Chapter Four The Great Genocide Commences

 

 

Z goes for that jog at ten a clock at night, wearing a hoodie over his spiky hair as he jogs under the light post. His jog takes him to the crowded city streets, bustling with life of all kinds. Supers of all powers go about their business, some enjoying themselves others on superheroes' business, and the others doing what they please under the shadows of the night. Tonight, that's going to change, in a big way. "Tonight is the night I start taking out these sorry excuses of a super. Things are about to get heated up. It is time to make it known to the world, that I'm here."

 

 

Finding a more quiet street, only a few people walked the streets, heading down an abandoned street. "I guess taking down the evil won't paint me in a bad light which is good but soon even the good supes will have to be killed too, it is only a matter of time now."

Climbing up the building, he found a great vantage point on the roof. Scouring the area, the streets grew ominously quiet. Not a single sound can be heard from the city, no cars honking or people talking. 

Z: "What is going on."

Voice echoing from behind him: "Do you like it?"

Z snaps around in a stance. A woman of slender proportions stands on a billboard, her raven black hair sways in the wind. She wore a black tuxedo along with a domino mask to hide her identity. Tightening her white gloves a *pop* rang through the air, the world came to life again as sounds started appearing one by one.

Woman: "Cool huh. It's my power, reality-warping. Crazy right."

Z eases off: "That is a very powerful superpower."

She hops down: "What is yours."

"Should I tell her I have none, would that make her suspicious, I guess it's not uncommon to see a human fight crime."

Z: "I have no power, just my wits."

Woman uninterested after hearing his words: "Oh a normie, so, what brings you around these parts."

Z: "Just trying to be a hero."

Woman halfhearted: "Yeah well you are going to have to try real hard-"

Zane cuts her off: "Shush!"

Woman astonished by the balls on this nobody: "Hey don't shush me normie!"

Zane leaps off the building catching ahold of a ladder and sliding down it. Rushing down the streets, a car blocks his path as he is running which in turn he slides over the hood into the alleyway across from him. 

A woman screaming: "Someone HELP ME! PLEASE!"

Thug one clasping his hand over her mouth and tearing at her clothes: "Shut up Bitch!"

She fights back, scratching and flailing wildly at those criminals, the second criminal waved a puff of smoke in her face sending her into a deep sleep.

Thug two chuckling: "Good, now we can have fun."

Her body went limp as the two low lives started their disgusting acts, ripping off parts of her shirt and skirt.

Zane zooms through full force filled with such hatred as he aimed for the second thug's knee, snapping it like a twig. 

His screams drowned out the nice city sounds and replaced them with the cold reality of what this city is really neglecting, its cracks. 

Z follows the kick to the knee, clenching his fist so tight he bears blood from biting his lip too hard. Landing the punch against the first thug's jaw snapping it out of place just after cracking the wall with his head. 

The second thug screamed the whole time getting on Zane's nerves: "Would you shut it already!"

Z booted him in the face knocking him out cold, Z checked on the unconscious woman, touching her neck, searching for a pulse. 

The woman wakes from her slumber: "Wha-what happened!"

Zane helped sit her up: "You are alright now, I took care of them."

Tux woman comes to the scene: "Woah! What happened here."

Zane: "It's all handled, you can run along and play hero somewhere else."

He gets her up slowly, getting out into the street as he lends his body as support: "Come on this way."

Zane grabs a random pedestrian: "You, call an ambulance, she needs to be checked for trauma and any injuries."

Zane sits her down once more: "Stay there, help is on the way."

The woman shook from the experience: "Okay. Thank you."

Zane nods before taking his leave looking for more trouble, a hand grips his shoulder pulling him around: "Hey! What do you think you are doing!"

Zane rolls his eye: "I am protecting people, what are you doing."

Tux: "How dare you ignore me! You are just a normie!"

Zane shoves her against the wall in the ally: "That is the problem! Just because I have no powers you think you can push me around. Do you honestly think humans are that pathetic? That they can't defend themselves?!"

Zane walks away leaving her to his answer to ponder over. 

"God the head of these so-called heroes has, soon that will change. I am still angry I missed the chance to kill those thugs. Not like they would have given me any experience."

 

 

 

#

 

 

 

"I need to find a candidate for my experiments. I would like to call this a night and hit the hay."

Lost in his thoughts of whether he should return for the night. As sudden as a bullet, an explosion goes off, setting a whole building ablaze. "Shit, what the hell happened!"

Zane gets a running start, leaping off a building into a window of the flaming apartment complex.

On the six-floor, an intense smell of burnt wood and smoke attacked his nose. His throat got assaulted by smoke, coughing uncontrollably.

Zane screamed: "Is anyone there?! Hello! Is there anyone alive!"

A small whimper can be heard from the crackling fire: "Help, please~"

Zane bust down the door using his shoulder setting his sweater ablaze. Swinging it off him and throwing it into the flame, he fails to realize the other smell. The smell of roasting flesh, a body sat in the flame pinned by a support beam. The cries of a child can still be heard in the room, but Zane is too traumatized by the sight of flesh falling off the bone. He completely froze, none of the smoke seemed like a problem just the sight of an orb leaking out of her body. Claw marks can be seen on the floor as her body reached for the bed, even when she knew she couldn't make it she still wanted to save her child. "Can I really do this?"

A cry snaps him out of his trance-like state, reaching under the bed he flips the bed against the wall revealing a little boy holding his head in a fetal position.

He looks up to see Zane holding a smile: "Come on kid we need to go."

Zane rips a piece of his shirt and holds it over his mouth: "Where is my momma."

The kid takes a look around but Zane covers his eyes before he could see his mother's fate: "She is fine. Let's get you out of here!"

Zane picks him up and hustles out the door into the hall. The hall had ten doors on each side down a long corridor, orbs started squeezing out of the doors. Twenty or more flowing through the doors, Zane tried to ignore the images of the bodies.

Zane getting ready: "Okay kid we have to jump."

He nods in agreement as Zane steps a few feet back to get enough running room. 

 

 

#

 

 

 

Minutes Before 

(Outside the flaming building)

 

 

 

Cop: "Everyone, step back! The area is unsafe!"

Reporter: "Please sir! Tells us what happened!"

Cop one: "No questions right now! It is not safe!"

Two heroes arrive, a woman who landed with her ability to fly and a man dressed in casual clothing. 

Cop three: "Who are they."

Cop two: "They are Jessie and James, a relief team for dangerous injuries."

Cop three: "Well they are not going to be of any help with a fire like this."

Cop two standing next to cop one: "There is no way anyone is alive in there, we should just wait for it to collapse and search for the bodies."

Zane leaps out of a window catching a metal railing of the adjacent building, the building comes cascading down sending a wave of fire and smoke throughout the streets. Zane holds him tightly, covering the boy from the smoke. Zane's back gets bombarded by debris, his voice gets snuffed out as a piece of jagged metal slings shots into his back driving him to let out a voiceless whimper as nothing comes out. Z lets go of the metal rail plummeting to the ground still, Zane holds the kid close to his chest hitting the ground with a thud as he landed on his side.

"Why do I care so much? I could have left him there and taken his mother's essence. Did I do a good thing? Is this kid really worth all the pain that is going to come in the future? No, he is not, but he had no choice but to be human so why should he suffer for having no powers. It doesn't matter if the world is going to crumble, a human's life is precious and I need to save them from the monsters lurking in the cracks of the world." 

Zane closes his eyes only seeing black and hearing voices echoing until nothing. A small comforting feeling echoed throughout his body slithering towards the wound in his back.

Voice: "Over here! Someone is alive!"

A female's voice: "James hurry we are losing him!"

Pain runs through his back making his body instinctively jolt, a warm sensation washes over him just seconds after.

Zane goes cold, and Z shivers as the metal piece get ripped out of his body.

Z opens his eyes wide, the cops, reporters, heroes, and the kid stood over him.

James: "Are you okay."

Z stands up, shrugging off the hole in the back of his shirt: "I'm fine, go check on the kid."

James nods, pulling the kid aside to check on him: "Who are you?"

Jessie questioned him, Z answered her question with a question: "Should you be looking for bodies?"

Z walks away further into the ally, the cops do their job and push the reporters away giving him time to climb up the building and escape.

 

 

 

"It's two in the morning already and I got nothing to show for it."

Z eyes a man walking through the shadows looking over his shoulder every few seconds. "There's my prize."

Slamming into the ground in front of the twitchy man, a flame exsert from his hands. Z moves his head just in the knick of time dodging the flame. 

Z pretending he didn't see that: "Why are you so twitchy."

The man gives a very unstable look, a idea pops into his head as the expressions on his face warp into something ugly.

Twitchy man: "Go fuck yourself!"

Flames exhaust out of his hands. Z steps to the side moving out of the way. He turns the flames towards him only for Z to dunk under it and slams his fist into the fire super's stomach. He curls into a ball, his legs give out before him. 

Z crouches, lifting the supes head by his hair: "So, did you kill all those people in that building."

Super barks at him: "Fuck you!"

Z pulls a knife from his pocket: "Thought so."

Sliting his throat without hesitation, his body flails around as Z drops him. Rolling around the dirty streets holding onto his throat trying his hardest to preserve its life to no avail as the person that can save it is standing over him holding the blade that did it. "They never die well."

Z found it taking too long as he slid his blade into his chest, two times, one harder than the next. The super laid motionless. Z removes the blade from his chest cleaning it off using the tattered shirt he has on. An orb levitates out of the body floating in the air. "A red one? I guess it color codes supers powers. What I saw are a bunch of white orbs in the fire, does that mean they are just human."

The pull once again rears its head, Z holds off the urge for only a little bit as the feeling for power is too strong. Holding out his palm, the orb sinks into his hand coursing through his veins like lava, his veins glow brightly as it splits off to others lighting them up. Fire goes through his arm as it moves with the veins causing a feeling of being branded. Gritting his teeth, "This is nothing! Pain is only temporary."

His vein's glow burns out going back to normal along with the pain. "Does this mean I wield fire now, or do I have fire resistance now? Only one way to find out."

Z points his arm out, "Fire."

Nothing happens, "I guess I should start out small."

Focusing on his fingertips, a flame protrudes from the middle finger, "Ah-ha, bingo."

Z takes the power as his reward for the night heading back home. 

Making it to his home, "Today is the start of the extinction of supers."