Right. Energy was at a premium right now. That and he was sure that with all the gore splattered on him, his torn up armor, and lacking anything defined as real clothing, he stood out immensely. All things he would need to address.
Floating rapidly through the industrial sprawl, he took note of several locations that were potential but then stopped suddenly. In front of him was an old, run down and falling apart industrial building. Squinting, he swore he could see the massive crucibles inside used to smelt steel and iron. Those would be excellent to use for materials, not to mention in other universes were highly valuable due to their specified nature and use.
Floating down he touch his feet on the ground and began to walk forward. He dropped his energy intensive gravity stealth field and walked right through the front doors of the old factory. It was wide open, filled to the brim with junk, and didn’t look like anyone had been there for a long time.
“Yeah. Yeah this will do nicely. For now,” he muttered.
A quick check of the building located an office space in the far back of the gigantic building. It had everything he could need, including a small bunk room for anyone who needed it. Honestly the only thing that it was missing was a kitchen. Food would become important, but not as of yet. His Dad, Sam, had taught him how to use the various energies to regulate his body and could breathe underwater for up to two days if necessary. Hunger was easy to beat for quite bit longer than that. He glanced at the woman under his arm. For his guests however, the necessities may be a problem.
He set her on one of the cots and sat down to wait. When she woke up, he would question her. And then… then would come the hard parts. He turned a chair around backwards and sat on it, watching her from eye level.
“Yeah, I saw her breathing change. Do some snooping inside of their networks. See what you can find out. I need to know mainly what resources and money they use, who the biggest players are, and what the hell is up with having so many… oddly powered people here,” he commanded. Bag gave a rolling mental confirmation and turned to its assigned tasks. “Get up. I know you’re awake,” he said to Solaria. Slowly she opened her eyes. Swallowing she sat up and looked at him. “I’m… alive,” she said, as if surprised at that fact. “For now,” Grim admitted. “I have questions.” She nodded, “So do I. And If… if I’m going to die then I want to know the answers,” she said determinedly. Grim quirked an eyebrow, the woman had spunk. He could give her that much. He had never been an overt fan of either villains or heroes, having encountered another Earth with both kind before. However this one… this one didn’t use any of the Primary Energies to fuel their abilities. “Fine. I can do that. Seems fair at least, and you seem to get that there is no way you would be able to escape,” Grim acquiesced. “A question for a question. If you run out, you still answer mine.” Solaria nodded, so he started. “Whats with the super powers,” he asked. The superheroine stared at him, utterly confused. “I… I don’t understand the question,” she replied slowly, as if afraid to make him angry. Grim leaned back and sighed, “Of course you don’t. Of course you wouldn’t. Let me clarify, there are people here. Normal people, super powered people, and people who are… above the level of super powers, am I right?” Solaria nodded. “Tell me about them, and about any classification system you use to rank them,” he explained. She nodded. That she could do. “There are five, technically six, levels of super. They are usually divided into civilians, heroes, and villains. Class I supers are day to day users. Stronger than a normal person, smarter, faster, etc. No real combat applications but excellent for various fields and labor. Class II supers are specialized workers, scientists, or those with exception abilities bordering on super human. Some of them can fly or breathe under water. Class III supers are where powers get more than human. I am a Class III. I have flight and can use light in various weapons and basic constructs. I am also stronger, physically, than most other people. Class IV supers are magnitudes stronger than Class III’s and have command roles within organizations, corporations, or run solo as lead vigilantes or villains. Class V’s … there are only a few dozen within our region. One was Death, the… the guy who planted you into the ground,” she explained. “They are walking catastrophes. Unkillable. Biological disasters.” “What about that sixth class?” Grim wondered. She shrugged, “I’ve heard its been called Class Zero. But there hasn’t, to my limit knowledge, ever been more than one. The person who spread powers in the first place. Lots of people call him The Progenitor.” Grim nodded. “Hmm. Seems like a simple enough system.” He waved at her, “Ask.” “What are you?” she wondered, leaning forward. He snorted, “That’s a rude question. I’m human. My turn.” She sat back on the cot, a look of disappointment on her face. Whether it was in his answer or in her poorly phrased question, Grim didn’t care. She got her chance to ask and blew it. “Where are we on the world? As in, which country, state, province, whatever?” he asked. Worried her host may be losing his mind a bit, Solaria answered quickly. “The Republic of Euron, within the Capital Province. We are currently in the Capital City of the Republic, Elysium.” “This world has such lame names,” complained Grim, causing the woman to frown. “Whatever, your turn. Go ahead. This is kinda fun.” If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Solaria frowned further at that. This… apparently human being had gone up against several of the strongest supers on the planet, toe to toe, and come out relatively unscathed. Now he was playing word games with yet another super he apparently captured. For funsies. This man was insane. “Fun. Right. Being held hostage while death is constantly hanging overhead is your idea of fun,” she snarled. Grim’s eyes glassed over, making a perfect impression of a Siberian lake. “Ask your question,” he said, the temperature in the room seeming to drop a few degrees. She swallowed, shivering a bit. “Right. Question. Uh… tell me about yourself?” she asked, the sudden change in his demeanor derailing her anger. He stared at her, so she clarified, “What is your name?” He rolled his eyes and stood up, “My name you won’t have. My moniker, my nickname, is Grim. Now, this game has gotten boring, and now we are no longer alone. While this game was amusing at first it no longer serves its purpose.” With blinding speed he clapped his hands on either side of her head, a muffled pop sounded out as Solaria’s ear drums exploded causing her to squeak. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed onto the cot, unconscious. He grunted, “Monitor her Bag,” Grim said aloud. “Let me know if she so much as twitches.” Grim wrapped himself in his gravity stealth and floated above the ground while making his way to where Bag had indicated the intruders were. “I need servants and agents. As that woman seems to be in the middle of power for this universe, she should make an excellent platform for experiments. I was thinking a succubus for easier infiltration,” Grim explained, outlining his thoughts. Grim shrugged and floated out of the barracks style resting area until he was in the main manufacturing floor of the old steel mill. Below him, six people stood in the half semi-circle, examining the area around them. The six were all men, with one being three times larger than the rest and seemingly made of rock. He set himself down on the lip of the massive crucible and listened in on their conversation. “You said someone was here didn’t you? Well, I don’t see anyone. If you were wasting my time,” rumbled the giant stone man, “Then I’m going to rip your arms off Rat.” A tall skinny man stepped forward nervously. “I swear Shatter, my friends said they saw a man and a woman in here. The man was… he was weird. Strange. They couldn’t really describe him but they did know they were terrified and wanted nothing to do with him. The woman though, she was a spot on description for Solaria.” “Rat, no one gives a shit about your rodent friends. But if you’re right… and we can get our hands on Solaria… well that would be a bit of fun before we turned her over to the Pin,” rasped a smaller man who was covered head to toe in knives. The rock man, Shatter apparently, turned to the small man. He took several quick steps back as the huge man spoke, “We do not touch her. Not until Pin says so. Capiche?” “Got it boss. No touching,” the small furtive criminal said quickly. Grim couldn’t contain himself anymore, he burst out laughing as he dropped his stealth field. The six looked up at him directly as he howled, slapping his knee. “Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck is so funny?” rumbled Shatter. That only made Grim laugh more. After several seconds of catching his breath he managed to say, “Your name sounds like a bad bought of diarrhea!” Then he burst into laughter again. The six were silent for a moment, then one of the men snickered. Shatter swung a fist with surprising speed, smashing the man backward and clean through the open doors behind them. They all heard the, more than likely, lifeless body struck the ground outside with a meaty thud. “Fuck you, ya homeless prick! Get down here so I can rip your arms off,” roared the rock man. Grim sighed. He lightened his weight and simply walked down to the now stunned group of men. His casual stroll made it seem as if he were descending a staircase only he could make out. He hopped the last step, landing lighting on the ground with his hands clasped behind his back. “Well? Here I am. Please, by all means, make an attempt to remove my limbs. I promise you, it wont go well,” he said with a smile. One of the men scrambled backwards, back planting against a wall. “That’s the fucker who merc’d Devastator!” The other four men looked at him, then turned their heads slowly back to Grim. Reaching down, Grim hefted a large brick. Oh, the plans he had for this brick. It would be his new best friend. His new, greatest tool in this new universe. Nothing beat the simple things in life. “Shut up,” he replied with a role of his eyes. Demons and their drama. “Woah now, hey… maybe I was a… you know, a bit hasty here,” said Shatter slowly putting up his hands. “We can talk about this, right?” Grim smiled, hefting the brick. “Sure, we can! Just rip off your arms and then we can have a nice little conversation. Before I kill you, rip your soul out of your body, and use the raw materials you no longer have any use for to make something that’s actually useful.” The remaining five men were frozen at that, making them perfect targets. Shatters head seemed to simply mist off his shoulders as the brick that had been reinforced with a full percentage of Grim’s remaining energy plowed through rock, skull, and brain matter with little to no resistance. So great was the force in fact that instead of exploding the friction simply turned all matter that came into contact with the piece of coal fired building material into a fine spray. Shatters headless body stood for a full three seconds before toppling over. Unlike last time, Grim immediately stretched his hand forward and absorbed the energy that came off the body. “Grand. Gonna have four more data points for you shortly,” Grim responded internally. The man against the wall, Grim thought he had been called Rat, cowered in fear leaving three remaining enemies for him to dispose of. The moment Shatters body hit the floor, the man in the center screamed and fired a blue beam of compressed energy at him. Bringing up a gauntleted hand, Grim remembered his armor was all but shredded. So instead he rolled sideways out of the way of the beam. Glancing backwards he was glad he did, as he watched the attack slice into the massive crucible like a knife through butter. That would have hurt. Grumbling, he picked up another rock and encased it in energy. Then he threw it. To his surprise though, it veered off to one side, missing the group entirely. One of the other men had some kind of telekinetic power and was warding off his projectiles. Frustrated, Grim simply charged. If he could just pick them off, then he would tear them to pieces with his bare hands. He moved quickly, catching beam man off guard. He wrapped one hand around his throat and grabbed his arm. With a sharp tug, he ripped off the limb and dropped the now screaming man to the ground. With a display of utter contempt and brutality, he spun into a kick, caving in the mans skull and flinging the body sideways. Grims body suddenly became heavy, as dagger man ran at him while the man with telekinesis attempted to hold him down. Throwing several knives, the mans eyes bulged out of his skull when they just bounces off his skin. Looking down, then back at knife man he asked, “Are those… did you just throw fucking kitchen knives at me? That’s fucking offensive. You brought a meat cleaver to a fucking super fight,” he growled, blurring forward at slightly slower speeds and grabbing the man. Without wasting time, he simply threw he straight up, impaling him on the jagged support poles hanging from the ceiling. Telekinesis man fare no better. He turned to run and got another brick to the head for his troubles. Grim quickly absorbed the life force from the now departed wannabe villains and turned to Rat. “Now… what to do with you?” he wondered.