User: ???

Civ: Crocodile Rock

The user is able to turn objects into stone while keeping their traits. When the user damages an object—a knife, for instance—the user can turn that object into a common rock. But when somebody touches it, they will be instantly cut since the rock still has the trait of “sharp”. If the user hits somebody with that rock, it’s as though they were hit by that object, and the effect also applies if somebody else hits the rock. If somebody touches a liquid rock, it’s as though their body has been covered in that liquid. The user is also able to stick these rocks to their own body and move them around on their surface, allowing them to create rock armour out of metals or rock weapons that cut people out of knives. Since the user can turn things into rocks and move them along their skin, they are also able to burrow through any surface by turning it into rocks and moving it past them. Turning a living being into stone doesn’t kill them, and the living creature can escape its rock form after a few seconds.

“Have you found it yet?” a new voice said to Violet—a male one that sounded slightly disturbed and more than a little panicked. Violet was pacing back and forth on her stage in frustration.

“Nero, this wouldn’t keep happening if you didn’t keep doing these fucked up ‘experiments’ with your Civ,” Violet answered, her helmet on the ground as she rubbed her temples in frustration.

“Have you found it yet?” Nero repeated, enunciating each word, pretending to ignore what Violet said.

“NO, I HAVEN’T FOUND IT YET! It got away and dug into the caverns somewhere. I don’t think my Purple Rain can reach it. Same with the assassin. I think he got away, too.”

“Perfect, Violet. I’ll tell our boss that you not only failed to capture your target but you released a deadly assassin that could come and kill us at any moment.”

“I failed? Look, just send out someone to the assassin’s house. Boss knows where he lives, right? If you like making your little fucked up nightmares so much, why don’t you hide one in his apartment?” Violet yelled before the screen projected from her eyes disappeared. Then, she heard a rumbling in the massive stone pit in front of her.

* * *

Thomas had completely lost the crocodile-dog-rock-thing. He needed a better way of referring to it in his head. He had sent a few more eyes to survey the cavern and tell him where the “rockodile” was looking for him. It had popped up on various stalagmites at random, sniffing the air each time. It didn’t seem to be getting much closer, but when it did find Thomas, he didn’t know what to do about it. Could he fight it? His legs were in terrible condition, and so he’d have to fight it while staying almost completely stationary. And if the thing could burrow, then it could just burrow under Thomas and eat him. Not ideal. And even if Thomas did manage to kill it, then how would he even get out? He couldn’t go back the way he came, and he couldn’t find another way out and just walk through it because he couldn’t walk. He could call Blair or Piotr, but they thought he was working minimum wage at a fast-food restaurant. He didn’t know how disappointed they’d be to find out that Thomas was back to being a hitman, but he’d rather not find out. Also not ideal.

Suddenly, a rock whizzed past Thomas’s face and embedded itself in a nearby stalagmite. Thomas turned his head to the left to see “Mr. Pebbles” staring at him with murderous intent in his eyes. His back was entirely covered in rock-plating armour, its back arched as it prepared to pounce on Thomas, releasing a low-guttural noise as it thought about consuming him. It probably hadn’t eaten in a while.

“Oh hello, uh, doggy? You’re a good doggy, yeah? Please no eat me,” Thomas whined in a calm tone, pulling himself away from the affront to nature, dragging his diseased legs as he attempted to keep the thing calm. It didn’t seem calm. “Uh, fetch? Fetch, yeah!” Thomas returned a phantom eye to his hand and threw it as far as he could, and made it fly a bit further, before having it touch down on the ground. Immediately the thing dove into the ground and emerged at the sight of the eye, picking it up in its mouth and diving back down, returning to Thomas.

“Okay, you seem like a bit more ‘dog’ than ‘crocodile.’ Here’s a treat for not killing me?” Thomas sent out a piece of phantom meat towards the thing’s mouth. It jumped into the air and chomped down on it, swallowing the prize with a look of satisfaction on its face. Then, it began to slowly lumber towards Thomas again. “Oh no! I gave it a taste! Oh, God, no!” Thomas held his arm in front of his face, shielding his eyes from the horrors that would soon be unleashed upon him. And it licked Thomas’s arm.

Thomas opened his eyes. The creature’s tongue was certainly serpentine, but it was licking Thomas anyway. “Oh, nice doggy?” Thomas said in a cute tone and began to hesitantly rub the beast’s chin. It immediately fell on its back. The thousand-pound beast was rolling around in the dirt. “Oh, you’re a nice doggy. Aren’t you a nice doggy!”

The beast nodded as Thomas scratched its belly. “I think I’ll name you . . . ‘Rockodile’! That sounds appropriately cool. ‘Rocky’ for short.” Rocky seemed to respond to the name, perking up its ears. “Man you’re kinda cute up close. In like a deeply disturbing kind of way, but still. Man, I knew I was going to get an animal companion someday. Now our little adventure really starts!”

* * *

Violet heard a rumbling in the massive stone pit in front of her. Then, she watched in shock and horror as the bloodthirsty, Civ-using freak of nature arose from the ground with a murderous look in its cold, reptilian eyes. Violet screamed in horror as she grabbed her heat gun, but her gaze of shock and panic turned into one of confusion as she saw what was riding the thing. “You must be DJ Violet Rain, right?” the rider asked. He was sitting on its back and holding a strange purple reign in his mouth.

“You’re that assassin, aren’t you? Stay the fuck away from that thing. It’s crazy!” Violet shouted. “And so am I! So stay the fuck away from me, too, okay!” Violet wasn’t sure who to point her gun at.

“Oh Rocky? No, he’s a sweetheart,” Thomas said, patting Rocky on the side of his head. “But I’m not. Rocky, KILL!” Thomas shouted, pointing at Violet. Rocky didn’t move. “We’ll work on that one, buddy.” Suddenly, a shot rang out from Violet’s heat gun, and a bullet—aimed at Rocky—was quickly deflected as a pillar of stone emerged from the ground. Rocky snarled, let out a guttural howl, and charged on its dog-crocodile legs. It was a bit clumsy but more than fast enough to close the distance.

“PURPLE RAIN! Protect me!” Violet shouted, holding up her arms to protect herself as the stone beast descended on her, crushing her under his massive weight before tearing into her face with his massive stone jaws.

“Good job, Rocky. Oh. Oh no. That’s unfortunate.” Thomas looked away from the horrible mess of blood and viscera as Rocky tore through Violet’s head and neck. “Oh, man. Looking away doesn’t even really help. I can still hear it, and the image is already stuck in my head. Oh WOW, I didn’t even know people had that much blood in them.” Thomas looked back to see a dazed and confused crowd of partygoers shuffle back into the mosh pit, no longer screaming in agony or attacking wildly. The Civ had been deactivated. “Um, Rocky—and I mean this with love but—you can’t ever do this again. Unless they deserve it . . . but even then, maybe just dial it back a notch.”

Thomas quickly called Helena. “Is everything all right, Thomas?” she answered. Thomas looked down at Rocky, sinking his teeth into Violet’s corpse.

“Uh, kind of. Yeah. Everything’s fine. DJ Violet Rain has been, um . . . taken care of.”

“You didn’t leave her alive did you?”

“Oh, definitely not. So, that’s one down, leaving three to go.” Thomas crossed off Violet Rain from the list projected from his Unit. Leaving “Nero” and “Koa” to go for tonight. And then he saw the name of someone he recognized.