teenager's acne suddenly clearing up wasn't anything uncommon.
Three days of practice had strengthened Alex's control. Some changes were hard, others were easy. Clearing up a few spots and getting rid of some excess oil from his pores was no harder than flicking his finger.
In some ways his powers defied science, but in others they rigorously obeyed it. Shaping new bone and tissue came with a high energy expenditure, changing the shape of exisiting anatomy had a minor and sometimes negligible cost. If he'd wanted he could've cleared every pimple in an instant days ago. Doing that might've suprised his parents, granted it was still nothing extraordinary, but it didn't conform to his principles of staying low-key.
"Pull yourself together Jack, we're taking our son out to dinner." Amanda said, forcing her voice to remain steady. She rolled her husband onto his side and wiped away the smudged tears from the corner of his eyes.
"Coming dear." Jack said quietly.
The three of them paused. Then collectively burst into laughter. After the laughter had died down, Jack sighed determindly and pushed himself up from the bed. He lightly slapped his cheeks and took a deep breath, "Let's get our boy some pizza."
The family found themself an hour later seated in a busy Italian restaurant. There was a clear pattern among the customers, always a young person, accompanied by one or two parents, sometimes with an aunt or grandparent thrown in.
Alex wondered absent-mindedly whether any of the other students sitting in the restaurant might be in one of his classes. The university of Chicago was old and prestigious, getting in was hard, securing a place to do medicine was even harder. He was still slightly shocked that he'd managed to get in.
Their food had arrived ten minutes ago, but neither Jack or Amanda had finished more than two slices. Alex had already finished his and was hoping their waiter might come round and top up the basket of complimentary bread.
Jack picked up a slice of pizza only to put it down before taking a bite. He'd done this dozens of times. His eyes were that colour of red that only appeared when someone was trying not to cry, "If you're ever feeling lonely, you can always come home, you know that right son?"
"We'll keep your room just like you've left it. I'll hoover every week so it's not too dusty if you come back okay sweetie." Amanda added, holding an untouched glass of white wine.
"I know, I know, if I miss you guys I'll come home. It's only a half hour on the train. What if I'd gone further away like Washington or something, you guys might not have even survived!" Alex replied, taking a slice of pizza from his mother's plate.
"We'd move. Hell I'd move, your mother can stay in crappy old Michigan if she wants." Jack said solemnly. His gaze said that he was only partially joking.
Amanda turned to her husband and shoved his shoulder, "Bold of you to think I wouldn't have cleaned you out in the divorce. Mama wants a Washington swimming pool!"
Jack and Amanda had a stare down that managed to last ten or so seconds before dissolving into laughter.
Dinner lasted another half hour. Jack and Amanda didn't have the appetite for desert, but Alex did. The raspberry cheesecake was excellent and he had a box full of his parents leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
"See you soon okay kiddo." Jack wrapped his son in a hug. His shoulders were broad from years working in construction and he smelled like sawdust and wood smoke.
The moment his father's arms reluctantly seperated, Amanda enveloped Alex in a hug that was no less tight. She wasn't as tall as Alex's father and her arms were certainly less muscled, but somehow her grip was equally crushing.
"My baby boy." She whispered, running a hand through her son's messy brown hair. His eyes were the same gentle mahogany as his father's.
The door shut behind them as they left. For the first time Alex was alone in his new room. The room felt empty without them. He could hear the muted voices of parents saying goodbye to their children in the rooms next door.
The university of Michigan sheets were soft and comfortable. He lay on top of them staring at the ceiling. This was it, his first taste of what his friends said was true freedom. Some of them had been frantic with desperation to start college and revel in the end of the curfews and rules that had governed them their entire lives. He didn't feel that urge. Living at home had always felt free to him.
The door was locked and the curtains were shut. Rays of light from a streetlight outside his window just about managed to creep in through the curtain edges.
Alex stretched out his arms above him. In barely the blink of an eye two extra fingers formed on his hands. It had become easy now, almost effortless. His focus was getting better and his control was improving steadily.
He lifted up his shirt and looked at the eight-pack beneath. The muscles were strong and defined. They were so symmetrical it almost looked as if they'd been photoshopped.
Alex willed his powers to act. The smooth and defined abdnominal muscles were covered up by a moderate amount of fatty tissue.
"Soon my precious." He mumbled to himself.
Weight loss was a natural process, the body metabolised fat to release energy. It had taken him a couple hours last night to figure out how to accelerate this mechanism. His loving and ever-affectionate parents treasured every photo of him they got. He ran regularly and played basketball or baseball a couple times a week with his friends, he was fit and in good shape, but he wasn't bordeline-inhumanly chiselled like actors in action films. His parents' jaws would drop if they saw a photo of their son having suddenly transformed into a Greek god on his first day at college.
The applications of his powers were growing day by day. The body was a biological machine of incredible complexity, some things only required a small tweak to achieve incredible results.
Diets high in saturated fats commonly lead to the build up of plaque in critical arteries, the number one cause of death in America was heart disease. Every gram of fat that had built up in his arteries over the years had been cleared out last night. The process was delicate and he'd made several mistakes, recieving throbbing waves of pain as a result, but within a couple hours he'd succeeded.
The result wasn't dramatic, he only felt a touch more energetic. But his risk of developing coronary heart disease had dropped to nothing. Turning the active process of breaking down plaque into a passive one was tricky and would take weeks, but once he succeeded he'd be able to eat pizza every day of his life without ever having to worry about the health of his coronary arteries.
Since his powers had manifested, the days never seemed long enough. Alex had so many ideas and things he wanted to try, he'd daydreamed about skipping lectures and holing himself up in his room, sublimating his body until it was a work of art.
Muscles could be trained. Repeated strain made them larger and more efficient, his powers worked in the same way. His finesse was improving rapidly, the raw power at his disposal was growing more slowly, but steadily nonetheless.
An hour flew by, boredom had become a thing of the past to Alex. The voices of his roomates and their parents were quieter now and less frequent. Engines had started and families had begun the drive home. He checked his alarm clock, 9pm.
His parents had helped him organise his clothes into his new cupboards. He picked out a pair of shorts and a top and threw on his running shoes. His new keys fit nicely into a zip-up pocket on his shorts.
The corridors were quiet, he'd expected to run into one of his flatmates or at least someone's dad waiting in the corridor, but there was no-one. He didn't mind either way.
The streetlights glew orange in the night. The paths were well lit and neatly paved. Alex breathed in the cold nightime air and started to run. The steady rythmic footfalls made his head feel peaceful, even if it was just for a while, the business and chaos of moving to college became a little more manageable.
Exercising involved numerous systems within the body. The endocrine system released hormones like dopamine and adrenaline. The cardiovascular system began working harder to pump blood and meet the increased oxygen demands of different tissues. The respiratory system kicked it up a gear as well, breathing became deeper and more rapid.
The usual distance Alex ran was six or so miles, usually twice or thrice a week. A few minutes of running wasn't enough to make his muscles ache or make him work particularly hard.
Lactic acid was produced as cells switched to anaerobic respiration. The build-up of lactic acid lead to soreness and discomfort.
Alex focused on the sensations in his legs. His powers acted as a map of his body, if he willed it he could feel the position of every bone and muscle group.
An invisible force began to act on the muscle fibres in his calves. Instead of healing over hours or days, the microscopic tears healed in seconds. Each time they tore and regrew they became stronger and more efficient at their task.
Alex's powers couldn't create something out of nothing. The law of conservation had to be obeyed. Science also had to support the changes he made, without his constant focus, unstable structures would collapse on themselves. If he wanted he could grow a third arm from his back, but the second his concentration lapsed it would snap back into his body, that kind of pain wasn't something he wanted to casually play around with.
In order to make the third arm stable he'd have to build reasonable bone structure and grow blood vessels and capillaries to supply it with oxygen-rich blood. The spontaneous collapse of unstable changes was a safety mechanism and he was extremely thankful for it. The automatic return to normal anatomy prevented him from causing himself any serious harm.
Since he was a little boy, he'd dreamed of becoming a doctor. Books, lectures and biology classes had shaped a solid understanding of the human body and his powers gave his understanding a gigantic boost. He could make changes on both the macro and microscopic level.
The mechanisms behind his powers worked outside of his understanding. The collapse of unstable structures allowed him to make changes willfully without fear of haemorrhage or hypoxia. So far all changes he'd made, even the more drastic changes like on the first night where he'd sleepily tried to grow a third eye, hadn't had any consequences other than pain that ranged from slight to immense.
Homo sapiens were built to run, extreme endurance was what allowed early mankind to hunt creatures ten times their size. It was a cowardly tactic in some ways, chase your prey to the point of collapse then stab them with spears, but it worked. The energy expenditure of manipulating his muscle repair and cellular respiration was hardly anything at all.
Navigating and manipulating cells and their processes was a good test of Alex's focus. Without the interference of tiredness or muscle strain, he ran for a half hour without even noticing.
"Where am I?" Alex said aloud to himself. His laugh was geniune and immensely amused, he looked at the paths around him and realised he'd ran without thinking about where he was going.
An idea he'd been keen to try popped up in his head. He thought about it for a moment and then decided against. There were a variety of ways to increase brain activity, if he could sustain a state of accelerated or enhanced thinking he'd effectively be able to transform himself into a genius at will.
The brain was the most important organ in the body. Without it, consciousness didn't exist. Alex had stayed away from using his powers to alter anything above the neck, his gut told him that the safety mechanism of his powers would prevent him from accidentally shutting down his nervous system, but the fear of potentially catostrophic pain kept his enthusiasm at bay.
He repeated the mantra he'd followed since he started studying for his exams, "Slow is steady and steady is fast."
The reassuring weight of his keys in his pocket was still there. Alex smiled at his foolishness and turned back the way he'd came. The muscle cells in his calves and thighs responded to his will and began optimizing their functions. He noted happily that the process required moderately less active control..