Joshua’s greasy hair fell over his face as he sighed inside the container. He looked at his virtual watch as he wondered about his current predicament. Stuck in a shipping container to avoid a fight. His hair fell over his eyes, and he looked deep within himself for some sort of reasoning on why he was doing all of this. The container creaked, lowering into the ground. People outside called for others to help with different shipments.
Joshua bounced his eyes around his container; it was mostly dark, but after a week, he could catch a glimpse of a few items here and there. Stuff that could make him busy while he waited. He felt miserable, with no more food or water to fill his stomach. It was not nightfall yet; they would have knocked on the container if it was the right time.
Wondering how he got here in the first place, he started to try and recount his memories. There was no certain starting point for his revenge or the crimes he had committed. Luckily enough, some reptilian species from this planet decided to help him. Of course, he barely talked to them, but he knew about their culture. People were impoverished because of how they looked. As they acted and looked, they were good. Maybe.
His stomach growled in anticipation of food. Joshua’s eyes closed for some much-needed rest; he drowned away his thoughts to keep himself silent with something else. Once he heard the commotion outside and loud shots, screaming noises in the background made unintelligible noises. Who knows what they were saying? All he knew was that it had to be a sign of trouble. He pushed his back forward, and his ears perked, trying to listen for the reason of the commotion outside.
The walls around him blocked away the sounds, but he could make out a few words. Something about a certain container. Maybe he should have known by then that they were talking about his, but he was too hungry to even think critically. So when the doors burst open and an infantry of soldiers arrived inside, he only thought of one thing. To battle.
He threw the first punches. Sending the man flying with a powered punch, the next tried smashing down with a metal bat. He was parried and thrown to the ground, ripping a hole in it. The two others did not even make an effort to fight back, and both were picked up and smashed to the floor. He took a peek outside to see guns firing at each other and the illegal people—well, creatures—firing at some humans in full-body suit armor.
Joshua took this opportunity to pounce out of his container, feeling the refreshing air and the cloud-filled sky, leaving a sort of empty feeling. He ran across the roads, jumping from building to building, when a shot rang at him. It sent him flying down, and he barely caught himself on the road below.
More sniper bullets fired, and he flipped away, staring at a sign. He leaped towards it before getting shot one more time in the leg, but now he was hidden by cover. He exasperated very heavily, and more sniper bullets quickly fired towards him. The noises of wheels pulling into the streets made him even more agitated, and a truck that rammed into a building first shook into position with a man holding a launcher. Firing straight at him. He cursed and jumped out of the way, but the explosion sent him back even farther. Joshua bounced down an entire road with multiple armored trucks and cars surrounding him.
"Joshua," a man announced, “surrender now or we will open fire.” He commanded aggressively.
Joshua looked over his options and opened his palms, where a gold pill lay. He smiled and looked up as he swallowed the pill and smiled. Before kicking the chin of one of the soldiers in an instant.
Guns fired outside of the truck's windows instantly as Joshua swatted away their weapons. The lasers hit him on his shoulder during certain moments, but it was nothing he could not handle. His hair was greasy, and his beard was unkempt. He breathed heavily, glowing a golden hue. The URPCB of the city bulls on this planet had been hunting him for around a year, but he always slithered away from their gasp.
Joshua pounded another head into the pavement. He grinned as he faced the other officers.
"Anyone else is trying to battle. You pussies.” He laughed crazily.
Two brutes ran up to him with gigantic hammers, even bigger than him, but with a flick, they were sent flying back as his expression became that of boredom. They were now becoming a nuisance to him.
More shots were fired at him as he repeatedly beat the enemies down. Some jumped at him with knives in the middle of the street, and the bystanders ran, which gave Joshua the signal to pound them even more aggressively. He was close to killing them, but of course, he knew how to hold his punches.
The dexterity of these knife officers swayed nicely. Their daggers tried to scratch his face, but they could not even get close. He just dove under their attacks and parried their moves. Then he hit one with a light attack before flipping his body and kicking them from behind, focusing his moves on a different target.
He swept two that tried to run at him, knocking them out as they were pounded through the floor. One was stunned so much that Joshua could throw him into the wall using only his shoulder.
A few more cars arrived, and a truck containing more soldiers arrived. Aiming their weapons at him, many stayed silent, and a few released a loud gulp.
"You are surrounded.” The mustache man shouted; he had just arrived and was the leader of this certain section. “Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head.” He screamed anxiously.
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Joshua looked confused at him, tilting his head.
"No, I was never surrounded.” He laughed before he tucked in his hands, holding in a bunch of golden energy he had released before. Shots fired at him, but a shield of golden sparks protected him, and he released an explosion. Sending everyone flying. A few smashed into buildings, and some cracked into the roads. Yet nobody had died, based on Joshua’s observations.
Everybody paused as they waited for his next move. His eyes darted from left to right, waiting for someone to react. His ears tingled hearing the laser sniper shot from the rooftop of the marble building. The lady with a scope over her eye reloaded her weapon and lay down.
Her eyes darted from left to right as she hunted his flashes of movement. He jumped from building to building. Looking for the shot. She called to her ear, lying down.
"Target found; he has found the sho," she said, before feeling a shadow above her. She cursed as she saw Joshua smiling above her. She was grabbed and dropped from the building. She had the wind knocked out of her as she fell in fear, but a flying bike caught her mid-air. Two more followed behind her and she reloaded her rifle.
She did not speak, turned, and fired her rifle repeatedly at him. Joshua chased after the bike, eventually grabbing one of two that were following the commander.
She kept firing her weapon, straining at every bullet that was fired. Before long, Joshua was catching up. He let go of the handle on the bicycle and stood up on the seat. Balancing himself perfectly, the vehicle became controlled by a magical deep yellow gold, paving a road for it to ride on.
The commander was able to release a shot at him, but he looked at his shoulder unfazed by the blood, and he quickly healed. His cycle accelerated, and he was catching up faster than she could even react.
"Damn it, press on that pedestal." She screamed, but it was too late. Joshua jumped and hopped onto the Commander's cycle. He smiled at her and flipped it upside down. The driver and she fell, but they were caught by him and thrown on the roof of a building. The cycle charged heavier, and then it fired away into the sky as Joshua disappeared from their view.
"Shit."The commander cursed at herself. She sighed in defeat as her companion next to her took off her helmet and panted.
"How the hell could we have beaten him? He’s exceptionally strong.” He started to become exasperated.
"Well, of course, we could not; well, at least we said we tried. Do you know where he is going next?” The grand commander questioned, lighting a cigarette and smoking it.
"Based on some chatter.” Her colleague thought, “Caldera.”
The silence became apparent between them as the commander just stared at her and chuckled.
"What's so funny?" Her colleague asked curiously.
"Guess we don't even need our job; if anyone could conquer him, it would be those bastards from Caldera." She smiled as if she had won. “We are nowhere close to the commanders of Caldera.”
–
Joshua was accelerating too fast; he pummeled into the grass and rolled repeatedly down the hill. Scrapes and thorns scratched his body, and his eye felt swollen. By the time he stopped, he was holding down a ton of injuries across his entire body with his hand to slow down the bleeding. He went into his pocket, shuffling through the trough. He was straining as his broken fingers tried to figure out where it was. Once he finally pulled another golden pill, he popped it inside his mouth. Swallowing, he tensed his body, and an intense pillar of pain washed over him.
His broken fingers reverted to where they were placed originally. His swollen eye started to spin and turn, and his legs felt relieved as the pain washed away. He picked himself up and swatted away any more dust on his body. Coughing the dust out of his system, he smiled at the huge planet orbiting the atmosphere. The sunset disappeared into the night slowly, but man, it looked beautiful just at that moment.
Joshua started walking; he didn’t know how long he was walking. His hair blocked his vision along the way, and the weather became very chilly. He said the time was not a concern; he only checked his watch to see how far the nearest force would be from him, and they were decently far away. The thing was that they would catch up with his pace soon. So when he came across a marble building with a huge hotel sign on top, he was very relieved.
Entering the sliding doors slid quietly yet smoothly. The man at the front counter was very pudgy and looked up in surprise.
"No available bookings.” He scoffed, looking up from his paper at him with his legs kicked up.
"We could make a deal," Joshua asked.
The manager looked at him and snarled at his greasy hair and his dirty and ripped clothes. How small his inventory seemed.
"How much you-.”
"5,000 brics (cash) straight up, 5,000 tomorrow,” Joshua said, cutting him off.
"7,000."The manager puckered aggressively.
"6,000,” Joshua shot back.
"Deal."The man smiled; he inhaled smoke and released Joshua, throwing the key. Joshua could sense the disgust in the man, but another scent. That of a scent that was not human.
As he walked in the hallway, he accidentally bumped into someone. cloaked figure. Joshua turned to try and say sorry, but it disappeared. Joshua looked confused and continued moving forward to go to his room on the second floor. Taking the emergency flight stairs, he ended up in his room and opened the door. To see a nice clean place with a good virtual telestand and blue fluorescent lights that could be changed at will.
"Yellow, Dark Hue, 56” Joshua commanded, and the lights all turned yellow and the floor became darker.
Joshua turned to the bathroom mirror and opened his inventory. Well, it was just a placeholder for his suitcase, hidden by some technology. With the ability to phase through anyone. Everybody held those.
Joshua grabbed a pair of clippers and turned on the bathroom light. He put the clippers close to his hair and let in a deep breath. Then he started to cut his hair.
–
“Hello.”
“Hello, Madam.”
“Have you found him?"
“Yes”
“How long.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Alive alright.”
"Yes, I know, alive.”
“Good boy.”
And then silence.