Protectors- Wrath of The Stranger

Chapter Three: Zavant's Plan

Zavant had to figure out what Apis had done, and he had to figure it out as quickly as it was possible to do so. The Stranger glowed with his newfound satanic Aura, but showed no other sign of his brand new ability. It had to be something that nullified the lightning weakness that Noctum had possessed, but that could be any number of things, from making Apis a worse conductor, to making him fast enough to avoid any lightning blasts from Zavant. He was trapped, paralysed by the terror of The Stranger for the second time, but instead of making him sad and weak, Zavant grew angry, angrier than he had been even when he was Noctum. He broke right through his fear with this anger, smashing right through his limits once more,

"Fuck you," He said plainly, "I'm truly about to end your life,"

Zavant rushed at Apis, his fist coated in his blue Aura. He watched The Stranger's reaction, observed every muscle twitch, every single tiny little tell in his body. He pulled his fist back at the last second, ignoring the smug smile on The Stranger's face,

"What was that about ending my life?"

"Your power is a counter, isn't it?" Zavant asked, ignoring Apis' taunt, "It's designed to turn my electricity against me, right?"

"No," Apis replied coolly, "That's got nothing to do with my new ability,"

Zavant lashed out with a punch, connecting, but not managing to do much damage to The Stranger. He flew backwards, charging up a small ball of Aura, before throwing it at Apis. The Stranger blasted it away with a flick, dispersing it with a flash of red light,

"Stop this foolishness," Apis boomed, "Or I'll just kill you now and have it over with,"

"You stopped my Aura from landing," Zavant boomed back, "so, your power must have taken away your resistance to Aura,"

Zavant began to pool all of the artificial Chrysalis' energy into the palms of his hands, shaking as he held them side by side, forming a blast of unparalleled power. He pointed the blast Apis' way, and the God tried to fly out of the way of the powerful attack, but Zavant was better than that,

"Die!" Zavant roared, firing the blast at the perfect angle, in just a way that the earth would not be in danger,

Apis flew straight into the beam of lightning, a short, sharp laugh booming from the blast as he floated within, somehow not instantly reduced to dust. Zavant began to sweat from the effort, salty drops rolling down his brow as he kept his concentration, the powerful attack sustained by pure willpower alone. Noctum ran towards Zavant, having realised what his future self could not. He cried out the answer, he shouted exactly what Apis could do, but he was too far away. He pulled out his metaphorical bottle, full of past anger and resentment, and pulled the lid,

"His power!" Zavant roared, Noctum's voice coming from inside of him, "he can absorb Aura!"

Zavant quickly pulled back, the rest of his power making his hands shake. Sure enough, Apis was not only unharmed, but appeared to be stronger than ever before, his glowing halo blowing away the blue haze entirely, so that all the Aura came directly from Zavant, the little that remained clinging to his body. Zavant was blown away by a glare from Apis, which fired the same amount of energy that he had just dispelled back at him. Before Zavant could raise his hands to brace himself, he saw a shape flash in front of him,

"Noctum, don't!" He cried, "you can't survive that!"

"That's not me!" Adam Oughton shouted back, "I can't jump that high!"

"I will kill The Stranger," A darkly muffled voice announced, 

The Insomniac backhanded The Stranger, pushing him backwards a few meters. The overgrown, bony limbs that seemed to grow and sway like the legs of a spider grew from the pale body, its eyes, pools of endless black seemed fixed on Apis, on the mutant God who had slaughtered his own kind in order to exact revenge on the people of Earth. Recognition flickered across The Stranger's face, closely followed by rage. He blew right past the man who was once called Simon, his fists crunching against Insomniac's bones before The Stranger landed behind Simon, his foe covered in holes the shape of Apis' fists,