***

Jackie’s eyes flickered alive for real this time. She felt the true gravity of siVis for the very first time.

She looked to her left, and as she turned, so much information—so much sensation in that one action. She looked to the right, and everything was taken in. Air, spatial awareness, the smell of sweat, how outright miserably calmy everything is.

And something… Something told her. Maybe herself? She told herself to glance down at her arm, seeing the “sparks” rain and cascade from it.

It was a large gash because bone rushing N’atural that successfully—while she was docile—was that hard to do. She noticed now, along with the translucent mesh of organic tuff was the very system of veins she saw. Connecting her severed pieces while still being apart.

Her eyes narrowed, focused.

Keep it together.

Stark told them that this isn’t healing, to get that idea out of their heads. She thought about how the musclestructure and skin layer was like, and her arm nearly fastened the wound—the new system that connected the two helping by moving the various layers together. Still there, but as a streak she needed to be mindful of.

But Jackie looked on, in a melancholy wince. This moment… While a moment of growth, it was never a moment she wanted. Or thought she did. She felt the emotions flush, the rage, the disappointment, the fear. But she suppressed them. There was no time.

“JACKSON! WE’RE RUNNING!”

She gauged that it was Tracy who screamed that, but… It was hard to grasp. The nervous, near squeaky tone of her voice was more desperate and rugged. She was running towards Jackie, and then pass her.

Jackie shook her head, and followed, “Where’s—What happened--?”

“River’s passed out somewhere and Aiko’s in a brick cocoon—we’ll figure it out as we go along, but we need to bait the bitch with something more than this!”

“TOO LAAATE!”

The duo looked up to see N’atural on the ceiling, and pouncing off it so hard, it left a crater.

The two… Had their reactions, Jackie faced the girl while Tracy screamed while being a deer in headlights. But they can see just how insane N’atural moved. Possibly how all siVis users moved.

It was like the girl was near-elastic, shifting about midair in angles that no human could possibly know of, let along take advantage it. She moved too fluid, to the point of every action left a smearing blur of red, green and blue after. And while the girls can understand it now—they were still powerless to stop it.

Jackie was readying her fist regardless. She knew she can never outright harm her, that she’s going to break her knuckles as soon as she makes contact.

She just needed something. A stray movement. A slip up.

N’atural, with her claws jutting forward and began opening her mouth, it was enough for Jackie to at least try.

INNATE DRIVE!

Jackie punched the side of the monster girl’s jaw, causing her to crash into the nearby wall, clearly stunned.

Jackie instantly stiffened in pain, holding her dead fist.

Tracy immediately started to run again, and Jackie followed in pain. She tuned out the urge to look at her hand and held together what was broken.

They saw a struggling Maddie, trying in vain to drag herself to the stairwell. The twisted arm in particular made the duo stop for a bit, before advancing on.

“Maddie—Maddie!” Jackie bent down and grabbed her shoulder. Immediate refusal, but non-verbal—only grunting and clear cries of pain.

Jackie’s heart dropped on that alone. She was sure Maddie was broken.

“Hate me later, but I’m gonna… I’m gonna help you,” Jackie scooped the girl up by wrapping her left arm around her midsection. It was, again, an immediate squirm and bucking away.

Tracy was the first to hear the scrapping on the floor, and started to run again. Jackie hoisted up her cargo, and started to sprint.

The girls raced up the stairs, unconsciously even using siVis to boost their speed further, but N’atural was still too fast.

So fast, she scaled the walls, crawled up them, and tore up the ceiling and pounced right in front of the girls as they made it to the bottom.

She instantly lunged forward, adjusting mid air to become more like an arrow—her beck mouth leading.

Jackie poured so much into her right arm and shoulder and ran forward.

INNATE DRIVE: SUB ABILITY!

Her body stiffened due to the power, she tackled into the girl and the explosion once again knocked her back and far that she crashed into the wall of the supposed-dance room.

Jackie hunched over, started to pant heavily, and let go of Maddie.

Who then fell on the floor, scrambling away the other direction of the stairs.

“Tracy… G-grab her,” Jackie asked. She stumbled forward into the dance room.

“Yo-you can’t fight that thing, Jackie…” Tracy said.

“I know I can’t. I’ll just buy time…”

Jackie slowly regained the energy to walk, and proceeded to haggardly step into the gym, practically looking to wear N’atural was going to step out of.

She was right on the money. The girl clawed her way into the Gym, knocking down the wall.

N’atural wiped her brow, and a shred of her golden locks—covered in debris, fell off as she did.

There was a pause, as the avian face looked down, no emotion but the body language softened.

“I’m disgusted at what I’ve become too,” Jackie tried to offer the one last branch. “It’s going to take the rest of my life to accept this stupid mistake I’ve made… We’re victims, in the end. Every single one of us.”

N’atural looked up once more. She brought her claws to the sides of her head, and grabbed clumps of her hair, tearing them off. But there was no malice, the motions were as if she was washing her hair and combing her fingers through them.

Acceptance, the word came up in Jackie’s mind.

The monster let go of those locks, letting them hit the floor at her clawed feet.

“‘We are… Who we choosssse to be…’ I never had a choicccce to begin with.”

It then reached up behind it’s barely-human head.

“Sssso I’ll choose this, to put me out of my misssery.”

Jackie closed her eyes, looking away for good measure. She heard very detail of that horrible, wet sound of N’atural taking off her scalp.

She opened her eyes, just to confirm if that was indeed the case.

A monster humanoid, starting to grow a doubled crest from it’s head was what met Jackie’s eyes.

Jackie sighed, readying her fists. “Then I have no choice… But just know—whatever’s left of you that can understand me still…? I don’t know how I’m going to fucking do it, but I’ll make sure that nothing like you will ever happen again.”

The creature opened it’s mouth—a grin? If it’s mouth was more that than beck now…?

Jackie wabbled, trying to take a stand. She couldn’t bluff that she had the energy to fight, let alone use her ability. She needed more time, a shock to her system to force her to keep going. The feelings of despair and emptiness were taking their toll. You have no choice to put everything into your punches, your life depends on it.

But when that life was already ruined…Either by you or the world itself?

Jackie charged forward anyways, wielding her left fist that wasn’t throbbing or hurt.

INNATE DRIVE!

She punched the monster and it skirted backwards due to the force. No damage once again, and it was still standing.

N’atural chuckled in a low growl, looking up at Jackie.

“You… Rely… On stun… Keep me back… And stop my attack…”

The thing is slowly losing its brain and yet it gathered that much,

Jackie lowered her own head. At least it’ll enjoy her flesh long enough to let the others escape somehow. Extant shouldn’t be that far.

Then they both turned to the sound of a roar of a motor.

River, riding a sitting lawnmower, rammed into the caught off guard beast—the chubby girl jumping off as the lawnmower kept going on of it’s own accord.

“By the way? I know it’s super serious and all, and I make references when I’m uncomfortable—but that was a really nice Shounen speech there,” River looked on at what she did.

“…S-shounen?” Jackie was still in disbelief.

“Superhero speech, I guess,” River turned to her, a gash of her own that extended past her cheek to her neck is also closed up.

“You should’ve ran, River—” Jackie tried to reason, the girl rose her hand.

“The reason I’m doing this at all is because I’m listening to the me that’s really me—the near death experience, ‘holy fuck I wanna live’ me. You said it yourself, we have to adapt.”

N’atural roared herself, tackling River with a harsh thud.

SLIPSTREAM!

River burst into smoke as soon as N’atural became to gnaw on her, leading to the beast to cough and become smothered within the stream.

Causing Jackie to use the surprise to knock N’atural down—using her ability again. This made the beast more angry, spring up and swinging wildly at the girl—even with random claw strikes, still elegant and elusive to Jackie’s awakened eyes to follow.

It took everything to dodge those swings, Jackie could feel her muscles tearing under the strain and her veins bulging out of her skin, but she nevertheless charged her fist and hit the monster square in the jaw again and blowing it back.

Jackie scanned the battlefield, it covered in smoke by River, and she hoped the girl was measuring her breathing.

N’atural, like the predator it is, prowled and then jumped up.

It raised it’s claws, and then crossed its arms into a X shape—the claws facing towards itself—all in fluid sequence.

Jackie didn’t know what that mean nor what to do, but raised her fists again and imbued her arms with energy for good measure.

As it fell, N’atural swiped forward—both of its arms creating an X-shape slash. Without hesitation, Jackie tried to perry the attack with each of her arms, and she felt them break in some way as she did that—now trying to keep it all together more than ever.

The beast fell on its feet due to the explosions, growling.

“ANNOYING…I KNOW YOU DO, AND STILL ANNOYING!”

“Not as annoying as trying to find your ride after you parked it…”

The beast turned to River, who was tangible.

“And what do you know? Someone stole it.” She then turned into a puff of smoke, her siVis call drowned out by another one.

IMMATERIAL GIRL!

As the beaten down lawnmower, Aiko drove through River and rammed straight into N’atural, jumping out herself as the thing exploded into parts on the beast, as it roared out in annoyance versus any kind of pain. Aiko rushed over to Jackie, as the girl has her arms dangling.

“Are you okay--?” Aiko asked.

“No, but I’m glad you are—had me scared, thought your ability consumed you or something…” Jackie responded.

“If only I could be your arms… Y’know I haven’t tried that, so maybe-?” Aiko pondered.

The beast roared in frustration again, rolling its head back at the ceiling primally.

before getting hit by one of the lowering basketball hoops from the uncovered ceiling.

PERSPECTIVE FLIP!

“Aw…” Tracy said almost coolly, with Maddie holding her ruined arm in tow. “I was hoping for a movie reference…”

“STUPID… ANNOYING ABILITIES… WON’T KILL ME!” the beast roared more than spoke.

“Get it through your rockhard, spotlight craving head…” Maddie held her broken arm, forcing it up near her chest. And proceeded to dig into it.

LIFE LINES!

Tears rolled down her face as she took her strings and fashioned a makeshift sling for her arm. Her voice trembled as she continued.

“We’re not here to be apart of your fucking problems. We have our own fucking problems.”

The beast just started swiping around everywhere, taking apart the hoop and so wide of swings that the smoke around her was being fanned away.

“What kind of ‘monster’ doesn’t have a kill count?” Maddie said, still twinged with emotion. “You’re halfassing this like the other things you’ve halfassed in your regrettable little life. No wonder they didn’t let you think for yourself, no wonder they dictated your whole life. You can’t survive on your own, and you know this little tantrum is easier to do than trying to actually do things on your own.”

It banged on the floor, it started to rip up the wood, machinery around it, and charged in a rage at Maddie.

The little girl simply jumped in the air before it managed to reach her, pouring everything siVis into that jump even if that meant tearing leg muscles. Maddie landed on it’s plated back, taking the pain as she wrapped her hands around its throat.

LIFE LINES!

The beast froze in panic the first time this whole encounter, as it felt its throat turn into string. Maddie leaned in, even taking the spikes digging into various areas to do it.

“By the way. Lyricists don’t sing songs.”

She thrusted herself off, falling on the floor as she groans, which would’ve been an easy target for N’atural to indulge in.

PERSPECTIVE FLIP!

The now sharp-ended wooden board pierced into N’atural’s stringy neck, lifting her up into the air for good measure as Tracy hoisted the floor up.

“If you’re so quick to die, then do it now!” Tracy screamed at her. “Just let go already and be fucking done with it!”

The beast was eerily still.

If it wasn’t for it’s now vulnerable neck slowly sliding into the board, it would’ve been motionless.

And if the girls would’ve focused, they would’ve saw its eyes dead. White.

It started to twitch.

DIE VERWANDLUNG: BüHNE DREI

“GIRLS!” Jackie screamed before she even realized what to do. “WE RUN, WE USE THE MONSTER’S RAMPAGE TO ADVANCE THE DAMAGE, AND WE SENT IT BACK DOWN WHEN WE GET UP! GO!”

The girls ran.

They raced out of the gym, and up the stairs again.

They knew they were chancing things by running on each floor, but they had to commit.

Especially since they only heard the noises behind them get progressively louder.

Thudding, smashing, screeching. A horrible, inhuman screech of pain.

But they couldn’t waver, not now.

They ran and circled around the first floor, and heard destruction stalking them.

They ran up to the second floor, and felt the debris rain down on them as they felt the screeching against their necks.

They made it up to the third floor, the swings of this monster propelled them forward because they knew if they stopped now—it would be over.

A cloud of dust covered the scene, as they raced to the stairwell, and found a single door. Aiko took hold of it, caused it to open, and ripped it off it’s hinges to act as their makeshift board. River and Tracy grabbed it despite both lacking any strength. It didn’t matter now.

Jackie was facing the dust cloud, as the others raced to the edge of the roof.

She saw the monster in shadow—twitching, screeching, and coming.

She readied her fist and thrusted it forward to meet the beast.

And like she feared, there was no stun. It just stood there, still cloaked in smoke.

But Jackie didn’t come all this way for nothing.

She did it once more, and nothing happened.

She did it again, and the monster budged a tad.

INNATE DRIVE!

She gave everything this time, and forced the monster down the flight of stairs, as the last thing she sees is it falls into something crumbling within the cloud of smoke.

Jackie fell back, but stood upright again.

She is out of energy. She feels it.

But she and she alone is willing herself to walk again.

And that she did.

She met the others near the new Rosebud, got on with the others, and proceeded to fall down onto the ground.

It protected most of them on the fall, but as Aiko popped out, they ran.

They ran from the school that was crumbling from the inside.

They ran from their certain deaths, that they somehow evaded.

They ran when they psychically and physically shouldn’t be able to, each of them having a spent daze in their eyes.

But one thing was for sure.

The path they were running, straight to Steppe Ave. to meet with Extant… Was going to be N’atural’s path in the coming hours.