Chapter 47: Home
(One Month Later Inside of Bayview)
Mark's breath formed small clouds in the frosty air as he sprinted through the snowy forest, each footstep crunching in the thick layer of snow. He glanced back over his shoulder, just in time to see Raven's eyes flash purple. Instinctively, he ducked as a bolt of dark energy zipped past him, scorching the tree trunk behind him. Without breaking stride, he vaulted over a fallen log, then pushed off from a nearby tree, propelling himself into a mid-air flip. As he twisted upside down, he extended his hand, shaping it like a gun, and fired a barrage of red spheres.
The orbs whizzed through the air, crackling with gravitational energy. Raven, hovering effortlessly among the trees, flicked her wrist, conjuring a translucent barrier that absorbed the first few impacts. She twisted her body, weaving through the oncoming projectiles, each sphere smashing into the trunks around her and sending splinters flying. Mark landed with a thud, his knees easily absorbing the impact. He felt the ground tremble slightly beneath him as he gathered his strength, with his super strength he pushed off the ground and shot forward at incredible speeds. The landscape blurred as he sped through the forest, closing the distance between him and Raven.
Raven's cloak billowed around her as she ascended higher into the trees, her eyes fixed on Mark. She extended both hands, summoning tendrils of dark energy that snaked through the air, seeking their target. Mark saw them coming and leapt sideways, twisting his body in a tight corkscrew to avoid the dark tendrils. He landed on the side of a tree trunk, gravity shifting under his control to allow him to stand perpendicular to the ground. With a grin, he pushed off the tree and launched himself at Raven with a burst of speed.
Raven raised a hand, summoning a massive sphere of purple energy above her head. She hurled it toward Mark, who didn't stop, focusing his power into his palm. With a roar, he swung his arm in a wide arc, generating a large Red Sphere that collided with the purple sphere, shattering it into a thousand shimmering fragments. Raven responded by channelling more of her power, her eyes glowing brighter as she enveloped herself in a dark aura. She darted through the trees, her movements enhanced by telekinesis, making her faster and more agile.
Mark grinned, feeling the adrenaline surge through his veins. He extended his hand and focused, manipulating the gravity around him to lift off the ground. It wasn't as natural as Ravens flying but he was getting better at it every time they sparred. He soared after Raven, weaving through the branches and ducking under low-hanging limbs. Holding his hand out he manipulated the gravity around him and he created a series of blue spheres that floated behind him. Each sphere pulsed with power. He directed them toward Raven, hoping to disrupt her flight and give him an opening.
Raven twisted in mid-air, her cloak trailing like a shadow. As the blue spheres made contact with her she burst into a group of ravens that flew towards Mark, slamming into him with more force than he expected. Mark swatted at them with his enhanced strength, each blow dissipating a raven into wisps of dark smoke. He felt a surge of satisfaction as he cleared a path, but his momentary distraction caused him not to notice Raven appearing above him, he tried to summon another red Sphere but it was too late. Extending her hand she sent a wave of telekinetic force at him. Mark crossed his arms in front of his face, bracing himself. The impact sent him hurtling backwards, crashing through trees and landing hard in the snow. He groaned, shaking off the dizziness, and sprang back to his feet.
He planted his feet firmly in the snow and extended both hands, focusing intently. The ground beneath Raven began to tremble as Mark manipulated the gravitational field around her. She looked down, sensing the shift, and quickly ascended to avoid being trapped. But Mark was ready; he leapt into the air, using his powers to propel himself at her with incredible speed. Raven's eyes widened slightly as Mark closed the distance. She raised her hands to summon another barrier, but Mark anticipated the move. At the last second, he shifted his trajectory, spiralling around her by increasing her gravity and orbiting her, connecting a roundhouse kick with her barrier. Raven was launched away inside her damaged shield crashing through the trees and bouncing off the ground. Mark didn't let up however as he continued to increase the gravity surrounding her, Raven's barrier flickered under the intense gravitational pressure. She struggled to maintain it, her eyes narrowing in concentration. Mark pressed his advantage, increasing the intensity of the gravity well until Raven's shield shattered. She was forced to her knees by the intense pressure but she started to counteract it using her telekinesis; her eyes started to thrum with power as she tapped more and more into her magic.
He didn't wait for her to recover. Mark charged forward, his fists crackling with gravitational energy. He swung at her, but Raven was faster. She caught his wrist and twisted, using his momentum to throw him into the snow. Mark rolled with the impact, springing back to his feet and launching himself at her again. They clashed in mid-air, a flurry of strikes and counterstrikes. Mark couldn't understand how Raven was able to match him in speed and power. She ducked under his punches, weaving around his kicks, and retaliated with blasts of dark energy that forced him to stay on the defensive. Mark felt the weight of Raven's power bearing down on him, but he refused to back down. He increased his own gravity, making himself heavier and his attacks stronger. Each punch he threw now had incredible force behind it, causing the air to whip around.
Raven's eyes widened as she sensed the shift in his power. She enhanced her own telekinesis, surrounding herself with a swirling vortex of her power, her strength and speed increased as she enhanced it to an even greater degree. The two of them collided causing a massive shockwave that snapped trees in half due to the power and cracked the very ground beneath them. Mark gritted his teeth, pushing against the telekinetic barrier. He swung a powerful punch, breaking through Raven's defences and landing a solid hit. She was thrown back, but recovered quickly, retaliating with a large hammer made of purple energy smashing against Mark that sent him skidding across the ground and smashing into a boulder.
He rolled to his feet, panting but exhilarated. "Not bad," he muttered, a grin spreading across his face.
Raven's response was another blast of energy, but this time Mark was ready. He raised his hand, creating a massive blue sphere that absorbed the incoming attack. With a swift motion, he directed the sphere back at Raven. Raven's eyes flashed as she conjured a barrier to deflect the attack. The sphere exploded on impact, sending shockwaves rippling through the forest, however as Raven was thrown back she disappeared into a mass of ravens once again before appearing on the ground. Mark tried to take advantage of the situation flying with his powers as well as increasing his speed by using an application of attraction and repel.
He swung a gravity-enhanced punch, but Raven dodged, her movements a blur. She countered with a telekinetic push, but Mark braced himself, using his own gravitational powers to anchor himself to the ground. He retaliated with a series of rapid punches. Raven blocked and deflected with impressive skill, but Mark's relentless assault began to wear her down. He could see the strain in her eyes, the effort it took to keep up with his attacks.
In a final burst of energy, Mark launched himself at Raven, intending to tackle her to the ground. But she was faster. She sidestepped at the last moment, time seemed to slow as Mark saw dark purple power explode out of Raven and an instant later it drew back into her. Raven tapped his shoulder, Mark didn't know what happened for a second, but then he was shot across the ground, he tried to stop himself but he was going so fast and travelling with such force he couldn't concentrate enough to use his powers and so he could only dig his hands into the ground to slow himself down. A huge groove in the ground was created in the forest and it stretched almost two miles, at the end of it was Mark who lay on his back groaning. Mark lay there for a moment, panting and laughing. "Alright, alright, you win," he conceded, raising a hand in mock surrender.
Raven landed gracefully beside him, her expression as calm as ever. She extended a hand to help him up, her eyes softening slightly. Mark pulled himself out of the ground with her help, brushing off the clinging earth. "Thanks," he said, still catching his breath. "I think I'm getting better."
"Your use of gravity has improved considerably," Raven said with a nod.
Mark stretched cracking his back "Not enough if I still lost," he said with a chuckle as he began walking back to the house with Raven floating behind him. "How did you make yourself so strong anyway?" He asked.
"Telekinesis, I can use it as a second skin and use it to enhance my attacks and move myself faster," she replied as she used it around her hand before slamming it into a tree bursting through it and felling it.
"It's no different than what you do with gravity," she added.
"Yours seems more versatile," Mark commented.
Raven however shook her head "Your abilities have a lot of versatility as well, it'll also only grow in power as you keep using it."
Mark smiled at her before it fell from his face and he sighed. "I just wish I knew the extent of my abilities, some of them just don't make sense," he said before lifting his hand up, it then hardened as it was covered with a greyish-black metallic substance. He'd been playing around with this ability for a while and found he could shape it in a multitude of different ways.
His hand started to sharpen and in less than a second a blade was formed in its place, he casually sliced through the air carving through a thick tree-like butter. He could cover his whole body in whatever this substance was, when it covered his head it gave him a visor of sorts that increased his visual acuity and gave him access to other spectrums. "Perhaps you are a cyborg," Raven offered as she floated next to him. The way the black substance formed and changed on his skin reminded her of Victor, his body was mixed with alien technology, perhaps Mark was similar.
Mark shrugged "I'm sure I'll find out one day, no point worrying about it too much," he said while walking causally.
While Mark thought he truly meant his words Raven knew better, she could feel the pain and loss he felt at having such a large part of himself missing. Raven often thought they were similar in this regard, she had lost a large part of herself a long time ago, but whenever she thought that it made her angry. It was Raven's fault that she was here, Mark had no choice in the matter. When she compared their situations it made her feel like a fraud.
Mark and Raven both walked back to the house making light conversation, mostly about how Mark could improve when it came to using his powers. When they came within sight of the house Mark smiled as it was a far cry different from the condemned ruin that he'd seen when he first came here. Over the past few weeks, Mark had been fixing the place up, and he'd been doing quite a good job of it. The outside of the house had been painted white, though he and Raven had argued for an entire afternoon about making it that colour; she still thought painting it all black was a good idea and it would not make them look evil.
Mark did have to go into town for the supplies however, while he could get as much wood from the forest as he needed, he didn't want to start making his own pain or scrounging up clay for bricks. At first, he was going to go at night, take what he needed from the Home Depot knock off and leave the money there; sure it wasn't entirely ethical but it meant Mark didn't have to face anyone. Bayview was a small town and he did not doubt that everyone knew what had happened at this point.
Raven however stopped that line of thinking immediately and said he couldn't hide forever; Mark didn't fail to see the hypocrisy in that considering Raven made herself invisible to everyone but him. Though when he brought it up she asked if she wanted to be like her, and truthfully he didn't. In the end, Raven managed to convince him to go into town during the day to purchase these things. Admittedly it was tough, people looked at him and whispered, especially when he went into the store but in the end nothing horrible happened and he bought everything he needed to.
Painting was the easiest part, before that he had to replace and fix all the damaged and rotted wood. Though even more difficult than that was the brick, he'd have to break the sections which were too damaged to fix and build it anew; while not difficult it was pretty long, even with his strength and speed. After constant work over a month, the place started to look good, and it turned quickly from a ruin into what resembled a home.
When they walked inside Mark headed into the living room while Raven was headed upstairs, however before she could leave Mark tapped her on the shoulder. "Wanna try the new gaming system?" He asked with a small smile. For the past few months, Mark had been determined to find a game that he could beat Raven at; since she destroyed him at most of the classical board games he decided to give modern ones a spin.
Raven was about to refuse, but when she tried to form the words in her mouth she found that she couldn't. She liked spending time with Mark and playing games with him made her happy. "Only for a little bit..." she replied.
"Great, I hope you're ready to get thrashed, I'm sure I used to be a pro gamer before I came here," he said with a smirk as he led her into the living room.
...
As it turns out Raven was better at modern games than Mark expected her to be and for the next few hours, she beat him at every game that Mark had purchased, even when he tried to cheat.
"What the hell!" Mark shouted as he tapped the controller buttons incredibly fast.
"I got that power-up! You saw that right!"
"Who the hell is that? How did he knock me off the track!!!"
"Where the hell did you go! Is that a shortcut? No one told me there were shortcuts!"
"You better not blue shell me!"
Mark sighed as Raven raced past him and into first place where she won their twentieth game. He couldn't help but consider that it must be a statistical anomaly that he lost so much to her, he can't be that bad at games surely. Mark put the controller down before reaching forward on the table where he picked up his notebook, inside he'd been making a note of every game he played with Raven as well as tallying all their wins and losses. As expected he had no wins, so he proceeded to put a mark next to the raven's name in the video game console section.
"Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow..." Mark said with a sigh.
"Probably not," Raven commented.
"You know what... shut up," Mark said weakly before turning away with a small pout. However, he did notice that Raven had a small smile on her face, a far cry from her usual stoic expression.
They sat together in silence for a while before Mark turned to Raven. "Why don't you come with me next time I go into town?" He asked.
Raven looked at him and raised an eyebrow "No," she said without a moment's thought.
"Come on it'll be fun, you've been trapped up here for who knows how long, it would be good for you to be around people," Mark tried to reason.
"I'm invisible to everyone, they cannot see or hear me, apart from you no one knows I exist," she stated.
"Undo it then," Mark said with a shrug.
"It's better if I just... stay here," She tried to say.
Mark just raised an eyebrow at her as she tried to come up with excuses but nothing convinced him. In the end, Raven sighed "I'll think about it."
———————————————————-
Kent Nelson sat in his scrying chamber in the Tower of Fate, he had been watching the world fall increasingly closer to the brink of ruin. The balance had been shifted and so the world would soon fall into chaos if nothing was done; for weeks he heard the whispers of Nabu.
It urged him to wear the helmet, to help him restore order, but he couldn't. He was so tired, he didn't want to keep living in this world, he wanted to join his wife in whatever came next. Yet the temptation to don the helmet once more was almost unbearable.
Balance was a curious thing.
As the world shifted to Chaos, Order got stronger and so the powers of Nabu would be powerful indeed. Nabu had not been able to reach his thoughts so often before, but now he was almost able to influence him without him even wearing the helmet, And that was after he had put a shield around the helmet.
It didn't help the guilt he felt at not helping the Justice League. He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a rumble emanate throughout the tower. He frowned, the Tower of Fate existed out of space and time when it was not summoned; no one should be able to access it let alone attack it.
He stood up with a little difficulty having to use his walking stick to push himself up. No longer being empowered by the Helmet of Nabu his body had become weak, though he was grateful it didn't affect his magic.
He nearly tripped as the tower rumbled again. "This is impossible..." Kent said as his eyebrows raised in shock. He had a deep connection to the tower and so he was able to feel what the attackers were doing.
They were ripping the Tower of Fate from their location and forcing it to materialise in the material world. He rushed down the steps of the tower hoping to stop what they were doing but it was too late, when he reached the corridor that led to the entrance it exploded inwards sending him to the floor.
Kent groaned, shards of wooden shrapnel had embedded themselves into his body, but despite that, he forced himself up gripping his cane that doubled as a staff. As the smoke cleared he saw a group of people enter the tower, they wore blood-red robes and the one in the lead carried a spear that looked as if it was made of pure starlight.
"Is that..."
"AAAAAHH!" Kent shouted in pain as a blast from the spear severed his legs from the knees forcing him to the ground.
"Get the helmet..." the staff wielder commanded and the men simply walked past Kent despite his efforts to stop them.
"We came here expecting a fight, but instead all I see is an old man waiting to die," the man with the staff said as he walked closer to Kent.
"How did you get that..." Kent stuttered out as he gripped his fists in pain.
The man smiled. "Our lord wished for the Spear of Destiny, it is our pleasure to serve him."
It made sense to Kent how they had managed to break into the tower now, the Spear of Destiny was incredibly powerful and breaking through the numerous protections of the Tower would've been child's play for it. He had to warn the Justice League, there were many artefacts that were too powerful and dangerous to fall into the hands of these people.
Soon the other men returned, one of them presenting the Helmet of Nabu to the staff wielder. "A Lord of Order reduced so low..."
"Soon it won't matter, soon the Church of Blood will summon their lord into this world and watch as he takes it for his own!"
Kent's vision went blurry as he watched the men leave the tower, he grabbed his cane and with the last of his strength, he whispered a spell into it. However after he completed it he dropped the cane having no more strength left, soon his eyes closed and he started to fall asleep.
"Inza..."
(AN: So we are done with another chapter, things are progressing both with Mark and Raven and the wider plot as a whole. Things are going to come to an end soon, and by that, I mean shit is going to go down. I'm
Sure those of you who know about the church of blood know who the master is. Anyway I hope you liked the chapter.)
If you like my stuff consider supporting me
Patreon.com/captainalfie78works
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone