Jack had always loved Diana but she never loved him back even when they were close friends for years. He started losing hope when she started dating Frank. Frank was a fire-breather while Jack was just Jack, nothing special. Jack resigned to being just a friend, for why would Diana, who herself possessed shape-shifting abilities, choose someone ordinary like him?

Jack didn’t like Frank, not because he was jealous of him, but because he had a gut feeling something was wrong. Diana had fallen head over heels, and she wouldn’t listen to anything that Jack had to say.

On one of her birthdays, Diana had got so angry with Jack foul-mouthing Frank that she metaphorically spat on him and cried out “Loser” to his face. It had stung.

Every year on birthdays Diana chooses to return to her original shape, her birth shape, in which she looks like a hideous and repulsive creature inspiring disgust. It was in this form that she had called him a loser. If it were any other man, it’d seem impossible to still love her, but jack did, even after all that.

---

Loser

The word still rang in Jack’s ear, exactly a year later. He hadn’t talked much with Diana, but he still wanted to wish her on birthday.

He had pressed the doorbell numerous times when he sensed danger. He went inside the unlocked door. He found the hall half destroyed. The wallpaper was mostly burnt and the walls were black.

A pink hot goo occupied the floor with white fumes rising from it.

He immediately rushed to the kitchen and got a container filled with water and poured it over the hot gel. After a few rounds of cooling it down, the goo began to coalesce and started twirling.

Two eyes emerged from the thick liquid. They first turned to Jack, and then to a photo frame on the wall which had a woman and a man smiling together. Suddenly, the goo rose and swirled to transform into Diana, the woman from the frame. She hugged Jack and started crying.

She explained to Jack that she and Frank had a fight. Frank had gotten involved with a gang and was giving in to criminal pursuits. They were arguing for several months when that morning it all exploded. Frank had expressed his contempt towards her birth form. The argument grew and led to him breathing fire over her till she turned into the steaming goo.

“I felt powerless Jack.” Diana was crying with tears wetting Jack's shoulder. “My body was petrified, my powers didn’t work, I tried and tried. Then everything went black.”

“It’s okay, everything is alright now.”

“He said he abhorred how I looked in my birth form.” she was looking at him still taking his support.

“I like how you look on your birthdays. C’mon, it’s your birthday, show me!”

Diana smiled and closed her eyes with determination. A moment later she hadn’t turned into anything. She was frowning and gasping, her fist tightened, her fingers digging into her palms. She started whimpering and let out a loud shriek.

“I can’t do it.” her eyes were wide and her face pale. She felt terrified.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t explain. Usually, it just happens automatically. It’s muscle memory.”

“Why don’t you try turning into something else”

She looked at him and closed his eyes. The next moment she had changed herself.

“Excellent! I feel like I’m looking in a mirror!” Jack said trying to cheer her up.

“I’ve lost all my muscle memory, Jack. I can only turn into something that I can see.” Diana said turning back to her previous woman form.

She sat on the sofa with her eyes unfocused, trying to think.

“I don’t have any photo of my birth form.”

“Really? What? Oh. Right, you forbade us from taking one.”

"I don't even remember how I looked."

Diana started sobbing, hiding her face in her lap.

“Jack, please, go. I need some time alone.”

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal, people love you for who you are inside.”

She got up furiously and screamed at him.

“IT IS A BIG DEAL.”

She left the room stomping on the stairs leading to her room upstairs. “GO AWAY” she screamed from the top of the stairs.

Jack had an idea. He hurried to his home.

An hour later Jack returned but didn’t find her. He called her on the phone.

“Diana, where are you?”

“Jack, it’s all over.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You saw the news? He killed dozens of people. Burned them alive.”

“Who? Frank?”

“It’s my fault. I turned him into a monster.”

“No, you didn’t. Diana, where are you?”

“It’s over Jack.”

“Stay where you are Diana.”

“It was nice knowing you.”

“Diana I’ve your photo.”

---

Jack arrived to find Diana standing on the edge of a wall which led to a fifty feet dive into deep seawater.

“Come back down,” Jack said approaching Diana.

“Stay where you are. Show me the photo first.” Diana shouted.

Jack took out a big white book from his bag and showed it to her. She came back down and slowly approached, her eyes fixed on the sketch.

“How? It’s. So. Perfect.”

It was perfect. Every little detail was sketched as if traced from a reference photograph. Her tentacles had the right curves and her sharp long teeth coned at an accurate angle. Her thorny tail had the correct number of spikes.

“From memory? All of this?”

Jack nodded.

Diana wrapped her arms around him and kissed him so intensely that he had to take a step back to gain his balance.

When they stopped kissing, their faces were still close, but she was looking down.

“Are you sad about Frank?”

“No. It’s because I screamed at you.”

“Hey, it’s fine.”

“Jack, it’s important for me to turn into my original shape. Because-” she paused “-I can have a child only in that form.”

“Thanks for sharing that with me.” Jack kissed her on the forehead.

“Frank was disgusted when I told him that.”

“Fuck him. You know what, we can beat him. C’mon, let’s go kick his ass and save this city. He’s going around blowing up the banks.” Jack’s adrenaline was still high from the kiss.

“But how? I’m powerless against him.” Diana said holding Jack’s hand.

Before Jack could reply the air turned yellow and an inferno engulfed them both. A strong wind pushed against the two.

They saw Frank erupting fire from his mouth. He was enraged seeing the two of them kiss. The flames went from a narrow beam at his mouth to grow to humongous proportions.

Frank froze and the blaze stopped. He couldn't believe what he saw. Diana and Jack stood just as they were, not a single mark giving away the presence of the deadly heat just moments back.

Diana looked at her fingers which were intertwined with that of Jack. She knew that by being together, they had developed something stronger, which protected them both.

Frank had underestimated the power of two people in love. He stumbled, fell on his hips and scrambled away.

“Run!” screamed Jack triumphantly. “Run you monster.”

“You’ll catch him right?” he asked looking at Diana.

“Not without you! But before I turn myself into a bat mobile, do you promise one thing?”

“Anything.”

“Make me a thousand copies of your drawing, will you?” Diana grinned lovingly.