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[Protome]

New story...Might actually finish this one, I don't plan on making it too long.
Note: Zero =!= The Megaman character. I actually only noticed the same name after I wrote this. I was thinking of a different Zero when I thought of the name >.>


Imagine a sky with no sun, yet still light. No clouds, yet something was dulling this light on its travel to Earth. Like a large tinted barrier surrounded the planet. This, of course, was not the case. That would be too simple an explanation. But the sight was true and it perplexed Zero each and every time he saw it. Thankfully, he had only seen it a few times. However, he knew that this phenomenon was just a start, and this entire city would soon be uninhabitable.
From his view on the rooftops, he could see that for once the government had done its job and evacuated everyone. A sigh forced its way through his mouth, and he looked at the barren streets. They looked so beautiful in this tinted light. There were footsteps behind him, but he ignored them. It had taken him all day to find this spot, he wasn't letting someone else ruin it. Of course, thinking like that always leads to trouble, in this case the trouble was revealed with pressure to the back of Zero's head, followed by an odd 'click'.
"You are the one they call Zero?" A voice asked from behind him. It was male and sounded like the owner was trying to sound monotonous. Zero couldn't figure out why, but only one word was in his mind now. Rookie.
"That's me." He replied.
"Good. I would like you to step closer to the edge of the building please."
Of course you would you moron. You don't want to waste what little ammo your bosses have spared you. You know what is coming next. But A professional would have taken the shot while I barely knew you were there.
"Okay." Zero took a small step closer to the edge. "Who are you?"
"Agent Cullen."
"Ah. FBI. I did hear they had taken cuts thanks to the war."
"You..what?!" This had broken the man's already failing monotony. "What do you mean by that?!"
"I mean, you're a rookie." Zero sighed, and he stepped away from the edge again and in fact turned to face the agent. "A professional would have killed me by now."
"Grr..."
"And, he wouldn't have let me steal his wallet."
"My wallet?!" The agent instantly started patting his pockets with one hand and looking at his clothing, Zero saw as he found his wallet in the inside pocket of his black suit. He turned back to face his target smiling it triumph, when he noticed that Zero too was smiling. And holding a gun. A small black military issue pistol to be more precise. And it was right up against the agent's temple.
Rookie. I would be doing you a favour by killing you now.
"Drop your gun."
"I'm an FBI agent, if you shoot me they'll send back-up!"
"Drop the gun, or else." The gun fell from the FBI agent's hand and Zero's leg swung round, smacking into the Agent Cullen's face and knocking him to the ground alongside it.
"Don't try to follow me." Zero looked at the sky again. "I recommend you leave town. It's almost time."
He walked to the edge of the rooftop and then continued walking, striding through the air as if there were still ground beneath his feet.
Overhead the sky started to get darker, and purplish clouds began to roll in from all directions.

[Chevalier-Ange]

A few typo's Ninja...but interesting so far ^^

You will finish this one no?

EDIT: STFU Ninja <_<

[Protome]

The air was beginning to get rather stuffy, and the streets were getting darker, yet when Zero checked the sky, the sun was still there. This was what he was looking for. He continued walking through the air, looking both up and down occasionally.
Nobody running away...I guess I wasn't the only one who anticipated this...
Then there was a flash and a crackling noise that sounded like a crudely made firework. Zero spun round and saw a large black cloud spreading through the streets...No, through everything. Buildings and cars were reduced to nothing under the cloud, and it moved ever closer to him.
Finally He smiled.
"...My Time Is Finally Up!!" He screamed a the top of his voice, following with a demented sounding laugh. The cloud reached him and surrounded him, at first it continued spreading as it had been, destroying the building around him, but after a while it focused directly on him. Smothering him as best it could. More and more of the smoke came as if from nowhere and consumed him. But did not move on. Slowly it started to disappear. Zero still stood there, hovering above the streets. In front of him was a wasteland, behind him was the city. And he was still alive.
"f***" he whispered as his eyes shut and he fell the moderately large distance to the ground below.


"Is he okay?"
"It would seem so, his life signs are stronger than they should be for what he has just been through."
"There shouldn't be enough of him left to have life signs."
"True."
"..."
"One of the men said that he was hovering in the air."
"Do you believe him?"
"He survived a swarm face on, I wouldn't put it past him to be able to fly."
"What is he? I mean h-"
"Shh, he's waking up."

Zero's eyes slowly started to open and he saw above him a ceiling. It was not a particularly impressive ceiling, just plain white and sterile. Very...Medical. He figured he must be in a hospital of some sort. He rolled over slightly to confirm this theory as he saw a desk covered in various medical equipment and a wall covered in windows that let him see out into the halls. However, the people standing in the room most definitely weren't doctors of any sort, there were three people wearing various forms of camouflage, apart from one of them who simply wore a tattered grey suit. He was probably the only one who had thought about what to wear to fit in in a city. They were all in close proximity to assault rifles. Two of the camouflaged men stood outside the room as a guard, one of the camouflaged...Women as Zero could see, that chest was in no way male and the man in the suit were both in the room sitting near him. They were the ones who were talking before he guessed.
"Good morning Mister...?" The suited man began.
"Zero. Just Zero, no mister no anything. Yourselves?" He said as clearly as could be managed and he pushed himself up a tad, propping himself against the headboard.
"I see. Well if we are going by Aliases, then I am the Professor and this is -"
"I'm Kate." The woman intervened before she got given a no doubt terrible alias. From his propped up position Zero could see that the woman was surprisingly pretty for someone holding a gun. Her hair was orange, not naturally so he guessed it was too vibrant a colour. And her fringe covered one eye. Her clothes looked military issue to Zero, but out of date.
"Nice to meet you both. Now, why are you here?" Zero asked impatiently.
"I was about to ask you the same question, although no doubt in a different context." The Professor replied. "But if you can walk then I would be happy to show you the answer to your question."
Zero groaned slightly, then pushed himself off the bed.
"Good, Kate, restrain him please"
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a minute" Zero dodged Kate's hand as it tried to grab him, and then found that he was looking down the muzzle of her rifle.
"Professor, I don't think he's going to do anything."
"Hmm...why do you say that?"
"I personally think that if he wanted to kill us he would have by now." Kate replied, and she lowered her gun.
"Fine, fine. Lets just go." The Professor sighed, then they left the room.


"As you no doubt are aware, what you encountered earlier today was what we call a 'Swarm.' They are creatures of tiny proportion which have the capability to devour almost anything they come into contact with." The Professor explained as the group (the two men from outside the room were accompanying them) traveled through the winding corridors of the hospital.
"Yeah, I know."
"Good, well these creatures have been appearing at seemingly random positions all over the globe. After they arrive the area the choose may as well have never existed, nothing that has been tried so far has repelled them, and seemingly nothing can kill them. Luckily the fatalities of their attacks have been minimal so far, but eventually they will no doubt start destroying more and more." The Professor continued.
"Have you ever traveled to one of those areas after they destroy everything?" Zero smirked.
"No, of course not. After around 3.4 days some sort of fog forms over the areas that seems to be highly corrosive. We once tried to send a drone in to see what was in there but it was destroyed the moment it came into contact with it." The Professor was starting to sound a tad excited now. Zero assumed that he must not have many chances for a conversation with someone who understood what he was talking about around here.
"I've been in the fog only once before. Care to guess what I saw?" Zero asked. The Professor turned round and looked him in the eyes. He was scanning his face to see if he was joking, but Zero's face was serious.
"A city." He replied. Then continued walking. Zero didn't though.
"How did you guess?!" Zero asked with what he hoped would pass as a puzzled face.
"I didn't guess. You aren't the first person to return from the fog. But the last one was...strange. Now do keep up, we need to leave soon." The Professor urged, and they group continued on. Zero could see the main Hospital doors now. And outside of it he could see-
"Oh. I get it. You're trying to find a way to kill swarms." Zero said, he left the hospital and got a closer look at the machine standing in the center of the street. "This is a Tesla Coil?"
"Yes indeed! You are right on both accounts!"
"You were hoping you could zap them out of the sky?" Zero asked, he doubted someone would risk their life to try...this...
"Yes! But we never got a chance to test it, as you arrived first and the swarm disappeared." Kate chimed in this time.
"They didn't disappear. They died." One hand rubbed gently against the machine as Zero spoke. "And good thing too. This wouldn't have worked. It's good in theory, but you would need at least...thirty of them to take down just one swarm before they reached them and took them offline."
"Well, thank you for saving us then." The Professor said rather sarcastically. "Now tell us, how did you kill that swarm?"
"I guess I overfed them." Zero sighed. "Anyway, thank you for whatever help you think you have given to me, but I must be off now."
"Wait! You need to answer some questions!" Kate shouted at him.
"Hmm...I'll tell you what. I'll answer three questions, if they come from you. Not any of them." Zero smiled. She clearly wasn't the smartest of the people here. Not dumb by any means, but not intelligent enough to ask the questions that the Professor wanted to know the answers to.
"Okay uh...One of our men said he saw you flying, was what he saw correct?"
"Yeah, I figured I could intercept the swarm faster if i was in the air."
"Okay. How?"
"I have no idea, i can just fly. That's two by the way"
"Oh, damn. Uhh...Why do you call yourself Zero?"
"Because I am nothing. I am not supposed to exist, many would argue that I don't exist. That and I've been around far longer than all but two people on this god forsaken planet. So I think Zero is a good number to symbolise that."
"Can I please have one more question, I know you said I could only have three but..." Kate looked at the Professor for a second, then back to Zero. "Why were you trying to intercept a swarm?"
Nobody made any noise for a few seconds, but everyone seemed to be waiting intently for an answer from Zero.
They want something heroic no doubt. They want me to say that I'm trying to kill swarms too. That I knew I'd survive, that I knew that the swarm would die. That I wanted to save the world. Pity, I think I'll give them the truth.
"I was trying to die." He finally replied. And then he turned and began to walk away. "And that's all you're getting. See you around Kate, Professor...Nameless Goons #1 and #2."
Nobody asked him to stay longer, they all knew that it would be futile. He seemed set on leaving, so the group began to turn to their machine, which they began to disassemble. Zero could have sworn that as he turned a corner he heard someone say "Am I #1 or #2?"

[Chevalier-Ange]

Ok, you have me totally interested in reading more now. I'm not entirely sure where your plot is going, but maybe it'll be a bit clearer in your next post.

Sorry for the late reply...

[Protome]

I'll probably rewrite parts of this at some point. I'm loaded with the cold and can't focus, so some of it might not make sense. Sorry >.<


Kate helped load the last section of the tesla coil onto the back of a truck, and tied it down. She then leaned out of the back and stuck her thumb up to the driver, and hit the side of the truck. The driver blasted his horn in reply, and then began to drive forward.
Kate sat with her legs dangling from the back of the truck watching the city blur past. The Professor sat on a bench behind her, he refused to ride up front away from his machine. She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head.
"I can't tell them to stop the truck, we need to report back by the end of the week or they'll assume we're dead." He finally said.
"I know. Why do you mention that?" Kate replied.
"Because you are thinking of finding Zero. And I'm just saying, we can't stop."
"Ah."
"That said, if you do leave I will be sure to explain the situation to anyone who needs to know."
"Thank you." Kate said, she turned her head and looked into his eyes. He smiled at her and threw a small metal box over to her.
"Whats this?" She asked, catching it moments before it hit her.
"Just some food and water. From the moment I saw that man hit the ground I knew that you would be leaving with him."
"What are you trying to imply here?" Kate asked, one eyebrow raised in suspicion.
"Nothing...It was just a feeling. Now go, or else you will lose him." The Professor gave her one last smile and a friendly wave. She nodded in reply and stood up.
"Thank you again." She said and then she leapt forward and out of the truck. They hadn't been moving too fast, due to the weight of the machine, and so Kate's landing was rough but bareable. She regained her composture after a few seconds, strapped the metal box to her belt and began to walk in search of Zero.


Zero himself hadn't traveled far since leaving the hospital. He was walking through the city, trying to decide upon what his next move would be. If the Swarm couldn't kill him, then perhaps this plan was not the best course of action. He entered a park, completely devoid of life, and sat on a bench, looking around.
If I can't kill myself before he gets to me, I guess the only other choices are to keep running or to stand and face him. Running for eternity isn't very appealing...But if I stand and he strikes me down the- This line of thought was cut off as Zero heard footsteps approaching, and the clicking of a gun. He slipped from the bench and into some nearby bushes and crouched, staying as still and quiet as he could. He saw soldier walking down to the bench, and looking around.
"Dammit, I could have sworn I saw him here..." He heard the soldier speak. He recognised the voice, it was that woman he had seen earlier. What was she doing here? Below him, Zero's foot twitched, cracking a branch and alerting Kate, who panicked and began firing into the bush. The force of the bullets pushed Zero backwards onto the grass behind, and he lay there bleeding.
"Oh god!" Kate screamed and threw her gun away, before running towards Zero. Tears were streaming down her face "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I never meant to shoot you, you just startled me, and oh god you're bleeding so much-"
She continued ranting like this for several minutes before she noticed that Zero's bullet holes were healing up before her eyes, and the bullets themselves had been forced out, and now lay in a neat pile beside him.
"Calm yourself. I'm fine." Zero said, frowning. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with the others?"
"No. Well, yes! Sort of. But I came looking for you!" Kate replied, she was trying to clear the tears from her face with her sleeve but not quite succeeding. Zero sighed and rose from the ground stiffly, his bones making odd cracking noises as he moved them.
"Did you have a reason for coming to find me?" He asked.
"Well, no, not exactly. I just sort of...felt that I had to...if that makes any sense?" Kate said.
"It makes perfect sense." Replied Zero, more sincerely than he had intended. Then he sighed again. "Look, stop crying and lets get walking."
"Where to?"
"I'll explain on the way."


The duo left the city with Zero leading the way. His decision had been made, he would stand and fight. This woman felt the need to find him, perhaps she had felt the pulse. The same pulsing beat of the world that he felt all the time. The one which was leading him now to his destination, to his brother and sister, to his last defence against an ancient evil.
"Are you going to explain where we are going yet?" Kate asked. Zero noted that she looked significantly more attractive when she wasn't crying.
"Its hard to explain. Uhm..." Zero stopped and turned to her. "How did you find me?"
"I asked me question fi-"
"They are connected. Tell me."
"I just...felt like I knew where you were. I could hear something like a heartbeat that got stronger in your direction."
"That is the pulse. It is what binds the world into one, and every few hundred years, it is that which guides me and my family together again, no matter where in the world they are, they cannot ignore the pulse"
"I see...Then why did I feel it?"
"I have no idea. But if anyone knows, it'll be Lillith."
"Who is...?"
"My sister." Zero started walking onwards again. "I must warn you though, me and my family are...gifted...and her gift will most definitely make you uncomfortable at first."
"Oh, is your gift being unable to die?"
"No, we all have that. My gift is...complicated." Zero was surprised at the question from Kate, she had looked completely lost while he spoke.
"So..You and your family are immortal? How many of you are there?"
"There are only three now."
"Now?"
"There used to be twenty."
"What happened to the others?" Kate asked enthusiastically.
"If you are lucky, you will never find out." Was the only reply she got.
They both walked in silence for a couple of hours, Zero was focusing on the drum like beat of the pulse. Leading him forward and onwards. Soon they reached large warehouse, which looked like it had been abandoned for many years.
Why here? Zero wondered.
He lifted his hand and thudded on the door, three times and then waited. A hatch opened in the door, and a dark echoey voice spoke the words "What is the password?"
"The password?" Zero asked curiously.
"Yeah, the password" The voice replied. This time it was much more normal. "Come on guy, you know the password right?"
"The password is, open the goddamn door before I blast it off its hinges." Zero's voice was slightly louder this time, and had a strange growling undertone to it.
"Wow, okay, calm yourself guy, the reunion is just getting started." The voice laughed. There was a click from behind the door and it creaked open.
Zero drew his pistol and walked in. Without looking, he lift his right hand horizontally to the side and fired a single shot. A man fell to the ground and landed at Zero's feet. He nudged him with the toe of his shoes. Kate bit her lip and looked down at the body. They both stood there for a few minutes before Zero finally said,
"Get off the ground you idiot. You're giving us all a bad name."
With this the man lifted himself from the ground and stood face to face with Zero.
The man smiled, then his eyes moved from Zero to Kate. "Who's the girl?"
"A friend. She felt the pulse." Zero said, then felt the need to change the subject. "What name are you going by these days?"
"Garth at the moment. Yourself?"
"Zero."
"Ah, I see." The man continued to smile, it was making Zero uncomfortable, Garth only smiled when he had a plan, and his plans never ended well.
"Sorry but...Who are you?" Kate asked quietly. She seemed to have gone from a strong woman to a shy child in a matter of seconds, Zero guessed it was simply to do with the number of people not dying she had seen today. Garth turned to him, and he nodded, so he turned back to Kate.
"I'm Garth. Zero's brother, technically. And if he is Zero, then I am Two." Garth replied, laughing slightly.
"And I, Would be One." A female voice interrupted. Zero saw a woman emerge from the shadows, and the pulsing in his head ended. The family was reunited.

[Protome]

"It is nice to see you again, brother" the woman said, smiling. She walked up to Zero and hugged him tightly before letting go and walking over to Kate. She was wearing a very tight fitting black dress and as far as Zero could tell, no shoes. Her hair was long, dark and looked as though she had spent hours fixing it. Zero knew that she had probably taken closer to a year of non-stop preparation of her hair for this day. She was weird like that. The woman reached Kate and hugged her tightly, her face turning red in the process. Then, the embrace ended and the woman lent her head in towards Kate's, and Kate followed suit. But Zero pulled them apart before their lips connected.
"Kate, this is my sister, Lillith." Zero sighed. Kate's face remained bright red, and it took Zero a few seconds to notice that this was because he had his arm around her. He quickly removed it, she seemed a tad disappointed, but her face began to pale again. "Sorry, anyway. As I said, my family are gifted, and Lillith's gift will make you uncomfortable. Garth's...not so much."
"My apologies" Lillith smiled and curtsied slightly. "My gift I'm afraid is the ability to enhance emotions, mainly the feelings of attraction of those around me."
"That...explains a lot..." Kate said quietly.
"I should mention that it doesn't make you gay or anything. No one is immune to my abilities" She giggled slightly and swung her hips.
Zero sighed again, then whispered into Kate's ear. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it, she can't actually control her impact on people's lust, only on their other feelings."
He then turned towards Garth and Lillith who were both kissing rather passionately.
"I assume that you two are still dating then?" Zero said.
"Of course. Oh, and uh...Kate was it? My power is that I can manipulate electricity." Garth pulled away for a few seconds to speak.
"Ugh." Zero groaned.
"Isn't that...incest?" Kate asked, one eyebrow beginning to rise.
"Well, yes. Technically. As far as I know we aren't blood related. We call ourselves family because we are the only immortals around. And when you live as long as us, incest is a more...appealing concept. As there are only so many times you can watch someone you love grow old and die while you remain youthful." Zero said remorsefully.
"Oh..." Kate said. Zero turned away from her for a moment, thinking.
At some point I'm going to have to explain everything else to her. Athanatos, Ariel and the whole problem with the government...But I can't yet... His train of thought was interrupted by Kate's next question.
"So, what is your power? Before you just said that it was complicated..."
"Ah, well. It is complicated, you see-"
Lillith interrupted to explain, "Zero, hypothetically has the ability to do anything he wants. The power to bend reality to his will. He could blink the world out of existence with a click of his fingers-"
Zero interrupted, "I would like to point out that I can't click my fingers. Several million years and I still can't get the hang of it." He then made a few feeble attempts to click his fingers. Kate laughed at this.
"Yes, thank you. As I was saying, he can technically do anything. He could give himself any of our powers if he wanted. He could end our immortal lives, whatever he could think of, he could do."
"Hypothetically. I've never really got the hang of it. I can do some things, like flying, or making small objects stop existing. But nothing big."
"I see." Kate seemed surprisingly interested. Garth however, was not and he was walking around the warehouse, occasionally stopping to kick a box or two. He stopped and turned towards everyone else.
"Oh, is question time over?" He asked.
"For now" Zero replied, then he followed Garth in his walk around the warehouse, leaving Lillith and Kate alone. He knew it wasn't the best of ideas, but as he had noticed before, his brother had a plan. They walked in silence out of sight and earshot from the girls. Zero hadn't realised how big the warehouse was. Suddenly, Garth swung a large metal pole at Zero's head and knocked him to the ground. Zero lifted himself to his feet smiling.
"I was wonder how long you could contain yourself." Zero laughed. Garth replied with another swing of the pole, which missed. He then spun it around his hands and prepared for another swing. This time, when it came close to Zero's head it stopped. Zero hadn't made any movements that were visible, but the pole stopped a few inches from his head.
"You have been training your powers again. That's unlike you." Garth frowned, then he directed a burst of electricity through the pole and gave Zero a small shock on the ear, which caused him to flinch away in pain.
"Yeah, well Athanatos has become too much of a threat now. Those swarms are his you know." Zero growled. He then spun through the air and landed a kick at Garth's head which pushed him backwards slightly.
"He's a threat now?!" Garth asked angrily, his pole spinning round his hands and still sparking. "He has always been a threat. A threat that you could have at the very least slowed down if you had accepted your powers!"
The pole swung again, this time at Zero's feet. He jumped over it easily and kicked out at him again, this time he hit Garth's arm and it made a cracking noise then hung limply by his side.
"What changed?" He asked, swinging his limp arm around for a few seconds, amusing himself.
"He killed Ariel."
"Ah, I had wondered why she wasn't with you. That means me, you and Lillith really are the only ones left." Garth sighed, and he struck the pole into the ground beside him. "But you could have prevented Ariel's death."
"I tried. I wasn't strong enough. Athanatos is crazily powerful now." Zero said grimly. "Especially with Ariel's powers. Now nowhere is safe."
"Yeah. Why didn't he kill you though?"
"I have no idea. I think he is still afraid of me, despite the fact I couldn't stop him."
"Possibly. Anyway I have a plan to deal with him." Garth smiled.
"I was wondering when you would say that..."

[demon of razgriz]

damn good... befor i knew it i couldnt stop reading ^.^

oh and might i add: dam u protome... dam u... >.<

[Protome]

A deserted city often becomes a haven for scavengers, yet this one lay quiet. Sunlight shone from everything even remotely reflective and the entire city was almost blinding. Agent Cullen lifted his sunglasses to his eyes and looked up and down the street before stepping out from his hiding place in the doorway of a shop. He put his finger to his ear.
"This is Cullen calling for evac...Please confirm." He spoke. A few seconds passed and there was no reply. It had been this way for an hour or so now, he was beginning to think that that Zero person had did something to his radio. He began walking down the road, somewhere in the city had to have some kind of reception...He tried his radio again as he walked. A shadow moved in the corner of his eye, but he ignored it. There was nobody else here, leaving was the important thing. No response on the radio again. This wasn't good. The shadow moved again, and this time Cullen turned quickly and pointed his gun at where it had been. Nothing was there. He turned and began walking again, and walked straight into a tall man wearing a dark blue suit. He lifted his gun, but the man grabbed it and lifted it from his hands without any signs of effort.
"Agent Cullen?" The man asked. Cullen tried to look into the man's eyes but he was wearing a strange cow-boyish hat which, combined with the intense sunlight, had covered his face in shadow.
"Y-yeah, thats me." He tried to straighten up and look respectable, but he couldn't hide the fear on his face when the man grabbed his own suit by the neck and lifted him a few inches off the ground.
"Good, you will know where Zero is then?" Even with most of his face in shadow, a smile was evident on the man's face.
"Never heard of him" Cullen replied, even answering to his name had been a mistake, now he had to shut up. His job was on the line here.
"Liar!" Cullen felt the man's arm twist and he was thrown through the air, where he flew for a few seconds before coming to earth and crashing into a bin. The man walked up to him, and lifted him to his feet again. "Tell me the truth or you die. It's simple really."
"I don't know where he is, he was here, but he left!" Cullen screamed in terror.
"Hmm, where exactly did you see him? I can pick up his trail from there." The man asked.
"Uh, over there" Cullen pointed. "On top of an apartment building."
"Good, thank you" The man's smile returned, and Cullen felt his toes touch the ground once more.
"No problem...Who are you anyway?" Cullen asked while rubbing his neck, the man turned and began to walk away.
"The name is Athanatos. And I suggest you run." He said, and he continued his slow paced walk down the road.
Run? Why would I run? Cullen thought to himself, he turned around. Behind him buildings were collapsing and being reduced to dust, and a swarm of creatures was tearing through everything in their way. Oh. That's why.
And Agent Cullen died.

[Protome]

"So what is this plan of yours?" Zero finally asked, passing another large metal pole to Garth.
"We turn this whole place into a giant conductor, and you figure out how to give yourself my powers." Garth finished welding the poles together that he had, and then took the one that Zero was holding. "Then we charge this framework as much as possible and each other. We should be able to overpower Athanatos."
"I'm surprised, that isn't a half bad idea." Zero laughed, he began digging through the junk in the warehouse for more metal. "What was with this warehouse anyway? It's filled with so much stuff..."
Garth didn't answer, he was too busy welding more things together. Zero looked at what they had built so far. It was a large metal grid that took up the size of one wall.

"Come on Zero, show me your true strength! I'll even let her live, haha!" Athanatos shouted across the room. Ariel struggled to try and loose her neck from his grip, but she couldn't shake it. She switched shape rapidly and majorly but somehow Athanatos never lost his grip. He lifted her slightly higher and smirked.
"Fine then." He said finally. Zero looked in horror, unable to speak, he was focussing his powers on Athanatos, trying to free Ariel. Flames rose from the ground and consumed her, she screamed in several voices, male and female, human and animal, all dying the same way. Zero's hand never faltered, he was creating powerful barriers all over Ariel's body, but he couldn't keep the flames out, Athanatos was too strong now.
The screaming ended.
Zero looked down at the floor, his vision blurred by tears.
"It didn't have to be like this Zero." Athanatos said somberly. "You could have stopped me. You could have defeated me. You are a god. And some day you will need to accept thi-URK" Athanatos rose slightly from the ground and began clutching rapidly at his neck, unable to breath.
Zero wiped the tears from his eyes and walked over to Athanatos. He saw the fear in his eyes. It had been a long time since Zero had seen such fear. He felt his power returning, filling his body...It felt fantastic. He began to laugh, his hair moved as he laughed, covering his eyes.
"You wanted to see my true power? Well here it is. Can you feel that?" Zero put his hand on Athanatos's stomach. There was a strange crunching noise from inside his body, and blood began to spurt from his mouth. Still he was being choked, he spluttered and coughed. Fire began to stream from Athanatos's hands, directly at Zero's face, who simply ignored it. The fire burnt away at his skin, but he felt no pain. And eventually when Athanatos's power faded, Zero's face healed completely in moments. He smiled.
"I am a god. You are Athanatos, the Undying Man. I Am Thanatos. I Exist To Bring Death." Zero laughed louder and moved his hand away from Athanatos, who fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood.
"You have killed so many people. And stolen so many powers. But you will never be a match for me." Zero turned to the large windowed wall and touched the glass. "I have done...terrible things too...Worse than anything you could imagine...Perhaps you deserve to win. But you won't. Killing Immortals is not something that can go unpunished Athanatos." The glass shattered into millions of pieces and fell. "Always remember that. Because I'm not sure I will..."
And he leapt from the window.
"Zero...Zero you okay?" Zero awoke to see Kate's face hovering over him.
"Yeah...I was just...Remembering..." Zero lifted himself slightly and placed his hand on his head, it was so painful...
"Is that another issue with you lot? You pass out whenever you 'remember' things?!" Kate shouted. "I was worried!"
There were tears running down her face.
"Why? You barely know me." Zero pointed out, he rose to his feet now, he saw Garth hanging from the ceiling, finishing off his metal grid.
"I know you better than I know Lillith or Garth...and I feel...safe around you..." Kate struggled to say this. Zero hugged her.
"You shouldn't." He said simply, and left her in her crying state to find Garth.
"Don't worry about him," He heard Lillith say to Kate. "Everyone mourns differently. This is his way...His girlfriend died recently."
Then he passed out of earshot, and reached Garth, who was lowering himself via a rope to the ground.
"You okay brother?" He smiled.
"Yes. I was just remembering Ariel's death for some reason." Zero shook his head.
"Ah. Don't worry, we'll stop Athanatos here." Garth replied, patting Zero on the shoulder.
"...When he killed Ariel I...I remembered everything...I knew how my powers worked..."
"Do you remember now?"
"No...It faded...It was so strange...Ugh. I could have saved her if only I had remembered sooner..." Zero fell to the ground. Tears trying to burst from his eyes.
"Get up Zero." Garth said. "We've all lost people because of Athanatos. Don't feel bad about it, feel angry. Try and remember your powers, and this fight will be a lot easier."