Apocalyptic Returning

Chapter 19: When Shit Gets Loud

Floating down from the sky, the screams of the damned still fresh in his mind, Paragon stepped onto the blood-soaked streets of Los Angeles. Before him stood a scene that could only be described as a massacre. Men, women and children lay brutalized with mangled bodies in the streets.

Even only analyzing what was before him for only a moment was more than enough for Paragon. Even during the worst of World War Three he had never seen something so cruel and heinous. The only thing that this reminded him of was what he saw in the aftermath of Navidad Caido.

Unable to stand the scene any longer, Paragon flew up into the sky at Mach speed directly into the clouds. High in the sky, he let out a roar of anger along with a grand shockwave of energy from his exosuit that cleared the sky of clouds. With the sky clear of any obstructions, he scanned everything around him while turning slowly in the air.

Paragon continued this until his vision landed on a certain exosuit user floating in the air above a stadium. Flying towards the exosuit user, instantly breaking the sound barrier, he drew back his fist. Reaching Rex in only the blink of an eye, his fist exploded towards her face, the sheer amount of energy in his grasp enough to warp the space around his fist.

Yet even with all that power in Paragon's grasp, a simple chain was all it took to stop him in his tracks. The nanomechanical chain wrapped around his neck and luckily for Rez, yanked him out of the air just as his fist was about to reach her head. Smashing into the side of a building, the chain dragged him through the concrete until he was slammed face first into the floor.

While Paragon floated off the ground, the chain unwrapped from around his neck and slithered down the street back to its owner. Peering up from the ground, he watched as Gravedigger strolled casually down the street towards him. And with a shroud of darkness covering his face, Gravedigger gave Paragon a sinister smile.

"You know now that I think about it." Gravedigger conversed in a casual tone. "I've never actually fought another Level Zero like ourselves."

"What the hell are you going on about?" Paragon questioned as his feet hit the ground.

"Well, I just found out that we, the strongest, are called Level Zero's by some. Me, you, Blackout along with the currently deceased Andromeda and Jokerman. We're considered the peak of strength, the strongest above all other exosuit users." Gravedigger spoke with a bit of excitement in his voice that scared Paragon.

Even after trying his best to avoid Gravedigger his whole life, there were multiple things he already knew about the man. The first is that he's a complete maniac that lets no rules exert any power over him. The second is that he has a deep-rooted hatred for Arazia. And the third is that he is a complete junkie when it comes to fighting those considered strong.

"Are you with that woman back there?" Paragon asked, his eyes beginning to glow red.

"I don't care much for working with others." Gravedigger informed. "But when someone comes to me with the offer of fighting one of the five strongest exosuit users on the planet, well... I just couldn't help myself."

Without a word, Paragon released a beam of energy from his eyes directly into Gravediggers chest. Raising his hand, Gravedigger blocked the beam with his palm which caused him to be pushed back quite a bit. Then right at the beam ceased its assault, Paragon flew into Gravedigger with a powerful punch to his face.

The punch sent Gravedigger flying up into the side of a skyscraper directly through a window. Paragon flew up into the building and grabbed Gravedigger by the face, smashing him up through multiple floors. He then let Gravedigger go draw back a punch that sent him flying out the top of the skyscraper.