As I walked straight for the Warehouse, I could feel the shift. Every change sent ecstatic pleasure down my spine.

I grew an extra foot taller. Wings unfurl from my back to be used as shields, they were made of the hardest material I had used yet. One hand became a blade, the other grew three-inch talons. I felt my flesh harden, my body becoming glossy black. I was ready.

My pace quickened, going from a confident stride to slow jog. Before turning into a full outrun. The ground cracked beneath my feet.

I observed the defenses of the building. Lots of ABB wandering around, all armed with firearms. A couple of trucks with larger guns mounted in the bed. On top of the building was what looked like a machine gun nest. Concrete barricades dotted the area, creating a maze for any vehicle, and creating cover for the ABB.

Finally, one of the ABB mooks looked my way. He screamed and ran away closely followed by a couple of other members. They didn't make it far, their heads exploding like cans of tomato sauce.

Everyone that didn't run started firing. My wings found themselves covering me. Lead hell rained down on me. It hit the wings doing no damage, beyond slight indents, which quickly regained their shape. My pace slowed dramatically as I was forced to walk against the continuous barrage of fire.

How was I supposed to see them with my wings in the way? I didn't have eyes, so why not just shift from where I was looking. I felt a jerk, and I was looking at a stream of bullets. I was seeing through my wings…

The ABB was backing up slowly in time with my advancement. At this rate, they would run out of ammo.

Then one of the guns on the back of the trucks began to fire. The muzzle flash was bright. I entered bullet time as I watched the huge round hit my wings. It shredded through before impacting my body. The bullet sunk a couple of inches into my body. My healing factor, instead of pushing the foreign object out, ate it.

Instantly, knowledge of the makeup of the bullet entered my library of knowledge. It was just another metal. Which disappointed me.

But now I know how I got the knowledge of all the stuff in my library. I had to consume things to turn into stuff. But wait, how did I get my understanding of the human body? Did I… eat someone? Nope, too gross to think about.

More rounds tore through my wings and into my body. The gunner had to go. My wish was soon granted as a bullet hit the ABB mook in the chest. Walis had joined the firefight.

The barrage of bullets lessened with the gunner gone.

I made it to the first concrete barrier in my way. I paused for a moment before I internally grinned. My hands shifted back into hands. Reaching down, I grabbed hold of the barricade.

My wings furled back revealing me, an eight-foot-tall demon monster holding a four thousand pound roadblock. I hefted the mass of concrete over my head. My throw was accurate, the barricade sailed through the air. It impacted the truck in the giant gun right on the hood. The car lurched up the back wheel coming off the ground. The car was going to stay like that for the foreseeable future.

Dauntless made his arrival known through as he crashed from on high like a vengeful angel, straight into the machine gun nest. I winced as one of the ABB members flew off the roof.

With all the big guns gone, I dropped the wings. They folded back into my body.

My hands went back to the blade and claw. With a single leap, I jumped right at the ABB members.

Dauntless' words echoed in my head, "don't hold back, give it everything."

With a savage grin, I rushed at an ABB member. The mook fell back tripping over a dead body. My hand lashed out, grabbing hold of the neck while the blade arm sliced his belly open. His guts spilled across the ground. I tossed him aside.

Another one joined the fallen as I ripped his head from his body. More fell as I stabbed and clawed my way through the mass of terrified gang members. Limbs were lost, and organs were removed.

One fired a shotgun at point-blank range at me. I twisted avoiding the slug entirely. Palm against the muzzle I push the gun into him. With a satisfying crunch, the gun's butt sunk into his shoulder. A blade flashed, and his head left his shoulders. I caught the head in my clawed hand, before underhanding it at another ABB.

I picked up another barricade at some point. I tossed it aside, it crushed an ABB thug, his crimson blood joining the already growing puddle on the ground under me.

There was a truck at one of the docking bays of the warehouse. A single shove from me made it go wild as it swung around, skidding over the ground. It hit a bump causing it to tip, someone screamed. Most likely crushed.

Shots rang out, but they glanced harmlessly against my nigh-invulnerable skin. More shots rang out, and the ABB died. Apparently, Walis was a crack shot.

Then came the explosion, we were fighting a bomb tinker after all. The heads of the ABB members began to explode right as I reached them.

One sprayed glass everywhere, harmless but annoying. More were just mundane explosions. Some got really exotic, turning an area to ice, turning people into mangled fleshy things.

Soon the area would be riddled with crater and not just blood and bodies.

I watched as Dauntless shield spread over him like a dome, as another ABB member's head exploded.

I ran forward, kicking an ABB thug away just as his head exploded like a blackhole. Space where his head was sucked everything around it into itself. I braced myself against the effect and weathered my way through it. The effect only lasted a few seconds before shutting off. Then everything that it had absorbed exploded outwards violently.

I was covered in blood and gore. Looking more villain than hero. But I didn't care, this needed to be done.

Another head exploded, glassing everything in a two-meter radius. I lost a leg, it was strange. Like something had just severed the bonds to my leg. I had to detach myself from the dead limb and regrow another. A short but annoying process.

Eventually, the ABB numbers began to grow thin. All of them fleeing or dead.

I paused in my what would be called massacring of the ABB. I looked at Dauntless, he looked fine. His armor was spotless except his boots. His boots while they glowed white, they were covered in blood. I looked at myself, I was worse, a mass of red.

Bodies littered the ground. Bodies missing limbs were common as were bodies that looked like they had been fried.

Dauntless rolled his shoulders, "They resisted arrest violently." He stated calmly.

I laughed, he laughed.

I looked to Walis, he was gone from the roof. Head down to us most likely.

Getting to the warehouse, I mock bowed to Dauntless, "Warehouse is yours."

Dauntless grunted, "I hope not, it has terrible property value."

I would have laughed if it wasn't thrown back by an explosion. I watched in slow motion as the red fire exploded in front of me. Dauntless' shield spreading like a dome as the fire washed over him.

I twisted my neck, a figure had just left the warehouse. Red goggles with a gas mask, but that was the most critical feature. In their hands was a modified grenade launcher.

I landed on the ground, my fingers dug into the soil, keeping me from going too far. Like a cool badass, I rose to my feet, smoke curling off my form.

I would have dismissed them as another ABB thug if not for Dauntless' words, "Bakuda!" He yelled. His voice carrying through the silence. "We have come for you! It will either be you leaving here alive or us."

Bakuda laughed her voice sound mangled through the mask. "I like to see you try!" she cocked the grenade launcher.

Another explosive flew from the barrel right at Dauntless. I watched in awe as the Hero surged forward, knocking the projectile out of the air.

The ABB cape, reloaded in record time. The grenade flew from the barrel, forcing Dauntless to bring his shield up to protect himself.

I rushed forward, ready to support my companion. Bakuda knew I was coming, she grabbed a capsule off her belt and tossed it to me. It exploded in a fine dust that eats away at everything it touched. It landed on me, immediately beginning to eat away at my body.

I stared in horror as my body disappeared before my eyes. Was this the way I would go? I fell to the ground as I lost my legs. I landed in the blood, my head sinking in a couple of inches. I lay for a couple of moments. I reached out to my body, only my head remained. Looked like I didn't need the rest. My healing factor worked overtime as it restored my body.

With a feral snarl, I rose to my feet. Dauntless was surrounded by his dome shield as some sort of ice effect ate away at it. He would hold.

Bakuda was laughing her head off. "You think you can just go prancing around my territory and get away with it?" She screamed rhetorically.

"We can and we will," I answered, standing whole again. Something that I guess Bakuda was not expecting.

The ice bomb around Dauntless dissipated. His dome shield retracting into a standard circular shield.

The bomb tinker screamed something incoherent and fired another grenade at Dauntless. The hero was blasted back. The projectile flashed an ugly green against the hero's chest as it slammed him into the ground.

My feet slammed into the ground, pulverizing everything below my feet. Bakuda pulled a grenade off her bandolier. She threw it at me, I moved to dodge, but while still in the air it exploded. It was the same type of explosive as before, fine dust raining down on me.

This time the disintegration of my body started at the top. I focused on my healing factor, forcing it to heal me faster. With half my face missing, and some of my body, the disintegration stopped. Slowly like pushing a boulder up a hill, the effect reversed, holes filled and in my face regrew.

In my hand, I materialized a disc of metal. I threw it at the villain. It spun through the air like a frisbee. Bakuda dropped to the ground, barely avoiding losing her head. Another disc was tossed, this one cut her across the upper arm, red blood spilled upon the earth.

Of course, it could only get better from there.

The demonic villain appeared in front of me. I say demonic in the sense that he wore a mask that depicted a fanged demon. The demon exploded before my eyes, good, it was a regular explosion, red hot fire and force washed over me. When the smoke cleared there, he was again, this time to my side. Once again, I was rocked by an explosion.

I spun around, there were so many. At least four demon capes that all looked the same. One threw a grenade at me, I knocked out of the air with my hand. It flew off and exploded. The other three rushed me exploding in my face.

I watched as another appeared in another place.

Ah, I knew who this was, Dauntless had told me about him after the meeting at Somer's Rock. This was Oni-Lee, a teleporter who left copies of himself behind. The copies would disappear in a little bit.

Another teleport, another copy in my face. I ignored the explosion. Instead, I focused on Oni-Lee's armaments. A knife and bombs, nothing that could seriously harm me. So as long as he didn't have any of those disintegration bombs. I needed to focus on the original or was it the new?

Another Oni-Lee appeared. I grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. He disappeared in a shower of dust.

I shifted my hand to blades, giving myself an extra reach. The suicide bomber appeared, and I cut at him, he disappeared. His teleportation was all based off what he could see right? So I just need to make it so that he couldn't see. I needed to trap him. I needed to become a trap.

Still slicing and dicing at Oni when he came for me, I sent out thin tendrils. They snaked across the ground, mapping it out. They expanded, covering the ground. I was now aware where the demon cape would teleport.

I spared a glance at Dauntless and Bakuda. The ABB tinker was keeping the hero away by launching explosives at him every time he made to advance. The Tinker only had so many bombs.

I felt Oni-lee teleport again, tendrils rose from the ground wrapping around him. I need to cover his eyes before he got away. But it was too late, I could feel the cape land in a different spot. Immediately I tried the same thing, again I wasn't fast enough.

Wait, why I was trying to trap him? Just kill him.

Next time Oni-Lee teleported he was stabbed by a four-foot-long spear that came out of the ground. The cape teleported again, he stumbled and fell. A massive hole through his abdomen.

I stalked towards the fallen cape. Gathering back the ground cover? Well, whatever it was, I gathered it all back.

I reached the cape, my large hand seized him by the neck. I rose him off the ground. The cape gurgled something at me and disappeared in a shower of dust.

Turned away heading for Bakuda and Dauntless. Oni-Lee was dead… there was no coming back from a wound like that.

I turned to Dauntless and Bakuda.

Dauntless flew through the air, not under his own power. He landed with a painful crack. My non-existent eyes flicked to Bukda. I had a choice, head for Dauntless, or kill Bakuda.

I made my choice.

I would put up a shield once I got to his body.

My feet thundered against the ground. Everything slowed. I watched in slow motion as Bakuda reload her grenade launcher. I could hear every mechanical piece in the weapon turn, and the drum rotated. Everything clicked into place, I could see her finger squeeze the trigger.

I fumbled as my foot crushed a skull. But it hardly mattered, I was so close. My arm was already expanding, forming a shield.

I was barely a meter from Dauntless when she fired.

It happened so fast. One moment she was fine and the next… there was a bullet through her mask. I could see a hole in her red goggles. Were they red before?

I had other things to worry about like whatever she had fired. The shield had grown, it spread out from my arm, ready to protect.

The plain capsule landed, it popped open.

And everything stopped.