CRACK!! Dylan slammed into the brick wall with a sickening crack, blood gushing out of his nose. "Carmen!" Before he had the chance to fall from the wall, Stryder stabbed her hand into Dylan's shoulder, squirting blood down his shoulder. "Is this...what you meant when you said you can do things...for me?"
Stryder lifted the boy by the roof of his mouth, her razor-sharp nails digging into his gums. "No, this is what I meant when I said I can do things to you." With inhuman strength, Stryder threw Dylan onto a busy sidewalk where people continued to tread even at hours this unholy. "In you, Dylan, I am presented with an interesting opportunity." Stryder raised her hand, the top part of Dylan's jaw still connected to her fingers. "Someone who I cannot kill with mere strength alone."
Stryder spread apart her fingers and the jaw with it, blood running down her hands. Stryder looked at her bloodstained clothing and frowned. "Your first mission under my charge will be to do my laundry. Dylan." The boy sighed, his jaw halfway regenerated. "It's not going to matter what I say, will it? You're already convinced that I'm yours to drag around like a dog on a leash." Stryder didn't respond and let her expressionless face speak for her.
"Well, I suppose you need hands to hold a leash." Like a water current speeding toward the sea, muscle constructs shaped like tentacles sped toward Stryder. Their target missed the muscles dug into the pavement as Stryder rocketed upward.
"His speed is far greater than what my data entailed. I shouldn't have been able to make an error like that." Stryder berated herself.
Dylan looked up at Stryder and smiled as the last of his injuries healed. A spear comprised entirely of a mutated bone shot from his chest with incredible speed headed toward Stryder.
"Is he truly, evolving this quickly? His strength outpacing my observation?!" Her thoughts dripped with predatory intent.
Stryder grabbed the sharpened bone as it sped toward her and swung around it like an acrobat hanging above a flaming net. Shifting her body upright, Stryder planted both her feet on the bone and dashed down it keeping her balance expertly.
" She recovers quickly, and she's really light on her feet." Dylan mused.
A swift chop of her hand and Stryder had snapped the bone in two, leaving her free hand to grab the severed end. The woman raised the spike above her should and reeled her arm back.
"You're going to impale me? You're a brutal fighter. Carmen." Throwing the bone like a spear, Dylan fell to the ground as his torso got pinned to the sidewalk, a fifteen-foot bone protruding through his chest. Grabbing onto the spike, Dylan intended to pull it free until Stryder's foot landed on his chest, pushing him further down the bone.
"Holy hell! You're actually starting to hurt me!" Dylan laughed. Stryder adjusted her cufflinks. "Dare I say that Physis wouldn't approve of cursing?" Dylan's eyes narrowed. "She wouldn't approve of the holes in my shirt either, so I'm already in hot water." A tiny cackle got past Stryder's demeanor, her icy disposition not enough to protect her from Dylan's humor. "Those mutations are just a label. You are a strange boy, even without the ability to regenerate." Stryder's slender fingers unbuttoned her navy coat, exposing the white dress shirt underneath. More frivolously than one might have imagined, Stryder tossed the jacket on the ground without a second thought its constriction was a hindrance to her.
"Will you at least give me the respect of telling me why you're so uninterested in joining my side?" Stryder broke into a round of calisthenics like an athlete stretching before a game. "I'd imagine it's something beyond morals, yes?" Dylan continued to struggle under Stryder's weight the spike in his chest slowly being consumed by his flesh. "I don't like you. You lie, and you manipulate, and you think status is everything. I could never work with someone like you. You piss me off too badly. Also," Dylan smiled, his intent devilish, "Your boobs are the kind my friend King would go for, and I don't want to steal you away with my irresistible charm."
Stryder took her foot off Dylan as she stumbled back. Her frozen demeanor couldn't have melted quicker if she were standing next to the sun. "Disgusting! You...disgusting child! You have no filter." Tearing through his back, bones lining his spine pushed Dylan high in the air like a pair of stilts. "You are not escaping this!" Stryder dashed forward and shattered the base of the bones with a roundhouse kick, sending Dylan tumbling into the wall of a nearby apartment.
"Those body modifications have turned her into some kind of superhuman." Stryder was moving faster than Dylan could think. "She can kick through bone and punch through flesh like paper. Not to mention she throws with the force of a trolley!" He thought frantically.
Rolling to the side, Dylan broke the bones protruding from his spine so that he could flop onto the balcony next to him. His fall smashed the pot below him, to which Dylan groaned and quickly began cleaning up the mess. "Apologies friend," he whispered as he sat the plant on a nearby glass table. "Where's my apology?" Dylan spun around in a failed leg sweep as Stryder bounded into the air evading his foot.
*"She shouldn't have been able to sneak up on me. I should have heard or at least sensed her coming!"*
Stryder kicked Dylan in the chin sending the boy rocketing off the balcony with a shattered jaw.
*"Is she really just THAT fast!?!"* Dylan's thoughts grew frantic.
"I know what's puzzling you." Stryder jumped off the balcony, her velocity enough to catch Dylan before he even began falling. "My speed and strength are impossible, yes." Dylan tried to clench his broken jaw as Stryder wrapped her legs around his neck as the two plummeted toward a busy city street, tens maybe, even hundreds of cars below. Using their momentum for fuel, Stryder pummeled Dylan with punches until his face had caved into his skull and his brain exposed. "You can't beat me with simple power and abilities." Stryder mocked.
Releasing his neck, Stryder kicked Dylan toward the street with both of her feet, the force of the kick pushing her into a nearby kitchen window.
*"Gotta...move! MOVE!"*
The street drew closer by the second, an unsuspecting Taxi speeding below.
*"For fuck's sake! MOOOVVE!!"*
Seven strands of muscle fiber shot out from Dylan's torso, suspending the boy above the street. "Whew! Man, that was close. What's her deal anyway?"
SNAP!!
Dylan's support wobbled as one of his strands was destroyed followed by two more in quick succession. "Carmen! Stop it!" Two more objects flashed by, and suddenly, Dylan was left hanging by two ropes of flesh, barely enough to support his weight.
I can't make any more modifications to my body. Dylan realized as his face grew back in. I've lost too much blood. If I waste it on more strands and she hits me again, I'll die. No question.
Stryder dived out the apartment window like a swimmer leaping into the pool. Dylan winced as the woman landed on his chest in a squat that put her face close to his. "You need experience, you need intuition, you need me to use your powers effectively." Stryder placed a finger on Dylan's chest, blue energy coursing through her body.
"In a world where you and I are equal, I'd never be able to do this to you. Realistically I don't have to ask you to do anything. I could take you right now, and there would be nothing you could do." Dylan just stared back at Stryder, more tired than annoyed anymore.
"Listen. I don't want to fight you. I don't want to join you either. All this stuff about strength and power, status, and value doesn't mean anything to someone like me. I'm happy doing what I'm doing right now. I don't wanna do anything else." Stryder squirmed at the proclamation. "And just what ARE you doing, Dylan? Lazing about in an underground bunker with people who won't even let you leave the med bay? Face it, Dylan. There isn't a thing you have that I can't double in value-"
"Just shut up already! No gives a crap about money and value! If that's how you want to live your life, do it by yourself!"
SNAP!!
Another of Dylan's support broke in two, only this time by the boy's will. Catching her off guard, Dylan's arms and legs wrapped around Stryder with enough binding force to audibly crack her ribcage. "W-What is this!?" Gravity swinging the trio toward a glass pane, Dylan held Stryder toward the glass so that she'd take the full brunt of the collision.
"You really put me through the wringer for a bit! So now I'm gonna squeeze you out and-man that did not sound right!"
SMAAAAAASSSSHHH!!!
Dylan and Stryder smashed through the glass pane and the empty office breaking through cubicles and desks as they slid across the floor of the office space. Shattered glass littered the floor as Dylan stood up, his numerous cuts and bruises struggling to seal up. Worriedly, Dylan's eyes flashed over to Stryder, who laid on the floor in a pool of her own gore. Even now in his tired state, Dylan's hearing was good enough to hear the faint sounds of wheezing as she clung to consciousness.
*"Despite her speed and strength, Stryder is only human. I can crush her given enough force, and that break meant she couldn't brace herself to fall through the window. She's only conscious now because she went limp, which softened the blow, but...it wasn't enough."*
Dylan walked through the small office with a swivel chair in hand as he approached Stryder. "Yo! Lady! Can you stand?" Stryder replied with an incoherent groan as she rose from her sprawled position.
"You managed to not just break but ruin my skin. Congratulations." Dylan shrunk behind the chair as Carmen stood up, her bloody silhouette shining in the broken glass. Carmen's lips split in the most genuine expression, Dylan had ever seen in his life. It was so warm it made Dylan forget the menace it was attached to and the harm she meant to him. "I'm so proud of you. Dylan. You managed to evolve in such a short period, and it's BEAUTIFUL! I'm so...happy I got to watch you grow."
Dylan was taken aback by the shift in personality. What was Carmen's deal? Watch him grow? What was she on about!?!
"I don't know or care what you mean by that. Stay away from me, or I'll put you down again." Carmen paid the threat no mind as she inched closer to Dylan, her hand stretched toward his face as she fell into pure ecstasy. "C'mere Dylan. Your MINE! You and your power are MINE!!"
Carmen dashed forward, her hair falling out of its bun as her body became a blur of speed.
"MIIINEEE!!!"