Up in the sky, the supersun began to set, and the blue sky became intense with cyan light. High up among the rays of powerful light was the blue comet, which soared through the world, racing without slowing down, hoping to reach the city in time.

At the head of the comet, Meditat flew past the harbor of the city, and continued over the blue skyscrapers with spikes on the roof. He kept his head down, searching keenly as he passed blocks in seconds, seeking intently and scanning the city for all that mattered at that moment. He breathed heavily, exhausted from all the energy he was outputting, but still trying his best to make it to the other side.

Soaring over the city, Meditat glanced at a distant blackish spike that wasn’t part of any building, and he dove straight towards it, expecting to find a clue from the anomaly that didn’t belong in the city itself. He sped up in his dive, reaching towards the spike, hoping he could find his team somewhere nearby.

That was the moment Meditat flew straight past the spike’s tip, his head turned after noticing a spec on it. His lenses stared straight at the tip, and straight at the penetrated body of unmasked Razi, which was hung on the stake with the tip driven through his body and head.

It was a grotesque sight, one so gruesome that Meditat couldn’t believe it was something he was truly witnessing. In that moment, his spirit began to dwindle, and the fear swelling in his chest was beginning to beat.

There was still more to find, and Meditat passed the stake, grasping for hope and leaving the wide eyed leader who never got to rest. He continued down towards the black street, where he then noticed first on the ground due to its contrasting colors, that lying on the road was Flynn’s body.

But it wasn’t the entire body, rather only half of it, and on the edge of the waist was a pool of blood with guts spilled out. The back of the runner’s head also had a gaping hole in it, and the body didn’t at all move.

Approaching the surface, Meditat then discerned that also on the ground were several lying pieces, but when he noticed that some of them were draped in a familiar forest green dress, he nearly puked inside the mask. He then noticed that at the top was the split head of Juno, her brown hair blanketing her head, her eyes tightly shut in preserved petrification, her last moments in terror.

Fragments of limbs were scattered around the body, a horrific image, one that should never exist in reality. But there it was, right in front of his eyes.

At last, Meditat landed down on the ground, and he stumbled forwards. He then faced ahead, and that was when that final straw broke.

Meditat began to sprint forwards, and while doing so he tugged his black hood off his head. His mask dematerialized right as he fell to his knees, and immediately grabbed the lying body of the final member, Calypso.

His black bangs draped around his face as he held Calypso up, bridal style, clutching her tightly as his eyes dwelled on the gaping hole in her chest.

Tears swelled in Meditat’s eyes, and he began to gasp for air, suffocating in his own pain. The tears subsequently began to stream down his face as he clung onto Calypso’s body, and quietly began to sob, holding the girl he promised he’d take out just before deploying.

Now, she laid in his hands with closed eyes, no pulse, and not even a chest to try compressing to pump life back into. There was no life left to spark, nothing left to scavenge, and not even final words left to receive closure by.

All there was left was the body, which Meditat clung to as he bent his head forwards, sobbing louder with tears falling off his cheeks and onto the girl’s deceased face.

All there was left to do was cry, kneeling in front of the halved body of his best friend who was a brother to him, in front of the dismembered body of his respectable friend who mothered him yet at the same time always gave him the respect of an equal.

All there was left to do was bawl in front of the massive silver spike that hung the man who was not just a mentor, but a good friend, one that Meditat could respect but also one he could have fun with, not only as an ally of battle, but as someone he cared about.

All there was left to do was wail around his departed family who shed life he never thought he’d have, who brought him joy he never knew existed, who gave him something that he never realized he needed so much.

In front of the howling final member of the bygone team stood the man who did it all, dressed in the red suit as his dark cape waved in the wind.

The man in red had both of his hands fully intact, and was no longer bleeding, as though he was miraculously able to heal his seemingly permanent wounds. He stared down upon Meditat through red flaring eyes, almost conceitedly, looking down on the misery he caused, standing tall like he wasn’t hurt at all. There were still some scratches and dents on his suit, but his posture was that of an untouched god, looking down on pathetic mortals.

Dumping salt into the open wound, Exitium sneered: “To be honest, I did know about them far before you met them, and even back then I sort of found them annoying. I mean, self declared heroes are always inherently disgusting, but when you looked into who they were, they were just a ragtag band of dysfunctional Exhumans who were wrongfully idolized. But I just found them annoying, it was nothing to write home about, no reason to draw blood.”

He started to circle around Meditat steadily while continuing, “But, for whatever idiotic reason, you then started to idolize them too. It made no sense, you were passionately rejective of them for years, and then all the sudden you fell head over heels for them. And at first, I didn’t understand it, I really didn’t. Why would the solo hero Meditat want to be in a team of people infinitely weaker than him, people that served no purpose in power for, people that weren’t helping him with his moral mission?”

He then stopped in front of Meditat again before revealing, “Then it hit me, he wasn’t doing this to be stronger, or to more efficiently complete his mission. He hardly got any stronger, and if anything he abandoned his mission and his home. So that wasn’t why…no…Meditat wanted to be in The Shield because Meditat wanted a family. Meditat thought that a bunch of deranged social failures who coped by fighting monsters all day would be the perfect family to be with, and he thought that it was right for him to join.”

Once again Exitium started circling around the kneeling man who finally stopped weeping to hear him explain, “Unfortunately, he made a grave mistake, he had forgotten a very important lesson he should’ve learned long ago. He forgot something, and because of one fact that he forgot, he let four people who could’ve possibly lived till old age die tragically. So heroic. But do you remember what that lesson was? It’s okay, I can remind you right now.”

He then stopped once again in front of Meditat, this time leaning forwards down to the face of the tearful man robbed of his family.

“Anyone you falsely deem as family will die.”

Exitium then stood up straight, and stepped back from the mourning man.

Kneeling on the ground with a girl who he expected he’d live his life by dead in his arms, Meditat’s head hung low. He remained frozen, but beneath the black bangs over his eyes was a bright flare.

Past the bangs, both of his eyes had white pupils, and bright six azureus streaks stretching from the pupil to the edge of the iris like a sun. Both eyes were wide open, staring into the void as he tightly clenched onto her drifted body.

Within those wide eyes was nothing that should’ve been there, within those eyes were not the innocent heroics and warm goodness of the man billions looked up to as a hero. Within those eyes was not the flame of a well intentioned man who only wanted to bring good in the world, the very image Meditat represented.

Within those eyes was a fury deep from the heart, a fury that surpassed morality, a fury that surpassed good. The fury was so boiling, so infectious, that it covered every inch of his body, drowning all the light within him.

Within those eyes was the flame of someone, who no matter how good he tried to be, had just lost every shard of care for any world, for any thing.

Beaten and kneeling on the ground, the man only had one thing to say, and he said it so casually, so calmly, so sincerely, so earnestly, so genuinely that it felt like the most truthful statement ever spoken in his life.

“I will incinerate every cell of your body.”

Flabbergasted by the intense threat, Exitium’s immediate response was to burst out of laughter, processing what was said and clearly taking it lightly. He leaned forwards while continuing to laugh for some seconds before finally leaning upright, to which he mocked between chuckles: “Wow, that wasn’t a very ‘hero’ thing to say-,” before his face was punched square by the tight black fist, erupting a frosty discharge on impact which shot his body straight backwards into the building behind him.

A gaping hole was left in the building about six stories tall which had a longer body next to a black empty parking lot albeit for a few abandoned pods. Chunks and plates of the metal wall collapsed after the hole was opened, and a frosty trail was left between the hole and the one who punched it in.

Standing behind the resting corpse of whom he held dear to, Meditat was now standing, his right arm extended forwards in the followthrough of the punch, with frosty mist smoking out of the crystals on his fist from intense effort.

His hood was still down thus revealing his expression to be one of unbridled rage, glaring through blazing eyes as his black hair and cape waved tremendously. He breathed heavily through tightly clenched teeth.

Off his body burst blue flames above tens of feet like beacons above him, rays like a sun, and at the tip of each twelve manifested an angled large silver missile with a sharp cone tip and vents on the side that emitted a bright orange glow. The back of every missile was already straining a blue streak of propulsive exhaust, and right as Meditat threw both arms forward with a growl at his sole target, all of them immediately soared straight where commanded: the hole in the apartment.

All twelve missiles struck the apartment at once, resulting in a massive fiery eruption that engulfed the entire building at once, decimating the first few bottom stories and causing the rest to crumble without support.

Flames raged over the corpse of the apartment, leading to the nearby stranded pods also being blown up from the chain of fire.

The path of destruction had already begun, witnessed through the vengeful eyes of Meditat, who grunted repeatedly after lowering his body in hopes that his surplus strike succeeded.

“Huh, I wonder if you did that knowing it was evacuated or not,” teased Exitium from right behind Meditat, standing casually untouched.

Flames extended off Meditat’s right hand to construct a sharp steel dagger held like an icepick with a handguard around the hilt, and he immediately swerved around with a slash to the throat which was evaded by a jump back from the intended target.

Before Exitium could land back down, the face of the handguard facing him flashed blue, and a forceful rupture of blue airy energy shot at him, blasting him back over a block down the street and landing him in an intersection.

No time between the flurry of fury, Meditat aimed both hands at Exitium, projecting blue flames to soar to the intersection. Before Exitium could recollect himself from the toss, a cage was erected around him, sized like a prison cell, with a transparent wall facing towards Meditat and the other three walls as well as the ceiling being composed of aligned silver bars.

Trapped inside, Exitium stabilized himself and put his hand on his head, slightly disoriented from the successive blow. He then heard a hum coming from the silver bars around him, and upon glancing behind himself, he noticed that they were all reddening, for they were being heated up. In the matter of seconds, the vacuumed cell started to heat up inside from the full force of the microwave, cooking him alive.

Air trapped inside the cage began to wave from the effects of the heat, becoming more intense with every second and noticeably agitating Exitium. Trapped inside, he shook his head, and then threw a punch into the transparent wall as the chains on his fist reddened again as if getting heated, yet upon landing the punch the most it did was cause a thud.

He then stepped back, and the silver guard on his shoulders seemed to begin losing shape, melting from the immense heat cooking him. He raised his head up to the highly red microwave bars, and then lowered it to look at the black road below him, which wasn’t covered.

While feeling his body melting from the overwhelming heat surrounding him, Exitium lowered both of his arms, which produced flames that formed handles around his hands connected to a long dark metal device with a drill on the bottom, resembling a jackhammer.

Upon creation, the drill began to spin at tremendous speed, heating up with a red glow.

Feeling the heat scorch his body with every passing second of being imprisoned in the burning chamber, Exitium plunged the jackhammer into the road, immediately drilling a hole underground at immense speeds which brought him into the earth, vanishing instantly.

No longer having eyes on the target, Meditat stepped backwards, standing in the middle of the road empty albeit for the corpses of his family. He glanced around himself, not seeing any trace of the assassin, as it seemed for the moment he had lost him. He observed the city frantically with huffs, agitated that there was no sight, but that was until he heard a distant drilling noise below him into the road which he faced.

The drilling noise drew louder rapidly until seeming right under Meditat in a second, prompting him to boost up many stories high in the air at a backward angle in a single leap propelled by the blue streak. Right as he leaped, the road below him crumbled, and another streak albeit red also rocketed upwards.

Up in the air, Meditat faced the head of the red streak right in front of him, gripping the jackhammer which faced the sky, still in operation and heated. Wielding the jackhammer was Exitium, who then faced Meditat after noticing that he had missed his stealthy strike. He watched, caught in the moment, as blue flames surrounded Meditat’s right fist before designing a large silver metallic gauntlet magnitudes larger than his hand, with a ring of vents wrapping around the wrist revealing the dark interior.

Countering the attempted sneak, Meditat threw his metal fist into Exitium’s face, and upon impact a blinding blue light flashed from the vents with the booming sound of an explosion of overwhelming magnitude which pummeled Exitium blocks down the street, struck by the force of an explosion directed into one punch.

Exitium flew backwards as his jackhammer was erased in flames, and he watched Meditat in front of his eyes whom bellowed his lungs out enraged, releasing all his rage as well as a discharge of blue flames that covered his body and reached all the way to the ground which materialized into a colossal humanoid giant over his body, with sharp huge parallelogram-shaped eyes blazing blue on a meticulously shaped humanoid head joined to the rest of the humanoid body made of a white shell with a texture similar to human skin and no noticeable components beyond the skin.

The titan had a gaping mouth similar to Meditat’s albeit with a noticeably sharp and strong jaw, and along both the roof and floor of the mouth were rows of razor sharp frosty crystal teeth in front of a dark abyss. It emitted an eerie electronic monstrous roar with a deep pitch which echoed for miles as it landed on the ground with feet clawed with sharp crystals just like the hands, all of which grew radiating frosty veins around the white skin like the roots of a plant.

Open vents curved like slashes were scattered around the titan’s torso, arms, and legs sporadically, blazing azureus energy that dre fires around the beast.

Landing on the road, which itself crushed the road and left craters, the titan concluded its amplified roar while chasing Exitium like a wild monster, its jaw hanging open to reveal its teeth. It chased Exitium, who crossed his arms over his chest, and covered his entire body in widespread red flames also reaching the ground.

Around Exitium’s body formed his own ginormous humanoid titan made of a red shell made with a fleshy texture, although with black minerals covering its body. Plates of jagged black minerals were placed around the titan’s limbs and torso, massive protective plates like armor that also covered its jaw and wrapped around its forehead, jutting out of the body to provide depth to hopefully protect the red shell. This titan seemed more designed for defense, and it was manifested in the same pose as its controller, the great arms covering its face protectively.

Charging forward with rumbling steps, the white titan slashed at the red titan, its crystal claws tearing against the black mineral armor meant to protect itself. However, with every slash made by the frosty fingers, chunks of the black armor were torn off, falling to the ground and cutting deeper into the plating. Even with the defensive design, the red titan had to constantly backtrack, absorbing every strike without being able to deal its own, locked in position as its opponent relentlessly gashed at it, growling with the same electronic monstrous voice.

Impelled down the city with constant strikes, the red titan’s back eventually slammed against one of the blue highrises, not having noticed what was being itself and being cornered against a wall. The impacted face of the building was crushed inward from the crash, letting the titan step slightly into the building before supporting it.

Persistent, the white titan marched up to the red titan and kept slashing at the arms, huffing louder beastily as every slash dropped chunks of armor. Piles of black minerals accumulated on the road beneath them, gradually trimming the armor down faster than what could allow for a retaliation.

Moving at such terrifying speeds, the white titan clawed away at the arms until completely stripping off all the armor it had focused on, tearing through and exposing the red fleshy shell beneath. Another slash was made without hesitation, seamlessly cutting straight through the skin.

Both red forearms of the defensive titan fell off the body, crashing into the ground with booms. Left completely defenseless, the red titan only could watch as the white monster pulled its left arm back before driving it at full force into its armored chest, only for the single jab to penetrate through the armor, straight into the body of the titan.

Without thinking, the white titan, who now held its opponent, drove the red titan straight through the highrise cornering it, immediately smashing through the whole building horribly and collapsing the blue skyscraper with one swift slam.

Mountains of debris collapsed on the red titan, who was buried beneath the shower, battered by the full force of the building that would have contained thousands of people if they hadn’t been evacuated prior.

Through the immense dust cloud left by the debris of the destroyed tower, the red titan was pulled forwards by its combatant, limply leaning forwards as the pressure of the crumble had left it temporarily beaten. It was completely vulnerable as the white titan gazed at its back with blazing eyes, and slowly moved its right open hand towards it, growling menacingly as it was ready to sink its claws into the titan and uncover the one within.

Right before the crystal claws could dig into its meal, the nape of the red titan suddenly evaporated in red flames, releasing a red streak to soar straight out of the body and race the other direction away from the scene. The white titan, perplexed, turned its head to face the red streak, growling curiously while it still held onto the red titan.

At the head of the red streak flew Exitium, trying to escape the scene as the white titan drew its left hand out of the red corpse, and turned its whole body towards the runaway. It then began sprinting at freakish speed, every step being a thundering rumble that shook the city, and in a few steps it already managed to reach its prey.

The white titan leaped off the ground towards the escapee with an open mouth sharpened with razor teeth, which it then abruptly shut right as it reached the assassin’s legs.

At first it seemed the white titan had narrowly missed its target, but as the target continued to soar away, it was revealed that he was missing both of his entire legs, and in the gaping holes where they were both meant to be attached gushed huge quantities of blood.

Releasing an agonizing scream, Exitium tilted up and rocketed towards the darkening sky, trying to get as far as it could from the titan. He continued to race up into the sky as down below, the white titan spouted into blue flames, and left in its ashes were two colossal metal poles as tall as the skyscrapers Exitium flew above, and connecting both poles was a thick blue energy rope at the top of each which was pulled down on the ground where the titan was, seeming to be stretched back as the poles were noticeably bent backwards from the steel-hard tension.

Exitium continued to rise higher in the air as red flames sprouted off the open wounds where his legs were, but after the fire dispersed it revealed that his legs were restored perfectly, designed just the same as previously, for among the many entities that could be conjured with his powers he could even manifest parts of himself as instant healing.

Yet behind, the tension in the rope was suddenly relieved with a deafening whooshing reverberation, being shot upwards past the poles that were able to unbend themselves. From the center of the slingshot raced the blinding head of a blue comet that in only the matter of a second caught up with Exitium, and at the head of it, Meditat grabbed Exitium over the abdomen, his hood once again over his head to mask his face.

The thick blue comet then rocketed at vast speeds up into the atmosphere as the blue city drew more and more distant, becoming smaller in perspective. In the matter of seconds the city couldn’t even be seen, as the two flew through a layer of clouds up into the high sky. They continued without signs of slowing down, and in seconds later the planet could be seen behind them rapidly becoming smaller from their position.

Ahead of the broad blue comet was the gargantic core of all hundred worlds, the tremendous cyan supersun that even from the surface of the planet had profuse magnitude. Subtle flares could be seen on the supersun’s surface with no other planets between the comet and the sun, the distance between the two closing with every passing second.

Holding onto Exitium’s body keenly, Meditat faced the blazing supersun, still not slowing down but instead accelerating as he gave his all to push forwards, fueled not just by anxiety but by rage that burned greater than the sun he was approaching. He didn’t seem affected by the vacuum of space, for that was why he had dawned his hood again, having a plan amidst his rage as even when clouded in hatred he could still devise intelligently.

Befuddled and terrified by being brought up into the cosmos, Exitium– who also seemed to be sustained in the vacuum of space– inquired anxiously, “Hey…what do you think you’re doing??”

A simple question was given a responsive question in return, delivered with a callous, calculated tone: “Remember what I promised you?”

Exitium began to fearfully squirm in the hold, trying to free himself as the supersun was getting brighter and larger from where he was being carried. He groaned tiredly, and a red blaze burst out of his body, forming humongous steel blades ahead which crossed above them, and at the top of both blades they were connected by loops that made the entire construct intimately resemble a scissor.

On the inner rings of the scissors, a dense red blast was emitted, pushing the two loops towards each other and powering the mechanism that then made a cutting action right as the blue comet flew between the blades.

To parry the cut, Meditat reluctantly liberated Exitium and dashed backwards, narrowly missing the blade but temporarily allowing Exitium into space freely. Right after the scissor completed its motion, he then bolted right around the joined blades and collided straight into Exitium with a hard punch square in the face, which knocked him further back towards the surface of the sun before bolting towards him again, scarily tenacious to see his promise through.

Another pummel was thrown at Exitium, which was narrowly blocked by the cross of the target’s arms, whose chains lit bright red with red sparks coming off as though it was about to ignite on fire from the exertion of energy to withhold the attack.

Following the failed punch, Meditat rose his right leg for a kick, which was then met by Exitium’s raised leg, making the kick impact the black jagged buckles around his boot to also subdue the strike.

Determined, Meditat began an intense flurry of punches and kicks, accelerating his own limbs with blue boosts that also dragged his body forwards, yet all of his attacks were blocked and covered by the equally accelerated motions of his opponent. Blue and red blurs were all that could be seen in their motions, yet even amongst such haze they still managed to anticipate each other’s moves.

During the flurry, the blue comet, albeit far weaker, began to move towards the sun again, as the rapid attacks being dealt also propelled the attacker forwards. Even though none of his hits landed, he was still bringing his enemy towards the sun that he intended to use to melt the body of the one who stole his life.

In the clash between equal forces of opposition, Meditat managed to read ahead and threw his right arm towards Exitium’s face before abruptly lowering it down to his stomach where the punch finally landed, scorching him miles down after all the built up momentum and anticipation to land a hit.

Following the successful strike, Meditat raised both of his arms and exerted a blue flame which covered both of his arms inside a mighty steel barrel wider than his own body, and at the wide open end off the hollow barrel was a sharp cone in the center with a spiral of silver fans around it like a turbine.

The turbine began to rotate with a whirring crescendo as behind the fan flared a bright blue light before an intense beam of azureus energy blasted out of the turbine at full force with a thunderous roar. The blast, wider than a body, struck straight into Exitium and projected him even farther towards the sun, being pushed repeatedly before the turbine finally let up, concluding its blast before being relinquished.

Now that Exitium was getting close enough to the supersun, so close in fact that behind them all they could see was the blazing cyan surface, Meditat took it upon himself to see the task out and bolted in an intense blue comet straight towards him. With one more punch, he could easily toss Exitium into the sun’s surface, which was more than enough to do the job as the body would incinerate before that could even happen.

Meditat clenched his right fist as the crystals glimmered blindingly, smoking a frosty mist as all the last power Meditat had was being put into fueling this one final punch that would avenge his team, his friends. He let out a vengeful roar as he swiftly approached the target, and threw the final punch to end it all.

Right in front of him, the seemingly disoriented body of Exitium drifted back, and as the frosty fist was inches from his chest, his body descended in a red streak. That one perfectly timed evasion left Meditat flying right past him, and from behind Exitium rose back up right where he was, and swerved around to face him.

All happening so fast, Meditat skewed backwards to face the target he missed, his fist still smoking but his body expression noticeably befuddled. He stared forward, baffled by what had happened, and all he could see within the black void was the crimson man, whose right hand was scrunched in a fist, the chains wrapping around flaming red from intense strain of energy input. The fist was tightly clenched, held by the man whose red eyes glared back at Meditat, and in that moment, it felt like time stopped still.

In complete silence, Exitium dashed forwards, and landed a punch straight into Meditat’s face, so hard that it sent him flying speedily towards the supersun’s surface.

Time felt sluggish as Meditat’s life flashed before his eyes, drifting towards the blazing sun, his own move used against him. With the force he was struck with, and the little time he had left as it would be seconds before his body would be burned into nothing, he knew that he could not push forwards, he could not move ahead.

The battle was over, the mission was over, the day was over. He watched his opponent become smaller from his perspective, watching the little he had to reclaim seized from him too. For the entire fight he was overpowering his opponent, victory right on the tips of his fingers, and in the final critical moment he had slipped and fallen on his face.

In the final moment of his life, Meditat raised his one right hand up, not to prime for another charge, but instead to reach out in desperation. There was no battle left, there was no fight left, it was over. There was no winning. There would be no triumphant victory, no satisfaction of avengeance. None of that, nothing valiant.

Instead, in the final moment, all the hero could do was reach out for salvation, hold his hand out in fleeting hope of someone grabbing it to lift him out. In his final moments, he could only pathetically admit defeat, and more pathetically beg for his life. He couldn’t speak, and as the protracted clock slowly ticked next, he could feel heat crawl up his back.

He knew it even before begging, he knew that nobody would be there to save him. He begged, but he knew that it would be all for nothing. He reached for the green planet far from him, measly to his vision, reaching for any home, knowing he wouldn’t reach it. He yearned to wake up, but all he’d get is the nightmare to end.

As his body sunk into the sun, it lit up in a blue flash, consuming his whole body instantaneously. His arm remained stretched forward, his hand stretched open, as it lost all solid composition, and just became a shimmer.

Finally, he vanished in a blinding blue blaze.