An old dog teaches a new trick (solo)

The news of a advanced healing ability took back seat to the strange crystal that covered his arm. He couldn't be sure when it happened. As he replayed the events the desert his attention was always elsewhere. But there was no mistake the green crystal was in the exact spot that he had applied slime to his arm. Moldale was poking the crystal with his claw/spike, it bounces harmlessly off the substance. Now that he is aware of it, he notices how heavy his arm felt heavy.
"Well don't know what to tell you kid." He said after a long series of pokes "And you said it's not something you did?"
Stratus had explained his ability to the short hollow to the best of his knowledge this was beyond him.
"It could be a result of you coming ta Hueco Mundo." He waves his stubby arms to punctuate the statement. "There's alot of energy in the air here, maybe your ooze was affected?" It was a possibility. With his free hand Stratus built up pressure and released some slime from his hand to shoot against a cavern wall. The wad of green hit the wall and hung to it, they watched it in silence for several minutes. Nothing changed. Moldale finally spoke "Well that means it is you doing this."
"I already told you I can't do this!" Stratus begins to get irritated once again "I can only do that!" he points at the green slime on the wall.
Moldale grunts "Well kid, it's not that easy. We may be monsters, but we ain't that simple." He rubs his stubby chin as he thinks of a better way to explain it, after a moment he sighs "We grow is the best way to say it. The more fight the better you get, exercise enough and you'll get stronger kinda like a human does."
"So I did this, but I don't know how?" Stratus looked down at his entombed hand doubtfully.
"I figure so." he poked the crystal again for good measure. "Before you learn how you did it, you need to figure how to get out of it." Moldale spun in place and walked toward one of the cavern's may side tunnels.
"Wait! Where are you going!? Aren't you going to help?" Stratus shouted in disbelief. How dare this squirt desert him in his time of need.
Moldale only snorts, which fits his pig like face. "Not much I can do, it's your body. Give it a go by yourself, I'll try to think of something when I get back."
"But where are you going?" Stratus replies, but the short hollow is gone.

Stratus spent what seemed like hours trying to figure a way out of the crystal. He tried to wiggle his arm free, but there was no room to even wiggle a finger. It was like his arm was completely preserved under green glass. The crystal was fused to his skin, he tried to pull the crystal free but found it painfully yanking his own stomach. Although Moldale said that they heal quick, he didn't want to test it's limits by ripping his skin off. He tried using his other hand to break the prison. His claws didn't make so much as a scratch, which surprised him since he could pierce hard metal with them. Next he tried to use brute strength by punching at it. This proved to be quite awkward. Although the small swings couldn't utilize 100% of his power, he couldn't even chip the surface. In a last ditch effort he tried slamming it against the wall. He gave a small yell and ran at the stone wall and chest against it. It was more difficult than he thought, his own body absorbed most of the impact on his first try. Rather painfully he staggered backwards. He tried again. Once more he ran at the wall, but then he jumped and pushed his covered arm forward with his stomach. There was a loud 'thump' and Stratus fell back to the ground. His arm was till covered and there was a small dent in the wall. Finally he growled in defeat and sat down on a nearby rock.

Tired and frustrated Stratus doesn't notice Moldale's return. The hollow is chuckling to see him still trapped.
"No dice, eh?" he asks stating the obvious. He rubs his chin and looks again. "Yep, it's really stuck on ya. Might have to cut you free, still doesn't get your hand out of there." Stratus growls not happy with the assessment. He wanted to avoid such things. He looks at the wall that had been covered with slime. Only small traces of the green goo is left. "That slime of yours is the key somehow." Before Stratus can warn him Moldale has walked over and touched the substance with his claw. He tries to draw his hand away, but he's held fast. He pulls and yanks but the glue only stretches so far then pops him back into place. Stratus chuckles, some of the tension leaves him.
"I'm glad you're enjoying this, but help me damnit!" The short hollow grunts. Stratus gets up and walks over to him. With his free hand he touches the spot the slime is touching Moldale's claw. He focuses and wipes it off like a bead of sweat. Moldale quickly moves away from the wall.
"That's some trick." he breathed, then he looks as Stratus with his head cocked to the side. "How'd you do that?" Stratus looked blankly, he'd being doing it so much he couldn't really put it into words well. "It's like I reject it? More like I feel it's signal and alter my own? I don't know, took me awhile just to use it." He quickly pointed at the wall again and fired another blast of slime from his open palm. He then shifted his fingers and released sphere of slime to splatter against the wall. Another shift of his fingers and he released a string of glue that connected his hand to the wall. And then the green rope fell from his hand and he looked back at the small hollow. Moldale had remained quiet throughout the display.
"Maybe you can do the same thing with the crystal there." He pointed out. If his masked would have allowed it, Stratus' jaw would have hit the floor.
He hadn't thought about that, if the crystal was like his slime he could probably free himself the same way. Embarrassment hit him, but he quickly quieted the felling as he focused at the task at hand. He pushed his focus to stomach first and the crystal detached from him belly. He let out a shout of joy, it felt odd coming from his deep growling voice. Moldale clapped his hand/claws together.
"Nice, now for your hand." he pointed out. Stratus buried his excitement and focused again this time on his hand, he kept his eyes locked on the target. For a second nothing happened. He felt a twitch and tickle as he pooled his focus. The next instant the crystal shattered to pieces as if hit by an invisible hammer. The shards chimed as they hit the stone floor. Stratus flexed his healthy and free hand. He picked up one of the shards from the floor, it was brittle and crumbled to dust almost instantly.
Moldale was clapping again. "Nice kid, all ya had to do was give it a little juice." Stratus was tired of being called 'kid'
"Juice?" he asked without thinking. Moldale stopped clapping and groaned.
"Wow, kid, you're killing me." He let out a sigh "Sit down, gotta fill ya in on something."

Stratus took a seat on a rock. Subconsciously he kept flexing his now free arm. It felt good to be out of that crystal. Moldale had already taken a seat, he tapped the stone.
“Where to begin?” he asked aloud more to himself. “Well you can sense other presences, so guess you’re not completely helpless.” He looked for a reaction from Stratus, but he wasn’t really listening anyway.
“Well when you sense other presences you’re feeling their energy. Most hollow never even learn how to do that. Sensing the energy of humans is easy, but they can’t seem expand it past that.” Stratus thought back to his own experiences. Was he that lucky? His encounter with another hollow in the forest might have been what sparked it. He did wonder how did he get to the middle of that street that night. Moldale was still speaking, Stratus tried to catch up.
“In the desert to hide yourself it by was reducing your energy. When you just freed yourself from the crystal you had increased it. That crystal reacted to your power.” So the gist was that, he could shatter the crystal using his power. The signals that he felt was the spiritual power of other beings.
“Your power grew and it activated the crystal, you just gotta figure out how to do it. Controlling your energy is the key.” Stratus looked at the small hollow. He didn’t seem that powerful, who was he to lecture him? He recalled their small scuffle in the desert. He was quick, but Stratus’ arm was confined. Could he do the same now?
“Problem is I can’t teach you how, it’s something you’ll have to tinker with alone. Everyone is different and all that.” he stood up and walked towards a side tunnel. “You can practice over here; plenty or room for you to work with.” Stratus go up and followed him into in the black portal. The tunnel was completely dark, but happily it was short. They emerged into another cavern this one he could see parts of stalactites from the ceiling. As Stratus stood admiring the place Moldale started to walk away yet again. “Looks like Rei and Roun are back. You practice abit.” He exited the cavern.

Alone again he stood in the middle of the spacious cavern. So he needed to bring out his power? According to Moldale his release technique did that. So he decided to focus on that. But how would that bring about the crystal? Thought was never his strong point, so he just acted. He closed his eyes and began to only focus. Normally he would shift his focus to the part of his body where he had slime to make it come off. This time he just focused inward and then outward. There was a tingle at first and then a slight warmth. Normally he would only focus for a moment to release the slime, this time he tried to keep it going for as long as possible. His breathing became labored. His eyes snapped open as a scream of pain came from his mouth. He fell to his knees as a sudden exhaustion came over him. Was he doing something wrong? There was no crystal anywhere. With his eyes closed he hadn’t seen anything, this time he would attempt with his eyes open. He centered his attention on his hands and started to focus again. The tingle filled his body, but time he thought he saw something. A distortion of the air similar to a mirage, he kept focusing and the effect became more pronounced. Just then the pain started again. But with the pain came a faint flickering of light around his body, the pain became too much and he stopped. He collapsed to his knees once more, a small sheen of sweat covering his body. As happy as he was with his accomplishment, it was bashed to pieces when he remembered his true goal. Still no crystal. So busy with his thoughts he didn’t notice that Moldale, Rei, and Roun were watching him from within the dark tunnels.
“Hmph” was all Rei grunted and turned to slither away, Roun reluctantly not far behind. Moldale stayed to watch. “Kid’s got energy but that’s only the catalyst”

Below Startus continued his energy gathering, at best he could only manifest a dull glow that quickly vanished.. By now he was near exhaustion, his arms and legs felt like limp noodles. His head was pounding. Yes despite all the effort, there were no crystals forming. As he thought about it the obvious became clear; applying his energy to the slime. Tired as he was he wouldn’t be able to try his energy gathering too much longer. He closed his eyes once more to focus. Stratus raised both arms to either of his sides palms facing down. This time he built slight pressure in his arms and let slime ooze from his hands as his energy rose. As he drew more power his arms felt heavy. Was he too tired? No, they felt heavier mainly on his hands. Stratus opened his eyes from each hand now hung a wide green stalactite. The slime had transformed into the gem like substance due to his energy. Stratus started to laugh in triumph. He waved the green lances attached to each hand wildly while spinning in place. When he stopped he noted how heavy they felt. He let his arms drop and the green spikes pierced the stone floor. He was amazed, they didn’t look that sharp and yet they broke the stone. When he tried to lift his arms again he realized he was stuck, he started to panic forgetting that he could detach them. Which he did after calming down, this time using just enough energy that the crystal didn’t shatter. He looked at the two crystal spears in the ground and laughed again. He couldn’t wait to see what else he could do with it.

Ability 2: Emerald Edge
Named after the green gemstone this substance is created by channeling his energy into his first ability’s glue/slime. Unlike the rock it takes it’s name from the substance is as strong as steel and sharp as diamond. It seems in going from a liquid to a solid state, the slime also gets much heavier. The weight increase could be attributed to the heaviness of energy given to it. By release more of his energy into this crystal he is able to shatter it.