Shakedown Part 2

These last few months have been nothing short of one long, hard, painful refresher course with my powers on the fritz. On my path to be this city's hero, I effectively had to learn how to turn thought into instinct and then into action regarding both my mind and powers.

While that same action has saved many lives, it hasn't precisely saved me more often than not, which is why I'm glad that I relearned my three principles because even though I had a man's blood literally in my hands, I was still as calm as one could be. So calm that I even scared myself as I compartmentalized the situation and moved straight to visualization.

This step certainly took a while, though, as there was a lot to visualize. Sense mode could only do so much when focusing on numerous targets from a distance. That's why I always make such a big deal on signatures I've tracked before. This is why I took a good long look at my rather rough-looking opponent in the here and now. Fitting the current weather to a T, my rather bulky opponent wore a large army green hoodie.

Combined with his scarred right eye and long warrior's wolf tail, he looked menacing. Especially since despite the burning wound on his leg, he was still relatively fine, clearly showing the damage was shallowness compared to the others as it started to rustle. Once he managed to collect himself properly, he engaged in witty banter.

"I never liked that guy anyway; he always managed to run his mouth just a little too much," he said in a gruff yet bloodlusted manner.

I didn't even bother to react, as I managed to remain instead stone-faced while I kept analyzing. Noticing my eerie calmness, the man took a bit of a double-take as I decided to talk myself into experimentation finally.

"You just made a big mistake," I said venomously.

"Bitch please, every person in Krimo already knows the old song and dance. I've heard some have even managed to turn it into a right of passage. So tell me, Omna, what mistake did I make?"

"Because now you're going to answer my question, and I'm damn sure that no one's going to care if I follow your example."

A tense cloud soon enveloped us both, as the man could only respond with this.

"Sure, let's see about that."

With the swift turn of his shoulder, the muscle man managed to turn his pillar into a fleshy whip! On instinct, I counterattacked, firing a widespread beam. However, I quickly realized that the arm somehow hardened and cracked in response, making it far more resilient than before. Still, my laser wasn't fast enough as I got knocked upwards into the main platform. Not even skipping a beat, though, I managed to get back with blood-red eyes quickly.

As soon as I did, my opponent threw the unconscious men at the speed of a baseball! And in that small span of seconds, I was forced into the process of elimination. Sense mode was useless, so was laser, and catching the body at strength or speed mode could cripple them.

Which meant I had to get gridlocked on the protective power of flight mode as I caught the body with no issue. However, that was only the beginning as by the time I managed to secure him, my enemy closed in with an enlarged, enclosed fist! Realizing the danger, I once again reacted automatically, sliding low enough to get the necessary leverage to pull off a sacrifice throw that pushes him off just slightly.

Still, the power of the hit reverberated as he managed to still carry it through enough to destroy the entire staircase! With my power, though, it posed no danger as I hovered my hostage out of harm's way.

After that, tendon-like strands ran to various crates, picking them up high into the air and crushing them promptly to reveal medium-sized pools of black liquid. Instantly a sense of fear lumped together in my throat as my opponent started to scream then roared! I could only do between the debris and the small dust cloud by relying on my ears as my opponent underwent a startling transformation.

Realizing the car nearby and the other unconscious hostages, I decided to get creative, loading up said car to the brim like it was more clownish than miniature with as many men as possible.

I activated the auto-hover once the number reached 14 and promptly launched the craft out of the blast zone. After that, I gave the last four men the mother of all piggyback rides as I plopped them down into one of the many snow piles outside the building.

All the while, my ears got treated to a cornucopia of disgusting sounds. Mounds of muscles tore each other apart like rotted fruit, along with sounds of squelching flesh, mincing bones, and bending metal. All of which created a very elaborate mental picture of my opponent's booming footsteps made me all the tenser. Said tension then started to peak as I finally laid eyes on the monster himself.

Any skin he had left on his body all seemed to vanish, revealing only pulsing veins, trailing muscles, and exposed tissue. Said tissue was now several times larger than before. Somehow along the way, said tissue managed to grow several times over, making him a hulking brute that easily eclipsed my size—combined that with his exposed teeth, skull-like face, hollow eyes, and shredded pants.

I started to make a mental note in response, quickly shifting myself to strength mode. However, before I could do it, I remembered something pivotal. I somehow forgot about the four people in the said suitcase in my mad dash, and unfortunately, he didn't forget. Using those same tendon-like whips to reveal the rest of my unconscious enemies.

To him, they were the ultimate human shield. Yet something told me that I was the only one to be target practice.