The apartment door swung open to reveal Reed standing outside, holding a large cardboard box in his hands while staring at a section of the wall. There was nothing remarkable about the location his vision was concentrated, but his gaze contained all the focus of a blind man.

“Reed. Everything alright?” His father said after several moments passed, in which Reed showed no signs of activity. 

“Huh?!” Reed twitched and his eyes darted around the area briefly before settling on his father. “Oh… yeah I’m fine. I brought pizza.” He said, holding up the box in his hands.

“Well, c’mon in.”

The two walked into the living room where Reed’s mother was already sitting. They dug into the meal with idle chatter and consequently turned on a movie at his father’s suggestion. It was some old buddy cop film that he was hardly capable of paying attention to. It was nearly halfway through the movie that Reed noticed his hand lying against the armrest on his right. His index finger was rapidly twitching, tapping against the couch in a frenzy. Reaching across with his other hand he put a stop to the nervous tic, before intertwining his hand and setting them in his lap.

This tic of Reed’s had surfaced years ago, after the incident on the train, and had taken a long time to go away. Of course it had come back now.

“I’m feeling pretty tired, mind if I use the guest room tonight?” Reed stood up abruptly.

“Already? It’s barely dark yet,” His mother objected. “And we’re only halfway through the movie.”

“It’s been a long day. I’ll make it up to you guys another time.”

“Alright,” His mother said after a pause. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

Reed bade his parents goodnight and made a beeline to the apartment’s guest room. He didn’t think of retrieving the bags from his car nor did he make a stop at the bathroom. He didn’t so much as remove his shoes upon entering the room, ignoring the made bed and sinking into a chair in the corner. An expression of deep thought overtook his face for a moment, and then he leaned back. It took only a moment for his head to slump to the side in unconsciousness.

Opening his eyes, Reed was greeted by a familiar sky. Without hesitation, he made his way towards the courtyard while blades grew from both of his palms. Corpses and armaments were strewn across the area, but he made no motion to retrieve any weapons or stones. Instead, Reed made straight for the slumbering giant.

A light slash with one of the now lengthy extensions of bone woke the misshapen monstrosity. He hopped backward, creating a moderate distance between himself and the now provoked abomination. The chain embedded within the giant's back rattled with fervor as it sprung towards Reed, attempting to grab him as it had so many times before.

Rather than backstep, Reed took advantage of his speed to dodge inside of the swing. He ducked under the sweeping arm and with a twist stabbed one of his blades into the passing limb. He yanked the blade in the opposite direction which, combined with the force of the swing, tore open the giant’s forearm in an explosion of gore. It was then that he retreated backward, as a roar that eclipsed anything Reed had heard from the monster caused his eardrums to scream in pain.

The giant spent only a moment agonizing over the now all-but-useless arm before charging him with a ferocity it had somehow lacked the first time around. With a leap, the monster dove towards him with reckless abandon. Although surprised at the new method of attack, Reed reacted quickly enough by throwing himself in kind. He jumped to the side, narrowly escaping from underneath the giant as it slammed into the stone beneath. 

The stone whereupon the giant impacted exploded as if hit by a small meteor. As the monster plowed forward through the ground, Reed got to his feet, hampered by the long blades extending from his hands. Nevertheless, he recovered faster than the giant and hurtled towards its downed form, hoping to strike at its head or neck to finish the fight.

With just a few powerful dashes he had made it to the middle of the monster’s back, at which point the giant used its functioning arm to push off the ground. The large body of misshapen flesh rapidly flipped over, prompting Reed to leap forward. Or at least he tried to do so, as the turning body resulted in his feet losing purchase. He stumbled, and in the blink of an eye, the giant’s body was falling on top of him, crushing his lower body.

There was hardly any damage from the monster merely turning atop him, but the resulting moment for which he was trapped was damning enough. Reed watched for the split second it took for the giant’s elbow to slam into him, after which his lucidity vanished. His upper body and head smashed to a pulp. It was unclear what occurred after and how long it took for Reed to again wake in the chair of his parents’ guest room.

~~~~~

Reed once again stood in front of the slumbering abomination, absurdly long blades extending from either hand. Rather than attempt to engage the giant in a fair fight again, both of his bone blades slammed into the sleeping monster’s neck. He tried wrenching them out in a manner that would decapitate the giant, but the creature’s spine was far too sturdy. Instead, the giant’s neck was left a grotesque mess, holding its head atop its body with only a minuscule stretch of backbone.

Reed took a step back as a torrent of blood poured from the mangled throat. The giant’s large hands reached up to grasp at its neck in a stupor, but there was no conceivable way in which it could survive such an injury. At least not without powers such as Reed’s. As vile gurgling noises began to emanate from the struggling monster, he was convinced to retreat even further back and await its demise.

When at last the monster ceased to move, he detached the blades extending from his hands and approached the bone-white gate. Staring at the minuscule openings between bars, Reed knew he stood no chance of slipping through, not even should he maim himself in the hopes of becoming thinner. He grabbed at the bottom of the gate and set his feet before attempting to heft the construct up. Even with all the effort he could bring forth in using his immense strength, the little movement that he was able to coax from the gate was not enough to slip underneath it.

Reed took a step back from the gate and observed the surroundings. His eye caught the form of the giant slumped against the wall. Its head, tilting to the side, had to have reached halfway up the stone wall. It was only a dozen or so feet to the top from there.

Reed squinted at the gore still running down the monster’s body for a moment before letting out a sigh. He walked towards the corpse as new fragments of bone began sprouting from the tips of his fingers. With a light hop he was on top of the giant’s legs, and to reach the precipice of the body he made use of his claws to climb up the hulking abomination. Although the jump that would be required to clear the wall was going to be larger than the distance he was currently climbing, Reed assumed that rivers of blood and loosely attached head would make for a poor landing. It took only a few moments before he was warily standing atop the poorly connected skull, covered in blood from his ascent.

He glanced upwards, the scale of the jump he’d have to make now seeming a little less possible, especially with the purchase his feet had. Reed then looked down at his own arms, a memory resurfacing of the first time he had used these powers of his. But there was no point in worrying about safety here. Not when the danger he faced in the real world was so great.

Reed controlled his magic to the utmost of his abilities, and both of his arms began to grow. They gradually extended outwards, every feature of the appendages growing abnormally in length. At some point during the process, his sleeves ripped from the contortion. Compared to his rapid healing abilities the process was slow, but time was of no issue here, and as the minutes went by his limbs reached horrifying proportions.

Reed carefully moved his arms around, which were now several times the length he was, to be assured he had full control of them. It felt unbelievably odd of course, but he was able to manage. The warped limbs reached up to the top of the wall and grabbing ahold Reed hauled himself over.