Earth: New York City
Date: October 14, 1988
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Mark P.O.V.
Mark swung a piece of broom handle against his imaginary opponent. He had visualized an orc swinging its sword at his head. In response, he felt the template guide him and followed its movement, blocking the attack.
But something was not right.
His current method of visualization was working better then his earlier training ideas, but he could feel a disconnect.
After two weeks of training, improvement was happening, but it was slow, and Mark had figured out why. His conclusion left him feeling conflicted.
Simply putting in a lot of time and effort was not producing equivalent improvement. If he wanted to get stronger and earn store points, then he had to use his skills and powers in a way that aligned with their nature.
Unfortunately, Mark was starting to think that meant real combat to truly improve Weapon Mastery. Though he was not sure what kind of actions would most align with, and thus improve Grace of the Valar.
Checking his progress, Grace of the Valar had reached 3%, and Weapon Mastery had reached 2%, everything else was the same.
Mark relaxed his posture and sat on his couch with a sigh.
"Damn."
He would need to go looking for trouble it would seem.
'Well, I need a mask or something to hide my identity before going out into the world.' he did not want people swarming him when he was 'off duty' so to speak.
Mark had the subject of secret identities brought to mind in school.
They were talking about a new super human. Someone in red and blue swinging around the city. Everyone wanted to know who he was. After all, the other heroes were publicly known, no secret identities.
For being the first known masked hero, everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was already getting blasted by The Daily Bugle, among other criticisms. Though Mark did have to admit, when it came to going after Spider-Man, J Jonah Jameson had a real gift.
Then he had the thought, 'How did Peter make his suit?'
'My craft skills are somewhere between untested and non-existent. If I tried making something like a Spidey suit...' He shuddered, idea was too terrible to consider. He knew his strengths and that was not one of them.
'Maybe I can find something with Halloween coming up. I can probably handle simple modifications.'
Thinking about it, Mark was feeling a little inspired. He cut his training short and headed out.
Some shops had started putting up Halloween decorations, and larger stores were already stocking the holiday's themed wares. But the costumes...
He did not know what he was expecting but he was not going to find anything useful like this. Kind of obvious in hindsight actually.
'Maybe a costume is the wrong thing anyway. I would stand out a lot, but why would I want that? No. There has to be a go to option for people that want to hide their face...'
The first thing that jumped to mind almost made him laugh.
'Of course! The balaclava, a burglar's best friend.' Cheap, plentiful, and easy to modify. He even had some ideas on just how to modify it into a real mask.
With new purpose, Mark made his way through the city collecting materials.
---
Halloween Day
'Finally.' Mark let out a deep sigh.
He had cut down his training after school and spent several hours a day working on his mask.
After several failed attempts, he finally finished it.
The eyes were the hardest part. He did not want to just leave it as is, but finding a solution that did not effect his vision and also concealed his eyes from others left him with several ruined balaclavas and a lot of waisted time.
He also had to make several modifications to improve its comfort. He had sewn a liner inside with a different material, otherwise it would start itching. He added some material around the nose so it was not getting squashed by the mask, while also improving comfort and making him harder to identify. He even modified it around his ears so it did not reduce his hearing.
The final product was ready and visually it was simple. But when he put it on and looked in the mirror, it was surprisingly intimidating.
Over the balaclava's eye holes he had sewn a fine black mesh that he could see through with minimal effect on his vision, but looked like his eyes were black voids to everyone else. And to improve the overall look, he covered the exterior with a smooth black material.
He could not tell it was a balaclava underneath at all.
'Time to test it out, see if there are any problems.'
Mark expected to have plenty of time before the perfect test day of Halloween. But it was still finished in time, if barely.
To go with the black mask he had bought an all black outfit, a black jacket and gloves. He tried to go for something that would not make him stand out without the mask. But for tonight he was not worried regardless.
Stepping outside, the sun had already set and night was fast approaching.
His street was as deserted as always, he even wondered if anyone else really even lived here, before heading into the city proper.
Not going anywhere specific, he simply walked the city.
Mark was mostly ignored, with a few people even complimenting his mask.
But there were plenty of other people out in costumes as well. Some were very impressive too. Although a few people were just creeps or worse, and Halloween made it harder to spot them.
He even saw the Human Torch fly over in the distance.
But after a while he headed away from the crowds and angling back toward home base. He was very pleased with his mask and had enjoyed his evening.
Soon the people on the streets had grown sparse when he saw a strange sight ahead. Mark was not sure if it was an impressive costume or another creep. They were shuffling about in jerking, twitchy movements and looked like a zombie.
But as he got closer, his relaxed feeling died.
They were severely emaciated, with skin tight over their bones which stuck out sharply. He could not see any muscle under their loose clothes. Completely bald and with a sunken face, Mark could not tell their gender at all.
He slowed as he got closer. Something about them was strange.
They had been looking at someone down the street. With a sudden jerk they whipped their head around, staring straight at him. Their pupils were heavily dilated and had an absent, even confused look on their face, but something in their eyes was setting off major alarm bells.
They were over ten feet away and Mark was about to stop, when they briefly went rigid, and lunged the whole distance with an animalistic sound he did not know humans could make.
With his template's guidance, he barely responded in time before it opened its mouth and tried to rip his throat out.
Knocking its head to the side with a strike, it only bit down on his jacket, before ripping through the material and leaving a large hole. Its teeth were jagged and elongated, like they had grown unnaturally.
Mark struck again hard, trying to end the fight fast. His blow struck bone, bruising his hand, but they seemed unhurt.
Before he could pull his hand back it twitched, reaching out with lightning speed and yanked him off his feet and flung him across the sidewalk. Mark landed with his back slamming into a car, pain flaring.
He was able to keep his wits and react before it lunged again, striking out with his leg. The person, or maybe creature, was brought up short.
'It does not have any visible muscle and is still stronger than me? What the hell is this thing?'
It continued to attack with a relentless desperation and Mark had little recourse, striking at its joints, keeping it off balance and avoiding contests of strength.
It was more like a rabid animal than a human. But it was getting slower.
It was also light, no more than 80 pounds. He could toss it about but he could not find any way to end the fight.
When Mark was thrown against a metal fence. He was able to rise just as it jumped on him.
Lifting it over his head, he slammed the creature's back down into a spike atop the fence. It thrashed around wildly and he had to hold it down to keep it from escaping.
Then the smell hit him.
Its blood was a blackish color, very thick, and smelled like rot.
Fortunately the creature was also starting to die and he backed away for some clean air.
Only then did he get the chance to take in the situation. His jacket was shredded by the things teeth, but he was mostly just bruised.
There was also a small crowd watching, and he could hear police sirens getting closer.
He gave the thing that was once human a quick check to make sure it was dead, then went down the nearest ally and got out of there as fast as he could.
The last thing he needed was a run in with the police right now.
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A.N. - I am a little unhappy with the chapter ending, I want to write the best story I can and I know I can do better. Hope you enjoyed.