Limit Break

"Watch," Dedis said.

He pounded his hand into the stone, and my jaw opened as the end of his arm melted into a round ball of tissue, as though he had rolled dough on a wall and buried his fist inside it. When he pulled away, the stone was cratered.

"Cara," he said, flexing his hand back into shape. "You do something."

On the other side of the room, his daughter sighed and lay her book down, then stood and with a look of concentration, kicked fiercely to the side. Her yell reverberated through the room, and instead of stopping at its full extension, the leg stretched double, triple its length, and smashed into the stone beside us. I now knew where the odd craters in the walls came from.

"The very shock on your face tells me that you expect something different," Dedis said to me. "Different rules, a different reality. I couldn't believe it myself when my master showed me--he could wind his arm into a piece of chain and heft a dumbbell beyond the highest tower in the city."

I probably looked as shocked as I felt.

"We aren't superheroes, Phix," he said. "We simply have the privilege of journals. In those journals, the thoughts and experiments of our predecessors show us that this world is not our home. We don't know why we're here and we don't know where we come from, but we believe our presence here is a dream. Lived, and perhaps wasted. We want to find a way out of it. Not by suicidal means," he twisted his mouth, "but by shifting our reality. Now, it's your turn."

"My turn?" I shook my head slowly. "You think I can do that?"

"You're fresh to the City. Give it a try."

I pushed my fist half-heartedly to the rock.

"Not like that. Mean it."

I took a breath, and punched the stone. Pain radiated throughout my hand, and I brought bruised knuckles to my lips.

He smiled grimly. "I said, mean it."

"You're kidding, right?"

He waited, and Cara gave a sigh of exasperation from the table. Finally, I shook out my hand and slammed it into the wall.

I yelled as I felt the bones of my knuckles crack.

"Better," Dedis said. "This time, you must will your flesh to flow. See it defy physical laws--they aren't the same as you expected, are they? Move past the pain and make your skeleton bend. What kind of a will do you have?"

"One that doesn't break my bones," I muttered, staring at my hand. The knuckles were red and swelling blue, and ingrained with divots. Heat and pain throbbed through them.

"Exactly. Strike the stone."

I laughed under my breath. The bones were already broken, right? A little more broken wouldn't make much difference? With a last glance at Cara, who flicked her face back to her book, I closed my eyes and imagined my flesh rolling like Dedis' had, extending like Cara's kick had. I launched my arm at the wall and willed.

I stumbled, and opened my eyes to see the wall an inch from my nose.

Dedis shouted, and Cara exclaimed, close enough suddenly that I could smell her lavender scent.

My arm was a puddle past my elbow.

I turned my head and threw up.

___

This prompt for this fiction was Show someone discovering a new ability. I've broken through cement brick in my martial arts classes, and I've seen some broken bones that make the flesh all doughy, but I do NOT recommend trying this unless you're in a dreamworld. :) What limit-breaking ability would you like to have?