Multiverse: by Nick Venomz (best books to read for beginners .txt) 📕

Hound roared into action, stomping on Strider as he ran towards the entrance to the hallways. He traveled through the hallways, passing Thermal---who stuck to the wall to allow the beast to pass him. 

Aaron glanced behind him, throwing daggers at Hound. Hound opened his mouth and caught a dagger with his teeth, crunching on it. He pressed forward to reach Aaron, knocking the daggers out of his way. 

Of course, I face the brute-force metahuman, Aaron thought. He brandished his katana, running through the hallways with the tip pointing downward. He turned around to face the beast, being slammed in by Hound’s momentum. Hound couldn’t stop on the dime, smacking into Aaron intensely.

Aaron was thrown into the wall at the end of the hallway, sliding down it. He pressed his empty hand against his stomach, feeling like his organs had been shuffled around. Hound, on the other hand, recovered quickly and sprinted forward.

He stood up and idled in one spot as Hound barreled towards him. 3… 2… 1… He’s dead. He gripped the katana with both hands and sprinted forward. He then shot upward, jumping on top of Hound, and brutally stabbed his head. Hound swung at him, but Aaron applied more pressure. The katana’s tip had cracked Hound’s head. It was on its way to his brain.

“N-Nooo, sssstttoooopp!” Hound spoke, slurring. He swung wildly, hitting Aaron but never knocking him off. Aaron, instead, dug the katana deeper into his skull, reaching it. He gripped the katana harder, putting all of his weight into it.

“W-Waaaittt! Ppplllleeassse sssstttoooopp!” Hound screaming in anguish. Aaron ignored it, raising his fist and pounding the hilt. The force pushed the blade deeper and cracked his skull into pieces, breaking like glass. Hound’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, hovering in one spot. However, he soon collapsed, hitting the ground with a heavy “thud”, blood staining the pure white walls. Hound was dead.

Aaron glanced down at the hallway and noticed Strider closing in on him. The short but violent fight with Hound took the wind out of him and he struggled to regain it. He backed away from Hound’s corpse, quickly cutting a large piece of string. Enough to make a noose.

Strider twistedly grinned as she neared Aaron, her eyes lighting up. She snarled at him as she was a few feet from her. Unfortunately for her, however,  she tripped on Hound’s corpse, collapsing to the ground.

Aaron took advantage of the unfortunate situation, wrapping the string around her neck and tying the ends. He pulled on the string, choking her. She tried to tear the string apart, but it wouldn’t break. It wasn't a normal string, but a piece of reinforced string.

He grabbed the last dagger in his belt and stabbed the top of her back, ripping downward and stopping at her hips. She howled in pain, her screams attracting Thermal. He was close-by but stopped in his tracks. Why am I doing this? What do I owe this man? Forcing me to attract new metahumans to what? Work for him?

Thermal heard Strider’s voice echo in pain. She was yelling, screaming, grunting, and doing whatever she could to escape. It was to no avail. Aaron grabbed the string with both hands, pulling it with all of his might. She gagged and choked, the air quickly leaving her body. It hurt to breathe, but she had to fight against the pain. Stop breathing and she’ll die.

“P-Please s-s-stop!” She shouted, her words being intercepted by painful gasps and popping sounds. Her neck was slowly being cut in half, her head reaching decapitation status.

“I-I-I ha-have an f-f-f-f-f-family!” 

Aaron looked at her without remorse. “You should’ve lived for them.” He released the string before grabbing her head.

“W-W-What are y-you d-d-d-doing?” She blurted out, gasping in between her words.

“Goodnight.” He remarked before twisting her neck, a loud “pop” sound echoing off the stained walls. Aaron stood up, staring at the corpses of metahumans. “You should’ve lived for yourselves or for your families. You ended up choosing work over them.” He told the corpses before disappearing down the hallways as Thermal approached the scene. Orville appeared moments later, finding him standing idly.

“He… He killed them all!” Thermal spoke. He was astonished.

“Burn them. Dispose of their corpses. Everything!” Orville ordered.

“But-” 

Orville glared at him. “Everything.”

Thermal opened his mouth but quickly closed it. “Yes, sir.”

TBC…

Two hours passed. Aaron bit down hard on a gauze. Ty stood by his side, patching him up. The attack from Hound damaged him badly, but not beyond recovery. 

“You’ve been gone from Cidon for five years, so you don’t know this.” Ty held up a small glass bottle with a few drops of a bluish liquid inside. “Asura Industries created this medicine that fixes any fatal wounds. However, it costs a fortune to get your hands on it. Without the profit from my airfield, I wouldn’t be able to afford the half a million-dollar price tag.”

“You’re using Asura medicine? Can’t you patch me with normal stuff?” Aaron grumbled.

“I understand why you don’t want to use anything Asura-made, but this medicine is the real deal. The person who did this to you… he messed you up pretty bad. He shuffled your organs around in places that would’ve killed you. At this point, I’m not sure how you’re talking… or even breathing.”

“My body was reinforced. My skin isn’t as soft and weak as normal human blubber.” Aaron muttered.

 Ty looked down at him. He wasn’t jacked, but not overweight. He was in the middle between overweight and fit. Average.

“Anyway, let me apply this on you. There are only a few drops left, so I need to be careful. I can’t waste any drops.” He brought the bottle closer to Aaron’s stomach where a large gash was at. His ribs were almost all broken and his lungs nearly collapsed on themselves.

“Fine,” He grumbled, every inhale seething pain and every exhale throwing out pieces of himself.

“Good, now sit still.” Ty applied the drops onto Aaron’s back, stomach, and head. The whiplash of hitting the wall messed with his neck while his back rammed into the wall and his stomach took the brunt of Hound’s attack.

The drops quickly dropped into their destinations, They met with the flesh and organs, negotiating a deal. The negotiations ended with mutual benefit, the organs rearranging themselves into the proper places and the skin healing itself. The drop’s benefit turned out to be allowed into the body, absorbed like water into soil.

Ty broke away and grabbed a mirror. He faced the reflective part towards himself as he neared Aaron. “Ta-daaaa!” He turned the mirror’s reflective part towards Aaron - who snatched the mirror out of Ty’s hands, staring at himself through it. His skin was healing itself at an impressive rate, leaving behind small patches of irritation where the holes were.

“Good, I guess.” Aaron rose to his feet before falling back down. He needed a few minutes to regain his strength.

“Sit. We’re safe. There’s nothing you could do.” Ty turned around to face a large flat-screen television. Displayed on it were the mysterious deaths of two guards found by homeless people in the alleyways. The news reporter reported that “Asura Industries is undergoing an investigation. The full report will be released later today during a live press conference.”

“Look at the trouble you caused,” Ty remarked, pointing at the television.

“They deserve it. Hell, that medicine you gave me must’ve been the results of horrific experiments. They probably tortured hordes of people to get the few drops you used on me.”

“And I apologize for that, but your body was badly damaged. Without the medicine, you wouldn’t be able to bounce back so quickly. Your revenge would have to be postponed.” Ty explained. “Asura Industries is a horrible place and their ways of achieving unimaginable feats contain much unfairness, but you were in dire need of help. If anything, after you destroy them, you could take over the medicine manufacturing and correct the process.”

“Brilliant. A man who knows nothing more than hunting could correct a million-dollar machine. I would walk into a sweatshop and then walk right out…. Because there’s no way to fix a corrupted system.” Aaron joked. 

“Then be the first one to invent a way,” Ty responded

“Yeah, I’ll try to.” Aaron stared at the television, hearing the news reporter talk about Asura Industries’ investigation. “Maybe I’ll do it.”

Ty’s walkie-talkie roared alive but was quickly silenced. Ty and Aaron shared a look before a series of explosions pounded at the main door to the hangar and the back door, simultaneously. The doors were torn down as multiple people flooded the hangar. 

“Hands up!” A man in black military guard shouted. He pointed a gun at Aaron.

“You with Asura?” Aaron asked, calmly staring at the man.

“Shut it!” The man shouted. He beckoned for four people behind them to step forward, all metahumans with some type of metal collar on them.

Ty looked pissed-scared. “What do we do?” He whispered.

“Don’t worry, I set a series of traps. Let them walk in further.” Aaron confidently stated, hiding a piece of his string inside his shoe. He looked up and watched as the man took another step, hitting a tripwire. He looked down, noticing the wire, before snapping his head up. He mouthed out a curse before his body blew up, taking the lives of some of his unit.

The leading metahuman, Thermal, took a step forward. He found a tripwire in front of him, carefully grabbing the string. The string took little effort to catch on fire, the string disintegrating almost instantly.

“Rabbit! Trap them. Shadow Wolf, flank them. Keep your distance from the man in bandages. Turbine, take down the planes.” He ordered, directing them around.

Rabbit, a new female speedster, wore a greenish-blue latex suit, thin enough to not get in her way while running. She lunged forward before developing large momentum, propelling her behind Aaron and Ty within a few seconds. She grabbed something from her pocket, a candy-bar-shaped object, and popped it in her mouth. 

Aaron rose to his feet, his katana nearby. A bundle of string and the ash-substance, which was a combination of gunpowder and another explosive substance, were right next to him. He grabbed the string and opened the box, throwing the contents at Rabbit. She smirked as she appeared behind him, the ash missing her.

She was right behind him, whispering into his ear. “Is the best you got? This is how you defeated my sis? You need to be faster than-” Aaron grabbed her waist, hearing her yelp in shock. He turned the katana around and pierced Rabbit in the gut. He moved his hand from her waist to her face, grabbing her tightly. He dug the katana deeper into her gut as she screamed. Her howls of pain frightened the military men and Ty. The sounds were too real to process.

Aaron grabbed her head and threw her to the ground, her head bouncing off the concrete like a smashed-in tomato. Blood stained Aaron’s hand and katana as he looked up at the other metahumans.

“Start up Cupid!” Aaron shouted, not turning to face Ty. Ty nodded, peering at the military men at the backdoor. They raised their