[Vfw-times] Story : Figment, Part 4

[Hedonism]

Figment, By Hedonism

Bet That Hits the Spot II

PART 4

Synopsis : Rebecca has kept her best friend with her since childhood,
despite knowing full well that this friend is just an imaginary one she
never had the heart to forget with maturity. Putting up with this minor
psychological trait, she got on with life. Until after an attack from two
vicious gangs, the friend she knew damn well was just made up turned out to
be quite real, and capable of giving her ass-kicking transformational
powers.

At the moment, she's using the aforementioned powers on a monster who she
saw advancing on a lone policeman at an otherwise unoccupied car park.
The lizardwoman wrenched her limbs free of the wreckage that was the van's
front, which had molded around her body with the force of the throw, and
flipped to her feet. The monster was walking towards them, with intent and
hunger in it's eyes.

: My chest stings. Why? : asked Rebecca to Hedonism.

: Three broken ribs. Oh, and a broken arm :

: Really? But why doesn't it hurt? And how the hell can we take him on with
a broken arm? :

: I've toned down your pain sensations. And besides, I've healed the damage
already. :

As the creature drew closer, she leapt backwards into the air and onto the
van roof.

: The creature's a lot stronger than I am. But I think I'm a lot more
skillful. So, plan B or plan R? :

: What? : asked Rebecca.

: B for Beat him up? Or R for Run away. :

: Can we reason with it? :

: It's mind is pretty complex, but I can tell he's very, very vicious. He
loves to kill and he wants to kill everything. :

: I don't want him running free! That copper will only be the start! Plan B
it is! :

: Atta girl! :

That copper pulled backwards into the steel gulley he had been trapped in
before, but not too far in as to miss the fight.

Hedonism / Rebecca leapt off the van roof, her body a green blur. She threw
out a swinging kick and her talon slammed into the beast's toothsome mouth,
flicking it's head back. Her tail followed, the heavy limb connecting with
it's chest. The thing grunted and staggered backwards a few feet. Then it
looked up balefully at the flying reptile and squatted down, snarled and
leapt into the air.

: Aww hell. :

Her body folded around his hurtling form and he bounced her off the
reinforced car park roof. She crashed to the ground a few feet away from
him, panted desperately, then curled up and backflipped to her feet. The
monster charged forward and swung a punch with all his strength, a slow but
immensely powerful hammer of force that Hedonism sidestepped smoothly. She
grabbed the fist and pulled it backwards, and the already overbalanced
entity found itself lunging over the top of the lizard as she rolled
backwards on the floor, brought up her feet and pushed with all her strength
at it's stomach. Roaring gutturally, it flew into the already stricken van
and slammed it's head against and through the radiator.

Hedonism flapped out her wings, and watched the broken sail-struts click
back into place and heal completely. She loomed with satisfaction over the
hunched up form, it's head surrounded by wreckage and antifreeze-tinted
water. Until it screamed with vengeance and stood up, a deep gash across
it's muzzle sealing itself.

: Damn. my scan didn't pick up that it could also regenerate! :

: Hed! We have no choice! Plan K! :

: Yes. Yes, Plan K! :

Rebecca felt the perfectly aligned teeth in her mouth suddenly lengthen by
several inches, and hook viciously. She extended her scaly fingers, and the
nails slid forwards like multiple flick knives in a dreadful slow motion,
until each were nearly a foot long. Her talon claws followed suit, while her
lithe tail sprouted a long, curved dagger-like blade at it's tip. Her
ankles, knees and elbow bones extended, pulled out of her skin and sharpened
into ghostly white horns. And her spine and tail evolved a deadly row of
nail-like spikes.

: Bitchin'! :

: Rebs! :

: Sorry! :

Rebecca never felt so well merged with Hedonism. She now knew that the
parasite got her power from the emotions she fed off; both the emotions from
Rebecca herself, and from the feelings that travelled through the air from
others. The beast gave off an enormous, twenty-course meal of battle-lust.
It delighted in the pain and injury it was receiving, and wanted to dish out
all the pain and injury it could. The policeman was emanating fear and
panic, pretty much as expected.

Eager to try on this newly evolved enemy, the monster swept towards her and
hooked around both claws at the same time, open-palmed. Hed pulled her legs
out from underneath herself and dissapeared downwards, but it still managed
to sever a couple of snakes from her head. Rebs felt a sudden sensation of
anger from above her, and as she hooked up and raked down it's thigh with
her foot claws, the rest of the snakes struck and bit into it's leathery,
furry groin.

The monster looked down, then twisted to it's side, and powerslammed the
reptile trapped under it, elbow first. Hed knew she wouldn't get out of the
way in time, but did get the chance to whip around her tail.

Her enemy looked confused. It's lower body was completely paralyzed, either
due to the multiple snakebites, or possibly the twelve inch tailspike
protruding wetly out of it's back. Still, the lizard wasn't going anywhere,
having been crushed under it. It opened it's mouth wide, teeth dripping
saliva, grabbed her head and chest, then plunged it's teeth down into her
neck.

: Hey! That stings! :

Mindful that her windpipe and quite a lot of other important looking tubes
were now hanging around where they shouldn't be, she looped around the rest
of her neck until she was looking at the back of it's head, and bit deep
into furry flesh and bone. It's arms flailed free, and tried to reach for
her. She took advantage of his sudden loss of grip to kick him off, and
rolled upright again.

Hedonism grabbed the offending dangly bits at her neck, and pushed them back
into the wound. Within seconds, she was breathing, and the Rebs part of her
felt more than a little thankful for instant healing. Aching sensations all
over her body petered out as broken bones melted and reformed whole. Two
scaly stumps atop her head grew serpents again, and she sensed a feeling of
contentment from her scalp.

The monster slowly got back to his feet, at first swaying clumsily, then
standing upright and strong. The wound disappeared as it's furry skin
emotionally embraced and merged over the top of the hole.

: Rebs. I can't keep healing injuries like that. That thing's giving off all
the energy I need to regenerate, but I also gotta have a load of chemicals
and raw materials to replace the stuff I use up. But that thing's just as
good now as it has ever been! If this keeps up, we'll lose! :

: Then everyone'll lose. Agh. Any suggestions? :

: No. Yes! :

Hedonism suddenly broke into a run, under the parasite's control. Rebs let
her make escape, reluctantly, but spared a concerned look via some of the
snakes to the policeman she was leaving alone. Fortunately. in a way. the
creature ran after her instead of turning it's attention to him. The
lizardwoman's animal legs were powerful, but the leathery limbs of the
monster pistoned with equal strength. She stopped at Reb's hidden clothes
pile, and grabbed one of the tins of Trak-Lite.

: What? :

Rebecca felt control of their shared body return to her, with the exception
of her left claw, curled around the can of foul tasting soda.

: Rebs, keep him busy! I gotta get upto something :

: You bet I will! :

One hand down, need a weapon, she thought. Now much more capable of
understanding what her new body was capable of, she hooked her tail around a
nearby sign, and with a grating slash cut through it's steel support. The
beast slowed from it's run to a stop as Rebecca picked up the resulting
eight foot long steel bar, retracted her claws and twirled around the sign
as if it were a baton. She stalked forwards and continued the colourful
display by swinging the mass of metal repeatedly into the monster's head,
each time making an unpleasant clanging sound. It sagged to the side, and
the lizardwoman darted out a flurry of twirling stabs, smashes and bashes
from both ends of the bar all over her assailant.
As the hits landed, Rebecca felt the mixed, intense aura of anger,
excitement and pained delight from the monster get sucked into her, then
into the can. Her parasite was transforming it's contents.

: What are you _doing_ ? :

: Rebs, this drink. It's horrible isn't it. Really strong, really potent.:

: Yeah, so? I'm starting to feel weak. :

The monster pulled back. Every time it tried to get close, the twirling
length of metal swatted at him.

: Oh, that's cos you're running out of chemicals, and I'm putting all our
energy into the drink. :

: What? But it's an energy drink! Isn't it strong enough? :

: Just keep thinking about that stuff tastes. Really strong? :

: You betyah. :

She felt her own emotions streaming into the can, which _thumped_ . Then
pulsed like a heart, slightly expanded then sucked in all the heat from
around itself, freezing her hand to it's sub-zero sides..

The monster stepped backwards, then turned around and stomped away.

: It's okay, I think it's . had. enough. :

It bent down and embraced the bonnet of a car. Then it's arms constricted in
a bear hug, and crushed, and crushed. Finally able to get it's arms fully
around the compressed, mangled front, it lifted the whole thing into the air
with ease.

A great shadow loomed over Hedonism. She dropped the dented signpost, and
before even she knew it, she had leapt backwards half an instant before the
massive, makeshift club slammed down wheels first, crushing the front of
another car while it's rear flipped ten foot into the air. Snarling with
shock and anger, she landed, bit into the ground with her foot talons and
rushed forwards, slamming into the car and shunting it over the monster.

There was a series of muffled growls from underneath the vehicle, then it
suddenly pinwheeled away from the creature, minus a wheel. Rebecca dodged
away from the wreckage as it flipped towards her, then was intercepted by
the wheel as it spun into her at over four hundred miles an hour.

Rebecca flew backwards, hanging off the tyre, limp like a rag, until it
pounded her into a concrete pillar. She slumped down, her back resting
against it's clammy surface. She was stinging all over, practically every
bone had been broken, and there was a sort-of slowness everywhere. She knew
with a deep, disturbed certainty that it was too extensive to heal with her
depleted resources.

The monster hoisted the car-club into the air again, and glass, steel and
petrol rained from it's stricken body. It roared with victory and feral
hatred, and charged towards Rebecca.

: Hed! I can't move my legs! I know we won't survive this! No more
chemicals, no more energy. :

: Yes there is. And it's where it counts. :

Rebecca watched her left hand raise slowly. The beast held the car as if it
was a caber, and ran forwards with the intention of tossing it like one. A
claw hooked the ringpull and levered it.

: Hed, you could have done with squirting that stuff in it's face a bit
earlier- :

An incandescent second occurred. A cone of pure, blinding strawberry
brightness blasted out of the can, the kickback pinning Hed's arm to the
pillar, and the business end of it buried itself hungrily into the monster's
chest and stomach.

The thing flew backwards as if it had been hit by a speeding train, and
slapped into the cement wall. The car it wielded crashed down into the path
of the blast and exploded violently. As the glowing energy bolt cut off, the
beast looked down at a twelve inch diameter hole in it's torso. It twitched
awkwardly, and lay still. The wound around the hole, baked into a cauterized
solidity by the plasmic heat, showed no sign of healing.

Hed stood up. Then fell down again. And crawled towards the police officer,
still gripping the Tek-Lite can. He stood up, and backed between the cars
again, waving his hands wildly.
"What do you want with me!"

Rebecca croaked, and decided to get what little resources she had left into
getting her lungs and vocal chords working again.

: Oh, no. Again? : asked Hedonism with sullen horror. The monster staggered
towards them, fell to it's knees, and continued in it's journey in a crawl.
Soot fell gently from the hole in it's chest.

"Co. Cohhper! Get awway now, while the monssster's weak!" shouted hedonism
desperately.

"You. Get away, now! I'll keep the bitch occupied!" shouted the monster,
desperately.

There was a moment of enlightened silence. Then the sound of two pennies
dropping.

"I, was protecting him from you!" shrieked Rebecca.

"No, you attacked me, then went for him!"

"Don't give me that! You love killing things!"

"How the hell do you know that? Anyway, yes, I do. That doesn't mean I _do_
kill things though!"

"And what're you doing being able to talk!?"

"Of course I can talk! Why didn't you tell me what you were doing!?"

"Why didn't _you_ !?"

"Mam?" asked the policeman as he backed out of the corner, his voice shaking
madly, yet still containing some authority. "The can. Put down the can.
Please? I think it's still loaded."

"Wha?  Oh, yes. Okay."

"So we've both been killing each other over what, exactly?"

Hedonism let the tin roll away. She looked around the wreckage, found some
random car part and started eating it. Rebecca sighed with a sort of
relieved pleasure as she felt some much needed trace elements re-enter her
system. Conversation out loud while integrated with her parasite this much
was odd - it required patience and willingness to surrender her mouth to the
other person when they had something more urgent to say.

"I knew someone who has become a policeman over in this country. I was just
going to ask if you also knew him. Then madam here came along."

"Well, yes." she said. The fearsome reptilian creature tried not to squirm
with embarrassment. "But cut me some slack, I was trying to save his life!"

The policeman's radio spluttered into life. He looked surprised at the coded
message, and started to mutter back to it discretely.

The monster picked at the hole in his chest. Hedonism scanned him again,
noted that his internal organs had regenerated around it, but his innate
abilities still couldn't break the hardened crust that the intense heat of
her weapon had created.

"May as well introduce myself. I'm. Critter Man. Who are you?"

"I'm. Well."

: Dragon Woman? Lizard Lady? : Hedonism tried not to giggle out loud.

"I'm. Well, when I think of something suitable, I'll let you know."

"You'll want to do so quickly. If the villains or the newspapers get there
first, you could end up getting called something really silly. Lizard Lady,
or something." He chuckled.

: Hey! I was starting to like that one! :

Rebecca tried to keep her very expressive reptilian face neutral. Hed took
over.

"That's quite a puncture. Do you trust me to heal you?"

It took some persuasion, but the incredibly wary monster let her put her
hands to his chest. He spasmed and writhed as she injected something into
him through her palms, and whatever it was influenced his muscles. Just as
he was about to pull away with alarm, the flesh around the hole softened,
and his voracious cells took over. He smiled, genuinely.

"Well. Thanks," he said grudgingly. "You still look really beat up. Is there
anything I can do to help?"

: Yes. Just lie there while I syphon off all those tasty chemicals and
energy you seem to regenerate so easily. Being a parasite can really have
it's uses! :

: Hed! You're pumping all that stuff into _my_ body! Ick! :

There was a giggling noise from deep within.

: And you'd best not tell him that! :

"Ahem. No, it's okay. I'll be fine. You just lie nice and still."

**********