You know that dream where you are unable to move, and the world is passing around you? You know, where you can see what’s going on all around, but any action, even breathing, seems to be restricted and impossible?

This was not that dream. Then again, few people have spent as long locked in a glass cage as I have. It was similar to that, but unlike the dream, I was acutely aware of every motion, getting tucked into a small bag that cut off my sight. I couldn’t actually feel any motions or much of anything, really, but I knew I was being moved. Strangely, though I was rather calm about the whole thing. I felt a little bad about what I was going to do to Akiko’s brother once I escaped, but at least he wouldn’t be doomed to turn into a Ghul… or much of anything but fertilizer.

Mostly I felt bad for Akiko, though. She cared about Chikau enough to call on a favor and offer almost anything for him to be healed. After I disassembled him as small as possible without using a microscope, she was really going to hate me. It couldn’t be helped, but it would be disappointing, I just hoped there was a way to stop her from attacking me before one or both of us were dead.

I was pretty bored. I have a long history with boredom, and was half-meditating on potential potions as well as working with my ability to analyze, hoping that perhaps I could improve my perception while I was stuck here. What had happened was clearly some sort of magic and not a regular meta ability. I didn’t think I was actually dead, but my contact with the outside world was very limited. I had no idea if I was stuck here permanently as some kind of spirit, or if I would be returned to my body. Even having to pee would be better than not feeling anything.

I did feel vibrations, though, which made me think I wasn’t dead. After some concentration, I realized that those vibrations were actually sounds, and a little more time made me realize that with concentration, I could understand them. My Japanese was not so hot, but I could more or less make it out.

We moved farther in. I could feel a great weight over me, as if the entire earth were pressing down, and realized we were in some kind of a tunnel. We were moving fast, but not like a subway or vehicle. The bouncing was probably coming from very quick running.

I heard a mumbled conversation too quick to pick up, and then a door opened, followed by another, and then another. Quite a few doors later, as well as the shushing sounds of Japanese screens getting pushed out of the way, we were apparently at the end of the road, as the movement ceased for now.

There were several shouts of disbelief. Apparently, Ghul venom was supposed to be pretty hard to cure. It hadn’t been that rough but based on the conversations, whoever Chakau had brought me to was not particularly bright.

There was a bit of murmuring, again too low for me to understand, and suddenly I could see again! I almost wished I couldn’t. I was surrounded by some of the ugliest creatures I had ever had the misfortune of meeting. Most of them had two eyes, but more than a few, including one grossly fat fellow sitting on a tiger fur on top of some sort of Dais that I had to assume was the Shuten-Doji, had a third eye on their bulbous foreheads. Their bodies were muscular, and a few, including the leader, were wearing pelts resembling loincloths, which I had to assume were traditional since many were also wearing much more modern attire such as suits.

I noticed I was being held by a fox standing on its hind legs. It was really weird because my prison seemed to be held at a natural height for a human, while at the same time the fox seemed… well… fox-sized. I would claim it was an optical illusion, but right now I was dealing with much stranger things, like the feeling I was there without the ability to detect my own body.

I started to concentrate, trying to stretch, trying to remember what it felt like as each muscle tightened, and the fox let out a humanlike gasp as my point of view started to wobble a bit. It was taking energy, and I would soon be exhausted, but it was the closest thing to fighting against the restraint I could accomplish.

The fox exclaimed. I didn’t exactly understand how he could talk, but he seemed to be doing so and continuing to balance on his hind legs. I shifted from stretching to imagining my hands stretching out to wrap around the beast’s throat and pumped all of my remaining energy into it.

With a gulp, my prison was dropped to the floor, the clatters straining through my prison. If I had the energy left, still, I think I could have used the shocks to shatter this place, but after the supreme effort I had expended, I simply couldn’t. The fox stepped back, its hand against its throat, and I realized gleefully that I seemed to have some minor effect on the world outside.

My ability to melt things was still unavailable, or else I would have been either free or dead already. I noticed, though, that my energy was slowly returning, thank goodness for small favors.

Asked the ugly creature on the almost throne,

The fox shrugged a little, leaving me on the floor.

Chikau said,

I noted that the fox seemed to be laying it on a little thick, but the white-skinned, twisted-limbed giant in front of me looked like he was eating it up. My energy was almost recharged at this point, and I prepared myself to do the utmost when I had a chance, but the white-skinned figure waved at my location,

A red-skinned, two-eyed beast with jewels mounted into his horns leaned over and picked up my prison. It was stupid, but I was getting a bit desperate and poured most of my power into imagining I was biting its disgusting hand off. With a cry, the hand separated from the wrist in a gush of purple blood, and my prison hit the floor again. As it did so I tried to pour my power into stretching and breaking the damned thing, but again I was thwarted, although it felt like it might be weakening.

The red-skinned monstrosity shut his mouth, and I swear it looked ashamed as it reached down, grabbed its own hand, and stuck it back on where it was severed from his wrist. After a moment the severed tendons reattached and skin grew back, and it picked up my prison again, where I was a bit too drained to make a second attempt, and carried it over to the big one. I felt like a fool for not creating a freedom pill that worked when I felt truly trapped, but hindsight was 20/20.

ǽmon or even a marid, but we accept this offering and will permit your clan to continue to exist. Now go.>

The fox shot out of the room like his tail was on fire, abandoning the pretense of standing on his hind legs in his haste to get the hell out of dodge. It was interesting to note that Chikau was not only a traitorous little worm, but a coward to boot. I was expecting more from someone who was willing to sneak into these creatures’ stronghold in an attempt to steal some kind of artifact, but I should not have been surprised.

The white beast slipped the ring containing my prison on his finger, and I tried to use my power to tear off his finger. It had little effect, this time, and I supposed this Shuten-Doji was considerably more powerful than the red one. The room was filled with dozens of beasts of all colors, blue, black, red, green, and yellow, but the leader was the only one that was white.

The thing spoke to me.

***

From my limited knowledge of Japanese mythology, I had to assume that these were oni or Japanese ogres. Old Dungeons and Dragons players would call them ogre magi, but based on the regeneration I would call them more akin to trolls. Magically, most of them didn’t seem to be doing anything weird, but the big one was able to fight off my imprisoned influence.

I still had no idea how this was possible. I had to assume that my mass had been moved into the dark space, but how was I still here? I could tell that the ring was my prison, but my point of view was as if I were standing with the ring somewhere around my heart. Covering the ring or dropping it into a container cut off my view, but I didn’t know if it was because the ring was cut off from the world, or a special sort of bag he had dropped me into.

It had been three days, or at least I assume it had been three days, trapped on this monster’s finger like a bauble. I was still occasionally straining at my prison, and I was getting more facile at probing the weaknesses. I didn’t have any real range beyond what I could normally reach with my hands, but I was considering trying to pull silverware or something into my current jailer in hopes he would let go long enough to shatter this thing against the stone floor.

Yesterday he had let me out. It had taken two seconds for me to pull the flask from my jacket, throw the coat off, and drink enough to allow Hyde free. I had managed to smash two of the lesser Oni into a paste, but the laughing Shuten-Doji had imprisoned me in the ring again, grumbling about what an inferior vessel it was.

He had said, holding up the ring.

While I was on his finger, he was able to keep me from flexing my power too strongly. After the shift to Hyde, I realized that at the current moment, escape was pointless. Recapture would be inevitable, as I didn’t have the ability to teleport like Vectress and there were simply too many of the creatures, each of which had at least class D strength, with Shuten-Doji being at least class C and possibly closer to class B.

Humans were bringing food into the hall, and setting up tables. They looked to be in really bad shape, beaten down and in rags. The way they were treated, I assumed that they were probably replaced when they were unable to perform their duties rather than kept in good shape, and this was confirmed when two of the Oni brought in the main dish.

I understand that wishing for the complete annihilation of a species was some sort of war crime. But the moment I saw the small bodies decorated with garnishes and surrounded by mounds of rice, I decided that genocide was not only an option but a mandate.

My fury built, and I couldn’t contain it. A power I tapped, a righteous rage. Hyde would not be strong enough. I had seen what they can do. I didn’t know what I could do, but something in my prison was blocking me. Instead of using it immediately, however, I simply let it grow.

Perhaps it was the children’s sacrifice. Perhaps it was my sacrifice being trapped in the prison, but I could feel the aching echo of power building along what would normally have been my body. Call it stewing, but I knew that the next time I broke free I would be prepared, and would not be overpowered. Maybe I would die, but I wasn’t going to do anything to help these abominations.

I was utterly disgusted by the feasting of these creatures. Not just because of the cannibalism, but they ate like… well… ogres.

The doors at the end of the hall banged open, and two new ogres walked in, with a small, feminine figure wearing a brown hood with her hands tied behind her back between them. She was dressed, not in the old-school Asian attire I would have expected, but in a modern, button-top loose white kaftan, stretch blue jeans, and a pair of black sneakers. Called one of the red-skinned, two-eyed ogres,

With a flourish, the redskin yanked off the hood. I didn’t really know who to expect, but to my shock, a shock that made my ring tremble against the Shuten-Doji’s hand, the hood getting yanked off forced Antonia’s head to one side slightly as her face was revealed.

To my disgust, the Shuten-Doji’s grin widened as he peered down at my prison.

In moments I felt like I unfolded from the ring. There were flasks of saki scattered around the tables, my armored top was somewhat damaged from my prior attempt to resist, and I was missing my jacket, but my anger only grew as I found myself standing in front of the enormous creature.

I said in English, “Get to the point, troll. What do you want in exchange for releasing her?” I didn’t move, not even to straighten my hat, since the now human-looking ogre was poised with a Naginata over her. I had to assume that while I was imprisoned in the gem, certain illusions simply didn’t affect me. It looked like a gathering of humans, and even the Shuten-Doji looked like a large, handsome Japanese man. The feast had changed its appearance as well, looking like roasted pigs instead of what it really was.

“So impatient. Come, allow us to fete you in style, Alchemyst. Yes, we know your identity, just as we know you are a Marid. I have heard of the three boons you granted the American DMA. Reserve your anger, we did not capture you, we simply wished to negotiate for your favor as civilized creatures. You have made your strength known, and we have defeated you in combat. We will accept your bond. Do we have your bond so that the human woman you clearly care for can be released to join us?”

I scowled at him. I wasn’t sure what this bond was, but I wasn’t about to see Antonia decapitated. She was strong and had kinetic control, but I didn’t know enough about her powers to know if they would protect her. She was here, and bound, so I didn’t want to take any risks. “Very well.” I said slowly, “We will negotiate. You release her, and have your monkey back off.”

He nodded to the guards, and one of them unbound Antonia’s hands. Oddly enough, she didn’t look particularly distressed and smiled at me a little. “Hi, Louis.” She said, rubbing her wrists. “I am here to rescue you.”

“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” I asked her, and she tilted her head, looking slightly confused. Seriously? She didn’t get it. Damned woman. She needed to be educated, badly.

The boss cleared his throat noisily. “As we said, we have defeated you, and we wish to claim the three boons. Please, enjoy yourself first.”

Idiot. “No thank you. I have seen your feast as it really is. You disgust me. State what it is you wish.”

His eyes narrowed as he regarded me. “How unfortunate that you have chosen to be a slave instead of a loyal servant. Very well. We have heard of your power and your limitations. We wish to possess a substance that will escalate our power within the world. Currently, the Metahuman servants of the Japanese government are Uncomfortably strong in comparison to us. We could defeat them and reclaim our place as masters, but destroying them might cause a regrettable level of damage to our lands. We understand you are capable of creating such a substance and claim that as the first boon.”

I nodded, “You are aware that there will be a price?” I was outwardly calm, but the longer I spent outside of the ring, the stronger I felt myself becoming. I had no idea what was going on, but whatever a Marid was, I wasn’t one. I had joked about the three wishes to Kjootoo and claimed that was a limitation in order to give the DMA something to latch on to, but it was just that, a joke. I would see these bastards dead.

He nodded, “Of course. Marid are powerful, but such a boon would require more power than any Djinn has ever possessed. What sacrifices would you require in order to accomplish this?”

I thought about it for a moment. Might as well go for broke. They were convinced I was some sort of genie. Admittedly, they had somehow trapped me inside of a ring, but I didn’t feel much like Barbara Eden, and if I could get to the water I could be gone before these walking abortions could catch me. But with Antonia here, for whatever reason, I would have to come up with an alternative plan.

“It will require the sacrifice of every Oni in this mountain,” I stated. My rage growing. For some reason, I was feeling even more powerful than ever, as if there were sacrifices going on right this moment for some reason. It was sickening but odd. When I had been in here moments before, there had been a number of Oni walking around in a sort of gallery at the top of the hall, carrying automatic weapons, but now there appeared to be none.

The big man laughed. “Do not try to be clever. You are ill-equipped. I can feel your power, but also your youth. Perhaps we shall sacrifice that human you seem strangely attached to. It is an unseemly attachment anyway, why should a Marid, or any of the Djinn, care in the slightest for a human? You do not even need to feed on them like a vampire.”

He waved at the Naginata wielder, who looked at him strangely. After a moment, the boss raised his eyebrow and said

I started to lunge towards the Naginata-wielder but he.. nodded? And kept nodding until his head fell onto the floor with a thump, followed in a moment by his decapitated body. The Naginata, however, swung forward as he fell, striking Antonia in the back, the weight of the slashing weapon staggering her and pushing her a step towards me.

No! Antonia was mine! My rage spilled out and filled me, a huge influx of power ripping through me unconsciously. Unlike my Hyde transformation, I grew almost a foot but did not lose my mental facility or fill out like a warp spasm.

I was strangely calm, as if all the rage within me, the fear for Antonia, the hatred of the beasts that surrounded me, and my possessiveness, were just facets of what was going on. Something that fueled but did not control my actions. Everything appeared to be slowed down, and I analyzed myself.

Louis Albert McCarthy

Parahuman 63% Class C (S)

Aspects: body

Power: 256 (211)

Conditions: Extreme fitness, True Form

Projected Lifespan: ??? Current Age: 27

Enraged, empowered, adrenaline rush

Powers: concoct, analyze, improved endurance, freedom(2), improved strength, improved durability, regeneration, mending, true form, liquify(3)

no current abnormal infections

63%? What the hell? True form? It didn’t seem to have a trigger like the freedom pills did, and I had no idea how I was now class C. I reached out towards the closest Oni, who again looked like his true self, a sickly-green horned figure with three eyes, and grabbed his head, hoping to have some effect from melting a bigger chunk.

I melted a bigger chunk alright, as the entire body seemed to turn translucent and then splash to the ground in a wave of sickly green slime.

I looked down at myself and realized I was as tall as Sif. The reason I knew this was because she was standing behind the now-decapitated Ogre, a long spear with an even longer blade than the naginata on the ground, staring at me with both her mouth and eyes wide open in shock. Beside her, wielding her bloody sword, was Kyokudai.

I suppose I was able, again, to see through the illusions cloaking the monsters and their grisly feast. I stepped towards Antonia, and that seemed to break the momentarily shocked stalemate. She was hauling herself back to her feet, and I realized that she had absorbed the kinetic energy from the blow. The back of her blouse was torn, but beneath, her skin was still pale and perfect.

I felt a blow against my hip, and sudden pain as I realized I was struck by several bullets, one of which had avoided the armored plates on my leg. It had barely penetrated, but blood was oozing around the plate from my leg, and reflexively I swept out a huge black wing that slapped the Oni hard enough to smash it against a wall. By smash, I mean that the back of his head caved against the wall, blood and gore erupted from his mouth, and half of his body was instantly flattened as his entire skeleton collapsed with the impact that not only left splashes of blood but a trickle of broken stone from the surface of the wall itself.

Shuten-Doji yelled, tugging something that looked like a Katana, if it was about half again as large as usual and studded with rings along the backside of the blade, out from under the dais he sat upon.

I had very large wings sprouting from just below my shoulder blades, colored rich variegated ebony that had a first joint that was almost down to my knees, a humerus secondary segment that reached almost over my head, and then another joint with a metacarpus that was vastly longer, nearly my entire height from head to knees. At the very end, a scapular folded the primaries back upwards along the entire six-foot length, and I realized that I could lash the wings outwards incredibly quickly, each wing extending over twenty-five feet outwards faster than the eye could blink.

I didn’t know what the feathers were made of, but I was strong enough that they had barely stirred as the secondaries alone had tossed a monster like the Oni hard enough against a wall to smash it. Whatever they were made of was incredibly strong, and while the wing’s inner surface seemed softer and somewhat fluffed, the leading edges of the primaries, tucked behind my back, seemed to be wickedly sharp, especially when I slashed the left wing outwards at full extension, and the primaries cut two of the monsters in half, shearing through flesh and bone with almost equal ease.

The action seemed to get things going as Antonia sprang from her crouched position, fists clenched together hitting another one of the creatures and sending it flying with incredible force, hitting a second one and knocking them both down. Sif was now fighting two of the creatures, while Akiko was stealthily drifting towards the Shuten-Doji, occasionally stepping out to decapitate an Oni that was not looking at her.

I suppose she didn’t approve of her brother's treachery, showing up to help like this, but was trying to make up for it with a rescue. I was quickly adapting to the wings and shot them out to slash through several of the guards brutally. Fortunately, the wings were black, so the nasty purple blood didn’t seem to be visibly staining them. The Shuten-Doji, however, was not going to stand idly by while I slaughtered his soldiers, and came charging towards me with his sword to his side ready for a classic cross-cut.

I flicked a wing in his direction faster than the eye could follow, but surprisingly he deflected it, without any damage to the blade. A shimmer of gold followed the blade, leaving almost an echo behind, as he leaped into the air, bringing the sword in an arcing curve right towards my head while he screamed a Kiai.

I tucked the wings in front of me, the primaries curving up as the scapulars twitched, and felt a painful impact against my wings as the sword struck. It didn’t seem to penetrate my primaries, however, and I was able to keep the wings curled in front of me defensively while I peered around them to keep an eye on my opponent. His strikes were definitely too strong for my wing alone to deflect, and so I pushed my hands out to brace my primaries with each blow he struck.

Akiko became visible again as she thrust her sword deeply into the Shuten-Doji’s back, curving upwards beneath his rib cage to catch his heart from behind, but the blow, while it made him roar in pain, did not seem to slow him down much. A moment later a spear was thrust into his hip and withdrawn, and suddenly the Shuten-Doji grinned, stepping back against Akiko’s sword, the tip pressing out of his chest as he spun and shattered it in her hands.

With a spinning strike, He dropped his guard, the golden glow from his sword intensifying. The blade spun under Akiko’s guarded, broken blade and seemed to slash halfway through her torso before the glowing sweep of metal plunged towards me.

I shot my left wing out as fast as I could, trying to hit his neck, and succeeded, his head flying off as his weapon struck my right primaries. I felt an incredible burst of pain as the golden glow struck my scapular instead of the hardened primaries, severing it and sending half of my wing dropping towards the floor, as well as passing through the hand that was bracing it, the edge splitting my hand in half, sending my middle finger, index, and thumb flying away in a bright sparkle of blood and cutting away half of my wrist.

The pain was horrible. I had had my hands maimed before, but the wing? That was a new feeling that I had never felt before, and I had no experience with it being damaged. The pain was rocketing up my back and it felt like half my shoulder blade had been stripped away.

“The head…” Akiko whispered as I folded myself over her damaged form. I would heal. I couldn’t put the pain aside, but it would heal. I only had one hand, though, and so I started screaming for someone to give her a potion. Any potion. I had several of them still inside my dispenser pouch, but I couldn’t get to them and keep Akiko from falling apart at the same time.

The energy started spilling away from me, “Come on Akiko,” I said, as I felt someone’s hands fumbling at my pouch. Sif’s spear was impaling the Shuten-Doji’s head, simply sticking into the floor, and the damned thing was still bouncing up and down on the blade, its jaws gnashing.

She gasped again, clenching her teeth and closing her eyes for a moment while my only useful hand pressed against her side, trying to keep her together. More energy began flowing from me into her, and I felt almost like something was detaching from me. My entire focus narrowed to Akiko’s half-concealed face, and then to her eyes, and then I felt myself fading as I watched the beautiful, tear-filled orbs.