Xaviers!

Charles had waited until an hour he expected most people to be gone from the weight room not really being entirely comfortable turning into a monster in front of other people. He walked up to a set of equipment he thought was intended for mutants with super strength and began to change with muscles growing, sinew snapping, and carapace forming. It was not long before 8 feet of insect-like horror wrapped clawed talons around a set of weights and lifted it off the ground.

This place isn't so bad...

As he thought that he also wondered to himself if lifting weights was actually even beneficial or not.

Bruce the bandaged shark monster entered the gym.

"Whoah... sup fellow monster dude?" he said with a grin.

Embarrassment and shock at a giant shark guy walking in and saying hello caused a strange and sudden adaptation . A chameleon like ability triggered causing the giant insect thing to look like the wall behind it. Probably would have helped it if Charles had actually put down the weights.

"Awesome trick dude," he grinned. This guy sure says dude a lot.

The insect thing looked at Tosh quizzically not quite understanding what he was talking about.

"Trick-k-k?" Charles asked in a clicking tone.

The adaptive camouflage seemed to turn itself off as Charles started feeling more...comfortable rather than surprised.

"What?" Charles asked. "Did something happen?"

"Oh, sorry about that don't really have very good control of this monster shifting thing," Charles said putting the weights done.

"It just seems to do whatever it is that I need it to do," Charles said, "Sometimes when I don't want to do it, but I keep hoping for wings."

"That'd take a lot of spandex," Charles said, "I kinda like the idea of the camouflage thing that you said happened, but not sure what people would think of an insect monster thing hero."

"I think people handle lizard sharks better, but fair point," Charles said, "I'm Charles by the way."

"Bruce," he answered, "Well, okay, technically it's Tosh, but when I'm this handsome dude I'm Bruce."

Charles' head tilted to one side at a somewhat unnatural angle, but it still at least looked quizzical, maybe.

"Nice to meet you... Bruce and Tosh," Charles said, "Have you figured out if lifting these things actually does anything?"

"You don't heal when you aren't shifted?" Charles asked.

Charles started shifting back to his normal self slowly but surely.

"A shark that shoots electricity, eh? You're just a laser short of being something out of an old comedy movie I saw once. I just kind of do whatever it is I need to do," Charles said, "Sometimes that means spitting acid, sometimes spike-things, or just being big and ugly."

"You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!" he quoted in a pretty decent Dr. Evil voice.

"I'm sure lightning would have been acceptable though," Charles chuckled. "Then again I'm sure if you wanted a laser strapped to your head this would be the place to find someone who could do it."

"I could," he smirked, "Well, other me could with the right measurements."

But I wouldn't.

Oh c'mon Bro, it'd be epic!

"Primordial insect thing and Mecha-Sharkdude," Charles said, "Sounds like a Japanese monster movie."

"Fair enough, something for a sequel," Charles smirked. "I'm pretty much just your standard euro-mutt from the Northern Midwest, so normally I don't think I'd have much of a place in a Japanese monster movie."

"Maybe," Charles said feeling a little unsure. "Never really had to fight anybody before."

"Neither had I till Sunday," he grinned.

"That why you're covered in bandages?" Charles asked.

"Nah. That's from Monday," he smirked.

"There I was, chasing the bad guy, when BAM!" he said, pounding a fist up into his other hand for emphasis, "I was hurled into the ceiling and dropped by his telekinesis. When I got back up, I was, like, totally surrounded mooks. Like, a dozen of them!"

It was five.

Pfft! He doesn't know that!

"I was all 'You want some of this! Come and get it losers!' and they were all, 'Oh no!' So I grabbed a table and went all Conan on their lame asses." He then mimed an elaborate fight scene.

That so never happened.

"When I caught up to the guy he was all 'You're too late Herr Samebito, ze bomb iz armed!' and I was all 'If that bomb drops, the next one will be you!"

Okay first, he wasn't a Nazi. Second, Carlos said that.

Why do you hate fun Bro?

"Then he flung glass at me and threw it out the 30th floor window. My trusty companions jumped after it and I knocked out the bad guy. Bam. Day saved."

I give up.

Charles was impressed even though a part of him thought that there might be some embellishment going on.

"Woah," Charles said sounding impressed, "You guys fought a mad scientist and saved the city?

"So did you try out for the teams or did you get picked for it?" Charles asked.

"Tryouts?" Charles asked

"Something to think about I guess," Charles said with some uncertainty. "What else do people do here aside from punching mad scientists in the face?"