Unleashes the Wretch on Nailbiter

The Wretch unfolded and unfurled, and I was close enough to Nailbiter that it could find things to grab. A forearm, an elongated torso, a leg. Twisting, crushing, pulling. She gained durability as she stretched out, but durability wasn't invincibility.


I stood straighter, rolling my head to one side, then the other, a gloved hand adjusting the armor at my front. I turned to see what was happening with Rachel and the henchman.


The Wretch, for the time being, didn't move while I moved within it.. Fingers dug into ground, scraped at wall, and invisible teeth gnashed at air. But for the most part, the Wretch maintained its hold on Nailbiter's extended body parts.


I didn't want to kill, so I moved in a more measured way, walking at first, until the scratched underside of my damn foot made contact with the cold surface of the road, making my knee buckle. I used flight as a crutch to keep me upright while advancing.


In this floaty, walky way, I approached the nearest wall- a three foot fence concrete that bounded a parking garage's lot. I put my hand out and felt the Wretch. A tensile membrane, hard energy. My two years of waking nightmare. It slid under my hand. A length of stomach, back, or thigh that was in the process of trying to get into place to do something. I could feel the curvature of it, my hand pressing against the inside of that nightmare-shaped shell.


I hadn't really had an occasion to deal with a scenario like this. When the Wretch was firmly anchored and I wasn't. Normally, it moved with me. Now?


I pushed against that surface, the Wretch moved, and Nailbiter moved with it. There was no resistance. No situation, as far as I could tell, where the Wretch would anchor to something and I'd smack into it from within.


With flight and a strong push of my hand, I smashed Nailbiter into the short concrete rim. The dog's paws touched ground, and it began to pull away, the pencil-thin fingers pulling out of its head and torso.


I flew back, dragging Nailbiter away, then smashed her into the barrier again. It was like trying to smash a balled up bundle of barbed wire flat. Too much spring, too many parts sticking out, too much tensile strength in there.

***

I couldn't leave this like this. Nailbiter was too hard to break or take out of action, even if I'd hurt her some. Worse, she was just getting a grip on things now. Once I had her full focus, this would be harder.


She withdrew a hand, elongated upper arm, forearm, hand and fingers becoming normal, but for some horrendous bruising and tissue damage around the wrist.


There weren't three seconds to consider and measure my response. A heartbeat. I dropped the Wretch, flying in past a tangle of elongated, nail-ified fingers and leg. A point scratched my arm through the sleeve.


Diving through the thorns, the barbed wire, the- however I interpreted Nailbiter's altered form. I reactivated the Wretch in the moment before impact.


She reacted, her arm started to grow, moved as I closed in. Too slow on both counts. I twisted in the air for some added torque, my foot came down on her wrist, drove it into and against her elongated calf, and broke something. I felt the impact through my body, saw her entire body twist and arch in reaction, twenty-foot lengths of finger sweeping through the air with the whistling, whooshing sound that normally came with the swing of blades.


Teeth retracted, her head turning my way.

- Blinding 11.10