Darkcloud1111's Apocalypse Application

Info
This is a story I wrote for a collab that never seemed to get off the ground, but I like the story so I decided to upload it.

Character
Darkcloud1111’s Application

Name: Dredd (no known last name)

Age: 17

Olympian Parent: Deimos, god of terror Abilities:

Weapon: Fear, terror, and a Kopis (a somewhat curved Greek sword)

Appearance Description: Dredd stands at about 6 feet tall. He has pale skin from all the years spent underground or in hiding. His hair is dark grey, with some grey growing in as well. His eyes are an strange combination of dark red with flecks of dark brown mixed in. He is not especially muscular, but isn’t exactly scrawny either. His body is covered in scars and stitches from years of trying to survive on his own.

Personality: Dredd is somewhat of a loner. Due to his abilities to generate fear, few people interact with him and as a result, he has poor social skills and is very direct with his comments, not holding anything back. He tends to toy with those that he knows he is stronger than, even if this has cost him in the past. He occasionally also finds amusement when scaring people, but it leaves an emptiness in him. Dredd tends to argue with anyone that disagrees with him, even if deep down he knows they are right.

Creator: Darkcloud1111   God of Dark Clouds

Other Important Details: While bad with people, Dredd has a soft spot for animals and will tend to injured ones he finds. However, animals still fear him and may injure him in the process of him trying to help. He used to live in one of the colonies, but was forced to escape when it was discovered he was a demigod. He didn’t mind however as by leaving, he was able to protect his mortal mother and sister. This became a hollow victory, because as soon as he left, the fear he radiated went with him and he was no longer able to scare off attackers, leading to his mother and sister being killed for “Suspicion of consorting with otherworldly deities.” Now he lives far outside the colony, surviving on plants and any rations he steels from scouting parties.

Story
Every day seemed like it was exactly the same. The things I did yesterday would be the things I did today and tomorrow and for the rest of my life until the day I died. It was like I was just going through the motions of life, but no longer living my own. What was the point anyway? I watched as the sun began to rise over the rubble of buildings and what was left of skyscrapers. However, today there was something else walking down Main Street.

“Alright maggots, you know the drill. This is a simple supply run; we need medicine and food from pharmacies and anywhere else you can find,” the head of the group said. He kept talking, giving some kind of pep talk about how the colony was in their hands or some garbage like that. Regardless, the scouting parting looked around nervously. I watched them from my spot above them, the fourth floor of a hotel that was still intact on this side. One of them made eye contact with me for only a second, but it was all it took as I searched his mind and pulled out some of his darkest fears.

“Monsters everywhere, it is an ambush!” the man screamed, aiming his gun into the sky and firing at monsters only he could see.

“Mike, cease fire, cease firing you idiot!” the head of the group said and placed a hand on his shoulder. Mike swirled around, pulling away from his hand and aiming a gun right at him.

“You’re one of them aren’t you? You’re a monster that only looks like a human aren’t you?!” he said, getting ready to pull the trigger at any second. By now the head of the group was catching on that something was obviously wrong and tried to talk him down.

“You know I’m not. You’re weary Mist filter glasses so you can see I’m not a monster. Now just put the gun down,” he said calmly. Mike didn’t even get a chance before one of the other members of the group punched him in the face and knocked him out. The head of the group then pointed at two other scouts. “You two, take him back to the jeep and strap him down. I don’t want any more distractions.”

“Yes sir,” the two said and lifted up Mike, carrying him back to a jeep I saw parked in the middle of a parking lot. The head then began to look around, but this time I hid my presence from him. Now that I got a good look at the guy, I knew him.

His name was Major Pain, but it was a name no one believed was really his He was a blowhard that talked a big game, but in the end was just a bully. He tortured my family for years, even before anyone knew I was a demigod. He was the only one that wasn’t scared off by my abilities. He was normally in charge of military operations, so what was he doing on a simply scouting mission?

“Let’s have a little fun,” I told myself and headed for the stairs. In a matter of minutes, I was on the bottom floor and slipped out of a large hole in the wall. Over the years of isolation, I had become familiar with the terrain and trained myself to move swiftly in and out of building, rubble, and the underground subway system that ran under the city. “And there they are.”

I looked at the small group of about four soldiers and Major Pain walking down the street. He pointed forward and one of the soldiers headed toward the building next to mine. I slipped through another hole and into the pharmacy next door. I saw the guy picking bottles of medicine up from the back.

“So, what are you afraid of?” I asked and the guy whipped around and looked directly at me. His face went white as he looked at me and I pulled his fears from his mind.

“Dad? But you’re dead, I watched you die? Stop looking at me like that, you were always abusing me, I was happy when you died so just stay dead,” he yelled, but he kept backing up and broke out in screams before running from the store.

“What’s gotten into you?” Major Pain yelled after seeing his soldier run from the store. By the time he came to investigate, I was gone. I kept moving from place to place, looking into the fears of all of his men until only he was left.

“John, Robert, Jerry, anyone report in,” he yelled into the radio, but all he got was static or the sound of grown men crying…music to my ears. “What is going on around here?”

“That would be me,” I said, standing right in front of him in the middle of the road, my sword right next to me.

“You, I know you,” he said, my face seeming to trigger something in his memory. “You freak, what did you do to my soldiers?”

“Same thing I’m going to do to you,” I said. We locked eyes and I searched his mind for his fears. It was harder then I imagined as I had never found someone that could hide them so well.

“I doubt that. You were a freak before and a freak now. I’d be doing the world a favor by killing you,” he said and pointed his gun at me. I jumped behind a piece of broken wall as he opened fire on the building. “I was hoping for a little excitement today. Never imagined you would be the cause of it.”

I slipped into another store quietly moved around. I slipped from store to store, room to room, and found myself in an alley.

“Come on out Freak,” he said, looking around. He fired a few shots from his pistol into random spots around him. One even hit a dumpster that was in the same alley I was hiding in. I reached inside the dumpster and pulled out an old soda can. I tossed it all the way to the other side of the street and it seemed to upset a pile of trash.

“There you are!” Pain said and opened fire continuously for several moments. I then heard the clip empty. Now was my chance. I rushed forward and Major pain barely had enough time to react before I sliced his large assault rifle in half. Pain pulled his pistol from his holster and fired. Thankfully I managed to deflect the bullet by grabbing his arm, but it still grazed my left shoulder. I ignored it and slashed my sword at his leg, causing a large gash to open up and he fell to the ground. I then stepped right on his hand, causing it to open and I kicked the small gun away. When he tried to raise himself up, I ran my sword through his shoulder and I felt it imbed itself in the asphalt below him and he yelled in pain.

“So Major Pain, what is it that you fear?” I asked placing my hand on his head, searching his mind almost directly. While I didn’t find his fear, I found something that had haunted me. I found a memory of Major Pain pulling the trigger that killed my family. That caused my blood to boil and I was done being nice, I reached into every dark corner of his mind and found his fear.

“No,” Pain said as his eyes became glassy white. “NNNNOOOO!”

After that day, Pain never hurt anyone again. In fact, he barely did much of anything ever again.