Thoughts and emotions blurred, cast aside by Grusha’s psyche to attain absolute control of her being. Bright colors coursed through her veins, pulsating with every heartbeat of hers. From deep inside, her organ ruptured and from it uncontrolled energy damaged her from the cellular structure.

It was far too premature of her part to carelessly absorb so much energy, and now it was reaching a critical scenario. Considering the levels of damage the cascading rain of light caused, the explosion from this would be close to that level.

Looking for solutions to avoid the worst case scenario, or else it would be the end of her and everything near her. Thoughts of Aput and Lady Hammer took hold, she gritted in her mind, past debts have to be made even.

The first option she had was to repair the rupture and reinforce it with material from other parts of her body, she sent parts from her hair and began to bond the organ back together. It was a tedious attempt, and without having any experience in this aspect of her powers, it was a feeble attempt at best.

It was like trying to weave a ripped garment back together with a needle and thread, except that the garment was her organ and the thread was her bodily composite. Everytime she threaded the organ together, it ripped right through before she finished the operation. The tearing worsened and widened, the seepage was getting more dire. If her organ collapsed, that would explode her from the inside out.

Growing desperate, she tried to redivert into her quills like she had done before. All she needed to do was detach the quill from her when it was diverted and let it detonate at a distance, but that was problematic too. As soon she started to divert it, she realized that the rest of her cellular makeup was not optimized to contain that much energy even for a split second. Another problem arose, she did not have enough mass to successfully divert energy and still live. Only one other solution remained, and it was a much more forceful option to do.

Time began to speed up as she initiated her senses once again, coming back in order to accomplish what she needed to do. She awoke on her back with a worried Aput and Lady Hammer, both of them desperately trying to do what they could to find out what was going on with her. Words were muffled, as if they were shouting through water. She rolled over to her side and braced her abdomen in her arms.

Without warning, her hand dug into her stomach and latched onto the glowing organ. Ripping it out, she handed the humming organ over to Lady Hammer. Hammer dropped her weapon to the ground, it clanged loudly from the impact, and she took ginger hold of the mysterious organ.

“What... this... est?” She blurbed.

Grusha felt lightheaded, her body was shutting down from overexertion and severe internal bleeding. Words slurred together, making it difficult to listen at what was being said. The process to recognize speech - the superior temporal gyrus - was not functioning properly, a part of the body that was not necessary to dedicate attention to in order to survive.

Her body slumped to the ground, drifting away into a coma. Fighting against the urge to pass out, she needed to accomplish one last thing.

“Rid it. Explosion.” Grusha exhaled the last words with what strength she had left.

To her satisfaction, Lady Hammer comprehended what she wanted done with no doubt in her mind. Hammer turned around, taking up the posture of a baseball pitcher, she lifted a leg high up. Grusha chuckled. It was a funny sight seeing a warrior-lady in a red cape and an eagle-eared helmet bracing to pitch like a player. In a powerful swoop, she spun the leg down and moved forward a step. The earth crumbled beneath the force. She used the momentum to cartwheel forward another swing, and then hurled the glowing piece of solid flesh far into the distance of the starry night.

The light waned the further it went, and then disappeared altogether into the depth of the ocean. Not a moment too soon, a giant mushroom formed and a shockwave sent cascading winds crashing against the shoreline. Splashes of water sprayed far and wide, drenching the entire forest with a mesmerizing blue luminescent water.

Grusha could not stay awake any longer, Wildebeest took command of her body and forced it to hibernate. Only once this had happened before, many years ago. It seemed like a distant memory, her rebirth. This time, however, she was fully developed and had expended far too much energy, more so than she had ever done. Damage to her body had been extreme.

Aput called out her name, but it echoed like a distant voice across a canyon. Opening her mouth and moving lips, she tried to reassure him but no sound existed. It may have been her own hearing that also began to shut down, or it was her own voice. The processes in her mind were in conflict with her conscious and subconscious.

No. Give me a minute longer. She pleaded with herself.

Fate had other plans for her, she slipped into a deep sleep and most of her functions were set to the absolute bare minimum. Darkness completely enveloped her. It was a frightening experience, not making out the scents, sounds, taste or feel of her surroundings. She lived in darkness before, but she had not experienced such a detachment from her own mind before. Time was treacherous in this realm, she could not tell if minutes, months or years had passed for that matter.