Here's chapter two! It's a flashback, which is why everything other than the first paragraph is in past-tense.
Marvels and Terrors: Chapter 2
How had this all started? As I drift in and out of consciousness, my mind flies back through the years, back to the days when I was young and fairly innocent…
It started eight years ago, give or take a few months. I was thirteen, and was totally unaware of the fact that I had super-powers. My life was fairly normal at that point, as normal as a teenager's can get. I practically lived with my friends, didn't really try at school, and tried to keep contact with my parents to a minimum. I wasn't the most poular guy at school, but I managed.
Then came the bank robbery. The best thing that ever happened to me.
It hadn't started that well, of course. My mom, who constantly insisted that I didn't go outside enough, dragged me on a trip to the bank with her. With my luck, it had been a busy day, so we were forced to wait in line for what seemed like hours, listening to the others in the line complain about crime, celebrities, climate change and whatever else happened to be on their list of complaints at the moment.
Just as I thought I was going to die from boredom, the nearest wall fell apart, and I was sent flying. After the dust settled, I rolled off of my face with a groan, and almost fainted at the sight of one of the longest-standing supervillain teams of all time: The Sinister Six.
They were just as intimidating as I had imagined: each one seemingly brimming with power and evil, just ready to be unleashed on the world. At least, that's how they looked then. When I heard Spider-Man's view on them a year or so later, they looked way less amazing, especially considering that only half the roster had been in the bank for the robbery.
Unfortunately, at the time I had none of that knowledge, so I simply trembled on the ground, hoping they wouldn't see me.
"All right!" Electro announced, electricity dancing through his fingers. Even at that age, I found his green and yellow costume kind of laughable. This guy was supposed to be fairly big time. "Listen up! This is your typical robbery. You give us what we want, you get to live to tell your families about this tonight. Sound good?"
No one spoke up. "Let's just get the money and go," Sandman grunted, his half-sand body sliding towards the bank vault. Somehow, his clothes stayed the same when he transformed. Were they designed specially for him or something? I never quite got that.
"Why so grim, Marko?" Mysterio asked, walking through the crowds of terrified civilians. His costume was the most laughable of them all. I mean, come on. Who wears a fishbowl for a helmet?
"I just don't like this part of the job," Sandman complained, slithering through the vault door.
"And you shouldn't," A deep voice rang out, causing the crowd's heads to turn. I knew that voice. By that point, we all knew that voice.
Electro cursed, flinging his hands in the air. "Captain America. Why did it have to be you?"
"Oh, he's not alone," Another, more metallic voice chimed in.
"Iron Man speaks the truth," The third and final voice said coldly. "You three will have to contend with us."
I almost cheered. It was them. The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Granted, the only ones there at the time were Cap, Iron Man, and The Vision, but it was still help. The best help you can get in that situation.
They stood in the hole that used to be the wall, tall and proud. Cap held his shield with pride, the very image of hope and inspiration. Iron Man's eyes lit up, his computer probably uploading the villains' files and figuring out ten different ways to beat them. And Vision, possibly the most dangerous of them all, simply observed, his face devoid of all emotion. Together, they sent a message that you couldn't ignore. This was nothing for these guys. They had stopped entire alien races.
"There's three of you," Mysterio said, his voice full of disbelief. "Great."
"Give it up," Iron Man told them. "Honestly, the worst hero you guys have faced is Spider-Man. And no offense to Spidey, but we three are kind of at a different level than him."
"Bring it on, Tin Man," Electro challenged. "I'm the most powerful one here. I'm not afraid to face you." Electricity sparked out of him, making the nearby civilians duck for cover.
"Have it your way," Iron Man said, turning his jet boots on.
He flew straight at Electro, grabbed him, and lifted him up through the bank's roof.
"Electro-" Mysterio sighed. "-Why do you have to be such an idiot?"
"A good question," Vision observed, rising up from the ground behind the villain to shove his hand into his chest. "Though you probably shouldn't ponder it now."
Cap, meanwhile, headed straight to the vault. "Cain, it's me, Cap. You can't stay in there forever. Come out peacefully, and I assure you that you won't be harmed."
"Nice try, Cap," Sandman said, sliding up from behind the Captain. "But I'm not going to fall for that one."
Pulling back his fists and turning them into giant, solid sand hammers, he slammed them into Cap, crumpled to the ground. Sandman raised his hammet fists again, preparing to bring them down for a final blow. "Sorry about this,"
And that was when I acted. I don't know why I did, what inspired me to do it, I just ran. It was probably instincts. Or maybe I really have always been crazy.
Regardless, I acted, and it was the best decision of my life. Jumping up, I sprinted across the bank, right towards Sandman, and put my hand on his back. And that was when it happened.
Nobody was ever sure where I got my power from. It wasn't from any kind of radiation accident, that's for sure. I think I would remember getting toxic waste dumped in my face, or being hit with a bomb blast. At first, they thought I was a mutant, but that wasn't it either. The DNA testing came out negative. So it stayed a mystery.
When I first used it on Sandman, I almost had a heart attack. As soon as I touched him, something inside of me told me to focus, and that's just what I did. In a few seconds, it was like I had been surrounded by my own personal patch of arctic weather. Cold flooded into me, and I did the first thing that came to me: I gave it all to Sandman.
In seconds, the cold had spread throughout his entire body, turning his body into pure ice. Even the hammers froze. "Wha...?" He didn't finish his words for some time.
For a few seconds, everyone just stared at me in silence, almost as shocked as I was. I couldn't have powers. Not me. Before I could think on it any further, I fainted, my body unable to handle the strain of using its power for the first time.
"Son?" It was Cap's voice that brought me back into the world of the awake.
"Hm...?" I grunted, sitting up. I was on a couch that reminded me quite a bit of the one I had at my house. "Where am I?"
"You're at home," Cap replied, gesturing around. "We took you here after your... Incident."
"So it really happened?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. "I actually have powers?"
"That you do," Iron Man answered, standing beside Cap. "In fact, you've got one of the strangest powers I've seen in some time."
"What's so strange about it?" I asked. "Isn't it just the same as that mutant - is it Iceman? - has?"
"Not at all," Iron Man replied. "I've done some scans of the battle, and of your DNA, and the results are the same."
"What do you mean?"
"Your body, it adapts to different people," Cap informed. "And more importantly, different powers. But it all depends on touch. So if you touched, say, the Human Torch, you'd get water powers."
"So if I touch someone, I get the power I need to stop them?"
"Pretty much," Cap replied. "Now, I think your mother wants to have a word with you."
The two Avengers split to let my mom through. After talking to two of the most famous people in the world, I wasn't too excited to see her, but I was kind of glad to have someone normal to talk to. That is, until she held me tight and whispered into my ear: "If you even try to be a Superhero, I'll ground you."
I simply nodded, and whispered back that I wouldn't. Of course, it was a lie. I did try. Heck, I even succeeded, after a while. It was hard work, but I was up to it. The first thing I had to do was get a costume. Of course, I couldn't buy one without my mother noticing. So I made one, Spider-Man style: I sewed it together.
Let me tell you, it was one ugly piece of work. Ever seen Captain Ultra's original costume? Imagine that, but worse. Far worse. Hey, is it my fault that the only materials I could find we're rainbow coloured?
As you can imagine, I wasn't exactly "the scourge of the underworld". I was a scrawny thirteen year-old in a rainbow coloured costume. I didn't really strike fear into anyone's heart. And I had another problem, too: I couldn't fight anyone who didn't have powers. Which basically took out three quarters of the criminal community. Leaving one quarter for me to fight, of which around half was either in jail or way above my level. Needless to say, things weren't looking good for me.
I did manage to stop a few small-timers, people like Toad and Blizzard, but I didn't get my big break for a few months.
When I did get it, though, it was glorious. I had been following small leads from a few guys I took down, trying to find the infamous Bar With No Name. A little out of my league, I know, but I had to try. One night, I followed the final lead, and I got it: the address.
Immediately, I hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address. This was pretty usual for me. In fact, criminals had started to call me "the taxi kid". Not the most amazing name ever, but it was better than "rainbow boy".
Once we arrived, I payed the driver and got out, ready to make my soon-to-be famous entrance. Gathering all of my strength, I kicked the door down, and strode in. "Okay, scum. Time to pay the-"
I was interrupted by a body flying right by my head. Turning, I saw that someone had already beat me to it. In the middle of the room stood a girl in black combat gear, and she was mopping the floor with everyone else.
At first, I was angry. It had taken me a month to get this address, and this girl had beaten me to it! But then things started to go badly.
One of the villians, I think he was called the Shocker, managed to blast her from behind, knocking her down. "Nice try, girly, but this is our turf."
"Not any more!" I shouted, lunging at him.
I didn't want to waste my one usage of my ability on him, so I simply pounded at him mercilessly, hoping he would be surprised enough to not fight back. He was. Standing up, I bared by teeth and growled at the other criminals. "You want a go at me, too?"
Unfortunately, they did. With a roar, they charged, and I was faced with a choice: run or fight. Being an angry teenager, I did the natural thing: grabbed a nearby bear bottle and started swinging.
It worked pretty well, but some of them just refused to go down. Eventually, the girl and I ended up standing back to back, surrounded by ten extremely ticked off supervillains.
"Do you have a power?" The girl asked me.
"Yeah, but it might not be the most effective in this situation," I replied.
"I don't care. Use it!"
Grimacing, I reached for the nearest villain - the Rhino - and went to work. Almost immediately, my body began shifting and changing, until I stood above them all, a ten-foot tall giant. "Sweet!"
Swinging my hands, I sent all the villains flying into the walls, which fell down on a few of them, and stomped on them for good measure. Concentrating again, I forced myself to shrink back to normal size.
"That's your power?" The girl asked, slightly shocked. "How could that not be useful?"
"I get a different power depending on who I touch," I answered. "So I could have got a really bad one."
"Well, I'd say you did pretty well," A voice said.
"Cap?" I asked, turning to face him. "What are you doing here?"
"Come on now," Cap said, stepping through the doorway and patting me on the back. "Did you really think that we wouldn't be keeping tabs on you?"
And so began my glory years, as short as they were.
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