Evolution

The fight wasn't going too well. By sheer coincidence, the three Prodigy soldiers were perfect counters to the three fighting members of Styx. One of them had a strange, milky film over their skin that was generated by their TK, and as Autumn threw punch after punch at it, the overweight man just laughed as the film jiggled like jelly, seeking to tire her out.

The other soldier, who was as thin as a twig, was capable of amplifying or diminishing sounds. As the man kept the air in a constant state of vibration, it was hard for Tom to get a grip on anything within.

The thin man was sending wave after wave of concentrated sound after Tom, who was forced to dodge out of the way every time, his face the picture of strain as he tried to exert control over the sound. Behind him, the waves would cut through several inches of the reinforced metal wall, leaving the cavernous room looking like trees marked by a bear.

The last soldier, a woman based on her physique, was perhaps the scariest of the lot. At her command, the walls and floor bulged and appeared covered in dozens of cysts, before these protrusions burst, launching large metal golems out of them. Due to their mindless nature, Nikolas could do nothing to affect their perception.

As Nikolas bobbed, weaved, and jumped around, the metal golems would slam their huge fists where he had just been, leaving small craters on the floor. The woman just stood there, obviously concentrating on keeping the golems formed. It appeared they were independent, based on how they always turned their head toward Nikolas and their oddly different individual body language.

'Strange that Nikolas can't affect them. Maybe they do have minds, they just lack brains. Some form of artificial intelligence?'

Despite this, they didn't switch opponents with a team member. In fact, they fought even harder, grinning all the while. Even the expressionless Nikolas no doubt had a childlike grin on his face, although Fate couldn't exactly tell with the mask on. It was almost imperceptible, but they were constantly improving in the fight.

Each strike from Autumn would make the film ripple just a little bit more forcefully Every wave of sound released by the twig-man was just a hair weaker, and every punch from the golems would be just slightly farther from Nikolas's original spot than before.

To the Prodigies' credit, they also seemed to notice these improvements. The fat man started hitting back, and the other two redoubled their efforts. Suddenly Autumn and the fat man were exchanging punches. The man would throw a punch a fraction of a second slower than Autumn, striking her right after she struck him. The punches from these were no doubt just as strong as the ones she threw at him. It seemed the force the man absorbed didn't just disappear.

The golems started flowing into strange shapes, becoming cages, snakes, swords, and maces for other golems, large hounds, and many more. The thin man started shouting, his voice amplified to such a ridiculous degree that the path the soundwaves took rippled like a tsunami, spreading farther and wider and forcing Tom to shove himself out of the way with his TK.

'I guess it was too much to think we wouldn't be the only ones improving,' Fate thought. He watched for a bit more, then chuckled. 'They aren't fast enough. Checkmate.'

In what felt like an instant, the situation changed. The fat man's laughter died in his throat as his arm was shredded into a bloody stump when it impacted with Autumn's fist, his milky film bursting like a popped bubble. Autumn's grin stretched wider; her mask having long been launched away by the force of the shockwaves.

She increased the speed of her strikes, every hit bursting the struck area like a popped, blood-filled pimple. Soon the man was nothing but bloody holes, and his remains fell to the floor in a pool of his blood.

The metal golems, in their myriad shapes, turned on each other out of nowhere, wailing on each other and empty air. Then they turned on their master, merging into one golem almost as tall as the ceiling, punching downwards with the weight of several dozen tons. She was flattened into a bloody smear on the ground, in a crater several feet deep. With its master gone, the golem fell apart at the joints, filling the cavern with deafening booms.

Those booms disrupted the control of the thin man, allowing Tom to seize control of the area. The thin man quickly reigned in the surrounding sound, amplifying the cacophony to hundreds of times its potency and sending it to Tom, only for the force to stop dead in its tracks, a visible wall of sound hovering in the air inches away from him. Tom flicked his wrist, sending the force to the side, then grasped at air toward the thin man.

The man spit up blood, which dribbled under his mask and down his chin. He fell onto his back, jerking and kicking as if he was having a seizure. The blood on his chin and chest plate started smoking, then it caught fire.

His gloves and shirt burnt to ash in moments, revealing his cherry-hot, glowing skin. His skin was visibly blackened and charred, splitting open in places to release gushes of incandescent blood. It looked like someone had smashed a lava lamp. The man kicked once more, then was still.

The room was unsettlingly quiet without the sounds of battle. The three survivors walked confidently back to Fate, Maya, and the unnamed woman. The woman had long since stopped crying, her eyes were a bit puffy but otherwise fine.

"Did it work?" asked Maya.

Autumn smiled fiercely in response, punching the air in front of her. Around her fist spawned a nebula of destructive force, gaseous and beautiful, tinting her arm a dark color that promised the end. It lasted for but an instant before disappearing as if it were never there.

"The hell is that?" asked Tom. "Why do I feel like I was just told to go die by a fucking punch?"

"It's a strange feeling," Autumn said. "I feel like I can punch my way through anything now."

The other four absorbed that for a moment, before Autumn said "How'd you kill that one?" pointing at the charred remains of the thin man.

Tom looked in the man's direction, although his eyes said he wasn't truly looking. "I found the phosphorous in his bones and his blood. I was going to force his brain's neurons to stop firing, but igniting his blood and cooking him from the inside out felt easier."

He focused on the distance for a while longer, then said "Y'know, it's strange. Before, I could feel the bacteria in every person, feel a person's cells and the mitochondria inside. Now, it feels like I can see further."

He looked at his friends. "I can feel *atoms*. And when I think of the potential applications when I combine this new power with science, I think I could theoretically change air into water, or food into metal."

"Hm. And you, Nik? What'd you get outta this?" Fate asked

Nik shrugged. "Turns out, metal has thoughts too." The other four waited a bit.

"…That's it?" Maya replied, in disbelief.

"Well, I'm sure if metal can think, then rocks can too. And plants. And now I know how to use that knowledge. Won't do much to a rock, though. Now, what weird new buff did you two get?"

Maya went first. "I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but I am certain that I no longer suffer from diminished effects when affecting multiple people. I believe I no longer have to worry about 'diluting' the emotion. Moreover, I can control feelings of sadness much easier than other emotions, although I'm not entirely certain as to why. It's just a gut feeling at the moment."

"And I don't have to worry about headaches or being watched anymore when I use my ability," Fate said with relish. "Those fucking migraines always hurt."

"Great, we don't have to hear you complain about them anymore." Autumn grinned and slapped his back. "Now, let's blow this shithole up and get out of here before they send any more—"

"You five sure are open with each other," the unnamed woman said softly. When all five pairs of eyes turned to her, she blushed.

"It's a nice change of pace. Here on this planet, no one shares feelings. They view them as weaknesses that get in the way of the advancement of their *science*," she said 'science' with audible contempt, "and use their science to justify inflicting years of pain on children and treating the Fildenen like cattle raised for slaughter." She looked at the ground, sorrow plain on her face, but this time it wasn't conjured up by Maya.

"The five of you said that you were experimented on by them?" she said in a voice barely loud enough for them to hear. "How did you stay so strong?"

"We had each other," Maya said softly. "And Gavyn."

"Sounds like you haven't had friends before," Nikolas said with his usual bluntness. Autumn smacked the back of his head, prompting a grimace.

"No, I haven't," The woman said.

The five exchanged glances with each other, each confirming with each other what they were about to do. Fate nodded. "How skilled are you in ending lives?"

The woman looked up at him as if he had grown another head. "That's all they train us to do here," she said.

Fate nodded again. "How'd you like some friends and a job?"

Her eyes widened, before steeling with determination. The members of Styx felt as if her presence suddenly evolved, surging upward in strength to match the power of theirs after their breakthroughs. "I'd love that."