The Funeral

A few days passed, and the rebuilding effort was finally completed with the help of the GDA and other government organizations.

The aftermath of the invasion left many in tears, businesses destroyed, homes lost, but nothing strikes the heart harder than the loss of life, and even more so, the loss of a hero who not only helped save the city but also the lives of his companions.

New stations were constantly displaying his image on the televisions throughout the world, and in many languages.

Cecil and the Guardians, as well as the rest of the members of the Teen Team, held a private funeral for him using what remained of his bones inside an urn.

Knowing he was an orphan, this was truly the best they could hope for in terms of people he was close to, the quiet was occasionally interrupted by the sobs of Kate or Eve while Rex merely had his head down while blood trickled down from his hands as he was squeezing to the point his joints cracked and his nails pierced his flesh.

He and William may not have completely hit it off as friends, but he was still a comrade, the feeling of responsibility for the loss weighing on his soul like a mountain, causing his shoulders to slump.

War Woman and Dark-Wing both had dark and brooding expressions on their faces while Immortal stood there with his eyes closed, making him appear cold, but only he knew just how many comrades he had lost throughout the centuries and how much pain he carried in his heart.

While all of this was going on, though, an ethereal and magical presence was swirling around the urn however, the presence was completely non-existent to those at the funeral.

Suddenly, from the urn, a human-shaped silhouette shot out and floated in the air the urn, the being's image was foggy but slowly gaining clarity before an unmistakable face, the face of William.

His face was blank as he was still reforming, but once his spirit-like body fully formed, his brows creased, and his head rose to the sky as he let out a mournful and pain-filled wail.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The scream went unnoticed by the surrounding people, but they all suddenly felt a chill run down their spines as the temperature suddenly dropped.

William flew up to multiple people, starting with Kate and Eve, and ending with Cecil, but no matter what he did, he could not garner their attention, nor could he touch them.

A few hours passed like this, and eventually the funeral ended with Rex being the last to leave while dripping blood in his wake.

Ghostly tears fell from his face as he screamed out for them and tried to follow, but he could only go so far before his vision turned white and he reappeared over the urn bearing his remains.

"W...What?"

William's mind went blank as he suddenly reappeared over the urn, and he once again tried flying towards the building, only to repeat the process four times before he finally stopped his futile actions.

"What the hell is going on?"

His thoughts were all over the place, and he was unaware of the ethereal smoke emanating from the cracks on top of the urn where the opening was

William had almost given up hope when he felt the ethereal smoke suddenly wrap around his ghostly leg like the strongest of chains, and he felt a strong force pulling him into the urn.

Initially struggling madly against the chains, his eyes suddenly became calm when his toe touched the surface of the urn, and he could feel the surge of vitality within it.

His body was reforming, although slowly, due to the urn's material being rather strong, and what was being made was constantly being crushed under new biomass until the pressure finally became too much, and a clump of bone and flesh spilled out of the top.

Seconds passed, and the immobile mass of broken flesh and shattered bone began to wriggle in place.

SQUELCH

The strange puddle of biomass suddenly expanded and grew in size until it reached the height of five eleven, and two formless limbs stretched out before condensing to the form of familiar human bones, although they were strangely darker with subtle reflections dancing across their surface.

What came next were the tendons and ligaments that facilitate movement, followed by the muscles they attached to.

Unlike normal tendons, these were like titanium rebar twisted into a single dense and strong material, and they connected to biceps that weren't huge but seemed to contain an unspeakable force.

Red mist began emanating from William's body before entering through his mouth, and within the depths of his body, new organs more powerful and tough than before began forming.

The last organs to form were the brain and eyes, which seemed dull and lifeless despite everything that was going on.

Soon, the red and pink muscles were covered by newly formed and soft skin that was also strangely tough like the skin of a rhino.

Suddenly, a jolt of bioelectricity sparked his brain to life, and his joints creaked as he finally moved.

The light behind his eyes reappeared, and he let out a primal yell.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGG!"

His mouth sprayed blood as his vocal cords were devastated by the sudden yelling and reformed when the mournful yell ceased.

Step

William took a step forward and nearly fell forward, only preventing his fall by catching himself with his other foot, causing him to stumble, but after that, he held onto some railing and managed to make it near the door before, but due to his current newly reformed state he lost his balance and tripped over the railing and began free-falling to the earth below.

He fell like a meteor to the streets below into a nearly empty parking lot where a couple was being robbed at gunpoint.

"Yeah, all of that, I need that and the ring bro, don't play with me or I will kill y...."

BOOM

His voice was cut off when a body landed on him with such force that the robber's body is reduced to a nearly flat mass of flesh and blood.

The quivering couple were shocked when the gun-toting man before them was reduced to a flat mass of flesh.

HYAK

With a final spray of blood from the man's mouth, he finally died as his organs were effectively reduced to mush.

William lay on the ground next to the man's flattened corpse, and the frightened couple initially thought he was dead before he suddenly shot up while gasping for air.

"AAAAHHHHH! x2"

They screamed in response to him suddenly rising, and in a display of hilarious irony, the man jumped up into the arms of the woman.

Suddenly, William's eyes shot open, although they were bloodshot and had a sort of feral look to them.

He reared up, his head facing the sky, before he let out a primal scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The volume of his scream destroyed his vocal cords repeatedly, but in his mad state, he simply ignored the pain before lunging forward and leaping into traffic.

Huff

William breathed heavily as he sprinted through the streets of Chicago like a chemically enhanced cheetah and eventually jumped up and, in an act that scared and surprised civilians, he reached up towards the building and seemingly dug his fingers into the brick and mortar before continuing to climb.

Within moments, he reached the roof, and he sprinted across it and leaped with all his might into another much taller building.

BANG

His body struck the concrete surface, causing visible spiderweb cracks to form along the area of impact, and he shot upward like a bullet before landing softly on the roof and once again moving forward, where he was going, he did not even know.

Steam emanated from William's mouth, and he began running on all fours, increasing his already superhuman speeds to monstrous levels where only people like Red Rush and Immortal could keep up.

In another dark warehouse, a group of ten Flaxan soldiers huddled together near a fire as they discussed ways they could return home before the energy in their gear runs out and they become affected by the local time stream.

Another of them was hiding in a crow's nest that he was using to keep watch of the group's surroundings in case of an attack, effectively making them eleven.

The group talked in hushed whispers so they would not distract the soldier keeping watch, who was equipped with a sniper rifle of Flaxan design.

It began to storm suddenly, causing the Flaxan to jump with a start when thunder roared, but he soon came to his senses and looked back into the scope only to see something coming his way from a distant rooftop.

"KRAA!"

He yelled out, getting the other soldier's attention before firing off towards the thing approaching from a distance, the laser brushing just past him and momentarily illuminating the figure.

The figure that the Flaxan watcher saw appeared to be a human running on all fours, but what was strange was the speed of his approach and how he maneuvered over buildings.

When the laser light disappeared, it also almost seemed like the human's eyes were glowing red, causing the soldier to pull the trigger for a fatal shot.

PEW

A larger-than-normal beam of energy left the barrel of the rifle and shot towards the human in a speed too quick for him to dodge, and ultimately struck him in his chest, causing the human to skid to a stop all of a sudden and look down at the area of impact.

There was a shallow wound carved into his chest with heat-blackened flesh at the center, but in a sight that caused the Flaxan to panic, the flesh regrew and rewove itself to full health and beyond.

PEW

Seeing the wound close and heal caused the Flaxan sniper to panic, and he began firing repeatedly, the first of which struck his shoulder and sent him into a spin, which he used to dodge the rest of the volley, and once again began moving towards the person who shot him.

William spun in the air and dodged a shot aimed to hit him in the stomach before grabbing the ledge of the building and using nothing but his arms, launched himself across the gap towards the warehouse with his hands extended towards his target.

PEW

The Flaxan sniper sent out four more shots in a panic, which missed the human by a hair, and before he could fire a fifth time.

CRCK

The human's hand grabs the Flaxan sniper by his face and slams him into the wall behind him with the full force of his remaining momentum, causing the alien's head to explode like an extra juicy watermelon.

The sniper's body slumped uselessly to the ground, and blood began to spill through the cracks on the floor and spilling onto the forehead of one of his companions.

PEW

The other ten Flaxans immediately opened fire all at once in the direction of the crow's nest, turning the small room into a massive hole in the ceiling.

A bolt of lightning revealed the human gripping the ceiling with his fingers before the light disappeared, another bolt immediately after showed the human was gone.

The Flaxans formed a circle so they could not be taken off guard from any direction, but just when they thought that whatever it was might have left a Flaxan torso riddled with bullet holes, it was thrown with so much force that the Flaxan formation shattered.

One of them saw the crouching figure suddenly leap at one of his companions and tear his gun-wielding arm clean off and slam him into the ground by his throat, causing his airway to collapse.

PEW

The Flaxan fired on the human and hit him three times on his back, the shots causing the human to flinch, but not even pushing him back.

Looking back at the Flaxan who fired on him with a predatory gaze, he dropped the Flaxan, whose neck was crackling in his grip.

He lunged at the Flaxan, who tried jumping back but ended up on his back and using the flat end of his gun to hold the human back.

This, however, did not stop him as the gun began to bend under the force the human applied to it, and he was grabbed before being thrown around like a ragdoll and being thrown into the others.

POW

Bloodied and broken, the body of the Flaxan the human was pummeling was caught by one of his companions, but as soon as he looked back up, a fist smashed into his face and lifted him and his practically dead companion into the air.

PEW

The rest of the Flaxans finally recovered and began to mercilessly fire onto the human, even choosing to ignore their still living companion's pleas as they were in deep panic and wanted to end things fast.

Every bolt of energy struck the human true, these were, after all, trained soldiers, but unfortunately for them, the weapons they were equipped with were no longer powerful enough to even singe his flesh, but still managed to push him backward as long as they maintained a continuous stream of energy.

They pressed the human against the wall, and he finally managed to stomp his foot into the ground and prevent himself from losing leverage.

Continuing their assault, the Flaxans were unaware of the fact that their weapons' power supply was slowly but surely glowing increasingly bright.

The human nearly lost his footing when it happened.

BOOM

The Flaxans' weapons suddenly erupted into explosive flames that singed their wielders' flesh as well as stopped their assault.

After recovering from the pain, they looked up to the cloud of dust slowly dissipating from where the human was previously, and their scalps tingled when they saw the blood red eyes staring back at them with pure killing intent oozing from them like a beacon in the night.

CRACK

He moved, causing the wall behind him to finally give in under the combination of force and the myriad laser holes as he rushed towards the panicking Flaxan soldiers who were fumbling for their melee weapons.

The warehouse continued to echo with the sounds of combat, and only minutes later, a muscular figure kicked down the doors leading out of the warehouse and walked through the streets with only the darkness of the streets to hide his apparent nudity and leaving a trail of blood in his wake leading to the warehouse filled wall to wall with blood and gore.

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