Five months since Asap Ashton tumbled into this shattered place, each week reshaping him beyond recognition. What began as foreign ground now crackled with war - the towers split wide, roads hacked into ditches, ash falling from a sky choked with scrap. Cold machines dropped fast, thick as stinging insects, while flying crafts hovered above, buzzing in that taunting tone he couldn't unhear.
Tonight, flames lit up everywhere - heat unlike anything before hit hard.
Fires ate up whole streets. Then blasts rolled through the skyline, one after another. Silhouettes of falling buildings danced on broken ground. Overhead, a steady clatter of machines filled the sky - loud, unrelenting.
Asap Ashton stayed right there - different, worn out, aged.
Blue sparks slithered up his arms, clinging tight like something breathing. His green hoodie hung in tatters, faded from endless clashes. He stood slower now, muscles locked, gaze more alert. Each clash, each setback, each scared second here wore down the kid he'd been.
He no longer acted like the clueless teen who'd shown up out of nowhere.
It wasn't him that took off running.
He turned into someone different.
Something dangerous.
A shriek tore across town.
A little girl, covered in grime and shaking, got trapped in a blazing house. In front of her loomed a guy wearing a pale mask, holding a knife; meanwhile, a floating machine locked a crimson beam on her heart.
Her back slammed against a broken wall. There was no way out now - she'd run out of options.
The masked guy lifted his hand - then paused, like he wasn't sure what came next.
The robot's cannon began to power up.
The floor trembled.
After that - suddenly, a flash of blue ripped across the heavens.
Flashes twisted down, tearing through the haze. While that happened, gray puffs split apart.
A flash of raw power crashed down on the road, melting the pavement. Sparks exploded across the block - wild as a storm - tossing rubble through the air.
The machine barely got a chance to twist its neck.
It disintegrated.
The masked guy covered his nose when the blast slammed him past three rooms, tossing him into broken chunks. Then he rolled sideways after hitting twisted metal beams that snapped from above.
Once the mess settled -
Asap rose up in the middle of the hole, shining - almost like lightning shaped into a person.
Months of tiredness showed in his face. Yet those green eyes - they burned with more than just rage.
Purpose.
Resolve.
He glanced toward the blazing clouds, his chest heaving from a shaky inhale.
He kept thinking about what was gone - fighting, people close to him, regular days, maybe even himself. Each thought hit hard, like pain stuck in his head.
He muttered under his breath - no sorrow, no collapse, simply nodding along:
"If I lost everything… then I'll become everything."
Blue lightning flashed once more, way stronger than earlier.
THE ATTACK BEGINS
The girl wobbled as she stood up, legs shaky. Her face changed a little then. Fear stayed in her eyes - yet mixed with it came a sharper look.
Determination.
She picked up a rusty pipe from the ground, smashing it against the guy in the mask just as he stood up. When he lunged, she cracked it into his ribs - once, then right after another. Not waiting. Never backing down. She could handle herself.
She held on - this was new. No backing down this time.
Meanwhile—the sky roared.
A downpour of machines dropped in perfect timing.
Asap stood his ground.
He didn't breathe.
He charged.
Blue lightning shot out from his hands, breaking into loads of jagged lines. While one zapped a drone dropping down, another hit it dead-on. Two blew up. Five followed. Then fifteen more. Flashes filled the air, kind of like falling stars. Metal bodies slammed into walls, tearing through concrete.
A strange craft dipped low, shooting out a fiery twisted ray.
Asap didn't dodge.
He teleported.
Instantly.
He blinked between shades of blue, white, then cyan - gone in a flash, suddenly standing right before the UFO's cabin. Inside, the pilot - a short green shape bent on levers - snapped his head up, startled.
Ripoff.
The original.
The foe that kicked everything off.
The bad guy aiming to wipe Asap out.
The green alien's voice crackled over the ship's loudspeaker,
"You think you've won anything?! You think being unique makes you special?!"
Asap didn't respond.
He just wasn't required to.
A spark pooled by his toes, then climbed - coiling around him like smoke on wind. One breath later, it snapped tighter, pulling close without warning.
His aura shifted—
blue shifting into teal, then suddenly a vivid glowing green.
He shot up fast, like a fiery streak, bursting into the sky with a loud roar.
The UFO bolted, engines blasting from fear.
Too slow.
Right away slammed into the vessel like a dying sun exploding.
A blast tore through the streets, smashing flaming wreckage while tossing broken machines aside. As the craft collapsed in on itself, it burst into a blazing orange sphere.
Ripoff's yell got lost in the fire.
THE DESCENT
The blast brightened the streets, almost like morning light creeping over buildings.
Out of the burning wreckage, a shadow floated down -
Calm.
Centered.
Unshaken.
When Ashton hit the broken road, everything went quiet. Quiet like a held breath.
Green light wavers. Fire blasts up behind, wild and loud. Chunks fall slow, like burnt paper drifting down.
He kept moving - no glance toward the blast behind him.
He had no reason to.
The girl, battered yet breathing, stared at him through the haze. Not scared now - her eyes grew wide with wonder instead.
When Asap breathed out at last, the glow around him began to slip away.
He moved ahead - calm, careful - the wreckage of Ripoff's vessel smoldering at his back while his silhouette crept over broken earth.