Victory had been preordained. Its every aspect planned to the nanosecond.

"Your defeat was inevitable, child; a commendable effort nonetheless." Our battle hadn't been particularly taxing, even if a clean strike had severed my right arm at the shoulder blade; a superficial wound.

As I approached my prize, a mass of wriggling tendrils birthed from what remained of my shoulder, intertwining in a sickly mass of viscous gore and reforming into the lost appendage.

Ai spat in return, "H-How? You were so w-weak before..." Every word was a gasping effort. Her glossy thighhighs and mauve, skin-tight leotard had been torn in several places; soft, supple flesh bulged through the shredded openings.

"You're such a child, Ai, that it's almost endearing," the clacking echo of hard-bottomed shoes filled the abandoned research facility, "I held back. Testing your limits without revealing my own; a disappointing display, if I must say." By now, my own injuries had already self-mended in full; regrettably, I couldn't say the same for my suit.

Ai and her little ensemble of friends had garnered something of a reputation in thwarting a few criminals and a surprising number of low-tier supervillains; the 'valiant defenders of peace and love'. In her hubris, Ai had gone out of her way and taken me on by her lonesome, unexpectedly taking on a major-leaguer. She would receive a lurid lesson on humility; I lurched above the injury-stiffened Ai like the angel of death.

"A shame it had to be you, " a warm whisper tickled the child's ear, "I had my eyes on some of your friends."

Ai was awash with emotion; molten orbs of crimson searing up at me. A combination of repulsion, contempt and fear stirred behind them.

"Stay a-away from my friends! You only won because I was alone...they'll stop you!"

"Stop me? I don't think so, little one. In fact, I'll have them all; you're going to help me."

Those pools of liquid ruby widened, "What?"

I cupped Ai's chin, savoring the softness of her slightly bruised flesh. Even as she struggled to look away the hold remained firm. "Do you know what I am? Truly, beneath this veneer?"

"You're a monster. That's all I need to know." There was a fire brewing beneath her cheeks. Shame, perhaps? A man had never entered her personal space in such a way. Intimacy was beyond her youth, yet I longed to taste her soul.

"That much is obvious," I ran my embrace from her chin to the back of Ai's skull, fondling the massive crimson bow that adorned short, indigo locks. "Let me show you, Ai, the pleasures of the a mind unburdened." The flesh peeled from my digits like the rinds of overripened fruit, undulating feelers taking their place;