Our trek through the jungle had been short. Quickly, Mary had to lead us all back to the camp and her suspicious friends. The last remaining men and women that were true to their sacred cause, it seemed. Those willing to go so far as to deal with the killer of their King; the devil himself, to make it. Or, perhaps, to get vengeance. In my mind, it was unclear.

My own mass had quadrupled in just the time it took to arrive. This made me equal in size to that of a modest house. A titanic eight-legged beast moving uncannily fast across the land. That was me. And if I had not been prioritizing speed, I might have easily been another four times the weight over again.

Altogether, I cut an intimidating figure on approach.

Dozens of Supers stood idly in a clearing of the jungle. They awaited my arrival with mixed emotions on their faces, but my big old brain detected no trap in wait. Not something subversive, anyway. Just shock and confusion.

If they intended to fight, the fools apparently intended it to be head-on.

Unlike Seraph, from Alejandro's previous attempt at killing me, I more or less knew what his men were capable of dishing out. There would be no transmutational bombs. Anything less than that, I was fairly confident in facing. So I had come here boldly in the sound belief that I was not simply acting in hubris. I had it in hand.

So, as Mary turned from bird to human once again, I introduced myself to the crowd, coming out of the forest. "I am Creep," I called out. "Nice to see you all again. I hope you're not too banged up."

"We know who you are," a tall man in the front line angrily said. His eyes were bloodshot and I could tell he was not going to be one of the joiners. Instead, he seemed outright offended at my presence.

In fact, quite a few of them were quickly rising in agitation. My newfound friends were beside me in their vaguely human bodies and I could see on the concern on the faces I had given them. The situation was intensifying. Clearly, I needed to instill some added confidence in them.

This would be over in under a minute. If they wanted a fight, then so be it.

The first attack was quite subtle and prying. One of the little Supers on the sideline widened his eyes in a strange stare and the effect was immediately felt. Daniel was seized in place. His nervous system was temporarily but completely hijacked. To me, this problem presented an obvious solution.

More brains.

I went about giving him four more, give or take. Though it caused incredible confusion in his body, I simply picked the one that worked best and eliminated the rest. It turned out to be the one I had not connected to the eyes. Knowing this, I already had the enemy's Power figured out. I implemented the requisite fix in each following biomass of mine and moved on.

The next three attacks were not so subtle. Though, they were entertaining.

Before I could mount any new mutations, they hit me with their heaviest volley. The first to strike was a black and thin line that perfectly deleted a line of matter straight through my skull. The following were less precise and effective, merely tearing surface chunks away with explosive force and lightning. Add on every elemental damage you can think of, and then add two more. All in all, it was only a flesh-wound.

Mary cried out, "No! No, you idiots! Stop!"

Suddenly there was a black burst over the battlefield. She had transformed into a hurricane-force of crows, whirling and blinding everyone.

This had not been what I was expecting. Just before I had been able to move forward and give them my show of force, Mary had intervened. And, as the chaos settled and she returned to human form, she breathed heavy breaths. Standing between me, the beast, and my prey, she outstretched her hands towards her comrades. "This is over," she roared. "Now you all will listen to me, or I will let him kill you. And he would do it easily, you worthless morons."

In outrage, the same man that had shouted before spoke up. The tall one. "Why have you brought him here if not to kill us? That's not a man to be reasoned with. It's a fucking demon!"

A deep and throaty chuckle emanated from my newly scarred husk. "You didn't tell them you were bringing me? And here I thought you were dumb enough to actually try setting a trap." As opposed to clever but naive, they were simply disorganized. How refreshing.

"No. They would not have allowed it," Mary told me. "But nothing can stand in the way of our victory. Least of all their fear."

"It means that much to you," I nodded, and I could see the attachments she had. By now, the mind of every living person was open for me to explore. Microscopic spores followed me wherever I went and there was no one here who was immune. With mastery of my Power, my control in the immediate range was practically omnipotent.

Their biology was my playground, and the only reason I had been entertaining a fight was for the psychological effect it might have. I needed my friends devoted. "But it really doesn't appear that they care as much as you," I said to Mary, looking over the clearing of Powered men and women.

My ploy helped to shock the frontman into a defensive mode. He was easily emotionally manipulated. "We would give our lives to the Cause!" He protested. "Do not pretend to judge us. You are nothing but an animal. You do not know real purpose."

An interesting perspective, I thought to myself. I looked back at my old life in the gas station and all I saw was emptiness. Meaning, it seemed to me, was an embodied and biological experience. Pleasure and pain. High-faluting causes did not seem so grounded.

Still, I was determined to make a good impression. "That's good!" I said. "Because, actually, I'm here to help you. After all, Seraph is my enemy. I have no quarrel with you people, frankly, because you're not a threat. So it's a win-win. I'm no would-be tyrant, indeed. After we clear out Seraph, I'll leave a vacuum that you can happily fill. You can have your independence, then."

The tall man scowled. Looking to Mary, he spit out his raging thoughts at my proposal. "You lead him straight to us, you stupid bitch. And for what? You can't accept that the old man is dead?! Well, this thing won't fix it. If it comes within breathing distance of Mexico, then what will we be saving? Even if we run out the Americans, it will be rubble. Nothing but a slagpile of fucking horrors. Just look at what he's done to them!"

Mary turned her eye to Daniel, Foci, Paradise, and Cyber. For a moment, her mind raced and I thought she might break. But then came a beautiful doubling down. "I'll do anything..." she spoke, low and even.

"One who will do anything cannot claim to be a believer in Justice. You're dead to us, Mary..." the tall man said. He finally turned his somber gaze back to me then and shook his head, as if trying to clear the emotion. "So do what you will!" he shouted, regaining his anger. "It's only a matter of time before Seraph succeeds in destroying you. You're just one man. One monster. But we don't care how powerful you are. They will find a way to stop you. Even the Iron Tyrant has to rely on the Powers of others to survive. But you are alone."

For a moment I was silent. There was some truth in what he was saying. That would be, if not for the fact that I was now amassing support-Powers using Daniel and the others. Still, I had to keep this moving along. I required the space to reform my vast mind. Then, the answers would really be clear. Then, I would see the path to true immortality. Beyond any threat.

Foci spoke up out of nowhere. The old man actually raised his hand, as if he was in class. Speaking past the queer looks, he explained. "Let it be known, the Alchemist has another gift for us. It's coming in twenty minutes."

"The Alchemist?" I asked, trying to piece together his meaning from the collective reference points of so many scattered thoughts around me. "Is that what they call him?"

A man in all-blue attire answered from beside the rabble's leader. "He is who performs the Glassing for the Americans. Through many arrayed bombs in a pattern, they transmit his transmutation circle across the distance, scaling it to size... By now they know you're still alive, Puto. They have satellites everywhere. And they will turn this whole damn country to salt."

I knew it wouldn't be long before the next bombing, yet it couldn't help but feel too soon. "So if even one bomb is disrupted...?" I lead on.

Cyber confirmed. "Yes, then the rune will fail. This is how I helped Alejandro plan his prevention in the past."

"Well then," I announced. "We all need to get moving, don't we?" Using the information I absorbed from Cyber's thoughts, I knew that the rune had a kind of minimal pixel density which dictated how many bombs were required. Yet, while there would be many bombs and I only had to disrupt one, there was a serious threat here. As there were not so many bombs that I could be sure I would be able to find and intercept one in time.

The tall man simply crossed his arms. "We have no intention of helping you. You will not have time to escape as you did last time, I'm guessing. Although we die, the Cause will live on. We can accept that."

About two-thirds of the group behind him seemed to be in agreement.

"Well shit." I quickly liquified my internal organs and began increasing the size of my neocortex. I needed to think my way out of this, and fast.

Foci and Paradise were already hovering in the air. The latter spoke. "Working together, we might be able to foresee and stop one of the bombs. You can bring us back again, can't you?"

Not the same you, I mused. But I certainly didn't say it aloud. After all, it hardly mattered. No man ever stepped in the same river twice. "Yes," I merely replied. That would have to suffice.

The tall man looked back to his men. "We have to stop what it's doing!" But as he rallied them, I commanded all to freeze. With one shift of my Power, the fight was over.

Suddenly, the answer had come to me. Just brilliant and ridiculous enough that it might work, crawling out of the muck of my new brain. I only needed to figure out some rather novel chemical synthesis to make it work. I had played around with acids and explosives before, but this was an entirely new ballgame, and it required focus.

Only fifteen minutes left. Hopefully, that would be enough.

Since I couldn't go down, there was only one way left.

"Whoever wants to come, just think it," I announced to the paralyzed forces. "The rest can stay." Although, they would be put to sleep with a neurotoxin. I couldn't afford anyone interrupting my rapid work. Some had been healing their way out of the cruder block put in first. On my second attempt, they were put down more forcefully.

Now, my cells flowed like water into their places. They reassimilated into a new and impressive form. The tool that I would need to have a chance of escaping. I had to go up and simple methane balloons were not going to cut after their previous failure. I had enacted a design to go higher.

Seraph wasn't a problem that I could crawl away from or hide in the dirt. I needed a new vantage. I needed to have the high-ground...

Looking more like a machine than any organic structure, my new body stretched into the sky. Its black glossy outside was carbon fiber, as were its engines. Finally, my guts filled with liquid hydrogen. None of it would have been possible without the lessons that Crystal had taught me. And, in the end, the designs were not half as complicated as the cellular machinery I had already devised.

Five minutes remained.

With a spark, I ignited. Onward, to the heavens.