(An: You can't even lie. That title go hard ash..)
"I can't believe her went Zero. And he even hurt you, Diana.." Billy helped her out the water. The group of 6 were standing on the beach. They had saw Nolan fly out a mountain of sorts and were going to go find him once Diana had recovered.
"It's the fact that he actually damaged you though. Scary.." Barry shivered while shaking his head. Bruce sighed and started walking away while Oliver only followed suite. All of them knew that in that state, Nolan had no control over what he did.
They saw this in effect when he first went Zero..
4 years ago, the group had went out to see a movie. On their way however, they had encountered a group of criminals. They saw them take a innocent women hostage and when the police had refused to give them their ransom, they shot the woman in cold blood.
This had triggered Nolan to a point where they blinked and the criminals were dead. They only saw the back of Nolan's head which was blurred.
"He..can't help it. Whenever he feels as if he could have done something to help someone, but was too late to do it, that state activates. He spared me luckily and went for someone else I think.." Diana picked her own self up, pushing away Billy.
She was bleeding severely from where her heart would be, but she'd be fine once her healing factor takes action. "T-Then shouldn't we try to save them?! Come on people!" Hal started floating up, but upon seeing no one moving, he stopped.
"Come on guys! He's out to kill someone! We can't allow that!"
"Hal. There's...no stopping him. You do know what he can do, right?"
It was a secret shared amongst the seven. When in the Zero state, Nolan was able to move so fast that time would have seemingly stopped. Time would stop and yet, he could move freely.
He was on the road to mastering this power without being in the Zero state too. "B-But, we can't just sit back and.." They all stared at Hal.
"You know what? Fine. Its fine by me. As long as I'm not his target, everything's fine by me.." This was the Hal they knew and loved and so, they all waited on the beach, praying to the person who had made him reach, Zero.
....
"Uhm, I can give you some privacy if you want.." Two soft melons pressed on his back followed by arms wrapping around his waist. "N-No! I'm still shaken up, so...please stay with me.." The two were buck naked, bathing in a wild hot spring.
Since she had peed herself, Nolan suggested for her to do this in which she accepted with the condition of him watching over her. He didn't know this meant that he'd be getting naked as well though.
"Okay, okay. Don't get so close to me though. We only just met.." He pushed her away and walked away. 'Ah, I guess I've been coming onto him too much. He does have a lover after all..' She respected how he stayed loyal and so, she didn't try anything further.
"Wait, so you said that this..was all fake..?" She sparked up a conversation while sinking into the water. "Hm? Oh, yes, it is. We're basically in a large box that looks like the real world.
A simulation..." Nolan then thought back to killing the kid. 'Another reason I don't regret killing him was because...he's fake. He wasn't a real person..'
One thousand two hundred and sixty people were on the island when they arrived. Half of those people however were robots that had human like insides as well as outsides, basically being puppets. 'I figured out now that this was the actual end goal of the test.
What had happened to Saki was what they wanted. They needed to see who'd step up and save her in that situation. Seeing how me and miles, mostly miles, did something probably put us in their favor..'
"I..see... It was all fake. Ha.." She floated throughout the water while starring up into the sky. She could see that lines were in it, meaning everything Nolan had said was true. 'America is something else though. They go the extra mile when trying to prove points..'
Emerging from the water, someone had placed their hands on Nolan's neck and started choking him. "I got you bastard! Let's see if you can take this!" Selina had shouted into his ear. As Saki became surprised to see the naked woman, Nolan had just looked over his shoulders.
"You're finally awake, huh? Hey, you couldn't take a hit, you know that, right?" She removed her hands which were bloodied. "Damn you kid! What's wrong with your body?! It's too tough!" She blew off her thumping hands while waving them around.
"It's the body of a man blessed by God. Nothing can hurt me.." Both Saki and Selina stared blankly at him then looked away. 'He's...weird. Does he honestly think that?' Selina was the one who had thought that. 'I-I'd believe that! Though, God may be a bit too much..'
Like that, they all went silent to bathe themselves. Selina didn't mind her body getting seen anymore as she thought he took many looks of her while she was unconscious.
Saki also didn't mind as even though she wanted to keep her and Nolan on friendly terms, she still wanted to make herself known to him.
She would accomplish this by showing off her body. 'It's only been a few hours since we've came to this place. The half that were just humanoid robots had already self destructed, leaving the other half to pass.
Eveveryone was going to pass, but if you had passed with hero markings, then you'd be treated better than others. We were also the last group of people to have been tested apparently. Other groups have already passed and were being prepared to group up with us..'
He had used his super hearing to know all of this. 'I'll try to listen a little more in the future. I've stumped myself by nerfing myself to be normal, but Nolan, you're not normal. You're the strongest being in the world. You'll never live a normal life even if you wanted too..'
He got out the hotspring while placing a leaf over his junk. 'I..hate to go Zero. It's not the fact that I kill the person who pushed me to this state, it's the fact that I might hurt my friends, loved ones or even innocent people in the process. I'm this close to mastering it though, meaning it's most likely the last time I'll tap into that mode through rage alone.'
Looking to his right, he saw a floating screen. He's only seen this once before, but it had now appeared again.
[99%]
'This is the newest one while the first panel had showed 1 percent. Since this is the second time I've went into Zero uncontrollably, my percent had instanly shot up to 99..' Nolan had figured that at 100 percent, something bad would happen.
'Either that or imma evolve like a pokemon. What would I evolve into though? My powers are enough as they are now..' Since he read comics in his past life, he knew of the different forms of superman he could potentially evolve into.
'That'd be too much power even for me..' He sighed then shrugged it off. 'Just don't let your feelings overpower your judgment, Nolan. If you can do that, you and the people around you will be safe..' Just then, a loud horn had went off, startling Saki and Selina.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Congratulations on passing the entrance exam! Please make your way back to the beach for further instructions.."
It was like the voice had spoke from the sky. People did as they were told and made their way back to the beach, jumping in joy now that they were destined to become heroes. Everyone was colored, no NPCs in sight.
"Shall we go?" Nolan turned around towards them. They were now finished drying off and had put their other clothes back on.
"I'm not some damsel in distress! I don't need your help!" Selina stuck her tounge out at him while walking by and into the jungle. "Okay then. No one likes a third wheel anyways. Saki?" He extended his hand out towards her as she came up and took it.
"Of course! I'd love too!" She gave him a bright smile with rosey cheeks. Nolan himself had looked away in embarrassment while pulling her into his embrace. 'Sh-She can't make that face at me like that. She's too cute..' Nolan had slowly started hovering above the ground.
"When we met up with my friends, please stop the woman from hitting me. Me and you did absolutely nothing together. You got that, right?"
"Ah, yes, of course. I'll tell her we did nothing of the like. Don't worry.." Nolan nodded, telling her to hang on tightly one last time. She did and like that, he flew off into the air, blowing away the entire mountain that the waterfall had rested on.
....
(An: Chapter lowkey felt like filler to me, ngl. It is usually like this however after something major went down in the previous chapter. It's like the aftermath chapter bassically..)