Three days later.
Mark's growth had been massive after starting his gravity training. He had grown taller than before, now standing at six feet. But more importantly, his muscles had become far more defined. Currently, he was pushing himself with increased gravity.
Right now, he was doing barbell squats with max weight plus 1,900 g's on his body. His skin turned red as he pushed upward, sweat pouring off him. He completed three reps, then stopped and lay flat on the ground. He lowered the gravity to make breathing easier.
After a few seconds, he sat up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the TV playing. The Mayor of Baltimore had assembled his own superhero team. Four veteran heroes, all tasked with hunting Mark down, even though he hadn't done any of his questionable hero work for the past three days.
At the same time, the heroes on the screen were being questioned by the press. All four of them had been part of a team full of scandals.
Standing in the center was a middle-aged man with orange hair, wearing a black and silver suit that showed off his defined muscles. Red lines ran across the suit, and on his back was his quiver of arrows. Shaft.
To his right stood a beautiful Russian woman with unusually pale skin and purple hair, dressed in a purple skin-tight suit with armor padding. Vogue.
On the left was a handsome blond man in his twenties, clad in golden armor that left his face uncovered. Johnny Panic.
Next to him was a younger blonde woman in her twenties with twin tails. She wore red goggles and a skin-tight suit colored yellow and red with a rocket symbol. She was known as Doc Rocket.
Camera flashes went off as pictures were taken. The Mayor of Baltimore stood beside them with the biggest, proudest smile he could manage. It was the most corporate smile imaginable, plastered on his face after he finished giving his speech.
When the time came for questions, a journalist aimed the most direct question at the team's leader, Shaft. The press wasn't sure what to make of a team with such a scandalous history.
"Shaft, do you think you can capture the CEO Killer, who has gone inactive?"
"Yes, we can," Shaft answered with a straight face. With his experience and that of his team, this would be easy. They had handled far more dangerous missions before.
Another journalist went straight for the jugular. "Will there be no repeat of the Riptide incident under your leadership?"
The mayor, still standing there, grew visibly irritated at the journalist's boldness. Shaft gritted his teeth before calming himself and answering professionally.
"No," Shaft said, staring directly into the journalist's eyes.
The journalist looked away. Shaft moved on. "Next question."
Seeing how Shaft reacted, the other journalists began thinking twice before asking their questions. But Mark, who was watching from his spot, just sighed. Now he had to do research on them too.
Mark stood up and began stretching his body. One of the coaches spotted him, raised a hand, and called out.
"Mark, you up for training today, or do you have school work?" The coach walked over and asked.
"Sorry, coach. I've got something to do today," Mark said. He had to research the team that would be trying to capture him.
"Alright, take care, kid." The coach offered a brotherly handshake.
Mark smirked, and the coach smiled back as they clasped hands. "You too, coach."
They pulled each other into a brief hug, and then Mark left the gym.
The coach smiled as he watched Mark go. Another gym member walked up beside him.
"Mark's not training today?" he asked.
"Yeah, he's got some homework to do," the coach said.
"Man, that's too bad. He's a really good sparring partner," the guy said. "His style is something else. No jabs, just power punches and power kicks."
"That's true," the coach nodded. He turned to the guy. "Now get back to your regimen, Bryan."
"But coach, the regimen is too hard," Bryan complained.
"Go. Mark never complained. Now go," the coach said.
"Alright." Bryan gave up and walked off to do his regimen.
Mark headed to his usual location, the gaming cafe, and began looking up the team members and their history. They were going to try to capture him, and he needed information.
As he scrolled through the details on the past Youngblood members and the people who would be coming after him, he was surprised.
'Some of them are pretty famous.' Then Mark was caught off guard by one person who had been part of the Youngblood team. He muttered, "Suprema?"
'This is going to be more troublesome.' Mark continued going through the past members, but most of them weren't impressive. Only a few were problematic. The majority were just super soldier type characters.
"If I'm not careful, I'm going to end up fighting stronger opponents," Mark muttered to himself.
He stood up from his seat. A kid, a little younger than him, approached hesitantly. "Umm, are you leaving?"
"Yeah. You want to use it?" Mark asked with a smile. The moment reminded him of his previous life.
"Can I?" the kid asked.
"Go ahead," Mark said as he walked out of the gaming cafe.
"Thank you, bro." The kid nodded, took Mark's seat, and was excited to play the game on it.
As Mark finally stepped out of the gaming cafe, he opened his gravity watch and called the Mauler Twins. When the call connected, he asked instantly, "How much improvement have you made on the gravity tech?"
"We're currently stuck at 10,000 g's," Mauler One answered.
Mauler Two interjected, raising the more pressing issue. "We need more money. The power core we're currently using isn't suitable for higher gravity."
"Make me the gravity watch with 10,000 g's," Mark said, then asked straightforwardly, "How much do you need?"
Mark heard faint whispers as the Mauler Twins spoke to each other, calculating how much they would need to continue their research. The project was becoming more expensive, but also more profitable for them.
When they came to an answer, Mauler One stated the price. "Give us ten million for now."
"Alright," Mark agreed. He had more than enough in his secret money stash. "When can I come pick it up?"
"Tomorrow. Alongside the suit you asked us to make," Mauler Two said.
"Good," Mark said, and hung up the call.
As for the Mauler Twins, they were currently in their own lab. They had bought it for cheap since it had been in bad shape and the previous owner had wanted to sell it fast. But now, the warehouse was steadily being fixed up.
"This has to be our best investment," Mauler One said, smiling as he looked around their lab.
"No, our client is," Mauler Two corrected him. "So stop wasting time and get your ass over here. Help me finish configuring the gravity watch."
"Shut up. It's not like you haven't wasted time before our client called us," Mauler One retorted.