When Henry was a small boy, he was signed up for a children’s Judo class with his sister. It never was his thing, he had never been much of a fighter and he only lasted for a few sessions before losing interest. All he really remembers was being thrown, [i]hard[/i] by the instructor.

He remembered that the world spun in that way that was impossible to keep up with, and he remembers his stomach lurching as he was twisted through the air. He doesn’t remember hitting the ground.

This felt like that, although it was much more alien since there was almost no force on earth that could move him if he didn’t want to go somewhere. He remembers hitting the ground this time, but the dull ache of his massive body hitting the ground was very quickly drowned out by a sharp, stabbing pain in his back. He heaved, coughing up a mouthful of blood, and did his best to roll over, instantly regretting it when the pain intensified. He looked to his scattered glass and was very happy that he had, well, armor for skin. That would have been terrible to land on otherwise.

Henry managed to force himself up onto his elbows, which was accompanied by a sharp snap and something shifting very uncomfortably back into place into his body. It felt like a rib? He couldn’t really tell, but the pain was a dull throb now rather than a crippling stab. Progress?

He managed to get up and briefly surveyed his surroundings- there was a golem outside that was easily as tall as a two story building. Right. He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than an earthquake. He had also taken out a couple comic book stands on his way down. He briefly thought about how his boss was going to fucking kill him, but then he remembered, [i]oh right, there’s a god damn rock monster outside[/i] and it probably was not here to buy comics.

He was trapped between a rock and a hard place, because the only way out was blocked by what threw him in, but it didn’t seem to have legs, so it [i]probably[/i] couldn’t chase him. He had to fight, at least until he had enough space to get away, so he steeled hims nerves, tried to ignore his pounding heart, and forced himself to stand. It was wielding a light post now, and as soon as he stepped back into the sidewalk, it turned on its stalk and swung for him. It swung low, and Henry just managed to lift his foot up and out of the way to avoid the head of the light post as it cratered space on the street where his foot had been less that a moment before.

It was big, but because it was big it was slow. It had a lot of mass behind it’s body, and so Henry was able to regain his footing and recover before it could follow up fully with another attack. Unfortunately, he was also big, and it was halfway through a back swing now, and all Henry could do was circle outwards to the left and cross his arms over his torso and head to defend against the incoming blow. It came hard, and fast, but the light post was hollow and metal. Its collision with the street had bent it slightly, and as soon as it met Henry’s forearms and weight it buckled and bent, unable to sustain the forces it was subject to, into a horribly contorted piece of scrap. Fortunately, also unusable as a weapon. Henry bit back a cry as it impacted- but remained unmoved, and was thankful that the light pole had been destroyed. He wasn’t sure how much more he could do that.

He lowered his arms and looked at his assailant, only for his eyes to widen and raise his arms again. The golem discarded the light pole, dropping it as it raised its arms high in the air to slam Henry. They came down relatively slowly, the golem was no blitz fighter, but it had so much mass behind its strikes that as soon as they impacted Henry he was immediately forced down to a knee.

But he was. Not. Smashed.

He breathed, ragged and heavy as the golem attempted to bear its entire weight on him. It started off as a low rumble in his chest that escalated into a roar as he forced his legs to work. He slowly and shakily rose back to a standing position, forcing the golem up and back despite its strength and weight. He heard Evelyn yell something about metal, and he momentarily tried to focus enough on his tail to grab the ruined light pole, but almost instantly lost ground against the herculean weight he was sustaining. [b]“I’m-“[/b] Henry snarled with exertion, [b]“BUSY. HELP.”[/b] He couldn’t stop- if he did he’d be crushed.

Fortunately he didn’t have to.

It sounded almost like a buzzing sound, but as it got closer and louder, it was actually feet against pavement. Dexter weaved through the street faster than most people could even react, and basically materialized beside Henry and the behemoth he was contesting, skidding to a stop almost right underneath them. Dexter grabbed the light pole and pulled. For most people it would have been quite a weight to drag and it still was even if Dexter was stronger than the average person, but he managed to pull it out of the line of fire and after a few initial labored steps managed to pick up some decent speed as he dragged a spark trail across the street to where Evelyn was taking cover.

“Ifeltthevibrationsandcamerunning-“ Dexter said, speaking far too fast since his body was working overtime. He gasped, taking a deep breath, trying to force himself to slow down for just a moment. “Iheardme-. I heard you say metal. Before he started roaring.” He explained, throwing his thumb over his shoulder to Henry who was still sustaining the golem, but barely. “What else do you need? I’ll get it.”