It didn’t matter which one of me you asked, that was likely the best time of my life. Even though that wasn’t who I was anymore, I still never laughed harder or more living the mortal life. On the inside, my true self was thriving on the barrage of overstimulation. As soon as I dropped through Top Dog’s fold in space, I randomized my appearance and charged in. Catching my reflection in a storefront, I found myself a tall, pale, black haired woman with bright blue eyes. I would have done this as myself, but I was too stoned and paranoid to be able to both show my real face and let creeping insecurities win. I didn’t care about accolades anyway – this was about learning and revelry.

The hair on my arms stood on end as a massive charge of energy was disbursed from somewhere nearby. A thick beam cut through the intersection two blocks ahead and from one to the right. Amidst the chaos of a collapsing overpass, destroyed cars and wild debris, there were specks among it dodging the attack. I drove myself ahead where at the crossroad, instead of following those like me, I turned towards the source of the blast. The light from the charge was still bright and dimming, so I was stopped in my tracks when I finally saw what made it. I dropped to the street so I could behold the monster in all its glory. The golden creature was of mechanical nature, with a broad wingspan and wore the face of a fictional, feline predator with jaws within its jaws. It looked alien, ancient, and futuristic all at the same time.

It bellowed at my presence and the raw force just from its breath was an assault. The core of the thing glowed with brightening intensity. I planted my feet to accept the challenge – there was a mutual respect in acknowledgement. The rate of the charge was rising, and I could see the ribcage glowing beneath the twisted metal mantle on its chest. My senses were calculating the scope of the blast, and as was, I wasn’t worried. Instead, my inner self was processing all the new data being fed to it; I’d yet to see one of these more mechanical monsters. Mostly they roamed cities, where there was not more advancement, but more of it. Clearly, environment played a factor in their constitution, as did population density. I squared up to see what this thing was capable of.

The monster bowed its head and then jerked back as a white-hot light erupted from the core, through four sets of jaws, and into the street beneath it. The city shook for blocks and was surely doing immense damage to the underground infrastructure. I understood that the attack was so powerful the creature had to make an upward arc to make the shot. The plan was to cleave me, and probably most of the tectonic plate I was standing over in the process. I was here for this, “Come on!” I smashed my fists together, causing a shockwave strong enough to rustle its golden mane, “Lets do this!!” The head craned upwards, shredding the street with light so hot it vaporized all that should have been debris. I felt the heat from the edge of the wave. I could take it, or so I thought I could, when I was yanked by my collar out of harm’s way through one of Top Dog’s portals.

“Are you fucking crazy or are you that baked??” She cried as she dropped me on the rooftop of a nearby hotel, “You have no idea how many of us I’ve seen die pulling that exact stunt!” I followed her gaze over the edge where I saw the monster engaged with a group of her subordinates. “Those things are based off the collective power of us in the territory, and this time, that includes you.” Without my limits being truly tested, it was impossible to know how much I lent to the pool this thing crawled from. I followed her over the edge into a freefall towards the target. “Play on the team, but also test yourself!” She called over the winds of velocity, before breaking off to make a direct strike to the monster’s face. It wailed before emitting a countering shockwave measured with the same force. I caught Top Dog as she was blown back, not that she needed it, and let the others draw aggro.

The joint had a profound effect on me in this state, while still being all-powerful. It compelled my mortal persona to watch the battle, to take it all in and trip out on the circumstance of our life. My kind wielded their might uniquely, as their personalities caused them to specialize in certain aspects of it. I watched one who mastered our innate power to shift form to take on that of previous monsters they faced to match the target’s ferocity. Another was using their mind to hurl the biggest pieces of debris to kill, bury or distract it, but most likely all three. Top Dog tapped into the power grid to fling bolts at the monster, to test its constitution as well as the field it generated in response to their attacks. Others had already been hurt by its passive response, but I was pretty sure I knew what had to be done.

Top Dog fell back as the creature bowed its head again to charge another beam. “I think I have an idea.” She was receptive, “The only reason it wasn’t countering your shock attacks is because they were feeding it.” She looked on, blinking, “So feed it.”

“You want me to overload it?” She shook her head with disbelief, “The city can only take so many more of those shots, I can’t imagine what would happen if that thing went nuclear!” She knew one way or another this next shot was getting out, and since I was already gone and she had nothing else, she did what I asked. The others cleared out once they recognized the stakes of the play. Its entire body was crackling with energy that looked as though it would shred it from the inside if the discharge was anything short of imminent. With the beam charged faster than before, the monster began to raise its head with her in its sights. Top Dog was feeling the heat I felt before and was just shy of opening her portal when I made my move.

From high overhead I made the dive. With gravity not nearly as strong a force for the task at hand, I pushed into the fall and propelled myself down much faster than I realized I could. The sound barrier shattered behind me as I pointed both heels down, just when the beam was tearing the street in half again. I knew I didn’t have what it took to break through the skull – I was counting on it. This creature was designed for that task, and I was gambling it wasn’t built for much more. The mouth was slammed shut as I stomped its face into the pavement and then some. I used all my power to keep the downward pressure I’d gathered applied to the situation, knowing if I slipped for a moment, the chaos of that roiling energy within the monster would have somewhere to go, and that would be everywhere. Until then, said energies raged violently within the core, doing untold amounts of damage that would be impossible to apply from the outside.

Everything went quiet and still. The monster’s body was not only still, but it was cold, and dark. All the light in the runic carvings, the wiring, the core, its eyes, out, with one shot. My plan to kill it before it could launch the counterattack played out just as I thought and not how it wanted. As with Cicero and all the others, it dissolved into the fading energies, back to where their creator would try again anew to enact their purpose, and in the meantime, so will we. Top Dog came to me as the others gathered on the fringes of our conversation. “Way to make a first impression,” She nodded respectfully, adding, “We’re going to help with cleaning this mess up, but I want to speak to you again…” she shifted back to her true self, the one like me, so intimidating from the other side, “in private.”

I went back to the mountaintop and let my true nature take over again. It would make for some odd memories, since they were etched in the perspective of my other persona, but nothing could stop me from analyzing the experience objectively. Since Top Dog, the others, and I were on the same side of whatever this is, we were given innate abilities to sense each other. It was meant for coordination in the name of the cause, but I used it to make sure no one was watching. It didn’t matter how high I was letting myself be, I wasn’t about to let anyone know the true extent of what I saw during that fight. Forget the monster, or even my win over it. It was watching the others firsthand that led to revelation. Ever since the beginning, I only learned new facets of my powers out of necessity. By being in true-state so much, there was little room for creativity with a higher calling to heed. Standing there, high, with a mortal mind and living thoughts, I realized something.

A portal just like Top Dog’s opened in front of me and I found myself back home in a second instead of a day. In the distance I could see the town, everything, home. At my whim, the lights dimmed – as expected I could use the power grid just like she did. I looked inside saw all their powers were present within me. I had them all, including any combinations I could think of. I decided to keep these revelations to myself until I knew better. My inherent loyalty to the cause gave me no reason to hide these abilities, these facts, from my kind, but the residual thoughts leftover from being my old self for so long planted the seeds of what I hoped would only be paranoia. Would I have had this train of thought had Top Dog not admitted she had them herself? No, I told myself, for there is no circumstance where blind faith leads to a happy ending. I was eager to fight. To win. But I wasn’t going to be played for some sacrificial lamb to an even greater cause. At least I still had that.

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