Let’s Undo That, Shall We?

My eyes widened as branches spiraled around me. The same gnarled trunk, those familiar grooves where rolly pollies used to hide. This was my ginkgo tree.

A yellow bar flashed at the edge of my vision, filling up almost instantly. Again? But before I could process it, panic rose in my chest.

"Peng?" The penguin wasn't beside me anymore. "PENG!"

Movement caught my eye. A flash of black and white in the mass of branches. That cylindrical idiot had somehow ended up on the other side of the tree.

"You better not die on me, you stupid bird!"

I launched myself onto the nearest branch, stumbling as pain shot through my missing arm. The tree's branches skewered Black Legs left and righ, but those bastards were fast. One lunged past a branch, jaws snapping inches from my face.

"Fuck off!" I kicked it square in the eyes, using the momentum to swing to another branch. My whole body screamed in protest but I didn't care. After losing my arm to these freaks, no way in hell was I letting them take Peng too.

Two more branches, a leap, and there it was, wedged between branches.

"Come here, buddy." I snatched Peng with my good arm, hugging it tight against my chest. The penguin's warmth soaked through my torn clothes.

"Peng..."

Looking up at the darkness above, an idea hit me. If I could make this tree grow, maybe...

I closed my eyes, picturing branches stretching toward the surface. The ginkgo responded, new limbs shooting upward.

A chittering sound. My eyes snapped open.

One of those eight-legged fuckers had slipped through the branches, lunging straight for us.

"No no no-" I thrust up my missing arm on instinct, bracing for those razor teeth. Stupid. What was I going to block with a bloody stump?

But the crunch of bone and flesh never came.

I cracked open one eye. The Black Leg's jaws were frozen mid-snap, held apart by dark branches that had burst from where my arm used to be. In its place was an arm made of wood the color of aged bark, all knotted.

Huh?

I flexed my new fingers. The wooden fingers moved as naturally as flesh and bone, like I'd never lost the arm at all. The branches holding the Black Leg's mouth twisted in response.

I tried clenching my fist hard. The branches constricted, splintering through the Black Leg's jaw with a satisfying crack. Black blood sprayed everywhere as its jaws tore apart.

"That's for my fucking arm, you eight-legged piece of shit!"

Peng made an impressed "peng" sound against my chest. I stared at my new limb in awe, watching black liquid drip between wooden fingers.

"Well would you look at that." I held up the ginko leaf in my wooden fingers, watching it catch what little light filtered down here. "You really outdid yourself this time, buddy. First the keychain, now this."

More chittering echoed through the darkness. Looking down, dozens of glowing red eyes were scaling the tree trunk, getting way too close for comfort.

"Time to test this bad boy out." I pressed my tree-arm against the ginkgo's trunk. The wood of my new limb seemed to resonate with the tree, like they were made of the same stuff.

Grow!

The trunk lurched upward with explosive force. Branches erupted from all sides as we shot toward the surface, leaving the Black Legs behind. Their angry screeches grew fainter and fainter until they were just red dots in the darkness below.

"Suck it!" I yelled, watching the last traces of them vanish. Peng made a smug "peng" sound from where it clung to my shoulder.

The ginkgo burst through into open air and I found myself staring at the familiar upside-down skyline of Longfeng. The tree's growth slowed, gently placing us right in front of Feilong Corps HQ.

The building looked untouched, like my fight with Fang and that bastard Lung never happened. No debris, not even a scratch on those dragon statues out front.

I glanced at Peng. A grin spread across my face.

"Let's undo that, shall we?"

I pulled back my wooden fist, feeling power surge through the my new arm. The punch connected with the ground and BOOM - part of the ginkgo exploded upward, tearing through concrete and steel. The tree ripped straight through four floors before bursting out the other side in a shower of glass and stone.

Alarms blared through the building as officers poured out of the front doors. Their black and yellow uniforms made them look like a swarm of angry wasps.

"Halt! You are under arrest for-"

I cut him off by launching a branch through his megaphone. "Yeah yeah, property damage, assault, whatever."

The first officer's Chimu manifested as glowing chains that shot toward me. I grinned, morphing my wooden arm into a giant hand and catching them mid-air.

"Nice trick. Here's mine!" I yanked hard, sending him flying face-first into the ginkgo trunk.

Two more rushed in from the sides. One fired what looked like sonic waves while the other's hands crackled with electricity. I grabbed Peng and held it up like a shield.

"Peng!" The waves bounced right off its round belly.

"Thanks buddy!" I tossed it in the air, transforming my arm into a spiked club. The electricity guy's eyes went wide as I smashed his partner's sonic attack right back at him. Both dropped to the ground, twitching.

"Who's next?" I caught Peng with a wooden branch as it landed on my shoulder.

The remaining officers hesitated, looking at each other nervously.

"That's what I thought. Now bring Lung out here. We've got unfinished business."

The officers stayed frozen in place.

"Tsk. Guess we'll have to find the old bastard ourselves."

I strolled past them toward the building entrance. Not a single officer dared to move. And here I thought Feilong Corps was supposed to be elite.

"Peng?"

"Yeah, I know right? These guys are-"

Movement. Behind me.

My tree-arm shot out, catching something metal inches from my head. Some initiate had tried sneaking up on me. Could tell by the trainee stripes on his uniform. Poor kid was trembling so hard he could barely hold his weapon.

These brainwashed idiots are actually willing to die for that bastard.

I crushed the initiate's weapon in my wooden fingers, ready to teach these Corps dogs what happens when you mess with me, when the rest of the officers suddenly lunged toward me like a black and yellow tsunami. Their combined Chimu powers lit up the courtyard.

"Oh, NOW you grow a spine?" I morphed my tree-arm into a mass of thorny branches. "Bring it-"

CRACK.

Pain exploded through my ribs as something slammed into my side with the force of a train. The world spun as I went flying, blood filling my mouth.

What the fuck just hit-

Another impact. And another. The building around me was moving, chunks of wall and floor smashing into me from impossible angles.

"Peng!" I spat blood, desperately grabbing for it. The stupid bird had somehow landed on a ginkgo leaf floating mid-air, thank goodness.

I reached for more leaves, willing them to catch me. They materialized just in time, forming a cushion that barely broke my fall.

"Fucking... hell..." I wheezed, clutching my ribs. Pretty sure at least three were broken.

Slow footsteps echoed through the courtyard. The officers parted as a figure descended a staircase that hadn't existed seconds ago.

Lung.