I slipped into a broken down hydroelectric facility while the meows kept echoing behind me. I closed the door behind me and locked it in any way I could; chairs, tables, abandoned lamps, pieces of metal, rebar- everything is fair game when it came to my safety. I walked deeper inside, past the abandoned rooms of the upper floors and into the generator room of the building.

A large wheel that spun with water greeted me when I went into the deepest part, I pulled a taut rope and the trapdoor above me slammed shut. The sound made me flinch.

I snapped the lock and hoped that the trapdoor is enough to hold the Lioness off for at least a few seconds.

I went into the room and dropped all of my stuff. With the literal weight off my shoulders, I started to pace back and forth inside the room in panic. 'Fuck, it's just my luck to encounter the Lioness now of all times isn't it?'

Shit. Shit. Shit- I've been panicking ever since she started tailing me. Actually, scratch that- I've been panicking ever since I heard the first meow up on that abandoned bridge. I didn't even give the time to check the building and just haphazardly threw shit on a broken door before hoping that'll stop someone like Lioness.

I held in a breath. One, Two- seconds passed until my counting which felt like forever reached ten. I exhaled and my body relaxed. I slumped to a nearby wall. Breathing heavily, I faced the trapdoor and- 'Thank God.'- the door being completely intact and whole made me feel so much better. 'That's the most reassuring thing I've seen ever since I got my powers.'

I opened up the plastic bags, 'Let's see, clothes,-' I took out the red T-shirt and rolled it around a pipe nearby, '-Jacket, Pants, and then the shoes.' I placed the two cans of dyes I bought on the floor. I popped the lids and everything started smelling like oil but I didn't have time to worry about my nose right now because I'm pretty sure I just heard a meow upstairs.

'Right- right- of course she would just go through the window.' Because if the door looked like shit then I can't imagine what the roof or window must've looked like. 'Should've thought of that you fuckin genius!' I punched my right thigh and gripped my face. 'Bringing in those things with me down here might have been a better choice than piling them on the door uselessly.'

Panicking, I did things as fast as I could, even going as far as multitasking. I don't exactly know why I'm preparing my clothes instead of Theikos though- and I'm fucking stupid.

I panicked even more, absorbing Theikos faster than before whilst also preparing my costume. I grabbed my jacket and got ready to dip it into the rainbow dye but that's when shit went to hell and the entire building shook, causing me to stumble around and almost land on the dye. During that time, I held onto my jacket religiously and, in a mild case of panic, desperately thought that the jacket should stick to my hand and it did.

In fact, I can feel the leather glue itself to my palms even now.

I stared at it in befuddlement that led to realization for a few seconds before another tremor ran through the walls.

I looked up, wondering what was going on before slapping myself in the face hard enough to wake up from the distraction. Now with a clear head, I pushed Theikos into a can and willed it to do something, and in a non-surprising turn of events, I managed to influence it. I didn't know what it did but I can feel the Theikos inside of it and that's all that matters right now.

'Experiment later.' I internally reminded.

I did the same to my jacket before throwing it into the can, when it got out, a Theikos ridden rainbow dye is sticking to it like glue. I can feel it on the jacket's surface, waiting for me to control it.

Continuing with what I just did, I pushed Theikos into the cargo pants and dipped them into the dye. The can was empty when I took the pants out, its contents sucked dry by the fabric. I gave my pants the same treatment as my jacket and hung them somewhere before repeating the process with my shoes and T-shirt.

It was only when I was done that I realized that everything went quiet.

I frowned.

"Looking for someone?" I flinched.

Scrambling, I ran away from the source of the sound, my ankle lost balance halfway through and I had to crawl until I reached the wall. Turning around, I pressed my back against it and squinted, Lioness broke the lights at some point in my frantic escape and now the place is completely dark. Trying to see through the dark is exactly as hard as it was before my powers and I'm exactly as scared as a normal human would be when they're in this situation but I didn't let any of that stop me from pushing some of the Theikos I absorbed into my eyes to try and get night vision.

Thankfully, it worked but unfortunately, I now get to have a face-to-face experience with Lioness. When I met those fire-orange eyes, I subconsciously activated my sped up perspective, giving me an opportunity to take a look at the surroundings and Lioness herself: For starters, there aren't any lights in the room and I was subconsciously using night vision this entire time.

Lioness is exactly what I expected her to be too, a type of transformed lion with bright orange fur, eyes that belong to a dragon, and a thin mane that grows around her neck, down her spine, and up to her tail. The tail looks lion but the end is barbed with a scorpion's tail dripping with transparent venom. Draconic wings grow out of the Feline's back, tucked in for now.

Next is the area but other than my knives- which I already decided to prioritize- there's nothing important enough for me to keep my attention on.

Maybe the clothes and the dye have an effect that can help me against Lioness but I don't wanna take that risk. Not when I have perfectly good knives in front me that are ready to use.

I took in a deep breath and that simple action broke my sped up perception and everything went back to normal, including the night vision. I reactivated it quickly and got to see the Lioness grin just in time.

"Well, Well." she took a step forward and my back pressed itself harder against the wall. Picking and going into the basement is a big mistake, there's nothing around us except for more concrete and the open ground is probably 10 feet up from here. "Now, what am I gonna do with you? You cute little thing." she purred and I gulped.

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Lioness laughed, her deep, baritone voice echoing all around us. "I didn't expect you to be a Mutant as well." she said, "And I would love to just see you grow up to be big and strong but see, I've made a vow-" claws erupted out of her paws, "-That I'll clean this hellhole from any men stupid enough to be found by me and well, you're here now aren't you?"

I kept silent and just tried to find a way out. The knives are on her right, just a few feet out but I don't think I can beat what's in front of me. Thinking that I have nothing else to lose, I forced back an audible gulp and internally said fuck it- "You know," I grinned, or at least did my best to. "I don't- I mean what's up with you?"

Fuck.

Okay, take two- "Clean this place from men?" I scoffed but flinched when Lioness took a step forward with a growl, "Look I see your point," the Theikos around me felt livelier, more willing to get controlled and absorbed by me. I complied. "But come on, do you really think that you can just- I don't know, wipe men from the face of the slums?"

Why is she even doing it anyways?

"Little boy~" Lioness purred, clearly trying to intimidate me. With how Theikos has been playing nice these past few seconds, I'm feeling pretty confident in my chances and I didn't even let it bother me, "Let me tell you something." she started monologuing and I took that as a cue to absorb more Theikos and use it for myself. I fed all of the energy into my body and felt it change as Lioness continued with her sob story, "Have you ever been used?"

I resisted the urge to frown. 'Of course, she got raped.'

I focused back to the present and realized that she's standing there, silent, waiting for me to reply. I didn't bother to go with her script and threw a bit of improvisation of my own, "I completely know how you feel-" I slowly stood up and she watched me move but didn't do anything, I went a bit faster. "Everyone's a victim of the slums' at one point or another." There are a lot of girls out there that experienced what she went through and most, if not all of them got taken to be prostitutes after the deed is done.

"But why lash out?"

Her eyes narrowed, "Why lash out say?" I nodded with a gulp, "Well- let me ask you back, why shouldn't I?"

"Because it's important to put it all behind you," Am I being a hypocrite? No. Not really- I pushed the face of a memory wiping psychic to the back of my head.

"Important to put it all behind me, Eh?" I didn't know that her body could laugh but Lioness pulled it off with this mad cackle that traveled back to back inside the room, "And what makes you think that it's healthy to do that?"

"I didn't say it's healthy, but it helps." I retorted defensively.

"But you implied it, yes?" No, I didn't. I just want to save my life so I talked. God knows I don't even know what I'm talking about.

"Well no?- I think I did?"

"Hmm... really now?" Lioness started tapping the ground with her claw, "Well, it's been fun-" I took that for the cue that it is and used all of the Theikos I absorbed to enhance my body and get super strength.

Lioness bent her legs and jump, a wild grin on her face. I tried to duck when she got directly in front of me but her wings suddenly unfolded, she flapped once and her body pivoted in the air and turned to where I am, another flap and she pushed herself at me claws out. The collision was violent but it didn't hurt, I felt it, sure, but it feels more like rain hitting my skin instead of anything painful.

And it was then that my vision quickly went downwards before turning into a blur after I hit the ground.

I flew until my body hit a wall, slamming into it but making no sound. With a groan, I slowly got up and told myself mentally that nothing broke so the panic that I'm feeling is pretty useless in the end. It didn't help because I can hear my heart hammering in my chest but I liked to think it was trying that counts.

"I thought you were a Magician?" Lioness asked with her head tilted to the side.

"Clearly not." I lied. "Jesus."

The Feline's eyes narrowed for a split second and she wanted to ask something but she must've put that thought down because she jumped straight at me and it took my everything to not block and punch instead. The feeling of cracking my joints crawled across my entire arm before it extended and punched Lioness out of the air. The hit sent her flying backward into a wall, cracking it and causing a spiderweb of fractures to form.

Watching my arm extend while panicking felt pretty weird, seeing it while calm made me shiver.

To take my mind away from what my arm just did, I stared at Lioness, who was still trying to get up. She looked weak right now and the way her legs shake while she tried to get up gave me the epiphany to realize that I'm stronger than her.

I stared at my hands before balling them into fists and adapting a boxer's stance, "Come on," I taunted before gesturing for Lioness to come at me, "was that all you've got?"

She growled and jumped but I quickly punted her out of the air. Doing so may seem small for the more experienced capes out there but to me? It made me feel invincible.

Unlike earlier, the Lioness reacted well to my attack and spread her wings to catch herself mid air before landing on all fours on the ground. She bent her legs and I got ready to punch her out of the air the third time.

My expectations of her jumping at me again ruined everything because I got paralyzed in shock the moment she ran straight at me with her mouth open. Lioness tackled me and plunged four sets of claws into my chest, I felt deep dig deep but not puncture. It just served as more proof for me having the same power as Lasta.

Lioness roared while on top of me, "You're pretty tough," in the back of her head, I saw her scorpion tail raise itself and I absorbed more Theikos in reaction.

"Yeah?" I said through grit teeth. I would be lying if I said I'm not scared at the thought of the poison's effects but I had hope in the Theikos I'm absorbing doing something to help with my situation. Right as long as the Lioness doesn't adapt in the way she's usually seen, then I'm gonna be fine.

I ate up all of the Theikos and willed it into a fire, lighting, whatever, I just needed something- That something came in the form of my body expanding like a balloon and sending the Lioness away with its buoyancy.

"Okay." I said in disbelief after I deflated. "So that can happen huh?"

Before I can admire myself for longer, the Lioness is back on top of me. She roared and swiped furiously at my face and the last thing I saw was her paws before I closed my eyes in defense. Her claws did no damage at first but then things started to get painful. "You. Little. SHIT!"

Her attacks stopped for a moment after she screamed so I grabbed her in the face and started squeezing. I pulled on her jaw but she didn't seem to care, continuing to slash at me with her claws even as I heard her jaw crack.

Blood dripped down my face, I didn't know if it was mine or not but a stray thought of it being possibly mine couldn't get handled by my brain and I sucked Theikos in panic before exploding into another balloon that pushed Lioness away from me.

I didn't waste time and grabbed her leg. Her wings opened to stabilize herself but I was already slamming her on the ground- then I pulled her into myself and when she was close enough, I dropped to my knees and started slugging her face. Over. And over. And over- until there's nothing left.

I stood up with a sigh, the adrenaline is dying down and I'm starting to think clearly. When it finally got flushed out of my system, I puked but quickly recovered. I wiped my mouth, "fuck."