CHAPTER 8 : Just look at you

Snowflakes drifted gently from the sky, dotting the city like falling feathers. The streets downtown were alive with chatter — cars honking, lights flashing, children laughing. A little girl held tightly onto her mother's hand as they strolled through a crowded cross-section.

"Mom," the girl whispered, eyes wide in wonder.

The mother looked down, smiling. "What is it, sweetheart?"

But the girl wasn't looking at her anymore — she was staring up.

A long, dark shadow stretched across the snow-glazed pavement. Her tiny hand lifted, pointing.

"Mom..." she said again, this time louder. "Look."

High above, floating mid-air like a ghost pulled by invisible strings, was a man.

His long grey hair drifted with the wind. His shirt was torn, his body marked with smudges of blood — not his own. He hovered without motion, eyes cast downward as if surveying ants below him.

For a moment, the world went silent.

Then —

screams.

People scattered like startled birds. Mothers grabbed children. Vendors dropped their carts. The air filled with frantic cries as everyone ran in different directions, crashing into one another, slipping on the fresh snow in chaos.

"Move! Move!"

"Someone call AHQ!"

"He's one of them!"

The little girl stared, frozen in place as the panic erupted around her.

The man above tilted his head ever so slightly... with a dead look .

"You call us monsters... abominations... threats.

But have you ever stopped to ask why we exist in the first place?

We didn't choose this.

I didn't choose to be born with something I couldn't control.

I didn't ask to hear the thoughts of the dying when I was only six.

To watch my mother's fear grow every time I touched a glass and it melted in my hand.

To see my neighbors whisper and point... like I was already a corpse.

You call it justice when you hunt us.

When you drag us from our homes. When you burn our names from the books.

You think because you fear us, you have the right to erase us.

They took my brother.

He could bend light—used it to make little stars in the dark when I was afraid.

They shot him in the head in front of a crowd and called it a warning.

They said it was to "keep the peace."

Peace for who?

We are the ones bleeding.

We are the ones running.

We are the ones burying our friends in unmarked graves.

You wanted monsters?

Then you should've loved us better.

You should've given us a place in this world instead of hunting us like prey.

(He pauses, his voice trembling, then steady as steel.)

This...

This is not war.

This is revenge.

Not just for me.

But for every gifted soul you murdered in silence.

For every child you broke before they could even grow.

For every scream that echoed in a black cell where no one came to help.

I won't be your shadow anymore.

I won't be silent.

I am what your hatred made me.

And now...

Now I will show you exactly why you should've been afraid"

He said this with anger as his eyes glowed menacingly .

Amidst the chaos, atop a nearby rooftop overlooking the scene, a young AH soldier stood—barely out of her teens, sharp-eyed, dressed in lightweight tactical gear customized for speed. Her name tag read Sgt. Sharon, and in her gloved hand was a walkie-talkie unlike anything standard issue—sleek, glowing with neon blue circuits and lined with encrypted runes. It hummed as she spoke.

"This is Sergeant Sharon of the First Division," she said, her voice steady despite the panic below. "If anyone is hearing this, we've got a serious problem on our hands. And I know you think, 'duh, it's a Hazard'—yeah, but this isn't just any Hazard."

She paused, eyes locked on the airborne figure still floating above the chaos like a fallen god.

"This one... he's different. He has multiple abilities, and from the way civilians are reacting—he's not hiding anymore. I repeat, he's not—"

A sudden gust of wind.

A whisper of static.

Then silence.

Before she could even finish her warning, he was there.

In an instant.

Right in front of her.

His pale hand gripped her throat like a vice, lifting her off the ground as if she weighed nothing. Her eyes bulged, the walkie-talkie slipping from her hand and tumbling to the rooftop, landing with a soft clack.

He leaned in.

His eyes were hollow, soulless—like the void had grown tired and given itself form.

SNAP.

Her body dropped limply.

The man hovered above her corpse, brushing a streak of blood from his cheek, then looked up slowly—eyes locking onto the nearest AH drone in the sky.

He smiled.

The floating man—his long grey hair drifting like smoke in the wind—descended back into the snow-covered street like a silent executioner. The cold flakes melted on his blood-warmed skin, evaporating into steam. Civilians screamed, pushing and stumbling over each other like dominoes, but it was far too late.

He landed.

And then he slaughtered.

With bare hands, he tore through the crowd—flesh ripping, bones snapping, and blood spraying like water from broken pipes. His fingers pierced through bodies like knives, grabbing heads and ripping them clean off as if he were unwrapping fragile toys. Limbs were torn from sockets, torsos crushed under his bare feet. People screamed for mercy, but mercy wasn't part of him—it never was.

A man tried to shield his daughter. He blinked, and the Hazard's arm was already through his chest—ripped straight out with the heart still beating in his fist.

A mother reached for her child. She was flung into the air like a ragdoll, smashing into a wall, her body crumpling with a sickening crack.

In less than a minute, the entire cross-section was a massacre. Blood painted the snow red, intestines tangled like ribbons across the sidewalk, and heads rolled like dropped fruit.

The hazard stood in the center, his bare feet soaked in the crimson flood.

He looked up again, smiling.

Not at a person.

Not at a building.

But at the sky.

Like he was waiting for someone to come.

As the bloodied Hazard gazed into the pale sky, a faint hum filled the air behind him—followed by a bright, flickering glow that sliced the atmosphere open.

A portal.

Out of it stepped Glitch, his face unusually serious. Sultan, eyes glowing faintly with anticipation. Rin, silent but clearly tense. And Kai, his fists already radiating subtle heat as he stepped forward, jaw clenched.

They passed through the portal without hesitation... but the moment their boots crunched onto the snow—

—they froze.

The scene before them was unimaginable.

Snow, dyed red.

Corpses everywhere. Dismembered. Torn. Shredded.

The stench of blood mixed with the winter air, thick and metallic. Street signs bent. Cars flipped. A trail of ruined lives.

Rin clasped her mouth, eyes wide in horror. "W-What... happened here?" she whispered.

Glitch slowly stepped forward, fists clenching as his body shimmered—his arms warping and twisting with mechanical clicks until they transformed into sleek, obsidian blade-forms, humming low with energy.

His voice was shaky at first. Then low and sharp.

"What... have you done?"

The Hazard turned slowly, his expression almost childlike with joy—eyes half-lidded and glowing faintly.

"I was just... warming up," he said, his voice as cold as the winter air. "You came just in time..."

Kai growled, flames igniting at his fists. "I don't care who you are. You're going down for this."

But Sultan, scanning the carnage around them, felt a chill crawl down his spine.

This wasn't a regular hazard.

This was a monster.

Sultan sighed, wiping sweat off his brow with the back of his hand.

"I should've stayed at school," he muttered.

Kai, already fired up, slammed his hands together—a roaring flame wall erupted around the group, the heat pulsing like a heartbeat. The wall rose high, wrapping them in protective firelight.

But the air grew still—too still.

Footsteps.

Slow.

Measured.

Mocking.

The Hazard walked through the flame, untouched, smoke curling around him like a cloak. His shirt had burned away, revealing his lean, scarred frame. One hand in his pocket, the other dragging across the scorched wall as he walked through like it meant nothing.

His eyes locked on them—not with rage, but curiosity.

"There's something about you that's special," he said calmly, his tone almost intrigued.

"I just can't figure it out..."

Kai growled. That was enough.

"Then burn for an answer!"

With a roar, he charged forward, his whole body engulfed in a wild blaze. He hurled a massive fireblast—the entire street lit up as flames devoured the Hazard's body, stripping him down to his skin.

The man stopped, steam rising from him.

And then... he laughed.

"Not you, baby flames."

In a blink, he disappeared—only to reappear inches from Sultan and Rin.

"I'm talking about you."

His eyes narrowed, studying Rin, who stood frozen.

She couldn't move.

She didn't dare.

His gaze pierced her like a blade.

Sultan, shaking, summoned a newly-forged blade and slashed—but—

CLANG!

The weapon shattered on the man's skin like glass.

Kai launched a volley of fireballs, each explosion creating an opening—giving Rin time to run.

She took a few steps back—

But something was wrong.

Her powers...

Were malfunctioning.

The shadows beneath her twisted and grabbed her ankles, pulling her down slowly—she was sinking into her own shadow.

"No—no, not now—!" she muttered, eyes wide.

The Hazard turned away from her and toward Kai—raising a hand to strike—

WHAM!!

A metallic fist cracked across his jaw, sending him staggering backward.

Glitch stood tall, dented but alive, his eyes burning with fury.

"Round two, asshole."