"Following last week's harrowing events, The Joker, has been apprehended by Gothams very own Batman. Thankfully GCPDs commissioner Jim Gordon was found in good health…"
My routine for the last couple of days has been relatively the same. I begin the day with information gathering (watching the news, searching up crime reports), and eating a rather bulky breakfast. I need to start gaining weight fast if I want to have some muscle to work with. Then after that, I began jogging around my neighborhood for about 45 minutes with some 10 pound weights attached to both my arms and legs.
Once that's done, I walk over to a kickboxing gym near the neighborhood. I just needed some form of martial arts so I could have a deeper bag. It seemed beginner friendly, and I could always start to train in other fighting styles once I got the hang of my current one.
Entering the small, and crowded gym, I was greeted by the sounds of rattling chains from rocking punching bags, and the yelling of coaches during sparring matches.
Walking on over to a small bench was a blond, middle-aged man, both imposing in stature and demeanor. Of course that man's my trainer right now, and to be honest, I think he's just an act, or maybe that is how he really is. I mean, the guy told me he served in Iraq for a while so who knows what turned him out like that.
"Yo Frank I'm he-"
"You're late. c'mon." He hands me some 12 oz gloves I've been using to train for the last couple of days. "Start stretching and join me over on the mat."
Straightforward as always.
Having finished my rounds of dynamic stretching I walked on over to Frank who was putting on his training gear.
"We didn't get much done last time since you're still new, but it's time we start working on your posture." He waits as I stand a couple of feet away from him. "Kickboxing, unlike regular boxing, has you using both your arms, and legs." He goes wide with his right foot sticking out. "Make sure your legs are spread out. It'll create momentum for your kicks."
I copy his form, sticking out my left foot as a pivot and raise my hands, slightly ducking my head.
"Bend your knees a little, tuck in your elbows as well."
I follow his advice - bringing in my elbows closer to my body, and slightly bending both my knees.
"Alright that's good, now switch your pivot foot, get comfortable with using both stances."
We kept working on my posture for a bit more, until it was time to actually start working on contact hits.
"Okay, let me see your jabs and crosses. Remember, quick strikes, don't worry about how much power you're putting into them yet. Try it out with both arms, see what you're comfortable with.
Frank put out his padded hands in preparation for my strikes. "Hit me a couple of times, then alternate."
I lead with my right hand, hitting his left pad a couple of times "huff, huff, huff". Following closely after, I began to strike with my "cross" arm alternating between stances. Left foot pivot, right foot pivot, left strike, right cross, right strike, left cross. After awhile we stopped to rest a bit and do some static stretches,
"I'm gonna have you spar with someone next week, so be prepared for that". He said in between helping me stretch.
"I haven't even been here for a week, and I'm already gonna spar?".
"What? You think people are just gonna stand there and let you take jabs at them? I'll be teaching you how to defend and counter against an opponent next week so you at least won't be a walking punching bag"
We walked over to the bench Frank was sitting on and put down our gear. "You tired kid?"
"A little, I could still go though. What did you have in mind?"
"How much can you lift?"
He starts to walk on over to the other side of the gym near the weights. I follow closely behind.
"Umm, I can lift around 95 pounds, maybe 140 on the squat rack. I'm trying to bulk up a bit though".
"Good enough. Let's tire out your muscles a bit then we'll call it a day. Until failure, kid remember."
---
Walking out of the gym it felt like my entire body was on fire. I could barely walk and even attempting to jog almost made my knees give in.
"Fuck Frank, I've only been here for three days". I groaned under my breath. Limping towards a nearby bench I sat down and decided to test out my ability.
I hadn't really touched it ever since my little experiment a couple of days ago, but I saw it as imperative that I'd develop as quickly as possible. My hypothesis is that my ability constantly improves with usage, which is kind of a stupid hypothesis since an ability's whole gimmick is that it constantly grows right? But then, what's the top? Surely it should have a ceiling. There's no way my healing factor stops at simply advancing the production of skin tissue.
Maybe eventually I'll be able to fully grow back any missing limbs or organs? Or maybe I could potentially give it a "boost" by swimming in the Lazarus pools
Although, for now I'm just gonna attempt to repair the tears in my muscle fibers. Right now I still don't know how it really activates, nor what the drawbacks are in over relying on it. Last time I healed the cuts on my hand I became really tired, so maybe it feeds on my current vitality? Activating it might also be through will. I just saw the cuts and thought 'heal it'. So then this should be no different.
Staring straight ahead, while focusing on nothing in particular. I began to focus on the hundreds of thousands of muscle fibers in my body. It felt…weird, like I had suddenly become acutely aware of the sack of flesh beneath my skin. Every drop of blood moving rapidly through my veins and major arteries. My lungs - that grew in size and shriveled up with every breath -. My heart thumped with a force that could almost be considered painful. I could feel the pores on my body opening and closing, leaving me with an unbearable itch that I wanted to scratch. The thing was, I couldn't scratch myself.
I couldn't move.
It's like my entire being was forced to watch and experience the things happening to my body. It was weird. I knew I could still "see", yet all my mind could do was conjure images of my own inner workings. Then after a while of "exploring" my own body I had begun to see the fibers of my legs, arms, chest, and back all torn. Like a piece of cloth ripped apart. This was most likely where my soreness was coming from. I watched intently as I saw my own skin formulate into tentacle-like shapes, and wrapping themselves against each other. More harder, more secure than they had originally been.
After watching the little spectacle, I jolted in place and realized that I was staring straight ahead towards what I was originally looking at. A pizza shop.
"W-what the hell was that?!" I was slightly scared of what had happened. I simply wanted to see if I could heal my own muscle tissue, but instead, I got dragged through an episode of 'The magic school bus'!
Nobody was looking my way thankfully. I guess to everyone else I was just someone who had dozed off on a bench. Or maybe I was being too self-centered and no one really cared about me and what I was doing.
Checking my body out, nothing looked too different. Although I did feel a bit more 'fresh' if that was even the word I was looking for. Something else I had realized was how heightened my senses currently were. It was almost like I could visualize things that weren't visible. A faint glowing hue surrounded everyone near me, and if I focused on someone specifically, I could hear a small thumping sound. It felt alive. Everything did.
"Okay?" This was weird. Like really weird. For some reason I was more aware of everything around me. It was kinda like Superman's super senses, but way weaker. Unlike Superman I couldn't hear someone from across the city, but everyone within a block of me was doable. And my eyesight has also improved. There was a clear difference in my visual acuity now. A normal person is able to spot details from as far out as 20 feet, however looking at a small sign down the street from me I could guess that my sight for detail had increased to about 80 feet. So about a 4x improvement.
What changed within me? Did I mess with my body while trying to heal my muscles? Everything was way too confusing right now, and I didn't really have anyone to guide me in this. Shaking my head, I stood up and decided to start getting used to my new senses. The voices were a pain In the ass to be honest. Imagine having to constantly hear the voices of tens of people constantly speaking directly to your ear. It was annoying, and I had no real way of "shutting" it down. Plus it was starting to hurt my head.
Walking across the street I went in to buy some pizza since I was planning on making my second ever visit to Barbara today. I, of course wasn't gonna eat any of it as much as I wanted to, since it would be counterintuitive in what I was trying to achieve.
---
Walking on over to Barbara's room I knocked and waited to be let in.
"Hey, thanks for having me again. I brought some pizza if you'd like some." I say as I enter her room.
"Yeah, hand it over, I'm sick of hospital food already." She chuckles.
Handing her the pizza, I sat down in a chair next to her. "I heard your dad was finally recovered. Is he good?"
"Hmm" she covers her mouth. "He's fine, he came by earlier today to see me. I told you he was tough."
"Batman also got the joker, sent him to blackgate, but knowing The Joker he'll probably escape in a couple of months."
"He's always been a pain in the ass to deal with." She says with a scowl. "Hand me another pizza".
I hand her another slice. "You've dealt with him before?
"Ah, slip of the tongue, don't mind it. By the way, what's up with you? You look drained."
"I just came back from working out. Oh, and doing some kickboxing."
"Did you recently start? I didn't really take you for the proactive type. No offense."
"I just thought I could use some change for once, that and It's Gotham, so a little bit of self defense never hurt anyone. Actually that's a pretty contradictive statement huh?"
"A little" she laughed a bit.
Something I noticed was how sporadic some of the hues of light in this hospital were. With some lights slowly dimming away and others flickering. I guess the whitish hue around someone represents their current health? Or maybe the state of their body. I wasn't quite sure.
Focusing back on Barbara I noticed how her light was also pretty consistent around her upper half, however her lower half was more inconsistent. I kinda wish I had Superman's X-ray vision right now, maybe I could see what's wrong with her and heal her. Yet again, I'm not sure if my healing powers can even be applied to another person, maybe it was a self-healing ability.
"Hey, are you okay? You kinda just went blank on me."
"Hmm?" Oh crap I just blanked out while staring at her legs damn! "Oh yeah sorry I guess I'm more tired than I thought". That part wasn't a lie. After healing my body I was virtually running on fumes. "Imma go home and rest, I'll see you next week kay?" I stand up and get ready to leave.
"Alright, stay safe, oh and thanks for the food."
"Yeah no problem I'll be seeing you!"
—-
Walking out of the hospital I went to a nearby pharmacy to buy some medicine for my growing headache.
Exiting out, and getting back on the empty sidewalk I heard a soft delicate voice from behind me.
"So it's you. How peculiar, for someone to be both dead yet so full of life. May we talk?"