Alex was intentionally walking through the streets without a care in the world, not even bothering to hide. Spending so much time standing still without fighting, not even having a single sparring match with anyone, had made Alex feel as if he had grown a little rusty.
But the excitement of fighting was still engraved into him from the last time he fought the X-Men. His skin almost seemed to crave a real battle, not the kind he had experienced until now, because every single time Alex had fought someone, he had held himself back. There had only been one time when he had almost completely let loose, and that had been against that guy named Logan.
Yes, it was exciting to a completely bizarre degree. Even though he had never truly been himself, Alex felt like he was unintentionally becoming someone else, and in reality, that was exactly what was happening. What he didn't know was that he had gone through an emotional roller coaster that almost no one his age should ever have to endure, something that rarely happened.
Alex had gone from being a strange boy with a mutation that made people look down on him and hate him to becoming a mutant recognized throughout the entire city, someone who led what would one day become a high-level terrorist organization that simply wanted to bring down the corrupt government. Surrounded by people with incredible talents and powers who followed him, and controlling part of the city like a gang or a mafia, however someone wanted to call it, Alex was no longer a child.
The problem was that Alex hadn't become an adult either, nor had he truly grown up. He had simply been thrown into a world that literally wanted his head every other second, without even having someone by his side to comfort him. In the end, he had been forced into becoming a villain after the world kept pushing him until he reached his breaking point, and when he finally snapped, everyone he loved either walked away from him or, even worse, almost died.
Alex himself was being pressured by everything around him, and even so, the little experience he had inherited from Sukuna was enough to keep his feet on the ground instead of making him throw everything away and begin an indiscriminate massacre like some parts of the memories from his past selves suggested.
Alex felt like he was going to suffocate if he stayed inside that warehouse any longer, and hiding there wasn't helping him relax either. So the only thing he could think of to calm his nerves was the one thing that had made him feel the most alive ever since this entire mess had started.
FIGHT!
The problem was that today Alex wasn't looking for just any fight. He needed something that would truly push him to his limits, something that would force him to use everything he had while still making him feel pressured. That was actually difficult. Alex knew he was strong, and he was certain that very few things in this world could truly pressure him, something that honestly left him unmotivated. Still, he knew with absolute certainty that standing still wasn't going to help.
And so, here he was, casually walking through the city while looking around without a care in the world, almost like a tourist in his own home. Alex calmly observed everything around him without fear, simply searching for something that would genuinely catch his attention.
Only one thing did.
Wherever he went, the streets were almost completely empty. At first, everything had been normal. He saw people walking around and even police officers. In the beginning, they would look at him, scream in fear, and run away, convinced that he was going to kill every single one of them. Alex thought that reaction was extremely exaggerated, but then he remembered that the newspapers had recently been linking him to practically every violent and brutal unsolved crime imaginable. Thinking about it again, if he were in their place, he would probably react the exact same way.
That didn't last much longer, however. After walking a few more blocks, he realized there wasn't a single person left within a hundred-meter radius of him, which confused him at first. Even the houses were empty, something that was incredibly strange. Before long, Alex began to suspect that something might be happening, but it didn't even take ten minutes before he stopped suspecting and became completely certain.
And why, you might ask?
Because standing right in front of him at that exact moment was one weird-looking bastard. From Alex's perspective, it didn't possess even a trace of cursed energy, and it only took him a second to realize it was a robot. It had a completely black body with glowing crimson-red eyes.
Alex looked at the robot in confusion because it didn't resemble any robot he had ever seen before. It was taller than him—not by much—but it was still surprising. Very few things in the world that could move were actually bigger than Alex himself.
That confusion didn't last long because the robot suddenly charged toward Alex without saying a single word or giving any warning. The machine simply rushed at him with astonishing speed for something its size.
The moment it moved, Alex immediately sent a slash flying toward it. The attack split the robot cleanly in half without the slightest difficulty, almost as if it were made of paper instead of steel. As the robot was cut apart, both halves slammed onto the ground with a loud impact that was almost comical considering how effortlessly Alex had sliced it.
Seeing something that looked so imposing die so easily made Alex think that maybe he should just leave the city and hunt for a more interesting enemy. With his speed, reaching any nearby city would take almost no time at all.
Before he could continue that thought, however, his senses screamed at him. Alex instantly dodged an attack from the very same robot he had just cut in half, something that genuinely surprised him. He quickly stepped back and looked at the robot again, this time with a much more serious expression.
It had completely caught him off guard because the robot seemed to have simply snapped itself back together like a set of LEGO bricks. Even so, Alex couldn't help but smile a little despite his surprise, thinking that maybe this wouldn't be as boring as he had expected.
Without wasting another second, Alex rushed toward the robot and threw a punch infused with cursed energy, using a considerable amount considering just how much cursed energy he possessed.
Just as the punch was about to land, the robot twisted its body at an impossible angle for any creature with a spine before immediately trying to strike Alex in the ribs. One of Alex's extra arms intercepted the attack, grabbing the robot's wrist before pulling it forward, throwing it off balance and allowing Alex to drive a full-powered punch straight into its jaw, sending it flying.
Before the robot could even think about reacting, Alex unleashed dozens of slashes while it was still in the air, giving it absolutely no chance to respond before it was reduced to countless tiny pieces that scattered across the ground, completely motionless.
Alex slowly walked toward the remains to see what had happened, wondering whether it had truly been destroyed or not. The moment he got close enough, his expression immediately turned into obvious disappointment after seeing that it had indeed been destroyed because of how many pieces it had been cut into.
Watching a robot that had been doing so well at enduring his attacks end up destroyed without putting up any real resistance was honestly disappointing for Alex. Before he could think about anything else, however, his instincts screamed once again, this time even louder than before.
Without thinking, Alex immediately ducked, only to see a deep crimson beam pass right over his head. Instantly reacting, he launched a slash behind himself before quickly turning around, only to find three more robots identical to the one he had just destroyed.
The moment he saw them, Alex instantly realized that the previous robot had clearly been nothing more than bait, meant to keep him distracted so he wouldn't notice the others approaching him.
Without giving Alex even a second to think, the three robots rushed toward him at a speed that would have been impressive to an ordinary person. Each of them began transforming in a different way. One turned its hand into a massive blade and tried to slice off Alex's arm. Another altered the surface of its body until it resembled molten magma before throwing a punch toward Alex's face, while the third's eyes began glowing with an intense crimson light as it aimed directly at Alex's head.
Still smiling, Alex quickly coated one of his hands with Nen and caught the magma robot's fist. At the same time, he spun his body to avoid the blade from the second robot before effortlessly throwing the magma robot straight at the one that was preparing to fire its laser.
The robot was thrown away with overwhelming ease while Alex reached out and touched the bladed robot's face before unleashing a normal Cleave. The slash continued cutting deeper and deeper into the robot's head as the technique steadily adapted to the durability of its body.
Feeling the damage, the bladed robot immediately began changing both its body and its composition. First, it became identical to the magma robot. Then its outer shell transformed into a crystalline metal before changing into stone. The transformations continued for several more seconds, but in the end it couldn't endure it anymore. Its head was sliced into thousands of pieces, causing it to completely lose control before collapsing onto the ground, destroyed.
The laser robot managed to dodge the magma robot that had been thrown at it, but just as it was about to turn its attention back to its enemy, Alex was already standing right in front of it. Before the robot itself could even react, Alex's hand was already only centimeters away from its head.
But just as Alex's hand was about to strike the robot's head, a car was suddenly thrown on top of him, catching him completely off guard. Even with his senses, he hadn't detected it and couldn't dodge in time. He was launched away together with the car, crashing into a wall that caved in from the force of the impact.
Feeling the pain from the attack, Alex threw the car aside and looked toward whoever had attacked him from behind. The moment he saw it, he began to get a little irritated. There were two more robots just like the others, and what was really starting to make Alex lose his patience was the fact that they didn't seem willing to stop coming.
Pushing that aside, Alex charged once again toward the same robot he had tried to hit before and threw a punch with all of his strength. However, he suddenly felt his body become a little heavier, giving the robot enough time to dodge the attack and retaliate with a punch straight into Alex's stomach.
Feeling the weight behind the blow, Alex stepped back slightly and looked at the robots before letting out a sigh.
'I think I should stop playing around.'
Realizing that fighting with nothing but Cleave and punches wasn't going to be enough anymore, Alex decided to switch into his real fighting style.
He immediately rushed toward a random robot while launching countless slashes at all the others. Unfortunately for them, Alex was no longer holding back the output of his technique, making the slashes resemble Sukuna's own.
The moment each slash struck a robot, it spread across its body like some kind of fungus. The machines became more and more damaged as the cuts rapidly spread over every inch of them, and it didn't take long before every single robot collapsed under the accumulated damage from Alex's slashes.
As for the last robot, it was even more unfortunate. Alex drove a punch into its face infused with Cleave, completely destroying its head through the combined force of the impact and the relentless slashes.
After destroying every robot he could see, Alex began looking around in search of any others that might have escaped his notice. After searching the area for a while and finding nothing, he decided to examine the robots themselves.
He first walked over to the one he had damaged the least and began inspecting it. Alex had always been the best at almost everything back in school. He had mastered countless subjects and, as a result, was a genius in nearly every field. Because of that, it didn't take him long to notice a few interesting details.
'Hmm... interesting. It's a type of robot designed to imitate... The outer shell is entirely made of hexagonal plates capable of regenerating somehow. That's how it was changing. The plates adapted themselves into whatever it needed them to become. I'd guess nanotechnology, but there are other possibilities that could produce this kind of transformation.'
Alex continued examining the remains until he found what looked like a destroyed mechanical brain. He analyzed it for a brief moment, but before he could study it further, he realized he had already spent too much time standing there. That would only attract more of these things, which, at Alex's current level, were nothing more than mosquitoes.
Without worrying any further, Alex picked up his pace and headed toward another part of the city. This time, however, he had a completely different objective—he was going to confront someone he honestly didn't want to confront.
Alex was making his way toward the area where Gwen usually patrolled as Spider-Woman. He wanted to try talking to her, to find out how things had been going, mainly because despite everything that had happened, he still cared about her and her family.
Even so, Alex still needed to become stronger in every possible way before he could truly resolve the problems involving his mother and sister. The appearance of these robots only proved even more that he couldn't return home or even speak to them. The closer Alex got to achieving his goals, the more hunted and dangerous he would become for his own family.
It didn't take long before Alex found Gwen in the middle of a fierce battle against a monster that was tearing through the city. It looked like a gigantic lizard, only slightly taller than Alex himself, with razor-sharp claws, green scales, and a truly monstrous appearance.
Strangely enough, Gwen seemed to be struggling against the reptile, almost as if she didn't want to hurt it. That left Alex genuinely confused, unable to understand why she was holding back.
Deciding to help, Alex stepped into the fight and threw a full-power punch straight into the lizard's chest. The impact sent the creature flying before it crashed into a wall, causing it to collapse from the sheer force of the blow.
"NO, PETER!!"
"Wait... Peter?"
______________________
I'M BACK!
I've had some pretty rough problems lately involving money, and on top of that, my old computer broke, so I ended up being unable to do much of anything for a while. I basically disappeared during that time, so sorry about that, guys.
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