"You hear about the Red Mist?"
Sitting in a cafeteria, Riley's presence was widely ignored by Nina's friends as they talked about the latest news.
"Duh, of course I did. Three hundred people died in Vegas overnight, all gang members, and there's no evidence for it? Imagine seeing it; apparently, blood sprayed so much that it coated him and the walls red."
Riley took a bite of his food. Tasting the pizza sauce and the cheese, he silently enjoyed himself.
Having nothing to add to the conversation, being an awkward person, Riley simply ate quickly before getting up and going to the gym.
…
Enthralled. Genuinely, he was enthralled at having discovered an aspect to life he'd always heard of, but was never fully explained.
As it turns out, the human body was wonderfully made. The way it adapts to stress, the dopamine that runs in the brain when it accomplishes goals, and the many different ways to train the body—it felt as though he was customizing his character in a video game, able to put in his "stat points" into things he wanted.
If one wanted to focus on strength, they could work like a powerlifter. If one wanted to focus on speed, they could do HIIT, and train explosively with plyometrics.
His body felt weak, but in a fun way. He rolled up his sleeves and posed in the mirror. Though it could be a placebo, he genuinely thought he'd gotten bigger muscles, even if not all that much.
I look so jacked.
No, he did not.
Flexing his biceps, Riley smiled upon seeing his small progress, to which he saw a much bigger man approach from behind. Much older, likely in his mid-20's, with a stereotypical "jock" build. Riley turned around, a hint of anxiety nesting in his mind, as the man might—
"Hey, you new here?" The man asked, and Riley shyly nodded his head, stammering a bit.
"U-uh, yeah."
"Cool! It's nice to see someone your age using their free time to work out—trust me, stick with it and the results will speak for themselves! See ya 'round!"
The man gave a small wave to the newcomer and headed out of the gym, leaving Riley alone. He fought back tears, blinking repeatedly.
Ah… Woah, he was… he was actually so nice.
Tearing up at the kindness he was shown, Riley wiped his eyes. Then, of course, he went back to training.
…
He had it all planned out.
In the morning, Riley woke up at 4 AM. Sneaking out of the apartment, using [Hanging] to float, he went to the gym, which was open 24/7. Entering inside, seeing the gym filled with just a few people, Riley went to the open benches.
Taking out his phone, he reviewed the notes he'd made.
For thirty minutes, it's focusing on sheer bench press, to help build the muscles and punching strength. Of course, switch up the grips a bit to focus on certain areas. But with this style of training, I'll overload my muscles, and force my body to adapt to the extreme stress, acting like it's received a proper diet and recovery.
For anyone else, this training method would be terrible. It'd fry their CNS, and they'd probably lose their gains.
"Pfft," he audibly laughed, keeping it to himself.
Yeah… wow, I feel super special. No one my age is working at Four AM, are they? Well, probably. But not at my school, I think.
Getting to work, he spammed bench press for those thirty minutes, repeating his one-rep-max and five-rep-max again and again, healing his body back to normal.
Upon completion, he moved on to weighted pullups for another thirty minutes, working his lats, biceps and forearms. For variation, he performed weighted deadhangs, working his grip and forearms, useful for grappling.
Then taking a short break at the one-hour mark, he received many weird stares from his fellow early-morning-people, who saw this weird skinny kid only doing two exercises with weight he struggled with each time, but somehow always managed to continue.
He awkwardly laughed it off, going and drinking a ton, a ton, a ton of water.
It was a habit of his by this point; water tasted good, so he drank a lot of it.
For five minutes, he worked his rear delts with moderate weight, not wanting to lag behind in the very undertrained muscle group. Though, due to it being an isolated lift rather than a compound one, he didn't spend that much time on it.
Finishing his "rest," Riley went back, working on his back once more with thirty minutes of heavy bent-over rows. Wanting to get as strong a back as possible, as it helped with all facets of combat, he spent extra time on it. With this movement, he ensured his back would become quite thick.
Upon completion, he glanced over to his next exercise on his notes—general arm work. Including the basics, like hammer curls for extra forearm grip and biceps work, tricep extensions for, well, the triceps, and finally lat raises (which, funnily enough, didn't work the lats), to round out his shoulders.
Once he was done with working his arms, he looked into the mirror and flexed, seeing a noticeable increase in size. Of course, he was by no means a bodybuilder, but it looked as though he'd been training for a week or so.
Swollen, his arms stood out with their veins, causing him to flex his fingers in the mirror to show off his veiny visage.
Woah… I wonder if Nina likes veiny arms? It'd be cool if she did, I think.
Actually, I hear girls like biceps… hm, I'll definitely need to put in more effort on my biceps, then. Plus, I hear biceps are useful in wrestling, so they're necessary to train.
But, ultimately, he thought it was mostly because Nina might like his arms.
Putting his headphones back on, he listened to girly music as he moved on to machine crunches, rotating as he did so to build up his rotational force in his punches.
There's nothing more manly than working out at seven in the morning while listening to girlypop.
At the twenty minute mark, someone asked to use the machine, and he offered it up, wiping it down of his sweat before letting them on and then going over to train his neck with neck curls for the remaining ten minutes.
Finishing up his workout, he wiped everything down and went home, taking a shower. Seeing Nina eating breakfast with Joey, he felt his heart beat a little bit quicker, and then—
Doki doki.
"Pffttt…"
Alerting them with his idiotic laughter, Riley covered his face. Nina turned towards him with confused worry. "What? What're you laughing at!?"
"N-nothing."
Oh my gosh, I was such a dumbass.
Upon noticing his heart racing faster, a dumb thought for dumb people appeared in Riley's dumb head, causing a dumb laughter which revealed his dumbness to the two.
"Seriously, what is it!? Is there something on me?"
"...No. It's nothing."
Covering his head, Riley chose a light snack for breakfast before going to school with Nina, dropping Joey off.
…
"It's Hallow's Eve!" Nina exclaimed, walking with Riley towards the front of the school. As it was lunch, he'd set out to work out. Though, he couldn't help but point it out—
"—Hallow's Eve is Halloween. So no, it's now Hallow's Eve, it's just the day before Halloween."
"Whatever. Remember, come back ASAP. I still can't trust you not to run off and die."
His light smile fading, Riley nodded his head, turning his back before she could see his expression. As he left, he felt an uneasy sensation in his heart, trying his best to ignore it.
…It's not like she's wrong. Still… it does kind of hurt to be looked at in that way.
No matter what, I can't quite rid myself of that.
Even by his closest friend, Riley Woods couldn't be trusted not to kill himself. He stopped for a moment, hanging his head low and massaging the left side of his face.
It's like I'm just a living corpse. Someone who barely managed to survive. And I can't even blame her for feeling that way.
Putting his feelings aside, Riley took off into the air once the coast was clear.
Going back to the gym, he trained legs extensively. Spamming squats, he felt a deep and uncomfortable pain, finally understanding why everyone hates leg day.
…
"Hah… ah, huh…"
Drilling basic combinations, Riley threw a jab, cross, and leg kick. Jab, cross, leg kick. Jab, cross, leg kick.
Eventually, it was time to spar. He stepped onto the mat, and faced off against a grown man. As expected, without his overwhelming strength, he lost in the contest of strength and skill. Yet, even still, he put up a better fight than he ever could before, and that was enough for him.
…
Breaking off into a sprint, wearing a hypoxia mask, he did HIIT, doing all-out sprints before walking, then sprinting and repeating the process.
The hypoxia mask reduced oxygen, but with his regeneration, he was able to train continuously with it, pushing his body to its limits whilst adapting it even faster, leading to more oxygen in his blood.
It was incredibly taxing, but still worthwhile. He worked up a great sweat, meaning he needed to drink plenty of water to refill.
Even without a perfect training plan, it was one suited towards him in particular. He trained for strength and explosiveness, his cardio leaning out his frame whilst his regeneration allowed him to restore taxed muscles with adapted ones, allowing him to build muscle and burn fat at the same time—especially accentuated by newbie gains from going through puberty.
As he finished one of his sprints, as he took out Kara's tooth to place it into a bag, he checked his phone.
"Wanna pick out Halloween costumes?"
It was a text from Nina. Of course, he did want to train, however,
Seeing her in a nurse outfit would be cool… kinda like Silent Hill 2. Anyways, that's weird. But… yeah. I've got a month until the big event—there's no way I'm risking my life without first seeing her dress up as a witch.
Briefly envisioning her in an all-black witch outfit, he smiled to himself. It was a very pleasing thought—witches were a particular type he'd had since the age of thirteen.
Vampires were cool, and he could definitely enjoy having his blood sucked. Though, not from Scott, that cruel vampire, or through his groin—he wanted to bleed from his arm or neck. Yes, being bitten was a pleasure.
If she bit me… I think I'd be pretty stoked. Heheh, Bram Stoker. Stoked. Heheh.
But werewolves… yes, her being unable to control herself as she hulks out and maims me—yes, delectable indeed. Or maybe a zombie? No, zombies are weird. Interesting, but weird.
Mummies? No, same problem with zombies. Thus, witches are the only natural answer. Their hats are cool, plus they've got a cool aura. If she hexed me and used me—okay, nope, nopenope, not going there.
Crossing his arms and biting his tongue as a way to atone, he replied with a "Yes" to her question, telling her he'd be right on his way.
—
Having taken a shower, he'd become an even better big brother, taking Joey out to a Halloween store that only comes around at this time of year.
The three entered, finding a marvelous sight before them. Yes, yes, animatronics and Halloween apparel flooded the eyes! It was so exorbitant and enticing, Riley couldn't help himself.
Quickly, he put his hands in his pockets and glanced at Nina.
"I think you should be a witch," he tried to not-so-subtly convince her, to which she raised a brow.
"Huh? Why?"
"Witch hats are hot."
"...Y-you… Keep this up, and I'll start to think you confessing to me wasn't just a joke."
"Pfft… whatever, I don't really care."
Shrugging his shoulders, Riley walked off towards the men's section, looking for a Halloween costume. Nina followed him, and thus Joey had no choice but to follow her follow him—Riley was being a bit of an ass here.
"You say witch hats are sexy. Then, why don't you dress up as what all the ladies love?" Nina asked, picking out a Ghostface costume.
"...What? No, women don't find Ghostface hot, dummy."
"Hah! You're saying that to a woman—Riley, you're pretty dumb sometimes, y'know."
—Why yes, I do know.
Riley took the costume and envisioned himself in it.
"Wait, wouldn't I just look like every other person in a Ghostface costume? Kinda a big part of the movies."
"Yeah—well… yeah, that's true. Also kind of the point."
"No, I'm not being Ghostface."
Putting the costume away, he continued to search until he heard Joey speak.
"Wiley, can we get a costume for me?"
"...Right, my bad. Let's do that."
Walking with Joey, they passed by many animatronics, and even a small, scary hallway. Riley whispered for Joey to enter, but the boy seemed too scared to enter. Riley thought for a second before holding Joey's hand.
"Alright then. Remember how I flew off? I can do a lot more than just fly—so, let's do this!"
Feeling a bit braver, with his literally supernatural older brother holding his hand, Joey walked through. They brushed past the hanging severed arms, entering the corridor which took the appearance of a metal grated floor with windows along the side.
As they walked through, monsters began to scream at them from the windows, and Joey held onto Riley's hand tightly, eventually getting out unscathed.
"Wasn't so bad, was it?" Riley asked, and Joey shook his head. He ran back inside through the small area, and shrieked, but got out on the other end with Nina safe and sound.
He grabbed Nina's hand and led her through, with Riley filming on his phone as she fake-shrieked, scaring Joey really badly. She burst through the end, cackling like a witch as Joey began to cry.
The boy looked to his older brother for him to get mad at Nina—though Riley was also dying of laughter, so much so that he literally crouched down on the ground to catch his breath.
Joey continued to cry, they had to console him, and they let him pick out whatever Halloween costume he wanted as a compensation for their cruel humor.
After having his heroic spirit replenished, Riley became a gentleman.
"Alrighty, your turn, Nina," he said, walking with her to the women's section. As they passed through, Riley noticed that a lot of the women's costumes were very sexualized, meanwhile the men's costumes were normal.
Men could be doctors, but women had to be sexy nurses.
…I'm not complaining too much. But it's kinda strange.
"URGH!!"
Letting out a grunt of pain, he got a few stares from the people around them, Nina foremost. She seemed concerned when he held his stomach and balled up his fists.
"Riley?! What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Her voice as sweet as always, Riley felt bad as he stood up, a pained expression carved into his face.
"Guh… it's just, too painful…"
"What? What hurts?"
"...Women… They have period cramps. Grrr! If I was president, I'd send five billion dollars to Israel, and then I'd focus all of our scientific efforts on stopping period cramps!!"
"..."
Silence ensued, and Riley's heart broke a little.
"...Sorry," he apologized weakly. "I, um… It was a dumb joke I thought would be funnier in my head."
"...Yeesh. I think I'll put on the witch outfit just to cheer you up—because wow, that was terrible."
"...Thank you."
Yep, I'm in love with her. No doubt about that.
She got a witch costume and Riley picked out a costume himself. After being advised by Nina, he opted to go with a Superhero costume. Particularly,
"Dun-dun-dun! Superman!"
The greatest to ever do it. Choosing that as his costume, the three were now all set. As they walked to the cashier, Nina noticed a pair of earrings—a black cat and a white cat.
"Ooh, it's just like our necklace. Say, why don't we get your ears pierced? Then we can get these and stuff."
In his current state, where he was riding the coast of extreme humiliation and decent decision making, he bought them anyway—using Nina's allowance.
I really, really really REALLY need a job…
—
"Alright, I've got some places to be," Riley said, waving Nina and Joey off. "Be home shortly; I'll keep [Hanging] with you, so text me when you're safe at home. Bye."
Turning around, Riley disappeared into an alleyway, leaving them to head home by themselves. He flew into the air and with [Hanging] and took off above the clouds, flying at nine-hundred miles an hour towards NYC, using his phone to track it, even if the internet was terrible.
—
Arriving at the Big Apple, he simply walked around, searched for gang activity and found some. After some digging and some waterboarding, he managed to get a meeting with a crime boss inside a penthouse.
Breaking and entering, Riley strolled in nonchalantly from a broken window.
Of course, seeing this, the boss yelled, calling for security. At which point, Riley simply used [Hanging], tying them all up.
"W-what the fuck!?"
In the blink of an eye, Riley grabbed the man by the throat, pinning him to the wall. Slowly squeezing his neck, Riley's cold eyes locked in with the man's own.
"Ghl,ghhk!!"
Wait, that's no good.
What the fuck am I doing? Just walking in here, grabbing people by their throats, looking at them with such cruelty… no.
That was not the kind of person Riley Woods was meant to be.
From the start, he wanted to be the kind of hero a child could cling to for safety and care. In that sense, he was failing.
Letting go immediately, Riley gave himself a small slap, looking at the man with a gentle, awkward smile.
"Sorry… All I need is a couple thousand dollars. Cash, preferably. Get me one of those briefcases, some cash, and hand it over. If you don't… I'll call the police on you. And if that doesn't work, I'll hit you."
"Kghh, hk… f-fine, just, please don't kill me. Please, not like everyone else…"
His bloodthirsty escapades having become infamous in the underworld overnight, Riley felt his stomach churn.
That… that isn't right.
Never had he desired for his title, the name of the protector who helped those in need, to be given due to the brutality of his murders. It went against the very core of his ideals.
Having aimed to fight against despair, he had fallen short of the glory. Infamous. He had become known only for his massacre.
And what else? I'm taking blood money, or drug money, and using it for myself? How far have I fallen?
Frowning, Riley shook his head. Turning around, he let out a deep exhale, balling up his fist.
"Sorry. I'll be leaving. But, I want you to know."
Riley looked back at the crime boss, flashing a sad smile. "Use your resources to benefit the people around you. I'll check back in a month—if you have nothing to show for it, we'll have problems."
He left.