A D Tier's Breaking Point

Chapter 2

The thing they don't tell you about coming back from the dead is how much it hurts. Without that spark of life Alex had taken for granted, his healing factor was painfully slow on the simplest of wounds. And his body was trying to regrow everything at the same time. Bone and skin and muscle and organs, all vying for the remnants of his power in an attempt to be whole again. Alex wasn't awake, "awake" didn't exist in the void past the darkness he was stuck in, so he couldn't gather his focus. Instead he had to feel his body regrow inch by painful inch. Like if pins and needles were made of fire.

An age passed before he was finally aware and able to think. Not that was anything to think about, except the unseen flame rebuilding his body. At some point he realised that was his nerves coming back to life, speaking to a brain that was still only partially formed. But slowly his awareness grew, enough that he could track what was healing, watching with a morbid fascination as his power rebuilt everything cell by cell.

Alex hadn't registered that one of his organs had finally become whole until a crackle of electricity arced in his chest. He jolted, a sharp pain shooting through his body. A second jolt ran straight to his brain. A third made him want to scream. On the fourth he registered the warmth beginning to pool in his chest. Stopping and starting in time with a slow drum beginning to pound in his ears. As it sped up the dust and cobwebs in his muscles burned away, the searing fire from his nerves building into an inferno. Heart. Blood. Toppling the dominos until his lungs were intact enough that Alex could take his first shuddering breath, and he screamed. And the earth trembled around him.

Alex slumped, gasping, into a body that felt like lead. He tried to move, groaning as his hands hit hard wood thinly covered in silk cushion. Alex blinked yellow eyes open, seeing nothing but darkness until his dark vision flared. Varnished wood on all sides, boxing him in with barely enough room to move. Above his head the wood had cracked and splintered, and dirt was starting to trickle through.

A coffin.

Alex stared at the broken wood. He was...who the fuck decided to bury him? Yes okay he had died, but since when could something like that ever stop him for long? Alex growled, shuffling his body in the tiny box. His elbow hit the side and the wood easily buckled. Oh good, it was a normal coffin. Not that anything fancy could have kept him in either, but when his lungs were still stinging from the stale air in the coffin Alex didn't fancy having to test himself on anything reinforced with shakanium until he at least had managed to get a drink. Blood of his enemies, extra large, and a slice of his dad's cherry pie. Oh man that sounded like heaven.

It took very little effort to break the lid of the coffin enough for Alex to be able to properly move, avoiding the worst of the splinters as his hands plunged into the earth. He shivered, from the cold or the ache or from muscles that hadn't been used before he couldn't tell. But still he pushed through, trying to dig through the dirt that was packed in on all sides with no room to breath. His arms began to ache quickly as his lungs strained, but Alex only sped up, more determined to get out of the bloody ground, find whichever idiot decided to bury him and give them a piece of his mind, and maybe take a trophy from the bastard for good measure.

His hand broke through a thin layer of roots and hit empty air, and Alex snapped to attention. He scrambled up, pushing and pulling until his head was clear and he took in a deep breath of fresh air, coughing up dirt and dust. Alex pushed the rest of the way out of the hole, swallowing down the sweetest air he had ever tasted as he rolled onto his back and looked up at a perfectly blue sky at the bright sun warming his face. A gentle wind blew past, rustling leaves, and past that was the gentle rushing of the ocean. His fingers curled into fresh grass, as he looked around at the small grove of trees in amusement. This didn't look like the graveyard in Central City. Or sound like it.

He finally sat up and took in the small empty clearing around him. Only a few feet away was the edge of a cliff that dropped away to a sparkling sapphire ocean, reminiscent of his view from his lair. It was quiet, more peaceful than he has seen in years, and beautiful. He could almost forgive whichever idiot had buried him for giving him this view to wake up to. Definitely not one of the heroes. But then that left...

An uncomfortable thought snagged in Alex's mind and he sat up properly. If whoever had organised this had gone to this much effort, then surely they would have...Alex froze at the sight of the tombstone behind him. Elegant black marble that sparkled in the sunlight, with the carved epitaph painted off-white:

Alex Harris

A fierce friend and beloved son

In front of the marble sat a fresh bouquet of flowers, delicate red and white petals brushing against each other. Without thinking Alex plucked out a deep red flower with ruffled petals and twirled it between his fingers. It was so delicate, one of the most fragile things he might have held. This might be the first time someone's ever given me flowers, Alex thought to himself. And in his favourite colour no less. He brought the flower to his nose, gently sniffing at its perfume, and swallowed against the lump growing in his throat. This didn't feel like his parent's work, but then that left-

Alex was on his feet in an instant, looking around for any sign of life, of civilization, of a boat or a plane or, 'Morgan!' Alex's voice was hoarse as he shouted to the trees, the birds fleeing the sudden noise. 'Morgan are you here?!' he called again, with no answer. He patted for his pockets, only just paying attention to the suit he had been buried in. One of his good ones, he cringed at the dirt straining his red satin shirt. But the more important thing was that, unsurprisingly, he hadn't been buried with his phone. Without thinking Alex tucked the red flower into his lapel and stepped out to the cliff edge, watching the horizon for something, anything, that said his friend was close. As he did his mind was flooded with images of Morgan.

Morgan's laugh at the toaster making him jump. Morgan's furrowed brow as they hunched over the latest heist plans. Morgan's cheeky grin as they beat him on Mario Kart again. Morgan's terrified face as they tried to cling to Alex, babbling apologies, begging him to heal, to stay alive.

Alex's yellow eyes began to glow as he called on his powers properly, feeling the thrum of energy awaken as his senses pushed out beyond what he could see. There was no one else here. The animals had been chased off and there were no people for miles around. 'Dammit,' Alex swore as he cricked his neck and called on his power to teleport. He needed to find Morgan now.