Heroes run toward chaos and screaming. Less expected was the screaming running toward us. Men and women stumbled up the street; buildings like cliffs to either side funneled these victims and their tormentor toward us. A tentacle whipped forward through the throng to grab one young woman. It hauled her backward, and we lost sight of her. Here at the café the road broadened to permit street parking. The crowd thinned, permitting us a view as Chymera fell upon her meal.
She was nominally human, but her ceaseless partial transformations overwhelmed her features: ram's horns sprouted and then fell away; tails grew, and then retracted; a wave of fur displaced a sheen of scales that grew hard like armor plates; claws swelled on hands that became paw-like too late to prevent her fingers from splitting open; fangs distorted her mouth as she ate. Her hyena teeth chewed through the woman's upper arm, tearing through the meat as Chymera shook her head like a dog worrying at a rat. Her jaw flexed. The humerus would break with another moment of pointed pressure.
The Grasshopper ploughed shoulder-first into Chymera. She knocked the woman free as the two empowered went tumbling; Chymera's snarling drowned out the civilian's screams. The creature twisted toward the Grasshopper. Sarah was on her back, and she drew up her legs and kicked Chymera in the fanged face and used the force to shove herself back. She made it within arm's reach of the woman. The Grasshopper got her hand on the woman's bare leg. The wound in her began to close as the missing muscle filled in. It was no more than a shallow gash before Chymera dragged Sarah away and threw the hero into a building with force enough to shatter the brick. Sarah--the Grasshopper--fell to the ground. She shoved herself up from the sidewalk as though expecting Chymera to spring at any sign of weakness.
Chymera wasn't springing. Chymera stood upright as human she could stay. Freckles, red hair. Brown eyes. Yes, the brown eyes sometimes grew slitted, and Chymera kept breaking out in waves of fur, but she trembled with the effort to stay coherent. Seen like this, Chymera was as emaciated as Jane. Her ever-changing flesh hung off of her. She had her head turned toward the woman whose arm she'd nearly chewed off. The tentacle still lying splayed on the ground twitched, but she let her sobbing victim continue to crawl away.
"I don't want to hurt you," the Grasshopper said.
"I know." Chymera pried her eyes from the woman to turn them on Sarah. "But I'm hurtin'.You regrow limbs, right? I heard that. Heard you put hearts back, arms, legs. Skulls. Give you enough time, you regrow anything." Sarah nodded. She focused on Chymera's face, and the minute shifts and animal changes. On the way Chymera's changing fangs cut her face as she spoke. "They're tryin' to make vat-grown flesh, y'know? Human stuff. For me. People that are like me, I guess. But it's not workin', and every step they take they have to deal with the breracracy... bur. rac. You know. 'Cause it's human, even though there's no brain. You know what they feed me instead of people?"
Sarah shook her head. "No," she said. Chymera grinned a divot into her own chin.
"Nothin.' So I wonder whether maybe you could help me. There's bad people. I know. Keep them asleep, keep them healed up. They wouldn't even know, and nobody else'd get hurt." Sarah's shaking head made Chymera frown; her canine almost hit her eye. Before Sarah could speak, Jane shouted something from where she stood at the café door.
Chymera's tentacle--growing all the time she spoke, lengthening from the tip to avoid notice--snagged the Grasshopper's ankle. She pulled; Sarah fell back, struck her head on the wall, lost her breath as she fell heavily onto the sidewalk, and then Chymera tossed her across the street into a parked car that struck the curb and tipped. Metal and perhaps bone crunched; the car alarm sounded. Sarah popped free from the dented metal and Chymera's grasp as she shrank. Chymera snarled; another tendril joined the first, and both missed. Sarah charged in toward the creature as the first tentacle fell away. The second withered as Chymera's hands grew long, sharp claws. She opened her arms to welcome the tiny hero into her grasp; talons snagged on reinforced cloth and failed to puncture. They caught at Sarah's clothing, but Sarah was too small to grip.
And she was kicking Chymera in the chest. The kick sent Chymera hurtling back; when Sarah landed on the road she made a crater deeper than she was tall. She was out and speeding toward Chymera before the creature made it to her many feet. Sarah grew only a little as she leapt, but her weight still bore Chymera to the asphalt. She twisted to locked her arms around Chymera's throat. The creature gagged. Sarah tightened her arms, and Chymera's protean limbs began to fall out from underneath her as unconsciousness loomed. Then porcupine quills sprouted across Chymera's back in a wave. Sarah cried out; when the wave receded some of needles remained snagged in her flesh where her clothing rode up. And in her face.
Sarah let go and stumbled back. She had a quill through one of her eyes; a viscous substance oozed between her fingers. She crumpled as a spiked fist plowed into her gut. Sarah dropped onto the street, and Chymera loomed over her.
She was nominally human, but her ceaseless partial transformations overwhelmed her features: ram's horns sprouted and then fell away; tails grew, and then retracted; a wave of fur displaced a sheen of scales that grew hard like armor plates; claws swelled on hands that became paw-like too late to prevent her fingers from splitting open; fangs distorted her mouth as she ate. Her hyena teeth chewed through the woman's upper arm, tearing through the meat as Chymera shook her head like a dog worrying at a rat. Her jaw flexed. The humerus would break with another moment of pointed pressure.
The Grasshopper ploughed shoulder-first into Chymera. She knocked the woman free as the two empowered went tumbling; Chymera's snarling drowned out the civilian's screams. The creature twisted toward the Grasshopper. Sarah was on her back, and she drew up her legs and kicked Chymera in the fanged face and used the force to shove herself back. She made it within arm's reach of the woman. The Grasshopper got her hand on the woman's bare leg. The wound in her began to close as the missing muscle filled in. It was no more than a shallow gash before Chymera dragged Sarah away and threw the hero into a building with force enough to shatter the brick. Sarah--the Grasshopper--fell to the ground. She shoved herself up from the sidewalk as though expecting Chymera to spring at any sign of weakness.
Chymera wasn't springing. Chymera stood upright as human she could stay. Freckles, red hair. Brown eyes. Yes, the brown eyes sometimes grew slitted, and Chymera kept breaking out in waves of fur, but she trembled with the effort to stay coherent. Seen like this, Chymera was as emaciated as Jane. Her ever-changing flesh hung off of her. She had her head turned toward the woman whose arm she'd nearly chewed off. The tentacle still lying splayed on the ground twitched, but she let her sobbing victim continue to crawl away.
"I don't want to hurt you," the Grasshopper said.
"I know." Chymera pried her eyes from the woman to turn them on Sarah. "But I'm hurtin'.You regrow limbs, right? I heard that. Heard you put hearts back, arms, legs. Skulls. Give you enough time, you regrow anything." Sarah nodded. She focused on Chymera's face, and the minute shifts and animal changes. On the way Chymera's changing fangs cut her face as she spoke. "They're tryin' to make vat-grown flesh, y'know? Human stuff. For me. People that are like me, I guess. But it's not workin', and every step they take they have to deal with the breracracy... bur. rac. You know. 'Cause it's human, even though there's no brain. You know what they feed me instead of people?"
Sarah shook her head. "No," she said. Chymera grinned a divot into her own chin.
"Nothin.' So I wonder whether maybe you could help me. There's bad people. I know. Keep them asleep, keep them healed up. They wouldn't even know, and nobody else'd get hurt." Sarah's shaking head made Chymera frown; her canine almost hit her eye. Before Sarah could speak, Jane shouted something from where she stood at the café door.
Chymera's tentacle--growing all the time she spoke, lengthening from the tip to avoid notice--snagged the Grasshopper's ankle. She pulled; Sarah fell back, struck her head on the wall, lost her breath as she fell heavily onto the sidewalk, and then Chymera tossed her across the street into a parked car that struck the curb and tipped. Metal and perhaps bone crunched; the car alarm sounded. Sarah popped free from the dented metal and Chymera's grasp as she shrank. Chymera snarled; another tendril joined the first, and both missed. Sarah charged in toward the creature as the first tentacle fell away. The second withered as Chymera's hands grew long, sharp claws. She opened her arms to welcome the tiny hero into her grasp; talons snagged on reinforced cloth and failed to puncture. They caught at Sarah's clothing, but Sarah was too small to grip.
And she was kicking Chymera in the chest. The kick sent Chymera hurtling back; when Sarah landed on the road she made a crater deeper than she was tall. She was out and speeding toward Chymera before the creature made it to her many feet. Sarah grew only a little as she leapt, but her weight still bore Chymera to the asphalt. She twisted to locked her arms around Chymera's throat. The creature gagged. Sarah tightened her arms, and Chymera's protean limbs began to fall out from underneath her as unconsciousness loomed. Then porcupine quills sprouted across Chymera's back in a wave. Sarah cried out; when the wave receded some of needles remained snagged in her flesh where her clothing rode up. And in her face.
Sarah let go and stumbled back. She had a quill through one of her eyes; a viscous substance oozed between her fingers. She crumpled as a spiked fist plowed into her gut. Sarah dropped onto the street, and Chymera loomed over her.
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