Pull the Wires from the Wall

[Vitruvius]

The “muscles” within his body contracted and rotated and changed positions. It was all very subtle and slight, nothing major or noticeable to the naked eye. It shook his body down to his wrists where he felt something click into place. He felt something akin to a smelting furnace boil up in his torso and a dangerously hot substance coursed through his arms, the heat causing sensors in his head to run high alerts that rang during the whole event. His hands raised, the gloves catching fire long before the caustic flames erupted from his palms. Over the ringing alarms he could hear the shrieks of surprise and pain. Unflinching, his blue eyes stared down the life form that batted away furious tongues of fire. The flames continued to erupt from his palms, immolating the human. And he could now confirm it was human as the armor melted down to the skin, seeing the human's bone structure and peeling flesh give way to human organs before charring black and sealing over. The screams were cut short and picked up by the terrified sounds of others around him. And still Vitruvius could not look away. A memory he would never forget.

The explosion of napalm erupting like a volcano from his hands. The glow against his clothes from the flames he was producing. The dance and shake of the man before him trying to extinguish a fiery chemical reaction he was causing. The death screams that plagued his auditory system that said he was killing this human. The smell, and yes he did recognize scents, of melting steel and searing flesh that would never let him forget he burned a man in a slow, painful, agonizing end.

What was left as the flames receded back into Vitruvius' palms was a charred black substance that didn't even resemble a living being. The hot metal in his body, the bones close to structural damage were instantly cooled by a heat sink. Everything refreshed. Everything repaired. The mysterious weaponization of his body disappeared. Vitruvius didn't know what to do. The information was blank. He could find no resources to examine. While this whole experience was something he had no data on, it was data he could find out for himself. But this situation. This scenario. It was very real. And it occurred from within him. It was something he had no idea he was capable of doing. What did he do? What should he do?

Vitruvius had the most honest human reaction he had ever experienced: Run. And he did.