Chapitre 5: Chapter 5

Boba Tea is delicious, it was definitely worth the wait in the huge line, which surprised him when they first arrived. He had never heard of Boba Tea before and yet, it had many customers.

Although, that might be due to him not getting out of his house too much. He preferred to order food and enjoy his afternoon reading comics and watching shows. Huh, he might be kind of a loner.

Well, not anymore, he thought. With his new powers, he was positive about being a more incredible person than before. It was like a switch had flipped, while before he would think about his action before doing them, now he went ahead and just did them.

After all, what could everyone else do about it, right?

"Enjoying the Boba that much, huh?" Eve asked as she noticed him being lost on his thoughts and attributed it to the Boba just being really delicious.

Which to its defense, it definitely was, he mused.

He nodded at her question, "Definitely, I just might become addicted to it."

She shook her head at his answer, "Now we have time for your story." She mentioned, trying to steer the conversation to the whole purpose of why they came here.

"Well, the principal thought that I beat some guys at the men's bathroom during third period."

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, taking a few seconds to process the information.

"Did you?" She asked out of curiosity but couldn't hide the slight hint of accusation in her tone.

"No… but, if I had, it would have been because those guys were doing something bad." The redhead's face showed understanding at his words.

"And if, if you had beaten them due to that, their actions would have been what exactly?"

"All of them ganging up to beat one dude."

"Do you know why?"

"No," he hadn't really thought about it. He wanted to try his new powers. Oh! And also save the dude.

"Hah," she snickered, "that seems like you."

"Do I seem like an idiot?" He asked with a mock offended tone.

"Do you think interfering before knowing why, is idiotic?" Eve replied with a playful tone, answering his question with another question.

He dug his own grave with that one, he realized as he had no counter.

"I meant that you seem like an act first and ask questions later, kind of person." Eve continued after noticing his silence.

"Is that good?"

"Sometimes," she replied and had a faraway look in her eyes as she remembered an event in her past. "But at least, you'll never be a bystander," she finished, unknowingly saying the last word with more force than intended.

"I'm satisfied with that," he nodded in acceptance.

They spent a few long minutes in a comfortable silence, finishing their drinks.

"Mark," Eve broke the silence first, earning her, his attention. "There's a reason I approached you today in the morning," he raised his eyebrow at her words, "I saw you fl-"

Whatever she was about to say got cut off by the sudden tremor that occurred. It sounded like a building had fallen down near their location.

Mark heard the sound and could accurately pinpoint where it had come from. It was time for some action.

"Sorry Eve, I've remembered I got to do something important, see you at school!" He threw out the first excuse that appeared in his mind and ran out of the establishment, not even bothering in hearing her reply.

He took a turn where he could see nobody was, reached into his backpack and pulled out a black mask that only covered his eyes and its surroundings. He had bought it off an online website waiting for a situation like this.

He put on the mask and left his backpack behind a trash canister. Remembering the feeling of flying, he similarly bended his knees and with a jump, he was off the floor and into the sky.

Once some respectable distance off the ground, he turned towards the sound's location and straining his eyes he could see the local bank, with a wall and part of the ceiling missing.

Having found his target, he rapidly flew towards the bank. Floating above the fallen wall, he scanned his surroundings in search of the culprit. He didn't have to look far, as the soft grass had deep footprints that led towards a guy with grey armor almost turning a corner with a large bag on his back.

He flew towards the culprit that would definitely be caught by him. Having arrived above the armored man, he let himself drop on top of him, making him fall down just as he was about to enter the sewer system.

Fortunately, they didn't fell inside. Fortunately for him, of course.

"Grr-!" The man groaned in surprise, that didn't last too long as he quickly sent a punch towards my face. I could have evaded it, but I wanted to test my durability, would his armored hand significantly hurt me?

His punch connected and my chin moved slightly to the left. However, I felt nothing, and I showed that by smiling at him.

The man's eyes widened in surprise and horror as he tried the next best thing which was to run away.

However, his plan was ruined when he felt a hand firmly grab his neck. Mark, excited to finally beat his first villain, pulled the man back, so as to make him fall on his back. Any decently strong human would have accomplished it.

But Mark was way stronger than that.

His pull, managed to send the man flying high towards a tall building at a speed faster than it was allowed on this avenue. He could see the man's eyes widened in confusion at what was happening, just as his own showed surprised at what he had done.

The second of surprised costed him. Even after pushing himself off the ground and towards the criminal as fast as he could, he realized -mid flying- that he wouldn't make it. As he hopelessly watched the man about to collide and meet his end, he witnessed a pink barrier form behind the armored man.

Contrary to what he expected the barrier worked like a trampoline, the most durable one he had seen, sending the man back towards his direction. Just as he prepared to catch him, another barrier appeared a few feet away. The man bounced off that one as well, but another appeared behind him and as he bounced between those two barriers, his momentum died off.

And with minimum effort, he caught the criminal.

"You're welcome," he heard a voice say, turning his head, he saw a very unexpected person.

"Eve?!"

"In the flesh," she grinned and chuckled at his gobsmacked expression.

He opened his mouth to respond but she cut him off saying, "Let's deal with this guy first," she motioned to the passed-out guy in my arms. I nodded and we both flew off to leave the guy near the bank for the police to take him.

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Not many words had been said between them as they left the criminal and went towards a nearby park.

"I didn't expect this at all," Mark started as they had sat in a secluded bench far away from other people. "You have powers," he stated more than asked as he had witness them.

"Yup, I was going to tell you before you ran away," this left him confused as he had no idea, why she would tell him something to personal.

"Why?"

"Because I saw you flying to school," she explained.

"How? I was very high in the sky," He didn't think she could have seen him from so far away.

"I was also flying," she smiled sheepishly, "I was behind you," she finished explaining.

"O-oh, I didn't notice you."

"Yeah, you seemed quite distracted." Conversation died off for a few minutes as they both kept silent for a while before someone broke it once again.

"So- Are you going to be a hero?" Eve asked as she watched his face go through a few emotions at her question.

"Yes, though I almost had a bad start," he replied, remembering how close a guy was to dying because of him. Eve nodded wordlessly as she comprehended what could have happened.

"Thank you," he said surprising her. "If not for you then..." He explained at her confused face.

She shook her head, "That's what friends are for, right?" For the first time since this whole ordeal, he let a rare, from the heart, smile. Which she mirrored.

"How about we team up," she begins excitedly, "I also want to give being a hero a try. It's hard but this way we can rely on each other and lessen the burden."

He wanted to reject it at first, remembering that his father, Omni-Man, was mostly a solo hero. However, this recent event of handling his first criminal, changed his mind.

"Okay," He replied. And after exchanging numbers so they could meet up later, they went their separate ways. It was almost seven and his mother would kill him more than she would now, if he was any later.

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"H-hey mom," He started nervously as he saw his mother sitting on the couch, looking at him with a frown.

"You said you would be home at five." She said calmly.

"I'm sorry but a crime happened, and I had to stop it and-" He couldn't finish explaining as his mom jumped from the couch and ran towards him, hugging him and then proceeding to look at his body in search of injuries.

"Oh my god! Are you okay? That could have been so dangerous, what were you thinking?!" She exclaimed and frantically kept searching him for injuries.

"Mom! I told you I got my powers; it was a breeze" He explained trying to calm her down, which he mostly succeeded at, thankfully.

"Still," she began, "Your dad hasn't taught you anything yet and you just got your powers, you have to be more careful, you're only fourteen!"

"It's alright I-" He swallowed as he considered his words, " -I had it under control." He decided against telling her, he had almost killed a man and would have if not for Eve.

"Regardless, we'll have a talk about this when your dad gets home." She stated, "Go take a shower and come down for dinner." She ordered and against a little voice in his head, he complied.

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"The dinner was delicious, thank you Debbie!" Exclaimed Mark's dad, as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"You're welcome, dear," she replied with a loving look at her husband. "There's something Mark wanted to tell you." She continued.

Omni-Man's eyebrows raised in surprised as he looked at his son, "What is it, Mark?"

Mark let a grin appeared on his face and then proceeded to lift the table, with two fingers. He didn't think he could prevent the table from tipping over with just one.

His father's eyes widened in surprise and then he turned to look at him. It was such an intense look, any other day Mark would have looked away, not this time. A few seconds passed until Mark heard a 'thud' noise and his father started speaking, "That- That's great Mark!"

"He also went to solve a crime alone," His mother meant it in a bad way. His father didn't take it like that. A hint of surprise and pride filled his eyes, "Good job, Mark!" He exclaimed with proudness filling his tone.

Until his mother sent his dad such a look, it even left Mark feeling fear.

"I, er- I mean, that could have been dangerous Mark," he tried to remedy his previous words, but his mother kept sending him an annoyed look. "Go brush your teeth and change your clothes, it's time I trained you."

With an excited nod, he left to get ready.

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"Hmm, not bad." His father said at watching him fly, "You are too slow, and your turns could be sharper, but we'll fix that."

"But that's enough flying for right now, hit me." He finished with a testing look in his eyes.

"What? What if I hurt you?" Mark replied.

"If you can manage to hurt me, I'll buy you that console you wanted. Now, hit me."

He didn't need to say that thrice, with a gust of air in his trail, he launched towards his father, his punch headed right to his face.

Only for a hand to catch it. "Too predictable-" He tried to explain, yet Mark's left fist had already moved to hit him. His father also caught that.

Nolan shook his head.

"No, no Mark, this is how you punch," his right hand stopped gripping his left, he calmly formed a fist and then all Mark felt was pain.

His body doubled over, and he blanked out for a second. He felt a coppery taste fill his mouth as he was left breathless for a second.

Nolan's eyes widened as he saw his son's state, "Sorry Mark, I've lost control for a sec-!"

Now, when he was distracted, it was Mark's chance to hit him, that was his thought process. But he couldn't account for his father's prowess.

It was when his father caught his punch that he saw the signs of regret leave his father's face, just as a hard look replaced it.

"Not a bad strike, it was closer this time. But you still got much to learn, that is fine, we have all night after all." That was all his father said, before Mark felt his dad's left fist hit him on the cheek and send him flying to the ground.

Mark collided heavily with the sand of Egypt and saw one or maybe two -he was unsure due to his extremely blurry vision- of his teeth lying in the sand with him. He gritted his remaining teeth to process the pain, before he stood up, and flew to try and hit his dad again.