Origins- Protectors

Chapter Twenty-Three: Clash!

A week without sleep can be incredibly dangerous for a human being. Even a few nights can be enough for someone to lose themselves. Noctum hadn't slept in a week, electing to spend every waking hour training, pushing himself as hard as he could to try and beat Kinetic. The Speed God was a wall, powerful and imposing, one that Noctum was not sure that he could climb. The night was still as Noctum came back inside after the long day of training. Draedon's teleporter had glitched, and the two had found out the hard way that another day was needed for it to be fully charged,

"Good training?" Draedon asked,

"I'm a lot stronger," Noctum replied,

"You need to sleep, if anything, you need to recover your energy,"

"Fine," Adam replied, "but tomorrow, this all ends, whether with me or him dead, it doesn't matter,"

Noctum walked towards his room, but he felt a hand on his shoulder. Draedon glanced towards the door, where a sound had just been heard,

"How did anyone get past the motion sensor?" Draedon whispered,

"No idea,"

Lochlan checked a camera that he had installed,

"It's down,"

The two crept toward the door, reaching it quickly, but without incident. The front door was wide open, an envelope situated on the inside doormat,

"Noctum, this is Zavant,

I am wishing you luck for your fight with Kinetic tomorrow, but I am sending this to warn you. Apis is on his way, and nobody on this planet can stop him. Once Kinetic is beaten, you must stop with this superhero business or I will have no choice but to end you," Noctum read,

"Zavant just came here. Without any hesitation, he just broke in?"

"He knows everything, he could probably have broken in to the house itself without detection,"

"You really need better security,"

"Gonna use your tech to install some?"

Draedon stopped to think,

"You know what?"

"What?"

"I don't think I like him very much,"

Noctum finally left the room, taking a sip of coffee as he did. The superhuman mutation in people made them immune to the effects of caffeine and alcohol. Collapsing on the bed, he breathed deeply, drifting off, until...

He was back in purgatory, but something was wrong. There was a flash of red light and then everything felt normal again. The One Above appeared before Noctum,

"You have returned," She said it almost like a question,

"Why did you bring me here?" Noctum asked,

"I did not, you must have brought yourself, somehow,"

"I need to get back so I can kill Kinetic,"

The One Above smiled a sad, rueful smile. Turning away, she began to stride away from Adam Oughton,

"Sometimes, vengeful one," She said, as if talking to someone on their deathbed, "sometimes killing is not the only choice, or the best one,"

Then he was awake, sun streaming through the Swan Valley windows,

"Hey!" Lochlan yelled, looking up from an episode of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure as he did, "'bout time you're awake,"

Adam looked at the time. It was 1800 hours, and he had been asleep for almost twenty hours,