The Sheep Seeking the Wolf

"Angie! Come out! I know you are here!" Dylan kicked over a metal trash can, the refuse spilling into the street as the boy crossed into an alleyway. With powers like his, it's almost impossible for someone with such powerful mental energy to hide from Dylan, especially when that person is merely a novice.

"She really ran for a loop, didn't she? Did Angie even have a plan, or was she just trying to run? I'm going to guess the latter."

Rocketing from his open hand, a spear crimson and made of flesh shot out from Dylan's hand, shattering the bolt holding a nearby fire escape in place. Before it had even dropped down, Dylan leaped onto the ladder and ascended to the roof of the small duplex, the lights of the city panning across his face.

For a place so corrupt and even rundown in some areas, Orville was a pretty sight to behold once the sun had sunk below the horizon. Energy like emotion, pure and unrefined, ran through Dylan like lightning, its source whispered to him instantly. "She's still running? Girl's got stamina, I gotta say."

Dylan walked to the edge of the roof, his legs ready to push him off when something reached his ear. A sharp whistle like wind cut stung his eardrum as it approached. There was wetness to the way it moved and weight to its motions. Energy radiated off the being like a machine but alive, there were gears and railroads, but it all pulsated, it all breathed.

It was the sound of a Human body.

"I can hear you there. Stop hiding so we can talk." Dylan shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and turned toward the noise, his skin already shedding from his hands. "I'm kinda in the middle of something, so whatever it is you need, make it quick." Dylan smiled as a figure emerged from the shadow of a nearby water tower, secretly grateful for the excuse to take his mind off the search.

"Body control." A voice echoed. Dylan squinted as the figure moved closer, the silhouette appearing feminine. "Regeneration, Spacial awareness, muscle fiber overload, enhanced sensory capabilities." Dylan smiled at the list of his abilities. Someone did their homework! "Are you here to kill me? Like one of those Poachers?"

A brown-skinned woman with jet black hair and shimmering blue eyes emerged fully from the shadows and looked down on Dylan, her expression non-existent as she eyed him over, taking in everything he was and everything he could be. "SuperSpeed and Strength, Bloodlust and a mutation factor."

Tall and imposing with a glare that struck at the heart itself. Whoever this was, the woman was a sight to behold. That wasn't all, however. Unexpectedly, Dylan noticed a well-built body under the navy blue dress suit, the kind of body heroes have after countless battles. She wasn't scarred or blemished like any of them though her skin and almost everything else about her appearance was...perfect.

"No, not yet." She mused as though not really sure herself. "I don't talk to dead men. The past remains in the past because it's eventually forgotten. There's nothing wrong with expediting that process." Dylan winced at the woman, the meaning of her statement going over his head. "You can sit now." The woman waved Dylan in the direction of a nearby cardboard box, the smile threatening to maim her placid face telling Dylan everything he needed.

She enjoys feeling above others. Best to play along and get back to the search. Already Dylan preferred that to whatever this was.

A leaf floating between trees, Stryder nimbly maneuvered down from her pedestal and onto level ground with Dylan, her acrobatics like a trained tight roper. It was so quick a person might have missed it, but as she landed, the woman quickly pushed a strand of her neatly tied hair back into her bun, twitching at the asymmetry.

"I saw that. You're a perfectionist." The woman tried to hide her frustration at having been read, but Dylan noticed the little twitch that it did. "I am Carmen J. Stryder but, you will call me Miss Stryder." Dylan lazily raised his hand as if this were a classroom.

"Do you wish for me to clarify something? Or do you have a question?" Stryder asked tiredly. "Both." He retorted. "Did you say, miss or misses?" Stryder raised an eyebrow, her hand over her supple chest. "I am unmarried. So it's miss."

"OOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!" Dylan rocked back, the box crumbling beneath his shifting weight. "I was wondering how someone like you could have gotten married!" Stryder's cyan eyes widened at the insult, her cold demeanor breaking under such bluntness. "Well, that was unkind, Dylan Constance Ruth." Dylan rolled his eyes at the mention of his full name.

"We're both busy people, me more than you so I will make this brief. I am the head of Stryde, the largest, collection of Biochemical knowledge North of Antarctica. We house some of the city's best medical knowledge, and because of this, we have much leeway and power to do as we well wish."

Flying out of her sleeve, Stryder threw a thin obsidian card at Dylan, its sharp edge pinning it to the ground before him. Etched into the card was a deep blue wavelength like the ones used on a heart monitor.

"Compound that with my status as a hero, and well...I'd say my word is law, but it's a little better than that." Stryder adjusted her tie, its exotic design catching Dylan's eye. Small golden gears decorated its bottom, and when he looked closer, he could see a tiny clock hidden beneath them all.

"You're the hero, Gridlock." Dylan realized. "You are said to have made massive modifications to your body that make you stronger, faster, and more perceptive. You also have another ability," Dylan grimaced, "one I don't know." Stryder cooed and placed a finger on her chin as faint, blue energy coursed through her pupils.

"Your powers of evolution and deduction are keen. Keen enough to gain my attention. You should feel honored. There are few who I personally seek out." Stryder smiled warmly. "Congratulations." Dylan nodded his head, feigning his interest in whatever Stryder was offering. "I think I understand now. You want me to join you, so you have another fighter in your back pocket!"

Stryder sighed and looked into Dylan's eyes. From that glance, he knew that he was right. "I have power, influence, and the endless wealth to back it up. Align yourself with me and-" Dylan raised a hand, cutting her off. "Not interested." He said plainly, as he walked toward the roof's edge. "Excuse me? We are not done here." Stryder stepped toward him, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"Yeah, but I'm kinda not interested in..." Dylan looked over Stryder still, a mystery to him even now "whatever this is. I got a lot on my plate, and I'm not a heavy eater." Stryder's face softened, her shining eyes growing more intense as she folded her arms in a scowl. "Physis." Dylan stopped moving, which brought a devilish grin to Stryder's face. She truly enjoyed her power to manipulate.

"Physis turned you into a monster, and that's what she sees you as. Just a burden she's created for herself and a mistake she can't wait to rectify. How could someone so careless as to mutate a poor helpless child know anything about how to love said child?" Dylan's blood swirled with rising anger, the dormant power bubbling within, threatening to burst through to the surface. "What are you getting at? You couldn't be more wrong if you'd gone on an old 2006 era website with 800 cases of malware."

The emotion drained from Stryder's face. "I'm saying that your worth in this world is determined entirely by the endearment of others. Someone without even a single heart rooting for them is a damned soul indeed." Stryder's hand went over her chest. "Someone like me with countless allies and countless enemies can be considered one of the most valuable people in the world." Stryder pointed a Dylan whose face was now shrouded in shadow, the moon's light doing nothing to brighten his features. "Someone like you who mistakes a mirage for friends and whose parents would sell him for a copper and a pint of pig piss doesn't even have enough value to be placed on a beggar's market."

Dylan's eyes shot up his patience with Stryder already thinned. "Value this and value THAT. God DAMN it, Carmen! People like you don't ever SHUT up." Dylan shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and turned to leave. "Someone who needs other people to determine their worth is never gonna get anywhere with me," Dylan smirked at Stryder as he began to walk away, "because I'm...an asshole." Stryder stood motionless, taken aback by the blatant rudeness.

"Gridlock," Dylan had already stopped listening, "is the ability to isolate any material into a grid." Dylan whirled around quickly, his skin already hardening. He knew fighting words when he heard them. Clashing against his boney armor, Stryder's hand bled as it cut on the spikes Dylan lined his arm with.

Stryder winced but held her grip. "It works on organic materials too. Including this monstrous arm of yours." Instantly blue lines in the shape of a square grid spread across Dylan's arm, separating it into quads of the same size and make-up. Dylan felt her power cutting him on a deeper level all the way down to the bone and nervous tissue. It was painful to be quaint.

"I-It hurts! It's been a while since I've felt pain. Usually, it heals faster than I can feel it but...this ability...it's preventing me from regenerating!" So much ran through his head in a short amount of time.

Dylan pulled away from Stryder, his arm a mess of blocks toppled on the ground. "Why can I still feel it?!" Stryder's smile was thin as she walked over to the arm pieces and picked one of them up. Squeezing it, Dylan felt the touch, but in a way, he and his brain failed to comprehend.

"Even isolated this arm is just one part of a whole." Stryder pointed at Dylan, her smile fading and her eyes glowing. "Your whole. The only thing your defiance will do is make it, so you don't serve me willingly."

Fast, faster than any human had the right to be, Stryder sped over to Dylan, her knees bent, and her arm reeled back for the nastiest uppercut since Joe Walcott. Dylan didn't even have time to move before Stryder's foot slammed into his chin, blasting his jaw through the roof of his mouth and into his nose.

"She tricked me!?! This lady fights dirty!" The thought zipped through his head.

"I don't need you." Stryder slammed her fist into Dylan's chest, launching him off the side of the roof.

"Just your body."