Journey in the Aftermath

Chapter 16: Stronger Than Before

This chapter is told by the POV of Devin

Of all the people I would have to encounter in the super human apocalypse, why did it have to be Brent? Fucking Brent. This guy could've beat my ass back before having powers. But now, I don't know if I can last five minutes

"What's wrong?" He says walking towards me "You scared I might hit you with an instrument?" He taunts and raises his arm towards me. I think about hitting him with a lightning blast but I don't want to give away too much of my powers right off the bat. I don't even know what his powers are, but based on what Forrest told us, he is probably the guy with super strength that tore another guy in half. Everybody else we have fought have been part of Volt's personal squad so why should he be any different? I flex my metal arms a bit and think to myself ways that I might be able to beat him. He lunges at me and swings a punch at my face. I catch it in my hand and can feel the massive strength behind it. The only thing allowing me to hold his fist is my new metal arms. Thank you Tano Tano!

"So you're even stronger than before huh? Well so am I. And no matter how strong you are, there's no way I am going to lose to you" I say and throw a punch at his face which is caught the same way I caught his

"You're just one big walking talking pep talk aren't you? It's sickening" He says and begins to lift up. His muscles begin to pulse and bulge and double in size as he lifts me off the ground by my fist. He turns and throws me through the wall crashing into the hallway

"How... How the hell?!" I squeeze out trying to pull myself up. Brent walks up and grabs me by the ankle

"You haven't even began to see real strength kid" he says and drags me down the hall. I reach out and grab at his leg to trip him but he just slams me into the wall like a rag doll then throws me ahead of him. I look up and see Volt and all of his followers standing behind Brent. Steven and Antonio are just looking at me get my ass kicked. I know they can't interfere but it's just so frustrating having them see me get beat up like this

"Finish him now" Volt says to Brent and holds up a small red bracelet then puts it back into his leather jacket pocket. Brent frowns then turns back to me

"You're dead, shrimp" He says and picks me up by my neck. I grab both his arms and pulse as hard as I can sending as much electricity into him as I possibly can. He shakes like he is having a seizure then collapses to the ground

"Not as strong as you though you were huh douchebag?" I say and spit on him. He begins to sit up and I punch him in the face sending him back down. I pin him down with one knee and begin hitting him over and over in the face. Volt pulls out the red bracelet again and snaps it in half then tosses the pieces onto Brent who I am still punching. In between punches he slowly reaches up and grabs the broken bracelet in his massive hand then uses it to uppercut me so hard I hit the ceiling. I fall back to the ground with bits of rubble coming with me

"I can't lose! I am done with you're shit kid!!" he says and kicks me up through the ceiling and onto the floor of the second floor. He jumps through the opening and lands on my chest "I am going to kill you! And I am going to kill anybody else that Volt wants me too!"

"Why..? Why.. Fight for... Him..?" I choke out

"I fight for me! I kill for me!" he screams and throws me through the second story window. I hit the wall surrounding the school and slide down it landing hard on the ground. Brent jumps down to the ground and walks over to me as I lean sitting against the wall.

"Give up dude, don't make this more painful than it needs to be" he sighs then punches straight for my head. I move out of the way and his hand hits the wall where it is frozen into place. I look up on top of the wall and see Madeline standing there with Oliver. I hear a shout from behind the wall and I duck and roll as a concrete fist comes barreling through the wall hitting Brent hard right in the face. Through the wall comes Levi covered head to toe in concrete armor. Brent, who is barely fazed by the blow swings at him full force only to be intercepted by Forest who takes the full hit and stands there unmoving

"Well, well. Looks like we are just in time" Levi says helping me to my feet

"Forest! What the hell are you doing?!" Brent screams at Forest who looks completely unfazed by the monstrous man in front of him

"Stop right there!" I hear Volt behind us

"Oh, fuck! That's him!!" Oliver yells from the wall

"I want them alive! Bring them to me!" Volt screams at his men behind him then turns and shocks Steven and Antonio knocking them out. We begin fighting off some of the men before getting mostly over powered. Madeline gets hit with a large ball of sticky green goo from one of the younger boys pinning her to the wall and Oliver accidentally teleports right in front of Shert who hits him over the head. I look over at Levi who is still successfully fighting them off when Forest walks up to him. None of Volt's guys are attacking him in the slightest

"Forest, man, help me!" Levi screams fighting off three guys at a time

"Sorry, but that's not gonna happen" Forest snickers as he kicks Levi in the gut making him double over. He then hits him repeatedly in the face knocking him out then walks towards me "Should have seen this one coming. You aren't a very good leader"

"He's mine!" Brent yells throwing him out of the way and grabs me then jumps up onto the roof of the school. He raises his fist up while everyone watches him from below and slams it down

"Brent... You don't need to do this!" I beg not having any more strength to fight

"Oh, but I do" he says loudly so the people on the ground can hear then slams his fist down as hard as he can next to my head breaking the roof apart sending us crashing all the way down to the first floor with me still in his grasp. The smoke clears and he lets go of me and stands up "You need to listen to me, Devin. I am only going to say this once"