Full Paragon ALL the way!

by Bakkughan

Tye Charles is just your average teenager in your average world... until robots start flying, aliens start invading and weird little 2-dimensional boxes only he can see start talking to him about quests and skills. Still, as an avid Gamer, Tye is eager to find his way through this weird turn his life has taken and become a hero along the way! Just gotta see how much XP he can grind

1. Tutorial 1

TUTORIAL 1.1

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If you had asked him yesterday to describe himself in a word, Tye Charles would've said "average". Well, he'd probably have asked "who are you and what are you doing in my house?" but that's neither here nor there. The point is, Tye was a rather average guy, all things considered. Average height and looks, did good in school but was never at the top of his class, played a sport but going pro wasn't on the table or one of his dreams, had a circle of friends though they weren't as close-knit as the famous F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (though to be fair, who really was?) and had several hobbies that he consistently tended to neglect, other than gaming.

In fact, if there was anything about Tye that was out of the ordinary, it was his passion for gaming. He loved every aspect of it and dabbled in almost every genre, though his true love would always remain RPG's. Something about getting into the body of a great hero questing through the lands in search of adventure all the while performing good deeds (full-Paragon all the way, Tye could never really commit to the Renegade path since it upset his companions too much) spoke to Tye on an almost spiritual level. League of Warcraft, Witcher Effect, CyberHunter World just to name a few of the games that Tye had invested literal hundreds of hours of his life into, grinding for that extra-high stat piece of armor, questing for that unobtainable weapon, replaying storylines over and over for that… special cutscene, Tye had to admit (and had absolutely no trouble doing so) that gaming was his life.

However, if you were to ask Tye now to describe himself in one world, he probably wouldn't be able to still say "average". Well, he'd probably say "who the fuck are you and why the fuck aren't your running for your life?" but that's neither here nor there. Because, in the midst of explosions, screams and crashing cars, Tye had to consider the fact that it suddenly appeared as if gaming really had become his life.

Literally.

New Quest unlocked!

Fly, you fool!

An epic battle between a hero and a villain is underway! Unfortunately, you are neither one of them and instead about to be run underfoot. Get out of here!

Quest success: + 100 XP, Survival.

Quest failure: High possibility of death.

Bonus Objective unlocked!

I'll save you!

Save 5 other people! (0/5)

Quest success: + 50 XP, + Fame, + rep with ?, ?.

Quest failure: None (other than the crushing guilt of course).

Bonus Objective unlocked!

They won't be needing it anymore.

Loot 5 other people! (0/5)

Quest success: + 75 XP, + Infamy, + rep with ?, ?.

Quest failure: Jailtime (better get a good lawyer).

Hidden Bonus objective unlocked!

Medic! Uhm, actually, Mechanic!

This Quest's objectives are hidden until completed. (0/1)

Quest success: + 500 XP, + large rep with ? OR ?, + massive rep with ? OR ?.

Quest failure: Absolute possibility of death.

The proof of which was floating about a foot away from his face in neat, light blue glowing letters, set against a square black box with a white outline. It was the type of box he had seen hundreds, even thousands of times before in his life. Quest boxes. Almost every single game had them, they were as much a staple of gaming as throwing your controller because the opponent was a filthy camper with a sniper rifle. However, that was just the thing, wasn't it? A staple of gaming. Not of life and definitely not his life!

Another rumbling crash shook the air in his lungs as the beaten-up car he was sheltering behind shuddered on the broken tarmac. Despite his rising panic, Tye's eyes snapped back towards one particular line in the quest box that had appeared out of nowhere.

Quest failure: High possibility of death.

"Well then…" Tye muttered to himself in shock, before deciding that, no matter how strange this sudden box was, it wasn't wrong. Tye could see that the battle between the two flying figures shooting lasers and missiles at each other was steadily getting closer and he didn't need an imaginary box to tell him that was bad for his health.

"It's just… a coping mechanism! Yeah! Mind is panicking so it falls back on something familiar. That's it! Just a coping mechanism!" Tye kept whispering to himself as he began crawling towards the side of the highway.

He didn't really have a plan in mind on what he'd do when he actually reached said side, which was roughly ten meters away from him, but he figured he should have access to some better options over there than if he remained stuck in the middle of a bombed-out highway.

Another explosion, which Tye had quickly come to associate with the flying tank as the smaller golden-red form seemed to mostly rely on lasers instead of the missiles its enemy was liberally using. The flash of light, sudden rush of heat and worrying rumbling underneath his feet prompted Tye to pick up the pace, going from his crawl into a stumbling (and panicked) sprint.

Stealth wouldn't do him much good if it didn't get him out of ground zero fast enough to clear the massive AoE's the combatants were throwing around.

'… you know, maybe I do play too much games if I'm approaching this from a game perspective…' Tye thought to himself, though as another box popped into his vision, overlaying itself over the Quest box, he figured it was somewhat appropriate.

He didn't have time to read the new notification, instead sliding to a halt when he reached the edge of the highway. There was a raised balustrade, but on the other side of it there were a series of smaller inroads and empty lots.

Taking a moment to catch his hurried breath, Tye's eyes almost automatically slid to the new notification, his eyebrows rising in bafflement at the message.

Skill created!

Sprint (LVL 1. 0/100 XP)

Strut your stuff, but do it fast(er)! Increases movement speed by 10% per LVL of Skill. 10 SP/sec.

"Sure… why not?" Tye muttered to himself, only slightly hysterical, which he thought was rather fair, considering the situation.

Speaking of said situation, Tye's attention was brutally dragged away from his own problems to the general mayhem at hand when the golden-red form slammed into the car Tye had been huddled behind only seconds ago. Seeing the metal body contort around the armoured man (or perhaps robot? Tye couldn't be sure and was in no mood to stick around and find out) as if it were made of tinfoil while the car itself was pushed along the tarmac for nearly a full meter made Tye feel suddenly very grateful for the impossible boxes that told him to vamoose his ass.

Stuck in place like a deer caught in headlights, Tye stood frozen as the armoured man tried to pull himself from the wreckage, only to be tackled seemingly out of nowhere by the flying tank he had been fighting. The already wrecked car was reduced to paltry shrapnel as the tank seemed intent on pushing the smaller robotic figure straight through the mangled vehicle (and possibly through the mangled tarmac as well).

The red-golden figure struck out an arm at the massive humanoid tank, palm open and facing outwards, a now familiar whining sound spooling up, light building up in the centre of the man's hand. The hulking adversary proved to be deceptively fast however, an arm that looked like it was ripped straight from an auto-assembly line shooting out and pinning the smaller man's arm back down to his side.

The red-golden figure was clearly struggling, but between his awkward angle and his vastly larger opponent, it didn't seem as if he'd be able to reposition himself for a second shot. His enemy was very clearly aware of this, judging by the low chuckling that came over a set of hidden speakers, a deep voice distorted by a slight metallic twang.

"Not so fast, Tony. I don't fall for the same trick twice." The behemoth rumbled out, malicious amusement audible to all as the now-named Tony tried (and failed) to point his lasers towards his opponent.

Tye wasn't exactly sure how he knew it, but he could tell that Tony was trying to let off an attack through the glowing light centred square in the middle of his plated chest, its shine increasing as the glow from his hands lessened. Tye also knew that it would take too long: already, Tony's enemy had shifted his right arm so that the minigun attached to it was pointed square at Tony's golden face plate.

From the little Tye had managed to catch of the fight between the two combatants, Tony's armor was deceptively durable but he highly doubted that it could stand up to such a brutal onslaught when delivered from less than a foot away. Tony seemed to share his bleak prognosis, judging from his increased struggling.

Tye would never be able to quite tell what caused him to turn back towards the fight, bend down and pick up a piece of rubble that was slightly larger than his fist. He'd remain absolutely baffled that he, as a practically powerless human, would then do something utterly stupid.

"Hey! Tin man! Pick on someone your own size!" Tye yelled out, chucking the piece of rubble as hard as he could.

Now, sports had never really been Tye's thing and his interest in baseball was pretty much nil, but even he had gotten caught up in the excitement and mock-warfare that was dodgeball. Which meant that, if he were to target a tank-sized humanoid with a small piece of stone, he was very likely to actually hit said target.

Though as the piece of rock 'ting!'-ed off the tank's helmet and its baleful glowing eyes slowly tracked towards him, Tye wished with every fibre of his being that he was a lot shittier at sports. Or at the very least at throwing stuff.

Straightening somewhat (which meant it was still almost twice as tall as Tye himself), the flying tank stared directly at the young man, an annoyed growl coming over its speakers.

"Why you little-"

That was as far as it got, because Tony had finally finished charging up his attack, a bright beam almost five times the size of the lasers he had been shooting from his hands lancing out from the middle of his chest and slamming straight into the tank's belly. The impact was strong enough to both push Tony's torso a bit further into the car wreck and lift the flying tank straight off its trunk-like feet, sending it sailing down the length of the highway with a pained grunt.

Finally, Tony managed to free himself of the ruins of the car, falling back onto the pavement on one knee, his arms held out at his sides and slightly behind him as the lights in his palms brightened in intensity again.

Right before he blasted off though, Tony's helmet turned towards Tye's direction, who had been unable to move from his spot, frozen in fear when the tank's eyes landed on him. He was shaken out of it when Tony spoke up, his voice carrying the same distortion that his enemy had, but his tone far kinder.

"Hey kid!"

Tye startled, before looking at Tony's faceplate. The glowing eyes were as expressionless as the flying tank's, the mouthpiece of the helmet giving Tony a forbidding and serious look. Still, Tye could tell that the man inside was grinning his way.

"Nice throwing arm."

And then with a blast of light and a blur of metallic red and gold, Tony had blasted off, flying back into the fight. Roused from his fear, Tye's eyes slid from the rapidly shrinking armor to the new screens that had popped up in front of his face.

Skill created!

Throw (LVL 1. 5/100 XP)

Hit your targets, but from a distance! Increases accuracy by 10% per LVL of Skill. 5 SP.

Hidden Objective complete!

Medic! Uhm, actually, Mechanic!

Impact the fight between Iron Monger and Iron Man, benefitting either one. Can only benefit one. (1/1) – Complete.

Quest rewards: + 500 XP, + large rep with SHIELD OR Hydra, + massive rep with Tony Stark OR Obadiah Stane.

Codex entries unlocked! (+ 40 XP)

Iron Man (1/10)

Iron Monger (1/3)

SHIELD (1/25)

Hydra (1/40)

You have levelled up! 1 - 2!

+10 HP and SP! +5 to all stats!

You have levelled up! 2 - 3!

+11 HP and SP! +5 to all stats!

You are now Level 3! (140/175 XP)

Gained 2 Perk Points!

There was… a lot to unpack in the multitude of boxes that had suddenly sprung into existence and Tye felt himself become slightly lightheaded at it all. However, overriding all of that was this immense feeling deep inside of him. Like he had simultaneously gotten a deep-tissue massage all over his body, been injected with a mixture of coffee, cocaine and red bull and just gotten a lapdance at a high-end strip club. It was hard to describe simply because Tye had never experienced anything close to a sensation like this.

He imagined this was what it felt like when you went skydiving, that moment when you jump clear off the plane and start hurdling towards the ground as gravity encompasses you in an unyielding grip, but increased tenfold.

In short, despite huddling in terror only minutes ago, Tye felt good. He very literally felt better than he ever had during his entire life.

'So that's… levelling up, I guess.' Tye thought to himself as he stared down at his hands.

He still wasn't quite sure if he believed his eyes continually insisting that, yes, those were slightly transparent two-dimensional boxes floating in front of his face for no reason. However, if they were the reason for those few moments of sheer… potential that he had briefly felt when they told him he had levelled up…

"Alright then, boxes. I don't know where you came from, or what you are, or what you want with me. But alright. I'll play your game." Tye said out loud, immediately feeling silly afterwards as he was pretty sure to the outside world it looked as if he was talking to thin air.

Neither Tony nor the tank he had been fighting (apparently called Iron Monger) had seemed to notice a bunch of 2D squares floating in front of his face, after all. Speaking off the two armored combatants, yet another explosion rattled the street and Tye sprung into action. He figured the quest boxes wouldn't give him an answer (though he had been really hoping for a Tutorial pop-up), having given all the information he as a PC would need.

Given the greyed-out areas of the quest he inadvertently completed and the two other bonus objectives, it was pretty clear the boxes were roughly giving him a Paragon and Renegade path: either save people or loot them. While the renegade path did give an increased XP reward, Tye already decided he wouldn't attempt it. His personal aversion to stealing from people (who were running for their lives to boot) aside, the quest also carried an increased risk with it.

Since he rather doubted he had access to save files and didn't want to test whether or not he did, he was going to play it safe for now.

All thoughts of jumping over the balustrade and hauling ass as fast as he could completely forgotten, Tye turned back to the road. The explosions had completely ruined several cars and a bus but the majority of the vehicles seemed to merely have crashed into each other, meaning that they were relatively undamaged. The main issue seemed to be that some cars were blocking the doors of others. Nothing that couldn't be resolved relatively quickly if people simply reversed in an orderly fashion, but between lasers, missiles and explosions, Tye figured anything resembling "orderly" had taken the time off, packed its bags and moved to Tahiti until this whole thing had blown over.

Not a bad decision to be fair, all things considered.

Going over the several dozen car long pile-up, Tye spotted a family of three in a middle-class sedan who seemed to be trapped between the far balustrade and an abandoned pickup truck, all three members clearly panicking, judging by their muffled screams.

Tye made to sprint towards them, but he had to keep twisting his head around in order to try and look around the multitude of boxes currently floating in front of his face. Annoyed, he tried to swipe them away, giving a relieved sigh when the 2D objects snapped out of existence, looking like the bar you get on old TV's when you shut them off.

Refocusing on the family roughly twenty meters away from him, Tye sunk a little lower in his stance, trying to dig deep within himself, trying to call up that phenomenal feeling he received when he levelled up.

Soundtrack unlocked!

"Iron Monger" (4:45)

"Not now!" Tye yelled in frustration, rather creeped out when seemingly out of nowhere music began playing, as if he were wearing a pair of high-end headphones without actually having any on his head.

Dismissing the notification and unsure on what the boxes required him to do, he decided to simply give it a shot and hope for the best.

"Sprint!" he called off as he began running forwards, legs pumping away underneath him as his sneaker clad fleet slapped against the tarmac.

Immediately, he knew he had done something right at least. Something in the back of his brain clicked into place and he felt a sudden, but very steady, drain on his overall energy. However, even as his apparent pool of SP (most likely short for Stamina Points or something) was steadily emptying, his speed noticeably increased.

Tye wasn't exactly sure how he managed to run faster than he had been running before, which he thought was his top speed already. His whole body seemed to speed up somehow, the same motions completed a second or two earlier than before. The increase wasn't obviously superhuman, or at least it didn't seem that way to Tye, who was pretty sure the legendary Captain America would've still been able to outrun him. Hell, by the looks of it, he'd wager over half of his high school's football team and cheerleading squad could outrun him (those girls were fit after all…). It seemed 10% of his base running speed wasn't anything to write home about, objectively speaking.

But to Tye it meant the world. His top speed as he crossed the highway at a dead sprint might not have impressed someone else, but it was faster than he had ever run before in his entire life. Sure, by only 10%, but it was 10% more than he had ever been capable of before tonight.

In under ten seconds, Tye had cleared the entire width of the runway, coming to a sliding halt right in front of the trapped sedan's hood. Despite not saying anything out loud, Tye felt the Sprint skill deactivate as he stopped running, the drain on his stamina suddenly cut off, as he caught himself on the metallic-blue hood of the trapped car.

He locked eyes with the man behind the steering wheel who was staring at him in shock.

"Hang on! I'm getting you free!" Tye shouted, not bothering to wait for an answer as he moved towards the open door of the crashed pickup.

Hopping inside, he placed the vehicle in reverse, wincing slightly as the bumper dug yet another deep furrow into the sedan's paintjob. Whatever. He figured the family would value their lives more than their car's appearance anyways. The moment he had backed away enough for the sedan to move freely, it tore away with squealing tires, narrowly avoiding ploughing itself into another abandoned car.

Tye shook his head at the rash action, before his eyes were drawn to yet another pop up, this one thankfully smaller than some of the earlier quest boxes.

I'll save you! (3/5)

At least he still got the credit for getting them out of here. Dismissing the notification, he hopped out of the pickup in order to avoid the boxes from counting it towards his looting quest. Tye looked around to see if someone else needed help, shielding his eyes from the glare that came off the burning husk of what was once a bus. Seeing a woman stuck in her car as she wildly struggled with her seatbelt, Tye made to move towards her, before he froze in his tracks as an impossibly loud sound seemed to reverberate across all of Los Angeles.

A shockwave of sheer noise forced Tye off his feet and before his disbelieving eyes, a pillar of pure, pristine blue light shot up into the sky, piercing the dark clouds above. Briefly it seemed as if it were the midst of day, shadows lengthening as the awesome pillar of flame stood tall, lightning branching off in angry forks of pure energy, lighting up the night sky.

As the pillar faded from existence, the world around Tye went dark again as all surrounding buildings seemingly shut down, one after the other, a massive powersurge leaving part of Los Angeles in the dark of night without a source of illumination but the fires raging in the street and the faint stars glimmering overhead.

Briefly, light was returned when a building in the distance seemed to disintegrate into flames and rubble. It was the biggest explosion that Tye had ever seen in his life, the type of stuff he'd figured only existed in movies and on distant battlefields, large enough to shake the very foundations of his city.

Quest complete!

Fly, you fool!

An epic battle between a hero and a villain is underway! Unfortunately, you are neither one of them and instead about to be run underfoot. Get out of here!

Quest reward: + 100 XP, Survival.

You have levelled up! 3 - 4

+12 HP and SP! +5 to all stats!

You are now level 4! (65/250 XP)

Gained 1 Perk Point!

Achievement Completed!

Holding out for a Hero– Join the epic struggle of Good vs Evil and everything in-between! (7000+ players have this achievement)

'Crap! What happened? Did I lose access to the bonus quests?' Was Tye's immediate thought, before he realized that he couldn't hear any fighting anymore.

That beam of light, and the explosion afterwards… Since the beam had looked like a gargantuan version of the one Iron Man had been using, Tye figured that Tony Stark had triumphed (rather spectacularly) over the Iron Monger, which the teenager found himself immensely grateful for. No doubt if this Obadiah Stane had managed to kill Stark, that terrifying minigun on his forearm would've been turned on the people of Los Angeles in short order. Since he both liked the people of LA and actually was one of said people, Tye was rather grateful Tony Stark had managed to put an end to the madman. He had no idea why the notorious playboy and genius inventor was flying around in an armoured suit and shooting lasers from his hands, but he figured he had more important things to currently worry about.

Each person dealt with being kidnapped by a terrorist organisation differently, Tye supposed with a slight shrug, before refocusing on the still struggling woman. Immediately, he felt bad about himself. Here was another person, very clearly fearing for their life and his first thought was on whether or not he had lost out on XP. That was hardly a Paragon-like thing to do.

Disregarding the boxes once more and revelling in the afterglow of the explosion of sensation that was levelling up, Tye focused on the car which was roughly 30 to 40 meters away, recalling the way his Sprint skill cut off without his verbal command. Once again sinking into a low runner's stance, Tye looked for that new feeling inside of him, which he managed to do significantly faster than before.

Without actually calling out the skill again, he focused on the click! he had felt in the back of his brain, focusing his whole being on moving as fast as he could. Sure enough, the moment he pushed off, falling into a sprint, something in his mind slotted into place. As soon as he began Sprinting with the skill active, the now-familiar drain on his energy immediately returned as his stamina began to deplete at a constant rate.

Once again, his arms and legs pumped away, faster than he ever thought himself capable of as he began devouring the distance between himself and the trapped woman. She was roughly 50 meters away when he began Sprinting and judging from the last time he had actively used it, it seemed his skill made him go roughly 4 meters per second as far as he could tell. While Sprinting to the boxed-in sedan had consumed about 50 SP, which seemed to correspond to about half of his total Stamina pool, his level up had apparently completely refilled both his Health and Stamina, meaning he didn't have to worry about running out of SP while halfway towards the trapped woman.

By the time he slid to a stop beside her car, he had kept up the Sprint skill for about 12 or 13 seconds, which meant he had used up between 120 and 130 SP, which coincidentally seemed to be the size of his Stamina pool as he could feel that the tank was nearing empty. He wasn't sure what would happen if he felt his energy drain to zero, though he imagined that, aside from being locked out of his skills that used SP, he'd gain a negative status effect, like Drained, or Tired, or something along those lines. Or, he could just straight up die.

Better not to risk it.

The trapped woman was so caught up in her desperate struggles it took Tye bashing on her window before she even noticed him, almost jumping up in surprise at his sudden appearance.

"Please, calm down! I'll help you!" he shouted at the woman inside, who gave him a wide-eyed look before hesitantly nodding.

"It's jammed!" she shouted back at him, tugging on where the seatbelt clicks into the receiver-thingy as proof.

"Okay, can you open the door please!" Tye responded, before almost getting smacked in the face by the window as the woman desperately swung her door open.

Throwing the door fully open, Tye fished his trusty pocket knife out of his, well, pocket, flicking open the blade.

Seeing the woman shrink back in her seat as her wide eyes landed on the relatively small blade, Tye spoke up, trying to make his voice sound calm and soothing.

"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm just gonna try and see if I can cut you free. Alright?"

"R-right." Was the shaky response as Tye leaned further into the car.

It took a lot of frustrated fiddling and effort, but Tye finally managed to use his little knife to mangle the receiver-thingy enough that the clicking-thingy sprung free, allowing the woman to take off her seatbelt. Straightening and helping the woman out of her car, Tye pointed towards the open lots he had initially planned on fleeing to himself.

"Quick, get off the road! I think the worst is over, but you better get yourself to safety!"

"Thank you!" the woman breathed deeply, before sprinting towards safety herself.

I'll save you! (4/5)

Tye tried to ignore the feeling of relief that swept over him when he realized the quest was in effect. Since he completed the main quest, he was pretty sure the fight was over already, but of course the situation here was still potentially dangerous, between the ruined cars, the raging fires and the panicking people. He figured that both side quests would probably time out when the authorities arrived and resolved the situation.

Looking away from the fleeing woman, Tye instead focused on the new update he'd gotten. He seemed to unlock quite a lot of stuff (four codex entries, two skills and three level ups in less than fifteen minutes) though that was probably due to completing a Hidden Objective while still in tutorial mode. Considering the law of diminishing returns was a thing in every game he'd played so far, Tye figured he should savour this sense of quick progression before he was stuck grinding his ass off for weeks just for a single stat increase.

Looking over the new message the boxes had now shoved in his face, Tye's eyebrow rose in surprise.

Skill created!

Cutting (5/100 XP)

Sometimes, you gotta trim the hedges. Other times, you have to trim your opponent. Now you can do both! Increases cutting speed by 10% per LVL of Skill. 10 SP/sec.

That raised a few more questions about how his new powers actually functioned. The Sprint and Throw skill he could somewhat understand, as it was using his own bio-energy or something to boost his body beyond his limits. But increasing cutting speed? Did that mean the boxes weakened what he was trying to cut, or strengthened whatever he was cutting with? For that matter, if it shortened the time it took to cut something, did that mean the boxes knew how long it would've taken him to cut something without the skill active? Did that mean that they had precognition? Their knowledge of things definitely was greater than his own, as they gave him the identities of both armored combatants when he had no way of knowing their names and they even were capable of tracking how others felt about him even when he didn't know them. SHIELD he had never heard about, but Hydra was a common boogeyman in children's stories and old movies, the super-nazi's that Captain America fought and (more pressingly) defeated decades ago.

Just what were these boxes truly capable of?

The sounds of car alarms and claxons brought Tye back to the present and he set out to find more people that needed his help. With all lighting in this part of the city down however, visibility was extremely poor, meaning Tye had to use the headlights and burning fires to find his way around. Another thing that didn't help was that saving the woman, while certainly a good dead, hadn't given him any XP, meaning he hadn't levelled up again, which in turn meant his Stamina pool hadn't refilled itself.

Without an accurate gouge on his own resources (and Tye resolved that the first thing he'd do once the chaos had died down was to figure out if he could toggle a HUD or something) the teenager couldn't use Sprint again if he didn't want to risk the debuffs and possible death that depleting his Stamina would entail.

Still, he was in the literal best shape of his life so his jogging speed was still higher than it ever had been as he ran from car to car. Most people that hadn't abandoned their vehicles and ran for the hills the moment the fight began were mostly stuck due to panic, meaning that in many cases all it took was tapping on their window and pointing in a direction for them to drive away from the danger zone.

Either because he barely needed to do anything for those people, or because they weren't in any real danger to begin with, the boxes decided not to count them towards his I'll save you! Quest, which he was rather bummed about.

Still, it wasn't long until he found someone who genuinely needed his help, an elderly woman with a busted hip. She was pretty loopy and hadn't exited her vehicle yet, though thankfully she hadn't locked her doors. Tye quickly threw the car door open, leaned in and managed to lift the granny out of the vehicle bridal carry-style.

Either those 15 points to his stats were an immense boost or the old lady simply didn't weigh anything, but Tye found he had no trouble in jogging towards the side of the highway, taking care not to justle the injured woman too much. There were already people waiting at the balustrade, other people that had managed to get themselves to safety, who took the elderly woman from his arms.

Quest complete!

I'll save you!

Save 5 other people! (5/5)

Quest reward: + 50 XP, + Fame, + rep with SHIELD and Tony Stark.

So he guessed that meant that both the billionaire playboy and some organization he never heard of liked him better, or at the very least respected him more, he supposed. But he wasn't sure exactly what the boxes meant with Fame. He knew what it meant in the general sense of course, he just wasn't sure how this related to him. The boxes made him more famous, or infamous, depending on the quests he completed? How? Did they mind control people to think about him, even if they never knew about him before? Or did the boxes simply measure how many people were thinking about him or were aware of his existence? If so, just how many people's minds could they read? Was this a global measurement?

… holy shit, his boxes were powerful. Trying (and only somewhat succeeding) to put this out of his mind for now, Tye focused back on the huddle of survivors that were clinging to each other in the sudden darkness.

He could see several people with what seemed like first aid kits attending to some of the wounded, while others comforted the still shaken up survivors. One of the people who had donned medical gloves and who had a thick kit strapped to their belt approached him.

"Hey kid, do you need any assistance?" the middle-aged man asked in a soothing voice, though Tye merely shook his head.

"No, I'm fine. Didn't get hit, got no injuries." He quickly said back.

Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure if that were true or not. Aside from shock which was capable of pushing normal humans beyond their limits to the point they were unaware of their own injuries, Tye had to consider his two-level ups. As they fully restored his HP, he could've been grievously injured in the opening stages of the fight and not even know it.

As the other man walked over to some of the other survivors in order to provide aid, Tye took a couple of steps back from the crowd that was steadily forming, stealthy going over his clothes. A tear in his old jeans right above his left knee from when he crawled over the busted-up tarmac, a cut in his hoodie that he didn't remember getting (he probably got caught on a sharp piece of metal from a thrashed car or something) and of course he was covered in slight amounts of dirt and soot.

But other than this (all things considered, very minor) clothing damage… nothing. Turning his hands over a couple of times in amazement, Tye saw that they were completely pristine, showing nothing of the stress of the last ten minutes or so. Not so much as a bloody knuckle or even a chipped fingernail.

'Holy shit… thanks, uhm, I guess.' He thought to himself, addressing the mysterious boxes that had suddenly appeared to completely throw his life upside down.

As expected, he got no answer. Tye was interrupted from his self-examination when the dark of the night was suddenly pierced by flashing blue and red, the sound of sirens only now registering to his ears, probably because the music his boxes had been playing directly into his brain had finally ended.

Not that it was a bad song, mind you, but it was intensely creepy to hear music that clearly yet without a visible source or audible point of origin.

Tye decided to stick around, figuring he might get a quest or something (perhaps a rep increase with the police? That could always come in handy) but all in all things were surprisingly uneventful after the cavalry had arrived. Firemen attended to the burnt-out wreckage while policemen made sure to clear the road while others checked with the survivors. Blankets and bottled water were handed out as several cops in uniform went down the crowd one by one, taking statements from everyone.

All in all, it was surprisingly mundane, considering only fifteen minutes ago there had been two armored men flying around firing miniguns and shooting lasers at each other, not to mention the brilliant pillar of light that had pierced the dark cloud cover. Or, it would've been if it weren't for the black SUV's Tye spotted hovering around the back edges of the crowd, as well as several men and women in dark suits who were conversing with some of the more important looking cops. The boys in blue didn't seem entirely happy with the suited people, confusion and frustration clear to see, especially since someone had managed to turn the lights back on, restoring power to the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Tye figured it was impressive enough he had even noticed the black vans as nobody else commented on them and he got a notification stating Perception check passed! when he first saw them. However, he had no clue as to who exactly they were, why exactly they were here or why the cops didn't seem too happy with them. He figured they were some sort of agency from the myriad of alphabet organizations that existed in the US. Probably FBI, or CIA or something. Hell, considering the weaponry that the Iron Monger was lugging around and freely firing at civilians, not to mention this part of Los Angeles' grid briefly going dark, it might even be an anti-terrorist organization or something.

A Perception check failed! notice made it clear to Tye that he was unlikely to find the answer tonight, though he wondered if this mysterious SHIELD the boxes mentioned and which they claimed they increased his standing with (or lowered their standards instead) had anything to do with all this. On the one hand, they were the only organization that the boxes mentioned, which led Tye to believe they had an eye on the situation, but then again, the boxes also claimed that Tye was now more famous than before, which he had some trouble believing. Additionally, they had also given the option to increase his reputation with Hydra, an organization that had been destroyed 70 years ago, so he wasn't sure what to believe.

WARNING! Quest They won't be needing it anymore is about to time out!

Tye almost scoffed out loud when the notification popped up in front of his face, before he swiped it away. He already found the risk too high even before cops and secret agents arrived on the scene. He was no pick-pocket and he didn't fancy his chances of looting wallets and the like unseen even without trained eyes keeping a look out. Not that he really felt much for stealing anyways.

Briefly, he worried whether or not simply ignoring the quest constituted as failing it, before he figured that it probably didn't. When he completed the Hidden Quest Medic! Uhm, actually, Mechanic! he had gained increased rep with only one option, namely Tony Stark and SHIELD, but other than losing out on a rep gain with Obadiah Stane and Hydra (not exactly people Tye thought he even wanted increased rep with) his actions hadn't let to a negative effect with them. Similarly, when he had completed I'll save you! he had gained Fame, but not lost Infamy.

Besides, as the boxes seemed to want to present him with a Paragon and Renegade path, he thought it unlikely they'd automatically hold him to both.

As much as he rationalized it, during the entire metro ride home (as the family car was a car wreck right now) Tye kept feeling jumpy and nervous, expecting the Quest to time out and for cops to simply materialize around him, cuffs at the ready.

However, the moment he got off the metro at the nearest station to his home, relief spread through him when he received another notification (thankfully not accompanied by an overeager police force).

Quest failed!

They won't be needing it anymore.

Loot 5 other people! (0/5)

Quest rewards: N/A

It was the first quest he had failed since the boxes began talking to him, but Tye couldn't bring himself to care overly much. Quests that required him to hurt people for no reason beyond his own gain were quests he'd gladly drop without a moment's hesitation.

Feeling lighter now that he had confirmation the boxes wouldn't force him down a dark path, Tye walked the rest of the way home with a spring in his step. He was burning to figure out just exactly what he could find out about the boxes and how they had changed him but he wanted to do so from the privacy and safety of his own home. Since he hadn't gotten any new quests or notifications that he had passed (or failed) perception checks, Tye was fairly sure he was alone and not being watched, but you can never be too sure when experimenting with what he began to suspect were reality-altering superpowers.

As such, as much as he wanted to, Tye resisted spamming his Sprint skill on the way to his home, instead settling for a simple jog instead. Once more the extra 15 points to all his stats made themselves known, as not only could he jog faster, he very noticeably was able to jog far longer than usual (which wasn't exactly saying much, considering how little Tye cared about P.E., but still). Even though he wasn't using Sprint, Tye could still feel his Stamina slowly being sapped, though it was far slower than the drain of Sprint, which disappointed him somewhat. If his life really had been turned into a videogame, he was hoping that he'd be able to run indefinitely as so many RPG PC's had been forced to do.

He still remembered when he was younger and played The Scrolls of War for the first time and didn't know about the fast travel option: poor Kratos had to run from one end of Skyrim to the other and back, all on foot and (presumably) not running out of breath or slowing down even once.

Still, some aspects of game mechanics were nonetheless noticeable, such as the fact that, while jogging did take stamina, it did so at an extremely constant pace. It also meant that Tye didn't slow down, regardless of what his actual energy levels were: whether at a 100% Stamina or a mere 10%, his movement speed remained the same. Still wary for the possible effects of going in the red with his Stamina pool, Tye made sure to quit jogging every time he hit 10%, switching to a normal walk instead while he waited for the pool to fill back up again.

By counting the seconds in his head, he figured out that it took his Stamina exactly three minutes to go back to full again. Between that and when he had almost emptied his tank using Sprint while trying to save the seatbelt-trapped woman, he figured he had between 130 and 140 points of Stamina. While Sprint took 10 SP per second, meaning he could run 10% faster than his top movement speed for a maximum of thirteen seconds, merely jogging seemed to take less than half that amount, probably somewhere around 3 SP if he had to guess.

Which meant he could jog without issue (he didn't even sweat or begin to breathe hard) for close to 45 seconds, before needing about three minutes before he was back to full Stamina again.

'Man… my regen is shit. I gotta find a way to fix that.' Tye thought to himself, somewhat annoyed, though he had to concede the boxes were fair, all things considered.

Suddenly becoming healthier and stronger didn't negate the fact that Tye had neglected physical training almost all his life (it was a small miracle and the watchful eye of his mom that he wasn't obese and merely somewhat chubby) and always had a hard time recovering from strenuous exercise.

Though he foresaw a drastic chance in that, his mind already trying to think of ways in which he could be grinding his body to perfection!

'… no wait, that came out wrong…'

For making an astute observation, you gain +1 INT!

'Yeah, yeah, I get it, no need to rub it in…' Tye grumbled, before picking up his jogging once more.

The last few minutes to his house were completed rather quickly, the time passed between jogging, waiting for his SP to fill back up again in order to jog some more, and mentally compiling a list of all the things he had to experiment with and try to figure out about the boxes.

As such, he was almost surprised when he came across a familiar suburban house, having sunk so deep in thought he almost ran past his own home. He probably would have if he hadn't gotten a popup stating he had gained a +3 to his END through "continuous strenuous exercise". Ascending the short steps to the porch, Tye fished his keys out of his pocket, quickly making his way inside. It was a relatively warm November night, but still somewhat too frigid to be walking around without a jacket on.

As the front door fell close behind him, Tye froze on the spot, suddenly realizing two things. One: he wasn't out of breath, despite having intermittently been running from the metro station to his home several blocks away. He wasn't even sweating. Second: he hadn't felt cold once.

He had registered the temperature as being cold, but hadn't actually felt cold. It was merely a registration of information, rather than a sensation. Or rather, he did feel the temperature, he simply wasn't bothered by it.

Immediately, he wondered just how far this protection would go. Could he walk across the Antarctic or the Saharan desert in just his birthday suit and still feel perfectly fine? Considering he didn't seem to share all of the traits that most PC's had, judging from the fact he couldn't just run around like some demented biological perpetual motion engine, he thought it unlikely. Without proper protection, he'd probably gain status effects like Hypothermia or Cooked if he tried.

Still, would those effects actually translate to pain, or even discomfort?

Though he supposed the bigger question was, did he want to risk it and find out?

Since he still had his all his senses and none of them seemed particularly numbed in any way, and Tye decided that, no, no he did not, thankyouverymuch.

At that point, any further thoughts towards the thermodynamic properties of his body were violently shoved out the window at the desperate call of a woman sounding from the living room.

"Tye! Is that you?!" his mom shouted as she stormed into the hallway.

Much like Tye himself, Emma Charles could honestly just be described as 'average'. She wasn't a gracefully aged beauty or anything, but neither did she had any off-putting features, being attractive in a homely fashion. While she was exasperated with her son's focus on gaming to the near-exclusion of everything else, she very much doted on the soon-to-be 16-year-old. While having a college degree in economics, Emma was very much content in being a stay-at-home mom and took care of both the household and their finances, which Tye's dad Mike had admitted to having no patience for.

He was much more comfortable simply providing for his family with his job at a local small-time garage, working with his hands and drinking with his buddies than to try and fill in tax returns. Tye's mom apparently had sat her husband down once in order to try and teach him some administration.

Once.

To this day, close to twenty years later, Emma still swore she could picture every grease stain on every receipt as Mike tried to scrawl down his horrible penmanship without snapping the pencil in half between his calloused fingers.

All in all, they were just one of the millions of families that called LA home and Tye was filled with warmth when he took in (what he considered to be) the safest place in the world.

"Hi mom, I'm home." The teenager responded with a smile, before the air was driven from his lungs as his mother catapulted into him like a human missile, crushing him in a bearhug as she sobbed in relief.

"Oh thank god, when the lights went out, and then that weird beam in the sky happened and then the tv came back on and it showed that huge fight between the Iron Man and Iron Monger and I knew that was where you were and I just-"

"Mom! MA! I'm fine!" Tye desperately yelled, before letting out a deep sigh as his mom finally stopped trying to squeeze his lungs up and out through his throat.

"I'm just… so glad you're safe." His mom said in a relieved tone and overcome with everything that had happened to him today, from the explosions and near deaths and the saving people thing and not to mention the 2D boxes, Tye pulled his mom in for another hug, leaning heavily on her.

Already, he was getting taller than her, his mother needing to slightly stretch in order to rest her chin on his shoulder.

"So am I, Ma. So am I." Tye whispered back, thankful as his mom began rubbing large circles into his back, holding him close.

Tomorrow, he decided. Tomorrow, he'd try to crack the code of these mysterious boxes. Tomorrow, he'd try to see what he was truly made of now that he could literally level himself up.

But tonight? Tonight, Tye would simply try to deal with his near-death experience. Just for tonight, he'd pretend to still be the average teenage boy he had been so far during his life.

---

AN: Now, I can hear you thinking. "Bakku, you ignorant slut! Did you just start another story even though none of your other ones are finished and even though you promised you'd get out the finale to 12 Steps asap!?" And to that, I can only say two things. One: please keep it down, you'll wake the neighbours. Have some water for your throat. Doesn't that feel better? And two: yes. You are absolutely right and I have no excuse. I got contacted by Belator, we got to talking about this fic and I got fired up enough to immediately slam out the first chapter. However, does that mean I'm a dirty cheater who cheats?! That I am unfaithful to you all, to my work, that I can't be trusted to keep a promise?! Well, yes, BUT I promise that the next thing I'll upload will be the Interlude that was promised at the end of 12 Steps latest chapter. Got some of the POV's finished already, just gotta add more exposition and flesh out the dialogues and character interactions. Hopefully, you can expect that one to come out sometime during next week. Cheers!

Fun Fact: I'm trying to incorporate Fun Facts into the story itself in the form of achievements. For instance, it's estimated that Marvel has over 7000 named characters that are heroes, villains and everything in between, though the number increases when you also take into account one-shots and AU versions of characters. That's what the "other players have this achievement" refers to, there are no other Gamers in the fic until stated otherwise, it's a meta-reference to Marvel as a whole. Also, the soundtracks that Tye will unlock will be actual soundtracks from the MCU movies.