Before Joshua could react, a barrage of drones ran towards him, slowly beeping in a self-destructive format. The color of their eye area turned from green to red very quickly.

Joshua jumped in the air, and the drones crashed into the ground to destroy him, only for Joshua to smoothly land uns

Commander Zi charged every drone in his vicinity, for once he was not speaking and his mind was quiet, staring through Joshua’s head. This time only Joshua was standing there, smiling at him. cathed.

Commander Zi quickly rushed at Joshua with his wires. With as much effort as possible, Commander Zi dragged them and flipped them towards Joshua. With a slight sidestep, Joshua moved out of the way, only to be met with three wires in his face.

Miss Zuli suddenly threw her fans and slashed the wires, attacking Joshua, and leaving him unscathed once more.

"Close one,” he taught. His eyes kept looking at the wires Commander Zi was holding since, even though he could see his face, it was now blank, with no expression of where the next move was going to be.

Commander Zi then opened his wrist area and grabbed five miniature bombs, throwing them onto the floor below Miss Zulu and Joshua. They rushed to the opposite sides of each other, each taking a side when a dagger tried to strike Commander Zi from the back but instead bounced off the drone, and throwing the dagger was Miss Zulu’s assistant.

"You'll pay for that slap.” She expressed to Commander Zi.

He snarled at everyone, with three people jumping towards him. His wires flew in the air and attacked everyone in his vicinity. The wires stretched to Joshua, who dodged barely, pushing off the wires with his small shrapnel.

Miss Zulu elegantly jumped off the wires and floated in the air, turning as she controlled the wind. The assistant grabbed Kunais and, at crazy speed, darted towards Commander Zi’s head.

His wires blocked the kunai before Commander Zi kicked Joshua backward, sending him tumbling while his wires grabbed Miss Zulu’s feet, the rest rushing at the girl, wrapping her in the wires, and throwing her onto the floor. Her eyes almost popped out of her sockets, and her legs were dislocated from the fall yet she still was alive.

Joshua and Miss Zulu looked at each other and nodded, both standing up to face Commander Zi, who surprisingly retracted his wires, looking straight at Miss Zulu and Joshua. His drones had turned off, and he let out a huge breath before looking at the two of them.

"This battle will be exceptionally hard, but as you may know, I am not one to lose.” Commander Zi explained.

Joshua leaped off the ground and rushed to Commander Zi, hoping for an open attack, but he had not listened to the warning cries from Miss Zulu as he was grabbed suddenly from the floor.

"As you can see, everything has electricity, and with electricity, I can create my wires. My ability isn't these drones or my intellect; it was my conductivity powers, and I have been waiting for this moment for a while, Franz.” Commander Zi blabbered; everybody just rolled their eyes and sideyed each other. Yet they kept alert.

"Never say that name.” Joshua croaked, wiggling through the ropes.

Fans swiped at Commander Zi, but he only swatted them away, looking dead into Miss Zulu’s eyes.

Once his attention had faltered, a sweeping kick led Commander Zi off his feet. Behind him was the assistant, using only her good leg. This move had caused the wires to loosen, and Joshua, using this opportunity, escaped and, with his fists, fell face first, his first leading him to only strike Commander Zi to the ground.

Commander Zi’s eyes turned white, but Joshua knew it was no victory yet as his eyes popped back, rolling from below his socket. Joshua then lowered his hand and threw Commander Zi blocks away into the rubble he had created before, rupturing an explosion.

"Thank you for that, lady.”

"Only for Miss Zulu, but well, he is dead.”

"I Hope,”

Joshua held his wrist, rubbing his other hand left and right, looking onward at the explosion. Surprisingly, Commander Zi was carried forward; only a few injuries were sustained to his body while his drones held the wires holding his body.

"Sztupid, Imbeciles” Commander Zi expressed that his eye patch was half-ripped, showing his childlike face bleeding from the head. His movements were clumsy, and he was in a state of delusion due to his concussion, or maybe not.

More attacks ranged, but now, from the air, high-flying drones let out big blasts of laser energy, eating through the floor. Drones came from the floor, and wires from the electricity circuits in buildings popped out, grabbing people and throwing them at Miss Zulu and the assistant. Subsequently, they grabbed them and let them down slowly, but some exploded on impact as they hit the woman fighting against Commander Zi.

Joshua's attention went up to the sky, trying to keep his eyes on the drone, but then he heard screams behind him. Behind him, an innocent family was stuck under rubble. Their attention-grabbing screams had made him lose his own, and his shoulder was shot through, incinerating it and grabbing it when he fell to his shins. He looked up to see more surrounding him.

Miss Zulu was subsequently knocked out by Commander Zi's drones, and the woman who had swept Commander Zi out of his fight crawled to her aid. A shot was heard, and a hole went through her heart, causing her to cry one final tear, with her flesh burning to ash.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Every moment happened in a matter of seconds, leaving only Joshua to watch. Drones surrounded him, flashing his every move, and his eyes turned dark.

"Thisz is not the third Joshua I have heard of; you are doing nothing while you’re comaradessz will faaal.” Commander Zi smiled.

He enjoyed toying with Joshua, but he could not expect a man like him to have murdered an entire clan, especially one as strong as Jom-Suttur.

"So, tell me, Joshua.” Commander Zi slowly lost his glitch. “What is that innate ability I have heard all about?"

Joshua did not smile or show a sad face, but he was not angry. Joshua’s eyes lit up with no emotion, looking at the hallucination of the temple above him, offering him light. Grabbing the light, he decided to take a huge gulp, only to rest. They saw him take in another gem, but the scenes he was seeing were extraordinary.

His hair turned golden, long, and luscious, flowing down his shoulders. His eyes were brown, but a gold light shone through them. Leaving its mark on the rest of his body.

"He looked at Commander Zi, only to bull-rush at him, piercing through his stomach and leaving a hole of blood before he could react.

Commander Zi coughed out a puddle of blood onto Joshua’s clothes; he only looked with no aspiration, throwing Commander Zi to the side, then retracting himself to the dead woman. His shoulder had magically healed, and his body was in prime condition in a matter of seconds.

She coughed out blood herself, the hole in her chest expanding wider and wider as she coughed. She grabbed Joshua’s hand and pulled him close to her, smiling.

"You will have a great aspiration, Joshua, and a great redemption, trust me.” She said, crying. Miss Zulu stuck to the wall, unconscious from the hits of the drones, as she slowly fell, her head bleeding even more.

Joshua only smiled as he closed her eyes.

"Rest in Peace.” He said it tearfully, booming to grab Miss Zulu’s falling body.

Catching her, he let her slowly fall to the ground, waking up to the sun beating on her eyes. Next to her was her dead assistant.

Crawling to her, Miss Zulu cried, keeping her close to her assistant's chest and holding her hands together. They both did not utter any words to each other as it was not appropriate for this situation, but before an explanation could happen, Commander Zi stood up once more, a hole in his ribcage healing into one another, where Joshua could see his body made up of these wires and blue blood.

"Surprising, huh, blue blood and wires, you could think I was a robot, but I'm not; I'm just a human, and I'm going to make sure your road of destruction ends here.” Commander Zi smiled.

The drones lifted him once more, and a barrage of attacks struck right at Joshua, but as simply as those drones were sent, they were as simply dodged. For a while, Joshua’s perspective on time had gotten slower as he got faster. A few laser beams could do no damage to him, but it would be tiresome to go through all that pain.

Joshua walked around the laser beams, a golden item in his hand, minuscule but emitting power never seen before. Commander Zi’s eyes turned left to see a flash of light speeding towards him, and Joshua, with the weapon in his hand, was pushing it into his neck, sending him through the buildings.

The people around him watched Commander Zi zoom past, a yellow light surrounding him as their skin was ripped apart from the force of the attack. Shockwaves ruptured through the city as more buildings toppled at the building Joshua had just rested in and fell in on itself, the workers inside scrambling to leave. Joshua silenced all the screams. Focusing on his revenge, he did not care if he did not know the lady; he was deserving of death, but a moment of realization hit him.

In front of him, a white room was shown—no fields, no people—just a white room. Before a reaction could occur, it was filled with the inner library of the Jom-Suttur Clan. Stretching higher than skyscrapers filled with books, it bustles with children and adults from all over the planet. The books heavily varied as Joshua looked at the innocent faces in front of him before noticing his own.

Reading a book on the table, away from the others playing, was his face as a child. Watching from a distance, he felt uncanny about the child's golden hair and wide glasses. Joshua’s memory hit his head hard; grasping at it, he fell to his knees as people went through him.

He let out his hand before the child was struck carefully, and he fell to the floor in pain. Small tears formed in his eyes as he awakened, only to see himself smiling down at the child, grinning widely.

Major explosions ruptured and struck down more buildings, knocking them down and tumbling, but now Joshua could hear the people’s screams, Joshua left his trance and fell on his knees, throwing up on the ground, realizing he could have maybe caused hundreds more deaths.

His eyes widened as people screamed in agony and rubbled on top of them. Then the golden light emitted from his eyes dimmed down to a normal brown, and tears started to form in his eyes. Commander Zi had stopped breathing; his neck had twisted in the other direction from the impact.

Joshua looked at Miss Zulu, who also cried at the destruction lying in front of her, but before any words could be exchanged, steps were heard on the rooftops.

Joshua lowered his fists once more, wincing in pain as his ribs cracked from the pressure. Spitting out blood and his eyes red shot up on the roofs, he saw people in armor, but their skin was scaly. Their eyes were also visible; they were reptilian, and when they made noises with their tongues, a hissing sound was heard.

Commander Zi huffed once, and Joshua stared at him, no longer angered, but no matter what he was about to die, not by Joshua’s hand. In front of him, a pistol pointed at his forehead, and he smiled. The man did not wear armor but only an elegant suit; his eyes were covered by sunglasses; and a scar resided from his forehead through his mouth.

"I would have never expected you to betray us, huh.” Commander Zi laughed. “You’re such a bit.".

A gunshot rang in the air. Commander Zi sat lifeless, and his torn mask revealed his true face—a baby face with chubby cheeks and a mullet was just an illusion. He was just a fat bearded man that drooled from his mouth.

The man turned a mile away, taking off his sunglasses and looking at Joshua. His reptilian eyes stared at the danger Joshua was in, and he smiled. Joshua looked up, only to see one of his hands in the air.

Joshua's screams then became empty, and time became slow again as he sat next to Miss Zulu, whose reptilian powers glowed from the reptiles surrounding her, her teeth extending to attack a soldier who pounced on her.

Then the hand dropped, and a barrage of bullets fired upon everybody—the people, the other officers who had appeared, Miss Zulu, and Joshua.