Chapter 97: Broken Tethers

Melany's POV

Finally after all this time, it was my turn to shine. I promptly ran to the station, not wasting any time.

-"Now remember Melany,"- said the Prince, -"this moment will serve as your debut to the world. I want you to keep focused and clearly analyze every moment of the battle. Study your opponent and your surroundings. Don't let your emotions get the better of you."-

"I know I know." I told him

He thinks he's being cautious, but he's just overprotective.

"I promise I'll be careful ok."

-"Well alright. But don't forget your training."-

Staring down the man that was to serve as my debut villain, I took my pose and proudly proclaimed my name.

"My name is Trailblazer. And I'll be the one to take you down."

Midas and Spectre turned to me, looking very irritated.

"Another pest." Midas commented, "Strayfist, take her out."

"Yes boss." He said, starting to approach me

"Melany!" Shouted Taylor, swiftly running to assist

"Go after them," I told her, "I can take this guy."

"Are you sure? He's really big."

"I can do it, just go before they get away!"

Taylor ran towards the other villains, but was stormed by a swarm of...flower petals?

"Always on time" Midas chuckled, disappearing into the mist

"You really don't think I'd let you get away with hurting my honey do you?"

"You again." She moaned, "Midas' wife."

"You kinda failed to mention that he had a wife." I commented

"Well I didn't think she'd be here. Last I checked she was an inmate at Delapenha Penitentiary."

"Well you might wanna stop her and go after them."

Interrupting the exchange of dialogue, Strayfist threw a punch towards me, slamming into the ground as I dodged.

The impact from his punch alone made a hole in the ground.

"Holy-" I gasped, "You tryna kill me?"

I looked up at the bulky dude, his height must've been 7 or even 8 feet!

He kept throwing more punches, creating even more holes in the ground. And every punch he threw seemed to have even more force behind it than the last.

This guy's not only a giant, he's a beast!

Once he'd finally backed me into a corner, I accessed the energy I'd being storing up this whole time and used just enough to match his power.

"Melany darling," the Prince's words echoed in my mind, "your power is something really unique. With the right training, you'll be a force to be reckoned with."

"Ara!" I shouted, colliding my fist with his

Upon impact, the two of us were temporarily frozen while the shock was dispersed.

"Your ability is something along the lines of energy conversion. You see, the different types of energy are Potential and Kinetic, though the different forms of energy are thermal, chemical, electrical, mechanical, etc. But those all fall under Kinetic Energy. Potential Energy is simply put the energy possessed by a body by virtue of factors such as it's position. And Kinetic Energy is the energy a body possesses by being in motion. And you, my dear, are able to convert energy between those two."

"What in the hell?" He belted, "A little shrimp like you able to match my power?"

"Don't underestimate me just because I'm small."

He followed up by throwing an even more powerful punch, though it wasn't much harder to match his energy output.

"Ara!" I countered

"By converting the natural energy a speedster stores up when in motion into potential energy and storing it, you'd be able to instantly eliminate a problem countless other speedsters share: energy output. You see dear, for an average speedster, they can only generate energy to a certain point, and once they reach that point, the excess energy is released from the body via your lighting trail. But in your case, if you master being able to store that energy inside, you'd be able to call upon it whenever you need."

I dashed sideways, giving myself more room to move around.

Strayfist punched the wall in front of him, shattering it like thin glass. The next thing I knew all the ruins were being thrown at me.

"Pinpoint Needle!" I shouted

In the fraction of a second, I threw a jab towards one of the incoming projectiles, using energy from my storage; completely disintegrating it.

"Looks like he was right about that whole lethality thing." I commented, "Pinpoint Needle Barrage!"

Firing more powerful jabs, I used a decent amount of my stored potential energy.

"Ara Ara Ara Ara Ara Ara Ara Ara!"

Once I finished my barrage, there was nothing left of the concrete projectiles but dust.

"Now for your first lesson in offence. Clearly your stored up energy possesses staggering power, but to further increase that, I want you to take short, decisive blows; a jab if you will. Doing this will further maximize the lethality of each attack, leaving whatever target you hit rendered essentially useless. These strikes should be focused on a single point, and should be performed with extreme diligence."

Strayfist launched himself in the air, falling directly over me. I zipped around the block to dodge his attack, storing up more energy in the process.

He then engaged me in more hand-to-hand combat, or I should say fist-to-fist, which each of his hits having more power behind it than the last.

After not too long he'd started overpowering me by a noticeable difference, and my powerstore was being exhausted of all it's available energy. The exchange continued on until he kicked me several feet away.

"No matter how strong you can get, I can come at you much harder. They call me the Power Amp." He said, walking over to me

"You have the same power as me don't you?" I questioned, choking on my own blood, "You're somehow able to stockpile energy just like me."

"And what good does knowing that do you?" he scoffed, jumping towards me with his fist ready, "I'm still gonna kill you!"

Giving a slight smirk, I used the available energy I had left to move out of the way fast enough.

"I did it just like you said Prince." I thought out loud, running around the vicinity, "I analyzed my opponent, and found their weakness."

Due to his size and build, he hasn't been able to keep up with my speed; and as far as I can see his stockpiling only increases his superficial strength. So I not only have the speed advantage, but if I break through his guard I'll have the power advantage too.

Once I'd stored up the max amount of energy, I came to a dead stop before him. Just as I thought, I was able to catch him off-guard and released all my stockpiled energy to perform my ultimate move.

"10K Needle Barrage!" I screamed, "ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA ARA!"

Firing off countless hits to his chest, by the time my energy was all used up he'd already been beaten unconscious.

"You might be a Power Amp, but I'm a Powerhouse." I smirked

With a broad smile on my face, I took a heroic posed and pressed my earpiece.

"See Prince," I chuckled, "I told you I could do it."

Romaine's POV

When I made my grand entrance onto the island, I found my two cousins laying on the ground, and all the inmates exiting the hole in the prison's exterior wall.

"Well shoot." I thought out loud, "Looks like I'm a bit late."

"You." Melissa stung at me, "You're that bastard that tricked us into breaking you out!"

"Oh I've been waiting for this moment." Torpedo snarled, cracking his knuckles

"No Freddy," Melissa stopped him, "he's mine."

"No need to be selfish Lisa," Rockwell smirked, coating his torso in nearby rocks, "we all want a piece of this jackass. He did put most of us here in the first place anyways. Right, Velocity?"

"You're kidding." Toxica joined, "This little loser is Velocity?"

"Yep. And I'm guessing you're the ones that broke us out." Melissa replied, "Tell you what then, as thanks, we'll let you get in on the action too."

"Well actually we busted you all out to join our villain group:" Twister admitted, "the League of Villains."

"Well sure for now, we can talk about the details later."

Well this can't be any good. I might be a powerhouse of sorts right now, but a 1v8??? Yeah I don't see very good odds in that.

"Donte, Shante, can you both stand?" I subtly called

"Yeah.." Donte mumbled

"Mhm.." hummed the other

"Good." I whispered, "Don't move right now. On my signal, I'm gonna need you both to get up and run around alright?"

Reverting my focus to the villains, I was hit point-blank with one of Melissa' Electro-Magnetic Screams. Though I was barely able to block, my body had already sustained a lot of damage thus far, both from muscle strain and external forces.

"Now!" I shouted

On their marks, Donte and Shante got up from their places and ran around the place, catching the villains off-guard and blocking me from their view. Tapping into the Apple's Eye, I targeted Rockwell's aura and dashed through the veil Donte and Shante created.

"Gotcha!"

Slugging him in the chest, he was thrown all the way back into the prison walls, cracking his rock coating from my fist alone.

"Let's take em!" I riled up the siblings

Using my sonic speed to dart around the place, I was noticeably above the speed my cousins were going.

Torpedo pulled out a pair of AKs and began spraying the place with bullets.

I maneuvered around all the bullets using the Apple's Eye, getting close enough to Torpedo to knock away his guns.

"The Master would like to meet you all." Toxica told them, "We've prepared arrangements."

"There's no way I'm leaving this dude after all the time I've spent in prison because of him." Melissa refused

"There will be time for that later. But today the boss' only plans were to break you out and bring you back with him to the base. It's best we don't go against him."

"Fine then. Big guy, we'll go on ahead, keep em busy for now."

The Inmates then started climbing onto Twister's tornado.

"Are you sure he can take them on?" Torpedo questioned her

"Of course. They don't call him 'The Immovable Object' for no reason."

"Not so fast!" I spurted, running towards them

B'do moved from his position to between myself and the other villains; he moved so fast that it was almost as if he teleported.

It was too late at this point for me to change direction, and even later to stop. Instead of getting blasted away by my punch like any ordinary object, his humungous stomach sucked in my arm, and the rest of my body ended up bouncing off his tummy. I flew so far back that they were barely in sight when I brought myself to a stop.

"Donte! Shante! You guys go after the League!" I commanded, "I'll catch u~"

Before I could even finish my line, B'do appeared out of nowhere and kicked me to the side.

"Romaine!" Shante panicked

"Shante, we need to go." Donte empathized, "He'll be fine.."

I'm sure right about now Dondre would say something like "How in the hell can someone who weighs over 600lbs even move???", and right about now I'd like to ask the same thing...

When trying to get up, I found myself uncontrollably coughing blood.

"Not now." I whispered to my body, "Just a little longer."

My muscles swole and ached, weighing me back down to the ground.

After that last kick I'd lost complete control over my breathing, bringing my body back to normal.

B'do grunted, teleporting over and kicking me into the building again.

Desperate gasps for air exited my lungs, but were only met with the flow of blood. No matter how hard I tried to move, all my body would do was shake in place.

"I can't...give up now..."

B'do slowly began taking his stammering steps towards me, having a 2 second interval between each step.

"Come on move...moveee" I insisted

Suddenly he disappeared from view, obviously coming to attack me again.

"I SAID MOVE!"

I barely managed to moved out of the way at 1000x speed, watching as B'do teleported to where I was and further decimating the walls.

My body then forcefully returned to its base state, vomiting up more blood. Though it was only for a fraction of a second, going to Augendae 1000 Fold stressed my body even more, inflicting much more lethal pain. Thankfully for me I was able to tap into my Hyper Perception, though wasn't able to maintain it for long, as my body's systems were functioning erratically.

-Mental Process-

What a beast...How can he move so fast with over 600lbs of body weight, much less move at light speed? He moves so quickly that when he teleports it looks like he retains the same position as before. Wait then... In that case would it just be that he has the power of displacement?

I mean...it'd make sense...speed is the amount of distance crossed over a period of time...so if he were to just displace himself he'd be able to cut out the time needed to cross said distance, making his speed on par with the likes of Overdrive.

My body's already more than busted up, and going 1K for a few milliseconds nearly damn killed me..how am I expected to take this dude on..? And how the hell was he even detained?

"There's a reason why you only see young people around here, minus us elders." The words of Elder Yole repeated in my head, "And the cause of that is...none of them ever live long enough to be considered 'old'. As expected with such a powerful technique, there are various drawbacks to using Augendae; due to the constant strain on the heart, repeated use of Augendae ends up lowering your life expectancy, worsening based on the level of stress ensued. Young One, never push past what your body is capable of, for more often than not, in the end it wouldn't have been worth it."

Damnit...Damnit..I can feel my consciousness fading...

I can't give up now...I have..to push past my limits...I know going this far is prohibited..but there's nothing more to do..

-End of Mental Process-

"I don't care if it kills me.." I muttered, "I'LL PUSH PAST MY LIMITS!"

Constraining my breathing to follow my will, I pushed my heart as far as it would go.

"AUGENDAE! 10,000 FOLD!"

The overwhelming force to which my blood was flowing was definitely disconcerting, and I could even feel my eyes getting completely bloodshot; even causing my vision to have a red tint. My muscles were actively tearing apart, constantly inflicting more pain. Looking at my skin, you could visibly see that it was tinted red, attributed to my blood being boiled internally.

I see why they forbid going this far now, but if it's this powerful, the risks are more than worth it.

Marquel sluggishly turned his torso towards me, performing his disappearing act again.

Once he disappeared I readied my stance, darting my eyes around the area to see where he'd reappear. A mere millisecond after he reappeared beside me, I was able to block his devastating attack, though the sheer force still sent me flying.

Catching my balance in the air, I relocated my center of gravity to anchor myself to the ground. B'do followed up by teleporting behind me again, kicking me in the back. Getting thrown through the prison's walls again, I managed to recover fairly better than before.

I started circling Marquel, both attempting to throw him off and searching for an opening. Coming to a stop in front of him, I plugged my exposed palm into his torso.

"Xraya Palm!"

The usual shockwave produced by the attack was no where present, instead my arm firmly bounced on the outer layer of his skin.

'Shockwave Absorption'? More like Fat Absorption!

B'do fired a slue of instantaneous attacks, all of which I managed to counter. The futile exchange went on as the ground beneath our feet broke apart. No matter what hit I'd land on him it wouldn't even penetrate his first layer of fat; and the longer we went on the more exhausted my muscles became.

It'd reached the point where B'do was continuously landing consecutive major hits in on me; knocking me back each time. I stood partially erect, desperately trying to control my breathing as to not return to base form. Predicting his next attack with the Apple's Eye, I prepared my body for a counter strike.

The moment he appeared in front of me, I was ready for his attack. As he moved his foot my brain signaled to my arms to block, but instead I was met with all the air in my body desperately leaving my lungs, and a sudden shock to the heart. In the next moment, I found myself fully paralyzed, frozen in a sloppy erect position while my muscles all cried out in pain. The next thing I knew B'do's oversized foot was in my torso, applying the full force of it all to my already damaged body.

The following onslaught of attacks martyred my torn muscles, and I'd even say broke a lot of my bones. My body was actively bleeding, both internally and externally, perceiving no end to this torture. And eventually...my brain just gave up on trying to process everything at once...and my vision gave in.

I woke up..in the darkness. When I moved my feet to take a step forward I'd realized that I was in a shallow pool of blood.

"What happened..?" I questioned myself

A distant drop of blood was heard, as I watched the ripples come over to me.

"I see you've found your way back here huh?" A familiar voice spoke to me, "You seem to have a knack for almost dying."

"Kyle.." I called out to the currently disembodied voice, watching as his body manifested from the pool of blood

"I've been watching you, you know." He smirked, "I see you've been working very hard to protect everyone. And you've come this far, you can't give up now."

"What else is there for me to do?" I questioned, "My body flat out won't respond to me...you must've seen that."

"I did, but at the end of the day Romaine," Kyle slowly levitated over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, "it's Mind over Body. Never forget that. Your limits are only what you think of them to be. Our bodies are just cages to our minds, you gotta break the chains tying you down and see everything from a new perspective. Now believe it or not our fates are intertwined, and now that I'm gone, you can't let yourself fall to anybody as long as the others still need saving. Because if you die too, then all our hard work would've been for naught."

While I was still processing his words, Kyle pushed me by the chest, toppling me over backwards. As I fell into the pool I somehow transitioned back into my body, still in somewhat agonizing pain

This rush I felt...it was somehow enabling me to move despite all my injuries. But Cas said that when Zero used the Philosophers' Stone it completely dried my Adrenal Gland.. so it can't be adrenaline. Then is this...the true power of the Absolute Will to Live?

Marquel was standing a couple feet away, not seeming to have a single scratch on him. I slowly rose to my feet, pondering on Kyle's words.

"I never trained to push my body this far.." I whispered, "But as long as I have people to protect...I'LL NEVER STOP BREAKING THROUGH MY LIMITS!"

Pumping my body with fresh oxygenated blood, I entered the second highest form of Augendae, a form said to only be attainable by the Chief Elder Council.

"AUGENDAE! 100,000 FOLD!!!"

A shockwave was produced downwards, forming a crater beneath my feet. My muscles once again tightened and swole to extreme extents, and though the pain was excruciating, at the time it was insignificant to me. My eyes and skin were flushed with blood, giving them both very red tints. At this point my body's temperature was so high that I was actively sweating gallons by the second, but as soon as the sweat exited my pores, my body heat instantly evaporated it; causing my body to constantly give off the effect that I was now steaming. And the same was applied to my breathing; due my high body temperature, whenever I exhaled air you would see steam exit my mouth, because of the water vapor being evaporated.

The increased muscle mass, worn out body and increasing dehydration were definitely factors weighing me down, though when I focused my determination on moving, they proved very little issue.

In the fraction of a mere millisecond, I dashed over to B'do and landed a hard driven punch right into his torso. The shockwaves visibly rippled on his fat, as the force itself pierced through him, launching the oversized criminal into the ruins of the prison.

"So this is what it's like to break through your chains." I commented

B'do seemed to be majorly taken aback by what had transpired, and layed in his spot for a while. I took the short three seconds to rest my body, returning to base form.

"At the rate that the moisture in my body evaporates in that form," I thought to myself, "continuous and prolonged usage will no doubt leave me as nothing but a dried husk. At least now I can deal him enough force to overload his Shock Absorption it seems; though I might end up croaking before he does. How then am I gonna beat this dude?"

Reverting my attention to him, B'do teleported in front of me, dealing a dangerously lethal kick; I'd only managed to block him in 100,000 Fold a couple milliseconds before his attack hit, yet the massive force still sent me back flying.

Ironically enough that situation gave me an idea, which sparked memories of my Time Remnant's timeline during their war.

"I got it." I smirked

Briefly entering Augendae 100 Fold, I flipped around mid-air and stabilized myself landing, before returning back to base form.

As he got in a stance indicating he was ready to attack again, I simply went into Augendae 10 Fold.

When he teleported to me, I was more than ready for his attack, entering into a series of precisely planned moves: where I went to Augendae 100K in the fraction of a second, punched him in the gut before he struck, then returned to Augendae x 10. The result of which being him getting thrown all the way back to the ruins.

"Perfect." I whispered

Borrowing slight inspiration from my Time Remnant's Time Flicker ability, I was able to devise a technique that could conserve my body's durability, all while still allowing me to use my strongest forms; by remaining in a lower form while in idle and instantaneously switching to 100K whenever doing an attack, I'm able to apply the same amount of force as if I was continuously in 100K, but without as many repercussions. And I call it...

"Shiver Style."

Quickly using 100K's power to dash over to him and strike, I knocked B'do further back into the building before he could react.

When knocked down B'do teleported behind me out in the open, attempting to get the drop on me.

"Sorry buddy." I grunted, effortlessly blocking his attack, "But you're not getting the better of me again."

Kicking him high in the air, I appeared behind him as he reached his peak and gave him a crushing fist back to the ground.

"Oh yeah, and I picked up your move too." I smirked, landing beside him

Marquel slowly got up from the massive crater his body produced, proceeding to engage with me in a series of aerial attacks. At this point all you'd see are shockwaves being produced in the air as we teleported all around the prison grounds.

"That's enough!" I cried out, giving him a full power punch to the torso

The extreme force, speed and even temperature of the fist itself caused it to ignite the oxygen in the air, coating my fist full with fire.

"Crimson Star!" I proclaimed, watching as he got thrown by the attack all the way over to the mainland.

Now of course this couldn't be good; there's no telling who or what his 1200lbs of body weight could fall on, not to mention at this devastating speed.

I used my Shiver Style to launch myself off of the prison island all the way to the mainland, tracking him through the air as he skyrocketed.

His trajectory had found its way over a group of heroes and villains battling on the ground; the perfect landing spot if you ask me.

Teleporting directly over him, I unleashed a volley of full powered fists, lighting even bigger fires with each one and beating him ruthlessly down to the ground.

"If you're an Immovable Object," I gritted my teeth, "then I'll become an Unstoppable Force!"

Relentlessly pounding my fists into him, I further increased the potency of the flames.

"Shiver Style: Fallen Angels!"

The flames eventually engulfed him, roasting his outer layer of fat when he crashed into the ground; ultimately getting knocked out cold.

Now putting my body to rest, I stood triumphantly over his body in the sinkhole that'd been formed.

"Gentle Giant, you were a worthy opponent. Though no match for an Unstoppable Force."