I wake up in the middle of the night, mouth dry, probably from nomming on Ben's hair. I get up slowly, trying not to wake up Ben, he finally slept early today, well, at 10pm, but that's early for him so I'm counting that as a win!
I walk to the kitchen using the soft glowing light of the watch when I hear something fall, I see a boy going through the cabinets, he looks at me wide eyed, I feel the Corruptrix tighten around my arm painfully, even without the warning that came next, I knew what it meant.
W-Warn-ning: D-Danger-rous indiv-vid-dual.
Don't l-l-let him touch u-us, take him d-d-down!
No need to tell me twice.
I charge at him and grab him by the head with my left hand, it hurts to move that hand, Ben says I have pretty serious nerve damage on that arm, it takes a lot to move that hand at all, but that doesn't matter, not right now, I smash him down onto the floor with a loud bang, wait, Ben was sleeping, oh no.
All I needed was a full night's sleep, that's it, but I guess that's a bit too much to ask for. I wake up with a loud bang and hear Gwen growling, I turn to the side only to see that she's not in bed with me, I turn to where I heard the noise and saw something interesting. Gwen, in her underwear, grabbing a boy about my age by the head with her muscular arm while using the other to cover herself.
His head was smashed onto the floor, his forehead was bleeding and his glazed eyes told me he was just barely conscious. I sigh, we had stopped in Detroit for the night, planning to buy some supplies the next day. Of course some wannabe bad boy had to break in to cause trouble.
- Can't have shit in Detroit, not even sleep – I mutter under my breath as I walk to the fridge, grabbing a juice box for Gwen, she's always cranky when she doesn't sleep much.
As I try to tell Gwen to let him go, I see him glow with… Is that electricity? I don't have time to think as Gwen starts to scream in pain and agony, he kicks her off of him and lunges at her, grabbing the watch. I see the Corruptrix glow green, leaking energy all over the place, it might have been the lack of sleep, but I swear I heard a lady's voice screaming "Don't touch me!".
I take this chance to grab one of the dirty knives from the kitchen sink and stab him in the back, right below the ribs, blade pointed up, almost 100% chance of it getting a lung, good.
He sucks in air from the pain before headbutting me with the back of his head, I stumble back as he tries to run out, problem is, the door out is right past me. As he charges at me, I swing the dirty and bloodied knife at him, but only get a shallow cut at his chin before he pushes me out of the way and runs away.
I think of running after him for all of 2 seconds before turning to Gwen, who's whimpering on the floor, holding her left arm in pain, curled up. I quickly turn on all the Rust Bucket defenses before getting to her.
- Hey, hey, its ok girl, I'm right here, everything's fine now – I say as I kneel by her side, patting her head while checking for injuries, I can still feel electricity tingling my fingers.
I pick her up the best I can with one arm and take her back to bed, give her some pain medication (I had to up the dosage quite a bit as normal doses for humans barely have any effect on her now) and apply some soothing cream on her stomach where she was kicked. I notice the Corruptrix blinking red instead of its usual green, is it time out? No, it doesn't turn red for time out since Vilgax broke it, a dangerous alien alert like with HeatGwen and Nightmare, maybe? Just to be safe, I run a few tests on it as Gwen falls asleep cuddling her pile plushies. Nothing was broken, well, nothing that wasn't broke already, maybe that boy's energy discharge set up some safety setting I didn't know about.
Regardless, I turn on the RV and move it to a park it on a parking lot close to a police station. I sigh deeply, grandpa's drinking cabinet's been getting more and more tempting lately.
I spent the rest of that night chugging energy drinks and working or rewriting some of the code for the watch, specifically user focused commands.
Gwen wakes up around 8am, her hair messy and covering her face, she grunts and groans as her bones crackle and pop out of and back in place as she stretches, I hear the watch make noises as the dial turns, as if it was also waking up. I can hear Gwen mumble something as she grabs a 3-liter jug of milk and a whole box of cereal, dumping both in a large bowl, cereal first. She sits by my side, leaning against me as the turns on the tv, we stay like that most of the morning, her watching cartoon while eating, while I work on the watch. We don't talk about yesterday, it's better like this.
At around 1pm we're ready to go out. Gwen's wearing a long, dark blue dress with flower prints all over it, as well as a white/gray jacket and white slippers. I'm wearing a dark grey hoodie and green shorts, as well as my usual black and white shoes, for once I have my hair tied back (Mostly at Gwen's insistence and her want to play with my hair).
Usually Gwen would be humming happily, without a care in the world, this time tho, she's holding my hand like I'll disappear at any moment, looking around as if waiting to be ambushed. I just sigh and pull her closer, arm around her waist. That idiot probably wouldn't try attacking us in public, and even if he did, well, no one needs to know that I stuffed my hoodie with modded Plumber tools.
After buying some food and clothes for Gwen, we decide to walk around for a bit, check more stores and eat some junk food, Gwen was starting to open up and calm down, even the cute snort laugh she'd be embarrassed of and cover up before all this showed up while watching some street performers.
The Sun had already set down, the street lights slowly turned on as we walked on a main street. Suddenly I hear the crackling of fire behind us, I can't even turn around as Gwen's arm wraps around me, ripping and stretching as crystals rip out from under her skin, I barely register the apparent fireball exploding against Gwen's now diamond covered left arm, her face contorting in mute pain and agony as a crystal mask covers the left side of her face.
Why? Who? Who would dare hurt MY Gwen?! I turn to where the fireball came from, my eyes narrow as what looks like a mutated Pyronite roars at us. I notice people screaming and running away, I don't care, this fucker just signed his death certificate.
How dare they, I just wanted some food, maybe steal some stuff, and they attack me out of nowhere! They had more than enough to share! The guy looked no older than me, but her had the balls to fucking stab me!
I suck in a pained breath, I knew the knife cut my lung, I bet that bastard aimed for it on purpose! I punch the wall in frustration as I limp away, not noticing the hole in the wall I had punched, or the melting concrete under my every step.
Hours later I find their RV, parked in from of a Walmart, I see them carrying loads and loads of food, are you telling me some nobodies living on their own not only have a car, a home, but also enough money to buy a buffet?! How the fuck is that fair?! Where is MY home?! Where is MY buffet?!
I don't notice as my skin starts burning, my body grows, heated stones cover my body, sticking to my skin painfully as my body burns and melts, hair lights up in flames as I start walking up to them, payback time.
I hear people gasp and scream in shock and horror, I ignore them, this power I'm feeling right now, I can do whatever I want with it! I can own this whole damn city! My jaw hangs open as all my face muscles melt and I can only groan. I pull my hand back and throw it forward, a fireball flies directly at the back of that brat's head. He's as good as gone, the girl's next~.
- Rashield! – I yell, pointing my index and middle fingers forward, almost instantly a massive slab of crystal appears in front of us, stopping a few more fireballs coming for us.
- I'm… A Mamodo? – I hear Gwen ask, tilting her head cutely to the side.
- Hey, it worked, didn't it? – I pat her head and chuckle.
I hear the Pyronite running toward us, I quickly tell Gwen to grab him and smash him onto the floor, she quickly spins on her needle-like feet, grabbing the alien with her massive left arm and slamming him on the ground, making a small crater.
I hear the alien roar loudly and start heating up, I try telling Gwen to let go of him, but her hand explodes before she can, shooting sharp shards all over the place, I was safe behind the shield Gwen made earlier, but I could see many people on the floor, some dead as the shards had been shot straight through their heads or hearts.
Gwen's one visible eye is open wide as tears flow non-stop, the muscles and bones above her now destroyed hand is fully exposed from under the crystal covering her arm as she lays on the floor.
I quickly unzip my hoodie and pull out a gun I made in the last base we visited, shooting bullets filled with a compound of a Polar Manzardill's quick freeze liquid mixed with a Polymorph's elastic liquid. The bullets melt on touch, spilling the liquid all over the Pyronite, spreading and freezing it quicker than it can melt the ice.
- Pierce it! – I yell, Gwen does so without hesitation, doing a kick motion upwards at the now frozen Pyronite, her needle-like leg extends forward, piercing the alien's stomach and shooting out of its back.
I almost smile in relief, but I see the alien in the ice suddenly start shifting, the glow from the fire diminishes as the body grows bigger and bigger. Gwen quickly pulls her leg back and tries crawling away, I move in to help her, but it's too late. The once mutated Pyronite was now a deformed, 6 armed Tetramand. The thing grabs Gwen by the leg and starts slamming her around on the floor, I try shooting it again, but it grabbed a piece of concrete from the floor and threw it at me, I just barely dodge it and see it grinding its teeth, probably mad it missed me.
He throws Gwen aside, probably not interested in her anymore. I can see most of the diamond covering her body is now gone, her legs end at the middle of her thighs, showing the inside of them, her left arm is now just muscle tissue and bones, totally exposed. Her half-mask broken, showing the mushy, melted raw flesh and nerves underneath. The thin crystal window on her chest was gone, her organs spilling right out of it.
I turn back to face the Tetramand, who's charging at me. I jump out of its way, sliding a disk-shaped bomb at its feet, when it explodes, the monster falls to the floor clutching its right foot with its 4 lower hands. The foot that was now a mangled mess of muscles and bone shards.
His body quickly melts into a dark grey puddle of goo, which takes a somewhat humanoid shape, a Polymorph this time, huh? Can it only turn into Gwen's aliens? I waste no time shooting another freezing bullet at it, it's body freezes in seconds.
- Not so fun when it's you, huh? – I easily lift its body and smash it on the ground, shattering it in a million pieces.
I breathe a sigh of relief and run to Gwen, who's now lying in a pool of her own blood. I hastily grab the organs that spilled out of her chest and put them back him, not the best choice, but definitely better than leaving them on the floor.
- Corruptrix, redirect energy to healing capsule. Code H-001. – The dial pops up, making its usual sounds as it turns left and right a few times, inputting the code for the healing capsule by itself. Green liquid starts pouring out if the grey pipes around the body of the watch, it looks alive as it moves all over Gwen beaten body. Soon becoming a sphere of green slime with Gwen floating inside. The dial being the only thing outside the sphere as it had detached itself from the watch.
I hear groaning and growling coming from behind me, I turn to see that part of the frozen alien had melted and was reforming as a mix of the 3 aliens it had turned into previously. A massive, 6 armed Tetramand with a flaming head and arms from a Pyronite, the foot I had exploded was now made mostly of Polymorph goop, as well as it's chest, leaving its organs in full view.
I sigh again, as I get up and take off my hoodie, placing it on top of Gwen's bubble.
- You just won't stay down, huh? – I place two fingers on top of the Corruptrix dial, it seemed to glow a bit brighter at that moment - Activate secondary user mode, Tetramand strand.
W-Warning: S-Secondary U-User M-Mo-Mode Activ-tivated
… Transformation in P-P-Progress
My eyes widen and I grind my teeth in pain. Green light shoots from the watch like ropes, wrapping around me, my sclera turns orange and my once gone arm regrows along with 3 extra ones. My body grows to triple its size, and my skin turns red. This pain is hell… Is this what Gwen feels all the time?
Rage I haven't felt in ages fills me, I can see the alien in front of me shrink and take a step back. Too late, bastard. Don't touch what's mine.
My eyes open slowly, looks like its daytime already. I look around to see Ben driving the Rust Bucket, I smile and get up, my legs a little wobbly. My eyes drift to the watch, the lady usually says good morning when I wake up. I tilt my head in confusion as I see the dial pure black, as if turned off. Weird.
I walk up to Ben, I see his eyes widen when he sees me before quickly turning on the auto pilot and jump out of the seat to hug me, really tight. I don't understand what's going on, so I just hug him back, sometimes all Ben needs is a really nice hug!
- Ben? What happened to the alien that attacked us? Why is the Corruptrix black? What do we have for breakfast? – I ask all the important questions in my mind. Ben just chuckles.
- I… Dealt with it. The watch is just tired, so she's… Taking a nap. And we're having all the waffles you can eat with lots of ice cream for breakfast. – He pats my head and I get a good look at his face, red veins all over, his eyes bloodshot. I know he's lying to me, that he's hiding something, but he wouldn't do so without a good reason, so I'll leave it be. Because I love him, and I know he loves me.