I pressed on the doorbell before stepping back, making sure I was in full view of the door's peephole.
There were the sounds of footsteps coming from behind the door and it stopped right behind it, pausing for a moment, before the sound of it being unlocked could be heard.
The door swung inwards and Dan appeared behind it, grinning at me.
"Yo, wassup Qing!"
"Your mom's legs when I went to pound her last night."
"You fucker, get in here bitch!"
I took off my shoes and stepped inside Dan's flat, waiting for him just past the entranceway as he closed the door before joining me.
Both of us moved to his living room where it looked like he already had things prepared for us with the television already turned on and drinks laid out on the table.
Incidentally, the television was currently playing a superhero movie that was popular more than ten years ago. Why the heck is he watching that?
This wasn't my first time at his house since I've come here a couple of times already which was why I went directly to my predetermined seat in these kinds of meetups.
I dropped the bag of snacks on the table, grabbed a drink and sat myself down on the floor beside the table.
Dan took his own drink and sat down on the floor opposite me on the floor as well, cracking the can open.
"Heh, so what's up with you these days?"
"What do you mean? Haven't I already told you through our messages? I was busy with the rift the last few days."
"Yeah, but you weren't going to the rifts everyday right? What were you doing in between those days?"
I took a swig from the drink before nodding at him, "Nothing of course. What else would you think I'm doing?"
"I don't know? That's why I'm asking you? You sure you're really not doing anything?"
"You sound like you already know what I'm doing before you even ask that question."
He gestured his drink at me, "Come on lah, Qing… I know you for how long already? Everytime you doing something shady you'll go quiet for a few days and then give some bullshit reason. Hurry up and just tell me lah."
I leaned back to press my back against the couch before letting out a dramatic sigh, "I'm thinking of becoming a vigilante."
He popped open one of the snacks I brought while shooting me a confused look, "Ha? What you talking about? You telling me that all this while you haven't been a vigilante?"
"What do you mean?"
"I thought you would have definitely ran around as a vigilante ever since you got your powers. Wasn't that incident three years ago at Clementi mall because of you?"
I sucked in a breath as I knew exactly what incident he was talking about.
About three years ago while I was not active as a Vanguard yet, I did come across some idiot who thought he was invincible and tried to beat up someone in broad daylight just because he had awakened some strong power.
I just happened to be in the area so I went over to knock the guy out before I left the scene since I didn't want myself to be noticed.
Some people ended up using this event to argue about awakened individuals being dangerous but because of my involvement, it made the case there were still responsible people who would step in to help which made it an overall positive.
That event ended up becoming viral because of all the discussion around it though I was fortunate that no one figured out I was involved back then since no one managed to capture my face.
Well… No one except Dan here but that was because I told him about it.
I sighed, "That was just one time, ok? And I just happened to be there so I stepped in."
"I thought for sure you would have just found your calling and then wore a costume to start crime fighting on your own. You really didn't meh?"
"No, I did not. That was when they started the Vanguard stuff, you remember? I went that route instead."
"Huh… I thought for sure you would be doing both at the same time. Then you really just didn't like those superheroes not because you were a vigilante ah?"
"No, goddamn it."
"Funny. In that case, why now?"
"Well… I don't know if the Mortal God thing is still happening after what happened, you know? So I thought I might as well do this to pass the time," I half lied.
It's true I was doing this to pass the time since I figured out I could eliminate my need of sleep which means I could be doing more stuff now.
And part of my new abilities was being able to absorb powers from other awakened people and I'd like to get even stronger to be able to deal with any other attempts on my life in the future.
That also extends to threats to my family as well since I know eventually, people are going to find out about my connections and I need to be strong enough to protect everyone once that happens. So this period of anonymity would be crucial for me to gain as much strength as possible.
Dan smirked at me, "Whatever you say, bro. Since you're telling me this, I assume you want me to help you or something?"
"Not exactly. It's not like your powers are geared to do this kind of work anyway."
"Eh, fuck you ok. My powers are good enough to do it if I want to."
"I mean you would need to patrol around to look for crime and sneak up on criminals, you know? Your powers don't exactly allow you to be subtle and you aren't able to cover a large area quickly."
"Not like you are any different from me, bitch. You can fly meh?"
"No, but I can run faster if I wanted to."
Dan waved his hand at me, "Ok, ok. I can't take this shit anymore. Tell me the truth bro. I don't know what it is but you definitely feel different. It feels like you got taller or something, I don't know. But something definitely happened with you so what is it?"
I was going to just deny it again and call him crazy but I paused before thinking about it again.
If that assassination attempt hadn't happened, I would have considered asking if Dan wanted to be a Guardian anyway and he's one of the few people that I trust with my life.
At this stage, with Olivia still otherwise occupied with the aftermath, I don't exactly have anyone else to talk about my situation either.
I guess I should just tell him another part of the truth for now.
"Ok, don't be jealous… But I recently awakened again."
Dan leaned forward, almost knocking over his drink, "Woah! Seriously? So that means you have a different power now?"
"Something like that… I can… Err… I guess… Absorb powers from other people? No… Not absorb, copy them."
"Oh shit, that's damn cool bro! Copy mine then!" He chuckled, placing his food down to stretch out his hands to the side. "What do you need me to do?"
You know… If it was anyone else, I'm pretty sure if I told them that I could copy their powers, they would basically start looking at me with suspicion or something but Dan didn't even hesitate in offering his own power for me to use.
I scratched my cheek, "Err… The thing is… I'm not that sure on how it actually works yet. There seems to be multiple ways to do it and there's also different rules to how it works… I am still trying to test it out at the moment."
"So? That means you already tested a few ways and some worked, right? What did you test?"
"Err… There was one person who kissed the back of my hand and that granted me some of their power because of that. Kind of embarrassing though."
"Ohhh! Like you're some kind of godfather mob boss right? I know that style. Get over here and let me try then."
"Why are you so enthusiastic about kissing my hand? The fuck bro?"
"Shut up lah. You're not going to use the gay shit on me when I'm the one that's married with kids and you're still single. Just give me that hand of yours you idiot."
He reached forward and grabbed my right hand, pulling it towards him to place his lips on the knuckle before pulling back and wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
"So? Did that work?" He asked.
I definitely did not feel the same sensation when Olivia did it so I shook my head, "The person who did this was… Err… Kneeling and stuff, you know?"
"Hmm… I've seen this kind in anime before. I guess maybe your power is really like some kind of mob boss so you take power from your subordinates or something? Ok, let me do it properly then. Sit here."
He basically manhandled me to sit on the couch before he knelt in front of me, taking my hand with a sort of reverence similar to Olivia before he repeated the motion again.
This time, I definitely felt some energy flow from me and into him, just like what happened with Olivia.
So that's what needed to be done huh…