3 - Welcome to PARADOX//Victory

"You didn't tell me it could do that!" Verdant said, rubbing her ears.

"I had five minutes to read up on Raw Noiz possession," Azure said, plugging his index fingers into his ears. "In ancient Gaelic."

"Forget it," Verdant dismissed, getting up on uneven footing. "All we need to do is beat it up until we break their transformation, right? Just like us."

"We've never used our powers to fight before," Azure said, pulling his fingers out of his ears to look at his hands as if he no longer recognized them. The fingerless gloves he wore made everything he said seem slightly less serious. "The only time we've ever had our transformation broken is when we got hit by lightning."

"It was a staunch reminder not to hang around tall pre-colonial buildings," Verdant said with a shiver.

Whilst they argued amongst themselves, her monstrous self rushed towards them again. It hurled a massive claw at them just as Azure stepped in front of his friend. The blue circle reappeared in front of his arm, and a wave of noise blasted from it. With a startling whoosh of air, her monstrous form was blown a few feet back.

Verdant jumped over him without breaking a sweat and held out one arm. She had perfect posture; gracefully leaping through the sky, but the violence in her eyes scared even the most monstrous parts of the beast. A long thick rope appeared between her fingertips and she grasped it tightly. It was a bright acid green. Without anything to anchor it, she began to swing forward.

As she closed in, a monstrous claw tried to grab Verdant out of the sky. it was too late. Verdant's kick landed square between the beast's eyes, making her vision blur. A monstrous anger flared up inside of the the beast, and it slashed at the air with both hands; catching Verdant in a few blows.

Verdant flew across the pavement, landing so roughly that the asphalt around her cracked. Large flakes of it flew through the air, as if a jet of air had suddenly burst forth from under the road.

"Verdant!" Azure screamed, running towards her. The monster seized it's opportunity whilst the boy was facing away from her, rushing up behind him and slapping him down with one large claw.

At first, she felt like she could pretend it was just a dream, but she'd crossed that threshold long ago. This was reality; strange as it was. A few minutes ago, she'd almost killed a man. Though she wasn't in control of her actions, she knew she would still feel responsible if he died.

Then these two had come along and tried to stop her, but they weren't strong enough.

She would be stuck like this forever, and she would single handedly destroy Paradox City. The monster gave the two costumed strangers each a once over, tilting it's head from side to side in an almost comical fashion. Once it had decided they were done for, it started to turn away.

Just as she was about to give up hope, a sliver of green light caught the monster's attention.

Verdant, the girl who was practically encased in asphalt, had raised her hand high. The green thread she'd been holding before was whipping wildly above her. Flecks of green light were appearing all around them, all flocking towards the thread.

Slowly, but with determination, she pulled herself out of the road, gripping tightly onto her thread. The thread in her hand grew to twice her height and solidified into a pole. At it's very tip, the part that had remained green thread continued to glow and whip around violently.

"Nora!" Azure shouted, clambering onto his knees. "You're doing it!"

Verdant didn't seem to hear his call as her eyes flashed a brilliant emerald colour. It reminded the girl inside the monster of something, though with her head swimming in all of this nonsense, she couldn't work it out.

She was also filled with a new emotion; the monster on the outside wanted to run away. Though it physically wanted to run away, it also wanted to disappear entirely, to be anywhere else but facing Verdant.

It was afraid.

She didn't understand why until Verdant moved ever so slightly towards her. At least, that was how it had appeared. Instead, she was right in front of the monster in a split second, her pole raised high above her head and the violence in her eyes beyond what the girl thought possible.

Then it all went black.