Apocalypse Unbound

Tense Confrontation

Apollo shook his head, realizing the girls were not even in Grey's thoughts.

Wendy noticed his realistic gesture out of the corner of her eye and did a double-take to check what she saw.

"What a cute monkey," Wendy said, trying to touch Apollo's head. "Grey, I didn't know you had a pet."

"Hands off, bitch," Apollo said, but what Wendy heard was an aggressive grunt followed by her hand getting slapped down, much to Wendy's annoyance, followed by a chuckle from Amy.

"Pius... back so soon? What happened?" Nathan asked seemingly surprised.

Pius had separated from the group to search for his son in grade school.

He had been speaking to his son on a phone call, but the connection suddenly got disconnected, and then there were zombies.

He adapted quickly taking down a couple of zombies with Nathan and Rush.

Looking down at the glass walls Pius saw zombies alongside different types of horrific monsters wrecking the city.

This made him extremely worried for his son's safety, and he decided to find him despite the risk.

But he had just reached the ground floor when he was sent running back.

He still wasn't strong enough.

"Goddammit," Pius lashed out in frustration. "It's bad. There's now a horde of Sabertooth on the ground floor. They are faster, smarter, and stronger than the zombies. If there were about ten, it wouldn't be a big deal for us to handle. But there's about a hundred of them down there. How do we get through that?"

Pius scratched his hair, pacing about.

Nath sighed. He was just wondering how to lead this group and hijack Grey, but now another complication had popped up.

The Sabertooth gathering could find a way to travel up, which would be an issue. The only option was to get rid of them.

But how? Their fighting number certainly wasn't enough even if they added Grey.

"I know what you're thinking, but they are too much for the three of us to handle," Rush said, reading Nathan's mind.

"Four," Nath corrected, pointing to Grey.

Hearing this Pius then turned towards Grey and observed him.

He could tell Grey was strong from his intimidating aura and shimmering coat which Pius understood was a system reward for completing a quest. As for which quest Pius was sure it wasn't easy.

"What do you three think you plan? Do you really want to fight those monsters? There are hundreds of them."

"What do you suggest we do then?" Nathan asked politely, but his eyes were fierce.

Michael wasn't intimidated by it, though, as he spoke confidently.

"We stay here and wait for help. I'm sure whatever is happening is only temporary and help is coming."

Those rescued were somewhat reassured by Michael speaking, as he was their boss until just a few hours ago.

Michael being a leader was familiar to them, but not everyone backed the idea, especially Pius.

"This is not temporary, fatso, and there's no help. We are on our own."

Michael gritted his teeth glaring daggers at Pius. He couldn't stand Pius talking down on him any chance he got.

"Why... what are you going to do?" Pius taunted.

"Enough," Nathan interrupted and continued. "We don't know what is happening, however, one thing is certain: we need to secure the building. Use it as a temporary shelter before we decide our next move."

Michael was relieved Nathan was listening. He then thought if he could get Nathan under him, then he could control the rest. So he decided to try his luck and push further with orders masked as ideas.

"Good... then first we need to is..."

"First, "Nathan interrupted he was saying he was the leader here. 

"We have to deal with the horde below, or rather keep them below, not giving them a way of traveling up."

"The former is more appealing. I can't stay here, remember? I need to find my son."

"You want us to get rid of a hundred Sabertooth with just the five of us?"

'Five?'

Michael gulped at Nathan adding him.

His ability, finger gun, wasn't that strong and it hadn't even killed the Sabertooth he had shot, so what was it going to do to a hundred of them?

"We're not fighting any zombies. We're staying," Michael said strongly, and Pius sighed.

"You have no authority here, Michael. Only the strong have a say."

"Well, if that's the case, then I'm leaving," Grey said out of nowhere, and everyone's eyes turned towards him.

"You can barricade and do whatever you want, but I need to grow stronger. Like I told you, I won't be bound to this place."

"But your strength is needed, Grey. Together we can survive this," Nathan said, trying to convince him.

"We... there is no WE," Grey said, which made everyone slightly pissed. "This building is made of glass, meaning it's transparent. There are flying monsters that can swoop in at any time if they spot a single one of you and kill everyone. There's also a powerful being on top of the building, and none of you stand a chance if it decides to attack. So, leaving to find another shelter isn't a bad idea. Either way, I'm leaving. So good luck."

Grey said, then walked away, but Amy stopped him by jumping in his way.

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you're too weak."

"But my ability is useful," Amy said.

"Not useful enough to make me change my mind," Grey said coldly.

Amy froze, stung by Grey's words. He was right; her going with him would make her more of a burden to him than help, but...

"Can't you just stay?" Amy asked. Grey leading this group would certainly be more reassuring for everyone.

"Why? Because it's convenient for you?"

"For us."

"Bullshit. Then why didn't you ask me to stay, instead of telling me you wanna go with me."

Amy froze and then bit her lip in frustration.

She had no response to that accusation. He had read her like a book.

"Just like you, I'm also selfish, Amy. Everyone is. Which is why I'm pursuing my own goals."

Grey then walked away and Amy could only watch as he left, but then someone stood in front of him again. This time it was Wendy.

"Grey, please stay," she said pleadingly, expecting him to hesitate, but Grey coldly walked past her.

Nothing was stopping him.

This made Pius frown, as he had a thing for Wendy.

He saw the hurt on her face, which pissed him off, so he yelled.

"Hey, asshole, why the hell are you acting like you're such a big deal?"

"Stop it," Nathan muttered.

The last thing he wanted was a fight to break out amongst themselves.

"I bet your strength isn't up to 15, yet you're talking like you're top shit. How are you going to deal with the Sabertooth, huh?" Pius continued, but Grey kept walking.

"Let's beat some sense into him, Nathan. If he isn't at least strong enough to take out the three of us then he shouldn't be considering fighting a horde of Sabertooth."

"Rush, you... this... that's crazy," Nathan said, but he considered it.

He didn't have any other way to convince Grey, and to be honest, he agreed with Pius's statement of Grey acting like a big deal. He found it slightly annoying. If beating Grey up would get him to come to his senses and stay instead of trying to kill himself, then he was up for it.

With a sigh of acceptance, Nathan used Earth Gauntlet, and Pius followed, his bat catching flame.

"Hey, are we really doing this?" Michael asked, looking at them nervously.

"Yeah," Rush muttered and summoned ice spikes. He glared at Grey's back, resenting him for humiliating him, and then yelled, "Stop right there, Grey! One more move and I'll turn you into a porcupine."

With the numbers on his side, he had no doubt Grey wouldn't stand a chance, and he wouldn't let Grey catch him off guard like before, so he was confident.

Grey then turned towards him with a smug look and responded, "Try to stop me if you all can. I'll make sure to go easy."