Location: Now York City
Date: December 28, 1988
Mark POV:
Mark felt great.
He had been restless for winter break to end ever since he had the idea to graduate early. So he focused his attention on Force training and the results were wonderful.
His progress with the Padawan template had been very fast so far.
Continuing to strengthen his connection with the Force had seen his abilities grow stronger. But exploring the techniques taught by the template had revealed a Force ability that Mark did not know about before.
Unfortunately, templates only teach how to do something. It does not provide knowledge in a straight forward way, like names of techniques.
In essence, it was a movement technique that allowed him to shift his body's inertia with the Force. After some practice he was able to perform otherwise impossible stunts, such as running on walls for a short time and leaping greater distances than normal.
Upon discovering this, the city rooftops became his training playground. He could travers the city much more effectively now, and it was fun. It probably could not compare to flying or web swinging, but running across the city with his powers was still exhilarating in its own way.
Though, wearing his mask just in case someone saw him was a bit of a drag.
Pausing for a moment, Mark checked his status screen.
Name: Mark Smith
Race: Human(Numenorean)
Age: 17
Equipped Template:
-Jedi Padawan
Traits:
-Keen Mind
-Fair of Face
-Force Sensitive
Powers:
-Grace of the Valar: 22%
-Aura of Majesty: 2%
Disciplines:
-Force Fundamentals: 18%
Skills:
-Weapon Mastery: 10%
-Wilderness Survival: 1%
-Elvish Language: 17%
Items:
-None
Force Fundamentals reaching 18% in less than a week was a nice change from the otherwise slow progress so far.
But for some reason his Aura of Majesty had finally increased. The problem was he did not know when exactly it had done so, or why. Only that it happened in the two days from gaining the Force and getting home after his dinner with Sue Storm.
Since then he had not interacted with anyone and the aura has stayed at 2%.
Before Mark could consider further, he was brought out of his thoughts when he felt something very strange.
'It's almost like a... disturbance in the Force.' he thought, the explanation slotting perfectly into his mind. There really was no other word for it. Somewhere in the distance the normal feelings and energy flows in the Force were being disturbed by something.
Mark could not discern the details and started heading toward the disturbance.
It only took a few minutes to reach the right street and he could feel the source approaching his position.
Looking down from the rooftop, everything seemed fine on the surface. But something was deeply wrong.
Everyone nearby felt diminished somehow. Like they were made less than they should be. After carefully looking around Mark found the reason. There was a man moving down the sidewalk with a purple skin tone.
'The Purple Man.' he thought darkly. The guy was an absolute scumbag. His power made other people do whatever he told them to do. And they would do it. Literally anything.
Mark's eyes gained a very cold look as the man approached. There was very few options when it came to dealing with this guy. Even at this distance he could feel the man's power trying to effect him. Imprisonment was either useless outright, or it simply gave people the opportunity to study his power.
More of that in the world was totally unacceptable.
Quickly evaluating if he could resist this power Mark decided that even if his enhanced willpower and Force techniques could protect him, putting it to the test would be foolish. Either way, letting the Purple Man go would mean allowing many deaths, rapes, and other crimes. He could not standby and allow that to happen.
Moving ahead of his new target's position, he jumped down into an alley and waited in ambush, monitoring the man's approach through the Force.
As his target approached, Mark went over his options. He did not exactly have everything planned out.
'If I can keep the Purple Man from speaking his power should be useless, I think.'
Focusing on the Force he waited for the moment it guided him to act.
'Now!'
At the right moment Mark pulled the man into alley with the Force. At the same time he reached out and clamped his hand over his target's mouth. He was able to mostly cutoff a strangled "Help-".
With a quick Force enhanced wrench, the Purple Man's neck broke with a snap and he dropped the body behind a dumpster, hidden from view of the street. It was all over in one or two seconds.
Now he needed to figure out what he was going to do.
Before he could finish the thought, he felt someone lunge toward him from behind. Twisting around, Mark swung his arm at his attacker while trying to dodge out of the way.
With incredible speed they ducked his hasty swing, stepping in close for their own attack. Their fist struck with speed he could not track, only guided by the Force, he was instinctively able to enhance his body's defenses before contact.
With an audible, sickening crack, Mark felt the ribs on his left side fracture as he was thrown back by the blow and slammed against the wall across the alley.
Mark's vision went white for a moment as pain exploded across his side.
He found himself sitting on the ground where he had slumped down from the wall. With clinched teeth he tried to ignore the pain and looked up at his attacker.
It was a girl. A beautiful young blonde, no more than 19. She was still standing where she had punched him, looking at her hands like they belonged to someone else. Her feelings were equally as confused as she looked.
After a moment he decided she probably was not an enemy and said, "That punch would have caved-in a normal person's chest, blondie."
His words seemed to jolt her out of her confusion and she looked at him with a slowly growing look of horror. She moved her hands to try covering her face as he felt an enormous spike of panic from her. Without a word she turned and ran down the alley before jumping halfway up the side of the building and wallcrawled to the roof. Through the Force he felt her presence quickly moving away.
'Well... what the hell was that?' he thought.
Mark did not have time to think anything more about her however. His attention was drawn back to the Purple Man's body. The lifeforce was not fading.
'Seriously?'
Reaching out with his power, he could feel the body repairing the damage.
'Damn.' he thought, slowly rising to his feet. With cracked ribs dealing with this just became very difficult.
He could not let this scumbag get away. But even if Mark killed him, he decided that he could not leave the body. The Purple Man's powers cannot be allowed to be replicated, or the body cloned.
Looking around the alley he spotted an entrance into the sewers.
'To bad I cannot just dump him down there. No, the body must be fully destroyed Terminator 2 style. I also cannot walk out of the alley and into the street with his body...'
He looks at the sewer entrance again with a painful sigh.
'Damn. This is the last time I jump into a situation without a plan.' he decided.
---
Many hours later:
As Mark finally made it back home the only thing he knew for sure was that this had been the most miserable day of his life. Including when he died.
The stink coming off him from the sewers was horrible. If it had been summertime he did not even want to think about it.
He was able to avoid crossing paths with anything living down there thanks to the Force, but the amount of life was much more than he expected. Even taking into account the Morlocks and such.
Eventually he found an exit into an industrial area and dropped the body into an incinerator.
He was glad it was done and would not hesitate to kill that guy again, he did not hold to an arbitrary no killing rule. But this whole experience had made him feel rather unheroic. He did not want a repeat. Ever.
'Now, how do I fix this?' he thought, gingerly holding his side. The Force can heal injuries but he did not know how and trying earlier did not do anything.
His final idea had him open the store now that he was home.
Current Points: 2 ____________ Time Until Restock: 2 Months+
1. Discipline: Spiral Energy(Gurren Lagann) - 256 points
2. Character: ★ Morrigan Aensland(1/3 Power)(Darkstalkers)-32 points
3. Character: Cortana(Halo) - 8 points
4. Item: Saiyan Space Pod(Dragon Ball Z) - 16 pts
5. Item: Bludgers x2(Harry Potter) - 4 points
6. Item: Athelas Plant(Kingsfoil)(Lord of the Rings) - 2 points
7. Template: Shino Aburame(Naruto) - 8 points
8. (Empty)
9. Power: Quirk(Earphone Jack)(My Hero Academia) - 2 points
10. Mundane Object: Spider-Man Suit(Marvel) - 1 point
'Just enough points to purchase Kingsfoil.' and with a pained grin he used his 2 points to buy it.
A soft white light appeared before him, and slowly a potted plant took form as the light faded.
Quickly going to the template page he switched to his Aragorn template. Mark took a small bit of the plant and after some trial & error he finally got the healing effect to work.
The pain subsided and he immediately laid down on his couch in relief.
He was asleep in seconds.
-----
A.N. - Hello all and hope you enjoyed the chapter.
It was going to be much longer but I did not get the second half done.
I wish I could say it was because I was too busy, but no, I was just a lazy butt this week.
Next chapter will be much better.
Thank you for reading.