[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/445351464320106498/870668188650733618/SB4.png[/img][/center][indent][sub][color=white][b]SEASON ONE[/b][/color][color=e20025] Sensation & Wonder[/color][/sub][sup][right][b][color=white]SUPERBOY #4[/color][/b] [url=https://youtu.be/lUMT9OIaVvE][color=e20025]Pull My Strings[/color][/url][/right][/sup][/indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][indent][color=white][sub][b]Hob's Bay [color=e20025]♦[/color] Metropolis[/b][/sub][/color][/indent]
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Two superhumans battled their way across Metropolis. Buildings crumple as bodies smash through ceilings and support beams. Streetlamps become blunt instruments. Cars are taught to fly. Anything not physically part of the earth becomes either a weapon or a projectile. They batter, bash, bump, thrash, choke and cut each other until they're black and blue. Cameras mounted to flying disks record the entire, violent affair. 

They've been at it for near half an hour, and Superboy was tiring. He'd thrown everything he had and then some at Knockout and she'd just kept on coming. No amount of damage left her on her back for long. The first time he'd put his fist through her chest he'd thought he'd killed her, but the woman had just howled with joy. It was off-putting, to say the least. 

This wasn't as fun as he thought it'd be.

A storm was upon him. Blows raining down on his face. Nose cracks like thunder. Pavement snaps like twigs under the vestigial force. Hands up, bat away the punches. Redirect. Head feels like jelly. Slip under a haymaker, body compresses like a slinky- pop back up, head rockets into her jaw. Knockout stumbles back. Gives enough room for Superboy to leap back, clear to the other side of the street. Need a moment to breathe.

[color=lightblue]"Damn,"[/color] words heave from his chest alongside a glob of blood. Every breath burns. Muscles ache. Red, sticky fluid flows down from an open wound over his eye. No amount of blinking clears his vision. Swimming in red. [color=lightblue]"Damn!"[/color] Superboy hoots, slamming a fist against his chest. Another batch of blood comes crawling out of his mouth. That was all of it. Airways were clearer, now. A glance toward one of the cameras. Gotta keep up appearances. Can't let them see he was struggling. [color=lightblue]"You're really rockin' my world, baby."[/color]

On the other side of the street Knockout stood, jaw in her hand. She pushed it upward, and a sickening snap followed. Worked to the left, then the right. Thing went from hanging by a handful of sinew to fully functional in seconds. [color=99CE02]"Ooh [b]yes![/b]"[/color] Her whole body shook. Fidgety energy kept her bouncing on her heels, her fingers curling. [color=99CE02]"It has been so very long. Pounding ears, chest swelling. Racked with pain from head to toe. Transcendent! Ecstasy!"[/color] 

[color=lightblue]"You're a chatterbox, y'know that?"[/color]

[color=99CE02]"The pot accuses the kettle!"[/color]

[color=lightblue]"Close enough."[/color] His feet were off the ground and he was racing toward her. Can't give her too much time to recover. She healed through everything he threw at her. He could take more punishment, but anything that got through was permanent. Gotta find a way to pin her down.

Fist connects with her cheek and she's keeled over. That one would've knocked anyone else's block off, but all it did was slow her down for a few seconds. This close up it was hard to ignore how she was taking all this. Every inch of exposed skin was covered in goosebumps. Every strike either of them landed made her tremble. Air around her stunk of estrogen, dopamine, oxytocin, and norepinephrine. Her limpic system was practically cannibalizing itself from hyperactivity. That same healing factor that was keeping her alive was restoring neurotransmitters faster than her brain could kill them.

[color=lightblue][i]'She can't build up a tolerance. Every high's exactly as intense as the very first.'[/i][/color]

Knockout was back on her feet and swinging away at him. Every one of those punches would've been devastating. Even the air around her fists was crackling with heat from the sheer force of her movement. Superboy was fast enough to play keep away, but for how long? If she tagged him and brought him down, would she even stop? Something's wrong with her brain. Like somebody'd gotten inside and switched all the wires for violence and sex around.

Idiot. Dumbass! How'd it take him so long to see this?

[color=lightblue]"Really hate to be the bearer of bad news, lady, but you've got a condition."[/color] He wasn't even throwing punches anymore. Just batting her arms away to redirect the most of the impact and dancing back, quick as he could, to make some distance. Knockout kept right on top of him. She was a flurry of savagery. None of the skill she'd shown in the beginning, just a barrage of strikes- most of them weren't even killing strokes. She was just trying to make contact; every successful hit produced chemicals regardless. There was laughter on her lips.

[color=99CE02]"They knew what drove me."[/color] She struggled to speak between fits of giggles. They must've been involuntary. [color=99CE02]"They knew I could never be loyal to anything but my own..."[/color] It looked like a great deal of effort, but she managed a disappointed scowl. [color=99CE02]"...Needs."[/color]

Superboy faltered. He'd been going about this all wrong.

She finally caught him.

A left hook clipped him on the chin, and a right knocked him in the temple. She stopped swinging long enough to grab a clump of his hair and heft him into the air, delivering a dozen body blows with her free hand. Crack like thunder. Broken rib. The rain beat down, down, down. Down into the ground. Split the earth, spray of dirt and concrete and pavement. Air stunk of pheromones and blood.

She drops him. Pleasure crackles like lightning through her veins. A rush unlike any she'd felt in so many years. [color=99CE02]"I tried."[/color] It takes momentous effort to speak between heavy breaths. [color=99CE02]"I tried to find a substitute, but there is nothing on this earth like it. The writhing flesh of a dozen demigods, pounds upon pounds of your recreational drugs- I was a fool to believe this could be replaced."[/color] Her hands were shaking, demanding to be laid into flesh. Knockout was doing everything she could to control herself.

Superboy didn't even bother trying to get up. It was hard enough to just lay there and speak. [color=lightblue]"I'm sorry."[/color]

[color=99CE02]"What?"[/color] She frowned, puzzled.

[color=lightblue]"I-"[/color] He coughed. [color=lightblue]"-I knocked ya off the wagon. Me'n my stupid- [i]shit, that hurts[/i]- stupid ego. So desperate to prove somethin' I couldn't see it starin' me in the face."[/color]

[color=99CE02]"You're kind, but a fool. I am a warrior. My actions are my own. No boy could make me do anything I did not wish to."[/color] She wasn't going to hold it together for much longer. [color=99CE02]"Truth be told you were an easy excuse to indulge in something I have dreamt of for so long. And now I've ruined everything. Gods above. I was given a chance and I threw it away."[/color]

[color=lightblue]"You quit before. How? Why?"[/color]

Knockout smiled wistfully, trapped in a memory. [color=99CE02]"Your predecessor humbled me. Delivered me to Belle Reve, where I was to rot for my crimes. I was given a chance at penitence: serve your country in Waller's death squad and earn a clean slate. T'was not true redemption, but it was my path out of prison."[/color] 

[color=lightblue]"So that's it?"[/color] He sat up on his elbows. [color=lightblue]"You just went cold turkey?"[/color]

[color=99CE02]"I would have returned to my old ways in under a week if not for..."[/color]

[color=lightblue]"Liana."[/color]

[color=99CE02]"Liana."[/color] She nodded. The shaking in her hands had lessened. [color=99CE02]"The sweetest creature in this galaxy, or any other. She was the only human to never fear me. It was her that convinced me I could...I could be more than what my creators intended."[/color] 

That was all she needed to push through, freeing her mind from its chemical haze. Demands for more were shut out, for now. Willpower was only a temporary solution, but she proved strong enough to shackle her worst impulses- this time.

[color=lightblue][i]'Will need to find her help later. Real help.'[/i][/color]

She took a step away from Superboy, lowering a hand to him. He took it without hesitation, expecting to be helped to his feet. Instead he was hefted into the air and wrapped into a too-tight embrace. They were both a mess of sweat, blood and dirt. But they'd be fine. Eventually. [color=99CE02]"You have been most helpful, Son of Krypton. Thank you for reminding me of who I am meant to be. You are an adult, yes?"[/color]

[color=lightblue]"Yeah, I guess. Why-"[/color]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/w4RFwxI.png[/img][/center]

Then she dropped him into a pile of rubble and walked away.
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