Clang's hand moved away from my shoulder, and with it all of the power needed to continue healing Joanne's severe injuries.

"CLANG!" I yelled, "PUT YOUR HAND BACK!"

"But he's getting away!" Clang's voice rang back.

"We'll get him later!" I yelled, "I need you for this!"

Clang hesitated, his golden-masked gaze set on Soaks who was slithering across the street towards an alley.

Joanne's breathing, which had steadied, tightened, and she began to cough and sputter as her partially healed internal organs started to fail again.

"Clang, please!" I shouted.

Clang let out an aggravated rasp and then put his hand back at my shoulder. Right away the sinew at my shoulder covered his hand again. The healing process returned, and again Joanne's breathing steadied.

Miss Toontastic, whose face was still washed out in colour and her eyes shiny black, looked from me to Joanne and back again.

"Slip," she said, sounding like Xandra still, "It's a miracle the Pipers aren't on us right now. We can't stay much longer. We've done enough."

"Not yet," I said, "If we stop now her organs will start to fail."

It was then the pain from healing Joanne spiked again, asking more out of the three of us. None of us moved away, despite how much our own bodies and minds were telling us to sever the connection.

I could see the last remnants of what remained of my face burning away in the black orbs of Miss Toontastic's uneasy eyes.

I was thankful to be wearing some partial remnants of the Slip-suit mask, because my face without it likely would have been a disgusting sight to behold. Not gooey or wet like it would be if my face were really removed of its skin, but instead the skin had burned away to reveal the tougher, power imbued sinews beneath.

It was then I felt a difference in the healing process throughout Joanne's body. Maybe it was due to the last piece of my skin having burned away, or maybe it was I was becoming much more skilled in the use of the healing power; what I felt then was a much deeper understanding of what needed to be healed and how, to the degree that the healing done before, I suddenly understood, had been well-intentioned but incredibly haphazard.

"Get ready," I said, and this time my voice sounded resonant just like Slip.

Clang and Miss Toontastic braced themselves. And then I pushed the healing process further.

And, I realised, the reason I was able to do this was closely tied to both Clang and Miss Toontastic.

Some of Clang's metallic durability had sunk deep into my bones, sinews and tendons, and what parts weren't the one-of-a-kind Clang-metal substance, was instead the equally one-of-a-kind rubberiness seeped in from Miss Toontastic.

Metal and rubber in their own ways were highly durable substances, and without meaning to, through the process of channelling their power to heal Joanne – I had changed too.

Maybe my ability to channel their power had increased because I was more like them than when I had first started healing Joanne.

And at last a turning point was reached.

"That's it!" I resonated, "She's going to be okay!"

What I didn't expect was the sudden upsurge of cheers from all around us. There were about three dozen people, half of which had their phones out recording us.

Stolen story; please report.

Joanne sat upright, the colour having returned to her face. She was alive, and well.

"Mum!" Graham cried.

He embraced his mother and she embraced him and Rodger.

"I'm sorry, Dad," said Joanne with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Rodger tried to keep it together, but out of him, his grandson, and his daughter, he blubbered the most from sheer relief and happiness.

"Slip!" Clang's voice rang, "The Pipers are coming! We've got to go!"

"Okay!" I resonated, and stood up.

My legs held surprisingly firm despite me having practically no power left to spare of my own.

Metal and rubber, I thought to myself, the understanding of the new make-up of my body registering for me.

With a thought I detached the last of the sinew strands which hadn't already detached from Joanne and, in turn, they wove back into arm-like shapes, as if remembering the shape they were supposed to retain. I could tell however this was just a temporary measure, because my arms no longer had bones anywhere along them. The bones would need to be regrown.

The sound of the Pied Piper Task Force's jeeps grumbling closer to where we were met our ears.

"You got any power left to spare?" I asked Clang and Miss Toontastic.

"Enough to get away, sure," said Miss Toontastic.

"Do you even have to ask?" Clang's voice rang with a touch of smug incredulity.

Clang started punching the air.

"What's he doing?" said Miss Toontastic, "Shouldn't we be running?"

"He's getting ready for that," I resonated, "We're going to need to move fast. Faster than ever before. Can you do that?"

"Seeing as it's you," said Miss Toontastic, wryly.

If I still had a face I would have blushed.

""Tension!" Clang's voice rang out, "Times two!"

Gold and silver particles began to rise off Clang like an aura, and his arms continued to punch like engine powered pistons.

The crowd gasped like spectators to a spectacular live performance at the sight of Clang's golden aura. Those who had remained to see if we might save Joanne's life seemed to have long since decided we weren't a threat to them.

"TENSION!" Clang's voice rang out again, the ringing tone of his voice becoming much more so, like a giant church bell, "TIMES THREE!"

More gold and silver particles rose away from Clang, the heat from his body visible in the air.

Steam gushed from his eye-sockets as well as from the rest of his body as some of the cooling power Clang was skilled in set to work to create a heightened temperature balance.

"I'm ready!" Clang's voice rang. Some of his golden sand-like mask had crumpled away, revealing his smile beneath.

"Civilians disperse!" came a Pied Piper officer's voice from a speakerphone, "Mice threat in the vicinity!"

This was repeated several times over by the Piper officer. No less than a small army of jeeps with mounted machine guns hitched on top were piling onto the narrow street.

The crowd which had watched on, including Joanne, Rodger, and Graham, started to charge towards us.

Miss Toontastic and I braced ourselves for trouble. But the crowd raced right past us, and more than a few hands patted our shoulders and heads. Rodger in particular shook my sinewed-hand; and Joanne embraced me in a hug and, with tears in her eyes, whispered the words, "Thank you."

And then the crowd raced towards the Pied Piper vehicles, with Rodger in particular leading the charge.

"Leave 'em alone!" he shouted.

"Clear off!" another person from the crowd yelled.

The crowd forced the Pied Piper vehicles to come to a hard stop.

"Let's go!" Clang's voice rang out.

And the next thing I knew Clang bounded over to me with incredible speed and power. It took a moment for me to figure out the best way to go with him, and so I jumped, grabbed hold of Clang, and settled into a piggy-back position. The steam and heat rising out from his body was hottest at the front and not the back, I could only hazard a guess, because he was making sure not to cook me alive as he carried me.

And so, with great gold and silver particles mixed with steam rising up into the air, Clang rocketed off at a speed which was far beyond what I thought he was capable of.

The street we were in became a blur, so that soon the only constant was myself, Clang in front of me, and Miss Toontastic who was bounding at an incredible speed and matching Clang's with each of her springily powerful jumps rocketing her onwards. She had an animalistic style of running to aid in her bounding motions.

"Thank you!" I shouted resonantly.

"What for?!" shouted Miss Toontastic.

"Yeah what for?" Clang's voice rang out.

I was sure they both knew what I was going to say, but that didn't stop them both from t-ing up the compliment anyway.

"For sticking around!" I shouted resonantly, "It means a lot!"

Miss Toontastic saw the car in her way and deftly leapt over it and kept on running with smooth precision upon landing on the other side.

Clang continued to race ahead, adding to the property damage of the day by bounding from one vehicle to another along his way.

I was a bit too tired to kick up a fuss about it.

"Which way are we going?!" came a shout from Miss Toontastic.

"Dunno!" Clang resonated back, "But I've got a few ideas!"

That's how the next bickering match started. And whilst we argued the three of us carried on, together, well after the Pied Piper Task Force had no chance of catching up.

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