New Skill, Zenkai

10 advance chapters in my Pat.reon. Pat.reon.com/Saintbarbido.

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(General P.O.V)

The video of the fight between Valiant, Spiderman and The unidentified creature most had taken to call, Doomsday had hit online and was being spread at a frightening pace. New yorkers were restless. Most of the affected had lost loved ones, businesses and homes, which sparked protests across the streets and a rally over at the Central Park. 

Some of the protesters advocated for the government to arrest the 2 vigilantes for the destruction caused. Those being the ones who had been most affected by the fight. The whole battle had levelled close to 6 blocks. The total death toll from before Valiant and Spiderman joined the fight was 52 with the injured being 76. 

The smart ones asked themselves what would have happened if the 2 superheroes hadn't decided to join the fight. Most ignored that sentiment, choosing to blame everything wrong with their lives on the Vigilantes. Newsrooms and newspapers had taken that story and blown it out of proportion. Just enough to show that something was egging them on. Especially after the mayor's office decided to not take any drastic measures in curtailing the efforts of Spiderman and Valiant. Showing that at least there was someone in the office who used their head.

2 days later, after the fight, an anonymous cash  account had been opened to help the people affected and donations from others accepted. This helped immensely and a few weeks after the incident, the whole thing had been quickly forgotten. 

But that was just on the surface. Forces were moving. Some to destroy Valiant and others to use him. By far the most dangerous of them was Roland Cox, the leader of the Paladins. A group whose main goal was to kill Jumpers by any means necessary. 

Jumpers were a select few people born with the ability to teleport to anywhere in the world. The Paladins goal was to eradicate them out of existence.

When Valiant and in extension Spiderman had hit the scene, he'd been all too eager to take them down. His belief was that superhumans couldn't be allowed to live. They disrupted the social order of civilization too much. They went on with their lives portraying no sense of urgency and unmindful of the consequences of their actions. It didn't matter that these 2 unusual enhanced beings didn't have the same powers normal jumpers did. They had massive firepower and wrecking almost six blocks in Manhattan was more than enough to show how dangerous they were.

So Roland understood his normal routine wouldn't cut it for these guys. He needed a way to fight them on equal footing. 

" Sir, we've triangulated their location. It's a huge abandoned building. Chances are, that that's their base of operation."

A techie told him rousing Roland from his thoughts. 

He walked over and looked at the building displayed on the screen. They had used satellite footage, street cameras, on scene trackers and information from bystanders to map out the area where Spiderman and Valiant mostly appeared or disappeared at most. After a month of those efforts they'd finally cracked it. That was mostly in part because the Paladins had wide resources at their disposal.

Roland's forehead scrunched up in distaste. He'd arrived at a plan he wasn't happy to execute. To match these superhumans he was going to need his very own superhuman. Luckily, his job gave him access to that rare commodity. 

(Brian's P.O.V)

When I'd woken up, my whole being had felt so light. I'd clenched my fist and felt the power there. Marvelling at the high I was getting off my powers. I'd quickly called up the Interface to look at the difference.

For starters my ki or life force had increased.

[Name: Brian Parker]

Cultivation level: N/A

Life force energy: 120

Body strength: Superhuman.

Soul strength: N/A

Mental strength: High Psionic.

Special skills: Echo.

                         Danger Sense.

                         Life force manipulation.

                         True Reveal.

                         Post battle Adaptive physiology -                                                    -: A skill acquired by using your Life Force manipulation to forcefully extract the Goblin's life force and merge it with yourself to replenish your vital energy. Whenever you face a foe as strong or stronger than you and you survive, your body adapts to the damage sustained and grows stronger. The effect is lessened as compared to it's original wielder, The Goblin.

My eyes widened in surprise. This...this is something I never knew I needed. At least that fight with the Goblin wasn't as meaningless as I'd thought. This new skill was going to help me a lot especially in the aftermath of losing my cultivation. It would suffice to support me before I got my cultivation back. But Post Battle Adaptive physiology was too long. I went and changed it to Zenkai on the Interface. 

That meant, fights, fights and more fights. So I needed to get a headstart on deciphering the Watcher's means to dimensional travel. This world wasn't exactly overflowing with strong opponents to push me. God, if only I was in Dragonball. I'd train with Master Roshi, get a few nifty abilities like the Kamehameha, use the dragonballs and wish for something like super regeneration, get a genius like bulma to build me a gravity room...wait I had my very own genius. And now that I think about it, that had also been a part of my plans.

With my funds and Peter's mind, I'm sure we could come up with something. But I'm not really sure if Peter can do it alone. What about Dr. Otto Octavius? No...that guy is too busy with his clean energy project. I doubt he can take time out of his work to help me. 

So that only leaves Seals. Which are inefficient due to the low quality of energy in this world. Ki doesn't work that well with seals either, so the only option is to bench this matter for the time being. I decided to focus on gaining control and getting more familiar with Ki first instead of jumping in towards getting more power. The jump I'd made would hopefully let me figure out how to fly under my own power. That would cover mobility which was something I was lacking.

I also set up an account to help out the people affected from the fight between The Goblin and I. It was just something I did to get rid of the guilt inside me for being the main reason why Osborn attained such a huge power level. He'd become a legit threat to me when I'd been absolutely sure that no one could match me anymore. That served as a wake up call to quell any arrogance I'd had before. Justified or not. 

That had all been 2 weeks before. 

I was reminiscing while finalizing a deal I had been planning towards for a few months now. A half an hour later and I had the deed for the huge abandoned building that housed my secret base. It's actually funny that no one had tried to buy it before. 

From what the real estate expert I'd contacted about selling the building had told me, history fanatics, druggies and bums were a real problem. They were a huge obstacle in renovating the place and hence a deal breaker for anyone interested in acquiring it's ownership. 

That wasn't a problem for me however. All I needed was to create a seal surrounding the property to ward off people with bad intentions and I was golden. A low level seal like that was easy enough. 

I walked out of the restaurant I'd met the real estate expert, in deep thought and stumbled into someone.

"Oof!"

They bounced back off my chest and I reached out to grab them before they fell.

"Brian?"

I took a closer look and felt like smacking myself. Red hair, beautiful green eyes and a body to due for. 

"Oh hey MJ. Sorry about that."

She hefted her handbag and cocked an eyebrow.

"Didn't think I'd catch you on this side of the city."

She said with a little surprise. 

"It shocked me too honestly. Usually I'm content to just stay at home and never leave."

She laughed at the joke and I noticed that I liked the sound. 

"So what about you? You came here alone so I'm guessing you're here to meet someone. A date maybe?"

She snorted.

" I wish. No, I'm here to meet my...agent."

"Your agent?"

I rose an eyebrow.

She shyly swept a few strands of hair behind her ears and nodded.

" She's more like a mentor but yeah...I figured I got one for my..."

"Acting. I know."

She blushed. We were silent for a while just looking at each other.

"So is she already here or can I wait with you? We need to catch up a little."

She looked at her watch.

" The meeting is set for about 20 minutes away. So yeah sure."

"Do you always come to your appointments that early?"

I asked while leading her to a table at the corner of the restaurant.

"Yeah I think it builds a good habit."

We talked and didn't notice time passing. An hour later and her agent didn't show up, calling to reschedule for another day. So we decided to leave for home together. All in all she made me laugh and I genuinely had a good time. At the end of it, with us standing before her door, it kind of felt like a date.

"I had an awesome time MJ."

She smiled showing off those perfect pearly whites.

"Yeah me too Brian. We should do this again sometime."

I surprised myself by nodding.

"Yeah we should."

Her smile got even wider.

"Ok, what about this Saturday? There's a theater show I'm planning to go watch. You can come with me."

Oh. Looking at her earnest eyes, I had trouble saying no.

"I'm down with that."

She breathed out a sigh of relief and pulled closer towards me. Then she pecked me on the cheek, very near the lips. Her hot breath on my skin sent tingles across my face and I found myself pulling her close and closing the gap separating us.

Then we kissed. It was gentle. Her lips were soft and I lost myself in them before she broke off to breath. I let her go and stepped back. I was confused. Both by my actions and by hers. I didn't let her see it though and regained my composure very quickly.

"Goodnight MJ. I'll see you on Saturday."

"See you on Saturday and say hi to your family."

I nodded and made sure she reached her door, opened and closed it behind her.

I then left for my house. All the while, my mind was on the unexpected kiss we'd shared. Why had I done that? Could it be that I like her? It was clear to see that she was into me and I could infer that on some of her past actions but...my eyes were set on Natasha, so why? And why did I agree on a date. Wouldn't that just complicate things even more?

I shook my head. I was going to have to think about this another time. For now though, I was looking forward to Aunt May's Lasagna.