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Chapter 64 - Rebuilding and Recovery!

After weeks of recovery from their battle wounds, the heroes began aiding the city's reconstruction efforts. The church efficiently purified the area around their base, while the GDA and other governmental agencies faced the monumental task of rebuilding without the benefit of supernatural assistance. Fortunately, some heroes with extraordinary abilities joined the effort, helping to neutralize lingering undead and clear the war's wreckage.

After days of tireless work, much of the surface was cleared of zombified remains.

Standing atop a shattered rooftop, Conor watched as shadow tendrils writhed around his body like smoke drifting in the breeze. Each corpse he engulfed imploded into nothingness, utterly consumed by his growing darkness. With every zombie absorbed into the abyss, power surged through his limbs, swelling inside him like a storm pressing against its boundaries.

Millions, he thought, flexing his fingers. I've absorbed millions. I could probably take on William or even the Immortal now... for a few minutes at least.

Clenching his fist, he struck out.

BOOM!

The force of his punch cracked the air and left a crater in the courtyard wall, ironically the same wall Atom Eve had just repaired.

A puff of dust rose into the air as Eve, floating midair with her eyes glowing pink, turned toward him with a deadpan expression.

"Seriously?"

"My bad," Conor muttered, scratching the back of his neck.

With an exasperated sigh, she waved her hand, and the wall reassembled itself in a flicker of pink energy.

"Maybe hold off on showing off your power for five minutes?" she said, arms crossed.

Before he could respond, a sharp movement caught his eye. He glanced toward Marie, who was effortlessly lifting massive slabs of concrete as if they weighed nothing. Her body moved with fluid precision, muscles defined beneath her suit and glistening in the sunlight.

Damn...

Conor froze, his eyes lingering too long as his thoughts scattered.

WHACK.

"Eyes up here, Romeo," Eve quipped, delivering a playful slap to the back of his head.

"I wasn't... Okay, fine, I was."

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away and submerged deep beneath the ocean's surface, William floated in the crushing darkness of the Bermuda Triangle, engaged in a completely different battle.

After emerging from his coma, he wasted no time diving back into rigorous training, something punishing, something that would push even his mutated body to its limits. The GDA had selected this abyssal battleground: an expanse of ocean teeming with kaiju-sized aquatic creatures, many of them ancient mutations roused by recent dimensional fractures.

Through the murky depths, a swarm of electric eels the size of buses streaked by, arcs of lightning crackling off their bodies. William twisted mid-water, narrowly evading a bolt of electricity that illuminated the deep like a thunderstorm frozen in the void.

"Aura, anything behind me?"

"Yes, sir! Directly behind!"

Aura's voice rang in his ears, steady and composed, perfectly integrated with his suit's systems. The A.I. processed every visual, sonar, and magnetic input from the armor's sensors with precision.

William didn't hesitate. He clapped his hands together, releasing a burst of kinetic energy that propelled him backward.

A monstrous lionfish, as large as a car, lunged forward, missing him by mere inches. Its grotesque form bristled with venomous, glowing spines, its movements frenzied and aggressive. It circled again, faster this time.

Not fast enough.

William pivoted in the water, seizing one of the jagged spines mid-charge.

With a low growl, he muttered, "Let's see how tough you really are."

He drew back his free arm.

"HAAAAAA!" 

BOOM! 

His fist collided with the bone structure, splitting it cleanly in half. With a ferocious yank, he tore the spine free, ripping through cartilage and muscle in one brutal motion. The lionfish let out a distorted, otherworldly shriek, muffled by the water as spirals of blood danced through the sea. 

Without hesitation, William hurled the spike with precision, like a javelin. 

SHUNK! 

It pierced an eel through the mouth, pinning it mercilessly to the ocean floor. Another eel surged forward, using the thrashing lionfish as cover to strike. 

CRACK! 

The eel recoiled instantly, its jaws shattered into fragments. Teeth floated upward like shimmering jellyfish, catching the dim light in the murky water. 

William didn't flinch. His body, honed through relentless battle and regenerative evolution, had transcended human limits, denser than steel, a weapon perfected by endless injury and adaptation. 

This is why I came here, he thought, scanning the gloomy expanse. To fight something real. To surpass my limits. 

A flicker of movement caught his eye. 

He grinned. "Perfect. I'm just getting started." 

Above the surface, Kate lounged in a secure GDA monitoring station, her eyes glued to William's suit feed. Reclining in her chair, she sipped her smoothie with one hand while swiping lazily across her holoscreen with the other. 

She chuckled at the sight of William taking on kaiju beneath the waves like they were overgrown sardines. 

"That's my man," she murmured with a smirk. 

A sudden sharp twinge shot through her lower back, making her wince and grimace.

"Ugh. Okay, I definitely overdid it last night," she muttered, her face flushing with embarrassment. "I said I liked it rough, but seriously…"

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Might have to call in a favor from Eve. Or maybe invent a cloning machine for chiropractors…"

Before she could finish that thought, the feed on the screen flickered. A massive silhouette filled the frame, towering like a skyscraper.

Kate blinked in disbelief. "Wait, what the—"

On the screen, an enormous megalodon surged from the depths, its jaws gaping wide and streaked with eerie bioluminescent patterns. It lunged toward William, intent on swallowing him whole.

Kate screamed instinctively. "WILLIAM!"

But William was already in motion.

He caught the upper jaw with both hands, bracing his boots against the lower mandible. The ocean itself seemed to quake with the sound of fracturing bone.

SNAP.

The colossal shark let out a final, guttural roar before going limp.

Grabbing the lifeless body by the tail, William swung it with incredible force, smashing it into the remaining eel swarm. In one brutal, sweeping motion, he reduced them to a scattered, gruesome pulp.

Kate sat frozen in shock, her eyes wide as her smoothie dripped unnoticed from her hand.

Then, with absolute certainty, she declared, "I'm definitely marrying that man."

After finishing much of the cleanup, Conor and Eve returned to the GDA, only to be met with a raucous group of civilians protesting outside, stirred into a frenzy by an impassioned zealot. 

As they approached the building, the chants grew louder, reverberating through the urban canyon of concrete walls. The protesters had amassed like a tempest, faces ablaze with fury and determination, signs hoisted high demanding accountability and reparation.

At the forefront stood the zealot, a thin, intense man with blazing eyes and a voice that thundered through the crowd.

"Look around you, citizens!" he bellowed, his finger pointing like a dagger at Conor and Eve. "These so-called heroes claim to protect us, but what have they truly done? They've brought nothing but death and devastation! They are the architects of this nightmare!"

The crowd erupted with a cacophony of cheers and enraged cries, some clanging improvised weapons against barricades, others hurling taunts at the heroes.

"You're not saviors, you're monsters!" screamed a woman at the front, her voice breaking with emotion.

A man spat on the ground in disgust. "We lost loved ones while you played god with powers we can't even comprehend!"

Conor's jaw clenched tight, and Eve's eyes narrowed, their postures stiffening under the weight of the crowd's collective anguish and wrath.

The zealot's voice sliced through the uproar once more, sharp and incendiary.

"They hide behind their unnatural powers while we endure the consequences! The church's cleansing is a mere patch on the gaping wound these 'heroes' have inflicted! It's time to reclaim our city from these false gods!"

A crude banner was hoisted from the back of the crowd, reading "No More False Gods," and the mob roared its approval, the sound swelling like a tidal wave.

Conor cast a wary glance at Eve. "We can't just walk through that."

Eve's eyes narrowed with determination. "No, but maybe we don't need to."

In an instant, a dazzling pink shield flickered to life, intercepting a flying slushy hurled from the crowd with impeccable accuracy. The icy mess exploded across the nearest protesters, triggering a burst of chaos and confusion among them.

"Hey!" bellowed one soaked man, angrily swiping at the sticky residue on his face.

The unexpected pandemonium splintered the crowd's unity, creating the perfect opportunity for Conor and Eve to slip unnoticed into the GDA building.

As Conor and Eve entered the GDA headquarters, leaving the uproar of the protest behind, the crisp, sterile atmosphere of the atrium offered a stark contrast. They barely had time to relax before they noticed Cecil and the Immortal further down the hall, engrossed in conversation with a young man who exuded an air of belonging, though his eyes hinted at something more uncertain.

The young man was tall and athletic, with deep brown skin and shoulder-length locs that were still damp at the ends. A small puddle beneath his boots seemed to steam faintly against the marble floor, despite no visible heat source. His clothes were damp and clung to his frame as though he had just emerged from the ocean, yet there was no sign of discomfort in his demeanor, only a quiet confidence tinged with curiosity.

"...like I said, kid," Cecil remarked, his hands buried in his pockets, his tone gruff but sincere, "you've got raw potential. Hydrokinesis strong enough to dismantle a tanker ship and reshape it into a waveform? That's not something we come across every day. Are you sure you don't want to at least think about joining us?"

Rain shrugged, but the movement carried an unspoken weight. A faint shimmer of moisture danced in the air around him, catching the light like mist.

"I didn't ask for these powers," Rain replied, his voice calm but underscored by a quiet sadness.

At that moment, Conor and Eve arrived.

"New recruit?" Conor asked, his gaze shifting to Rain with a nod.

Cecil glanced in their direction. "That's the hope. Conor, Eve, meet Rain."

Rain inclined his head slightly, water dripping down his face but never touching the ground. Each droplet evaporated before hitting the floor, as though the surroundings subtly acknowledged his presence.

"He's still deciding," the Immortal added.

"Nice to meet you," Eve said warmly, her smile genuine. "You'd find good company here if you joined us."

Rain studied them briefly before asking, "Are you two like me?"

"Not quite," Conor replied, summoning a small blade of shadow across his palm. "I can manipulate shadows and darkness."

"And I rearrange matter," Eve chimed in with a cheerful tone, manipulating a swirl of energy to transform a shattered mug into a sleek, radiant sculpture.

Rain raised a brow. "Damn."

Cecil smirked. "Yeah. Welcome to the weirdest family you never asked for."

A silence lingered, not uncomfortable but weighted with anticipation before a decision.

Eventually, Rain exhaled, and the mist around him condensed into a small orb of water that hovered between his hands like a pulsating heart.

"I'll stick around," he said. "See where the current takes me."

The orb burst into a gentle splash, leaving behind only faint ripples in the air.

The show mesmerized Eve, who always enjoyed seeing new abilities and how they functioned

In the heart of the Bermuda Triangle, the surrounding waters had morphed into a swirling expanse of deep crimson, creating a scene both haunting and captivating.

Within the vast red mist, William sat cross-legged inside the gaping mouth of a dead shark, a soft orange glow emanating from his skin as he meticulously channeled his flame-like energy through his body.

During his battle with the zombies, he had dangerously overheated and lost consciousness, a vulnerability that, if exploited by a more formidable enemy, could lead to disaster not only for him but for those around him. To prevent such a scenario, William chose to train amidst combat, striving to maintain a superheated state under immense pressure, a task for which the icy depths of the ocean proved to be an ideal arena.

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