章節 122: CHAPTER 114

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[David Lance POV]

As I got ready for the day inside my room on the base, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong. Since my meeting with Deathstroke, this was a thought that had been gnawing at me, a sense of foreboding that I couldn't quite explain because, somehow, I knew it wasn't related to Deathstroke himself.

At first, I had tried to ignore it, to push it away, but it only seemed to grow stronger.

Pushing those thoughts aside, for now, I opened the door of my room, and started to make my way down the hallway to the training area, my footsteps echoing dully in the emptiness. It was still early for today's training session, but I knew the others would be there. They were always there, saying that if the leader was training, that meant so should them.

Even Wally seemed to agree with that sentiment. But that could have something to do with Raven and M'gann.

Finally reaching the door leading to the training area, I pushed the doors open and saw the team already waiting for me inside, as I had already guessed they would be. But there was something off about their demeanor today. They all seemed almost...eager. For Superboy, Aqualad, and M'gann, that was normal, sure, but for Raven, Kid Flash, and Robin, that wasn't the case.

~You guys seem excited,~ I signed, a smile under my mask as I walked toward them.

Kid Flash was the first to respond. "Well, you know, training and all. Gotta stay in shape."

Kid Flash is being nice, well, that's... unexpected.

Artemis smirked, putting a hand on her hips. "The team told me you usually wake up pretty early, but it is eight am in the morning. That barely counts as early Bolty."

I shrugged, not really minding her teasing. It was always in good fun with her. ~Should I be worried that even you seem... eager, Raven?~

Raven shot me a look, and for a moment, I could have sworn I saw a hint of mischief in her eyes. "Not at all. I just finally started to love how the cold floor of the training room feels against my face when we spar, so don't worry, there's nothing to worry about."

I narrowed my eyes on her.

They were planning something.

But what...

"So, should we start with our training?"

I turned to see M'gann looking at me with a beaming smile. ~Yeah, let's.~

I had no idea what they had in store for me, but I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. Maybe they wanted to prank me, or perhaps they had a surprise for me. Either way, I really didn't like not knowing.

But, without the slightest of clues, there was nothing I could do to try and deduce their maybe evil machinations, especially if Raven was on their corner for this one. So, I had no other choice but to wait and see.

But seeing Kid Flash was somehow in it, it couldn't be something I would like. Then again, knowing him as I did, I knew very well he would go against everything if it meant impressing one of the girls. In short, there was a big chance his simping side would overpower the side that didn't like me.

Back to square one with this one.

"Can I spar against you first?" Superboy asked, already walking towards the training circle with a determined look in his eyes.

Pushing my thoughts aside for a moment, I nodded. ~Sure.~

I had barely entered the training circle and nodded to Superboy to begin when he instantly charged at me. Taking a quick step out of the way, I parried his first blow, punching him in the face, before blocking his next two blows, before attempting to counter his advances with an uppercut, which failed when Superboy jumped back.

Not bad.

Bracing in another defensive stance, I took a step forward, challenging him to come at me with a simple look. Grinning at this, Superboy charged at me, delivering a horizontal kick that I had to parry with my right hand, deviating the power flow of his attack to the opposite side, effectively throwing him off balance.

Taking this opportunity, I pushed my advance, raining on him with a barrage of powerful fists and kicks, each set even stronger than the last. Having trouble recovering his ground, I noticed Superboy quickly becoming overwhelmed by the onslaught of incoming blows that, even under his attacks, never seemed to stop.

"Enough!" Superboy roared in rage, but something was off about this.

Deciding it was best to retreat until I determined what he was planning, I kicked Superboy back, jumping a few feet away from him.

Superboy grinned, pulling a few smoke pellets out of his pocket. "Round two." With that said, he threw the pellets into the ground, the smoke slowly covering him completely until there was nothing to be seen around but smoke.

I smiled.

I see now. He pretended to be enraged earlier in order to confuse me, and then when that had succeeded; he used some smoke pellets to give himself the environmental advantage thanks to his infrared vision, which allows him to see my heat signal without a problem through the thick curtain of smoke.

Before, I was happy with his performance. Now, I'm fucking proud. He might even win this spar, but let's not inflate his ego just yet.

Now, I have to keep a defensive stance and wait for him to make a mistake. Without being able to see him, I'll have to rely on my other senses to-. Without being able to complete that thought, I found myself ducking under a shiver, as immediately after, something flew where my head used to be.

What the hell was that?

Before I could question that strange feeling further, another shiver forced me to jump back, and like before; Superboy struck where I had been standing, shaking the ground of the training area ever so slightly.

What was happening here?

For the next few seconds, I continued moving around the smoke, dodging Superboy as the shivers continued to come one after the other. I had no idea what was happening, but I was somehow innately evading his attacks. The most shocking fact about this was that I felt like I wasn't the one doing it, at least not completely, it was more like my body was automatically moving out of the way to avoid Superboy's attack.

"Ok, that's fucking it!" Superboy roared. "Someone clear this smoke out!"

"On it," M'gann replied quickly, pushing the smoke away, revealing an angry and confused Superboy standing a few feet away from me.

"Did you lie to me?" Superboy asked as he glared at me.

~Never,~ I replied. I already knew where this conversation was going to take us, and like him, I had no fucking clue why or how my body did what it did.

"What's going on?" Aqualad asked, giving Superboy and then me a look.

"He kept dodging me," Superboy replied, crossing his arms. "I made sure not to make a sound while approaching him, just like he taught me, so unless he has infrared vision and failed to communicate that, I don't see how he managed to dodge every attack I threw his way."

~I'll be completely honest with you-~ Once again, I felt another shiver, followed immediately by me jumping to the side, avoiding a magical blast coming from no other than Raven.

Ok, I have to admit this is creepy. It feels like someone is yanking me out of the way, like a string puppet.

"Well, that's new," Raven commented calmly.

~Why did you attack me?~ I asked with a frown.

"I saw you dodging, and I wanted to test it out," Raven replied calmly.

~As I was saying, before Raven tried to kill me,~ I sighed as Raven muttered in the back that that attack she threw my way would have, at best, thrown me to the ground. ~I am as clueless as the rest of you.~

I mean, I don't remember the original Black Bolt having Ultra Instinct or the Spider-sense.

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章節 123: CHAPTER 115

If you want to read up to 20!! chapters ahead go to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/XHduApz

Enjoy!

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[David Lance POV]

I had no idea what was happening. All my life until now, I thought I had what I had, and that would remain, and now, all of a sudden, I have developed a new superpower. Just how much I didn't know about Black Bolt? And on that matter, was that power even connected to him in the first place?

Or was I a mix of more than one hero when it came to powers?

Hopefully not. The last thing I need is getting another power that will royally fuck me up; I have more than enough, with my voice being what nukes wished to be, for me to get another ridiculously destructive power.

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[Aqualad - Kaldur'ahm POV]

"Is... he okay?" Kid Flash asked.

"He's concerned about this new... ability of his," Raven answered as Black Bolt continued to sit in total silence, tuning everyone out.

"Why? That power seemed exclusively beneficial," Kid Flash replied, tilting his head ever so slightly to the right as he looked at our leader, his eyes conveying how worried he was, and I couldn't blame him.

"I don't like agreeing with DoorDash over here, but he's right. That power seems to be exclusively beneficial," Artemis said as she crossed her arms, "So what's the big deal?"

"For a self-proclaimed genius, you are very dense sometimes, man," Robin sighed as he turned to face Kid Flash. "One of his powers has the power to level countries like it's nothing. Now make the connections."

"What does that have to... Oh, I see," Kid Flash muttered, finally realizing what our leader was thinking. What if I get another power like that one?

"And now I feel dumb," Artemis muttered under her breath. "Note to self, if you feel like agreeing with DoorDash, you are probably being dumb."

"Yep," Robin shot back with a grin.

"Enough," Raven said, her cold tone cutting through the hair like a knife. "Our teammate is worried, and our jabbering won't help him."

I nodded. "Indeed."

~I'm fine,~ Black Bolt interjected as he stood up. Normally, our leader was someone very hard to read, but right now, it was very easy to see right through him, ~Don't worry about it.~

"Bolt, I know you don't like talking with others about your problems or concerns. I mean, that much I have gathered so far, but... please rely on us, we are your team, and that should mean something," M'gann said, her voice gentle and soothing as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

Black Bolt sighed, and for a moment, I thought he was going to say something, to take M'gann's advice, but in the end, he just nodded and turned away, silently walking back to his room.

"I will talk to him," Raven said as she followed him.

"I'll go too," M'gann said, but Raven stopped her before she could even take a single step.

"No, I think it's best if I talk to him alone," Raven replied before continuing on her path to talk with our leader alone.

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[David Lance POV]

As I walked back to my room, my mind still trying to make some sense of what had happened. At least with what I knew, I could make an educated connection between this new power and the powers I already had.

It had to come from Marvel. I mean, it didn't have to, but it would make the most sense if it did, with Black Bolt already being from Marvel. Now the question was, did Black Bolt have this power, or not? I mean, with comics as they are, that's always a possibility.

In comics, universes keep getting reset, and the characters from those universes get or lose powers at the whims of the author at that time. I remembered an iteration of Superman that had to fly to a dead galaxy trillions of miles away just to sneeze because if he had sneezed close to Earth, the solar system would've gone bye-bye, or something like that, a feat of power that leaves the Superman of this Earth feeling like a human by comparison.

So, for all I knew, there was a big possibility that an iteration of Black Bolt that had the spider-sense, or whatever it was called for him.

Black sen- nope, that felt wrong before even completing it.

Bolt s- even worse.

Danger sense?

....

...

I like that one. Sometimes, less is more when it comes to names.

Sighing, I turned around to grab a bottle of water from the vending machine in the middle of the hallway, only to see Raven walking toward me.

Forgetting about the water, I turned around and quickened my pace, but the footsteps behind me kept pace with mine. "Don't you dare!"

Suddenly, as I was about to press my pace even more, I felt my body freeze under the hold of Raven's magic. Caught with nowhere to hide, I felt as I was spun around by my captor, now finding myself face to face with Raven.

Seeing my hands were not bound by her magic, I signed, giving her a beaming eye smile. ~Why hello there!~

Raven narrowed her eyes on me. "Since when do you try to avoid me?"

~Me? I would never! I just wanted to stretch my legs, you know, go for a little walk, that's all,~ I replied with an innocence that would rival that of a Disney Princess.

"Uh-huh, sure," Raven said, not looking convinced in the slightest. "Try again."

I mentally cursed as I tried to come up with an answer that wouldn't incriminate myself. ~I was just thinking about tomorrow and how to improve the training session. You know, leader stuff.~

Raven stared at me for a few seconds, her face in a complete deadpan, before she finally sighed, shaking her head. "You're a terrible liar."

~I would never!~ I replied, channeling my inner drama queen to appear utterly offended, and by that, I mean I was channeling my inner Oliver Queen.

"Normally, I would trust you to manage this as I have done before. However, this time your concern feels different, so I will intervene," Raven replied, keeping her eyes on mine. "You have two options, you either talk with me about this, or I will put a curse on you that will make all fast-food you touch disappear. And yes, that includes hotdogs."

I gasped internally. ~You would never!~

There was no spell for such a thing; I mean, why would there be? Right?

"Try me," Raven replied, her eyes still boring into mine.

Well, she finally did it as she promised she would when I blackmailed her with her reading choices some time ago. She said she would find a way to blackmail me like I had blackmailed her, and she did. Bravo to her, bravo infuckingdeed. ~I recognize game when I see it, so you win; I will talk about this with you, but can you at least let me go? This is really uncomfortable.~

It felt really weird not being able to move at all.

Raven stared at me for a few more seconds before finally releasing me from her hold. "Very well."

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