Dead

The boy shut his eyes before Hikaru's outstretched hand reached him.

Mega snatched Hikaru's head while blazing through the air. He then dove down with his body parallel to just an inch above the road and smashed Hikaru's face into the concrete.

He flew on, grinding Hikaru's face down for a hundred metres in a couple of seconds before swooping up in the air, spinning and then he threw Hikaru into a row of houses.

Mega went to him and waited in the air. An area of rubble exploded as Hikaru jumped out towards Mega, roaring berserk with demented black eyes.

Mega fired his machine gun loaded with exploding bullets. The mini explosive charges in the bullets exploded on impact, blowing holes larger than the bullet's casing. A fire would erupt out of his wounds, but they didn't stick because he wasn't flammable.

What was left were pieces of Hikaru which looked like they were the remainders of playdoh that was carved out by circle shape cutters.

All the heat generated from Mega's flames caused a lot of clouds to form. After a thunderclap, it began raining heavily.

Mega looked down at the concrete in disgust.

Hikaru's guts were dragging itself across the ground to a liver, using its intestine end like a boat oar. They attached themselves.

Similarly, countless other tiny pieces were joining together, becoming bigger and merging with other bigger pieces, the process repeated itself like growing water droplets.

Something like eyes and a mouth formed in the gory sludge. It shrieked.

"Rrrr glurgh, glurgh, rrrarrrGGHHGHH!"

Mega looked at it in pity. There was not a shred of humanity left in the grotesque mound of flesh. There was only an animal.

No... Something simpler than that. A desire.

Gluttony.

A tentacle latched itself to Mega's ankle.

Mega raised his palm at it.

"RAWWWWRGHHHHH!!!"

*FWOOOOM*

Soon, the screams ended and any trace of Hikaru vanished into the flames.

A great sense of relief washed over Mega like a huge weight has been lifted, but so was the feeling of emptiness. Yet, Mega stayed vigilant.

He scanned around the area for lifeforms, pieces Hikaru could have left behind. There was no one near the area except for one tiny figure that was giving off a heat signature under rubble.

Mega immediately flew over there. He brushed aside a mountain of rubble with his hands. The heat signature was under a slab of a ceiling.

He picked it up and threw it aside then aimed his incinerator cannon at the orange figure.

He paused for a moment and blinked.

He turned off his thermal vision and looked at it carefully.

It was a black cat.

It hissed at him.

The little cat was sitting in the arms of a little girl who died from a head injury. At her sides were her dead mother and father holding onto her.

Thinking back, how could he be sure that none of the people was infected with Hikaru? To reduce the chances, he should incinerate the people in a 5 km radius regardless of gender, age, disability...

However, Mega slowly dropped his arm.

'Enough. No more...'

Too many people have died already. He wasn't even sure if this family was killed in his battle against Hikaru or if it was because of Hikaru's previous fight.

The cat hissed as if it was still protecting its owners even though they were dead. Mega looked into the cat's eyes. It looked sad but also fierce like a mother's eyes protecting its young.

It's done. Hikaru was dead. Yet, the skies did not shimmer to tell him that the future has changed. He could only hope that the doctor's theory of time travel was correct.

Mega's eyes returned to blue colour and he took off into the air and flew in a random direction. He didn't know what to do anymore. He felt lost. He had no more purpose.

He knew that to preserve the important parts of the future that he knew and to protect his relationships with his loved ones, he could not see them anymore because of the risk of a time paradox.

The further he flew, the closer he was to understand the growing vague feeling in him.

For now, he wanted to find shelter... Even though the rain wouldn't affect him, it was an instinctual feeling to find a warm comfortable place.

***

A moment after Mega flew away, black ooze seeped out of the body of the dead girl as the cells were breaking down.

The black cat grew and transformed into a naked Hikaru. A hose tentacle came out of his back and pumped out the black liquid.

The particles shooting out of radioactive atoms punctured holes in his cells and continued penetrating other cells directly behind them. Cellular fluid leaked out of countless tiny perforations in the plasma membrane.

He was melting like butter in a microwave.

Earlier, he sent out a clone to fake his death. It relayed a single order: consume. It was devoid of intelligence and was ruled by its most basic urge, the urge to feed.

He then shapeshifted into a cat. The dead couple didn't have a daughter, so he improvised and made a body.

He then laid in the body's arms to make Mega more sympathetic. This was all to appeal to Mega's humanity.

Any normal person wouldn't kill a cute cat upon seeing this tragic scene. Years of wearing a mask and fitting into society have taught Hikaru this.

This was why psychopaths were leaders in war. They were calculating, collective and rational.

Hikaru was too weak to spare any cells in making clothes or summoning wings to fly away. He slowly walked to find some cover.

After walking a few metres, he dropped down next to the sewer drain.

His leg had fallen off.

He was struggling to keep his form. He tried growing his leg back, but they melted away as soon as they were formed. Soon his whole body turned into a black puddle that slipped into the drain.