Strength

Levi slowly opened his eyes for the 1st time since finding himself in the void, it was a familiar feeling. He felt happy to feel the blood pumping through his veins, to be alive. He felt the ground on his back and the breeze on his body.

The 1st thing he saw was the sunlight, it was bright and it made him close his eyes again. He brought up his hand and blocked it then opened his eyes again, he saw a clear blue sky.

He slowly sat up, feeling slightly disoriented with a mild headache in the back of his mind.

'Where am I?' He wondered as he looked around. He saw nothing but a vast desert stretching on, cactuses were everywhere and the soil was reddish colored.

He looked down and became confused, 'Why am I naked?'

Then it all came back as the headache disappeared, 'I remember now, I am here on a quest to conquer the world... I am a Viltrumite!'

He looked at his hand and smiled as he clenched it, hard as he could but his smile stopped. 'It doesn't feel that different...' He thought in confusion.

He searched near him and saw a small rock, he walked towards it wanting to test something, 'My feet don't feel as they should, I feel barefoot but the ground doesn't bother me. It would have hurt to walk on before...'

He picked up the small rock and put some strength into his hand, the rock cracked and with slightly more strength he managed to crush it. He felt it was too easy and smiled confidently.

'I definitely have the powers.' He confirmed for himself and searched around till he saw a big boulder.

He approached it, 'Can I control my power though?'

He stood in front of the boulder that was twice as tall as he was, he clenched his fist, 'The punch must not make it crack. Weak as a normal human.'

He punched as lightly as he could and to his surprise, it didn't crack as if the punch was too weak. He pondered, 'It seems my will on what I want to do plays an important role in how much strength my body exerts.'

He took a deep breath, 'This time as hard as I can.'

He summoned all the power in his body and punched with all he had. Letting out a cry without meaning to.

BOOM!

The boulder was instantly shattered into a thousand pieces, the shockwave of his punch continued onward and changed the shape of the ground dozens of meters to his front. Massive amounts of dust picked up around him. The explosion-like sound echoed in the desert like a thunder blast.

Levi coughed as he walked out of the dust cloud, 'Okay, I am very strong but not the strongest. I must stay very cautious since the entire world is my enemy. I should stay hidden for now and plan, thankfully I can control my power.'

After walking far enough, he stopped and observed the destruction caused by his punch. It was a sight to see...

'I might be able to break a mountain... Doesn't matter, for now, I should find out where I am and get a base and hide.'

He searched around him but found nothing that could guide him, no road or anything of the like was in sight.

He sighed as he looked at the clear sky, 'The sunlight is getting annoying, maybe I can fly out of here?'

He tried imagining himself becoming lighter and flying. As if by instinct, he felt his body become lighter as the effect of gravity on him weakened, and before he knew, he began levitating.

Just as he was filled with joy, his body began spinning out of control and he crashed on the ground, he stood up with a poker face while dust and dirt covered his entire body.

'I need to get the hang of this...' he thought and walked to a place with no cactuses visible around. He knew he was indestructible but he was not going to risk hitting a cactus, especially since he was naked.

And thus he began training to fly, he tried his best to stay stable as he levitated a few feet from the ground. The sun moved across the sky as the day came to an end and the moon slowly appeared.

After a few hours, he managed to get the hang of keeping his balance while flying. He couldn't fly like an expert but moving in a direction was no problem.

He picked a random direction and flew in that direction. He flew faster than most cars, he enjoyed the wind and the feeling of freedom given by flying. It was refreshing and magical.

He flew very close to the ground because he was not keen on alerting any radar or anything like that, he was cautious. The night had come and it helped him since it was much harder to notice him flying, not that anyone was in the desert to see him.

He flew for an hour and finally saw a road, with a sigh of relief, he followed the road for half an hour; This time he walked and during walking, he made up a story in case he saw someone.

A small town came into view and he stopped walking, it was the middle of the night and nobody was around. It was very silent.

He entered the town and a while later found a newspaper tossed aside on the ground in the street.

'I am lucky... Let's see...' He picked it up and began reading.

'December of 2011? Hmm... I see... Iron man exists... Nothing else about this newspaper is interesting. At least it tells me I am somewhere in the US.'

He put the newspaper away and walked away, lost in thought, 'The attack on New York will be in a few months,' He looked down at his naked body and sighed, 'I will worry about world domination later.'

'What do I do now? Should I just rob some random dude till he is naked or maybe break into a house? What to do, what to do...' He thought and noticed a clothing store on the other side of the street.

It was locked and all but he grinned, 'Those won't stop me. I need to take all I need fast and fly away.'

He casually shattered the lock and threw it away, quickly entering inside, he used one of his hands on his face in case any hidden cameras were around and then began taking anything that took his fancy.

An alarm rang in the shop as he tried to leave, he didn't give a fuck as he ran as fast as a car till he was out of town and then flew away. The speed at which he flew was at most 200 mph because that was the limit of speed he could balance himself in.

Mid-air, he put on clothes. Simple blue jeans, grey t-shirt, black hoodie, sneakers and etc. 'Finally... The breeze was getting annoying down there... Now I just need to get a place to stay.'

He sped up and flew near the road...

As the sunrise came, he saw a big board.

'Welcome Tucson? I am in Arizona then...'

He walked the rest of the way and by early morning, sat on a bench in a park. He observed a bank not far away with a smile, 'I will just rob that bank and then escape to another state, that will solve all the problems for now. I can then focus on a plan to complete my quest.'