The red-orange cloud dissipated. I was kneeling with my stump in a puddle of mud and my human hand pointed skyward. The three demons and I were frozen in place, unsure what to do next. As usual, I hadn’t planned beyond my dashing display. Atom broke the silence.

“What did you just do?” he asked. I blinked a couple times.

“I just poisoned all of you,” I said, getting to my feet. I straightened my shirt with pride, but the action lacked panache. I wore prison orange covered in mud and blood and the construct at the end of my stump arm had fallen apart when I used the poison. You can’t pull a shirt straight with pride looking like that and with only one hand.

“I don’t feel poisoned,” Bullseye said.

“Me neither,” Stitch added. We all looked between one another as if trying to figure out what had just happened, what we were doing, and why we were there. Bullseye, then Stitch, then Atom scratched their cheeks.

“My face feels itchy,” Stitch said.

“Mine too,” Bullseye added. All turned to me. I shrugged, then scratched as well. Atom pulled on the neck of his shirt as if the room had gotten uncomfortably warm. I started to feel the same.

“What did you do?” Atom repeated lower and more slowly.

“Poisoned all of us?” I corrected myself. “Hold on.”

I looked into my core to find the unsettling blob known as Poison looking around, taking in the sights of my soul, which was mostly a black void.

“Yo. Poison. I need a consult,” I said. He looked at me with an odd expression. It was hard to tell with only his lopsided eyes as indicators. “I used your powers to poison everyone.”

“How?” he asked from nowhere that I could tell. His voice sounded flabby, just like the rest of him. “Why?”

“Because you guys were trying to kill me and I didn’t like it,” I replied. “Also, I kind of poisoned myself too. Why did that happen? What kind of poisoner isn’t immune to poison?”

“I am immune to poison,” he said.

“Well, apparently not in my body,” I said. “How do I fix it?”

He shook his head. “Well, what kind of poison did you use?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I got it from you.”

“I didn’t make any poison.”

“Okay…? Well, what do we do?” There was a long moment of silence where we stared at one another.

“When I use my powers, I have to think about what kind of effect I want it to have,” he said. “What were you thinking about?”

“I wasn’t thinking about anything, just wanted to poison those guys,” I said. “Can you figure it out? I’ll be right back.” When I came to, Atom was shaking me. He was sweating and his face reddened. I felt the way I imagined he did.

“What did you do?” he demanded. I pushed him away.

“Calm down. I just asked Poison, he’s trying to figure it out.”

“You asked Poison?” he said, looking over at the motionless form of their companion’s former body. “He’s over there. How could you have asked him anything?”

“I sort of stole his soul,” I said nonchalantly with a shrug.

“What do you mean, ‘you sort of stole his soul’?” Atom asked, wiping his brow.

“It’s really no big deal. I just pulled him out of that body and put him in mine,” I replied simply. “Now he’s inside my soul.”

Atom looked like he was going to strangle me. “Find out how to cure us or so help me, I’ll make your insides your outsides.”

“Hey, there’s no need for gruesome threats. Apparently, I’m not immune either, so we’re all in the same ferry across the River Styx. Hold on, he’s calling me.”

“Hey, Ghost!” Poison shouted. “Oh, there you are. Yeah, it looks like you used some kind of gas with a melting effect.”

Oh deathsicles. I’d been thinking about Al and face-melting.

“Okay… how do I stop it?” I asked. A twinkle suddenly shone in his disgusting eyes.

“If you’d like, we could make a deal. I can save you, in exchange for, I don’t know, your soul, perhaps?” I tried to come up with a counteroffer, but another plan arose in my mind.

“You do know, that if I die, you die. Right?”

He seemed to consider this.

“Ponder that for a moment, I’m getting a call on the other line.”

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I went back out to yelling, all three of the convict’s faces were red and had a shiny quality to them. My skin felt hot, like I fell asleep in the sun with baby oil on my face.

“What is Jufanta-rama’kulari saying?” Bullseye asked frantically.

“Who?” I asked.

“Poison! That’s his real name.”

I shook my head. “He said he never liked you and hopes you all die.”

“What?” Stitch asked, confused. I sighed.

“Jujube-kunai-chewbacca said we’re melting. He’s trying to make a deal to save himself and me by extension, but doesn’t seem to care about you guys.”

“It’s Jufanta-rama’kulari, and you tell him, if he doesn’t tell us how to fix it, I’ll turn his insides into his outsides,” Atom threatened.

“Alright, hold on,” I said, closing my eyes and I was back in my soul where I saw an amorphous blob puffed up and quivering. “Atom says—”

“I heard what he said, and you tell him that I’d like to see him try.”

“Alright, hold on.” My consciousness popped back into the real world. “Judas-llama-mufasa said he’d like to see you try.”

“Jufanta-rama’kulari! And you tell him—” Atom spat.

“Look! I’m not playing telephone with you and Jumanji-malaria. You guys tried to kill me, now my skin hurts, and I want to go home. So shut up and wait.” I closed my eyes again. I stared at the disgusting mass in my soul with annoyance. “You better have an antidote.”

“I-I have no idea how to cure it!” he said. “Poison doesn’t affect me, so I just suck it back up.” I closed my soul avatar’s eyes in frustration.

“Oh yeah!” I exclaimed, surprised that the epiphany hadn’t arrived sooner. “I can just heal away the poison.”

“Wait! What happens to me?” he asked, just before I was about to leave. I shrugged.

“I’ll probably just put you back in your body and super smash your skull,” I replied. The creature’s eyes grew and looked around frantically. His anxiety caused me to smile a little—until he noticed the serene glow of invisible energy in a pool a few yards away. He turned to me and there was a tense pause between us.

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned. I didn’t know what he intended to do, but regardless, I knew I didn’t want him doing it. He made a beeline for my energy. I should have known better than to think otherwise. He moved surprisingly fast for a squishy undulating pile of flesh.

I tried to catch him, but it was too late. He belly-flopped into my pool of mana, then turned and stared at me smugly, but nothing happened. He just floated there. We both waited to see if anything would happen and it did. He started screaming as if his soul was being torn apart, which it was. He stretched and pieces of him started to disintegrate into black particles. I watched the horrible scene with fascination until something pulled me back into the real world.

“What?!” I demanded, but what I saw there was just as intriguing. All three of the creatures were shaking me desperately with their faces inches from mine.

“What did he say?” Atom begged. His face was starting to blister.

“Can he fix it?!” Bullseye pleaded. Stitch pulled back and cried out. His skin was starting to bubble.

“Uhh…” I replied taking in their sorry states. “He’s not really sure.” Then I realized, I wasn’t melting. I wasn’t even warm. “Hey, I’m cured!” They all looked between one another. Hopeful, but nervous, smiles spread across their faces.

“He did it!” Atom nodded. “Now fix us too.” I quirked my mouth to the side.

“Please! It hurts,” Stitch said. “I’ll give you back your hand! Just make it stop.” I looked at the man’s melting face, then at my old hand. I could just make a new one later.

“You know what? You can keep it,” I replied. “Besides, I can’t. I don’t know how.”

“But you’re cured. Ask him to cure us too.” Bullseye nodded desperately.

“Yeah… about that.” I elongated the words uncomfortably. “I may have just accidentally eaten his soul.” A brief moment passed where the only sound was the inmates’ bubbling faces. I shrugged apologetically. They blinked at me, but resolve settled on Atom, then again, it was hard to tell with the whole face melting thing.

“Kill him,” he commanded between clenched teeth.

When the meaning behind his order struck, we all went into motion. I pushed them away and started running. I didn’t have much of my or Bucket’s energy left, but I’d make the most of it. When I noticed barred windows on either side of the cafeteria, I chided myself at how easily I could have escaped the whole time. Smashing through one of the exterior walls, I covered my escape by replacing the damaged wall with mud, using the last of that power. Atom would be able to get through it easily, but it was another obstacle to delay them so the poison could work its magic.

I took stock. Street access had to be on the other side of the building, so I ran along the wall and around the corner. Bricks crumbled wetly from where I’d come, indicating the three had given chase. I didn’t dare waste too much of my energy, unsure of when I’d need it, so I ran like a boring human.

When I turned to look back, Bullseye was swiping the ground and rocks shot into the air in my direction. I regretted making the mud wall as sharp stones pelted me. The onslaught stopped, and I peered over my shoulder again. Bullseye ran with his arm on Stitch’s shoulder, then Atom stomped, and a column of asphalt rose under Stitch’s feet. He was shot toward me like a rocket. I tried to dodge and weave, but his trajectory changed course like a heat-seeking missile.

The hand-stealer knocked me to the ground. His dripping skin fell like wax on the back of my neck. It sizzled, but I forced myself to ignore it. The bloody mud coating on my clothes acted like insulation long enough for me to send an elbow backward. The force of the strike made a squishy crunching sound when my arm made impact. The hand-thief’s skin and muscles felt like putty and he was thrown off my back. I push-up’d into a run and kept going, but I no longer heard the footfalls of pursuit.

I checked to see a scene that filled me with joy. Stitch lay on his back, broken, while Bullseye and Atom knelt with melting frowns, as they watched me escape.

I did it. I won. I beat five demons single-handedly.

My arms rose into the air like a sprinter crossing the finish line. Take that Al, I thought. Maybe I wasn’t the weakest mage after all. My celebration was cut short as gunshots sounded from the top of the prison. Judging by how my day had been going, I should have expected something like that to happen.

“Now the guards show up,” I complained under my breath. A bullet narrowly missed my shoulder, and another tore through one of my pant legs but didn’t break the skin. I hopped from side to side as I ran. Colliding with the fence, with what I thought was an empowered shoulder smash yielded nothing, so I had to resort to muddifying the ground beneath it and crawling under. Finally free, I ran down the street until I was out of sight. My pace fell to a tired walk. Heavy breaths came as the last of my power drained away.

It was a long walk back to my apartment, but I trudged along the sidewalk. My job wasn’t done. All I had to do was get to Al, she’d give me more of her boundless energy. I could join the fight there and contain Jascia again, then I’d finally be able to rest.

I stumbled and tripped, falling to the pavement, but I was too tired to feel the pain of it. I weakly got back up, but clumsily fell back down. My vision unfocused then refocused. I rallied to my hands and knees and started to crawl. I refused to pass out again, but my body didn’t share my same determination.

The concrete embraced my face.