Chapter 33

° Upstate Campus Grounds

It didn't take them long at all to find the source noise and the reason for the screaming.

Matthew flew within view of a wide open courtyard and saw a figure coated in a metallic machine plating on one side of its body, standing and snarling like an animal at everything around it. Grey and sickly skin showed on certain parts, revealing its somewhat humanoid nature.

"Damn" Alicia cursed "That's one ugly bad guy"

"Doesn't even look like a standard bad guy, it looks like a..." Matthew struggled to find the right word for what he was seeing "...zombie cyborg?"

Alicia shook her head "Whatever it is, we need to stop it"

Matthew nodded and hovered closer to the ground "I'm gonna need my arms for this"

"Got it" Alicia said, sliding off his arm "I'll handle the civilians and--"

"Superboy!" Amber's voice broke through their conversation "I need help!"

Matthew turned around and saw Amber kneeling on the ground not far from where he stood, she was facing the back of the metal-clad zombie as she tried to help a couple get off the ground. And standing not far from her we're William, Rick, and Mark.

"I got it!" Alicia said before he could do anything, already sprinting towards Amber.

Matthew let her deal with it and was about to rush towards the metal figure when he caught sight of a container truck flying and falling through the air, headed straight to an intercept path with Alicia. Quickly, he shot off and caught the spinning truck with both hands. It creaked in protest in his hands for a moment before stopping.

Alicia continued her sprint until she arrived near Amber and began helping her evacuate the civilians.

Matthew floated away from them and closer to the metal figure, who was now growling and slobbering on the ground around it. He neatly placed the truck down to the side and raised his hands as the noise caught the metal figure's attention.

A closer look revealed new details that Matthew missed from afar.

The most prominent of which was the single, circular glass eye at the center of its iron plated head. Its silver parts were not silver at all but a metallic grey coloured steel that lined its cybernetic limbs. An unsettling mix of the smell of blood and sewage permeated the air around it. A quick mental probe revealed its thoughts to be a muddled cocktail of confusion, pain, and primal anger directed at everything around it.

If Matthew didn't know any better, he could've sworn that the cyborg zombie man had just woken up and was pissed.

The cyborg zombie man interrupted him as it ran on all fours and pounced.

As the fight started, Matthew's past experiences influenced his choice at that moment to not underestimate his enemies anymore.

He met the cyborg zombie man as it landed, grabbing both arms as it tried to grab at his face and turned to slam its whole body into the ground. He didn't stop himself and spun, dragging the body around like a ragdoll before throwing it upward. Or at least that was what he intended to do.

The cyborg zombie managed to grab onto his wrist and pulled itself onto Matthew's chest. Both crashed into the ground as an unused cybernetic arm pummeled the side of Matthew's face.

Matthew took a few hits, getting a good feel of its surprising degree of strength, before he retaliated.

He caught the cybernetic arm hitting him by the wrist and pulled, meeting the approaching head of the cyborg zombie with a headbutt so strong it crumpled the head piece in on itself.

The cyborg wheezed out a muted scream as if its vocal cords were cut off and stumbled back, giving Matthew the opportunity to slip out of its reach and hover a few meters away.

The left side of his face throbbed faintly as the punches did more damage than he expected.

As Matthew hovered, the cyborg man was suddenly hit with an intense bolt of electricity from behind. It screams turned blood curdling for a moment before the electricity dissipated.

The cyborg man growled and whirled around, snarling at Alicia who was standing behind with her arms held forward with electricity crackling across her skin in a threatening display.

All its attention focused squarely on her.

Alicia, seeing the effect of her attack, charged up and prepared to fire away.

Matthew moved to intercept cyborg, but it had already leapt out of their way and was making a mad dash towards Alicia.

Alicia fired her electric bolts, which only made the cyborg momentarily twitch before it started moving again. The momentary lapse in movement was enough for Matthew to come close and slam a first onto the cyborg's face, ripping off the crumbled head plate and spraying pungent, brackish blood onto the ground.

The cyborg landed far and away, but Matthew didn't watch it anymore as he looked at Alicia with slight worry.

"I'm okay, Superboy" Alicia nodded and then looked past him "But he's not!"

Matthew looked back at the cyborg and gritted his teeth in annoyance. It had already gotten on its feet and was looming over a crouched and frightened William.

As it lounged for William, Matthew shot off and flew towards it, tackling and slamming the cyborg head first with a heavy impact that shook the ground. It managed to throw its hands to reach for Matthew's face, but its grip was useless when Matthew's hand chopped one of the arms off. Trying to imitate something he would see his father would usually do on live television. He barely managed to do it cleanly, but it worked as intended.

The cyborg screamed as it recoiled, seemingly from the pain of losing its arm, and waving its blood spurting stump around wildly. Matthew sent an uppercut its way, throwing it away and dislodging the featureless metal helm off its face.

Matthew floated up and watched as the cyborg hissed and clawed at its face in pain but then it paused as its eyes locked onto a broken iPad on the ground, letting out a few unintelligible hisses and gasps.

He mistakenly thought that he felt a vague sense of familiarity as he looked at the cyborg's hideous side profile, even with one eye bleeding and the nose entirely sawed off.

"What are you doing?" Alicia said as she rushed to his side and charged up her arms with crackling electricity, ready to fire at the cyborg "We need to attack. It's distracted"

"I don't think it's that simple" Matthew said as he curiosity peeked into the mind or whatever passes for one in the cyborg head.

He was confused at what he felt and saw. All he could hear was static noise and a faint classical piano melody echoing inside the former man's brain. And all he could see was a wide span of stone bricks dimly lit by a low light.

He wanted to pry deeply for more information, but was violently ripped out of the mental probe when the cyborg slammed its head so hard into the ground that half its face burst from the impact.

Matthew staggered back a few steps and put a hand on his throbbing forehead, somewhat stunned at what he was seeing through the pain. Alicia was similarly shocked as her electricity died down.

The cyborg didn't relent as it continued to slam its head, all while screeching at the top of its lungs, until it finally stopped moving.

They both stood there in silence, unable to understand what had just happened.

"Well" Matthew finally broke their silence "I think that was uhm...a bit of a weird first team up"

Alicia stared at him for a while and chuckled awkwardly "No kidding"

She turned and looked to the civilians slowly gathering closer and closer to them.

"And we need to go before the civilian crowd gets near enough. Fly me?" Alicia asked.

"Anytime" Matthew smiled and carried her in his arms before shooting off into the sky.

***

° A Few Hours Later

Matthew and Alicia spent a good few hours of quality time in the quiet and secluded space, cuddling and sharing laughs as they let the rest of the afternoon pass in blissful normalcy. Matthew had hoped to escalate things for a moment, the thought of having outdoor sex interested him but not enough to purposefully ruin the quality rim with his girlfriend.

Madison called sometime in the afternoon, positively curious and worried as after the 'cyborg incident' went viral in the social media feeds throughout campus. He reassured her that they were okay and asked how her afternoon went, to which Madison just giggled and told him it was a secret. The fact of it annoyed him but he didn't let it get in the way with his sweet time.

But then, another phone call went through.

Matthew was annoyed when his expression changed into confusion when he saw who was calling.

"Madison again?" Alicia asked softly as she laid her head to his side.

"No. Amber, actually" Matthew said, letting his confusion show in his words.

"Your brother's girlfriend? Why?" Alicia asked, narrowing her eyes.

Matthew shrugged "Don't know, but she's not the type to call without reason. Can I...?"

Alicia sighed and nodded "Alright. But put it on speaker so I can hear it too"

Matthew answered and put the phone on speaker "Hey, Amber"

[Hey, Matt. Sorry for calling out of nowhere, I hope I'm not interrupting something?]

Both Alicia and Matthew chuckled, which soothed Matthew's worries about her reaction to the interruption a good bit.

"Not at all, it's fine. So what can I help you with?" Matthew asked, giving Alicia an appreciative squeeze for understanding.

[Oh, okay. Well...I actually wanted to call Madison but she was very busy for some reason, so she told me to ask you instead. But first, is Alicia there?]

"Yep" Alicia answered "Hey, Amber"

[Hi! That's great. I was wondering if you guys were interested in going to a party]

"A party?" Alicia asked, raising herself up a little in curiosity "Wait, is it a sorority party or fraternity?"

[Fraternity, I think? I'm not good with the Latin script but it has a p, a B, a K, and weird looking u?]

Alicia's expression brightened "Oh, I know those guys! They're pretty cool. You guys are thinking of going?"

[Just me and Mark. We need something to...unwind]

"Right" Alicia said, looking at Matthew with a smile "We'll meet you guys there"

Matthew met her eyes with a questioning look, "We are?"

***

° Rho Beta Kappa Mu Fraternity House

Matthew didn't know what to expect when Alicia guided him towards a 2 story building with a large wooden sign at the front with intricately painted Latin lettering on its surface, loud music seemingly beating out of every window, and the dozens of college students walking to and fro with nearly full plastic cups in hand, but he could say one thing about it though.

"Wow. College parties are something else" Matthew said with a little bit of awe.

"Right?" Alicia smiled broadly "And this is nothing, if you do manage to get in you'll be seeing more wild and ridiculous stuff all year"

Matthew and Alicia walked through the crowd and made their way inside, receiving an enthusiastic welcome from a very drunk cheerleader who almost gave Matthew a kiss on the lips if Alicia hadn't stopped her.ll guy

"Bitch" Alicia muttered as she dragged Matthew away.

"She was just drunk" Matthew replied.

Alicia grumbled and then sighed "Alright. Point taken"

They arrived at the second floor where they were once again greeted by a college student, though this time Alicia took the lead and hugged the large African American dude who approached them with a wide smile.

"Alicia Walsh is in the building!" he laughed and gave the blonde a big hug, which she returned with a pat to his shoulder.

"Great to see you too, Kyle" Alicia said as they parted "Nice party you got here"

"You know it girl! Nice to see you out and about" Kyle said then his eyes wandered to Matthew, who was watching their interaction with curiosity "And with a plus one too"

Alicia smiled and put an arm over Matthews as she pulled him in for a quick peck, "That's right. This is my boyfriend, Matthew"

Kyle's eyes widened and immediately got his arms up "Woah. Sorry man. We're just friends"

Matthew chuckled "Yeah, I got that. Don't worry"

Kyle eased up and his smile returned "Cool. Anyway,  you guys enjoy the party. Nice to see you again, Alicia. And good to meet you, Matthew"

Kyle walked away and disappeared into a corner.

Matthew looked at Alicia and waited.

"He's a friend I met during my freshmen year, a good friend who helped me sort out some roommate issues I had before Clarissa came along" Alicia explained.

"Ah. Makes sense. Seems like a nice guy" Matthew said with a slight nod "And Clarissa wasn't your first roommate?"

Alicia shook her head "No. It was another girl, british and bratty, who somehow also had powers coincidentally. Goes by the name Zephyr"

Matthew nodded absently, keeping the name in mind to watch out for.

They ended the short conversation and mingled along with the crowd, letting themselves enjoy the beat of the music and the laughter of the crowd.

Matthew was enjoying dancing with his girlfriend when a hand suddenly snaked across his neck and traced behind his ears, tickling him in a familiar way that he didn't register as something of an attack.

He held the hand and turned, meeting Madison's cheeky smile and Clarissa's wink as they greeted him.

"Hey, Matt!" Madison said, a bit too loudly and with a bit of a wobble in her step.

His hands immediately shot to her arms to stabilize her "Woah, what the hell--"

Matthew paused and took a quick sniff when he caught a whiff of something from her mouth.

"You're drinking" Matthew stated and eyed Clarissa angrily "You let her drink? On purpose?"

Madison blew a raspberry and patted Matthew's cheek "Don't be a buzzkill, Matt. I'm just tipsy and I'm enjoying it"

Matthew rolled his eyes and let her go. Madison held a cup to his face and offered it to him.

Matthew looked at Alicia, who was looking at him expectantly, and sighed. He took the plastic cup and downed it in one go, letting it burn his throat in an unwelcome and familiar way. He held his complaint and waved away the small concern of being tipsy given his body's natural resistance, not that he ever experienced being that much of a light weight before.

The girls all cheered and the merriment continued.

It went on for a good hour or so before Mark and Amber arrived, both showing noticeable signs of frustration that signalled a fight of some sort going on between them.

Matthew didn't ask and simply went to enjoy the evening with the girls around him shaking their bodies to the music. It was a surreal experience, watching them all writhe around him and each other, that it excited him greatly.

However, he had to part with the scene after they all requested a refill for the drinks they were having. Though he did receive plenty of affectionate thanks in consolation.

Matthew navigated himself to the food area, with cups in hand, and paused when he saw Mark on his phone with no Amber close by.

Matthew walked by his brother to fill the girl's cups, shutting the conversation happening just a feet away from him and focused on the drinks until Mark let out a heavy sigh that demanded his attention.

"Any chance I can ask you for a favour?" Mark said with desperate eyes.

Matthew sighed "I do not like where this is going already, you know"